A Simple Contract
James had now undone the marionette magic that had been binding Park Jin-tae all this time. The next spell was needed now.
"H-help me! P-please, save me!"
"Good. I’ll give you one last chance. All you need to do is sign a simple contract between you and me."
"Hoo... Haa... Haa..."
"The main point of the contract is this: [Park Jin-tae, as the party of the second part, shall obey the commands of James Kane, as the party of the first part, until the day he dies.] The rest is just information needed to make that happen, so explaining it would get complicated."
Click.
At some point, James had pulled out a pistol and was now aiming the barrel at the side of Park Jin-tae’s head.
"!"
"I’m American, after all. I’m pretty comfortable around guns."
He had not been close to guns for very long, but the fear a firearm inspired was considerable.
Even as his mind swayed in and out of focus, Park Jin-tae could only nod frantically and answer, "I-I’ll do it! Anything you tell me to do, I’ll do it!"
"Good. Then the contract is made."
Contractor’s consent completed. Absolute Contract. Action.
Gray mana that had been lingering in James’s hand then seeped into Park Jin-tae’s body.
"……!"
And then Park Jin-tae knew what he had to do from this point on. It was as though everything had been engraved into his head from the moment of his birth. It was an imprint created by James’s contract magic.
James, having emerged from the sea and sat back down in his place, gave the man kneeling before him his orders.
"Go back to Korea."
"...Yes."
"Get back in his good graces. If you report that you recovered all of his money, it won’t be difficult. Separate some of it out on the side. It’s impossible to recover everything without spending anything."
"...Understood."
James could see a deep hunger for possession in Park Jin-tae’s hesitation.
"Still thinking about money, are you? Tch. You’re consistent, at least. Just like him."
"……."
Park Jin-tae wanted the hidden funds Choi Jeong-san had stashed away for himself.
"You don’t need to return the money recovered from that bastard’s hidden accounts either. If you carry out the plan, it’ll all be yours."
"...Thank you."
The scale of Choi Jeong-san’s hidden wealth was beyond imagination.
Something like forty billion dollars, wasn’t it?
In won, that came to more than four trillion, but James did not find it remotely painful to let it go.
What value does money like that even have?
If he had wanted to live for money from the start, he possessed the ability to make every cent in the world his own.
Money is nothing but worthless numbers.
He could walk up to the politicians of any country right now and make the secret overseas accounts they had hidden his own. The same went for the financial assets of Arab tycoons and world-famous business magnates. In this age, where there was no known way to defend against magic, James was no different from a god.
Would that number buy you even one more second of life?
James was certain that Park Jin-tae would never spend a single won of the hidden money he regarded as his retirement fund.
Park Jin-tae. You won’t even get the chance to use that money.
James remembered Jeong Min-ju’s final will, in which she had asked him to take care of himself until the moment he died.
Mom...
"……."
There was no mercy to be wasted on the man who had used a mother’s love to murder her.
The place you should die isn’t here. It’s the East Sea.
James intended to go to the East Sea, where she had died, and deal with Park Jin-tae there. Only, the timing would be delayed a little.
Choi Jeong-san... You’ll be going with him.
Choi Jeong-san, who had ordered everything in the first place, would have to face a magician’s wrath alongside Park Jin-tae.
* * *
Choi Jeong-san had been sweating bullets lately thanks to Park Jin-tae, whose line had suddenly gone dead.
"Assistant Manager Kang. Still no sign of Director Park?"
"……."
Kang Dong-hwi, the chief of staff in the secretary’s office, had been dragged into the president’s office every day lately because Director Park Jin-tae could not be reached.
"...We confirmed he left for Germany on business. As for what happened after that..."
"Don’t tell me what I already know! Tell me something new!"
"……."
Kang had learned that after visiting Director Park’s home, the lease had been broken and all his belongings moved out, but he could not bring himself to speak.
If I do, then...
There was a good chance he would have to go abroad himself to search for Park Jin-tae.
How am I supposed to know where the director went?
Recently, Kang had had a second child and did not want to leave home, and his trust in Park Jin-tae remained intact.
There’s no way the director would suddenly just run off from the company like this! It must have overlapped with the timing of his move.
That was making Park Jin-tae’s return less difficult than it otherwise would have been.
Then the intercom spoke in the voice of one of the secretaries.
Beep.
-Sir. Director Park has arrived outside.
"!!"
Both men turned toward the door.
"Tell him to come in now!"
-Yes, sir.
Knock, knock.
Park Jin-tae entered with his usual easy composure after knocking politely on the door, dressed in a crisp suit as always.
"I’m back, sir."
"Hey! You—"
Choi Jeong-san was about to bark at him as usual, but Park Jin-tae calmly sent the staff member outside first.
"Assistant Manager Kang. You’ve worked hard in the meantime. You can go now."
"...Yes, Director."
I knew you’d come through for me, Director!
Kang gave Choi Jeong-san a quick bow and hurried out of the president’s office, while Park Jin-tae smiled faintly and guided Choi Jeong-san to the sofa.
"Please have a seat here, sir."
"Hah. And you’re acting this relaxed right now?"
"You know I don’t do things without reason, sir."
"……."
Choi Jeong-san, who a moment ago had been certain that Park Jin-tae had siphoned off all of his hidden money, still sat down with suspicion thick in his face.
"Why couldn’t I reach you all this time?"
"I went abroad and lost my phone. I was pickpocketed, and they took my wallet along with everything else."
"You could still have contacted me! You could have gone to the embassy or something... You didn’t even report that you were going overseas in the first place!"
"Things moved a little too urgently for me to make contact."
"No matter how urgent it was—"
"I had found the trail of the people who took your hidden funds. How could I have gone slowly? If I’d wasted time looking for an embassy, the trail I found would have gone cold."
"!"
"Chasing them down and recovering the money was more urgent. Every minute and second mattered."
"A-and? What happened? My money! My hidden funds!"
"To put it first, it was a complete success."
Park Jin-tae’s answer came out smooth and self-assured.
"Director Park!"
"I told you to trust me."
The wrinkles at the corners of Choi Jeong-san’s eyes, which had been clenched in shock, deepened, and then a loud laugh burst from him.
"Wahahahaha."
The suspicion he had been nursing toward Park Jin-tae vanished like melting snow.
"I mobilized every overseas connection I had. It cost quite a bit along the way, but in the end we caught them, tortured them, and recovered the funds."
"Ohohoho!"
"Thanks to all of your overseas accounts being closed, I’ve placed the recovered funds in a separate account for the time being. Once you leave the country yourself later, I’ll create new accounts and redistribute everything."
"Then there’s no problem at all domestically, right?"
"Of course. There’s no tax issue with the overseas fund creation, and no legal risk either. It’s all been perfectly cleaned up."
"As expected! As expected of Director Park!"
Only then did Choi Jeong-san notice that Park Jin-tae’s face had been burned dark by the sun.
"You must have had a hard time, Director Park. Running around under that blazing sun and burning yourself up like this..."
Park Jin-tae rubbed his neatly tanned face, the kind one got from time spent on the beach, and nodded.
"It was more suffering than I can put into words, but because it was your hidden funds I was looking for, sir, I hardly felt the difficulty."
"Ha ha ha. I know better than anyone how well you do your work, Director Park. Ha ha ha."
"Shall we check the account first?"
"Oh! We can check it now?"
Park Jin-tae logged into the account he had prepared under the name Arthur Kris and showed a balance that had dropped slightly from the original hidden funds. But because the amount was so enormous, the reduction was not obvious at a glance.
"...You’re telling me five million dollars is missing?"
But Choi Jeong-san was calculating exactly how much had been taken from his hidden funds.
"There were thirty people mobilized overseas this time. There were additional costs because I had to handle the aftercare for the dead as well."
"D-dead?"
"Don’t worry about it. It was handled perfectly."
"Fine. What matters is that you found my money in the first place."
"……."
Park Jin-tae had no intention of giving back the hidden funds he had gathered in the account.
As long as that person is after you...
Now it was James, not Choi Jeong-san, who had been engraved deep into Park Jin-tae’s mind as his master.
You won’t survive.
Park Jin-tae was certain everything would be over before Choi Jeong-san had a chance to create a new hidden-funds account.
"The stone that had been weighing on my chest these past days has finally rolled away."
"Congratulations, sir."
"It’s all thanks to Director Park. Ha ha ha."
"……."
Park Jin-tae could not laugh with him.
If this fails, I’m done for.
He did not fully understand the mysterious power James possessed, but he was already experiencing it firsthand before he could even understand it.
I can’t tell anyone, but his abilities are real.
The moment he even tried to speak about them, his mouth would clamp shut. And even now he was reporting to Choi Jeong-san exactly as the imprint in his mind compelled him to do.
"Hoo. I think I need to enjoy myself today a little. Director Park."
"Yes, sir."
"Book a hotel. It’s been a while since I’ve let myself unwind. I haven’t even had the thought of meeting anyone recently because I’ve been worrying about my accounts."
"Yes. I’ll make the arrangements."
Choi Jeong-san had not changed at all, then or now. He always met women other than his wife, and the woman he was now telling Park Jin-tae to arrange for was an old mistress he had met a few months earlier and paid to maintain as a sponsor arrangement.
"Ah! And that bastard James—"
"!"
The moment the word James came out, Park Jin-tae’s body reacted before his mind did.
"Move the money and everything else fast. Things have been so damn messy lately that I don’t want to leave any more worries lying around."
"...There’s nothing prepared right now because of the overseas account work. It looks like it’ll take some time."
"Hey. Director Park..."
Choi Jeong-san, who had been about to snap at Park Jin-tae as usual, was then forced to remember the successful work he had just reported today.
"Fine. You came back after struggling overseas, so you should rest for a bit, at least. Then take two days off and sort everything out slowly."
"……."
Not a single word of reward was given for the accomplishment Park Jin-tae had reported.
Hah. So greedy... Two days off is the whole reward?
This time, there was not even a small bonus or a drinking session.
* * *
"……."
That evening, James was sitting in Park Jin-tae’s car near his home, listening to the report he had brought over by phone. Everything he had reported to Choi Jeong-san came through James’s ears in full.
"...That concludes this matter."
"Good work."
"Yes."
It seemed as though that was the end of it, but James reached into his bag and pulled out a thick bundle of dollar bills.
"Why the money...?"
"You cleaned out the apartment you were living in before you left, so you don’t have anywhere to go, do you? You’ll need to stay at a hotel for a few days while you find a place."
Hard to believe he’s Choi Jeong-san’s son.
It was a level of careful consideration Choi Jeong-san had never shown him. But James only wanted Park Jin-tae to remain intact until the moment he would be together with Choi Jeong-san at the end.
Until then, don’t suspect a thing and keep following along, Park Jin-tae.
"It’s nothing much."
"Thank you."
"From now on, don’t come over here directly. Just contact me. I’ll leave messages by text or email when I have orders for you too."
"Also, Choi Jeong-san wants you to handle James quickly. He said he’d put it off by using overseas work as an excuse, but..."
"What do you want me to do?"
"...If you leave the country, he’ll arrange the killing through a private mercenary with a heavy mouth. Domestically, the plan is to disguise it as a traffic accident."
It was something James had already guessed by eavesdropping on the two of them earlier.
"The only way to solve this is to remove the source of the problem."
"You want Choi Jeong-san dealt with quickly so you can have your money for certain?"