Chapter 62
Nikolaos’ funeral was over. Everyone returned to their daily lives.
Hemillas did not press Kinuan. He simply waited in silence. I, too, returned to my duties.
‘I'll take care of what Nikolaos was working on.’
That’s what Hemillas told me. He would find a way to assign the investigation to someone in an indirect manner. He had enough connections for that.
And so, I visited the hideout—the gang’s office.
Bang!
The moment I arrived, chaos had already erupted.
Gabriel grabbed Pig Nose by the collar and flung him aside. Pig Nose begged desperately for forgiveness.
“Keuk, keuk! B-Bo—Boss!”
“Boooooss? Oh, so the boss’ words sound like a joke to you now? What’s that? Drugs? Are you messing with me?”
“No, I-I was just taking a little break, just for a change of pace. It was only a little, just a little!”
It seemed Pig Nose had taken drugs during work hours. Gabriel grabbed Pig Nose by the foot and threw him.
“Gack!”
Pig Nose went flying and landed right next to me.
“Y-you’re here, young master. P-please, s-save me.”
Pig Nose clung to my coat as he spoke. I kicked him away and walked further inside.
Gabriel looked at me and grumbled in frustration.
“Why the hell didn’t you pick up your phone? While you were gone…!”
“There was a family funeral.”
I cut him off briefly. Gabriel awkwardly scratched his cheek.
“Oh, uh, really? S-sorry to hear that. A family funeral, huh… Well, damn.”
“So while I was gone, what happened?”
“Ken Noma disappeared. He was definitely here last night…”
“You were taking turns keeping watch, weren’t you?”
Gabriel’s gaze shifted to Pig Nose.
“When I came in the morning, Baldy was nowhere to be found, and this bastard was high off his ass!”
My sharp glare turned to Pig Nose. He, still clinging to my coat, scrambled away to a corner as if crawling for his life.
I immediately went upstairs to the room where Ken Noma had been held.
The barren room showed no signs of struggle. The lock on the window was broken, allowing the lukewarm air, characteristic of the lower levels, to seep in.
“Goddamn it.”
A curse slipped from my lips. The people in this place were even bigger trash than I had imagined. They couldn’t even keep watch over a half-dead junkie.
“Who could’ve taken him?”
Gabriel stood by the window, looking down below as he spoke.
“That’s unlikely. The lock was broken from the inside. If someone had broken in, they would’ve smashed the window to enter. And if they had come through the front door, they wouldn’t have made a scene by exiting through the window. Have you tried contacting Baldy?”
I quickly assessed the situation and spoke. Gabriel’s eyes widened slightly, surprised by my deduction.
“Uh, yeah. Of course, I tried. He’s not answering.”
“Tell La Vie en Rose to send people to find Baldy and Ken Noma. I’ll contact Aleph myself.”
“Do you think La Vie en Rose will do us a favor?”
“Gabriel, you should sleep with Martina sometime. Then she’ll lend us a hand. That old woman’s libido isn’t something to take lightly.”
“Huh? W-what the hell? Are you kidding me? Do I look like some street prostitute to you?”
Gabriel’s voice rang through the room, but I didn’t care.
“Gabriel, Ken disappearing is partly your responsibility. You’re the one who brought those idiots in. You were in charge of keeping an eye on them. If one night in bed is all it takes to find Ken, that’s a cheap trade.”
“Are you f—…! I mean, shit, okay, fine, I do have some responsibility, but—damn it.”
Gabriel cursed endlessly before letting out a deep sigh that made his shoulders slump.
“If you really hate the idea, I won’t force you. We’ll just rely on Aleph’s help instead.”
I knew Gabriel’s personality well. He wasn’t the type to shrug off responsibility. If he were, I would’ve cut him loose and found someone else to do the job.
“Fine! I’ll do it! I’ll sleep with her! Happy now? Goddamn it, this is bullshit…”
Gabriel clutched his head in frustration and stormed out of the room. Not long after, I could hear him making a call to La Vie en Rose.
I contacted Aleph right away. When I told him we had broken Ken Noma out of the hospital, his voice immediately darkened.
“Young master, I’m not blaming you, but… If you were going to extract him, you should have at least given me a heads-up.”
He was absolutely blaming me.
“If you find Ken, contact me immediately.”
“Sigh… That bastard probably sees me as his worst enemy. Either way, I’ll let you know as soon as I find him.”
“Just so we’re clear, don’t take it upon yourself to get rid of Ken Noma.”
“You owe me for this, young master.”
Lately, I felt like my debts were piling up everywhere.
La Vie en Rose and Aleph had complete control over their respective territories. If Baldy or Ken Noma had ended up in either of their areas, they would be found quickly.
After finishing our contact with the gang, Gabriel and I went back down to the first floor. Pig Nose was kneeling with a terrified expression. It seemed the drugs had completely worn off, and he was only now grasping the gravity of the situation.
“S-spare me, B-boss, y-young master…”
Pig Nose pleaded desperately.
“…Luka, what should we do with him?”
Gabriel whispered in my ear. I folded my arms, thinking. The military had clear regulations for punishment. Here, I had to make the decision myself.
‘I never had high expectations, but somehow, he still managed to fall short…’
Pig Nose had likely joined Gabriel’s crew with a casual attitude.
“Pig Nose, just this once. I’ll let it slide this one time. Next time…”
I reached out my hand. His left eye was still biological. Hm, this brought back memories—specifically, the day Hemillas gouged out my eye.
Press.
I pressed my thumb against Pig Nose’s left eye. My thumb dug diagonally into the orbit, pushing the eyeball outward. It popped out like a toy.
“…I won’t stop at just one eye next time.”
I ripped out his eyeball. The optic nerve snapped with a series of wet, tearing sounds.
“Ghh—! Hhk! Khhhhh…!”
Pig Nose groaned, tears and mucus streaming down his face. He was desperately holding back a scream. After this, he would surely hate me.
He could hate me all he wanted. Emotions could always be painted over. Hatred could be smothered by fear.
Beep.
Gabriel’s terminal rang. He checked the message and tapped my shoulder.
“La Vie en Rose found Baldy.”
Gabriel’s voice carried a hint of unease. I immediately picked up on the meaning behind it.
“He’s dead?”
“Yeah.”
* * *
The reason La Vie en Rose had found Baldy so quickly was simple. That morning, a corpse had turned up in their territory. It was him.
Gabriel and I entered the crime scene like investigators. Inside the dead-end alley, Grace was standing there.
“There’s an incision on the neck. The carotid artery was severed with precision. A skilled knife user did this.”
Grace reported. At her feet, Baldy’s pale corpse lay lifeless.
“Could Ken Noma have done this?”
Gabriel murmured. Ken had been good with a blade in his prime.
‘Ken was in no condition to fight.’
I had been helping Ken with his rehabilitation, but he wasn’t yet at a point where he could move on his own. Neurological damage wasn’t something that could be overcome so easily.
Even I couldn’t be sure if Ken had killed Baldy.
“Any witnesses?”
I asked Grace.
“We’re still searching.”
I exhaled lightly, taking in my surroundings piece by piece, committing every small detail to memory.
‘If I reconstruct Baldy’s actions…’
The dirty wall had a section wiped clean where someone’s back had pressed against it. I checked Baldy’s back. The stains on the wall and his back matched.
Lowering my gaze, I examined the ground. Amid the scattered scuff marks, I isolated only the most recent footprints.
‘A struggle broke out, and Baldy was pushed against the wall…’
Baldy had tried to escape. But the ‘culprit’ had grabbed his shoulder and slit his throat. The trail of blood on the ground aligned perfectly with my assessment.
I narrowed my eyes. The dead could not speak. We had to interpret their intentions from the traces they left behind.
“Luka, we have footage from a nearby camera.”
Grace activated a hologram from her terminal. The video showed what had happened just before they entered the alley.
“That bastard Ken… After all we did to get him out.”
Gabriel was seething with rage as he watched the footage.
Ken Noma and Baldy appeared on the holographic display. Ken was stumbling, trying to run away, while Baldy, panting heavily, was desperately chasing after him.
They entered the alley. Ken likely hadn’t realized it was a dead end.
Moments later, only Ken emerged from the alley.
The conclusion was obvious. Ken had killed Baldy.
Yet, more than anger, I felt a strange emotion.
‘You… fulfilled your duty.’
Baldy had carried out the task I had given him to the very end. Even when he was gasping for breath, he still pursued Ken. He never abandoned his mission, nor was he under the influence of drugs.
I hadn’t expected Baldy to act with such dedication. I had thought of him as just another low-grade thug.
I was disappointed in Pig Nose. But for Baldy… I felt a pang of guilt.
“Gabriel, if Bald— No, if Orgo has any surviving family or a lover, take good care of them. If they run into trouble, make sure it gets handled.”
I spoke Baldy’s real name out loud. Gabriel silently nodded in response.
…People were complicated. You couldn’t truly know them by just looking at a single aspect.
Up until now, I had pretended to understand human nature, peering into people’s hearts with my laughable sense of insight. But I needed to be more humble. There was far more for me to learn than what I already knew.
I was in debt once again. This time, it was the debt that Baldy—Orgo—had left me.
“Looks like your rehabilitation training is working wonders. A guy who couldn’t even stand on his own is suddenly capable of wielding a knife.”
Gabriel muttered as he replayed the hologram footage. Ken, though not fully recovered, had moved independently. He had even killed Baldy.
Something felt missing, like a puzzle piece had been taken away.
“…That wasn’t because of rehabilitation.”
I murmured.
‘Ken Noma was hiding something from us.’
I furrowed my brows. Logically speaking, a few rehabilitation sessions wouldn’t have allowed Ken to recover this much. Yet, it was also true that he had been in a completely disabled state.
“Luka, a drug dealer’s body was found nearby. Cause of death was excessive blood loss from a severed carotid artery. Likely the same culprit.”
Grace filtered through the endless reports coming in from La Vie en Rose gang members, only relaying the relevant details.
My mind worked fast. Before I could even process one thing, new information kept pouring in, making it impossible to reach a conclusion.
Beep.
My terminal rang with an incoming call from Aleph. Another piece of information was about to be thrown into the mix.
—Y-young master! G-get over here, n-now! Hurry! You bastards, stop him! I said stop him! Ken Noma has s-stormed in!
Aleph was shouting from the holographic display. Before I could say anything, the transmission cut off.
‘Does Ken still have some underlings left? Or did he go in alone?’
One question led to another in a chain of uncertainties. But thinking could wait—I could figure things out while moving.
I hailed a Black-class taxi and headed straight for Aleph’s underground arena. Even in the midst of all this chaos, Gabriel freaked out when he saw the price tag.