Beast, Blue Blood - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The Brotherhood is considered one of the most bizarre events of the century. Influential people formed a secret society called the Brotherhood and developed a virus intended to make them immortal, but the plan went disastrously wrong, leading to their extermination. Hisha’s father, who was once the director of the MCTC’s Seoul branch, became globally infamous due to this incident and had to resign.

Hisha’s swirling thoughts began to take shape. Despite knowing it was a ridiculous idea, he was fundamentally a person who didn’t exist in the world—at least not by his real name. To conceal his identity as the son of the Ivanov family, he was registered under an alias and attended school with that name. Therefore, it was impossible to trace him by documents.

‘But I can’t do it alone.’

Just then, he remembered someone who happened to be at home. Hisha immediately descended the elevator, burst through a door, and shouted.

“Hey!”

A woman sitting on the sofa turned around with a fierce expression.

“Do you want to die? How dare you barge in here?”

She was his (cute) cousin Ha-yeon, who had always been tough and unsentimental but seemed even darker recently. Ha-yeon, who usually attended university in Seoul, was visiting his house in the US during the vacation.

“This is our house, you know?”

Hisha said dismissively, but Ha-yeon sneered.

“This is my aunt and uncle’s house, not yours. Did you even contribute a penny to buy this house?”

Ignoring her remark, Hisha brought up his request.

“I need your help with that club you mentioned.”

Ha-yeon, who always enjoyed hanging out, was involved in a suspicious club activity. She shrugged.

“I told you, it’s just a club.”

She always insisted on this, but Hisha wasn’t buying it.

“Then I can tell Aunt and Uncle about it, right?” 

Hisha said, making Ha-yeon’s eyes flash with a murderous look.

“Are you challenging me?”

It was always a mystery to Hisha how someone who grew up in a loving and affluent home could learn to look so menacing. Truthfully, Hisha knew about the club but kept quiet to avoid becoming a target of Ha-yeon’s secretive and ominous obsession. Plus, he wasn’t particularly interested in what his cousin did outside.

He decided to get to the point.

“I have something to do.”

“What kind of thing?”

Hisha explained, and Ha-yeon, astonished by the scale of it, burst into laughter.

“Are you crazy? Do you know what kind of scale this is?”

Hisha hadn’t expected Ha-yeon to accept right away, so he continued.

“Listen. Heinrich Fuger-Dulloch was the leader of the Brotherhood. However, at the trial, he claimed that he joined thinking it was a social gathering for influential people, and denied any involvement in suspicious activities. Due to insufficient evidence, he was acquitted, and the trial quietly ended thanks to his media manipulation. The media focused on Simon DeMoustier, who was already dead and infamous as the new ‘Countess Bathory,’ allowing Heinrich to fade from public memory.”

“But it seems clear that Heinrich tried to develop the virus.”

Hisha added, stepping back slightly.

“I’m not suggesting we steal the virus. We can’t do that. But what if we just steal some information?”

While Ha-yeon considered this, Hisha pressed on.

“Heinrich wouldn’t expect people like us to act as informants. We can exploit that loophole.”

Ha-yeon seemed to be pondering the proposal but showed interest. Hisha never understood why someone from a good family, living comfortably, would get excited about something so dangerous.

Finally, Ha-yeon smirked arrogantly.

“How much will you pay?”

Hisha was taken aback.

“You want money?”

“Do you think I’m doing this for free?”

Although he didn’t know exactly what Ha-yeon was involved in, he knew she had strange connections and needed her help.

“Family discount?”

Reluctantly, Hisha had to bow to her demands.

Ha-yeon snorted softly.

“Do you think so? You can’t even offer hazard pay.”

For a moment, Hisha wanted to give up, but he held back.

Surprisingly, the club was more professional than he expected. Ha-yeon’s group could hack and bring in documents efficiently, making Hisha feel like a real spy for a moment.

One day, Ha-yeon called Hisha to her hideout and handed him a strange ID.

“The name is Kim Young-soo.”

The social security card had Hisha’s photo next to the name “Kim Young-soo.” Hisha tilted his head.

“Why Kim Young-soo? It’s kind of plain.”

“It suits you.”

Ha-yeon replied indifferently, surprising Hisha.

“Is he a real person?”

Ha-yeon looked at Hisha as if he were saying something utterly ridiculous.

“If you get employed at the mansion, they’ll do a background check. Of course, he has to be real.”

Hisha looked at his fake ID.

“But why is my fake ID Korean? It’s not like I’m advertising that I’m half Korean.”

Ha-yeon sighed openly as soon as he asked.

“Do you know Japanese?”

“No?”

Hisha answered, puzzled by the sudden question. Ha-yeon asked again.

“Chinese?”

“N? x? hu?n m??” (Do you like me?)

Ha-yeon threw the file she was holding. Hisha, feeling a bit wronged, spoke.

“Who learns languages these days when there are translators?”

“No matter what, if you claim to be Japanese, you should at least know Japanese, right?”

“Ah.”

Hisha exclaimed. Then Ha-yeon turned around.

“If you do something stupid and our identities are exposed, I’ll abandon you without hesitation.”

* * *

After finishing his reflection, Hisha looked at the ceiling of the Fuger-Dulloch mansion and sighed. He only wanted to help his parents. He realized that even his parents, who once seemed omnipotent, had limits, and he wanted to support them.

‘But how did things end up like this?’

Hisha wriggled his tied hands behind him. They were so tightly bound that it didn’t seem like he could get free. Still, he couldn’t just sit there, so he kept wriggling his hands.

Just then, he heard the door open again. He turned quickly and saw Eugene entering. She seemed to be going somewhere, wearing a loose-fitting black silk dress and high heels, with her hair down naturally.

“Eugene.”

Eugene stopped about ten steps away and looked at him expressionlessly.

“Speak.”

Her voice was cold.

“You said you would only speak to me?”

“I…”

Hisha hesitated. He didn’t know what to say.

He had boldly claimed he would only speak to Eugene, but now he had nothing to say. He had staged an accident to find the virus and approached her under pretenses to enter this mansion. Any words would sound like excuses in front of that fact.

When Hisha remained silent, Eugene spoke.

“Not talking? Then I’ll speak. Why didn’t I do anything even though I knew?”

Curious about that, Hisha nodded slightly. Eugene smirked and said,

“I was curious about why someone like Hisha Ivanov would approach me. And there was no reason to reject a pumpkin rolling into my yard, right?”

Then she looked him up and down.

“Although it rolled in so easily that I suspected a trap. But the fact that there wasn’t one was more surprising.”

“So… you knew from the beginning?”

Eugene shrugged.

“Not from the beginning. It took some time to find out. ‘Hisha Ivanov’ is so shrouded in mystery.”

Out of the blue, Hisha realized how much effort his parents must have put in to maintain his low profile.

“I knew right away that you weren’t Kim Young-soo.”

It seemed the world wasn’t so easy after all.

“Kim Young-soo, who didn’t attend school and only worked day jobs, having no friends, was quite different from you. But I was surprised at how similar you looked. You prepared quite diligently.”

Even though the real Kim Young-soo and Hisha were worlds apart.

Eugene asked.

“You didn’t kill the real Kim Young-soo, right? Did you send him on a vacation?”

Hisha sighed.

“To South America.”

Eugene chuckled.

“He must have been thrilled.”

“He jumped at the chance.”

Eugene crossed her arms.

“I knew who you were, but I hoped you would tell me first.”

“Well…”

“Of course, you couldn’t. Not until you found the prototype of the virus.”

Eugene said this without showing any special emotion. Hisha sighed again.

“I know it’s too late to apologize, but I’m sorry. I thought the virus shouldn’t fall into the wrong hands. And before coming here, I didn’t know Eugene…”

Suddenly, Eugene raised her hand as if to stop him from speaking.

“Don’t apologize. I won’t either.”

“Huh? For what…?”

Feeling uneasy, Hisha asked, and Eugene uncrossed her arms. She then approached, running her hand along the table.

“I kept thinking about how to use the card I unexpectedly got…”

She had been contemplating how to handle the unexpected opportunity, unable to decide immediately what to do with the luck that fell into her lap.

In the end, she concluded that Hisha Ivanov would not be in her grasp forever. Even if his parents were currently quiet for unknown reasons, they would eventually mobilize the military to find him.

When that happened, Eugene would have no choice but to let him go, as she was not a kidnapper or terrorist.

So securing a biological sample was urgent.

As Eugene stood in front of him, Hisha looked up at her, feeling inexplicably tense. Eugene’s expression carried an unprecedented sense of intimidation.

Then, suddenly, Eugene lifted her dress over her head and took it off. Hisha’s eyes widened. In a brief moment, many possibilities of what she might do passed through his mind, but this was not one of them.

The dress fell on the carpet, and Eugene looked down at him with her disheveled hair.

“Help me have a child.”

Hisha doubted his ears.

“W-what?”

His voice faltered as he asked in shock. But Eugene didn’t repeat herself, as if knowing he heard her.

“You can do it. Your bloodline is fertile.”