The Inspector Is Getting Promoted! [EN]: Chapter 154

The History is Written by the Victors (1)

“Hello, Chief Prosecutor.”

I entered the Chief Prosecutor’s office and greeted him courteously.

“Oh, you’re here?”

Unexpectedly, Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong’s expression was calm.

He looked as gentle as he did before we were at odds. The fierce look he had been giving me every time we met these past few days had completely disappeared.

This makes me feel even more uneasy.

“Sit down.”

“Yes.”

He sat in the seat of honor and looked at me.

“Chief Choi.”

“Yes, Chief Prosecutor.”

“Did it have to come to this?”

“I’m sorry.”

“I thought I treated you well, but I guess Chief Choi didn’t think so.”

“You did treat me well.”

I straightened my back and sat up straight.

“Until I caught Senior Prosecutor Park Jae-pil.”

“Until then, I didn’t know I was being played by you like a foolish idiot.”

He chuckled and asked.

“Didn’t you use me enough before that?”

“I did.”

He nodded slightly and let out a puff of air.

“But you realized that and tried to keep me in check, didn’t you?”

“That’s only natural. I can’t promote a corrupt prosecutor, can I?”

“I think that’s when you and I turned our backs on each other.”

I continued seriously.

“I have to go all the way to the top. If you’re not on my side, it’s my destiny to climb to the top, even if it means tearing you down and trampling on you.”

“I see.”

Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong sighed openly.

“They say it’s hardest to complete the term as Chief Prosecutor, and there was a reason for that.”

At that moment, his eyes flickered slightly downward.

The sight made me laugh.

Kim Seok-won always said, “You have to have fought to know how to fight.”

I knew it from the beginning, but his cell phone on the table was recording. Even if I didn’t know, how could I not notice when he was making it so obvious?

I pretended not to know and continued the conversation.

“If you step down here, I won’t bother you anymore.”

“Step down…….”

“Yes. Resign cleanly. Then I’ll make sure your wife’s case gets a suspended sentence.”

He gripped the armrest tightly and revealed the claws he had been hiding towards me.

“Then what about my honor?”

He was asking sincerely.

“I’ve lived for 30 years with only integrity as my motto, but who will take responsibility for my honor that has collapsed in an instant because of you?”

“That’s your responsibility, Chief Prosecutor.”

I continued without hesitation.

“You admitted that you tried to exclude me from the Deputy Chief Prosecutor appointment, didn’t you? That’s not an act of integrity. But now you want me to restore that honor?”

I leaned my upper body towards him.

“We’re talking alone, so let’s be honest. Either you block my path, or I bring you down, but I won this fight. The loser steps down.”

Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong frowned and twisted the corners of his mouth.

“The world doesn’t flow the way you want it to.”

“That’s right. The world is not easy.”

I picked up his cell phone on the table and got up from my seat.

“I’ll delete the recording file and return it to you. I’m going to have it permanently deleted by a company, so don’t expect to recover the file.”

Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong looked flustered, as if he didn’t know I already knew.

But soon he glared at me and threatened me.

“Do you know that taking that is theft?”

“Chief Prosecutor.”

I smiled and looked down at him intently.

“If you forcibly take it away in front of my eyes, it’s not theft, it’s robbery.”

He bit his lip.

“Report it if you want to report it, sue me if you want to sue me. You can watch and see if I collapse or your family collapses, can’t you?”

I winked at him and left the Chief Prosecutor’s office.

***

The next day, I returned the cell phone to the Chief Prosecutor’s office through Clerk Jo Ara.

Of course, the recording-related files were neatly deleted and could not be recovered.

But Jo Ara, who had been to the Chief Prosecutor’s office, handed me a note.

“The Chief Prosecutor told me to give it to you.”

I frowned and immediately unfolded the note.

-Protect my family.

A short phrase.

The situation was obvious without waiting any longer. He was going to step down from the Chief Prosecutor’s position.

In fact, I was going to finish this not by ending it with this incident, but by using Grand Kyo [a powerful political tool or organization] secondarily, but there was no need to go to such trouble.

I prepared to shake his position, but because he was so clean and had never been involved in such a thing, this incident felt too big.

The matter was settled much more easily than expected.

Thanks to that, I was able to focus entirely on Mayor Na Kyung-joon of Seoul with Grand Kyo.

Frankly speaking, it would not be an exaggeration to say that I had no guilt towards Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong.

Now that I have decided to survive as a devil, I must become more and more vicious, and it is absurd to weaken my heart.

I just feel sorry that things wouldn’t have turned out this way if Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong had been a little more flexible.

He was too upright to the point of being rigid, so he couldn’t withstand the strong wind and broke.

If he had lived like a flexible reed, he could have completed his term as Chief Prosecutor.

Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong could not bear to see a drop of ink falling into a cup of clear water and clouding it even slightly, so he overturned the cup.

This is the limitation of a person like Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong.

Stories like ‘Justice always prevails’ are just stories that come out in movies.

The reality is that the more vicious and stronger survive, and the winner takes all.

Because history is written by the victors.

As a result, Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong will remain a criminal in the guise of an honest official.

I survived today and got one step closer to success.

The winner that history has spoken of so far is only Choi Seo-joon, nothing more and nothing less.

***

Christmas Eve quitting time.

I ran into Prosecutor Jang Ha-young, who was wearing a red scarf, in the elevator.

“Are you leaving work now?”

“Yes. Are you going in now, Chief?”

“Yeah. I have to go early because my wife is waiting.”

“You’re such a romantic.”

Prosecutor Jang Ha-young smiled shyly and looked in the mirror.

“Is Prosecutor Jang going on a date too?”

“Yes. I think I’ll get a proposal today.”

“Congratulations.”

“Please congratulate me when I actually get the proposal.”

“Hahaha, I will.”

She shrugged her shoulder bag with a playful expression.

“By the way, I wondered who Santa was this year, but it was Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong.”

“Why Seo Gi-woong?”

“He gave me his retirement as a Christmas present.”

“You’re not wrong.”

After saying that, they looked at each other and burst into laughter.

Because Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong stepped down from his position as Chief Prosecutor today, December 24th.

“Oh, that’s right.”

Prosecutor Jang Ha-young clapped her hands and started rummaging through her bag.

“I have a gift for you, Chief.”

Then she took out a yellow document envelope from her bag and handed it to me.

“What is this?”

“It’s my replacement that you mentioned last time. You told me to pick a reliable person from the Special Investigations Department.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

“I picked two guys who I think would be good. They’re both pretty quick-witted and smart, so I think they’d be good. Take a look at their profiles and decide.”

“Prosecutor Jang is giving me work as a Christmas present.”

“Oh, I got caught.”

She shrugged her shoulders with a sly look.

I put the document envelope under my arm without even opening it and said.

“Actually, with two people, there’s no need to worry.”

“Are you going to pick both of them?”

“No, I have to make them compete.”

I twisted the corners of my mouth.

“Wouldn’t it be a better choice to pick the winner?”

Prosecutor Jang Ha-young eventually shook her head.

“I have a long way to go to follow you, Chief.”

I smiled lightly and said.

“Bring both of them to my office next week. Let’s have a cup of coffee.”

“Okay.”

At that time, the elevator arrived on the first floor and the door opened.

“I’ll go first. Have a Merry Christmas, Chief.”

“Merry Christmas, Prosecutor Jang.”

***

“He’s a good friend.”

Kim Seok-won wrinkled his nose and filled my glass.

“He’s similar to Senior Prosecutor Jeon Byeong-joo that I met last time. But he’s much taller.”

He put down the bottle and asked.

“Are you getting along well with Senior Prosecutor Jeon?”

“Yes. He helped me out when I was taking down Chief Prosecutor Seo Gi-woong this time. Thanks to him, it went smoothly.”

“That’s a relief.”

Minister Kim Seok-won smiled with satisfaction.

“Get along well with this friend too. You won’t find a better friend than this if you meet him.”

“Okay. If it’s Minister’s recommendation, I should get along well with him.”

As soon as that was over, there was a knock and the door opened as if waiting.

I immediately got up from my seat, and Minister Kim Seok-won raised his hand with a welcome.

“Are you here?”

“Yes, Minister. I’m sorry for being late.”

I stopped in surprise when I saw him bowing.

Sure enough, the man also opened his eyes wide when he saw me.

“Oh, Chief Choi?”

“Aren’t you Senior?”

“Wait a minute.”

He looked at Minister Kim Seok-won in surprise and asked.

“Was the friend you were going to introduce me to today Chief Choi Seo-joon?”

Kim Seok-won also tilted his head and asked.

“Do you two know each other?”

Of course, I know him.

Han Dong-min, the head of the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

To put it another way, he is in Line 1 [referring to someone in a top position].

Not just meeting each other in the line, but I clearly remember sharing quite a few stories about the prosecution while tilting wine glasses.

I thought he would succeed because he was the head of the Central Investigation Department, which is called the golden egg [most promising position] in the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, but I didn’t expect him to rise to the head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office at once, not the chief prosecutor of the local prosecutors’ office.

“We’re not just acquaintances, we’re close.”

He hit me on the shoulder with joy and sat next to me.

“Oh, how do you know each other?”

“Well, we met at various gatherings and got along well.”

“Senior Han Dong-min took such good care of me.”

“Since you know each other, there’s nothing to worry about!”

Minister Kim Seok-won laughed heartily.

“Today is not an introduction, just think of it as having a drink comfortably.”

“That’s right. Minister, don’t feel pressured and eat comfortably.”

Han Dong-min shook his shoulders and raised his glass.

“Okay, okay. Good.”

Minister Kim Seok-won filled his glass and immediately raised his own.

“Let’s have a cool toast.”

“Yes.”

He shouted a toast with a very satisfied expression.

“For the eternal glory of the prosecution.”

“Cheers!”

They clinked glasses cheerfully and drank it all in one shot.

I couldn’t hide the smile that kept appearing on my face after Han Dong-min appeared.

Above all, Han Dong-min is not a person who wants to go high and make a fortune, but a person who wants to go thin and long [maintain power without taking risks] and ride the line well.

As he is in Line 1, he will already know my authority, so the friendly relationship will continue to be maintained.

In this situation, Senior Prosecutor Jeon Byeong-joo, the head of the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office, is also on my side.

In other words, all the people who hold the real power of the prosecution in Seoul are with me.

From today, it can be said that no one in the prosecution can stop me.

Now, I have to take another step into a wider world beyond the prosecution.

Towards the true throne of the king.