Chapter 57 – Sister (Ha-Eun) – About The Village (3)
After that, a string of stories I also knew were rattled off. The reasons why women bound to the village couldn’t escape or hope for a helping hand anywhere. The ridiculous story of those who secretly rule this country.
“A long time ago, there was a village where the powerful people of this country gathered… It’s a suspicious place that enslaves women and produces them… And their influence extends not only to the political world but also to parties I know…?”
“Yes.”
“The women they produce are used as wives and sex slaves by men with power in the political world… And on top of that, those crazy villagers are also reaching into corporations… Okay, I get it up to here. I understand for now. So, the family that has protected that village for generations is on my grandmother’s side and that trash guy’s side. And I’m the last of that bloodline, is that it?”
“You’re exactly right.”
“Are you crazy?”
Even surrounded by men at the table, Junseo didn’t tense up. But it was a story that was hard to accept. It wasn’t a manga, and the fact that such a village had been hidden until now, and that it was moving the political world by enslaving women, was a ridiculous story. But even if he tried to deny it, the scale of what was in front of him was different. It was impossible for men to bow their heads just to tell such a story, after renting out an entire cafe.
“Our village has existed since before this country was founded. Trading women was originally done with people from corresponding families, and ordinary people have no way of knowing. Sometimes, some island villages enslave foreign workers or outsiders and it makes the news, but that has nothing to do with us, and the scale is different.”
“That island village…”
Junseo let out a hollow laugh as if he knew what they were talking about, though he didn’t say it out loud. While he was sipping the coffee that the bald guy brought, the story continued.
“But, what is that family? Did we have something like that in our country?”
“It’s not strange that you don’t know, young master. In neighboring countries, they openly leave behind things like Shoguns, and they raise their heads high, saying things like, ‘I’m from the bloodline of such and such a family,’ or ‘I’m from the family of such and such a general,’ or ‘I was something in the past,’ but we’re the opposite. There are many famous people who have acquired large plots of land to honor their ancestors who were active in the past and live leisurely lives. The people we mainly trade with are those kinds of bloodlines.”
“This is such a manga-like story…”
“Please accept it that way. But it really does exist. People who want to live leisurely lives, completely unrelated to ordinary reporters or paparazzi. Most of them are living peaceful vacations 365 days a year overseas, using their funds, so ordinary people have no way of noticing them.”
The limit of what ordinary people can imagine is about the level of a rich family in a morning drama. Further, it would be the families of chaebols or heads of large corporations that appear on TV. But the story that the bald guy was telling was on a different scale.
“Hearing it like that makes it even stranger. Why hasn’t such a village been discovered until now? There must be people who escape, and it wouldn’t be strange if rumors spread somewhere on the internet.”
“There’s something you’re misunderstanding, young master. Our village isn’t a place that smells so sexual or is so strict. Rather, the atmosphere inside the village can be seen as relaxed. They don’t force people to work, and they don’t confine them to the village. For example, the women who work there can take people like us and go around the city whenever they have free time.”
As if to show us, the bald guy manipulated his phone and showed us a picture. A woman with her hair cut prettily in a hime style was wearing flashy leopard-print clothes, a bag that looked expensive on her shoulder, and two bodyguards in black sunglasses and suits. It was a look that seemed to boast, “I’m a woman who’s doing well, like in a makjang drama.”
“Who is this woman?”
“I don’t know her name. She’s one of the servants who works in our village. The people next to her are my subordinates who work in the village.”
“This woman is a servant?”
“Considering the scale of the village, she receives that kind of treatment outside, including her salary. It’s really eye-popping.”
Junseo had a face that showed he couldn’t understand, but I did.
“Without going to college or anything, just by working in that village, you can get a salary that’s stronger than working at a large company, let alone graduating from college. Instead, there’s a confidentiality obligation, but that’s a really minor thing, right? The work is easy, and if you do well, you can marry a man from a good family. Considering that most of the kids who work there are orphans, they can be brainwashed from a young age… If it were me, I would have worked there for the rest of my life…”
“If that were the case, I wouldn’t have done that to your body.”
“Hmph…”
I was annoyed by the way he said that our paths had diverged, but I held back because I thought Junseo would grab a bottle again if I got angry here.
“But, if they make a mistake or… have bad intentions…?”
“They die if they make a mistake.”
“Die?”
“Yes. It’s common for a servant who was working fine yesterday to be ground into feed for pigs the next day. The servants know that, and they get a lot of money, so they work happily without thinking of anything else.”
“Are all the bastards there crazy?”
“No, they’re surprisingly normal.”
The bald guy took a sip of the hot coffee in front of him and laughed. Junseo’s concerns were natural, but the other side was a monster that had been doing that crap for hundreds of years. The counterarguments came back quickly, as if they had already finished those countermeasures.
“Young master, you just said, ‘If they have bad intentions.’ If they were to spread the word, where would they talk about our village?”
“In this day and age…”
“Yes, as you’re worried, it would be a famous portal site.”
“Ah.”
At that, Junseo’s mouth closed as if he understood something. It was a country where even real-time search rankings on the internet were manipulated at will. The moment they put pressure on the government through the village, the rumors would be gone, and the place where the post was made would be identified and they would be caught. Moreover, even if a servant retired, they wouldn’t be completely free, so the probability of secrets leaking was even lower.
“Newspapers, broadcasting stations, out of the question. Of course, portal sites are also out of the question. People in this country tend to underestimate the government’s tracking power, but they can catch anyone if they want to. Moreover, illegal organizations like us don’t care about the means. It’s even better if they escape overseas. It’s a story that would end with a mass shooting.”
“Are you just laying out a movie plot right now?”
“That’s what’s funny, that it’s reality. If a shaman can be a secret power broker, why can’t we do this much?”
A correct argument that left us speechless. A story that we thought was from beyond the TV was right in front of us. Junseo’s expression twisted.
“What do you want me to do? You said my grandmother is there.”
“Our village has had men as the village chief for generations. It wouldn’t be proper if the village chief was a woman in a place that does this kind of work. Originally, Lee Mun-san was supposed to do it, but he went to the afterlife. Thanks to that guy causing a ruckus in the village, the madam is temporarily doing the work, and no one has complained, but we thought that was reaching its limit, so we showed our faces like this.”
“So, you want me to do it?”
“It’s not that we want you to do it. Your name is already on the list.”
“Who told you to put it on the list?”
“Of course, it was the madam.”
“You son of a bitch…”
Junseo kicked the table with a bang. Since it was a table that was bolted to the floor and couldn’t move, there was no commotion, but that action alone showed how Junseo was feeling right now. Just yesterday, he had spent a pleasant day with me, but today was the complete opposite. A dark reality was strangling Junseo’s neck.
“What if I say I won’t do it?”
“Then you’ll spend the rest of your life trembling in fear.”
“What does that mean?”
“Ahem, young master. Please think seriously about this. Your bloodline is more important than you think. You don’t know what the sweet potato between your legs means. We treat it so importantly that we call it a magic wand, and we’ve even built a shrine for it. It’s a strange building with a goblin standing there. Would you like to come see it?”
“From a story about a shitty village to politics, and now a story about a dick wand? What’s real and what’s a lie? What’s with the goblins and the magic wand… Have you watched too many mangas… Shit…”
“It’s all real.”
“Stop talking nonsense… What the hell is it… How much did you spend to make up this lie…”
Junseo pressed his temples with his thumbs. I wanted to comfort my younger brother, but I couldn’t interfere. The bald guy looked at me once through his sunglasses, as if he was finally going to threaten Junseo, then turned his head again.
“If you stay like this, you’ll really spend the rest of your life trembling in fear, as I said earlier.”
“So what is it? Why? Am I going to jail for something I did wrong?”
“No, that would be better. It’s a story that will sound more unpleasant to you.”
An unpleasant atmosphere settled in.
In the midst of that, the bald guy opened his mouth.
“Please know that we are also considering recovering and disposing of the three slaves by your side.”
Thud!!!!
“Hey.”
Unable to hold back, Junseo stood up from his seat. In his hand were shards of glass. Pieces of a bottle that he had clearly thrown on the floor earlier. Had he secretly hidden it just in case? He slowly held it in front of the bald guy’s eyes, showing his anger.
“What did you say?”
“I said exactly what I said.”
But neither I nor the bald guy were surprised this time. It was a natural course of events that he would explode at those words, and both of us knew that point. This was the timing for me to calm Junseo down, and while my heart was pounding at Junseo’s violent appearance, I opened my mouth calmly.
“Junseo, you seem to have forgotten recently. From our point of view, we were just playing ‘family’ with them, right? The three slaves who failed to guide you on the right path will lose their freedom and rights and be disposed of. I hate to say this, but I think it’s a natural course of events. They’ve received that much support, but they haven’t achieved a single goal.”
“What the hell are you agreeing to? So you’re going to die quietly? Are you just going to listen to these bastards who we don’t even know?”
“I brought you here because I didn’t want to die. I thought it was about time we knew the situation, or we’d be screwed.”
At my words, the bald guy nodded.
“That’s what it means to live trembling in fear. The life you’ll live alone after losing your family will surely be enjoyable. And all the women who approach you will be people who want your seed. In the worst case, you’ll be abandoned right after getting them pregnant.”
“What’s that… What are you talking about…”
“If you don’t return to the village, we’ll need a successor to the village chief position. After that, all the women who approach you will be people who have been influenced by the village. From your point of view, you’ll have a happy relationship, get married, and have children, which is a fulfilling life in a way, but…”
“As this bald guy said, there’s a chance that one day your wife and children will disappear. It’s really, really, I hate to think about it, but it’s all 100% possible.”
“That’s right.”
The bald guy let out a short, hollow laugh, as if he couldn’t believe what he was saying himself. After receiving the seed, nothing would be left for Junseo, so it was obvious that he would continue to live a lonely life. Moreover, since our sisters wouldn’t be by his side, he might develop a personality that doesn’t trust people.
“You’ll lose the three people you’ve been living with like family, even though they’re slaves. And all the women who approach you after that will be people who have been influenced by the village. If you’re okay with that, I won’t recommend it any further, but I don’t recommend it.”
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s not a threat. It’s advice.”
Jang Mun-sang, who was letting out a sigh, said that it wasn’t a story that a subordinate like him should get involved in. Junseo seemed to be mulling over what he had heard, but it was the bald guy’s side that left first.
“It’s not like we’re asking you to decide right now. There’s still plenty of time, and we’re always watching you. When you’ve enjoyed your college life enough and think it’s time, contact the madam. I can say with certainty that just by doing that, the safety of the slaves you have will be guaranteed. As I said with the example of the servant, we’re not such a scary place. Even if there are abnormally protruding places like pig feed, it probably won’t be uncomfortable for you…”
I wanted him to say it definitively there, but it must have been hard for him to say that in front of me. Because it was a place that made women’s bodies so battered. But I was surprised that they had prepared all this and were leaving after saying just a few words, so I grabbed the bald guy without realizing it.
“Are you leaving already? This is your first meeting with the young master that you’ve been looking forward to. Don’t run away, and say a few more words.”
“Giving a bad impression to the young master is enough with this. Next time, I’ll prepare a place where you can feel more at ease. Even though I look like this, I like to laugh and chat. If I could, I would have liked to talk to Mun-san’s child like that.”
With those words, the bald guy relaxed his tension with a friendly feeling that didn’t match his size.
“Ah, one last thing I’d like to ask before I go.”
“Why? What is it now?”
“Do you like women who are burning with a sense of mission, feeling like they can do anything for their master? They’re also good at fighting and can swing a sword around.”
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
“Just tell me if you like them or not.”
Junseo closed his mouth, as if he didn’t expect such a story to come up so suddenly.
But the answer came quickly.
“They sound like a manga character, so I guess they’d be fun?”
“Is that so… She’s a kid who was born in the wrong era, but if it’s you, young master…”
Hearing those words, Jang Mun-sang smiled contentedly and completely straightened his back. At the same time, the curtains of the cafe went up, and the front door opened wide. The men, including the women who had been sitting and looking at us, all rushed out, and we were left alone in that place.
“What the hell was that…”
“I don’t know.”
That meaningful smile…
He must be thinking something trivial…
I was sure that my prediction was probably not wrong.
