Ashen Hollow's largest shell had become a hall again.
Haeun's security team had gone into the forest, felled straight trunks, planed them rough with their swords and daggers, and knocked together a single long table with two ranks of chairs. Sap still shone on the edges. Fire bowls smoked along the walls. Guards held the doors and kept their eyes on the room without looking like they were doing it.
People filled the room and filled the space with their small noises. Chairs scraped. Murmurs crossed the table in short arcs. No one wore a suit or a watch. Everyone wore what GFS put on them: Their Class Regalia.
(A/N: Changing the trem 'Class Gear' to 'Class Regalia')
Haeun stood a pace behind her father's chair and let the flow of arrivals wash over her. Faces, names, networks filed themselves in neat lines behind her eyes. She did not need to write anything down. She never had.
Seowon Holding came first. Chairman Seo Chang-ho moved with the slight reserve of a man used to listening before speaking. The priest's stole lay clean over a charcoal overlayer, and an oak staff rode his hand like an old habit. Park Ji-yeon gave Haeun a small bow that read as genuine courtesy, then took the seat at her husband's right.
Seo Mingyu followed with an easy smile and the kind of polish that never squeaked. His suit fit like it had been grown on him, violet tie held by an amethyst that carried its own glow.
Haneul Group entered like the weather. Chairman Choi Gun-woo laughed with two men as he set a broad hand on the new table and tested its wobble. Lee Sun-hee trimmed his volume with a look and took his elbow without making it a scene. The twins came in a step later: Min-jun with captain's shoulders and a sword that wanted work, Min-seo with clean hands, toxin vials riding her belt in a straight line.
Gukjin Heavy made the fire bowls feel smaller. Han Jae-min carried the day-to-day weight, Yoo Mi-kyung's smile worked while she listened, and then the air changed as Patriarch Han Do-chul crossed the threshold. Black laminar, cane in his right, sword in his left. He did not lower himself into a chair. He settled into it, and the chair accepted the fact.
Behind him came the heirs. Han Ga-yoonkept to his left, matte black regalia cut clean, hood clipped short. Eyes quick, expression neutral. She scanned the room, paused on Haeun a fraction longer than polite, and filed something away. Han Tae-yang came on his right, all heat and impatience held in place. Heavy harness, red crest, knuckles flexing as if the straps itched.
Aurora Holding came last. The guards by the door straightened without meaning to. Kwon Mira wore night like a choice, an owl mask held at the side in her fingers. She did not put it on as she did not need to. Kwon Sera moved beside her with a cat-hood profile and bright, quick eyes that missed nothing and forgave a lot.
Haeun saw her father do something he had not done for anyone else. He rose and walked to meet Mira halfway, while he only nodded his head to the others.
The exchange was short and even. Their hands met and parted. It said nothing and at the same time said enough.
Sera saw Haeun, brightened, and broke into a run.
"Haeun!"
She hit her in a hug before anyone could stand. Haeun's body remembered the gesture and leaned into it before her mind caught up.
She let herself smile, small and real. "You made it."
"I was so scared. I couldn't kill a single thing. I kept getting hurt...hic..and ran from the monsters. Mom..hic..was saying ..hic..that it would get better with time, but...hic... my hands would not stop shaking."
Haeun set a palm between Sera's shoulder blades and kept it there. "It's ok," she said. "You did well. Breathe with me. In. Hold. Out." She felt Sera match her rhythm. Once. Twice. The tremor eased.
Sera pulled back half an inch to search Haeun's face. "You look good even in all these conditions." A watery smile worked its way up. "Teach me that trick too please."
"After this. We can go hunting and I'll teach you," Haeun said. She smoothed a curl back behind Sera's ear.
Sera sniffed and nodded, then glanced toward her mother. Mira was speaking quietly with Yoon Seung-min near the head of the table.
They stood like two people who had weathered three crises together and were still working out how to talk about it. They asked each other the necessary things first.
"How did your people manage?"
"We lost some," she said, steady. "But eventually got used to the monsters?"
As that exchange was going on, Sera turned back with a conspirator's grin.
"We might be becoming step-sisters very soon."
Haeun looked at her father for a little while and replied, "I...would not mind that". She let a small pause open. "I already consider you a little sister anyway."
Sera's eyes went shiny at once. She made a small sound and hugged Haeun tighter, face pressed into her chest.
"Everyone says you are a robot, but I knew you had a heart."
Haeun let the corner of her mouth lift. "Only for dummies like you."
"Hey! I am not Dumb", she said with puffed cheeks.
Everyone took their seats. The room stilled without anyone calling for silence. Sometimes a room decides it is time.
Yoon Seung-min rose again, not formally, just enough that everyone could see him. He rested his fingers on the raw wood.
"Thank you for coming," he said. His voice was even. "I will keep this simple. I want the families to unite and work together."
Chairs eased. A few heads nodded. No one looked away.
"We have crossed each other more than once, and we have also carried each other when it counted. I consider all of you as friends and rivals. Losing any one of you would be bad for all of us."
He went on, "We are businessmen, not fighters. But this world forces us to fight whether we like it or not. And if we are careless, we will die for real."
He let that sit for a moment.
"It is better to share information and resources than bleed ourselves trying to hoard them. So what do you all say?"
Silence held.
Then came the scrape of a chair. Chairman Choi Gun-woo lifted a hand from two seats down, weathered knuckles, a good ring catching the light.
"I agree to an alliance," Choi said. "I do not mind working together. But I think we should choose a family to manage big problems when they come. I would prefer a point that we can rally to in an emergency."
Kwon Mira smiled without showing teeth. "Then Yoon is the obvious choice. Chairman Yoon was the one who thought of this alliance after all."
Across from her, a junior director murmured, "Wouldn't it be better to put it to a vote?"
Before the idea could spread, the oldest man in the room, Han Do-chul, tapped his cane once on the stone and came half to his feet. The motion alone quieted people.
"What I want," Do-chul said, "is for the families to stand as one body." His eyes moved slowly along the table. "I do not care whose name sits on top. I care that the rule for choosing that name is something we can point to."
A light stir ran the length of the benches. That was the first clean shape of the question, and everyone felt it.
Han Ga-yoon, who had been leaning forward with both elbows on the table like an eager student, lifted her chin. "We should name an alliance head instead of a whole family taking control," she said, voice clear. "Not as a king but as a manager for the big things. Disputes. Rescue calls. If there is a conflict inside the alliance, that person will have the authority to set the line and close it."
There were small nods. A few quiet "smart"s. Someone said, "The oldest should take it," and someone else said, "Mira or Yoon make more sense."
The current carried toward a squabble. You could hear people choosing sides in their heads.
Haeun stood before it could crest.