The Civil Servant Who Concealed Their True Strength Turns Out to be a Master of Possession - Chapter 66

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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 066

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There are moments when instinct transcends reason.
Even without him activating the skill, the ‘Concentration’ skill influences his five senses, draining his mana bit by bit with each passing moment.
Sometimes he felt cursed for possessing such a skill.
Kwon Ik-seong’s awakening came very early in his life.
Sixth grade of elementary school.
Such an early awakening was an irregularity, so he became a subject of special government oversight.
His awakening was kept strictly classified from the public, and his family made every effort to raise him as ordinarily as possible.
‘During PE, always run slower than everyone else, and since I’ve said my heart hurts, I’ll skip soccer time.’
‘But I want to play soccer too….’
When he complained, his father smiled warmly and stroked his hair.
‘After work, let’s play all you want with Dad.’
A tender father.
His mother smiled contentedly watching such a father.
The truth of their picture-perfect harmonious home was exposed all too soon.
‘Hello…?’
That perfume scent came from his father’s secretary.
The strong perfume scent that had wafted from his father’s jacket days ago.
The expensive perfume on the receipt his father had dropped from his wallet even before that.
And most of all, the date printed on it was his mother’s birthday.
‘Dad, did you go to this woman that day? You said you had a hiking meeting that day.’
When he learned of his father’s lie.
When he was the first to see through the betrayal of a teacher he had respected.
When he kept seeing through the hypocrisy of close friends.
‘If it weren’t for you, this would never have happened. Couldn’t you have trusted Dad more? The whole family is suffering because of you!’
And when he witnessed their unrepentant attitudes.
‘Filthy.’
Contempt for humanity boiled within him.
Disgust with the world took root.
No matter how good a person appears, there is ultimately a bottom to them.
Once you see that bottom, you can already predict what that person will truly look like when all the money, ambition, and social respectability that filled them disappears.
That is….
It feels as though he knows that person’s future.
Can one love a world destined for ruin?
I don’t know.
Some would love the world regardless, but at least in my case, it was not so.
Kwon Ik-seong lived surrounded by those who embraced destruction.
Ironically, the way for him to endure that life was to become an ‘investigator.’
Continuing to save a world I know is destined to perish.
Even the kindest-seeming person harbors wickedness within them, and everyone has a bottom they can sink to.
When that reality suffocated him, he still punished the wicked and rescued the victims.
The reason eluded him.
It wasn’t as though he found fulfillment in his work.
Hunter, sir. Thank you for saving me.
Even when he received crudely written letters.
[I survived thanks to you, Investigator Kwon Ik-seong.]
Even when he watched survivor interviews.
His heart remained only silent.
That person too, that child too—what other ‘destruction’ must they contain within themselves?
What filthy, grotesque aspects capable of obliterating themselves and everything around them must lurk inside?
Yet despite thinking this way, only one force propelled him forward.
Simply.
Simply because this was the right thing to do.
Simply because this was correct.
A world where grand good ultimately defeats grand evil doesn’t exist.
He knew that too.
People believed he was practicing justice, but in his own mind, he held no interest in something as grandiose as justice.
He merely wanted to avoid going mad.
He simply refused to descend into that abyss with the thought that since everyone was already mired in filth, it wouldn’t matter if he sank deeper.
‘What your father said, he just said it in anger. Your parents’ separation isn’t your fault. That’s your father’s fault. You’re a good person, Ik-seong. You—’
His mother’s unfinished words surfaced in his memory.
Whether resentment or something else had remained at that ending, he couldn’t know.
He didn’t even care to wonder.
He clung to apprehending criminals as though grasping a desperate lifeline.
What had he wanted to see at the end of that clinging?
What had he wanted to see while looking at the faces of all those criminals?
‘I’m sorry.’
Had he wanted to see a face that spoke those words with genuine sincerity?
Had he wanted to know that there existed humans who knelt before their victims and truly repented?
And thus—
‘You’re someone who can’t trust anyone.’
Had he wanted to deny his father’s words?
But his father’s words were slowly becoming reality, like a prophecy in Greek tragedy.
Realized by his own self, bound by those very words.
He investigated without trusting anyone, and thus reached his current position.
And yet—
‘But you do trust others. You always do.’
He heard those words from an unexpected source.
Round eyes with a somewhat gentle impression that reminded one of a puppy.
Lee Yu-ji, who had even entered the athletes’ village despite her face seeming unsuited for the profession of investigator.
That woman had spoken to him in such a way.
And now that woman was right before his eyes.
“…Investigator Lee Yu-ji.”
“Y-yes… Yes…? Y-yes… Okay…?”
Investigator Lee Yu-ji, who had collapsed suddenly and visited the infirmary, sat before him fidgeting with her fingers while avoiding his gaze.
To anyone, not just someone with exceptional instincts like him, this was clearly the behavior of someone hiding something.
And she seemed to be quite terrible at hiding things, appearing completely malfunctioning.
“I… um…? Um? Um… well… W-why am I wearing a ring…?”
Like a computer with an error, she pointed at her own fingers while asking him, unable to even look at him.
More precisely, she was pointing at the special-issue restraints—handcuffs—fitted around her fingers.
He stared at her flustered face with an impassive expression and answered.
“I thought you might try to escape.”
“It’s not me who would escape, it’s Team Leader Cha Jeon-hyeok….”
“Suspect Cha Jeon-hyeok is being guarded by investigators outside the hospital room. There’s no danger to his life. I wonder who we have to thank for that.”
Her pupils began to tremble violently.
And in that moment, he realized something.
That day when Ruru, who always recognized him from a distance and approached him, had hesitated strangely before him.
In other words, why Ruru, who had been brought into the Heonsu Building on her first day of work and had caught the scent of explosives by chance, had acted so strangely.
The face of Investigator Lee Yu-ji overlapped with the face of that creature, which had whimpered with strange expressions whenever he touched it.
“Ha…”
An uncharacteristic hollow laugh escaped his lips.
He exhaled as if deflating, slightly tousling his own hair as he looked at her.
Her eyes still couldn’t properly see him.
Observing that flustered face, he became curious.
‘What is your ruin?’
He asked in a low voice.
“Could it be… that you’re a Gamer?”
“No!”
She jumped up and waved her hand.
Her face turning bright red.
“Then why did you do such a thing?”
“Oh, that was to catch criminals!”
“…So it is true then. That Investigator Lee Yu-ji possessed me.”
“…!”
Well.
Honestly, he wasn’t sure if he believed her.
But at least this one thing he could certainly believe.
This woman’s ‘ruin’ was truly… transparent.
“…Am I falling for a leading question right now?”
She asked in a dejected voice. Kwon Ik-seong barely suppressed a laugh that threatened to escape and replied.
“It appears that way, ma’am.”

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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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