novelraw Chapter 87 : Is Betrayal a Word That Can Stand Beside Trust?
Chapter 87 : Is Betrayal a Word That Can Stand Beside Trust?
Chapter 87: Is Betrayal a Word That Can Stand Beside Trust?
Xiaolong charged forward, filled with blind hatred toward his father’s enemy.
His movements were not those of a trained fighter, but rather rough and reckless, like a wounded beast instinctively trying to tear out its enemy’s throat.
“Die!”
A heavy fist flew toward Lee Cheong-ho’s face with the sound of air being split.
But Lee Cheong-ho merely leaned his upper body back lightly, like flowing water, letting the ferocious punch slip past him.
At the very instant Xiaolong’s fist cut through empty air, Lee Cheong-ho’s leg coiled around his leg like a snake.
In an instant, Xiaolong’s large body lost its balance and went tumbling to the ground with a dull thud.
But he did not even have time to feel the pain before he sprang back up with a rage-filled roar.
“You son of a bitch!”
Xiaolong lunged at Lee Cheong-ho once more.
This time, it was not a simple punch. With momentum that seemed to burst forth from deep within his chest, he threw his entire body forward, trying to crush Lee Cheong-ho beneath him.
The strength behind his youth and fury was truly immense.
Once again, Lee Cheong-ho did not meet him head-on. Just before Xiaolong could tackle him, he stepped aside and drove his elbow hard into Xiaolong’s side.
“Keuk!”
With a short groan, Xiaolong’s movement faltered for a moment.
Lee Cheong-ho did not miss the opening. In the blink of an eye, he slipped behind Xiaolong, wrapped an arm around his neck, and began to choke him. The motion was smooth like flowing water, skilled and familiar.
“Keugh……! Keuk, keo-eok……!”
Xiaolong struggled desperately in suffocating pain.
He clawed at Lee Cheong-ho’s arm with his fingernails to break free and kicked at his shin with his feet.
But Lee Cheong-ho’s arm did not budge, tightening around Xiaolong like an iron shackle.
“It’s over.”
Wang Hae muttered bitterly. In his eyes lingered both pity for his son and reverence for Lee Cheong-ho’s seasoned skill.
I, too, admired Lee Cheong-ho’s ability.
Without a single unnecessary movement, he was subduing his opponent with minimal force, using only the opponent’s strength and openings against him.
But Xiaolong was not someone who would collapse so easily.
“Uaaaaah!”
He squeezed out the last of his remaining strength and hurled his body straight backward. With Lee Cheong-ho clinging to his back, he slammed himself into the floor.
With a horrifying crash, the two bodies rolled across the ground.
Caught off guard by the unexpected counterattack, Lee Cheong-ho momentarily lost his breath, but he never released Xiaolong’s neck.
Xiaolong groaned from the impact transmitted through his back, but instead he clung even more tightly to Lee Cheong-ho’s arm.
This was not a contest of technique or strength. It was a desperate battle of wills, driven solely by the desire to bring the other down.
The two tangled together and rolled across the floor. Fists and elbows flew without pause, and the dull sounds of flesh tearing and bones colliding split the silence of the night.
As time passed, the scales of the fight slowly began to tip. Xiaolong’s youth and stamina were terrifying, but Lee Cheong-ho’s experience and composure were even more so.
At every critical moment, Lee Cheong-ho struck Xiaolong’s vital points with precision, and Xiaolong’s ragged breathing grew more and more labored.
At last, Lee Cheong-ho mounted Xiaolong and once again wrapped his arm around his neck.
“Stop…… it…….”
Lee Cheong-ho said as he gasped for breath. At some point, his face had become covered in wounds. But Xiaolong did not give up.
With blood vessels burst and eyes reddened, he glared at Lee Cheong-ho and grabbed his arm with every last ounce of strength he had.
“Kill me……. Just kill me……!”
Hot tears streamed from his eyes. They were tears of longing for his father and of rage at his own helplessness.
For a long while, Lee Cheong-ho said nothing as he looked down at the young beast struggling beneath him.
What surfaced in his eyes was not the arrogance of a victor, but deep compassion. Lee Cheong-ho slowly loosened the arm that had been choking Xiaolong’s neck.
“……Your father was indeed a traitor. But the Elder could not bring himself to kill him. That was how much he trusted him.”
“What are you…….”
“Your father, Wang Sogun, was the Elder’s closest aide. Zhang Wei and I both learned our work under him. But that trust came back as a boomerang. It couldn’t be helped. The Elder had to protect the organization, yet he also could not kill your father. So he made it look as though he had killed him and let your father go.”
The words that came out of Lee Cheong-ho’s mouth shocked everyone present. Even Wang Hae stared at him with eyes full of disbelief.
“But your father took his own life. The Elder searched everywhere to save at least the remaining family. He knew there was a son. But then, war suddenly broke out. He had no presence of mind to look for you. When the war ended and he searched again, you had vanished as if you never existed. If the Elder had known you were here…….”
Deep regret was woven into Lee Cheong-ho’s voice.
“He would have tried to keep you by his side no matter what. That’s how much trust he placed in Wang Sogun.”
I could not understand it at all. He said he was a traitor, yet spoke of trust. It made no sense.
Before I knew it, I asked the very question everyone present must have wanted to ask.
“Is betrayal a word that can stand beside trust?”
“……There was a faction within the organization that elevated Wang Sogun and sought to threaten the Elder. To wipe them out in one stroke, he sacrificed himself.”
It was a shocking hidden truth. Neither Wang Hae nor Xiaolong could say a word.
“He had to be a traitor. And even now, he is a traitor. That does not change. But to me, he is not a traitor.”
The weight of the truth, hidden for so long, was unbearably heavy.
“Your father, Wang Sogun, did not betray the organization. He took everything upon himself to protect it. And I…… am the only witness who saw his end.”
The depth of Lee Cheong-ho’s voice was like the night sea, heavy and sorrowful. He was laying bare the truth he had buried in his chest for over a decade.
His confession seemed to still even the sound of the wind wrapping around the island.
The lantern flickered, casting shadows of shock, disbelief, and confusion across the faces of everyone present.
The first to collapse was Xiaolong.
The blind hatred that had set his eyes ablaze faded like a flame that had lost its way. Vengeance for his father had been the sole pillar supporting his life.
And now, that pillar crumbled into sand in a single moment, through the mouth of his enemy.
“Th-…… that’s a lie…….”
He muttered as if floundering in deep water.
“It’s a lie. My father wouldn’t…… he couldn’t have done that…….”
Wang Hae also stared blankly back and forth between Lee Cheong-ho and Xiaolong. He, too, seemed to be hearing this truth for the first time.
“All the evidence is in the Elder’s possession. Along with your father’s final letter.”
Lee Cheong-ho finished in a weary voice and turned his gaze away from Xiaolong, who had sunk to the floor.
As if he never wanted to become the protagonist of this tragedy again, he silently melted back into the darkness.
Han Do-gyeong, who had been watching everything, finally moved. He walked up to the broken Xiaolong and tapped his shoulder lightly.
“Get up.”
His voice was still cold, but a faint trace of compassion was mixed within it.
“Today’s duel is null and void. It no longer has any meaning. Captain Wang, take care of your son and head back. And…… for the time being, don’t put to sea. Stay holed up.”
It was both a warning and a final act of consideration. Wang Hae could not say a word, only supporting the dazed Xiaolong as he helped him up.
Only three of us remained on the island now: Han Do-gyeong, Lee Cheong-ho, and me.
On the island where all human presence had faded, only the sound of waves brushing the shore could be heard from time to time. It was Han Do-gyeong who broke the silence.
“That was an interesting spectacle. Thanks to it, I got to crush Wang Hae’s spirit.”
“Is that so? I’m not too pleased, since the ship meant to send my younger brother is gone.”
I had no intention of indulging his musings. Min-soo mattered more to me.
“So, what’s going to happen with my younger brother’s stowaway passage?”
At my blunt question, Han Do-gyeong stared at me for a moment before letting out a hollow laugh.
“You really never change. Fine. It’ll take some time for Captain Wang to get his head straight, so I’ll sail that ship myself.”
“President Han, personally?”
“There’s no better sailor than me in this line of work. I’m saying I’ll personally take your brother to those coordinates.”
It was an unprecedented offer. The head of the Sea Whale personally steering a ship to take my younger brother.
“That much is only fair for the value of the secret you’re holding, isn’t it?”
He said that as he lightly tapped my shoulder.
“Now then, let’s head back too. I have a feeling we’ll have a lot to talk about from here on out.”
I nodded silently. As we boarded the ship in the darkness, the island began to recede along with the low hum of the engine.
The air in the Third Deputy Director’s Office of the KCIA was thick with the smell of ink, acrid cigarette smoke, and heavy silence.
Buried beneath stacks of documents piled like mountains, Noh Gi-tae pressed his approval seal onto report after report with bloodshot eyes from working through the night.
At his directive, black-market merchants and money changers who had been detained in the Namsan underground interrogation rooms were being released one by one.
Of course, only after stamping their fingerprints on pledges to “voluntarily” donate half their assets to the state.
At that moment, the heavy office door burst open with a loud crash. There was no knocking.
The one who stormed in was Director Kang Byung-woo, his entire body trembling with rage.
“Senior!”
Kang Byung-woo’s shout thundered through the cramped office.
But Noh Gi-tae did not stop what he was doing. Only after stamping the final document did he set down his fountain pen and slowly lift his head.
“What’s all this commotion, Director Kang?”
That calm voice only poured oil on Kang Byung-woo’s fury.
“What’s going on, you ask? Are you seriously asking me that right now, Senior!”
Grinding his teeth, Kang Byung-woo strode forward and slammed his palm down on Noh Gi-tae’s desk. The heavy inkwell shook precariously.
“I heard you released the ones I worked so hard to capture. On your own authority. Without my permission. Who gave you that right? Do you take me for a fool?”
“They weren’t criminals you captured, Director Kang. They were economic criminals arrested in the name of the KCIA.”
Noh Gi-tae did not back down an inch as he met his gaze head-on.
“And the one who ordered their release wasn’t me, but someone far above me.”
“Someone above you?”
Kang Byung-woo scoffed.
“Who in the KCIA could possibly be above me? Is it that bastard Jeong Tae-soo?”
“…….”
“I respect you because you ignore politics and simply carry out orders. But for you to stab me in the back like this…….”
Instead of answering, Noh Gi-tae silently pulled a thin document from his desk drawer and handed it to him.
On it was a single line of text, stamped with a cold, razor-sharp signature that no one could defy.
The moment Kang Byung-woo saw it, his face stiffened. His eyes shook violently, as if unable to believe it.
“……What did you say?”
When he finally opened his mouth, what escaped was not a lion’s roar, but the faint whimper of a wounded beast.
Snapping back to himself, he shook his head and raised his voice.
“That’s a lie! That can’t be true! His Excellency personally ordered me to wipe out those rat bastards!”
“As of yesterday, the directive changed.”
Noh Gi-tae’s voice was flat and mechanical, colder than ice.
“Leave a few as examples, and release the rest on the condition that they forfeit half their assets. And he ordered that all further reports be made directly to me.”
That final sentence was a dagger.
Being told to report directly to someone else, bypassing him as the head of the KCIA, was nothing short of a declaration that he was being cast aside.
“That…… that can’t be…….”
Kang Byung-woo, who had believed that His Excellency would never abandon the man who designed and carried out the coup, staggered backward, muttering like a broken man.
“…….”
There was no longer any reason for him to remain here.
With his lips tightly sealed, he turned and stumbled away. The momentum he had entered with was nowhere to be found, leaving only the pitiful back of a defeated soldier.
Clinging to what little pride he had left, Kang Byung-woo slammed the door shut one last time and disappeared.
Left alone, Noh Gi-tae stared at the tightly closed door for a long while. Then, with a deep sigh, he lit the cigarette resting on his desk.
‘What kind of nonsense is this between fellow revolutionaries? Is this why we carried out the revolution?’
The suffocating cigarette smoke spoke in place of Noh Gi-tae’s tangled thoughts.