novelraw Chapter 45 : Chapter 45
Chapter 45 : Chapter 45
Chapter 45. The Prodigal Son (1)
The president of Doban Distilling, Ha Jeong-il, said.
“There is absolutely nothing for you to do here. Go.”
“You are being too heartless. It wouldn't be a bad offer for you either, Father.”
“Go. I will not report you. Leave this place.”
“Father!”
The moment Ha Do-yeol called out to his father with a raised voice.
Ha Do-yeol’s younger brother, Ha Myeong-yeol, heard that voice.
“Brother……?”
Ha Myeong-yeol doubted his ears and ran to where his father was.
And he saw.
His brother, who should definitely be imprisoned in Mugan, standing in front of his father.
“Brother? Is it really you, Brother?!”
“Have you been well, Ha Myeong-yeol?”
Ha Do-yeol grinned at his younger brother.
Seeing that, the brother Ha Myeong-yeol doubted his eyes.
A refreshing and clear smile.
The ferocious murderous intent that was always steeped in his brother's face was no longer visible.
Meanwhile, Ha Do-yeol looked at his father again and said.
“Father, I have changed. I mean, that, I have been rehabilitated.”
“…….”
“I understand that you cannot trust me right now. It’s natural. However…….”
“Rehabilitation? A guy who has been rehabilitated escapes from prison?”
Ha Do-yeol shut his mouth tight, nodded, and said.
“…Please listen. There were circumstances.”
“What kind of circumstances?”
“You saw the news, right? All prisoners of Mugan escaped. Without a single exception, every one of them. Do you know what this means?”
“……?”
“It means that prisoners who did not cooperate with the breakout were all murdered. Because they could snitch, or get in the way.”
“What……?!”
“The reason I escaped? There is one. To live.”
“…….”
“Of course, if you say that struggling to survive was also a mistake… honestly, I have nothing more to say either.”
The father, Ha Jeong-il’s eyes wavered.
Just then.
“Is it Do-yeol? Is it Do-yeol?”
A middle-aged woman ran toward Ha Do-yeol.
It was Ha Do-yeol’s mother.
“Mom!”
“Oh my, how did my child… how did you become half your size? Huh?”
The mother pulled the eldest son’s hand and said.
“Let’s go inside and eat something at least. Let’s eat first and talk, eat.”
Thus began the most awkward dinner time in the world.
The escaped eldest son.
The father who was not at all pleased with that eldest son.
The mother who couldn't express her delight because of that father.
Even the second son stuck between all of them.
In the end, until the dishes on the table were empty, the mother was the only one who spoke more than two words.
Like that, after the meal was finished.
Ha Do-yeol opened his mouth.
“I will speak from the main point. I have a plan to grow our distillery further.”
“Crawling back after several years only to bring up talk of ruining the family first thing. I am going in.”
“Father!”
“Is it about liquor? If it’s not liquor, don't even think about bringing up stories related to our family business.”
“It is something better than liquor.”
“There is no such thing.”
“No, in a way, it’s no different from liquor. Since it intoxicates people and makes them happy.”
Something that intoxicates people and makes them happy but is not liquor.
There was only one thing like that in the world.
Psychotropic drugs.
Curses burst out from the father's mouth.
“Crazy bastard.”
“Father, listen. I have the skills. There is a drug that only I can make in this world. And here, we have all the equipment. Distillers, filtration devices, coolers, heating facilities… changing the business sector can really be done in an instant.”
“I will consider that I didn't hear it.”
“There are multiple distillers. Just leave one to me. This… do you know how much margin remains from this?”
“Fuck off and just go to sleep. You look like a bastard who will ruin the household.”
“The world is full of guys who sell things worse than this and live loudly and proudly! Why do we alone have to live honestly!!”
The father rose from his seat and went to his room.
The mother followed such a father.
Only Ha Do-yeol and Ha Myeong-yeol, the eldest and second sons, remained at the table.
Ha Myeong-yeol asked Ha Do-yeol.
“…Sell drugs?”
“Yeah. The item is definite.”
“But what does it mean that only you can make it? Are you saying you have the recipe?”
“Even if the recipe is leaked, no one can imitate it. Only I can do it.”
“How?”
“You know I am a Superhuman, right?”
“Ah.”
“Without the ability I possess, that cannot be made. If the facilities here are combined with that… mass production is possible as much as needed.”
“And the margin is definitely okay?”
“It’s excellent. And once a customer, always a customer for life unconditionally. There is no industry like this in the world, little brother.”
“Brother.”
“What.”
“Tell me in a bit more detail.”
Ha Myeong-yeol’s eyes flashed.
* * *
That night.
Ha Do-yeol laid out his bedding in the room he used a long time ago.
It was a room that had almost become a storage now, but he didn't care.
Thinking of the money he would earn soon, he could sleep in a small back room like this as much as he wanted.
Just then, as he was about to fall asleep.
Knock knock-
Someone knocked on his door.
“Father.”
“Let’s talk for a moment.”
The two sat facing each other on the room floor.
The one who opened his mouth first was the father.
“My words were harsh earlier.”
“I understand.”
“Don't understand. It wasn't something a parent should say to a child.”
“…….”
“However, I likewise cannot understand you. You cannot live comfortably with money earned selling such things.”
“Alcohol is also an addictive substance, Father.”
“Don't play with words.”
“I just want to say that ultimately, it is impossible to earn money without causing harm to someone.”
The father quietly looked at Ha Do-yeol.
His eldest son, who was a criminal, had certainly changed.
From his voice to his eyes, and his personality.
Gravitas was steeped in his tone, and logic and seriousness in his sentences.
Did he really change?
The possibility that a heinous criminal who was imprisoned in Mugan would turn over a new leaf in about 6 years; does it truly exist?
The father wanted to believe.
But even so, it was difficult to agree with his son's opinion.
“Father. Do you know how many people in the world right now earn a living with other people's lives?”
“…….”
“In downtown Seoul, if you lie down on the street, they extract your organs. Even if someone gets hit by a car, they just step over and pass by, and if there is a guy they don't like, they cut his waist and hang him on a flagpole. The times have changed, Father. Someone's life is someone's resource. Just like people in the past used oil as a resource, now human life has become a resource too. But the drug we will sell? That’s mild. It doesn't even kill anyone. It is just, an ordinary industry that anyone in this era can do.”
“Just because anyone can do it does not mean everyone should do it.”
“Not daring to do what anyone can do is also an act of laziness.”
The father rubbed his temple with his fingers and said.
“…From now on, don't even bring up this topic.”
“Father.”
“Stop, it is the end now.”
Ha Do-yeol smacked his lips as if he wanted to say something more.
It was probably a sentence refined to the utmost to persuade his father.
But that sentence ultimately could not come out of his mouth.
Because of the siren sound heard from outside.
WEEEOOOOOWEEEOOOO-
It was the siren sound of a police car.
Ha Do-yeol instantly remembered that day 6 years ago.
The moment his hideout was discovered due to his father's report and he was arrested.
It was exactly the same as then.
Ha Do-yeol’s eyes changed.
That gaze turned toward his father.
“…Hey.”
“Wait……!”
At that moment, there was no such thing as an opportunity for defense for the father.
Ha Do-yeol’s eyes were shining red.
The mana in the air fluctuated.
And the situation ended.
Thud!
The sound of something heavy collapsing.
The mother, who was passing in front of the eldest son's room, was startled.
“What happened?”
The mother opened the door.
She saw.
Her husband twisted and collapsed in a grotesque posture.
And the eldest son was looking down at his father's corpse with an expressionless face.
The scene before her eyes allowed her only a single deduction.
Parricide.
The eldest son said.
“Ah shit, I screwed up.”
And that was the last voice she heard in her life.
WEEEOOOO-
The siren sound of the police car gradually drifted away.
It wasn't a police car coming here in the first place.
And the father had never reported the eldest son.
Ha Do-yeol looked down at the two people he had just killed.
There was no wavering whatsoever in his eyes.
“…Did I misunderstand?”
He scratched his head and muttered.
“Well, it can't be helped.”
“Brother?”
Ha Myeong-yeol, who came out of his room at the disturbance in the night, ended up seeing the unbelievable scene.
“Brother, just now, what in the world, what…….”
Only then did Ha Myeong-yeol recall where his brother had been imprisoned.
Mugan, the gathering place of the world's worst criminals.
That expecting rehabilitation from a human who came out of such a place was unreasonable in the first place.
He ended up realizing it too late.
“Ah, Myeong-yeol.”
Ha Do-yeol grinned and said.
“Could you clean it up a bit?”
* * *
Ha Do-yeol’s business proceeded at a frightening speed.
The first thing that proceeded was restructuring.
In Doban Distilling, there were many employees who had shared joys and sorrows together for over 10 years.
Ha Do-yeol called them out to one place after they came to work and killed them all.
“Since everyone was close with Father. I felt they would get in the way.”
And then he held out a shovel to his younger brother and said.
“Could you clean it up?”
Yesterday he buried his parents, and today he had to bury the employees.
Ha Myeong-yeol felt like he was going to lose his mind.
But he couldn't do anything.
Because it was a situation where he could be buried next to them if he made a wrong move.
Like that, after making Doban Distilling into a blank state.
Ha Do-yeol mobilized his old connections and started filling the company with his own people.
The charges for which Ha Do-yeol went to Mugan were formation of a criminal organization, manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs, serial murder, and instigation of murder.
Therefore, as soon as the story that he returned circulated, criminals from all over the city started to come under him.
Being from Mugan was itself a tremendous name value in the criminal world.
Like that, Doban Distilling began to produce something other than liquor.
An item with much stronger addictiveness and dependency.
Red Chips.
That was the name of the drug Ha Do-yeol started making.
His signature item that manufacturing itself was impossible for anyone other than Ha Do-yeol.
A terrible item that presented pleasure and euphoria far superior to ordinary goods.
Because of that, as soon as Red Chips were released into the market, they started spreading at a frightening speed.
“The legend has returned.”
Addicts who received Red Chips all muttered words like this.
Because it was an item that had been released once before.
In the first place, the reason Ha Do-yeol ended up going to Mugan was also because this item flowed all the way into the United States.
Like that, Ha Do-yeol’s business gradually prospered.
And for Ha Myeong-yeol, hell-like days continued.
Guilt he dared not even imagine weighed down on his head.
A situation where everyone from parents to fellow employees was massacred in a single moment.
Every moment he lived and breathed was filled with a sense of sin.
‘Must get rid of him.’
After agonizing, Ha Myeong-yeol contacted a friend.
His friend serving as a police officer, Park Jae-il.
However, Park Jae-il flatly rejected Ha Myeong-yeol’s words.
“Can't do it. Right now, starting with our station chief, the higher-ups have all sided with Ha Do-yeol.”
“H-How……! No, Ha Do-yeol is a wanted criminal?! But the police are holding hands with such a guy?”
“The Red Chips that guy distributes, you don't know how much money it earns, right?”
“……!”
“Considering the money it earns, the bounty is really nothing. From the chief's perspective, catching that guy and getting the bounty is like cutting open the belly of the goose that lays golden eggs.”
“Jae-il.”
“…I’m hanging up.”
Click.
Inspector Park Jae-il hung up the phone.
And lit a cigarette.
“Phew…….”
He smoked one cigarette slowly to the end while sitting on a park bench.
It was a struggle to try to postpone the answer to a complex dilemma.
Sizzle-
After rubbing out the butt in the corner of the bench, Park Jae-il spoke to the man sitting next to him.
“You said you were Mr. Leman.”
“Yes.”
“Can you really bring down the Ha Do-yeol gang?”
Riman showed a faint smile instead of an answer.