The Foreigner on the Periphery - Chapter 17

Chapter 17 – Three Ways To Murder Your Boss (14)
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A taxi with a Seoul license plate soon stopped in front of the villa located at the foot of the mountain in Gangwon-do. Minjun handed the 50,000 won bill before stepping out of the vehicle.

“Keep the change.”

The driver’s face brightened at this. After the taxi had gone down the dirt road, Minjun turned to look at the front door.

It was still about ten meters away, but he could clearly see the magic lock on the door. It was a steady device launched by the Witch Cooperative last year.

A lot of sales meant that basic performance would be guaranteed, but…

‘I can’t see this as some sort of high-end class.’

In fact, in the intention of choosing that, there must be a hidden expectation that this place should be viewed as something that should not be easily seen. That must be Jang Tae-joon’s expectation.

Whew!

Spring was still hanging on the threshold. The mountain breeze was chilly. Minjun walked towards the infrastructure with both hands tucked into his pant pockets. He walked up a few stairs, eyes glancing at the lock.

Shudder!

As if to welcome him, the main door of the villa opened wide on both sides. Minjun then walked in a constant stride, hands still in pockets as he sailed through the front door without slowing down. It closed behind him quietly afterward.

After disabling the lock so easily, Minjun looked inside. The interior expressed the owner’s sophisticated taste. It was modern but not cold, neat but not flat. That was how it seemed to Minjun, anyway.

Now, he was seeing Jang Tae-joon’s taste as a human being. If so, how would his real nest look like?

Hwareuk!

White flames flashed in both eyes.

‘Hmm.’

He looked at the landscape of the spirit world, which was superimposed on the same coordinates indoors. As his gaze moved over to the other dimension, the fluorescent lights began to burn in a circle, eventually swaying in a wave-like motion. Minjun searched through the magical faults that had been deposited over time. It was found that most of the traces were less than a week old.

‘These are all traces of what the Society guys have been looking for.’

When nothing had been found in the house in Hannam-doing, it was clear that they had sent other personnel to rob this place as well.

‘If you go back more than a week, it’ll turn out to be very neat from then on, strangely enough.’

Therefore, the searchers would not have been able to even imagine the true identity of Jang Tae-joon. However, Minjun wanted to see what they couldn’t find. Since he managed to guess the identity of the opponent, he had to exert a different concentration and type of power than usual. Even a few drops of sweat ran down his forehead.

After much effort, Minjun finally found it.

‘There was an attempt to erase the traces of the spirit world.’

A similar task was possible in the spiritual realm, such as filling the footprints left on the muddy ground. The difficulty, however, was not all that formidable. In a place like this, it was more difficult to figure out what had been erased in the vicinity, so Minjun did just that, searching for traces that had been vaguely disconnected.

The entrance to the secret passage was not in the deep basement, nor was it behind the hidden wall of the bedroom, as one would commonly think.

Minjun stood in front of the fireplace in the middle of the living room. He had to open the front door and go straight for a few steps in order to reach the location. The villa’s owner seemed to put more importance on the convenience of life rather than confidentiality when it came to installing the secret door. He was probably confident that he would never get caught.

‘The space is vaguely warped.’

By analogy, it was as if a super-high-resolution photo that was indistinguishable from reality had been superimposed on top of a stove. However, someone with very good eyes would be able to spot the oddity by looking at the borders of the photos.

Minjun was like that.

Whoops!

Carefully, he shoved his hand into the hidden space. It seemed like a simple gesture, but several layers of overlapping spells ended up being applied. It then disappeared, almost as if a few fingers had been cut off, and he turned the angle and opened the door.

Shh!

The void eventually began to get torn. A passage that the Society couldn’t find appeared in front of them. It was connected to the bottom of the mountain range, and as he followed it, Minjun knew there was a cavity sufficient for the giant creature to rest in his original form,

And so, instead of heading in blindly, he memorized the order again. Whether it was a camouflage villa or a real residence, he guessed it would be empty, but it was just there in case. There was still enough black magic left to form a tiny speck of dust on his finger.

“Whoa!”

Just like a dandelion seed, it began to float on the breath and disappeared into the darkness. Information began to flood into his brain as the dust traveled, and after a while, he was convinced that the inside was empty.

He entered.

As he avoided various traps and alert spells, he finally met a fork in the road. Minjun turned left without delay. This was a place where, according to the tribe-specific dwelling style, small creatures that were ministered to him, not the owner of the house, resided. If Jang Tae-joon had conducted the research alone, he would have done it in a mimic state to make it easier to use the Earth’s experimental equipment.

‘Well then.’

His guest proved to be correct. Finally, Minjun faced a hidden laboratory.

After confirming that there were no devices present in the vicinity, he vigorously opened the door…

And his expression hardened slightly.

‘…This is bigger than I think…’

Inside, there was a solution contained in a glass tube, a freezer for storing samples, experimental equipment, and a monitor. It was unbelievable that this was all being controlled by one man.

Experiments here would not have depended solely on scientific civilization. Reassembly of a magical event was not at all difficult. There must be a reason why he used magic so often that he couldn’t erase all traces of it, and there must be a reason as to why he felt so assured that this was a safe place.

“….!”

After a while, Minjun got a rough idea of what kind of experiment Jang Tae-joon was doing here.

First of all, what was in the glass tube turned out to be a large amount of hemolysis.

‘Blood was drawn by magic, and it’s been kept in a very fresh condition.’

How could an ordinary human being be able to supply such a large amount of dragon blood consistently?

The answer was simple. Jang Tae-joon was not human.

His identity turned out to be a race capable of ‘supplying itself’ the dragon blood that was needed for the experiment.

‘That’s the more serious problem.’

His gaze then shifted to the freezer next to him. There, a prototype that Jang Tae-joon would have produced was being kept.

Why was Kim Yeon-joo’s blood needed, and why Jang Tae-joon had to study hemolysis and the reaction between it… Minjun could know the traces of ‘magic’ left here.

It was common knowledge that everyone knew that dragons did not catch infectious diseases and that they were indestructible.

So, was there really no substance that could affect the dragon’s body.

No.

‘The blood of the ISP manifester that tempts the dragon!’

Seemingly unaffected by external chemicals, the Balaur responded strangely to that hormone. Jang Tae-joon, who paid extra attention to such a characteristic, seemed to have succeeded in synthesizing a catalyst that only affected the dragon family after studying the reaction between the two substances.

It had been dangerous research up until this point, but he did not stop. What Jang Tae-joon set out next would appear to be a magical experiment that combined the weapon that pierced the dragon’s chemical immune system with something else.

There were evident attempts to inject another substance into the missile warhead instead of a ‘love option.’

To Minjun, there seemed to be no possibility that the gunpowder would end up being beneficial to the dragon’s health.

In the end, what Tae-joon wanted to manufacture was a bomb that only reacted and acted on dragons.

“Yes, Agent, how are you? I got a call on behalf of President Jenkinson.”

It was originally supposed to be a direct number, but the Elf secretary got it. It meant that Jenkinson had left his phone behind in order to focus on something important.

However, Minjun couldn’t afford to wait for him.

“Please change to the president right now.”

The secretary’s displeasure was evident in his tone. However, Minjun couldn’t find it in himself to blink an eye.

“It doesn’t matter whether the guest he’s meeting has flown from the other side of the world. He should come and pick up this call.”

The Elf began to mumble a few more words, but Minjun didn’t want to hear them all.

Interrupting, Minjun began to speak in a firm voice once more.

“Please mention that this is about a story of illegal immigrants who have the same ancestor as the president. I’m going to jump right in and run.”

Now, instead of a stream of words as a reply, Minjun could hear the sound of footsteps running over the receiver.

Less than an hour after Jang Tae-joon’s hidden laboratory was discovered, many things were identified and organized.

From then on, a luxury black sedan soon stopped at the mouth of a small port in Sokcho. The passenger seat opened to reveal Minjun stepping out. The wet sea breeze began to linger on the tip of his nose. While he grimaced slightly, the driver’s door with his back opened.

Minjun was not alone. Following him out of the car was a man with well-groomed blonde hair. Looking at his appearance, he seemed to be in his late teens. He was a Westerner who seemed more like a boy than a young man.

The two did not exchange glances or speak. He quietly walked towards the breakwater. From their position, there was no one in front, adjacent to the sea. However, as Minjun continued to walk, the air began to shake. The two crossed the invisible line almost at the same time.

Then, a landscape that had not originally been seen from the outside began to appear. From there came a middle-aged man sitting with a fishing rod and facing the open sea.

Minjun then called out in a low voice. “Mr. Jang Tae-joon?”

A long day was eventually coming to an end. The man with the sunset shining down on his back slowly turned his head.

“…”

After a moment of silence, Jang Tae-joon began to speak in a tone that almost seemed colorless.

“Hey, aren’t you the guest I was waiting for?”