< 111. Shock and Terror (9) >
***
“···That’s what happened.”
“Yes, thank you, Inspector.”
Jeong Pal finished his statement. The other party was the police in charge of the surrounding area. They rushed to the scene after receiving a report from the hospital, but they were unable to immediately hand over the criminal.
“Are you saying that the suspect is currently being questioned by immigration officials?”
Jeongpal nods and says.
“If you want to talk about needing an immigration document, I will pass it on to the agent…”
The policeman shook his head in surprise. He shook it so hard that it seemed like the wind was going to blow.
“Oh, no! Haha. We’re not that kind of unreasonable people.”
They greeted each other briefly and then withdrew. They seemed to be in a hurry. As if they were afraid that he might put his suggestion into action.
This is the normal reaction of the police. They don’t want to cause trouble by adding insult to injury to a case that the immigration office has already dealt with. This is completely different from the attitude of Team Leader 2.
“Sir? Are you okay for a moment?”
When I turned my head, Choi Pan-seok’s bodyguard was there.
The congressman regained consciousness a little later than Jeongpal, but even though he was old, he was freed from paralysis. And while Jeongpal was hanging on to his statement, he was looking after his daughter in the hospital room.
“He said he wanted to talk for a moment.”
“Yes, let’s go.”
Choi Pan-seok was looking down at his daughter’s face with a pensive expression.
The child who was thought to be dead is miraculously revived, but is then in danger of being kidnapped. He barely manages to stop it, but loses consciousness due to magic.
Your emotions must have fluctuated like a roller coaster all day long. You must have felt your heart burn, barely felt relief, and then felt your insides rot and decay again, over and over again.
The guard quietly closed the door outside. The congressman spoke without turning his head.
“Are you finished with your statement?”
“yes.”
He looked at his daughter with a pitiful gaze, then turned around a beat later.
“I’m sorry for being rude.”
Jeongpal was embarrassed by the congressman who was bowing his head deeply. He hurriedly waved his hand.
“Sir, you don’t have to do this!”
“No, it’s too late to thank you.”
“You should say hello to my brother… no, to the agent.”
“I will greet you properly when the interrogation is over. I owe you a great favor, not only to him but also to the inspector.”
It was a polite speech and behavior that was not befitting of a four-term lawmaker who would even make birds fall from the sky and the leader of the ruling party’s Oak lawmaker group. It showed how much he cherishes his daughter.
After a few more exchanges of greetings and words of humility, the congressman bowed his head for the last time.
“I don’t have the talent to memorize spells, but I can tell the difference between teleportation magic circles. If I hadn’t come forward and given it to her then, my daughter would have been kidnapped. Thank you, Detective Park Jeong-pal.”
Although he never gave his full name, Jeong-pal wasn’t particularly flustered. He might have seen the name tag or someone below him might have told him.
“Even if you ran away… the agent would have found you somehow.”
The councilman thought to himself as he heard those words. What a truly humble orc. With his common sense, it was nearly impossible to catch up with a wizard who had already escaped through space jump.
Naturally, my favorability towards the detective increased.
“By the way, are you a person with supernatural powers, sir?”
“Oh, no.”
Curiosity appears in the congressman’s eyes.
“Then what?”
Even as the paralyzing magic spread, the sight of him remaining intact was vivid.
“It looks like you have a great artifact.”
The congressman’s talisman was an item advertised as providing complete protection against poison magic, but it was useless.
After the matter is over, Choi Pan-seok plans to lodge a strong complaint to the Witches’ Cooperative.
“Oh, that’s right. Actually, I didn’t know that either.”
“······?”
Jeongpal scratches the back of his head.
“It seems like you did something without me knowing.”
“Agent Ye Min-jun, are you talking about that?”
Jeongpal realized his slip of the tongue again.
“Yes, sir. I’m not as tough as that guy, but I do some rough work, so I guess he must have been impressed. It’s like he put a spell on me without saying anything.”
Jeong-pal knows what happened at Sangnoksu Bookstore a while ago. The flowerpot Min-jun placed there had a powerful barrier spell that even Lakefield and Dong-cheol didn’t know about, and thanks to that, they were able to drive away the rampaging dragon.
It seems that such magic can be applied to people too? Jeong-pal simply thought so. The orc said as he added himself to the list of people he had to greet Min-jun after the interrogation was over.
“It would have been nice if you had told me in advance, but I’m not the type of person to do that kind of thing···.”
He smiled bashfully. The assemblyman, who was looking at Jeong-pal carefully, said.
“Are you close enough to call each other brother and sister?”
“Yeah… what… haha.”
The congressman mulls over those words quietly.
Minjun is recognized as a friend by Red Dragon, the ruling party’s most powerful sponsor.
Does such an agent value Jeongpal enough to cast such a powerful spell on him?
‘As an orc and a detective, it would be hard to find a more powerful connection.’
The congressman did not hide his interest in Jeongpal.
“I did some research in the meantime. You’re from Gurye Police Station? Then your jurisdiction would be roughly around this area.”
He names several places.
It was all an orc community.
It’s a neighborhood that’s too familiar to Jeongpal to even describe. He could draw a map of every nook and cranny with his eyes closed. What’s more, the people living there… especially the orcs, he’s exaggerating a bit, and he even knows the number of spoons in each house.
After hearing his answer, the congressman looked very satisfied.
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“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I could hear it even outside the door.”
The congressman confesses that he overheard the conversation between Jeong-pal and the agent. Jeong-pal blushes.
“Honestly, I was impressed. Do you have any plans after retirement?”
“As you’ve heard, my goal is to survive until retirement. So I haven’t thought about anything beyond that yet.”
But Choi Pan-seok knows a way to exert influence that is much more powerful and better than holding out within the police force.
‘He has good judgment and a sense of racial mission. He has solid connections within the Orc community, and he even has connections with the immigration office… These are perfect conditions. Also, the fact that he has no contact with them now that Kim Gwang-woo is dead and his faction has been wiped out is actually a plus.’
He quietly hands over his business card.
“I don’t think we have much to talk about here. Please take it.”
“Oh? Yes, yes!”
Jeongpal accepted it in confusion. Even though he knew it was empty, he slid his hand into his front pocket.
“I don’t have any business cards or anything…”
“It’s okay. I’m the one who will contact you. Let’s grab a meal sometime soon.”
“Oh, yes. It would be an honor. Please call me.”
Even as he answered like that, Jeongpal thought it was just a courtesy.
I understand that he was well-liked, but I didn’t think that someone who was a member of the National Assembly would take the time to have a meal with a police officer.
‘Or maybe, since I have a large presence in the Orc community, I’m asking for help with the election campaign.’
Are you asking people around you to spam you, hand out pamphlets in front of stations, or even dance on your campaign vehicle?
‘Come to think of it, there’s a by-election coming up soon. But if I keep doing that, I’ll be in violation of the civil servant ethics code. Hey, you’re a smart guy. There’s no way I wouldn’t know what you already know.’
Jeongpal accepted the business card without much thought, not expecting to hear from him any time soon.
It was then that the hospital room door opened again.
“Agent!”
“Oh, brother. Are you finished?”
As Minjun entered, the smell of something burning and blood wafted out. Even the two dull orcs could sense it. The councilman looked at the frying pan in his hand and was puzzled, but he had a more important question.
“Agent, who is that guy?”
Minjun explained the content of the interrogation. He omitted the sensitive content out of consideration for Jeongpal.
Then the congressman’s face turned pale, then seethed with anger again.
“Kwak Do-chul, that son of a bitch!”
His eyes were blazing. A thick vein bulged out on his forehead. He was furious at the fact that the mastermind who had ordered the assassination was none other than his son-in-law. He was already dead, but he seemed ready to kill him right away.
Even if that congressman were strictly speaking guilty of instigating murder, Min-jun decided not to judge right and wrong. He didn’t come here to practice judicial justice. Even if he were to indict him, he would surely get away with it by saying that he was threatened by the contracting company. It was also a request he made without knowing the identity of the other party.
Instead of wasting energy there, Minjun looked to where there was no one. In the corner of the hospital room, Yumtus was hiding in a state of transparency. The two orcs had never noticed him here before. Minjun had arranged it in case of an unexpected situation.
The face of the agent who had been telepathically communicating with him distorted.
‘You can’t wake me up?!’
Yumtus answered as if he didn’t know what to do.
=As you know, the recovery spell is based on stimulating and activating the target’s vitality. However, that woman has already consumed a huge amount of vitality through one treatment.=
‘I know that. But I thought you’d wake up after this much time, right?’
It was a huge loss of life, even more than expected. Minjun, who knew that he couldn’t interrogate her right away, gave instructions to Yumtus.
‘You stay here and protect this woman.’
=I will do so.=
And then he asks Jeongpal.
“The troll was found dead, did the police look into it?”
Since they knew he was part of a contracting company, the police would have searched his store and residence.
Jeong Pal explained the contents of the conversation with Team Leader 2. Since he had already been ripped off by Kim Cheol-su, this time he told everything without any resistance.
“It’s clean. It’s suspicious. I think they probably sent someone to clean it up first.”
“shit!”
This is like starting over from scratch. The clues to crack down on the organization are gone.
‘I guess I’ll have to wait for Choi Seon-ah to wake up.’
In the meantime, he decides to search the troll’s hideout. The police haven’t found anything, but if he steps forward, the results could be different.
However, Minjun was starting to feel suffocated, as if he was being blocked by a wall. He knew how the sword flowed into this place, but he had no clues about the important information.
So where is that sword?
‘Something, a breakthrough is needed.’
If there are no clues in the troll’s abode, what next?
‘There’s no other way for now. We have no choice but to start looking from there.’
He felt that leaving Yumtus here was not enough, so he sent a communication spell to his friend.
But soon he realized that his opponent was not at Jenkinson Tower. He changed the receiver and shot at Lair this time, but it was not there either.
‘Where did you go?’
Minjun had no choice but to pick up the phone. Blair answered right away.
-Yes, agent.
“I can’t seem to get in touch with the chairman.”
The faces of the congressman and Jeong-pal were filled with surprise. It was unlikely that the chairman he was referring to was anyone other than Jenkinson.
-Ah, actually… I have some circumstances at hand right now.
“Please send escort personnel over here.”
The congressman, after hearing the following words, once again expressed his gratitude with his eyes.
I never thought you would go this far for your daughter!
Even the person on the phone was considered to be a staff member who worked very closely with Chairman Jenkinson.
In fact, Minjun’s motivation was his persistence in never letting go of the evidence, but if you look at the results, it was a good thing for the father and daughter.
After conveying the matter, Minjun asked in passing. Because he was curious. Jenkinson is a serious workaholic who rarely has an affair other than going to and from Rare and the company. The Dragon Clan meeting schedule hasn’t been set yet, so where did he go?
To which Blair replied:
-You have gone to the Committee’s district office. It is likely that all magical communication will be impossible.
Minjun’s eyebrows twitched.
“Representative office? Why there?”
– The welcoming party for the newly appointed committee members is scheduled to be held tonight, Korean time. You have already gone over to attend.
It was unexpected news.
“It’s been vacant for quite some time now. Why so suddenly?”
It seems like the time I was locked in the room was too long.
I missed such important news!
Minjun asked.
“So, who came?”
The moment Blair answered.
“······!”
Minjun’s body froze like a plaster statue.
***
After receiving a visit from Minjun and Jeongpal during lunch, Cathy resumed work as usual.
My mind was in a state of confusion as the frying pan was added to my boss’s work. I thought that in order to regain stability, it would be better to focus on work.
She stopped by the immigration office and received a few cases that Minjun would have been interested in before. When she sorted out the documents, they were piled up like a mountain. This is because her supervisor has been reluctant to do any work lately. He always laments, “I hate working so much,” but when he actually starts working, he acts like a workaholic.
‘Is he really planning to retire like this?’
Minjun was born in 1945, and is a Gwangbok-dong. He is quite old in human terms. It is hard to estimate the lifespan of a quarter elf, but there is no denying that it is absolutely long. Perhaps he is tired from the decades of labor.
Moreover, you won’t be short on money. Rather, you’ll have a lot of it. You’ll be spending very frugally compared to how much you earn.
‘If Minjun retires, what about me?’
It seemed that the reason I went out with Jeongpal today had nothing to do with immigration work.
This is happening a lot these days. The secretary is clearly Kathy, but there are more and more cases where information is not shared without going through her.
‘Am I no longer needed?’
The more she thought about it, the more depressed she became, so she decided to do something.
Her boss was distracted right now, but she didn’t know when he would return to work. It was her job to prepare for that moment, waiting for him to return to his usual self.
It was the moment when I was spreading out the prepared documents on the office floor and leaving notes and indexes for easy viewing.
Dingdong-!
‘Are you back already after finishing?’
A bright smile spread across Cassie’s face, then faded again.
Then I wouldn’t have rang the bell. My mind is in chaos, so my judgment is clouded. I scolded myself and opened the office door.
“How may I help you?”
The person standing in front of the door was a small woman. The other person looked slightly embarrassed when she saw Cash. But soon she smiled brightly and said.
“Agent Ye Min-jun, are you there?”
Cassie shook her head.
“She’s not here right now. Do you have an appointment?”
“No, I just came.”
“How did you know?” says Cathy, her tone stiff and puzzled.
“I’m sorry, but I rarely accept requests from outside the office. Moreover, if you come without an appointment, it’s almost impossible to accommodate your schedule···.”
“Oh, you misunderstood. That’s not true.”
“yes?”
“I didn’t come here to ask for a favor. I just came to see your face.”
Cassie narrowed her eyes.
“···Do you know Minjun?”
His narrow circle of friends was completely visible. If someone was an acquaintance that Cathy didn’t know, it meant that he had known them for quite some time.
Just like Oh Man-seok, whom I knew during my teacher days.
“Yes, I knew it from before.”
The visitor nodded in response, and Cathy mentally calculated her age by about forty.
It’s probably a quarter elf, since its ears aren’t pointy.
“You might not come back today.”
“Oh, really?”
She looked visibly disappointed.
“···I tried to surprise you.”
“It seemed so dead-eyed,” Cathy added hesitantly.
“Okay, I’ll make a phone call. Would you like to come in and wait?”
Then the woman brightened up as if she had never been depressed before.
“thank you.”
After guiding the visitor to the sofa, Cathy prepared tea. She asked while boiling water.
“I can’t answer the phone. I’ll try again in about 10 minutes. Are you by any chance someone who worked with Minjun?”
Then the short-haired woman showed a slightly embarrassed look, but soon erased it with a smile. It was a strangely stable smile.
Then he answered Cassie.
“···Yes, we worked together. And work.”
< 111. Shock and Terror (9) > End
