WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 19: Money Follows Naturally (1)

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"Oh, thank you so much. I'll explain the details once we're on our way. I've got a car outside, if you're free to head over right now, I can drive you there myself."

"Ah, going right now might be a bit..."

Kang Jin-ho had only just started the morning shift, and there was still plenty of work stacked up. He was about to decline when.

"Yes! We'll go right now! Jin-ho, get dressed."

Park Eun-yeong answered before he'd even finished the thought, already pulling her jacket back on.

"Thank you so much. I'll wait outside, then."

The old man kept bowing as he headed out the station door ahead of them.

"Um, senior? Is this really okay?"

Kang Jin-ho asked with a distinctly uneasy look. Park Eun-yeong was a villain, so getting fired from the police wouldn't matter one bit to her. But if Kang Jin-ho got fired, his whole plan going forward would fall apart.

"Hm? Of course it's fine. Didn't you hear what the chief said?"

Park Eun-yeong tilted her head, looking genuinely puzzled.

"He said yesterday at roll call that whenever you've got a case to solve or a request comes in, we should give you as much leeway as possible. It's approved from up top, so don't stress about it. Don't you remember?"

"...Huh. Did he say that?"

Normally this would be an extremely rigid bureaucracy, but thanks to the president's order to back the genius rookie, Kang Jin-ho had been granted a certain degree of autonomy. He was still expected to handle his basic police duties, but if a case came up, he could prioritize that instead.

When the precinct chief had brought this up at yesterday's roll call, the other officers had nodded along with a sort of "well, if it's Officer Kang..." acceptance. Kang Jin-ho himself, however, had been dozing off at the time and never actually heard it.

"We'll be back, then!"

Park Eun-yeong called out her goodbye with the energy of a kid heading off on a school trip, and Kang Jin-ho scrambled after her.

The officers left behind in the station peeked through the window at their retreating backs, murmuring among themselves.

"Wow, is Jin-ho a hero now or something? Getting requests by name. Did you see that old man's clothes? Looked like a luxury brand."

"Jin-ho's better than half the heroes out there. I heard... that alley thing, the rank 1. People are saying it was something Jin-ho did that made it back off."

"Come on, that can't be right. Kang Jin-ho's a non-ability user, isn't he? No matter how smart he is, how would that even be possible?"

"It's just talk, sure. But is there any other explanation that makes more sense?"

The senior officers watched Kang Jin-ho go with equal parts envy and pride.

"I honestly don't get why that kid's working as a cop."

* * *

On the asphalt road in front of the station.

A jet-black sedan sat parked there, gleaming heavily under the sunlight. At Kang Jin-ho's current salary, he probably couldn't afford it even if he saved his entire lifetime's income.

While Kang Jin-ho was quietly marveling at it, the old man politely opened the sedan's back door.

"Please, get in."

"No need, sir. We can follow behind in the patrol car."

Kang Jin-ho waved his hands, feeling the weight of the situation, but the old man was firm.

"No. I'd like to bring you there myself. I'm the one making the request, after all. And my restaurant is near the city center, so a patrol car from this outer district would face a lot of hassle getting through the entry gate."

The gap between Light City's outskirts and its center was wide enough that they might as well have been different cities, and one of the most obvious differences was security.

No matter that Kang Jin-ho was a police officer, vehicles from the lower districts routinely got held up for ages at checkpoints. Is there a bomb attached? Is an invisible villain hiding inside? Could the car itself be a transformed villain?

"Well, can't be helped then. Let's get in, Jin-ho."

Park Eun-yeong nodded right away and settled into the car. Kang Jin-ho glanced around for a moment before climbing in after her.

"Alright then, Driver Kim. To the restaurant."

Once he confirmed both of them were seated, the old man gave the instruction to his driver and took his own seat up front, naturally, in the passenger seat.

Vroom.

The interior of the top-tier sedan was so quiet you could barely hear the engine at all. This was only the second time Kang Jin-ho had ridden in a car this expensive, and he still hadn't gotten used to it.

"Jin-ho, Jin-ho."

Meanwhile, Park Eun-yeong still looked to be in a great mood.

"That person standing by the crosswalk over there. Doesn't he look kind of suspicious?"

Her voice, as she pointed her chin at the window, was full of mischief. Kang Jin-ho wanted to say, "Uh, we're on our way to solve a case, remember?" but he held it back and followed her gaze out of habit.

"Uh... you mean that guy? The one in the blue cap."

"Yeah. The masked guy. Something about how he's walking seems off, doesn't it?"

Kang Jin-ho studied the man's silhouette for a moment. Honestly, he hadn't expected to figure anything out just from looking.

He wasn't some superpowered person who could read everything at a glance, and there was only so much you could learn from someone's appearance anyway.

"...Hm?"

But the longer he looked, something did stand out, unlike he'd expected. A thick turtleneck that didn't match the weather, oddly shaped shoes that looked custom-made, a flash of pure white glove peeking from a pocket...

What surprised him was that he could make out details that fine from this far away. Had his eyesight gotten this good? He felt a little baffled by it.

"Uh... that looks like C-rank hero 'Cool Guy.'"

"Really? How'd you tell?"

"He's wearing a turtleneck that doesn't fit the weather, so I figured cold-based ability first. I heard cold-type superhumans can't regulate their body temperature properly, so they feel cold no matter what the surrounding temperature actually is.

And then there's the white glove peeking from his pocket, and those shoes, aren't those the special hero snow boots modified for running on ice? So among the cold-based heroes, I figured it had to be Cool Guy, since he's the one who wears white gloves."

Kang Jin-ho kept talking, a little amazed at himself. Cool Guy had been a hero he'd hired often early on while playing HiCiSi, back when the guy had great value for the cost. Seeing him in person like this stirred up an odd sense of nostalgia.

"Heh. That's quite far away, and you caught it just like that?"

"I never used to have eyesight this good... it's probably gotten better from working as a police officer."

"Yeah? Must be from all the good deeds."

"...Ahem."

The old man, who'd been sitting quietly in the passenger seat listening to all this, let out a cough, wondering if he'd misheard something.

Honestly, it was hard to believe. Sure, the rookie was supposedly a genius, but figuring out a masked stranger's identity at a glance from a distance? To the old man, it felt like the young officer was just showing off to impress him.

He's going to feel so embarrassed later, talking like that.

The old man clicked his tongue inwardly and was turning his head away when.

"Help! That man stole my bag!"

A scream rang out, and some man took off running with quick, practiced movements. He had a rather high-end designer bag clutched tightly against his chest.

"You picked the wrong day."

At that moment, the turtleneck man Kang Jin-ho had pointed out earlier moved.

He leapt high into the air and pulled off his glove, and white ice burst up from beneath the fleeing criminal, freezing his feet in place.

"Ack!"

With his feet frozen solid, the criminal went sprawling with a loud crash. The turtleneck man pulled off his mask and retrieved the bag, and the people nearby, apparently recognizing him, whispered "hey, isn't that Cool Guy?" and broke into applause.

"Oh, Jin-ho. You actually nailed it?"

"Guess I did."

Kang Jin-ho and Park Eun-yeong nodded, both looking genuinely surprised that the guess had actually landed.

"...Hm."

The old man, unable to make sense of what had just happened, kept checking Kang Jin-ho's expression through the rearview mirror.

It was actually true...? Not just bluster?

Reflected in the mirror, Kang Jin-ho's face looked fairly composed. From that indifferent expression, as if he'd merely confirmed an expected result, the old man felt something he couldn't quite name. Surprise? Strangeness? Awe? Something like wonder?

Whatever it was, one thing was certain: the word genius from the newspaper hadn't been exaggerated one bit. The old man nodded to himself, satisfied he'd picked the right man for the job.

"Oh? Jin-ho. What about that guy in front of the convenience store?"

"That guy's just a part-timer handing out gym flyers, isn't he?"

"But his muscles are so ridiculously built."

"...Since when is being muscular against the law."

Unaware of the old man's quiet admiration, Kang Jin-ho and Park Eun-yeong kept trading their idle banter.

Cleared.

Whichever hero was manning the entry inspection must have finished the check, because the sedan passed through the entry gate separating Light City's outskirts from its interior.

The scenery outside the window changed in an instant. Rows of elegant street trees and buildings that seemed to pierce the sky lined the road. Just from what was visible, it felt like arriving in an entirely different place.

"Is this the center of Light City?"

"Not quite the very center, but close to it, you could say."

Park Eun-yeong answered Kang Jin-ho's question smoothly, as though she'd been here before. Soon after, the car pulled to a stop in front of a street lined with especially lavish buildings.

What came into view was the high-end French restaurant, The Chef. And directly across from it, as if locked in competition, stood a restaurant of similar scale, Le Grand.

"The restaurant I own is The Chef, right there in front. Le Grand next to it has been a longtime rival. I wouldn't say we're on the best of terms, but..."

The old man spoke from the passenger seat without turning his head.

"Would it be alright if I explained the request before we get out? I wanted to say it while we're still in the car."

"Ah, of course."

The old man glanced around, then lowered his voice to a whisper.

"The truth is... I believe the head chef I've employed for over twenty years has betrayed me and gone over to Le Grand."

Footnotes:

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