Chapter 385: On Thin Ice (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 385: On Thin Ice (1)
After admitting Baek Hyeon-a to Korea University Hospital.
I received a troubling call from the Association, whom I had asked to handle the frozen bodies I’d created.
“You’re saying there are twenty-three frozen bodies… not twenty-four.”
-Yes, that’s correct.
I hadn’t made a mistake in my count.
The number of assassins I had faced was definitely twenty-four.
But if there were only twenty-three bodies…
“So one of them managed to survive.”
It meant one person had narrowly escaped that massive attack.
I replayed the situation in my mind.
It had been a single swing, but an attack delivered with nearly my full power.
“…Did I spread it out too wide, reducing its potency?”
Perhaps the problem was that I’d increased the range too much in my attempt to deal with all twenty-four of them at once.
Maybe the survivor had been on the outskirts of the attack and was exposed to a relatively smaller amount of cold energy.
“This is a headache.”
I had wanted to buy a little more time, but that was no longer an option.
The one who escaped would have already revealed the identity of the person who attacked Lee Yoon-seok’s hideout.
And they would have also reported that Baek Hyeon-a was the one who led me to him.
“What should I do…?”
According to the intel I’d gathered, Lee Yoon-seok was a fairly trusted member of the organization.
He held the position of team leader, commanding numerous subordinates.
The proof was that he managed a secret ledger meticulously detailing the money they had spread around to manipulate the Republic of Korea from the shadows.
“If I’m even a little late, the information might become useless.”
What’s one thing secret organizations that hate having their identities exposed are good at?
Cutting off their tails.
They boldly sever the parts that have been exposed to erase any connection to themselves.
They’d have to accept some losses, but it was better than having their entire identity revealed.
“The number of people is a bit large to just snip off like a tail, but…”
The ledger listed roughly a hundred names.
They had certainly cast a wide net.
Members of the ruling and opposition parties, of course, but also executives from the Hunter Association, newspaper presidents, and high-level corporate officials.
They had selectively bribed only those who walked around with their shoulders squared in this country.
“…This country is so damn rotten.”
Most of the bastards on this list probably swallowed the money without even knowing exactly who was feeding it to them.
For people like them, what’s important isn’t who’s giving the money, but how much.
In other words, there were this many people hell-bent on lining their own pockets above all else.
“What a fascinating way to run a country. Really.”
A slow heat began to rise within me.
Among the names written down were people I had known back in my days as Son Si-woo.
Not close acquaintances, but people whose outward character I had admired and with whom I occasionally interacted.
And in the Yeomyeong Guild, too.
“…This is why it’s not good for a guild to get too big.”
No matter how much you filter and screen, if the quantity is large enough, impurities are bound to get in.
The names of a few members who had been accepted as the guild began to expand were on the ledger.
The only silver lining, if you could call it that, was that the names of the founding members who established the guild with me were not there.
“I absolutely cannot let them cut their losses.”
I refuse.
I refuse to let this lead to Hexagram disappear.
And I refuse to let the bastards who’ve been living high and mighty off the enormous sums of money they’ve received get off with a slap on the wrist.
I have to ensnare them for good.
But how?
My deliberation didn’t last long.
“…I’ll strike first.”
I decided to hit them before they could even think about cutting off their tails.
* * *
Kim Do-jin’s plan was a resounding success.
After the press conference ended, Hexagram dominated the number one spot on all major portal search rankings.
The same went for the articles that sprouted like mushrooms after rain.
【Over 100 People Implicated: What is the Hexagram Organization Revealed by Kim Do-jin?】
【The Secret Organization Hexagram: Kim Do-jin's Delusion, or Reality?】
【The Association Vows to "Uncover the Secret Organization and Eradicate It."】
Politicians, corporate executives, Hunter Association officials, and more.
It was a case involving a staggering number of people—over a hundred.
Some were already calling it the ‘Hexagram Gate,’ hailing it as the biggest scandal since the inception of Hunter society.
After setting the world ablaze, Kim Do-jin left the press conference hall.
He smiled with satisfaction as he watched the articles flood the internet.
“This fire won’t die down easily.”
No, he wouldn’t let it.
Over a hundred people were implicated.
Just arresting and investigating each one of them would take months.
Every time another name that had been eating away at the country was revealed, the dying embers would flare up again.
“In this situation, they won’t be able to cut their losses so easily.”
Things were proceeding according to plan.
However, if asked whether everything was perfect, the answer would be no.
It was a hastily concocted plan to prevent them from prematurely cutting off their tails.
The problem was that he had no way of predicting how his opponent would respond.
And one more thing.
By publicly revealing the existence of Hexagram, Kim Do-jin had placed himself in an irreversible relationship with one person.
Vzzzt-
[Han Ju-hee: Let’s meet tomorrow for a moment.]
Han Ju-hee.
With her, the woman who had been plotting something with Hexagram.
* * *
The 77th floor.
The moment I arrived in the Tower Lord’s Room, a lukewarm air enveloped me.
There was only one reason for the air in the Tower Lord’s Room, which was designed to always maintain an optimal environment, to grow warm.
“Hello.”
“……”
The woman sitting at the large desk, reviewing documents, was in a very foul mood.
Her gaze turned toward me.
At first glance, it was an indifferent look, no different from usual.
But I could see it.
The unpleasantness and discomfort lurking beneath her thoroughly concealed expression.
I deliberately ignored it, walked over, and sat on the sofa. A moment later, she sat on the sofa opposite me.
Meeting her gaze steadily, I spoke first.
“Seeing as you summoned me to the surface, I take it this isn’t about training… Is there something else you need?”
As I spoke with a feigned air of ignorance, the corner of her mouth twisted.
“I saw the press conference yesterday. It was quite something.”
“Ah, you saw it.”
“I could hardly miss it. You made such a grand spectacle for everyone to see.”
“I put some thought into it. I felt their existence couldn’t be overlooked.”
“…And also to ensure the names in that ledger didn’t become useless, I imagine.”
Her voice, now a notch lower, carried a strange pressure.
I accepted it humbly and replied with a smile.
“To grasp all that so quickly… You truly are something else, Hunter Han Ju-hee.”
With each passing day, the names in the ledger were being revealed one by one.
Politicians who were former Hunters, executives of the Hunter Association, Hunters holding key positions in large guilds, and so on.
The Association and the prosecution had joined forces to thoroughly investigate every last one of them.
A joint special investigation team of Hunters and prosecutors had been formed to look into the ‘Hexagram Gate,’ now being called the biggest scandal since the dawn of Hunter society.
There was no way out.
The secret ledger was designed to prevent those who had taken money from Hexagram from easily escaping.
It was filled with detailed information, along with numerous photographs to prove it.
“Honestly, I was impressed. I never knew you were such a righteous person.”
I shook my head at her words.
“I appreciate the compliment… but I didn’t do it for some petty sense of justice.”
“Then what was it for?”
“Well. It’s difficult to clearly define this feeling… but if I had to pick one thing.”
Her gaze narrowed.
Gauging the thoughts hidden behind it, I slowly opened my mouth.
“I suppose you could call it… revenge.”
“…Revenge.”
“Yes.”
If you dare to play a part in ruining someone’s family, you should damn well pay the price.
“……”
“……”
The questions and answers continued.
A vague exchange, barely scratching the surface, making it impossible to fathom each other’s true intentions.
It was Han Ju-hee who first grew weary of the conversation going in circles.
“We’re not going to get anywhere like this. I’ll ask you directly.”
At last, she took off her mask.
Her indifferent expression was replaced by a chilling sharpness, and the ends of her previously level eyebrows rose.
“My name must have been written in that ledger in some form.”
“It was.”
She was right.
Her name was also in the secret ledger.
But not on the side that took bribes.
It would have been better if she had.
Instead, she was the one supervising it.
She was the one who received reports on who Lee Yoon-seok and his subordinates gave what to, and how much. She was the one who pinpointed the next target for recruitment and gave the orders.
So, was she a member of Hexagram?
That, too, was ambiguous.
Her position, as written in the secret ledger, was…
“It said… ‘External Advisor.’”
Literally, a role to consult and advise them from outside the organization, not from within.
Her eyelid twitched once.
Forcing the tremor to stop, she asked me.
“And yet, my name was completely erased from the ledger you handed over to the special investigators.”
“…You saw that, too?”
Fucking idiots.
A special investigation team that shows the ledger to the external advisor of the very secret organization they’re supposed to be investigating?
Even if they didn’t know she was an external advisor, this was absurd.
What kind of insane special investigators leak top-secret information to an outsider?
I swear, I’m going to clean house as soon as I get out of here.
“Why did you erase my name?”
There were various reasons I erased her name.
One was that the impact of her single name was greater than that of the hundred other names in the ledger.
Another was that I felt a scandal of this magnitude wouldn’t be nearly enough to bring her down.
And above all…
“There’s something I’d like to ask of you, Hunter Han Ju-hee.”
“And what is this favor?”
I answered her as she asked, her expression distorted.
“I need you to arrange a meeting with the Saintess of the Vatican.”
She was the only one.
Among all the people I knew, she had the highest probability of being able to arrange a meeting with the Saintess of the Vatican.