8. Three ways to kill your boss (5)
‘The client is a dragon!’
For a common citizen like Jeongpal, it was a heavy word that seemed like it would cause panic just by hearing it.
Dragon.
The identity of the person who requested that Society search Jang Tae-jun’s house.
‘Since my brother suddenly didn’t say anything… I guess he feels uneasy about holding on like this.’
There has never been a mass migration of dragons to this world. There has never been a case of a dragon clan requesting mass asylum from the committee. Even if there were, it would not be Earth as their destination. There is only one habitable planet in this world, and it is too small for many dragons to live together.
On the other hand, there have been quite a few cases of dragons obtaining Earth citizenship in their individual capacities.
Among them, there were some who, upon setting foot on Earth, disliked noise and began living a secluded life in the Himalayas or the Amazon jungle, while others chose to live while actively communicating with Earth society.
And in the latter case, most of them have gained enormous wealth and power in a short period of time and have become the real power behind the scenes that dominates this society. Among the major organizations and companies that lead politics, administration, and the economy, there are few that are not under the influence of the dragon.
‘Ordinary people don’t know this, but there are quite a few people who have disappeared without a trace after disturbing the dragon’s heart!’
Of course, it wasn’t well reported in the media.
That’s the power of authority.
In this way, the dragons proudly took their place at the top of the Earth in one generation. They achieved with a small force what the first generation of tens of millions of orc immigrants could not even dream of. Everything was so easy for the dragons.
“······older brother?”
“Wait a minute, let me ask you a few more questions.”
After a while, Minjun got everything he could from the wizard. The man, who had been answering questions with enthusiasm and seemed ready to write a paper, started repeating what he had said and even rambling on about something off topic when he had nothing more to say.
“Okay. Ask the West for support. We have to take him.”
The wizard in front of him was clearly a human, and he had no knowledge of Jang Tae-jun’s identity or whereabouts. Therefore, he will be handed over to the National Police Agency, not the Immigration Office, and the police will also be in charge of the follow-up investigation and warrant application procedures.
As soon as Jeongpal made a phone call, the sound of a police car entering the Orc community could be heard, and the sound of doors and windows being locked along its path resonated like a round song.
“If you think he won’t listen, let him listen to the recorded voice on his cell phone. He’ll be more docile once he realizes that the person interrogating him has the upper hand.”
Jeong-pal stared blankly at the back of the wizard who had not yet regained consciousness as he was dragged away. Originally, he should have followed along, but now he had a priority mission of cooperating with the immigration agent, so he stayed next to Min-jun.
“Is he going to stay like that from now on?”
“It was a good thing I handed him over to the police. I’ll force him to eat and sleep. If I had sent him away with that phone in his hand, he would have listened to it all day long. On repeat.”
“······Usually I’d die?”
“Statistically, about 50% of people instinctively stop just before starvation. If that kid gets proper help in prison, that is… if he gets treatment for more than 10 years, he can recover.”
Of course, those numbers are based on a typical wizard’s standard, and he didn’t bother to mention that the survival rate would be much lower if the wizard was Minjun.
***
The two decided to search Jang Tae-jun’s house one more time. They were concerned about the ‘secret safe in the house’ that the wizard had mentioned. While driving down the road, Min-jun and Jeong-pal were each deep in thought. The topic was dragons.
Jeong Pal pondered and worried about why the author mentioned by the Society organization member contacted the supernatural crime organization and entrusted the request, how Ye Min Jun should handle this situation, and how he should report it to his superiors.
On the other hand, Minjun’s thoughts were much simpler. He was focused intently on just one question.
‘What year is it?!’
It was quicker to eliminate dragons from the list who would never do so than to find ones who would be motivated to take on a mission for the Society.
Most dragons living on Earth don’t do this. The reasons are varied. They have subordinates who can carry out their missions much more secretly and cleanly without necessarily joining hands with criminal organizations, or they have no interest in how humans live and fight, or they have the temper to take Jang Tae-jun’s house in its entirety without worrying about the Korean government if they want to find a secret safe… and so on.
So, Minjun’s mind narrowed down the candidates to four. Coincidentally, they were all women. The problem was that he couldn’t guess the motivation for why all four of them should do that. So from here, it was difficult to narrow it down further.
-I’ll tell you the next news.
While the two are lost in thought, the voice of the radio, which has lost its listener, echoes low inside the car.
-Princess Vermi’s first country of visit has been decided to be our country. While there are various speculations as to why Korea was chosen…
-According to Statistics Korea, the domestic infant mortality rate rose by 2.5 percentage points last year compared to the previous year. The biggest reason is interpreted as an increase in the birth rate of those with the Time Walker trait…
– Let’s take a look at the stock market. Hyosung Industrial Co., Ltd. hit the upper limit on the news of its own stock purchase worth 15% of its market capitalization. In the stock market…
That last news barely caught the two men’s ears.
“Hyosung Industry?”
“It’s CEO Jang Tae-jun’s company.”
The two make eye contact.
The disappearance of CEO Jang Tae-jun has not yet been officially announced to the press. It has been said within the company that he went on a business trip, and that only a few people know the truth.
“Usually, important work like that gets done when the boss isn’t around, right?”
Minjun, who had never worked in such an ordinary job on Earth, didn’t have a good feel for it.
“···Well, it’s possible that the payment was already made before it disappeared. It could have disappeared while only execution was left.”
“Hmm.”
A guess was about to pop up in Minjun’s head. The moment he tried to focus more on it.
Gulp!
A loud noise came from Jeongpal’s stomach as he was holding the steering wheel.
Only then does Minjun realize his own insensibility. He had already passed lunchtime. To make an orc work while starving! Emotionally, it is a serious crime, comparable to treason. Even among humans, there are those who must eat three meals a day, but this is even more so for orcs.
“Are you hungry? Let’s share this.”
He took something out of his bag in the backseat.
“Are you going to eat?”
Jeongpal doesn’t refuse, but instead holds out his hand while keeping his gaze forward.
It was the package Catherine had thrown into Minjun’s office this morning out of context.
“It’s a ham and cheese sandwich. I heard Cathy made it herself?”
“Is that Serin? She doesn’t cook.”
“I started watching YouTube and following along these days.”
“Wow, is that a bribe for your employer?”
“I don’t know, I keep bringing you food these days, maybe because you’re trying to fatten me up and eat me.”
With one hand on the steering wheel, Jeongpal takes a bite of his sandwich.
“!”
The air inside the car suddenly became cold. Jeong-pal chewed it once in his mouth and made an expression of disbelief. His eyebrows formed the number eight and he chewed it once more, then his face changed to one that was on the verge of sobbing. After chewing it one last time, he quietly stopped the car and parked it on the side of the road. Then he kicked the door and got out.
“Why are you like that?”
Minjun took a bite while looking at his back. And he also had a shocked expression on his face.
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‘They say fake news is rampant on YouTube… Are there fake recipes circulating too?’
It was such an unexpected flavor that I couldn’t help but wonder.
The sandwich that Cassie made tasted like pickled herring.
***
After Jeongpal bought a 1-liter bottle of gargle liquid and emptied it, the two of them drove back to Jang Taejun’s house. Minjun searched the house thoroughly this time as well, but as expected, there was no secret safe in the house.
‘Some unknown dragon must have misjudged me.’
I asked Frying Pan too, but he said he didn’t know if there was anything like that in this house. He said that his range of perception is only 3 meters, so he can’t know what’s going on outside.
Minjun suggested to Jeongpal that they go to his office first to discuss future plans. He agreed because they couldn’t have this conversation at the police station.
After parking the car in front of the store, Minjun took out the Ego frying pan from the trunk. After walking a few steps, he saw Dongcheol, the goblin, lowering the shutter of the first-floor bookstore.
“···Huh? Master. I··· came back. ······No, you came?”
Bow, bow your belly button.
Then the frying pan smiled happily.
=Oh! You enjoy playing quite unconventional? Do you call me master without hiding it even when you’re outside? A cool play that doesn’t care about the ears and eyes around you?=
“······It’s not what you think.”
After going up to the second floor of the store, the two exchanged serious opinions.
And the conclusion is.
“Okay, let’s take our hands off.”
No matter how much I thought about it, it didn’t make sense. So far, I haven’t found a single piece of evidence that Jang Tae-jun is an alien. The existence of the frying pan only increases the probability, but it doesn’t provide a decisive blow. Furthermore, a dragon is involved, and the Society has also crawled out.
Minjun is not a police officer in the first place. More important than finding missing persons is proving the existence of extraterrestrials, but right now, the basic premise is shaken and there are too many annoying reefs.
From Jeong-pal’s perspective, covering up the incident was easy. All he had to do was report the current situation to his superiors and all the information would be transferred to the unsolved case file.
“It’s late today, so I’ll have to contact the immigration office tomorrow through Cash.”
At that moment, the heavy engine sound of a sports car was heard outside the window. Jeong-pal looked outside.
“The nobleman is no good. Serin has come.”
As I looked into the commercial parking lot, I saw a red Jaguar pulling in next to the investigative vehicle that Jeongpal had parked.
“I’m here! Oh, Mr. Jeongpal is here too?”
“You always call me Minjun, but why do you call me uncle?”
“If you feel it is unfair, please readjust the face value.”
“Damn, who would want to live in sorrow if they weren’t a quarter-elf?”
Minjun usually responded to questions about the reason for his slow aging by saying that he had elf blood mixed in. When it is diluted to that extent, the elf characteristics are barely noticeable in one’s appearance, and the race information on one’s ID is simply recorded as human.
“What is this?”
Cathy looks interested in the frying pan on the desk. Minjun stops her before she can reach for it.
“If you catch that, you might feel dirty.”
“yes?”
Minjun explained what kind of being it was and what kind of personality it had, and Cathy looked excited after hearing all of that.
“Wow! I’ve never touched an Ego Sword before. Oh… This is an Ego frying pan, though. Can I hold it once?”
“I clearly warned you.”
Cathy fearlessly grabbed the handle of the frying pan. Immediately, a shallow expression of surprise and curiosity crossed her face.
“Oh my god, you can really talk? What’s your name?”
=Just call me a pig, sis.=
“No, but that’s a bit… What was the name of the chef whose personality was copied?”
=This is Dignove Alcha-Teikyū, Sister.=
“The name is a bit long. Then, if you just shorten it to the first two letters, Di······ Ugh.”
After vaguely completing the pronunciation, I thought about it for a moment.
“Let’s decide on a name later.”
Minjun said.
“Don’t even think about taking that!”
If the case was going to end like this, I was thinking of returning the frying pan to Jang Tae-jun’s house.
“Don’t worry. By the way… why was your voice like that earlier? Did something bad happen?”
When he called Kathy to arrange for another look at Jang Tae-jun’s house, Min-jun’s voice was more toned down than usual. It was because his head was complicated because of the dragon.
“No, well. Rather than that···.”
I’m trying to muddle through. I was planning on talking about closing the case tomorrow. It’s already past closing time.
“I guess something happened. It was good that you brought it.”
“What?”
“I thought you were feeling down, so I bought you a bottle of alcohol.”
After putting down the frying pan, she reached into her bag. A long box wrapped in department store wrapping was poking out from above her orange Birkin bag.
Minjun shook his head.
“Not really, I don’t feel like drinking.”
Jeongpal also refused.
“I also drove here today···.”
But ignoring their reactions, Cathy tore the packaging open.
And then, as if showing off, he held out a bottle of Scotch.
“Kingsley Ashton, 37 Years Old. Dwarf Master Selection!”
“Brother, should I go to the mart and buy some ice?”
“No, it’s in the fridge. Wait here for three minutes, I’ll go get the drinks.”
The drinking party was prepared in perfect order.
***
‘······Ah. This is hard.’
Minjun woke up feeling as if his body had been thrown into a centrifuge.
‘······I feel like I’m going to die.’
I felt a terrible poison all over my body. Am I being poisoned? Or am I being tortured? When I focused on my senses, I realized it wasn’t like that.
It’s just a hangover.
With my eyes closed, I search for an anchor to land here, in this confused memory. Who am I, and what world am I in now? Why did I drink yesterday?
Did the crown prince of the Gram Empire force you into another uncomfortable drinking party? No, that was about 250 years ago.
Then, before breaking my head, because of the curse the necromancer spat out… did I drink alone again to forget the whispers of the ghost and fall asleep? Of course not. That was a memory from a long time ago, when I was weak and had just started working.
In times like this, try moving your fingers quickly.
His index finger didn’t wiggle in the thick culture fluid, nor did it skim the void created by the weightless sleep kit. It felt like clean cotton bed sheets.
Yes, this is Earth. I am Ye Min-jun.
Only then did he open his eyes.
“······.”
It’s a ceiling I don’t want to know about.
“Ugh!”
It was Minjun’s house, part of a renovated second floor of a commercial building. It smelled like his whole body was soaked in alcohol. He rolled around and stepped on the floor.
I thought to myself, “I should have tried serving God at least once,” but then I quickly erased the thought from my mind. If you seek faith as a hangover cure, you’ll be punished by heaven.
I felt a presence in the hallway, so I walked over and opened the front door.
“···Ah! Master··· Hello······?”
A goblin standing in the hallway in front of the front door and bowing.
In his hands were various newspapers and mail stuck in the mailbox on the first floor of the store. The recipient was all Ye Min-jun.
“Hello, Dongcheol… It’s not a good… morning.”
“······lol.”
It usually comes later, but it seems like it came early today because there was a lot of mail.
“You don’t have to do this every morning… I’ll bring it when I have time.”
“I do it because I like it···.”
Dongcheol smiled brightly, nodded again, and went down to the first floor.
After closing the door, Minjun searched through the mail absentmindedly. Among them, there was something that caught his eye.
-From: Office of the Chairman, Jenkinson, Father & Sons Company, Ltd.
-Recipient: Ye Min-jun.
Minjun sat down at the living room table and opened the luxurious envelope. Inside was a simple note with the words ‘Request for Attendance’ written on it.
– I have some news to share regarding your current assigned duties, so please visit the Chairman’s Office at the headquarters as soon as possible.
I think quietly. Why at this particular time?
He was planning to notify the immigration office today that he was withdrawing his involvement in the Jang Tae-jun case.
‘That too in the chairman’s office?’
The company that sent the letter is a private company that has been entrusted with the work of the Korean government’s immigration office. Although the immigration office officials are affiliated with the state, the organization is managed by this company. Therefore, if you look closely at the current state of the immigration office, less than 10% of them are government officials, and the rest are employed by private companies.
In Minjun’s case, he was not a civil servant but more like a freelancer bound by a contract.
Therefore, this letter was indeed a direct work instruction from Minjun’s employer on Earth.
‘Clearly… there’s something.’
I had a feeling that this sudden call was because of Jeongpal and what he found out yesterday.
Minjun had reason to be so confident.
The answer comes when you think of the person at the top of this conglomerate.
Chairman Jenkinson is a dragon.
