Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 141

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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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Keeping Quiet (4)
He slowly shifted his gaze and looked directly at Seo Jin’s face.
His pupils trembled with anxiety.
‘…Kim Seo-jin?’
He recognized Seo Jin’s face.
He knew well that his profession was that of a Prosecutor.
And Seo Jin’s eyes were speaking volumes.
‘You’re the Arsonist, aren’t you?’
The man swallowed hard as he met that piercing gaze.
Before committing the arson, he had checked multiple times for CCTV cameras and witnesses.
There was nothing in the vicinity, and there was no reason to be caught.
‘But how did he find out?’
However, there was no time to contemplate that mystery.
What mattered now was escape.
“Let go!”
He wrenched his shoulder free from Seo Jin’s grip and lunged forward.
If he could just break away in this moment, if he could board the boat the organization had prepared and leave this country, he could continue to live free.
But Seo Jin caught his wrist.
Simultaneously, he swept the man’s leg out from under him.
The man crashed to the ground with a thunderous bang.
Seo Jin approached him and spoke in a measured tone.
“Listen, I’m placing you under arrest for arson. You have the right to retain counsel and the opportunity to make a statement….”
The man struggled to get up urgently.
But Seo Jin pressed his boot down hard on the man’s back.
Then, while applying pressure to his arm, he continued.
“You have the right to petition for a review of your detention. So come quietly.”
This was not a man who would listen to such words.
He thrashed about beneath Seo Jin’s boot.
“Let go! Release me! You bastard…. My arm! My arm! Don’t break it! Aaahhhhh!”
*
*
*
Anna Roux blinked her eyes open.
Fluorescent lights came into view on the ceiling.
She had seen them before, but they were indeed fluorescent lights.
Anna Roux felt the sensation of being alive and moved her eyes to survey her surroundings.
‘A Hospital?’
Through the gaps in the drawn curtain, she could see doctors and nurses moving about busily.
From the atmosphere, it appeared to be the Emergency Room.
In that moment, she sensed an unfamiliar voice and footsteps drawing closer.
The curtain was suddenly pulled back, and a doctor’s clinical voice reached my ears.
“She remains unconscious. However….”
Anna Roux kept her eyes closed, feigning unconsciousness.
She felt the gaze of strangers upon her and listened intently to their conversation.
“Tsk, tsk, why would a woman alone go to such a karaoke room….”
“Senior, she’s quite beautiful though?”
“Enough! Don’t say useless things.”
“Why not? It’s the truth.”
From their conversation, I could tell they were detectives.
They were waiting for the victims to wake up so they could investigate the incident.
“She should regain consciousness within the hour.”
As the doctor spoke, I heard the sound of the curtain being drawn closed.
Only then did Anna Roux open her eyes again.
She brushed her hair back and recalled the detective’s voice from moments ago.
‘Why would a woman alone go to such a karaoke room….’
Anna Roux laughed bitterly.
‘…Why did I go alone?’
Anna Roux remembered the events from a few hours earlier.
While sitting in the officetel gazing out the window, a call came from the organization I belonged to.
-The Prosecutor’s Office seems to have caught our scent. It’s difficult to discuss over the phone, and we need to meet somewhere quiet….
That place was a karaoke room in a residential area.
The reason being its decent soundproofing.
So Anna Roux moved to the designated location and met with the contact.
There was only one conversation exchanged.
“The Boss is becoming suspicious.”
That was all.
Anna Roux lost consciousness after drinking the beer he handed her.
‘Ha… suspicious?’
In a criminal organization, the word suspicion does not exist.
Suspicion is certainty, and certainty is execution.
Anna Roux exhaled deeply and caught the scent of smoke embedded in her clothes.
‘Did they try to burn me to death?’
Anna Roux smiled bitterly and slightly opened the curtain.
Then she surveyed the situation outside.
‘I cannot remain in this hospital.’
The organization must know that Anna Roux survived.
It would be strange if they didn’t know about my being brought to the hospital.
‘They must be watching from somewhere.’
To survive, I had to escape.
Otherwise, I would die.
They would definitely try to kill her.
Fortunately, the emergency room was bustling through the night, and the detectives who had been watching were nowhere to be seen—likely outside smoking.
Anna Roux climbed down from the bed.
And put on her shoes.
Fortunately, they were flat-heeled shoes, so there was no discomfort.
Moments later, the detectives pulled back the curtain.
“Still hasn’t woken up….”
But the person who should have been there had vanished.
The two detectives fell silent, and the words that slowly spilled out were curses.
“…Damn it.”
The detective urgently grabbed a passing doctor and nurse, asking frantically.
“The woman who was here—where did she go? The restroom? Where?”
But no one knew where Anna Roux had gone.
Anna Roux was running desperately.
After slipping out of the Hospital, she caught the signal and crossed the pedestrian crossing.
Ahead lay the Commercial District.
To hide a tree, you go to the forest; to hide a person, you disappear into the crowd.
The Commercial District was packed with people, and Anna Roux sought to vanish among them.
Her breath came in gasps, but Anna Roux kept running.
Even as she ran, she planned what came next.
‘I have money.’
She had secretly prepared a dummy account for emergencies.
‘If I find that money, hide myself, get a forged passport, and escape, I’ll survive.’
Then she could preserve her life.
But as Anna Roux ran, her pace gradually slowed.
Her eyes filled with dread.
‘What….’
A person who should not be here.
A person who must not be here.
Anna Roux’s gaze fixed precisely on one figure among the countless people flowing through the street.
‘What is this….’
The person Anna Roux was looking at was Seo Jin.
Seo Jin brushed past Anna Roux with heavy footsteps and spoke quietly.
“Don’t make eye contact with me and listen. See that alley on the right? Go that way.”
“…!”
“Don’t think about running. We’ve been chasing you since the Hospital, and we’re watching you from all sides. So don’t waste your time with foolish ideas and just obey.”
“….”
“And right now, you’d better listen to me. It’s better than dying.”
Anna Roux moved only her eyes, quickly scanning her surroundings.
Strange men were walking up from behind.
The left and right sides were no different—men occupied those positions as well.
All of them shared the same purpose as me.
They filled every direction.
Anna Roux abandoned any thought of escape.
She came to a complete halt, her breathing ragged.
Her eyes fixed on me with the desperation of a cornered prey.
But I didn’t spare her a glance.
Still passing by Anna Roux, I opened my mouth.
“Not going? Looks like someone behind you wants you dead. You’re just going to die here?”
Anna Roux had no choice in the matter. She nodded and headed toward the alley I’d indicated.
The moment Anna Roux passed by me, I pulled out a hat and put it on.
And I continued to look ahead.
My gaze settled on a man wearing a bucket hat—oddly out of place.
The one pursuing Anna Roux.
He was searching through the crowds of the Commercial District, looking for Anna Roux in hiding.
I spoke to the Bodyguard beside me.
“He might be carrying a knife. No—he definitely is.”
“He’s wearing a stab-resistant vest.”
“That’s reassuring.”
The Bodyguard approached the man.
*
*
*
Hotel VIP Room.
With perfect security, it was a place the youngest son of Shinma Group, Shin Seung-il, used as if it were his own home.
Brought here by my Bodyguard, Anna Roux was biting her nails, her eyes restless with anxiety.
‘Why….’
Anna Roux had expected to be taken to the Prosecutor’s Office.
‘But a Hotel?’
There was nothing she could comprehend.
She tried to discern the intention, but it was futile.
All she could do was wait for me in anxious anticipation.
And about two hours later, I entered.
I approached Anna Roux without a word and tossed a document onto the table.
The document was a newspaper article.
It showed that the publishing company had been subject to a search and seizure.
“That publishing company—you were the actual representative, weren’t you? The representative there was just arrested.”
“….”
I placed another document on top of it.
This time, it was an arrest warrant for Police Inspector Kim Jae-hoon.
“The man who used to give you pocket money has been arrested too.”
Yet there was no surprise in Anna Roux’s eyes.
She already knew about the publishing house and Police Inspector Kim Jae-hoon.
But then Seo Jin threw another document onto the table.
This time, a photograph.
A familiar face.
The man who had been chasing Anna Roux since the Hospital.
“He’s been caught too.”
Anna Roux’s eyes, which had remained calm until now, widened.
The man who had eluded four police officers—captured so easily.
‘…This can’t be real.’
Seo Jin smiled faintly as he watched Anna Roux’s expression.
“You shouldn’t be surprised just yet.”
Seo Jin threw down another document.
Another photograph.
“He’s the one who set the fire at the Karaoke Room where you were. He’s under investigation right now. I caught him too.”
“…!”
Anna Roux’s mouth fell open involuntarily.
The man was a professional, known for leaving no traces.
Yet Seo Jin had captured him in such a short span of time.
“H-how?”
Seeing Anna Roux’s shocked expression, Seo Jin extended his hand.
“I think it’s time to shake hands. If you take my hand, you’ll be able to see the sunrise tomorrow and the day after, just the same.”
‘See the sunrise, just the same.’ Those were words Anna Roux habitually spoke—but only to her organization members.
There was no way Seo Jin could know those words.
Of course, Seo Jin had merely repeated Anna Roux’s words through his psychometry ability.
But Anna Roux began trembling as if she had seen a ghost.
Seo Jin continued speaking quietly, watching the shock in Anna Roux’s eyes.
“These are dangerous men—dangerous enough to set fires at Karaoke Rooms. If you go outside, you’ll die. Stabbed, burned, or maybe thrown into the Sea with your face and fingerprints torn off.”
Seo Jin deliberately mentioned specific murder scenarios.
To maximize Anna Roux’s fear.
“But there’s one way you can survive. While you’re in prison, that organization will be dismantled. I have the power to do it, but it would be easier if you helped me.”
This time, he presented a way to overcome the fear.
Once fear was conquered, that emotion would transform into rage against the organization.
And finally, he spoke in a gentle voice.
“Take it. My hand’s getting embarrassed hanging here.”
Anna Roux had witnessed Seo Jin’s capabilities.
Seo Jin had found the Officetel where Anna Roux was hiding and captured the publishing house manager, the police officer, and the Arsonist.
All in such a devastatingly short time.
Of course, compared to the upper echelons of the organization, the men he had captured so far were merely small fry.
But if Anna Roux lends her hand, things will change.
‘Then I can survive.’
Anna Roux was cornered, and a desperate rat will bite a cat.
And it was an organization she had devoted herself to since childhood.
To be discarded like this—just as I had anticipated, Anna Roux now wanted to destroy the organization entirely.
Anna Roux took my hand.
“I agree.”
“A wise choice.”
After the handshake, I leaned against the window and spoke.
“For now, you’ll stay here. A bodyguard will be on standby at all times, and security is tight enough that you won’t need to worry about assassination.”
“…Not the Detention Center?”
“I want to create confusion for your superiors. Make them uncertain whether you were captured or escaped. Your higher-ups seem clever enough, but clever people often fall into their own traps the deeper they think. That’s what I’m counting on. And I’ll hear the details later, but first, let me ask you one thing.”
Anna Roux nodded.
Then I spoke in a hollow voice.
“It was you who tried to kill me, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
Anna Roux answered plainly without hiding anything.
I asked again.
“Why?”
“We don’t know either. There’s a Prosecutor who’s been tracking our organization, so the order came down to kill you, and we acted on it.”
I furrowed my brow.
Anna Roux had no reason to lie.
‘An order….’
Anna Roux and the Manager she served held fairly high positions within that organization.
Yet someone with enough authority to give orders to people of that rank.
‘Is it the Chairman?’
Lost in thought for a while, I tilted my head.
A sudden curiosity had struck me.
A thread that seemed connected but wasn’t connecting.
‘The original Seo Jin was digging into Kim Young-jun’s Wife’s side. But then suddenly, he was killed by this organization.’
Yet these two incidents have remained disconnected, running parallel to each other.
If I had to find a common point, it would be the Loan Shark.
I turned my gaze to Anna Roux and spoke.
“Do you happen to know someone named Eom Si-young?”
Eom Si-young was Kim Young-jun’s Wife’s name.
Anna Roux raised her eyes and tried to recall that name.
But soon she shook her head.
“No. I’ve never heard of her.”
I had suspected as much, but as expected.
There was nothing I could learn about that side through Anna Roux.
I exhaled a sigh and pulled myself away from the window.
“Understood. It’s late today, so get some proper rest and we’ll talk tomorrow.”
I waved my hand and headed toward the entrance.
There was so much I wanted to ask Anna Roux.
But now wasn’t the time—I had to get to the District Prosecutor’s Office.
The publishing company, Police Inspector Kim Jae-hoon, the Arsonist, and a killer—I’d stirred up far too much in a single day.
Even an all-nighter wouldn’t be enough.
Yet as I grasped the door handle, I turned back toward Anna Roux once more.
“Wait, just one more thing. Do you know anyone named Eom Seon-ju?”
Eom Seon-ju—Kim Young-jun’s Wife’s own brother.
The person I’d briefly spoken with through Kim Young-jun’s Wife’s phone before.
I was asking if she happened to know that person’s name.
“…Director Eom Seon-ju?”
She did know.
“He’s the Director of Korean Loan Shark Operations.”

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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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