The Foreigner on the Periphery (English Translation)

16. Three Ways to Kill a Boss (13)

Jeongpal suddenly sensed a change in the air and looked at him. However, he quickly turned his head again due to Kim Yeonju's words that followed.

"I really thought this bastard was insane..."

Kim Yeonju continued, her voice trembling.

"I knew he was a daydreamer, but... when he started talking about 'social pollution' and all that weird stuff, I thought he was crazy... I said those things, and he didn't question anything, just said... 'Give me your blood.'"

He had been conducting research on his own, secretly, and it seemed his research had hit a wall, and perhaps the blood of an ISP manifestor could provide the breakthrough he needed.

"So, could it be?"

Jeongpal, who had been silent for a while, asked instead of Minjun. Kim Yeonju nodded, confirming his guess. A deep sigh escaped from the orc's mouth.

"Ugh..."

She was furious, but in the end, she provided the blood as he had wanted. She had confessed to the affair, but there was no reaction from him. Kim Yeonju, as she had done many times before, chose to avoid conflict this time as well.

Still, their relationship continued.

Hearing up to this point, Jeongpal muttered in disbelief.

"...You both have really lost it."

Kim Yeonju viewed the act of regularly giving him her blood as a kind of secret, a sort of insurance for their relationship. She thought she was sacrificing herself to keep it going. It was a thought process close to cognitive impairment.

But eventually, the catastrophic end of this precarious relationship came.

And it came in a rather violent form.

"I'm sorry. I can't delay this any longer."

Out of nowhere, Jang Taejoon dropped the bombshell while they were in bed, making the long-awaited farewell declaration. The time had come for him to leave. He still refused to answer when asked where he was going.

Instead of a response, he said something utterly shocking.

"I'm planning to donate all the shares I own in HyoSeong Industries to a social welfare foundation."

It was probably in that moment that the sense of loss turned into pure rage.

"And, Yeonju, I want you to sell me the shares you own. I can't explain why, but please just do it. I'll pay you a fair price for them..."

Kim Yeonju didn't even finish hearing his words before she stormed out.

"Are you messing with me right now?! You're leaving without any explanation, and now you want me to sell you my shares? HyoSeong Industries isn't your private company! It's a company we built together, what the hell are you saying?!"

"I can't explain in detail. If you keep those shares, you might be in danger too."

It was an insincere lie, an excuse.

From that point on, her memories became a blur. All she could feel was the overwhelming sense of being thoroughly discarded.

She had devoted herself to the company, even regularly providing blood for his research. In the end, she was nothing but a convenient subordinate to Jang Taejoon, a compliant office wife, and a lab rat from whom he extracted blood whenever he wanted.

After storming out of the house, Kim Yeonju came to her senses and found herself in front of Edelenes, her affair partner, the dragon.

Edelenes did not get angry when Kim Yeonju confessed everything in a single breath.

"Well, I don't really care... It doesn't bother me who you sleep with outside. I'm a dragon. My kind doesn't care about such things."

What intrigued her was something else Kim Yeonju had confessed.

"Jang Taejoon was researching dragon genes? All by himself, secretly?"

Jang Taejoon had briefly mentioned it once. He had a secret safe hidden in his "house" where he had built a proper lab to research dragon genes on his own.

However, he had never told Kim Yeonju the location or how to access it. Even after years of being together, it had remained a closely guarded secret.

"You want to get revenge on that bastard, don't you?"

That's how their plot began. Using the charge of betrayal as a pretext, Edelenes kidnapped Jang Taejoon, tortured him, and seized all of his shares and the research data he had accumulated.

Edelenes seemed more interested in the stock value than any sense of justice. To an Elder Dragon, it was a laughable sum, but to a low-power dragon like her, it was a tempting prize.

In the end, Kim Yeonju accepted her proposal. That night, under the guise of reconciliation, she secretly called Jang Taejoon to meet her, and Edelenes was waiting in hiding at the location.

But no matter how long they waited, Jang Taejoon never showed up.

After that, no one ever saw him again.

What followed was a series of regretful laments, revolting self-justifications, and excuses.

Thinking it was pointless to listen any further, Jeongpal asked.

"Hyung?"

Minjun's face remained stiff, frozen.

Minjun, half-sure of something in his mind, asked.

"Who took your blood? How was it collected?"

He now understood the reason why Kim Yeonju's vitality was lacking compared to normal people. But there was one thing that bothered him.

"...Taejun did it, himself."

"How much blood at once? What was the frequency of the blood draws?"

Kim Yeonju fumbled as she spoke. She said that about 300ml was taken at a time, once a week, for about a year.

"No way! That's impossible...!"

Seeing Minjun's face twist in disbelief, even Jeongpal flinched.

"Why, what's wrong?"

The orc had never seen the agent make such a face before.

However, Minjun didn't have the energy to respond.

'So, in just one year, he took 14 liters of blood!'

And it wasn't done through a normal blood-drawing method. He had used magic to also extract life force. This was the method used when blood is needed as a magical sample.

Jang Taejoon had drawn blood directly from Kim Yeonju, and always used a uniquely designed syringe. Minjun knew exactly what kind of artifact that syringe was.

'No human could survive after having that much blood drawn using magic!'

Yet, Kim Yeonju was still alive.

It was because the "sorcerer" who drew her blood had exceptional skill. He had extracted enough life force to use as a sample but controlled it so carefully that it didn't harm her life. This wasn't something just anyone could do.

Moreover, according to Kim Yeonju, the research Jang Taejoon had focused on near the end was "investigating the effect and principles of ISP manifester blood on hemolysis."

In research involving magical interactions, it's common to need equal amounts of two substances.

'I thought that since he was researching dragon genes alone, he must have obtained a tiny bit of frozen samples from the black market. But that wasn't the case!'

He had made a huge mistake.

'For that kind of research, Kim Yeonju's blood wouldn't be needed that much. If the research was legitimate... then at least 14 liters of "dragon blood" would have been consumed in magical blood draws. Where could a regular human get that much?'

Everything fell into place in his mind.

"Jeongpal."

"Yes, hyung!"

The orc answered, tense.

"What other real estate does Jang Taejoon own, aside from this house?"

He quickly flipped through documents.

"Uh... There's a mixed-use building in Haeundae, Busan. A condo in Jecheon, and a villa in Gacheon…"

Minjun had only been handling this case for three days.

He had been busy chasing the overflowing evidence in Seoul, and hadn't had the time to search for Jang Taejoon's properties outside the city. While the police had already searched those places, nothing had turned up. That was because a magician hadn't been there.

No, even if a member of the Society had gone, they wouldn't have found a thing, if Minjun's guess was correct.

"Among those, is there any building near a mountain that's at least 800 meters high? Or a building close to a lake with a diameter of over 3 km?"

Jeongpal quickly found the relevant property.

"Oh, there's a villa in Sokcho, Gangwon-do, that fits the criteria. It's right next to Seoraksan."

Minjun didn't need to hear more and immediately stood up.

"Good, we're going there now…"

He stopped mid-sentence and corrected himself.

"No, Jeongpal, you take Kim Yeonju with you. I'll go alone."

It was too dangerous to take Jeongpal with him this time.

He muttered to himself.

"Yeah, no matter how much the Society searches... they'll never find a secret vault."

The reason why nothing had turned up even after Minjun had thoroughly searched Jang Taejoon's Hannam-dong residence was clear.

"Did he really say there's a secret vault in his house? That's not a lie. It must have slipped out subconsciously."

If Minjun's guess about Jang Taejoon's true identity was correct, that Hannam-dong mansion wasn't his "real home."

Minjun understood that the true home of that species could only take another form.