Chapter 2
The fastest motorsport in the world.
Victories and defeats decided by 0.001 seconds.
The ultimate form of capitalism, where hundreds of billions of won move overnight.
A race of glamour and speed.
F1.
Every driver who makes it into F1 starts out by driving these toy-like cars.
Open-wheel cars with their bodies fully exposed were lined up right in front of me.
They were karts.
While I couldn’t take my eyes off the karts, Mom introduced me to several staff members.
Even as she did so, we were gradually getting closer to the track.
My heart was beating so fast that I clenched my fists.
“Hello! Sorry for making you wait. No, it’s nothing. We got a little lost on the way here. Oh, Katie! Are you going to be our guide today? Ah, this is my son, Ian. Ian, say hello.”
“Hello. I’m Ian Kang.”
“Yes, yes. Kate Johnson.”
Finally, when we reached the front of the track, Mom greeted a gaunt, pale man she apparently knew. I only raised my eyes slightly to look at him.
His name was Kate, and his nickname was Katie.
Putting the nickname aside, it was strange that Kate was a man.
Wasn’t that usually a woman’s name?
Katie was a man wearing a checkered shirt, with the sort of appearance that made it obvious he had probably been quite the nerd back in school.
When the man caught my eye, he gestured for me to come over.
Excited, I ran toward him.
Mom watched me anxiously from behind.
“Honestly, this kid is way too excited. Katie, please take good care of him today. He isn’t particularly athletic, so I’m worried he might get hurt if he gets carried away.”
“No, well… I don’t think there’ll be anything particularly dangerous.”
Katie answered half-heartedly, looking completely unmotivated.
Even the way he fastened my safety equipment and put my helmet on felt somewhat careless.
If anything, that seemed to prove his words that nothing dangerous would happen.
The fact that they weren’t even putting me in a racing suit made that even clearer.
I quickly turned my head and could already feel the gazes of the children sitting in the karts waiting at the starting line.
My heart pounded.
There was my spot.
The kart I would be driving.
“Sarah, are you heading straight home after this today?”
“Yes. The project just finished, and things are quiet right now. I’m only working the morning shift, then I’m going to spend the day with my son.”
“Nice. What about your boyfriend?”
“Oh my! What are you talking about?”
“Ah… You haven’t told Ian yet? Sorry. Forget I said anything.”
Mom, flustered, glanced at me, who was still standing right beside her.
I pretended not to have heard anything and ignored her gaze, staring intently at the karts instead.
But my mind was racing.
At this point in time, Mom was probably in the middle of some grand romance with Mr. Blanchard, the CEO of Landbury.
The man who would become my stepfather.
And the man who would give me an older brother who didn’t share a single drop of my blood.
“Wow… Fuck…”
But all of that vanished the moment Katie casually guided me into the kart.
The instant I sat down, everything else in the world disappeared.
All that remained was the cockpit I was sitting in and the steering wheel in my hands.
It was exactly the same sensation as when I raced in F1.
“Fuck… This is really…”
I couldn’t stop marveling.
I was getting to drive one again.
Even though it was just an experience ride, the handling was insane.
As expected, Landbury sure knew how to build a damn good car.
“Ho.”
Seeing me naturally settle into the seat and grip the steering wheel despite supposedly driving one for the first time, Katie gave a small, amused snort.
But I didn’t hear him.
Sitting inside a helmeted car with the engine still off, the loudest thing I could hear was my own heartbeat.
And today, it was beating especially hard.
My heart pounded painfully against my ribs, while at the same time, I felt as though my body were heating up.
It felt like waking up from a nightmare, only to have a dream invade reality in an entirely different way.
I had absolutely no idea what was happening.
But one thing was certain.
I was about to drive a kart.
“Kid, you’ve got a pretty convincing grip on that steering wheel.”
“I’ve done a lot of simulations. I like them.”
If I told them that, in truth, I wasn’t some kid who was supposed to be taking an experience ride in a kart here, but one of the world’s best drivers who had actually made it all the way to F1…
Everyone would probably say it was nothing more than a child’s delusion, right?
It was funny.
I laughed inside my helmet.
“Since you’re so confident, I’m looking forward to seeing what you can do. Just don’t get too excited and crash into something when you take off. This thing’s expensive. Probably worth about three months of Sarah’s salary.”
Katie tapped the front of the kart as he warned me.
Despite saying he was looking forward to it, his face looked like he was bored to death dealing with children.
He couldn’t see it anyway, but I smiled even more brightly and answered.
“Yes, Katie. I’ll be careful!”
I said that, but the sort of accident he was worried about wasn’t going to happen.
No, it couldn’t happen.
I could tell just from the sound of the exhaust.
The engine had been deliberately restricted so that it couldn’t reach its maximum speed.
Of course, that was probably a safety measure to prevent accidents during a children’s experience ride.
“Okay… Everyone, pay attention here. I’ll briefly explain how to operate the kart. The thing you’re holding, obviously, is the steering wheel. The pedal beneath your left foot is the brake, and the one beneath your right foot is the accelerator. Press the accelerator to move, and press the brake to stop.”
Katie explained the controls in a tone that sounded like he’d said the exact same thing hundreds of times and was sick of hearing himself repeat it.
Even among the children who had been paying attention, complaints broke out at the obvious explanation.
“I already know that!”
“I know! Just let us start already!”
Katie rolled his eyes and sighed.
The desire to go home was written all over his face, which was kind of funny.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure you all know… But once you’re actually driving, it’s easy to get confused, so keep it in mind. Don’t slam on the brakes in the middle of the track just because you want to stop. You could cause an accident. If you want to stop, pull over near the edge of the track, and the staff will help you get out. And now…”
At Katie’s gesture, the staff entered the track.
They each went to one kart, performed a final safety check, and soon stepped back.
Only the children sitting in their karts remained on the track.
A tense silence settled over the circuit.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the side where the starting signal would appear.
Since this was only an experience race, there was no qualifying session like in a real race.
Everyone would start from the same line, fairly, without any stagger based on qualifying position.
Which meant whoever got ahead first would stand out even more.
“Phew.”
My body tensed and relaxed at the same time.
It was a familiar sensation.
If you became too tense, your body would stiffen and ruin the race.
You had to sharpen only the sensations you needed while calming your mind.
The moment I got into the car, my body instinctively prepared itself to race.
And then, right when I was concentrating like that—
“Son, have fun and come back~!”
Before the starting signal, I heard Mom’s voice cheering for me from far away.
The words of encouragement from my mother, who was waving her arms around like a little girl, weren’t in English.
They were in Korean.
After coming to England, Mom had insisted on speaking only English, even when it was just the two of us at home, because I needed to get used to the language.
And yet Mom was cheering for me in Korean.
She didn’t tell me to do well.
She told me to go have fun.
I’d only been annoyed by it when I was a child, but maybe Mom had been really worried about me at the time because I couldn’t adapt to this country either.
“Ah, that’s cheating…”
My chest tightened.
I blinked for no reason.
My body was still completely ready to race at a moment’s notice, but that one sentence made my mind more relaxed than it had been before.
Yeah.
I just had to go have fun.
The ranking didn’t matter, and there was nothing important at stake.
It was just a simple race.
“Ronnie, good luck!”
“Go have fun, Oliver!”
Starting with Mom’s encouragement, the other parents also shouted a few words to their children.
And then, right at that moment—
Beep.
Beep.
The red lights began coming on one by one.
Beep.
Beep.
Now, any moment…
When the fifth light came on, that was when—
Beep!
The race began.
“Whoa!”
“What the? What’s with Number 3?”
“Oh my God! Ian?!”
For the record, in any race where speed is the competition, you gain more than half the battle at the start.
In other words—
“What the hell is that? Didn’t we put restrictions on these? There’s no way the demonstration karts should be able to launch like that. Aldus, bring up the data for Car Number 3, now!”
“Hahaha! Katie, come take a look at this. Sarah’s kid has incredible timing with the clutch and throttle! There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the restriction program. It’s pure physical ability!”
“My God, what… Sarah! I told you only beginners were allowed! How could you bring someone with experience to an experience race like this?!”
“What? My son really is driving a kart for the first time today! This is unfair, Katie!”
In other words, I had shot forward like a bullet from the very beginning, leaving all the clueless kids behind.
I should let Mom brag about her son for once.
I grinned as I enjoyed the highest speed my untrained body could withstand.
Even though it was only a half-powered kart with restrictions, there was no problem driving it.
Depending on how you handled it, you could still drive it well.
I hadn’t planned on enjoying myself this seriously, but Mom had told me to have fun, hadn’t she?
Then I had to listen to her.
“My goodness. This is a scaled-down version of the Silverstone Circuit. If that kart is putting in this kind of lap time here, then if he were driving properly, what on earth…?”
In an instant, I crossed the finish line by myself and returned to the starting line, with everyone’s eyes pouring toward me.
I unconsciously tried to go around for another lap, but the staff were already waiting for me, so I had no choice.
About a 1:10 low, I guess?
I don’t know what scale the circuit was reduced to, so there’s no way for me to tell whether that’s a good or bad time.
I excitedly reached up to take off my helmet, but then I suddenly felt a little embarrassed.
But… did I go a bit too far? Why does the atmosphere feel like this?
My hand hesitated before removing the helmet.
Apparently, I’d caused a bit of a commotion.
“…Sarah, you’re really saying this is his first time?”
“I told you, it is! I don’t really understand either, but did Ian do well? Ian, come here. Looks like you’re good at driving a car!”
“It’s not just that… Haah. Dear God.”
I raised my head.
There were the staff members making a huge fuss, and Katie staring at me with a completely dazed expression.
“…”
Keeping an eye on everyone, I ignored Mom telling me to come over and stayed quietly seated in the cockpit without even taking off my helmet.
Katie’s expression gradually became more serious as he looked at me.
“…Sarah.”
“Why do you keep saying that, Katie? I really am telling you, Ian is driving a kart for the first time today…!”
“Your son is a genius.”
Katie cut her off before Mom could even finish.
Even as he said it, his eyes never left me.
There was something almost unhinged in his gaze.
It looked like the eyes of a madman.
I shuddered.
Somehow…
Somehow, that look was familiar.
“…”
I knew that look.
Where had I seen it before?
For example, on a broadcast screen…
“…!”
Suddenly, a memory from the time when I was racing in F1 came back to me.
Landbury’s chief engineer, the man who commanded the team from the pit wall, was affectionately nicknamed Kitty by the fans.
He was the legendary mastermind who had discovered and nurtured a driver who, after achieving historic results in F2, became a World Champion the moment he debuted in F1.
The name of that monstrous chief engineer, who had given Landbury three consecutive Constructors’ Championship trophies, was…
Kate…
Katie…
Kitty…
…Does that sound plausible?
Under that piercing gaze, I broke into a cold sweat.
I’d never heard that Kitty had worked somewhere like this, giving children karting experiences before becoming a chief engineer.
