Chapter 12
National Treasure White Night was said to freeze even darkness itself.
......
As usual, Chairman Seol Su-Ah was smiling.
The first vice minister of foreign affairs trembled. “Y-Your Excellency, please calm down. The minister is struggling to breathe... ”
The temperature in her office continued to plummet. Seol Suh-Ah’s cold gaze didn’t change, and neither did her empty smile; it was as if she cared nothing for the person freezing to death before her.
The first vice minister, who gained a new sympathy for frozen tuna, couldn’t take it anymore. He assisted the minister to his feet.
The minister, a middle-aged man, was taking quivering breaths and had frost on his eyebrows. Despite this, his gaze was bright.
The minister spoke with some difficulty, “Your Excellency Seol Su-Ah, I am... well aware that you hate the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but that... was the work of our predecessors. The perpetrators took responsibility for that situation eight years ago and left their positions.”
Seol Suh-Ah’s smile grew wider while her eyes grew colder. “You’re saying the Ministry of Foreign Affairs isn’t responsible?”
“No. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible. The ministry failed to protect the duke, a National Treasure, and will never be free of that stigma. But the first vice minister and I were only assistant secretaries back then. We were kept ignorant, and to this day, we still don’t know what happened eight years ago. We can’t take responsibility until we find out the truth.”
The minister leaned his cold, stiff body forward. “Please help us get to the bottom of it. As things are, the growing public opinion denouncing Duke Kang is based on narrow-minded information. The duke is on the verge of being stripped of his title, and we can only rectify this wrong by uncovering the truth and telling the people.”