Fortune Killer – Prologue (Part 2)

Translator: Miri

 

키에- Fortune Killer

Prologue (Part 2)

 

It had not even been long.
He had come to an agreement regarding their divorce with his ex-wife Edina which had cost him an astronomical amount precisely three days ago- Of course, there had been a prenuptial contract but that kind of contract was merely a guideline at most and held no legal validity, therefore the process had taken a bit longer.
– what the hell was his intention in handing him, the lawyer in charge, a ring right after that.
He had felt uneasy since the day he had taken over that guy’s case.

Of course, putting aside the fact that he himself had only worked with him as the third attorney, this was clearly breaking away from a lawyer’s professional ethics.
Moreover, the moment that bastard had shot his mouth off and told his partner about the whole thing within merely 12 hours, he got fired ¹ and his credit card and insurance encountered an extreme crisis.
He still had 8 of 10 years left to repay from his student loan and his youngest sister ² was still in college.
On top of that, his parents were still immature- Lain personally did not like using the word ‘scholar’.
He hated both ‘school expenses’ and ‘scholar’.- His one and only younger brother was an engineer who he could not even confirm whether he was dead or alive. ³
He had barely convinced this famous robot engineer fellow to set up a trust fund for his sister’s university tuition but in the last semester, his parents had caused trouble.
To tell the truth, it was not a false accusation or something of that kind. His parents certainly were competent people and his enemy-like younger brother was also someone who could easily pay for as much as his sister’s tuition.
The problem lied in the fact that although these humans were all extremely good-natured, it was impossible to get in touch with them.
His father who was an aerospace engineer, his mother who worked as an astrophysicist, and then his robot engineer younger brother.

His family members all looked like they would earn a lot of money but these people actually did not commercialize any of their inventions.
They always gave it to society or donated. They were upright to the point of not compromising with the community and in addition to that, once they went into research, they could not be contacted for one or two years.
As long as he did not get news about them from a lawyer, he could only believe they were doing well.
In that sense, Lain disliked scholars very much. His younger sister was probably the one who still resembled him the most with her bright and clever personality but the rest of his family consisted of weird people who did not pay taxes even though they had the money to do so.
In other words, they had no sense of economy at all. In other words, their ability to make a living was at its worst.

“Please stay like this until I get home.” ⁴

Hoping that no more accidents would occur, Lain stepped on the accelerator.
Lain did not think that that day’s small accident would unexpectedly bring him good luck and misfortune at the same time.

***

“Jane, I’m serious. I’ll come right away. I’m sorry. No, I’ll leave today. No, I’m telling you it’s true. If I don’t arrive before tomorrow morning, I’m really a Dutchman. ⁵ That’s not it, I’m not the child’s father. I need to die. Huh? I’ll come for sure. Sorry. For real. I’m telling you I’m for real? Ah, I have to go and write a resignation letter or something. I got it, okay? I love you.”

Having barely calmed down his wife while sweating profusely, Alex finally got off the car and let out a sigh, feeling as if his life just got shortened by ten years.
Today was the worst day in Alex Veaber’s life. Keeping in mind that recently he continuously encountered a new ‘worst’, in any case, it was a fact that he had once again encountered another one today.
It was to the point that he was afraid a different ‘worst’ might appear when tomorrow comes.

“I should have abandoned this bastard a long time ago. What kind of state is this.”

His shoulders and back were drenched with sweat. Even the superb performance of his new car’s air conditioner could not cool down the events of the last few hours.
First of all, this morning, Edan Blake disappeared.
In other words, the world’s top actor, Hollywood’s best box office sales power, three-time awardee of the Golden Globe and the youngest person ever to receive the best actor award at the Academy Awards, the man who had dominated Cannes this year, had vanished like smoke in the morning.
Because of the interview scheduled in the afternoon he had searched for that guy till death, while at the same time breaking into sweat and keeping reporters in check due to his useless worries about them gossiping. Then his wife whose delivery date was only two days away had started pressuring him.
Due to his work as a manager, and to top it off, as no other person’s but Edan Blake’s manager, Jane who was concerned about her private life being exposed had gone to her parents’ home in Seattle to rest in a stable condition. However, after being hospitalized today she had started making a fuss asking him to come running over this instant.
Saying that if he did not come within today, someone like him could not even be considered the child’s father, he had coaxed the woman who seemed as if she would immediately tear out all of his hair. And just when he had smoothly turned down the request for an interview, there had been a report that this guy had been spotted in a certain hotel in France. He really was did not know whether he was a friend or an enemy.

“Just kill me instead.”

He did not even have the time to ask when and how that guy had gone to France and was already searching desperately for him when the famous producer of the drama he had agreed to shoot, which was supposed to premiere in fall, had shouted threats at him, saying to bring that guy over at once. Furthermore, his legal advisor Luke Feltin had violated the attorney-client privilege ⁶ which led to him being expelled from the bar association and to his license being revoked.
A few days ago, Luke who was acting as a lawyer for several Hollywood stars had taken up the task of defending an actress who was under suspicion for stealing a dragon necklace worth ten million dollars at a photoshoot. This guy had been doing his best to defend her until he argued with the actress and disclosed to the public that the necklace was hidden in the pillow on her bed. This had turned the lawsuit which initially had been considered almost won into a huge mess and the case ended with the actress being placed under arrest. He had been unable to believe that not even any other person but the Luke Feltin, the guy who was known as the best lawyer in all of New York had made such a mistake and after checking, it had turned out that he was in the beginning stages of dementia.
If he had dementia he rather should have forgotten about the place the necklace was hidden, why did he have to forget about that important attorney-client privilege.
Still, the cause lied in his illness so he had suggested to reveal the diagnose to the bar association but Luke had adamantly refused him.
Not only did he absolutely refuse to believe in the fact that he was a dementia patient, he also said that even should that be the truth, he would never reveal it.
As he would be unable to work just the same the moment it was revealed he suffered from dementia, it was much better if his license got revoked because of one moment’s mistake.
Even though he could not understand why he was acting that way, eventually Luke’s license had gotten revoked today.
In the midst of being at a loss about the incident of the person he had worked with for a long time and looking for a new lawyer, he had even encountered a minor collision(fender bender) with the Jaguar he had just newly picked up today.
He thought that if every day was like today, he might be better off biting his tongue and dying. Work was stacked up in layers but he had no time.
Moreover, the guy who really was supposed to take responsibility for all of this and take care of it had all of sudden disappeared to France. It really drove him crazy.
Right about now he should be in a hospital in Seattle holding his wife’s hand and waiting for his daughter to be born.
In other words, it was not the time for him to be hitting his head in some corner of a gloomy parking lot and praying for someone to rip that guy apart and kill him.

“Ah, I don’t know either. Now just let him take care of it by himself!”

Things really were not working out, looking at how bombs exploded one after another in this manner. At any other time he would have handled things one by one but being swamped by bombs like this, he had become exhausted.
And more than anything, he did not have the time. His heart wanted to fly to Seattle right this instant but thanks to that damn Edan Blake he could not even budge slightly from this place.
Due to that guy’s nasty personality all the managers he had worked with before had quit so he could not leave his position empty as well.
No, who cared. Nothing was going to stop him now. ⁷ Quitting his job was better than getting a divorce.
Alex who had finally made up his mind with the resolution to directly pack his luggage and head to the airport after getting off the car, just stepped off the car and opened the door to the entryway leading to the building when he saw a man with a familiar face holding a large box and moving his feet without hesitation.
Looking at the man with dark brown hair, wearing a high quality suit, Alex felt his heart sink with a throb and hurriedly called out the other’s name.

“Gale, what’s going on?”

The guy who was walking quickly before spotted Alex and approached him with a smiling expression.
He placed the box on the floor for the time being and held out three envelopes towards Alex. At the unexpected situtation, Alex rolled his eyes and looked at the other with an awkward face while smiling.

“Gale, what’s this?”

“This is the automatic termination notice after my contract expired. And the others are Vince and Kyle’s notices.”

“Huh?”

“Yesterday the contract of one year was concluded, so I’m letting you know that I terminated my contract. Well then, bye. I had fun. Let’s not meet again.”

After saying these words, Gale patted Alex on the shoulder with a relieved ⁸ smile that lit up his whole face and right away carried his stuff towards his car.
Being taken aback by the sudden termination notices, Alex took a look at the envelope and then shortly after turned his gaze towards the remaining two envelopes in his hand.

“This is driving me crazy…….”

Jane was making a fuss asking him to fly to Seattle this instant and the still somewhat most reliable three people had turned in their letters of resignation.
No wonder Gale had been smiling so sweetly this morning even after they had found out about Edan’s disappearance, there had been a reason for everything. He was also sick of tolerating the abnormally unpredictable Edan.
Being unable to win against the irriation welling up inside of him, Alex kicked the car, cursed at the noisily resounding alarm and turned it off.

“Son of a bitch, I’m not friends with Edan Blake!”

While spitting insults which was something he usually did not do, Alex realized the moment he turned off the alarm that he had left his bag in the car. He clicked his tongue and once again opened the car door.
And when he jerked open the door, the business card slipping down made him frown.
Whenever he received business related business cards he would put them in his wallet. Thinking about why a business card would drop to a place like this, Alex picked it up and at last remembered the light minor collision he had encountered on the way.

“Lain Jang. Dustin and Crawford Law Firm. Dustin and Crawford?”

He tilted his head to the side as it seemed to be a name he had heard before and confirmed the cell phone number written on the back of the card. He recalled the other saying that he had been fired.

“Lawyer? Ah! I remember, Dustin and Crawford!”

Dustin and Crawford was a law firm recognized in all of New York dealing with divorce related cases.
Of course, they also handled some other things but their main business were mostly divorce lawsuits bringing in astronomical amounts of money.
Their key clientele consisted of conglomerates, nouveau riches and celebrities and their winning rate was pretty good. It was called the best law firm for divorce related matters at present.

“To think he was a divorce lawyer…….”

Although he did not know the reason he got fired, having worked at Dustin and Crawford meant that he had the skills.
In addition, judging from the fact that his family name was ‘Jang’ he must be Chinese or Korean, if he was Korean that would be very good. He could do Taekwondo. He could break pine boards and bricks and could even do flying kicks.
To add to that, he was a lawyer specializing in divorce, it fit perfectly.
This kind of work was not his specialty but the fundamentals of a divorce lawsuit were to unconditionally protect and justify one’s own client, while ripping apart the opponent and finding fault with even the slightest exposed details in order to drive the other party insane.
That was why in Alex’ opinion, divorce lawyers could be considered just as evil, vicious and underhanded as lawyers working for the mafia.
In that moment a thought flashed across his mind. As soon as he thought of this, Alex approached the back of his car with no hesitation.
And he kicked the slightly dented bumper with his foot. The alarm resounded once more, so he got rid of it altogether and started kicking the bumper to his heart’s content.
As if he was going to eat him alive, diligently, as if he was smashing the face of the guy who playing around in France right now, he put all his remaining strength into kicking the bumper.
That was the beginning.

 

 

 

TN:

1 – (lit. he lost his neck )

2 – youngest as in youngest child in the family

3 – ‘School expenses'(학자금), ‘scholar'(학자) and ‘engineer'(공학자) all contain the same ‘scholar'(학자) in Korean, which is why what he’s saying doesn’t make much sense in English.

4 – Just to clarify this: He’s talking to the car.

5 – (lit. go to castle (?)) <- said after describing or hearing something that is very obviously not true

6 – The right to ensure confidentiality, in other words lawyers are not allowed to reveal any of their client’s confidential information.

7 – (lit. 이판사판이다 this round will decide life or death) <- not too sure about the literal translation

8 – (lit. feel as if the decaying/aching tooth fell out) <- feel sudden relief, or in this case ‘good riddance’

There you go, this week’s update. All that talk about occupations and all these new characters’ names almost killed me. orz I’ll go with these spellings for now. I found most of the ‘official’ spellings for the main characters’ names after scanning through half the novel but for the side characters I’ll go with my own versions for now, until or rather unless I manage to find the actual spelling.

And how come all the major characters we’ve met until now are so unlucky, this novel really lives up to its title. lol

Hope you enjoy and thanks for all the support and comments, I really appreciate you all 😊

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