Actually, Dad Was a Hero

Chapter 39: Interrogation

“Ahh, that’s refreshing.”

Noh Min-Gu, the Deputy Director of the 2nd department of the NIS, stepped out of the bathroom, wiping his wet body with a towel.

Water droplets clinging to his recently expanded belly left silvery streaks on the old linoleum floor.

Naked, with only a towel around his neck, Noh Min-Gu opened the refrigerator door.

He pulled out a can of beer from among a few dried-up pieces of chicken and an onion that had begun to sprout after being left for too long. Without closing the refrigerator door, he guzzled down the beer.

“Ah, a beer after a shower is the best.”

Thud

Behind the carelessly closed refrigerator door stood a dark figure.

“Gah!”

Noh Min-Gu dropped the beer can and collapsed in shock. The figure that emerged from behind the refrigerator door was not human.

Deep-set eyes like a skull, a rotted-away nose, lips so dry that his teeth were exposed. And a dark cloak covering his body.

It was a monster straight out of a nightmare. At least, that’s what it looked like to him.

“Uwaaaaah!”

Noh Min-Gu screamed and scrambled back on all fours, but Kuen, clad in armor and a black cloth, slowly approached him.

“Wh-wh-wh-what, what is that!”

Noh Min-Gu looked around frantically, his eyes wide with panic, but there was no one to help him.

Like most NIS agents, Noh Min-Gu was unmarried and lived alone.

Thud

Noh Min-Gu’s back hit the kitchen wall.

Realizing there was nowhere left to retreat, he curled up and squeezed his eyes shut. Hoping that if this was a dream, he would wake up soon.

“Open your eyes.”

A chilling voice echoed. As if hypnotized, Noh Min-Gu’s eyes flew open.

“Wh-wh-what, what is it! What! Why!”

Terrified, Noh Min-Gu responded in a fit of panicked rage.

“…Confess your sins.”

The voice, disguised by a voice modulator, resonated again from the speaker hidden near Kuen’s neck, beneath the black cloak.

******

“What do you mean, ‘Confess your sins’? Is he the Grim Reaper?”

Jin Beom-Min grumbled from inside the black van parked on a quiet side street next to Noh Min-Gu’s apartment.

However, Lee Sang-Jun calmly explained with a smile, removing his hand from the microphone button.

“We have to do it this way. If we jump straight to the point, he’ll get suspicious.”

“But still, that’s a bit…”

Lee Sang-Jun patted Jin Beom-Min’s shoulder reassuringly.

“It’s alright. We just need to scare him a little.”

******

Screech

A bluish blade emerged from beneath the black cloth.

The blade, chipped and worn from countless battles, scraped against the scabbard, making an unpleasant noise.

“Uwaaaaah-”

Witnessing Kuen draw his sword, Noh Min-Gu flailed his arms and legs, but trapped with no escape route, there was nothing he could do.

Thwack!

The old blade, reeking of blood, plunged into the wall. A shallow cut appeared on Noh Min-Gu’s cheek, and blood began to ooze.

“Confess… your sins!”

His face pale, Noh Min-Gu started babbling like a madman.

“Th-th-that, I, that is… Oh, right. When I was six, I, I took money from my mom’s wallet… because I wanted to eat hotteok…”

Noh Min-Gu started rambling, confessing every minor mistake and transgression he could remember. However, that wasn’t the answer Lee Sang-Jun wanted.

“…Confess your most recent sin!”

“My, my most recent?”

Noh Min-Gu’s wide eyes darted around before he opened his mouth again.

“Uh… I, that is…”

Kuen tilted the blade embedded in the wall closer to Noh Min-Gu’s face. The cut on his cheek deepened, and a drop of blood fell onto his shoulder.

“I, I had an affair with… Chief Yoon of the Information Division…”

“…What?”

******

“What does he mean…?”

At Jin Beom-Min’s question, Lee Sang-Jun responded with a bewildered look.

“Uh… Chief Yoon of the Information Division is… a married woman… Well, this is an unexpected discovery.”

“No, right now, what…”

“It seems he doesn’t understand the meaning of the question.”

“…If we can’t get information this way…”

Jin Beom-Min declared in a low voice.

“…I’ll just kill him.”

His eyes were filled with resolute fury.

While the Ghost Squad was returning, the Monster Response Headquarters analyzed past satellite images.

They finally identified the North Korean unit that ambushed the Ghost Squad.

It was a mechanized infantry unit stationed near the DMZ, quite far from Hamhung.

It was a unit that wouldn’t typically be dispatched to Hamhung, which was relatively far in the rear, unless there was a special situation.

Therefore, it became difficult to believe that this ambush was orchestrated by the North Korean leadership, who had agreed to cooperate with the South to defeat the monsters.

If they were involved, they would have utilized other forces deployed around Hamhung.

Or they would have attacked from a distance using long-range artillery, multiple rocket launchers, or missiles, making it difficult to defend against.

This left two possibilities.

One was that the commander of the unit, dissatisfied with the South’s intervention, acted independently.

The other was that someone provided information to the commander and instigated the attack.

Lee Sang-Jun believed the latter was the correct answer.

Considering how quickly and secretly the operation was carried out, it was obvious.

Without someone providing detailed information about the operation, it would have been impossible to deploy troops at the right time and place.

And only the Monster Response Headquarters and the NIS possessed detailed information about the operation.

This left only one possibility. The NIS 2nd department, which had various information connections with North Korea, was behind it.

Thus, Lee Sang-Jun and Jin Beom-Min were performing this awkward play in the middle of the night.

To obtain evidence that the NIS 2nd department was involved in the ambush.

But for Jin Beom-Min, evidence didn’t matter.

“…Those who betray and try to kill their comrades are not worth saving.”

“Wait, hold on. We don’t have any evidence yet.”

Lee Sang-Jun hurriedly stopped Jin Beom-Min. But Jin Beom-Min’s eyes were firm.

“Those who betray once will betray again. If we forgive a traitor, we’ll be the ones who die next.”

Where Jin Beom-Min grew up, compassion and pity didn’t work.

In extreme crisis situations, where everyone’s lives were on the line, fairness and rationality were not important.

To survive on the battlefield, sometimes decisions had to be made based on suspicion or circumstances alone.

Those who couldn’t do that all died.

“…There might be someone else behind this.”

At Lee Sang-Jun’s words, Jin Beom-Min, who was about to give an order to the Ring of Necromancy, stopped.

“…Really?”

“I know Deputy Director Noh Min-Gu well. He’s not a man with the guts to do something like this on his own. Besides, the potential gains are unclear. Someone must have instigated him.”

Jin Beom-Min responded in a voice filled with cold fury.

“…Find out.”

******

“Something other than that! Nobody cares about your affair!”

“Hieeeek-!”

“Do you truly have no remorse for betraying your comrades and causing the loss of so many lives!”

“Betray… ?”

Noh Min-Gu’s eyes wavered. It seemed he finally had a clue.

“Is… is that a sin…?”

“…What?”

“It was for… national security…”

“…National security…?”

******

Lee Sang-Jun released the button on the communicator and exclaimed in a voice filled with rage.

“You… crazy bastard!”

“…Delusional justification.”

Jin Beom-Min said, dumbfounded.

Judging from Noh Min-Gu’s behavior so far, he didn’t believe what he did was a sin.

He thought it was something he had to do for national security.

Whether it was to alleviate his guilt or because he was a twisted individual from the start was unknown.

But it didn’t matter either way. Jin Beom-Min knew how to make anyone talk.

******

Thump!

Kuen’s heavy, armored foot crushed Noh Min-Gu’s right pinky finger.

A strange rattling sound echoed as bones and muscles were crushed.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”

Noh Min-Gu screamed like a madman.

******

“What are you doing!”

Lee Sang-Jun shouted, startled by the scream coming from the speaker.

Jin Beom-Min answered without blinking.

“I’m going to light a fire now.”

Conviction and faith meant nothing in the face of pain.

Even the most strong-willed person could be made to confess anything by a single well-trained torturer.

At least, that’s what Jin Beom-Min had learned and experienced.

The place where he grew up wasn’t a modern society ruled by law and order.

******

“Th-th-they! The NIS Director and the 1st Deputy Director ordered it! I, I just did what I was told!”

For a moment, no sound came from the speaker attached to Kuen’s body.

But after a brief silence, the questioning continued.

“What did they say?”

“Th-they said that the 4th department… shouldn’t take all the credit…!”

Noh Min-Gu confessed everything, tears streaming down his face.

When and where they met, how Director Kim Gil-Ho and 1st Deputy Director Yoon Pil-Ju persuaded him. And how they contacted the North and mobilized their troops.

And all that information was recorded and backed up on the computer installed in the van. To be preserved as clear evidence.

“Kuh-huh-huh-huh-huh! Am, am I going to die now? Ah, it hurts! My finger hurts!”

Noh Min-Gu, who had confessed everything while drooling, wailed and asked Kuen.

It was fortunate that Kuen wasn’t equipped with a camera. Anyone who saw him would have felt pity.

But Kuen’s rotten, dried-up face remained expressionless.

“Pl-please save me… I’ll, I’ll live a good life… I’ll live a life of service… Sob, sob…”

After standing motionless for a moment, Kuen slowly pulled the sword out of the wall.

“Gasp, sob, th-thank you…”

Thwack!

Noh Min-Gu’s tear-stained, shiny nose was smashed flat.

Struck hard by Kuen’s sword hilt, Noh Min-Gu fainted on the spot.

Kuen calmly sheathed his sword and exited through the front door, its lock broken.

A moment later, he boarded the van parked across the street.

“Good work, Kuen.”

Jin Beom-Min greeted Kuen, who was getting into the car with his head covered by the black cloth.

“…It was a trivial matter…”

“You did well, though. You could make a fortune starring in horror movies.”

“…Horror movies? What are those?”

“Well, it’s a kind of play.”

“Hmph, trivial…”

While Lee Sang-Jun removed the speaker attached to Kuen’s body and prepared to depart, Kuen, who had been silent for a while, added in a wistful voice.

“…It’s a strange feeling… I thought I had become… useless… outside the battlefield…”

“What?”

“…Someday… I wanted to try… something other than… taking lives…”

Jin Beom-Min stared into Kuen’s hollow eye sockets for a moment. He somehow seemed a little sad.

Come to think of it, Kuen’s fate was quite tragic.

From a knight respected by all to a Necromancer’s servant, and now pretending to be a ghost in a different world he had never heard of.

Jin Beom-Min, who had spent his entire life learning how to fight monsters and suddenly became a tile installer, could somewhat understand his feelings.

“…Then you should learn Korean first.”

“…Korean…?”

“So you can read the script later, right?”

Kuen stared at Jin Beom-Min for a moment. Then, with a creaking sound, he slightly nodded.