Return as Mafia
Part VII: War of Five Kings
Chapter 37: Beneath the Assembly
The elevator descended into darkness.
Kang Tae-hyun stood inside the narrow metal cage with the Hidden King, Han Soo-jin, and Ji Kang-woo.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
The silence was almost absurd.
An hour earlier, they had been enemies.
Now they were descending into an underground archive together because a foreign warlord had decided to steal the secrets of an entire nation.
Kang Tang glanced at the Hidden King.
"How deep?"
"Thirty meters."
"And how many exits?"
"Three."
The Raven looked at him.
"You've memorized the facility."
"I designed part of it."
Kang Tang's eyes narrowed.
"You built this?"
"Not alone."
The elevator continued downward.
Then suddenly...
The lights went out.
A red emergency lamp flickered above them.
The elevator stopped.
Han Soo-jin immediately reached for the steel fans hidden beneath her coat.
"What happened?"
The Hidden King looked upward.
"Volkov."
A speaker crackled.
Then Viktor Volkov's voice filled the elevator.
"Good evening."
Nobody answered.
"I thought you'd come after me."
Kang Tang looked toward the speaker.
"You're trapped down here with us."
Volkov laughed.
"No."
"I trapped you down here with me."
A metallic click echoed beneath their feet.
The elevator began dropping.
Seo-ah's voice suddenly came through Kang Tang's earpiece.
"Tae-hyun!"
He immediately answered.
"Seo-ah?"
"I'm in the command room. The emergency system has been hacked."
"Can you stop the elevator?"
"I'm trying!"
The elevator accelerated downward.
Han grabbed the railing.
"He's sending us somewhere."
The Hidden King remained strangely calm.
"Not somewhere."
"Into the old detention level."
Kang Tang looked at him.
"Why?"
The Hidden King stared at the floor.
"Because that's where they kept people who knew too much."
The elevator suddenly stopped.
The doors opened.
A long corridor stretched before them.
Rows of reinforced cells lined both walls.
Most were empty.
Some still contained old furniture.
One cell had a child's drawing taped to the wall.
A house.
A family.
A sun.
Kang Tang stopped.
"Children were held here?"
The Hidden King didn't answer.
Han Soo-jin looked away.
The Raven quietly examined the drawing.
"How many?"
"Twenty-three."
Kang Tang's expression hardened.
"Who?"
The Hidden King finally answered.
"Witnesses."
"Families."
"Politicians who refused cooperation."
"Anyone the Council believed could threaten national stability."
Kang Tang turned toward him.
"And you knew?"
"I knew."
"Then you were part of it."
The Hidden King didn't defend himself.
"Yes."
The answer carried more weight than an excuse ever could.
For the first time, Kang Tang saw something beneath the King's confidence.
Regret.
Not enough to erase what he had done.
But enough to prove he wasn't completely hollow.
A distant explosion interrupted them.
The corridor shook.
Volkov's mercenaries had reached the archive level.
The Raven drew his weapon.
"Conversation later."
They moved.
---
The first mercenary appeared around the corner.
The Raven struck before the soldier could fire.
Kang Tang moved beside him.
Han Soo-jin attacked from the opposite side.
The Hidden King stayed behind them, directing their movement.
"Left corridor."
"Two men."
"Five seconds."
Kang Tang followed his instructions.
A flash of gunfire.
A quick strike.
Then silence.
They continued deeper.
It was strange.
The four of them fought almost perfectly together.
The Dragon's instincts.
The Fox's precision.
The Raven's discipline.
The King's strategy.
Four different philosophies.
One battlefield.
---
They finally reached the archive chamber.
The enormous steel door had been forced open.
Hundreds of documents covered the floor.
Volkov stood in the center.
Behind him...
A massive screen displayed classified government files.
He held a leather folder in one hand.
"The original Council registry."
The Hidden King's expression changed.
"Put it down."
Volkov smiled.
"You're in no position to give orders."
He opened the folder.
"Every president."
"Every military commander."
"Every corporate empire."
"Every secret agreement."
"Thirty years of history."
He looked toward Kang Tang.
"And now..."
"I know the one thing that can destroy all of you."
Kang Tang stared at him.
"What?"
Volkov slowly raised a photograph.
It showed Kang Tang's father.
Standing beside the First Hidden King.
The room went silent.
Kang Tang felt the air leave his lungs.
"My father..."
Volkov smiled.
"Your father wasn't an innocent businessman."
"He was one of the Council's original financiers."
Kang Tang stared at the photograph.
Memories flashed through his mind.
His father's old office.
A locked drawer.
A black chess piece.
A warning never to ask about certain names.
He had always believed those memories were meaningless.
Now they weren't.
Volkov continued.
"And there's more."
He held up another photograph.
A younger Kang Tang stood beside his father.
But behind them...
Was the First Hidden King.
And beside him...
A fourteen-year-old girl.
Han Soo-jin.
Han froze.
"I know that photograph."
Kang Tang looked at her.
"You knew my father?"
"No."
She stared at the image.
"I knew the man beside him."
"The First King."
Volkov smiled.
"Exactly."
The Hidden King suddenly stepped forward.
"Volkov."
His voice was no longer calm.
"Enough."
Volkov laughed.
"Finally."
"The great Hidden King shows emotion."
He pressed a button.
The screens changed.
A video began playing.
A younger Kang Tang's father sat inside a Council chamber.
The First Hidden King spoke to him.
"We need your son."
Kang Tang's blood ran cold.
His father answered.
"He's just a child."
"He'll become useful."
"No."
The video ended.
Kang Tang stared at the screen.
His father had refused.
Then another recording began.
A different voice.
The Hidden King.
"You'll regret refusing."
Kang Tang slowly turned toward him.
"You threatened my father."
The Hidden King didn't deny it.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because he discovered the Council planned to use you."
Kang Tang's expression hardened.
"Use me for what?"
The Hidden King looked directly at him.
"To become the Fourteenth King."
Silence.
Volkov laughed.
"Now you understand."
"You were never an accident."
"You were chosen before you even understood what power meant."
Kang Tang's hands tightened into fists.
His entire life...
His first death...
His return...
The Council...
The White Fox...
Everything seemed connected.
Then Han Soo-jin stepped beside him.
"Tae-hyun."
He looked at her.
"I didn't know."
"I swear."
Her voice trembled slightly.
Kang Tang believed her.
Because for the first time...
The White Fox wasn't speaking like a strategist.
She was speaking like a woman afraid of losing someone.
Before he could answer...
A gunshot shattered the room.
Volkov's folder fell to the floor.
Everyone turned.
The Raven had fired.
But not at Volkov.
At the ceiling.
A hidden explosive device dropped from the ventilation system.
The Raven looked toward the device.
"We have thirty seconds."
Kang Tang immediately understood.
"Everyone out!"
The four ran toward the archive entrance.
Volkov remained behind.
Kang Tang stopped.
"What are you doing?"
Volkov smiled.
"I've already won."
Then he pressed the detonator.
The archive exploded.
Fire consumed the chamber.
Kang Tang was thrown across the corridor.
Han landed beside him.
The Hidden King disappeared behind a collapsing wall.
The Raven dragged Kang Tang away from falling debris.
Seconds later...
The entire underground level began collapsing.
Kang Tang looked back.
Volkov was gone.
So was the registry.
But one object remained in the ashes.
A small black chess piece.
The King.
Kang Tang picked it up.
Engraved on its bottom were four words:
YOUR FATHER KNEW.
He stared at the message.
The truth about his past was no longer a mystery.
It was a weapon.
And someone had just placed it in his hands.
End of Chapter 37
