The Civil Servant Who Concealed Their True Strength Turns Out to be a Master of Possession - Chapter 88

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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 088
Park Won-sik, the Team Leader who had been summoned, wore an outfit I’d seen countless times before.
A somewhat loose short-sleeved shirt, a jacket that looked like it had been purchased ages ago, and the familiar beige trousers.
…Did he shop at the same place as our Team Leader?
As I entertained that thought, I felt the PTSD from my past life creeping in, but I quickly shook it off.
“Park Won-sik, Administrator?”
At my question, Team Leader Park answered with a flustered expression.
“Ah, my rank is Team Leader.”
As he said this, beads of sweat formed on the bridge of his nose, yet he made no move to wipe them away—his fingers just kept fidgeting restlessly.
“Ah… I see.”
In truth, I hadn’t known and wasn’t asking out of genuine curiosity.
It was more like… how should I put it.
I watched the anxious Team Leader Park and contemplated.
‘The concept of creating an uncanny valley effect with a special civil servant I’ve never encountered below the Administrator rank.’
There was also the harmless-seeming attack that came from the implication that by his fifties, one should have been promoted to Administrator or at least to a Municipal Office Director.
Ahahaha.
Why did it make me so happy just to see a Team Leader flustered?
Even though the Team Leader who tormented me in my past life and the one standing before me now were clearly different people, an irrepressible joy washed over me.
And besides.
He did sign false documents in the first place, didn’t he?
To me, an investigator, this man was nothing but a criminal.
What I learned painfully during my career as a civil servant was that many of them would simply sign off on documents—even ones that could kill innocent people—without a second thought, just because orders came down from above.
“In any case, Park Won-sik.”
“Ah, yes.”
I deliberately omitted any honorific when addressing him.
Why would a suspect need an honorific anyway?
I’m not a Municipal Office Administrator!
Ahahaha!
Just by calling his name alone, Team Leader Park Won-sik began to sweat profusely.
Then he pulled a tissue from the box in front of me and wiped his sweat, but in doing so, tissue fragments stuck to his face, creating white specks scattered across it—which looked somewhat pitiful….
…wasn’t it.
That’s just the nature of low-ranking civil servants.
They fear nothing more than being investigated by the Higher-ups when something goes wrong.
“You’ve seen this document before, haven’t you?”
I slid the document bearing Park Won-sik’s signature across to him.
It was an official document stating that items had been distributed from Incheon City Hall, and how those items were used and then disposed of—something along those lines.
“Ah…. Um…. That…. It seems like I might have seen it…”
A typical deflection tactic.
Civil servants have a habit of malfunctioning when it comes to work outside their designated duties.
They have to pretend to malfunction so their workload doesn’t increase, and by the time they reach their fifties after feigning malfunction since their first year, they actually start to genuinely malfunction.
Just following orders—like a robot that can’t think creatively beyond the input it’s given.
“See this signature here? This is Park Won-sik’s signature.”
At my words, Park Won-sik’s robotic expression shifted into something else entirely.
“Ah, yes. Yes. I did sign this. Yes. This is… well… that is…”
The look of someone desperate to explain but unable to find the right words.
Of course.
Go Cheol-won had indeed pulled strings, but only within his jurisdiction at City Hall.
He’d likely shared drinks and bribes with the higher-ups at City Hall, smoothing things over with them beforehand.
And those officials, unwilling to cross their superior—the mayor, a high-ranking civil servant with a mere four-year term—and motivated by the considerable benefits they’d gain from it, had begun moving to handle the problem assigned to them.
Creating documents, pressuring subordinates to fetch files at specific times.
In the process of forcing the numbers to match, this Civil Affairs Office had been dragged in.
Team Leader Park Won-sik, as always, had simply signed, assuming he just needed to follow whatever came down from above.
And so he’d become an accomplice.
To illegal item trafficking, no less.
“For reference, illegal item trafficking falls under the Special Law on Hunter Management in the Criminal Code, with sentences starting from five years imprisonment.”
I deliberately emphasized the word “Criminal Code.”
It’s the word civil servants hate most.
Criminal Code.
Even civil servants who rarely get fired will have their heads roll the moment they’re implicated in a criminal case—through conduct clauses or whatever else they can invoke.
And five years imprisonment on top of that?
There’s no suspended sentence here. It’s straight to prison, no way around it.
In other words—
“If these documents are proven false, it means automatic dismissal.”
Dismissal comes with forfeiture of pension rights as a bonus.
The moment those words left my mouth, sweat began pouring down Park Won-sik’s forehead like rain.
So much that tissues couldn’t stem the flow.
“Did you really confirm receipt of the items? Where were they used? The residents said they disposed of them after use, but which disposal company handled it…?”
The answers to all these questions were clearly documented in the files.
But the moment the word “dismissal” had been spoken, Park Won-sik’s mind seemed to shut down completely.
“Yes? Yes? Ah, that is…”
I offered him a handkerchief I’d prepared beforehand, flashing my gentlest smile.
“There’s no need to be so anxious. You won’t necessarily face arrest. We can decide whether to press charges based on whether you signed these documents without knowing they were false, or whether you knowingly signed false information.”
“…!”
That was the final blow.
It wasn’t the wind that knocked down the wanderer Park Won-sik—it was the sunlight, you might say.
A ray of salvation glimpsed from the heart of an inescapable tornado.
He naturally didn’t miss that thread of light.
“I only signed it! I never even checked the contents…! This is so unfair…!”

* * *
Watching everything unfold from beyond the glass were Pee So-won and Kwon Ik-seong.
[There was never any car coming or going. He just shoved some discarded documents at me and told me to sign, so I did.]
The moment those damning words reached her ears, Pee So-won turned to Kwon Ik-seong with a question.
“It’s being recorded clearly, right?”
“Yes.”
At Kwon Ik-seong’s affirmation, Pee So-won nodded.
Then she looked at Lee Yu-ji beyond the glass.
Lee Yu-ji, who exploited her interrogation subject’s vulnerabilities with such ease, as if she knew every weakness.
“Something’s off.”
“….”
At those words, Kwon Ik-seong hesitated briefly before speaking.
“What do you mean?”
“Lee Yu-ji. She’s always suspicious.”
“….”
Kwon Ik-seong decided to keep his mouth shut.
But Pee So-won’s words continued.
“Why does she work so hard? Every time I watch her, something feels off.”
So that’s what she meant.
Kwon Ik-seong gazed at Pee So-won’s silhouette in the darkness.
“She seems dull sometimes, yet other times she’s brimming with venom. Her investigative instincts are almost supernatural, and despite being F-rank, she recklessly charges at dangerous criminals—”
Pee So-won let out a soft laugh.
“…and she always wins.”
“….”
“That’s what’s most suspicious.”
Hearing those words, Kwon Ik-seong suddenly understood something.
“Did you deliberately assign Inspector Lee Yu-ji to the field investigation? The undercover operation at Club Elio?”
“…Isn’t it creepy how you see right through people with that expressionless face of yours every time?”
Pee So-won furrowed her brow and turned to face Kwon Ik-seong.
It was an affirmation.
As if to say what’s done is done, she admitted it readily and spoke.
“It pisses me off. Bastards who prey on young girls. I figured if she were my partner, she’d make sure to deal with them properly.”
With the soft light from the interrogation room casting across her back, Pee So-won’s lips curled upward.
“And Lee Yu-ji never disappoints expectations. That’s why.”
Then she turned her body back toward the interrogation room and spoke.
“…She’s mine, Lee Yu-ji. Stop trying to claim her. Don’t tempt her with food either.”
Kwon Ik-seong responded to Pee So-won’s words.
He slowly parted his lips, but the answer that emerged was resolute.
“No.”

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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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