-A Master of Denial
Gang Yonghun was glancing toward the door.
Was he already thinking of running? Or was he looking for a bodyguard to rescue him from this predicament?
The thought of the so-called highest authority in the Hall of Magic looking for a bodyguard made a sneer slip out on its own.
If you want to run, then try stepping over me first.
“What on earth are you saying? Have you lost sight of everything now that people are lauding you as a hero? Are you saying I borrowed the hands of black mages to carry out terrorism?”
Gang Yonghun turned his gaze back to me and began to roar.
“That’s right. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Do you deny it?”
“What kind of absurd—!”
“What’s absurd about it, you ridiculous old coot! Who was it that carried out the terror attack on the underground dwarf village? Say it again. Say it! What was it you said last time? That the dwarves attacked their own village? Do you still think that? Does that make any sense?”
All of a sudden, Cheon Danbi, who had been beside me, poured out words like a machine gun.
There was no courtesy, no anything. She had thrown honorifics out the window. Just as she’d said before we came, she had clearly decided to get under his skin.
And sure enough, Gang Yonghun was hooked helplessly on Cheon Danbi’s line and responded in a frenzy.
“What? No, but this woman really—! You think you can just say anything because you have a mouth? Do you even know who I am, running your mouth like that?”
“Of course I know who you are! You’re a politician sitting at the top of the Hall. Aren’t you a fake mage who calls himself so great but has never once shown himself tackling terrorism? Aren’t you just a swindler who only thinks about taking dirty money and stuffing his own belly?”
Hmm. I couldn’t help but admire her quietly.
She had said she was an expert at needling people, and she really was. Every word was sharp and provocative enough to make one feel refreshed.
Of course, from Gang Yonghun’s perspective, it wouldn’t be refreshing; it would be enough to make his insides churn.
“Where did some street thug crawl out from to run her mouth? You’re not even a mage, yet you dare butt into a conversation between mages and spout nonsense. Drag this woman out of here at once! And know this—I’m going to sue you for defamation!”
At that moment, the office door flew open, and two sturdy men entered.
Gang Yonghun’s bellowing voice was more than loud enough to carry beyond the door. Even if it hadn’t, it seemed his subordinates had been waiting right outside.
So that was why he’d been glancing toward the door.
The men were, of course, mages, but it seemed they had been chosen as bodyguards more for their size than their magical skill.
As I watched them approach Cheon Danbi, I quickly drew mana to my fingertips.
“Hah! Sue me? Defamation? How hilarious. The one who needs to go to prison right now isn’t me, it’s you, Gang Yonghun! You took money from Vanaheim to frame the dwarves for terrorism! We have all the evidence, so don’t even think about playing dumb!”
At Cheon Danbi’s words, Gang Yonghun raised one hand. It meant for his subordinates to stay still.
For the moment, I also stopped casting my magic.
“What are you talking about now? Evidence? You have evidence?”
Even when she needled him, Gang Yonghun had only gotten agitated and hadn’t let anything slip the way Cheon Danbi had expected, but at the word evidence, he reacted sensitively at once.
“We do. Why, are you scared now?”
I answered him. In a very low, quiet voice.
Now I, too, threw honorifics out the window.
I had no intention of showing even feigned respect to someone who had hurled abuse at Cheon Danbi and even tried to use violence against her.
Only then did the room, which had been as noisy as a marketplace, grow quiet.
When Gang Yonghun gestured once more, his subordinates retreated silently like shadows.
“Evidence? What kind of evidence do you supposedly have?”
Gang Yonghun asked in a cracked voice. By now, he too had lowered his voice enough.
Though his face was still flushed red.
“You’ve committed more than one or two crimes up until now. Which evidence should I show you first? Blowing up the dwarf village beneath Namsan was on your orders, and smuggling orcs through Incheon Port was something you plotted too. What else was there? The zombie virus incident, the swarm of rats…”
“What are you talking about? No! I wasn’t the one who smuggled in the orcs!”
“Oh, is that so? So you didn’t bring the orcs in, you only used them?”
Gang Yonghun’s face turned red and blue by turns.
As expected, once he was flustered, he began to drop fragments of the truth.
The orc smuggling had been Yasin’s doing, so it must have been something the Magic Tower carried out. Gang Yonghun must have been the one who siphoned off the orcs afterward to use them in experiments.
And the fact that he said nothing about the other matters was practically an admission that he had done them.
“I am the Hall’s Executive Committee member. Do you think you’ll be fine after doing this?”
Having run out of things to say, he spat out a threat using his position.
It was a sickeningly familiar pattern. I didn’t even snort.
“What are you talking about? You’re about to go to prison. Executive Committee member, my ass…”
“Stop falsely accusing people and show me the evidence! What evidence do you have?”
He was still denying it, but seeing as he kept asking about the evidence, Gang Yonghun seemed to be dying to know what we had in our hands.
Well, if he wanted to make excuses, he needed to know what cards we were holding.
At this point, I decided to let him see just a little.
“Fine. Listen. Though you probably don’t need to hear it, since you know better than anyone what you did.”
I took out my phone and played the recording file I had prepared.
Before coming here, I had saved only the parts related to Gang Yonghun separately.
As King’s voice flowed out, Gang Yonghun pricked up his ears and began to focus.
[…I did carry out a few experiments for them. They said the Hall would provide orcs, so I should try genetic manipulation. Since they said it was the Hall, we figured it would be good to have a connection with the mages, so we agreed. Loki paid the money at the time, and he said it wasn’t something he was ordering personally, but something ordered by an Executive Committee member of the Hall. So I figured that was that…]
After playing it that far, I stopped the file.
The phrase Executive Committee member of the Hall had come up, so that much was enough.
“Who is that bastard? I don’t know him! Whoever he is, he’s running a scam. What kind of con artist bastard dares to bring up my name? This is a frame-up. A frame-up!”
As expected, Gang Yonghun denied it at once.
It was only a third party’s testimony, and his own voice wasn’t in it, so he likely thought he could just deny everything.
But were all things in the world really that easy and simple?
Starting today, Gang Yonghun would have to learn anew that the world wasn’t so easy to deal with.
I’ll make it so.
“A frame-up, my ass! You’re the expert at framing people!”
Cheon Danbi fired off a shot first.
It felt as refreshing as drinking cider, but for the sake of smooth proceedings, I gestured for her to calm down and said,
“Whether it’s a frame-up or not can be confirmed easily by bringing Loki in and confronting him with you.”
“What? Where is Loki? Wait! Are you saying Loki admitted to what that bastard said?”
Gang Yonghun began to look visibly flustered.
It seemed he understood how serious the problem would be if Loki, who had served as a link between swindlers here and there, had fallen into our hands.
The only issue was that Loki wasn’t actually in our hands yet, but from what Gang Yonghun had just said, it didn’t seem he was in their hands either.
Was he hiding somewhere alone?
“And do you think it’s only Loki? Director Han Huiyeong of the Bureau has confessed everything too, so there’s no shortage of proof for your charges.”
In truth, I didn’t know whether Yu Jaeseon had already arrested Han Huiyeong or not.
Besides, Han Huiyeong might also be stubbornly denying everything like Gang Yonghun.
But in the end, it was only a matter of time.
There was no problem with borrowing a little from the future.
“I don’t know! I said I don’t know anything! Loki was suspicious from the beginning. I don’t know what he plotted with Director Han Huiyeong, but it wasn’t me.”
As expected, this time he moved on to cutting off his tail.
I knew that if denial didn’t work, he would try to cut the tail loose.
He was tiresome. Watching him push away the people he had joined hands with and pretend not to know them just so he alone could escape, I naturally thought I would never want to do anything together with a bastard like this.
I understood why the Hall of Magic had been in such a state all this time.
“What do you mean, it wasn’t you? I saw with my own eyes the orcs the Hall had been keeping being used as test subjects all over the place! And I know better than anyone that you were the one who plotted the terror attack on the underground dwarf village. You’re going to deny it even though we were at the scene? You and your subordinates showed up wearing Vanaheim patches!”
“No, I’m telling you, I really wasn’t the one who smuggled in the orcs. You know better than anyone that Yasin was the one behind that. Yes, the Hall did manage them. And as for the dwarf village, the government said they needed cooperation, so I merely matched my story with theirs. Ask Director Han Huiyeong. I really wasn’t the main party.”
I thought he was a master of denial, but apparently not. Without realizing it, he was slowly confessing to his crimes.
But Cheon Danbi apparently couldn’t be satisfied with just that.
Suddenly, she shot up from her seat, thrust her face close to Gang Yonghun’s, and said,
“Wow, you really are shameless enough to pierce the heavens. Weren’t you just talking earlier about high society and the leaders of society or whatever? You’re the Executive Committee member of the Hall, aren’t you? And yet you’re saying you let those two play you? Is that really it? You just did as you were told without knowing anything?”
At Cheon Danbi’s words, Gang Yonghun’s face flushed red again.
This time, it seemed the needling had landed properly. Gang Yonghun sprang up from his seat and shoved Cheon Danbi hard.
Then, like a bombshell declaration, he ended up saying words that admitted his own crimes.
“You pathetic fools! What do the likes of you know, running your mouths like that? Do you think you’ll be fine after this? Do you know what kind of people we are, acting so insolently? If a small act of terrorism can prevent a greater one, then it must be done. We only did what was necessary for the country and the Earth! I’m telling you, it wasn’t only because of the money!”
While he shouted furiously, I helped Cheon Danbi up and sent her to the back.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Then let’s end this now. The recording’s done, too. He confessed, so it’s over.”
To think he dared touch my team member—my insides were boiling.
There was no longer any reason to keep listening to that bastard’s nonsense.
As I drew up mana and moved to extend my hand, Gang Yonghun quickly drew up his own mana as well.
“Stay still. You’d be better off not even thinking of stopping me. You’re nothing more than a slow, washed-up back-room mage now. Don’t you dare dream of opposing me.”
The words slipped out through my clenched teeth.