Chapter 8 – Three Ways To Murder Your Boss (5)

‘The client is actually a dragon!’

From the standpoint of a measly citizen like Jeong Pal, this was quite the heavy word to hear.

Dragon.

Such was the identity of the person who had commissioned the Society to search for Jang Tae-joon’s house.

‘I could see why my brother refused to say anything… It feels a little embarrassing to hold onto it like this.’

Dragons had never appeared in this world in the form of a collective sort of immigration. In the first place, no Balaur had ever requested a large-scale asylum from the community. And even if they did, Earth was not an ideal destination. There was only one habitable planet in this world, and it was far too small for so many dragons to live in.

On another hand, there had been quite a few cases of dragons who could individually obtain global citizenships. Some of them first started out as hermits by leaving the Himalayas or the Amazon Jungle as soon as they set foot on the Earth. Their reasoning behind this was because they abhorred the noise of civilization.

In other cases, most of them amassed enormous wealth and power in a short period of time, thusly becoming hidden influential figures in today’s society. Amidst the major organizations that lead politics, administration, and economy, there were only a few places where a dragon’s breath could not reach.

‘Normal people aren’t aware of this, but individuals who dare to tread on the dragons’ path end up disappearing!’

Of course, these disappearances were not reported in the media. That was one of the advantages of having power, of course. In this way, the dragons proudly established themselves as the top class of the earth within this generation. What millions of first-generation orc immigrants could not accomplish, they did so with the power of only a few. Everything seemed easy for a dragon.

“…Brother?”

“Wait, I have a few more questions to ask.”

After a while, Min-jun salvaged everything he could save from the wizard. The man, who was acclaimed for his zealousness in writing answers to questions, began to repeat what he said. He even began to stray into other topics when he ran out of replies on the discussion at hand.

“Okay, we’re done. Ask for the support I’m going to take from him.”

The wizard was evidently a human being and thus had no knowledge of Jang Tae-joon’s identity or past actions. Thus, he would be handed over to the National Police Agency, not the immigration office, and would take charge of the subsequent investigation, as well as a warrant application process.

As soon as Jeong Pal made the phone call, he heard the sirens, signaling that a police car was entering the Orc community.

“If you don’t want to listen to us, then at least listen to the recording on the baby’s cell phone. Knowing that the initiative rests with the interrogator will surely make you more compliant.”

Jeong Pal stared at the wizard, who evidently had not come to his senses just yet. He knew he had to follow along, but his priority was to work with an immigration agent. And so, he had to stay with Min-jun.

“Is the guy still in that state?”

“It was actually a good thing I turned this over to the police. I’ll make sure that you eat and sleep well. If I had that phone in my hand, I would make sure to listen to it all day too.”

“…Are you going to die normally?”

“According to national statistics, about 50% of people die just before actually starving. If that child can get proper help in prison, then he’ll probably be able to recover after 10 years.”

Of course, he chose not to mention the fact that that particular figure was the standard for a general wizard, and if that magician happened to be Min-jun, then the survival rate would be much lower. sh

The two then decided to search Tae-Jun Jang’s house one more time. He was feeling concerned about what the wizard had mentioned, this “secret safe at home.” The drive to the house was full of silence. Min-jun and Jeong Pal each had their own respective thoughts on the matter. Jeong Pal found himself wondering about the author the Society member said he had contacted and entrusted a request to the crime syndicate, how Lee Min-joon would choose to handle this situation, and how they were going to report this to the superior.

Meanwhile, Min-jun’s thoughts were less clouded. He was focused on one question, and one question alone.

‘What year?!’

It was quicker to remove a dragon from the list that had no malicious intentions than to find a dragon with the right type of motivation to entrust the Society with such a mission.

Most of the dragons that dwelled on Earth would never do this. The reason for this differed. If you had a subordinate who could accomplish a mission in a more discrete fashion without having to resort to any criminal organization, or if you had no interest in how people lived or lost in the first place, or if you wanted to find a ‘secret safe,’ the Korean government wouldn’t bother with such discreteness and turn the whole house of Jang Tae-joon inside out. One must have the temperamental type of hair… etc. etc.

Because of the description, the candidates in Min-jun’s head now narrowed down to four. All of these were women. The problem was, he couldn’t guess any possible motives for any of them to act in that manner. That made the selection harder.

We’ll be delivering the next news.

While the two were busy thinking, a voice resonated from within the car radio.

The first country that Princess Vermi visited was Korea. Amidst various speculations about the reason for choosing Korea…

According to the National Statistical Office, the infant mortality rate in Korea increased by 2.5 percentage points last year compared to the previous year. This is caused by an interpreted increase in the birth of people with the time walker trait.

Now let’s take a look at the stock market. ‘Hyousung Ind.’ Hit the upper limit on news of a treasury stock purchase worth 15% of its market capitalization…

The last news barely registered in their heads.

“Hyousung Industrial?”

“Isn’t that the CEO of Jang Tae-joon?”

With this, the two made eye contact.

The disappearance of CEO Jang Tae-joon had not yet been officially announced to the public. Within company grounds, he was known to be taking a business trip. Only a few people knew what actually happened.

“Usually, you do such an important job when the boss isn’t there, but…”

Min-jun, who had never engaged himself with ordinary business affairs on Earth, did not have a good handle on this.

“Well, you may have already paid for it before it disappeared. It could have already gone away.”

“Hmm…”

There was a possibility that was now running through Min-jun’s mind. When he tried to dwell more on the matter…

Squirtle!

There suddenly came a loud noise from Jeong Pal’s stomach. Pal had been the one manning the steering wheel.

Only then did Min-jun realize his indifference. It was already lunchtime, and he was starving an Orc with work! Emotionally, it was a felony comparable to treason. Even among humans, there was a constitution to eat three meals a day. However, Orcs ate more than that.

“Hungry? Let’s share this.”

With that, he pulled something out of the backseat bag.

“Are you going to eat?”

Jeong Pal did not refuse. Instead, he held out his hand, his gaze still fixed in front.

It was the package that Catherine had handed over to Min-jun’s office this morning without any context attached.

“A ham and cheese sandwich. Did Cassie make this herself?”

“He doesn’t cook.”

“He’s been watching a lot of YouTube these days. He even started following me.”

“Wow, is that some sort of bribe to your employer?”

“I don’t know, are you trying to eat me by making me fat or something? You’ve been giving me a lot to eat these days.”

Switching to driving in one hand, Jeong Pal began to take a bite out of the sandwich.

“….!”

Instantly, the air inside the car turned a few degrees colder. Jeong Pal chewed it once in his mouth and then gave out a look of disbelief. He chewed one more time, his eyebrows taking on the shape of an eight-character, and then his expression shifted into one that made it seem like he was about to cry. He then stopped and exited the car.

“Why are you there?”

Looking at his back, Min-jun went to take his own bite. The same startled expression spread over his face.

‘I heard there’s been a lot of fake news on YouTube… are even the recipes fake?’

This was such an unexpected flavor; Kathy’s sandwich tasted like pickled herring.

---

Jeong Pal bought one liter’s worth of gargle liquid, emptied it all, and then started the car up again. With this, the two continued to head to Jang Tae-joon’s house. Min-jun searched thoroughly this time as well, but there was no such thing as a secret safe within the house.

‘I don’t know how, but I think the dragon’s wrong.’

Min-jun also deemed to ask the frying pan but to no avail. It only had a perception range of about three meters, so it didn’t adhere to the outside.

With this, Ming-jun suggested to head to his office with Jeong Pal to discuss measures they would be taking in the future. Jeong Pal agreed since he couldn’t even share this with the police station.

After stopping the car in front of the shopping mall, Ming-jun pulled out an ego frying pan from his trunk. As he began to walk, he saw a goblin as well as Dong-cheol, who were lowering the shutters of the bookstore on the first floor.

“Master? I’m back… Are you here?”

With this, the frying pan turned red.

= Oh! Are you enjoying a fairly unconventional play? Are you not hiding it from the outside and just calling me the master? Do you play it off as if you don’t care about the eyes and ears around you? =

“It’s not what you think it is.”

After going up to the second floor of the shopping mall, the two exchanged opinions in quite the serious manner. Eventually, they reached a conclusion.

“Okay, let’s get our hands on it.”

No matter what Ming-jun thought about it, his understanding was not right. So far, there had been no evidence that Jang Tae-joon was an alien. The existence of a frying pan only increased the probability, but it was not a decisive blow. Furthermore, dragons were intertwined, and the Society had also crawled out.

Firstly, Ming-jun was not a police officer. Proof of the existence of extraterrestrials was more important than finding missing people, but now there were too many annoying aspects in a situation where the basic premise had been shaken.

It was quite simple to cover up the case from Jeong Pal’s point of view. As long as they reported the current situation to the upper management as it was, all data would then be transferred into the file of unsolved cases.

“It’s late today, so I’ll have to contact the immigration office through Cash tomorrow.”

At that moment, one could hear the engine of a heavy sports car right outside the window. Jeong Pal’s eyes averted to the source of the sound.

“I can’t be a yangban. Serena’s here.”

When Ming-jun’s eyes roved over the parking lot outside, he could see a red Jaguar standing next to the investigation vehicle that Jeong Pal had parked.

“I’m here! Uh, is there an uncle Jeong Pal here too?”

“Why is he an uncle when you always call me Ming-jun?”

“If you’re feeling unhappy, then please just readjust the face value.”

“Damn, I’m afraid I’ll have to live with someone who isn’t a quarter elf.”

When he started getting questioned about the reason behind the usual slow aging, Ming-jun responded by saying that he had elf blood. If it was diluted to that extent, the elf characteristics were hardly revealed in the appearance, then the race information on the ID just ended up being stamped as a human.

“What else is this?”

Cassie made sure to pay attention to the frying pan on the desk. Ming-jun stopped her before she could even reach out for it.

“If you catch it, you just might feel dirty.”

“Yeah?”

Ming-jun explained what kind of existence it was, and what kind of disposition it had, and Cathy, who could hear it all, put on an interesting expression.

“Wow! I’ve never touched that ego sword. Ah… this is an ego frying pan. Can I grab one?”

“I definitely warned you about this.”

Cassie then fearlessly grabbed the handle of the single frying pan. Instantly, a shallow surprise and a strange feeling began to flash across his face.

“Oh my God, can you really speak? Can I ask for your name?”

=Please just call me piggy, sister.=

“Isn’t that a little…? What’s the name of the chef who copied his personality?”

= This is Dignove Alcha-Teikyu, my sister. =

“Your name is a little old. Then, if you shorten it by taking the first two letters, D… ugh.”

After completing the pronunciation in such a vague fashion, I began to ponder for a while.

“Let’s come up with a name”

Minjun retorted, “Don’t even think about carrying it!”

If the case was going to simply just end like this, I was thinking of returning the frying pan to Jang Tae-joon’s house.

“Do not worry. By the way… why’d you even have that voice? What’s wrong with you?”

When I called Kathy to get ready to come to see Jang Tae-soon’s house one more time, Ming-jun’s voice was more toned down than usual. It was because the head was as complicated due to the dragon.

“No, what…? Rather than going with that…”

They were supposed to close the case tomorrow. This was already the pastime for work, after all.

“Look at what’s happened. It was pretty good to bring it.”

“What?”

“You seem to be feeling a little down, so I decided to bring you a bottle of alcohol.”

After putting down the frying pan, she began to reach out for her bag. On top of the orange Birkin bag was a long box of department store wrapping paper sticking out.

Ming-jun shook his head. “No, I don’t really feel like driving.”

Jeong Pal also refused. “I also drove the car today, so.”

However, ignoring their reaction, Cathy tore off the wrapping paper. Then, he held out a bottle of scotch that he had been hiding this entire time.

“Kingsley Ashton, 37 years old. Dwarf Meister Selection!”

“Brother, shall we go to the mart and buy some ice?”

“No, it’s in the refrigerator. Wait here for three more minutes, and then I’ll come to see you for a drink.”

The booze ended up being prepared in perfect harmony.

‘Alas… This is hard.’

Ming-jun then woke up, feeling as if he had thrown his entire body into a centrifuge.

‘…I feel like I’m going to die.’

You could feel the venomous poison all over your body. Were you addicted? Or were you being tortured? Concentrating on the senses, it wasn’t like that.

With Ming-jun’s eyes closed, in my confused memories, he began to look for an anchor to land here and there. Who was he really, and what world was he in now? Why did he even drink yesterday?

Did the Crown Prince of the Gram Empire force them into another uncomfortable drinking party? No, that was about 250 years ago.

Then, because of the curse that the necromancer spat out before he had his head smashed… Did he fall asleep alone again after pouring poison in order to forget the ghost’s whispers? It was not a memory from a long time ago, back when he was still weak and had just started working.

With these thoughts running through his head, he began flexing his fingers.

His index fingers did not wriggle in the moist, culture medium, nor did he rub the air that had been created by the zero-gravity sleeping kit. The feel of a clean bed linen made of cotton.

Yes, this was Earth, and he was Ming-jun.

Only then did Ming-jun open his eyes.

“….”

He found himself staring up at a ceiling that he was not familiar with.

“Ugh!”

it was Ming-jun’s house, which had been partially renovated on the second floor of a shopping mall. His whole body reeked of alcohol. He groaned, rolled, and began placing his feet on the floor.

Ming-jun thought that he would rather serve God once, but then he erased the thought off his head. If he ended up craving faith as a hangover remedy, then it was definitely time for him to receive his due punishment.

Feeling popular in the hallway, he went to open the front door.

“…Ah! Master… hello…?”

There was a goblin standing in the hallway right by the front door. In his hands were various newspapers, as well as mail in the mailbox on the first floor of the shopping mall. All recipients were Lee Ming-jun.

“Hello, Dongcheol-ah, it hasn’t been a good morning.”

“I see… Hehe.”

He usually came by later, but today seemed to be too early based on the amount of mail there was.

“Because you don’t have to do this every morning… I’ll take it when I have the time.”

“What I like to do, huh…”

Dongcheol smiled brightly at this, bowing once more. He then went down to the first floor.

After closing the door, Ming-jun began searching through the mail with a dry mind. Among them, there was one that managed to catch my attention.

Sender: The secretary’s office of Jenkinson Father & Sons Company, Ltd.

Recipient: Ming-jun Lee.

Ming-jun sat down at the living room table and opened an envelope made of a luxurious material. Inside it was written a ‘Request for Attendance’ with simplistic details.

I have a message regarding the currently assigned task, so please visit the head office president’s office as soon as possible.

I began thinking about this quietly. What was it about this moment?

He was right about to notify the immigration office today that he would withdraw his hands from the Jang Tae-joon case.

‘In the president’s secretary office too?’

The company that sent the letter ended up being a private company that had been entrusted with the Immigration Service of the Korean government. Immigration officials belonged to the state, but the organization ended up being managed by this company. Therefore, if you were to look closely at the current situation of the immigration office, less than 10% of public officials were employed, and the rest were employed by private companies.

In the case of Ming-jun, he was not a civil servant, but more of a freelancer tied to a contract.

Therefore, this letter was correct in considering that it was a work order sent directly by Ming-jun’s employer in his district.

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‘Obviously, there’s something.’

It had just occurred to him that this sudden call was due to Jeong Pal, and what he had witnessed yesterday. Ming-jun had every reason to be sure of this.

If they considered the existence at the apex of the Chaebol group, an answer would eventually emerge.

That meant President Jenkinson was a dragon.