25 Korea

"You have your passport right?" 

"Obviously. I am not a kid who would forget it."

"Good. Though we don't really need it but it will still be good to have it with you."

"I know."

Mom sometimes go into this mode when we have to travel and by sometimes I meant all the time.

She is always afraid that someone will forget something important. And she makes sure to double and triple check absolutely everything and she still remains paranoid about it until we reach our destination.

The worst thing is that we don't even need passport or visa for travel since we the awakened ones have free pass to go wherever we wish to.

Why? We have a lot of connections with the government of our country and if we don't, we ask the association in the country we are visiting to do the arrangement for us.

That is of course only if you want to go there officially  . There are a lot of unofficial or illegal methods for us to go into another country without permission as well.

But since we are going for an official business meeting, we don't need to hide our arrival.

"How long is the flight again?"

"About 13 hours Sir." 

One of the members from our entourage answered my question.

Although the two of us are already more than powerful enough to attend the meeting ourselves, it is always good to have some backups or rather subordinates whom you can use for menial tasks.

Now what am I going to do for the next 13 hours?

"What are you going to do for 13 hours?" I asked Mom.

"I brought my novel with me so I will be reading that or just sleep."

"Valo it is" I said to myself.

It's a good thing I brought my Laptop with me along with controller.

***

[Incheon Airport, Seoul]

Since we took an early morning flight at 6, we reached Korea at 7 in the evening.

As we walked out of the airport, we immediately saw a man in a green suit holding a board with 'Knights' written on it.

He was looking around trying to find us and as we approached him, his eyes met mine and he had a wide smile on his face as if he had recognised me which confused me since I am petty sure that I have never seen this guy before.

We stood in front of him and I was about to ask him if he was our driver but

"Inhyuk!! It's so nice to see you again!!" Mom said and hugged the man in front of us with a wide smile. 

Looks like he was one of the people Mom was close to meaning that he must be pretty high ranking person in the Shinhwa group.

Let's take a look at just how strong you are.

I activated my Observation Haki and was able to see his aura and I was left shocked. I was so shocked I am pretty sure I froze for more than a few seconds.

This guy in front of me is crazy strong!! He is very close to the level of top 100.

Why haven't I ever heard of this before?

Also, is he then the chairman of Shinhwa? No, I am pretty sure that group had a chairwoman. 

So just how powerful is she if they sent someone like him for this type of job?

"You must be Owen. It is really nice to meet you." 

I realise I had been staring at him for a long time and that he probably sensed me activating my ability just now. 

He better be our ally and stay as one because none of us here are powerful enough to deal with him was the only thought inside my mind.

"Oh sorry. I spoke in Korean." he still spoke in Korean, "It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Owen." he said in English and held out a hand

"Don't worry. I can speak Korean perfectly. I was just thinking about something else so I spaced out a little." I brushed the back of my head in embarrassment as shook his hand. "How exactly do you two know each other?" I asked in Korean

I mean I know they are from the same group but I want to know just how deep their relationship was with each other.

"Teacher and Student will be the best way to describe it but let's save that for later. You must be tired from your long flight. I will escort the two of you to our headquarters." he said and grabbed the little luggage we had and insisted on carrying it to the car himself even when we told him it was fine and that our entourage will take care of it.

Is this what Korean hospitality feels like that I had only read about in the comics from my previous world?

We got into the car and drive from the airport to their HQ wasn't that long. Just about 20 minutes and we were there.

But the car ride was fun.

Mom and this Inhyuk guy kept reminiscing about the past and told me a few stories about them which made me come to the conclusion that this guy holds deep respect for Mom and also holds no bad feelings to any of us.

He is quite humble as well. Also considerate and Kind.

Overall, his first impression on me is quite good.

Except for his hairstyle which I am finding a little weird.

Though I still don't trust him completely. 

I came to this country thinking that no one here will be that powerful since there is literally none of them in the global rankings. Yet this guy here can rival those among the top 100! 

This only means that he had been hiding his strength from the rest of the world. So I can't trust him just yet. I need to keep my guard up.

For now however, I just stared out the window admiring the view of this country. Beautiful clean streets, amazing night view and beautiful buildings as well. It was everything I had imagined it to be.

I didn't really notice how much time passed with me looking out the window and by the time I realised, we were already here.

Inhyuk parked the car just outside the building and led us straight to the chairwoman's office.

The moment we entered the building a lot of curious eyes greeted us. They seemed to recognise Inhyuk and Mom but looked at me with strange expression on their face but I suppose that would be the normal reaction.

Inhyuk started guiding us to the Chairwoman's office.

Before we could enter the elevator, I used my haki once more to see how strong the people here are and apparently they were within my expectations. Most of the people working here were weaker than the ones working in our group.

I gave a side glance to Inhyuk who was also looking at me and I figured that he must be the personal aide of the Chairwoman. Otherwise the future successor of the group in case the Chairwoman suffers an untimely death and the current second strongest person of the group.

He is extremely talented. 

He looks not more than 25 years old yet he is that strong. If he was my father's age, he would have already reached the top 50 rankings.

The elevator reached what I had assumed was the top floor of the building and from there he guided us to a stairway. 

"The elevator doesn't go all the way to the top floor."

A good precaution. Considering that we need to climb 2 floors with stairs which quite literally a pain in the ass.

I don't know what it is, but I just never liked taking stairs of course unless there was a girl in front of me. That's the only time you wouldn't get accused for staring at a girl's bottom.

I mean I am just looking ahead. Is it my fault that it is right in front of my face? I don't think so.

Anyway we reached the office and I have to say that they hired one hell of an interior designer for this building. Everything is just so aesthetic. I feel like I could spend hours here just taking photos.

I am getting off track here. 

Inhyuk opened the door for us and there was just one table in the middle of the room. 

There were sofas and coffee table there as well. The entire place was clean and not just clean 'Monica clean' if you don't get the reference, you should question your taste in movies and tv shows.

Behind the table sat the Chairwoman of this group.

And I was awe struck. 

I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She is incredibly beautiful was the only thought in my mind.

I mean Emily is incredibly beautiful as well but there is just this mature vibe coming from this woman that Emily doesn't have. 

I do not have any indecent thoughts right now it is just that she is really beautiful. She has the kind of face that you would remember for a really really long time after just seeing it once.

I was in such a trance after seeing her I didn't even realise that she was standing in front of us now.

"It's been a long time Jinah Unnie." she said and smiled.

Jinah is my Mom's name in case you forgot. 

  "Oh my! Look how you have grown Jiyoung. Looks like being the Chairwoman agrees with you." Mom said and hugged her.

"I am just trying my best." she said and reciprocated the hug though a little awkwardly.

"Oh I am sorry. I have just been in the Sates for such a long time, this is just common for me now." Mom said breaking off the hug

"It's fine." Jiyoung said

"Wait so, you guys don't hug in this country?" I asked. I was brought out of my stupor after hearing that ridiculous thing.

"We do but...um...explaining that will take some time and you won't get it so let's just ignore that." Mom said.

She looked to ready to answer at first but changed her mind in between.

You know I have been getting a feeling that everyone thinks I am a little too insensitive and judgemental person but in my opinion that's not true. For very few bursts of time I could be really nice.

"Oh and Jiyoung. This is my son Owen." Mom said as she put her hand on my back.

I held out my hand and said it was nice to meet her and she shook it and passed the same greeting in return.

Then we moved on to sit on the couch and Inhyuk left the room and came back a little later with a few people who brought tea and cookies with them. 

I sat beside Mom while Jiyoung sat across the table facing us and Inhyuk stood behind her with his arms at his back.

There was some idle chatter with both of them catching up with each other.

The two of them seemed really close as well and chatted for a good hour asking about each other's lives and how they had been over the years.

Apparently back when Jiyoung's parents, the previous leaders of this group were still alive, Mom was her trainer. She taught her how to fight and proceed with her training after she had learned the basics.

Also, she has a younger brother who is apparently my age and said that she would introduce me to him later.

I lied when I told her I would look forward to it but I didn't really come here to make friends. I just want Mom to deal with the business we have and then I am gonna go off to relax and tour around this country.

After chatting a while, I felt very sleepy and noticing my state, we all decided to continue the talk in the morning and call it a day for now.

Inhyuk walked us out of the office and just as we were leaving, I decided to satisfy my curiosity and checked to see just how powerful she really is.

If her aide is that powerful then she should at least be more powerful than dad.

I used the Observation Haki once more and just like always, my vision turned black and white. 

I focused on just Jiyoung to see just how powerful she really is.

At first, I couldn't see anything at all but after focusing on it even more, I saw it.

And as soon as I saw that, I felt a shiver run down my spine and my blood turned cold as I froze in place.

My back became incredibly sweaty and I was finding it hard to breathe. 

The aura she possess is just so overwhelmingly powerful. The best way to define her would be 'the calm before the storm.' It felt like she was the only one preventing the hell from breaking loose that's how strong she really is. 

She is a walking disaster!! and the most ridiculous part is that she had complete control over her power.

She might be close to the level of the Top 10 themselves!!

I looked back at her and saw her staring at me as well. 

She knew what I was doing or rather had an idea of what I was doing. I suppose it is natural for someone of that power level to be this sensitive to this little amount of energy I am using.

I continued to look at her and slowly I felt this burning sensation coming from deep within my gut. 

If my blood had turned cold before, now it was like a raging fire. 

The more I looked at her, the more I desired it.

I want to experience it. 

I want to experience it all.

The pain! The rush! The adrenaline, The challenge! 

The feeling of fighting someone so overwhelmingly stronger than you. I need it!!

I want to see the power that can crush the world with my own eyes. 

No matter what it takes, I need to fight her!