novelnext Chapter 173 : If you pity them, you should give them a chance. Don't you think? (2)
Chapter 173 : If you pity them, you should give them a chance. Don't you think? (2)
If you pity them, you should give them a chance. Don't you think? (2)A motorcycle burst through the wall and charged inside.
Even so, there was no security outside to detect it and stop it.
That was because all the security guards who were supposed to serve that role had been knocked out.
"You disabled all the CCTVs, right?"
"Yes, the fights we had with these people shouldn't have been recorded."
I had gathered together all the unconscious security guards into one spot.
Out of the pile, Amelda began to pull a few aside.
It was to weed out the Holy Church members hiding among them.
I had already predicted that the Holy Church would be mixed in among them.
That's exactly why I'd brought Amelda to the event hall.
"By the way, why are those girls here?"
Ah-rin and Sang-ah, who were also helping with the identification process, caught my eye.
Especially Ah-rin, who had an excellent sense of smell, could distinguish between regular people and Holy Church members.
'But still...'
I wondered why they, who should have been in military uniform getting punished at the training camp, were here in dresses.
Before I could figure out why, I realized: Amelda had brought them along.
"There was a problem during training."
"A problem?"
"This Sang-ah student suddenly began sleepwalking..."
"Sleepwalking?"
I understood immediately.
Sang-ah had had trouble because of sleepwalking before.
"In order to cure it, I had to let her eat some meat, so I permitted her to go out."
"And you just happened to come here for that outing?"
"Yes. I thought I could both feed her and complete the mission..."
I glanced sideways at Sang-ah.
She flinched reflexively.
If it hadn't been for the 'Soul of Illusion' skill at that moment, the event hall would have been a complete mess.
That was when Sang-ah unconsciously leaked magic power, because she'd lost control of her rationality.
She had moved as if possessed, with the sole determination to eat meat.
"Sang-ah."
"Hiiik!"
As expected, she was scared stiff.
She was afraid of what sort of punishment would befall her, since she'd almost ruined the plan.
"Your dress is really pretty."
"Huh?"
But I didn't really intend to scold her.
At my unexpected comment, Sang-ah's face turned red.
"Did you get to eat as much meat as you wanted?"
"Yeah..."
Sang-ah quietly answered my overly friendly question.
Then, as I erased the Holy Church members we'd identified with shadow, I added,
"Well, time to get back to the training camp, right?"
"Ah..."
"..."
Not just Sang-ah, but Ah-rin as well, both wore expressions of despair.
Their hunger had finally been sated.
Their outing was now over.
"I feel bad for the security guards here, but..."
They would have to remain unconscious until the event ended.
My newest puppet was actively working in the event hall right now, after all.
"By the way, who's that kid?"
Ah-rin sneakily glanced at the podium inside the hall and asked.
It was the child who had burst in on a motorcycle just now.
There was no way they could know who that was.
Naturally, of course.
"That's Jay Hoon. Former Guildmaster of the Sura guild, Jade."
"W-what!?"
Ah-rin was shocked to learn that was him.
It had been a pain together with Amelda to shrink him down to a child and even sculpt his features.
He'd screamed during the process and gone into a rampage after it was complete.
But now, the guy was my puppet.
He moved exactly as I commanded him—a perfect marionette.
From now on, he'd be playing the role of a delinquent juvenile.
"Now, try 'rehabilitating' that kid."
Don't you like giving people 'chances'?
****
At Kwon Yongha's suggestion, the crowd was thrown into confusion.
What the child had done was obviously a crime.
Even if he was a juvenile, it would be hard for him to avoid punishment.
However, Choi Seungjin, the host of the event, and Congressman Yoon Hongseok were known to oppose such merciless punishments.
"Um... Guildmaster Kwon Yongha. Are you suggesting we let this kid go?"
"Hahaha! That would be far too lenient. Of course, he should go through the proper procedures."
At those words, Choi Seungjin felt somewhat relieved.
Whoever this was, he had no intention of letting the child who'd wrecked his inauguration off the hook.
"But I also do not advocate ruthless judgment."
"Excuse me?"
"You all know! Depriving minors of a chance only leads to further crime—it's a well-established fact!"
Choi Seungjin was so flustered he couldn't say a word.
Everything Kwon Yongha was saying now were remarks he himself had made as a lawyer.
Probably the entire country knew it.
"What do you all think? If it's Congressman Choi Seungjin, surely he can rehabilitate this child! If you agree, please give a round of applause!"
The atmosphere in the event hall turned chaotic in an instant.
Could someone really rehabilitate a kid who burst through a wall on a motorcycle?
No, more than that, shouldn't they just apprehend the kid in this pandemonium?
Where was security, anyway?
Clap clap clap clap clap!-
Clap clap clap clap clap!-
That moment,
applause broke out, spreading among the guests.
Before long, more than half were clapping.
The guests—many of them former protesters alongside Choi Seungjin—hesitated at first.
But, swept away by the mood, they too burst out in applause.
To be fair, there was credibility in Kwon Yongha's words.
"Yeah! Who is that, if not the master of rehabilitation, lawyer Choi Seungjin!"
"Mister, you can do it!"
A woman with black hair in a dress shouted out loudly while clapping.
Next to her, Ma Seongjin, son of Ma Jun-sang, also cheered for him.
And then...
Clap clap clap clap clap!-
Ma Jun-sang followed, too.
His eyes were sharp, as if scrutinizing Choi Seungjin.
'That guy...!'
Choi Seungjin met Ma Jun-sang's gaze and was unnerved.
—Let's see if your vaunted method of rehabilitation really works.
Or so his expression seemed to say.
In the end, applause resounded from all the guests.
This included reporters from the TV station.
"Well then, congressman! Would you like to say a few words?"
"Uh...?"
Catapulted by Kwon Yongha's momentum, Choi Seungjin wore a reluctant expression.
He felt like a fish suddenly swept up by the rapids while just fishing at the riverbank.
"Well, then... I'll do my best moving forward."
But despite realizing he'd been swept up, Choi Seungjin continued to drift downstream.
The policies he created for juveniles.
If he refused here, he'd be denying those policies in front of the entire country.
****
Thus, his inauguration was pushed aside, and Choi Seungjin ended up with a new goal.
To rehabilitate the child who crashed in on a motorcycle.
It was only natural that he felt anger at the child who ruined his important event.
'No, let's not be so negative.'
As Kwon Yongha said, crisis was opportunity.
If he could successfully rehabilitate that child, he'd prove his own policies right.
After all, he was a specialist in this field.
He'd defended countless juveniles up to now.
Every one of them had been delinquents, but by the end, they'd apologized and regretted what they'd done.
Naturally, this gave him confidence.
'But...'
He couldn't shake a sense of foreboding.
Along with his confidence, a creeping fear began to form.
What was this maelstrom of mutually exclusive feelings?
He didn't know, but at present, Choi Seungjin was once again facing the child he'd met at the juvenile assessment center.
Two weeks had passed since that day.
Thanks to his defense and Kwon Yongha's influence, the child was released without much fuss.
"Hi, uh... Nice to meet you."
"Who are you?"
The kid he met again still looked as sassy as ever.
How could someone look so nonchalant after causing such trouble?
"Oh! You're that guy I saw during the drive!"
"Drive?"
"You know! The motorcycle!"
The kid said with guileless innocence on his face.
It was the face of someone who never once had proper education, who couldn't tell right from wrong.
Frankly, that made sense.
He'd learned as much from looking into his background.
"His name is Kim Jae. Thirteen years old. Lost his parents five years ago to an A-rank gate in Osan, Gyeonggi Province. He's been missing ever since..."
In short, he was a kid who lost his family to a gate and had drifted ever since he was eight years old.
It was no surprise he had no schooling, nowhere to go.
Without education, of course he wouldn't know common sense.
It even explained making a mess of the event hall...
'So what on earth was he doing for those five years before reappearing?'
Even odder was the fact that all the security outside had been knocked unconscious that day.
Since they'd all been collapsed, they hadn't been able to stop his intrusion.
But none of them remembered what had happened before they passed out.
'Was it the Holy Church?'
In fact, there'd been no contact from those guys since the event.
It was as if they were dead—no matter how he tried to reach them, there was no answer.
It felt almost as if he'd been abandoned.
Maybe this kid was part of their group after all.
Why else would he reappear after being missing for years?
But still...
'Damn it!'
He couldn't put this brat in juvenile detention.
He had declared in front of the public that he would personally rehabilitate him.
Besides, Choi Seungjin was known for giving offenders lighter punishments if they simply 'reflected' on their actions.
If this kid 'reflected' too, he'd have to be treated the same way.
'Right. Let's stick to the usual approach.'
No matter what, one thing was certain.
This kid was a poor, pitiful child exposed to a bad environment.
Just like all the delinquent juveniles he'd defended so far.
The only difference was that, this time, the victim was himself.
"So, where are we going?"
"Where else? A care facility."
"Care facility?"
"You don't have parents, and you can't just stay at my house, right?"
"Parents? Ah...!"
Right then, the kid—Kim Jae—widened his eyes.
He looked like he'd just remembered something, and Choi Seungjin took note of it.
For rehabilitation, you had to meet the child's perspective.
Even that small act, followed through, could help nurture good character.
"Is there anything you remember?"
This kid, Kim Jae, was just like all the others he'd defended.
He'd simply lost his way and wandered, but there was a chance for him to develop a good heart.
Victims always shouted, 'Punish him! Punish him!' but it wasn't possible.
How could you rob kids of the chance to foster kindness in their hearts?
The victims baying for punishment were just selfish.
If they had grown up in the same miserable conditions, would they really say otherwise?
"Jae, if you remember anything, tell me."
"I... remembered something I did with my parents!"
Yes, he saw himself as someone who helped people in trouble.
Who could criticize that?
"What is it?"
"I, um... liked fishing."
Kim Jae seemed to be recalling memories with his family.
He himself had memories with his own child, though none of them were happy ones.
Despite the comfortable life he provided, his son always looked gloomy for some reason.
"Fishing!"
"Fishing? What kind of fishing?"
At that moment, magic power flared from Kim Jae's hand.
According to the investigation, it was well known he was an awakened.
Kim Jae aimed that magic power right at Choi Seungjin's head.
And then...
—Shyaaaaaaaak!!
Was that a lawnmower starting up?
Suddenly, there was the sound of something being shaved clean.
At the same time, his head abruptly felt breezy.
"Octopus fishing!"
Choi Seungjin's once-luxuriant hair suddenly began to shine.
The realization that all his hair had disappeared in an instant made Choi Seungjin's eyes roll back.
****
"Freedom... Freedom at last!"
"We're finally out!!"
Having escaped the training camp, Sang-ah and Ah-rin cheered in pure joy.
The casual clothes they hadn't worn in so long, the fresh air at their noses and mouths—
It was goodbye at last to the stifling military uniforms that made them miserable just to wear.
"We did it! We really did it!"
"Waaaah!"
So overwhelmed, Ah-rin and Sang-ah clung to each other and sobbed.
They looked like sisters reunited after ten years apart.
"No more gross food!"
"And no more shoveling snow and boring etiquette drills ever again!"
"All that's left is having fun now!"
"But how long until school starts?"
As they hugged, their faces suddenly stiffened.
They'd been so moved that they'd forgotten the one critical fact.
Today was the very first day of school.
"..."
"..."
The moment happiness turned back into despair.
A car pulled up in front of them.
"Hurry up and get in. You have to go to school."
"..."
"..."
Seongjin poked his head out of the window and spoke.
Though their dreaded time in the training camp had ended, their longed-for winter vacation had vanished.
Faced with that crushing sense of deprivation, the two let out a deep groan.
"Waaaaah!! Our vacation!! Vacation!!"
"It's so unfair!"
Ah-rin in particular wailed even louder.
She'd already made so many plans for her winter break.
As the two rolled on the ground, throwing tantrums, Seongjin spoke firmly.
"Do you want to go back in there again?"
"N-no! No! Absolutely not!!"
"Eek!"
The two immediately sat up straight where they rolled on the floor.
Just a single word was enough—life there was traumatic.
"Just say the word. I'll send you back over summer vacation in third year, too."
"No, please!!"
"Then you're not going to mess around with my underwear ever again?"
"I won't! Never!!"
"Never again!"
—Good.
Seongjin was satisfied at their desperate reaction.
Proper etiquette had clearly been instilled.
As they got into the car, Seongjin checked his phone for a news article.
It featured a photo of lawyer Choi Seungjin, whose hairstyle looked quite different.
"Our lawyer. His head looks really breezy now."
It was the kind of head better suited to a mountain temple than a courtroom.