NIS Agents Tearing Up the Japanese Empire - Chapter 35



Only Krnovel

Age of emotion – 7

I just sharpened a pencil right in front of him, but Sasaki froze like a snowman in the middle of winter and couldn’t say anything.

“Don’t be so nervous.”

“······.”

“It’s just a simple game.”

“······.”

“I ask a question, and you answer. After I answer, you ask a question, and I answer. How is it? Simple, right?”

Sasaki was still frozen, but judging by the way his eyes were darting around, he seemed to understand what was being said.

I neatly organized the sharpened pencils and asked Sasaki a question.

“Is the head of the Black Dragon Society Uchida Ryohei?”

It seemed that his pupils were shaking more than before.

“······.”

“Oh, if you don’t answer, I won’t be able to answer your question either.”

“······right.”

Sasaki opened his mouth, even if it was forced.

Then, sweating profusely, he asked me:

“Who are you?”

“That’s a very vague question. Are you asking for my name? Or are you literally asking for my personal information?”

Sasaki thought for a moment and then opened his mouth carefully.

“It doesn’t matter either way.”

“I was born in a place called Impi-myeon, which is part of Gunsan-bu in the Honam region.”

“Impey···.”

“When I was young, I caused a lot of trouble and gave my parents a lot of trouble, but one day, a monk came to my house and said that I was a talented person who could save the country and that he would take me to his temple. What the heck?”

“······?”

“So I entered the temple and learned this and that from the monk, and when the monk passed away, I came down from the mountain and came to Gyeongseong, and that’s how it has continued until now.”

“Is that true?”

Sasaki looked at me with a half-doubtful expression.

I laughed at that Sasaki.

“Are you sure it’s true?”

“profit···!”

“Just kidding! Just kidding.”

He opened his mouth again, trying to calm down the angry Sasaki.

“Let’s see…. Yeah, I know there’s a place called Miryang in Yeongnam. There’s a place called Garak Village there.”

“Miryang? Is that Kim Won-bong’s hometown?”

“Yeah, there.”

Sasaki still looked incredulous, but he wrote down what I said for now.

“Hmm···. From Miryang···.”

Seeing Sasaki’s concentration as if he was being sucked into the paper, I adjusted my speaking speed so that it was easier for him to write it down.

“I was born as the youngest son of three generations of a landowner family in Garak Village, a household that was well-known. I had three older sisters, so my family was very worried, but they said that everyone was happy when I was born.”

“Oh? You had a family.”

“Yeah, there was.”

“······.”

Sasaki’s hands stopped and his face hardened.

“if···?”

“What by any chance?”

“Oh, no.”

Sasaki listened to me with even more tension than before.

I enjoyed Sasaki’s reaction like that.

“How far have I come?”

“He was born as the third only child of Kim Cheomji···.”

“Ah! That’s right, that’s right. I thought I would live a life without anything to be envious of, being born as the third-generation only child of our family… But what is this? The gods of heaven and earth were angry. Our family was completely ruined in just a few years.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think so?”

“······Why are you asking me that?”

“Think about it.”

Sasaki was so embarrassed that he kept his mouth shut.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of him trembling with fear that he might say the wrong thing and have to escape from this world.

“Why are you so restless?”

“······.”

“Even if we say it’s our family’s story, it’s not much different from other Koreans in Shanghai.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, my grandfather died while opposing the loss of national sovereignty, and my father died while fighting against the Japanese as a volunteer soldier.”

“······?”

“The Japanese army took my father away from the other family members and killed them all, and I barely managed to survive by hiding behind a fence.”

“······.”

“Um… And was it Heungguk Temple? I ran away to that temple and lived there until I became an adult. Well, the head monk there was from Ikmun Temple, right?”

“Hey, Ikmunsa?”

“Yes, Ikmunsa.”

Sasaki wrote down every single word I said.

“So, I taught the monk various techniques and received some of Emperor Gojong’s treasury to use as operating funds, and then came down from the mountain and came to Gyeongseong.”

“Hmm… That must have been a tough life.”

Sasaki, who had written everything down, glanced at me while organizing the documents.

“No, it wasn’t that hard.”

“I see. You’re a strong person.”

“It’s all a lie.”

“······?”

Sasaki’s face froze for a moment, like an author whose work was in the middle of a blue screen.

“It would be a shame for a high-ranking detective to easily believe the words of a Bulyeongseonin.”

Then, Sasaki’s face quickly turned red and blue, and he was about to burst out in anger.

“Ino···!”

But his anger couldn’t come out of his mouth.

This was because the sharp tip of the pencil was poking Sasaki under his chin.

“How did I get in here? And why am I joking around with you? Don’t forget this, Inspector Sasaki.”

“······.”

“Should I answer?”

“Oh, I see.”

Sasaki looked more intimidated than before.

He seemed to be very tired, so I tried to cheer him up by sticking a pencil into his tightly bandaged right hand.

“?!”

Sasaki looked back at me, startled.

“What, what is this···?!”

“Are you surprised? Are you coming to your senses now?”

The pencil sank right into the gap between Sasaki’s right thumb and index finger.

Thanks to that, Sasaki’s right hand wasn’t injured like before, but it was enough to bring back memories from a few days ago.

“What the heck is this…!”

Sasaki, who was starting to lose his temper after being flustered, was interrupted mid-sentence by asking a question.

“What is the Black Dragon Society doing now?”

“I don’t know!”

“really?”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t think so?”

“······I don’t know.”

Looking at his face, it seemed like he really didn’t know.

From the beginning, this guy was a guy who knew how to control others, and he wasn’t a guy who could actively deceive others.

If that were the case, it would have been in Gyeongseong, not Shanghai.

If he had known even a little bit, he would have tried to deceive me by saying something else rather than denying it outright.

But seeing as he said he didn’t know anything at all, it seemed like he really didn’t know anything.

“If you don’t know, there’s nothing you can do.”

“Are you just going to let it go?”

“You don’t know? Are you pretending not to know?”

“That’s not it!”

“Okay then.”

He stood up and asked Sasaki.

“I don’t think I have anything more to ask, but I’ll just answer this question and then go.”

“Is this the last question…?”

“Choose carefully.”

Sasaki was troubled by the word “last question.”

I wondered what questions I should ask a villain who fought alone against the Empire of Japan and treated that vast empire like a three-year-old child.

But even if it were a question that might come out of his head, it wouldn’t have been that great.

“You… where on earth did you come from…!”

“I came from the future to destroy the Empire of Japan.”

“······?”

“Is that all there is to the question? It’s too bland.”

“Hey, wait! That wasn’t a proper answer just now! Then how did you get into the consulate?! Just answer that!”

“Hmm… I think two at once is too much… If you’re that curious, then you should tell me.”

The sly smile disappeared from the ghost’s face, and a serious expression took its place.

Then he spoke to Sasaki in a deep voice.

“Sakura.”

“?”

Sasaki’s head was filled with questions at the ghost’s words about looking for cherry blossoms.

“Sakura!”

“What is that… Ah!”

Sasaki’s face turned red with shock as he realized what the ghost meant.

The ghost’s serious expression disappeared and he returned to a smiling face.

“Today’s secret recipe is Sakura with octopus and Fireworks with octopus.”

“······How about that.”

“How did I know this?”

The ghost smiled brightly and placed his hat on Sasaki’s head.

Then, at that moment, Sasaki’s eyes darkened and he heard a cheerful ghostly voice.

“Please look for it diligently until you come next time.”

When Sasaki took off his hat, the ghost had already disappeared as quietly as when it first came to him.

Later, Sasaki came to his senses and chased after him, but there was no trace of him.

There was no sign of anyone having climbed over the high wall of the consulate, and the guards at each gate repeated, like parrots, that Major Sasaki of the Kwantung Army had been there.

Without even knowing who it is.

“You opened the door to a stranger?!”

“Yes… right?”

“Why did you open it!”

“Well… I opened it for you because you are an officer.”

“Without even asking for my password?”

“Of course I asked. But you answered well. Instead, I got scolded for being slow in updating our code.”

The soldiers on guard said so and showed the code key that Major Sasaki had given them.

It had the seal of the Minister of the Army of the Imperial Japanese Army stamped on it, but the contents themselves were a fake filled in to my liking.

However, the seal of the Minister of the Army was real, so it was an object that could be deceived if seen under the light of a lamp on a dark night.

“Did the group get possessed by a ghost?”

Sasaki looked up at the sky.

The sky was as dark as his burning insides.

******

It seems that the Japanese consulate was not receiving any new information from the Black Dragon Society due to the last incident.

It seems that they judged that information was leaking from within.

“Ugh… I thought there might be one or two useful pieces of information.”

Even though the consulate was thoroughly raided, no information related to the Black Dragon Society could be found.

Even though I took some risks and met Sasaki again to talk, it was fruitless.

“Did they decide to step forward themselves? Or did Shanghai just lose interest?”

Either way, it was quite possible.

I don’t know exactly how much damage the Black Dragon Society suffered in Shanghai, but it was definitely a big enough blow to be talked about within the organization.

‘The Black Dragons’ financial lifeline has been cut off, so they’ll try to get another bloodline…’

Surprisingly, there was no response.

Even though it was an era where communication and transportation were not as developed as they are today, it was still very suspicious that there was no response for over two weeks.

‘Have they really let go… or are they plotting something under the surface…?’

It was clear that they were up to something, but I was a little frustrated because I had no way of knowing exactly what it was.

‘Well… things have been going too easily so far.’

Actually, this was originally correct.

Originally, espionage meant getting to know the other person slowly, like a blind man groping an elephant, without knowing what the other person was doing.

But in the past, the door would open like an automatic door, shouting “Irasshaimase!” without much effort, so you could just go in and get information, but now you can’t get all the enemy’s information with that.

‘That’s too bad.’

Even though things got a little tougher going forward, I wasn’t completely hopeless.

It’s just that… things have become a little annoying.

Even if my friends say they are preparing by protecting themselves, I have knowledge about the future in my head.

The knowledge of the future in my head was a secret weapon that could hit them hard at any time.

“That’s fun.”

Things are getting quite interesting.

From now on, the Black Dragons will do their best to fight me, and I will do my best to eliminate them.

‘Should I gain some weight too?’

No matter how excellent I am, I am an individual, and my enemies are a group.

No matter how strong a tree branch is, it is very likely to break if even the slightest force is applied to it.

So it seems like it would be a good idea to grow a bit in size.

‘They say that even if you try to form a group, it won’t be easy in Shanghai.’

All the useful manpower in Shanghai was sucked into the provisional government, and if not, the Uiyoldan would sweep it away, so there were hardly any people I could use.

So, what I meant was that if I wanted to create an organization, I had to take talented people from the Provisional Government or the Uiyoldan, but if I did that, they would hate me for taking people away.

‘The best thing is to reorganize the Uiyeoldan into a provisional government organization and swallow it up…’

It goes without saying that given Kim Won-bong’s personality, he would have no intention of joining the provisional government, and he would certainly have no intention of handing over Uiyoldan to me.

‘Ugh… In the end, the only one left is Kim Gu.’

In the end, the best solution was to get in touch with Kim Gu, the Chief of Police of the Provisional Government, and get good people on board.

Since you received a lot of money, I’ll probably give you one or two decent people as a token of my appreciation.

As I was thinking that and returning home, I saw an unwelcome face greeting me as I walked along the waterway.

“Teacher Lee!”

“No, why is Mr. Baekbeom here···?”

“We’re in big trouble now!”

“What’s the big deal?!”

Could it be that the Black Dragon Society attacked the provisional government?

While I was letting my guard down for a moment, they dug into my weak points without fail···.

“It is said that a group of bandits from Shandong hijacked a train carrying foreigners and took the people hostage!”

······did not lose.

I was ashamed to admit that I had a fleeting feeling of pity for the Black Dragons.

“What about something like that… Don’t things like that happen often in China?”

“It’s a common occurrence! But the hostages are not common people.”

“Who is it?”

“Don’t be surprised to hear that, Your Excellency in America said that on board was Miss Lucy Aldrich, the eldest daughter of the Aldrich family, an American political family and relative of the Rockefeller family.”

“Hey···.”

A ray of light came into the provisional government’s diplomatic power, which had been weakened by the impeachment of Syngman Rhee.

After all, China was the land of opportunity.