11. Three ways to kill your boss (8)
“Are you done with your questions? Sorry, I’m a little busy.”
Jeongpal looks at his colleague’s expression. It’s an unspoken question as to whether he’s wasting too much time.
Minjun opened his mouth for the first time.
“I heard that the missing person report was made by another executive of the company.”
“Just because it’s confidential information shared among executives, doesn’t mean we all need to call the police?
“I heard that Executive Director Kim Yeon-ju opposed the report.”
“I thought it might be too hasty of a choice. I might come back soon if I keep doing this.”
“Do you know the CEO well enough to make that judgment?”
“······.”
Since we’ve worked together for over ten years, it’s understandable that I would say I know him well, but I keep my mouth shut. I’m thinking about whether there’s anything that conflicts with the ‘sharing of private life’ story I just mentioned.
I asked right away without waiting for an answer.
“Who do you think would benefit the most from the company if the CEO were to disappear?”
She gave an exaggerated laugh.
“Isn’t that question too obvious?”
“Does my question make you uncomfortable?”
Kim Yeon-ju grabbed the armrest of the chair.
“······There is nothing to gain or lose. It’s not just me, everyone in the company is the same.”
“How do you think the CEO is feeling right now?”
“I hope you are safe and well somewhere.”
“Sir, do you happen to have a great affinity for non-human creatures?”
“······.”
A question that suddenly strikes you out of the flow.
The expression on the executive director’s face wavered for a moment, as if a sand castle that had been built precariously had collapsed. He must have realized this fact himself. A tense atmosphere spread through the air.
‘bingo!’
Minjun cheered inwardly.
“Because I have some special abilities.”
Point to your nose with your finger.
“I’ve heard of such… abilities.”
Eventually, instead of denying it further, the managing director blushed and confessed.
“Yes, that’s right. I am an ISP manifester. But what does that have to do with the current investigation?”
ISP.
If you break it down, it’s called Interspecific Sex Pheromone.
It is one of the biological mysteries whose cause has not yet been identified.
It is common sense that pheromones only affect individuals of the same genus that can mate, but occasionally, strangely enough, individuals appear that distribute pheromones that attract species with which they cannot have offspring. Like a mutant.
A representative example is Sea Serpent, the unfortunate unrequited love interest of Salamander in a fairy tale that was a huge hit across the board.
Minjun habitually stared at the string of characters that were visible only to his eyes.
B. Perform special missions requested by the agency:
.
.
.
4. Clarification of the principle by which some special individuals emit pheromones that attract species with which they cannot mate: 50,000 talents
Asks with a calm gaze.
“What kind of species does someone like you affect?”
Then, Executive Director Kim Yeon-ju showed an openly angry expression.
It was a deliberately rude question, and Minjun sensed a clumsy production in her response. It seemed closer to her trying to convince Minjun that she was too angry right now than genuine anger.
Instead of making an aggressive gesture, Kim Yeon-ju grabs her opposite elbow. A barrier protecting her body. Her mouth slightly open, her eyes tense.
Behind it all, of course, there was a sense of anxiety.
“There is no reason for me to reveal my personal story here.”
“I heard that ISP is expressed only when in frequent contact with the corresponding species. Then, it must be a species that has secured a certain number of individuals on Earth and lives in society.”
“you···!”
“Except for elves and orcs, which can have children with humans. Races that meet the conditions are trolls, goblins, dragons…”
When she said the word ‘dragon’, Kim Yeon-ju’s pupils contracted for a very brief moment. It was a change that could not be detected with normal eyesight.
‘They’re all here now.’
Minjun said one last word to Kim Yeonju, who was walking towards the door with angry steps.
“How long have you known Edelines?”
“······!”
A chilly air settled into the room.
***
The managing director left, saying he could no longer answer rude questions, and Jeong-pal and Min-jun returned to their car and parked it in a public parking lot near Hyosung Industrial.
“It certainly is strange, isn’t it?”
Jeong Pal began to feel confident when, when asked to guess ‘CEO Jang Tae Jun’s current state of mind’, he answered ‘He must be safe and well somewhere’.
When asked to imagine a ‘mental state’, the answer was strangely ‘safety and survival’.
“Jeongpal, what do you think? The most important question for us. What happened to CEO Jang Taejun?”
“It must be one of two things. One, he was kidnapped by the dragon. Two, he knew he would be kidnapped by the dragon and hid himself.”
These days, dragons try to kidnap middle-aged businessmen living in luxury apartments in Hannam-dong instead of princesses in high-rise towers.
“But from the beginning, I thought the first possibility was low, and seeing Executive Director Kim Yeon-joo’s reaction made my guess stronger.”
“continue.”
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
“If it’s true that he was captured by that dragon… Did you say his name was Edelines? President Jang Tae-jun would have given up all the stocks and even revealed the location of the secret safe as the dragon asked. It must have been hard to hold out.”
However, President Jang Tae-jun’s stake is still intact, and he has entrusted the task to Yong Society.
“i think so too.”
“Then he ran away of his own volition… why did he run away in the middle of the night instead of turning himself in to the police?”
“Isn’t it a bit weak to say that it was because he was an alien? If he had hidden it until now, he could have hidden it even after reporting it to the police. He was scared because the opponent was a dragon? How did he know that the one targeting him was a dragon?”
We searched through his hard drive and phone records, but found no evidence that he had been threatened.
and.
‘That homunculus.’
Minjun hasn’t told Jeongpal about it yet, nor has he reported it to the immigration office.
If his request to Lakefield had been delayed by just one day, the fake body would have been discovered and the stocks would have been inherited as per the will.
‘Who planned this? Yong? Kim Yeon-joo? Jang Tae-joon himself? It’s impossible with their own power. Unless one of the seven major conglomerates is involved.’
It wasn’t possible for a man who was barely running a business, even though he was suspected of being a sloppy baby dragon or an alien.
“But how did you come up with that dragon’s name? Executive Director Kim Yeon-ju’s face turned pale as if she had seen the grim reaper.”
“Oh, that? It’s nothing.”
Minjun explained the reasoning process that allowed him to narrow down the number of dragon suspects to three, and Jeongpal listened with interest, as it was his first time hearing this kind of story. And at the very moment when he was about to bring up the reason why he had mentioned Edelines’ name out of the three.
-Whoosh! Woosh!
The frying pan started resonating again.
“Oh, that annoying kid!”
He roughly reaches into the back seat and grabs the handle. Just as he’s about to swear at me for disturbing him while he works.
=Ah! I’m sorry! I’m really sorry! I heard that you were going to Hyosung Industrial, and I couldn’t help but tremble because I had something to say, but then I thought you were talking about someone I know…=
“Do you know anyone?”
=Yes, Sister Yeonju!=
Minjun’s gaze grew cold.
President Jang Tae-jun would not have gone to work holding this frying pan.
But how does the ego contained here know the CEO?
“Do you know Executive Director Kim Yeon-ju?”
Only then did Jeong-pal, who couldn’t hear the frying pan’s mental waves, become surprised.
=Yes, I know!=
“how?”
=You know, because you came to our master’s house! In the past, you used to come once every 1-2 weeks to stay and sleep, right? But lately, you haven’t been coming often for some reason.=
“······.”
at that time.
“Hey, bro! I can hear you talking.”
When Min-jun confronted Kim Yeon-ju, the reason he asked Jeong-pal to waste time wasn’t simply to find something suspicious.
-Whoosh! Sizzle!
Minjun placed a spell on Kim Yeonju’s body without her noticing. It was a wiretapping spell that followed her around all day, absorbing surrounding sounds and transmitting them to the sorcerer.
A voice is heard from the crystal ball placed in the middle of the vehicle. After they left, there was silence as if no one had met, and now the voice is finally heard.
She was making a phone call. The call lasted a long time before the person on the other end picked up.
“Uh. Make it short.”
As Minjun raises his hand to increase his magic sensitivity, even the sound from the receiver is heard clearly. The other party is a woman with a blunt tone. As soon as the connection is made, Kim Yeonju speaks urgently in a suppressed voice.
“Two detectives just showed up!”
It was worth shaking her in the office. She moved right away, probably because she was so touched.
While I was urgently explaining what had happened, the other person remained silent.
“······.”
Then Kim Yeon-ju shouted nervously.
“Why aren’t you saying anything? What are you going to do about this? You shouldn’t have missed it in the first place! How come you haven’t found a single person until now?”
“Stop whining. It’s annoying. I’m doing my best, too.”
“The police have already tracked you down here. Since you’re a dragon, shouldn’t you at least find it before humans or orcs? What kind of dragon can’t summon a spirit?”
Jeongpal’s eyes widened. He held his breath and waited for the next words.
“······Don’t talk nonsense. The affinity for spirits is a trait that dragons don’t display well. That’s why I’ve been working hard for the past few days. Do you know how many elves I’ve caught so far to find Jang Taejun?”
The same event flashed through both of their minds at the same time.
Elf serial disappearance case.
This is the very case that Team 2 Chief of the Career Detectives passed the case of CEO Jang Tae-jun’s disappearance onto Jeong Pal and took on instead.
“How can I do something that they haven’t been able to find until now because their spirit magic skills are lacking!”
The person on the other end of the phone yelled at me like that, but after a while, he spoke in a slightly more soothing tone.
“Don’t be so impatient and wait a bit. One of the elves I caught today gave me some interesting information. There’s a very rare and skilled reclusive spirit master among them.”
“······is it so?”
“I was able to keep my mouth in the left eye and my eyes.
The person on the other end of the phone spoke with a chuckle.
“So I was on my way to catch that great spirit master. Oh, I’m here now. Hang up for now.”
Only then do the two realize that the person on the other end of the phone was talking outdoors.
The sound of footsteps. And a moment later, a voice came into the receiver with a duller feel.
“Ah··· Customer··· Here. Welcome! ··· Boss! Here is a customer···!”
The two people froze.
What could be heard faintly as background noise was the familiar voice of a goblin that Minjun and Jeongpal knew very well.
