Chapter 94
"We found it at a depth of 21 meters. Since it's made of pure gold, it doesn't seem to have suffered much despite being underwater."
"This... It's Baekje style, right?"
"Yes."
Even Elder Jung Hee-tae and Professor Kang Yul-je were more focused on historical analysis than on the joy of discovering treasure.
I examined the gold crown ornament he held out.
Honestly, what would I know about it?
"I've seen it in a high school textbook. It looks similar to Queen Consort Muryeong's gold crown ornament, doesn't it?"
"Since it's more ornate than that, I suspect it may be an ornament belonging to another queen consort."
"Is this all you found?"
In response to Elder Jung Hee-tae's question, Professor Kang Yul-je nodded.
"Then we won't need to wait for the others."
Recording the discovery was also a procedure that couldn't be ignored.
The captain filmed the process himself as the others came back up.
Some came up empty-handed, while others brought things like silver bracelets.
"According to the records, there should be gold and silver bars here, along with gold crowns, gold Buddha statues, and gold incense burners."
"How many are there?"
"Roughly more than fifty pieces. If they're all made of pure gold like this ornament, there shouldn't be any major problems, but..."
"So other materials could pose a problem."
"Yes. If something was made of gilt bronze, the seawater may have damaged it. We can't expect paintings to have survived either... But according to the records, there weren't many of those."
"Oh-ho. Then which artifact among those we can recover would be the best?"
"I'm not sure... Probably a gold crown? Baekje-style gold crowns are famous for their splendor. If it's intact, I imagine it would be worth several billion won or more."
There were also things like pottery, so we would need to conduct a detailed exploration to determine how much we could recover from this place.
"Since we'll have to cooperate with the government on this, it would be best to return for now. If we contact the Cultural Heritage Administration, they'll arrive within two days, so we can consider the time until then free time, right?"
"Haha. I see."
"And, as you all know..."
Professor Kang Yul-je spoke seriously.
"Remember that this matter must remain a secret."
The workers and the captain nodded.
And.
Yoo Ho-min did the same.
Of course, he was cheering inwardly.
***
'What luck...!!'
It was worth several billion won or more.
Including the other artifacts, there had to be artifacts worth at least ten billion won at that location.
It was pure luck.
This was the greatest opportunity he could ever have to make a fortune.
'Besides... Kang Noah said so himself, didn't he?'
When they had boarded the boat to Yeoseodo, he had said that he couldn't see the past or future of anyone who hadn't turned over a card.
Several offers had been made, but he hadn't turned over his card.
That meant Kang Noah hadn't seen his past or future.
If so, there was nothing to worry about.
He cautiously stood up.
"Hm? Where are you going, Ho-min?"
"Hahaha. I'm just going out to get some air."
A drinking party was already underway at the lodging.
Kang Noah was already passed out drunk.
Then there was nothing to worry about.
Yoo Ho-min went out into the yard.
Then he cautiously took out his phone.
He carefully sent a message containing the coordinates he had confirmed earlier at sea, along with a list of things that could be found there.
Then, when he looked at his other phone, he saw that Bitcoin had been deposited in his electronic wallet.
'As expected...!!'
How much was this?
One billion won.
Money that an ordinary person would struggle to save even after working their entire life.
He had earned it so easily.
'Good thing I studied history!!'
He smiled toward the lodging.
Without even realizing that someone was watching him.
.
.
.
Located an hour west of Tsushima was a tiny island quite close to Korean territorial waters.
Yae Kazuki, sitting on the small rocky island where not even an animal lived, spat out the cigarette he had been smoking.
It was a night when darkness had fallen heavily.
Moving a boat in the middle of such a night was dangerous.
Moving without even turning on the lights so that others wouldn't spot them was even more so.
But this wasn't his first time doing something like this, so he calmly stamped out the cigarette butt and put it in the ashtray.
"Let's go."
A high-speed boat began cutting across the quiet night sea.
Its target was the coast near Yeoseodo, inside Korean territorial waters.
It was dangerous.
They were crossing into another country's territorial waters, and in the worst case, they could even lose their lives.
Even so, he moved.
'All of this is for the Greater Japanese Empire... or so they say.'
Recently, a theory had emerged within historical circles that Baekje had introduced various goods and Buddhism to Japan.
His employer hated that theory.
Naturally.
How could the ancestors of those lowly Joseon bastards have introduced anything to Great Japan?
Unless it had been tribute, of course.
Therefore, he had to set history straight.
His employer always thought that way.
Of course, Yae Kazuki had little interest in his employer's impassioned arguments.
Who cared about the past?
What mattered was money.
They were offering a reward of hundreds of millions of yen for this one job. Why would he refuse?
"We'll be entering Korean territorial waters soon."
As they entered the territorial waters, the tension shot up.
But he wasn't particularly worried.
The Korean Coast Guard were incompetent, stupid bastards.
They wouldn't even know that someone was crossing their territorial waters like this.
"Amazing. The Korean Coast Guard are this careless?"
They had come quite far into the waters after crossing the border.
Even so, the Korean Coast Guard was nowhere to be seen.
He felt as though luck was truly on his side.
"We'll reach the target location soon."
"Get the equipment ready!!"
When he reached the location Yoo Ho-min had told him about, he shouted loudly.
The scuba divers who had already been preparing quickly descended into the water.
This wasn't the first time they had done something like this.
They had repeatedly succeeded in stealing underwater artifacts not only in Korea but also in China.
They had sent those artifacts to Japanese academic societies and proved Japanese superiority more times than could be counted.
That was why Yae Kazuki was confident.
They would succeed this time too.
Just as they had every time before.
"...Captain!!"
The captain shouted.
A boat was rapidly approaching from the distance.
Before they knew it, a cordon had been formed around them.
"W-what?!"
They were the Korean Coast Guard.
The men who hadn't shown so much as the tips of their noses until now had approached with all their lights off, then turned them on only after forming a cordon.
Bright lights shone on them from every direction.
"You are already surrounded!!"
Some of them were even pointing guns at them.
How? How had they known?
No.
It was as though they had known we were coming here all along...
"You fucking moron!!"
Kang Noah.
That insolent Joseon bastard.
He must have read Yoo Ho-min's past and future and discovered that they were coming.
"You fucking idiot! Gaaah!!"
It was while he was stamping his feet in frustration that one of his subordinates, unaware of what was happening above, quickly surfaced from the sea.
In his hand was a glittering gold crown from the Baekje era.
.
.
.
A man approached Yoo Ho-min, who had briefly stepped outside to smoke during the drinking party that continued until dawn.
"Mr. Yoo Ho-min."
"Y-yes?! Who are you?"
"Let's see that phone."
"...What?"
Yoo Ho-min was flustered by the man's abrupt demand.
What did he know to be speaking like this?
Cold sweat ran down his back.
"I-I don't know why you're asking this, but..."
"We've already finished the investigation. We know that you joined hands with a Japanese far-right historical society and have been smuggling Korean artifacts out of the country."
"....W-what are you talking about?! It wasn't me! I only...!!"
Yoo Ho-min hurriedly denied it.
But the man's eyes were cold as ice.
"You've already received compensation amounting to nearly hundreds of millions of won in Bitcoin."
He calmly stepped closer.
As if he intended to resist, Yoo Ho-min hurriedly raised his fist.
But the hand of the NIS agent was faster.
-BAM!
"Ugh...!!"
Clutching his stomach, he slowly collapsed.
The agent caught him, then calmly used the phone's facial-recognition function to unlock it.
After calmly checking the messages, he bared his teeth coldly.
"T-to investigate someone... like this..."
"We can."
With a grin, he put handcuffs on Yoo Ho-min's wrists.
"For a traitor like you."
A Miranda warning followed immediately.
Yoo Ho-min closed his eyes in overwhelming despair.
***
I had gone to sleep around eleven the previous night, and by the time I woke up, everything was over.
Manager Ryu In-su, who had come to see me, explained what had happened.
"It's all been resolved."
"Oh. Really?"
"Yes. Around midnight yesterday, the Japanese men moved to the site and began their exploration. We arrested every one of them. We also confirmed that Yoo Ho-min had cooperated with them."
They had also found evidence that Yoo Ho-min's phone had been connected to the phone of Yae Kazuki, the leader of the Japanese group.
They investigated Yae Kazuki and confirmed that the group had signed a contract with a Japanese far-right organization.
They planned to use this to negotiate with the Japanese government.
"We'll have to find the artifacts they smuggled out too."
That was the government's responsibility, so there was nothing more for the NIS to say.
"Our government will probably gain a great deal from this."
"Really? You mean they won't treat it as an individual's deviation?"
"Yes. A Japanese far-right historical society recently announced some artifacts. We'll begin by investigating those."
If they used this incident as evidence to pressure Japan, the Japanese government wouldn't be able to ignore it outright.
Through that, they would be able to gain considerable diplomatic benefits.
"I see. That's good."
"It's all thanks to you, Mr. Kang."
"Oh, I didn't do anything. The Coast Guard and the agents did all the hard work."
Working busily in the middle of the night couldn't have been easy.
"But if it weren't for you, we would have missed a great deal again."
"Well, that's true too."
"Hahaha."
He grinned and gestured behind him.
A man I had never seen before was carefully walking toward us.
"I'm Oh Jun-man, chief of Division One of the Security Investigation Bureau at the National Intelligence Service. Mr. Kang."
"Nice to meet you. But what brings you here...?"
"The NIS has a favor to ask of you."
"Hmm. Would you like to turn this over?"
"Yes."
Chief Oh Jun-man immediately turned over the card.
"Hmm. Could you turn this one over?"
"Yes."
Section Chief Oh Jun-man immediately flipped the card.
The card that appeared was the reversed High Priestess.
"You want me to tell the fortune of Ri Jeong-sul, a North Korean State Security Department agent currently in custody."
This was quite serious.
If they failed to find out what was happening quickly, those operating both domestically and abroad would suffer a major blow.
"Let's cooperate."
There was no reason to refuse.