The Imperial Hunter Chapter 41 - Starving Port (3)

‘Trembling Giant.’ Since I gained a fascination with water on that white and misty winter day in the forest, there had been one small improvement in my life. I could now easily remove the moisture that built up between my silicone mask and my skin. In a hot country like Mexico, this was a tremendous advantage. I used to wonder how CIA agents, the pioneers of this kind of disguise technology, managed to wear or attach these things all day long, as if they had some kind of secret technique. But now, it had become somewhat manageable for me too. I might not have their skills and patience, but I made do with a bit of magic.

However, wearing it continuously for several days was still challenging. Even after removing the moisture, the oil residue remained, and no matter how thin and finely sculpted the mask was, it still felt stuffy to wear. Furthermore, achieving perfect coordination with facial muscles required the use of pressure and adhesive agents to squeeze and adhere to the face. So, if the material lost its elasticity or adhesion, I had to replace it with a spare mask. This was especially true if it wasn’t a full-cover type like the one I currently used. The more improvement there was in disguise and comfort, the more parts needed attention.

Therefore, when I was out in public, engaged in activities under disguise, I rarely had the chance to use my own room. Firstly, it was for security measure, and secondly, it was a safety measure to ensure that I wouldn’t accidentally expose my bare face while resting.

“I’ll check it briefly.”

It was the 12th morning of my stay in Puerto Vallarta. Suyeon, who had finished preparing to go out, carefully examined my mask. Originally, wearing and finishing the adhesive on this thing was her job, but lately, I’d been doing it myself while looking in the mirror, using precise telekinesis techniques.

Suyeon poked my cheek with her fingers and turned my chin here and there. She soon nodded with an okay sign.

“Everything looks fine.”

With a passing grade, I shifted my gaze to the glass bottle on the table. It contained the crazy ant queen, which had been kidnapped by a regular ant with the help of another ant, receiving nutrition from it. Since I left Houston, checking this every morning had become part of my daily routine. In my subordinates’ personal belongings, there was also one glass bottle each.

Beyond the table, curtains bathed in the morning sun were softly glowing. Through the gap in the curtains, a calm sea sparkled like a river. The harbor was still peaceful.

“Perucho is waiting outside.”

Suyeon’s report made me smile lightly even in my half-awake state.

“That guy is begging like he’s asking for your seat.”

“What do you mean…?”

“He’s acting like my secretary.”

It was just a casual remark, but Suyeon’s gaze became chillingly sharp. I had occasionally felt this before, but there was definitely a somewhat obsessive side to my chief secretary’s attachment to her position. She reacted strongly even when lightly touched.

‘In the end, it must be because of her older brother’s legacy.’

In Singapore, Suyeon answered that she had been living for herself for 10 years. But from my perspective, it seemed more like the younger sister’s possessiveness regarding the role that should have been her older brother’s. It was an obsession as unchanging as the seasons during rivers and mountains transformation.

So, if I were to ask whether I disliked it, the answer was no. Why would I dislike it? As long as this obsession didn’t change, her loyalty to me wouldn’t change either. I diverted the attention with a casual question.

“What time did that guy start waiting outside today?”

“He’s been waiting since 5 in the morning.”

“He’s quite dedicated.”

“He didn’t even go home yesterday. He stayed at this hotel.”

Did he have that kind of money? That thought quickly faded away. Naturally, he wouldn’t have paid. He probably used our close relationship as leverage to demand special treatment from the hotel or the hotel took care of it themselves. I had figured out that he was the kind of person who would do that over the past few days. He believed himself to be different from others, but in reality, he was no different.

“What about the others? Did anything unusual happen last night?”

“Nothing.”

“They probably wouldn’t be the ones, but don’t let your guard down for a moment. After putting in so much effort to come this far, we can’t turn back without a plan.”

“Understood.”

The subject of my inquiry, the other sites, naturally referred to the command center and safe houses. Currently, I was pretending to be a businessman staying in a hotel, but I had plans to move my residence when the time came. The guys deployed there were monitoring areas beyond my line of sight using satellites and drones. Eavesdropping on the satellite communication of the “Northeastern Faction” was part of their job, and they were also putting in the effort to collect radio frequencies from the Sinaloa Cartel. Even just securing the communication channels of the lesser sicarios would be a great help in understanding their overall movements.

“Kyung-tae.”

“Yes?”

“Get a suitable watch and let’s go out.”

“To whom are you giving this item?”

“Perucho.”

Kyung-tae brought the watch and received my approval, then I nodded silently.

“Let’s go.”

As we passed through the living room of the suite and stepped outside, Perucho, who had been waiting like a servant in the corridor, greeted me.

“Presidente Huan! Good morning.”

“Yes, good morning. You’re diligent as always.”

“It’s my job, after all, to serve the Presidente.”

It was an utterly sincere-sounding remark, to the point of being amusing. Where had that slightly annoying attitude he had when we first met gone? Even when addressing me, he always added “Chairman” or the respectful term “Don.” Now, he seemed to have become genuinely fervent in his worship.

“Thank you very much, but isn’t your official duty more important? I heard you were reinstated recently.”

A momentary twitch crossed Perucho’s face at my words.

“No, it’s not like that. You don’t have to worry about it. After all, this isn’t a complicated port where many ships come and go. Do you think I’m needed here? Rather, Presidente‘s business is the way to prosperity for the port. I am in the position where I should be.”

Abu had certainly grown in the past few days. I nodded lightly.

“If you think so. Then I’ll accept your kindness a little more.”

“Kindness? You’re saying too much, Presidente.”

In fact, it had been two days since Perucho had switched from a leave of absence to active duty. However, this chubby man, full of enthusiasm, eagerly followed me around and took on the role of a local assistant, not caring about the position he had regained and his duties.

The reason I kept this lesser government official by my side was simple: he looked unassuming. Every time people of all ages and backgrounds saw this unassuming, chubby man, they would reflect on the coincidences, fate, and luck that might have made him theirs.

Tap, tap. I signaled Kyung-tae with my fingers. Understanding the accompanied gesture, Kyung-tae opened the case containing the watch in front of Perucho.

“What’s this…?”

Blue wave patterns engraved on the dial behind the sapphire glass. The contents of the case were a mid-range model of an Omega Seamaster. To the slightly confused yet expectant obese government official with the watch and me, I gave a reassuring gesture.

“It’s because the old watch looked worn out.”

“Oh, my goodness!”

“It’s a product that costs less than $10,000, so please feel free to wear it.”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

It was an entry-level item, but it cost over $6,000. It was a luxury item that one could barely afford to buy with several months’ worth of a government official’s salary. Perucho, now wearing the watch, started to act like someone trying on a suit that didn’t fit. It was because he was paying too much attention to the watch on his wrist. And thus, the impression of this chubby man had moved beyond being unassuming and entered the realm of being an idiot, which was exactly what I had hoped for.

A $6,000 improvement in the acting skills of an actor who didn’t even know he had a role. It was not a bad price. Especially when you were swindling tens of thousands of people.

As we reached the lobby, the crowd outside the main gate had erupted in excitement.

Huan! Huan! Huan! Huan!

Their chanting of my false name created a rhythmic and overwhelming resonance. Armed police officers were struggling to control the crowd. From the moment we passed through the lobby entrance, I couldn’t hear anything anymore. In the midst of the noise, which felt like a home run hit outside the Major League Baseball championship stage, I waved to the citizens who loved Huan for quite some time before exposing the watch-clad actor and then boarded the waiting limousine.

Thunk!

After the door closed, I spoke to Perucho, who was sitting across from me.

“I feel like I’m receiving too much favor. Everything I’ve done so far is just sharing a bit of food with everyone.”

“Too much favor? Absolutely not!”

The chubby man shook both his hands and head.

“Presidente is doing things for us that even the government couldn’t do! That damned government didn’t give us a single grain of rice or a single kernel of corn!”

The chubby man became so excited that he swung his fist in the air.

“Can you believe it? In such difficult times, the government didn’t give a single peso to the suffering common people! Other countries give cash and food, but how can there be such a difference? Can’t they just delay the tax payments a bit?”

“Please calm down.”

To calm down the excited chubby man, a calm word was enough.

As Perucho mentioned, the Mexican government hadn’t come up with any relief measures for individual citizens struggling with the health crisis and the resulting economic crisis. Thanks to that, the relief goods worth 141 pesos that I distributed to each person had a tremendous impact on this starving port. I was truly grateful to the Mexican government.

141 pesos was roughly 7,900 Korean won.

The items provided per person for this amount were as follows: 4 kg of tortillas, 4 kg of rice, 2 kg of tomatoes, 2 kg of bananas, 1 liter of cooking oil, 48 eggs, one loaf of 500-gram white bread, and 1 kg of chicken. Among them, the eggs and white bread were obtained as extra bonuses, thanks to the influence of the Catholic diocese due to bulk purchasing and price reduction.

The man who helped with this task, Bishop Pérez Ortega of the Autlán diocese, started from being an unassuming chubby man and connected three bridges to become the person he was today.

“Um, Presidente, I have one thing to ask…”

“What is it?”

As I looked at him, Perucho hesitated for a moment, rolling his eyes carefully before speaking with great difficulty.

“Uh, excuse me if this is an impertinent question, but, Presidente, are you particularly close to Señorita Choi?”

Señorita Choi, or Choi, was the fake last name Suyeon used. In other words, this chubby man was asking if there was something between Suyeon and me. Right after the question was asked, Suyeon stared at the questioner with an icy expression, not blinking once. Perucho seemed uncomfortable pretending not to notice that gaze.

“No, we are not.”

I replied, turning the slightly annoying question back at him.

“But why are you asking that when you know it might be impertinent?”

“Oh, well… Señorita Choi is so exceptional, and even though she has several bedrooms, she seems to use the same suite, and she doesn’t seem to call any other woman. She’s always close to Presidente, so I was wondering if that’s the case…”

Listening, I got irritated.

“I am a celibate. Got it?”

“It’s just a question, not a judgment. You are indeed a faithful believer.”

The government official who had disembarked took on an unnatural posture like a puppet on strings. I suppressed a sigh and looked out the car window.

‘Celibacy is nonsense.’

My body might not have had a ‘proper’ experience yet, but the reason was not some stupid abstinence. It was because of these eyes. These damn eyes that wouldn’t close even if they want to.

How many perverted assholes were there in this world who would build an X-ray machine to peer into veins filled with flowing blood, a beating heart, a liver secreting bile, and intestines filled with feces, all flashing brilliantly with various information, souls, and mana? Even if all the components of the human body were vividly displayed with a variety of colors due to the influence of various factors, I was not a pervert who got excited while watching the mysterious spectacle of the human body. I could analyze the ‘objective’ beauty, but I couldn’t feel the ‘subjective’ charm.

In human desire, the visual stimulus played a significant role. Perhaps no one felt this fact more urgently than I did.

‘I’d rather have a blank slate of visual stimulation.’

I found it difficult to even imagine a human body with blood, flesh, and organs wriggling. I was exposed to the otherworldly sights all day long. While I maintained an objective image of humans through drawings and photos, connecting that image to real people in the realm of instincts was another difficult task. Perhaps in terms of sexual aspects, innate equipment was superior to mine.

However, for someone like me, sexual desire became a torment the more it accumulated.

Experience? If we must define it, I had some. There were moments in this line of work that you couldn’t avoid, and there was a need to prepare for them in advance. But that was merely concealing disabilities with elaborate imitation and technical accumulation. It was something far from being called normal behavior.

In other words, I was visually impaired.

The coldness Suyeon showed a while ago was probably annoyance at touching a sensitive nerve.

The scenery outside the car window was the street flowing north. It wasn’t far from the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Perucho, deciding that the unbearable moment had passed, started muttering again. He emphasized that his daughter was a good child and, despite dropping out of college, if only they had money, she had the ability to graduate and repeatedly emphasized that Korea was a very good country. He even interjected anecdotes that a man needed a good wife for a stable life.

Interrupting his ongoing chatter, I spoke up.

“Perucho.”

“Yes, Presidente!”

“Korea is indeed a good country, but Mexico is also a good country. Where else can you find such a beautiful country in the world?”

“……”

Perucho’s chubby face showed a hint of disappointment.