168. Cleanup
Gyeon Gwan-im, who had surrendered to Jin A-yeon, was bound just like that and dragged out of the Sanggyeok Courthouse in Daegu. They must have taken into account his peaceful surrender—restraining only his body without fully stripping his freedom of movement—which gave him a chance to face Heo Jin-ho, the one commanding the courthouse suppression operation. Though in truth, it was a meeting between usurper and the usurped, and a tense atmosphere might have been expected.
"Heh. Looks like you've landed yourself a fine boss."
"You too. Feels like I'm gonna die of injustice here."
Yet the two men, upon actually meeting, exchanged nothing but well-wishes like old neighborhood buddies. Heo Jin-ho, who had glared at him murderously before, seemed to feel a pang of pity upon seeing Gyeon Gwan-im dragged out by Jin A-yeon, and asked if he wasn't feeling hard done by. Gyeon Gwan-im's response?
"Of course I'm pissed. Who could've guessed the Balhut Cult was this insane?"
"...Couldn't agree more. Weird coming from me, since they helped us out, but yeah—they're nuts."
Gyeon Gwan-im brazenly grinned as he vented his injustice, lamenting how no one could have known the Balhut Cult was such a mad force. Heo Jin-ho gave a wry smile, unable to deny it, thinking he'd never dreamed he'd end up reenacting Gyeon Hweon's tale himself.
"So, what's the Balhut Cult planning next? You're the ones who got dragged out after losing, so you must be tossing and turning at night from the sheer unfairness."
"...They said they're planning to found a nation."
"A nation... A nation, huh? Haha. Well, can't be helped then. Thought I was a truck, but turns out the neighbors had a hundred-ton hauler crushing all the competition!"
Gyeon Gwan-im grumbled a bit about the injustice as the defeated party, then asked Heo Jin-ho what the Balhut Cult would do next. Heo Jin-ho relayed exactly what he knew. Gyeon Gwan-im burst into hearty laughter, declaring his defeat inevitable and cleanly acknowledging it.
Soon after, with all the remnants holed up in the Sanggyeok Courthouse subdued, Han Seong-geun arrived at the courthouse leading the police main force and a transport convoy to haul them away.
"Fancy gadget."
"Best not to think about resisting, sir."
To fully subdue these Awakened, special tools were needed, of course. Han Seong-geun brought out Awakener-specific suppression handcuffs and began fitting them on one by one. The restrained Awakened felt their sense of omnipotence vanish, replaced by the vulnerability of an ordinary person. Gyeon Gwan-im let out a sigh, acquiescing to Han Seong-geun's words.
"Already knew the other side had superhumans, so I gave up resisting. But what's this? Handcuffs that seal mana? Magic items these days even do that?"
"Trade secret."
"Stingy bastard."
Unable to curb his curiosity, he asked about the handcuffs' secrets, but Han Seong-geun just smiled and brushed it off as a trade secret. Gyeon Gwan-im called him stingy but asked no more, obediently boarding the transport vehicle and cooperating fully.
With Gyeon Gwan-im cooperating smoothly, his personal guard followed suit. Thanks to that, they loaded everyone onto the transports without further suppression efforts.
Once these lot were locked up in the Awakener-exclusive prison, Han Seong-geun's job would be done. It seemed straightforward, but transporting Gyeon Gwan-im to Gyeongju wasn't going to be easy in the current situation.
"Looks like he had some real support base after all. Reinforcements are coming to rescue Gyeon Gwan-im."
"What'd you expect? Plenty of folks grumbled about the old government. We've seen it ourselves—full of internal malcontents."
Even with their leader captured, diehards still loyal to Gyeon Gwan-im remained. Most were his dispatched personal guard, but there were genuine Daegu locals who followed him too. Some raiders feared payback for their crimes without him and wanted him freed anyway. The common thread? They all wanted Gyeon Gwan-im to win.
Watching these desperate fighters battling for Gyeon Gwan-im's victory, Han Seong-geun spoke with genuine relief.
"Opposition's natural, but satisfying them all means he had real talent as a warlord. Thank goodness we stamped him out before he grew bigger."
On the flip side, their fervor to rescue him proved Gyeon Gwan-im had fulfilled their visions and desires. Satisfying them in such a short reign meant that with even a little more time to consolidate, he could have truly seized Daegu and leaped into contention for the Korean Peninsula's throne. No wonder Han Seong-geun called it a relief.
With a Daegu base and raiders' explosive power unleashed, he'd have been a nightmare plague on the entire peninsula—the worst kind of warlord.
"In the end, they all depend on Gyeon Gwan-im alone. Once he's in prison, their resistance is pointless."
But Jin A-yeon said that since they relied solely on him anyway, locking him up would end it. With the head captured, failure to rescue meant total collapse. No successor, and no one to replace him... they'd all been rounded up in the initial takedown.
"Then you'll have to handle this important escort yourself."
"Ugh, me again? Fine."
Just get him to Gyeongju, and it was over—so the strongest, Jin A-yeon, had to take it on. She grumbled curtly at Han Seong-geun's words, grabbed her weapon, and boarded the transport slowly. It was her declaration to personally dump Gyeon Gwan-im in prison. Han Seong-geun smiled brightly at the sight.
"Yeah, take care of it. I've got other duties."
"Other duties?"
"Just pretend there are."
He saw Jin A-yeon off to the Gyeongju prison, then stayed in Daegu, heading to Heo Jin-ho's position. The Balhut Cult had given Han Seong-geun two missions. First: aid Heo Jin-ho in retaking and stabilizing Daegu. Second...
'If Heo Jin-ho shows any signs of betrayal, report to the Balhut Cult and subdue him.'
He was Heo Jin-ho's watchdog. The Balhut Cult knew how risky this op was and, as Gyeon Gwan-im suspected, had planned for Heo Jin-ho's potential betrayal. First measure: Han Seong-geun as monitor. Second...
With this, the contract is complete. All that remains is to tidy up Daegu and return to Gyeongju.
"I know. I'll uphold the contract as agreed."
It was a contract via Geas Scroll—a special one made by Bahamut himself, enforced with binding compulsion. Of course, both parties had agreed willingly, so Heo Jin-ho knew it carried magical effects and penalties for breach.
'The moment I think of betraying, this guy in front of me becomes my enemy...'
Any slip or lapse, and Han Seong-geun would bluntly remind him of the contract and his surveillance—no room for betrayal. With that visible leash, he couldn't even dream of it without a sure win.
"Then let's set up in the Sanggyeok Courthouse. There's the administrative office I used to run Daegu from back then."
Heo Jin-ho entered the courthouse to fulfill the contract and start sorting Daegu, with Han Seong-geun following to the admin office. The old Daegu administrative network was intact, and Heo Jin-ho reclaimed it to begin normalization.
"A traitor once won't guarantee no second time. Might as well strip 'em clean."
"Hah, but then how am I supposed to eat?!"
"My mercy ends there. You thinking of rebelling?"
Heo Jin-ho's first order upon reclaiming the provisional government was none other than a purge. In other words, cleansing those who collaborated with Gyeon Gwan-im—stripping their posts and kicking them from government buildings. He could have gone for bloody purges, but with Han Seong-geun watching and the freshly retaken government too fragile, he avoided extremes.
Still, it was a purge, so opposition and resistance to Heo Jin-ho's actions began cropping up across Daegu.
'But keeping proven traitors on is a problem too, right?'
Yet Han Seong-geun's police didn't interfere or rebel against the citywide purges. Simple: they shared the anxiety that forgiving and trusting betrayers once could lead to disaster if stabbed again. It decisively purged known traitors while planting a warning against hidden ones.
"Inventory the supplies left in the Sanggyeok Courthouse. Deploy forces to guard against incoming undead from outside. Finally, coordinate with the Balhut Police to establish military administration."
Next: check Gyeon Gwan-im's leftover supplies and garrison borders against external undead. Both critical—supplies might require Balhut Cult aid, and undead defense was top priority in this apocalypse. These orders were accepted without question, but the last one...
"Th-that means we'll be under the Balhut Cult, right?"
"Exactly. We're a force under the Balhut Cult. This just makes it official."
It was a declaration to accept Balhut Cult rule—downgrading from provisional government to local one under their oversight. Provisional gov staff unfamiliar with the cult pushed back.
"No way! We just won independence—now you're saying we bow to someone else!?"
"Then you wanna take on the Balhut Police in Daegu? Even if we win, we'd inherit their public order duties. Stabilizing civil war wreckage needs Balhut Cult help and their military admin. No objections."
Heo Jin-ho dismissed the backlash with cold realism, showing his willingness to cooperate as their ally.
'Heo Jin-ho's cooperating with us. What a relief.'
Han Seong-geun, watching, felt true relief as he continued monitoring, and Daegu began regaining stability with Balhut Cult support.