I Bought the Male Lead with Money

20.

Yu Jin thought.

‘Something’s strange.’

Jinhyeon was nowhere to be seen. Keith was by his side as usual, but the other “rice cake” had disappeared.

‘Is he at the training ground?’

He peeked around just in case, but the training ground was empty. The library, which he occasionally visited, was the same. He looked all around the mansion, but Jinhyeon wasn’t there.

Yu Jin blinked slowly and turned around. As always, Keith was standing there.

“What’s wrong?”

The voice asking was gentle. Keith had been with Yu Jin since childhood and was like family to him. There was no way he would do something Yu Jin didn’t want on his own.

Although he thought so, he couldn’t help but ask.

“Brother, did you release Jinhyeon?”

The seal ring that could remove a slave’s restraints was in the safe in Yu Jin’s office. Only three people could open it: Yu Jin, Haruna, and Keith.

It wasn’t Yu Jin, and Haruna had no reason to open the safe. She was too busy with the merchant group’s affairs to even properly relay messages, so how could she have time to open Yu Jin’s office safe?

‘Stay calm.’

Jinhyeon might have run away with the restraints on, but that wasn’t a good choice. The restraints cause more pain the further away from the master. And he had heard that the pain was unbearable.

No matter how he thought about it, the culprit was Keith.

“…Why did you do it?”

In fact, he wasn’t unaware of the reason. Keith probably disliked Jinhyeon. He probably wanted to remove him from Yu Jin’s side because he disliked him.

“Why did I do what?”

Keith approached and placed his hand on Yu Jin’s cheek. The caressing touch was affectionate as always.

“You are the most precious person to me. I want you to be happy.”

He knew that. Because he knew, Yu Jin couldn’t raise his voice at Keith even in this situation.

“But that slave can’t make you happy. You know that.”

Yu Jin squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them. The hand that had been caressing his cheek was now tracing his eyes. He understood Keith’s feelings. Hadn’t Yu Jin willingly chosen a path of self-destruction for Keith and Haruna’s sake?

Although he knew that, what Keith had done this time was too dangerous.

“So where is Jinhyeon?”

Jinhyeon needed to be by Yu Jin’s side.

Surely he hadn’t killed him? At that thought, his heart sank coldly. No. That must not happen.

Yu Jin knew something Keith didn’t. Jinhyeon was the protagonist of this world, and the protagonist doesn’t die no matter what happens. No matter what crisis he faces, he somehow survives and comes back even stronger.

If that happened, Yu Jin, Keith, and the people of the Lucid family would be dead men walking. Without realizing it, his clasped hands began to tremble.

“Yu Jin?”

Seeing Yu Jin like this, Keith became flustered. He tried to calm Yu Jin by holding his hands, but they were too cold. His face had turned pale blue. Right now, Yu Jin was afraid.

Yu Jin spoke with a trembling voice.

“We need to find Jinhyeon.”

“Calm down first.”

Keith tried to soothe Yu Jin somehow, but it was no use. Yu Jin shook his head and pushed him away.

“Where is Jinhyeon?!”

Keith gritted his teeth.

Yu Jin was overly generous to Jinhyeon, who was just a slave. He frequently asked what he was doing and tried to grant whatever he wanted.

Seeing this, Keith judged that Yu Jin had feelings for Jinhyeon. And now that Jinhyeon had disappeared, he realized why Yu Jin was acting this way.

“You think I killed Jinhyeon.”

At Keith’s words, Yu Jin urgently raised his head.

“D-did you kill him?”

His heart sank. Keith had done everything for Yu Jin all this time, but Yu Jin suspected Keith first. He knew their feelings for each other were different in size, but this was a bit hard to endure.

Keith tried to speak as calmly as possible.

“I didn’t kill him. I just gave him a choice.”

“What choice!”

“Whether to stay at the mansion or leave with freedom and money.”

Hearing those words, Yu Jin became calmer. Keith supported Yu Jin, who was staggering as if the tension had been released.

“…Do you know where he went?”

“No, I don’t.”

“I see.”

Yu Jin stared blankly into space. He often looked like that when he was thinking deeply about something.

“Okay, I understand.”

As if he had finished thinking, Yu Jin shook off Keith’s support and moved his feet.

“Yu Jin!”

Keith called out, but Yu Jin didn’t look back.

Thank goodness. Yu Jin sighed in relief. Keith hadn’t killed Jinhyeon. Since he had given him freedom and money to leave, Jinhyeon probably wouldn’t harbor any grudges.

Yu Jin headed to his office and slumped into a chair.

‘Let’s think about this.’

Jinhyeon had left the mansion with freedom and money. Now that he, a former slave, had freedom and money, what would he try to do next? Yu Jin desperately racked his brains.

First, he eliminated the possibility that Jinhyeon would go somewhere and live peacefully settled down. The Jinhyeon Yu Jin knew would use that money to do something.

‘A gambling house?’

Sometimes there were protagonists who increased their wealth by using tricks in gambling houses, but Jinhyeon didn’t seem like that type. He considered the Colosseum too, but there was a limit to increasing wealth there. There was a limit to how much money could be bet. Above all, Jinhyeon wasn’t the type to earn money so quietly.

Yu Jin approached the bookshelf and took out a map of the capital. The maps of this era were crude. It wasn’t because they couldn’t draw accurate maps, but because they were deliberately made that way.

Too detailed maps could be used for invasions. For this reason, adventurers carried their own maps. Since the country wouldn’t sell proper maps, those who needed them made and used their own.

For the same reason, each noble family also produced their own maps. As long as they weren’t distributed externally, it was fine.

The Lucid family also had such maps. Among them was a map of the capital. Yu Jin spread it out. It was a detailed map that would cause an uproar if leaked externally.

Walking out of the area where noble mansions are gathered, you come across the central square of the capital. And from the central square, buildings and roads radiate outwards. The further from the center, the lower the level of development. And at the outermost part, you reach the area commonly called the back alleys.

It’s said to be where life’s losers gather, but even places like this have forces. At first, they were just forces created by a few delinquents gathering, but as a few outstanding individuals appeared and became the center, they grew in size.

And what happens when their forces grow?

‘Someone will covet it.’

It was likely to be a noble. They were the kind who couldn’t give up their greed even though they were born with everything.

In this way, each force ends up having a noble as a sponsor and starts moving according to their will.

‘So now the question is when do nobles become sponsors?’

When was that again? Yu Jin sighed. Since there was a scene in the original story where the protagonist uses Roena to swallow the back alley forces, there was a high probability that there were no sponsors yet. And the story pointed to one place.

“It must be here.”

Having seen enough of the capital’s light, he must have been curious about the darkness this time. No, he should have been curious. If not here, he would have gone to find another noble.

‘Now what should I do?’

He could entrust tracking Jinhyeon to an information broker, but he didn’t want to. In the original story, until Jinhyeon got involved, the information brokers of this world were haphazard, and requested information often leaked elsewhere. So ordinary nobles used people from their family for information gathering rather than using back alley information brokers.

“But I hardly have any people.”

Since Yu Jin was just the rogue youngest son of the Lucid family, he didn’t have a separate knighthood.

He did have hired guards, but Keith managed them. Until now, Yu Jin had never tried to handle them. He wondered if they would properly follow his orders even if he gave them.

‘Should I tell Haruna?’

He considered that idea too but decided to put it on hold. Haruna was already busy running around with the merchant group’s problems, and Yu Jin couldn’t add to her burden.

He should have taken action earlier, but he had been reassured by getting his hands on Jinhyeon.

“Ah, fool!”

He regretted it belatedly, but it was already too late. Still, as he organized his thoughts while looking at the map, his head cooled down. Thinking about it, he still had three wishes left that he had promised to grant Jinhyeon.

Given Jinhyeon’s personality, he wouldn’t just erase that. Above all, the first wish was to have sex with Yu Jin. How could they have sex without the person involved?

Yu Jin decided to wait until the time he had promised Jinhyeon.

“Yes, let’s wait.”

Having come to a conclusion, his mind eased. But the problem hadn’t completely disappeared.

‘Keith.’

Keith was the problem. He knew Keith disliked Jinhyeon, but he couldn’t continue to act like that in the future. If he did, problems might arise, so he needed to change Keith’s thinking.

‘Keith isn’t a bad person.’

Moreover, he’s a precious person to Yu Jin, like family. Even though he had rejected his confession, that didn’t erase the time they had spent together and their feelings.

Let’s make Keith and Jinhyeon get along. Yu Jin decided that he should at least make them not hostile to each other. To do that, it seemed best to reestablish their relationship.