Tak-hyeon Lee heard Do-beom Hwang out at length, and let out a hollow laugh.

"What is this? So — drive them out with nothing and later they come at us claiming a statutory reserved share, and there is the headache. So we throw them one useless affiliate apiece and block the claim before it is made. Is that it?"

"Yes. That is it."

"Ha."

The absurdity of it drew a laugh out of him.

"The Seong-ho boy really does go one better. The Mun-jong fellow insists Ilhyeon is his — but it is Seong-ho who makes his provision for after I am dead, and that is the worse of the two."

Do-beom Hwang studied his face carefully.

And seeing that the Chairman was not displeased, he was relieved.

He likes it.

Tak-hyeon Lee grumbled, but the judgment plainly pleased him, and Do-beom Hwang tilted his head at that.

Because by rights the Tak-hyeon Lee he knew ought to have been displeased at talk of his death.

But there was reason enough for him to be pleased.

"Yes. Provision must be made, whatever else. That is how a man who is to move a group as vast as Ilhyeon ought to look. Meet the crises the future brings before they arrive; prepare for what may fall on you without warning. It is a good thing to see."

"Does it not wound you?"

"Wound me?"

Tak-hyeon Lee turned and looked up at him.

"What is there to wound? It is the plain truth that I am at an age where dying tomorrow would be nothing strange."

"Chairman. What a thing to say. Dying tomorrow would be nothing strange? No. You will be hale another ten years, another twenty."

"Hahaha. Do you even know what age I am? If I am still hale twenty years from now, I am a monster. A monster."

Tak-hyeon Lee smiled at him for laying it on so thick, and stroked his chin.

"In any case, the Seong-ho boy's thinking is very plausible indeed."

He laid a hand on the armrest and said,

"Is it not so? If…