The Corporation (2)
A custodial investigation is an incredibly convenient method for law enforcement.
Since the suspect is already in custody, you can summon and grill them whenever you want...
And they can't destroy or fabricate evidence.
No one in the world is completely clean, so if you really push it, you can even manufacture a crime that didn't exist.
That's why, even before I was appointed as a Special Investigator, I kept demanding warrantless investigations.
The prosecution can hold a suspect in custody pre-indictment for a maximum of about 20 days.
If you drag the police into it, you can lock them up for up to 30 days, but for these bastards, I don't even need to go that far.
The Black Horse Guild president, who'd so confidently boasted about doing things by the book, now looked like death locked behind bars.
The other employees were in just as much agony.
They shot accusing glares at the president who had carelessly provoked me amid that obnoxious racket.
"Woof, woof! Grrr... growl!"
Inside the detention room where they were confined, Ker was howling nonstop.
The creature glared through the iron bars with drool dripping, and the sheer menace was no small thing.
A few timid female clerks were even in tears.
"Please, just get rid of the dog..."
"Arf arf! Grrr!"
Ker, who'd been barking his heart out for the first time in a while, stopped the moment I entered the detention room and scurried right over.
I completely ignored the suspects' screams and shouted at him.
"Good job. Let's go eat. Today, pick whatever place you like."
"Woof woof!"
Ker wagged his tail excitedly and trotted after me.
Given how he'd been going berserk just moments before, the docile demeanor was almost unbelievable.
The entire Black Horse Guild staff was utterly stunned when they saw that...
But I didn't even glance back at them.
Once we were back up in the office, Ker flicked through a delivery app, then poked a corner with his front paw.
As a Cerberus, a monster-hunting Hunter Pet, Ker has intelligence that puts most so-called genius dogs to shame.
"What's this? Japanese? Ji-yu, come here and put in a sensible order."
"Yes, Team Leader! Um, how about the payment..."
"Oh, right."
I handed back the card I'd confiscated from Seo Ji-yu the other day.
Seeing her tremble with emotion after taking it made me want to confiscate it all over again.
"Team Leader..."
"What. Not ordering? Should I take it back?"
"No! But, is it really okay to keep those people in custody? What if they file for damages later?"
"Given how many people we've detained so far... you're really asking this just now."
Even as I scolded her, I reassured Seo Ji-yu.
"It's fine as long as they aren't acquitted. Even if they are found not guilty, it's their loss."
"Their loss..."
A custodial investigation is absolutely miserable for the person on the receiving end.
Stuck in one place and summoned at all hours for questioning, only to be locked up again and again...
If an investigative agency conducts a custodial investigation, an innocent victim can later receive compensation, but the amount is absurdly low.
Even if they get compensation, it can never restore the lost time or reputation.
"You don't get a warrant for a custodial investigation and do it for no reason."
"Good heavens."
Seo Ji-yu seemed worried about what would happen if those bastards really were innocent victims...
But from where I stood, they were one hundred percent guilty.
If they weren't, they wouldn't have had any reason to lunge at me like that.
The president had overreacted because he genuinely had something nasty to hide.
Right after lunch, Kim Jeong-tae, who'd headed to Black Horse Guild's headquarters, sent a message.
Blanche also submitted bits of evidence here and there, giving us a little extra help.
The moment I finished eating and reviewed it all, I let out a deep sigh.
"Figures. You pieces of shit..."
"Did something turn up?"
"So much that it's hard to sort through."
Well, in a way, it was only logical.
A physical-enhancement-type hunter isn't just strong. Their stamina and durability are exceptionally high.
If they drove someone like that to death by overwork... they must have wrung him dry.
As the victim's wife had testified, he would have had to leave before sunrise and come home at midnight.
After slowly going over the materials, the first thing I did was call in the lawyer.
The man, who introduced himself as the exclusive attorney for the prime contractor guild, said without hesitation,
"Investigator, I will be relinquishing my representation of Black Horse Guild and its employees."
"Skip that. Just get me the prime contractor guild master."
Tap.
When I handed him my smartphone, he dialed the guild master with trembling hands.
Moments later, the prime contractor's guild master, who'd practically come running barefoot, quietly took a seat next to the lawyer.
Based on the initial findings, I'd concluded that dragging the prime contractor guild into this would be troublesome either way... so I decided to just let them go.
"Did you pay your respects at the funeral home?"
"Yes... I did. I am truly sorry about this incident. As the prime contractor, I deeply feel our responsibility."
"The incorporated association Black Horse Guild... being a corporation sure is convenient, isn't it."
"Pardon?"
I decided to speak my mind a bit in front of the two men.
They listened in silence, not saying a word.
"A corporation is basically treated as though it has no capacity to commit a crime. Because a company can't commit murder."
"..."
"Isn't that absurd? This case is clearly murder committed at the corporate level, yet there's only a victim, and the perpetrator doesn't exist. It makes no sense, does it?"
"It... it is absurd."
Once the guild master slowly nodded in agreement, I got to the point.
"Mr. President. How much condolence money do you intend to pay?"
"I... I can do about 5,000 right away. And of course, I can pay more on top of that!"
"5,000... I guess hunters really are premium personnel after all."
They brightened up when I gave them a wry smile, but...
The next words made their faces pitiful again.
"Normally, when an industrial worker dies, they hand out a fine of about 500 per person, right? But for a hunter, it's ten times that."
"..."
"Mr. President. You've benefited a great deal from your subcontractors so far, haven't you? Spend just a little more. At least send the family's son to college, wouldn't you say? And considering the face of a large guild, how about a clean 100 million?"
"Yes, of course, I should pay at least that much."
We wrapped up the settlement smoothly and shook hands.
Honestly, in this case, I even felt a little guilty, as if I were just extorting money for no reason.
To put it bluntly, what fault was there in the prime contractor for simply selling off raid priority rights?
Still, considering they'd been caught by the Special Unit, getting off with a mere 100 million was incredibly cheap.
Next, I called in the subcontractor president, the person who could truly be called the main culprit in this case.
The moment he entered the interrogation room, he looked for his lawyer... but the lawyer had already left the Association long ago.
"That fellow has quit, so call a new lawyer. I'll give you exactly one hour from now."
"Wha... what? Why would the lawyer suddenly quit?"
"Because that fellow is smart."
When I returned his phone and left the room, the bastard scrambled frantically.
But hiring a new lawyer wasn't easy.
To begin with, lawyers well-versed in hunter cases are quite rare... and even fewer are willing to jump eagerly into a fight with the Special Unit, as opposed to a dispute with another guild.
We boast a one-hundred-percent conviction rate so far.
He had to face questioning again without a lawyer.
The bastard had noticeably calmed down, as if he'd finally realized how deeply wrong things had gone, but...
The moment I began calmly choosing my words, he raised his voice again.
"First of all, your guild's gender ratio is rather peculiar. Especially among the field-active hunters, 80 percent are female... ah, it's 90 percent now, isn't it?"
"Wh—what's the problem with that? Are you belittling female hunters right now?"
"No. I haven't said anything like that yet."
I glared him into silence and continued as calmly as I could.
To be honest, just looking at the evidence I'd gathered so far made me want to scream at him, but I was barely holding myself back.
"One interesting thing is, the male-to-female ratio wasn't always this extreme. As recently as a year ago, Black Horse Guild actually had more male employees."
"..."
"But starting two years ago, the hiring of new hunters plummeted drastically, and six months ago, the male hunters began quitting en masse. Do you have any idea why?"
"If the men decided they didn't want to work anymore, what can you do? These days, this industry isn't what it used to be."
I know that all too well.
I kindly pointed out the part he'd deliberately omitted.
"The question is why the male hunters suddenly didn't want to work anymore. It's not like they all suddenly stopped needing money, is it?"
"..."
"As you said, the hunter industry isn't what it used to be. In the last few years, the number of dungeons appearing has dropped dramatically, so Black Horse Guild's provincial business trips naturally increased. Originally, handling dungeons in the Gyeonggi area was enough to make a living, but now you can't survive unless you go all the way out to the provinces."
The president affirmed my account with heavy silence.
Up to this point, I didn't need his confirmation for anything.
The real problem was just beginning.
"But provincial business trips are utterly exhausting. You have to drive all day to get to a dungeon, and then once the work's done, you have to drive back alone again. If you had a dedicated driver, that'd be one thing, but... there's no way a small-time subcontractor would provide something like that."
The biggest problem with most subcontractors is that they try to cut costs at all costs.
Because the money that trickles down to them is already fixed, every bit of cost they slash increases the operator's take.
Black Horse Guild operated by purchasing raid priority rights from large guilds, but with their small size, there'd always been limits.
Even buying the raid rights from the prime contractor requires money and connections.
"But Black Horse Guild's female hunters hardly ever went on provincial business trips. At most, they stayed within the Gyeonggi region."
"What can I do if they say they won't go!"
"And the men were happy to go? Isn't that exactly why they all quit?"
"..."
By the time the male hunters quit en masse, the balance had already broken.
But Black Horse Guild wasn't in a position to pick and choose which jobs to take.
If they could have turned down the prime contractor's work, they wouldn't have been a subcontractor in the first place.
Instead of hiring more hunters or distributing the business trips evenly, the president chose a much simpler and more economical solution.
"Namely, using male hunters exclusively for provincial business trips."
"What's the problem with that?"
"Well. A man died, so there must have been a problem, don't you think?"
"They agreed to it! I clearly paid the travel allowances..."
"You send them down at least five times a month and only tack on a lousy 20 extra? That's not even enough to cover gas!"
"Of course I also paid the fuel expenses separately..."
The president kept talking back, utterly indignant.
I slapped the investigation materials down in front of him.
Smack!
"You work them sixty hours a week with no night pay, and you don't even count the time it takes to travel back from a business trip as working hours... what the hell, are you living all alone in the 1990s?"
At this level, it's a miracle the deceased held out as long as he did.
The president still showed zero sign of remorse.
"So it's my fault that the idiot just kept working like a fool until he couldn't take it and died?!"
"We've still got a long way to go. I'll go over, one by one, exactly how many safety regulations your guild has violated."
Usually, accidents like this happen because the most basic safety rules were ignored.
Those rules were put in place so that accidents wouldn't happen if you followed them, but companies always insist they have their own circumstances and break them anyway.
His face flushed, the president huffed in fury, clenching and unclenching his fists.
Amazingly, it seemed even that was his way of trying to suppress his temper.