Chapter 103
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: The Mayor and the Shadow
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fail, fail, and fail again.
Get used to failure, grow numb to it, until failure becomes everyday life.
Life doesn't go according to plan by nature, but my life had a peculiar tendency to flow in the exact opposite direction of my intentions.
The weirder the thrashing to fail, the more this bizarre buoyancy pushes me to the peak of success.
What if I'd sent the Kurokumo Clan back to Japan? Or turned a blind eye to old man Genji's seppuku fiasco? Things would surely have turned out differently.
I might even be riding the impeachment train right now, branded as the "heartless mayor."
But I didn't want it to go that far.
No, I couldn't.
I'm a man who knows the beauty of failure.
Committing corruption and embezzling budgets is one realm entirely apart from letting a person die right in front of you. The former is a matter of professional ethics; the latter is a question of basic humanity.
I'm a rotten civil servant, not a psychopathic killer.
"Sigh... what was I expecting?"
In the end, I let out a sigh and accepted it all. This failure, too, was steadily added to my portfolio.
Failure expert, failure artist, maestro of failure.
That's me, Lee Garam.
On a clear afternoon, while wallowing in the swamp of self-pity and rationalization...
A bizarre scene unfolded beyond the window of my mayoral office.
The plaza in front of City Hall.
"...What the hell is that?"
A black wave rippled across the plaza.
Like a well-drilled army, hundreds of people stood in perfect formation.
All dressed in black.
Men, women, elderly, children.
Their eyes gleamed with an eerie, inverted gaze, as if by prior agreement.
The Kurokumo Clan.
And their numbers had swelled dramatically.
After the seppuku uproar, clan members scattered across the world had begun gathering in Neo Incheon one after another.
From those managing secret fortunes to those studying poison frogs in the Amazon rainforest.
They all gazed up at one place: this very mayoral office.
"...This feels ominous."
A chill ran down my spine.
Knock knock.
"Ah, yes. Come in."
The door opened, and key members of the Kurokumo Clan filed in one by one.
Genji, Shizuka, Yuuta, Tsubaki.
And faces I didn't recognize. When did they grow this big?
"Mayor. No, Lord Daimyo Lee Garam."
What the hell is that weird title?
"No, that title's a bit much. Why am I a daimyo, anyway?"
Genji ignored my protest and bowed deeply from the waist.
"We have been branded as 'burakumin' outcasts since the Edo period—a pariah family."
Burakumin. The lowest rung in Japan's caste system. Untouchables.
We weren't even treated as people. Forbidden from proper jobs, our ancestors hid in the shadows and took up the blade. To survive, they killed; to kill, they delved deeper into darkness.
Shizuka took up the story.
"Our innate inverted eyes and tattooed bodies marked us as monsters wherever we went. We handled the dirtiest jobs, only to be discarded once soiled. That was the fate of the Kurokumo."
Tsubaki raised her head.
"When we first met you, Lord Daimyo, we assumed you were the same. The kind of power-hungry lord who would use us up and discard us without mercy."
"......"
Bingo.
Right. That was exactly my plan.
Spot on.
"But you did not abandon us, Lord Daimyo. You gave us jobs, warm homes. Above all... you allowed our children to attend school with smiles on their faces. No bullying for their inverted eyes, no fear for being ninja descendants. You gifted us ordinary lives."
Yuuta's eyes reddened.
"To repay the grace you have bestowed upon us, our clan will now live for you. Die for you. From this moment, the 400-year history of the Kurokumo, all our techniques, and our very lives are yours."
The declaration ended.
And then.
Thud!
They all dropped to their knees right there. And they bowed low, foreheads to the floor, deeper than deep.
Dogeza.
The same happened in the plaza outside the window. Hundreds of Kurokumo clansmen prostrated themselves in unison.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The same posture as our first meeting. But the meaning was worlds apart.
Not the humiliation of survival, but heartfelt gratitude and loyalty.
Why am I a daimyo?! I'm not even a shogun!
I'm just the mayor! A step up from a district office clerk!
I tore at my hair.
What is this? Suddenly becoming the head of a ninja legion?
I just wanted to get impeached quietly, so why do these weird titles keep sticking to me?
Is this a light novel?
Reborn and Accidentally Became a Daimyo?
I Just Wanted to Be a Normal Mayor, But Somehow Ended Up with an Assassin Cult?
"Issue your command! Whom shall we kill? Which organization shall we annihilate? The Japanese government? The central government? Or the media outlets slandering you, Lord Mayor?"
"No killing! That's a crime! Crime!"
"Then we'll handle it as a perfect crime."
"No, that's not the issue!"
"Ahh... So you're sparing us from pushing us into danger again...!"
Tears streamed from Genji's eyes again.
No, gramps, is there something wrong with your tear ducts? Shouldn't you check back into the psych ward?
"A gentle savior!"
"A living sage!"
"A Buddha incarnate!"
Starting with someone's cry, the cheers erupting from the plaza twisted into religious fanaticism.
"Long live Lord Lee Garam!"
"Banzaaai, Daimyo!"
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
I stood there dumbfounded, unsure how to handle this collective madness.
Then Shizuka cautiously offered a wooden box.
"Lord Daimyo. Our clan made these with all our heart. They're humble, but please accept them."
Opening the box revealed colorful, delicate wagashi sweets.
Rabbit, flower, and maple leaf shapes. Beside them lay a scroll inscribed in red ink.
Countless instances of the word "Loyalty."
Hundreds of them.
"...Blood oath?"
"Yes! A pledge of loyalty written in the blood of the entire clan!"
A gift, but why include something so terrifying?! Can't you just give the sweets?!
Or at least print it with a printer!!
Overkill. Way too much. A roll cake from the bakery would suffice.
"We made plenty to share."
Fine. Alright. Playing it like that, huh?
Then I'll respond in kind.
Time to revert to the utterly depraved Mayor Lee Garam.
Now, hurl this wagashi box to the floor.
Shout "Worthless!" and kick it away.
That'll crack their loyalty and shatter their illusions about me.
'Lee Garam trampled our sincerity!'
'All power-hungry lords are the same!'
'We were fools!'
Of course, it'd hurt. My conscience would sting.
Discarding handmade wagashi? Unfit for a human.
But! For impeachment!
For my political suicide!
This much inhumanity is nothing!
Come on, Lee Garam. You can do it. You can be trash too.
Become the ultimate scumbag mayor.
And if worst comes to worst, pick it up later and sneak it to the staff break room.
The three-second rule applies? As mayor, I can extend it to three hours.
As I reached for the box—
Whoosh!
Something shot past me like a bullet.
Nya~aang!
A calico furball.
Nero.
Without a moment's hesitation, he dove headfirst into the wagashi box.
Munch munch, crunch crunch, nom nom.
"Wha...?"
Nero buried his face in the flower-shaped wagashi. He crunched the maple leaf ones with his teeth and swallowed the rabbit shapes whole.
Yom yom yom—
The calico black hole feast. Vacuum cleaner? Step aside—this was next level.
"Hey! You! That's not for eating! Well, it is edible, but!"
In less than a minute, dozens of wagashi that filled the box vanished into Nero's belly.
Only the blood oath scroll remained.
Silence fell.
Genji broke it, tears of streaming from his eyes.
"Ooh...! The divine cat has accepted our sincerity!"
"Huh?"
"The sacred beast acknowledges our loyalty!"
The others knelt in as well.
He's just a gluttonous cat! Not a divine beast!
Nyaa. Nya. Nya.
Licking his lips—that means it's really tasty.
"Aaaah! Lord Nerorong has graced us with his gaze!"
"He accepted our offering!!"
"We are chosen!"
Why did Nero eat it on his own?!
And why are you all freaking out on your own?!
Kraaack!
Patting his plump belly, Nero began grooming.
Myaaong~
He meticulously licked the wagashi crumbs from his whiskers, then gazed at me lazily and meowed.
'That was good'? Or 'thanks'?
...Definitely 'got more?'
With the world's most serene expression, as if nothing was wrong, he began dozing off with a nod.
"Haa..."
Another failure today.
A few days later.
On a night when the ripples from the Kurokumo incident spread through the city like gentle waves.
Neo Incheon's upscale lounge, Golden Horizon.
Beyond the shoji doors of the private room, expensive sake aromas mingled with the coquettish laughter of women.
"Kuh, this is the stuff! Way better than that floating restaurant crap."
"Director Park! Bottoms up!"
"President Kim, you look great today!"
President Kim Daejin raised his glass high.
The floating restaurant incident.
The day Lee Garam kindly invited them to his trap party, and fifteen mid-tier company heads were handcuffed one by one.
Secret meetings had continued ever since.
"No eavesdropping worries here. Damn that mayor bastard."
Director Park roughly loosened his tie and spat curses.
They'd paid massive bails and been released, but their companies were already in ruins.
Government contract bidding rights revoked, prime projects handed to City Hall loyalists.
"That son of a bitch Lee Garam properly screwed us!"
"Even roped in that reporter bitch to screw us over!"
"Right! Can a politician backstab businessmen like this?!"
Their own greed and folly? Erased from memory.
All blame shifted to external malice.
Humans are like that. Geniuses at self-justification.
"So, how do we get revenge?"
"Yeah! Can't just take this lying down."
"How about hiring villains officially? Our slush funds could snag a couple A-ranks easy."
The presidents tossed around words blurring bravado and seriousness.
Alcohol numbed their reason and fanned their vengeance.
That was the moment.
Thud.
All sound and light in the room evaporated instantly.
The ornate chandelier, ambient lighting, even the tiny LED on the outlet.
Complete darkness.
"Kyaaah!"
The girls' sharp screams pierced the dark.
"Wh-what? Power outage?"
The presidents shouted in panic. Sobriety hit like a truck.
Swish swish—
The faint rustle of clothing.
Click.
The sturdy shoji door locked itself.
"S-smartphone!"
Someone fumbled with trembling hands for their phone.
"It won't turn on... Why won't it?!"
Flashlight app? No dice—the screen stayed dead.
Same for everyone else's phones.
Terror crept up in the darkness.
Then.
A chill.
President Kim Daejin's nape felt the icy touch of a blade.
"Hiiik!"
He squealed like a pig at slaughter and tumbled from his chair.
Everyone in the room shuddered at the eerie prick on their own napes simultaneously.
What happened in the dark? No clue. Instinctual fear consumed them.
"Ugh!"
Kim tried crawling away on all fours but tripped on invisible wire, face-planting.
"Spare me... Please... Spare me..."
Director Park crammed his bulk under the table, trembling.
The girls beside him had fainted or were sobbing quietly.
And in the darkness.
Eyes glowed.
Inverted eyes.
Jet-black sclera, pure white pupils.
Scuttle. Scuttle.
Black silhouettes crawling the walls.
Spider-like, lizard-like. Defying gravity, their forms flickered in the shadows.
"Uwaaaah!"
Someone's scream.
Whose? Indistinguishable.
Everyone was screaming.
How much time passed? An eternity later.
Flick.
A single emergency light on the ceiling snapped on like a spotlight.
Dead center in its beam.
Stood an old man in black assassin garb.
Kurokumo Genji.
Flanked by Yuuta and Tsubaki.
And more presences lurking in the dark.
"Remember this: those who harm the Daimyo make enemies of the entire Kurokumo Clan."
Courteous tone. Brutal threat.
"Lord Lee Garam is our benefactor who granted us new life, the sole master we serve with our lives. No further irreverence will be tolerated."
Yuuta stepped forward, holding up a tablet PC. The screen showed countless photos.
"Every conversation and criminal plot of yours is recorded here."
Courteous, chilling threat.
Genji surveyed them one last time.
"Tonight ends as a warning. Choose wisdom."
Genji said softly.
Swish—
With those words, the three melted into the darkness like smoke.
Perfect silence filled the room.
Moments later.
Flash!
Power returned, fluorescent lights blazing bright.
As if nothing happened, drinks and food sat untouched. Only the collapsed women attested to the chaos.
"Huff... huff..."
The presidents stared at each other.
Pale faces. Cold sweat. Shaking hands.
And.
Their necks.
A red line circled each throat.
Skin lightly nicked, blood seeping. A fraction deeper, and carotid arteries severed.
"H-heh... Ahh..."
"Th-this... is real...?"
Director Choi's pants darkened at the crotch.
Screams, terror, and foul stench filled the room.
"Ninjas... Real ninjas exist..."
"Report it... and we're dead... Shut up..."
They realized viscerally they'd touched something untouchable.
Shut up and live like mice—the only path to survival.
Ninjas truly existed.
The same night.
In the kitchen of a late-night raw fish restaurant in Live Fish Town.
Genji sharpened his blade alone.
Shhwick—shhwick—
Only the rhythmic grind against the whetstone. The honed edge gleamed coldly in the moonlight.
'The Daimyo need know nothing.'
A low murmur escaped him.
'Light with light. Shadows with shadows.'
The ninja's way.
The lord smiles in the sunlight.
Dirty work falls to the shadows.
His inverted eyes shone with resolve.
"Lord Lee Garam, banzaai."
The next morning. Mayoral office.
I was still wrestling the paperwork mountain.
"Why... why won't it shrink?"
Why?
"I processed all night! I swear I did! Stamped and signed them myself!"
Why no sign of these papers diminishing? Do they multiply like slimes when processed?
Myaaong~
As I sighed, Nero flicked his tail from his sunbathing spot by the window.
Across the desk, Seria checked the schedule in her usual dry tone.
"The papers you processed yesterday amount to just 5% of the total."
"5%?"
"Yes. And that's generous. Actually 4.7%, rounded up. Plus, three times as many arrived this morning."
"Save me..."
Knock knock—
"Come in."
Seria answered for me.
The door opened, and Enforcer Kang Hyunwoo entered.
"Mayor. I have a report."
"What? Who screwed up? Kurokumo? Sugargirl? Or Nero?"
"No, the opposite. The businessmen from the floating restaurant scandal all submitted handwritten apologies."
Kang Hyunwoo handed over a binder.
[Apology Letter]
I deeply reflect on my actions.
I will become a model citizen from now on.
Long live Mayor Lee Garam.
Crooked writing. Trembling evident.
"They vow to pay taxes diligently and live quietly as model Neo Incheon citizens. Even pledged 10 billion won each to the city development fund."
I dropped my pen.
"Suddenly why?"
"They got together drinking last night and all had a sudden epiphany about life's truths."
Those arrogant pricks? Did flowers bloom on their heads overnight? Or did they share a 'become good' potion?
Thud.
Enforcer Kang Hyunwoo added the related files to my desk.
The paper mountain grew another layer.
Avalanche imminent. Paper comes from trees, after all.
"Wait, hold on! Can't we just accept it into the budget?"
"Such sloppy admin is a relic of the past. First, establish a special account for transparent donation management, introduce independent external audits, then report operations in detail to citizens quarterly..."
As Seria's explanation dragged on, my face drained white.
"More work again?! Nooooo!!"