The Ledger

Six years ago, Detective Kang Ji-hoon cut open his palm and signed his name into the blood-ledger of the Haema Union. It was supposed to be an assignment. Get in, learn the books, get out. In Haeshin City, an oath sworn in blood is not a promise. It is a law with teeth. Break the spirit of what you swore and the Ledger starts collecting — first the copper taste in your mouth, then the script rising under your skin, and at the end your name is no longer yours at all. In exchange, the book gives you power shaped exactly like the thing you swore never to do. Ji-hoon has carried the copper taste for six years. He should have died in his first month — no one holds two contradictory oaths and lives. Last week his handler, the only man alive who could prove he was ever a policeman, died in an accident that was not one. The Union is tearing itself apart over succession. The police have decided he is an embarrassment better buried than recovered. And the only road that does not end in a shallow grave runs upward, through the house, to the chair at the top of it. Every rung costs another oath. He has learned to lie without ever saying a false word. He went under to prove who he was. He is going to find out. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: The Ledger — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠