Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 215

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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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I Remember (1)
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A small mountain in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province. Eighty thousand pyeong of land. It belonged to Kim Young-jun’s Wife.
There had once been a road passable by car, but not anymore.
Neglected for years, soil mounds and dead branches blocked the path in places.
I was climbing up that mountain.
—Late summer heat persists, and the final monsoon rains are expected. Particularly in Namyangju, Yangpyeong, and Gapyeong, localized downpours are anticipated, so please be cautious of flood damage….
The radio announced a heavy rain warning as the world darkened. Then came a roar—the rain poured down in sheets, drenching me completely. Thunder rumbled with a terrifying “crack!” overhead.
“…Prosecutor?”
Jang Seok-min, who had been following beside me, called out.
“If the water swells any more, it could be dangerous.”
A ravine ran alongside us. As the rain fell, the current quickened, and the path might be cut off entirely.
That’s why Jang Seok-min tried to stop me. But I didn’t hear his voice.
I simply trudged upward, brushing through the wet grass.
After a moment, my footsteps halted.
A villa abandoned like a derelict house.
An overgrown clearing.
If I cleared away the weeds and imagined its original state, it matched what I’d seen through psychometry.
Jang Seok-min swallowed hard.
“This place… wouldn’t be strange even if a ghost appeared, would it?”
The villa looked like a haunted house. The roof had caved in, and the moisture-laden wood looked ready to collapse at any moment.
“It’s possible.”
“Sir?”
“A ghost.”
“Prosecutor? I really don’t like that sort of thing. So….”
I smiled coldly and spoke quietly.
“A murder occurred here thirty years ago. I never expected the scene to remain intact like this.”
“Sir?”
“I’m grateful. Truly grateful….”
Jang Seok-min couldn’t understand the meaning of my gratitude. And I entered without hesitation.
I grasped the doorknob and turned it. The unlocked door creaked open with an eerie, ominous sound.
Cobwebs hung everywhere. Dust hung thick in the air.
Thirty years ago, the scene of the murder had been erased. Yet to me, it felt as though I could still hear the screams of that day.
I moved toward where Kim Young-jun’s Wife’s former boyfriend had collapsed. And from that point, I felt everything with my hands.
The property had changed hands once before returning to Kim Young-jun’s Wife’s possession.
But the previous owner had never touched the villa. The few pieces of furniture and sparse furnishings were identical to what I’d seen through psychometry.
If the scene was preserved, it would hold the memories of that day.
I pulled luminol reagent from my pocket and sprayed it across the floor.
“…will there be any left?”
“No matter how heavy the rain falls, blood traces don’t disappear. To erase them, the floorboards would have needed to be torn out, or this villa would have had to be destroyed.”
“But thirty years have passed, haven’t they?”
“This place has been well-preserved as a crime scene, and no one comes or goes. Blood traces from fifteen years ago have been detected before, so it’s possible.”
Jang Seok-min thought, “Surely not…” and brought a cigarette to his lips. But then a sickening blue fluorescent glow appeared everywhere.
Jang Seok-min’s mouth fell open, unable to light the cigarette.
Blood spatters scattered across every surface.
The scene from that day, vividly revealed.
In Seo Jin’s mind, I saw Kim Young-jun’s Wife consumed by madness. I pictured the ex-boyfriend desperately struggling backward to survive.
When he tried to block the blade, his palm was cut deep, and he pressed against the wall to keep from falling.
‘And here.’
I watched as the hand pressed against the wall slid slowly downward.
‘This was where he reached his limit.’
The ex-boyfriend bowed his head at this spot. Blood dripped from his mouth as he exhaled his last breath.
But Kim Young-jun’s Wife didn’t stop.
The first murder.
The pleasure and terror that murder brings.
Kim Young-jun’s Wife continued thrusting the blade into the dying ex-boyfriend.
My gaze shifted. I moved toward the door, continuing to spray the reagent.
The Choi Ji-beom I saw through psychometry carried the corpse on his back toward the door.
Blood droplets continued to fall.
‘It might have even reached the burial site.’
But the reagent only reacted up to the front entrance. He opened the door and stepped outside, yet no traces were found in the open field.
Only the sound of rain grew fierce.
I surveyed the overgrown empty lot.
‘Where could it be buried….’
He wouldn’t have gone far. It was a downpour at the time, and Choi Ji-beom’s priority wasn’t burying the corpse—it was Kim Young-jun’s Wife’s safety.
‘If it were me….’
I wondered what I would have done if I were Choi Ji-beom.
At that moment, my vision turned to black and white.
Psychometry appeared again.
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In the pouring rain, Choi Ji-beom stood motionless, the corpse discarded on the ground.
His expression was invisible. He had pulled a raincoat over his head.
And before him, a man walked forward holding an umbrella.
Choi Ji-beom handed him the raincoat.
“The young lady believes this man is still alive.”
The man who received the raincoat said nothing. He simply draped it over himself in the darkness.
Choi Ji-beom tapped the corpse with his shovel and continued speaking.
“I took this person to the hospital and sent them abroad. That’s all there is to it.”
Again, the man didn’t respond. He simply kept swinging his pickaxe.
Soon, the sound of digging echoed—thunk, thunk against the earth.
Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed, but they paid it no mind.
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The world regained its color.
My eyes snapped open.
‘Someone helped him.’
I thought he would have done it alone without calling anyone.
In matters like this, the fewer people who know, the better.
But Choi Ji-beom called someone.
‘Why?’
I headed toward the warehouse behind the villa.
As I yanked the door open, the smell of mold wafted out, revealing rotted shovels, pickaxes, and a saw.
I grabbed what looked like the least deteriorated pickaxe and tested it against the ground. It made sounds—thunk! thunk!—but the earth wouldn’t give way easily.
‘Of course… this place is full of rocks.’
Digging alone to bury someone would be difficult.
That’s why he called someone.
Someone he could ask for help.
Someone he could trust most.
Someone he could be certain would never betray him.
‘Certain…’
I shifted my gaze back toward the villa.
‘Could someone like Choi Ji-beom truly trust another person?’
A man of his caliber wouldn’t trust people.
What he could trust was profit, interlocked like gears.
A life where everything breaks if one piece collapses.
What he could trust was greed.
‘Surely not…’
My eyes narrowed.
‘Surely not!’
The only person who came to mind was Kim Young-jun.
At that time, Kim Young-jun was married to Kim Young-jun’s Wife and was traveling on the highway his father-in-law had paved for him.
I couldn’t be certain because his face was hidden under an umbrella, but thinking about it, something felt off.
‘After this incident, Kim Young-jun severed ties with his wife’s family.’
Yet afterward, my father’s Jaejeong Construction received massive investments and flourished.
The pieces of the past I’d heard about don’t fit together.
There’s a lie hidden somewhere in all of this.
‘What if they only severed ties on the surface? What if Kim Young-jun used Kim Young-jun’s Wife’s crime as leverage to blackmail Chairman Um?’
There’s an old saying: to tame a vicious dog, tie a bell around its neck.
Kim Young-jun is a sociopath capable of doing such things without hesitation.
He became a prosecutor in the first place because it was the only path to success for someone without money or connections.
He’s pursuing politics because he wants to seize overwhelming power.
I shook my head. There was still nothing I could be certain of.
First, I needed to find Kim Young-jun’s Wife’s ex-boyfriend.
“Hey.”
I handed the shovel to Jang Seok-min and walked quickly away.
“Yes?”
Jang Seok-min blinked and followed after me.
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“Yes, this is Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk, about to be reassigned… Huh? Yangpyeong?”
Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk, who had been working at his desk in the office, answered my call.
At my sudden request to come to Yangpyeong, Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk tilted his head in confusion.
“What? Don’t tell me… you found it?”
-Yes.
My dry voice.
Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk looked out the window. Heavy rain was battering the glass.
“Got it. I’m on my way.”
Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk picked up his jacket and stood. He left the office after telling the investigator and the administrative officer, “I’ll be back in a moment!”
The door closed with a sharp click as Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk stepped outside.
The investigator who had been working looked up from his desk, pushing himself to his feet.
“I’m going to have a smoke.”
The investigator left the office, leaving the administrative officer behind.
Then the administrative officer picked up the phone on the desk. He quietly opened his mouth as he pressed the call button and brought the phone to his ear.
“Chief, Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk just….”
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“The owner of this land is Kim Young-jun’s Wife. For about ten years it belonged to someone else, but based on the timeline, the previous owner was likely under Choi Ji-beom’s name.”
They couldn’t demolish this house.
Like a thief with itchy feet, the construction workers might discover the remains or uncover evidence they’d overlooked.
So what they decided on was abandonment.
Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk stared at the skeletal remains of the ex-boyfriend with wide eyes.
I continued, looking at the knife lying there.
“The knife embedded in the chest—if we investigate the bloodstains inside it, and obtain DNA from Kim Young-jun’s Wife under the pretext of her being the landowner, the truth will come to light.”
“…He’s insane.”
“He was aiming for the perfect crime. Private land, a place no one would ever find.”
As I continued speaking, something suddenly occurred to me, and I turned my body. Then I headed back into the cottage.
“Where are you going?”
Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk asked, but I didn’t answer. I simply walked inside.
Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk and Jang Seok-min followed me.
I headed to the first-floor restroom of the cottage.
I stepped on the toilet seat and tapped the ventilation duct embedded in the ceiling.
Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk tilted his head and asked.
“Why there?”
“How would he dispose of the raincoat stained with blood? He said it was washed away by the rain, but he must have felt uneasy about it, so he wouldn’t have simply thrown it away.”
“Huh?”
“But he couldn’t have burned it either. It rained for an extended period, and this cottage has no fireplace.”
At those words, the ventilation fan was ripped open with a ‘bang!’
I continued speaking.
“A place easy to hide, but difficult to find.”
After putting on gloves, I immediately reached inside.
“Here it is—the raincoats.”
I pulled out two raincoats and dropped them on the floor.
“With this, we can conclude that there are a total of three people involved in the crime. The murderer and two people who disposed of the body.”
DNA from Kim Young-jun’s Wife will be detected on the knife.
During her struggle with her ex-boyfriend, her hands were wounded, and those bloodstains remain, preserving the memory of the past.
And the raincoats are men’s sizes—far too large for Kim Young-jun’s Wife’s frame.
The problem is finding justification to publicize the past incident.
I brushed past Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk and spoke.
“The Victim’s mother just needs to reveal her face to the media.”
A corpse buried for thirty years.
Land owned by the ex-girlfriend.
The Victim’s mother’s tears.
“The world will become chaotic.”
“…!”
“And if Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk is exiled at that time… it will be the end for Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun as well.”
If Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk is exiled, people will curse Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun for obstructing the investigation.
Moreover, during presidential election season, the Ruling Party and the government will certainly not leave Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun alone in their pursuit of victory.
I left those words behind and stepped outside, gazing at the sky.
The rain was falling more fiercely.
Within those dark clouds, I could almost see the original me.
‘I know what you were worried about.’
The original me feared Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun and Kim Young-jun’s Wife.
I was worried about what they might do to my father.
Kim Young-jun and his wife are extreme sociopaths—the kind who would stab their own brother to death for success.
‘But they won’t crumble easily.’
Kim Young-jun will thrash about desperately.
He might even hire someone to commit murder.
‘But… in the end, your destination is clear.’
Prison. Seo Jin intends to drag Kim Young-jun there by the hair and lock him away.
The entire plan was already crystallized in Seo Jin’s mind.

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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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