Beast, Blue Blood - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

“Seriously, it’s embarrassing for us.”

A woman sighed deeply.

“To think we have to see the man the director’s mother had an affair with every day.”

Hisha found himself unintentionally glancing downstairs.

‘What on earth…?’

“What I really don’t understand is the director’s father. Hiring the man his wife had an affair with as the gardener again, after almost 20 years.”

The woman spoke with increasing excitement as if it were her affair.

“And you know what, even the director, she hadn’t fired the gardener. If it were me, I would have fired him on my first day managing this house.”

With a chuckle, the woman continued.

“It’s well-known their marriage isn’t great, so I can kind of understand her meeting another man. But it’s awkward. Especially seeing him every day…”

“Lower your voice.”

When her colleague spoke, the woman seemed to catch her breath.

“Really, I can’t understand the way rich people think. Their mindset is just different.”

“If we understood that mindset, we’d probably be rich too.”

“Yeah, maybe. Anyway, I’m so nervous I could die. It’s like carrying a time bomb that could go off any moment.”

* * *

Hisha rested his arms behind his head, staring up at the dark ceiling. It was quiet all around him. Even the insects outside seemed to have quieted down; it was that time.

Eventually, he swung his legs off the bed, sat up, and pressed the button on the end of her hood.

[Why call now?]

Kate appeared wearing her usual disguise under the light of the transmitter disguised as an aglet, speaking like a clingy girlfriend. But Hisha responded calmly.

“It’s not easy to call when employees are always around.”

[The virus?]

“Not yet. Still looking. Are you okay over there?”

[Yeah. Doesn’t seem like anyone’s suspicious yet. It’s just a matter of time though. So the sooner…]

Hisha interrupted Kate’s words and asked.

“By the way, did you happen to know about Eugene’s mother?”

[Her mother? What about her?]

Kate genuinely seemed puzzled.

“That she had an affair with another man.”

At Hisha’s words, Kate made a sound of realization.

[Heard about it, but it’s not relevant to our work.]

Hisha sighed.

“Why isn’t it relevant? Understanding how this house operates would help us gauge the atmosphere and act accordingly, wouldn’t it?”

Kate shrugged.

[It’s ancient history anyway. The wife died in a car accident over a decade ago.]

“But the gardener I’m helping with work had an affair with her mother.”

[What?]

Kate seemed surprised too. Then she glanced at someone beside her, unseen by Hisha, and asked.

[What’s going on? The gardener who had an affair with Heinrich’s wife still works at the mansion?]

Even though Kate was still visible, a playful voice accompanied her from the side.

[Hey, how’s it going over there? Everything alright?]

Kate grimaced, and Hisha pretended not to understand.

“Oh, it’s Myung-jin.”

Myung-jin was Kate’s only friend, despite having a major flaw in her personality that made her unlikely to have friends for life. In fact, without Myung-jin’s hacking skills, they couldn’t have managed such an extraordinary infiltration into Fuger-Dulloch.

[There have been talks about that sort of thing already.]

Myung-jin got straight to the point.

“What talk is that?”

[It’s about how dangerous wealthy and powerful people can become.]

* * *

Eugene ran, breathing heavily.

The morning air was crisp. The forest within the mansion was not densely packed with trees, allowing sunlight to filter through, and since Eugene preferred running outside rather than on a treadmill, the paths were always well maintained.

As she approached the main house, a faint figure appeared in the distance. It was Hisha, cleaning the path leading to the garden.

Hisha sensed Eugene approaching and stopped in front of him.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Good morning.”

Hisha smiled and greeted her. Her fresh face looked adorable today under the light morning mist.

Since it was early and Pierlu had not yet arrived for work, Eugene spoke.

“You’re working hard early in the morning.”

“You have to work hard for the money you get.”

Hisha smiled, but in truth, he hadn’t slept well due to various thoughts swirling in his mind from the previous night.

* * *

[He used to be the gardener at that house. Seems like things were brewing even before the incident.]

Myung-jin said.

[And then the wife and the gardener hit it off?.]

“Fuger-Dulloch’s wife and the gardener?”

Hisha wondered how such a thing could happen, and Kate chuckled before replying.

[To be honest, it’s understandable. Heinrich’s penchant for extramarital affairs is well-known.]

Heinrich was much older than them, but there seemed to be no intention of treating him with respect. In fact, at this point, Hisha didn’t even want to feel that way.

Myung-jin continued.

[Anyway, they met secretly for a while, and then the wife divorced Heinrich and declared she would live with that gardener. The two houses were turned upside down. At the time, the late owner’s grandfather, Lian Qing, vowed not to give a penny.]

“But?”

[Since there was no alternative, the two just went out to see the night. And lived happily for a few years? One day, the wife was in a car accident. She died on the spot.]

But why Pierlu was still here was still not understood. Then Myung-jin thought he should have such doubts.

[There is one son born between the gardener and the wife, but this son was born with a congenital disease. It’s something like Baumann-Kraus disease, a genetic disorder involving immune system malfunction, which nowadays can’t be fixed even with gene therapy. They say the hospital bills are astronomical.]

“….”

Hisha remained silent.

[While the wife was alive, she had her own assets, so there weren’t big financial issues, but the problem arose after her death. Heinrich and his wife were not officially divorced.]

It was easy enough to guess what had happened.

[After the wife’s death, the gardener didn’t receive a penny. The immediate hospital bills are astronomical; could the gardener have handled that money?]

Only then did Hisha speak up.

“But if it were me, I would have found another job. Returning here…”

[It seems Heinrich proposed that. He offered to return to the mansion and take responsibility for their son’s hospital bills.]

“What?”

[What?]

Hisha and Kate exclaimed simultaneously. Then Myung-jin said as if to indicate they finally understood.

[Yes, it’s incomprehensible to us, right? To take responsibility for the hospital bills of a child born from an affair. Well, one could think it’s a moral responsibility, since the child isn’t to blame, even if the mother had an affair and employed the man she had an affair with and saw him every day.]

“I don’t understand.”

[Exactly. Me neither. But if we exercise a little imagination, imagine if I were Heinrich… If the unfaithful wife dies, leaving only the child she had with that man…]

But no matter how much Hisha tried to use his imagination, he couldn’t understand that psychology.

[Heinrich says he never mistreated the gardener. He fulfilled his promise to cover all the hospital bills, and rumor has it he even raised wages compared to before. So, if we use our imagination…]

[He took the ultimate revenge.]

Suddenly, Kate said, chuckling knowingly.

[He ground his pride into dust as a man. Imagine. There’s another child from the woman you loved. Smart, beautiful, growing more like the woman you love every day.]

Hisha imagined young Eugene. A graceful cat, smart and beautiful like a princess admired by everyone.

[That father ensures his daughter lives like a princess. Later, she will inherit a prestigious family legacy.]

Hisha imagined the employee who watched Eugene every time she came home, knowing she was the daughter of the woman he loved and his son’s half-sister, living a completely different life from his own.

[But he is just a gardener, without the ability to handle the medical bills of his sick child.]

Perhaps, if the woman he loved had not met him, she would have lived her whole life like a queen.

[That’s what allows him to live every day in this reality. In a hell where there’s no way out even due to money.]

But when Hisha heard this story for the first time, this was his first thought.

‘What about Eugene?’

He wanted to ask. A young girl who had become a tool for revenge for her father after losing her mother?

* * *

“Young-soo?”

Eugene called out, snapping Hisha back to attention.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

As Hisha continued to stare, Eugene smiled somewhat awkwardly, seeming a bit puzzled. Returning from his reverie, Hisha asked whatever came to mind to change the subject.

“What kind of look?”

“Well, it’s like… “

Eugene was considering how to express it appropriately.

Seeing her like that, her face without makeup looked much younger than expected. At other times, she seemed tough enough not to fit in this situation, making the difference more pronounced.

‘Adorable.’

Hisha thought to himself without realizing it. The height difference that usually didn’t bother him somehow became noticeable. Eugene was even smaller than usual because she wasn’t wearing high heels. Somehow, he felt like hugging her.

Unaware that Hisha was having these thoughts, Eugene finally found a suitable expression.

“Eyes that see me like a deserted puppy on a rainy day?”

Hearing this, Hisha scanned her up and down.

“Eugene leans more towards a cat than a dog.”

Eugene couldn’t tell if she was more surprised that he scanned her or that he called her by name without hesitation.

Whether it was fearless or simply oblivious.

Eugene chuckled.

“Young-soo seems more like a dog.”

Hisha nodded.

“I hear that a lot. My aunt says my zodiac sign should have been a dog.”

Eugene smiled knowingly as if she understood why he put it that way.

“They do tend to be very affectionate. I bet your girlfriend wouldn’t mind.”

Hisha scratched the back of his ear.

“I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Eugene laughed.

“You might get one someday.”

Hisha continued to scratch his ear, thinking something as if the image of a dog scratching behind its ear overlapped. Eventually, he lowered his hand and glanced at her.

“Is Eugene not into that kind of thing?”