Chapter 90
Chapter 90
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: Rats Targeting the Granary (1)
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“Oh my! Minister, you seem to get younger and younger every time I see you. Must be because you’ve never stopped exercising your whole life.”
“Come on now. Seo Representative, you... Don’t tease this old man’s heart like that and put away that flirtatious smile of yours.”
Yeouido K Hotel, lounge bar.
Seo Yun-ji sat across from Minister of National Defense Ham Pung-deok in a bar they had rented out entirely.
She offered him a cigarette and flashed a mysterious smile.
A smile like a black cat’s, matching her jet-black bob.
“Oh, come on. You know that’s not what I meant. Not again.”
“Ha ha, I can never win against you, Seo Representative.”
Minister Ham Pung-deok emptied the glass on the table.
Wary that he might fall right into her trap if he wasn’t careful, he opened his mouth with his eyes wide open.
“Time with you is always enjoyable, Seo Representative, but we’re both so busy with work.”
“Exactly.”
“So, what do you have to say to me this time, and what do you want to give me?”
Straight to the point.
Seo Yun-ji withdrew her coquettish smile, crossed one leg over the other, and began dangling her high heel from her toe.
“Our dear Minister... I want to get you into the National Assembly in this by-election. Right in the ruling party’s stronghold.”
“...You? How on earth?”
Ham’s pupils shook at the mere mention of a place where anyone could become a National Assembly member just by planting a stick in the ground.
Ever since the stars appeared on his shoulders, he had truly felt it.
The limitations of being a soldier by birth.
No matter how high he climbed, he was still at the mercy of a politician’s words.
That was why, even now as Minister of National Defense, he had longed so desperately for that golden National Assembly badge.
For him, with his woefully lacking political instincts, it had always been like a tree he could never climb.
At least... until this moment.
“Just connect me with one person, and I’ll handle the rest.”
Gulp. The elixir of desire slid down his throat.
Exhaling the hazy smoke from his lit cigarette, he answered cautiously.
“Who exactly...”
“You know who.”
The smile returned.
Amid the black cat’s gesture of twirling the straw in her glass with her finger, a strange mewl escaped.
A seductive cry that warned disaster if he reached out to hold her hand, yet one he couldn’t resist grasping.
“Yoon Hak-gil, Senior Secretary to the President for National Security. Just introduce me to him.”
* * *
They say to see farther, you need to look from higher up.
In that sense, nothing beats standing on a giant’s shoulders and gazing out over the vast plains.
Knock knock!
I stopped in front of the door to Grandmother’s study on the second floor of the Pyeongchang-dong main house, which I hadn’t visited in a while.
The night sky was embroidered with countless stars, just like the iron stars on the military uniform epaulets whose stories I had come to hear.
“Ah, seriously! Director! Come on, humanely speaking, don’t sprinkle salt in my face!”
“Kim Won-cheol, you always start off fine but tack on some useless nonsense at the end! You’re over fifty, but still no sign of maturity!”
“Sorry! Sorry! It was a joke! I’m truly sorry! I love you for real!”
Kim Won-cheol Uncle dashed out of the room, blowing finger hearts at Grandmother.
The salt smeared all over his face looked especially coarse-grained today.
He fled so quickly that by the time I tried to grab him, he was already stomping down the stairs.
I cautiously stepped into the room, still steaming with heat.
“Should I just not bring him next time?”
“What can I do if I don’t bring him? He does all the work. I just have to accept that he pays for it by irritating this old lady like this.”
Grandmother, with horns sprouting from her head.
Amused by this little routine as always, I held back a laugh and asked.
“What wild remark did he make this time?”
“Hmph! He explained the factions in the Ministry of National Defense well enough, but he had to spout nonsense at the end. That’s the problem.”
Grandmother instructed Cheongju-ssi to sweep up the salt left on the carpet.
My curiosity was only satisfied after the broom work was done.
“He joked about bringing the Minister of National Defense’s daughter—that crazy bitch—as my wife and the daughter-in-law of our Ammunition Group Han family.”
“That... sounds like she hit him well deserved. Maybe keep a gravel-sized chunk of salt on the desk from now on.”
Minister of National Defense Ham Pung-deok.
The man himself was just your typical starstruck with power, nothing special, but his daughter was on another level.
A sprout yellow from the root, rotten to the core.
Even just compiling her misdeeds reported in the media would be unmatched.
Abusing and assaulting her driver, spitting phlegm in her dedicated aide’s face, snatching a sentry’s rifle in front of the unit while drunk and fleeing.
Grandmother knew this better than anyone, so there was no issue with Kim Won-cheol Uncle getting salted.
“Of course, I understand the situation, but I can’t have that kind of woman as a match for you, Seo-jun—or as a daughter-in-law in our Ammunition Group Han family.”
“Chief of Staff Kim Won-cheol was probably just tossing it out as a joke. From the start... the factional conflicts inside the Ministry are far from trivial right now.”
Factional strife in the Ministry of National Defense, roiling like lava on the edge of a volcanic crater, ready to erupt toward the world at any moment.
Not long ago, at an izakaya in Yongsan, National Defense Vice Minister Kim Cheol-geun—who had joined me for drinks—wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief and appealed to his plight.
‘A new stone has rolled into the balance between the Vice Minister and the Minister, shattering it. I suspect... it’s backed by the Cheolhwa Group.’
‘The rolling stone... who is it?’
Kim Cheol-geun, the Vice Minister, leaned forward and lowered his voice.
The name from his mouth turned what seemed like a simple situation into a complex higher-order equation for me.
‘Yoon Hak-gil. Yoon Hak-gil, Senior Secretary to the President for National Security.’
‘That master of corruption... Yoon Hak-gil?’
Kim Cheol-geun, Vice Minister, squeezed his eyes shut and nodded.
He seemed to have a splitting headache, just like me.
Just thinking about Yoon Hak-gil, who loved money so much he didn’t hesitate to break the law.
‘They call him the King’s Man, right? With the President protecting him and joining hands with the Minister of National Defense, I’m out of options.’
Kim Cheol-geun said he didn’t know the full details yet.
What I needed now was... more precise information. The kind only Grandmother, who had played the lady of the house in a defense conglomerate her whole life, could provide.
“Yoon Hak-gil. He’s been infamous for a long time. Crazy about money.”
“For a long time...?”
“Even back when he was a National Assembly member’s aide, the money he squeezed from our Ammunition Group would buy four or five apartments.”
Yoon Hak-gil had been scum in every sense since entering politics.
He pursued personal gain without the slightest scruple, as if he might drop dead the next day. For a full twenty years.
“If Yoon Hak-gil has sided with SA-Cheolhwa Techwin, then an obstacle has appeared in this Ministry of National Defense new weapons procurement project.”
“And... a hefty price has already been paid for it.”
A massive reef appearing out of nowhere.
We had pierced through the fog, and the destination was in sight.
The final crisis looming over the smoothly sailing Ammunition Group ship.
If things continued like this... the boulder of power would rip through the wooden keel, and we’d have to watch everything sink.
“Does any countermeasure come to mind?”
A vaguely tossed question, laced with a bit of hope.
Grandmother rose from her seat immediately.
The wrinkled hand of Seo Taehu slowly rose to stroke my hair back from my crown.
“The King’s Man. Outside the King’s shadow, he’s nothing.”
“That makes sense. He’s a parasite on power.”
“Then, put a blade to the President’s throat.”
“......!”
“If he doesn’t abandon Yoon Hak-gil, even the President himself will find his head rolling.”
A bluntly thrown word, as rough as her palm.
I was right to come back to this study today.
The sea viewed through a telescope from the giant’s shoulders. A path was finally coming into view for me.
An intricate sea route in my mind to avoid the sudden reef.
And, as if it were nothing, Grandmother tossed a gruff remark at me as I bowed my head in thanks.
“Get out now. A man with big things to do shouldn’t linger at home so often, leaving outside matters unattended.”
“Thank you, Grandmother. Next time I visit, I’ll have everything resolved.”
* * *
Blue House underground bunker, National Security Office.
A skinny man in a suit entered, half-heartedly returning the salutes of uniformed soldiers.
This man held all agencies related to the nation’s security in one hand.
Greed filled his eyes as he brushed his nameplate—made of black ivory—with one hand.
-Yoon Hak-gil, Senior Secretary for National Security.
“Sir, you’re here?”
“No other issues? The fat pigs up north have been quiet lately?”
“Yes? Oh, yes. They’ll probably stay quiet for a while due to their internal affairs.”
“Okay. Perfect timing, then.”
Thud. A yellowish envelope tossed in front of his aide.
Yoon Hak-gil flashed a sleazy grin at his aide, who floated a question mark over his head.
“It’s big. Tell the jobless political ronin under our wing to prepare to clock in at Cheolhwa Group.”
“Sir...?”
“It should cover their by-election funds shortfall. Might as well build up regional organization strength with their money. The timing is perfect.”
The aide slit open the envelope with a cutter knife.
The paper inside bore these words:
-Regarding Bidding Regulations for Ministry of National Defense New Weapons Development Project
As if this wasn’t his first or second time, the quick-witted aide began flattering Yoon Hak-gil.
“Keu-heu... As expected of our Senior Secretary, who truly deserves the title ‘King’s Man.’”
“You rascal, flattering me like it doesn’t suit.”
“Heh heh heh, it’s just the truth. Anyway, should I direct everything toward SA-Cheolhwa Techwin?”
“It’s already discussed with the Minister of National Defense, so no noise from below. Proceed immediately.”
The aide beamed.
Since Yoon Hak-gil shared the spoils generously with his underlings, he expected something sweet for himself too.
“Ah, hold on.”
Yoon Hak-gil gestured to the aide, who had already picked up the phone to start the work.
After pondering silently, he issued an out-of-left-field order.
“Contact the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs first.”
“Yes? The Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs? Why...?”
“Oh, well.”
A sly gleam in his narrow eyes.
A fountain pen spun atop Yoon Hak-gil’s bony hand.
“It’d be better to turn the entire Cheolhwa Group into our own vault.”