The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 39

Wrrrm—

With a deep hum of electric motors, a luxury sedan pulled out of Hanseong.

Its destination: the port of Incheon.

The arranged meeting point for the final rendezvous with the Hahoe operatives after the job was done.

Dozens of artificial islands lighting the sea, and trade ships threading between them.

Containers stacked in layers, and great vessels being assembled in an eight-story dry dock.

As if to prove the reputation of Joseon’s second-largest trading port, the night view of Incheon glittering in the distance blazed like a city that never slept, even in the dead of night.

“How do you feel?”

“Pardon?”

Enjoying the view of Incheon for only a moment.

I addressed Mooyoung, seated across from me in the vehicle. He had been sitting vacantly, tension draining from him, and now he came back to his senses.

“How do I feel…. you mean?”

“You took revenge on the man who did that to your arm, with your own hands. Happy? Relieved? Something like that?”

Listening to me, Mooyoung looked down at his hands in silence.

His mouth opened after a brief pause.

“It wasn’t as satisfying as I expected.”

Watching Mooyoung’s complicated expression, I gave a slight shrug, as if to say: go on.

After a moment to gather his words, Mooyoung slowly opened his mouth.

“Killing Jo Seonghwan was simple. By the time I found him, he was already half-dead…….”

“And?”

“Well, it may be presumptuous of me to say, but I…….”

I could already see where this was going.

I curved the corner of my mouth and said it for him.

“You wanted to break him yourself, when he was at his best.”

Mooyoung’s eyes widened at my words.

“He’s the one who cut off your arm, stole your chance, and made your life what it became. You wanted to punish him with your own hands. Not with anyone else’s strength—with yours alone.”

“…….”

“That’s what you wanted to say, isn’t it?”

Mooyoung’s head slowly moved up and down.

His expression was that of a man wondering how I had known what he was about to say.

How? Simple.

The way warriors think hasn’t changed, even in the twenty-third century.

Probably would have gotten the same answer if I’d sent Taewoong instead of Mooyoung.

“If you could have completed your revenge that way, it would’ve been ideal.”

With that opening, I held out a piece of the snack I’d been eating to Mooyoung.

“But your way, Mooyoung…. there’s no future in it.”

“No future, you mean?”

“Right. If you’d taken down Jo Seonghwan yourself—what do you think would’ve happened next?”

Mooyoung could figure it out without much difficulty.

Jo Seonghwan was a noble. Mooyoung was nothing more than a ronin swordsman. A ronin, at that, of surrendered Japanese descent.

If he had won in a fair fight, the Pungyang Jo clan would never have let Mooyoung live.

And his only younger sister—she goes without saying.

“So that’s why you had me kill him this way. Disguised as an Andong Kim crime—to protect me….”

As if finally understanding, Mooyoung nodded slowly.

“That’s part of it. But let’s go a little further.”

“A little further…. you mean?”

Mooyoung wore a puzzled expression, as if he couldn’t quite follow.

Some additional explanation seemed necessary.

I opened the rear-seat refrigerator and took out a chilled crystal glass.

“Mooyoung. What’s the best revenge?”

“Pardon?”

“Forgiving your enemy? Forgetting them? Living so well that their face doesn’t even cross your mind anymore? No.”

Along with that rambling question, I filled the finest craftsman-made crystal glass with a convenience store drink.

‘Limited edition fresh cream melon truffle sujeonggwa,’ of all things.

Now they’ve gone and put truffles in cinnamon punch. Some lunatic is truly out of their mind.

I held the bottle out toward Mooyoung, gesturing to ask if he wanted some. He shook his head emphatically—absolutely not.

Smart man.

Savoring the horrifying taste of the cinnamon punch, I spoke to Mooyoung.

“If I thought it would end with just one man’s life, I wouldn’t have started in the first place. Real revenge is destroying everything connected to that person.”

My words came out without hesitation, and Mooyoung’s eyes went wide.

“The fruits of everything he built. His parents, siblings, lover, family, kin. His clothes, his genealogy, his identification tag. Everything his hands touched, everything his name was recorded in, every person who remembers him. You have to grind all of it down to nothing, without leaving a single piece.”

The crystal glass chimed softly as I set it on its case, and my face twisted further as I looked at Mooyoung.

I was laughing.

Laughing so hard I could barely contain it, overcome with satisfaction.

“Erasing that person’s existence completely from the world. Making it so that if his name is ever uttered out of nowhere one day, not a single person can remember his face, let alone his name. Books, video, audio, photographs…. purging his existence clean from every possible record. That is revenge.”

Killing, torturing, humiliating—all of that is just the process leading there. At best, it’s nothing more than letting off steam.

That’s why I had Mooyoung kill Jo Seonghwan.

So that through his death, everything he had built could collapse with him.

“The Pungyang Jo clan will fall. I made it happen, and you carried it out with your own hands.”

“……!”

“So take pride in it, Mooyoung.”

Saying that, I raised one finger.

“You didn’t just cut down Jo Seonghwan. You cut down one of the pillars holding up the sky of this Joseon.”

---

“Seonghwan, ou, our Seonghwan did what?! He’s, dead…!”

“My lady?!”

“Bring her inside! Quickly! Where is the emergency medical team!”

When word of Jo Seonghwan’s death spread, the Pungyang Jo clan’s main house in Namyangju became nothing short of chaos.

The sudden death of the heir.

The clan’s secrets unearthed without any warning.

The shocking news that a Rift had been opened in Hanseong—and the further news that the one responsible was Jo Seonghwan, now dead.

Events that would each have been enough to upend a clan on their own were crashing down in rapid succession.

[Breaking news. The cause of last night’s widespread power outage has been identified as a Pungyang Jo clan research facility. An official press conference by the Administration is forthcoming…]

[Pungyang Pharmaceutical, in which the Pungyang Jo clan holds over 80% of shares, came under direct Royal Investigative Bureau audit this morning. 112 senior executives were detained on-site, and the Administration intends to subject them to rigorous interrogation…]

[Internal testimony has been received naming the late Jo Seonghwan, heir to the Pungyang Jo clan, as the mastermind behind the recent Rift Incident in Hanseong. The information came from an anonymous informant…]

Among it all, the most devastating force was the press.

Every media outlet in Joseon was broadcasting the news that the Pungyang Jo clan had conducted monster research.

Reporters were slipping into clan facilities without pause.

And the branch houses that should have been stopping them were each being either hauled away by the Royal Investigative Bureau or scrambling to flee the country.

The Pungyang Jo clan’s limbs were being severed before they could even mount a response.

“The entire country is shouting that the main house is traitors. This is no ordinary crisis!”

“The Royal Investigative Bureau is storming our facilities in Hanseong. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before the royal guards come here to Namyangju!”

“What on earth did young master do, for the research facility to be exposed like this? And why did Young Master Kim Hyunwoo resort to something this extreme—!”

Receiving desperate reports from every direction, the eyes of the Pungyang Jo clan’s senior figures all turned to one man.

The head of the Pungyang Jo clan, Right State Councilor Jo Gangwoon.

His face could not hide the fury rising within him as he called to mind the face of Kim Jungheon—the man who must have planned all of this.

“Lord Right Councilor, should we not silence the press immediately? If we leave it like this——!”

“No.”

One word.

That single word, like the roar of an old beast, pressed heavily down on the atmosphere in the room.

“The fact that the press has begun to hammer the main house means the other nobles in the Administration have also turned their backs on us. It is already too late to wage a battle of public opinion.”

“Then, the researchers and guards in the research building….”

“They will have long since been ‘secured’ as ‘evidence.'”

It was likewise only a matter of time before the clan’s facilities in Hanseong were seized by the royal guards.

Then sending the main house’s forces to Hanseong was pointless.

“The fact that the Andong Kim clan has moved this aggressively means they are equally confident.”

Decisively, they had killed the clan’s one and only heir.

Jo Seonghwan.

All of these facts pointed to a single conclusion.

Like an old predator exhaling one slow, low snarl, Jo Gangwoon opened his mouth.

“There is no room for negotiation. The Andong Kim clan has moved with the intent to bring the main house to its knees completely.”

The fact that the Pungyang Jo clan had conducted monster research was already exposed to the world.

The moment the Royal Investigative Bureau’s investigation concluded, none of those involved in the research would be able to escape the charge of treason.

The clan’s elders, himself included, would be stripped of noble status, and the Pungyang Jo clan—once a prestigious house—would fall completely.

If it came to that….

Beeeep—!

A sudden alarm tore Jo Gangwoon out of his thoughts.

A report instantly materialized on his visual interface.

Royal guards were closing in on this estate in Namyangju.

“Fifteen tactical-grade combat modules, three fighter squadrons. Five multi-directional armored vehicles and a hundred and twenty royal guards….”

A force no different from what one would send into open warfare.

A hollow laugh escaped him unbidden.

“So. They have made up their minds after all.”

Already done with the main house’s facilities in Hanseong, and now coming here to Namyangju.

Far too fast.

Then there was only one thing to conclude.

The Andong Kim clan had been planning this from the very beginning.

They had known about the monster research all along and been watching for the right moment.

Yes. From that man, it was possible.

Kim Jungheon.

That serpent coiled at the top of the Administration—from him, this and more would be no trouble at all!

“Once the heir Kim Hyunwoo is fully grown, there will be no one left to challenge the Andong Kim clan’s power—this is exactly the dragon taking the jewel into its mouth.”

Watching the royal guards approaching in the distance, Jo Gangwoon murmured quietly.

“You intend to become a dragon in the end.”

Taking Kim Hyunwoo, your own blood, into your mouth and soaring into the sky.

Unable to conceal the nature you were born with, determined to sit upon the throne after all.

Breaking with your own hands the covenant upheld for hundreds of years!

“If the Pungyang Jo clan—the only force capable of keeping you in check—falls, there will not be a single clan anywhere that can stop the Andong Kim clan’s unchecked dominance.”

If he knew Jo Gangwoon was here, Kim Jungheon would come in person.

“I will not die so easily.”

Having settled his thoughts, Jo Gangwoon spoke in a hardened voice.

“Send word to every aristocratic house in Joseon. The Pungyang Jo clan denies all charges, and every incident was fabricated by the Andong Kim clan. And the Andong Kim clan has used this affair to kill our heir and…….”

It could have been an unforeseen accident.

Everything could simply be his own conjecture.

But even so, he could not lie down and die quietly like this.

If there was even a small chance of survival.

If there was any means of weathering this crisis—lies or otherwise, he had no choice but to use it.

“The head of their house, Kim Jungheon, plans to seat himself upon the throne.”

The moment those words from clan head Jo Gangwoon ended——

Boom—!

With a thunderous crash, Royal Investigative Bureau agents stormed the Pungyang Jo clan’s main house.

Four-legged combat robots dropping from the sky.

Royal guards descended on either flank of the tactical-grade combat modules, and from their center, someone slowly stepped forward.

It was Kim Jungheon, head of the Andong Kim clan.

“Lord Right Councilor. It has been a while.”

“Welcome, Lord Left Councilor. You honor this humble place with your visit.”

A greeting bristling with killing intent.

“Please cooperate quietly with the investigation.”

The first to speak, as they locked eyes, was Kim Jungheon.

“Matters have come to an extreme, but the main house has no desire to let the rift grow any deeper. If we can reach agreement on several points, the Pungyang Jo clan will be able to maintain its current position.”

“Agreement? What agreement do you mean. An agreement to turn the Pungyang Jo clan into a rubber stamp for your Andong Kim clan?”

“Lord Right Councilor.”

At Jo Gangwoon’s jab, Kim Jungheon’s voice dropped a register.

“The Pungyang Jo clan is currently facing charges of treason, and the evidence is clear.”

“…….”

“And yet, I am offering you an opportunity. Bear in mind that allowing emotion to cloud one’s judgment is not a wise course of action.”

A dry, expressionless voice—as if emotion had never existed in the first place.

That voice only twisted Jo Gangwoon’s composure further.

“An opportunity, you say.”

With a short, humorless laugh, Jo Gangwoon’s eyes fixed on Kim Jungheon.

“If you wanted to say something like that, you should at least not have killed Seonghwan.”

The next instant, a razor-sharp gust of wind shot toward Kim Jungheon.

Kaboom—!

A tactical module that had stepped forward took the wind blast Jo Gangwoon fired in his stead.

Not so much as a twitch of Kim Jungheon’s brow.

Seeing that, Jo Gangwoon’s face contorted into something demonic.

“You made Seonghwan—my one and only son—into what he is now, and you, the one who did it, dare stand before me and speak of opportunity——!”

A torrent of phase power shook the Pungyang Jo estate.

Even from the shockwave alone, the surrounding royal guards stumbled back several paces—yet Kim Jungheon merely looked back at Jo Gangwoon from exactly where he had been standing.

“I fully understand the grief of losing an heir. Even so, viewing matters from the perspective of the entire nation…….”

“You understand?! You understand me?!”

Kim Jungheon’s voice, in this moment of hair-trigger tension.

But hearing those words, Jo Gangwoon’s face twisted as though he had heard something he should never have had to hear.

“No. That cannot be.”

Jo Gangwoon said.

“You were always like this. Shutting your own emotions away entirely, choosing only the most rational and efficient path.”

For all he may have looked otherwise, Jo Gangwoon was a contemporary of Kim Jungheon—a man who had lived through the same era.

They had known each other for decades, and competed for the highest power in Joseon for decades.

So he could say with confidence that he knew Kim Jungheon better than anyone else in Joseon.

And yet—what had that man just said?

Understand?

It was an absurd piece of nonsense.

“A monster who has lived since birth without ever knowing human feeling! Someone who sees people, affection, family, blood—all of it as nothing but tools! You dare claim you understand the heart of a father who has lost his child? That you understand the human heart?! Don’t make me laugh!”

Wrrrmmm—!

As the surroundings shifted, the royal guards who noticed it exchanged looks of alarm.

“My lord. That is——!”

Like a single vast living creature, the entirety of Namyangju was moving as one.

Every entrance to the city had been sealed off, and the clan’s private soldiers, armed with artificial bodies and armored vehicles, had been deployed throughout.

Surface-to-air missiles and rotary cannons were being positioned on high-rise rooftops, and dozens of combat modules had risen into the air with weapons engaged.

“This is not some clumsy imitation of a human. You monster…!”

Namyangju.

Once called Pungyang County—the ancestral home of the Pungyang Jo clan.

This clan city, where the members of the power clans lived gathered together, had become a massive fortress before anyone realized it.

‘The Pungyang Jo phase power wielders are nowhere to be seen. They intend to pin me and the royal guards down here, then scatter to strike the main house’s facilities in each region.’

“Tsk.”

Grasping the situation through intelligence flowing in from the bureau, Kim Jungheon clicked his tongue sharply.

‘How foolish.’

All it would have taken was a single bow of the head.

To say that everything had been Jo Seonghwan’s doing alone.

That they had known nothing.

If they had said that, the main house would have matched the story and resolved the conflict without difficulty.

‘I simply cannot understand it.’

A new heir could always be made.

What is the point of rampaging like this over talk of family vengeance and the grudge of a murdered son.

Why put the entire clan at risk by letting useless emotion lead the way.

“All forces, combat ready.”

Having given the order to the royal guards, Kim Jungheon slowly loosened the cord and drew his hwando.

With things arrived at this point, only one choice remained.

Ending this situation as swiftly as possible.

“Beginning now, on my command—we subdue Lord Jo Gangwoon.”