9 Child Prodigy (3)

Barely a second after Min-Ki had shown Bora the video and the trending hashtags, the door to my nursery burst open.

It was Mrs Cha, she had an amusingly scared expression on her face and interestingly enough, her cheeks were red and puffy, as if she had been slapped a number of times.

In a low voice she said, "Lee Min-ki and Kim Bora, you both and the Young Master are wanted in the Pearl Room. There is an emergency family meeting."

"The Pearl Room" Bora gasped, Min-Ki also looked startled like a stray cat caught in headlights.

They both simultaneously gulped.

'Pearl Room?' I wondered what type of place could possibly make my foolish-happy-go-lucky attendants so nervous, and I soon found out.

The Pearl Room was a circular-pearl shaped hall in the heart of the Kang Estate. It was as large as a parliamentary house, with one hundred seats around its perimeter, all facing inwards to a tall circular podium.

The seats appeared to be carved and crafted using pearls, and inlaid with gold, marble, and silver. Just one of those chairs was probably worth enough to solve all of Lee Min-Ki's financial problems and then some.

On the ceiling there were carvings of noblemen wearing Hanbok, holding pearls and jewels of all kind in their hands. It likely portrayed the early origins of the Kang family. Before they merged with the Mung family to create KangMung, they had been a merchant family that had traded in not only technology and tools but also Jewels, most significantly Pearls.

Subconsciously I'd been aware of the wealth that the Kang family held, but being aware and seeing it displayed were entirely different. Small sentences from the novel claiming that the Kang Family was rich and that the KangMung group was the most influential conglomerate in all of South Asia, was simply a sentence. Now I could really see the history, the legacy, and the intoxicating smell of money.

On the way to the Pearl Room, I also noticed how large the Kang Estate really was. It seemed to stretch for miles with various buildings and fields. The Pearl Room was only one Hall of many sitting on their land. I had also severely underestimated the amount of staff that worked there. It was bustling with people so many people that the estate almost looked like a small village.

I had thought that a large number of workers had come to visit my nursery the other day, but that had barely been one-tenth of the staff.

Min-Ki walked with me in his arms, Bora and Mrs Cha not too far behind us, and as we had approached the Pearl Room the servants in our path had parted like the red sea. All of them silently observing us with curious glances. As we met the tall white-marble doors, I heard a voice announce "Young Master Kang Ho and his attendants are now entering!"

With that, the doors opened and we entered the Pearl Room to see all one-hundred of its seats filled with members of the Kang Family, who each turned to look at us.

I heard Lee Min-Ki gulp, his heart raced.

Even I felt a bit intimidated and I had only been intimidated once in my memory before.

In my previous life, I once met a very wealthy woman who visited the Parish while I was a Seminarian, this was before I'd killed Father Johnson and left the Church. She had apparently been descended from the Royal family of Greece and Denmark.

When our paths crossed she had looked at me as if I were truly insignificant, as if I were a bug on the wall, a mere inconvenience in her way. Only someone who truly thinks they own the world can stare at someone like that. Perhaps it was because I was young back then, insecure and lacking in confidence, but I felt small when she looked at me.

Even when I tracked her down and killed her a decade later, I couldn't get that look out of my head.

Now, in this Pearl Room, nearly all of the one hundred people seated were giving me the same look.

I felt that murderous itch tugging at my heart.

The one giving me the filthiest of looks was a woman standing on the Podium, she had grey-silver hair held up by a Jade pin, and she wore a traditional Hanbok that had a grey and silver colour. All her accessories and fancy dress couldn't mask the glare in her eyes and the disgust behind those thin pursed lips.

I recognised this woman, she had been the one who had come to see me at the hospital. The one who had threatened me, Madame Kang, My Grandmother.

"Come to the Podium" she demanded.

Obediently, Lee Min-Ki and the others walked through the rows of seats to the centre of the hall.

As we went, I noted that the chairs were split in four ways, some chairs had green jade on the headrest, others had white, red and yellow jade. This likely symbolised the factions in the Kang Family.

Since Madame Kang was wearing green jade it was likely that Green symbolised those who were members of the Nam faction of the Kang family.

This thought was confirmed when I saw my Father, Kang Joon-ki sitting in the front row on a seat with green jade. He had a particularly sour expression on his face, all the members of the Nam faction seemed rather pissed. In contrast, those from other factions seemed almost smug about the whole situation.

As we arrived at the Podium I noticed a man who had been sitting quietly next to the standing Madame Kang.

He was so quiet and his appearance so unassuming that I almost missed him at first. He had crow black hair that held a few strands of grey. The wrinkles around his eyes looked like smile lines so he initially appeared friendly, but then when his eyes glanced in my direction, I felt myself shiver.

The temperature seemed to drop and an electric shock ran down my spine.

With that simple eye contact, I could see through his ordinary disposition. That man was a predator, just like me.

Lee Min-Ki, Kim Bora and Mrs Cha bowed deeply towards the man and Madame Kang, they then turned and bowed to everyone in the hall. Their bows were met with silence and icy stares. For a moment nothing was said, but then the man seated next to Madame Kang stood up and stretched out his arms to Min-Ki.

"Let me hold my grandchild" he ordered. Grandchild? So this man was Kang Seung, my grandfather, the current head of the Kang family. I had expected him to be some simple corrupt rich man, but he seemed to be a very layered individual, and the vibe he gave off was not at all simple.

Min-Ki handed me to Kang Seung, and I was picked up and held by the waist. Despite his fragile looks, Kang Seung's hands were unexpectedly strong, I could feel the tightness of his grip. They were the type of hands that could easily strangle someone to death and even snap a jaw with ease. Strangling someone to death isn't as easy as the Hollywood movies make it seem, you need some actual muscle behind it.

Kang Seung's eyes roamed up and down my small frame, examining my soft milky skin, large brown eyes, silky black hair and chubby cherub cheeks. Since he was looking at me, I did what I did best, I smiled sweetly at him; batting my eyelashes and showing off my small teeth and said, "It's lovely to meet you, Grandpa!"

My voice came out slurred, high pitched and baby-like, but my words were clear and loud for everyone to hear.

Kang Seung's eyes widened with momentary surprise. "You know who I am, and you can say, Grandpa?"

"Of course I know Grandpa! Everyone told me my Grandpa is the leader of the Kang Family, and very handsome." I wondered if I had gone too far by saying this, I was still a very young child and that sentence was much more advanced than the normal baby talk I went with.

Kang Seung's eyebrows were raised with what appeared to be surprise, thoughtfulness and interest, "It looks like my Grandson is a Child Prodigy." he announced.