< 108. Shock and Terror (6) >
***
Jeong-pal parked his car in front of the agent’s house. Min-jun told him to wait a moment and went in alone. When he came out a few minutes later, he was still alone. He was still empty-handed.
“What did you say you were bringing?”
“I packed it.”
Jeongpal tilted his head and started the car. The next destination was the hospital.
“Mrs. Kwak Do-chul is hospitalized here.”
The two entered the hospital ward together. There, Jeong-pal saw an unexpected scene.
“I heard from the chairman in advance.”
A dwarf in a suit was waiting in the lobby.
“I’ll make you comfortable while you’re here. This way.”
Pointing in the direction, he introduced himself as the hospital director. A question mark appeared in Jeong-pal’s eyes.
‘Why the Chairman?’
Minjun nodded with a calm expression and expressed his simple thanks. Then, without saying anything else, he followed behind her.
Jeongpal couldn’t understand how the situation was going on.
‘Furthermore… Chairman? What Chairman all of a sudden?’
Minjun didn’t make a single phone call while he was here. Jeongpal couldn’t figure out how he could have the university hospital director on standby during that short time, nor why they were actively involved in the protocol.
The chairman spoke as he walked.
“I don’t know if you heard, but it seems like the patient’s guardian has been contacted as well. They agreed to let you enter the patient’s room, but they are still feeling uneasy and are on their way here.”
Jeongpal’s eyebrows twitched.
If you are a guardian, you are Kwak Do-chul’s father-in-law.
A four-term congressman with great influence and the father of a woman who is unconscious after murdering her husband.
“It doesn’t matter.”
The chairman guided them to the VIP room, told them to call him whenever they needed anything, and disappeared. As the door closed, Jeong-pal looked like he wanted to ask them questions.
Instead of looking at him like that, Minjun looked at the hospital bed with a strange look.
“It’s a wonder you’re not dead.”
Jeong-pal followed his gaze. This large hospital room was occupied by a human woman. Various tubes and electrodes were connected to her body. Her body was swollen to the point of reminiscent of a drowned person. Her face was also badly damaged, so Jeong-pal couldn’t tell her original appearance. She was like a completely different person.
Minjun turned his eyes and looked at the ceiling for a moment.
The silence that followed.
“······?”
Just as Jeongpal was about to open his mouth, Minjun spoke first.
“Let’s just wait a moment. It’s supposed to take about 30 minutes.”
“Yes? 30 minutes?”
“Let’s sit down for a moment.”
Minjun leisurely looked around the hospital room and picked up a magazine placed for visitors. Then he plopped down on the unicorn leather sofa. He crossed his legs and started turning the pages.
“You came here to check something, didn’t you?”
Minjun spoke without taking his eyes off the magazine.
“I came to check.”
“But why···.”
“It’s not time yet.”
Jeongpal had no way of knowing.
The fact that before coming here, Minjun unsealed the basement and let out the alien inside.
And the priest followed the car without being noticed by anyone, including Jeong-pal, and is now following Min-jun’s instructions on the roof of the hospital.
Meanwhile, Minjun was impressed by the fact that the preparation time that Yumtus had promised was quite short.
‘I expected it to be treatable, but only 30 minutes? That’s amazing.’
Jeong-pal, who guessed that the agent would not tell him the details, gave up asking any more questions.
How much time has passed in that state?
“Jeongpal-ah.”
Minjun, who had lost interest while flipping through a magazine that had most of its pages filled with photos of elf models, suddenly asked.
“Yes, brother.”
The agent brings up a completely different topic.
“Are you really going to continue to be a police officer? Even after you reach retirement age?”
Jeong-pal nodded silently. He knew why the agent had brought up this story. The attitude of Team Leader 2 that he had seen today suggested a lot.
“I’m sorry. Was it difficult to see?”
Minjun was embarrassed when I apologized right away. He spoke sheepishly.
“No… What do you have to be sorry about? That kid is just shameless.”
He remembered their names and faces. However, Minjun had a feeling that there wasn’t just one person who showed that kind of attitude toward Jeongpal. And even if they were all infected with an unidentified disease, the way they treated Jeongpal wouldn’t change.
I didn’t like it.
“Instead of doing part-time jobs like you do now, how about working with me? The police will kick you out right away.”
“Oh my, brother.”
“Even if you don’t serve until retirement age, your pension amount won’t change much. I’ll give you so much that you won’t even think about the difference.”
He made similar suggestions several times, but Jeongpal refused each time, making various excuses.
“······.”
Jeongpal thinks for a moment and then tells a story he has never told before.
“Brother, you know there aren’t many orc police officers, right?”
“Yeah. And I know why it’s rare.”
Many people feel uncomfortable with the sight of orcs exercising public authority. They think it is more appropriate to be arrested than to arrest.
The problem was that many police officers thought the same thing.
——————
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“Actually, I’m not the first orc police officer in our country.”
“I know because I heard.”
“Did you know this? Although I am not the first, I am the Orc police officer with the longest tenure since the founding of the country. Even though there are seniors who were commissioned before me.”
“······.”
Minjun blinked quietly.
“That means···.”
“Yes, all the orcs who got their police badges before me were eliminated midway. I ended up becoming the most senior. Why couldn’t they endure? I’m sure you can guess that it wasn’t simply a matter of aptitude or job satisfaction.”
No one could resist it. It could be that the orc’s characteristically irritable temper exploded.
But Jeongpal persevered.
I endured and endured again.
“I’m confident in my endurance. It’s not like an orc, is it? I’ve been holding on somehow, and now I only have five years left. But now that I’ve come this far, I’ve become greedy. It’s not that big of a deal, but if you ask me, it’s a dream. I want to become the first orc police officer in Korea to reach retirement age and retire.”
It wasn’t about revealing grand ambitions like wanting to leave a mark on history.
“I want the kids to know that I am a police officer. Oh, and of course they know that orcs can be police officers too. There is no one who doesn’t know that the door is open by law.”
It is possible to get appointed, but the problem is what happens afterward.
Jeongpal was pointing out that part.
“I just wish they would change their thinking. I wish they would break the stereotype that even if an orc gets a decent job, he or she will end up getting kicked out after seeing the dirty work. If even one person sets a precedent, wouldn’t people’s perception change? Instead of giving up without even trying. If ‘that guy’ worked until retirement and retired, I hope they will think that I can do it too.”
Most of Jeongpal’s jurisdiction is an orc community. He patrols there more often than any other member of the team. Everyone he meets there, from bar owners to playground thugs, knows Jeongpal.
That was his intention. He wanted everyone to become more familiar with the concept of an orc cop. He wanted to draw attention to the possibility that an orc could be the one putting the handcuffs on instead of the one wearing them.
Minjun points out softly.
“Then they’ll see a dirty sight too?”
I’ll leave out the phrase “like you.”
But the orc smiled as if he had guessed.
“If they become police officers, they’ll see the dirty side of things too. And they’ll act like orcs. More like orcs than me. The more they act like orcs, the more they’ll change. The louder their voices become.”
Jeongpal hopes that something will change in the next generation, or the generation after that.
“I’m not a civil activist or a revolutionary, so it’s hard for me to change anything right now, but I can hold on. Just like other salaried workers. Everyone holds on and lives, right? It’s not that great.”
Minjun thought about his words in his head for a moment and then said.
“I know what you’re thinking. Let’s talk about this later. There’s a guest outside.”
At that moment, as if it had been waiting, the hospital room door opened.
“I’m a little late.”
The person who said that was an old orc.
He steps inside. He holds out his hand to stop the attendants who are trying to follow him, then closes the door again.
Kwak Do-chul’s father-in-law greeted Min-jun.
“This is the first time I’ve seen your face like this, Agent.”
“okay.”
It was a face that was difficult to read emotions on. The old man’s gaze stopped at Minjun and Jeongpal in turn. The person he greeted was Minjun, but his gaze stayed on Jeongpal longer. It was a subtle difference.
His gaze returns to Minjun again. Four-term National Assembly member Choi Pan-seok said.
“I just found out today. Chairman Jenkinson acknowledged you as a ‘friend’?”
“······?!”
Jeong-pal’s eyes widened to the point where they seemed to pop out. He thought he had misheard. But he wasn’t.
“I was surprised when the dragon suddenly contacted me, but I was even more surprised after hearing the details.”
Words that sounded like a confirmed kill came out of Choi Pan-seok’s mouth.
A scary word that is considered one of the three greatest fears of modern people, along with debt and guarantee.
Dragon.
‘Dragon? That too… Chairman Jenkinson?’
That Jenkinson from Jenkinson Company?
The Ancient Red Dragon Who Made Korea His Territory?!
‘That’s ridiculous!’
A dragon like that would recognize a quarter elf as a friend? That was out of the ordinary.
While Jeongpal was confused, the agent asked calmly.
“Did the chairman say that?”
“······!”
Instead of denying it, he even accepted it!
Jeongpal felt his breathing quicken and his vision blurred.
“Yes, the old man convinced me.”
He looks at his adopted daughter in the sickbed.
“She is not my blood relative, but she is my daughter in my heart. I was worried when the immigration agent said he would interrogate a child who has not even been charged yet. And she is on the brink of life and death. When I expressed my concern, the gentle dragon said that ‘my friend’ would visit. So I had no choice but to agree. If it is a friend he acknowledges, it is as good as the old dragon himself visiting, so who would dare to issue an order to banish guests?”
The orc turns his head again and stares at the agent.
“I have received countless anonymous death threats because of the fact that Orcs adopted humans. They said that I was violating human dignity. Some of them actually tried to do it instead of just keeping the plan in their heads. This is the child I protected through all that orcish suffering. So please… I beg you.”
He speaks in a heavy voice, his tone almost solemn.
“I know you are a warlock, Agent. This child is caught up in a strange artifact and is currently in critical condition, but she is not dead yet. If you intend to use my daughter as a hideous servant to extract information, I will do everything I can to resist…”
“Oh, just a moment.”
Minjun frowned. He knew why the congressman had suddenly started telling his story in detail.
He was misunderstanding.
“I’m not talking about turning your daughter into a zombie or a corpse right now.”
“······?!”
The congressman looked embarrassed for the first time. Minjun assured him.
“I will wake you up.”
The old orc shook his head. He also knew his daughter’s condition. It was an injury that could not be cured unless a high priest came. But it was impossible to invite such a priest at this point. He tried hard to deny it, even though he knew that he would have to send his daughter away soon.
However, it was absolutely absurd to make his daughter an undead.
“I tell you again, I absolutely do not want to wake you up like that···.”
Minjun realized that there was no need for a long explanation, because Yumtus, who was performing the ritual on the ceiling, had reported in his head.
=Incarnation, preparations are complete.=
Minjun answered mentally.
‘sun.’
That moment.
Shhhhhhhhhh!
As Yumtus had intended, his divine power was not accompanied by brilliant light or dazzling colors. Pure, invisible divine power descended through the walls of the building. It was a skill rarely seen on Earth. That is why no one except Minjun could feel it.
But there were visible and audible changes, and they responded to them.
Knock knock! Knock knock!
“Oh, no?!”
As the harsh sound of bones breaking and then reconnecting was heard, everyone’s eyes were fixed on the sickbed. Choi Pan-seok hurriedly approached the sickbed. A scream that was almost a scream erupted.
“Seon-ah!”
Thinking something was wrong, he quickly pressed the emergency bell. The medical staff who had been waiting rushed in. Anticipating the worst.
But what they saw was something different from what they expected.
“What, this is it?!”
The medical team saw a strange phenomenon. The iron rod that had been inserted through several surgeries was slipping out of the body. In the process, the bandage was torn and the plaster cast was broken, revealing the patient’s bare skin. The swollen body sank and the wounds healed. The twisted skeleton was seen moving back into place. The face that had looked like a drowned body also regained its original appearance.
There is no divine light to prove that a priest is exerting his power somewhere.
Just an inexplicable miracle.
“Seo, Seon-ah?!”
Something heavy rose from the senator’s throat. The adopted daughter moaned softly as if regaining consciousness. Then she opened her eyes. Her mouth opened.
“···dad?!”
The orc screamed.
“Seon-ah!”
The congressman collapsed and covered his daughter’s body. Min-jun couldn’t see her because he and the medical staff blocked his view. He decided to give them a moment. And he praised Yumtus on the rooftop.
‘Good job.’
=I am just grateful that I can serve you closely.=
A storm swept through the hospital room. Minjun spoke from behind them.
“If you see nothing unusual, would you please step out for a moment? I have something to check with the patient.”
The medical staff noticed and nodded. As they emptied the sickroom, Choi Pan-seok spoke. His voice was still trembling.
“Agent… Thank you. Thank you so much!”
The momentum of the man who had been threatening her was nowhere to be found. It seemed that his daughter, who was on the verge of death, had come back to life thanks to this man. It was clear. He had declared that he would wake her up, and he had really brought her back to life.
While the orc was moved by the miracle.
“······!”
Minjun’s expression was terrifyingly hardened. His gaze was fixed on the patient. The recovered face. When I first saw it, it was so swollen and ugly that I couldn’t recognize it, and right after it recovered, it was covered by other people so I couldn’t see it.
Its appearance has only just been revealed.
Choi Pan-seok’s daughter, her face.
‘What the heck? That woman!’
Minjun knew her.
A remote tobacco shop run by a troll, and a slender woman who showed up in an outfit that didn’t fit the place at all.
The agent feels confused.
‘···That’s the woman in the memory of the murderer of the National Assembly member!’
Meanwhile, Detective Oak was also confused.
‘You really saved him?! A seriously ill patient that even a priest couldn’t touch… You saved him?’
The events that happened today quickly pass through Jeongpal’s mind.
He thought he knew it well, but now he realized that he didn’t. The realization sent shock and shivers through his body.
The orc sees the agent.
The man who declared himself a friend of Goryeo, who controls the economy of this country.
A man who performed a miracle by instantly recovering a woman who was waiting for her day to die.
This kind of person… couldn’t be an ordinary quarter elf.
Only then did Jeongpal seem to realize Minjun’s true identity.
“Tongue… Brother.”
The voice that came out of Jeongpal’s mouth was strangely distorted and resonated.
He asked with a sinking feeling in his heart.
“Brother… You’ve been hiding your identity until now. Did everyone get fooled?”
The agent turned his head. And saw Jeong-pal’s serious face. The two’s gazes met in the air.
The voice that broke the brief silence was pale.
“Brother, you’re not actually a quarter-elf.”
Jeongpal recited the words with half-confidence, and Minjun was dumbfounded when he heard them.
I even forgot the embarrassment I felt because of the congressman’s daughter.
“···Were you a dragon hiding your identity?!”
“······.”
Minjun felt insulted.
< 108. Shock and Terror (6) > End
