NIS Agents Tearing Up the Japanese Empire - Chapter 54



Only Krnovel

Wolf’s Den – 4

As soon as I sent someone to the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai, Sasaki came running home.

Sasaki seemed to have stayed up all night at the consulate yesterday without even finishing work, as his clothes were the same and there were dark shadows around his eyes.

“Wh, what’s going on?”

“I was thinking of you when I was having a cup of tea this morning.”

“······Tea?”

Disappointment appeared on Sasaki’s face.

“Just a cup of tea…”

“You don’t like it?”

“That’s not true, but… I feel drained.”

“Really? Then, I guess I should cheer you up.”

I placed the Black Dragon Society’s poster on the table.

Sasaki watched the scraps of paper fluttering on the table without much interest, then opened his eyes wide and straightened his posture.

Then he stared at the paperwork, then turned back to me and asked.

“Hey, what is this?”

“How do you feel better?”

“I asked you what this was!!!”

Sasaki snapped at me, as if he had met the enemy who killed his parents.

If it were normal, I would have said something about his rude behavior, but today was a really good day, and I knew all about Sasaki’s hardships, so I just laughed it off.

“This is what the Black Dragon Society was looking for.”

“This is···. This is···!”

Sasaki tried to touch the placard with trembling hands, but I slapped his hand away and prevented him from touching the placard.

“······?”

Sasaki looked back with a face that asked, “What is this?”

“If you take this and return it to the Black Dragon Society, do you think they will let you live?”

“well···?”

“If I were Uchida, I don’t think I would let you live after seeing the corruption of the organization.”

“······.”

It would be safe to say that in the current situation, there was virtually no chance of Sasaki surviving.

He was already firmly entrenched in the Black Dragon Society, and if he made one wrong move here, not only himself but also his entire family would disappear without anyone knowing.

Sasaki would also have a pretty good idea of ​​how the situation was going.

So I calmly persuaded him.

Instead of cooperating reluctantly as before, he asked me to lend him my strength, like the Japanese spies who worked within the provisional government.

“You’ve been marked by the Black Dragons anyway, so it doesn’t seem like there are many ways for you to survive in this situation.”

“······Is there a way?”

“Haha, in this world, if there is a cause, there is an effect, and if there is a problem, there is a solution.”

“How can I live?”

At this point, it was almost like everything was over.

During that time, Sasaki worked with me on big and small projects, knowingly or unknowingly doing things that could be harmful to the Japanese Empire.

At first, the extent of it was so small that he didn’t know what he was doing, but now that things have grown bigger without him even knowing, the autonomy in Sasaki’s mind has disappeared.

I made that suggestion to Sasaki.

“You have to join hands with me and destroy the Black Dragon Society. The Black Dragon Society has to die for you to live.”

“You’re saying you’re going to destroy the Black Dragon Society···?”

“huh.”

Suspicion still lingered in Sasaki’s eyes.

Of course, since it was a bet with one’s life on it, it wouldn’t be easy to let it go.

“This teacher is going to destroy the Black Dragon Society? By himself?”

“You are not alone.”

“then···?”

I pointed to Sasaki.

“You’re here.”

“So, are you saying that Mr. Lee and I will destroy the Black Dragon Society together···?”

“huh.”

A deep despair appeared on Sasaki’s face.

Well, if the two of you say you’re going to destroy a huge organization that dominates the country, the country won’t believe you.

But I was confident.

I have already been at odds with the Black Dragons, dealing with the assassins they sent, and dealing a severe blow to their financial system, imprinting in their minds that I am not an easy opponent.

Now it’s time to imprint it in Sasaki’s mind.

“Why? Are you scared?”

“Yes, that would be normal for a normal person.”

“It’s a little embarrassing to say this myself… Do I still seem like an ordinary person?”

“······How can a single individual fight against a huge organization?”

“A tower that was built with great care can collapse if a few stones are removed from the bottom, and a seemingly invincible army can be defeated by a group of shepherds.”

“Where in the world does something like that happen?”

I pointed to my feet with my finger.

“here.”

“······.”

“Lastly, I ask you, will you join us, Sasaki?”

Sasaki hesitated, then let out a deep sigh and lowered his head.

“Do I have a choice?”

“To live or die. The world is ultimately a process of choosing between those two outcomes.”

“Then I will choose to live. I cannot die like this… It would be unfair.”

“Then that won’t work. If something unfair happens, you have to let it out right away. Otherwise, it will build up inside you and explode.”

I took the petition from the table and placed a map on it instead.

“What is this?”

“It’s a map as you see it.”

“I know it’s a map. But you have to tell me exactly what kind of map it is…”

“It’s nothing special… It’s just a map showing the route of the cash transport vehicle carrying the money taken from Chao Kun’s piggy bank.”

“Oh, I see. It’s just a map showing the movement route of a cash transport vehicle carrying the personal funds of the leader of the Beiyang Clan.”

“yes.”

Sasaki and I laughed without saying who would say it first.

The two’s laughter grew loud enough to be heard by people passing by over the wall, and then suddenly stopped.

“Are you serious?”

“then.”

“This is not Gyeongseong, this is China. On Chinese soil… and in an area within the Beiyang Clan’s sphere of influence, touching the money of the Beiyang Clan’s master… Do you know what that means?”

“Just to rob a truck, do I need to know what the Beiyang Clan is like and who Cao Kun is?”

“The owner of that truck is a Beiyang warlord…”

I shoved the map at Sasaki again.

“I want to receive donations for my independence, but do I need to know who owns the truck?”

“······.”

Inspector Sasaki kept his mouth shut.

I said that the Beiyang Clan was none of my business, so what could he say?

He just sat there quietly and nodded.

“This won’t be that difficult, so would you like to step forward and take care of it?”

“Me…? Not this teacher?”

“I have something to do.”

“I’m busy enough right now······.”

“I’m several times busier than that.”

“······.”

Sasaki’s mouth popped out like a duck’s.

“Why? Can’t you do it?”

“There’s not enough information… I wonder if the scale of the work is too big for me to handle alone….”

Sasaki tried to get away with the office worker’s characteristically roundabout way of speaking, but…

“I see? So you’re saying that with the right information and sufficient human support, we can succeed!”

“That is···. That is how it is···.”

Like any other office worker, he was tied up in a tight net and failed to escape.

“Please take good care of this matter as well, Inspector Sasaki.”

“······.”

“If you can’t bring it, you can just burn it all down or blow it up right there. Either way, my goal is to keep the money from getting into that bastard Chao Kun’s hands.”

“······.”

This helped ease some of the worries about Chao Kun’s piggy bank.

‘It’s time to go to Beijing now.’

Since ancient times, timing has been important in such matters.

As the saying goes, the early bird gets the worm, in this kind of work, the one who moves one step ahead of others controls the situation.

As I stood up from my seat with that thought in mind, Sasaki asked me.

“Where are you going?”

“Innocent.”

“Right now?”

“Yeah, I plan on taking the last train.”

“······?”

******

The second rule of spying.

Keep my means of transportation and time secret from anyone.

If my enemies knew when, where, and what means of transportation I use, I would already be as good as dead.

“Ugh···. From now on, I have to ride first class unconditionally···. I wonder what this is···.”

But maybe it was because I moved too hastily.

I didn’t expect that the only tickets left on the last train from Shanghai to Tianjin were fourth class.

Thanks to that, I was finally able to arrive at Beijing Station after running for several days in a 4th class train packed as tightly as bean sprouts, smelling the friendly scent of people in a pigsty or a train car.

“Whew… I can finally live a little.”

The train ride of several days was an even more horrifying experience than my last time in the cracks in the walls of the Shanghai Bank.

Still, it’s a good thing it’s over now.

“I told you to find an empty house in Tianjin···.”

These are the words that Kim Won-bong and the members of Uiyoldan left for me when they left Shanghai.

“I told you to look for Jeong Chae-san in the empty house.”

The destination had already been decided.

However, the problem is···.

“But where is the empty room?”

The thing is, I don’t know geography at all.

But if you approach people passing by on the street and ask them a question…

“excuse me···.”

“Ugh… the smell.”

“The empty room···.”

“Go and find out somewhere else to beg.”

“I’m looking for···.”

“Oh my… How can a young gentleman with his limbs intact be living by asking for help from others?”

“······.”

The traces of the fourth-class cabin of the Tianjin Train, which was as gloomy as the gloomy future of the Republic of China, caught my ankles.

Whenever I approached people around me to ask for directions, they would all hold their noses and run away, or mistake me for a beggar and put coins in my hand, so I couldn’t ask for directions.

But then I went to a nearby hotel to get my body in order and reorganize…

“Hey, stop begging in front of the hotel. Get out of here, towards the city hall or in front of the station.”

“······?”

“Did that beggar shove a dumpling in your ear?… Get out of here and get out of here!”

“I think there’s some misunderstanding···.”

“Do you want to go with the right answer? Or do you just want to go?”

“······.”

The hotel security guard’s wonderful hospitality brought tears to my eyes.

“Get out of here, you little beggar!”

The hotel security guard, whose personality was as bad as his face, must have had bad habits as well, because he suddenly hit me in the head with his fist.

It was the first time I got hit so suddenly.

However, like a good, exemplary citizen of this era, he did not insist on pointing out the other person’s mistakes.

“Look, I told you I’m not here to beg, I’m here as a guest.”

“What about the customer…. From the look of it, it looks like he’s wearing clothes that look okay, picked up from a garbage dump somewhere, but my eyes can’t deceive me.”

This time the security guard taunted me by poking my forehead with his finger.

I politely asked the security guard.

“Can you please call the manager?”

“I told you to get out quickly, what kind of manager are you calling? Is our manager your friend?!”

Then he kept poking my forehead.

“Hehe… Stop it~”

I asked politely, but the security guard only responded with laughter and ridicule.

“Why? Are you angry? What are you going to do if you’re angry?”

“hmm···.”

I took a quick look around.

Perhaps because it was early in the morning, there were hardly any people walking around the streets.

There are no police patrolling the area.

“If you keep doing that, the scary old man will do this to you?”

“What? Seriously, this beggar is losing his mind…”

“this guy.”

He then struck the security guard in the face.

The opponent rolled his eyes and his body collapsed.

“Haha, this guy has been drinking a lot since broad daylight.”

I stepped lightly on the fallen security guard’s finger and entered the hotel.

First, I planned to wash up briefly, change my clothes, and then look for an empty room.

“Welcome to the guest house.”

“?”

I will correct the plan.

First, I need to find Jeongchae-san.