March Novel (Completed) - Chapter 66

“Huh? General, just now….”

Looking for whom? Kim Seokcheol blinked his eyes, which were so swollen from being beaten that they barely opened. Not a mistress, but a child? Was he saying he’d been acting like that all this time because he wanted to find his own child?

“You should thank Gi Taejeong. If he hadn’t reported you and had you locked up, I would have come forward and slit your throat myself.”

“G-General! Just a moment! Please listen to my story! I’ll tell you everything, everything about Lee Sehwa.”

Kim Seokcheol spat out the blood in his mouth and carefully chose his words. Damn it. An illegitimate child out of nowhere….

His father had once told him this. The decisive reason General Oh Seonran was able to get frequent permission to leave the country was because she insisted on being single, as if she were a puritan.

Although Gi Taejeong’s martial arts record was so immense that her presence had somewhat faded now, Oh Seonran in his prime was a military hero who swept through battlefields. He was the darling of a prestigious family, a young officer who had led several great victories worthy of being recorded in textbooks, and was even remarkably handsome. It was natural for the elders to feel threatened.

The seeds of rebellion sometimes grow thanks to the instigation of others, regardless of the instigator’s will. A talented person who would naturally attract followers even if they did nothing had to be crushed in advance to prevent future trouble. So the superiors wanted Oh Seonran to integrate with them through the traditional means of marriage.

But what happened? As the pressure for marriage intensified, Oh Seonran suddenly requested permission to stay abroad, saying he had someone he wanted to find.

At first, even the head of state was baffled, telling him to say something sensible. However, after calculating, he soon happily approved. It was a much stronger restriction than a marriage that could be broken at any time. While he was out, Oh Seonran’s influence would naturally weaken, and Oh Seonran himself would not be able to act rudely towards those at the center of power if he wanted to maintain the unusual privilege of an officer’s overseas stay.

But, for such an Oh Seonran to have an illegitimate child…. And a child he cherished so much that he had been searching for them for such a long time….

“Lee Sehwa, ahem, was put up by his gambling father as collateral in a gambling den. This has been guaranteed by loan sharks and bookies who never lie about money matters. If you don’t believe me, I can bring witnesses.”

First, Kim Seokcheol repeatedly emphasized that Lee Sehwa’s identity was clear.

“The General emphasized several times that the identity of the person you were looking for was unclear, so I also checked that part first whenever I found someone who seemed related. So….”

A child, a child…. For the Oh family, finding one person was no big deal. Moreover, that family had few descendants. Oh Seonran’s lost child, they should have turned the whole country upside down and brought them back long ago. But given that it was a matter of bloodline and they hadn’t resolved it yet…

Could it be that the child wasn’t lost, but that the elders of that family dealt with it? Kim Seokcheol nodded unconsciously. Yes, that could be it. No, that’s how it makes sense. Oh Seonran had been struggling alone all this time because she couldn’t borrow the family’s influence.

“…However, Lee Sehwa’s name was clearly registered in the resident registration ledger. If the registration date and age hadn’t matched, I would have suspected it once, but that wasn’t the case either….”

“Second Lieutenant Kim Seokcheol.”

“I’m not lying! If you check Lee Sehwa’s resident registration…!”

“Don’t get heated over things I didn’t ask. Anyway, wasn’t it Lee Sehwa, not Maejo, who manufactured the drug for the project?”

“That’s… that’s true, but….”

Oh Seonran casually kicked the scattered copies of the complaint on the floor. Each time his foot nudged them, the papers flipped over. Whether by coincidence or not, everything his foot touched had content related to ‘Harvest’ written on it.

“Gi Taejeong presented minimal evidence related to ‘Harvest,’ but at least he mentioned Lee Sehwa. He said he was a drug trafficker who was in charge of manufacturing the new drug. But you went around selling my name behind my back, and you tried to hide a fact from me that even Gi Taejeong didn’t try to conceal.”

“G-General…!”

Flustered, Kim Seokcheol crawled on his knees and grabbed Oh Seonran’s combat boots. Damn it. He never thought that fox-like bastard, Gi Taejeong, would have already brought up Lee Sehwa.

“I, I can help you! I made some blunders because I didn’t know the situation, but if you had hinted that you were looking for an illegitimate child, I would have told you the solution long ago! Brokers… yes, you were looking for information on brokers, weren’t you? My cousins coincidentally went through something similar before, so I know well. There are errand runners especially famous for handling illegitimate children, and these people only give out their contact information through referrals….”

“Do you think I wouldn’t have thought of the methods you’re recalling?”

He pleaded, rubbing his cheek against Oh Seonran’s foot, begging him to believe him, but the answer was only cold. What to do. Kim Seokcheol stomped his feet, wondering what would happen if Oh Seonran just left. He had to hold him back somehow. Is there anything else? Any sensational story related to Lee Sehwa….

“I, I liked him!”

“…What?”

“I, I had feelings for Lee Sehwa, that’s why!”

“……”

“You might find it absurd, but I’m serious. I’m so pathetic… I didn’t want anyone to take him away from me. He was so beautiful in my eyes, I presumed that you, General, would naturally be fond of him too, so….”

He was in a hurry and just blurted out whatever came to mind. As he rambled on, he thought he’d probably get hit a few more times by Oh Seonran for spouting such foolishness.

“I’m sorry, I liked him too much….”

But surprisingly, Oh Seonran stopped his steps, which were halfway turned. He even looked at him intently. He, he believe this? He had ignored every plausible thing he said so far. What part of this pathetic excuse did he like? Anyway, Oh Seonran was showing some interest, so that was enough.

Kim Seokcheol, with a bewildered face, repeatedly mumbled that he liked Lee Sehwa, that’s why. Looking at it this way, it wasn’t entirely illogical. People doing foolish things blinded by love, it’s not unheard of.

“Hearing that makes it even harder to understand. You made someone you had feelings for do such a dangerous thing?”

“Ah, that… he, I mean, Lee Sehwa had some resistance to certain drugs….”

Oh Seonran’s movement suddenly froze.

Kim Seokcheol, oblivious to the frozen atmosphere, was busy rambling on with his self-defense. What did Oh Seonran say a moment ago? Did he say Gi Taejeong ‘mentioned’ Lee Sehwa? Then he must have just put Lee Sehwa’s name on a list, right? That seems likely. Just from what he said, it seemed Oh Seonran didn’t know why he had entrusted Lee Sehwa with new drug manufacturing.

“What did he say? Lee Sehwa himself said he had a constitution that couldn’t get addicted.”

Kim Seokcheol excitedly rattled off everything he knew. He suddenly felt like he had found a way to survive. Since Gi Taejeong’s side seemed to be hiding this topic, he might be able to regain some trust from Oh Seonran by offering the information first.

“Of course, it was absolutely not dangerous for the person involved. If it seemed problematic, why would I ask Lee Sehwa to manufacture or test drugs? In fact, in my opinion, Lee Sehwa was much healthier than when I first met him, ugh, G-General!”

“Say that again.”

“W-Why are you suddenly…!”

Kim Seokcheol, whose collar was suddenly grabbed, choked, his face red, even purplish. His feet dangled in the air, flailing. He wanted to be saved. Not only was his windpipe being squeezed, but Oh Seonran had lifted him up to his eye level, making it even more unbearable.

“Resistant? To drugs?”

“Th-That, ugh, that….”

“Exactly what were the symptoms? What kind of drugs did Lee Sehwa mainly show such a reaction to?”

“That… I don’t know that either, but… it’s certain that he didn’t react to narcotics. Still, it’s not like he’s completely immune to drugs, cough, considering Lee Sehwa got pregnant with Gi Taejeong’s child….”

“…What?”

Oh Seonran’s grip, which seemed like it would never let go, suddenly loosened. Kim Seokcheol, thrown to the floor, drooled but tried his best to tell everything he knew, real or imagined, to get into his good graces.

“When Gi Taejeong threw the complaint at me, he clearly said, ‘Thanks to the new drug of ‘Harvest,’ Lee Sehwa got pregnant with his child.’”

His grabbed neck ached. Kim Seokcheol fumbled at the spot that must have had handprints and forced a smile. Damn it. At this point, he wished Lee Sehwa really was Oh Seonran’s child. Then, at least, he wouldn’t leave Gi Taejeong alone. After enduring this humiliation, it felt only fair that something good should happen to him too.

“Since I used to wrap a patch around Lee Sehwa’s arm when giving injections, I don’t know the exact degree of resistance or related symptoms, but….”

“…Patch.”

He didn’t know anything when he did it. He did it just in case. Since Lee Sehwa wasn’t getting addicted to the drug, he wondered if the new drug might work faster. He wasn’t expecting a great effect. It was about the same level of expectation as believing in a superstition.

Of course, the foolish Lee Sehwa knew nothing. The cheap patches used in low-grade medical centers looked quite similar to medical compression bands. Even though they were low-grade items, Lee Sehwa, in his situation, would have found it difficult to even see them. He probably didn’t even guess what they were for, just thinking, ‘The rubber band the lieutenant brought is unusual,’ didn’t he?

Every time he wrapped a patch around his arm, Lee Sehwa would bow his head and say thank you. He knew it was a customary greeting to a customer, but his appearance was so amusing that it was always a struggle to suppress his laughter. Not knowing that he was trying to make the drug work better, he would dutifully bow and thank him, thinking he was helping him find his veins well.

“Patch, patch….”

“Is there… a problem?”

Kim Seokcheol, who had been lost in thought about Lee Sehwa for a moment, belatedly noticed Oh Seonran’s unusual expression and asked cautiously. However, Oh Seonran seemed not to hear Kim Seokcheol’s words, continuously muttering something.

“And he even got pregnant with a child….”

A chilling wind blew into the solitary room. Though faint, a fierce spark flew from Oh Seonran’s eyes, who had grasped a positive possibility for the first time.

“You can’t park here, sir.”

When he parked his car haphazardly at the entrance of the government office, a security guard rushed over and politely stopped him.

“If you go straight, there’s a parking lot for visitors.”

Gi Taejeong snorted and pulled out a stiff leather case from his pocket. The guard’s eyes widened in astonishment as he saw the emblem engraved with the symbol of the Air Force.

“Huh…! A-Are you a Brigadier General?”

“No need for salutes. I’m here to register a guardian for a pregnant woman.”