Chapter 114
Chapter 114. Kill Kim Tae-yang (3)
Pyeon Jae-yeong returned to see Killian the next day, as he had said he would.
"Have you given it some thought?"
At Pyeon Jae-yeong's words, Killian smiled faintly and shook his head.
"No matter how I think about it, it seems like I'd be the one at a disadvantage."
Pyeon Jae-yeong smiled at that.
It was not a refusal.
"Of course, I'm not asking you to do it for free."
Pyeon Jae-yeong produced a box he had prepared in advance and held it out to him.
Killian's bodyguard opened the box.
Pyeon Jae-yeong spoke,
"I've heard you have a great interest in art."
Inside the box was a Goryeo celadon.
"It was excavated from our Republic of Korea recently. Scholars say it could even be designated a national treasure."
Killian glanced at Pyeon Jae-yeong.
"Is it all right to hand over your nation's treasure to me like that?"
"Since ancient times, powerful nations have taken all of our country's treasures. The pieces that have crossed over must number in the thousands—what's one more added to that?"
Pyeon Jae-yeong's expression was entirely unmoved.
"……"
Even Killian shook his head in disbelief at his words.
Killian examined the Goryeo celadon quietly.
It was a celadon of luxurious blue hue and flowing curves.
Cranes and green bamboo were painted upon it.
Having confirmed that Killian's gaze as he looked at the Goryeo celadon was far from ordinary, Pyeon Jae-yeong opened his mouth.
"A piece of this quality is the sort found only in the special exhibition hall of the National Museum of Korea. If put up at auction, it could fetch upwards of 2 billion—"
Before Pyeon Jae-yeong could even finish speaking, Killian hurled the Goryeo celadon behind him.
Crash!
The celadon, said to be at least national treasure-level, shattered to pieces like so much rubbish.
Pyeon Jae-yeong was startled.
"What on earth do you think you're doing!"
Killian answered with a scoff.
"You're asking me to kill one of the Nameless Hero's people for something as paltry as this?"
"Killian!"
"2 billion, you said? You dare try to move someone with that kind of pocket change."
Pyeon Jae-yeong's face turned crimson.
Truthfully, he had looked down on Killian just a little.
Yesterday's conversation had gone the way he intended, and he had naturally assumed today would go the same way.
But with Killian's action just now, the tables had turned completely.
Pyeon Jae-yeong's expression hardened, and as he looked at Killian's face—even more hardened than his own—he read what Killian was trying to say.
‘Bring something bigger. The one in a hurry is you, not me.’
"……"
Pyeon Jae-yeong stared at the shattered Goryeo celadon and asked,
"Then what is it…… That you want?"
Only then did Killian's expression ease.
He gestured toward Louise, who had been standing behind him again today.
"It's about my niece, Louise. The girl is extraordinarily gifted at making chocolate. She even trained at École de Cuisine, no less."
Pyeon Jae-yeong nodded.
"I've heard of it myself."
"The girl is trying to produce chocolate and export it, but ah…… The Asian market is proving rather impenetrable."
Pyeon Jae-yeong said, as if it were nothing.
"Well, that sort of thing I can certainly help arrange. Importing chocolate is simple enough."
"They say you've done plenty of dirty work too—you're still quite naive, Minister."
"……?"
"Impose absolutely no inspections on goods being imported. And no inspections either on goods being re-exported from Korea into Asia."
"……!"
Pyeon Jae-yeong's eyes flew wide open.
It was only now that he understood what Killian's words meant.
"Do you not know that I'm a prosecutor who built his entire reputation on the war against drugs?"
Killian laughed at those words.
"Should I care about that?"
"……!"
"The one who taught me that personal gain and national gain can differ—was you, Minister."
Crack—
Pyeon Jae-yeong clenched his teeth hard.
"We'll make sure you're compensated generously as well."
"You intend to feed me drug profits and make me your slave for life?"
"Call it a business partnership."
Pyeon Jae-yeong rose from his seat.
"Let's pretend this never happened. However much I came here for the sake of the nation, I cannot mortgage my entire future to your side!"
"Don't worry about that."
Killian pointed toward the bookshelf.
"It's already too late."
Only then did Pyeon Jae-yeong notice something glinting on one side of the bookshelf.
It was a camera Killian had hidden there.
"Killian!"
Pyeon Jae-yeong shouted in great fury, and in that instant, at the heads of Pyeon Jae-yeong and his bodyguards—
Click—!
Gun barrels were leveled at them, one each.
They were agents of the National Intelligence Service, but they were no match for Killian's bodyguards, who were composed of tower climbers.
The agents took their hands off the guns they had been reaching for and raised them above their heads.
"Damn it all!"
Pyeon Jae-yeong regretted it far too late—but it was already far too late.
The meeting between himself and Killian.
And every word of conversation he had spoken—if all of it had been recorded, then beyond even the drug profits, he had already become Killian's slave.
"Heh heh heh—"
Killian laughed and spoke,
"I told you, didn't I? You're quite naive."
"Urgh!"
"Boys. The Minister says he's leaving."
At his gesture, Killian's bodyguards pressed their guns forward and herded Pyeon Jae-yeong and his party outside.
Killian called out to the departing Pyeon Jae-yeong.
"I'll keep my promise. Kim Tae-yang? I'll have him caught and delivered to you within a week."
Pyeon Jae-yeong left with his face drained completely white.
Killian sent out Kim Han-yang, who had been interpreting, along with the bodyguards, leaving only Louise behind.
"So now…… The question is where to find and grab that Kim Tae-yang fellow."
He had spoken boldly, but it was a problem that would take quite some time.
As he was considering whether to seek the cooperation of the French police department he had been bribing, he was looking at Kim Tae-yang's photo when—
Louise spoke over his shoulder.
"Oh! This person?"
"What?"
Louise pointed at the photo and said,
"I know this person!"
"What?"
"That Korean who made a fool of me! He's the guy who came with that girl!"
She trembled with rage as the humiliating memories of a few days prior came flooding back.
"There were 3 of them. MJ, this man, and a girl who seemed to be his younger sister."
Killian's eyes lit up.
"This has gotten easy."
* * *
It was a night without even a moon.
A man who was one of Killian's subordinates and bodyguards parked his car midway between Paris and Versailles—
Near Min-jeong's apartment.
"Is this the place?"
His subordinate nodded.
"Yes."
"The building security?"
"1 guard. There's CCTV, but it saves to the computer in the security booth, so if we just take the hard drive there'll be no problem."
"Lax."
The bodyguard smiled lightly and fitted a suppressor onto his handgun.
He was a high-floor climber of the Murim Tower.
1 guard or 10 made no difference to someone of his level.
"In the unit there's 1 old woman and 2 young women."
"The family in the underground cage is about to grow. Take care of the old woman, and sell the young ones off like the others."
"Yes sir."
"Let's go."
He and his 3 subordinates climbed out of the car.
They, faces covered in masks, walked quietly toward the apartment.
As they were approaching the security booth—
"Huff huff……"
A dog appeared before them.
It was a dog the size of a Bichon Frisé.
Its entire coat was black, but from the top of its head down to its back, it had silver fur.
The dog tilted its head, looking up at them with glittering eyes.
"What's this?"
"……It's incredibly cute."
"Woof woof!"
The dog gave a light bark.
The bodyguard gave an order.
"Stop saying pointless things and shoot it."
"Yes sir."
As the subordinate leveled the gun barrel, the dog trotted right up to them and wagged its tail.
"What are you doing?"
"Ah, well……"
"Useless fool. Move aside."
The bodyguard shoved the hesitating subordinate aside, grabbed the dog by the scruff of its neck, and lifted it up.
Then he pressed the gun barrel to the dog's head.
Lick.
The dog licked the gun barrel, and just as the bodyguard furrowed his brow slightly and was about to pull the trigger—
Crunch—!
White Night spread its jaws wide and tore out the bodyguard's throat.
* * *
A few hours later. The poison herb field.
I interrogated Killian's subordinates who had targeted Bo-reum and Min-jeong and pieced together the situation.
It had not even been a full day since I had left White Night there.
"So Omar was betrayed by Kim Han-yang."
I had thought Kim Han-yang was no ordinary man, but I hadn't expected he would be able to deal with Omar this quickly.
"That Pyeon Jae-yeong went to meet Killian Ferrand—that's a bit of a surprise."
‘He must have been thoroughly frustrated to play such a hand.’
‘What a worst possible move.’
"The more desperate he gets, the better it is for me."
I stroked White Night's head and headed toward Killian's Black Market.
* * *
[Killian's Black Market—His Office]
"Quand on parle du loup, on en voit la queue."
Killian muttered this upon seeing me, then shot a glance at the interpreter to relay my words, and asked,
"What does that mean?"
"Speak of the wolf and its tail appears."
"Korea has a similar saying."
"What is it?"
"Speak of the tiger and it comes."
Killian smiled lightly and took up my words.
"Whether it's a wolf or a tiger—time will tell."
"That sounds like something you'd say to someone you'll be seeing for a long time."
"That too will become clear in time."
He casually pulled back the lapel of his jacket to show me the golden-colored revolver holstered inside.
Trying to intimidate me.
I stared straight at that revolver.
"Do you like it? It was made for me by the finest custom gunsmith."
"Isn't this the age of semi-automatic pistols?"
"Reliability and accuracy. In these respects, no semi-automatic can follow a revolver. And the rate of fire is incomparable too."
"Oh?"
"0.3 seconds. That's the average human reaction time. Even firing a machine pistol, you get 1 round every 0.05 seconds. But do you know how long it takes an expert to draw a revolver and fire a single shot? 0.02 seconds."
Tap, tap.
Killian tapped the revolver with pride.
"What I'm saying is that with this gun, I need all of 0.02 seconds to put a hole in your forehead."
Bluster.
‘Equating himself with the Guinness World Record for a superhuman expert's quick draw.’
I said to him.
"How cool."
"Want it?"
"No. Using guns is taboo."
"What?"
"The god of the Gangho will be wrathful."
"……A young fellow with a sense of humor."
Killian found my words laughable and threatened me, staring straight between my brows.
"If you heard how many people I've erased with this gun, you wouldn't think it was simply cool."
"……"
"You gutless little bastard."
He glared at me.
"Gutless is right, but brainless—that's not me."
"……?"
Thud.
I reached into the bag I had brought and produced a head, setting it on the table.
"Your subordinate."
"……!"
It was the head of one of Killian's bodyguards.
Torn away violently, the dead man's agony was written plainly across his features.
"You! You son of a—!"
Killian drew the revolver he had been wearing and aimed it at my forehead.
The cold of the metal was sharp.
The 3 bodyguards standing behind him likewise drew their guns and leveled them at me.
"So you really do have a death wish!"
"Ugh, come on…… I hate bullets."
"This mad bastard!"
"0.02 seconds—time's up."
Snap—!
In an instant I snatched the revolver from Killian's hand and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
In that moment, the 3 bodyguards who had been standing behind Killian and aiming at me collapsed simultaneously.
"……!"
Killian couldn't even turn to look.
Right in front of his brow—
The muzzle of the revolver, trailing smoke, was so close it almost touched him.
"I believe a world record was just broken. It couldn't have been even 0.01 seconds—not bad for a first attempt, wouldn't you say?"
At my words, Killian swallowed hard.
The art of drawing a holstered gun quickly and firing is called a Quick Draw.
Following it up with rapid successive shots is called Fanning.
He understood it now.
I had snatched the gun from his grip, fired the first shot with the trigger and the 2nd and 3rd shots with Fanning—
And had fired all 3 so fast that the gunshots had sounded like only 1.
Which meant a rate of fire faster than sound.
"Fanning with one hand?"
"Do you do it with 2 hands?"
"……"
"Well then, that would be faster. Ah, come on…… I wonder if the god of the Gangho will be wrathful."
Bang—!
At that moment, Killian's subordinates who had heard the gunshots from outside came bursting in.
Click, click!
Their gun barrels swung toward me all at once.
"Shall we try again? There are still 3 shots left."
This time with 2 hands.
I directed my left hand toward the revolver's hammer.
"W-wait!"
Killian raised his hand.
And shouted to his subordinates,
"Lower your guns!"
"Chairman, right now……!"
"Lower your damn guns, you idiots!"
Killian shouted at his subordinates.
The subordinates flinched and lowered their guns.
He turned to look at me, his brow twitching.
"They said you were just an errand boy working under the Nameless Hero, yet this level of ability……"
"I'm not an errand boy."
I frowned slightly and said to him.
"I am that person's disciple."
"……!"
Killian exclaimed ‘Ha!’ in great shock, then muttered to himself.
"Pyeon Jae-yeong, you son of a……"
"Shall we have a proper conversation now?"
I reclined comfortably into the sofa.
Killian stared at me for a moment, then let out a long breath and asked,
"Tell me why you came here."
"My master sent me."
I hooked my index finger through the trigger guard and spun it.
Then I held the revolver out to Killian, grip-first.
"To find a business partner."
"……Truly, gutless is right."
He took his revolver and slid it back into the holster inside his jacket.
In the meantime—
I smiled cheerfully at Kim Han-yang, who had been interpreting and whose face had gone completely white, and greeted him.
"You know who I am by now, don't you?"
"……"
"Kim Han-yang."