Chapter 139
Chapter 139
Received the Gift You Sent
“More importantly, I want to ask you first. How are you alive? Your head should have exploded for sure......”
Confusion was plainly visible on his pale face. Considering how confident he was in his own abilities, it was only natural that he found the current situation difficult to accept. He couldn't possibly assume that I had died and come back to life thanks to transcendent regenerative abilities.
He was probably thinking I had equipped some kind of Slot or was the product of genetic engineering. That was, after all, the worldview shared by people of this era.
But—
“It's only proper that you answer my question first, isn't it?”
I twisted the sword hilt while gripping it.
Creeeak.
As the wall was gouged apart, the man's shoulder was torn along with it.
Like a stuffed doll whose stitches had burst.
“......A-Ah, Hadok! It's Hadok.”
“Now we're finally having a conversation. Next question: who hired you?”
“Assemblyman Rouge.”
“That's an unexpected name.”
There was no way he had put out a contract just because he was dissatisfied with the transaction earlier. Most likely, he was one of the people Hudson had mentioned.
It seemed the old veteran's survival instincts had manifested in a rather strange way.
Hmm.
Something flashed through Ga-on's mind as he pondered briefly. Manipulating his device, he immediately contacted Kurtnik.
[Mr. Ga-on? What is it? Is there something else you wanted to say?]
“Were you the one who got Wendy into RG Purification Foods?”
Perhaps the question had caught him off guard. There was a hesitant sound from beyond the device, but deciding there was no point hiding it, he quickly admitted it.
[How did you find that out?]
“I heard about it while looking into a few things. What I want to know is what happened back then. Even as an aide, you don't seem to be in a position to exert that kind of pressure. Did you use Assemblyman Rouge's name too?”
[Yes. The assemblyman recommended her.]
At that moment, the reason Wendy had entered RG Purification Foods, a company specializing in cultivated meat among countless others, became clear. Considering its relationship with Trian, it couldn't simply be dismissed as coincidence—
“What is his relationship with RG Purification Foods?”
[I don't really know that much. But from what I've overheard, the president there is apparently well acquainted with the assemblyman.]
As the final piece fell into place, the blueprint of the entire incident came into view.
Hudson, who governed District 29, provided conveniences for the factory, while his colleague Rouge effectively managed it. With two assemblymen backing it, there was no way they couldn't get away with accounting fraud far beyond their station.
“Ahh, so that's how it was.”
***
“Who was that on the phone?”
No sooner had Kurtnik finished speaking with Ga-on than Rouge fired off the question.
For some reason, Rouge was unusually sharp today. Just as Kurtnik was about to answer, thinking he'd be in serious trouble if he tried to hide it—
“That was......”
A message arrived from Ga-on as if he had been waiting for that exact moment.
[If he's nearby, tell him Wendy was taken to the hospital.]
Wendy? Out of nowhere?
Just moments ago, they had been discussing hiring corruption, and now he was telling him to bring up her younger sibling. Kurtnik had no idea what was going on, but Ga-on was someone who had gone so far as to slaughter Assemblyman Hudson merely to fulfill the request of an ordinary citizen.
Needless to say, he was an exceptionally capable fixer.
There had to be some intention behind this.
“Wendy—I mean, my younger sibling—has collapsed. I think she needs to be hospitalized, so I should go see her.”
I don't know. Let's just go with it.
He shut his eyes and told the lie.
It was a desperate gamble, fully expecting a furious rebuke.
But unexpectedly, Rouge's expression became even graver than Kurtnik's own. To an outside observer, it would have looked as though his own granddaughter had been injured.
“This won't do.”
“Pardon?”
“My only aide's family member is sick. How can I sit by and do nothing? There's a hospital I know very well. How about transferring her there? Needless to say, they'll provide a VIP suite.”
It was generosity beyond measure.
In the eight years Kurtnik had spent observing him, Rouge had never once been an altruistic person.
If anything, he was closer to a monster.
There was no way he had suddenly awakened to the virtues of humanity and made the offer out of kindness. The words Ga-on had instructed him to say had clearly triggered something.
Especially considering Rouge had actually lifted his heavy backside and gotten up.
The problem was that his younger sibling wasn't sick.
Naturally, she wasn't going to any hospital either.
If things continued like this, the lie would be exposed.
Just as he wondered what to do, another message arrived.
[If he recommends a hospital, don't refuse. Accept it.]
Instructions so precise that it felt as though Ga-on had been standing beside him watching everything.
Kurtnik let out a dry cough and glanced around, but there was naturally no suspicious presence to be found.
“Then may I trouble you for that?”
“Of course. Just leave it to me.”
Rouge struck the floor with his cane as he confidently declared it.
At the same time, the final message arrived.
[If he tells you the hospital's name, pass it on to me. I'll clean everything out nicely.]
Clean out what?!
Kurtnik protested inwardly, but there was no way Ga-on could hear him.
***
Mieyo Clinic, located in District 12.
After entering the large general hospital affiliated with Inatomi Corporation, Kurtnik felt an inexplicable tightness in his throat and repeatedly loosened his innocent necktie.
“They've been admitted without any problems. Follow me.”
Following behind Rouge, who walked slowly yet firmly, Kurtnik entered a VIP suite.
The moment he saw the person inside, his eyes widened in shock.
However, the one who voiced the question wasn't him, but Rouge standing beside him.
“You are......?”
Rouge's face turned deathly pale as though he had seen a ghost.
And why wouldn't it?
In his mind, this person had died long ago.
“I received the gift you sent. It was a little spicy, so instead of eating it, I sorted it into the recycling. Was that your taste?”
At that moment, Rouge's gaze darted through empty space.
It was obvious he was trying to call the Public Enforcement Corps.
Approaching him, Ga-on fastened Lock Down as if warning him not to try any funny business.
“You dare put handcuffs on an assemblyman? You insolent......”
Everyone knew that assemblymen possessed immunity from arrest. There was no way Ga-on didn't know that as well.
But—
“Caught in the act is an exception, isn't it? Since when does a perpetrator get to intimidate the victim while looking him in the eye?”
Ga-on spoke with deliberate solemnity, as though patiently advising him, but his words never reached Rouge's ears.
Rouge merely seethed with rage at the device that had become even heavier on his wrist.
“Kurtnik! Report this to the Public Enforcement Corps immediately. You can still use your device, can't you? Hurry!”
Rouge pressed him, but Kurtnik remained completely unmoved.
The aide who had always been his greatest ally was suddenly behaving strangely, causing Rouge to tilt his head in confusion.
“Kurtnik?”
“I'll hear him out first before making a decision.”
“What is there to hear out?! He's insane! Not content with threatening an assemblyman, he's even trying to inflict bodily harm!”
Rouge had been startled out of his wits by the news that Wendy was ill.
And Ga-on had laid a trap as though he had anticipated that reaction.
The situation was clearly anything but ordinary.
Sure enough, as though he had seen straight through Kurtnik's thoughts, Ga-on spoke.
“Curious, aren't you?”
“Would you please explain?”
“There's no reason not to. That's why I called you here in the first place.”
Where should I begin—
Sitting on the hospital bed, Ga-on scratched his chin.
“There was large-scale accounting fraud at RG Purification Foods. As you know, the president there is close to Assemblyman Rouge. They were classmates, apparently.”
This was information he had learned after sending Dobby to investigate further.
“Then......?”
“It was established in District 29, so I thought it belonged entirely to Assemblyman Hudson. But that wasn't the case. Assemblyman Rouge was his accomplice from the very beginning.”
Kurtnik felt as though his blood was flowing backward.
He wasn't interested in Rouge's crimes.
If he were the sort of person who became enraged by every crime an assemblyman committed, he never would have become an aide in the first place.
There was only one truth pounding against his chest—
“So you knew what happened to me... no, what happened to my sister.”
That Philip had harmed Wendy.
That because of it, Wendy had been forced to become a clone human.
Rouge had reacted so sensitively to the news of her illness because he feared the truth might come out if she underwent examinations at a civilian hospital.
The realization that he had spent eight years serving this man without understanding his true nature, all while happily dreaming of becoming an assemblyman himself, made Kurtnik feel as though he would burst with rage.
“So you deceived me. Me, who followed you so faithfully!”
He smashed an empty flower vase and picked up one of the sharpest shards.
“N-No, I......”
As Kurtnik approached with the razor-sharp fragment, Rouge instinctively stepped backward.
The situation was on the verge of exploding.
Then a hand intervened, mediating between the two men.
“Calm down, Mr. Cutlers.”
“But—!”
“And then what? If you deal with him here, can you hide it?”
They were in the middle of the city.
The very center of a bustling district.
Only then did Kurtnik realize he was standing in a hospital, and he took a step back.
As if taking his place, Ga-on stepped in front of Rouge and tilted his head.
“You belong to the same Gathering as Assemblyman Hudson, don't you?”
“So what if I do?”
Rouge sat down calmly in a chair as he shot back the retort.
Just as Ga-on had said, the danger of dying had completely disappeared.
His uncooperative attitude caused Ga-on's brow to crease slightly.
Just as he was considering whether to pull out a disposable syringe—
[Assemblyman Hudson's device was just renewed.]
A message arrived from Noah.
And it contained information he had never anticipated.
There was no need to explain it at length. The renewal or reissuance process for a device could never be carried out by anyone other than the owner.
Naturally, only one possibility came to mind.
‘A clone human?’
This was on an entirely different level from Wendy's case.
They weren't using an ordinary citizen.
They were using a sitting assemblyman.
It was proof of just how arrogant the Gathering had become.
At the same time, it proved that the mansion in District 50 had yielded no traces whatsoever.
I can be more aggressive now.
Having reached that conclusion, Ga-on decided to change his approach.
“When is the next Gathering?”
“Why? Are you planning to find out and request support? Give it up. The one who hosts the Gathering isn't someone you can deal with.”
“A member of megacorp Trian, right?”
Just as in the twenty-first century, food was a field that could easily be weaponized.
In an era where livestock farming had vanished, the importance of cultivation technology was beyond imagination.
Ga-on understood perfectly what Rouge was worried about.
“How about making a deal? Honestly, I'm not interested in your life. What I truly want is the mastermind behind all this. It's not as though you have any loyalty worth protecting him for. Cooperate, and I'll remove your name from the list.”
“Whether I protect him or not isn't the issue. So what exactly do you want? And please, spare me any nonsense about confessing and finding redemption.”
From Rouge's perspective, there weren't many options available to Ga-on.
His mocking tone was only natural.
But as always—
“I want you to recommend me to the Gathering.”
Reality surpassed imagination.
“Have you lost your mind?”
Infiltration.
Even Rouge hadn't considered that possibility.
No—unless someone was exceptionally foolish or consumed by ambition, no one would choose such a path. That was why he had dismissed it from consideration altogether.
Yet here Ga-on was, deliberately choosing to walk into a field of thorns.
“Do you even know how meticulous he is?”
More importantly—
“You want me to recommend some fixer nobody? Do you think the Gathering would actually accept you?”
The Gathering's success came from its strict policy of carefully selecting its members.
“At the very least, you need social prestige or a position of comparable stature.”
Rouge shook his head as though to say, Impossible.
But Ga-on had something he believed in.
His true identity.
“Then what about a member of Baekdu?”