The Foreigner on the Periphery

Chapter 16 – Three Ways To Murder Your Boss (13)
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Jeongpal could sense the sudden change in the air as he looked at him. However, he turned his head again because of Kim Yeon-joo’s following words.

“I wonder if this bastard is actually really crazy…”

Kim Yeon-joo was full-on sobbing as she continued. “I knew I had always been a dreamer, but I became a bit of an idiot when he started talking about all that ‘social pollution’ propaganda… and when I said all that… all he did was ask for my blood!”

The research Jang Tae-joon had been conducting on his own had apparently reached a dead end. However, he had begun thinking that the blood of an ISP manifester might hold a valuable clue.

“So, perhaps….”

Instead of Ye Minjun, who had been silent for a while, Park Jeongpal was the one who asked. Kim Yeon-joo nodded, confirming his guess. A deep sigh then escaped the Orc’s mouth.

“Uh-huh…”

She had been very angry then, but in the end, she offered the blood he wanted. Neither party reacted to the confession of the affair, and Kim Yeon-joo decided to avoid any more conflict this time, seeing as she had been doing it for a long time.

And still, their relationship continued. Jeongpal, who had heard everything from beginning to end, began to mutter in a confused voice.

“They both…”

Kim Yeon-joo began to consider the act of regularly drawing blood as a secret between the two of them, almost as an insurance so that they could maintain their relationship. She thought that, in order to keep their relationship going, a sacrifice was necessary.

However, in the end, the catastrophe of this close relationship soon came.

It was also a rather violent form of catastrophe.

‘Sorry, I can’t postpone this any longer.’

He had dropped the bomb on her as he got out of bed, saying the postponed farewell. The moment to leave had finally come for him. When she asked where he was going, he did not respond at all.

Instead of answering her question, he went in a different direction. ‘I plan to hand over all of the Hyosung Industrial shares I have to the Social Welfare Foundation.’

At that moment, Kim Yeon-joo’s feeling of loss soon turned into anger.

‘And, I want you to sell me the stock you have as well. I can’t tell you why, but follow what I say. I’ll give you enough price…’

She couldn’t take it anymore. She got up.

‘Are you kidding me right now? You decide to leave without giving me a valid explanation, expecting me not to throw a tantrum, and then what?! You want me to sell my stock? Hyosung is not your private company. It’s something more than that, so what does this mean?’

‘I can’t tell you the details. If you keep holding those stocks, you might be at risk, too.’

It was both an innocent lie and an excuse.

From then on, Kim Yeon-joo’s memories felt warped. The only thing that felt clear to her was the frustration that had finally boiled over.

She had sacrificed herself for the company, and regularly provided blood that Tae-joon needed for personal research purposes. In the end, she had been nothing more than a versatile and useful subordinate to Jang Tae-joon, a convenient office wife who didn’t bother him, and an experiment that would bleed for him whenever he wanted her to.

The next thing she knew, Kim Yeon-joo was in front of the Dragon she had been having an affair with. Ethel did not get angry after she had confessed everything to her.

‘Well, I don’t have anything to be annoyed about, right? I don’t care who you sleep with aside from me. Dragons are a race that don’t care about things like that.’

What caught her interest, however, was something else during the confession.

‘A guy named Jang Tae-joon has secretly been researching dragon genes?’

Jang Tae-joon had briefly mentioned it. He had said that there was a secret safe hidden in his house, where he had been researching the genes of the dragon race.

However, Kim Yeon-joo didn’t know the location, nor how to enter it. They had been going in and out for several years, but they kept it as a strict secret.

‘Do you want to take revenge on that bastard?’

And so, the conspiracy between the two began. Using misdemeanor as an excuse, Edeline planned to kidnap and torture Jang Tae-joon, and at the same time, steal all the stocks as well as the data that he had studied.

Having said that, Edeline seemed to be more interested in the face value of the stock than in the pursuit of justice. It might be nothing to other dragons, but it was a mouthwatering temptation for a low-powered dragon who had come to Earth with nothing.

In the end, Kim Yeon-joo accepted her offer. In the middle of the night, Jang Tae-joon had been summoned under the guise of reconciliation, and Edeline hid in the meeting place.

However, no matter how long they waited, Jang Tae-joon did not appear.

No one had seen him ever since.

The words that soon followed were utterances of regret, disgusting self-rationalizing, and repetition of excuses.

Jeongpal then asked, judging that it wouldn’t make sense to listen to any more of her ramblings. “Brother?”

Minjun’s face was still hardened, but he finally spoke up. “Who drew your blood, and in what manner?”

“Who drew your blood in what way?”

He now knew why Kim Yeon-joo’s vitality was not as good as that of a normal person’s. However, there was one catch.

“Tae-joon, personally.”

“How much blood at one time? What is the blood sampling cycle?”

Kim Yeon-joo stuttered as she spoke. About 300 ml at a time, once a week for about a year, she said.

“Unbelievable…”

Seeing the contorted expression on Minjun’s face, Jeongpal frowned.

“Why, what’s the matter?”

It was the first time the Orc had seen him wearing that kind of expression. However, Minjun couldn’t find it in himself to respond to Jeongpal’s question.

This wasn’t the usual way to draw blood. it was the way to use magic when it came to gathering life force together. This method was used when blood was the magic sample.

It was said that Jang Tae-joon drew blood directly from Kim Yeon-joo, all while using a uniquely shaped syringe. Minjun knew what kind of artifact it was.

‘With that amount of blood drawn by magic, there’s no human who can possibly survive!’

However, Kim Yeon-joo was still alive.

The ability of the ‘magician’ to draw blood was that great. A high degree of control that limited the life force contained in the blood to the extent that it could be used as a sample, but it did not interfere with life. It was not something that anyone could do.

Moreover, according to what Kim Yeon-joo heard, the research that Jang Tae-joon focused on at the last minute was ‘Identification of the effect and principle of ISP-expressing blood on hemolysis.’

To study the interaction of magical properties, two substances were usually required in similar doses.

‘I thought I could only get a few frozen samples on the black market, because humans alone did research on dragon genes. But, it wasn’t.’

He had been seriously mistaken.

‘If it’s that kind of research… there’s no need to draw Kim Yeon-joo’s blood to that extent. At least 14 liters of ‘Dragon Blood,’ which would be magically collected, would have been consumed. Where the hell can an ordinary human get it?’

All the puzzles were put together in Minjun’s head.

“Sell it.”

“Yes, brother!” The Orc answered nervously.

“What does President Jang Tae-joon own besides a house?”

Jeongpal hurriedly went through the documents. “Uh oh… There is one residential and commercial complex in Haeundae, Busan. There is one condo in Jecheon. There is a villa in Gacheon…”

It had only been three days since Minjun took charge of this case and started moving in earnest.

In the meantime, he was busy chasing evidence in Seoul, so he didn’t have the time to visit the real estate that Jang Tae-joon had brought outside of Seoul. The area had been searched by the police, but nothing was found.

Even if a member of the Society had gone to investigate, they wouldn’t have been able to find anything still, if Minjun’s hunch was correct.

“Among them, are there any buildings adjacent to a mountain with a maximum height of 800 meters or more? Or a building close to a lake with a diameter of more than 3 km?”

Jeongpal found an item that met the conditions.

“Ah the villa located in Sokcho, Gangwon-do suits the condition perfectly. Seoraksan is right nearby.”

At this Minjun got up almost immediately. “Okay, let’s go right there.”

When Jeongpal moved to follow, he stopped him. “No, Jeongpal. You take care of Kim Yeon-joo. I’ll go alone.”

It was far too dangerous to take Jeongpal this time as well.

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‘Yeah, even if I searched for a hundred days in the Society… there’s no way that a secret safe could have been found.’

Even Minjun had robbed Jang Tae-joon’s house in Hannam-dong thoroughly, but it was also clear as to why nothing had come out.

‘Do you have a secret safe in your house? That wouldn’t have been a lie. It must have come out of nowhere.’

If Jang Tae-joon’s identity was what Minjun had been guessing, then the Hannam-dong mansion was not his ‘real house.’

Minjun knew that his true home had to be in a different form altogether.