NIS Agents Tearing Up the Japanese Empire - Chapter 40



Only Krnovel

His name is King-5

Only after the gusting wind had blown away all the tear gas remaining in the air were the backup units able to put out the situation.

The punitive force and the bandits rubbed their swollen eyes and experienced another hell, but the hostage situation ended with the punitive force capturing the surviving bandits.

The bandits who were hit by tear gas were dragged somewhere, and the punitive force was carried away on a stretcher.

And I···.

“Phew… So who are you?”

“This is a man named Kang Jun-hyeok who belongs to the Korean Patriotic Group under the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.”

After being locked up in a strange solitary cell for about three or four days, I was finally able to meet the person in charge of this place.

“What is the Republic of Korea, and what is the Korean Patriotic Association?”

“What a stupid question. Republic of Korea is the name of a country, and Korean Patriotic Association is the name of an organization.”

“······Do you think anyone would ask that without knowing?”

“If you know, why do you ask?”

The person interrogating me was Tian Zhongwei (Jian Zhongyu), who was the direct descendant of Cao Kun (Zhao Gon), the master of Shandong Province and the head of the direct warlord group known to the world as the King of Shandong.

Originally, this hostage crisis was caused by the Beiyang government leaders, who were worried that things would go wrong as Tian Zhongwei, who was shouting for a crackdown day and night, gave the order to negotiate with the bandits.

The original ending was that the bandits who committed the hostage crisis would enlist in the military and even receive a reward in exchange for releasing the hostages.

After that, he spent his time as Chao Kun’s (Zhao Kun) faithful hunting dog, providing him with illegal election funds, but was dismissed due to pressure from Western powers who were displeased with the Linseong incident.

‘It means he is a worthless person.’

Originally, in history, he was a loyal hunting dog of the Beiyang government, but when the Beiyang government came under pressure from the great powers due to this incident, he took up arms and stepped down.

So, it’s no different now.

In this incident, all he did was wait around the mountain with his men, then barge in and clean up after I was done.

“Enough with the wordplay. Now state your proper affiliation.”

“You said your name was Kang Jun-hyeok, a member of the Korean Patriotic Group under the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai.”

“Ugh… We’re not communicating.”

“That’s true.”

Tian Zhongwei may think he is in control of this situation right now, but he is mistaken.

The ones who were really in control of the situation were not the old warlords in far away Beijing, but rather the leaders of Europe and the United States who were even further away.

What I’m saying is that no matter how much Tian Zhongwei here or the real powers of the direct warlords in Beijing cough in vain, it won’t have even the slightest effect on me.

“Tsk···. It’s so frustrating that we can’t communicate like this···.”

What this means is that even if you put both feet on the table and light a cigarette, the other person can’t do anything about you.

“What have you done?”

“I can’t communicate with you, so go and bring someone higher up in the hierarchy.”

I deliberately provoked him.

To be honest, I was not the leader of a warlord or the person in power, and I felt it was a waste of time to talk to the hunting dogs under me.

If I talked to those big shots, I might get some support, but I couldn’t get anything from these hounds.

So now I had to scratch the hound in front of me and make the owner, who was hiding behind it and holding the leash, sit down at the table.

“what···?”

“If I have nothing to say, I would like to get up now.”

As he said that, he rocked his chair like he was on a swing, and the other person’s face lit up pleasantly.

“What kind of attitude is this! You cockroach-like people who live in the French Concession dare to…. Do you know who I am to be so rude!!!”

“What? You know it well.”

“I don’t know what you believe to be so arrogant, but you should have stretched out your legs before you laid down!”

Tian Zhongwei was running wild and swearing at everyone.

Anyone who saw him would have thought he was really angry, but I wasn’t scared at all.

“You seem very angry.”

“Okay! I’ll have to check to see if a knife can stick into that tongue of yours!!!”

“So?”

“what?”

“What do you do when you get angry?”

There was nothing Tian Zhongwei could do now.

Anyway, I played a very important role in ending this hostage crisis.

If all the hostages had been Chinese, the warlords would have hushed it up by threatening or coercing it into being wiped out, but the people involved in this incident were foreigners who escaped their grasp.

They were not just random travelers or businessmen, but also a great group of people, including members of influential American families.

And those people are fully aware that I saved them.

That means it’s impossible to just brush this aside and quietly get rid of me.

“what?”

“What can you do to cause such a fuss?”

“······?”

Tian Zhongwei seemed taken aback by my confident appearance, and for a moment he closed his mouth and stared blankly at me.

I laughed at him like that and added a word.

“What are you doing when all you know how to do is sit here and kill time quietly…”

“This is profit···!”

“What else can you do besides blushing and swearing in front of me, you little shit?”

“Eww!!! I’ll kill you!!!”

Eventually, Tian Zhongwei could no longer contain his boiling anger and pulled out his pistol.

But as always, at some point the gun was pointed at his head instead of mine.

“Ugh···.”

“Even if you speak harshly, you should use your hands nicely.”

“Let go of it! Let it go!”

“I don’t like it.”

Tian Zhongwei, who had pulled out his pistol with great momentum, was naturally crushed beneath me with his gun taken away from him.

“Do you think you’ll be safe if you do this…!?”

“sure.”

Anyway, neither this guy nor the old men of the Beiyang government were going to last long.

They were destined to be pushed out to the back room as old men by the new power called Chiang Kai-shek in three to four years.

Tian Zhongwei, who was unaware of this fact, was still angry and kept lashing out even when the gun was thrust into the back of his head.

Even leaving all that aside, it was me who was holding the gun now, not him.

The ancient sages said that all power comes from the tip of the sword and the muzzle of a gun.

It was strange that he was not afraid when I was holding the power generator in his hand right now.

“Is there anyone out there? Is there anyone out there!”

“You’re bothering me.”

After firing a couple of shots around his head, Tian Zhongwei was startled and his mouth, which had been fluttering wildly, quietly closed.

I called out to him, thrusting the slightly heated muzzle into the back of his head again.

“Look here, Mr. Jeon.”

“······.”

“Mr. Jeon.”

“······.”

Until just a moment ago, Tian Zhongwei had been angry and fearless, but he must have been afraid of bullets as well, so he kept his mouth shut.

“Hmm… Are you sure you’ll come out like that?”

I slowly pulled the bolt of my pistol.

And then he put the gun to the back of his head again.

“Hey Mr. Jeon.”

“······Why are you calling me?”

“We just met today, what is this? Huh? Are you really going to make a do-or-die decision?”

“······.”

“Please give me the answer in a jiffy.”

Tian Zhongwei’s mouth opened as he was stabbed in the back of the head with the gun again.

“What, what do you want?”

“I’m going to check on the hostages from now on. What should I do about what happened here?”

“I’ll forget, I’ll forget everything.”

“Good. It’s good that he’s manly and bold.”

I forced him to stand up.

Then he put the gun in his back and made him go forward.

“Take the lead.”

“······Wasn’t it supposed to let you go?”

“Why me?”

“······.”

“Will you move quickly? I’m Korean and have a terrible disease that makes me shoot and kill anything that moves slowly.”

Finally, Tian Zhongwei seemed to understand my plight as a person with a rare disease, and he quickly guided me to the tent where the hostages were.

******

“Mrs. Lucy, are you feeling better?”

“Thanks to you, I feel a little better.”

“Haha, what did I do?”

“No. It’s really thanks to you, doctor, that my child and I saved our lives. Doctor, you are my savior.”

Mrs. Lucy Aldrich, the eldest daughter of the Aldrich family, seemed to have recovered somewhat in the past few days, her complexion seemed relaxed, and she seemed to have no major problems with her movements.

“I am more grateful that you have become so healthy, Madam.”

“How can I repay this favor···.”

There were so many ways to pay it back that it was overwhelming.

This could be an opportunity to infiltrate American society and expand your network of high-class contacts, or it could help you later take over American companies that are booming.

If not, you could have made a quick buck by making a killing in the stock market during the Great Depression… There were endless ways to do it.

“Oh my… Repayment? I just did what was expected of me as a doctor.”

I was not a stupid farmer who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.

In this case, the most natural way was to gradually accept the other person’s efforts to resolve their debt rather than expecting compensation out of my own mouth.

“I am also doing my duty as a patient.”

“Haha, Madam, you have fulfilled your duty as a patient by recovering well.”

“still···.”

Looking at the lady’s slightly regretful face, it seemed like things were going as I had hoped.

“Madam, the doctor is right. You don’t have to feel so guilty.”

“Hey, if you say that too···”

That is, until the blue-eyed woman I saw in the mountains a few days ago came calling.

“Thank you, teacher, for saving me and Madame.”

“Haha…. Don’t mention it….”

She tried to end things by drawing a clear line between me and Mrs. Lucy.

‘Is this crazy?’

She was wary of my approaching Lady Lucy and displayed quite open hostility.

At first glance, her appearance looked like that of a shepherd dog guarding a flock of sheep, but there was something suspicious about that.

“Madam, let’s go home quickly. I want to escape from this dangerous place as soon as possible.”

“Really? You’ve had a hard time.”

“Hahaha… Miss Vanya….”

“This is Ivana.”

When I called her name, she cut me off with a cold voice.

“yes?”

“My name is Ivana Ivanovna Ivanova. Vanya is the nickname Madame calls me.”

“Ah, yes···.”

Her attitude, which seemed quite cold, left me speechless.

Then Mrs. Lucy smiled awkwardly and apologized to me on her behalf.

“I’m sorry, teacher. Our Vanya is usually shy, but….”

“Oh, I see.”

It certainly didn’t look like this in the wild.

Up there, they were actively trying to get out of the crisis situation while cooperating with me.

But as soon as we came down from the mountain… that is, as soon as safety was secured, our attitude changed.

It smelled a little fishy.

‘hmm···.’

Ivana Ivanovna Ivanovna.

It’s not a particularly strange name to hear on its own, but when you break it down, it means Ivan, the daughter of Ivan of the Ivan family.

In Russia, the name Ivan was common, and the surname Ivanov was also very common.

So, if we were to put it in our terms, Vanya’s name was a very ordinary name, like Kim Young-hee.

‘It’s a problem because it’s too ordinary.’

The fact that names like Cheolsu, Yeonghee, and Baduk are common enough to be found in textbooks or exam rooms also means that it is difficult to trace their roots.

And crucially, she had not taken her eyes off me since the mountain village.

“Miss Ivanov, you seem to be from the Russian Empire.”

“Yes.”

“Could you tell me where you are from?”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

“Um… I’m not trying to find out your personal information, but I lived in Yakutsk when I was young, and I think I saw someone similar to you there.”

At my words, Lady Lucy’s eyes widened and she responded to my words.

“Oh my, Vanya! You said you were from Yakutsk too.”

“Oh, yes… That’s right.”

“Really? What a coincidence.”

She accepted it as if nothing had happened, but she looked slightly embarrassed.

Lady Lucy might have thought this was a coincidence, but of course it was not.

“When I was young, there was a man on the street where I lived who sold borscht made with a couple of pieces of meat every Sunday… It was so delicious… I still remember it.”

“okay.”

“Oh, by the way, that grandpa Yuri’s grandson? Or maybe his nephew? He was a member of the committee at the local Zemstvo… What was his name?”

“······Wasn’t it Mikhail?”

“Oh, that’s right! Mikhail… Thanks to you, I remembered.”

Her expression changed slightly.

It’s the kind of expression that can’t hide the doubts bubbling up inside, even though it’s pretended not to show it on the outside.

That can’t be helped.

‘Isn’t this similar to the response manual the KGB guys used?’

I don’t know for sure yet, but it seemed certain that she had some connection to the Soviet Union.

“Miss Vanya.”

“yes?”

“Your eyes are truly beautiful.”

“Oh, thank you···?”

I naturally reached out my hand.

“How about having a cup of tea later when you have time?”

“Well… I wonder….”

She tried to refuse by keeping her distance, but Mrs. Lucy, who still felt a slight sense of indebtedness to me, pushed her away.

“Vanya, you saved my life, how can a cup of tea be worth it?”

“Ah, Madam···.”

“I’ll contact you later, Miss Vanya.”

“yes···.”

She quietly took my hand.

I smiled and focused on the sensation I felt with my fingertips.

Her hands were as soft as freshly made tofu, yet inside they had a heaviness that could only be found through long training.

‘Soviet spies are hiding among America’s upper class.’

That was interesting information.

She was a person with red waves burning behind her eyes as clear and blue as a lake.

‘If we make good use of the Soviets, wouldn’t we be able to open up the arms trade route to the Primorsky Krai?’

It didn’t matter if things didn’t go well.

If there was a difference, I could have just wiped it out and cut off the tail.

It’s a bit of a shame to lose my relationship with Lady Lucy, but it’s not a big loss since I could always replace her with something better.