WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 21: Money Follows Naturally (3)

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The manager's and Eun-yeong's eyes both landed on Kang Jin-ho at once.

"A way? You mean there's a way to catch the culprit without provoking the chef?"

"Yes. I doubted from the start that the chef was the culprit. The real culprit is probably outside the kitchen."

Kang Jin-ho tapped his fork against the cross-section of the overcooked steak.

"The surface of the steak isn't charred, but the inside is bone dry. That means it wasn't cooked over a flame, the heat was applied from inside the meat. That's why I suspected the chef wasn't the culprit."

"...You mean some kind of long-range heat manipulation ability?"

"Exactly. Someone applied heat to it from outside."

Kang Jin-ho said, tapping his finger against the table.

"But we already checked every serving staff member..."

"Why did you suspect the serving staff in the first place? Because they'd know exactly when the meat came out, and could interfere at just the right moment, correct?"

"Well, yes, that's true, but..."

"There's one more person who knows exactly when the meat comes out. So let me ask you something, sir."

Kang Jin-ho looked the old man straight in the eye.

"What does your daily schedule look like? And when you rotated the staff's shifts, who was the one person whose schedule never changed?"

"My daily schedule... I arrive before opening and leave at closing. And the one person whose schedule never changed..."

The old man's face went pale.

"Are you saying... Driver Kim is the culprit?"

"That's who I suspect."

Kang Jin-ho raised a finger, pointing at the CCTV camera mounted on the ceiling.

"You mentioned earlier that you gave him access to the CCTV feed in case of emergencies, right? He was probably watching the inside of the restaurant from his car, timing everything. And it's no coincidence the parking lot sits right beside the passage leading from the kitchen to the dining hall. Perfect spot to tamper with the meat."

"D, Driver Kim would never do that!"

The old man denied it on reflex. He'd always thought of the man as family, someone who could never betray him.

"Call the chef right now. Tell him to send the meat out covered, the way you'd cover raw meat for serving. Since the kitchen will be sending out raw meat, there's no reason for them to interfere with it, right?"

The hall staff had their shifts constantly rotated, so they couldn't be the culprit.

And the culprit needed some way to keep eyes on the meat, no matter the method, in order to cook it from a distance.

So if the meat arrived here already cooked...

Only two people had access to the CCTV feed, which meant the culprit had to be either the old manager or Driver Kim.

* * *

The old manager sent the chef a text asking him to send out uncooked meat.

"It's cooked. I asked for raw."

"...Get Driver Kim in here."

Once they confirmed that the meat had reached the old man already fully cooked, Driver Kim was brought in.

"Sir, I really am innocent! Are you going to trust these police officers you just met over me?! There's no proof I did anything!"

Driver Kim protested his innocence stubbornly at first.

"Hold on. Why don't you and I have a little chat?"

"Is this how the police operate? What's your name! Park Eun-yeong? I'll make sure to remember that..."

Click.

"There we go."

"...The owner of Le Grand found out I'd been dipping into the restaurant's petty cash, and he blackmailed me over it. I thought if I secretly overcooked the steaks, the manager and the chef would end up fighting each other. I'm sorry."

After a short "conversation" with Eun-yeong, he came out and confessed everything without resistance.

"D, Driver Kim... you're supposed to be someone without powers...?"

The old manager asked, his face crumbling like the ground beneath him had given way.

"...I awakened an ability recently. I haven't had my regular checkup yet, so I don't have a registered ability license."

"But, but... I even remembered your wife's birthday every year..."

"...I'm sorry."

Apparently, Driver Kim had been badly shaken when he heard the police had been called in. But he couldn't just stop his little scheme with the steaks either, not with the situation he was in.

"That officer over there, Officer Kang, he stopped word from getting out that the police had arrived..."

Inside the restaurant, only two people knew the police had come: the old manager and Driver Kim. If the meat had come out perfectly cooked, without fail, on the exact day the police happened to visit, suspicion would have fallen on Driver Kim immediately, no way around it.

Maybe, just maybe, keeping the chef in the dark about the police's presence had been part of the plan all along, meant to draw out exactly this kind of behavior. Was this man, Kang Jin-ho, really some kind of monster sent down from heaven?

Driver Kim had bet everything on the idea that this was all coincidence, that "genius cop" was just media exaggeration. He'd lost that bet, and here he was, caught.

He didn't feel wronged, though. Once he'd crossed paths with a cop like that, there had never been a way out to begin with.

"...Why."

"I'm sorry."

Driver Kim offered no excuses, just repeated his apology over and over.

Once everything had been sorted out and Driver Kim handed over to the nearest police station, the old manager bowed so low his head nearly touched the floor.

"Thank you. Thank you so much. If it weren't for you two, I would have lost my restaurant and an old friend both."

"Though I did lose an employee I trusted..." the old man added bitterly.

"A B-rank hero has started investigating Le Grand. At minimum, a business suspension, and if things go well, the place could be shut down entirely. All thanks to you two."

"We just did our jobs, sir. Please, lift your head."

Kang Jin-ho tried to stop the old man from bowing so awkwardly, but the man's resolve didn't waver.

"No. I've protected the restaurant I built with my whole life, and offering only empty words of thanks for that would offend what little pride this old man has left."

The old man pulled an elegant checkbook from his breast pocket and gripped his pen with trembling hands.

"I run a few other restaurants elsewhere, but The Chef holds my youth and my soul. This was originally the fee I'd set aside to formally request the Hero Association's help. Please, accept it."

The check the old man held out was scrawled with the number "fifty million won."

"What? No... I can't."

It was a fortune equal to an average worker's yearly salary. The kind of money Kang Jin-ho would have to save up patiently, without spending a cent of his officer's salary or hazard pay, for years just to accumulate.

Still, Kang Jin-ho barely managed to hold onto his reason. He'd planned to make a fortune and retire eventually, but right now he was a public servant. Accepting private money like this simply wasn't something someone in his position could do.

"I really appreciate the thought, but a police officer can't accept a personal reward for helping a citizen. Please, put it away."

Just as Kang Jin-ho, tears practically welling up, was about to firmly refuse.

"Aw, come on, Jin-ho. Why not?"

Park Eun-yeong cut in from the side, poking him in the ribs.

"This wasn't even public duty work to begin with, it was a 'request' the chief himself approved. What's wrong with getting paid for solving a request? Besides, the manager here was already planning to hand this money to a hero anyway, so there's no reason we shouldn't take it. Right, sir?"

"Absolutely right! If Officer Kang doesn't accept it, my conscience won't let me sleep a wink tonight, old man that I am!"

Egged on by Eun-yeong, the old man tried to force the check into Kang Jin-ho's pocket.

"Please don't do this!"

"Come on now! Just take it!"

Fending off the old man's insistent hands as he tried to shove the check on him, Kang Jin-ho quickly turned to Eun-yeong.

"Um, senior?"

"What, Jin-ho?"

"Is this actually money I'm allowed to take? Won't this come back to bite me during some kind of audit later?"

"Just don't get caught, then?"

"No, I mean, sure, but still!"

Realizing that Eun-yeong's way of thinking operated on a completely different logic from normal people, Kang Jin-ho ran the numbers in his head fast.

Was he allowed to take this money? As long as he didn't get caught.

Could he avoid getting caught? Probably.

And if he did get caught, somehow? He'd get fired from the police.

And if he got fired from the police, would Eun-yeong just let him go?

No. Not a chance.

'Okay, I can't take this.'

Just as Kang Jin-ho finished his calculations and was about to firmly turn down the check.

-Ding!

[SYSTEM NOTICE: Karma clearance function via 'Donation' has been unlocked.]

[Condition: When you return assets to society under your own name, karma is deducted proportionally to the amount.]

[Current rate: 1 karma point deducted per 10,000 won.]

"...Huh?"

A translucent status window floated in the air. Kang Jin-ho read through it, ran the numbers in an instant, and flipped his attitude completely.

"Sir. I really can't accept this money. I am a public servant, after all."

"But..."

"How about this instead? Since it seems difficult for me to accept the money directly, why don't you donate the amount you meant to give me under my name instead? If I can help people in need just by solving this request, I think I'd feel much better about it."

The old man and Park Eun-yeong were both caught off guard by the sudden declaration of donation.

"...Uh, huh?"

Park Eun-yeong tilted her head and stared straight into Kang Jin-ho's eyes.

"Oh, dear God."

The old man clasped his wrinkled hands together and lifted a prayer to the heavens. Thick tears streamed down his face.

Genius insight. Intelligence gifted by the heavens. And on top of all that, standing before a fortune of fifty million won without a shred of hesitation, choosing instead to think of the less fortunate, such a noble spirit of sacrifice!

"Dear God, does an officer like this truly exist in Light City! You... you are a ray of light in this city, Officer Kang!"

"Ah, no, it's really not that big a deal..."

Footnotes:

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