Chapter 31: Lucky Pouch Betrayal Exposed

-Shoooooong

They recalled the stars they had seen that morning.

Now, they were on the verge of becoming stars themselves.

-Shoooooooong

Seolpyo’s farewell of ‘Goodbye’ was actually….

-Shooooooooooong

Was it meant to say, ‘You become the stars!’?

‘Just because we were a bit picky, you go and throw us like this?!’

Their faces, hurtling at the speed of light, were battered by air resistance.

Even their tears seemed to be scattering.

They wished this pain would end soon.

“When are we going to arrive?!”

“I don’t knooow!”

“You said this was the fastest!”

-Squelch.

With a feeling of something crashing into them, they were sent flying up again.

“Gotcha!! Hahahaha!”

A very excited, familiar voice rang out.

When did they make something like this again?

They’d been caught by a net, again. Their ankles were snared, and as they dangled upside down, Hallakgoong saw a face he was glad to see.

“…Father?”

Recognizing Sara, Hallakgoong’s expression immediately soured.

In just a week, a mountain of resentment had piled up between father and son.

Mujae and Zack spotted Facilities Team Leader Shinsomi, who was adjusting the net that had caught them.

“Hello!”

Facilities Team Leader Shinsomi waved with a gentle smile. Calmly manipulating the device, she lowered them to the ground.

“Aigoo…”

It was the soft earth they hadn’t felt in a long time. Their sense of balance all out of whack, the Promotion Team had to crawl awkwardly out of the net one after another. Sara shouted heartily.

“Welcome back! Our 880,000-subscriber creators!”

“…880,000?”

They had been cut off from civilization in the Northern Ice Hell. Unlike the bewildered Promotion Team, the ponytailed man excitedly took out his phone.

“You haven’t checked GoddoG yet?! Ever since the Boiling Hell collaboration, our subscribers have been climbing steadily! Especially the Magma Falls video was a huge hit.”

On Sara’s phone screen, the Seocheon Flower Garden’s GoddoG channel appeared. Beneath the banner and name, the subscriber count read…

[@seocheon.garden · 880,000 subscribers · 96 videos]

“!”

“Amazing, right?”

Looking proud, Sara tucked his phone back into his sleeve and added,

“And Seyoung uploaded the Northern Ice Hell business trip notice, and that got great feedback too! We should hurry and upload the Northern Ice Hell collab as well.”

“Who?”

A familiar name. A few seconds later, Mujae shouted.

“Oh, Seyoung-nim!”

“That’s right. Didn’t she lend you the sign language book?”

Seyoung was a handmaid serving Hallakgoong’s mother, and had lent a book about sign language to Mujae and Zack when they needed it.

Then, suddenly remembering something, Mujae turned around and saw that Hallakgoong, who had slipped out of the net at some point, was now sitting cross-legged on the ground.

“Father.”

“Mm?”

“I have a lot to say.”

He looked as though he might collapse at any moment, but Hallakgoong’s clenched-jaw expression was filled with resolve. Would the time finally come for father and son… no, boss and subordinate, to clear the air between them?

Hallakgoong took a deep breath.

“First of all,”

“We’re taking a week off!”

With a start, Mujae suddenly announced, making everyone’s eyes go wide. Even Facilities Team Shinsomi, who were tidying up the net equipment, and Hallakgoong and Zack, all turned their attention to Mujae.

Sara, as if she’d misheard, asked again.

“What did you just…?”

“We’re taking a week off, and we won’t take no for an answer!”

And thus, the Promotion Team’s business trip report began.

Office of the Hall of Purity and Elegance.

Usually, the place was so quiet you could hear the birds and the fall of flower petals, but now, with the sudden arrival of the Promotion Team and Facilities Team, it was in a cheerful uproar.

“What brings the Facilities Team here?”

“We thought it’d be fun.”

The Facilities Team, who had safely received the Promotion Team after being contacted by the Northern Ice Hell. They could have returned to their original duties, but now they knew—

Wherever the Promotion Team went, something interesting was bound to happen.

Seeing their eager faces, Hallakgoong could only manage a dry smile.

In the midst of the noise, only Sara pretended to be dignified, pouring the tea.

“So, nothing major happened?”

“……”

At Sara’s words, the events that had occurred flashed through their minds like a panorama.

Mujae, with a serious tone, stepped up.

“There’s so much, I don’t know where to start.”

“…I’m sure there is.”

Swift change of attitude.

“You really were amazing!”

Sitting up straight, Sara put on the smile of a boss ready to embrace everything. But embracing this was another matter. This time, Zack raised his hand.

‘Did you know the Seed of Fireheart Stoneflower was such a dangerous plant?’

“Dangerous?”

Sara looked blankly at Facilities Team Leader Shinsomi.

“That thing’s dangerous?”

“…Most people would see a plant that spews magma and assume it’s dangerous.”

Even a common-sense remark was a mountain too high for a villain to climb.

“Regrettable as it is, these people aren’t ordinary, you know?”

He was a shameless administrator of the underworld who once was human. His conscience-free counter-question continued.

“And it was your Divine Power that awakened the Seed of Fireheart Stoneflower, so why ask me?”

Was this why he’d told Zack to touch the seed? Zack’s face stiffened.

‘I didn’t touch it.’

“No way~ Really? Then how did that ancient seed sprout?”

While Zack was at a loss for words, Hallakgoong stepped up this time.

“Father, what was in that Lucky Pouch?”

“Hmm?”

As if waiting for that question, Sara beamed and answered.

“You used it?!”

“I mean, what was in it?”

In Northern Ice Hell, when Hallakgoong was in trouble, Mujae had dropped Sara’s Lucky Pouch, which created a crimson flame. Hallakgoong, engulfed by those flames, had suffered greatly.

“…Hallakgoong nearly died in Northern Ice Hell.”

Mujae quickly summarized the Northern Ice Hell events for Sara.

In a place so extreme that even cell phones didn’t work.

Traveling across frigid glaciers while filming a documentary.

Hallakgoong nearly freezing like the other sinners….

Everyone gathered in the Hall of Purity and Elegance was drawn into Mujae’s heroic tale.

“In the pitch-black cave, there! The frozen sinner’s eyes staring out from the wall!!”

“Eek…!”

Facilities Team Shinsomi shrieked at Mujae’s vivid reenactment.

Sara, too, listened with a very serious expression.

The story reached its climax.

“…Entranced by the labyrinth, Hallakgoong tried to wander away, but Zack dug a pit and barely stopped him.”

“My word!”

“But I was holding Sara’s Lucky Pouch at the time, and the contents slipped out and fell onto Hallakgoong.”

The moment the contents of Sara’s Lucky Pouch fell onto Hallakgoong, who had fallen into the pit, he was engulfed in flames.

A shocked Sara cried out in alarm.

“You mean you used that on Hallakgoong?!”

“In a way, yes.”

“Ha ha ha!”

Sara let out a laugh, speechless.

Not knowing how to react, Mujae asked,

“Was that bad?”

“You said to use it if Father was in danger?”

Until then, Hallakgoong had stayed quiet.

His pale face flushed red with pent-up anger.

“So I used it, and everything just got worse!”

“No, no.”

“Is there even a hazard allowance?! We can’t keep working like this!”

“That’s right!!”

The Promotion Team raised their fists and shouted in unison. Only three of them, but it was a collective uprising.

A flustered Sara raised his hand to calm them.

“Hold on, there’s been a misunderstanding. Let me explain about my Lucky Pouch first.”

Under everyone’s fierce stares, Sara started sweating.

“That was the Tall Blue Lettuce Flower Seed. It’s an improved Bongseonhwa Flower Seed that releases an energy opposite to its surroundings.”

“Tall Blue Lettuce?”

Hurriedly, Sara opened a laptop and searched for Bongseonhwa Flower, showing a video of a seed pod shaped like a pouch bursting open, launching the Bongseonhwa seeds from the inside-out shell.

Facilities Team Shinsomi, standing behind Sara, whispered.

“…What a terrible name.”

“What was that?!”

Before Sara’s outrage could land on someone undeserving, Mujae quickly interjected.

“So then?”

“Hmm hmm, so I thought. The most dangerous thing in Boiling Hell is obviously the boiling magma, right?”

Sara opened the GoddoG channel page for Seocheon Flower Garden again.

Ranked number one beneath the banner was the video [Boiling Hell Magma Falls in Bloom!!]. Even seeing that flower spouting blazing magma again was nerve-wracking.

Sara said proudly,

“So I put that seed in your Lucky Pouch, to help you survive any heat.”

“In other words,”

Hallakgoong said wearily,

“You sent us to the Northern Ice Hell with no preparation.”

Zack and Mujae, frowning, chimed in.

‘No guarantee of safety, no compensation for overtime!’

“Come to think of it, even a week’s vacation is too short!”

With fiery eyes, Mujae shouted.

“Two weeks’ vacation!”

“Agreed!”

Zack and Hallakgoong clapped their hands enthusiastically.

Sara, with nothing to say for himself, shriveled up, almost to the point of vanishing.

“Hey, kids, I mean, everyone.”

He cautiously tried to turn things around.

“Did anyone check their email after getting back today?”

“…Just a second.”

Tossed from Northern Ice Hell straight to Seocheon Flower Garden, and busy forming a union, the Promotion Team hadn’t checked their mail. Hallakgoong opened his phone to check, and Mujae and Zack leaned over to look as well.

And then, all of their eyes widened in disbelief.

“Eh….”

“Exactly.”

A little more energized, Sara straightened his posture.

“We’ve gotten over 300 collaboration requests from people wanting to work with Seocheon Flower Garden!”

“Wow…!”

A gasp of envy came from Facilities Team Shinsomi. Watching the Promotion Team grow serious while checking the emails, Sara shrugged.

“You have to strike while the iron’s hot! This is the time to work hard, isn’t it?!”

He wasn’t wrong.

“But! My son nearly didn’t make it back from a hell outside!”

If not for Hallakgoong’s blood-boiling rage….

Seeing Hallakgoong’s anger, Sara shriveled again.

“Th…that….”

In the end, Sara raised the white flag.

“Two weeks’ vacation…granted.”

“Yay!”

“But, don’t you think it’d be a shame?”

The most powerful figure in Seocheon Flower Garden spoke in a pitiful tone.

“Everyone wants to work with us so much….”

“……”

The air grew cold again. Sweating bullets, Sara hurriedly changed the subject.

“So, what if you take your vacation in shifts?”

“How do you mean?”

“This time, you rest for a week, then work another week, then rest another week, and keep repeating like that.”

“……”

The Promotion Team glanced at each other, then huddled together for a quick conference, and came to a decision.

“That’s fine. But.”

There was a caveat.

“We get to choose what projects we take on.”

“Of course! Naturally!”

‘And we won’t move a muscle without safety guarantees.’

“Of course, of course!”

“And we decide when to take the remaining vacation.”

“…Alright! Have it your way!”

A complete surrender from Sara.

The Promotion Team, one and all, beamed brightly.

And so, the Promotion Team’s special vacation began.