First day at work after a business trip to England.
Seo Ji-yu nodded and delivered coffee to me.
It's not just embarrassment that makes her unable to look at my face properly.
Either way.
I looked over the press releases the servants had compiled to see if anything had happened in Korea.
Now that the frequency of dungeon appearances has noticeably decreased, hunters are starting to sense the ominous signs.
As a result, the incidence of hunter crimes has been increasing noticeably worldwide.
But even so, there were only two countries where hunter crime was decreasing, not increasing...
It was China and Korea.
I couldn't help but laugh when I saw China claim that their hunter crime rate was much lower than ours.
"These kids just keep talking nonsense."
"It could be true. They killed all the hunters who could be a problem..."
"...That could be the case."
Certainly, this time my bias was too strong.
Alice just slapped my press release file and said,
"By the way, is our country's data trustworthy?"
"If hunter crime isn't decreasing, why am I doing this?"
"That's true, but..."
Thanks to the activities of the special forces, the hunter crime rate in our country has definitely decreased drastically.
This wasn't some fake statistic or something.
Previously, there was only one organization that could control hunters: the Association, and even that lacked a formal investigative agency...
Everything changed with the establishment of the Special Forces.
In particular, the fact that they arrested current and former S-rank hunters and even guild executives had a huge impact.
Thanks to the example set by those guys, the hunters became very quiet.
"There's no need to punish every single hunter. If they simply believe they can be punished, the crime rate will drop significantly. Hunters' perceptions have already changed."
"Is that so..."
Hunters are a profession that is well-known in society, and their income is also quite decent.
There is no way that they would rashly take the risk of becoming criminals.
Until now, there was a widespread perception that crimes were not punishable...
Now the numbers don't add up anymore.
Of course, this is only a temporary change, and it is not known what will happen after the gate is completely closed.
We decided to do as much as we could until then.
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any major incidents today.
It seems like even violent criminals are sparing themselves after seeing the bank robbers caught last time.
Thanks to that, I was able to do a little bit of research on the witnesses.
"Uh-huh."
While Tia was trying to keep a scary expression on her face, the witnesses who had been summoned entered one after another.
Before the appointment time, I quickly looked over the reference's profile.
"Today's opponent is... a former hunter."
Retired hunters are not that rare in Korea.
Just look at Yeriel or Jaehan Lee, the big fish we caught last time, and they are retired hunters.
Usually, if the hunter life doesn't suit one's constitution, it is common for one to just complete the mandatory service period and then retire.
Fortunately, South Korea's management of retired hunters is objectively excellent.
Hunter pension is paid regularly, and in case of emergency, you need to gather information about the address.
They even do things like trauma therapy, which is common in foreign dramas.
Thanks to this, it was extremely rare for retired hunters to become involved in crime.
Jaehan Lee, the big sea hunter who was caught last time, was too active to be considered a retired hunter.
On the other hand, this time the witness's ability was truly weakened and he retired.
It seems like he has no particular attachment to the hunter life.
He is a great citizen who saved up money little by little during his active years and opened a restaurant with his hunter pension.
I was curious as to why this gentleman had suddenly been summoned to the special forces, so I quickly looked through the case files.
But, the more I read the file, the more my face hardened.
"What is this..."
"what's the matter?"
"No, there's no one worthy of being called as a witness?"
This time, the context is quite long.
I explained it to Alice as simply as possible.
"It's related to school violence."
"School violence?"
Alice, who has been bullied before, already clenches her fists.
"The witness has a daughter, and it seems she was being bullied by her classmates."
"So, the witness used his hunter abilities to take care of them?"
"No. There's still a long way to go."
Before I could even finish my story, today's protagonist entered.
The man, who had reached the desk with a very timid gait, sat down as soon as I gave him permission.
Overall, it feels like a harmless middle-aged person.
Unlike other active hunters, he didn't even have a lawyer with him.
It's a little pitiful to see him so scared.
"Hello. You're Jeong Tae-han, correct? You're a B-rank hunter from the JINK Guild, currently retired..."
"Yes, that's right."
"I don't think it's that serious, so don't be nervous. Just listen carefully to what I say from now on and answer truthfully. Okay?"
Tia looked at the distant mountains at the comment I made several times.
I finally learned that if you nitpick here, you'll get in trouble.
The witness nodded vigorously, but asked the question cautiously.
"But, I'm not suspected of being the culprit, am I?"
"Mr. Jeong Tae-han is being investigated as a witness, not a suspect."
"iced coffee..."
He nodded, his face slightly relieved, and he sighed softly.
"thank you."
"Okay, then let's begin."
I started to fact-check in front of him as calmly as possible.
"Let's start by checking his family. Mr. Jeong Tae-hwan's parents are deceased, his wife passed away five years ago, and he has a daughter in high school. Is that correct?"
"you're right."
He already looks uncomfortable, but if we're going to discuss this incident, we have to talk about his daughter.
Unfortunately, Jeong Tae-han's daughter was an introvert and was in a perfect position to be bullied.
His grades were relatively average for a student. Furthermore, he was from a single-parent family, and his remaining father was a retired hunter.
Her classmates, who thought all hunters lived glamorous lives, felt betrayed and harassed her.
Up until this point, it was just a common school tragedy...
The problem came next.
Even for a so-called bully, these guys were incredibly bold and even attacked her father, the only blood relative she had left.
Of course, even though he was retired, he didn't directly attack the man who was a former hunter.
"I heard they came to the store."
"Yes, that's right."
At first, they pretended it was a mistake and broke a bottle of alcohol in the refrigerator, and then reported it to the police, saying that the alcohol was sold to them...
Later, he even got some red food coloring from somewhere, filled his mouth with it, and vomited it in front of a store where people were passing by.
Thanks to their unique performance, the number of customers who used to visit frequently decreased significantly.
The guys we saw last time were still there, so we even called out the police, but they got angry at the police who responded to the report.
But there was another, truly worst problem.
Jeong Tae-han said this with his whole body trembling and his fists clenched.
"Because of those kids, our child..."
"Oh, I know that part too. If you don't want to talk about it, then don't."
The expression "suicide..." is not allowed.
Nowadays, it should be called an 'extreme choice'.
It is because of the bad habit of civil servants to try to minimize any problem.
Anyway, Jeong Tae-han's daughter even attempted an extreme option.
Perhaps he couldn't accept the fact that his father had suffered such a thing because of him.
As is often the case with these types of tragedies.
The school and the Ministry of Education downplayed the incident outrageously.
The perpetrators were not even properly punished, and instead the victim was forced to transfer schools.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the incident did not end there.
If that had happened, the man in front of me wouldn't have needed to come for questioning as a witness.
Could it be that the sky was just indifferent?
Shortly after the school violence committee's deliberation was concluded.
An accident occurred among the students who were the perpetrators.
No. In fact, it was too fair to be called an accident.
Usually, we use the expression 'accident', not the other way around.
I have identified the most important thoughts.
"The students who were referred to the school violence committee were involved in an explosion at school. Their smartphone batteries exploded randomly. This is an accident that rarely happens these days."
"...I heard it too."
"Two students lost all their fingers on their right hands, one died from excessive bleeding after shrapnel got lodged in his blood vessels... One student even had his genitals amputated. He said he had his smartphone in his pocket."
Witness Jeong Tae-han nodded, as if he felt a little relieved by my calm confirmation.
"You must have gotten hurt somewhere while doing something bad. I can't believe anything they say."
"I don't believe their own testimony either. But I have no choice but to believe objective evidence. Not only my classmates, but also the teachers in the class all testified."
"The testimony... Thanks to their testimony, the school violence committee was able to reach a truly fair verdict."
When the story of his daughter's classmates and teachers came up, Jeong Tae-han openly expressed his displeasure.
It was natural that he was offended.
The police identified him as the culprit behind the explosion and handed the case over to the special forces.
Despite my dutiful tone, he was very angry and lost his temper.
"You just brush off what they did to my family, and now you're treating me like a criminal just because they hurt their fingers? What kind of law is this? If only they'd punished them properly when they tampered with my store..."
"Please calm down a bit. Mr. Jeong Tae-han, you are misunderstanding two things."
"Are you mistaken?"
The witness softened his tone a little when I tried to persuade him gently.
I nodded and explained step by step.
No matter how much of a country we are, we cannot indiscriminately punish someone who has experienced something like this, and there was no need to do so in the first place.
"First, the police may not know, but I don't suspect Jeong Tae-han of being the culprit. I believe it's physically impossible for Jeong Tae-han to blow up the victims' smartphones."
"Huh..."
Jeong Tae-han finally calmed down at my calm tone.
Smartphone batteries are designed to prevent explosions, and even if they do explode, the amount of debris thrown is minimized.
Jeong Tae-han is a flame type user, but...
Flame type is usually strong, but slow and flashy.
It's much easier to cause an accident using something like a smartphone battery with electromagnetic capabilities.
"That's the second misunderstanding. The law didn't not punish them, it 'couldn't' punish them."
"Can't you... punish him? Even after he did something like that?"
"It's unfortunate, but I can't go that far. Such crimes are far too common."
"yes?"
I continued talking, my voice slightly lowered.
Jeong Tae-han's forehead became noticeably narrower.