The Civil Servant Who Concealed Their True Strength Turns Out to be a Master of Possession - Chapter 146

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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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A Civil Servant Who Hides His Strength Is Exceptionally Good at Possession – Episode 146

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The conference room stood empty, all the team members having filed out.
Watching Kwon Ik-seong’s defeat in their direct confrontation, Pee So-won smiled with unmistakable satisfaction.
Just moments ago, Lee Yu-ji had spoken with that characteristic vacant expression of hers.
“I’m afraid I already have a partner. I’ll make sure to deliver any personal effects!”
Partner.
The instant those words reached her ears, an irrepressible smile bloomed across Pee So-won’s face.
It was an expression rarely seen from someone of her usual temperament.
And across Kwon Ik-seong’s face flickered the faintest shadow of disappointment.
Catching it immediately, Pee So-won spoke.
“See? I told you not to butter up our partner, didn’t I?”
“I wasn’t buttering anyone up.”
“Then what was that?”
“I hoped Investigator Lee Yu-ji would face this matter head-on.”
Kwon Ik-seong looked up at Pee So-won, who sat perched on the edge of the desk.
Her brow furrowed at his words.
“Why.”
Pee So-won’s grip tightened on the file folder she held.
And once again, the folder snapped in half.
“Why should she face it? Lee Yu-ji has confronted her own work her entire life. Why must she face it again?”
Watching the tendons stand out along Pee So-won’s jaw, Kwon Ik-seong rose from his seat.
Kwon Ik-seong understood.
He understood both Pee So-won’s trauma and her concern for Lee Yu-ji.
That’s why he had hoped Lee Yu-ji would accompany him on the field assignment.
So she could escape from that footage.
So she could be given the chance to breathe, to turn away from the deaths of her father and mother.
That held its own meaning, but—
Kwon Ik-seong’s thinking differed.
“Why do you think Investigator Lee Yu-ji became an investigator?”
At his words, Pee So-won tilted her head.
Something struck a nerve.
“Don’t tell me you’re saying Investigator Lee Yu-ji became an investigator because she harbored doubts about her parents’ deaths?”
“I believe that’s possible.”
Kwon Ik-seong hesitated for a moment before correcting himself.
“No, I’d say it’s highly probable.”
Kwon Ik-seong knew Lee Yu-ji’s abilities.
Not F-rank, but A-rank. Perhaps even S-rank was within reach.
Considering how Lee Yu-ji had accessed countless pieces of information and resolved cases thus far, it seemed all the more certain.
In fact, last time she even claimed she could steal others’ abilities.
So why would Lee Yu-ji go to such lengths to hide her power and become an investigator?
Kwon Ik-seong believed there was only one answer.
Every ‘intention’ in this world leaves a trace.
If that trace came from criminal intent, it becomes evidence.
If that trace came from affection, it becomes love.
Kwon Ik-seong possessed the ability to trace back those marks and discern the other person’s true intentions.
And this time too, that ability was speaking to him.
Lee Yu-ji’s intentions.
“Then… obtaining this footage wasn’t a coincidence either?”
Pee So-won’s eyes narrowed as she watched the video.
Lee Yu-ji’s drunken words echoed in her ears.
‘Like you, Team Leader. I’m… afraid I’ll die. Afraid it’ll happen again.’
‘Afraid I’ll die.’
The meaning behind those words was unmistakable.
So all this time, Lee Yu-ji’s desperate struggle wasn’t about ‘not dying’—
“It was about living.”
To at least try to live.
To live instead of being consumed by this suffocating rage.
“To try living.”
Pee So-won clenched her fists tightly.
Just moments ago, Pee So-won had noticed Lee Yu-ji stealing glances at Detective Lee Do-young in the footage.
But Pee So-won wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Everyone in that conference room likely caught it.
That’s why Kwon Ik-seong had taken the laptop from Lee Yu-ji to cover it up.
Of course, Lee Yu-ji had only been dazed for a moment before quickly recovering.
Moments like that made me wonder if her usual scatterbrained demeanor was all an act.
But if that really was an act.
If the real Lee Yu-ji wasn’t scatterbrained at all, wasn’t carefree at all, but was constantly battling a tsunami of rage.
And if she’d been fighting every single day against the same great evil that consumed her parents.
“Then I have to save her.”
The file folder crumbled to dust in Pee So-won’s hands, scattering across the floor.
“Just like Lee Yu-ji saved the people of Jeong-an City. I have to do the same.”
“Your enthusiasm is admirable, but we have matters of our own to discuss, don’t we?”
“What matters?”
Pee So-won frowned.
“About Cha Jeon-hyeok. You deliberately avoided mentioning him in the meeting, didn’t you? I heard you obtained testimony from Choi Se-a that Cha Jeon-hyeok purchased the same item.”
The moment Cha Jeon-hyeok’s name came up, Pee So-won’s eyes rolled.
“Where did you hear that from?”
“As always.”
Ugh… Lee Yu-ji.
Our partner who can’t tell a lie.
Pee So-won barely suppressed the urge to flick her partner on the forehead.
“That bastard Cha Jeon-hyeok, Captain Hong… no, Director Hong said he’d investigate separately. Why didn’t you mention it?”
In other words, she meant she hadn’t told him they’d use ‘illegal methods’ to investigate.
And it also meant she hadn’t mentioned they’d do it within Team 5 alone.
Depending on how you looked at it, it could sound like she didn’t want to share the credit within the department, and Pee So-won had no excuse for that.
But she had her own reasons.
‘If that bastard finds out, we can’t properly interrogate Cha Jeon-hyeok.’
We were planning to conduct a separate interview and interrogation in the interview room, but the moment we pushed even slightly harder, Kwon Ik-seong would object.
Despite Pee So-won’s concerns, Kwon Ik-seong picked up scattered documents from between the fragmented file folders and spoke.
“Let’s go together.”
At Kwon Ik-seong’s expression, which showed no discord whatsoever, Pee So-won furrowed her brow as if perplexed.
“We can handle this ourselves! We’re the ones who got permission from Director Hong.”
“I’m aware that the permission didn’t come from Director Hong, but from the higher-ups.”
Cha Jeon-hyeok, whose charges hadn’t been finalized yet, was in the prison.
Visiting a suspect in custody was an extremely difficult matter.
It required the suspect’s consent first.
‘But there’s no way Cha Jeon-hyeok, who has so many things to hide, would agree.’
However, there was a method that didn’t require such consent.
A national emergency mobilization order.
A type of presidential authority—all hunters in South Korea had the obligation to be summoned to wherever necessary during a national emergency situation.
“So that’s how suspect visitation became possible.”
He saw through that?
Kwon Ik-seong was truly an irritating bastard.
Thus, Pee So-won sighed and cautioned Kwon Ik-seong.
“Fine, you bastard. This is an incredibly hard-won opportunity, so don’t blow any human rights nonsense from the sidelines.”
At Pee So-won’s words, Kwon Ik-seong looked up at her with a subtle expression.
“I see. It seems deductive reasoning has always been more helpful in solving cases than physical force.”
With those words, Kwon Ik-seong left the conference room first.
With the lingering echo of Kwon Ik-seong’s final remark, Pee So-won’s face contorted.
“Wait… did he just mock me?”
Team 5 always ranked last in performance?
Ugh.
A hollow laugh escaped Pee So-won’s lips.
That bastard started acting weird ever since he said he liked Lee Yu-ji!

* * *
Four days of squeezing every last bit of information out of the Russia-Korea item smuggling network.
During that time, I entered Team 5 and for the first time—
“This bastard is the Russian kingpin.”
“Is that all the merchandise?”
“No. There’s this too.”
Byeon Gu-do smoothly pulled out a rectangular LP from inside his jacket.
A man in a leather jacket who saw it let out a sigh.
“No… How did you even…!”
“I saw everything you were hiding, you bastard.”
“How exactly did you see…?”
“There are ways to see everything. Now shut it.”
Byeon Gu-do grabbed the man by the nape of his neck and tied him to a pillar.
I could guess how Byeon Gu-do had found it.
‘He has the Stalker skill.’
And soon after, Ma Deok-ho brought over a trunk and opened it.
“There’s this too. He had hidden it in another car.”
Nestled in Ma Deok-ho’s arms as he spoke was a calico cat.
I could guess how he’d discovered that as well.
‘…The cat told him.’
“Unbelievable… What kind of hotel is this whole place a smuggling operation? Huh?”
Pee So-won sat in a hotel suite room in Incheon, touching the boxes of merchandise filling the room, and spoke to the hotel owner, all the staff, and the guests.
“We’re confiscating these items. Anyone have a problem with that?”
“…”
Naturally, no one answered.
After all, Pee So-won was holding a rifle in her hand.
She had already blown off one finger of a guy who’d rushed at her with a knife.
“Heh heh…”
I watched my Team 5 colleagues and thought.
You never showed me this side of yourselves before?
If you were like this, why on earth have you been dead last in performance all this time?
For the first time, Team 5 actually looks competent, but the timing is irritating!
What kind of civil servants hide their strength? Huh?
That’s when it happened.
“Huh? Lee Yu-ji?”
Byeon Gu-do pointed at me.
And in that moment, I spun around and delivered a back kick.
For some reason, the guy whose handcuffs had come loose took my kick directly and passed out.
I grabbed him and said.
“Ugh! That’s exactly why you shouldn’t try to escape!”
Pee So-won shook her head at me, her expression one of exasperation.
“Seriously, are you just dense, or are you being deliberately cunning? Pick one.”
What was she talking about?

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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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