Yu CheIn watched Yu JinHyuk"s car leave the school grounds from afar. Ever since Yu JinHyuk said he wanted to meet Han JinHo, she had been observing Yu JinHyuk from a distance. Yu JinHyuk probably knew about it as well.
Watching Han JinHo get on Yu JinHyuk"s car and going somewhere made her restless.
She remembered what Yu JinHyuk had asked.
At first, she thought Han JinHo was an average sunbae with a lack of presence. However, later as she continuously tried to approach him, small details which she couldn"t see before started to become visible.
In fact, even without Yu JinHyuk telling her all those things, she had already known that Han JInHo wasn"t a normal person.
She had directly felt the strange aura around him which one wouldn"t be able to understand with just investigations.
Yu CheIn knew about her grandfather, Chairman Yu MyungHo"s way of doing things, as she had experienced it quite often. There was a high likelihood that Han JinHo would meet her grandfather soon.
How did things end up like this, she asked herself as a sigh unconsciously escaped her lips.
"The start is… me. It"s because I asked sunbae to come to the meeting…"
If he hadn"t attended the gathering, he wouldn"t have been involved with Park SeoJun, and naturally wouldn"t have been abducted.
And without all that, her grandfather would not have been so interested in him.
While she was blaming herself, Lee SunHwa approached from the side.
"What shall we do?"
In response to her question, Yu CheIn replied with a resolute expression.
"Let"s follow them."
Soon later, a vehicle with Yu CheIn inside quickly chased after Yu JinHyuk"s car.
After deciding to meet Chairman Yu MyungHo, there was no further conversation between the two. Yu JinHyuk focused on driving, and Han JinHo was looking outside the window, thinking about other things.
Han JinHo didn"t think too much about it. He just deemed it a chance to meet Chairman Yu MyungHo, so he decided to see him once.
On the other hand, Yu JinHyuk"s thoughts were complex.
"Why does grandfather want to meet with this person?"
Chairman Yu MyungHo had told him to bring Han JinHo if he seemed like a promising guy. But in hindsight, what he had said was no different to telling Yu JinHyuk to bring Han JinHo.
They had investigated him using DaeWoon Group"s power, and not only that, they had also hired Lee Chab.u.m. However, there was still nothing they clearly understood.
This meant it was one of the two: he truly was an average person that indeed had nothing, or was someone that could so perfectly hide their details.
From how Yu JinHyuk viewed it, Han JinHo was the latter.
"Even I think of it that way, so grandfather must think so as well."
Chairman Yu MyungHo probably saw through more than that.
"Talking about CheIn could be an excuse as well."
At the start, he must have become interested in Han JinHo because of Yu CheIn, but no-one knew whether it was still because of her.
Yu MyungHo"s discerning eyes were superb, especially when it came to distinguishing people. He also spared no effort in attempting to raise his discerning skills.
Gathering antiques and artworks were one of his daily works. Plus, Chairman Yu MyungHo was famous for personally attending auctions of artworks. He attended them to test his skills.
Meeting people were the same. While sitting on the highest seat of DaeWoon Group, he didn"t laze around when it came to meeting others.
Without caring about the other party"s age, position or abilities, he met many people and conversed with them and tried his utmost to fully understand them.
While Yu JinHyuk was indulged in his thoughts, Han JinHo glanced at his wrist. He was wearing a rather cool-looking watch, and it was evoking Han JinHo"s interest.
"Oh? That"s a relic."
It wasn"t a relic he made, but after properly looking at it, he could feel mana from the watch. The mana was well-hidden, so it was very difficult to sense without proper observation.
"It"s a nice watch."
Yu JinHyuk snapped out after hearing that and turned towards Han JinHo. Seeing his eyes looking at his wrist, Yu JinHyuk checked that he was wearing the watch.
"It"s a present from my grandfather - from the chairman."
"Is that so. I"m not usually interested in watches but that one is a little different."
"Haha."
Yu JinHyuk laughed awkwardly, and was puzzled at heart. This right now was the first time today, that Han JinHo showed interest.
But what he was interested in wasn"t himself, DaeWoon Group nor Chairman Yu MyungHo, and was just a watch.
"Should I feel happy about this?"
While he was bitterly smiling to himself, Han JinHo focused on his watch.
Maybe if he hadn"t given any interest and glanced over it, it would"ve been undetected, but once he was interested and started concentrating, there existed no relic which could escape from Han JinHo"s eyes.
His senses when it came to mana were unimaginably sensitive; too sensitive that he had to normally put it at a loosened state.
If he had always maintained his senses sharp, he would"ve seen through the watch the moment he met Yu JinHyuk.
"It"s shaped like a watch, but it actually isn"t one."
Truth be told, the first time he sensed mana from the watch, he felt surprised, and slightly startled.
After he discovered the ruin, and started studying and investigating about ruins, relics, mana and magic, he had made some theories.
And that theory was more or less right so far.
First off, special ruins were in an isolated, independent plane, separated from this world. It wasn"t a part of Earth, nor was it a part of another world.
In addition, ruins were like broken pieces that had been separated from a different plane, in other words, from another world.
So naturally, ruins had the civilisation and culture of that world within them.
Han JinHo estimated that world to be a world of sword and magic.
And, in a world where everything was possible with magic, it was obvious that magic would develop more than engineering.
Therefore, it was difficult for a watch, composed of small intricate pieces, to be made in that kind of world.
A small magic circle would after all, be able to complete what those complex pieces could do.
The most ideal thing would be a parallel development of science and magic, but it was apparent that that world was not like that.
At least, according to Han JinHo"s theory, it wasn"t.
Thus, when he first sensed mana from the watch, he was surprised, since such a thing was difficult to be made according to his theory.
But on a closer inspection, it was different.
It only looked like a watch, and in fact, it was an artifact with small, elaborate overlapping magic circles.
Han JinHo stared at Yu JinHyuk"s wrist.w.a.tch with piercing eyes and figured out the details of the artifact one by one.
The a.n.a.lysis was harder than he thought. The mana was well hidden so in normal situations, it was hard to feel the flow of mana in the first place.
Someone was super focused on his wrist; it would be a lie to say he wasn"t concerned.
"My wrist would be pierced through at this rate."
Yu JinHyuk was speechless. What even was this watch that he was so interested in it? In fact, it was his grandfather"s gift and he was told to keep it on his body at all times, so he only followed those orders, and didn"t really like the watch itself.
"Plus, the time it points to isn"t right either."
The time was wrong, so it didn"t serve any purpose as a watch. The hour-hand and the minute-hand all moved however they wanted so he didn"t even think about checking the time with this watch.
So Yu JinHyuk always checked the time with his phone, and couldn"t understand why Han JinHo was interested in this watch.
"I didn"t hear this thing being an antique though…"
It was too clean to be an antique. Which antique would not have a single outworn part on it? But judging from how interested Han JinHo was, it became likely that this leaned towards being an antique or an artwork.
"Would you like to see it for a bit?"
While saying that, he undid the watch on his wrist, and pushed it towards Han JinHo.
"Eh? Can I really?"
He pushed it further out while smiling.
"As long as you return it, it"s fine. Please return it after you"re content."
"Thank you."
With a happy expression, Han JinHo received the watch and started a proper a.n.a.lysis.
It was likely that this was also something purchased from Luina"s auction. Han JinHo found it unfortunate that he couldn"t find out how much it was sold at, as he wasn"t the one who had made it.
Silence returned once again.
Han JinHo concentrated on the watch-shaped relic, while Yu JinHyuk focused on driving.
"We have arrived."
With slightly tired eyes, Yu JinHyuk spoke while staring at Han JinHo.
Han JinHo was still focused on the watch.
Yu JinHyuk truly couldn"t understand which parts of the watch made him focus so badly. It was just a watch. A broken watch which he couldn"t fix because of Chairman Yu MyungHo"s orders and had to continue wearing.
It had been roughly a bit more than 30 minutes since he handed the watch over, that they arrived. Han JinHo"s eyes hadn"t left the watch a single time and were focused on it.
With a dumbfounded face, Yu JinHyuk looked at Han JinHo. Han JinHo didn"t reply to what he said and continued to look at the watch.
"We have arrived."
Just in case, Yu JinHyuk spoke again. Then, Han JinHo raised his hand after opening it.
"Please wait for 5 minutes."
Yu JinHyuk"s expression was about to crumble, but whatever the case, Han JinHo was Chairman Yu MyungHo"s guest. He suppressed the uprising emotions within.
He rested his hand on the steering wheel with his eyes facing the front, and tapped it repeatedly.
It was an appeal of some sort, saying I"m a bit unhappy right now.
Five minutes had gone past, but Han JinHo"s concentration was unperturbed. Only after nearly ten minutes did Han JinHo take his eyes off the watch while taking a deep breath.
"I"m sorry. It was an important period for me."
He made a sincerely apologetic expression, and handed the watch back to Yu JinHyuk.
"Thank you for lending me your watch."
"No problem. Now, shall we go up? Actually, I had contacted the chairman beforehand, so he is waiting right now."
"Ah, because of me huh. I"m really sorry."
"No, it is alright. He would understand if it"s only that much."
Putting on the watch again, Yu JinHyuk left the car after opening the door. He then felt some kind of strange feeling so tilted his head in doubt.
It felt as if his body became slightly lighter, and although difficult to express, he could feel power rising inside - that sort of weird feeling.
But he didn"t have time to stand there immersing in that feeling. Yu JinHyuk spoke while looking at Han JinHo who had also left the car with him.
"Shall we go then?"
The two of them walked towards the elevator, as the chairman"s room was located on the top floor of DaeWoon Group"s building.
Getting on the elevator with Yu JinHyuk, Han JinHo glanced at his wrist again. It was his first time seeing a relic like that.
Inside the watch, five magic circles made of flat plates were stacked together. By placing the minute-hand and the hour-hand in a set order, one would be able to activate a magic circle.
The key point was the fact that even though the magic circles were overlapped, their mana didn"t interfere with other magic circles and was therefore able to activate independently. That part was what Han JinHo viewed with interest.
Thanks to Yu JinHyuk"s consideration, Han JinHo was able to pull out the core information of the watch. So as a compensation, he tweaked the watch a little bit.
In fact, this watch was able to activate two magic circles at the same time. One could select 2 from 5 spells, and until now, the spells were: protection in dangerous situations, and the concealment of the relic"s mana.
If this world had many people who were sensitive to mana, there would be some meaning in hiding the mana, but since it wasn"t, he changed the spell to another one.
In any case, changing the spells required mana as well, so only Han JinHo could do this. The new spell he changed it to, was increase in stamina. The increase wouldn"t be too huge but it would still be an enough help for normal people.
Ding.
Before he realised, the elevator had reached the top floor. As the elevator"s doors opened, a s.p.a.ce that looked like a lobby appeared in the front, and a pretty female employee that was standing there, politely bowed and greeted them.
Bodyguards stood here and there, and at the furthest end of the lobby, there was a large door.
Han JinHo walked to the door with Yu JinHyuk. Perhaps the bodyguards standing next to it had gotten the orders already, they immediately opened the door.
Through the open doors, Han JinHo saw Chairman Yu MyungHo.
His lips raised slightly in antic.i.p.ation.