Colt’s Talent
“...That is true as well.”
Having already laid bare the bottom of his heart to James, he could afford to be equally frank about his greed for money.
‘What is so important about money...’
When this was over, Park Jin-tae and Choi Jeong-san were going to take each other’s hands and cross the River Jordan together.
‘Was it the East Sea, not the River Jordan?’
Even while James was thinking about his own end, Park Jin-tae was busy finding excuses for his own avarice.
“But once Choi Jeong-san has decided to clean things up, he’ll carry it out even if it doesn’t go through me. So you’d better take care of Choi Jeong-san quickly...”
‘Without going through you?’
James wanted to dismiss Park Jin-tae’s feeble excuse, but the content was anything but trivial.
“Who else would he have to handle such dirty work besides you?”
“Before I took charge of the TY Telecom secretariat, there was another chief secretary who received orders from the chairman. He was the man who laid the groundwork for the strategic secretariat I now run.”
‘...I had no idea about that side at all?’
James had only been tracking Choi Jeong-san and Park Jin-tae, who carried out his orders.
“The TY Group chairman, Choi Tae-yeong, and the former secretariat?”
‘If Choi Tae-yeong has the same sort of personality as Choi Jeong-san...’
From the disappointing face Choi Jeong-san had shown so far, James could roughly infer the old chairman’s temperament as well.
“The chairman dotes on his children terribly. He is obsessed with his own bloodline.”
“Hm?”
That was a possibility James had not expected.
“If he were to learn that his son Choi Jeong-san had a hidden child, he’d take that child into the family without hesitation. But he would still draw a firm line between family succession and bloodline.”
“Oh. Keep going.”
“No matter that Choi Jeong-san is his biological son, if he had exposed a child born to a mistress in the past, he would never have been allowed to sit in the chairman’s seat at TY Telecom. And if the chairman were to discover that, in order to hide it, he had gone so far as to murder her... then he’d be forced to step down from the president’s chair immediately. No matter that Choi Jeong-san is the eldest son, the chairman would cast him out without mercy.”
“Then why did you think the chairman’s former secretariat could handle me? By your own logic, wouldn’t the former secretariat that served the chairman be more likely to protect me instead?”
“...TY Telecom is currently under Choi Jeong-san’s control. TY Telecom is the holding company for the TY Group.”
What that meant was that the family around the supreme chairman and the former secretariat did not necessarily think alike. James felt he understood that difference now.
“He’s the next chairman holding the purse strings?”
It was money, not long-standing trust or deep loyalty, that moved people.
“Yes. The chairman is old, and could pass away at any time. So right now, it is advantageous to side with the next generation. But if you are a grandson who still has no power at all within TY Group...”
“...then I’m someone who can exercise no influence over TY Group at all.”
“That is why I said they might hand the matter to people other than me. They would prioritize only Choi Jeong-san’s orders.”
“So what’s the conclusion?”
If he stayed in the country, he would be hit by a car. If he went overseas, he would run into a hired killer. And if Park Jin-tae managed to halt the operation, the former secretariat was likely to step in anyway, so no conclusion was forthcoming.
“If we choose the lesser evil, you should leave the country as soon as possible.”
So the best choice was not the best method, but the less terrible one.
“And get myself shot to death by an assassin?”
“Even so, if things proceed through my hands, I can prevent the worst-case scenario.”
“And if you stop it? What happens to you?”
“I can shift the failure outward. And if you go overseas, that buys us time.”
If the failed hit could be pinned on the hired killer, there would be another chance later. Then, once James reentered the country, there would be time again to find someone to stage the car accident and carry it out.
“If it goes forward domestically, you take the blame for everything, so it’s better if I go overseas?”
“...Yes. Once I fail, the probability is high that the former secretariat will be given the job again, so remaining in the country would be the worst choice.”
“So I’m supposed to leave once and come back?”
James was absently scratching his head with a Glock he had somehow produced, while Park Jin-tae shuddered at the memory of the cold muzzle that had once been pressed to his own skull before he finally opened his mouth again.
“...If you were to eliminate the people who commissioned the hit instead, Choi Jeong-san would no longer think of you as easy prey.”
“Come on. Then I’d end up on Interpol’s wanted list, wouldn’t I?”
“If you left no evidence...”
He could not bring himself to say it aloud, but Park Jin-tae knew James possessed mysterious abilities. Even now, James felt like his master, and Park Jin-tae could not even dream of resistance.
“Their target is too obvious. No matter how the job turns out, I’d become a related party.”
“You also seem capable of making it look like suicide...”
“Like you?”
“......”
If he had not shouted “two” in time on that Indonesian beach, he would have been found drowned in the shallow surf.
“I don’t kill people carelessly the way you lot do.”
To Park Jin-tae, James’s words sounded less like a refusal to kill carelessly and more like a promise that, if he did kill, he would do it with care.
“As for your mother’s case...”
Park Jin-tae had not forgotten that he had killed James’s biological mother.
“...It was absolutely not my intention. I tried to persuade him that we should pay it off and bury it, but Choi Jeong-san insisted it had to be handled so there would be no backlash afterward...”
“Did you do the same thing after that?”
“No. However, as for the mistresses Choi Jeong-san has met since then...”
More and more information kept piling up.
“He had mistresses?”
“He currently has three mistresses he is still seeing. That number is what remained after a few were dealt with.”
“......”
There was not just one mistress, but several.
“He went to see one today as well. He booked a hotel and was scheduled to meet her there. They were light affairs with no promises of a future, so ever since that old incident, none of the mistresses has ever ended up with a child.”
“......”
At Park Jin-tae’s words, Colt naturally came to James’s mind.
‘If Colt, not me, were Choi Jeong-san’s son, it would suit him better...’
If James had not gone through the gun accident, and if he had not learned under the tutelage of Mercia Lynchberg, the great archmage and great sage, he might have ended up living a life like Choi Jeong-san’s.
‘Even so, I’d never live like that.’
James wanted to deny to the end that he and Choi Jeong-san shared the same blood.
“Which hotel did he book?”
“That place is...”
After confirming where Choi Jeong-san had gone, James reached a conclusion about their discussion for the day.
“Let’s go abroad before long. They’d already kept calling for me to come anyway, so this works out.”
It was a decision made because, if an accident happened at home, Colt and Suji were likely to be dragged into it as well.
“Just tell me the exact date and location. I’ll send the least competent men I can find. Of course, I’ll inform you in advance of everything, so the bastards will be caught without fail.”
He meant James should receive police protection overseas, but James’s destination was a little special.
“I haven’t decided when I’ll leave yet, but I’ve already settled on where I’m going. Besides, even if the men are incompetent, they won’t get anywhere near me. The country I’m going to doesn’t really like guns like this.”
“Where are you planning to go...?”
“Vatican City, in Rome, Italy. I even have Vatican citizenship.”
“!”
“The Vatican keeps telling me to come by.”
“...That might be difficult there. Still, that gives us an excuse.”
“So maybe next time?”
“I’ll contact you separately.”
* * *
The moment Choi Jeong-san stepped into his hotel room, a scantily clad woman greeted him.
Click.
“Honey. Why did you call me after so long? I thought I was going to die waiting.”
“Wasn’t it nice getting money for free?”
She was one of the women who had left a hostess establishment in exchange for receiving twenty million won a month and become his exclusive companion. Since the sum was unrelated to how often they met, as long as he did not summon her, she received that money every month for free.
“Aww. I was just lonely. Have you been busy lately?”
“Heh. The trouble I was worried about worked itself out. So I’m feeling pretty relaxed now.”
“Really? That’s great, oppa.”
After that, what the scantily clad man and woman were going to do in the hotel room was obvious enough. But a problem arose.
“...Damn it. Why is this happening?”
“Maybe you’ve just been too tired lately?”
“......”
‘The meds aren’t doing a damn thing...’
Choi Jeong-san was past middle age and heading into old age, so he always took medication to deal with younger mistresses, but today he could not get any effect from it at all. His limp manhood did not react no matter how much it was stimulated.
“What a ridiculous piece of shit.”
“Oppa. Should I try harder? Come here.”
“Forget it. You’ve ruined my mood.”
And strangely, he did not feel aroused at all. He had definitely been full of desire the moment he entered the hotel, but now he had none whatsoever.
“Oppa~.”
Even the cute coaxing that would normally have pleased him only annoyed him today.
“Get lost.”
“......”
“Can’t you hear me telling you to get lost?”
“Ah, okay. Oppa. Call me again for sure sometime~.”
Even after she hurriedly got dressed and left the hotel, Choi Jeong-san’s mood did not improve.
“...Am I getting old?”
James had applied the magical castration he had intended for Colt to Choi Jeong-san instead.
‘You’ve had enough of this nonsense too.’
It was not a spell that would last only a moment.
‘From now on, forever...’
That day marked the end of Choi Jeong-san’s enjoy-life era.
‘Soon, I’ll get to see the end of his real life too.’
James looked forward to the day when Choi Jeong-san would lose everything and walk into the sea.
* * *
“Huff.”
Whoosh. Swish.
Colt was swinging a huge sword over the broad lawn of a garden. It was sword training that had begun after James taught him the swordsmanship he had read in his master’s books.
Whoosh.
James was swinging the same sword a little distance away from Colt. In magic, James was far ahead, but when it came to knightly training, he had to start over from the beginning just like Colt. A knight’s techniques for using mana could be imitated however much one liked, but moving the body still required time and effort.
‘Mounted swordsmanship, dagger techniques...’
It was not necessary to learn every sword art recorded in the books. For now, the swordsmanship they were studying was the kind used with bastard swords and two-handed swords, so it was rather rough and simple. The weight of the blades made graceful handling impossible. But the two of them were using that rough, simple swordsmanship with complete freedom.
“Jimmy. Isn’t this too easy?”
Not only the thrust after readying the blade forward, but the motion of resting it on the shoulder and aiming for the opponent’s head as well. By shifting the direction the sword was targeting just a little, everything could be used in unexpected ways. That was why it felt even easier.
“...I’m wondering if anybody would even let me get hit.”
In the days when King Arthur and his knights were active, it had been a time when the basic forms of what could be called swordsmanship did not yet exist. The knightly sword techniques the two of them were learning now had once been cutting-edge, secret methods that could not be passed on to just anyone. But in the modern age they were too old-fashioned.
“If anything, like this...”
Whirr! Rattle.
Colt swung the heavy bastard sword like a reed, revealing an irregular motion. Colt’s blade seemed to block an opponent’s sword, then slipped past to the side, and when the opponent supposedly turned back to defend, it had already circled around and was stabbing for the neck from the opposite side.
“...If you attack like that, the other side won’t be able to retaliate. At the last moment, you can apply either a thrust or a slash.”
“That’s good, isn’t it? It seems better than the swordsmanship in the book.”
“I think it’d be even more effective if you created an opening with swordwork, then attacked with your arms and legs too. Jimmy. Try attacking me.”
“Okay.”
James and Colt exchanged blows as if they were in perfect sync, and at some point Colt knocked James’s sword aside.
Clang. Thwap.
Then Colt’s leg shot toward James’s exposed abdomen and stopped just short.
“Hup!”
“See? If that lands properly, the opponent falls backward, and all I have to do is finish it.”
“...Not bad.”
Colt, who had grown tired of the simple sword path, had gone so far as to invent his own sword style from scratch.
‘Colt’s talent for swordsmanship is real...’
James genuinely acknowledged Colt’s talent.
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