The Returnee Wants to Live Comfortably

Chapter 176 : Someone Who Needs a Chance (1)

Someone Who Needs a Chance (1)"Kuhk!"

Choi Seungjin, who had collapsed in a pitch-dark space, coughed and opened his eyes.

As his consciousness returned to normal, his vision cleared, but at the same time, a headache surged.

"Ugh..."

His head hurt as if it was about to split open.

It wasn't simple dizziness; it truly felt like getting struck hard on the back of the head.

Or rather...

'What happened to me?'

While calming himself, Choi Seungjin slowly retraced his memories.

He had clearly gone to find Ma Jun-sang and ambushed the guy.

He remembered trailing behind him and stabbing a knife into the crown.

After that...

"Ugh!"

As the repressed memory suddenly resurfaced, the headache intensified.

At that moment, he had swung his knife at the guy's head but had ridiculously failed.

"I definitely..."

Right before the knife reached the guy, he himself had collapsed.

It was because of a mysterious ambush that came from behind.

That was probably also the cause of this headache.

'But more importantly, where am I?'

Judging by the dark and gloomy surroundings, it looked like an unused basement warehouse.

On the floor lay broken sticks and tools, and a single bulb dangled from the ceiling.

He looked around, but there was no visible exit.

He often came to such places when making deals with the Holy Church bastards.

Not having a proper black market site like this made him uneasy.

― Woof!

At that moment, a dog appeared from a corner of the warehouse.

At first, he thought it was just an ordinary stray, but it was holding a wrapped sandwich in its mouth.

The dog placed the sandwich in front of Choi Seungjin, as if telling him to eat.

"Get lost!"

However, Choi Seungjin threw a tool from the floor at the dog.

Fortunately, it didn't hit, but the startled dog ran away.

He had bad memories with dogs.

During his protester days, when he was caught up in a gate, he had faced the threat of a monster in the form of a demon hound.

"I'm hungry."

The moment the dog disappeared, Choi Seungjin grabbed the sandwich and tore off the packaging.

The instant he took a bite, the sandwich disappeared into his stomach in the blink of an eye.

He felt like he could finally hold out a little.

"You hate dogs, but it seems you like the sandwich that a dog brought?"

Suddenly, a voice came along with the sound of a door opening from somewhere.

Turning his head, he saw a door that had been hidden by darkness swing open.

From inside the door, a juvenile was entering this warehouse-like space.

"Have you come to your senses?"

"You...!"

He was a juvenile Choi Seungjin had seen somewhere before.

After racking his brain for thirty seconds, he realized who the juvenile was.

"You're definitely Ma Jun-sang's son..."

****

Choi Seungcheol was found cold and dead at home.

After hearing the news from Amelda, another piece of information came by phone.

It was a report from Ferris of the shadow military unit—he had captured someone suspicious who tried to attack my father.

That person's identity was Choi Seungcheol's father, Choi Seungjin.

Learning this, I returned home right away.

'It's a relief that it just happened to be a burning Friday.'

Fortunately, my father and all the family were safe.

Father had nearly been stabbed with a knife, but Ferris had appeared in an instant and subdued the guy.

Since we couldn't just leave Choi Seungjin alone, we decided to kidnap him into this "secret room."

"Ma Seongjin!?"

"So you do know who I am?"

"Our Sang-gun worked hard to give you food just now—what was that about your behavior?"

"Shut up, you bastard... ugh!"

Choi Seungjin, who tried to talk back at me, had his body bound by chains that rose from the ground.

Even veteran hunters can't break free from this "Restrain" skill.

Meanwhile, I patted the head of Sang-gun, who ran to me.

To a guy who repaid grace with betrayal, there would be no more mercy in the future.

"Let's get straight to it. Why did you attack my dad?"

"..."

"And you're not just an ordinary person anymore, are you? I can sense magic power."

For some reason, he had become an awakener.

His rank was pitifully low, but becoming an awakener meant some trigger had acted.

"What happened?"

"What does it matter to you! More importantly, what are you exactly! Do you think you can tie me up here and get away with it?"

He answered my question with nonsense.

He kept running his mouth.

"People might think I'm not Ma Jun-sang's son. You're just like him—harassing pitiful people. If you don't release me now, your life will be ruined!"

"Yeah, sure. Let's go to the police station together."

"What?"

"I said, let's go to the police station. Wouldn't that be a great way for me to get you jailed?"

"..."

The guy who had been shouting like a beast suddenly went silent.

As if going to the police station himself would be a problem for him.

"S—switch questions! What are you planning to do with me now?"

"You tried to stab my dad. And you threw a weapon at our Sang-gun. Do you think I'd just let someone like that go?"

"Are you planning to take revenge?"

Realizing the situation he was in, Choi Seungjin began to sweat coldly.

To escape, he started mumbling again.

"Hey! Do you know how wrong revenge is? Of course I threatened you, but if you retaliate, you become the same as me—just another perpetrator!"

"..."

"And that's not just my personal philosophy! It's the law of this country, punk!"

He wasn't wrong, exactly.

The purpose of Korean law is correction rather than punishment, to prevent the victim from becoming the perpetrator.

But doesn't this seem off no matter how you look at it?

Should I really protect a guy who clearly tried to stab my father to death...?

Refusing to punish someone just because revenge is considered bad?

"So you want to sweep this under the rug?"

"Ah!"

I tightened the chains around his arms and legs even more as I spoke.

"To me, that just sounds like an excuse for absolution."

"Agh, agh!"

"You say revenge brings about further crimes? Sure, I can agree so far."

It's true, seeing an assailant who tormented you punished brings a sense of satisfaction.

If you get addicted to that rush, even the victim can become the same as the perpetrator.

Satisfaction represents the liberation of desire, the absolute want of humans.

"But if you use that standard, wouldn't taking the law lightly and causing trouble again because you weren't punished also be the worst kind of crime?"

The people of Mewzealand, where slavery and exploitation were routine, always repeated the same words.

–Revenge is bad.

–Vengeance is not right.

–Get blood on your hands and you'll become a monster too.

Treating us demonkin as toys or slaves whenever they wished.

Whenever we retaliated, those bastards always repeated those lines.

Even thinking about it now made me sick.

They defined revenge as "evil", but never questioned their own actions.

Worst of all, the ones who claimed to hate revenge... as soon as their own nobles were killed, they marched in saying they'd get back at the demonkin.

'Other people's revenge is bad, but their own is righteous, those bastards.'

Mewzealand was just the kind of country Choi Seungjin would love.

"When you get stabbed, is there any idiot in the world who just ignores it and says, 'Vengeance is bad!'?"

Of course you're supposed to chase after them or call the police.

What Choi Seungjin argued now was basically, in such a situation, don't call the police.

Ignore it when something terrible happens?

That's no different than telling someone not to call 119 when their house is on fire.

"Above all, right now, you want to see me jailed, don't you?"

"Guh! Of course! Do you think the law will just let you off after doing this?"

Of course? With those words, Choi Seungjin refuted his own argument.

"In the end, you want to 'take revenge' on me, don't you? Weren't you the one saying revenge is bad?"

"Kh..."

"You must have felt it a lot recently too. That a single word of 'reflection' doesn't actually solve everything."

Reflection and opportunity.

Those were the very words this man always used to champion.

There are no bad juveniles in the world.

Everyone has a reason for going astray.

Take the time to really comfort that reason.

But after meeting the juvenile named Kim Jae, this man must have been furious.

That juvenile caused massive trouble over and over, only to keep saying he'd "reflect".

"And by the way, I'm still a juvenile, remember?"

"What?"

I forced myself to shed tears and put on an act.

Choi Seungjin frowned at this sight.

"Waaaah! Mister~ I'm a 15-year-old student! It was just a childish prank, please forgive me just once! I'll reflect on it!~"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Kidding, my ass. Weren't those lunatics you defended always let off with that sort of excuse?"

As expected, I'm terrible at acting like a child.

If there were many witnesses, I'd be called a terrible actor for sure.

"You don't seem to understand because you're a kid. All those were juveniles from terrible backgrounds. Unlike you, who had a prosecutor father, they didn't live in plenty!"

Scolding me not to compare him and those kids, Choi Seungjin.

I could feel that he'd soon try blaming the environment again.

"Then what about your own son?"

"What?"

"Why did you kill Seungcheol-hyung?"

At that moment, the guy fell silent again.

It was already known from the news that he had killed his own son.

An autopsy revealed death from being beaten with a golf club.

–Whimper.

Sangdori came running to me with a golf club in his mouth.

It was mixed in with what he was carrying, and the clubhead was stained red.

The murder weapon, whose whereabouts were unknown, was right here.

"Ah, you beat him to death with this, didn't you? Why did you do it?"

"That's..."

"Weren't you all about helping kids with bad backgrounds? Then at the very least, shouldn't you have cared about your own son's situation too?"

I gripped the golf club, which carried a cold sense of unfulfilled resentment.

Not only did he fail to care about his own son—he actually made things worse for him.

Yet he lavished care on other juveniles from broken homes.

Someone who fostered a bad home environment for his own family... acting as if he pitied others felt absurd.

And worst of all...

–He murdered his own son.

"It was...discipline."

"What?"

"I was just going to discipline him lightly, like always! I never thought it would actually turn out like that!"

Choi Seungjin shouted at the golf club in my hand.

For this man, "covering up" seemed to be routine.

The violence of a delinquent was excused as a childish mistake.

Doing whatever it took to gloss over those mistakes with "apologies" and "reflection".

The pleas of the victim student were dismissed as petty revenge.

And now, even violence and murder was being repackaged as discipline.

"Ah, really?"

"Uh...uh?"

I manipulated the chains to change his posture.

In an instant, he found himself face-down and flailing his eyes in panic.

"Then I'll discipline you lightly, too."

"What kind of discipline!"

"You tried to kill my dad, so there's more than enough reason to 'discipline' you. Don't you agree, bastard!"

Crack!–

"AAAAAAHHHH!"

With a single strike, I broke the bone in his left thigh.

I hadn't even hit that hard, yet it did this much.

If I really used full power, I felt he'd die outright, so I held back.

That would be boring, after all.

"You used to discipline your son like this whenever he fought back against a delinquent, right? And also whenever his test scores were low."

"Ughhhh!!"

Crack!–

"GYAAAAAA!"

This time, I smashed his right shinbone.

To someone who'd always spent his life sitting at a desk, this would be the ultimate pain.

"Please spare me! I'll do anything!"

Now, finally, I got the response I wanted.

And as luck would have it, the timing was right.

"Then if you answer my questions honestly, I'll heal you."

There was something I wanted to ask him anyway.

"Tell me everything you know about the Holy Church."

"What?"

"If a wrong answer comes out, I'll hit you from your hands to your feet."

"Eek!"

Thud!–

"GYAAAH!"

Even if he answered, I had no intention of letting him go.

As wrong answers and correct ones mixed, his screams rang out repeatedly.

****

"Aaaah—"

Beaten so badly, Choi Seungjin finally passed out.

When he opened his eyes again, all his broken bones had healed.

But due to aftereffects, he couldn't move, and his mind was on the verge of collapse.

"Damn it..."

Still bound by chains, tears sprang to his eyes.

And while he was unconscious, he'd dreamed—

Dreams of his school days, leading classmates in protests.

And also of interrogating suspected awakeners, even after the protests were over.

"How did I end up like this..."

"You're wondering how it came to this?"

At that moment, the door opened and someone entered.

One was Ma Seongjin, the other was his father—a familiar face.

"You brought this on yourself, Seungjin."

Ma Jun-sang was giving a cold stare to his old friend.