The Foreigner on the Periphery (English Translation)

29. Princess Run (4)

Minjun had several personal principles, and one of the main ones was this:

"Secretary General, I only do what I can."

The elf bowed deeply in an unusually polite manner.

"Agent, I beg of you. Right now, there is no one else I can trust to handle this."

She bent at almost a right angle. It was a completely different demeanor from her usual self. It was clear how desperate she was.

At this moment, there was no room to hide the situation or beat around the bush. It was evident that she had been scolded by Jenkinson after reporting that the warehouse had been robbed.

'Now that I think about it, that guy's temper has really mellowed. Time really does get to everyone.'

The elf and the fairy in front of him both seemed physically fine, at least for now.

Yet, the elf seemed desperate, as if sensing that pushing things further could lead to real danger. The two were arguing not just casually, but intensely, about whether Minjun could step in to help resolve this case that seemed entangled with the Human Rights Alliance.

"..."

Minjun didn't immediately respond and crossed his arms. Blair didn't straighten up, waiting for his answer, keeping herself in a bent position, almost forming a sharp angle with her posture. Larissa, standing next to her, fluttered her wings nervously.

Seeing this, Minjun furrowed his brow.

"These Elder Dragons are the kind of idiots who can't even catch the upper-ups. You want me to go to full-scale war with them?"

"Such matters will be directly handled by the chairman. But, we ask that until the chairman returns to Earth, you help us find as many traces as possible."

"Hm."

Minjun asked when Jenkinson would return.

"At least a week more, it seems. The dimension-jumping terminal has been sealed as of today to prevent the suspects from escaping to another dimension, but if we wait idly until the chairman's return, we'll only give them the opportunity to erase evidence."

"They've sealed the terminal?"

Minjun hadn't heard this before. It seemed like this information hadn't been made public yet. He scratched his chin and pondered for a moment before speaking.

"You know this won't be an easy task, right?"

The Human Rights Alliance was a global terrorist organization, and after several attempts to wipe them out, they had gone deeper underground. They currently operated in a strictly hierarchical structure, and the higher up you went, the harder it was to trace them.

Even in Korea, it wasn't that Jenkinson was incapable or stupid; he had been unable to eradicate their branches because the cost of doing so was too high. Instead, he had taken a more moderate approach, stopping at a certain level.

But this time, they had really messed up, and Jenkinson's position would likely be different from before.

'If we're going to root them out, we'll have to start from zero. We'll have to strip away the low-level guys and work our way up...'

It wouldn't be impossible, but it would require an immense amount of effort and be excruciatingly tedious work.

Minjun said another one of his principles aloud.

"I only work for what I'm paid."

If the elf started rambling about how she couldn't promise anything with her authority, Minjun was ready to leave without a second thought.

"I understand."

Blair's response was surprisingly sharp.

"We've prepared a blank check for you. It can be used both in Earth currency and Talents."

"?!"

It was clear that this had already been approved by the chairman. This also showed how much the Elder Dragon trusted Minjun. They believed he wouldn't ask for an outrageous sum.

'Damn, if they're offering this, it's going to be hard to act like a jerk.'

If that was the case, he planned to calculate the effort and time this task would take based on his own standards and add a proper fee before charging them.

Minjun nodded.

"Alright. Let's check it out."

At that moment, the elf sighed with relief, and even the fairy, whose face had been lifeless, now looked brighter.

In truth, they couldn't guess why Minjun had agreed, but it was because he had already figured out a way to avoid going in blind.

'The higher up the chain you go, the harder it is to find traces. But that means we can still catch the lower-level guys. Connecting the dots will depend on the investigator's skill.'

Even at the lowest level, there were still traces to be found. Moreover, Minjun had recently happened to witness something that could become a clue.

With the elf and the fairy in front of him, Minjun immediately made a phone call.

"Sergeant Park Jeong-pal! There's another batch of goblins camping out here!"

The person reporting this to Jeong-pal was a member of the vigilante group. He was the same young man who had asked about Minjun's identity during the bank robbery case.

Today, Jeong-pal had been leading him and two other vigilantes around the outskirts of the orc community, patrolling. This wasn't a routine crime-prevention patrol, but rather a task passed down from higher-ups.

The directive sent through dozens of official documents could be summed up in one word:

Environmental beautification.

"Cough! W-we... we... here... still... cough! We're sorry... we're sorry... please forgive us..."

In a narrow alley, an indescribable stench filled the air. The smell of sewage, decaying food, and the terrible odor of bodies that hadn't been washed for months hit their noses.

"Ugh! Damn, these filthy bastards!"

"We're sorry... we're sorry...!"

Turning the corner, they found over thirty goblins camping out on the street.

This alley was one of the most rundown areas in the orc community, where homeless individuals like them gathered. An orc neighborhood wasn't just for orcs; it was a synonym for a dangerous area, a slum, a place people avoided, and if you had a low status in life, you didn't care what race you were.

"Cough... cough!"

Perhaps because they knew the strangers were the police, or perhaps because of the habits they had developed from living on the streets, the goblins immediately dropped to the ground, trembling and begging for forgiveness.

The vigilante group member raised his arm as if to say he didn't even want to touch them, pointing at a spot.

"Can't you get up? See the bus over there? Get on that!"

"Sorry... sorry... sorry..."

"Oh, you idiots!"

As the vigilante raised his baton to strike, Jeong-pal's cold voice stopped him.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

The vigilante flinched at the harsh tone, mumbling an excuse.

"These idiots aren't listening..."

Jeong-pal sighed deeply. It had been the same thing all day, and the young men were clearly on edge.

"Get up. Let's walk over there together."

Jeong-pal helped the kneeling homeless goblin to his feet, all the while thinking to himself that he didn't even know what they were doing.

He tried to keep his voice as calm as possible.

"We won't harm you. It's not a scary thing. You'll take the bus to the shelter, get some free food, clean up, and sleep in a warm place for a few days. After that, you can return."

The goblin whimpered, clearly unable to understand.

"Huh? Huh?"

The last part was the key.

After spending a few days in the shelter, the government would send the homeless back to the streets. They didn't have infinite funds, after all.

The reason the government, which had previously ignored the slums, suddenly decided to pay attention and 'clean them up' was in preparation for Princess Vermi's upcoming sightseeing and business meetings in Seoul, which would start in a few days.

Despite the fact that the princess would never walk into the slums, the government was preparing a hysterical response, including a curfew.

The biggest problem they anticipated with the execution of this plan was the homeless, who had no roof over their heads and were in hiding. The government, fearing that any exposure to alien media would be a disgrace, planned to isolate them until the princess's official schedule concluded.

This was the reason why Jeongpal and the vigilantes were patrolling the slums.

'Yesterday, they said they controlled traffic along the 40km road from the terminal to the hotel... It's only getting worse.'

After loading all the goblins onto the bus, they began heading to the next location. One of the vigilantes, sitting next to an orc, muttered in irritation.

"Don't you think they're really a 'mistake'?"

Jeongpal gave the young man a long look, as if to ask, "Are you going to make another slip-up in front of me?" The vigilante continued, unfazed.

"Honestly, other species... um, what should I say? I can't think of the right words. They do their jobs? They play their roles? Yeah, their roles. Everyone has a role."

Despite being at a basic level, the young man seemed to remember something from his elementary school lessons.

"Elves teach magic, orcs increase the population, trolls heal the sick, dwarfs make luxury bags... Ah, damn it, that last one is useless to me."

After complaining, he continued defensively.

"But the goblins... they don't help at all. Some of them get scammed and end up as slaves on distant fishing boats... but what about the rest? Isn't there really no use for them? They have to be really stupid to be that useless."

Jeongpal knew very well that there were many who referred to goblins as "the committee's mistake." For those who hadn't experienced the old days, this might have seemed like a natural conclusion.

He gestured for the young man to lower his voice and spoke politely.

"It wasn't like that in the past."

The goblins, who lived underground, were optimized for mining, and even in the early years of immigration, there was high demand for them as coal miners, especially since coal mines made up the largest share of the industry.

Their problems began after the seventh mass migration when magic stones were distributed and the coal market collapsed.

Having gathered in groups near the mines to live communally and take care of each other, they lost both their jobs and homes, wandering the streets. After leaving the mines, very few goblins showed strong performance in other fields.

This result was something the committee must have foreseen. However, during the difficult negotiations over the seventh migration conditions, they ultimately gave in and distributed the magic stones. It wasn't hard to imagine why the goblins felt abandoned by the committee.

For the goblins, the committee was both their savior, for allowing them to escape their original dimension, and their enemy, for ruining their lives on Earth. What was even more bitter was that most goblins lived without even realizing this fact.

"Crrk... Crrk!"

Jeongpal glanced back.

The homeless on the bus were trembling with anxiety, carefully observing their surroundings. Among them, not a single youth or child could be seen, a clear difference from the other species. While orcs might live in tents without homes, they still have children. Goblins, on the other hand, were distinctly different.

'Goblins become temporarily infertile when they feel the environment is unstable,' he recalled.

As a result, the modern goblin birthrate was only 0.3 children per female.

Scholars predicted that, if no additional influx occurred, goblins on Earth would be extinct within five generations. This wasn't due to guns or swords or extreme environmental changes. It might be the first social extinction in Earth's history, caused by their inability to adapt to the changing socioeconomic conditions.

And some quietly awaited the inevitable arrival of that time.

Ding-ling-ling!

Jeongpal's phone rang.

"Hmm?"

He checked the caller ID and answered immediately.

"Yes, sir."

It was Minjun on the other end. He asked from the other side of the phone.

"Jeongpal, are you busy?"

"I have a moment. Go ahead, sir."

"What are you up to?"

"Cleaning up the environment."

"Hmm?"

Upon hearing the full story, Minjun let out a deep sigh.

"...The government is really doing all sorts of things. Look, sorry to interrupt, but can you check something for me? Remember when we went to the orc community last time? The day we caught that society bastard."

"Yes."

They had followed a warp trace from Jang Taejun's house, which led them into Jeongpal's jurisdiction in the slums.

"The big guy among the punks we met at the playground, you remember him? His name escapes me... Was it Kang Gamchan?"

Jeongpal immediately recognized who he meant.

"Oh, Kim Yushin?"

The 20-something who had been smoking at the playground and had a tattoo covering his scalp and face.

"But..."

Jeongpal's expression quickly hardened.

"Why are you looking for him, sir? Is there some big trouble?"

It was unusual for an immigration officer to take an interest in an orc. Sensing the concern in Minjun's voice, Jeongpal quickly added, "Oh, it's not that there's a problem with him. It's... that tattoo."

The tattoo that had caught Minjun's attention the first time he saw Kim Yushin.

Minjun wasn't interested in it because of its boldness or unique color, but because of something else.

"Has anyone talked about it among you guys? Either at the police station or among the orcs."

"Huh? The tattoo? I just thought it was unusual, but I don't really know... Why do you ask?"

"Well... since no one knows about it, he probably just walked around with it. The one who did the tattoo must have known no one would read it."

"?"

"I'm asking if you could call him and ask where he got it."

"Yes, I'll do that."

Just as he was about to hang up, Jeongpal asked:

"By the way... what's so special about that tattoo?"

Minjun hesitated for a moment before replying.

"...Well, he probably didn't know what it meant either. The one who gave him the tattoo probably knew what it was. You know, hardly anyone on Earth can read it. Even dragons wouldn't know. When I looked at it, it seemed like a rushed, poorly constructed sentence from someone using a dictionary. The grammar was all wrong."

"Huh? It wasn't a drawing? What did it say?"

After hearing Minjun's answer, Jeongpal's face twisted into a grimace.