Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 139

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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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Silence (2)
“H-how are you here…?”
Anna Roux felt as though her heart had stopped.
Seo Jin shouldn’t be in this place.
No—he couldn’t be.
Only a handful of people in the organization knew Anna Roux was here.
It would be impossible unless someone had become an informant for the Prosecutor’s Office.
Faces of potential traitors flickered through Anna Roux’s mind, appearing and vanishing in rapid succession.
Seo Jin smiled faintly as he observed the pallor spreading across Anna Roux’s face.
“Curious how I found out?”
“W-who told you?”
“Why ask? You told me yourself.”
“…What?”
“You did.”
Psychometry.
The note the delivery person had handed over while carrying the steel briefcase.
An address was written there, so finding this place hadn’t been difficult.
But Anna Roux couldn’t possibly know about psychometry’s power.
She believed Seo Jin was toying with her.
Her eyes darted frantically as she searched for an escape route.
Her gaze froze on the emergency exit.
‘No.’
Anna Roux was wearing high heels.
Even if she removed them and ran, she couldn’t outpace a man.
Besides, the prosecutor surely hadn’t come alone.
Detectives were certainly positioned down the stairwell.
Anna Roux thought of the knife in her bag.
She considered a plan to stab and flee, but that too seemed impossible.
The detectives would rush in and subdue her, only adding years to her sentence.
‘…Is it over?’
Anna Roux closed her eyes for a moment.
Behind her closed eyelids, a bleak future unfolded.
“Sigh…”
Anna Roux exhaled softly, then smiled thinly and spoke.
That smile was serene.
And her voice emerged calm and measured.
“Let’s go.”
“Go?”
“Yes.”
At that moment, the elevator doors slid shut with a soft whisper.
I pressed the elevator button firmly.
The closing doors slid open again.
Anna Roux considered what would happen next.
She imagined being led down to the first floor by my hand, then dragged to the Prosecutor’s Office.
But then I pointed at the elevator and said something entirely unexpected.
“I’ve seen your face. That’s enough. Go wherever you want to go.”
“…?”
Anna Roux couldn’t comprehend it.
As her eyes narrowed, I continued.
“You can’t tell anyone that you met me here.”
“What?”
“Well, the CCTV might already be recording this. I’ll have to make a convincing excuse—that you have nothing to do with me.”
“What do you mean by…?”
Anna Roux, who had been muttering, suddenly widened her eyes.
To reiterate, only a handful of people knew that Anna Roux was hiding in this officetel.
Yet I had found her and simply let her go.
“…!”
Now it became clear.
Looking at the picture so far, the person colluding with the Prosecutor’s Office was Anna Roux herself.
And my chilling words pierced her ears.
“When someone suddenly jumps in front of my car like that, even an F1 driver couldn’t avoid it. But I stepped on the brakes, and the accident didn’t happen. Some people will say I was lucky. But others will say something different—that it would be impossible without someone teaching you how.”
Anna Roux’s hands trembled faintly.
Now she could understand my intention.
She was bait.
“If I lock you up in prison, your superiors will go into hiding. And you won’t blab about them either.”
I deliberately don’t arrest Anna Roux.
Because no matter what interrogation she faces, she will absolutely refuse to talk.
You can tell by the look in her eyes.
She doesn’t fear going to prison.
But she is terrified of what will happen to her when she’s released after a few years—certain retaliation.
“But if I let you go, and it becomes known that you were colluding with me, what will your superiors do to you?”
Fear was seeping into Anna Roux’s eyes.
The organization won’t stay idle.
Not a future in prison, but the despair of possibly dying.
Or worse—the terrible violence she might suffer as a woman.
And now Anna Roux finally began to wear the expression I wanted.
She trembled faintly, imagining the organization’s punishment.
Of course, the probability of such a thing happening was extremely low.
I planned to surveil Anna Roux around the clock, and if the anticipated situation unfolded, I would extract her.
And when that time came, Anna Roux’s lips would naturally open on their own.
I tapped the elevator door with my fingers and continued speaking.
“I’m always watching, so don’t bother thinking about moving.”
As I shifted my body, Anna Roux stumbled into the elevator against her will.
Right now, Anna Roux wanted nothing more than to escape from my side.
The elevator doors slid shut with a soft hiss.
Through the closing gap, Anna Roux watched me.
I was speaking silently, moving only my lips.
“Police.”
…!
At the same moment, blood vessels burst across Anna Roux’s eyes.
‘…P-police?’
Clearly, he was referring to the police officer providing information.
Seo Jin seemed to know who that officer was.
The problem was that the person controlling that officer was Anna Roux herself.
A groan escaped Anna Roux’s lips.
“Ah….”
If that officer got caught, the organization would definitely suspect her.
But she couldn’t warn that officer either.
The moment she did, she’d be interrogated about how she knew about the Prosecutor’s Office investigation in advance.
Then she would be identified as someone colluding with Seo Jin.
Anna Roux’s pupils trembled with urgency.
Through the closing door gap, my voice seeped through.
“For the remaining time, experience the feeling of a fish in a farm pond that must keep running even though it knows it will be caught.”
I was grinning like a demon.
*
*
*
Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.
Upon entering the office, I looked at the whiteboard.
The names of Anna Roux, Kim Young-jun’s Wife, and Eom Seon-ju were written like scribbles and abbreviations.
No one but me, the person who wrote these characters directly, could decipher them.
After staring at the whiteboard for a while, I picked up the marker and began writing new characters.
-Senior Inspector Kim Jae-hoon, Gangnam Police Station.
The executive who led the police to the hotel a few days ago.
And their puppet.
I drew a circle around his name.
‘If I catch this bastard….’
The organization would suspect Anna Roux even more.
I smiled faintly and picked up my phone.
I scrolled through the contacts and found the name Jin Yu-kyung.
The detective I met when I had a minor dispute with the profiler.
Detective Jin Yu-kyung is also at Gangnam Police Station, and she’ll be a great help in catching Captain Kim Jae-hoon.
“Yes, this is Seo Jin.”
*
*
*
Shortly after, I ended the call with Detective Jin Yu-kyung.
Then I picked up the dry-erase marker again and began scribbling across the whiteboard.
The contents of my conversation with Detective Jin Yu-kyung were still running through my mind.
-Captain Kim Jae-hoon? Hmm… the rumors aren’t good. He’s a graduate of the Police Academy, and I heard his family was struggling. But apparently his household finances improved starting in college. He claims he made money when rural land prices skyrocketed, but…
I shifted my gaze to the laptop.
Then I accessed the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s real transaction disclosure system to check the land transactions.
Captain Kim Jae-hoon had lived in Gijang-gun, Busan.
Land requisitions and compensations related to public projects were actively underway there.
Real estate prices had been fluctuating for about twenty years.
‘But…’
I spotted land that had been sold noticeably more expensive than surrounding market prices.
Property that had belonged to Captain Kim Jae-hoon’s parents.
I ran my tongue across my lips.
When money changes hands, there’s always suspicion—so they sell goods at prices above market value to launder it.
If my assumptions were correct, this was a textbook case of money laundering and bribery.
Conglomerates or criminal organizations often target scholarship students at prestigious law schools or research institutes, giving them spending money under the guise of scholarships.
They cultivate them from childhood to turn them into subordinates who handle the organization’s dirty work.
A single ten-thousand-won bill handed over in childhood becomes a lifelong shackle.
I suspected this situation might be similar.
The police are the most information-rich government agency in South Korea.
If you have one of their executives in your pocket, future operations become much easier.
And then Detective Jin Yu-kyung’s voice echoed through my mind again.
-Ah, I heard recently that he bought a commercial building in a Gyeonggi New City development cheaply. He didn’t tell me directly—he mentioned it while drinking with the guys…
Captain Kim Jae-hoon had apparently said this while raising his glass in a room salon.
-There’s a commercial building that was about to go to auction because a lien couldn’t be resolved. I was lucky enough to find it. Can you live off a pension? I need to start preparing for retirement now.
As I recalled that voice, I set down the dry-erase marker with a tap.
‘A lien? An auction?’
This too was a money laundering method to deliver bribes.
They’d filed a lawsuit with a massive lien amount against a perfectly legitimate building and then sold it to Captain Kim Jae-hoon at a fraction of its value.
He bought it below market price, but no government agency suspects anything.
Because the lawsuit is pending and the property has already entered auction proceedings.
On paper alone, it looks like an appropriate purchase.
Having thought this far, I turned my gaze toward the mirror.
My reflection stared back at me from the glass.
But Seo Jin recalled the original Seo Jin hidden beneath that facade.
And he muttered in a low voice.
“…What organization was a newly appointed prosecutor even touching?”
A sigh escaped Seo Jin’s lips.
Based on what had surfaced so far, their organization exceeded imagination.
This was no operation a newly appointed prosecutor could handle alone.
Yet the original Seo Jin had investigated this case and ultimately had to leave the world.
Seo Jin continued speaking as he regarded the original Seo Jin.
“What did you see? What were you thinking when you went after these bastards?”
The most suspicious figure, no matter how much I thought about it, was Kim Young-jun’s Wife.
And the greatest problem was Kim Young-jun, the Prosecutor-General, who would move if my prediction proved correct and I drew a blade toward Kim Young-jun’s Wife.
If Kim Young-jun, the Prosecutor-General, recognized Seo Jin as an enemy and bared his fangs….
‘Not yet.’
Seo Jin shook his head.
Now was not the time to confront Kim Young-jun, the Prosecutor-General.
In his mind, plans to separate Kim Young-jun’s Wife while maintaining his relationship with Kim Young-jun, the Prosecutor-General, repeatedly formed and crumbled.
*
*
*
“Moon Sik-i is the target.”
Seo Jin was briefing the investigators.
“He started in Songpa-gu Market Street and now operates a publishing company called D.R.3.”
“….”
“Their publishing activities are simple. They pay politicians enormous contract fees and sign publishing agreements. Then they publish garbage books under the guise of autobiographies.”
Of course, the books never sell, and they incur massive losses with each publication.
Yet they continue publishing politicians’ autobiographies.
“In other words, the purpose is to funnel political funds.”
“….”
“But recently, these bastards have shown interest in construction as well.”
The screen changed.
A commercial building purchased by Kim Jae-hoon appeared.
“They deliberately lowered prices by exercising lien rights after constructing the building.”
Seo Jin continued his explanation, and the investigators swallowed hard.
The target was Seo Jin.
When Seo Jin gathered this many investigators and spoke like this, there was definitely a reason.
They began to grow tense.
‘Could it be… we’re going after the mob? On our own?’
‘Shouldn’t we get police assistance?’
‘It’s Seo Jin though… It’s possible.’
And their prediction proved correct.
“We cannot accept police assistance.”
“…!”
“I would appreciate it if the investigators would also surrender their mobile phones.”
At that moment, Seo Jin’s phone vibrated.
Seo Jin opened his mouth as he read the message.
“The warrant came through. Let’s go.”
*
*
*
That afternoon.
Kim Jae-hoon, a senior superintendent, was having a late lunch.
His mind was consumed with news that drugs were circulating around clubs in Gangnam-gu.
A relentless cycle of overtime and all-nighters.
As he contemplated earning money quickly so he could retire and live comfortably, he dipped his spoon into the bubbling tripe soup.
An announcer’s voice came urgently from the television on the restaurant shelf.
-Prosecutor Seo Jin of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office conducted a search and seizure of publishing company D.R.3 this morning. Through this search and seizure, the prosecution has uncovered slush funds connected to political circles….
Kim Jae-hoon’s movements came to an abrupt halt.

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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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