Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 116

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Shadow (1)
“I have no reservations. Rather, I apologize.”
The reporter had asked if I felt burdened by the protest.
But an apology came out of nowhere, and the reporters exchanged puzzled glances. One of them carefully asked a follow-up question.
“…What do you mean by apologizing? Are you perhaps acknowledging the protesters’ claims? Religious persecution?”
At that question, both the reporters and the protesters fell silent.
The protesters stared at me with fierce eyes, waiting for my response.
It was a situation that would intimidate anyone.
But I opened my mouth in my usual dry tone, unfazed.
“According to Buwun Church’s doctrine, their leader Shin Ji-seok is positioned as a figure above the law. However, the law applies equally to everyone, and the defendant will receive the same legal treatment as anyone else. That’s why I apologize—I’m afraid I’ll be dampening their faith.”
“…!”
The reporters blinked.
It was a highly provocative answer, pouring fuel on an already inflamed crowd.
And as expected, curses erupted from the protesters.
Bastards, sons of bitches, arrogant punks—every conceivable insult was flying.
“Drop dead!”
“Go to hell!”
Police officers hurriedly moved to block the protesters’ path.
Even the reporters looked around with frightened eyes.
There was no way to know when the protesters might rush forward and commit an act of violence.
But I remained composed.
I hadn’t spoken those words for the protesters to hear.
My gaze shifted upward to the stairs.
There stood Shin Ji-seok’s attorney.
Lee Du-jin, the newly appointed lawyer after Kang Seok-ryong’s arrest.
He was looking down at me with cold eyes.
I met Lee Du-jin’s gaze and climbed the stairs with steady steps.
Standing beside the attorney, I spoke in a low voice.
“Let’s do this by the book.”
Lee Du-jin—a man who fought against large corporations.
No matter how powerful his opponent, he would bite and claw, dragging things out indefinitely.
Some called his methods unsavory, but regardless, he had secured many victories.
Lee Du-jin smiled faintly and opened his mouth.
“By the book?”
“Yes.”
“And if not?”
“Then we’ll meet again in court. Though next time, you’ll be standing as the defendant instead of the attorney.”
A threat—if he didn’t play by the rules, he’d end up in the detention center like Kang Seok-ryong.
Lee Du-jin chuckled.
“Prosecutor Seo Jin, you live up to your reputation. Threatening even lawyers with empty threats. Anyone listening would think you’re a street thug, not a prosecutor. But what can I do? I’ve been paid, and I need to earn my keep. Two billion won, to be exact. I even bought myself some oxtail soup with it.”
“Don’t you have money for a bowl of ox bone soup? If you’d told me, I would’ve bought you a large one.”
“A large one? That’s a shame. But I don’t eat with prosecutors. The stench of rot vibrates right in front of me.”
“That’s quite a thing to hear from someone defending a pseudo-religious cult leader.”
Seo Jin and Lee Du-jin’s voices remained quiet.
But the words they hurled struck at each other’s emotions without mercy.
It was a strategy to shake the opponent before entering the courtroom.
Yet it yielded no results.
Neither of them showed the slightest change in expression.
“Enough. Let’s do our best.”
Lee Du-jin offered his hand for a handshake.
Seo Jin accepted it without another word.
The moment their hands touched, cameras clicked rapidly around them.
But that was when it happened.
My vision turned grey.
“We need the prosecution’s information network. Our firm doesn’t have the power to handle this!”
It was Dujin Law Firm, Lee Du-jin’s office.
As the short-haired director spoke, Lee Du-jin’s expression twisted.
Not the confident look from moments before.
With urgent eyes, he was rifling through documents scattered across the table.
“The prosecution will move? If those bastards got involved… this case wouldn’t have come to us at all.”
In the photograph Lee Du-jin held was the face of Shin Il-seung, the youngest son of the Shinma Group.
The Shinma Group was one of the nation’s largest conglomerates, and its youngest heir, Shin Il-seung, was notorious as a reckless playboy.
And not long ago.
Shin Il-seung had created a venture company and listed it on KOSDAQ.
Afterward, he came under suspicion of manipulating stock prices with loan sharks, fleecing retail investors, and deliberately delisting the company.
Retail investors who had invested based solely on the Shinma Group name suffered massive losses, and cases of disappearance and suicide continued to mount.
“Does this look like simple suicide to you?”
The real problem lay elsewhere.
The loan shark who participated in the stock manipulation had also played the role of a gambling den operator.
In other words, they lent money to retail investors, then used false and exaggerated disclosures to make them buy more stock.
“People who raised suspicions killed themselves? That makes no sense. They’d be too wronged to die, too curious to die! More victims will keep appearing! And this So Sang-woo bastard!”
Lee Du-jin muttered, jabbing his finger at the loan shark’s name.
“This guy… I heard he doesn’t care about right or wrong as long as there’s money in it. He’s the type who values human lives in terms of cash.”
As Lee Du-jin bit his lip, the director shook her head and spoke up.
“Attorney, you need to think rationally. This isn’t a corporate dispute. He’s from that family!”
Shin Il-seung was bloodline of the Shinma Group.
They would certainly fight with everything they had.
“You can’t win! It’s actually dangerous! Please, stop meddling…”
“Wait!”
Lee Du-jin silenced the director.
And then I slowly turned my gaze toward the television.
The news was on.
A reporter standing in front of the courthouse was speaking rapidly.
-Shocking news that there was a plea deal ahead of Shin Ji-seok’s trial at Buwun Church. Prosecutor Seo Jin from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office this afternoon….
It was news that I had caught a judge and a lawyer.
Lee Du-jin muttered while watching the television.
“That prosecutor… right? The one who caught the Jongno Police Station Chief and a prosecutor? And the guy who went into Buwun Church and made a film?”
“That’s right.”
“I should look into this. Shin Ji-seok will be looking for a new lawyer. Find out what you can.”
The psychometry had ended.
I was shaking hands with Lee Du-jin.
Lee Du-jin released his hand and spoke.
“See you in a moment.”
With those words, Lee Du-jin passed by me and entered the courtroom.
And my gaze followed Lee Du-jin’s retreating figure.
Lee Du-jin wanted to investigate that case together with me.
This courtroom was merely a process to understand my style.
And my thoughts shifted in a different direction.
‘So Sang-woo, the loan shark?’
I’d heard of him before.
A figure who had emerged as a major player in Jongno.
When So Sang-woo, who had been operating as a small-time thug in the provinces, came to Seoul and became a major player, everyone found it strange.
‘How did someone so lacking in foundation end up working with Shin Il-seung of the Shinma Group?’
A bleak smile crossed my lips as I fell into thought.
‘Not bad.’
It was when I was destroying Kim Yun-hwan.
I had asked him if he knew who pushed him.
And Kim Yun-hwan had answered like this.
“Ha… loan sharks.”
“Not just loan sharks, but the major players.”
“Back then there were rumors that you were sweeping through the loan shark market. I heard you dug in quite deep, but didn’t you know how scary those guys are? Those guys don’t care if you’re a prosecutor or whatever—if money’s involved, they’ll come after you.”
I turned my body toward the courtroom and climbed the stairs.
‘Eventually….’
Once this case was over, I planned to dig into the loan shark market.
But there was a scent in the air.
Perhaps this opportunity would let me see the faces of those who had driven the original me to death, and finally confront them.
And the seventy-seven subsidiaries that the Shinma Group owned….
‘Is there something I can buy with 300 billion?’
If I destroyed and demolished them, the compensation I could gain might fall short.
But if I could grasp that in my hands….
I chuckled softly.
Then I slowly turned my gaze toward the Buwun Church followers staging their protest.
‘I believe in God too, truly.’
Starting with the 300 billion won, I now had the opportunity to gain leverage against Shinma Group alongside attorney Lee Du-jin.
It might be counting my chickens before they hatched, but the possibility was clearly there.
‘For now….’
I needed to destroy Shin Ji-seok in the courtroom first.
*
*
*
“…considering all the evidence, it is appropriate to conclude that the defendant instructed Choi Sung-don to commit murder. Seven confirmed murders! This is a serial killer. He didn’t stain his own hands with blood, but he issued orders with his own mouth!”
My voice resonated through the courtroom.
The first and second trials had concluded, and now we were in the third trial preceding the verdict.
The atmosphere in the courtroom was frigid.
The presiding judge and associate judges, as well as the spectators in the gallery, listened intently to my voice in silence.
During the first and second trials, Shin Ji-seok had continuously insisted on his innocence.
He claimed he had done nothing wrong and merely received divine revelation.
But that had become his poison.
“However, the defendant shows no remorse and is seeking a reduced sentence by claiming mental illness and other conditions! The nature of his crimes is heinous, and I believe society must be warned!”
Shin Ji-seok kept his head bowed, listening silently to my statement.
But his tightly clasped hands trembled faintly, as if in prayer.
He was anticipating what sentence I would pronounce.
‘…It will be life imprisonment.’
And now came the moment for my sentencing recommendation.
The journalists in the gallery exchanged glances and whispered their opinions.
‘Life?’
‘Maybe around fifteen years?’
‘No way, they already called him a serial killer.’
‘That was just an example. Life imprisonment at his age?’
My footsteps echoed through the courtroom.
I stood before Shin Ji-seok and looked down at him.
He still kept his head down.
Silently anticipating life imprisonment, waiting for my recommendation.
But then.
“Therefore, this prosecutor recommends the death penalty.”
“…!”
An unexpected sentence had dropped like a bomb.
The courtroom seemed to freeze, and Shin Ji-seok immediately lifted his head to stare at me.
Wondering if he’d heard wrong, he murmured.
“…Death penalty?”
Seo Jin’s gaze was glacial.
The moment Shin Ji-seok saw that look, reality crashed down upon him.
He hadn’t misheard.
Seo Jin had uttered the word “death penalty.”
Shin Ji-seok’s anguished voice began to reverberate through the courtroom.
“Death penalty? Death penalty? What did I do wrong!”
The cult leader was gone.
Only the naked man Shin Ji-seok remained.
Once sentenced to death, escaping at seventy would become nearly impossible.
He would live out his days in prison, only to emerge as a broken shell of a man.
“I told you I didn’t kill anyone!”
Shin Ji-seok’s eyes bloodshot with rage.
The sentence had only just been handed down, yet the looming future terrified him with suffocating intensity.
“Damn it!”
As Shin Ji-seok thrashed about, the courtroom erupted into chaos.
The judge slammed his palm against the bench and bellowed.
“Silence! Quiet!”
“I didn’t kill anyone!”
The judge ultimately ignored Shin Ji-seok.
The trial proceedings had only the defense counsel’s final argument remaining.
“Defense counsel! Present your final argument for the defendant!”
At those words, Shin Ji-seok’s eyes snapped toward attorney Lee Du-jin.
The person Shin Ji-seok most wanted dead now was not Seo Jin, but attorney Lee Du-jin.
During the first and second hearings, he had worked diligently enough, yet failed to prevent any of this—an incompetent attorney.
“You said you’d get me seven years! Seven years, you said! How much money did I give you!”
“My apologies. I won’t be able to collect the additional eighty billion.”
“What?”
It was a contract.
Twenty billion upfront, eighty billion more if the sentence was seven years or less.
Attorney Lee Du-jin patted Shin Ji-seok’s shoulder lightly and rose to his feet.
“Well then, let me at least earn my final meal.”
Attorney Lee Du-jin’s final smile was peculiar.
Only then did Shin Ji-seok realize he had been deceived by attorney Lee Du-jin.
“You bastard!”
Attorney Lee Du-jin likewise ignored Shin Ji-seok.
Rising to his feet, he regarded Seo Jin with an indifferent gaze.
*
*
*
“Looking at the judge’s demeanor, it seems a life sentence or worse was inevitable, doesn’t it?”
Seo Jin sat across from Lee Eun-ha, the journalist.
It was a coffee shop not far from the courthouse.
“But you’re not eating?”
A slice of cake sat on the table, but Seo Jin hadn’t touched it once with his fork.
He was only sipping the coffee in front of him.
“Please, go ahead. I have a feeling someone will be coming.”
“Someone will be coming?”
“Yes, probably… they will.”
Lee Eun-ha didn’t press the matter further.
She savored the coffee while tasting the sweetness of the cake.
Then she kept stealing glances at Seo Jin.
The way he gazed leisurely out the window was undeniably handsome.
‘What….’
Personal feelings were forbidden.
Just from his demeanor, she could tell he was an iron wall of a man.
He didn’t seem interested in her at all.
Lee Eun-ha jabbed at the innocent cake repeatedly before speaking.
“Shouldn’t you have a bodyguard with you now?”
“A bodyguard?”
“I apologize for bringing this up, but I’ve heard some rumors about you from the Prosecutor’s Office.”
At the mention of rumors, Seo Jin showed interest.
“What kind?”
“Well… that you’re not very good at fighting. Ah, it’s fine. Throwing punches is barbaric anyway. You’re intelligent, so it doesn’t matter. Really, it truly doesn’t matter. So….”
It was unclear whether she was insulting him or comforting him.
Lee Eun-ha stopped fidgeting and continued speaking.
“In any case, to the followers of Buwun Church, you must seem like an enemy. I doubt they’ll just sit idle.”
Before Lee Eun-ha could finish, two menacing men approached the table.
Their fists clenched, their eyes fixed directly on Seo Jin.
Lee Eun-ha hastily stood up, spreading both arms to block them.
As if she were protecting Seo Jin.
But she couldn’t hide the tremor in her voice.
“W-who are you? If you don’t identify yourselves, I’ll call the police.”
The men stared at Lee Eun-ha with bewildered expressions.
Lee Eun-ha wasn’t particularly short.
But with her thin arms and thin legs, standing there like she might break if nudged—
“…You’ll call the police?”
Lee Eun-ha didn’t back down.
She opened her mouth toward the men with the most menacing voice she could muster.
“Yes, I said I’d call the police. Leave.”
But then a soft laugh echoed from behind.
I was smiling.
Lee Eun-ha stared at me with wide, blinking eyes.
Something felt off.
“…Why are you smiling?”
“They’re the people protecting me.”
“Pardon?”
“You said it seemed like I should have security, so I’m showing you that I do.”
“Ah… Bodyguards?”
Lee Eun-ha turned toward the two bodyguards with an embarrassed expression.
Then she hurriedly bowed at a ninety-degree angle.
“I’m so sorry! I apologize!”
That’s when I stood up.
“You’re here.”
Lee Du-jin, the lawyer I’d been waiting for, was entering the coffee shop.
After recognizing me, Lee Du-jin approached the table with measured strides.
Just as Lee Du-jin was about to speak while standing before the table.
I spoke first.
“Let’s do it.”
Lee Du-jin’s eyebrows twitched.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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