[Raccoon Man Beginning]
[Raccoon Man Beginning]
Ten-something minutes passed.
Mr. Kim and Inspector Kwon had been spouting all sorts of bullshit at me, but I ignored it all.
They kept pressuring me, telling me to settle for mutual fault, claiming it wouldn't be good for either side, and trying to get me to move. But it was futile.
And then, Lawyer Kim-nim arrived at the Local Police Substation first.
"Ah, President Choi-nim!"
"You arrived at an ambiguous but perfect time, Lawyer Kim-nim."
I said this while looking at the tall, imposing middle-aged man who had just barged into the scene.
The person called Mr. Kim likely had some connections with Inspector Kwon, for better or worse. In this situation, no matter what kind of bullshit I pulled, I would definitely lose if things stayed within the bounds of common sense.
In that case, calling a lawyer was the right move. Since Lawyer Kim-nim was someone Sion had chosen, he would surely do his best as a defense attorney.
I gave Lawyer Kim-nim a full explanation of the situation.
Having dealt with plenty of shitty people, there weren't many situations I could lose in. Even if there were, I always made sure to secure the evidence to ensure a victory, even if it was a pyrrhic one.
"I see, so it's about violent behavior inside the shop. Have you contacted President Sion-nim?"
"Of course I did."
"Then it will be even easier. For now, I'll stall for time."
Lawyer Kim-nim talked to Mr. Kim and got into a bit of an argument.
It wasn't anything major, just a logical dispute over what had happened. No matter how well Mr. Kim knew Inspector Kwon, it was hard to resist the eloquence of Lawyer Kim-nim, who used to work for a large law firm.
They say the educated know better. No matter how much money someone has, they can't do anything against someone who starts laying out logic in earnest.
"I'm here."
It was the arrival of the Final Boss.
When Sion appeared at the Local Police Substation, the atmosphere changed completely. Even without her Growth Form, Sion's appearance was top-tier, and in her Growth Form, she was stunning even among Transcendents.
She had an appearance so incredible that it could even be compared to the Absolute Being of Fate. It was hard to believe that someone with such an outstanding appearance was my wife.
At this level, it was worth making a deal with the Absolute Being of Fate.
If you ignore the fact that she lacks human touch because she's of the Hanon race, that is...
"Who are you?"
"I am the person who is his wife."
Sion introduced herself to Inspector Kwon. Honestly, it was a meaningless conversation.
He was surprised by Sion's appearance. Then he looked up her personal details and was surprised a second time. He had initially treated her with prejudice based on her appearance, but after seeing some information, he started breaking into a cold sweat.
Well, it's not like my wife would have an ordinary background.
Sion looked at Mr. Kim and said.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Choi Sion. Excuse me, but where do you work?"
"Ah, I am Kim In-jeon, the president of Myunghwan Factory. Excuse me, but who are you? Are you really an adult? Are you playing a prank?"
Before Sion even answered, she made a few phone calls on her cell phone.
Even from back in the day, Sion felt more inflexible than me when it came to things involving each other. Even if Sion were in danger, I might have thought about it a little if the lives of the entire planet were at stake, but Sion was ruthless.
"Yes, yes. Chairman-nim. How are you? It's nothing else, but..."
Sion made exactly three calls and hung up. But the effects were all revealed 10 minutes later.
The phone call Mr. Kim received right after she hung up the first call was enough to turn his complexion pale.
And the second call changed Mr. Kim's expression.
"Yes? President-nim, wait a minute, what does that mean? Please wait a moment! Yes! Yes! No, wait a second!"
And the last call was enough to shatter all his hopes.
After waiting for about 5 minutes, he was so pale that he looked like a stiff corpse.
"President-nim! President-nim! No, why couldn't you just wait a little longer... What kind of sudden disaster is this?!"
Something must have gone completely to hell, as Mr. Kim clutched his head in despair after receiving the call. Thanks to that, the hair that had been left on his head was almost entirely gone by the time the call ended.
Sion smiled faintly as she watched him, now practically bald.
"Were you trying to pick a fight just because you run a small factory that does some supply work? You seem to make some money, but in this country, that means you're under the influence of large corporations."
Of course, I could understand if he needed the money. Honestly, for a subcontractor factory, there are many hardships from the perspective of the prime contractor.
From finding another factory to entrust the subcontract to, to all sorts of profit and loss relationships. It's equally difficult to think about everything.
But if the profit and loss relationship is clearly lagging, the only thing the prime contractor would choose is to look for another subcontractor.
"Pr, President-nim. What on earth did you do?!"
"It's nothing special. I just made a few calls to the representative companies you trade with."
But just as large corporations aren't large for no reason, losing one client cut off about 20 to 30 percent of his income.
Since it was 3 places, that's at least 60 percent. At most, 90 percent.
"Even if I'm just a shareholder, I have some influence. Especially if I'm a major shareholder who owns an average of 3 percent of the stocks of large corporations in this country. Of course, it's not without losses, but is that a big deal?"
Sion spat out at Mr. Kim with a cold expression.
It had been a long time since I'd seen that expression on Sion.
Conversely, I had seen that expression often when I was pissed off and smashing everything to pieces, but Sion's eyes were the exact opposite.
It was an expression that said she would protect just one thing, even if it meant bearing all the losses.
No matter how many connections one has, it's difficult for Sion to make someone throw away a partner they were trading with properly just by saying a word. That means Sion also provides benefits to that side. That eventually leads to a loss.
Just as Newton knew the law of universal gravitation but couldn't calculate human desire, what would a person look like who threw away hundreds of millions in profits just for personal reasons?
"First of all, this incident can be called self-defense. First, the perpetrator not only committed the act of forging an official document by faking a Resident Registration Card, but also participated in special assault by beating the defendant with 4 people. Student Baek-ri's actions were nothing more than an act to stop that."
"But that is..."
"It's all recorded on CCTV. No matter how much you deny it, the recorded video won't disappear. Since it's a private CCTV installed inside the shop, the image quality is good, too. It will be solid evidence."
"Even so, a Force User beating a regular citizen is..."
"Before that, the perpetrators committed special assault by 4 people beating 1 person, didn't they? We must be clear about the order of events. If Student Baek-ri had beaten them first, that would be one thing, but isn't stopping a violent act that already started self-defense? Or are you saying he should have just stood there and taken the beating?"
Inspector Kwon was in a position where he couldn't possibly counter Lawyer Kim-nim's eloquence.
Honestly, if I were entirely at fault, that would be one thing, but if the other side is at fault, I don't need to bow down.
I quietly said something, thinking about something that was a bit suspicious.
"But this is a bit strange."
"Why is that?"
"Would 4 high school delinquents who even forged Resident Registration Cards have come all the way to Myeong-dong by bus or subway?"
Realizing that the atmosphere was turning ominous, the four high school delinquents, who had been keeping their mouths shut, flinched at my words.
The probability that all 4 of them live around here isn't high. If so, it means they have a means of transportation... but my gut tells me they wouldn't have ridden something like a bus or subway.
"What did you guys ride to get here?"
"We, we rode the bus."
"Is that so?"
When one of them said that, I quietly took some paper and a few pens from a nearby desk and handed one to each of the delinquents.
"Write down the bus number you rode here, each of you. If you all rode together, you must have taken the same bus, right?"
"........."
"Uh..."
Since they were perpetrators of a violent incident, they were handcuffed, and perhaps because they were worried about them causing a disturbance while drunk, they were kept at a certain distance from each other. It wasn't very far, but it was far enough that you couldn't really see what they were writing on the paper.
"Even if you guess and write something, I have to check if that's even a bus that comes to Myeong-dong. Can you write it?"
The guys had nothing to say. Knowing that the situation was turning against them, their mouths, which had already been shut, were completely sealed.
There's no way they could write it. Unless these guys used telepathy to align their thoughts, there's no way they could write the same bus number.
If they had just been drinking normally, I wouldn't have guessed it, but if they even forged their Resident Registration Cards, there was a possibility. And this was the moment that possibility became a certainty.
"These bastards even rented a car and drove here, didn't they?"
"Is that so?"
"We, we didn't do anything like driving?!"
"If you search all the nearby CCTVs, it will come out. If it's to crush people like you who hit my husband, I don't care how long it takes."
But Sion would have found it long ago. Her information processing speed is completely different.
Sion looked at me and nodded. It seems that, just as I said, they rented a car and came here.
If they drank somewhere else and came here...
Underage drunk driving, drinking, and on top of that, forgery of official documents.
In my view, this isn't something that will end nicely just because I agree to a settlement.
"What are you doing right now! Interrogation is the job of the police, which is me!!"
"Ah, if the police I know are correct, the person who just spouts nonsense about mutual fault and settling to the victim is a police officer, right?"
"Still, you shouldn't be doing this."
Inspector Kwon seemed to have put on a thick face, trying to coax us to somehow improve the situation.
But Sion struck first.
"Then I will call another police officer."
"......?"
Sion called someone else somewhere. Ah, I know who it is. Since it's someone I called once before, I roughly got the gist of it.
Perhaps because it wasn't too late yet, the other party answered the phone quickly.
"Yes, it's nothing else, but my husband is here as a victim of a violent incident... There is all the evidence here, so he is virtually innocent, but the officer in charge seems to have taken a bribe and keeps trying to push for a settlement. Ah, are you in this neighborhood by any chance? Then I will see you in a little while."
The person Sion called burst through the front door of the Local Police Substation about 10 minutes later.
It was a middle-aged man I was seeing for the first time, but I had heard his voice before. The tone of him shouting loudly in anger was the same as my memory, so I was sure.
"Who is the head of this Local Police Substation!"
He was looking for the head of the Local Police Substation right off the bat, huffing and puffing, but then he discovered us and changed his face as he approached. Changing his face doesn't mean it was bad, but since he came with a smiling face, his ability to switch stances seemed skilled.
"Wh, who are you?"
"I am Chief Kim Won-sik of the Jungbu Police Station."
"Ch, Chief-nim!! W, wait a moment, coffee or something first..."
"Forget it. Bring me your head of the Local Police Substation. Right now."
I suddenly thought about the rank and found something a bit strange.
If he's a Police Station Chief, his rank should be Superintendent General, but I know that a Local Police Substation head is usually held by a Superintendent. The rank is only one step different, so I wondered if he could just summon him like that.
"That person did well in his promotion review this time, so he is a Superintendent General (candidate)."
"Aha."
Then the story is different.
As far as I know, once you get the rank of Superintendent General, you are generally assigned to a certain Police Agency. Ah, it doesn't mean he becomes the Commissioner, it just means his affiliation changes from a Station to an Agency. The Commissioner is only possible after becoming at least a Chief Superintendent General.
But even so, it's not a position where he can be pushed around by a Local Police Substation head. Superintendent General is a rank where, when a Superintendent General has 4 Mungunghwa flowers, you add 4 small ones and 1 big one, totaling five. The rank insignia itself is different.
"Oh my! Chief-nim! What brings you here without even calling..."
"You, let's talk for a moment."
The head of the Local Police Substation who was elsewhere came out, bowed and greeted him, then was grabbed by Chief Kim and dragged away.
It seems like he wants to talk quietly in a corner so we can't hear... I was curious about what he was saying, so I quietly spread my Force sense.
Unlike when he came in angry at first, Chief Kim spoke calmly. Seeing him change his attitude quickly and persuade the other party even after showing anger, it seems he didn't just become a Chief by accident.
"Look here, Superintendent Ahn Yoon-sung."
"Please speak comfortably, Chief-nim. You're older than me, and anyway, once you get promoted this time, aren't you a far superior?"
"Yes, then Yoon-sung."
Chief Kim smoked a cigarette and talked with Superintendent Ahn, the head of the Local Police Substation here.
"If you don't want to be fucked, handle the case of those people over there well."
"Yes?"
"It seems like the kids under you made a mistake trying to accommodate someone they know. Handle it well while I'm saying it nicely. Surely you don't intend to end up just as a Local Police Substation head when you're still young, do you?"
"Yes, yes, of course."
"Did you happen to see the girl with silver hair over there earlier?"
"I saw her passing by earlier... Why is that person?"
"If you judge by appearance, you might end up fucked. That person is an acquaintance of the Commissioner."
"Yes? Yes?! Is that true?"
"Why would I lie? The fact that I'm getting promoted this time is also thanks to that person."
Did Sion pull some strings? I suddenly thought that, but Sion is more of an efficiency expert than I thought.
No matter how much of an acquaintance someone is, she doesn't pull strings for someone useful; she doesn't do favors for someone incompetent.
Thinking about that, Chief Kim seems to be a capable person in his own right. Or someone who is easy to move.
"Yoon-sung, you're still young, right? Don't you want to become a Superintendent General? You need to get more pension, right?"
"Yes? Yes... of course."
"You might make it to Superintendent, but you won't make it to Superintendent General if you don't ride the right line. If you handle this matter well... I'll look after you, and the Commissioner will also look favorably upon you."
"Is, is that true?"
"Of course, her connections aren't just with the Commissioner. Anyway, handle their case according to principle. It's clear who did wrong anyway. You understand?"
"Yes, I understand."
The other side finished talking, and Chief Kim approached us with a smile.
"Haha, don't worry, President Sion-nim. The investigation of the case will proceed transparently."
"Thank you, Chief Kim-nim. I will set up a dinner appointment later."
"No, it's a natural thing as a police officer... By the way, is the person next to you your husband?"
I shook hands with Chief Kim and introduced myself.
"My name is Choi Ak. My wife is indebted to you, please take care of us."
"My name is Kim Won-sik... Ah, come to think of it, my kids misunderstood and were rude last time. I'm really sorry."
"No, it was something they did while being faithful to their work, so it's fine."
"Would you like to have a meal with President Sion-nim sometime? I know a good Korean restaurant."
"Then let's do that."
The complexions of Mr. Kim and Inspector Kwon, who were next to us, turned from pale to stark white.
Life is real, you little shit.