The Villain's Method (2)
The assemblyman Kim Seongdeok let out a piercing scream from the pain of his hand being run through.
"Aaaargh!"
"I have no idea why you're kicking up such a fuss like you're the victim. It's all stuff you did."
I slowly approached the screaming Kim Seongdeok and opened my mouth.
"Ignoring due process? You loved ignoring process and procedure yourself. If you'd actually followed them properly, you never could've pulled off something like human experimentation in the first place."
I started ticking off each point he'd been ranting about over the phone.
It was so typical—never thinking about his own crimes while badmouthing Do Chae-hee.
"A shit-smeared dog barking at one with flour on its nose."
I clicked my tongue in disapproval.
"Ugh, u-ugh, m-my, my hand."
Kim Seongdeok was trembling like a bug over something as minor as a pierced hand.
To me, who knew exactly what he'd done, it was utterly ridiculous. Had this guy really torn those kids apart while shaking like this over this?
At that moment, the door burst open. Seeing the black sand and shadows enter the room, Kim Seongdeok collapsed right there. I sighed at his terrified face.
Yeah, this was exactly the kind of guy Kim Seongdeok was.
"Why... why are you doing this to me? Huh? What do you want? D-do you need money?"
With a desperate look, he asked me.
"Well, yeah, I could use some."
Hope flickered across Kim Seongdeok's face at my words.
"But it's not your money I need."
With one sentence, I cruelly crushed that hope.
"I'll give you exactly what you deserve—right back at you."
I said, leaning crookedly against the wall.
I pulled Kim Jaeho back—he was clenching his fists. This bastard was too tough; one punch and his head would've exploded.
"I'll handle it. You two, get out."
They had to leave this room.
What was about to happen here was definitely not for minors.
I'd told them not to come in the first place—why had they followed this far?
Han Seohyun pouted at my words.
"What if I don't wanna?"
"If you wanna stick around, grow up first."
"Why was it fine when you killed the others, but not this guy?"
I shrugged at the question.
"Because I'm not gonna kill this one clean like them."
Grumbling at my promise to let him join when he grew up, Han Seohyun headed outside anyway.
Even after Han Seohyun left the room, Kim Jaeho stayed put.
"What're you doing? Go."
"I'm an adult."
No, you're not.
I shooed Kim Jaeho out too.
The smile faded from my face. I slowly turned back around.
"Time to pay for your sins, Mr. Esteemed Assemblyman."
At my words, Kim Seongdeok trembled as he babbled.
"Pl-please, think it over one more time. I'll give you anything you want! If it's not money, then something else? Y-you're an awakener, right? There's all sorts of great stuff just for awakeners."
"How many people did you hook with lines like that? Did they all fall for it?"
"Please..."
"I heard you loud and clear earlier. Something like, 'There's no one in this whole country who can drag me, Kim Seongdeok, into court'?"
I bowed my head and approached him.
Indeed, no court in this current Korea could ever touch this monster. Just as he said, he wouldn't even be indicted.
"Too bad for you. My court doesn't need any of that. No witnesses. No evidence."
Kim Seongdeok shuddered at my words. He was finally getting it—nothing he had could stop me.
"This trial only needs one thing."
I stepped forward and crushed his pierced hand underfoot.
"Gaaargh!"
I whispered to him as he writhed in agony.
"Conviction. The conviction that you did all those things."
I had no reason to fight fair on a board tilted in his favor. No reason to follow the rules of a corrupt world these bastards built. Nothing he'd piled up could stop me.
My trial needed just one thing.
The fact that he was a sinner unforgivable.
"That's all I need to put you on trial."
I stomped my foot.
Thud. Thud.
Like a judge with a gavel.
"And in this trial, I'm more than happy to sentence you to death."
Despair began to spread in Kim Seongdeok's eyes as he stared at my smiling mask.
I didn't show Kim Jaeho and Han Seohyun Kim Seongdeok's corpse.
Even I'd have to say it looked pretty bad.
It must've been a long, grueling time for Kim Seongdeok, but compared to the victims who lost their lives because of him, it was a flash of pain.
But I had no choice but to let him go.
The sun was rising soon, and everything we'd done would come to light.
I decided to hang Kim Seongdeok's body on a prominent building.
I could've hacked the surrounding CCTV, but I left it alone.
Instead, I left moving the body to the skeletons.
The sight of the clattering skeletons hanging the corpse would look straight out of an old horror flick.
Unlike the rest of his mangled body, I hadn't touched Kim Seongdeok's face at all.
Anyone who saw it would know exactly who it was, right?
To make sure no one went hunting the wrong culprit, I kindly hung a placard on his body too.
Weltschmerz Maker
Beltsmets Maker.
As if Kim Seongdeok had created this pessimistic, depressing world they preached about.
Anyone could see it was punishment tied to Assemblyman Kim Seongdeok and Hyeonmu Pharma.
The media went wild over Beltsmets' killing. In the frenzy, all the scandals Kim Seongdeok had desperately tried to bury bubbled to the surface. And the internet exploded with the truths they'd hidden.
The timid press finally started running stories, and the tight-lipped witnesses began speaking out one by one.
At last, Hyeonmu Pharma could face a proper trial. They could even subpoena the team leader—and the chairman above him.
Was it really this simple?
The ones who made it all possible were Beltsmets—the group Do Chae-hee had been dying to catch.
"Come to think of it, it was Beltsmets who raided Bomnal Orphanage too—the one no one knew about or cared to bury."
They were definitely villains.
Villains who'd killed dozens so far.
But those villains had done what she couldn't.
What the hell am I even doing?
As Do Chae-hee felt a hollow emptiness, Park Cheol-wan appeared before her. His face was a wreck, like he'd been through hell these past few days.
"Let's talk."
Do Chae-hee, her own face just as haggard, nodded and walked with him.
In a quiet spot, Park Cheol-wan rolled his anxious eyes before slowly speaking.
"You know your aunt's not well. Hasn't been long since she got married..."
His story dragged on. After hearing it all, Do Chae-hee clenched her fists.
"So that's why you compromised? With those kinds of people?"
Park Cheol-wan sighed. He knew what kind of person she was—his words wouldn't sway her.
"Evil doesn't run away? Turns out it didn't need to."
At Do Chae-hee's words, Park Cheol-wan exploded.
"I want to catch the bad guys too. That's why I became a cop and joined Eachbeom. Of course you know that."
Park Cheol-wan had always been tough on criminals. He'd probably arrested dozens, hundreds.
But he'd compromised with the very people he shouldn't.
"Wasn't Kim Seongdeok evil? The guy running illegal gates?"
"You can't catch every evil in the world."
"They made fools of us. Made us powerless. Pulled our teeth, clipped our nails. Compromise? You call that compromise?"
Do Chae-hee shouted.
"This isn't compromise. It's submission! What's the difference from groveling and begging to live? For what? A cushier life?"
"A cushier life? No—to survive!"
Park Cheol-wan yelled back.
"Just look the other way—that's it. They're people we can't touch anyway. If I'd fought them? Dug into that case? Chae-hee, you don't know. The hell I've walked through."
Many preached justice. But in the end, only Park Cheol-wan remained. He told Do Chae-hee.
It was the only way to survive.
"I didn't do anything wrong. Never committed a crime. I just... closed my eyes for a bit. To protect the people I love, I had no choice."
"Cowardly. Truly cowardly."
Do Chae-hee closed her eyes, then opened them, staring at Park Cheol-wan.
She hated Beltsmets.
But in this moment, did she even have the right to condemn them? When this was happening right beside her?
"Anyone else, maybe. But we can't compromise."
"Why? We're just ordinary people!"
"If we compromise—if we look away—the people who really need help will die alone, clueless! Because of our compromise, our neglect, someone might die! If you wanted to compromise, to turn a blind eye, you never should've become a cop."
Park Cheol-wan clenched his fists. He spoke to Do Chae-hee like advice.
"Reality isn't that pretty. Even if I don't stop you, others will."
"Doesn't matter."
Do Chae-hee growled.
"I'd rather choose a righteous death than live like a coward."