The Foreigner on the Periphery

“Do you know the three most efficient ways to murder your boss?”

When asked this particular question, Lieutenant Park Jeongpal spoke while rolling his eyes.

“Wouldn’t it be most obvious if you put a bullet in his head, chop his throat with a knife, or burn him with this ability?"

Several more candidates including falling deaths, poisoning deaths, and electrocution deaths came to my mind but I decided not to put them in my mouth because the chief’s purpose was to peel himself.

And the guess turned out to be right. The chief said firmly in denial.

“No, the first thing to do is to make a mess of what you were told to do so you can blow up your boss's blood pressure. Second is to not do what you were told to and get yourself into trouble, get fired and get yourself killed on the street.”

Jeongpal caught some sense of where the story was going. The chief went on without a break.

“Third, the direct boss passes and goes straight to his boss’s boss and tells everything and the passed boss gets cancer from stress after shaking with betrayal. That’s all. Do you feel anything?”

Jeongpal didn't think it was necessarily efficient, and yet he swallowed his thoughts on the matter. Nothing good ever came out of enraging an existing fire.

“Why is it efficient? It’s because you can avoid the law even if you kill someone! I’ve been thinking about it lately but our Lieutenant Park Jeongpal…So I think our team leader is taking turns on trying those three methods. Do you want to put a scent on my clothes?”

“Are you angry?”

“Park Jeongpal."

“Yes.”

“Despite the existence of a strict command reporting system, why did you run to the chief and asked him to re-organize?”

Jeongpal mumbled and did not quench his answer, nor did he shy away from the chief’s gaze.

“I’ve told you a couple of times but you weren’t even trying to listen.”

“You have to make sense so that I’ll at least try to listen to you!”

“Why does it sound ridiculous to ask the team to reduce the number of officers and increase the number of real cops? There are too many blood splashing sites in the area where team four is in charge. There’s a lot of dangerous activity for officers to mobilize.”

“That’s what you think!”

“Of course, I’ll tell you what I think, as well as what others think.”

“Hey, Park Jeongpal!"

The chief squealed and whispered quietly barely holding back his emotions. ‘Let’s hang in there. Today won't be the day I murder someone.'

While listening to it, Park Jeongpal mumbled inside. That all sounded like bullshit.

The chief said in an appeal whether the operation had changed.

“In a nutshell, they’re almost all guys who are known as the youngest heads of their family… They would have sponsored 100 won each time over the phone in the past. What would they eat for a living if they get fired from your team?”

“I’m not asking you to fire them. I’m asking you to issue an exchange for a detective from a relatively less-than-deserved district, as well as an officer assigned to our team.”

Then the chief twisted his lips and spoke.

“Really? That’s great. Then shouldn’t Sang Ho’s needs be right?”

“……”

“If you have a team leader who wants to trade with your team so badly, go find him and bring him here! I’ll change the number of people right now!”

There could not have been such a team leader.

Even if there was a team leader who came up with the crazy idea of giving up a detective and receiving a officer, the detective targeted to the trade would eventually refuse to be assigned at all costs.

Jeongpal thought about this quietly. “If I were a human being and not an Orc, things would have changed a lot, wouldn’t they?’

The homicide detective team four led by Jeongpal, who was the only Oak team leader in the West, were openly shunned by detectives. The main office couldn’t have promoted him since he was going to retire in five years, and even if he was stuck under it, he would have caught a rotten rope.

The reason why the chief regarded Jeongpal as an eyesore was because he was an Orc. Countless people had heard several disparaging remarks about Orcs at drinking parties.

“Eat well and stop talking nonsense, take this.”

He tossed the case file. Jeongpal accepted the documents feeling that the attempt had gone over the water.

“What is it?”

“It’s a case I’ve entrusted to team two. You guys take over.”

Jeongpal's eyebrows frowned.

“In this case, a human has gone missing. We don’t even have enough people right now but if you also give this to us…”

Officers were only mobilized in the events of violence. Such formal investigations should naturally be conducted by the proper police.

“The homicide section will take care of the missing case so do you want to go out and clear the traffic?”

Jeongpal asked while suppressing his anger, “If you hand this over to us, what about Team Two?”

“They decided to stick on the special investigation of the Elf serial disappearance instead.”

Public opinion had deteriorated rapidly after several Elves disappeared recently, and even the special investigation headquarters seemed to have been manipulated quickly.

Jeongpal was curious about how many Orcs were missing a day in the Oak Community which is like a slum. No one was counting, that was for sure. Eventually it would come to the point where it would be uncountable for anyone who would dare to try.

The public’s reaction to the Elves and the Orcs was different, however.

Even if he didn’t ask him to do so, Jeongpal would have had no choice but to take charge of it himself since team four was going back to full capa.

Jeongpal went back to his seat, imagining shooting the chief with a gun, chopping his neck, and burning him with this ability.

***

After opening the door of the office on the second floor without a signboard, Ye Minjun encountered a guest who occupied the house without an owner. She was lying on the sofa and handing over the newspaper without taking off her high heels.

The customer felt the presence and folded the newspaper in half. Her eyes were exposed.

“Change the phone.”

“How are you, Cathy? That’s yesterday’s newspaper.”

“I know. I’ve been browsing about what’s in the newspapers these days.”

Unlike Minjun, that woman was 100% earthling and 50% Korean.

Cathy, whose full name was Catherine Sang, grew up under an American father and a Korean mother and lived in this country after she became an adult. The appearance of her father’s blood was strongly revealed so it was common for her to be treated as a foreigner by strangers. She would then embarrass her opponents each time by using perfect Korean.

“If you have a smartphone, you won’t be finding newspapers. Also, do you know how annoying it is to call and text separately every time?”

She then took out her handphone and showed the screen. She had launched a call app.

“Look, it says you’re the second most frequently contacted person! you even pushed my mother away!”

“So, who’s number one?”

“……The City Card.”

The honored position had been returned to the credit card company because the phone calls and texts were counted together. Cash was a source for a shopaholic and once attracted, she was the type to reattach everything in her arrogant way.

“Try spending less and saving it. You’re going to end up like a beggar.”

“Isn’t the salary paid to spend that much in the month? I’ll spend lots of money when I can.”

Minjun later found a box on his desk. “What is this now?”

“I picked it up on my way here.”

When he opened it, there were piles of potatoes inside that didn’t even have their soil shook off. He felt so dumbfounded.

“How many potatoes did you buy?”

“Around 10kgs. I bought it because it was sold cheaply online. I took half of them out and brought the rest here.”

“Anyway, your hands are pretty big. Why did a single woman buy so many potatoes? Are you going to farm?”

“I bought it to share with a man who lives alone. since you are a person with old-fashioned taste, you like hard crops which are corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes.”

Anyway, she always acted like she was at the end of her rope. Grumbling inside, Minjun began to ask.

“You’ve come all the way here to talk about work, haven’t you?”

“Of course.”

She took the papers out of her bag and spoke. “I’m still asking the immigration to hold it. I don’t know if it’s a request that you can accept.”

With her special abilities, Cathy assisted the field agent Minjun and took on the role of getting jobs from the immigration office. She had already reached a certain point in her ability to get rid of the tasks he hated and quickly snatch out the things he liked. Minjun was very satisfied.

That fact that she hesitated meant that this was a really ambiguous case.

Minjun, who was searching through the documents spoke.

“It’s a missing case.”

“Yes, he is Jang Tae-Joon, CEO of Hyosung University. He’s a solid corporate representative with a market capitalization of about 300 billion won…but he hasn’t been to work since last week and there’s no sign.”

“So, the reason it came through immigration is because…”

“Yes, the Immigration Department suspects Jang Tae-Joon is an alien who stays on Earth without a residence card.”

He scratched his head. “It would be a happy ending if he suddenly became homesick and went back to his hometown…”

“Even if he disappears out of the blue and doesn’t come back, we need physical evidence that he was an alien since it is impossible to recover the shares held by President Jang Tae-Joon from the treasury.”

“Are there an inheritor?”

“Not even a direct descendant or a relative! No wonder he’s worth being suspicious about, right? There is a testament but the immigration office hasn’t secured it yet.”

“Even if there is no blood, inheritance is possible which means he wants to steal it before that.”

Minjun thought about it for a while. An event like this is a stroke of luck. If it turns out to be definitely an alien that has committed illegal crime, I will receive it as Talents but if it was just an ordinary Human, the immigration office would only give a small amount of reward.

“If you want me to take care of a case like disappearance, that means that the government is very excited about that stock, right?”

“Don’t you think so?”

“Good. It’s not a bad idea to take this opportunity to erase some light.”

Minjun got up from his seat with the file. “Well, I’ll be out for a second. Lock the door when you leave.”

“Are you starting work right away? Anyway, you’re such a workaholic.”

Minjun walked out the door, as if the wind showed no sign of Burnout Syndrome.

***

It was a small store on the first floor in the same shopping mall where Minjun took his steps.

‘Evergreen Bookstore.'

An employee was brushing in front of a narrow store that was only about 10 pyeong bog with an old sign hanging on top of it.

“Hello, Dong-cheol.”

“He…Hello, Master.”

A goblin’s unique dull accent. Minjun was criticized for the content rather than the way he spoke.

“Please stop calling me master. People are misunderstanding! Call me as an older brother! Calling me as boss is okay too!”

“The pronunciation is so hard…Hehe, you were…on the first floor… so I was confused… the first floor is…boss, the second floor is…master.”

His employer explained to Dong-cheol that he was the owner of this shopping mall when he introduced Minjun and in the goblin’s mind, the preceding word was crushed and only the word ‘master’ remained intensely.

“Anyway.”

Chet. He kicked his tongue and went into the bookstore.

It was half of grass and half of books.

While looking at the large and small pots listed all along, Minjun found something.

“Woah! You saved this? That’s amazing. As they say, an Elf is an Elf!"

What he was looking at was a cactus pot that Minjun handed over to the bookstore owner a few weeks ago. When he belatedly discovered that it was stuck in a drawer in a condition where it had to go to an intensive care unit in human terms, he handed it over to him hoping he could do something about it.”

And the cactus which had been seen as irreversible was surprisingly now alive.

“Have you come?”

The old Elf who was fixing his eyes on the thick book looked up and as soon as he saw Minjun, he began to shout excitedly.

“You. don’t ever buy a pot or something again! How bad would you have been to him? What the hell did you do to dry up the cactus?”

“I didn’t buy it.”

At a time where he couldn't even remember it well, Cathy had given it to him as a gift, saying, “I picked it up on my way,” as she said the office environment was too bleak.

“Anyway, how many times has this happened?”

In fact, there wasn’t just one or two flower pots that Minjun handed over to the Elf who was the owner of the bookstore, Lakefield.

As he approaches, he turns the subject around.

“Is Dong-cheol good at work?”

Both of their eyes stopped at the entrance of the store at the same time.

Dong-cheol's brushing looked more like a dust relocation and dispersal application than cleaning.

The old man cleared his throat while humming and spoke.

“He's been working pretty hard.”

He couldn't lie, even during the situations where he was hard-pressed to.

Dong-cheol, a goblin was lucky to meet an employer like Lakefield. With low average intelligence compared to other races, it is hard for them to find a decent job in modern society. Most of the workers were transferred to the labor markets but eventually, they were forced to take a fishing boat or to be sold as salt slaves.

“What are you reading?”

“This is my favorite Dwarf author’s new book. Do you want me to lend it to you when I’m done?”

“Uh, no, thank you.”

For Minjun, the dwarf’s literature held a similar position to Oak Metal.

“The novels they write are all similar. All hell of a set-up, the plot lags madly and at the end, all this weird bullshit ends.”

“How can I help you?”

Lakefield noticed that Minjun had been spinning his words. He grinned awkwardly and stuck out the file.

“I’ve got someone to look for. This is your specialty.”

Lakefield nodded as he looked at the photos and addresses in the file.

“Good. I’ll give you as much help as you need.”

“In return, I’ll give you a discount on the monthly rent for this month.”

“That’s enough. I have a sense of shame. I know it’s worth a fortune if you cut more here.”

After speaking, Lakefield whispered into space.

“Will you help me?”

Neither did he say it to Minjun, nor to Dong-cheol.

Nothing was seen but Minjun could tell that something was approaching.

Soft forces had begun to gather to quietly vibrate the air.

Whoop!

Finally, Minjun was in a form that one could see. It was a 10:1 reduction of an Elf woman in an unfamiliar outfit created by a cloud of light.

Lakefield was one of the best spirits Minjun knew. This time, he was amazed at how fast he called it out.

“Your skill is getting better day by day without getting faded. What’s your secret?”

“Focus and practice.”

There was a clear vaccination mark on the neck of the Elf who had not taken a day off from practice for 900 years. It indicated that Lakefield was a first-generation immigrant and a pure-blooded Elf, and that he was one of the first Elves to step on Earth’s land.

He looked at the spirit he called with such lovely eyes while mumbling a few words and pointing his finger at the picture. Then the spirit grinned and flew away to the sky.

The spirits shut their mouths while looking at the back of the spirit that cut right through the wind. Minjun also waited for a while as he respected the silence.

“When the elemental Spirit is summoned, it borrows the image of the spirit it misses the most."

Minjun did not know who the spirit mimicked whether it was his mother’s youth, his forced wife, or his daughter who he had not met for a long time.

Being close did not mean that there no line that couldn't be crossed. Instead, there were some things he couldn’t ask because of being close. The story of Lakefield’s family belonged to him. Minjun wasn’t going to ask until that old Elf started speaking about it first.

Lakefield, who had been looking out for so long turned his head with a slightly moist look.

“I’ll call you when I get an answer.”

“Thank you.”

***

The next day, Dong-cheol came to Minjun's office for an errand.

“Sir…told…you…to…come…down… for…a… moment…”

“Okay, I'll be on my way."

Minjun, who went down to the bookstore asked Lakefield.

“Did you find it?”

“I found it.”

“As expected, you’re the best on the floor!”

He was trying to clap, but Lakefield beckoned as if he was not yet done talking.

“You, what are you trying to do with him?”

“I was going to question him.”

“Really? Then we’d better mobilize experts from other fields.”

“What? Why? You don’t think…”

Minjun's words blurred. Lakefield nodded and confirmed his guess.

“I found him but he’s not breathing. he’s dead.”

Minjun asked the most important question. “Is it a human?”

Lakefield frowned.

“You can’t call ‘that’ a human being.”

Minjun thought things would go better than expected. However, he had a good hunch, but was not relieved. It was because he was famous around people for having his sense wrong.

And Minjun soon found out that the jinx was not missed again this time.