I Became the Youngest Daughter of a Chaebol Family-Chapter 127: The Crumbling Fortress (2)

“Hoho, why not stay a little longer? Rushing things like this won’t help anything get done. Ah, or is it that you’re in such a hurry because you’re going to start repairs on the department store right now...? My goodness, you’ll be the death of me.”

“...Phew. I’ll take my leave now.”

In the end, he had to leave Sangam Daily’s headquarters without gaining anything.

He’d only been subjected to humiliating mockery and hadn’t gotten a single useful piece of information.

‘Damn it, if at least a department head or bureau chief had shown up, I might’ve been able to apply pressure somehow...’

But with the CEO himself stepping in, pulling rank didn’t work. No, looking back, it was probably proof that Father had been right.

Most likely, this had all been orchestrated under direct orders from Chairman Yoo Seong-pil. They’d already laid the entire plan, and he’d walked right into their web and been toyed with.

‘Still, I gained something. At least now I know it’s a project backed by Daehwa Group...’

He wasn’t sure yet how to use that information, but knowing and not knowing were two very different things. With an absolute gap in knowledge, you were bound to be blindsided eventually.

Thinking that way, Lee Cheon-sang returned to Sampoong Group headquarters.

.

.

.

“...So, as Father said, it seems the order did come from Daehwa Group headquarters. The CEO himself came out. He doesn’t even meet with National Assembly members unless absolutely necessary.”

–Tak.

Chairman Lee Jun slapped his knee and shouted triumphantly.

“That’s right! I knew it. Didn’t other papers only mention it in a tiny blurb in the back pages? This is clear evidence that Daehwa Group’s behind it.”

“As expected of you, Chairman! To see right through Yoo Seong-pil’s intentions...!”

It was lip-service flattery, but from the staff’s perspective, it wasn’t entirely wrong—so it counted as high-quality bootlicking.

“Hmph, don’t flatter me too much. Hoho, I’ve worked with that guy a few times—I know how he thinks.”

“B-but... what do we do now...?”

The problem was that knowing didn’t mean there was a way to stop it.

Daehwa Group, the #1 conglomerate in Korea, was now hunting them directly—who could possibly stop that? And Sampoong Group wasn’t a towering chaebol. It was barely even worthy of the word “group”—just a mid-sized family-run company.

Sure, Sampoong’s assets exceeded hundreds of billions of won... but Daehwa Group was operating in the trillion-won scale.

Chairman Lee Jun knew this well. And he also knew how to fight it.

“There’s nothing to be done. Just endure.”

His smile was sharp and crooked. One of the subordinates’ eyes widened.

“Uh... just endure? But how—”

“Hmph, don’t you /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ know? Hm? Don’t look at the branches—look at the root. Why would Yoo Seong-pil attack us?”

The answer came naturally.

“Money..., I suppose.”

Why do chaebols fight? Nine times out of ten, the motive is money.

“Exactly! Department stores are a money-making business. Sure, running factories or building structures brings in money too, but the real goldmine is taking money directly from people who already have it.”

The eyes of the businessman, who had made profits by stoking consumer desire in a society that condemned luxury, gleamed intensely. At least this time, there was no one who could disagree.

He had proven it himself. This business... was profitable.

“Construction’s heyday is over. I mean, I set aside construction just for this department store business... and word is, even Yoo Seong-pil is focused on semiconductors these days.”

“Hm. I see what you mean, Father. Different priorities, is what you’re saying.”

“That’s right, Cheon-sang. For us, the department store is top priority. But for Daehwa, it’s semiconductors right now. If we use that to our advantage, even a giant like Daehwa Group can be hit.”

He thumped his chest with pride, as if telling them to trust him.

“All we have to do is show that going after us doesn’t make financial sense. That damn Myeongil Department Store—just a place for spoiled girls to waste money, isn’t it? Let’s pump up the advertising, call up some loyal customers! If we do that, they’ll fall back soon enough.”

From a businessman’s perspective, it was a fairly sound judgment. If you ignored the part about not considering that the building might actually collapse.

“Yes, sir!”

“Once we get through this, it’ll be summer, won’t it? Wasn’t it scorching hot last time? Let’s get more air conditioners installed. Oh, and... close off the ceiling areas that’ve sunk. Make sure no one talks. Got it?”

“Yes, sir...”

There was something faint and uneasy behind those words.

***

Tilted head.

I cocked my head after receiving a report from my informant inside the newspaper.

[Sampoong Group’s Executive Vice President personally visited Sangam Daily to protest. I’ll explain in more detail when we meet tomorrow.]

“Grandfather...?”

What the hell are they talking about?

Logically, Grandfather wouldn’t stir up succession chaos just to swallow a tiny business like that.

Sangam Daily is influential enough to get involved in Daehwa Group’s succession structure. If Daehwa openly interferes here, it sets a precedent for the Do family to start meddling too.

He’s a man who cut off relatives just to avoid internal conflict—what are they even saying?

“I believe... from their position, this was a rational conclusion. Most likely they don’t think it was you who did it, Miss.”

A blonde, blue-eyed bodyguard from Russia (very pretty) gave her opinion.

“Hm... but wouldn’t the rational thing be to start by checking the building’s condition? Still struggling with Korean?”

“...It’s because of you that I haven’t adjusted to Korean culture, Miss. From my perspective, you are the standard, and these people are the outliers. Don’t forget—I lived in the Soviet Union until you took me in.”

“Tch. Yelizaveta. It’s been bothering me—stop saying ‘eumnida,’ it’s ‘seumnida.’”

“...?”

She folded her arms beneath her chest and blinked with her blue eyes.

“Miss, please don’t tease me. I speak Korean well now. The grammar book I used when teaching my brother, and even the Bible, wrote it as ‘eumnida.’”

“That’s from the old days. The spelling changed in ‘89.”

“...!”

The bodyguard, who couldn’t work in Korea due to her foreign appearance and usually operated out of Koreatown in the U.S., opened her eyes wide and trembled.

“To think... I taught Mikhail the wrong way. I am heartbroken.”

“Yeah, you should teach the kids properly.”

I nodded and asked her a question.

“Anyway, what do you think of Sampoong Department Store? As a former architecture student.”

My bodyguards—especially the ones I picked up during the Soviet collapse—were elites among elites. Hiring them as bodyguards was practically an insult.

But to them, that meant nothing. Even former prosecutors and judges had to sell their bodies to survive. What was being an elite college student worth in that world?

“...Mm. I’m not sure I should be saying this since I dropped out, but... well, I now carry a gun instead of a pen.”

“It’s fine. Even the executives in the construction company don’t know much.”

“...? If they don’t, who does?”

Exactly.

“Well, even though the aesthetics are poor, I was good at physics, so here’s my opinion... structurally, it’s a nightmare.”

“It’s not ‘gujo sipnida,’ it’s ‘gujo imnida.’”

After hearing that, her pale face scrunched up.

“What? But earlier you said ‘eumnida’ became ‘seumnida.’ Did you trick me, Miss?”

Uh... well. What should I say? I’m not a linguist, so I don’t really know how to explain it.

“...It’s a little different.”

“If ‘eumnida’ changed to ‘seumnida,’ shouldn’t ‘imnida’ become ‘sipnida’? Korean spelling is too hard.”

Muttering, she irritably tapped on a photo of Sampoong Department Store.

Visible cracks on the wall, fallen concrete dust. Even the floor of one level had visibly sagged.

“Anyway. Flat slab construction is common, so let’s overlook that. But the warning signs are all there. Leaving this alone is just like the Yeltsin government. I’m getting homesick from halfway across the world, but it’s not a pleasant feeling.”

I nodded, then cautiously asked her the most important question.

“Alright then... when do you think it’ll collapse?”

I could roughly predict when stock prices would crash even with big market changes, but for this kind of thing, I needed a specialist’s opinion.

And the architecture student, who had skimmed the blueprints and current state of the department store, replied as if it were obvious.

“At any time..., imnida.”

“Any time?”

“Yes. If someone upstairs moves heavy equipment, if too many people crowd in suddenly, or just if more time passes... it could collapse at any moment. Actually, it’s already collapsing.”

The iron fortress was already falling.

Only those who hadn’t noticed, or those who noticed but chose to look away, remained.

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