“Quit faking sick and get up, gangster shit. Who do you think you are, a suspect sitting down while a Prosecutor pays a visit! Back when I was a rookie detective, standing at attention was basic when the Excellencies came in. Punk! You’d better know how good the world has gotten!”

This bastard Park Dong-seok really did have a big voice.

He was an adult and he was a detective, and from the day he first laid eyes on me he had been treating me as a dog and not a human being.

And that bastard is a prosecutor?

With a face like a pretty boy’s, and he calls himself a prosecutor.

I didn’t like the four-eyed prosecutor decked out in a black suit on a day this hot.

One look and it was obvious he had come at Hong Jang-hyeok’s instigation anyway.

A lawyer in the local community would be his senior from the bar exam.

A relationship of that kind, built out of drinks bought and pocket money tossed over, would be strange if it looked clean.

“Where’s the warrant?”

I said the word warrant squarely, in front of Park Dong-seok spraying spit and Prosecutor Kang Gyeong-jun.

“A-a warrant? Has this psycho lost his mind!”

Park Dong-seok was flustered.

Stings, doesn’t it? I’m finishing you today.

“Could I see your identification?”

“Heh heh. The little punk is a strange one. Investigator Kim, show him.”

“Argh! Where does this psycho get off talking back point by point in front of a Prosecutor! You want a real taste of a concussion?”

Investigator Kim, they called him — a man who raised his hand at the prosecutor’s instruction, knowing my diagnosis was a concussion under absolute rest.

“There, look, punk. Kim Dong-sik, investigator, prosecutors’ office.”

Kim Dong-sik pulled his identification out of his jacket and showed it.

A portrait photo, and the words prosecutors’ office, clearly visible.

If he was like this with me, there was no need to look into his past.

A textbook toxic civil servant.

“Identification confirmed. And the warrant?”

I leaned on the word warrant one more time.

“Haah, this thick-headed little shit. Do you even know what a warrant is?”

Kim Dong-sik looked at me with disbelief on his face.

Of course I know. How would I not?

I’m a former bar exam candidate!

“The Constitution of the Republic of Korea, in order to guarantee the basic rights of the people, provides that when a state organ makes an arrest! a detention! a seizure! a search! of a person or of property, it must do so upon a warrant issued by a judge! It is set out clearly in Articles 12 and 16 of the Constitution. Is what I’m saying not enough? Would you like me to recite the full text of Articles 12 and 16 for you?”

“…”

A chill silence settled over the room all at once.

“Warrants are divided into permits, issued upon the application of a prosecutor, and orders, issued by a judge with no application at all. Under the Criminal Procedure Act, the detention warrant and the seizure and search warrant issued upon a prosecutor’s application, and the custody warrant under the Social Protection Act, all belong to the permits. Under the Criminal Procedure Act, the summons, the order for compulsory appearance, the detention order, the order of confinement for expert examination, the seizure and search warrant executed outside the courtroom, the inspection warrant, the bodily examination warrant, and the escort warrant issued by a juvenile division judge under the Juvenile Act, all belong to the orders. That is my understanding. Do you need more explanation?”

“…”

A second silence broke out.

All three of them stared at me, appalled.

You picked the wrong one, I told you.

Say it back after me: you’re all dead today.

“Why are you persecuting me, the powerless victim, like this? A hospital room is, strictly speaking, a dwelling as far as I’m concerned! Is it normal for a high school student in the Republic of Korea to have to memorize passages like these instead of math formulas and English vocabulary just to defend himself? Prosecutor Kang Gyeong-jun! You’re a Prosecutor, you’re the smart one here, so you’d know, wouldn’t you? That what I am being subjected to right now is intimidation dressed up as law! High school student though I may be, do you come barging in like this while I have no assistance of counsel! Why is a prosecutor not protecting the weak!”

My voice rang and rang through the hospital room.

Oh! I’d put a touch of internal energy into it and the effect was tremendous.

The nurses standing outside would have heard it too.

And they were certain to act on it.

Come to think of it, I seemed to be getting more meticulous by the day.

I was finally putting what I’d learned in the past to proper use.

This is why people say a long education never cost anybody anything.

“Pfahahahahahahahaha.”

Prosecutor Kang Gyeong-jun suddenly laughed like a madman.

Snap.

And then the laugh stopped in an instant.

His pupils glistened.

That bastard! He reeks of psycho.

“The weak? You? Don’t give me that dog shit, punk. Your kind is what I hate most, punk. Little shits who don’t know a thing and act up!!! Where do you get off reciting your paltry statutes in front of me! I am going to have you detained and put you on prison rations, punk! You gangster shit!”

No — I couldn’t believe a prosecutor like this existed in the world.

I’d expected him to work me over with statutes, within reason, and instead he was reaching for punk and dog.

Wow… That pisses me off.

“Are you planning to take me in by force?”

“Clerk Kim, apply for an arrest warrant on this shit! Running his mouth like that, and concussion my ass! Get the office on the phone, fast! I’ve already called the court, so it’ll come straight through.”

“Yes, sir, Prosecutor!”

Oho. The court’s been squared away too?

A connection running all the way to the branch court’s warrant judge felt frightening all over again.

What would have happened if I’d had no money?

One scrap with Hong Seong-hyeon and every bit of power in a small city had moved.

You couldn’t call it anything but disgraceful.

“Heh heh heh. You’re finished, punk. Where does a little shit get off mouthing off in front of a Prosecutor. Damn it!”

Inspector Park Dong-seok grinned wide, showing a yellow gold tooth.

Smirk.

Before I knew it my lips had twisted into a snort of a smile.

“This is rotten, and rotten far past too far. A detective, and a prosecutor, and a prosecutors’ office employee, and now a judge? Wow… it’s a wonder this country runs at all. Hahaha, hahahahahahaha.”

Stunned, I laughed hard enough to bring the room down.

So the world was this far gone. I understood it properly now.

The foundation on which President Jo Geun-yeong and Ju Sun-ja would stir up the Republic of Korea had already been finished, back here in the past.

I missed 2020 all over again.

Hard as it was economically, society there had not been this far gone in ordinary sense.

“Shut up, punk! Where do you get off flapping your trap! Maybe this gangster shit needs a beating to come to his senses!”

Prosecutor Kang Gyeong-jun came at me, raising his hand as he came.

Should I fillet him?

I gave it a moment’s thought.

If I set my mind to it I could turn him into porridge.

But… just then!

Rattle!

The door was thrown open.

“Wh-what do you think you’re doing to a patient!!!”

The doc who had looked after me in the emergency room came running and put himself in front of me.

He was only a resident, and he was brave.

“Move! Don’t you know this is the execution of official duty!”

“Get out right now! I’m reporting this to the police! Now!”

“Report it to the police? Look here, doctor. You look like a resident, so shut your mouth and clear out. The criminal charge against this gangster shit is substantiated and there’s a flight risk, so an arrest warrant has been applied for!”

Prosecutor Kang’s eyes had gone wild.

He looked less like a prosecutor than a lunatic who had come in off a drug binge.

A shame.

Not one person in that hospital room knew that all of it was being recorded, vividly, right then.

“No! Once a person comes into a hospital, whoever they are, they’re the doctor’s responsibility! So back off!”

Doc, I’m moved!

You are the light of the world.

“Aagh!”

Right then I grabbed my head and screamed.

It was time to start acting again.

I let my internal energy run backward, just slightly.

One slip and it could screw me, so I was careful too.

My face reddened at once and my eyes went bloodshot.

“Wh-what’s wrong. Tae-san, stay with me! Head nurse, head nurse! Prep for shock treatment!”

My acting looked set to max out today.

The doctor and everyone else fell into a panic.

Heh heh heh. Good.

Now then, next up, the closing entrance.

“Kang Gyeong-jun!”

Attorney Jo Yun-tae came out of the bathroom where he had been waiting and called Prosecutor Kang’s name loud enough to blow the room apart.

“Hurk!”

Kang Gyeong-jun, crying out in shock.

SMAAACK!!!

Attorney Jo Yun-tae opened his hand and laid it across Kang Gyeong-jun’s face.

Crash-bang-clatter.

There was so much force in it that Kang Gyeong-jun flew to the floor.

“D-Deputy Chief Jo!”

The investigator called Kim Dong-sik looked at Attorney Jo, shaking, as if he had seen a reaper out of hell.

The timing was outrageous.

“You shits! Are you punks and gangsters!!!”

Attorney Jo, roaring like a lion.

Thwock!

Attorney Jo Yun-tae’s fist hit the investigator’s face without mercy.

“Aagh!”

The investigator took it without even resisting.

“You are a disgrace to prosecutors!”

Thwack, thwack, thwack!

And then he stomped the fallen Prosecutor Kang to pieces with the sole of his shoe.

Watching through slitted eyes, even I flinched.

Wow. That organization really was a savage place, no question.

“…”

The doctor stopped his treatment too and stared blankly at what had broken out.

Beep-bee-beep.

His face flushed red, Attorney Jo placed a call somewhere.

— Oh my, sunbae. What’s the occasion. We haven’t heard a thing from you since you retired…

“Hey! Go Yeong-chan! I warned you to raise your people properly, you shit!”

— S-sunbae, what are you suddenly saying…

“You sent that Kang Gyeong-jun shit to the hospital, didn’t you? Hey! You rock-headed shit! Has a man who calls himself a branch chief nothing better to do! Mobilizing a prosecutor over a high schoolers’ fight? You want to die by my hand, you shit!”

— …

Attorney Jo’s cell phone was so good that the contents of the call spread clearly through the room.

A former Deputy Chief Prosecutor of a district prosecutors’ office, retired only a short while, was taking apart, with words alone, a man who held a small branch chief’s post at the rank of Division Chief Prosecutor.

Ahh, the world after all! It really was a place worth living in again.

The only trouble is that it costs a little money — but what a thoroughly welcome way for events to unfold.

It was time for me to start moving again, gently.

If I stopped here the act might be exposed.

“Aaaagh! Aaaaaaagh!”

I grabbed my head and screamed at the top of my lungs, with a joyful heart.

So that everyone in the hospital could come and watch.

(End of Chapter 17)