You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 198

The fact that the lie detector continuously flagged Deputy Chief Prosecutor Park Young-gi’s statements as false was somewhat surprising.

It was true that in my previous life, he hadn’t been overly ambitious for personal glory.

That’s why, even though he could have risen higher, I knew he had conceded the position of chief prosecutor to a junior colleague with more seniority and lived a leisurely life as a scholar.

But perhaps that fact was just a carefully constructed image.

He, too, might have strived for promotion but failed, pushed aside by a junior colleague, and felt despair.

If not, perhaps, as I thought when I questioned him earlier, many things had changed in this life, leading him to harbor different intentions. Now that this case had fallen to the Western District Prosecutor’s Office, did he want to seize the opportunity?

I brought the teacup to my lips and paused for a moment in thought.

“I see.”

Even if he was greedy for the Anthrozoal Alpha case due to his desire for fame, it wasn’t a big problem.

He was the deputy chief prosecutor of the Seoul Western District Prosecutor’s Office.

In terms of seniority, he was still far from retirement, and he had the qualifications and abilities to rise higher.

At that level, it would be more surprising if he *didn’t* have the desire to climb higher.

But despite that, the reason I wanted to confirm his true intentions was one thing.

Initially, I thought it might be good to deepen my relationship with Deputy Chief Prosecutor Park Young-gi.

I tend to be wary of people with great ambition.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve already experienced a monster like Hwang Young-chan, who strived to seize power.

“So, I’m curious about what Attorney Cha thinks now. Can you help?”

I looked at Deputy Chief Prosecutor Park Young-gi.

“If this case is successfully concluded, will you be promoted, Chief Prosecutor?”

“Well. I’m not sure about that either.”

Park Young-gi tilted his head.

And on those words, the word ‘Lie’ appeared.

“…….”

So, he *did* want a promotion.

Well, even if I cooperate with Park Young-gi this once, I won’t lose anything.

The problem is when I have regular relationships with him after this and build more intimacy with him than now.

Anyway, it’s better for me to cooperate with the prosecution in many ways.

To make my name known, and to be rewarded for my contributions.

“I will cooperate.”

“Good. I think it will be a good opportunity for Attorney Cha as well. We will also reveal the fact that we are cooperating with Attorney Cha and support Attorney Cha. Isn’t that what seniors should do? Spreading flower petals on the path of juniors.”

[Truth]

Huh, what is this?

I don’t know who will be the prosecutor in charge of this case, but they’re pushing me instead?

Park Young-gi, is he perhaps trying to build his own faction and put me in it?

“I’m not even a prosecutor.”

“Still, Attorney Cha built this case from the beginning. Isn’t that right? Then that person deserves the credit. Attorney Cha, when I called you, did you think I would try to take the credit?”

I hadn’t predicted that, but considering what Manager Oh said, I had considered it as one of several possibilities to some extent.

“That’s not true.”

“It is. Haha. Then I should introduce you to the prosecutor in charge. You’ll have many things to help each other with while investigating this case. It’s always nice to see our juniors working together.”

He pressed the intercom button and said simply.

“Tell him to come in.”

Not long after Deputy Chief Prosecutor Park Young-gi spoke, a knock was heard.

With his permission, the heavy door soon opened, and a man in a suit walked inside.

“You called, Chief Prosecutor?”

And that person was none other than Jung Chang-yoon, the prosecutor in charge of the Cho Bong-joon defamation case.

“Oh, Prosecutor Jung. Come and sit down.”

Park Young-gi pointed to the sofa across from me.

Jung Chang-yoon sat down with a blank expression.

Park Young-gi placed a teacup in front of Jung Chang-yoon, just as he had done for me, and poured warm water.

“Attorney Cha, this is Prosecutor Jung Chang-yoon, who is in charge of the Myunghwa Pharmaceutical case. You already know each other well, right?”

Whatever Park Young-gi’s purpose was, I thought he was quite enthusiastic about handling this case.

But why assign Jung Chang-yoon as the prosecutor in charge?

He was the most lethargic and unmotivated prosecutor I had ever seen.

Besides, wasn’t he someone suspected of having connections with Taekwang [a large corporation]?

Once you’ve been contacted by Taekwang, the rumor spreads far and wide.

It’s a relief that he doesn’t continue to meet them privately to maintain the relationship, but it’s still unsettling.

“You may have been a little uncomfortable with each other because of the Cho Bong-joon case, but the decision was ultimately made not to indict, so there shouldn’t be any lingering feelings, right? Well, you’re both professionals, so there’s no reason to hold grudges over such cases.”

“Yes.”

Jung Chang-yoon replied indifferently.

“Yes.”

“As Attorney Cha knows, Prosecutor Jung is a doctor. He seems to be much more familiar with that field than we are, who know nothing about it.”

“Chief Prosecutor.”

“Huh?”

“I understand that Attorney Cha is no longer a prosecutor.”

At Jung Chang-yoon’s words, Park Young-gi smiled awkwardly.

“Ah, I’ve been calling Attorney Cha, Attorney Cha, since a long time ago, so it’s stuck in my mouth. Well, Attorney Cha. Apologies if Attorney Cha was uncomfortable.”

“It’s okay.”

“Okay. Then I’ve introduced you two, so talk well. An old senior should step aside now, right?”

At Park Young-gi’s words, Jung Chang-yoon and I greeted him and left the deputy chief prosecutor’s office.

Cooperative investigation with Jung Chang-yoon, an unexpected situation.

Could he, who only wants a settlement rather than trying to find out the truth, be the right person for this investigation, which requires above all a drive to uncover the truth?

“Attorney Cha.”

As I was about to get on the elevator, Jung Chang-yoon’s voice came from behind.

“Yes.”

“Please stop by my office for a moment.”

An uncomfortable invitation.

“What kind of coffee do you want? Mix? Black?”

“Water, please.”

Jung Chang-yoon, who sat me on the sofa and approached the water purifier, leisurely brought coffee and water.

“Should I congratulate you?”

He said, sitting across from me.

“What are you talking about?”

“Things turned out the way you wanted, didn’t they? Cho Bong-joon was not indicted, and you’re even conducting a prosecution investigation, which is worth the effort of escalating the case.”

“Is that so?”

He seemed to have heard it roughly from Park Young-gi, so I didn’t want to deny it.

When I answered casually, Jung Chang-yoon smiled faintly and opened his mouth.

“About the medical reporter who first published the article saying there was a problem with Anthrozoal Alpha.”

“Yes.”

“Was Attorney Cha the one who reported it to him?”

“You knew that too?”

“Even before taking on this case, I was the prosecutor in charge of the Cho Bong-joon case.”

“I thought you weren’t interested.”

“Of course not.”

Jung Chang-yoon replied in a voice mixed with laughter and made eye contact with me.

“He’s a senior from my school. That reporter.”

Ah, this is an unexpected piece of information.

I did some research on Jung Chang-yoon, but I already knew his resume, so I focused on his relationship with Taekwang.

“He said that after watching Cho Bong-joon and Choi Jong-hyun broadcast, he thought the informant might be those two. Since the report came anonymously. But since those two are ultimately working with Attorney Cha, I thought the informant might be Attorney Cha.”

“I see.”

“Attorney Cha.”

“Yes.”

“Your lack of social skills is still the same.”

At his words, I raised one eyebrow.

When I met him with Cho Bong-joon, I thought he had forgotten the past when we used the room next door [referring to their time as prosecutors].

Even though I didn’t remember it well because it was an old memory, he wasn’t a memorable person.

But what does it mean that my lack of social skills is still the same?

“Was I lacking in social skills?”

“It seems so. I feel like the conversation keeps getting cut off.”

“That’s the same with Prosecutor Jung.”

It was like the pot calling the kettle black.

“You were upset that I told you to settle in the Cho Bong-joon case.”

“I wasn’t upset, but I thought you weren’t doing your best as a prosecutor.”

“I see.”

He sipped his coffee, then rummaged through the pile of documents piled up on one side and took out a file.

It was a thick file, almost like the Encyclopedia Britannica.

“I didn’t do my best. I looked into it as much as I could. I also talked about the medical reporter and Attorney Cha before summoning Cho Bong-joon.”

“If someone with abundant medical knowledge and who knows as much as you do says that, then why did you keep rejecting our claims and telling us to settle?”

Jung Chang-yoon hesitated for a moment as if he was unsure what to say, then soon opened his mouth.

“I didn’t think there was a possibility [of proving the claims]. If I could clearly confirm the truth, I would have dug into it hard, but… the opponent is Wooshin [a powerful corporation], and Wooshin is a master of concealment. So I thought this case would eventually be buried, and I didn’t want to waste time on such a case. As you know, prosecutors are very busy. Besides, Cho Bong-joon was indicted for a minor crime, so it was difficult to investigate it loudly.”

A prosecutor handles hundreds of cases a month.

I also remember that he rebuked us that day, saying that he was a busy person.

I understand because I was once a criminal prosecutor.

Cases are divided into felonies and misdemeanors, and it is natural not to delve deeply into misdemeanors compared to felonies.

If I dug deeply into misdemeanors, I wouldn’t be able to make time to resolve the assigned cases.

But, I can never think that was a good response.

If he knew the medical reporter we reported to and had already obtained that information before we came to be investigated, he would have understood why we did that.

Besides, he, who was once a doctor, would know best what is at stake in this matter.

Nevertheless, is it reasonable to say that he urged a settlement because it seemed like a case that would realistically be buried?

“I thought you wouldn’t like having to conduct a joint investigation with me, so I wanted to talk to you to make excuses first.”

“I understand what you’re saying.”

“There are many prosecutors in the world. There are prosecutors who can’t escape being foot soldiers, and there are political prosecutors, but… the common thing about all prosecutors is that they suffer from an absurd amount of work. In order to handle all that work, it is necessary to work efficiently. Otherwise, you won’t be able to finish the work within the period. Of course, I want to dig into each case with care. But if I do that, who will handle the work that I couldn’t do because I was pressed for time? It goes directly to the victims of the case. The victims of those cases that I couldn’t handle will suffer more during that time.”

He sighed deeply and slowly began to speak.

“Attorney Cha, you were famous from the time you first joined the company. They said you were a genius. I remember you solving all your cases, and if you still had time left, you would solve other people’s cases.”

“I didn’t have time left either. I was working overtime every day.”

“Everyone is like that. But even if you work overtime every day, there are still many things that you can’t handle. Other people’s cases? If you ask me when I’m eating, I can give you a little bit of my opinion, but I can never investigate instead. At first, I became a prosecutor with the same ideals as Attorney Cha. But, in the end, I was chased by time, chased by physical strength, and even chased by the work environment, so I had no choice but to compromise. That’s the same for other prosecutors.”

“That’s an excuse. There are many prosecutors who haven’t compromised.”

I know that the working environment is extremely bad, but there are still many prosecutors who have not compromised with reality.

I was like that too.

But are those people all fools who didn’t compromise?

“Look at this. Attorney Cha doesn’t know the hearts of ordinary people well. There will definitely be prosecutors who haven’t compromised. But if you check the performance evaluations of those people, it will be a mess. There will be a lot of unsolved cases. In the end, they won’t be able to escape being foot soldiers. Unlike Attorney Cha.”

“It’s too much to say that Prosecutor Jung is an ordinary person, isn’t your career too brilliant?”

“I’m just a bookworm. I just know how to study most efficiently. I was the one who told the chief prosecutor that he needed a joint investigation with Attorney Cha. Of course, I think the chief prosecutor was thinking the same thing.”

This is also a somewhat surprising fact.

“I used to be jealous when I looked at Attorney Cha. But, now I’ve decided to acknowledge the difference. I know my abilities, so I had no choice but to compromise with reality, and I decided that Attorney Cha didn’t have to compromise with reality because his abilities were outstanding. After all, the difference in thinking that comes from the difference in ability cannot be narrowed.”

He smiled bitterly and put down his coffee cup.

“And Attorney Cha. Just because I was contacted by Taekwang doesn’t mean I want to support Wooshin behind the scenes. Just like Attorney Cha was also contacted by Taekwang, but you’re fighting against Wooshin Group like this.”

Oh, dear.

He seemed to know that I was worried about that part.

Well, when I think about it, it’s funny to think that he wouldn’t know.

If someone who is his classmate and used the room next door becomes the prosecutor in charge, he would naturally investigate him.

“So, I hope we can have a good joint investigation. This case will be the first case where I don’t compromise with reality.”