Chapter 1214. Finishing Touches (4)

Chapter 1214. Finishing Touches (4)

“Good morning, Prime Minister,” said Lee Hyeon-Su.

He looked a little flustered while answering the sudden call from Kim Myeong-Chan.

Why was this politician calling him out of the blue?

Of course, Kim Myeong-Chan must be on the edge regarding the Martial Assembly’s situation. The Japanese invaders destroying the Assembly meant they would be taking over Korea’s martial society in one fell swoop, after all.

Even if the surface world and the martial world had a relationship akin to cows and chickens, considering the influence the martial artists had in their countries... That event could’ve flipped Korea on its head, and then some.

So, the Prime Minister must’ve been anxious.

What flustered Lee Hyeon-Su, though, was that the Prime Minister had personally called him. Until now, Kim Myeong-Chan took on the attitude of a distant observer. Other than some minor behind-the-scenes support, the Prime Minister’s office remained hands off from this whole war situation.

‘Could there have been a change of mind on their side?’

Lee Hyeon-Su patiently waited for Kim Myeong-Chan to speak. The scenery rapidly passing by outside the car window stung his eyes.

—We heard the news, Mister Lee. Congratulations on your overwhelming victory.

“Thank you, sir.”

Since Lee Hyeon-Su had notified the government earlier, it was no surprise that the Prime Minister knew about it. But that couldn’t be the reason for a phone call like this.

-You don’t have to worry about the situation in Gunsan.

“

Oh

... Thank you for that. If you don’t mind me asking, though, how will you deal with the situation?”

-Well, whatever we say, criticisms will be unavoidable. Going with the excuse of a hazardous material spill will get us chewed out by the media as a sign of the government’s negligence, but it won’t lead to a bigger problem for everyone involved.

“I see. We won’t forget everything you’ve done for us, sir.”

Evacuating civilians in the thousands during the middle of the night was not an event you could casually brush aside. The Martial Assembly’s brass should bow deeply at Kim Myeong-Chan for shouldering the burden of handling that event. Without the administration’s hands-on protection, things could have spiraled into something much more serious.

—Our plan is to keep the access closed for some time while we repair the scene.

“Mm? Closing a harbor down like that will be costly, though?”

—We don’t have a choice but to swallow our losses this time.

Lee Hyeon-Su chuckled wryly. This revelation couldn’t have been the purpose for this call, but it was clear now that a part of the reason was to boast about the government’s hard work.

“Thank you, sir. As for the economic losses suffered from this event, the Assembly will try its hardest to compensate you.”

—No, no. That won’t be necessary. I didn’t call you to request for that, anyway. Besides, this event took place within our borders. As such, it is the government’s duty to handle some of the mop-up operation. As far as that part is concerned, you don’t have anything to worry about.

Lee Hyeon-Su furrowed his brow slightly. Did the Prime Minister really say no to money?

‘That doesn’t make sense, though?’

There could only be two reasons for politicians saying no to money. One, pocketing that money could lead to a dangerous situation. But this situation didn’t feel that way to Lee Hyeon-Su. Which meant it had to be the other reason.

“Prime Minister, sir. Do you have something you wish to discuss with us?”

The second reason would be when they wanted something else that exceeded the value of the money in question.

Kim Myeong-Chan’s good-natured laughter came out from the phone’s speaker. Listening to that exaggerated laughter was all Lee Hyeon-Su needed to hear to guess something was up.

—Before we get to that topic, let us finish our discussion first, Mister Lee. We can handle the matter in Gunsan, but what about the bodies loaded on to the ship? What will you do with them?

“Well, one of our plans was to dump them in the ocean...”

—Now that is a horrifying idea, Mister Lee. If one or two bodies float up to the surface, can you imagine the chaos that might cause? If you are unsure of what to do, why not let us handle the disposal?

“We’ll have to discuss it among ourselves first before letting you know.”

—

Mm

? Is there a particular reason to hold on to all those bodies?

“No, it’s not like that. It’s just that the idea of wasting money on the disposal of the bodies of invaders doesn’t sit well with us, you see? We were pondering if we should just ship the bodies back to Japan.”

—That doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

With that, both sides should have finished feeling each other out. Now that the preambles were done, it was time to discuss the real reason for this conversation.

—Excuse me, Mister Lee. Is the Assembly Master with you right now?

Lee Hyeon-Su sneaked a quick glance at the backseat. Kang Jin-Ho was there, his arms crossed and his eyes closed.

“Yes, he is.”

—I’d like to speak privately with the Assembly Master.

“I beg your pardon? But...”

Lee Hyeon-Su furrowed his brow slightly.

From his perspective, this demand was something he did not want to humor. And his reason for that was quite simple.

The Prime Minister was the second-in-command of South Korea. Someone like that freely interacting with Kang Jin-Ho could create a gap of status between the administration and the Martial Assembly.

Of course, it wasn’t as if the Assembly could rival the administration. However, at the very least, Lee Hyeon-Su wanted to avoid creating a situation where the Assembly Master was expected to answer any and all calls from the government.

In short, he wanted the other side to offer at least the minimum level of respect.

Unfortunately, Kang Jin-Ho seemed to disagree with Lee Hyeon-Su, since the first thing he did after opening his eyes was reach out with an open palm.

“Give me the phone.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lee Hyeon-Su cautiously presented his phone. Fooling Kang Jin-Ho’s hearing in this cramped interior of the car was impossible, anyway. He must’ve been listening to everything the Prime Minister had said on the phone.

“This is Kang Jin-Ho speaking.”

Too bad, Lee Hyeon-Su wasn’t like his boss and couldn’t hear Kim Myeong-Chan’s voice at this distance.

After exchanging pleasantries, Kang Jin-Ho began listening to Kim Myeong-Chan in silence for a little while.

Lee Hyeon-Su gave up on eavesdropping and instead drank a mouthful of water from a bottle. He had no doubt that Kang Jin-Ho would handle it appropriately...

“That doesn’t sound like any of your business, Prime Minister,” said Kang Jin-Ho.

“

COUGH

?!”

Lee Hyeon-Su barely managed to stop the water in his mouth redecorating the inside of the car’s windshield before hurriedly turning around to look at the backseat. Such was his urgency that he even forgot to wipe his mouth.

‘What on Earth are they even discussing right now?’

Up until a few seconds ago, Lee Hyeon-Su had been thinking that it’d be wonderful for the Assembly to stand its ground a little against the current administration. It seemed Kang Jin-Ho had 100% understood Lee Hyeon-Su’s intentions.

‘No, maybe it’s 200% instead?!’

No matter how he tried to excuse it, what Kang Jin-Ho said didn’t seem appropriate during a conversation with Korea’s Prime Minister. If this had been a summit between governments, the other side would’ve accused this side of diplomatic discourtesy.

However, Kang Jin-Ho remained expressionless as he listened, clearly not interested in such things.

“We don’t need compensation, Prime Minister. We’ll deal with our own issues.”

It sounded as if Kim Myeong-Chan made some kind of demand, only for Kang Jin-Ho to say no.

Lee Hyeon-Su’s forehead was soon coated with cold sweat drops.

‘We still haven’t finished our business with the Japanese yet, you know...?’

Being at odds with the current administration would benefit no one here.

Unfortunately, how was Lee Hyeon-Su supposed to stop Kang Jin-Ho? And it was his fault for thoughtlessly answering the Prime Minister’s call in Kang Jin-Ho’s presence, anyway!

‘N-no, let’s think of it positively. Positively!’

Even if Lee Hyeon-Su was unwilling, the Prime Minister would’ve found a way to call Kang Jin-Ho directly. In other words, this conversation was fated to happen regardless of what Lee Hyeon-Su did to stop it.

“Then, I’m hanging up now.”

Kang Jin-Ho ended the call there and handed the phone back to Lee Hyeon-Su.

Lee Hyeon-Su cautiously asked while accepting his phone. “May I ask why the Prime Minister has called you, sir?”

“It was nothing to sweat over.”

“I... see.”

Lee Hyeon-Su didn’t dig any deeper and turned around in his seat to face forward. Nothing would change now even if he learned of what they were talking about, anyway!

Since it had already happened, things

should

work out somehow! For now, Lee Hyeon-Su should focus more on what was about to happen soon.

“Sir, we received a message from the Round Table. They say they’ll summon additional personnel and completely take over Tokyo.”

Kang Jin-Ho briefly nodded. “

Mm

...”

“With their assistance, things have gotten easier for us, but I’m still worried about the Round Table’s decision to take over Tokyo, sir. What if...”

Lee Hyeon-Su stopped himself mid-speech and clamped his mouth shut.

He had every right to suspect the Round Table, but that didn’t mean it was appropriate to say such things openly about an ally.

“No, it’ll be fine,” said Kang Jin-Ho relaxedly.

Lee Hyeon-Su couldn’t help but wonder just then. What would be fine? Speaking his thoughts out loud? Or the Round Table taking over Tokyo?

“People insult their kings when no one’s looking, after all,” said Kang Jin-Ho.

“

Oh

...”

“I’m sure people also badmouth me behind my back in the Assembly, too.”

“Oh. I had no idea you knew that.”

“...”

Lee Hyeon-Su sheepishly turned his head away. He had thoughtlessly blurted that out, and it must’ve struck Kang Jin-Ho’s nerves just now. It seemed Lee Hyeon-Su had gotten a little careless lately.

He chided himself to be more mindful moving on!

After fixing his gaze on the highway in front, Lee Hyeon-Su sneakily spoke up. “I’m also worried about how much we can trust the Round Table, sir.”

“Trust, you say...?” Kang Jin-Ho muttered while ruefully chuckling away.

Lee Hyeon-Su tilted his head. “What’s the matter, sir?”

“It’s just that I thought you mentioning trust was a little ironic.”

“...”

Thinking about what Lee Hyeon-Su was like during his time with the Yeongnam Group made it even more ironic to Kang Jin-Ho.

Back then, Lee Hyeon-Su was like a well-honed blade. A blade that had been sharpened so much that the process of stabbing an enemy could very well break him in half, too.

That blade-like man wouldn’t have uttered a soft-sounding term like ‘trust’ no matter what happened to him.

Just as Kang Jin-Ho had changed, Lee Hyeon-Su also had gone through substantial changes himself.

Lee Hyeon-Su smiled sheepishly. “But, sir. People are supposed to change.”

“Sure. That’s true. It’s just that...”

Kang Jin-Ho rolled the window down, then mouthed a cigarette.

Click...

He lit it up with a lighter.

“I hope that only applies to when we’re within the Assembly’s walls.”

Lee Hyeon-Su slowly nodded in silence. He figured out what Kang Jin-Ho meant by those words.

The Round Table was an ally, but not the Martial Assembly’s subordinate. Kang Jin-Ho was implying that Lee Hyeon-Su should carry himself the same as his old self when outside the walls of the Martial Assembly.

‘In other words, I shouldn’t trust the Round Table...’

After all, Lee Hyeon-Su in the past would’ve never trusted... anyone, really. Having understood what Kang Jin-Ho meant, Lee Hyeon-Su began pondering various possibilities. If they should not trust the Round Table, then Tokyo would be...

Kang Jin-Ho slowly exhaled the cigarette smoke and glanced at Lee Hyeon-Su. “So? Have you thought about it, then?”

“Yes, sir,” Lee Hyeon-Su replied in a calmer, more brooding voice. “For the time being, we don’t have to worry about them. The Round Table won’t have the wherewithal to expand externally for the next few years, at least.”

“I guess so.”

“Even then, we might need to stay wary of them.”

“Wary of the Master?”

“No, sir. The Master will be fine. He won’t think of betraying the Assembly. Besides, Director Wiggins will serve as our eyes and ears to monitor the Master, anyway.”

“

Mm

...”

“The people we should be wary of are the Knights, sir. The Master’s control over them isn’t absolute. He must rely on you as a crutch for many things. But, with the distance between the two countries, I think a fracture within the Round Table is an inevitability at this rate.”

“And what about our countermeasures?”

“I’ll think of a few as soon as possible, sir. Measures to tighten the noose around the necks of the Knights, that is.”

As he listened, the corners of Kang Jin-Ho’s lips gradually curled up. From Lee Hyeon-Su’s voice, he could sense the same coldness as the Yeongnam Group version of Lee Hyeon-Su.

“Sir, we’ve almost arrived at our destination. What should we do?” The driver asked.

Kang Jin-Ho glanced outside the window again. It had gotten much brighter now after the morning sun had risen over the horizon. Now didn’t seem like a good time to make their moves.

“For now, we are on standby. We wait until nightfall.”

“Understood!”

Lee Hyeon-Su’s gaze drifted toward the car’s side mirror. He could see the queue of dozens of buses behind the car he and Kang Jin-Ho were in.

“By the way, sir? There’s one more thing.”

“Mm?” Kang Jin-Ho glanced at Lee Hyeon-Su.

“It sounds like someone, a corporation, assisted Shinichi-kai during their infiltration.”

“When you say assisted...?”

“It seems this corporation provided the Japanese with vehicles to evade the police checkpoints. What should we do about this corporation?”

“Deal with them appropriately.”

Stepping onto a battlefield and swinging swords around was Kang Jin-Ho’s specialty, not dealing with matters like this. Lee Hyeon-Su should be dozens of times more qualified than him.

“I need a guideline, sir.”

“A guideline?”

“Yes, sir. Should we prioritize benefits or justification?”

Kang Jin-Ho mulled in silence, his eyes closed. Eventually, he slowly opened his eyes and glanced at Lee Hyeon-Su.

“Usually, we should pursue practical benefits, but...”

Kang Jin-Ho’s voice grew colder, more withdrawn, just then.

“But what happened this time leaves no room for negotiations.”

“Understood. We’ll work together with the Prime Minister’s office to eradicate this corporation.”

Kang Jin-Ho quietly nodded away.