Episode 50

After confirming our victory, we immediately exited the mock courtroom.

Jung Min-shik was still standing there like a statue behind us, but there was no need to pay him any more attention.

He could figure things out on his own now.

'I think I saw Bae Hyun-joong approach him and start talking as soon as it was over...'

There were a mountain of things to worry about.

I didn't know what Bae Hyun-joong was thinking, or what they were talking about, but it wasn't within the scope of my concerns.

I had shown enough leniency, hadn't I?

Let bygones be bygones.

It was time to let those who were left behind write their own new stories, and for me to look ahead.

"Ugh, well, at least one thing is over. You all worked hard," Han Seol said, stretching out as she walked.

"What do you mean 'we'? He's the one who worked hard," Lee Ha-roo replied, pointing to the 'free-loading' icon on her laptop screen.

"Ah, speaking of which, did you get some data?" I suddenly asked Lee Ha-roo.

Her purpose for participating in the competition was to collect data needed for the improvement of 'Free-Loading,' wasn't it?

"Yep."

Lee Ha-roo nodded and gave a thumbs-up.

"I got a sense of where the errors are occurring. It seems to struggle when texts with different formats and grammatical contexts are mixed in... but there are ways to deal with that."

The improvement of 'Free-Loading' was something to celebrate.

There would be plenty of opportunities to use it in the future.

Right now, it was focused on summarizing complex legal documents, but if enough data was accumulated, it could eventually advance to the point where it could provide solutions to legal problems on its own.

Then, I could use it to review my own judgments or to get ideas.

Lee Ha-roo needed me to obtain the materials needed to improve performance, and I could use her program for free, aiming for efficient work.

A perfect, mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship.

"Now that we've finished one thing, should we go to a PC cafe?"

"Hold on, this match is just the beginning. It's actually the time when we're going to get really busy," I said.

That was a clear fact.

We had only just achieved our first victory. To win the preliminary rounds and become the representative of Korea University Law School, we had to face teams composed of second-year seniors from now on.

In particular, among the second-years who had thrown their hats into the ring for the criminal field, there was one real monster.

Honestly, I wasn't sure if we could win even if we gave it our all.

'Right, this is just the first hurdle we've cleared.'

"Hmph."

"What's with the 'hmph' for a law school student? You should be acting more mature now..."

"It's a 'hmph.'"

Lee Ha-roo stuck her tongue out and ran away.

"Sigh, never mind."

"What does it matter? That kind of image suits Ha-roo. She's healing to watch," Han Seol said, chuckling instead.

I stared at her for a moment, and then remembered what I had to say.

"Ah, and thanks for saving me this time."

"Huh?"

"I'm talking about the precedent for the corroboration rule for confessions. I never thought they'd make an issue out of a precedent that's so old it hasn't even been digitized."

"Hehe, my method is pretty useful too, right?" Han Seol said, puffing out her chest with pride.

'Pretty useful? Please.'

As I had said many times, Han Seol's method of studying was the strongest if you could digest it.

The reason why I couldn't do it was because my brain capacity wasn't infinite, like this walking human copy machine.

As a mere mortal, I had no choice but to pursue efficiency.

"Anyway, thanks to you, we won."

"90% of the victory was yours, though. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have even thought about shaking the legality of the evidence."

After praising each other's efforts and setting a time for our next meeting, I parted ways with Han Seol and left the building.

As I had told Lee Ha-roo, there were many things left to do.

'I have to pay close attention to special criminal laws, especially.'

In this match alone, it wasn't a crime under general criminal law, but rather drunk driving, which was regulated by the Road Traffic Act, that had been brought up.

It was a good thing that I had studied it to some extent, but if I hadn't known something like the Widmark formula, I would have wasted time on that.

Considering the fact that time was tight, I had to be even more thoroughly prepared.

Just as I was about to speed up my pace.

Clap, clap, clap.

"That was a wonderful defense."

A refreshing yet somewhat unsettling voice called out to me.

"You, why are you here..."

"It's been a while since the free spirit evaluation," said the person ranked number one in the list of people I didn't want to get involved with at any cost.

"How have you been, Mr. Park Yoo-seung?"

Shin Seo-joon, the protagonist of this world, was looking at me with an unfathomable smile.

'...Just when did he get here?'

The mock courtroom was located on the third basement floor of the law building.

There were no other facilities there, so it was a place that only third-year students taking mock trial classes or students who were going down for the moot court competition would visit.

The problem was that Shin Seo-joon's first match in the civil field had been held yesterday.

Shin Seo-joon had confidently overwhelmed his opponent and easily achieved victory.

So, he had no reason to be here today.

...Unless he had come to observe another match.

'I have a bad feeling about this.'

"Didn't I tell you before? I don't have anything to say to you," I said, waving my hand at Shin Seo-joon as if I was telling him to go away.

"And, the same should be true for you."

During the free spirit evaluation, Shin Seo-joon had clearly left, disappointed in me.

He was a man who, although twisted, had his own sense of justice.

And that was exactly why he was even more dangerous.

He had a firm belief that everything he did was absolutely necessary and therefore justifiable.

To Shin Seo-joon, I had sent a clear message.

I was a worthless, petty person who saw the law only as a means, so he shouldn't bother getting involved with me.

That was definitely the kind of person that Shin Seo-joon hated the most.

"Ah, that's right."

Shin Seo-joon's eyes narrowed.

"But... I've had a change of heart recently."

A sly, snake-like gaze flew toward me.

'Oh no, what's with this guy?'

"The recent series of theft incidents."

"!"

"Actually, one of my friends had their study notes stolen as well, so they asked me to take care of it. I was preparing to do something about it, but then suddenly, Ms. Seo Hee-jin turned herself in. It was such a relief."

"...I don't know what you're trying to say."

"Is that so?"

Shin Seo-joon smiled faintly.

"Then let's just leave it at that. For now."

He acted as if he knew everything.

'Did he figure it out?'

It seemed that Shin Seo-joon had somehow realized that I was the mastermind behind resolving the series of theft incidents.

He was indeed a sharp guy. You could even call it a sixth sense.

"If you're just going to say some nonsense, I'm going back. I'm busy preparing for the competition."

"Ah, wait a minute! It's actually about that competition."

Shin Seo-joon pretended to be flustered and changed the subject.

"Mr. Park Yoo-seung, you're aiming to be the representative of Korea University in the criminal field, right?"

"No."

"Huh?"

"I'm aiming higher than that." I blurted out.

"I'm going to win this competition. Becoming the representative of the law school is just something that I have to do, of course."

"Haha, of course..."

Shin Seo-joon let out a small exclamation of admiration.

"That's a great ambition. But, even for Mr. Park Yoo-seung, it won't be that easy."

"Why do you say that?"

"This competition, there's a huge mountain that's lurking in the criminal field."

I understood what he was trying to say.

"You're talking about Senior Gu Min-hwan from the second year, right?"

"Oh, you know about him?"

"How could I not?"

Gu Min-hwan.

He was from the same police university as Shin Seo-joon, and he was a few classes above him.

'In other words, he's a guy who's actually worked in the field as a police officer.'

The "I worked at a company and then came to law school" experience was completely different from a police officer's.

Especially for those who graduated from the police university and worked at the police station as a leader of an investigation team.

'They've actually used in practice what we've only seen in books. Their starting line is different from the beginning.'

While ordinary law school students talked about the requirements for seizure and arrest and other such things, they would be smiling bitterly, recalling their difficult memories of applying for search warrants and arguing with prosecutors.

While some would be underlining the concept of 'the right to remain silent', police officers would be remembering their lines of "You have the right to remain silent..." that they had repeated like a manual after catching a criminal.

To think about it simply, there was no way we could win.

Those who had worked as police officers in the field had an excellent adaptability to legal studies, and it was practically impossible to catch up to them, especially when it came to criminal law.

Moreover, if my memory was correct, the problematic Gu Min-hwan was a man who had even solved an unsolved case on his own and had been promoted to the position of Inspector for his contribution.

A specialist in field investigations had thrown his hat into the ring for the criminal field of the moot court competition.

It was something that anyone could predict would leave a lot of people disheartened and running away.

"I don't know him well. I just know that he's a senior from your undergraduate department."

But that was all I knew about him.

Gu Min-hwan was also a character who only appeared in a few scenes in the original story with a simple setting.

In this moot court competition, Gu Min-hwan would naturally dominate the preliminary rounds, and together with Shin Seo-joon's team, would go to the main rounds of the moot court competition as the representative of Korea University Law School.

In the process, he would briefly clash with Shin Seo-joon as if something had happened in the past, and that was the end of his appearance.

Although he was portrayed as someone with a strong presence, he ended up being a mcguffin without any further description, even in the moot court competition.

Therefore, although I knew he was amazing, I didn't know anything more than that.

Shin Seo-joon hummed and nodded his head after hearing my words.

"Is that so..."

And then he suddenly made a proposal.

"He's a senior that I personally know. Actually, I know him very, very well. So... if it's okay with Mr. Park Yoo-seung."

Shin Seo-joon smiled slyly.

"I'd like to give you some information about Senior Min-hwan... how does that sound?"

"...What?"

"As Mr. Park Yoo-seung knows, the essence of this competition is no different from a debate competition that middle and high school students do."

As Shin Seo-joon had pointed out, it was true.

It was just like a debate, where you would throw out a topic that was split into two sides with opposing views, like for and against, or guilty and not guilty, and each side would battle by claiming that their arguments and logic were correct.

Therefore, unlike 'exams' or 'contests', this moot court competition had a unique characteristic.

"In that it has an 'enemy'," Shin Seo-joon nodded at my point.

The target that you had to fight against wasn't the problem itself.

It was the 'opponent' who was sitting at the podium across from you.

To put it extremely, even if our team completely lost track of the topic that we were given, if the other side spouted utter nonsense and had their score greatly reduced, we could still win the moot court competition.

"That's why... how well you know your enemy can also be a key variable in determining victory or defeat."

'That's an undeniable point.'

What the opponent knew and what they didn't know.

What parts were they strong in, and where did they reveal their weaknesses?

What was their habit when designing their arguments, what kind of personality and background did they have?

If you knew these things, it would be much easier to make estimates when designing your argument.

For example, when I had faced Jung Min-shik this time, I had a rough idea of how prepared he was for Criminal Procedure Law.

He was enthusiastic and had a good foundation.

So, if given two weeks, he would naturally be able to memorize the core clauses that made up the framework of the law.

But it was too short of a time to master the deeper issues.

That was why he had barely been able to respond to the attacks that had emphasized issues such as 'illegally obtained evidence by a private individual' or 'confessions in court and the rule of corroboration for confessions'.

I had designed my attack methods based on the assumption that this was the case.

On the other hand, I didn't know anything about Gu Min-hwan, who I would be facing in the future.

Naturally, it was impossible for me to make estimates of the opponent and design my argument.

It would be good if I had a little more information, and that was a clear fact.

'The problem is that it's this guy who's offering it.'

I stared at Shin Seo-joon and thought.

"Haha, you're being too harsh. Have I done anything that would make you so wary of me?"

'You have. Plenty. And you're planning to do even more in the future.'

Although I had been intentionally avoiding him, I hadn't been able to see it directly. If it had gone according to the original story, Shin Seo-joon would have already made his moves to spread his influence over the pawns that he would use later.

Jung Min-shik was probably one of them.

Perhaps it was Shin Seo-joon who had fueled his inferiority complex and pushed him into this match.

"What's the price?" I asked him.

"What's the price?"

But Shin Seo-joon just replied with an innocent look on his face.

"There isn't any. Well, if I had to say, I guess I'd like you to defeat Senior Min-hwan. I don't really like him."

A strange light flashed in his pupils.

"I, personally, don't like that guy very much."

I knew that they had been portrayed as clashing with each other in the original story. The problem was that I didn't know why, or how much they were in conflict.

'Should I accept it, or not?'

The benefit I could get was clear. Fighting an opponent that you knew was much easier than fighting an unknown enemy.

On the other hand, the risk was uncertain. I didn't like being manipulated by Shin Seo-joon, and above all, I didn't want to have more time to interact with him.

I moved the scales in my mind back and forth.

And finally, I made a decision.