Justice Is Dead (5)
My face creased before I could stop it.
I'd seen it coming, sure. I just hadn't thought they'd raise this kind of hell so fast.
The people sitting up top never change. How do they manage not to miss my expectations even once? They must have spent decades burying things exactly like this, turning the public's eyes wherever they pleased.
When it was time to crush actual criminals, every one of those mouths stayed shut. Now it was a bumper crop of bullshit. Public opinion flips overnight, just like that? Don't they find it strange themselves?
What year do they think this is, still believing a few lines in a paper and a handful of news hits can turn a country around? Their brains are antique junk. The honorable judges up top clearly don't understand. They seem convinced they can still pull the wool over people's eyes and steer everything the way they want. Isn't that pathetic?
This is absolutely not the late eighties, when manufacturing public opinion still worked. One phone is enough, these days, to fact-check nearly any major case. You don't even have to go looking for the news. Word finds you on social media whether you ask for it or not.
Even if you'd rather not know, the facts of a case seep in on their own — and most of the country already knows about the mess these people have made of sentencing, the shit they've smeared all over the law.
I'll grant them this much: rigging opinion can still work, sometimes. But that isn't a trick for people whose credibility has already hit the floor. Someone who simply dislikes what I'm doing might slap a knee and swallow every word of it. That's just them hating me. It doesn't mean they were actually fooled by manipulation this clumsy.
Watch how they handle things and the answer writes itself. They work with that junkyard, old-world mindset, and that's exactly why they've ended up in this state. When something blows up, you deal with it and then you apologize. Instead they're desperate to hide it and busy gaslighting everyone. I almost had to admire them for still believing it would work.
What on earth were they trusting? No — they'd simply closed their minds. If you think of the public as low-grade, shit-for-brains idiots, then sure, you can act like this. I was right after all. That place cannot be left alone.
The comments mostly backed me, or tore into that obvious, idiotic attempt to rig the narrative. A few cursed me, of course. Not none.
Their lordships on the bench are missing something. Did they think that if opinion flipped, I'd flinch and hesitate? That is a delusion so wild it borders on insanity. Right now they don't even know who I am. They aren't even sure I exist. I have no reason at all to care what the public thinks. Even if my identity were stripped bare, it would be the same.
No matter how they thrash, I don't give a single shit. Ears shut, eyes closed, I walk my road. The way I always have.
A sigh came out of me on its own. To think the law had been left in the hands of trash that worthless. They must have been prodigies who studied like madmen to climb that high. So why is it that the higher people rise, the stupider they get — stuffing their cheeks with greed until they swell fit to burst?
I didn't have time for garbage articles like that. I scanned the files on Korea's Four Great Guilds pulled up on the monitor. No matter how many times I read them, there was nothing on Blue Dust. Honestly, I'd never expected to find it sitting out in the open. Some of those guilds reeked, no question. But you can't just smash someone on suspicion alone. I'd watch a little longer and gather more.
I turned and laid out the files on the senior judges. They were acting like this because the fear hadn't sunk in deep enough yet. They were thrashing, trying anything. The moment they understood that nothing they did could save them, they would finally act the way they should.
D.K Guild. A wide, dark office. Weapons and certificates covered the walls and gave off a strange, oppressive weight.
Park Jeongho, sunk in a leather chair, let out a long sigh. He pressed his fingers to his brow and made no effort to hide how tired he was. The door opened, and Lee Jeongwoo stepped in.
"Master."
He dipped his head in a crisp, respectful bow. Park Jeongho looked up at him.
"Anything come to light?"
"I'm afraid not."
A short answer. In an instant Park Jeongho's face flushed red. Lee Jeongwoo swallowed and went on, careful.
"It's just... we've had word from the judges."
The corner of Park Jeongho's mouth twisted.
"What, they want protection?"
"Yes, sir."
Bang!
His palm crashed down on the desk. Water leapt from the glass and soaked the papers.
"Figures. They only come looking when it's like this."
Lee Jeongwoo flinched.
"What would you like to do?"
Park Jeongho shook his head with a sneer.
"What do you think I'm going to do. We help them. How many times have they cut our people's sentences and pulled them out of prison?"
"And we paid them handsomely for it, sir."
"Back then we were the ones who needed them. It's different now. Their own feet are on fire. This time we help them properly — and we use them properly."
Lee Jeongwoo nodded.
"True enough. I saw the news. It's a mess. Judges, this time. I had a feeling the moment they started slashing sentences like that."
Park Jeongho let out a short laugh.
"Yeah. Judges are all the same with death in front of them. Of course they're scared. You think power makes you any different?"
Lee Jeongwoo asked, cautious.
"Shall I send people in right away?"
"Yeah. Send the elites."
Lee Jeongwoo hesitated, then narrowed his eyes.
"But... even if we send people, is there actually anything we can do?"
Something flashed in Park Jeongho's gaze.
"We at least have to watch, don't we? See them die in real time and we might get a new lead."
"...Understood. I'll include healer-types with the elite unit."
"Good. Balance the numbers and send them clean. If they become a target they'll die anyway, but we have to at least look like we're trying."
"You mean we should be seen taking action."
Park Jeongho nodded.
"Right. Judges are dropping one after another, and there's nothing we can actually do about it. Just pretend to guard them and treat them, and bring back how they die. That's what matters now."
Lee Jeongwoo bowed again.
"Understood."
"Jeongwoo."
"Yes, Master."
Park Jeongho glanced around once, then asked, low.
"What about Blue Dust?"
Lee Jeongwoo dropped his voice to match.
"Yongmun, the middlemen moving the product, have already been cut off. The buyers are all terrified and turning themselves in. I think we should halt it for now."
Park Jeongho's hand clenched into a fist.
"...And Jinho?"
"He's confined to the house. I told him not to do a single thing. Guild members are posted at the residence, watching him. We still know almost nothing about the other party. You don't need to worry."
Park Jeongho drew a deep breath and nodded.
"Fine. Go do your work."
Lee Jeongwoo bowed once more and slipped quietly out of the office. Park Jeongho was left in the empty room, both eyes gleaming cold.
Judge Sohn Wooseok's house. The interior was expensive; one glance was enough to measure the wealth. Sohn Wooseok pushed his glasses up and stared at the news, gnawing at what little nail he had left, his leg jittering without rest.
He was the judge who, when they had all gathered not long ago, had pushed to steer everything by manufacturing public opinion. Where had that bold face gone? Things should have flipped the way he wanted. Instead, aside from a small few, most people were condemning them even harder. Judges were still dying, and the feeling that he himself might be next refused to fade. It wasn't only Sohn Wooseok. His family was just as uneasy. He couldn't pull his eyes from the screen.
Damn guild bastards. When the hell are they getting here?
The only place he could lean was D.K. This death was like a natural disaster. He had already decided ordinary strength could never beat it.
The doorbell rang, and young men in black suits came in.
"Judge Sohn Wooseok?"
He hauled himself up on shaking legs.
"Yes. That's me."
The young man bowed, perfectly polite.
"Good evening. Lee Jeongwoo, of D.K Guild."
Sohn Wooseok's eyes went wet, like a man lost in the mountains suddenly sighting a rescue team.
Only then could he sit back down with even a little ease.
Night came, and the house grew strangely still. Lee Jeongwoo, one healer, two fighters — the four D.K elites took turns closing their eyes, moving like a military watch that never fully slept. Lee Jeongwoo steadied his breath and drew a small camera from his bag. The lens turned, quiet, toward Sohn Wooseok's bedroom.
"...This one has a high chance of becoming a target."
He said it low and pressed record. The man already had lines into politics. Bribes. Reduced sentences for the conglomerates. He was one of the judges people cursed the hardest.
Time passed. Lee Jeongwoo let his eyes close for a moment. A still hour.
Then—
"Aaaagh!!"
The scream tore through the house. Lee Jeongwoo shot upright and burst into the room. Sohn Wooseok's eyes were drowned in blood, burning red. His whole body heaved with tremors, and the veins under his skin swelled as if they were about to rupture.
"Wh-what is this?"
Hunched and twisting, he began to spit words no one could follow.
The guild members' faces froze.
"Hey! Healer!!"
The healer ran in. A magic circle of light drew itself in the air.
Thump!
The heal rebounded and slammed into the wall.
"You piece of shit! Do something!!"
The healer's hands shook. More magic followed, and it was the same. The moment the healing light touched Sohn Wooseok's body, it bounced away, as if it had met something beyond magic itself. He crawled across the floor, making a sound that was neither quite a laugh nor a sob.
"He ate my liver. He ate my flesh. Where am I. What am I. Find the eye drowned in blood. He is a god. I am a sinner. Now it is time to fall."
Screaming madness filled the room. He looked like a demon gone insane. Ice ran down the guild members' spines, and cold sweat slid along their necks.
Then Sohn Wooseok looked out the window. A bad feeling closed over Lee Jeongwoo.
"Hey! Grab him!"
He shouted it, already too late. Sohn Wooseok didn't hesitate for an instant. He kicked through the window and threw himself out, and shards of glass scattered everywhere. They all reached — and they were already too late.
Crash!
A brutal impact. Lee Jeongwoo and the guild members could do nothing where they stood.
"What the hell kind of bastard is this."
Lee Jeongwoo swallowed and stared at his own hands. He had never felt this useless. He looked up at the ceiling and let out a long, heavy sigh.