When the elevator doors opened, the secretary in front of the president’s office looked up in surprise.

“Sir? Hello. The president just now-”

The door opened from inside first.

“Jian? You’re here?”

A bright voice. Jian’s steps stopped where they were. Han was peeking his face out through the crack in the door. The same as yesterday. No, even more neat than yesterday. There was no sign of fatigue, and if anything, his complexion was unusually good. The red left eye, proof of the ancestral rebirth manifestation, was clear, and his expression was bright too.

“What is it? Is something wrong?”

Han came closer and looked Jian up and down. Jian was flustered. The energy he felt from Han was stable. No disturbance, no heat. If anything, it was even calmer than usual.

Jian could not speak, so he closed his lips. His heart was still trembling irregularly once in a while, leaving behind residual vibrations.

“…Are you all right?”

“Hm? Me? I’m completely fine.”

Jian looked at him in silence for a moment. He did not understand. The seal had vibrated as if warning him, but there was no way Han, whom he thought was the cause, could be this fine.

Then the seal caused another small wave. Smaller than before, a tremor so faint it was almost impossible to catch. Not Han’s... somewhere else. Another energy.

Jian unconsciously pressed over his chest.

‘No way...’

But he cut that thought off immediately, even he thought it made no sense. Young is not here. It’s even questionable whether he’s alive. For more than ten years, there had not been a single sign.

“Jian?”

Han tilted his head.

“I’m sorry. I think my body is a little off.”

“You’re really tired, huh? Let’s go eat something good for lunch today.”

Han’s casual smile made Jian’s confusion even deeper. The seal was still trembling very faintly.

* * *

10:25 a.m. Jian stopped for a moment in front of the conference room. The air drifting down the back of his neck was especially cold. It was the same corridor he always passed through from the secretary’s office, but today the air seemed to have sunk heavily.

‘S Team meeting... what on earth is the atmosphere like?’

Taejun had said he would not be sharing the advance materials. It was the first time that had happened to Jian. Even for him, who understood most of the work in the chairman’s office and the secretary’s office, the existence of “materials he could not see” was a more uncomfortable truth than he had expected. Jian took a very shallow breath, then pushed open the conference room door.

Click. Inside the conference room, where Han had entered first, Jae, Taejun, and several executives were seated on one side of the ㄷ-shaped table. And opposite them were two unfamiliar people.

One was an old man in a neat black suit, and even though he looked quite advanced in years, his eyes were sharp and his presence was imposing. Anyone could tell he was the team leader of Team S. The other did not even sit down, standing half a step behind him. Even the smallest movement was extremely restrained. Was that person Baek?

“Thank you for coming, President.”

The team leader bowed first. His tone was polite, but the texture of his voice was firm.

“I’m Team Leader Park Suwan. I look forward to working with you.”

“I’m Lee Han. I look forward to working with you too.”

Han gave a light nod and sat down. His face was a little stiff. He seemed very tense. Jian could feel his uneasiness, but he did not show it, only bowed and sat down following Han.

Once everyone was settled, Taejun nodded.

“Let’s begin.”

The man standing behind Suwan quickly placed documents on each table. Beastman speed. Jian wondered which kind of beastman he was. Then he glanced at Suwan. He was flipping through the document folder with a calm expression. By the time Jian’s gaze dropped back to the documents, the man who had handed them out was standing at the front center of the conference room, looking at the folder as he spoke.

“Last quarter, a total of 27 cases. Four real estate cases, five security cases, ten external contact cases, and eight other management cases were completed.”

The documents had related details attached, but they were full of ambiguous expressions and words that looked like code, making them hard to understand. He had never seen a report like this before. The meaning of handing out something called materials seemed nonexistent.

“What kind of work are you referring to when you say ‘management’?”

Jian asked carefully at the unfriendly explanation of the materials. He had said it was just a place to gauge the atmosphere, but he did not want to sit there stupidly, knowing nothing.

The team leader lifted his head. When their eyes met head-on, his gaze was far rougher than expected.

“You will come to know naturally.”

For a moment, the air in the conference room dried up. It was polite, but it was clearly drawing a line.

Jian silently lowered his gaze back to the documents. He could hear Han beside him quietly drawing in a breath. His tension came through even more directly.

“Let’s continue.”

At Taejun’s low words, the man who seemed to be the team leader’s secretary resumed his report.

Numbers, places, times. But the ‘who’ and the ‘how’ were deliberately left out. No team inside the company reported like this. Jian was gradually understanding the shape of the existence called S Team.

A group that moved by completely different rules. In the chairman’s hands, yet a team whose atmosphere always drew a line parallel to the chairman.

The team leader added a few more words, and as the secretary took out the next file, he dropped one sheet to the floor. Rustle. Everyone’s eyes turned that way for a brief moment. The secretary did not panic, but he bent down to pick up the document far too quickly. That was when it happened. The team leader lightly tapped the desk twice with two fingers of his right hand, tap, tap. It was a trivial motion, but the secretary’s shoulders instantly stiffened. After bowing his head even lower, he stood at his place with precision. Jian did not miss that brief moment.

‘That’s... not just a superior and subordinate relationship. It’s complete domination.’

Taejun saw that scene too, but did not change his expression at all. Han’s gaze wavered for a moment, then returned to blankness.

The secretary continued speaking, and when he finished, the team leader directly asked Han a question.

“How do you judge this matter, sir?”

Jian’s fingertips moved ever so slightly. The team leader’s tone was respectful, but there was a strange force in it. It was as if he had placed Han on one hand and was weighing him.

Han seemed momentarily at a loss for words, but soon smiled gently.

“I’m ashamed to say, I still don’t really understand what this report is saying. I trust the team leader’s judgment.”

At those words, Jae’s brow furrowed slightly. He had already been overpowered by the seasoned team leader. It was only natural that Han, weak in body and still lacking experience, could do nothing against him, but the answer, with no spirit in it at all, was disappointing. Jae once again resolved that the next team leader would have to have his spirit broken from the very beginning.

The meeting moved toward its end under a tense atmosphere. As he closed the final document, the team leader asked Jae,

“Do you have any additional instructions?”

“No. Proceed as is.”

With that, the meeting ended. The sound of chairs being pushed back could be heard. Jian quietly closed the last page and stood up from his seat. The materials the secretary had handed out were collected back in.

“Oh, when will you be bringing Baek?”

Just as he was about to leave the conference room, Taejun asked the team leader. So that secretary wasn’t Baek. Jian glanced at the secretary.

“From the next meeting, Baek will be reporting directly.”

“Understood. Please take care.”

The team leader left the conference room without answering. Then, only after Jae, Taejun, and several executives whose presence was so faint they had barely been noticed had gone out, did Jian lead Han out of the conference room. The moment they left, it felt as if the stale air that had been trapped inside was stripped away all at once. Jian let out a very short breath. Perhaps because of the tension, his wristwatch felt slightly heavy.

‘So that secretary wasn’t Baek...’

Until just now, Jian’s gaze had kept going to him. Overly restrained movements, excessive obedience to the team leader. In that atmosphere, anyone would have thought he was ‘Baek.’ But he wasn’t. He was only the team leader’s ‘hands and feet,’ and the real person causing the problem had not even shown his face yet.

The moment they stepped into the hallway, Han immediately came up to Jian.

“Jian.... Was I a little strange just now?”

His voice was low, but it carried a tremor. The tension he had felt in the conference room still seemed to cling thinly to Han’s body.

Jian shook his head slightly from side to side.

“You’re fine. No one is used to reports like that.”

“No, that’s not it...”

Han paused for a moment. His eyes, looking toward the end of the hallway, in the direction of the chairman’s office, seemed strangely dazed.

“That team leader... the way he looked at me was a little strange. It felt like he was looking at me, but also... not looking at me. That’s the feeling I got.”

Jian slowly narrowed his brow. Just as Han said, Jian felt it too. It was the gaze of someone observing him while keeping a fixed distance, as if looking at someone from a different world.

“He was probably... just weighing you.”

Jian gave a short answer. But in truth, there was something more complicated than that. In the team leader’s eyes, a calculation had flashed by, as if he were evaluating suitability. It was different from the attitude one would have toward the title of chairman. Rather, he seemed like someone who was deciding what he himself should do regarding the position of ‘next team leader’....

Han drew in a small breath.

“I... guess I need to do better. Father’s expression wasn’t good either, was it?”

Jian did not answer. He knew that if he answered, Han would only shrink further. Instead, he silently gripped the tablet in his hand a little tighter.