The Civil Servant Who Concealed Their True Strength Turns Out to be a Master of Possession - Chapter 245

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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 245

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Kwon Ik-seong entered the observation room overlooking the interrogation chamber.
Pee So-won was already there.
She didn’t even turn around as she spoke.
“Why are you here?”
“I heard that Investigator Lee Yu-ji and the suspect went to elementary, middle, and high school together.”
“And?”
Pee So-won turned around.
Her characteristic languid gaze pierced sharply toward Kwon Ik-seong.
Pee So-won wasn’t simply sitting in this room.
That woman.
The woman sitting across from Lee Yu-ji.
‘Lee Seon.’
That name—I’d definitely heard it from a colleague back when I was at the Athletes’ Village.
‘The sharpest stone fits the mold best, after all.’
The unusual name had stuck with me.
When I heard that there was a conflict of interest because Investigator Lee Yu-ji and suspect Lee Seon had attended the same elementary, middle, and high school, it became even more certain.
‘So that’s her.’
Pee So-won alternated her gaze between Lee Yu-ji, whose face bore a subtle bitterness, and the woman across from her, whose face was thoroughly cowed.
She had betrayed Lee Yu-ji.
And yet Lee Yu-ji had loved her enough to want to apologize.
She had tormented Lee Yu-ji for a long time.
Lee Yu-ji’s former partner.
Pee So-won regarded that woman with complex emotions as she asked Kwon Ik-seong a question.
“Are you worried Lee Yu-ji might just let that woman off? And that I’d go along with it?”
She knew he wasn’t that kind of person, but the words just came out that way.
Besides, she was genuinely curious herself.
Whether Lee Yu-ji would crumble before that woman, or not.
Originally, as vice director, she could have reassigned the suspect’s interrogation.
But she hadn’t.
Even she couldn’t explain precisely why.
Would Lee Yu-ji really apologize to that woman?
Or—
Who knows.
She had no idea what would happen.
She couldn’t predict Lee Yu-ji’s choice.
That’s simply why she was here.
To oversee Lee Yu-ji’s interrogation of Lee Seon as vice director.
That was when Kwon Ik-seong answered.
“I came to take over if Lee Yu-ji is in a psychologically difficult situation.”
“He’s always worried about Lee Yu-ji, day and night.”
Pee So-won spoke with a sarcastic tone.
One might think Pee So-won always spoke that way, but this time was different.
And Kwon Ik-seong immediately noticed that difference.
The fact that she was being so sharp over just an interrogation observation meant there was something more important at stake in this interrogation.
“Detective Ma’s interrogation of Priest Im has apparently begun yielding testimony. He revealed the existence of a messenger group where they allocated sales of the Water of Salvation and exchanged techniques for gaslighting buyers.”
In other words, everyone who entered that group and received orders could be classified not as victims but as perpetrators.
Whether that woman was in that group remained unknown.
But it would be revealed soon enough.
“Then we’ll move straight to forensics.”
“The Investigation Support Division will handle it.”
Unlike fifty years ago, the forensics used by the Special Investigations Bureau now didn’t take days.
Not even a day. At most, an hour was enough to reconstruct all the records on a phone.
This was the power of that “magnificent” dungeon.
And when such decisive evidence emerged, ordinary investigators typically made one of two choices.
One was to conduct an interrogation that shook the suspect using the decisive evidence,
or the other was to hide the decisive evidence, listen to the suspect’s false statements, and then reveal the evidence to catch where the suspect’s testimony changed.
Since Lee Seon was already shaken considerably, the first approach would be better.
To completely shake Lee Seon’s already crumbling psyche and make her confess the mastermind.
But I didn’t know which choice Lee Yu-ji would make.
She might not want to break Lee Seon down that far.
Either way, it was a decision for Lee Yu-ji to make inside there.
“…You’ll contact me when the forensics come back, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll see you then.”
To see what choice Lee Yu-ji would make.
It was when Pee So-won said that.
[Did you really believe the Water of Salvation caused awakening and sell it? Or did you want to deceive the buyers and yourself?]
Lee Yu-ji’s firm voice came from beyond the two-way mirror.
At those words, Pee So-won’s body leaned forward.
She wanted to see Lee Yu-ji’s face more clearly as she spoke those words.
But there was no wavering in Lee Yu-ji’s face.
[Deceive? What do you mean?]
Lee Seon’s voice trembled.
She was gazing desperately at Lee Yu-ji’s face.
[Do I look like that kind of person? Truly?]
Lee Yu-ji quietly observed Lee Seon at those words.
[So you’re saying I’m not?]
[No, I just wanted my cousins to be saved.]
[What do you mean by being saved? What do you think the mechanism of the Water of Salvation is….]
[You were saved!]
Lee Seon slammed the desk as if in excitement.
At those words, Kwon Ik-seong and Pee So-won stiffened.
[You…. You…. were saved…. I wasn’t. After that incident, I kept struggling, kept struggling. I couldn’t get it out of my head. Isn’t that natural?]
[‘What incident are you talking about.’]
Agitation flickered across Lee Yu-ji’s face as she asked.
[That’s obviously the incident I… I… reported directly.]
A report.
At those words, Pee So-won squeezed her eyes shut.
I’d suspected it, but the anonymous informant turned out to be the victim herself, not the promising prospect Kim Ha-jin.
In cases of sexual assault, prosecution becomes difficult if the victim denies it, and since the subject Lee Yu-ji had tried to help regarding the assault on Kim Ha-jin was the one who filed the report—
‘Lee Yu-ji’s words would have fallen on deaf ears.’
It made sense why the matter didn’t escalate further and never made it to the news.
‘Kim Ha-jin and those Association bastards are trash, but—’
In the end, she herself had struck her friend the hardest blow from behind.
Pee So-won clenched her teeth while looking at Lee Seon.
And yet she had so much to say.
[After that incident… do you think I lived with a sound mind? I couldn’t do taekwondo anymore. I couldn’t. We always did it together. We were together at the dojo, we sparred together. But me going back to the dojo alone? I couldn’t do it. I tried going to the provinces to work, but I quit after a week. When I see elementary school kids who are ten or eleven years old—]
[You’d remember us.]
Lee Yu-ji spoke calmly.
As Lee Yu-ji lowered her head, her firm neckline became visible beneath her high-tied hair.
The sight of it bending struck Pee So-won’s eyes painfully.
‘Should I stop here.’
It was when Pee So-won thought that.
Lee Seon’s excuses continued without pause.
[Then my uncle’s business went bankrupt, and my cousins all fell into hardship. One dropped out of high school and one got seriously ill. And then I happened to learn about you. That you’d awakened. That you’d quit the Athletes’ Village. At first….]
It was when Pee So-won couldn’t hold back any longer and stood up.
Kwon Ik-seong gently gripped Pee So-won’s shoulder.
“Let’s watch a bit longer.”
The gazes of Pee So-won and Kwon Ik-seong crossed.
[At first, my heart ached thinking you quit taekwondo because of me, but when I heard you’d awakened, I felt envious. When I think about it, you were always ahead of me. In taekwondo, in character, in everything. I actually lied to you many times saying I was going home and practiced separately. I trained every day without taking vacation even on holidays, but….]
Lee Seon looked at Lee Yu-ji with resentful eyes.
[I was inferior to you. Do you know what that feels like? Did I have anywhere else to lean on besides awakening? I needed emotional support too. I had to earn money. I became psychologically stable after consuming the Water of Salvation. So I thought my cousins could experience that too. You don’t understand this feeling.]
“Damn it.”
A curse slipped from Pee So-won’s lips.
“That’s gaslighting if anything is gaslighting.”
Pee So-won said that and knocked away Kwon Ik-seong’s hand.
It was when she tried to spring forward.
[I don’t know.]
Lee Yu-ji answered.
[But I don’t want to know.]
Lee Yu-ji’s head, which had been bowed, straightened up sharply.
Lee Yu-ji spoke while leaning against the backrest.
[If what you just said is true—]
Lee Yu-ji’s eyes gleamed with something entirely different from what Pee So-won had anticipated.
[You knew that the Water of Salvation had no effects beyond psychological stabilization, and yet you deceived people into thinking it did have other effects and sold it. And that’s what you call fraud, or deception.]

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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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