The Girl's Revenge (6)
"…Da-eun."
Park Min-gyu started to tense as he looked at Lee Ho-yeon and Nam Da-eun standing side by side. At this point, he could piece the whole situation together. Nam Da-eun had told Lee Ho-yeon everything and asked for his help.
What the hell did he do to her…?
Park Min-gyu had been watching Nam Da-eun for a long time. He had her personality and her way of speaking completely mapped out, which meant he could predict every move she made. Nam Da-eun was not the type to ever ask anyone for help. She was the kind who would rather suffer in silence — so what on earth had this guy done?
That doesn't matter.
Park Min-gyu wiped the stray thoughts away. This was no time to dwell on causes. What mattered now was what the other side wanted. He had to meet their demands somehow and get out of this.
Then Lee Ho-yeon, who had been watching him, opened his mouth.
"Mr. Park Min-gyu. I caught an interview you did recently — you're quite good at apologizing. That's fortunate. You're going to have a lot more to apologize for."
"…What do you want."
He had only just managed to quiet the press that had been in an uproar over the drug trafficking. Some corners were still buzzing, and if anything more broke now, it would be nearly impossible to contain.
"Well, I want a lot of things. Let's see. Money?"
"How much do you want? The guild is still small, so it might not be much, but…"
"All of it."
"…Huh?"
Lee Ho-yeon smiled inwardly. As expected — after blowing up even a single drug scandal, there was a definite crack in the man's composure. Letting go of hard-won honor was never easy.
"Every last won you scraped together doing every filthy, ugly thing you could think of. I want it all."
Park Min-gyu couldn't hide his shock as he stared at Lee Ho-yeon, who spoke so calmly.
"Th-that's… what do you…"
"Mr. Park. You can always make more money, right? But if this evidence gets out, what happens then? You won't even have the chance to earn it anymore. I promise you. All I'm asking for is the money."
"…"
Park Min-gyu deliberated. But no matter how he turned it over, there was no answer except to give in. He considered using force, but even if he beat the two of them, he had no guarantee the evidence wouldn't spread.
"Still haven't grasped the situation?"
Lee Ho-yeon fluttered the documents in his hand.
"…I don't have it on me right now. It's stored in the guild building. If you just give me some time…"
"We'll take care of that ourselves. Just tell us where you hid it in the guild building."
"Th-there's a safe in the guild master's office."
"The password?"
"…"
"The password?"
"…Four eight five six. But it's set so that no one but me can open it."
Park Min-gyu let out a sigh of relief as he gave up the password. The personal safe was an expensive magical artifact — it wouldn't open unless his biometric data was confirmed. Even if someone infiltrated the guild master's office, the door wouldn't—
"Yeah. You hear that? He said four eight five six. Is it open?"
"Yes. It's open. Looks like there are about five billion won in artifacts and cash."
Of course, that kind of trick didn't work on a first-rate agent from the world's finest information guild.
"Five billion, huh…"
At the voice coming through the call, Park Min-gyu broke into a cold sweat. The amount was far too precise to be a bluff.
"Th-that's impossible."
"Mr. Min-gyu. Is that all?"
"Th-that's everything. Five billion. That's the money I've saved my entire life…"
Park Min-gyu trembled as he dropped to his knees. As if everything he was had been stripped away, he exhaled a groan from deep in his lungs. But Lee Ho-yeon just let out a small laugh looking at him.
"Mr. Min-gyu. You think I'm an idiot?"
"W-what…"
"There's no way the money you've accumulated is only five billion."
Lee Ho-yeon shook his head. What a filthy, transparent old bastard. I'm not a fool, and I wouldn't have pulled this if I didn't already know the Buyer Guild's capital. He tapped the documents with a finger, prompting the next words.
"Where's the rest of the money."
"Ah, aah…"
Sweet.
In the end, Park Min-gyu spilled every last place the remaining money was hidden. He'd insisted to the end that there was nothing more, so I called a reporter I knew — and that was when he finally told the truth.
"Th-that's enough now, right? Thirty billion. A full thirty billion."
Thirty billion. It was definitely a lot of money. Not a bad side income.
"Okay. That's the end of my demands."
"Th-then hand over the evidence. We'll pretend we never met today…"
"Now you can have a conversation with the actual client."
"…What?"
I casually stepped back behind Nam Da-eun. My demands were done. Nam Da-eun, who had been waiting behind me, stepped forward and faced Park Min-gyu.
"…Uncle Min-gyu."
"Da-eun."
Nam Da-eun was unexpectedly calm. Her target of revenge was standing right in front of her, and she had the power to carry it out — yet just as she'd said she would, she tried to talk.
"I've been thinking ever since we saved Da-hee. Why you did that to me and Da-hee. The Uncle Min-gyu I knew wasn't like that."
Shing—
Nam Da-eun drew the sword she had brought.
"But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't find an answer. Because we didn't do anything wrong."
Her face was reflected in the sharp blade. Looking at the surface of the sword, Nam Da-eun continued, calm and even.
"Uncle Min-gyu… tell me now. Why did you do it?"
"Da-eun. W-wait. Calm down. I can explain everything."
"Da-hee and I… we lived trusting only you. So why did you suddenly…? Did you approach me from the very beginning because you wanted my body?"
I think I understood now. Nam Da-eun wasn't angry. She genuinely couldn't understand. She couldn't comprehend the Park Min-gyu who had changed overnight. The memories of the man who had treated her warmly were still carved too deep.
He was always that kind of bastard.
Trash like him is filthy from the core. And the more trash they are, the better they act. If the other person was someone as pure as Nam Da-eun, deceiving her would have been easy.
Thud—
Park Min-gyu dropped to his knees just like that. He hung his head low, and tears fell drop by drop onto the floor.
"Da-eun…"
"Uncle?"
"I'm sorry. I'm… truly sorry."
Watching Park Min-gyu weep and apologize, I quietly yawned.
Predictable. So predictable.
I could see it all. Kneeling, bending his upper body forward to hide himself, Park Min-gyu was rummaging through his clothes. He'd hidden a blade in there, no doubt. I watched to see how Nam Da-eun would react.
"Uncle. Do you truly intend to apologize to us?"
"I'm truly sorry. I regret all the wrongs I committed in the past. That's why I blew the whistle on Shin-yeong Guild. To start over from the beginning…. I don't want to do filthy things anymore…"
I looked at Park Min-gyu with a bored expression. Combined with that warm face and those pitiful tears, it was certainly effective — but I knew his true nature. If he'd really been a good person, he wouldn't have taken a cadet to a hostess club under the pretext of recruiting her.
"Then give it all up."
"…What?"
"Everything you gained by doing filthy things — give it all up. Pay for every crime, then start from the beginning."
"Da-eun…"
"If you do that, I can forgive you. If you truly want to apologize to us, start by letting go of all your honor."
Nam Da-eun tapped her smartwatch. I'd already set everything up for her, so all she had to do was press send. Nothing difficult.
"Uncle Min-gyu…. Do you see this?"
"W-what is this… huh?"
The screen Nam Da-eun showed him was simple. A news teaser.
As if they'd been waiting, the reporter I'd arranged started running the story.
"N-no. No…!"
Park Min-gyu, who had been apologizing just a moment ago, snapped his head up. Then he quickly turned it. In Korean society, going to a hostess club could be excused as "entertainment." It was absurd, but that was the reality. High-ranking hunters made so much money that that kind of thing was quietly swept under the rug. Of course his carefully built image would crash and burn, but not to the point he couldn't operate. If he kept working even while being pointed at, he could recover.
But this was different. This was too far.
"Da-eun. I am sincerely repenting. There are other guild members under me besides myself. They each have families, people they support. This is too much…"
"…"
Nam Da-eun seemed to hesitate for a moment at Park Min-gyu's words. I had decided to leave this entire matter to her, so I'd given her the authority to leak the information herself.
She can't fall for something like that.
She said she was going to take revenge, but she still hadn't shed that innocence. Looks like I'll have to step in.
"Nam Da-eun."
"…Yeah."
The certainty had vanished from her answering voice. She was probably agonizing — wondering if she was about to turn those people into the unemployed. Well, if she was going to worry about that, it was already too late… but she was worrying, so I should resolve it for her.
"Be selfish."
"…Selfish?"
"Don't think about anyone else. Think only about your own feelings. It's time for that now, isn't it?"
There were plenty of ways I could have persuaded her. Anyone who hadn't actually participated in the crimes would be investigated and released as innocent. They might have trouble finding work afterward… but it wouldn't be a huge problem. It was also their own fault for not seeing the guild for what it was. And honestly, if you followed that kind of logic, there would be no one in the world you could punish. Everyone has circumstances.
But I didn't persuade her that way. I wanted Nam Da-eun to move according to her own feelings now. She was at an age when her whole future stretched ahead of her, and because of that piece of trash she didn't even properly know her own emotions. I wanted her to be selfish now.
"…"
"Da-eun. Please…"
"I don't know either."
Nam Da-eun was confused, but she soon looked at Park Min-gyu in front of her and clenched her fist.
"Please, just stop…"
"I don't understand what I'm supposed to do with this tightness in my chest. But… I trust Ho-yeon. Just this once, I want to do what I want."
Nam Da-eun kept operating her smartwatch.
Buyer Guild Double Books Exposed
Park Min-gyu — Massive Tax Evasion
Illegal Loan-Sharking Operation Uncovered
Counterfeit Artifact Trafficking
Every criminal act the Buyer Guild had committed flooded the breaking news and plastered the real-time search rankings. Park Min-gyu's face twisted further and further as he watched.
"Uncle Min-gyu. Do you still have it in you to apologize to me?"
"…"
"If you truly, sincerely apologize and pay for every last crime… I'll help you. So you can climb back up from the beginning."
"…"
Nam Da-eun's eyes looked genuinely sincere. She probably still couldn't let go of the feelings from back then, when he'd raised her and her sister through the hard times.
"Tsk."
Too kind. Far too kind. But that wasn't going to happen. Nam Da-eun didn't seem to grasp the scale of what she'd just done, but the Buyer Guild and Park Min-gyu were already beyond recovery. Even if Park Min-gyu walked out of here in one piece, he was destined to rot in prison for the rest of his life. Fortunately, the day Nam Da-eun's kindness would be received by Park Min-gyu would never come.
"Y-you…"
"Uncle Min-gyu…?"
"You little whore… you've done nothing but take from me all this time! A slut hanging off a young man, and you dare…!"
"…Whore?"
Nam Da-eun turned her head and looked at me. I didn't know why she looked at me, but her eyes held a tangle of complicated emotions.
"I've been your father since the day I took you from the orphanage. And you sell your body to a young man and betray me? How dare you?!"
At Park Min-gyu's torrent of abuse, Nam Da-eun lowered her head and closed her eyes. She must have finally understood his true nature. A moment later, she opened her eyes, let out a hollow laugh, and raised her sword.
"…Yeah. I'd rather be his whore. I'm sick of looking at your face, Uncle Min-gyu."
"Y-you dog of a bitch, pointing a sword at your father?!"
Park Min-gyu drew up his mana. The presence he radiated wasn't weak, that much was certain. To rake in money doing filthy work, you needed the martial power to back it up. But Nam Da-eun was in a different league. A game's main character and an extra like Park Min-gyu were never going to be comparable.
Nam Da-eun, sword in hand, moved her arm just slightly.
Slash—
At the same time, both of Park Min-gyu's arms flew off.
"G-gaaah! Hyaaagh! W-what is this!"
Startled by how instantly it had happened, Park Min-gyu whipped his head this way and that.
"Thank you. Uncle Min-gyu."
"Da-eun. Wait. Da-eun…! Give me one more chance. Just once…!"
"For staying a villain to the very end. For letting me cut these feelings away."
Thwick—
A single horizontal slash. Simple yet profound, clean yet carrying a hidden principle — with that one stroke of the sword, the head of Park Min-gyu, who had been so pathetically begging for his life, fell from his neck.
Dark crimson blood splattered across Nam Da-eun's clothes and even reached the ground at my feet nearby. I didn't take my eyes off that scene until the very end. I watched Nam Da-eun's revenge through to its conclusion.
"…He's dead."
Nam Da-eun murmured, looking at Park Min-gyu's head on the floor.
"Yeah. It's over, Da-eun."
"…It was such an easy thing."
"…"
"Why couldn't I do it until now. Why."
"Haa…"
I slowly approached Nam Da-eun. Having finished her revenge, she was trembling. An emotion that was neither joy nor sorrow. It must have been the first time she'd felt it. Having never taken revenge myself, I couldn't understand that feeling. All I could do was pull her into my arms.