The Civil Servant Who Concealed Their True Strength Turns Out to be a Master of Possession - 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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A Civil Servant Who Hides His Strength Is Exceptionally Good at Possession – Episode 246
I hadn’t set a trap.
I simply listened to what Seon-i said, and I didn’t waver from it.
So now her words reached me plainly, without stirring any emotional turbulence.
As they were.
So all of those words were—
‘Just excuses.’
‘I actually lied to you about going home and trained separately many times. I exercised every day without taking vacation even during holidays, yet I still couldn’t match you.’
Couldn’t match me.
Seon-i’s skills being inferior to mine was only a brief period after entering the Athletes’ Village.
Seon-i had experienced a slump, and I knew she would recover soon.
I had simply told her I wished she would rest for a while, to go home during holidays and eat delicious food—
‘It was all a lie.’
Unless you’re the world’s number one athlete, even the world’s number one has someone they admire.
There’s a player you look up to, and another you feel jealous of.
For me, all of those players were Seon-i.
Seon-i was both my object of admiration and my object of jealousy.
I had watched her match videos countless times, trying hard to master her techniques.
But that didn’t mean I ever resented her.
Yet you—
‘You were hiding that look in your eyes from me.’
Looking at Seon-i’s face glaring at me, I realized something.
That sharp, blue inferiority complex she had hidden away from me—I alone had failed to see it.
‘Did you think I had somewhere else to lean on besides awakening? I needed emotional support too. I had to earn money.’
Nowhere to lean on?
I always wanted to be your place to lean on.
If you had asked me right then to leave the Athletes’ Village together and open a dojo in the countryside, I would have done it gladly.
You left the Athletes’ Village, and I remained there.
Because I wanted to change this situation somehow.
Because I had to protect even your small honor.
Every time I went to train, not only the senior athletes but others in the department would stare at me.
Eyes that didn’t approach me but subtly looked down on me.
I too….
‘I also needed somewhere to lean on back then.’
I thought taekwondo was my entire life.
I didn’t know how to do anything else.
From elementary school, I never played—I only did that.
And yet, awakening finally came to me.
What was an opportunity and joy to others was despair to me.
After becoming an F-rank awakener, I was forced to end my athletic career.
What remained for me was a suffocating loneliness, as if I were abandoned in a darkened room, and an endless sense of self-reproach.
What would have happened if I hadn’t beaten Kim Ha-jin down that day?
Would things have been better if I had simply dragged you out of there?
Should I have pretended not to know you, just as you said?
Should we have simply run away together?
Or at least should I have let the assault pass without saying anything afterward?
Should I have prevented the referral to the Ethics Committee?
Or—
‘Should I have never existed at all?’
That was where the chain of self-recriminating thoughts led.
My very existence was the problem for you.
If I hadn’t been there, you would have had a proper athletic career, overcome your psychological struggles, and eventually won medals in Asia as a national representative—
‘It’s because of me.’
In that tangled situation, I could think of nothing else.
That it had come to this because I rashly stepped forward like some apostle of justice.
That my parents never came back because of such recklessness.
But when I joined the Hunter Investigation Unit, my heart changed.
After realizing I had possessed this world, after learning of the existence of people striving to make this place better, I gradually became different.
‘They would be proud.’
I remembered that I had been my parents’ pride.
‘Investigator Lee Yu-ji is someone who always saves others.’
I awakened to the courage within me.
So I—
‘This time, I have to betray you too.’
“You knew that the Water of Salvation had no effects beyond psychological stabilization, yet you deceived people into thinking it had other effects and sold it. And that’s what we call fraud or deception.”
As I responded to Seon-i’s words, which were virtually a confession, her face hardened.
“What?”
“I just said it.”
I calmly read through the testimony automatically recorded in the notebook.
“‘I needed something to lean on emotionally. I had to earn money. I became psychologically stable after drinking the Water of Salvation myself. So I thought my cousins could experience the same thing.'”
“…!”
“That means you only considered the Water of Salvation’s effects to be psychological stabilization. You didn’t expect awakening. And the fact that you sold the Water of Salvation wasn’t for religious reasons—it was for money.”
“You… why are you doing this to me?”
Seon-i looked at me with a desperate expression.
I answered with an expressionless face.
“Because I’m a civil servant.”
“What?”
“Because I eat the nation’s bread as a civil servant. I have to do what helps the country. And….”
I finally spoke the words I had wanted to say to Seon-i for so long.
“I’m sorry.”
I gazed quietly at Seon-i.
“I’m so sorry. Back then… I should have tried harder to convince you. Instead of getting worked up and acting recklessly on my own, I should have told you that what was happening to you was wrong. That we should fight together. Of course, you might have refused anyway, but…”
I clenched my teeth.
“At the very least, you should have been the one to get the chance to land that side kick on Kim Ha-jin, not me. That was your signature technique.”
At those words, Seon-i’s eyes wavered slightly.
Was it just my imagination that I glimpsed the warmth of the friend she had been so long ago within that wavering?
Seon-i lowered her head.
Then, as if to deny what I had seen, she lifted her gaze and looked at me with cold eyes.
“Call my lawyer.”
“…”
“I’ll talk about it once my lawyer arrives.”
Seeing that, I let out a hollow laugh.
And I nodded.
“Very well. But let me tell you something in advance.”
“What…”
I spoke while looking at Kwon Ik-seong’s message displayed on my laptop screen.
“The forensic examination results from Priest Im’s phone came back, and we found a room belonging to a middleman distributor of the Water of Salvation in the messenger app. From there, we discovered that Lee Seon herself sent this message directly: ‘If the Water of Salvation actually caused awakening…'”
If the Water of Salvation really caused awakening, wouldn’t all of South Korea be buying and drinking it? lol Does everyone think salvation is handed out to just anyone? lol There really seem to be a lot of stupid people.
It was decisive evidence supporting the fraud committed by suspect Lee Seon.
If Lee Seon had truly believed the Water of Salvation was effective and sold it, she could be considered a victim. But this was unmistakably a case of deliberately lying about a completely worthless substance being the Water of Salvation and selling it.
Before such clear evidence, Seon-i’s face went pale.
“Even with a lawyer present, things won’t change much. Ms. Lee Seon. Confessing would be the faster path, so talk it over with your lawyer. Among the recovered messenger contents, there’s a message telling you to hold on until we get you a lawyer—”
Looking at Seon-i’s face, I felt the deep confusion that had lingered within me for so long finally beginning to settle.
Now truly, you and I…
“Priest Im has already confessed for some reason. The sentence reduction will depend on who confesses first.”
…It’s really over. Seon-a.
Goodbye.
My old friend.

* * *
After I heard Lee Seon’s confession in the interrogation room and returned to my desk, Pee So-won and Kwon Ik-seong were sitting there.
“You’re back.”
Our deputy director sat at his desk wearing sunglasses indoors.
“What… are you doing?”
“What do you mean.”
“Nothing, sir.”
Fine. Do whatever you want.
He’s even become deputy director—he should be thrilled.
Isn’t this practically an expedited promotion?
“Is there anything you’d like to eat?”
That’s when it happened.
The deputy director made an unexpected offer.
But I couldn’t fall into a trap.
In the end, our deputy director—my partner—always ended up eating whatever he wanted.
“What about today? Sundae soup and rice? Spicy stir-fried pork? Jjajangmyeon is honestly too tiresome at this point.”
I’ve been so busy lately that I’ve been ordering jjajangmyeon three times a day!
“…Beef. Korean fine dining. Or sushi. Pick one.”
“…?”
I widened my eyes at those words and glanced around.
“Did I… do something wrong again, sir?”
At that, Pee So-won sighed, lowered her sunglasses slightly, and looked up at me.
Strangely, her eyes—
“Just eat what I told you to eat, Lee.”
…seemed quite glistening.

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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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