"It's nothing much — it's about Mirae Card…"

"Mirae Card?"

Seong-ho tilted his head, feigning ignorance.

"You've come about Mirae Card, not Ilhyeon Card? Is there some dispute with Mirae?"

"Nothing of the sort!"

Yeong-su Cha waved his hands frantically, evidently afraid Seong-ho might misunderstand.

Then, with an awkward smile, he said,

"What would we have to fight with Mirae Card about? The fact is… we're trying to acquire Mirae Card. To be precise… Mirae's side approached us and asked whether we had any interest in acquiring it."

"Mirae Group proposed the acquisition of Mirae Card first?"

"Yes. Vice-Chairman Bang of Mirae proposed it."

Though he already knew, Seong-ho put on a surprised expression.

"Mirae proposing it first… And what price did they name?"

"Well… it's free."

"Free?"

Yeong-su Cha studied Seong-ho's face and got ahead of him.

"It sounds strange. It should sound strange. Not content with offering to sell the company, they tell us to take it for nothing. But… it's all true. I was sitting right there when Vice-Chairman Bang said it."

Seong-ho frowned slightly.

"Isn't there a problem with it? Otherwise, why would anyone offer to hand over a company for free? Were there other conditions attached?"

"There were… some conditions, yes…"

"What were they? I'd need to know that to run the numbers properly."

"Well…"

Yeong-su Cha couldn't bring himself to say that the condition was helping Mirae Group take back Ilhyeon Heavy Industries, and he trailed off into vagueness.

But that alone was enough for Seong-ho to guess.

So Ilhyeon Heavy Industries is part of the terms.

Seong-ho's mouth curled up and he let out a thin laugh.

"Then again, how much do the conditions really matter? What matters is that Mirae made the offer first, and that the offer appeals to you."

"That's right… She's very keen to acquire Mirae Card."

"I'm a third party — my sister-in-law, as president of Ilhyeon Card, will have looked into it properly and decided. Understood."

Having signaled that further doubt was pointless, Seong-ho asked obliquely,

"You surely didn't come all the way to Ulsan just to…