Chapter 1408. Released (3)

[The police announced that the lab analysis of hair samples taken from Mister Kim has confirmed the trace amount of illegal narcotics. Mister Kim, currently in a holding cell under the suspicion of contravening drug distribution laws, is now revealed to be the grandson of Kim Myeong-Chan, the former Prime Minister. However, the police didn’t reveal any further information, citing that the investigation is still ongoing...]

Kim Myeong-Chan’s wrinkled hand angrily gripped the TV remote.

[...The former Prime Minister Kim Myeong-Chan, who is currently under investigation for various crimes, has created yet another shockwave when his grandson’s drug addiction has come to light. With this shocking news, the citizens have raised alarm over the rampant moral decay not only present in the wealthy upper class of society, but the ruling class, as well.]

Kim Myeong-Chan angrily stabbed the button on the remote to change the channel. His reward for doing so was the image of his face plastered all over another TV station’s news broadcast, however.

[As the investigation into the former Prime Minister continues on, we at XX News have received credible proof of Kim Myeong-Chan receiving bribes and not paying his taxes. Kim Myeong-Chan earned a sizable income through a real estate transaction several years ago, but deliberately concealed the transaction to avoid paying a large income tax. The National Tax Service has announced that it will launch an investigation into the matter as soon as possible.]

[Not only that, we’ve received information on Kim Myeong-Chan receiving illegal campaign funds while he was serving as a minister in the previous administration...]

Kim Myeong-Chan hurriedly changed the channel again.

[Various allegations of corruption and illicit dealings regarding the former Prime Minister have been uncovered so far. The President’s Office in the Blue House has announced Kim Myeong-Chan’s removal from the Prime Minister’s Office early this morning.]

[Citizens are shocked by the true face of the former Prime Minister Kim Myeong-Chan, who built his reputation as a fighter for democracy in the past. They are also expressing their disappointment at the current administration that Kim Myeong-Chan was part of for its unacceptable level of moral decay.]

Kim Myeong-Chan stabbed the remote buttons again and again.

[The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office has announced that they will arrest the former Prime Minister Kim Myeong-Chan once the substantive review of his arrest warrants has been completed. Some citizens have questioned why he has not been arrested until now despite the weight of all the allegations leveled at him. Various commentators have openly accused the prosecutors of being too lenient toward the ruling class, which...]

“

Euh... Uwaaaahk

!”

The remote went flying in the air and clattered into the TV screen. The projectile successfully cracked the screen before falling to the floor.

“

Fuu

...!”

Kim Myeong-Chan shielded his face with his trembling hands. A heavy but low sigh leaked out of his mouth. The skin around his eyes, reddened from all the constant scratching, twitched ominously.

“I... I...!”

There was no escape now.

Kim Myeong-Chan had always been proud of living a...

relatively

clean and righteous life.

Accepting bribes? Tax evasion? What a bunch of nonsense that was.

If what he accepted over the years was bad enough to be labeled as bribery, and if that little amount he didn’t bother to report to the taxman qualified as tax evasion, then every single bastard entering South Korea’s National Assembly should get locked up behind bars.

Kim Myeong-Chan was so sure about this that he’d have no issue betting his honor on it.

Humans were like this, after all. Could every person walking this earth strictly adhere to the law? If such a thing was possible, laws and regulations wouldn’t have existed in the first place. The existence of law was proof that humans were incapable of following the rules.

Every person alive had broken a law or two—some small, some graver than others. Indeed, just how many people in history had never broken a law or committed a crime?

Yet it was human nature to turn a blind eye to their own crimes but criticize others for their wrongdoing.

Kim Myeong-Chan always viewed himself as a righteous, honest politician. Unlike his peers, he hadn’t amassed a hidden fortune somewhere. And he certainly had never exploited the power granted to him to suppress ordinary citizens.

Even then, the world was painting him as the most corrupt politician this country has ever seen over and over again!

“I... I...!”

Kim Myeong-Chan cried out in despair.

“Even though I...! I’ve lived for all of you!”

Didn’t he risk his life to oppose the merciless military dictatorship of the past? Didn’t he tremble in fear at night, wondering when the hooded men would raid his home to take him away? And even during daytime, didn’t his heart sink to the pit of his stomach whenever he spotted unfamiliar faces in the crowd?

Despite the ever-present terror of getting kidnapped, tortured, murdered, and buried in a shallow grave in some nameless mountainside, Kim Myeong-Chan... Didn’t he risk everything to bring democracy to this country in those days?

Some people might say the current democracy was the victory earned by the Korean people. But that was an utter drivel.

While Kim Myeong-Chan protested and fought back against the dictatorship, his fellow citizens kept their mouths shut. That was all they did.

What did his fellow citizens do when he got dragged into the basement of the police’s security branch and got tortured? What did they do for him while he got hung upside down and had water laced with red pepper poured down his nose?

Silence, that was what they did! Utter silence!

A handful of brave fighters risking their lives to oppose the dictatorship became the fertilizer that bore the fruit now enjoyed by the citizens of this country.

Thanks to Kim Myeong-Chan winning the right to criticize those in power and handing it over to the masses, they could now freely paint him as a villain like this. Which was rather ironic, all things considered.

That’s right. All this... All this was because of me! It’s my achievement!

However, what were they saying about him now?

“Corrupt? I’m corrupt?! Me? How dare you... You sons of b*tches!

Uwaaaah

!”

Kim Myeong-Chan howled like a wounded beast.

He was more or less fine with losing his wealth. And he could endure losing his job, too. Ditto for his authority. However...!

Watching his lifetime of achievements crumbling down? His honor, the source of his strength, being trampled on like this? That was not something he could endure with a sane mind. It felt like a sharp razor blade was shaving off a layer of flesh from his heart every single day.

“

Keuk

...

Heuh

...!”

But this surely wouldn’t be the end of the reports.

Comrades, the people he used to oppose the dictatorship together all those years ago, were coming out of the woodwork to throw him under the bus one after the other. By this time tomorrow... Someone might say Kim Myeong-Chan had murdered the policemen responsible for torturing him in the past and hid their bodies somewhere. Or they might unearth some nonsensical allegations of sexual abuse.

Were they real, though?

No. That doesn’t even matter.

His former comrades voluntarily stepped up and began spitting on him publicly. In that case, who would listen to Kim Myeong-Chan’s excuses?

He learned something important during his lengthy career as a politician. The truth depended on how you framed it. And people believed what they wanted to believe.

Humans would often say they value honesty and truthfulness, but in reality, they didn’t care all that much about such things. No, to be more precise, they only wanted to hear those

truths

that reaffirmed their worldview.

Also, wasn’t this an incredibly entertaining incident for the masses? A man who crawled out of the gutter to oppose the terrifying dictatorship to become this country’s Prime Minister had fallen spectacularly from grace, after all.

The mightier and more powerful the person falling was, the louder and more raucous the cheering from the peanut gallery would get. In that sense, Kim Myeong-Chan was an ideal prey. There couldn’t have been all that many people who fell from higher places than him in this country’s history, after all!

That was why these

piranhas

kept ripping him apart. Of course, they might stop destroying him when they had stripped him completely of everything he held dear, and only his bones remained.

No, wait!

They probably would not stop even when all he had left was bones. These bastards would deny everything he had done for this country. They would relentlessly insult his integrity and trample on his honor. Even after he died, they would show up at his grave to spit on his tombstone and to ridicule him.

As a man falling endlessly into the abyss, Kim Myeong-Chan had nothing left.

His phone should have been going crazy from all the calls coming in... had this been some other occasion. But not this time. It remained deathly silent.

Less than a week ago, texts and calls wishing for his best would inundate him whenever a trivial news story regarding him was published somewhere. But no one had done that lately.

Then again, they would all try their hardest to evade answering his calls from now on.

“

Huh

...

Huhuhuh

...”

How did things end up this way? How?

Did he make a mistake by entering politics? Or was trusting his former comrades his undoing? Maybe he should’ve walked away when they all yapped on about bringing true democracy back to South Korea.

If that was not it, then... Was it because he wasn’t willing to compromise?

If none of the above was correct, then...?

“

Heh

.

Heheheh

...!”

Of course, he already knew. He knew from where everything had gone wrong.

I shouldn’t have provoked him.

Kim Myeong-Chan’s downfall started when he tried to antagonize Kang Jin-Ho. If only he hadn’t tried to destroy the Assembly Master! If only he tried to co-exist with that man! Then he’d still be South Korea’s proud Prime Minister, doing his best to run this country for the benefit of its citizens.

But he had attacked Kang Jin-Ho. And that toppled everything he had built. Absolutely everything!

His life, his honor, even his family! Everything was being destroyed here.

Kim Myeong-Chan’s trembling hand reached out to the packet of cigarettes nearby. He barely managed to pull out the last remaining cigarette and mouthed it before lighting it up.

The acrid smell of the cigarette stung his eyes. However, this was his sole comfort, his only remaining solace. He avoided alcohol since he was too scared of what he’d do after getting drunk in his current mental state.

What have I been living for?

Didn’t he do everything for the sake of this country? No, more correctly, didn’t he spend his entire life serving the citizens of this country? Although his only reward now was people mocking him for it, Kim Myeong-Chan genuinely believed in what he did.

However, if that’s true...

Why couldn’t he just accept this situation and take the fall? If his lone sacrifice was enough to ensure everyone else’s survival, shouldn’t he be happy about it?

How did hatred and rage take over Kim Myeong-Chan’s heart to this degree?

“

Heh

...

Hehehehe

...”

A hollow cackle leaked out of his mouth.

The one truly denying his life wasn’t those bastards, but Kim Myeong-Chan himself.

If he really had sacrificed his life for this country and its citizens, and if he still had believed that, this level of soul-destroying rage wouldn’t be burning in his heart right now.

This... This unstoppable self-hatred! The world denied his life. It rejected it. But so did Kim Myeong-Chan.

As he anxiously sucked away on the cigarette, his phone suddenly began ringing viciously.

Kim Myeong-Chan’s somewhat dazed eyes locked on his mobile device. He wordlessly reached out, grabbed the phone, and pressed it against his ear.

“It’s... Kim Myeong-Chan speaking.”

—Prime Minister, sir. This is the Chief of Staff calling from the Blue House.

“I see... So? To

what

do I owe this pleasure?”

—Of course, I only have one reason to call you, sir.

He

asked me to convey his message to you.

He? As in the President? That concept suddenly felt so foreign to him.

At times, that man was like a senior he could rely on in times of trouble. At other times, he was a friend Kim Myeong-Chan could talk to. If he was to define that man in the simplest term... That man was a friend who had walked toward the same destination as Kim Myeong-Chan.

It wasn’t as if Kim Myeong-Chan had forgotten about separating official business and personal feelings. Despite being friends, the two of them boasted different statuses. As such, Kim Myeong-Chan had no problem treating his friend as his superior worthy of respect and awe.

But today... That whole idea felt so distant and alien to him.

“So? What did he say?”

—We can no longer stop the proceedings, sir. The formal arrest warrant will be issued tomorrow. And he’s scheduled to appear in a press conference to offer his sincerest apology to the public.

“Sincerely apologizing, is it...?”

That meant Kim Myeong-Chan would be branded as a criminal, without a doubt, then.

—Now that the situation has reached this point, it’s time for you to face the reality, Prime Minister.

“Correction. I’m not the Prime Minister anymore.”

After all, hadn’t they removed him from the office already?

—It’s time to decide, sir.

“Decide? On what?”

—The “appearance” matters in everything we do, sir. Before the arrest warrant is issued, we recommend you turn yourself in to the prosecutors voluntarily. That should create a more palatable public perception for everyone.

“Appearance, perception... Yes, that’s all good and well.”

Kim Myeong-Chan chuckled softly.

The Chief of Staff’s recommendation wasn’t wrong, was it? Kim Myeong-Chan was destined for a spell in jail, anyway. What did it matter if he increased the duration by one or two days? Walking in rather than getting dragged in might look better for him and everyone else.

...With the exception of this one crucial thing, that was.

“So, is this the will of that person, then?”

—Yes, it is. His position means he must consider various things, sir.

“I see, I see...”

Kim Myeong-Chan’s expression gradually distorted until it resembled that of a terrifying demon.

“Now, listen here, Mister Chief of Staff.”

—Sir?

“Do you know what my aide told me as his last piece of counsel?”

—I’m not sure, sir. But why are you suddenly bringing that up?

“He told me to take the fall.”

Only silence came from the phone’s speaker. What a weighty, poignant silence that was.

“If I don’t, you’ll kill me and bury me completely, he said.”

Kim Myeong-Chan smirked weirdly. Death, was it?

Didn’t he battle constantly against the fear of death in his youth to achieve his ideals?

“So... Go ahead. Try to kill me.”

—I’m sorry?

“I’m not going to jump off this cliff for you, so you better push me off instead if you want to gag me for good. If you don’t...!”

Kim Myeong-Chan’s eyes grew terrifyingly bloodshot.

“I’ll make sure we all go down together. You hear me?!”