Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 246

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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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Trial (2)
“We will now commence the trial.”
The judge’s words filled the courtroom with tension. The spectators in the gallery took their seats, and among them stood only Kim Young-jun, motionless.
The judge’s gaze turned toward Kim Young-jun.
“Defendant, please state your date of birth.”
Rather than answer, Kim Young-jun swept his eyes across the gallery. Lee So-hee and reporter Lee Eun-ha sat there, and in the distance, I could see my older brother Kim Jun-man.
Kim Jun-man, meeting my gaze, lowered his head with a troubled expression and clasped his hands together as if in prayer.
But my eyes observing Kim Jun-man were dry and hollow. I regarded him as one might regard a mere object.
Then my gaze shifted. I was searching for another person who should have been present in this courtroom. That person was Seo Jin. But Seo Jin was not here.
‘Where?’
I recalled the words Seo Jin had spoken.
“Wait and see. I’ll show you that there’s a basement beneath the ground. And beneath that, there’s hell itself.”
A man who would spout such words would never miss witnessing my final moments. Yet Seo Jin was nowhere to be seen, and I narrowed my eyes.
Then the judge’s voice rang out again.
“Defendant? Please state your date of birth.”
My gaze shifted toward the judge.
*
*
*
At that moment, in the Court Parking Lot.
Chief Prosecutor Jo Woo-jae stood before it with an anxious expression, repeatedly twisting his wrist to check the time and licking his dry lips.
Shortly after, Seo Jin’s vehicle pulled in and stopped before him. Seo Jin stepped out from the driver’s seat and asked directly.
“Has it started?”
“Yeah, they should be questioning the defendant by now.”
Chief Prosecutor Jo Woo-jae answered and glanced at the back seat. Park Jung-gil sat there, bound in handcuffs, his body trembling as if he had witnessed a demon itself.
Chief Prosecutor Jo Woo-jae, observing Park Jung-gil intently, asked.
“Where did you pick him up?”
“Ansan.”
Through psychometry, I had already secured Park Jung-gil’s escape route. But I had been waiting until the trial began.
“If you knew where he was, you should have arrested him long ago. Why did you let people drift apart and only now capture him?”
“If Kim Young-jun’s side heard news of the arrest, they would have prepared counterarguments.”
Of course, even if Kim Young-jun attempted rebuttal, I was confident I could dig deeper. But I had calculated the perfect timing, planning to ensure that the monster named Kim Young-jun would never rise again.
I pulled the keys from my pocket and handed them to Chief Prosecutor Jo Woo-jae as I spoke.
“I’m counting on you.”
“Huh? Yeah. Go on.”
Chief Prosecutor Jo Woo-jae would transport Park Jung-gil to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. And in the meantime, I intended to send the monster known as Kim Young-jun to hell.
Chief Prosecutor Jo Woo-jae quietly watched my figure as I headed toward the courthouse building.
*
*
*
The courtroom where the trial was taking place was deathly silent. Through that solemn space, the voices of Kim Young-jun and Lee Du-jin’s lawyer echoed relentlessly.
“Defendant! Answer only the questions posed to you.”
“Everything is fabricated—what questions exactly am I supposed to answer?”
Kim Young-jun shook his head with an expression of utter disbelief. Then Lee Du-jin’s lawyer slammed both palms against the table with a resounding crack, glaring at Kim Young-jun.
“Defendant!”
“Please… stop forcing false narratives and bring the truth. Special Prosecutor, I hear you spent tens of billions in investigation funds. What exactly did you accomplish? Can you disclose how those funds were used?”
“Just answer the questions!”
“So you can’t disclose it?”
At Kim Young-jun’s scornful tone, murmurs rippled through the courtroom.
“Tens of billions in investigation funds?”
“Where did all that money go?”
“Damn it, they’re all the same corrupt bastards.”
Kim Young-jun burst into laughter as if he’d been waiting for this moment. Then, with an almost leisurely demeanor, he gazed at Lee Du-jin’s lawyer and spoke.
“I did not overlook my son’s wrongdoings. I had my own wife arrested. I even conducted a search and seizure on my father-in-law.”
“…!”
“Despite wielding the power of Prosecutor General, I did not turn a blind eye to my family’s crimes. Rather, I scrutinized them even more ruthlessly. Are you truly suggesting that I, of all people, embezzled my brother’s assets and attempted murder? I have lived my entire life without a shred of shame.”
“…!”
“And now a Special Prosecutor who cannot even disclose his own operational records presumes to judge me? If that’s the case, stop this farce of a trial and just hand down the death sentence according to your predetermined script.”
Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk, listening to those words, furrowed his brow.
“To the very end….”
Kim Young-jun refuses to acknowledge his guilt. Though Lee Du-jin’s lawyer pressed relentlessly, he wielded only two words—”fabrication” and “conspiracy”—while now painting the Special Prosecution Team as a corrupt organization, muddying the waters.
Prosecutor Jang Ji-hyuk found Kim Young-jun’s shameless face utterly repugnant.
But then it happened. Kim Young-jun slowly rose to his feet. His sudden movement caused the murmurs in the courtroom to swell louder.
“Defendant! Sit down!”
The judge ordered, but Kim Young-jun ignored the command and turned toward the gallery. With eyes brimming with sincerity, he gazed at the spectators and the cameras recording him, then opened his mouth.
“I say to you: I am not here because I am guilty. I am imprisoned here because I dared to fight against power itself.”
“…!”
“I have tirelessly exposed the endless corruption and the true faces of those in power, striving for a clean South Korea.”
“…!”
“And I apologize to the people. I have failed to complete my mission. In the end, I have knelt before the overwhelming force of great power, and now I must face imprisonment according to the script written by the Special Prosecution and the ruling government.”
The judge struck the bench repeatedly with sharp cracks, shouting.
“Defendant! Sit down at once! Court officers, what are you doing!”
The courtroom descended into chaos. Yet amid that pandemonium, Kim Young-jun alone remained composed. He raised one hand as if taking an oath, then spoke with measured calm.
“When I took the oath to become a prosecutor, I swore: I now answer the call of my nation and people, stepping into the honored position of a prosecutor of South Korea.”
Now he was inciting the public. Positioning himself as a victim of power, a martyr to conspiracy. He sought to leverage public opinion against the court.
Because of the actions of those in power over the years, the people had lost faith in politics.
They would undoubtedly view Kim Young-jun—the man who had even arrested his own family—as a martyr.
“I am a courageous prosecutor who dispels the darkness of injustice!”
At that moment, the courtroom door burst open with a violent crash. Through the silence came the sound of deliberate footsteps. It was Seo Jin.
Kim Young-jun, mid-oath, fell silent. His eyes narrowed. Yet he showed no sign of alarm. He must press forward now. He must make the world know he was innocent. Then he would win. Kim Young-jun was certain of it.
‘The maximum sentence I’ll receive in this trial is five years imprisonment.’
Perhaps I could even aim for a suspended sentence or acquittal. Besides, even if I serve time, it doesn’t matter. Afterward, I’ll be remembered as someone who stood against a man of power, and I can make my comeback.
‘I won’t die.’
Kim Young-jun watched Seo Jin approaching him and drew a quiet smile.
‘The game isn’t over yet.’
Kim Young-jun continued with the prosecutor’s oath.
“A fair prosecutor who follows only the truth!”
A court bailiff blocked Seo Jin’s path. Even in that moment, Kim Young-jun’s voice continued—his final attempt to sway the public with his version of the truth.
“More rigorous with myself….”
Meanwhile, Seo Jin slowly bowed toward the judge and opened his mouth.
“I am Seo Jin, prosecutor from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. I have just discovered evidence of the defendant Kim Young-jun’s murder-for-hire. To expose the truth of the defendant who manipulates the public and shows no remorse for his crimes, I have stepped forward without regard for proper trial procedure.”
“…!”
Kim Young-jun’s mouth fell silent. His eyes wide, he studied Seo Jin. Then he stammered out a question.
“…What?”
“The defendant Kim Young-jun attempted to kill me, his nephew, to hide his crimes.”
“What are you talking about?”
Seo Jin pulled out his phone from his pocket and displayed it.
“There is a man named Park Jung-gil.”
Kim Young-jun’s expression faltered. He realized that Park Jung-gil had been captured and that his own voice was recorded on that phone.
“Ah….”
Kim Young-jun’s hoarse voice filled the courtroom. Seo Jin’s voice continued relentlessly.
“The defendant murdered his parents and received one hundred million won as payment forty years ago.”
“…!”
“When I uncovered this fact, he sent a hired killer to silence me. The voice recording his orders is on this phone.”
Kim Young-jun’s defense attorney shot to his feet.
“Objection! The statute of limitations has already expired for crimes committed forty years ago! Furthermore, presenting evidence without prior consent violates the Special Prosecution Team’s…!”
Seo Jin’s gaze slowly turned toward the attorney. As the attorney flinched at Seo Jin’s cold, lethal eyes, Seo Jin’s lips moved.
“Then listen directly and decide whether to admit it as evidence.”
“…?”
Before anyone could stop him, Seo Jin pressed play on the phone. It was a violation of trial procedure. But when it came to Kim Young-jun, Seo Jin couldn’t trust anything—not the journalists here, not even the judge, not anyone.
Seo Jin believed that to drive the knife into Kim Young-jun’s heart, exposing the truth to the world came first. And the voices of Kim Young-jun and Park Jung-gil flowed from the phone.
-Your job is simple. Bring Seo Jin to the apartment rooftop.
-S-so I should kill him?
-What strength does an old man have? I’ll call some guys, so don’t worry about that.
Before the phone recording even finished, that instant came in a flash. Kim Young-jun burst from the defendant’s seat and charged toward Seo Jin.
“Turn it off right now! It’s all lies! Fabricated! Aaaahhhhh!”
Kim Young-jun rushed forward with bloodshot eyes. He tried to leap over the barrier past the bailiff. But with his hands bound, he couldn’t clear the fence.
Crash! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Kim Young-jun caught on the barrier and tumbled down with a loud clatter.
“Damn it!”
Kim Young-jun lifted his head, his face twisted with urgency as he glared up at Seo Jin. He thrashed about, trying to push himself up, his eyes burning with lethal intent as he fixed them on Seo Jin.
“You bastard….”
Seo Jin looked down at Kim Young-jun sprawled before him with cold, impassive eyes.
Kim Young-jun had always gazed upon the world with that lofty, superior air—convinced he stood above the law itself, regarding all others as beneath contempt. But that illusion had shattered. Now there was only a criminal writhing in desperation, pathetic and diminished, prostrate on the ground.
Seo Jin slowly knelt down, bringing his eyes level with Kim Young-jun’s. A faint smile played across his lips as he leaned close to the man’s ear and whispered.
“So… you’re sentenced to death.”

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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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