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Chapter 237 

“Are you an idiot?”

The conference room was all aflutter. Lee Jin-young looked around belatedly, but the words had already spilled out of his mouth. Everyone in the conference room expected him to be torn apart by either the death puppeteer or the Thunder Empress as the price for rushing to a topic that no one had ever touched publicly. However, when Kang Shin-hyuk opened his mouth to contemplate what to say, Shin Eunah let go of his hand and was the first to speak.

“Please refrain from asking personal questions in this place. Also, Shin Eunhyuk is just a close junior.”

“Ah, uh, yes.”

Was it over? Is it okay like that? All kinds of rude thoughts and murmurings came and went, but the situation ended. Shin Eunah looked as comfortable as she had just gotten out of bed. However, when he exhaled a sigh of relief, she again grabbed his hand under the table. He gently tried to pull his hand away, but she held on tightly. The conference hall, who noticed it, froze again. Shin Eunah let go of the pretenses, not sensing the atmosphere, and pushed on.

“Then, let’s continue the meeting.”

Everyone in the conference hall noticed the atmosphere she was projecting. After that, without any rude questions, the meeting ended. It had proceeded so rapidly in fear of angering a certain someone, and the expedition date and support troops were all decided upon.

-The fox’s condition seems to be getting more and more dangerous. Of course, the fox’s fault is sizable, but if I evaluate it objectively and coldly, some of the fault is on you for giving her the wrong idea.

‘I was wrong…

Normally, they cracked down on the relationship between her and Anvil, but why wasn’t she controlling it now? This attitude had to be avoided for her to quickly leave the ‘grandpa’ mentality behind and grow to be independent. Kang Shin-hyuk intuited that the time had come. For Claire and for Shin Eunah, he couldn’t slow it down anymore. It hurt a little, but the time had come to grow by force.

“Senior Eunah, there is something I must tell you.”

After the meeting was over, Kang Shin-hyuk spoke calmly to Shin Eunah, who was still holding his hand.

“Yes, what is it?”

“First, let go of my hand.”

“Huh. I must’ve been nervous.”

It didn’t seem like that at all, but now wasn’t the time to tackle that. Shin Eunah let go of his hand and looked straight in his eyes.

“What?”

“Somewhere where there’s no one around. It’s personal.”

“Ah… um.”

Perhaps she had guessed what he wanted to say. Shin Eunah backed away embarrassedly.

“Can we do it later? I have other things scheduled.”

“It will only take a minute.”

“I’m busy, do it later.”

He reached out to grab her hand again, feeling sweat on her palm. It was very rare to see her look so nervous.

“Let me go.”

“It’s because of this I think we should talk now.”

“If you do this, it’ll look like we’re fighting.”

That was correct. He let go of her hand instinctively at that thought, and she teleported away.

-Would you like to pursue her? It is possible to trace and follow her route with spatial coordination.

“Will I catch her if I go? I think she’ll run again.

-The administrator’s thoughts are the same.

The message came with a sigh.

-Is it not something you knew?

“No, no way.”

-I think you didn’t know, but in fact, both of them were new, so it was quite obvious.

Kang Shin-hyuk immediately understood which two he was talking about and what they were new to.

“… No, no way.”

Suddenly, it felt like a horror movie. First, he summarized what had happened today and reported to Claire.

[Claire: You’re crazy!]

[You would’ve made the same choice if you were here. Eunah was in a strange state. Maybe it was because Zeus came and made a lot of noise, so she was frustrated…]

[Claire: Still, why did you try to talk it over after?]

[I was worried about Senior Eunah.]

[ Claire: First, you held her hand. Why?]

[I was worried… I have no excuse, ma’am.]

[ Claire: When you return, you’re dead.]

[I’m sorry.]

[Claire: If you don’t return, I’ll cry.]

[Yes, I’ll be there on time.]

[Claire: And thank you. I love you. x1602]

[I love you.]

He looked up and sighed after exchanging messages with Claire. Maybe what had happened at the meeting would spread quickly, and people’s suspicions of a love triangle would be confirmed. Someone might have even seen Shin Eunah escape by teleporting away. Life had never been easy, but now it felt especially difficult. Claire was precious to him, but he also didn’t want to hurt Shin Eunah. Stepping forward in a way, he realized there was no way to solve it without hurting someone.

“It’s hard.”

“It looks like it.”

A voice answered him, and he began to notice the presence of someone else. Rather, he was ignoring it because it was bothersome to care about it.

“It would be nice if you just went your own way.”

“I have a word I would like to say to Kang Shin-hyuk.”

Kang Shin-hyuk paused for a moment. He had said Kang Shin-hyuk just now, not Shin Eun-hyuk? After checking that he was wearing the mask properly, he slowly raised his head and looked at the man before him, Lee Kang-yul.

“Are you threatening me now?”

“I wasn’t saying it with that intention. I apologize if you’re offended…”

“Shut up.”

“Yes.”

He didn’t want to show mercy to some guy who was trying such a flimsy trick, especially not when he was worried about all this other stuff. A thread came out of the Soul Connector, but the fact that this was the HQ of the Korean Superhuman Association calmed him.

“You may know my contact information anyway, so if you have something to say, do it there… know that if you do, I can kill you without anybody knowing.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.” Lee Kang-yul trembled, his eyes moving back and forth as he seemed to think Kang Shin-hyuk was stronger than expected. Superhumans could emit their magical power to force down opponents with less magic than them and paralyze their bodies. However, this didn’t have a great effect on ordinary people who didn’t feel magical power at all. In Kang Shin-hyuk’s case, since spiritual power was his basis, it had the effect that anyone with a soul would instinctively withdraw.

“Then leave.”

“Excuse me.”

As Kang Shin-hyuk released his power, Lee Kang-yul quickly bowed his head and stepped back. His voice wasn’t shaking, however, so he seemed quite spirited.

-Excellent, member. A 600,000 bonus for that nice look!

I don’t know why the bonus comes in now…’

However, it was true that he had made Lee Kang-yul uncomfortable. Shin Eunah was the one directly hiding the fact that Shin Eun-hyuk was Kang Shin-hyuk. However, if someone were to find that out and approach him, it wasn’t possible for her to speak out directly. Had someone else involved in his identity’s forgery opened their mouths, or had someone follow him?

‘Isn’t it worthwhile to check out?’

– Probably so. Even more so when I consider their participation in the expedition.

Kang Shin-hyuk bit his tongue at the administrator’s words. If he knew it would be like this, he should’ve put a wiretapping device on that man. It was his fault he didn’t pay attention to artifacts other than armaments as he hadn’t needed them. Kang Shin-hyuk decided to share the conversation he had with Lee Kang-yul with Shin Eunah and Claire. He was still worried over what to say to Eunah, so he decided to talk to her about it later.

‘By the way, the days I promised to work with Senior Eunah are up.’

She had run away like that, so she wouldn’t even show up to meet him. Maybe it wouldn’t be until the African expedition that he would see her again. If so, right

[Claire, there is a place I want to go with you.]

[Claire: Huh? But you were with Eunah for a few days… oh, I see. Our poor Eunah.]

[I’m currently alone.]

[ Claire: That’s it, a date is a date.]

Kang Shin-hyuk laughed at Claire’s honest response, feeling refreshed despite Lee Kang-yul. He hurried on his way to her.

“Hello!”

“Wow…”

“OMG!”

“Oh, our brother came! Awesome, a pretty noona did too!”

“Shin-hyuk brought a woman!”

When Kang Shin-hyuk visited the Starlight Orphanage with Claire, there was an uproar. The little kids playing outside ran up to see him. Posing next to him was Claire, dressed modestly but elegantly in a white lace blouse and a light pink skirt. When he noticed her posing, she jumped in surprise.

“This is the noona who came last time!”

“This noona helped the orphanage!”

“Wow, ahh!”

The little kids jumped around Claire, and she patted their heads one by one before making a grim face.

“Thank you for being nice to me, guys. I came with Kang Shin-hyuk today.”

“Are you close to him?”

“What is your relationship with our brother?”

“Buy? Are you buying him?”

“Go away; don’t make useless rumors.”

He wanted to be careful about their relationship. If rumors spread that she, who was famous for dating Shin Eun-hyuk these days, was dating Kang Shinhyuk at the same time, there might be people who would investigate the connection between Kang Shin-hyuk and Shin Eun-hyuk. Although it was already quite suspicious since the moment when Claire claimed to support Kang Shin-hyuk. Maybe that was how the guild Zeus discovered him.

“Are you here to see the sister?”

“Yes!”

“Hye-na has been waiting for you!”

“Hye-na is also inside!”

Hye-na? Claire’s eyes narrowed at the name of another woman. Kang Shinhyuk briefly explained it to her before she had a misunderstanding.

“She is one of the kids who works as a mercenary. Her and two of the boys have joined the mercenary guild through Eunah.”

“Aha.

Claire crossed her arms in relief and, conscious of their relationship, endured her desires.

“Actually, that is one of the reasons I came. The mercenary guild they are in is also quite famous. I wonder if they know anything about Zeus.”

“How experienced, how experienced.” Was that a compliment? They headed into the parlor with a group of little kids trailing behind them. Sister Esdel was awaiting them there.

“You said you’re not dating?”

As soon as she kicked out the little ones, Sister Esdel threw that out. Kang Shin-hyuk shrugged, thinking lying wouldn’t work anyway.

“It was true then.”

“Yes, I see. Come on; it’s nice to see you again.”

Sister Esdel looked back at Claire and laughed playfully. Claire had a similar smile on her lips.

“I will come back often. I have my own room, after all.”

“I’ll make sure it’s clean, so feel free to come. With our son here.”

“Is it soundproof?”

“Well, I’ll make sure of it.”

“These people!”

When Kang Shin-hyuk shouted at the obscene hand movements the two women exchanged, they burst into laughter at the same time. Although he had roughly expected it, they were a good fit for each other.

“Will you sleep here today?”

“Yes. I need to talk with Jinseok Lee first.”

“Then, you’ll have to hurry. Jinseok said he’s getting busy soon.”

“He’s busy?”

He felt nervous. When Kang Shin-hyuk’s eyebrows narrowed, Sister Esdel nodded with a worried expression.

“He said he’ll be going on an expedition soon. I’m worried that overseas will be more dangerous than here.”

Kang Shin-hyuk felt a bitter taste within his mouth. It seemed there was no need to come here for a meeting