A Gate Opened On My First Day As A Politician - Chapter 16: A Big Brush for a Big Picture (4)

Three days had passed since I started indulging in maddening tyranny.

“…Looks good.”

“Thank you.”

“You seem unexpectedly knowledgeable in the legal field.”

“Not at all.”

Cha Jae-kyun tilted his head as he stamped the document I handed over.

“By the way, why did you name it like this?”

‘Monster Damage Recovery Foundation.’

Honestly, it’s a slightly odd name.

“I don’t have much of a knack for naming things…”

If I named the foundation Han Seung-Moon Foundation, it would be too obvious, wouldn’t it?

“Ah, I see.”

“So I kept it as straightforward as possible. If the name is too complex, people might just call it the Han Seung-Moon Foundation anyway.”

* * *

“Did you arrive in Busan safely?”

— *Sigh.* Coming here alone makes my heart heavy.

“You sound like you’re smiling, though.”

—I just met my granddaughter.

“Congratulations.”

Assemblyman Yang Pan-seok had arrived in Busan via the overland route through Gangwon Province, along with other political figures rescued from the northern parts of Seoul.

—I struck a deal with the Busan mayor. He’s currently the Republican Party’s top presidential candidate, and he aligns with us to some extent.

“What kind of person is he?”

—He’s got a stiff head but open ears.

“I get the gist.”

—I’ll secure a good position for him later. By the way…

Yang Pan-seok’s voice grew expectant.

—Did Vice Minister Cha approve the foundation plan?

“We succeeded.”

—Good!

Yang Pan-seok cheered over the phone.

—Don’t sweat the small stuff. The folks around here only care about rising prices; they’re not too bothered about what you’re doing.

“Is that so?”

—The spike in oil prices is a bigger issue. The Arabs have cut off the supply.

The sea routes were blocked.

—Thankfully, with the government offices in Sejong City, the central administration won’t collapse. The directors and managers are hanging on by fumbling through.

“That’s a small blessing, I suppose. On our end, I’ve patched things up with the help of a lawyer and a sketchy labor consultant. We’ll just have to bulldoze through with martial law commander authority for now.”

—Since we can’t push through legislation right away… Well, I’ll make contact with the Republicans on my side. Let them know they’d better not cause trouble if they want to keep things entertaining.

“Your support is reassuring, Assemblyman.”

—Ha! I talk to you more than my own kids these days. Those brats have already divided my inheritance. The irony of me being alive seems to bore them.

What a wily old man. He’d manage just fine.

I didn’t have time to worry about him.

* * *

Since that day, Cha Jae-kyun started calling on me frequently.

“What’s the status of the enterprises the foundation will operate?”

“The road network is paralyzed, and…”

“A single can of tuna costs 70,000 won…”

He seemed to see me as some kind of idea bank.

“The clerks are under negotiation, and we should be able to start operations soon. Can you requisition a research facility in northern Seoul?”

“Restrict access to roads for military use only. Watching tanks and Sonatas share the road was horrifying.”

“If you requisition essentials from large marts and distribute them for free, no one would pay 70,000 won for a can of tuna. They’d steal it anyway, so why not give it out?”

I often helped him with non-military matters, earning not just his trust but his respect.

For instance, convincing the Dongducheon mayor who refused to give up land with political logic, or discreetly handing out envelopes to the occasional visiting journalist.

“…Six civilians died from a misfire by the 98th Tank Battalion of the 2nd Armored Brigade.”

“We’ll hold an emergency press conference about the military’s situation. It’ll definitely draw attention.”

“…We’ll make sure compensation is thorough. No matter which side it’s for.”

I even handled some shady tasks. Since I’d carried dirty money as Assemblyman Yang Pan-seok’s aide, it didn’t faze me much.

The one problem, however…

“…We don’t have hunters available for immediate deployment.”

“Are the NIS and the Security Command still unable to locate any?”

“It seems there are fewer superpowered individuals than we expected.”

Cha Jae-kyun frowned, letting out a sigh.

While preparations for establishing an orphanage were going smoothly, feeding minors mana stones and sending them straight to the battlefield was an atrocious idea.

Fine for construction sites, maybe. Anyway…

“Vice Minister, it seems superpowered individuals are rarer than we anticipated.”

“…Despite Gam Ji-yoon, Yeo Do-yeon, Chun Hwa-ran, and Assemblyman Han all being part of the same group?”

Suddenly, an idea struck me.

“We were right below the gate when it opened.”

“…So,”

“People near extraordinary phenomena might gain extraordinary powers. Doesn’t that sound like a plausible theory?”

We discussed various ways to secure superpowered individuals for some time, but no clear solution emerged.

To be honest, I refrained from being too proactive.

Since I controlled the orphanage as a supply route, opening another would weaken my influence.

Whether in politics or business, monopolies were key.

* * *

Lying on my barracks bed, under a warm blanket, staring at the ceiling, I still couldn’t quite believe everything.

At any moment, it felt like a monster could burst through the door. I couldn’t shake the memory of the blue monkey’s blood-red eyes.

It scared me sometimes.

I glanced around the barracks.

Chun Hwa-ran had gone out today to scout potential research facility locations, leaving Gam Chul playing with his children.

Meanwhile, Gam Ji-yoon was flying around, avoiding her father in midair. She’d gotten so fast he couldn’t catch her anymore. It was only a matter of time before she got caught, though.

The media would eventually expose superpower rumors, which was another headache. Plenty of footage already fueled speculation.

Lee Ho-jung, frail and slightly built, was bedridden after three sleepless nights.

Yang Il-ho, having been overworked by me often, seemed to cope better. He was fiddling with the remote in front of the TV.

The remote didn’t seem to work, and he jabbed the buttons furiously. On closer inspection, he was holding it upside down. What an idiot.

Nobody here was normal.

*Sip.* I leisurely sipped from the straw stuck in my yogurt drink. The sugar made me feel alive again.

“Doing alright?”

Yeo Do-yeon clicked her tongue as she sat by my bed.

“Noona.”

“What?”

“If I ask you to bring me another yogurt drink, will you hit me?”

Yeo Do-yeon clasped her hands and lightly jabbed my solar plexus. Fortunately, it was just a tap this time.

“…What do we do next?”

She muttered gloomily. The TV blared news of a massive gas explosion in Seocho District.

Honestly, I didn’t know what to do next either. Concealing my unease, I shrugged and feigned nonchalance.

“That’s out of our hands.”

“…”

“Let’s just do our best in our own roles.”

[Soldiers protect the nation. Doctors save lives.]

Politicians, on the other hand, devote themselves to seizing power.

Truthfully, the fact that I was striving for power amidst all this chaos made me feel a little guilty. But looking back, wasn’t it the same even in the relatively peaceful times?

People were dying in droves in war-torn regions of Africa or elsewhere, and yet I was comfortably working to gain power back then too.

The difference now was whether death was visible or not. That’s how I rationalized it to myself.

At times, I thought that people like Gam Chul and Chun Hwa-ran were quite remarkable. Didn’t they graduate from Korea University and venture into war zones as a journalist and a volunteer doctor, respectively?

Perhaps they were more needed by the world than I was.

The ironic thing, though, was that I still had the potential to wield a greater impact on the world than they did.

I nudged Yeo Do-yeon.

“Switch the channel to something entertaining.”

“Is that something you can do right now?”

“A rerun on cable.”

“Do you seriously want to watch that now?”

“Come on, my head’s a mess. I just want to watch some comedy…”

Out of boredom, I started rambling—an old habit.

“You know how people who like crime or political dramas mock their parents for watching trashy soap operas?”

“Yeah.”

“But it’s because those adults are already living their own political dramas in real life. They’re too exhausted to deal with more complications in fiction.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s what this feels like right now. Doesn’t everyone already know how awful things are? So why listen to ‘We’re doomed!’ on TV too?”

“Yeah.”

“So put on some entertainment.”

“Do it yourself. You don’t have hands? Feet?”

That was a calculated jab.

Just then—

“Assemblyman…!”

For the first time, Pi Chae-won, who had been unable to recover from her shock, spoke to me.

“Oh, student. What’s the matter?”

Pi Chae-won was the unspoken cautionary figure in the barracks, often huddled in a corner staring blankly at a family photo on her phone.

Even after her phone’s battery had died, she continued gazing at the now-empty screen.

No one directly asked, but it was clear she had lost her family. If that weren’t the case, she would have been wandering the streets of Paju and Yangju, searching for them among the refugees.

I had even secretly offered her a mana stone once to see if she could absorb it and if we should take care of her, but nothing happened, so I left her be.

Now, for the first time, she stood and approached me. With trembling pupils, she grabbed the hem of my shirt.

“Under the bed. Hide under the bed…!”

“Huh?”

“Everyone, step away from the window!”

“S-student? Are you okay—?”

“Now! Quickly!”

What on earth? Her face flushed red with what seemed like rage as she yelled at us like a person struggling with anger management issues. People hesitated but cautiously moved away from the windows.

The problem was me—I was using the bed right by the window, so I couldn’t just step away. But something felt off, so I tried to get up from the bed quickly.

“Ahhh!”

Pi Chae-won frantically pulled me off, and I tumbled to the floor.

It hurt.

I tried to steady myself by pushing against the ground.

“No! Student! What is—?”

“Duck!”

She threw herself on top of me. Despite being small, with narrow shoulders and little muscle, the disabled Assemblyman couldn’t overpower a mere high school girl’s strength and ended up pinned underneath her.

Oh, what a pitiful sight.

—*Boom!*

A thunderous explosion shattered the window, and flames burst inside. (Tl Note: Oohhh, Clairvoyance)

Shards of debris rained down.

It was hot—truly a cinematic inferno.

Fortunately, the explosion subsided quickly, and our room wasn’t too badly damaged.

Pi Chae-won seemed to have fainted. Her back was completely burned, and her clothes were in tatters.

Yeo Do-yeon swiftly tore off the smoldering fabric and carefully laid the limp girl on an intact bed.

I sat there dazed until Gam Chul pulled me to my feet. Glancing at my bed, I saw it was melted and riddled with large shards of metal.

I stared at the injured and unconscious Pi Chae-won.

I had to admit it.

If it weren’t for her, I’d be dead.

* * *

“…Among those killed in the 98th Tank Battalion’s misfire, one was the daughter of a helicopter pilot?”

“I have nothing to say. I’m deeply sorry.”

“No, no. I’m not looking for an apology. I support the Vice Minister’s approach as well.”

The man handled things so toughly that the backlash was already surfacing. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t entirely his fault.

Ah, forget it.

The helicopter pilot had rammed into the martial law command center. The man, a single father, lost his mind after his daughter’s death.

We were lucky our room wasn’t in the direct blast zone; otherwise, it would’ve been a massacre.

And if Pi Chae-won hadn’t warned me, I would’ve died on the spot. My head spun from the thought.

“Assemblyman?”

As I left the Vice Minister’s office, Gam Chul hesitantly approached me.

“Ah, are the kids okay? No injuries?”

“Yes, thankfully. Ji-yoon shielded us with her telekinetic barrier…”

“Already? She’s using telekinesis to form shields?”

“Anyway, that’s not the main issue…”

Gam Chul continued cautiously.

“Well, given my job, I have a pretty good memory for small details. Something’s been bothering me, but I thought I might’ve misheard and didn’t mention it. I apologize.”

“No, not at all. What’s on your mind?”

“About Pi Chae-won. When she was rescued from the rooftop and brought to the command center, didn’t she thank you?”

“Yes.”

“But instead of saying, ‘Thank you for saving me,’ she said…”

“‘Thank you for opening it.’”

“…”

“How does she know you opened the gate?”

…A useful tool just fell into my hands.