Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 195

Late at night.

Kim Won-hu was drinking alone at a bar he frequented.

The bartender, seeing him downing drinks one after another, asked if something was wrong, but each time, Kim Won-hu only gave an awkward smile and tilted his glass again.

Once he was thoroughly drunk, he paid the bill and stepped out of the establishment.

Tonight, he needed to be drunk.

And why wouldn’t he? For the sake of his own well-being and future, he had just shoved his closest colleague straight into hell.

Staggering, he tried to hail a taxi to head home.

But for some reason, taxis were unusually scarce tonight.

"Hoo..."

His head swayed.

Did he drink too much?

He decided to sit down for a moment and catch his breath.

As an Awakened, he could sober up anytime he wanted.

But he didn’t.

Tonight, he needed the intoxication.

That was why he had downed several ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) bottles of strong liquor.

Kim Won-hu plopped down onto a nearby flower bed and took a deep breath.

And before he knew it, his body slumped over.

***

"Ugh..."

Kim Won-hu groaned.

Did I fall asleep?

It seemed like he had.

Yawning loudly, he stretched his arms.

Then, he opened his eyes.

But where was this?

Why was it so dark?

Was it still before dawn?

Just as he was wondering that, he finally realized something was very wrong.

Dawn?

No.

What lay before him was utter darkness, so dense that he couldn’t even see an inch ahead.

"W-what the hell?"

His words stammered in shock, and his intoxication vanished instantly.

After all, for an Awakened like him, shaking off drunkenness was a simple matter.

And just then, his body was violently shoved to the ground.

"W-what the hell!"

"You bastard, you dare lie to me?"

"W-who are you...? Wait, Kim Gwan-hyeon?"

"You son of a bitch!!"

That voice—it was definitely Kim Gwan-hyeon.

So, was he kidnapped by the Seodaemun Three?

But they were supposed to have been caught by Special Investigation Team 2 by now.

Bewildered, Kim Won-hu spoke up.

"W-wait! There seems to be some misunderstanding! Let’s talk first! Just let me go and we can talk properly!"

"Let you go? Who the hell do you think you are?! You bastard! Didn’t you tell us that Special Investigation Team 2 would come for us today? Then how the hell did they know we were lying in wait? You were a double agent, weren’t you?! That’s it, isn’t it?!"

A double agent?

What the hell was this nonsense?

Flustered, Kim Won-hu shouted.

"A double agent?! What the fuck are you talking about?! After all the money I took from you, why the hell would I do that?!"

"You piece of shit! You could’ve just taken the money and gotten rid of us! Hell, that would’ve been cleaner for you! You bastard, do you even know how many of my brothers died because of you?!"

"No! I swear, no! Fuck, I admit I took your money because I was desperate, but I didn’t do this alone!!"

Kim Won-hu screamed in desperation.

Hearing that, Kim Gwan-hyeon’s grip loosened slightly.

"What do you mean? You didn’t do this alone? You better explain properly. Thinking about my dead brothers, I should just drive a knife into your throat right now..."

"Fucking hell...! You know Director Baek, right? Our department head, Baek Jun-seok! He’s the one who authorized this! It’s the truth!"

"That bastard?! You didn’t say anything about that before!!"

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

"Because there was no need for you to know!! He didn’t even take a cut! I took on all the risk of getting my name exposed, and all he had to do was clean up after everything!!"

"Then why the fuck would he do that?!"

"Because of the Special Division Chief position!! You saw the news, right?! The Special Division Chief and the entire Special Division got their heads chopped off! Baek is after that position, but my team leader kept getting in his way, so this was all part of the setup!!"

"...What?"

Kim Won-hu’s words were shockingly sincere.

He was completely seized by the fear of death.

And Kim Gwan-hyeon believed him.

He knew Kim Won-hu wasn’t the type to stake his life on a lie, not in a situation like this.

Kim Gwan-hyeon finally let go of him.

As soon as the oppressive weight disappeared from his body, Kim Won-hu quickly sat up.

But the darkness was still absolute.

Biting his lip, he wiped the cold sweat from his brow and said,

"Let’s talk this out. There’s been some misunderstanding, but we can resolve this. Just let me see again, for god’s sake!"

"Shut the hell up. If you want to see again, you’d better prove your innocence right here, right now. And you’ll explain how Special Investigation Team 2 managed to set up a counter-ambush. Otherwise, you’re fucking dead."

Kim Gwan-hyeon’s raw magical energy surged.

Kim Won-hu swallowed hard.

Kim Gwan-hyeon?

Honestly, he could take him.

But he was unarmed.

And blind.

And he had no idea how many others were with Kim Gwan-hyeon or what they had prepared.

In this situation, his only option was to convince them.

"I’ll tell you everything! I swear I’ll tell you everything! But I really don’t know how Team 2 managed to counter-ambush!"

"If not you, then where did the leak come from?"

"Fuck, I’m telling you, it wasn’t me!! Check my phone! If you search through it, you’ll see I had nothing to do with it!"

Kim Won-hu, hands trembling, pulled out his phone and handed it over.

"Password’s 1102. Go through my messages, my calls, everything. Oh, and check the auto-recorded calls. You’ll hear every conversation I had with Director Baek Jun-seok."

Kim Gwan-hyeon started searching through the phone.

It was true.

The messages and call recordings proved that Kim Won-hu had been telling the truth.

After confirming the evidence, Kim Gwan-hyeon finally spoke.

"Well? Do you believe me now?"

“...Ha.”

A sudden, unfamiliar voice.

Hearing two additional voices besides Kim Gwan-hyeon’s, Kim Won-hu tensed up immediately.

And then—

Whoosh!

A flood of light.

His vision, once swallowed by complete darkness, suddenly began to clear as light poured in.

At the same time, a system notification appeared before his eyes.

[ Pressure Point Technique has been lifted. ]

Pressure Point Technique?

What the hell is that?

But before he could even process the message, his gaze landed on a familiar face beyond the notification window, and he recoiled in horror.

“Y-you, you, you!”

The reason for his shock?

The familiar face staring back at him was none other than Na Do-won.

And it didn’t end there.

The person standing beside Na Do-won was none other than the Sword Saint, An Su-ho himself.

Meeting Kim Won-hu’s eyes, Su-ho greeted him with a smile.

"Hello, Team Leader Kim."

“A-An Su-ho? No, I mean, Investigator An?”

“It’s been a while since I was last called that. Well, technically, I am a Fifth-Class Investigator. But still, I had no idea Team Leader Kim had such a story behind him.”

“W-what do you mean...?! Where’s Kim Gwan-hyeon?! Where is he?!”

“Kim Gwan-hyeon? You mean this?”

Su-ho let him hear Kim Gwan-hyeon’s voice.

It was the effect of the Voice Modulation skill he had acquired from the Library of Martial Arts.

As Kim Gwan-hyeon’s voice came out of Su-ho’s mouth, Kim Won-hu’s face went pale as he finally grasped the situation.

“T-then the one who grabbed me earlier was...?”

“Yes, that was me. By the way, I heard you and Na Do-won were old academy classmates. You even attended each other’s weddings, didn’t you? What a shame. Instead of supporting each other as fellow civil servants, you went as far as plotting murder...”

“T-that’s...!”

“Enough. I’m not interested in the details. In any case, I heard your confession, and we’ve secured the evidence. So, Team Leader Kim Won-hu, you’re under emergency arrest for conspiracy to commit murder, among other charges. Of course, I don’t have the authority to do that, so our investigation team leader here will handle it.”

With that, Su-ho stepped back.

Only then did Kim Won-hu finally meet Na Do-won’s gaze—who had been silently biting his lip this whole time.

“D-Do-won, t-this is...”

“Why did you do it? Even if Director Baek ordered it, why you? Were you after a position in the Special Division too?”

“N-no, that’s not it...!”

“Then tell me!!”

Na Do-won, unable to hold back any longer, pulled out his weapon.

Kim Won-hu hurriedly tried to pull out his own, but the moment he retrieved it from his inventory, it slipped right out of his grasp.

His fingers had no strength.

“W-what the hell?!”

Seeing his reaction, Su-ho spoke casually.

"I did a little something to your body. Just take your beating quietly."

“W-what?!”

Na Do-won pulled out his iron club—his main weapon.

Like Kim Won-hu, he was a warrior-type player, and if there was one person who understood just how destructive Na Do-won could be, it was Kim Won-hu himself.

There was no way out.

Realizing his only option was to beg, Kim Won-hu immediately dropped to his knees.

“D-Do-won, don’t do this. I must have lost my mind for a moment. My kids are growing up, my landlord raised the deposit, and their tuition fees are...”

“And that’s why you tried to kill me? Not just me, but my entire family?!”

Whoosh! Crack!

“Gaaahhh!!”

Enraged beyond reason, Na Do-won swung his iron club with all his strength.

A deafening crash echoed as the weapon struck Kim Won-hu’s collarbone, followed by the sickening sound of bones shattering.

Su-ho, watching from the side, quickly called out.

“Heal.”

[ Heal has been activated. ]

Whoosh!

As soon as the healing skill took effect, Kim Won-hu’s injuries vanished without a trace.

It was only natural.

Su-ho was a far more capable healer than most assumed.

‘Death isn’t an option. A man guilty of conspiracy to commit mass murder needs to rot in Cheongok Prison for the rest of his life.’

To Kim Won-hu, Na Do-won wasn’t just anyone.

He was a longtime colleague.

And yet, he had thrown his old friend to his death.

To Su-ho, who had once suffered betrayal at the hands of his comrades, Kim Won-hu was nothing but an irredeemable bastard.

That was why he didn’t stop Na Do-won.

If Na Do-won accidentally went too far and left Kim Won-hu in critical condition, Su-ho would simply heal him back up again.

And so, Kim Won-hu was beaten mercilessly.

By the time he blacked out from accumulated pain for the fourth time, Na Do-won finally tossed his iron club aside.

“Hoo...”

Even after unleashing all that fury, the resentment in his chest hadn’t dissipated.

But he no longer had the urge to keep hitting him.

After all, no matter how much he struck him, nothing would change.

Seeing him throw the club aside, Su-ho spoke.

“Feeling better now?”

“...Yeah, thanks. Sorry you had to see me like this.”

“No need to apologize. I understand how you feel, believe me.”

“...You do, Investigator?”

“Yeah, well. A long time ago. Anyway...”

Su-ho glanced at the crumpled, unconscious Kim Won-hu.

There was no need to ask how Na Do-won was feeling.

It was already written all over his face.

Instead, Su-ho asked something else.

"Kim Won-hu is dealt with, so why don’t we go take down Director Baek Jun-seok while we’re at it? Before your anger dies down."

“Ha... Alright. I’ll leave it to you again.”

“Of course. But don’t forget our previous deal.”

“How could I? Let’s go. What about Kim Won-hu...?”

“I’ll handle him. Let’s move.”

“Alright.”

And with that, the two men set off toward their next destination.