"You called for me, Chief Prosecutor?"

"Sit."

"Yes!"

Yun Dae-ho, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Eastern District office, was startled by the sudden summons from the chief prosecutor.

He and the chief prosecutor were close, and yet not close at all.

The man was three classes ahead of him at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, but they'd gone to different schools.

Inside the prosecution, they barely knew each other.

It nagged at him, but they were on different lines with no point of contact, so he wasn't scared.

The line Yun Dae-ho held on to was sturdier than people thought.

If a chief prosecutor didn't make prosecutor general, his career usually ended right there.

Plenty of chief prosecutors hung up their robes at about this point.

Even so, you didn't openly brush them off.

The prosecution ran like the military, on strict top-down obedience.

Until a man stepped down, you had to look like you were serving him with everything you had.

Yun Dae-ho straightened his clothes and arranged himself like a dutiful subordinate.

"Busy these days?"

Han Jong-ho, Chief Prosecutor of the Eastern District office, smiled.

"Not at all. It's manageable."

Yun Dae-ho answered as briskly as he could.

"Sure, manageable... I'll bet it is."

"Excuse me?"

At Han Jong-ho's voice, thick with scorn, Yun Dae-ho blinked.

Something's off here...

His gut sent a danger signal.

He hadn't come out of Hanguk, Goyeong or Yeonji University, and yet he'd made deputy chief prosecutor—quick instincts had a lot to do with it.

"Chief Prosecutor, did I make some kind of mistake..."

"Crazy son of a bitch."

"!!!" The curse burst out.

A deputy chief prosecutor ranked lower, but it was a post with real political weight of its own.

Even a chief prosecutor couldn't just swear at one to his face.

And yet Chief Prosecutor Han Jong-ho had sworn.

That meant it was over.

Cold sweat ran down Yun Dae-ho's back.

He scanned the cases he'd been handling lately, fast.

And there was one that clicked.

No way? Jang Tae-san?

"Figured it out now?"

"!!!" "You stupid son of…