The Lawyer Who Reads Tomorrow - Chapter 54

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 54

 

 

“Well….”

 

Lim Do-hyuk’s eyes rolled around.

 

He seemed to be looking for something to say.

But even from this brief conversation, I could tell.

 

It seemed Lim Do-hyuk didn’t really know what Park Mu-hyun was up to either.

And it looked like all the news about Park Noah had come from Park Mu-hyun as well.

 

But did he really know nothing at all?

This guy who was being called the successor by his father.

 

“Sung Tae-hyun, no matter what, my brother-in-law isn’t that crazy.”

“That crazy? So you mean he’s moderately crazy?”

“Don’t play word games.”

 

A sigh leaked through Lim Do-hyuk’s lips.

He rubbed his face with both hands several times and caught his breath.

 

“Look. Even if my brother-in-law wasn’t a good husband to my sister, he was a good father to Noah.”

 

Lim Do-i had said something similar before.

 

She said he was good to the child.

But what? At least CCTV doesn’t lie.

It would have been nice if I could get the full picture.

 

Anyway, the Cardia logo shown in the 404 Video Analysis.

A man putting a child in a cult’s car late at night.

From my perspective as a third party, he didn’t seem like a very good father.

 

“Even so, do you know anything about the relationship between this ‘Cardia’ religious order and Park Mu-hyun?”

 

It was a question I asked without much expectation.

Lim Do-hyuk licked his dry lips and pondered for a moment.

 

“…Well. I did know that my brother-in-law had a religion.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Our family doesn’t have any religion so I don’t know much about it… but I heard from my sister that Noah was baptized when he was born.”

 

Park Noah is 6 years old.

If Park Mu-hyun was already a believer of this Cardia religion back then?

Could Lim Do-i not have known about it?

 

“Do you think Lim Do-i knew that Park Mu-hyun was connected to the Cardia religion?”

 

Since I couldn’t go to Lim Do-i right away.

I tried to squeeze information out of Lim Do-hyuk in front of me. He soon shook his head.

 

“I don’t know. I’m not sure. Those two were really… just a formal couple.”

“To what extent?”

“…It’s my sister’s personal matter, so I don’t want to talk about it.”

 

Well, that’s understandable.

I nodded silently.

 

“Senior.”

“…Why, now I get scared when you call me that. Tae-hyun.”

 

I pushed away my empty cereal bowl and stood up from my seat.

 

“I need to meet Park Mu-hyun.”

“…What?!”

“That’s right. Park Mu-hyun is the only person who knows where the child went and what condition he’s in.”

“Wait a minute, hey.”

 

Lim Do-hyuk urgently grabbed my wrist.

The documents I had shown him got knocked by his body and scattered on the ground.

 

“Directly to Park Mu-hyun? Now? It’s dangerous.”

“What’s dangerous? In 21st century South Korea.”

“That’s not what I mean-!”

 

Lim Do-hyuk panted as if he couldn’t get through to me.

I turned around, hoping that his blood pressure would remain stable despite being in his early thirties.

 

“Whatever religion it is, I mean. Even if that Cardia thing or whatever is a cult. My brother-in-law wouldn’t do anything dangerous to Noah.”

 

Oh my.

Did Lim Do-hyuk trust him?

If he learned nothing from all the trials and tribulations at Haeil, that would be unfortunate too.

 

But.

I recalled the face of Lim Do-i, who said there wasn’t a single person to trust in her family.

 

Lim Do-hyuk completely trusts his brother-in-law?

Even a passing dog would laugh at that.

 

“Senior, there’s also a statistic that 86% of child abusers are parents.”

“Hey. That’s a bit, but still my brother-in-law is-“

“Who do you trust? In this business.”

 

To be honest. I was impatient.

 

Thanks to Lim Do-hyuk’s tightly shut mouth, Park Mu-hyun withdrew his restraining order application against Lim Do-i.

And I reported him for Lim Do-i’s sake.

 

Through Lim Do-hyuk, their hand to make a deal with me and Lim Do-i was blown.

And Park Ji-hwan already knows this.

 

Even a cornered mouse will bite a cat.

I don’t know what kind of person Park Mu-hyun is, but given this situation, he might think that Lim Do-i ‘betrayed’ him.

 

And.

 

“Do you think Park Mu-hyun will act without being swayed by emotions?”

“…I don’t think he’s that kind of person.”

 

Haha.

As if.

 

Laughter burst out of me without realizing it.

Lim Do-hyuk’s face was slightly flushed, as if even he thought what he said didn’t make sense.

 

“Senior, you know it too.”

“…”

“In this business, there’s nothing you can trust forever, and no one who acts consistently all the time.”

“…”

“Park Noah could be in danger.”

 

He pretended to be rational, but in the end, there was no logic to it.

Rather, even Lim Do-i’s intuition seemed more trustworthy.

 

“…It’ll be fine.”

 

Words like a sigh escaped through Lim Do-hyuk’s lips.

He rubbed his hair roughly once again.

 

“Still…”

 

Soon he nodded as if he had made up his mind.

 

“Since you’re saying it to that extent, I’ll help you.”

 

I smiled and added one more thing to him.

 

“To be precise, you’re not helping me, but checking on your niece.”

“I got it, you bastard.”

 

* * *

 

[Let’s not do anything we’ll regret. It’s not a good idea.]

 

I opened the diary.

 

[Got kicked out of Park Mu-hyun’s office.]

[Can’t help it!]

[I came back with Senior Lim Do-hyuk.]

[Senior apologized and bought me beef.]

[This case should end here!]

 

“What is this, some elementary school diary.”

 

Yesterday.

That is, the day when Lim Do-hyuk said he would arrange an appointment with Park Mu-hyun in advance.

Sung Tae-hyun’s diary was whining and crying again.

 

“Of course it would be like this.”

 

Because of Sung Tae-hyun acting especially like a kid who doesn’t want to work in this case, I didn’t bother checking the diary yesterday either.

 

…I almost didn’t need to read it.

I closed the diary without regret.

 

The only thing worth reading here would be [Got kicked out of Park Mu-hyun’s office].

It was something I had expected to some degree.

 

“…Are you ready?”

 

Lim Do-hyuk, with an unusually tense face, approached me.

I was looking at the name of Park Mu-hyun’s office, which occupied two entire floors at the top of a tall building.

 

[Electas Asset Management]

 

“Electas?”

 

Maybe it’s because of accumulated prejudice, but it feels very suspicious.

 

One thing I can tell for sure.

Park Mu-hyun has a lot of money.

 

His father Chairman Park Chang-beom and Park Mu-hyun weren’t widely known figures to the general public, but they seemed to be doing quite lucrative money business.

 

“Yeah, Electas. Take this elevator and it goes straight up to the office. It’s private.”

 

Even a private elevator.

 

“What exactly does this company do?”

“As far as I know…”

 

Lim Do-hyuk trailed off. Doesn’t he know?

 

“Probably they design sustainable high-end portfolios centered around finance, real estate, and culture. Customized asset management for high-net-worth individuals… something like that.”

 

Lim Do-hyuk spoke as if he was reciting something he had seen somewhere.

 

He looked visibly nervous.

It would certainly be burdensome to go see his sister’s ex-husband after their divorce.

Especially regarding a matter like this.

 

-49th floor, doors opening.

 

“…!”

 

It was even more luxurious than I had expected.

 

How could I describe this?

It was designed as a duplex structure where you could look down from the upper floor on the 50th floor to the lower floor on the 49th floor.

However, the elevator only went up to the 49th floor, and to reach the 50th floor, you had to use the internal stairs.

 

“I’m Lim Do-hyuk, scheduled to meet with the Representative today.”

 

Lim Do-hyuk was already talking with the staff at the info desk.

The clean marble floor and every piece of furniture and equipment visible were all luxurious items.

In this space where you could feel a refined quietness, I discovered some strange words.

 

‘O Ecclesiarum, T Bereshitum, T Epinoiarum…?’

 

All the conference room names were like this.

Even though I didn’t know much about the religion called ‘Cardia’, it seemed somehow related.

Well, they were small letters that you could barely make out if you looked closely.

 

“Ah, please come this way.”

 

The info desk staff smiled kindly and guided Lim Do-hyuk.

However, when I appeared behind him, she seemed a bit flustered and gave a stiff smile.

 

“That person is….”

“He’s my friend.”

 

She looked very troubled.

The woman looked back and forth between Lim Do-hyuk and me, pondering, then reached for the internal phone again and said.

 

“I’m sorry, but I haven’t heard anything about visitors other than Mr. Lim Do-hyuk.”

 

The woman looked directly at me and continued speaking with an attitude that was kind but somehow felt cold.

 

“Would it be difficult for you to wait outside?”

“The weather’s not great for that.”

 

It was a lie.

Despite my answer that clearly revealed it was an excuse, the woman nodded.

She was just about to dial a number on the internal phone.

 

“…Ah, Do-hyuk.”

 

A strange man in a suit was coming down the stairs from the 50th floor and approaching the desk.

 

“Hyung.”

 

So this must be Park Mu-hyun.

The info desk staff approached Park Mu-hyun with a flustered tone as if breaking out in a cold sweat.

 

“Representative, I’m sorry-“

“It’s fine. Go back to your work.”

 

Park Mu-hyun cleanly dismissed her and approached us, standing in front of me.

After finishing with just a nod to Lim Do-hyuk, he extended one hand to me.

 

“I’m Park Mu-hyun.”

 

His attitude was as if he had expected me to come.

 

…Wait, was Sung Tae-hyun’s diary wrong?

There was definitely a description there that said [was kicked out of Park Mu-hyun’s office].

 

If Sung Tae-hyun wasn’t wrong, was his intention for me to leave following the info desk staff’s guidance?

 

“I’m Sung Tae-hyun.”

 

When I grasped Park Mu-hyun’s hand, he squeezed and shook my hand a few times before letting go.

 

“I knew you would come.”

“Is that so?”

 

What a ridiculous person.

He said he knew I would come with Lim Do-hyuk, yet he only gave half the order to his staff.

 

However, I didn’t show it.

Park Mu-hyun guided us to a conference room inside the 49th floor, .

 

“I never thought we would meet like this.”

 

Park Mu-hyun sat in one of the conference room chairs and continued speaking in a calm tone.

 

“Both I and Do-hyuk hate wasting time.”

“I see.”

“So… please ask what you want to know.”

 

How direct.

However, since what he wanted was the same as mine, I didn’t decline.

 

“I heard you withdrew the restraining order application against Ms. Lim Do-i.”

“Yes.”

“That night.”

 

I took out several documents from my bag and handed them to him.

They were documents with the same content I had shown Lim Do-hyuk.

 

“This is the analyzed data from the CCTV footage.”

 

Park Mu-hyun wasn’t flustered.

His inorganically sunken eyes moved along the contents of the documents.

I gave him plenty of time to review the documents.

 

And then, after a moment.

The man slowly placed the documents down on the table.

 

“It seems the Religious Order missed something.”

 

Lim Do-hyuk looked at Park Mu-hyun with surprised eyes.

However, he was only staring at me intently.

 

“Unless you’re an expert, you probably didn’t think anyone would analyze it this thoroughly.”

 

When I answered, Park Mu-hyun smiled gently.

 

“That’s right. I heard all the black boxes were taken care of.”

“Are you admitting to it?”

 

Park Mu-hyun nodded his head.

 

“With evidence right here, just denying it wouldn’t look very good either.”

“Good. This conversation will move quickly then.”

 

I slowly pointed to the documents placed in front of him.

 

“Where did you take Park Noah?”

 

Park Mu-hyun followed my hand and turned his gaze to the enlarged photo.

The child entering through the wide-open door of the van.

The image quality wasn’t particularly good, but it was clear enough to understand what was happening.

 

“Hmm…”

 

The photos that followed were the same.

Lim Do-i collapsed, the vehicle running over Lim Do-i, and then the license plate briefly visible as it passed.

The man took sufficient time to look at the photos again.

 

“That’s right. I thought you would want to know the truth.”

 

What? This doesn’t feel good.

 

Park Mu-hyun slowly raised his head.

Why did goosebumps rise on my skin?

 

I didn’t avoid Park Mu-hyun’s gaze and met it directly,

and he smiled brightly.

 

“Experiencing it firsthand isn’t bad either.”

 

The closed conference room door opened.

The moment Lim Do-hyuk’s eyes widened, people rushed in and surrounded us.

 

“There are some things that shouldn’t be meddled with.”

 

Lim Do-hyuk collapsed first,

and then next was.

 

“…!”

 

Along with a strong impact that felt like my neck was being snapped,

everything before my eyes turned pitch black.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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