WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Abandoned Tank is a Disaster-class Awakener ◈
Chapter 52
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After a brief silence.
“Are you saying Chairman Park Gang-sik personally ordered the assassination?”
“How did you confirm the client’s identity?”
“Was the South Korean government involved as well?”
Hands soon shot up from every direction.
One reporter in the front row half rose from their seat.
“This is a serious claim. Do you have evidence to support it?”
I looked their way.
“...The evidence is right here.”
I took out the prosthetic eye I had obtained from Gaspar.
“It is a Relic that records what its wearer sees and hears. We were able to secure it from Gaspar Salazar, the leader of La Mortaja.”
At the mention of evidence, the reporters’ eyes gathered on the prosthetic eye.
“He shared the view of the subordinate who accepted the contracts. That was how he watched and recorded transactions with clients he did not personally meet.”
“You are saying it contains footage of Chairman Park Gang-sik?”
“See for yourselves.”
I poured mana into the prosthetic eye.
Bzzzz.
The footage that appeared in midair also appeared on the large screen behind us.
A brightly lit reception room.
A table with coffee and bottled water.
Park Gang-sik sat on the other side of it.
“Gasp!”
Someone in the press seats drew in a short breath.
“How may I help you?”
Then Ines’s voice flowed from the recording.
Park Gang-sik looked over the photograph once.
“If a tree grows, it becomes hard to cut down. It is easier to deal with it before it takes root.”
The sound of reporters typing on their keyboards quickened.
“There are many ways to send someone far away.”
Ines asked.
“Shall we leave them a possibility of returning?”
“No.”
His short answer echoed through the briefing room.
After playing the recording up to the point where the deal was made, I stopped the footage.
“...”
The questions that had been pouring in only moments ago ceased.
“This is not fabricated footage. The original has been submitted to American investigative authorities, and the Relic’s operation and whether the recording was altered have been appraised.”
There was every chance they would question the footage’s authenticity, so I made the matter clear.
“The appraisal results and any related materials that can be disclosed will be provided through the investigative authorities.”
“Um...”
A reporter tried to speak again.
But I continued before they could.
“This is not the only evidence.”
I turned my gaze toward the side of the podium.
Step.
The man who had been waiting walked forward.
“Huh?!”
“That person is...?”
Though this was America, there was no one who did not recognize that face.
Han Jeong-woo, the Operations Headquarters director of the Korean Awakeners Association.
He was Chairman Park Gang-sik’s right-hand man, an executive who had overseen equipment allocation and Raid Party support.
Gray-streaked hair and deeply lined eyes.
He held a thick binder to his chest.
Click, click!
Every camera shifted past me toward him.
“...”
Han Jeong-woo stopped briefly in front of the podium.
Then he looked at me for a moment.
The instant I saw his face, I remembered the press conference before my regression.
He had been holding a binder then as well.
Records of Park Gang-sik diverting Association funds.
Records of strategy guides being passed to particular guilds.
Even recordings of orders to funnel Relics and personnel to his son.
He had disclosed everything he had secured.
Though I still belonged to the Korean Awakeners Association at the time, I thought that would be the end of Park Gang-sik.
But the conclusion was absurd.
It was difficult to identify the person in the footage as Chairman Park Gang-sik.
It could not be conclusively determined that the recorded voice was his.
His face was visible.
His voice could be heard.
Yet they merely repeated, like parrots, that they could not know who he was.
After that, the direction of the investigation changed.
The only thing called into question in documents containing Park Gang-sik’s orders was Han Jeong-woo’s approval.
Employees changed their testimonies.
The corruption he had exposed somehow became something he had orchestrated.
In the end, Han Jeong-woo was the one who stepped down.
Park Gang-sik bowed his head, saying he deeply regretted failing to properly manage his subordinate.
And he kept his position.
I remembered that, and this time I contacted Han Jeong-woo first in order to finish Park Gang-sik.
When there was no answer, I contacted him again.
When he refused to meet, I waited.
He did not move easily.
At the time, Park Gang-sik’s dictatorship had gone beyond all limits.
It must have taken great courage for Han Jeong-woo to step forward as he had.
To bring that moment forward, I first showed him the evidence of the assassination contract.
And only after he confirmed that footage was he finally able to stand in this briefing room.
Just as he had when he found the courage to do so before my regression.
“...I am Han Jeong-woo, Operations Headquarters director of the Korean Awakeners Association.”
His hands trembled slightly as he set down the binder.
But his voice was clear.
“First, I will speak about the Relics shown in the footage just now.”
Documents appeared on the screen behind him.
An inventory of stored items and an approval form for their removal.
An enlarged photograph of the transport case from the footage appeared beside them.
“Some of the Relics handed over as payment for the assassination were Association property. The official reason for their removal was joint research with Mexico.”
Han Jeong-woo pointed to part of the screen.
“The approver was Chairman Park Gang-sik. I gave the working-level approval.”
The reporters’ hands moved faster.
“Did you know their intended use from the beginning?”
“I learned they were payment for an assassination after seeing the footage Mr. Kang Seong-un brought. But I bear responsibility for processing the removal without sufficiently investigating its unclear purpose.”
He paused briefly.
“That is not all.”
New documents appeared.
Equipment supply contracts.
Strategy guide access records.
Support personnel assignment charts.
“Chairman Park Gang-sik selected suppliers in advance and changed the review criteria. He gave undisclosed strategy guides to particular guilds and assigned Relics and support personnel requested by multiple Raid Parties to his son first.”
Han Jeong-woo looked straight ahead.
“Those who objected lost their posts or were excluded from support. Even in the recent selection of low-floor Raid Parties, connections to the chairman took precedence over evaluation results.”
The original evaluation sheets appeared on one side of the screen.
Beside them was the final selection list.
The altered names had been marked.
“There are approval documents, recordings, and footage for each matter. I have also submitted records of instructions I received directly.”
One reporter raised a hand.
“Director Han, were you not also responsible for running the Association all this time?”
“That is correct.”
Han Jeong-woo nodded.
“There are documents here that bear my approval as well. There were things I processed despite believing they were unjust, and things I turned a blind eye to despite knowing there was a problem.”
His gaze lowered to the documents.
“I believed I could prevent worse things from happening if I remained in my position.”
After a moment, he raised his head.
“Yet while I stayed in that position, the people I should have protected left.”
Then he looked at me.
“There are Awakeners who received high evaluations but could not join a Raid Party. There are people who gave up on raids because they could not receive equipment. There are employees who left the Association after refusing unjust orders.”
His hand pressed down harder on the binder.
“I told them to wait. I said I would change things when the opportunity came. But... I made them wait far too long.”
Click!
The shutters continued to snap.
“Standing here today does not erase my responsibility for what has happened. I will submit to an investigation of every matter I was involved in.”
Han Jeong-woo stepped out from beside the podium.
“As an executive of the Association, and as a citizen of South Korea, I apologize.”
He bowed deeply.
He did not raise his head for some time.
When he finally did, Han Jeong-woo’s expression had hardened.
“There are people preparing for their next raids while waiting for the Association’s support. There are families waiting for their children to return safely.”
His voice grew slightly hoarse.
“They should not have to worry first about whom they need to know to receive equipment, or whom they must impress to be given an opportunity.”
He opened the binder.
“I will not ask you to take my words at face value.”
A list of materials appeared on the screen.
“Please examine the documents. Please listen to the recordings. Look at everything I have done as well, and make your judgment.”
Han Jeong-woo looked into the cameras.
“Please let the facts that have been revealed remain as they are.”
He played the first recording.
Crackle.
After a brief burst of static, a familiar voice came through.
“Use the list I sent.”
“There is too much of a difference from the evaluation results.”
“Then reevaluate them. Do not tell me you are going to change the people.”
Han Jeong-woo did not lower his head.
As his own voice and Park Gang-sik’s voice alternated, he stood facing forward.
I looked toward the reporters.
Some wrote down the dates displayed on the screen.
Some urgently contacted their home countries.
Others relayed the situation to the cameras.
Unlike before my regression, far more people had received these records this time.
* * *
“Then...”
Han Jeong-woo bowed deeply once more before stepping away from the microphone.
Just as someone was about to ask a question, President Braddock rose from his seat.
He took Han Jeong-woo’s place.
“Previously, I made one thing clear.”
His low voice filled the briefing room.
“Those who attacked America would pay the price. That they would pay a price heavier than the suffering they inflicted on our people.”
Park Gang-sik’s face appeared on the screen behind him.
“La Mortaja received that warning.”
Braddock paused for a moment.
“And now, that organization is gone.”
Click, click!
“But the person who ordered the killings is still sitting in his own chair. He may think that because he handed over money, his own hands are not stained with blood.”
He looked directly into the cameras.
“Chairman Park Gang-sik. The world has seen where the Relics you sent were used.”
The room fell silent.
“During the preparation for that assassination, our citizens were murdered. The three people Mr. Kang brought to America and who were promised its protection became the next targets.”
Braddock looked at me briefly before turning back to the cameras.
“How long they have been Americans does not matter. If this country promises its protection, that promise must be kept equally for a citizen who arrived only yesterday.”
His hand tightened on the edge of the podium.
“We will not allow the citizenship we granted to end as a piece of paper.”
He continued with a resolute expression.
“I demand that the South Korean government secure Park Gang-sik’s custody. Prevent his escape and the destruction of evidence, then extradite him to America through the proper legal procedures.”
He spoke one sentence at a time.
“America will put him before our courts.”
A reporter in the front row hurriedly typed on their laptop.
“We expect South Korea to cooperate as a longtime ally. But if anyone hides him, destroys evidence, or obstructs the investigation with their power, they will also be held accountable.”
I watched Braddock standing before the microphone.
Before my regression, there had been people who spoke of Park Gang-sik’s crimes.
There had been people who presented evidence.
Each time, what followed was audits and investigations aimed at the witnesses.
This time was different.
The person naming Park Gang-sik was none other than the President of America.
The leader of the world’s strongest nation, which had begun to pull ahead even in the Age of Awakeners because I had joined it.
“We will employ every means permitted by law, including investigative and judicial procedures and diplomatic and economic measures. No matter whom he meets or what title he hides behind, this case will not disappear.”
Braddock fell silent for a moment.
The cameras lined up before him came into view.
Park Gang-sik must have been hearing what those cameras were broadcasting by now.
“Leaders of South Korea.”
His voice lowered.
“You have a responsibility to protect your people and your country’s future. Do not trade that responsibility for one man, Park Gang-sik.”
Braddock straightened.
“Choose. Will you protect South Korea’s future, or will you protect Park Gang-sik?”
Braddock openly posed the question to South Korea.
Would they prioritize Park Gang-sik over their national interests?
‘They must be moving frantically by now.’
And Park Gang-sik, upon hearing this news, would start making calls.
As he always had, he would look for someone to protect him.
But this time, even those answering the calls would have to think.
How much they were willing to bear to protect that bastard.
And what they would have to lose by protecting him.
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