Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: First on the List
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Kanghyeok gestured with his chin toward the newspaper covering Leila’s face.
“That must be uncomfortable.”
“Leave it be. Besides, you’re here too early. I was expecting you this afternoon.”
Kanghyeok sucked in his lips before answering.
“It was urgent.”
“Haaa.”
“Were you on vacation?”
“Something like that, yes. It was for special duty. I was given paid leave.”
Leila had helped Kanghyeok find his laptop.
A kind of special duty, outside of her regular work.
As fair compensation, Leila had received paid leave and was enjoying her time off.
“Did I come too soon?”
“You must be in a hurry. Don’t worry about it. I can just take the rest of my leave later.”
Paid leave is precious to any employee.
In any case, Leila spoke to Kanghyeok, her face still hidden behind the newspaper.
“More importantly, I suggest you go buy a coffee.”
“We can talk on the way.”
Kanghyeok said, preparing to get up from his chair, but Leila stopped him with a sharp tone.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ve already sat down.”
Leila extended a finger from the hand holding the newspaper and pointed toward the café.
“It’s one coffee per person here. Once you sit, you have to order.”
When Kanghyeok followed her finger, he saw the displeased face of an employee.
There was no way around it.
*Ssss.*
Kanghyeok hissed through his teeth as he stood up, and Leila added a comment from behind her newspaper.
“I recommend the cappuccino. They make it quite well.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
When Kanghyeok returned from the café, he was holding a mug with a cappuccino.
Sitting down again, Kanghyeok faced Leila, not the newspaper.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
It seemed she’d put something on her face in that short time, but frankly, he couldn’t tell what had changed.
“Was there something in the paper?”
To break the awkward silence, Kanghyeok brought up the innocent newspaper, and Leila tilted her head.
“Not really. The news is always the same story, just with different protagonists.”
Kanghyeok’s gaze shifted to the newspaper.
“There’s a story about the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Leila took a sip of her coffee and replied.
“I have no interest in that. Peace, and all that.”
Kanghyeok felt much the same.
Before, he wouldn’t have given a story like the Nobel Peace Prize a second thought.
But was it because he had died and come back to life?
Or was it because someone he’d grown fond of had died?
For some reason, the article on the Nobel Peace Prize caught his eye and wouldn’t let go.
A new religion.
But one that felt less like a religion than any other religious group.
The article was about the leader of a religion that preached avoiding conflict and protecting the environment receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. The most notable thing was how young the leader looked in the photo.
“Heh.”
How nice it would be if the world worked according to the words of people like him.
But Kanghyeok and Leila knew all too well that it didn’t.
There were always more people practicing conflict than preaching peace, and Kanghyeok had spent his entire life dealing with them.
Peace? Harmony?
Such things don’t exist.
Even if they did, they would vanish as quickly as a drug addict’s hallucination, so it was the same as them not existing at all.
“Did something happen?”
Leila asked, noticing the depth in Kanghyeok’s expression and eyes. Kanghyeok bit his lip once before speaking.
“Someone connected to me was murdered.”
“Is it someone I know?”
“The supermarket owner. She was the boss where I worked.”
At Kanghyeok’s use of the past tense, a short gasp escaped Leila’s tightly pressed lips.
“Was it a random murder?”
Kanghyeok simply shook his head.
Leila’s eyes narrowed as she reached for her coffee.
“A grudge, then.”
“I don’t even know if it’s a grudge.”
“On what grounds?”
“The bastard left a message. That he hoped I was the one who killed Johannes.”
“We took care of all his men.”
“It could be the work of a remnant.”
“What do you think?”
Leila asked cautiously, sensing a lack of force in Kanghyeok’s voice. After a brief pause, Kanghyeok answered.
“Someone is looking for me.”
Leila studied Kanghyeok’s eyes before dropping her gaze to her coffee.
“You must not have any suspects, seeing as you came to me.”
If he had, Kanghyeok would have gone to repay them immediately.
And he would have delivered a thorough punishment.
He would have avenged the owner’s suffering, adding his own emotional pain to the mix, and the culprit would have been unable to avoid or block that revenge, no matter what they tried.
Did Kanghyeok not have a gun right now?
That didn’t matter.
Leila knew well that in Kanghyeok’s hands, a shard of broken glass, a tie pin, or even a sock could become a deadly weapon.
A gun was just a smarter, cleaner, more efficient tool; it wasn’t essential for Kanghyeok to eliminate someone.
“This must be difficult for you.”
In any case, it must be a frustrating situation for Kanghyeok.
He must feel like a ship adrift in the vast ocean without a map, his explosive desire for revenge having lost its direction, left to seethe within his chest.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Do you know what my current mission is?”
Leila nodded.
Kanghyeok’s mission was to wipe out all the gangs in the city he lived in.
If he could, if it were possible, if he had the choice, Kanghyeok would want to eliminate the person who murdered the supermarket owner first.
“I’ll proceed with the mission.”
And yet, Kanghyeok stated what he had to do in a calm voice.
“I’ll prepare a list of the gangs. I have information that includes their locations and sizes.”
“How long?”
“Now.”
Leila took a sip of her coffee and held her phone with both hands. She typed out a text with her thumbs and, after a moment, nodded and showed the phone to Kanghyeok.
“I did some separate research when you lost your laptop.”
Will this be enough?
Kanghyeok answered Leila’s unspoken question with a nod.
“So, who’s first?”
The data Leila showed him listed five individuals as key figures.
One of them was Johannes.
‘He’s already dead.’
The others were a Russian skinhead, a black boss who mimicked the mafia, and the head of a violent gang, Matias.
One other was unidentified.
Since the information was gathered hastily, it was understandable that one person might be missing details.
Kanghyeok turned his attention to the three identified leaders.
“The closest one.”
“That would be Matias.”
Leila stood up from her seat.
“Let’s go. With two agents, headquarters will send a plane for us. I’ll request weapons, too. Do you need anything else?”
Kanghyeok answered immediately.
“A kukri.”
It was a weapon he hadn’t used when searching for the laptop.
He had used a knife, but it was lacking in many ways compared to the kukri he was used to, and its killing power was pathetic.
“I need it.”
Seeing the murderous intent and grudge in Kanghyeok’s eyes, Leila nodded.
Kanghyeok rose to his feet. Before leaving, Leila glanced back at the coffee Kanghyeok had ordered.
Her expression turned to one of regret.
The cappuccino, its foam now flat, was untouched.
Though Kanghyeok’s face was placid, it was bitter to see that he didn’t even have the peace of mind to drink a single cup of coffee.
“Shall we?”
“Understood.”
Leila set off, watching Kanghyeok’s back.
They traveled by plane, and no sooner had they arrived at the airport than a black car picked them up.
The driver was an elderly gentleman with a full head of white hair, like a fresh blanket of snow.
“Welcome back.”
He seemed very pleased to see Kanghyeok, who returned the greeting with a short nod.
“I’m just a subcontractor.”
“Isn’t that all the more impressive?”
*Vrooom.*
He smiled, his lips curling up as he drove skillfully.
“I’ve been with the company for quite a long time, but I’ve never once experienced a subcontracting arrangement.”
“I suppose everything changes as the times change.”
“Haha, you speak like an old man. You’ve changed a lot since I last saw you.”
Having nothing else to say, Kanghyeok just gave a small nod.
The old gentleman then shifted his gaze to Leila in the passenger seat, his eyes as warm as if he were looking at his own granddaughter.
“You’re well aware of this mission, I presume?”
“I was briefed by the HR Manager.”
It was then.
For a moment, a fleeting instant, the old gentleman’s eyes glinted sharply.
“I’m counting on you. Until the very end of the mission.”
“What about my weapon and clothes?”
“They’re all in the trunk. Including everything Mr. Kanghyeok requested.”
The old gentleman’s eyes returned to normal as he met Kanghyeok’s gaze in the rearview mirror.
Kanghyeok sent a signal of thanks but grasped the situation from the subtle shift in the atmosphere.
This job was more important than he had thought.
There was something more to it than just eliminating gangs.
He also realized Leila might be a monitor.
But that changed nothing.
Kanghyeok would just do his job as he always did, and he would eliminate the gangs. That was all.
“As you may already know, William is in charge of this operation.”
“Yes, I know.”
“He’s someone who compensates properly. That man.”
The words held a hidden meaning: give this job your all.
Kanghyeok took a breath and said he understood.
As much as the company and William were focused on this job, Kanghyeok, too, had a personal stake in it.
This was no longer just a company job.
They had touched someone they shouldn’t have.
They had committed an act that couldn’t be repaid with all the blood of this city’s gang members.
“Well, we’ve arrived.”
The old gentleman pulled the car over to the side of the road.
It was a deserted area, a dark street with only a few scattered streetlights.
At the end of this road was Matias’s residence.
It was a sort of makeshift structure of combined and stacked shipping containers, its very appearance giving the impression that it was not a normal building.
The tacky, vulgar blinking of a neon sign made it look even more so.
*Click.*
The old gentleman unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.
Leila and Kanghyeok followed him out, and the old gentleman handed the car keys to Leila before turning to Kanghyeok.
He gave a slight nod.
“May you have a good hunt.”
Kanghyeok mirrored him with a slight nod of his own. Soon after, a luxury sedan that had been following them from a distance pulled up, and the old gentleman got into the back seat and drove away.
Kanghyeok didn’t take his eyes off the car until it was out of sight.
The old gentleman might not be an executive, but he was a long-serving employee whom the company couldn’t treat lightly. He wasn’t the type to be playing chauffeur.
The fact that such a man had personally escorted Kanghyeok meant there was a reason for it.
*Clunk.*
Leila opened the trunk, and Kanghyeok moved to her side, taking out three bags from the far left.
A rifle, a pistol, and a kukri.
Kanghyeok glanced at Matias’s building again, then turned his eyes to the weapons and picked up only the pistol and the kukri.
“You’re not taking the rifle?”
“This is enough.”
It wasn’t a very useful weapon in a confined indoor space.
You had to raise or lower the muzzle every time you went through a door, and it was difficult to react immediately to sudden situations.
That’s why backup was important, but Kanghyeok planned to go in alone.
In that case, the pistol and kukri were better.
*Click.*
After clipping the communicator Leila gave him to his ear, Kanghyeok turned toward the road.
His gaze was still fixed on Matias’s building.
An hour at most.
When that time was up, there would be no one left alive in that building.
Did Matias kill the supermarket owner?
He didn’t know.
But it didn’t matter.
It was fine.
Even if the one who murdered her was somewhere else, all the gangs in this city were going to die anyway.
The only difference was whether they died now or later.
*Click.*
Kanghyeok slid a magazine into his pistol and started walking toward Matias’s building.