Chapter 65
Large duffel bags stuffed with bundles of cash lay inside the small cave.
The bundles of money were in a place where no one could find even a trace of them unless they already knew where to look.
"So... what are you going to do with this?"
"Hmm..."
According to the past of the man I'd seen earlier, more than half of this money was the proceeds from an illegal gambling website.
Half of the remaining amount had been obtained by defrauding another organization that was allied with the Hojaengi gang.
The problem was the money that remained.
This was money that had truly been stolen from innocent people.
It bothered me that I couldn't determine exactly who those innocent people were.
"Still, it's fortunate that someone can look into it for us."
I picked up my phone.
Let's get Prosecutor Gu Nam-cheol another accomplishment.
"Let's take it with us for now and head down."
"Yes."
Han Yuna's bodyguards picked up the bags.
They must have been quite heavy, but they carried them with ease.
"I'll help too."
"Thank you."
Wow. This was really damn heavy.
I carried two weighty bags down the mountain and loaded them into the car.
Han Yuna folded her arms and began thinking seriously about something.
"Why?"
"I'm worried. Don't you think Noah should have more protection around him...?"
"Haha. Don't worry."
I laughed.
"If something dangerous seems likely to happen, I'll get myself out of there."
As soon as we got down, I called Gu Nam-cheol.
We had time to spare and nothing to do, so we were playing a territory game in the villa's yard with Han Yuna's bodyguards when I spotted a familiar car in the distance.
It was Gu Nam-cheol's car.
After parking stylishly in the parking lot, he got out and rushed toward me the moment he saw me.
"Mr. Kang!! Is that really true?!"
"Coming out with 'Is that really true?' without even saying hello is a bit much..."
"Ah, no. I heard you found the Hojaengi gang's funds?"
"Yes."
I took him over to Han Yuna's car.
The duffel bags were piled up there.
Gu Nam-cheol opened one of the bags with trembling hands, and when he saw the bundles of money inside, he seemed to lose his words and merely opened and closed his mouth.
"I saw it early this morning. The Hojaengi gang's manager... I think? Anyway, a man named Kwon Su-geom brought the money to a cave in the back mountain here."
"...Kwon Su-geom. Ha. That bastard..."
"Which brings me to my question. What would be best to do with this?"
"In cases like this, the principle is to confiscate the money for the national treasury, but..."
He calmly shook his head.
"If we do that, there's a high chance it'll disappear somewhere ambiguous. Either way, this is practically found money."
Gu Nam-cheol sighed, saying that what the public knew was merely the tip of the iceberg.
"There's a ledger in Kwon Su-geom's house. It should reveal where this money came from. Could you determine how much of it truly belonged to innocent people and whom we should compensate?"
"Don't tell me... you plan to return it to them?"
"It's their money, after all."
Let's keep the illegal gambling proceeds for myself.
Let's keep the proceeds from defrauding another organization too.
But not the rest.
I wasn't as rich as the people I associated with, but I was rich.
At least I never had to worry about money.
I wasn't some bird that drank blood and tears, so what would I do by taking care of even this sort of money?
"Huh... I understand. I'll investigate and let you know. But aren't you giving up a lot?"
"Not really...?"
I had plenty of money.
Rather than let this windfall go to the wrong people, I would rather use it to establish a foundation and help the underprivileged.
"Huh... Good grief... I'm speechless. You're truly incredible."
"Don't you have any money? Shall I set some aside for you?"
"I'm a civil servant, so I can't accept more than 30,000 won. I'll accept the sentiment instead."
He chuckled and nodded.
"Here are the locations of the Hojaengi gang's boss and underboss, as well as Kwon Su-geom. I've also written down a rough list of the crimes they've committed."
"...Huh. This is more detailed than what I investigated. Drug smuggling, huh..."
"A man named Kwon Su-geom knew all about it."
Through his past, I had been able to learn roughly what crimes the Hojaengi gang had committed.
They were truly excellent bastards.
"Understood."
A smile appeared at the corner of Nam-cheol's mouth.
"Don't worry about what comes next. We were already investigating those bastards. There were plenty of crimes besides fraud that we could lock them up for, and now that we have this from you... we'll take care of everything nice and cleanly."
Let's not ask how he planned to take care of everything so cleanly.
When it came to the law, he knew far more than I did.
"I trust you."
"Haha! Yes!! Then I'll be off first!!"
He walked away with a happy step.
Watching him go, Han Yuna asked quietly,
"Can that man be trusted?"
I smiled at Han Yuna, who said that if necessary, she could help through the lawyers employed by her company or the people who had become prosecutors with Saseong scholarships.
Gu Nam-cheol wasn't someone who would betray me.
Nor had I seen such a future.
"Hmm..."
"Why? Are you asking whether it's a waste?"
"No. It's your turn."
"Ah."
Right. We had been playing a territory game.
Han Yuna was looking seriously at the territory game board.
I was currently in third place, and Han Yuna was in fourth.
With her strong competitive spirit, she would do anything to win.
Heh. That competitive spirit.
I think I'll put a damper on it.
.
.
.
One night and two days in Yangpyeong.
A lot of things had happened.
But it had been an enjoyable vacation in its own way.
"Hey. Are you leaving now?"
"We should."
I couldn't live here for the rest of my life, after all.
"Shouldn't you be leaving too, old man?"
"That's right."
In any case, Elder Kim Seok-chun's base was in Japan.
He looked around his vacation home.
"Don't you want this?"
"You want me to come live here?"
"Isn't this place bigger than the house of yours we saw before?"
"I'm the sort of person who can't live without a convenience store and a café next to my house."
This house was nice too, but it still wasn't for me.
"Tsk. Is that so?"
Elder Kim Seok-chun scratched his head.
"Then it would be better to hire a suitable caretaker."
"That would be best."
A house inevitably falls into disrepair if no one lives in it.
"Anyway, come visit again later."
"Haha. Yes."
Elder Kim Seok-chun said he would stay for a few more days before returning, then waved at us.
After seeing him off, I approached Sucheon, who was fidgeting off to one side.
"Hey, Sucheon. Give your confession your best shot."
"Ugh... Hyung. Will it really be okay?"
"You can do it, punk."
A young man agonizing over whether he should confess to Im Mina, the girl he had a crush on.
I vigorously tousled the hair of little blond Kim Sucheon—not blond and tanned, exactly, just blond.
"Mina likes you too, you know?"
"Uuugh... R-really? Mina does...?"
"Yeah. Don't worry and charge ahead. If she rejects you..."
"I-if she rejects me...?"
"I'll use it as material for my broadcast."
"Graaagh!!"
Seeing Kim Sucheon stamping his feet in frustration made me laugh.
Heh heh. Teasing kids really was fun.
"All right. See you next time."
After saying goodbye to Grandma Kim Hui-gyeong as well, we got into the car.
Han Yuna glanced at the people seeing us off in the rearview mirror.
"How was it? Did you have fun this time?"
"Yes. It's always fun playing with you, Noah."
Nothing remarkable had happened during our time in Yangpyeong.
We had simply played in the stream.
We had barbecued in the yard.
There really hadn't been anything special.
But Han Yuna seemed to have enjoyed even that immensely, since the smile never left her lips.
"Heh. It's more fun playing with friends than playing alone."
"Right? Hehe. So let's play together again next time."
"Sure. Where should we go? If we're going for two days and one night..."
"Gyeongju World..."
"We'll definitely go there."
Han Yuna's eyes sparkled.
She really seemed excited.
"But I'm free, so it's fine for me. Aren't you busy, Ms. Yuna?"
My only fixed schedules were my broadcasts and dungeon hunting.
But what about Han Yuna?
As the heir to a chaebol family, she had far too many responsibilities.
From her perspective, even this trip to Yangpyeong had probably required her to carve out a narrow opening in her schedule.
"Th-that's true..."
She looked downcast.
The sight of her slightly pouting lips made me laugh.
"Contact me whenever things get tough. We're friends, after all."
"Ahaha... Right?"
She smiled brightly.
So brightly that it was hard to find even a trace of gloom on her face.
Anyway, she dropped me off at home and drove away, and I arrived at my sweet home.
-Bzzzzing!
A text message arrived.
[We'll begin.]
So he's making his move.
***
Hojaengi gang boss.
Ki Yeong-man felt as though he was going crazy.
'Why the hell are these bastards suddenly...?!'
He had someone with connections at the prosecutor's office.
Gu Nam-cheol, who had been racking up achievements like mad lately, was targeting the Hojaengi gang.
He had definitely given his organization a cool name by stringing together three words: Black Seoul Saga.
But he had heard that the prosecutor's office was mocking the organization it had named the Hojaengi gang and keeping a close eye on it.
So he had ordered the organization's elite, Kwon Su-geom, to hide the funds separately while he lay low for a while.
And he had been resting at a small villa in Anseong to avoid the prosecutors' eyes, but...!!
"L-let go!! Let go!!"
Handcuffs were being fastened around his wrists.
A man holding a sheet of paper spoke to him in a relaxed tone.
Ki Yeong-man felt more bewildered than furious that Gu Nam-cheol had found him.
"Fuck!! How did you know I was here!! Kwon Su-geom? That bastard? Or Go Man-deok?! Oh Ji-won?! Or...!!"
Too many suspects came to mind.
As Ki Yeong-man shouted like a madman, a prosecutor's office employee checking his laptop nodded.
"Hmm... Oh. He's here."
Looking down at Ki Yeong-man as he resisted and spewed curses, Gu Nam-cheol checked his phone and grinned.
"Mr. Ki Yeong-man. Your younger brother was arrested at Busan Port. It seems you were smuggling drugs in from the Philippines."
"....!!"
"And when your underboss, Mr. Go Man-deok, was arrested, he told us some interesting things about you."
"Go Man-deok, you son of a bitch!!!"
"And... you even set up a factory in Pyeongtaek? Good grief. Smuggling wasn't enough, so you started manufacturing drugs in Korea too. You must be busy."
"......"
This was something even Go Man-deok didn't know.
It was something only Ki Yeong-man knew, an operation he ran with the experts he had brought over from the Philippines.
But they knew even that?
"You're also operating an illegal online gambling site server in the Philippines..."
"...H-how... how did you know...?"
Everything had been exposed.
As Gu Nam-cheol faced him muttering blankly, he grinned instead of answering.
For people like these, simply smiling at them was more frightening than words.