Fortune Killer

Translator: Miri

It had not even been long.

– what the h.e.l.l 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.

He still had 8 of 10 years left to repay from his student loan and his youngest sister 2 was still in college.

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

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.

His father who was an aeros.p.a.ce 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.

As long as he did not get news about them from a lawyer, he could only believe they were doing well.

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.

It was to the point that he was afraid a different ‘worst’ might appear when tomorrow comes.

"I should have abandoned this b.a.s.t.a.r.d 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.

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.

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 a.s.sociation and to his license being revoked.

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.

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.

Even though he could not understand why he was acting that way, eventually Luke’s license had gotten revoked 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 b.i.t.c.h, 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.

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.

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.

To add to that, he was a lawyer specializing in divorce, it fit perfectly.

That was why in Alex’ opinion, divorce lawyers could be considered just as evil, vicious and underhanded as lawyers working for the mafia.

And he kicked the slightly dented b.u.mper with his foot. The alarm resounded once more, so he got rid of it altogether and started kicking the b.u.mper to his heart’s content.

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 (?))

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)

8 – (lit. feel as if the decaying/aching tooth fell out)

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 t.i.tle. lol

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