Vs. the Association
If I hadn’t pushed myself to the absolute limit holding the Gate open long enough for the four holy beings to pass through, I never would have broken free of Elena’s allure either.
I shut the Gate I could only maintain for three seconds, and Elena straightened up in perfect sync.
The moment she closed her visor, unidentifiable sighs of disappointment erupted all across the press conference hall.
“As General Manager Lee Jayoung stated, there is no concrete proof that Elena is not a demon. Just as the old saying goes that a demon wears an angel’s face, Elena might truly be one. All Elena and I can do is ask you to believe us. But on that day, Elena stood against the undead horde and protected City Hall and its citizens—while the Association, whose duty it was to protect those same citizens, was nowhere to be found. Whose words will you choose to believe?”
One of the cameras that had been locked on me swung over to capture Han Seongmin, who was staring blankly into space.
At that level of public humiliation, we didn’t even need to expose the corruption. It was already a knockout.
Yet General Manager Lee Jayoung still radiated defiance.
“The Holy Knight may simply have been deceived by you as well. Demon Lee Jungmin! The Association will arrest you this instant!”
The words had barely left his mouth before Keepers burst through the conference hall doors.
I already knew Association Keepers had surrounded the building. So why had I still chosen to show my face?
Naturally, I had a plan.
Standing at the very front of the Association Keepers was Park Sena.
She strode forward with long steps, stopped before the podium, and gave me a slight bow of the head.
“Park Sena! There’s no need for formalities! Arrest Lee Jungmin at once!”
Sensing something was off, the General Manager barked at her.
His reaction was far, far too late.
After the bow, Park Sena turned and planted herself directly in front of the General Manager.
“…What do you think you’re doing? Do you intend to disobey a superior’s order?”
“Lee Jayoung, General Manager of the Korean Gate Keeper Association, and Han Seongmin, Association Department Head—I am placing both of you under arrest on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
“What the hell are you doing?! Embezzlement? Where did you dig up that nonsense?! And you don’t even have the authority to arrest me!”
“I have an arrest warrant issued by the court right here. I am present solely to restrain S-class Keeper Han Seongmin. The entire situation is under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Korea’s judiciary.”
General Manager Lee Jayoung snatched the warrant from Park Sena’s hand and read it.
His hands were trembling so violently it was impossible to miss.
“…You think you can do anything to me with this scrap of paper? Do you honestly believe the Association President will just sit back and watch?!”
“The President of the Korean Gate Keeper Association has likely already been taken into custody by now. Coming quietly will work in your favor at trial.”
“Shut up! Bring me the evidence! You think you can pull this without proof?!”
The General Manager’s face flushed a deep, furious red.
“We have the evidence.”
The Director, who had been standing off to the side, stepped up to the podium with a microphone.
The screen behind him filled with the various pieces of evidence the National Intelligence Service had compiled.
“March 2019: false salary payments to nephew A. April of the same year: interference in the selection of the Association cafeteria contractor, awarding the contract to a relative’s company. April of the same year: diversion of 15 billion won—part of the funds for the Association executives’ resort—to external accounts. May of the same year…”
With every calm, measured sentence the Director read aloud, the General Manager’s face drained of color until it was pure white.
In the end he collapsed bonelessly into his chair.
“…Do we need any more evidence?”
“…”
The General Manager answered by saying nothing at all.
He looked like a man whose soul had half left his body.
“Then let’s go.”
Association Keepers hauled him to his feet and led him away.
Han Seongmin offered no resistance either as Park Sena took him into custody and dragged him out.
Watching them, I felt the corner of my mouth start to twitch upward of its own accord.
No. Not now.
Especially at a moment like this, I had to wear an expression of regret.
My face was being broadcast live to the entire world.
“GGC has filed charges against the Association President and thirteen executives on corruption charges. On behalf of everyone here, I would like to express our gratitude to the anonymous hero who provided us with the evidence of their crimes.”
The Director bowed and stepped back again.
My turn once more.
“A great many things have happened in a very short time, yet Elena and I can still only say the same thing: please believe us. If there are any criminal suspicions against us, we are fully prepared to cooperate with any police investigation or Association investigation. We are not demons. We have no intention of becoming villains. We have no desire for power. We simply wish to explore Gates, protect people to the best of our ability, and live our lives.”
I finished speaking, stepped to the side of the podium, and bowed at a full ninety degrees.
Elena and Keira followed suit.
Only after the camera flashes had gone on for a long while did the Director’s voice return.
“That concludes the press conference we prepared. Association personnel may now take Keeper Lee Jungmin and his two companions into custody. We ask that you uncover the full truth of this incident through an honest and transparent investigation.”
The doors opened again and more Association personnel entered.
My group and I followed them out of the hall at a measured pace.
“We will now take questions. I will answer until every reporter is satisfied, so please take your time.”
The camera flashes chased me all the way to the exit.
Click.
The moment the door shut behind us, Keira spoke quietly.
“You did well.”
Hearing those words, the tension drained out of me all at once.
“It was nothing.”
This wasn’t the end, but a brief moment of breathing room was fine.
“…Please come with us to the Association. You will need to undergo investigation.”
“Understood.”
We followed the Association Keepers toward headquarters.
“…Park Sena, release us this instant. That is an order.”
Lee Jayoung spoke the moment he got into the car.
Park Sena flinched despite herself.
She had known General Manager Lee Jayoung for fifteen years already. Ever since her days as an F-class Keeper, she had moved according to his commands.
“I cannot do that. You will be taken to the police station.”
“We fed you, clothed you, even educated you—and this is how you repay us? You ungrateful little—”
Park Sena flinched again, but that was all.
“It was not you who fed and clothed me. It was the Association.”
She had grown up in an Association-sponsored orphanage.
It was no exaggeration to say her entire life was bound to the Association.
“It’s the same thing. And more importantly—who do you think made sure you received the full support that let you become an S-class Keeper? That was all me!”
Lee Jayoung was right.
The only reason a mediocre B-class Keeper like her had been able to rise to S-class was the Association’s wholehearted backing.
“I was grateful. That is why I tried to look the other way on most things.”
She had known he farmed out contracts to relatives.
She had known Association executives treated hundreds of billions in embezzlement as a trivial matter.
She had believed Lee Jungmin was not a demon, yet she had still intended to follow the Association’s decision no matter what.
She had known that some of the villains she killed were nothing more than Lee Jayoung’s political rivals.
She had chosen to live as the Association’s tool.
Because the Association had taken in an orphan made by a villain.
Because the Association had given life back to someone who had already been as good as dead.
Because even if they committed small wrongs, from the larger perspective the Association always did the right thing.
Even if her own name never came to light, as long as the Association ran smoothly, that had been enough.
“Then you can look the other way this time as well. Only a few people died, and that Lee Jungmin you like so much will be fine. All you have to do is let me go. I’m not saying I’ll return to the Association. Just spare my life. I’ll go abroad and live quietly.”
She did like Lee Jungmin.
The White Flower that had bloomed before her eyes was something she would never forget for the rest of her life.
And Lee Jungmin had saved his comrades.
A few had died, but even those deaths had been made peaceful because of him.
Yet the Association had mocked those comrades’ deaths.
“…Please stop. Unless you want the Association’s experiments exposed.”
“…How do you know about that…”
“I don’t know how I came to learn of it either. But now that I know, I cannot simply stand by.”
She had already known the Association tortured captured villains to death or used them like tools.
On a human level it bothered her a little, but she could overlook it.
The world did not run like a fairy tale.
She had also guessed that the spatial transfer scroll Han Seongmin used had been created by controlling a recently captured villain.
Lee Jungmin had confirmed that guess.
And he had told her one more thing.
There is evidence that Association Keepers were used in human experimentation.
The story was that Keepers who suffered severe injuries during major villain or monster operations were used as experimental subjects.
The primary targets were people like Park Sena herself—orphans who had grown up under Association support and become Keepers. Her own comrades.
She had only ever been told that those comrades had died in hospital beds or retired because of their wounds.
But the materials Lee Jungmin handed her contained clear indications that those same comrades had been used in experiments.
Most of the corpses of the dead comrades had been used in experiments as well.
The bereaved families had simply been told the bodies had been lost.
Please help me. This kind of tragedy has to be uprooted this time.
Park Sena herself was the one who should have been apologizing.
The footage filmed from her point of view had been leaked, and she was the one who had betrayed him.
Yet he had been the first to bow his head.
I will help.
Following Lee Jungmin’s request, she had gathered evidence of Association corruption from the inside.
There hadn’t been much for her to do.
The National Intelligence Service’s materials were nearly perfect; hers merely filled in a few gaps.
Thank you. With this we should be able to take down the rotten leadership in one stroke. And one more request—matters inside the Association must be handled inside the Association.
I understand. I will take full responsibility for everyone involved in the experiments.
They would expose the corruption completely, but they could not reveal the human experiments.
It went beyond the Association itself collapsing; every Keeper could end up ostracized by society.
It had to be handled internally, and she had taken full charge of that task.
She would purge every related individual and place them under lifelong surveillance so they could never speak of the experiments or use the results for private gain.
A life of constant surveillance would be miserable, but they would have no choice but to accept it.
Otherwise they might die.
“…In the end that bastard is just the same as the rest of us, isn’t he? All that talk about transparency…”
“Shut your mouth. Do I look like I’m holding back because I want to?”
She let a fraction of the rage she had kept buried for so long show toward the sneering Lee Jayoung.
His face went deathly pale.
An ordinary civilian like Lee Jayoung could never withstand the full presence of an S-class Keeper.
Seeing that, Park Sena felt a momentary rush of satisfaction—and at the same time a hollow emptiness.
It was far too late for any of this to matter.
And she herself was not free of guilt in this affair either.
…Do I even have the right to be angry?
Park Sena had only just learned that her own rise to S-class had been one of the results of those experiments.
She, too, was one of the people who needed to be dealt with.
She, too, would live under surveillance.
She opened her eyes wide.
So that everything she saw could be recorded more clearly.
Everything she saw was still being transmitted through the contact lenses she wore to the Association’s servers.
Whoever took over the Association next would manage her every single action.
Before, she had been able to turn the recording off whenever she wished. Now, even if she wanted to, she could no longer stop the lenses from recording.
This was the punishment she would receive.