The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 93

“……?”

Inside a private aircraft where only the soft hum of engines sounded low.

Father Jeong Suhan opened his eyes slowly, as though waking from a long stupor.

The feel of the fine leather seat and the endless night sky visible through the window stripped away all sense of reality.

“You disappeared so suddenly I was startled. Making excuses to the corporate city side took quite some doing.”

“……Young Master.”

I smiled as though nothing were the matter, but Father Jeong Suhan said nothing, his expression vacant.

His eyes had lost focus and were wandering through empty air.

No, not quite vacant…. it was closer to the look of someone desperately trying to understand something.

“You have much you want to say, don’t you?”

I spoke gently to Father Jeong Suhan, who gave a small flinch.

I could feel his shoulders stiffen.

“You won’t be able to understand it. Why I didn’t stop that atrocity. Why I left that man alone knowing so many people would die. And why I restrained a priest who was lunging at his own friend.”

“…….”

Instead of answering, he pressed his lips firmly shut.

After a moment of biting down hard, Father Jeong Suhan spoke in a trembling voice.

“I know that it is thanks to you that I made it here, and that I am still alive. I will not forget that debt. But…!”

The end of his voice wavered thin.

“That said, there is no need for you to hold your tongue.”

I opened my mouth readily.

Time remaining to destination: roughly thirty minutes.

My mouth happening to be idle at just the right moment, I spoke up willingly, as one nibbles on a snack.

“I will tell you everything. Which shall I answer first?”

“…….”

Perhaps he had not expected me to speak this readily.

Having taken a moment to collect his words, Father Jeong Suhan finally seemed to make a decision. He looked straight at my face and said:

“That friend…. what was your reason for keeping Baek Donghyeon alive?”

“Because I needed his assistance to handle the matter the family entrusted to me.”

I answered in an entirely businesslike tone.

“The Andong Kim clan wishes to subjugate the monsters that have dug in across the archipelago, but at the same time they do not want the corporate city alliance to reclaim the mainland.”

I said it plainly, leaning back against the seat.

As though fitting the last piece of a long-standing puzzle into place, or confirming a truth one did not want to believe.

Father Jeong Suhan pressed his lips tight. The color visibly drained from his face.

“…And so, Lord Kim Jungheon, the head of the family, dispatched Young Master Kim Hyunwoo and me at the same time. Young Master Kim Hyunwoo takes charge of the monster subjugation head-on, while I work from behind in the interim, disrupting the course of the war and forcing the maximum possible losses on the corporate city alliance. It is a kind of feint operation, one might say.”

“That is why you left Donghyeon…. the Society of Truth alone? To strike the corporate city from behind?”

“You have seen it exactly right.”

I continued in a tone as calm as though speaking of another country’s affairs.

Well, it was literally another country’s affairs.

“By my estimate, the Society of Truth is a gathering of those who bear a grudge against the corporate city alliance. People who have been robbed, oppressed, and abandoned. They disguise themselves as a charitable organization to win the hearts of the city’s lower classes, and from behind they plot terrorist attacks to sow chaos.”

What would follow was plain as day.

The corporate city’s retaliatory suppression operations would begin, generating vast numbers of casualties as a result.

Those who had lost family to them would then come knocking at the Society of Truth’s door, seeking vengeance.

Resentment and malice would be endlessly reproduced.

“According to our intelligence, this is not the first or second time they have used this tactic. They have already done the same in more than three cities, growing their membership through the same method. The reason Shimazu failed to grasp it in time….”

“Is that there was no proper intelligence-sharing between the corporate cities.”

Mizutani, picking up my words, looked down at his mechanical hand and said it flatly.

In his voice, instead of anger, deep self-mockery and exhaustion were intertwined.

“The corporate cities were already divided into two factions, Shimazu and Mori, fighting at every turn. They’ve united now for the common purpose of subjugating the monsters, but it’s essentially no different from living under the same roof as your enemy. Once the monster subjugation is over, the cities in the alliance will point their guns at each other without hesitation. They always have.”

“…….”

Father Jeong simply fell silent, but Mizutani went on regardless.

“So they don’t share information. Because they regard each other as potential rivals and enemies. On the contrary, they conceal the fact that they’ve suffered a terrorist attack, and somehow put on a performance as if nothing has happened.”

Like their proverb about covering a lid over something that smells, they never breathe a word of anything that might become a weakness of theirs.

“The Society of Truth’s power has now reached a level that cannot be ignored.”

Watching the priest’s expression, I added a slow supplement.

“Their members’ morale is considerable as well, and their organization is excellent. If we smuggle in weapons and ammunition and put them in those hands, they can be used as pieces on the board to strike the corporate city from behind.”

“……Why. Why go to such lengths?”

Jeong Suhan, listening to that, asked back with an expression of utter incomprehension. His eyes filled with despair.

“This is already a war producing enormous casualties. A war where thousands, tens of thousands are dying! When cooperating to subjugate monsters is barely enough, why…! Why are you inciting the same human beings to fight one another!”

“Because it serves Joseon’s national interest.”

Father Jeong’s eyes widened, but I said it flatly, without changing my expression.

“Japan’s corporate cities must fend off monster attacks, stir up monster nests for the mainland campaign, and at the same time prepare for conflict between the cities. To accomplish all three at once requires weapons and ammunition on an astronomical scale, and all manner of consumer goods needed for daily life.”

But the corporate city side had no room to produce any of this themselves, leaving only one option: import it from outside.

“So Joseon’s corporations have driven into that gap.”

Mooyoung, who had been listening quietly and seemed to have grasped the structure, added a single remark.

Working alongside me, you’ve finally started to read the wind yourself.

I nodded and continued.

“The corporate cities have maintained a wartime footing for hundreds of years, and this generates an enormous war-economy boom. Joseon has amassed immense wealth by selling those war materials.”

“……!”

“But if they reclaim the mainland, Joseon loses the ability to enjoy that war-economy boom, so assisting the reclamation would be a self-defeating move, like cutting open the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

All while feigning to assist with monster subjugation, they have been continuously obstructing the recovery of Japanese territory behind the scenes.

This is the method Joseon’s rulers have carried on from generation to generation.

Assisting with monster subjugation is nothing more than a nominal pretext.

The reality is a scheme to maintain the chaos of the Japanese archipelago, exploiting it for their benefit.

Everything has been a smokescreen to protect Joseon’s wealth and status as a great power.

“Joseon’s…. national interest?”

Father Jeong echoed my last words, as though the breath had gone out of him.

His voice was now steeped less in anger than in deep despondency.

“Is it to slaughter so many people for that? For that paltry profit…. for money?”

“It is not our people dying, after all. What does it matter whether thousands die or tens of thousands.”

I answered briefly, then looked at Father Jeong Suhan and gave a bitter smile. As though telling an old joke.

“Besides, it is the corporate city’s role to pull the trigger, not ours. We merely give the flow a small turn, guiding it in the direction that benefits Joseon.”

“……!”

Even the responsibility for those dying is calculated and shifted onto others.

A scheme the Catholics would call demonic.

Hearing my explanation, Father Jeong Suhan bit his lip hard and trembled his clenched fist.

In his eyes, instead of tears, a cold anger and a deep sense of helplessness had settled.

“That friend said something similar. That it was not he who massacred the residents of the shantytown, but something the corporate city did….”

“We are alike, it seems. Baek Donghyeon is someone of a similar grain to me.”

Having said that, I turned and looked squarely at the priest.

“Father. For all appearances, I am a member of the noble class and a scion of the Andong Kim line. Do you understand what that means?”

As though confessing an old sin.

I said it to him, my expression composed.

“It means I am not, as you imagine, a good or upright person.”

---

Clunk.

When the private aircraft’s door opened, the unfamiliar air of the airport flooded in.

A VIP hangar provided by the corporate city.

Instead of the noise of an ordinary airport, the cool stillness particular to a restricted zone filled the space.

“Here is your room key, prepared in advance. You may stay here until the flight back to Joseon arrives.”

“Is that…. so.”

Father Jeong Suhan murmured without energy and accepted the key card.

Completely drained by what he had been through over the past several days, Father Jeong’s voice crumbled away without strength, like dry leaves.

“Since coming here, it feels as though I have only been on the receiving end from you, Young Master. I wouldn’t think I’m a person of much value to you.”

“……Value.”

At those mildly barbed words, I gave a short smile.

Reading the resignation and faint defiance settled deep in his eyes was not difficult.

“That will depend on the choice you make.”

“My… choice?”

He asked back. As though the very word “choice” were somehow unfamiliar.

“You may return as-is to Joseon, where your family is waiting.”

“…….”

“But if you wish to change this situation even slightly.”

I paused, then operated my personal terminal and sent Father Jeong Suhan a single message.

A short encrypted text file. Inside it was the information I had gathered regarding the Society of Truth and Baek Donghyeon, along with a proposal for several “tasks” he could undertake using that information.

“This is…!”

The priest, seeing it, caught his breath and stared at me with a look of blank astonishment. His hands trembled faintly.

“It will not be impossible. It may in fact be something only a priest could accomplish. You will have had some thought of it yourself.”

“……!”

He said nothing. His expression was that of someone lost between conviction and desire for vengeance, guilt and rage.

Seeming to have more to think about, the priest fell silent, and I offered him a final word.

“I say again: the choice, in the end, is yours to make. Whatever choice you make, its consequences must also be borne entirely by you.”

Leaving those words, I no longer turned my eyes to him.

This was purely bait laid to satisfy my own curiosity.

Whether Father Jeong answered my message or did not, the plan already in place would not change.

Having sent Father Jeong Suhan on his way, a corridor leading toward the conference room.

“What I just said is something I’m saying to you as well.”

Without stopping my steps, I spoke to those following behind me.

“I am a schemer who uses people for profit and for purpose. If it is the most efficient method, I may use even you without hesitation as pieces on the board.”

It was a kind of final confirmation.

If I was to walk a dirty road with these people, at minimum they needed to know clearly what kind of person the master they were following was.

Better to have them face the truth from the start than to let them harbor illusions or expectations.

I stopped briefly in the middle of the corridor and, looking slowly at each of those who followed me one by one, said,

“If you are going to leave, now is the only time.”

A taut silence wrapped the corridor.

Only the mechanical sound of a security robot on its regular patrol interval could be heard.

But that too lasted only a moment.

“Even so, I will continue to serve you.”

The first to break the silence was, as always, Taewoong. Slowly shaking his head, he looked at me with steady eyes and said:

“Why? Even knowing what kind of person I am?”

“I follow the Young Master because I wish to watch the Young Master grow. Not because the Young Master is good or noble.”

Having said that, Taewoong showed a brief smile. The faint smile that crossed his blunt face conveyed a deeper trust than any elaborate oath of loyalty could.

“I follow the Young Master because the Young Master chose me.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Mooyoung followed.

A different kind of certainty from Taewoong’s.

As though it were the only truth in the world, a single unwavering sentence.

That one can be a little unsettling sometimes.

I gave a bitter smile and opened my mouth.

“Having said that much, I won’t let you go even in death now. Let that be known to all.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

“Of course.”

Childish.

While roughly smoothing over that awkward but genuine warmth.

“What about me. When is my turn?”

Just as things seemed to be wrapping up, Mizutani, who had been hovering on the side, butted in without reading the room.

“I thought I worked pretty diligently too, but am I being ignored? I’m quite wounded by this, actually.”

“Wounded, my foot. I never needed to ask you in the first place.”

The heightened emotion that had built up shattered to pieces at a single shameless remark from Mizutani.

As expected from a wako.

I twisted the corner of my mouth with mischief and spoke.

“The contract you signed wasn’t an employment contract, it was a bill of sale. Unlike these two I recruited at great expense, you get discarded the moment you break down.”

“Wh, what?”

Mizutani choked with exaggerated drama and frantically pulled up his interface.

“No, what?! It, it really is a bill of sale?! What I signed was a deed relinquishing my body?! Wh, wh, wh, when did…!”

“When do you think. When you were being all sentimental about boss this and boss that, I slipped it in and changed it. I was inwardly looking forward to seeing when you’d catch on, but you never did, right to the end.”

“You, you devious corrupt official…!”

Oh, quite the vocabulary for a wako.

He might even pass Joseon’s naturalization exam without failing out.

Thinking that, I pulled out the original contract file saved in the interface and gave a quiet smile.

“I’ll wring you dry to the marrow, you wako. Look forward to it.”

“Ah, aah……!”

As though the power had gone out of his joint actuators, Mizutani collapsed on the spot with a thud.

“Ha. Young Master. Again….”

Taewoong, sighing and shaking his head, and Mooyoung, frantically pulling out his own contract to check it.

Yes, good. Read it thoroughly now, even this late.

Not that I have any intention of letting you go even if you do read it now.