Jae-in Kwon let a single tear flow down, but no more than that.
She began to speak in a calm voice, just like when we first met.
“Then you should know what Lenna’s foster parents are like.”
I pictured that day, when the rain was pouring down and nodded.
A middle-aged couple had begged for my mercy at the top roof of Eun-kwang-gu’s only skyscraper, the Hwang-myung Tower.
“Their social and personal reputation were perfect. They had a daughter, and their performance as a player wasn’t bad. On top of that, they were Jared Lee’s relatives, so I trusted them.”
I remembered a picture of two very decent people on the Dream auction gate list.
If you look at that photo, it’s hard to think that they’ve got hands on all sorts of horrid things that were linked to the Dream auction.
The voice that appealed to people, imploring some other ways of atonement, really aroused the sympathy of the listener.
Bastards beyond imagination often acted like decent people to deceive the eyes of others.
“Lenna entered Eun-kwang High, and in the photos they sent us, she was always wearing nice clothes. So I didn’t doubt it.”
Anger and sadness rose in Jae-in’s blue eyes for a moment and disappeared.
“But Lenna wasn’t getting any support at all. When she had good clothes on, it was when she was dragged along to places like the Dream auction. Except for the necessary public education, there were no traces of Lenna getting additional education either.”
Then what happened to the 30 billion won that Jae-in Kwon sent?
They were members of the VIP club of the best interests, so it was assumed that they blew it all away by “nightlife” and gambling costs.
“We borrowed the power of the Relics that helped us long ago, and we investigated and interrogated them. I wanted to know why they were so cruel to Lenna.”
Relics that helped us?
I have heard of the Relic Original clan that helped the EverLake team once before.
Jiho Hwang mentioned it to me when he was talking about the time he met Jae-in Kwon and had a conversation with her, that the Relics helped him interrogating the Bear Clan and succeeded in prying out information.
“They had a very deep inferiority complex to Jared. They thought she was Jared’s illegitimate child. They thought Lenna was Jared’s weakness, so he couldn’t do anything about it even if they treated her badly, and wouldn’t have a problem taking money for raising her.”
Jared Lee is a genius who entered one of the world’s top 10 guilds, the ‘Oath of the Three Knights’, at a young age.
Currently, he is treated as a blonde ‘honorary Korean’ who is dedicated to supporting Jae-in Kwon, but the fact that he is an excellent player has not changed.
Lenna Kwon’s adoptive parents had an inferiority complex to Jared Lee, and they must have taken it all out on her.
“During the interrogation, we seized the main PC they owned, and while we were reading at the backup materials……I read all the messages they sent to Lenna.”
By “messages”, did she mean all the abusive ones they sent to her?
I only read a day’s worth of messages, and that made me so angry my head spun.
“Why did I make such a choice?”
Jae-in Kwon was talking calmly, but tears were forming in her blue eyes again.
‘Jae-in Kwon just wanted to protect Lenna Kwon.’
After the Manchester Other-world attack, the only family Jae-in had left was young Lenna.
She must’ve known that the butterfly clan was trying to use her for something, so she couldn’t possibly let Lenna stay by her side.
That’s why she left Lenna Kwon to her most trusted teammate, Jared Lee’s Korean relative, and devoted herself to finding ‘butterflies’ in England.
That was the reason behind the noticeable decline in concerts outside the UK in the last decade.
The reason why she declined the UK citizenship, although she only performed there, was probably because of Lenna Kwon also.
“At first, when the Dream auction Gate incident broke out, I searched it a little bit. But because of the human rights protection system of criminals in Korea, there was a limit to legally accessing the list. I was relieved that their name wasn’t on the list that got around illegally of the Dream auction gate.”
Lenna Kwon’s foster parents have been on the Dream auction list only after Pyun-deuk Choi’s birthday party.
If she had checked before, she wouldn’t have found it.
Because in Korea, we thoroughly protect the identity of criminals.
“She······ Lenna made that choice on the first day of admission. I can’t…….”
At the end of those words, Jae-in Kwon fell silent.
The blue-eyed violinist, who stood boldly in front of a large audience, now looked so unsteady.
‘Should I tell her about it?’
I didn’t know whether I could tell Jae-in about this without Lenna Kwon’s consent.
Lenna Kwon’s character, behavior in the game.
The situation of Jae-in Kwon.
The relationship of the two.
One by one, I sorted it out in my head.
‘In the game, the EverLake appeared only in the background story from the beginning to the end. What if the reason why they weren’t in the main story was because Jae-in investigated this only after Lenna died and knew this late? Lenna is alive yet Jae-in’s condition is horrible…… in the game, Jae-in Kwon would have never recovered from this.’
If this goes on, Jae-in will fall into a pit of despair and guilt.
Jae-in Kwon is Lenna’s one and only real family, and a violinist she admires.
I couldn’t leave this be even for the sake of Lenna.
‘For both of them, I’d better tell her.’
Even if Lenna finds out and hates me for this, I have to tell.
“Lenna Kwon refused to go to school for a while after that incident on the first day of admission and locked herself in her dorm room.”
That day I returned the ribbon to Lenna Kwon.
I recalled the kid who told me her truth, smiling under the moonlight.
“The motivation that brought her back to school was ‘for LENA,’ when it was our school bell.”
I then told her all the things Lenna had told me and the things I witnessed.
Lenna wanting to learn the violin before her player’s ability had been found.
Lenna entering the string orchestra and learning violin with the help of Geun-hyung Ham and the advisor of the club.
Lenna asking our classmates to help get the tickets to Jae-in Kwon’s Korean concert.
Her and us failing, and even cutting our sleep hours trying to get canceled tickets.
Lenna so touched by the encore song ‘for LENA’ that she cried.
Her perfectly replicating ‘Homecoming’ by pizzicato on the psychic-made violin that Jae-in gave her.
I told her all the stories that could not have been investigated by the Relics.
“She’s still got two ‘silent vows’ hanging over her. You’ll need two SSR-class anti-curse items to release the oath without permanently removing her tongue.”
And I said one of the biggest reasons why I came here today.
On the first day of school admission, I checked that there were two silence vows constricting Lenna Kwon.
I’ve been thinking about how to disable it.
“I heard that the Hwang-myeong Foundation offered the antidote, but she refused. If you talk to her, she might accept it.”
Just like when she forced the violin gift to her, if Jae-in takes the lead, I think she’ll accept it.
“You are going to take the interview with the newspaper club, right? I’ll ask Lenna to come to the interview. Stay healthy until then.”
After finishing my words, I rose from my seat, but Jae-in sat still.
“Thank you, Ui-shin.”
Instead, I heard a small voice thanking me with a lump in her throat.
* * *
After driving Ui-shin back to school and returning to the team building.
Jared Lee thought to himself, depressed.
‘She didn’t eat anything after all.
He carefully asked Ui-shin in the limo, but he replied that he had not seen her eat.
After the Seokchon Lake incident, it was revealed that Lenna Kwon’s foster parents were involved in the Dream auction Gate, and Jae-in’s appetite increasingly reduced.
At the end of the Relic’s investigation, Jae-in Kwon, who learned how her niece had lived, became extremely dejected.
Jared Lee felt blood freeze in his body as he remembered his relatives.
‘It’s important to deal with those bastards, but Jae-in is more important now.’
He wondered how he could get her to eat at least a small meal.
Then, the blue violin-carved door opened.
Jae-in Kwon stood there.
It was such a long time since she came out of her room, so Jared was unable to do anything except to stare at her in a daze.
Jae-in Kwon broke the ice.
“……Sorry.”
As soon as she said that, Jared Lee knelt to the ground and shouted,
“Jae-innnnnnnnn! Please stop apologizing! “Every time you apologize I just……”
“No, it’s not that.”
Jae-in grabbed Jared Lee’s shoulder and pulled him up.
Jae-in, her hands still on his shoulders, looked up at Jared who was much taller than her.
“I dropped a bowl of blueberry jell-o. Do you have more?”
Jared Lee felt his once frozen blood boiling back to life.
“Of course! Jae-in, do you have anything else you want to eat?!”
“Not really…… But I’m feeling weak, I want to use a recovery item.”
At Jae-in’s words, EverLake teammates, who were watching while holding their breath, erupted in shouts of glee.
“Jae-in Kwon finally is eating……! Using recovery items……!”
“Get the team doctor!”
“I’ll call for a blueberry dessert company.”
“Let’s buy all the berry puddings and jellies.”
Before going through the portal, Jared shouted.
“Jae-in, please wait just a moment! Don’t change your mind!”
“I won’t.”
Jared Lee smiled brightly as he heard Jae-in’s answer.
Leaving her busy teammates’ behind, Jae-in came back to her room.
She lifted a blue violin and began playing.
The song she played was ‘for LENA.’
The sweet melody of the violin filled the room.
And in the corner of that room.
Someone muttered as they listened to Jae-in’s performance.
“I really do like stuff like this.”
* * *
The next morning.
A bunch of messages sent by Jared Lee came into my sight.
‘Does he lose his ability to write Korean when he’s excited?’
Messages like thank you, what do you need, come to the team building any time, etc. were written in strange Korean.
I didn’t know the details, but I was glad Jae-in was cheered up.
‘I wonder when Lenna Kwon will know the secret of her birth?’
This is what Jae-in Kwon had to do herself.
It’s not my job to tell this to Lenna.
‘If she takes too much time, I will give her a nudge though.’
Lenna was a playable character who wanted nothing more than her parents’ appreciation right until the brink of her death.
I wanted her to become Lenna ‘Kwon’ someday and live happily with her real family, Jae-in Kwon.
“Shall we make this our cheering slogan?”
“Yeah! This is perfect as it is.”
First-grade class 0’s classroom.
I saw Lenna Kwon was talking to the kids, oblivious of everything.
This morning’s topic is also about cheering me at the chess tournament.
<View Lenna Lee’s personal information.>
I checked the status window in case Lenna’s name changed, since I knew Lenna Kwon’s real name now.
But it was still registered as ‘Lenna Lee.’
Perhaps it was because she was still Lenna Lee legally and most people of this world knew her as that.
‘How should I ask her to go to the newspaper club interview with me?’
It wouldn’t be bad to go to the EverLake building with all my classmates.
Jae-in and the EverLake teammates should be wondering what their niece’s classmates are like anyway.
I made up my mind to ask Jae-in Kwon and Jared Lee permission to take the kids.
Just then, Jiho Hwang came to me.
“You, did you go somewhere last night or this morning?”
A glow of gold flickered in Jiho’s eyes and disappeared.
“Somehow, I feel a very faint trace of an annoying Original clan. It’s getting on my nerves.”
An Original clan that annoys him?
That sounded familiar.
Jiho had said this before.
–Yeah. I observed Gyubin Hong a few times because he received blessing from an annoying Original clan. The reason he became a player was interesting, too.
“Are you talking about the Original clan that gave blessing to Gyubin Hong?”
“Yeah.”
Jiho nodded.
‘I should ask about this when Jae-in becomes more stable.’
There was one more thing to ask.
The violin with the similar description to the ‘Anonymous Fate’ that I had.
The one and only violin craftsman in this world that made the item.I wanted to directly talk to that craftsman.
‘There’s something I have to go through before that, though.’
Today is the last day of the chess tournament and the day before the party on board.
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