The Inspector Is Getting Promoted! [EN]: Chapter 238

Retribution (2)

“I’ve issued a summons to all external personnel. They will gather in the main conference room within an hour, so it seems you can arrive by 3 PM with plenty of time.”

“Understood. Thank you for your hard work.”

Yoon Seol-ha nodded and left the Chief Prosecutor’s office.

I wasn’t the only one filled with rage over this matter.

Just five months ago, before being promoted to Deputy Chief Prosecutor for the New Year, Lee Doo-hyung was the head of the Special Investigations Department, receiving the respect of all the other prosecutors.

He wasn’t just an authoritarian chief prosecutor but also a mentor who shared the joys and sorrows of the junior prosecutors.

Thanks to that, his two daughters, who occasionally showed their faces, were naturally the darlings of the Special Investigations team.

But So-young, the youngest of them, was dead.

And not just in a simple accident, but by Park Jae-pil’s intention.

Just thinking about how many people cried with him at the funeral and stood by Lee Doo-hyung’s side, it was obvious how important he was to the Special Investigations Department.

The prosecutors who witnessed Lee Doo-hyung’s collapse after his daughter’s death at the hands of Park Jae-pil would be willing to risk their careers to stand up for him.

That’s how important Deputy Chief Lee was.

The prosecutors in the Special Investigations Department must also be filled with sorrow and anger.

They must all feel the same way I do.

At that moment, the receiver rang.

“Yes, this is Choi Seo-jun.”

-Chief Prosecutor, people from Hansem Hospital are here now.

As soon as I heard that, my brow furrowed.

Hansem Hospital was where Lee Doo-hyung’s daughter, So-young, had died.

“Tell them to come in.”

-Understood.

To be honest, I didn’t want to let Hansem Hospital off the hook either.

Regardless of the circumstances, they were the ones who had committed medical malpractice.

However, unlike Park Jae-pil’s side, they had consistently admitted their fault and apologized from the beginning.

They did everything they could at the funeral as well.

Unlike typical large hospitals that deny responsibility when problems arise, they admitted their mistake, so Lee Doo-hyung held more resentment towards Park Jae-pil than them.

Of course, that didn’t mean I was going to forgive them.

Since So-young was dead, someone needed to take responsibility.

A moment later, the door opened, and five men entered.

“Greetings, Chief Prosecutor.”

Led by the hospital director, who appeared to be in his mid-50s, the doctors bowed respectfully towards me.

They were the faces who had come to apologize at the funeral.

The doctor who performed the surgery and the head of the center were among the key figures.

“Please, sit down.”

As I guided them to their seats, the hospital director spoke first.

“We are truly sorry. We visited you at the funeral, but we came again to offer our apologies.”

I replied coldly.

“Lee Doo-hyung has taken a leave of absence as of today.”

“Ah…”

“It seems his emotional wounds are deep.”

A look of bewilderment flashed across the doctors’ faces.

“I don’t know how to comfort him…”

The apology itself didn’t seem natural.

It was inevitable.

For a large hospital, it would have been more common to act high-handedly rather than apologize.

If Lee Doo-hyung had been a powerless ordinary citizen, they would have given him some consolation money and dismissed the medical accident as unavoidable.

As I remained silent, the atmosphere grew colder.

Dr. Kim Myung-shik, who performed the surgery, knelt before me, noticing the hospital director’s gaze.

“I am truly sorry.”

He bowed his head deeply like a sinner.

“I should have checked one more time and paid more attention. I sincerely apologize. I cannot fully understand the Deputy Chief’s pain, but…”

“That’s right. You cannot understand Doo-hyung’s pain.”

I said fiercely, gritting my teeth.

“You would only understand this pain if your own families were dying.”

The hospital director and doctors swallowed hard.

My eyes must have shown the will to actually do it.

After taking a breath, I said.

“But even if I did, it wouldn’t bring So-young back.”

“I will live with a heart of apology for the rest of my life.”

Dr. Kim Myung-shik began to shed tears while kneeling.

However, they knew that this was not an incident that could be forgiven with tears.

“And you should apologize to Lee Doo-hyung, not me.”

“…”

“It doesn’t end with an apology. Forgiveness doesn’t erase the sin.”

As I spoke coldly, the hospital director carefully opened his mouth.

“We will help with anything the Chief Prosecutor needs. We roughly know what kind of problem you had with Prosecutor Park Jae-pil. Anything possible with public opinion manipulation or financial power related to this matter…”

“I don’t need your help.”

I didn’t want to receive help from them, nor did I have any intention of doing so.

“Soon, the frame will shift from your side to Park Jae-pil’s side. Struggle hard to survive.”

The hospital could avoid some responsibility from public opinion if Park Jae-pil was in the spotlight.

That’s what I meant by telling them to struggle.

Although it was currently a hot topic due to medical malpractice, I had no intention of ruining this hospital.

Lee Doo-hyung didn’t want that either, and our goal from the beginning to the end was Park Jae-pil and his gang.

What Deputy Chief Lee wanted most was the downfall of Park Jae-pil.

“Leave. I don’t want to see your faces.”

They took Dr. Kim Myung-shik, who was shedding tears and apologizing, and headed out of the office.

After the others left, the hospital director turned back and placed a white envelope on my desk, saying.

“Ah, and this…”

He carefully opened his mouth.

“It’s small, but I hope it will be a comfort…”

I resisted the urge to tear the envelope the hospital director handed me, clenched my fist tightly, and said to the hospital director.

“Do you think I’m doing this to receive money or something?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Hand it over to Lee Doo-hyung directly, or do whatever you want with it. If you leave it here, I’ll make sure all of you are imprisoned for bribery.”

“Understood.”

The hospital director bowed his head and left the office.

***

“Welcome, everyone from the Central District Prosecutor’s Office.”

The main conference room was packed.

It wasn’t just the Special Investigations Department that had gathered, but also people from other departments who had been indebted to Lee Doo-hyung or respected him.

The eyes of these people were all burning.

I gripped the podium and began to speak.

“As some of you may have already heard, Lee Doo-hyung has taken a leave of absence as of today.”

Sighs escaped from the prosecutors’ mouths.

“He was my most cherished junior, a beloved younger brother, and a reliable colleague. But he was broken by Park Jae-pil.”

Some prosecutors trembled or closed their eyes tightly in frustration.

“I cannot express how I felt seeing that. Parents who raise children will all know. Even the death of So-young, who was like a niece to me, makes my heart ache so much, I can’t even imagine the sight of my own child disappearing.”

My fist clenched tightly.

“Lee Doo-hyung must have felt the pain of being torn apart. I cannot fully understand his heart, but…”

My voice choked with emotion.

I gritted my teeth and raised my head.

After pausing for a moment, I barely managed to open my mouth.

“What he wants is the punishment of the person who created this situation. Deputy Chief Lee’s daughter… So-young was killed by Park Jae-pil.”

The direct cause of death was the hospital’s negligence, but frankly speaking, So-young wouldn’t have been in danger if she hadn’t gone to the hospital in the first place.

In other words, the fact that Park Jae-pil killed her was no different.

“I can’t stand by like this. I clearly remember Park Jae-pil’s face, shamelessly coming to the funeral to create news stories after putting my people in the abyss of despair.”

Many prosecutors’ faces were filled with anger.

“And I also have a very clear memory of how sad and how much Lee Doo-hyung cried at the time.”

Some prosecutors couldn’t control their emotions and began to shed tears.

“Even for Lee Doo-hyung… no, to comfort the spirit of the dead So-young, we must expose the truth of this incident and punish all those involved. If we can’t do this, there’s no reason for us to remain as prosecutors of the Republic of Korea, is there?”

My emotions became intense, and I threw my prosecutor’s badge onto the podium.

“I will bet my position as Chief Prosecutor to punish those bastards. If you don’t have that level of determination, I ask you to leave.”

But then, Chief Jang Ha-young was the first to take out her prosecutor’s badge and place it on the table.

Led by her, all the prosecutors and investigators of the Special Investigations Department, and even the prosecutors from other departments, showed the same behavior.

Without a single exception.

I leaned over the podium and opened my mouth.

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We have to go out in the same way.”

It’s also in the Code of Hammurabi [an ancient legal code from Mesopotamia].

“That bastard Park Jae-pil came to the funeral and made evidence that directly caused problems, such as taking pictures. We will go the same way. We will track down the evidence, but if we can’t find it, we will create direct evidence based on the assumption of the dates when the kindergarten teachers received the money.”

I gritted my teeth.

“Perfect evidence that they can’t escape.”

***

-March 12, prior contact with Prosecutor Park Jae-pil.

-March 18, face-to-face meeting with Prosecutor Park Jae-pil.

-March 27, ordered the assault on Lee Doo-hyung’s daughter, Lee So-young.

-April 2, advance payment.

-April 6, assault on the Deputy Chief Prosecutor’s daughter.

-April 15, Lee So-young’s death.

We succeeded in finding all the evidence and creating the missing evidence.

There was no room for escape in the evidence created by dozens of prosecutors and prosecution officials working together.

I disclosed this to the media through a press conference.

However, even that was only temporary. During the live broadcast, which was being reported in various regions, the press conference was cut off before it was even halfway over and replaced with other news.

The articles posted on the internet were all cut off, and no media outlet reported on my press conference.

Choi Gyu-hyun was suppressing the media.

Media censorship in 2026.

It was reminiscent of the Fifth Republic era [a period of authoritarian rule in South Korea].

However, even if they blocked the media, they couldn’t block individuals.

Hundreds of prosecutors, prosecution officials, and acquaintances began to spread the contents of my press conference on the internet.

Although I didn’t directly order it, Hansem Hospital also helped us and even used people to inform the public about the whole story of this incident.

Some reporters who refused to comply with the media suppression began to report on this fact, knowing they would be fired.

As a result, the common people slowly began to awaken.