Episode 6. XIII (2)
“The government has prohibited the Bureau from recruiting additional personnel.”
Hmm…….
When I kept my mouth closed, Kwon Mu-seop spoke with a mournful expression.
“You really are honest.”
“Pardon?”
“This time, your face says you’ve heard a person bark like a dog…….”
Ah. He caught me again.
“Oh, no. It’s not that. I was just thinking about what kind of situation you’re in.”
“It’s nothing unusual. This is the Bureau’s eighth year, but we still know almost nothing.”
“Was your budget cut because of the lack of results?”
“Oh, they still give us a generous budget. They only restrict personnel. There was a time when the higher-ups flew into a rage because the Bureau’s elite personnel were wiped out.”
Wiped out?
“Are you referring to the Total-War Period, perhaps……?”
“Ah, you already know about it.”
When I recalled what Gwak Jae-gyeom had told me, Kwon Mu-seop nodded.
“Yes, that’s right. The Bureau originally had about fifteen hundred employees, but roughly one-third of them died in the line of duty then. And most were members of the field and research divisions.”
……No. I had not known at all.
One-third of them had died in the line of duty?
The losses had been that severe?
“After losing that much…