Embedded Files
Psst! We're moving!
Side Story 17
Doyoon brushed off Reiyas’s wrinkled suit, then noticed a fountain pen tucked into his jacket pocket and sharply raised an eyebrow.
The fountain pen had a familiar logo engraved on it. It was from the London Hunter Association. It was a rare item, produced for their 100th anniversary and sent to the royal family and some political and business figures. Why was it here? It couldn’t be a coincidence.
“...Ahem, ahem. This fountain pen was coincidentally gifted to me by a vampire in this area. Is there a problem?”
Reiyas blinked nervously. Sweat beaded on his temples. Doyoon, gazing at the drops of sweat, slowly looked towards the stairs and tilted his head. The Volpithon members all stood up in orderly fashion, aligning themselves.
The syndicate members fidgeted nervously. They thought of the guns in their pockets but didn’t dare to fire.
“Everyone. Have any of you seen someone who looks like this?”
Doyoon showed them his phone screen with a picture of Lord Schauer. As all the kneeling syndicate members squinted, scanning Lord Schauer’s face, the large man sitting at the very end nervously caught his breath.
Doyoon, who had been closely observing the syndicate members’ expressions, noticed the momentary tremor.
“Ugh!”
He grabbed the syndicate member’s scruff and lifted him up as if pulling out a radish. Muscles and veins bulged in Doyoon’s arm, which effortlessly lifted the large man. A cruel smile formed on Doyoon’s lips.
“Look at this. This one’s a vampire too. And his fangs are so well-ground, just like a human’s?”
The struggling syndicate member’s open mouth, gagging, revealed bluntly ground fangs.
“He’s my family’s servant! I just brought him along because I was shorthanded, but I don’t know anything else, ugh!”
Reiyas suddenly stood up to explain but was stopped. Doyoon ignored him and continued his interrogation.
“Where and when did you see this man?”
“...K-kh, I-I don’t know... I don’t!”
“If you don’t answer, I’ll put a silver bullet in your eye socket.”
“...P-please, not that...”
“Tell me. Where did you see him?”
“I don’t know. I really just...”
Doyoon frowned and pulled out his gun from his pocket. Seeing it, the man shook his head in terror.
“A-about a month ago, in the casino’s underground prison... But I haven’t seen him since he escaped... Really!”
Doyoon, who had been smiling sinisterly, stopped abruptly and became serious upon hearing the answer. He threw the vampire he was holding to the floor. Sometimes, deductions connected through small, insignificant clues. A new lead was forming on Doyoon’s face.
Doyoon strode towards Reiyas and grabbed him by the collar. Choking, he gasped for air. Facing Doyoon’s chilling pupils directly, Reiyas froze, unable to move.
“Reiyas Dorkin. You know about the hound factory in this area, the one in Heeya Forest.”
“K-kh, h-hound... factory?”
“Indeed. It doesn’t make sense that you, essentially the head of the organization, wouldn’t know about the hound factory... I must have missed something important. Who’s the owner there? Zhao Wei? Tell me honestly. If you play with your tongue, I’ll flay your precious family in Dorkin Castle and use their skin as a rug. You have a child born from a hybrid vampire, too, don’t you? Their lifespan is short anyway, so should I start with them?”
“W-what... If you do that, the Elder Council...!”
“Your money laundering and human trafficking operations here. They are taboos, on par with political interference or disrupting order. If I formally handle this... you will experience such extreme pain that you’ll wish for annihilation instead.”
“W-what are you going to do...”
“Have you ever taken a silver bullet? You know what it does to your insides, don’t you? We’ll start with that. Oh, of course, after watching first. Your kin and child writhing in agony.”
“T-then just annihilate me instead!”
“Annihilation? I can’t do such a terrible thing. I’m too soft-hearted.”
Namwon, listening to Doyoon’s threats, clicked his tongue slightly. That devil. Even when he was doing hunter work, he’d casually threaten to kill your children.
Kwon Doyoon, who liked and protected the harmless. Ironically, he had no qualms about ruining the most innocent and harmless things an opponent possessed to get what he wanted. Because it worked best.
He worried about how Bibi would react if she ever discovered his true nature. For now, Namwon thanked God that he wasn’t an enemy of that human... no, that cold-blooded vampire.
“I, I don’t know much. I’m just backing the hound factory without Zhao Wei’s knowledge; I truly don’t know who the owner is. I don’t even know the location of the hound factory!”
Doyoon’s mind grew cold as he asked sharply.
“I just said Heeya Forest. There must be another one then?”
“...Th-that...”
“Assuming there is, how do you contact the factory owner?”
“When calls come in on a burner phone, I just separately sell weapons and drugs at a designated location each time.”
“This month’s transaction?”
“It already ended last week. All I know is... really not much. Only that the voice on the phone sounds like an old man...”
At the mention of an old man, Doyoon’s thoughts deepened. Lord Schauer had maintained his life by drinking the poison inherited from his master. Although he was ancient, he appeared to be about thirty years old. His voice was definitely not old.
“What language did you use when communicating?”
“English.”
“And the accent?”
“Hmm, it was close to British.”
...Lost in thought, Doyoon’s silence stretched. He released Reiyas’s collar and asked seriously.
“You really don’t know the location of the hound factory?”
Destructive madness radiated from his deeply set eyes. It wasn’t from a pureblood vampire, but a unique aura emanating from Kwon Doyoon himself. Reiyas couldn’t bear that captivating yet intense glare. He respectfully put his hands together and bowed obsequiously.
“Executioner, I truly don’t... I don’t know.”
“You seem to know a lot of things you claim not to know...”
“I really don’t know the exact location. I just... heard it was in this area on the map, in passing. That’s all I know!”
The frantic man unfolded a map lying on the floor and pointed with his finger. Seeing it, Doyoon laughed in disbelief.
“Thaiban? You said there were no islands there.”
“...Th-that.”
“You lied.”
Reiyas’s face turned white, like a vampire lacking blood.
“If I torment you a bit more, other information might come out. Right?”
Doyoon gestured, and a grim-faced Volpithon member stepped forward. They grabbed Reiyas and headed towards a nearby slot machine corner. Hidden by the machines, his exact appearance wasn’t visible, but the sounds of something tearing and screams of agony were clearly heard. Hearing those sounds, the syndicate members trembled with terror.
In contrast, the Volpithon members were calmly accustomed to it. Namwon felt as if he had entered a den of villains, but he tried to ignore it. That Reiyas was a bad guy who kidnapped women for human trafficking and prostitution. He deserved what he got, so there was no need to pity him, he repeatedly told himself.
About 30 minutes later, Reiyas spilled everything he knew. He genuinely had no knowledge of the hound factory or its owner. He was merely using vampires from his family to launch boats from the lower Mekong River to exchange weapons and drugs. It seemed that only the relevant personnel or the owner stayed at the hound factory’s location.
“What about the people you met during the transactions?”
Doyoon, sitting outside the casino and listening to the report, asked the Volpithon commander.
“They appeared to be from various backgrounds, he said. Judging by their use of English, they seem to be the ones managing the hounds.”
“Hmm...”
Doyoon nodded, lost in deep thought. Silence stretched for a while. As the sun set, his face grew contemplative. With even deeper shadows, Doyoon glowed unrealistically red, like a work of art rather than a living being. Namwon, unable to handle the surreal feeling, poked him.
“What are you going to do, Senior?”
“......”
“Senior!”
“Oh. Just organizing my thoughts.”
Doyoon, who had been dazed, turned his head a beat later.
“You’re going to Thaiban, right?”
“I have to.”
“...But can we just leave this place like this and pull out? We should probably clean up.”
“Leave it.”
Doyoon waved his hand dismissively. Namwon pounded his chest at the other’s lax attitude.
“You know this is Potasutan’s money laundering base, right? He’s a member of the National Development Party and allied with the Myanmar government.”
“I know.”
“The Myanmar rebel Wa State Army is also involved. You could turn not just the Hong Kong organization, but the entire Southeast Asian region into enemies.”
“...Junior. You know I’ve lived at least six times longer than you, right?”
At the continuous nagging, Doyoon glared at him with an annoyed look.
“Are you bragging about your age?”
“Things like this have happened dozens of times before.”
“Huh.”
“Strength, money, time. Those three can solve everything.”
“...Still...”
“Enough. Another possibility has opened up. The possibility that the factory owner isn’t Lord Schauer... but someone else.”
“How...?”
Namwon felt his mind twisting, expressing his disbelief with open palms.
Google Sites
Report abuse