In the conference room of the newly launched Silla Future Asset, an unexpected person was waiting.

"I'm sorry. I'm a little late."

"It's fine. I'm the one who came a bit early."

Il-gyeong Dan, who'd arrived and taken a seat first in the conference room, spoke as he received Seong-ho's greeting.

"You being late is fine, but I'm not pleased about my coming here."

At the words of Il-gyeong Dan — called the pawnbroker of the business world — Chung-seop Jo, startled, hurried over.

"Elder. Is there something making you uncomfortable? If you'd tell me..."

Thwack!

Il-gyeong Dan struck Chung-seop's backside with the cane he'd been leaning on.

"You fool. Why am I an 'Elder'?"

"Aigo. Chairman. I misspoke. Please forgive me."

"That's right. That's right. You ought to call me Chairman — 'Elder,' what nonsense... Am I some neighborhood grandpa?"

At the sight of Chung-seop hastily correcting his form of address, Il-gyeong Dan finally nodded as if satisfied.

Seong-ho shook his head as if he found it hard to understand why Tak-hyeon and Il-gyeong Dan were so fixated on the title of "Chairman," then opened his mouth.

"Why might you not be pleased?"

"Of course I'm not pleased."

Il-gyeong Dan lifted his cane, tapped the floor, and said,

"How could it be pleasant to come see the fellow who snatched away the building I was going to buy?"

"Ha-ha-ha. So that's what it was?"

Seong-ho, relieved that the reason Il-gyeong Dan was displeased was nothing serious, took his seat.

But unlike Seong-ho, Il-gyeong Dan seemed to be in earnest.

"You laugh? You fool. Because I couldn't take this building, the line I was mapping out got disrupted."

"The line you were mapping out?"

"Yes. I meant to line up my buildings along the front of Teheran-ro here, but because of you it's left empty in the middle, like a missing tooth. How are you going to take responsibility for this?"

Seong-ho, showing no sign of being cowed even at Il-gyeong Dan's tirade, smiled and said,

"In exchange, you saved the money you nearly got stuck losing to Sunwoo, and…