Chapter 3 Part 7

‘To be precise, my brother is involved in that. I told you sometimes I help with the family business, didn’t I?’

“Your family business is related to weapons?”

Jeong Tae-ui asked back with a dumbfounded expression. Then he realized. This man wasn’t some antique book broker. He was a broker, but the items he dealt in weren’t antique books; they were weapons.

“So you make a living selling weapons…”

‘Not me, my brother.──You really seem to dislike it. For the past few years, a rocket launcher that your brother designed the basic framework for has consistently ranked among the top.’

“Oh, come on. A world without war? Whose blessed country’s dreamy residents are barking about that…? Jeong Jae-ui. If I see you, I’ll punch you.”

The man laughed. The man who had caused a brief but serious upheaval in Jeong Tae-ui’s mind seemed completely unfazed and composed.

‘How scary. So, are you going to cut ties with your precious brother?’

“What do I care? He was the one who cut ties and left first.”

‘Aha?’

The man’s voice changed to one of interest. Jeong Tae-ui wanted to see his face. He was surely looking at the monitor with a slow, subtle smile.

‘I didn’t know you two were such distant brothers. I thought you had quite a good relationship. Why, did you fight? I wouldn’t have thought Jeong Jae-ui would be the type to suggest cutting ties with his younger brother first.’

“He said he was going to cut the thread connected right here, and then he left home that very day. And he’s still missing.”

Jeong Tae-ui muttered, holding up his pinky finger. It wasn’t the exact truth, but that was the gist of it. The man was silent for a moment, then spoke.

‘Haha. Jeong Jae-ui said that? That’s interesting.’

“It might sound interesting to you, but to me, it’s a crisis of family breakdown.”

‘Haha, ahahaha.’

The man kept laughing, as if greatly amused. The sound of laughter from a mechanical voice was incredibly strange.

“You seem to be in a good mood.”

‘No… I just thought, what very different brothers you are. I thought since you’re twins, you’d have some similarities, but your faces are different. Your personalities are different. It’s amusing.’

“──Have you ever met my brother?”

‘Hmm. Well, I’ve casually seen his face. I was very surprised by how young he was.’

That had happened several times. Ever since childhood, anyone who had heard about Jeong Jae-ui through any channel and sought him out had been surprised to see him. It was rare for someone not to express bewilderment, saying they hadn’t expected him to be so young.

But this man didn’t seem very old either.

Jeong Tae-ui stared intently at the white hand, even though he knew he couldn’t tell age from hands alone.

However, not wanting to pry into such personal matters, he changed the subject.

“Well, you must be very much like your brother, the one who deals in weapons.”

‘Well. I haven’t really heard that I resemble him, but my brother and I aren’t twins. There’s quite a difference in our ages, you see.’

“What does an age difference have to do with whether siblings resemble each other?” Jeong Tae-ui retorted, waving his hand.

At that moment, the man paused. He turned slightly, as if someone was approaching behind him or a sound had been made. He said he helped with the family business, so perhaps he lived peacefully with his family.

‘This is sudden, but I have to go now. I’ll see you again later then.’

“Oh? Ah, right. Um, but what about your business with my uncle?”

‘I’ll call back later. Bye-bye.’

The white hand waved slightly. With that, the call ended. The monitor darkened again.

Jeong Tae-ui sighed and pressed the lamp button again. The surroundings instantly became quiet.

Tap, tap. Just as the white hand had done on the monitor a moment ago, Jeong Tae-ui silently tapped the desk, standing like a statue. His mind felt like it would become complicated. But on second thought, it wasn’t something Jeong Tae-ui needed to get complicated about now.

“Ugh… I don’t know. I’ll just live in a world where wars break out. I’m not going to start an anti-war movement.”

Right. Even though I quit, there are many professional soldiers in the world, and they have to make a living too, Jeong Tae-ui muttered, and then threw himself onto the bed.

Thwack, he hit the top of his foot on the edge of the bed. It hurt like hell.

As expected, he got royally chewed out.

The next day, more than 30 minutes before regular duty began, the person who called Jeong Tae-ui was Instructor Golding of the Second Martial Arts Training. When roll call was taken at the end of regular duty, it was natural that he was called out, since the guy who went to change clothes had been gone for over 30 minutes and wasn’t in his spot. In fact, he had been called out separately immediately after evening roll call yesterday, but Jeong Tae-ui, who had sprawled on his uncle’s bed, defiant, hadn’t budged.

And for that, Jeong Tae-ui paid the price dearly by being called out and made to roll around before morning duty even began, entering the regular morning lecture, physically and mentally exhausted and swaying.

The Combat Practical Analysis, which would occupy the entire morning, had not yet begun.

The Lecture Hall, equipped with a large screen, was not very spacious; it was more like a slightly oversized seminar room. The team members were already seated in a circle, maintaining a quiet silence.

As Jeong Tae-ui entered the Lecture Hall, the instructor glared fiercely, but perhaps because he had already heard from Instructor Golding, he said nothing further.

As Jeong Tae-ui cautiously found an empty seat, Tou smirked beside him.

“Did you have a good date with Golding? Getting called out right after breakfast, you two must have a hot thing going on.”

“Yeah, it was so hot I practically burned to death.”

Jeong Tae-ui grumbled back at Tou, who was playfully teasing him, then had to lower his head completely as the instructor in front glared at them again. Tou pretended not to notice and looked forward.

“As you all know, the Joint Training with the Europe Branch is fast approaching. So today, as part of our personnel analysis, we will be reviewing past records. Here are the records from last year’s Joint Training.”