Chapter 63. The Fall of Del Norte
Chapter 63. The Fall of Del Norte
- Without him... I would still be trapped in that darkness.
A man in a wheelchair had been speaking at the podium for a whole hour.
- How much longer must our land, Mexico, remain in the grip of the cartels...?
The man shed tears as he finished his speech.
Gradually, the citizens of Mexico began to turn their backs on the government.
They had never trusted the corrupt government to begin with, but this incident made them rise up.
"That son of a bitch...!!!"
─ Crash!!
Santiago, who had been silently watching the broadcast, erupted in fury and smashed the TV.
The jester he'd kept alive to spread terror had now turned his blade against him.
"I should have killed that bastard back then...!"
Seething with rage, he hurled furniture in every direction.
"Kill that bastard right now."
"B-Boss... he's currently under the protection of the U.S. Embassy..."
─ Smack!
"Ram a tank through it, stage a terrorist attack—just get it done!"
"B-Boss...!"
Santiago did not like this situation one bit.
The hesitation of a subordinate who normally carried out orders without question only fueled his rage further.
─ Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
"Huff... you useless morons... with all the money you've taken, this is the best you can do?"
He gasped for breath, grabbed his phone, and jabbed at his tablet.
"Hey, are you messing with me?"
- Del Norte...
"Handle it properly!!!"
This was not the voice of that politician who always trembled with fear and made pathetic excuses.
Now it was calm, even laced with a confident sneer.
- I will no longer be your dog.
"What? This son of a bitch right now...!"
- Del Norte is finished.
The call ended.
He hurled the phone and screamed in uncontrollable fury.
─ Bang!
His rage turned toward a subordinate who suddenly burst through the door.
But the subordinate spoke with an urgent expression.
"Boss! Our brothers are being arrested as we speak!"
"What? Arrested?"
"Yes...! The government has already issued orders to shoot to kill if they resist...!"
Their armaments had become relatively meager.
Because the warehouse where most of their firearms were stored had been destroyed by Song Hoon.
"That son of a bitch..."
The Mexican politicians had also read the shifting tides.
They judged that Del Norte was a sinking ship.
In truth, behind their judgment were the machinations of South Korea and the United States.
Because subtle information had been leaked that Del Norte would soon collapse, the Mexican politicians quickly jumped ship.
"Boss, the Toluca region is...!"
"The Puebla strongholds have all been raided...!"
"The Morelos warehouse...!"
Santiago listened in real time to the reports of his cartel crumbling.
---
"This place is a training compound?"
I had imagined a heavily fortified military installation.
But from the outside, this was a seemingly ordinary resort.
Still, their security was tight.
"So this is where they keep the trash gathered."
The organization members there aimed their guns at me as if I were their sworn enemy.
But they knew perfectly well that mere guns could do nothing against me.
"W-We...! We haven't done anything...!"
"Th-That's right...!!!"
True.
They had not yet committed any actions as a cartel.
But one of the entry requirements for Del Norte was 'murder.'
That meant everyone here had committed murder.
"Food waste or just trash... in the end, it's all the same garbage."
"Can any of you truly claim to be clean?"
Laila asked them, though she already knew the answer.
They shook their heads vehemently and recited their petty sins.
And mixed in were lies about how they had absolutely never killed anyone.
─ Drip... drip...
Once more, because of Laila, a golden rain fell from the sky.
But no one survived.
Anyone who was truly clean would have survived.
No, they would have even experienced the miracle of healing instead.
"Let's go in."
Leaving the dead behind, we entered through the resort's main gate.
I could already tell where he was thanks to the stigma Laila had engraved on me.
"He's below."
"Below? Not above...?"
"Yes, quite deep down... it seems the surface is made to look like an ordinary resort, but most of it is hidden underground."
"While we're here, let's strip this resort bare. I honestly want not a single grain of rice left for this bastard."
Laila and I headed for the stairs, checking every floor, every corner.
But they were just ordinary guest rooms where organization members seemed to be staying.
"What's this doing here?"
When we reached the top floor, the 10th floor, an unusually large iron door came into view.
And there wasn't a single window, the kind you'd normally see lining a hallway.
─ Crrk...
I tore the iron door off.
In the dark space where not a single ray of light entered, a few lonely lamps hung.
Inside were iron bars.
And children.
"..."
Small bodies, appearing barely ten years old, were trembling.
Dried blood, surgical scars, bruises, and needle marks marred the children's bodies.
Even when they saw me suddenly enter, they didn't let out a single scream.
"No, this is..."
For the children, screaming was a forbidden language, and crying was grounds for punishment.
Here, the children existed not as human beings but as 'materials.'
"That bastard... he's still underground, right?"
"Yes... judging by the frantic movement, he seems to be preparing to flee..."
Tears welled up in Laila's eyes at the surreal sight that had no place in modern society.
The children were quick to pick up on things.
One of the children who realized we were not with the cartel hesitantly opened their mouth.
"Please... just spare our lives..."
Rage boiled up from the abyss.
I had been angry when I saw the footage, but facing the reality in person made me dizzy.
"Laila... the kids..."
Laila healed all their physical wounds.
But sadly, she could not heal the trauma the children carried.
"Laila, come with me. If I go alone, I think I'll end up killing him..."
I broke through the wall and jumped straight down to the first floor.
Then I smashed through the floors one by one, heading down to where the bastard was.
I didn't have nearly enough patience to walk down floor by floor using the stairs.
─ Kwang!!!
When I crashed through the ceiling and landed, I saw the bastard packing cash into a massive bag.
"You're trying to run away after doing this kind of shit?"
"W-Why, why on earth...!"
"?"
"What did I ever do to you for you to act like this!!! Just because I stole a single item..."
I waved my hand dismissively, as if I didn't want to hear him.
I wasn't doing this out of a burning sense of justice.
That bastard simply pissed me off.
That was the entirety of the reason.
"What...? Just for that reason, my kingdom that I built...!!!"
"It's only natural to want to clean up when you see something filthy."
"..."
"I don't care where you are or what you do. But unfortunately, you caught my eye when I came to Mexico."
"What kind of...!"
"Shut up and listen to the rest."
"..."
"Normally, I would have let it slide after dealing with things moderately. But you pissed me off."
He had used children for such atrocities.
It was disgusting and revolting.
The reason his cartel was falling apart was simply because he had disgusted me.
"W-Wait...! Let me live...!"
I shattered the jaw of the bastard who was pathetically begging for his life.
I grabbed his dangling jaw and ripped the tongue right out of it.
"Gghhhhhhhkk!!!"
─ Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Then I completely crushed both his hands and feet.
Laila healed him just enough to keep him alive.
But the wave of pain made the bastard pass out.
---
'Ugh...'
When Santiago regained consciousness, the first thing he sensed was the stale smell of cement.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the man in the wheelchair, Song Hoon, Laila, and a Western man.
"Ghh... uggh..."
Words would not come out because his tongue had been ripped out.
The man in the wheelchair approached Santiago.
Even when he tried to move, he was tightly bound to the chair, and there was no strength in his wrists or ankles.
"Santiago... do you remember me?"
"Hff... hff..."
Santiago let out a laugh.
It was precisely because of the man right before his eyes that his cartel had collapsed.
The man in the wheelchair pulled a knife from his coat and drew closer to Santiago.
And without a moment's hesitation, he plunged the knife into his thigh.
─ Stab!
"I want to kill you so badly it drives me insane. But I will not kill you..."
As if intending to sever every single nerve in his lower body, Esteban drove the knife into both of his thighs and twisted it around.
"Gghhhkk...!!"
"I will never let you find peace in death. You will rot away for the rest of your life in the worst prison, regretting what you did every single day."
He bled profusely, but he did not die.
Laila continuously healed him just enough to keep him from bleeding out.
"Gghkk..."
Santiago's head dropped, and he fainted once again.
"Santiago will be reported as having been injured during an unnecessary physical altercation in the course of his arrest."
"You can get him locked up in the worst prison in the world, right?"
"Yes, Hunter. He is scheduled to be incarcerated in a clean hell... Florence."
I nodded.
It was quite a satisfactory handling of the matter.
Santiago was already indicted and wanted by the DEA, after all.
"If this bastard lives comfortably, or if he transfers prisons through some kind of deal... that won't be amusing."
"Don't worry. Criminals who target children... won't keep their bodies intact even in prison."
The official shook his head, as if to say such a thing would never happen.
"And the only way he will ever leave... is death."
I wasn't worried to begin with.
Santiago had nothing left.
Because everything he owned was inside my ring.
"My friend, thank you. Now I can leave with peace in my heart."
"What...?"