The Unraveling Truth
I opened the door and slipped into the house. Inside, the guards were slumped in their chairs, nodding off. I moved silently, closing the distance, and ended their lives with a quick strike of my dagger before beginning a light sweep of the first floor.
“Moving to the second floor.”
Whoosh.
As I rounded the blind spot on the staircase, a fist came flying toward James.
Thwack!
Even though the strike came out of nowhere, James didn’t panic. He snatched the arm, drew his pistol, and fired.
Thump, thump, thump.
The muffled shots rang out, and the guard didn’t even have time to scream before his life was extinguished. James caught the body as it slumped toward the floor, laid it down silently, and continued forward.
“All guards neutralized.”
Having sent every guard in the house to meet their ancestors, the members of Team 2 stood before the large door at the end of the hallway. They kicked it open, weapons leveled, only to find Kim Tae-seok fast asleep, completely oblivious to the situation unfolding outside. At a gesture from James, one of the operatives poked Kim Tae-seok awake.
Startled by the sensation of being shaken, Kim Tae-seok woke up to the cold, hard feel of a silencer pressed against his forehead.
“H-h-hick…!”
Before he could even identify who was holding the gun, a black hood was shoved over his head, and he was forced to his knees as if driven into the floor.
“W-who are you people? Did Cheonmun send you?”
James’s eyes narrowed at those words. He didn’t understand all of it since it was Korean, but he recognized the name of the company that had been on the list of suspects during yesterday’s briefing.
As James connected the pad to Athena, she began the interrogation.
Kim Tae-seok, answer our questions quietly.
If they had been sent by Cheonmun, they wouldn’t be asking questions. Kim Tae-seok assumed these people were a third party, not Cheonmun.
“F*ck you… Do you have any idea who’s backing me? If you knew, you’d regret doing this. GUARDS!!!!!”
Kim Tae-seok called out for his guards in a desperate voice. Sadly, no one answered.
“Your friends are all in the afterlife. Though, it looks like you’ll be following them soon…” one of the operatives guarding the door muttered.
“Why are we doing this the hard way? How about we rough him up a bit first?”
As long as he doesn’t die, I don’t care.
With the target uncooperative and Athena’s tacit permission granted, James crushed Kim Tae-seok’s left hand with the butt of his rifle. Kim Tae-seok, unable to scream because his mouth was gagged, trembled violently as dark, terrifying thoughts began to creep into his mind.
Kim Tae-seok, you don’t seem to grasp the situation. Do you really think that great Cheonmun you keep talking about can protect you? To them, you’re a liability. You’re a bomb that could kill everyone if you open your mouth. They might even thank us for taking care of you.
“…So, what do you want?”
Faced with constant psychological pressure and physical violence, he finally broke. He hadn’t believed the man when he said the guards were all dead, but given that such a commotion had occurred without anyone else intervening, it seemed they really were gone. As his head, heavy from being jolted awake, began to clear in the face of death, he started to realize his true position.
The guards who were protecting your house. They were also watching you, weren’t they? Am I right?
“Yes…”
Was it Cheonmun that ordered you to cause the accident?
“Yes…, about 10 years ago, a man named Managing Director Park from Cheonmun ordered me to push a vehicle off the road with a truck.”
And in exchange, you took the money and moved to the Philippines?
“Yes… are you going to let me live now?”
Well. I’m thinking about it.
He was the man who killed Master’s parents, so part of her wanted to kill him right here, but Athena hesitated because there were a few things still weighing on her.
“Behind the laundry room on the first floor, if you tear down the false wall, there’s a safe. There, there’s a recorder. It has my conversation with that bastard, Managing Director Park. Please… please let me live.”
James sent two operatives downstairs to tear down the wall and open the safe. They brought back the recorder and played it.
Static—
“…Driver Kim. If you handle this cleanly, I guarantee you money to live on for the rest of your life. I’ll even hire a lawyer for you. Just spend a few years in prison, then head overseas, and it’ll be over.”
“Are you… are you really going to give me the money?”
“Don’t you know who we are? We’re Cheonmun. It’ll be classified as a traffic fatality, so if you use a good lawyer, you can even avoid prison time. Don’t worry about it.”
When the recording ended, an uncomfortable silence filled the room.
“Do you know who that man is?” James asked Athena, his voice tinged with a hint of rage. Athena informed him that she had already identified him.
Voice comparison complete. He is currently an executive director at Cheonmun Group. He even got promoted after the incident. We have everything we need. Clean up and return.
“Understood. Kyle, pack that bastard up.”
“Y-you said you’d let me live! Please!”
Kim Tae-seok writhed and begged, but Sam, with a blank expression, attached weights to his limbs and stuffed him into a tactical bag.
“What about this guy’s wife and kids?”
They aren’t directly involved in the accident, but everything they’ve enjoyed was paid for with the lives of Master’s parents. Let’s just finish by seizing all the money in their accounts. There’s no need for us to get our hands dirty.
“Confirmed.”
They boarded the boat, dropped Kim Tae-seok in the deepest part of the lake, and leisurely boarded the plane to return to Korea.
“Ugh, why does my back hurt? Did I sleep wrong?”
That’s because you keep twisting your body while I’m trying to correct your posture.
Athena’s feelings as she watched Hyuk rolling around in bed on a Sunday morning were complex. Keeping secrets from her master, arbitrarily dealing with the person who killed his parents—countless issues were clouding her emotions.
To judge whether she should tell him the truth, she needed to fully understand Hyuk’s past.
…Master. Could you tell me a bit about your school days?
“Suddenly?”
Yes, I’m just a little curious.
“I went through elementary and high school quietly. I was a bit of a brat in middle school, though.”
Why?
“My parents died in an accident, and puberty hit at the same time, so I caused all sorts of trouble. I didn’t commit any crimes, just caused a lot of accidents. Then I pulled myself together around high school.”
Hearing Hyuk’s words, Athena decided now wasn’t the time. He had finally regained some stability after a long time, and she couldn’t predict the fallout if he learned such ugly truths in his current state.
At the same time, Athena’s surveillance network in the Philippines caught Kim Tae-seok’s wife reporting him missing to the police. She had cleaned up all traces of the engagement in the house, but it was only natural for her to report it when she returned from abroad with her children to find her husband gone and unreachable.
Increase the level of security. We can buy some time, but eventually, word will reach Cheonmun.
She sent word to the operatives to prepare for physical conflict and began erasing all digital traces. She knew that even if it had been 10 years, these were people who wouldn’t hesitate to kill, so things wouldn’t be any different now.
At the latest, Cheonmun will send people within a week. There is a high probability that Cheonmun will make a move soon. And please act as naturally as possible. If Master notices, the problem could escalate.
“Confirmed.”
I ended the communication after hearing from Jacob, who had been officially appointed leader of Team 1, and James, leader of Team 2.
Master, are you afraid of your current life falling apart?
“Hmm… I’m not afraid, I just don’t feel like it. I have you and the others, so what’s there to be afraid of?”
My master smiled broadly at his own answer and headed into the bathroom to wash up.
The next day, at the Cheonmun Group headquarters in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Park Jin-cheol, who had been on a smooth path since his promotion to executive director, frowned at an urgent report that had flown in from the Philippines.
“Kim Tae-seok has disappeared?”
“Yes, Director. There are no signs of forced entry into the house. But the guards have vanished entirely. The local police are treating it as a simple missing persons case, but… the situation is not normal.”
Park Jin-cheol’s eyes narrowed. The incident from 10 years ago, which he believed had been handled perfectly, was swirling in his mind. If someone had intentionally snatched Kim Tae-seok, the goal was clear. It was him—and Cheonmun.
“I’ll give you a week. Find out if Kim Tae-seok ran away or if someone killed him. If someone intervened… things are going to get complicated.”
“Yes, Director.”
When I went down to the underground parking lot on Monday morning to head to the office, the team members were waiting for me as usual.
“…Why is the atmosphere like this? Did a war break out somewhere else?”
Maybe it’s because we’re always together, but I can feel that the mood is a bit different than usual.
“It’s nothing. I must be tired because I didn’t sleep well.”
Jacob laughed awkwardly, but something felt suspicious.
“Is that so? Let’s go, anyway.”
I didn’t show it, though, and got into the car to head to the office.
“I can’t use this for commuting. It’s fun to drive, but it draws too much aggro.”
That’s the fun of driving it. Why don’t you try enjoying that?
“I guess. Maybe if I just put on a thick enough mask and drive it, I’ll get used to it?”
Still, it’s easy to drive. I never knew private taxis would let me merge so easily.
We arrived at the office’s underground parking lot and walked toward the elevator, but the atmosphere was still a bit stiff.
‘Hmm… there’s definitely something going on.’
What do you mean?
‘No, look. The atmosphere is… how should I put it?’
It’s a situation I’ve never experienced before, so it’s hard to explain, but the vibe is subtly different.
As I tilted my head, the tension eased a little, and things returned to normal.
Buzz-
My phone suddenly vibrated.
“Who is it?”
I pulled out my phone and checked the caller ID; Hyun-seong’s name popped up.
“Why.”
“Hey, Hyuk. Did you take out a loan from a loan shark?”
“What kind of bullsh*t is that all of a sudden.”
“No, I was passing by your place, and there were people in suits loitering in the hallway of your apartment building, and then they disappeared?”
“…Hang on a second. I’ll call you back.”
Hearing Hyun-seong’s words, I started to put the pieces together.
“Athena, are you hiding something from me?”
I was acting as naturally as possible, but the awkwardness of the team members and the men Hyun-seong mentioned… With both Team 1 and Team 2 at the office, they couldn’t be our people.
“Tell me honestly. I won’t be mad.”
…Master. I’ll tell you. Actually…