NIS Agents Tearing Up the Japanese Empire - Chapter 9



Only Krnovel

Burning – 2

After searching Namsan and the surrounding area for a while, Mi-wa and Inspector returned to Jongno-seo with a distraught expression.

“Hey! Who is that kid who doesn’t answer his phone…?”

Miwa and Kyungbu looked around, suppressing their anger at the sight of the empty Jongro-seo.

But no matter where I looked, there was no sign of any police officers or detectives.

“Where did everyone go?”

I wondered if they had just gotten off work, but no matter how crazy they were, I thought that it couldn’t be true and searched Jongno-seo diligently.

But all you can hear is the clatter of a typewriter and the beeping of a telegram.

No human voice was heard.

“Yamada! Yasuhiro! Matsuda? Kiyoshi…?”

Miwa and Kyungbu went around Jongno-gu and called out the names of their subordinates, but no one answered.

Just in case, I asked the staff in the transfer office about the locations of my subordinates, and received a shocking answer.

“Sato’s warning department was sent to investigate the entire Han River embankment.”

“Sato… the alarm department…?”

What followed were even more shocking words.

“Yes, I understand that the police from Dongdaemun, Seodaemun, and Jung-gu were all mobilized.”

“What, what did you say?”

Miwa Kyungbu’s eyebrows trembled.

Suspect Kim Sang-ok is in Namsan.

But the Han River?

It was an action that was utterly incomprehensible.

“Where is that bastard Sato? Is he in the Han River too?!”

“No. He stayed at Jongnoseo because he had to submit a report to his superiors… Oh, a little while ago, he went to the interrogation room to look around.”

“Interrogation room…!”

Inspector Miwa rolled her eyes and headed to the interrogation room, her body filled with anger.

I swore that if I ever met Inspector Sato again, I would kick his shins so hard that he would never get up again, and I opened the interrogation room door…

“The smell of blood?”

The smell of blood was a common smell in the interrogation room, but this was different.

If the usual smell of blood was a damp, foul odor that permeated the wallpaper or the ground, this was something you would smell at the riverside or in a valley.

There was even a puddle of blood leaking out of the door… It was clear at a glance that something suspicious had happened.

“······.”

Inspector Miwa pulled a pistol from its holster.

Then, as carefully as possible, he approached the interrogation room door from which blood was seeping out.

Then he leaned his ear against the wall and listened for sounds coming from inside, but there was no sound from inside.

‘Is there no one here?’

If there had been someone there, there would have been at least a sound of breathing, but there was nothing like that.

Miwa Kyungbu felt slightly nervous and quietly grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door open.

But what is this?

The door wouldn’t open because it was stuck somewhere.

“Hey Sato! Are you inside, Sato?!”

A sound was heard from inside, either a groan or a cry in response to Miwa’s voice.

It was such a faint sound that you wouldn’t hear it unless you concentrated hard.

“Sato! What’s going on inside! Open this door quickly!”

“Ugh… Ugh…!”

It was hard to hear exactly what he was saying because his mouth was slurred as if something had blocked it, but to Inspector Miwa it sounded like he was desperately asking for help.

“Hold on! I’ll open it soon…!”

“Eww! Eww! Uww! Uww! Uww!!!”

At the urgent shout, Miwa pulled the door with all her might.

Then, a sound from inside that was neither a scream nor a cry grew louder and louder.

After struggling for a while, the door opened slightly, and Miwa once again concentrated all her strength to open the door.

At the same time, a howl like never before heard echoed through Jongno-seo.

“Eww, eww, eww, eww, eww…!!!!”

“!!!”

What Detective Miwa saw when she entered the interrogation room was bloodstains scattered everywhere and the sight of Detective Kim Tae-seok dead with his eyes rolled back.

A strong thread was tied around his neck.

And the thread was connected to the door handle.

“no way…?”

Miwa and Kyungbu checked where the thread was tied.

“neck…”

His neck was covered in scrapes and cuts from all the struggling he had done.

Only then did Inspector Miwa realize what she had done.

“I got hit… I got hit!”

The person who would have done something like this should have been at this scene in the first place.

“Masao Sato.”

Just in case, I looked into other interrogation rooms, but the situation was similar there.

The detectives in charge of the interrogation were similar to Kim Tae-seok.

The only difference was that, unlike Kim Tae-seok, they were still breathing.

‘Kill the Koreans, leave the Japanese alive…’

Go Bong-geun and his family, who had been locked up in the Sato Police Station and interrogation room, also disappeared without a trace.

Inspector Sato had them smuggled out.

‘Why? How is that? Is he also a member of Uiyoldan?’

Miwa and Kyungbu’s mind was complicated.

The Uiyoldan he had known all this time was a bit complicated, but it was not an illusory existence that could not be chased away if he put in the effort.

Of course, Japanese spies were everywhere, and there was no one in the world who never betrayed others.

but.

‘······The Uiyoldan’s route has changed.’

The Uiyoldan he knew were rough but somewhat resilient terrorists who shot at important figures from among people and threw bombs at government offices.

But what if they hide deep within society?

That can’t be stopped.

No matter how much money you throw at spies and how much you strengthen investigations and security, you can’t stop the parasites from creeping into your heart.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

Miwa and Kyungbu could not hold back the anger boiling in their hearts.

But now, there is no one in Jongro to accept his anger.

In the empty interrogation room, Inspector Miwa’s angry voice echoed and resonated throughout the room.

******

A cold winter where the cold air stabs your lungs like an awl every time you breathe.

On this cold day, I was crossing Gyeongseong with the family of Mr. Koh Bong-geun, who had just been taken out of Jongno-seo.

“Ugh…”

“Honey? Honey?! Come on!”

Mr. Koh Bong-geun collapsed.

It was only natural that problems would arise, since people who had just been tortured were now thrown out into the freezing cold where their flesh felt like it would tear at them.

Of course, the torture was only temporary, so there weren’t any major physical problems, but it is true that he was a little weaker than usual.

“Shh. It’s not time to raise your voice yet.”

“A person just collapsed, what the…”

“He puts it on my back and the rest of us follow me diligently.”

“I should at least stop by the congressman…”

“The whole city is in an uproar right now, trying to find us. If we stop by the hospital in this situation, we might be able to get treatment, but we’ll be dragged back to that horrible place.”

“······.”

“You only get one chance. You don’t get a second chance.”

They have no choice.

I did the same.

For now, the best thing to do was to just walk to Suyu-ri, where I had agreed to meet Kim Sang-ok.

‘Wow… Originally, I was planning to stay a little longer at Jongno-seo and observe the situation…’

Things got a bit messy.

Originally, the plan was to check the condition of Go Bong-geun and his family in the interrogation room and then take them out due to insufficient evidence when time allowed.

But when I saw Mr. Koh Bong-geun being tortured, the lid suddenly fell off.

‘Sigh… I should have calmed down a bit.’

It wasn’t the first time I had seen torture.

There have been a few times when I have done it with my own hands.

But that doesn’t mean he was used to torture.

Moreover, the target was our people, so we couldn’t just tolerate it.

“Cluck, cluck…”

“Just a little more effort. Just a little more and you’ll reach Suyuri.”

“Is Sangok in Suyuri?”

“Well, I can’t guarantee that.”

Honestly, I don’t know if Kim Sang-ok will be in Suyuri.

Even though we moved a bit faster and reduced our force, there were still Japanese police swarming around Namsan.

Of course, if it were the Mr. Kim Sang-ok I know, I think he would somehow break through the siege and come to Suyuri… but there’s no telling if he’ll get there before us.

So I took my group and walked through the snow-covered Gyeongseong.

We ran into some police officers walking along the street here and there, but they all seemed to be busy going to work, so they didn’t even look at us.

“Everyone is busy…”

“That makes sense.”

“······.”

“Your husband is a strong man, so he will be fine. He may have some burn marks on his face, but his handsome face will never go away.”

“Are you… Sangok’s colleague?”

“yes.”

I didn’t look back, but when I heard Mr. Kim Sang-ok’s older sister’s voice trembling, I could imagine what kind of expression she had.

“So are you someone who throws bombs and shoots guns like Sangok?”

“Similar.”

“is it so…”

It seemed like she had a lot to ask, but she didn’t ask anything.

After that, we just walked silently until we reached Suyuri.

After that, I asked my teacher’s older sister and went to Mr. Kim Sang-ok’s maternal home.

“Tongue, bro…!”

“Sangok!”

“Sister? No, why are you all here…?”

The teacher was waiting for us at Suyuri, one step ahead of us.

As soon as the teacher’s older sister saw him, she ran to him, hugged him, and cried.

Others were no different from her.

Except for Mr. Go Bong-geun who was riding on my back, everyone ran to the teacher and cried loudly.

“How is everyone…?”

After the tearful reunion, the teacher looked around at his family and asked.

Then my older sister answered kindly.

“Your colleague here helped us.”

“colleague?”

The teacher looked at me awkwardly, and I smiled awkwardly and waved my hand slightly.

In any case, Mr. Kim Sang-ok, who had been worried about his family who had been taken to Jongnoseo, was very happy to meet them again.

That is, until I saw Mr. Koh Bong-geun.

“Bonggeun…? This guy! Why is his face like this…?”

“A guy named Kim Tae-seok from Jongro-seo did that.”

“Kim Tae-seok…? Are you talking about the torture king Kim Tae-seok?!”

“You seem to be quite adept at torturing people.”

Smoke rose slowly from the teacher’s body.

If boiling anger were visible, this is what it would look like.

Mr. Kim Sang-ok took two pistols from his luggage and tried to go outside without looking back.

He put his hand on the teacher’s shoulder and held him.

“Where are you going?”

“I plan on smashing the face of the bastard who made my brother-in-law look like that on the ground.”

“He’s already dead.”

“what?”

I felt the teacher’s anger subside slightly at the news that the guy was dead.

“Yes, it was a very painful send off.”

“······Really?”

“The teacher’s brother-in-law is a witness.”

“her…”

The teacher sat down on the bed, smiling hollowly.

Then he raised his head and looked at the white snow falling from the sky, blowing out a long puff of smoke.

“Haa… I’m not doubting you, but the evil Kim Tae-seok who has been tormenting his comrades for so long is dead… A little… A little…”

“Are you feeling empty?”

“······Maybe it’s closer to that.”

The teacher took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket.

But there wasn’t a single cigarette in it.

I naturally pulled out a cigarette and put it in the teacher’s mouth.

“Since one of them has come up, we should light some incense.”

“Ha! I can’t stop you.”

I lit the teacher’s cigarette with a disposable lighter, then lit mine and sat down next to the teacher.

The two of us didn’t say anything until we finished smoking one cigarette.

The teacher listened to the sounds coming from inside the house, and I just smoked a cigarette next to him.

At that time, the awkward silence continued.

“That guy Kim Tae-seok… did you hear his will?”

“A will?”

“okay.”

Even if it was a will, nothing came to mind.

All I did was cut, pluck, and burn him until he cried and begged for his life.

“Um… he asked me to save him.”

“Ha! Is it true that even the most vicious Japanese lackeys can do nothing in the face of death?”

The teacher was quietly holding a cigarette in his mouth, even the filter was burned out.

“There are more than a few comrades who were tortured and left crippled to death by that guy.”

“okay.”

“He was a guy I was going to kill someday… but he died so vainly… I feel a little…”

“Do you regret not being able to do it yourself?”

“······It’s a refreshing feeling, like a tooth that was hurting has come out, but you can still feel the empty space with the tip of your tongue.”

“I should have wrapped it up nicely and delivered it to you, teacher.”

“What? Phew!”

The teacher burst into laughter, spitting out his cigarette butt.

But the eyes did not smile.

“Whew… Governor Saito’s case… will be difficult?”

“It’s going to be tough because the border has been strengthened.”

“I guess so.”

This was difficult for me to help with.

Gyeongseong is currently in chaos, like a beehive being being poked.

The teacher sighed as if he felt regret.

“Then I guess I should wait until things calm down and then return to Shanghai.”

“Then what about the bomb…?”

“First, I will report this matter to the head of the Yaksan garrison and then send someone.”

“Um… You said you were sending someone…”

Send someone to me from Shanghai.

It’s not that I didn’t trust them, but now that Mr. Kim Sang-ok was almost killed because of a spy, there was no guarantee that there wouldn’t be spies within the Uiyoldan.

So if they tried to contact me, there was a chance that the Japanese police would notice as well.

It was obvious that if they attempted to make contact without a safe communication network, both sides would suffer catastrophic damage.

“I would rather go to Shanghai.”

“Huh? Like me?”

“no.”

Not right now.

But I will go soon.

“As legally as possible.”

“Legal way?”

“I think you know that for now. It won’t take long.”

“If that’s what you’re saying…”

I handed the shaky teacher a wad of dollars I had snatched from the bodyguard’s bag.

Then the teacher looked startled and asked me.

“What, what is all this? Where did you get so many American dollars…?!”

“It won’t be much, but when you go back, give half of it to the Uiyoldan for its activities and the other half to the provisional government.”

“How can you trust me and give me this much money?”

“I don’t believe it.”

“what?”

“I don’t trust you, sir. But I trust your actions of throwing a bomb at Jongnoseo.”

Finally, he took out a pack of domestic cigarettes that were no longer available and placed them on top of the envelope of money.

“This is my heart.”

“There will never be a shortage of incense.”

It seemed like he welcomed the cigarettes more than the money, but it still felt good to see him so happy.

“Killing Kim Tae-seok and even taking his operating expenses… I received more from you than I gave.”

“I still have a long way to go to pay it back.”

“You’re paying it back?”

“There is something like that.”

The night sky was full of stars.

In the future, there would be things as rare as the Japanese Empire.

“Is this a secret too?”

“Let’s say that for now.”

“Wow… why does that guy have so many secrets?”

“That’s true.”