Chapter 361: The Fetters of Karma (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 361: The Fetters of Karma (3)
The man was half-faint with terror. I bound him lightly with magic, then called the Association to give them my location.
Before long, three Association-affiliated Hunters arrived.
“Do-jin-ssi!”
Yoon Ji-an was among them.
There was only one reason she, who now acted as a liaison between me and the Association and was far removed from fieldwork, had been dispatched here.
“You’re here?”
It was because I had asked for her.
“Just as I said on the phone, please transport him with as little public attention as possible.”
“Yes, you don’t have to worry about that. You’ve worked so hard.”
As we loaded the man into the vehicle parked in front of the building and sped toward the Association, she asked.
“By the way, Do-jin-ssi, why did you request for the villain’s transport to be so discreet?”
“Ah, that.”
A moment ago, when I’d called the Association to report the arsonist’s capture, I had also made a small request.
That the arsonist’s transport be carried out as secretly as possible.
I gestured with my chin toward the man sandwiched between two burly guys and continued.
“I think there’s a mastermind behind him.”
“A mastermind… you say?”
“Yes. In my opinion, he’s just a puppet following orders. I think the real culprit who instigated this is someone else.”
As you could tell from his attitude earlier, he wasn’t the type with the guts to go around setting fire to a department store.
On top of that, using a method where the detectors malfunctioned and didn’t go off, then boldly escaping through a main street to hide in a pre-arranged safe house?
That would be like the real Kim Do-jin losing weight on his own, becoming a new man, and making it as an S-rank Hunter.
In a word, bullshit. To put it more elegantly, it was absurd.
Anyway.
The reason for the discreet transport was to keep the mastermind from finding out his puppet had been caught.
The types who hide in the shadows pulling the strings tend to disappear the moment their puppets break.
“We’ve arrived.”
We were already at the Association.
Yoon Ji-an, who got out of the car first, gave an order to the two men holding the arsonist tightly on either side.
“You two, head straight to the interrogation room.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Oh, charismatic.
She only ever showed me her warm side, but she used that kind of expression with others?
After sending the two men down to the interrogation room in the Association’s basement, she turned back to me and smiled brightly.
“Do-jin-ssi, you can follow me.”
For a second, my heart nearly stopped.
A woman who’s cold to others but warm only to me.
So touching.
With her stuck right by my side, we arrived at a small office, maybe five pyeong in size.
“Please wait here for a moment. I’ll prepare what you asked for right away.”
“Okay, take your time.”
The door closed.
A short while later, she re-entered, a rather thick stack of documents in her hands.
“Here is the information you requested.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Yoon Ji-an shook her head with a shy smile.
“It’s nothing… My job is to support you, Do-jin-ssi.”
Hmm, just as I thought.
I really know how to pick them.
“You can go back to your work now, Ji-an-ssi. I’ll call you when I’m done with this.”
“Yes, then I will also… get to my work.”
“Alright.”
Yoon Ji-an turned around.
Contrary to my expectation that she would open the door and leave, her next action was quite startling.
Click!
“Uh… Ji-an-ssi? Why did you suddenly lock the door?”
After abruptly locking the door, she turned back, smiling.
She licked her bright red lips, looking utterly seductive.
“Because… what I’m about to do is something that others shouldn’t see…?”
Answering in a suggestive tone, she strode over and bent down.
Then she naturally crawled under the desk and brought her face up between my thighs.
“Now… you just leave this to me and get to your work, Do-jin-ssi♥”
“……”
I doubted any of this was going to sink in.
*
Kim Do-jin put down the stack of documents he had finished reading.
Just then, Yoon Ji-an, having finished her task, came out from under the desk and straightened her clothes.
“Gulp… Haa.”
She swallowed the mouthful of Kim Do-jin’s semen and wore a satisfied expression.
“That was delicious…♥”
“……”
For a moment, Kim Do-jin wondered.
Was the “work” she had just done really for the purpose of satisfying him?
She cautiously opened her mouth.
“Uhm… may I go brush my teeth for a moment?”
“Ah.”
Every time she opened her mouth, the faint smell of semen wafted out.
Kim Do-jin smiled wryly and nodded.
“Go ahead. I’ll head down first.”
“Understood.”
Kim Do-jin left the office and got on the elevator.
His destination was the 10th basement floor.
Unlike the floors above ground where Hunters constantly came and went for official business, this was a place in the shadows, accessible only to vetted Association employees, where things that shouldn’t be seen by others were handled.
Of course, being in the shadows didn’t mean illicit things were happening.
It was just where tasks that didn’t need to be publicized, like detaining and interrogating villains, took place.
Inside the descending elevator, I organized the information I had just acquired.
“Name, Kim Oh-jung. Age, 28…”
What I had asked her for was none other than the arsonist’s personal file.
“Awakened at eighteen. Applied for the Hunter license exam for six years starting at age twenty, but failed every time…”
After six years of failure, Kim Oh-jung lost his confidence and became a shut-in for the next two years.
Holed up in his room, he succeeded in a career change.
From a long-term applicant for the Hunter license exam to a cyber wraith.
“…A career change doesn’t always mean a better job, I guess.”
He had spent those two years roaming every popular internet community he could find.
Ding!
All the rooms on the 10th basement floor were interrogation rooms for villains.
Kim Do-jin headed for the room next to Interrogation Room 3-2, where Kim Oh-jung’s interrogation was in full swing.
Through the one-way mirror, which allowed only those on this side to see in, the figures of the arsonist Kim Oh-jung and the investigator questioning him were clearly visible.
Soon, their conversation could be heard.
“So… the reason you committed arson, Mr. Kim Oh-jung, was because of a department store employee’s rude attitude?”
“Th-that’s right. Th-that bitch looked down on me. A mere employee, j-judging and discriminating against me for the way I was dressed!”
He had worked up the courage to go outside.
He was twenty-eight years old.
After somehow settling his second lawsuit, he had a realization following a worried call from his parents.
If he kept living like this, he would be nothing but a hopeless piece of trash.
So he resolved to do something, anything.
He was a failure, but he was an Awakened.
As long as he gave up on his lingering attachment to being a Hunter, finding a way to make a living wouldn’t be too difficult.
That’s why he went to the department store.
He would have to go to interviews soon, so he intended to buy a set of clothes to wear.
That’s why he was even angrier.
He couldn’t shake off the scorn he had received on the very day he had struggled to pull himself out of the mire.
“A-at first, I tried to forget it. Like always, I vented about what happened anonymously, got some sympathy, and tried to move on like that…”
“And?”
“S-suddenly, I got a message.”
“A message… you say?”
“Yes, yes… It asked if I didn’t want to get proper revenge on that bitch, on this world…”
Watching the interrogation, a strange light flickered in Kim Do-jin’s eyes.
The man’s words continued.
“H-he said he’d tell me how to get revenge. That if I just did as he said, I could succeed without anyone ever finding out… so…!”
There was no reason to refuse.
Getting sweet revenge and not getting caught—wasn’t it the obvious choice?
“He told me when and where to set the fire.”
The message he received detailed the method of revenge.
When, where, and even how quickly he had to finish the crime and leave the scene.
He fled along the pre-arranged path and finally reached the safe house.
“H-he told me to hide there for just a week. That by then, the investigation would be mostly wrapped up…”
He said he could return to his daily life after that.
Since he had been a shut-in for two years, if he went back to holing up in his room, no one would ever know he was the culprit.
But contrary to his expectations, he was caught and brought here.
Finishing his explanation, he kicked back his chair, got up, and knelt on the floor.
“P-please, just give me one chance. I-I really just did what I was told! I-I’ll pay for the building somehow…!”
Kim Do-jin smirked at the sight of him begging so desperately.
It was laughable that a twenty-eight-year-old would commit a crime just because someone told him to, and even more laughable that he thought he could pay for a building that spanned twenty floors, from the fifth basement level to the fifteenth floor above ground.
“How in the world does he plan to pay for a building that costs tens of billions of won, I wonder.”
Was he trying his best to evade punishment, or was he still just that clueless about the world?
It would be nice if it were the former… but judging by his attitude, it might be both.
The investigator wore a troubled expression at the sight of Kim Oh-jung’s pathetic begging.
Taking that as his cue, Kim Do-jin turned, immediately walked out, and knocked on the interrogation room door.
A voice came from within.
“Come in.”
As he opened the door and entered, the investigator naturally stepped aside.
He had already been informed by General Affairs Manager Kim Seong-tae that Kim Do-jin would be stopping by.
The moment he stepped into the room, Kim Oh-jung shrieked in surprise and fell backward.
“Hiiik…!”
To Kim Oh-jung, Kim Do-jin, the man who had captured him, was the Grim Reaper himself.
Having fallen, Kim Oh-jung scrambled backward until his back hit the wall.
Kim Do-jin slowly approached him, crouched down, and met his eyes.
“Oh-jung-ssi, let’s make a deal.”
“A d-deal…?”
At the word “deal,” Kim Oh-jung reacted, his curiosity overcoming even his fear.
“I guarantee you, if things go on like this, you’ll rot in prison for at least 20 years.”
“Hic…!”
His face turned pale at the thought of such a vast amount of time.
Now that I’d planted fear in his heart, it was time to offer a carrot.
“But I understand that you feel wronged, Oh-jung-ssi. Some bastard told you what to do, and now he’s getting away scot-free while you’re about to take all the blame. Isn’t that right?”
The man nodded his head frantically, as if afraid I would change my mind.
“R-right! Th-that bastard is the real bad guy, I just did what he told me to do…!”
“Right, right.”
He patted the shoulder of Kim Oh-jung, who had completely fallen for his words and was responding with fervor.
“So, here’s what I’m thinking. How about we do this?”
“H-how?”
“You and I catch that bastard.”
“C-catch him? That bastard?”
“That’s right! If we catch him, he becomes the main culprit, and you become an accomplice.”
“A-an accomplice…?”
“You can feel it, can’t you? The crime of an accomplice is much lighter than that of the main culprit.”
“Y-y-yeah…! Right.”
Almost there.
“If you cooperate in catching the real culprit, I’ll even write you a petition for leniency.”
“A p-petition…?”
“Yes. If I write that for you, your sentence will be reduced even further.”
“B-by how much?”
“Well… right now it’s 20 years, but if we catch the culprit and I write the petition, maybe it’ll be just one or two years?”
His face fell, but it quickly brightened with a ray of hope.
If he served 20 years at twenty-eight, he’d be forty-eight. But if he only served two years, he’d be just thirty.
He shifted out of his uncomfortable position and shouted.
“I-I’ll do it! Let me do it!”
Kim Do-jin smiled, wrapping an arm around the eager Kim Oh-jung’s shoulders.
“Alright, Oh-jung-ssi. Let’s go catch the real culprit…!”
“I-I’ll do my best!”
“Aja aja, fighting!”
“Fighting…!”
The arsonist and the Hunter who arrested him.
The investigator’s face twisted into a bizarre expression at the sight of these two, who should never have been on the same side, teaming up.