"Are you the one called Leon?"
After hearing his name, Leon, who was heavily bandaged on his hands and shoulders and fixed on the hospital bed, struggled to turn his head. He saw an old man with graying hair and muscles on his brow knotted into a "川" shape.
"You don't need to worry about who I am."
Without answering Leon's question, the old man, with two guards, said with an iron-like face and expressionless demeanor,
"You just need to know that you are now the primary suspect in the Ryan Blood Night case and are under investigation."
So... is this man an interrogator from the Secret Investigation Bureau? But shouldn't interrogators have assistants? Why bring guards instead? And they don't seem to be ordinary guards?
Glancing at the two guards behind the old man, from their erect posture and the calluses at the base of their thumbs indicating handling guns, Leon roughly guessed their profession, which made him furrow his brows and turn his head back.
Noticing the subtle change in Leon's expression, the old man's eyes narrowed slightly, scrutinizing Leon's profile with an eagle-like stare, coldly questioning him,
"Do you have an issue with the military?"
After giving the old man a sidelong glance, Leon racked his brain to guess his identity while unceremoniously retorting,
As expected, like the typical trope in countless classic films, after Leon's provocation towards the high-status seeming old man, the two guards full of admiration for him immediately furrowed their brows in anger and shouted,
Raising his hand slightly to signal the guards behind him to refrain from revealing their identity, the old man's tightly pursed lips twitched upward ever so slightly, as he sized up Leon and said,
"You want to know my identity?"
Although the Black Goat was not present to observe the old man's soul, Leon, judging from the man's expression and tone, vaguely felt that this man had a soft spot for "talented troublemakers," so he boldly exposed,
"The fabric on your chest has an odd sun-faded mark, likely from some medal. While you're not wearing epaulettes, your clothes have slots for them.
The two guards behind you have callused thumbs and are wearing boots issued to sergeants, but sturdier than typical ones, likely those of lieutenant-level officers. Moreover, they seem to be at most thirty years old.
Having two thirty-year-old lieutenants as guards with frequent opportunities to wear medals, there should only be a few such people in the entire military. And the only one who could be vaguely connected to me is just one person."
After sneaking a glance at the old man, who, despite maintaining a poker face, seemed quite satisfied with the situation, Leon subtly let out a sigh of relief before calmly saying,
"You're the Minister of Defense, right?"
"You see! What did I tell you!"
Seeing that Leon exposed her father's identity after just a couple of looks, the female police officer stopped outside the hospital room couldn't help but feel a sense of relief.
"I said he was smart! You should've just asked directly whatever you wanted. Why go through all this trouble? Geez..."
After complaining to her mother for a bit, she was about to rush into the room when someone grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Don't make trouble!"
Quickly stopping her reckless daughter, the middle-aged woman breathed a sigh of relief, then pinched her waist firmly.
The female officer was displeased by the pinch and turned her head, about to say something, when she met her mother's infuriated eyes.
"Behave yourself! Haven't you caused enough trouble already?"
Recalling how her daughter burst into her bedroom yesterday telling her that the suspect in the Ryan Blood Night case was innocent and was only there to help her investigate the rebels, the middle-aged woman got angry all over again, giving the officer's thigh another hard pinch!
Dragging her troublesome daughter away from the room to prevent her from causing chaos inside, the middle-aged woman scolded her angrily,
"Do you have any idea how much your father risked to cover for you this time?"
"And telling your father to see the Princess, claiming it was a chance to suppress the Old Nobility, and that the Princess would certainly agree... Do you think this is something you can dabble in? Are you out of your mind!"
"And! What's your relationship with that man? He's willing to risk so much to help you investigate and hasn't sold you out yet?"
"Nonsense! Do ordinary friends ever go to such lengths? And I asked around at your bureau; everyone says they saw you two pulling and tugging at each other!"
"Maybe we were arguing..."
"So what were you arguing about?"
"Just some casual quarrel..."
"Was the stir-fry good?"
"Not bad, not bad..."
Watching her daughter tiptoeing to peek into the hospital room, mindlessly responding with 'uh-huh' and 'yeah' while absent-minded, the middle-aged woman got angry again and pinched her unruly daughter once more.
Finally snapping back to reality, the female officer covered her thigh and ran a few steps away before complaining,
"Mom! Why do you keep pinching me?"
Listening to the chattering of his wife and daughter outside the hospital room, the sudden tightening breaths of the two officers behind him, and seeing Leon with a somewhat strange expression, the old man felt slightly embarrassed, took a deep breath, and instructed the officers behind,
"Go! Tell them to keep it down!"
With a formal reply and the young officer leaving the room quickly, their face slightly strained, the noise outside finally quieted down, although subdued whispers and a few muffled sounds could still be heard occasionally.
"Since you've guessed it, I won't hide it."
Forcing himself to ignore the commotion outside, the old man, who still showed signs of his once-upright stature despite a slight stoop, said seriously,
"I am indeed Yisha's father. I got the decree from the Princess to pull you out.
But this wasn't due to Yisha's pleading; it was necessary for me as the Minister of Defense. Tell me, what exactly happened at the Ryan House that night?"
What happened that night?
Leon couldn't help but chuckle at the question before sincerely answering,
"What was bound to happen finally did."
"Before we get into this overdue good deed, I have some questions for you too."
Glancing at the old man's tightly furrowed brows again, Leon earnestly inquired despite the officers' glaring eyes,
"On the noon of the incident at the Ryan House, I was on the same vehicle with your daughter. She was escorting a rebel. Are you aware of what happened to her and her husband?"
Upon hearing this, the old man's expression turned somber, and he nodded,
"I've invited people from the Secret Investigation Bureau to the military to investigate everyone involved back then. Although it's been a long time, and the investigation may take a while, we should get a conclusion in one or two months."
"That's good, but her enemies should all be dead, so she might not need your conclusion."
Having received the answer he wanted, Leon couldn't help nodding before continuing his inquiry,
"You must have investigated me too, right? What about the compensation owed to my family?"
"Before you went to the Ryan House, Yisha had already given me a list. All pensions withheld will be compensated."
Pausing for a moment, the old man sighed, his ominously stooped posture becoming more pronounced.
"As for the serious misconduct in the pension disbursement, those involved are also being interrogated and investigated by the Secret Investigation Bureau, starting with me as the Minister of Defense.
Before coming to see you, I underwent the relevant examination. The lack of epaulettes and medals wasn't to hide my identity but because they were removed for the investigation.
Once everyone's investigation concludes, our punishments will unfold over two months, with the lightest being a salary deduction for a year, and the heaviest being total asset forfeiture and execution. The forfeited assets will be used to compensate the families who were cheated out of pensions..."
"Fair enough, I have no more issues."
After hearing the resolution of these two matters and witnessing the deep regret in the old man's eyes, Leon was slightly surprised and confessed directly,
"The report in The Sun News was accurate. Bobby Layne was indeed killed by me."