I Became a Villain's Hero

Chapter 100: Arch-enemy (3)

TL/Editor: Raei

Schedule: 5/week, Mon-Fri

Illustrations: Here

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"...So, Soo-yeon. From now on-"

While on the phone with Song Soo-yeon, I sensed danger.

As soon as I stepped out of the phone booth, Solace landed in that spot.

-Boom!

A cloud of dust rose.

Within it, Solace's eyes shone fiercely like a wild animal's.

"I...can't accept your proposal. How can I trust your words?"

"...."

"When will you catch them? How can I know if you're just buying time or not?"

Solace walked out, unharmed, and stood in front of me.

Citizens scattered in shock, cars blared their alarms, and children burst into tears.

Some even sent cheers towards Solace. Others cursed and questioned me.

Solace ignored it all and just looked at me.

She said,

"It doesn't make sense from the start. You think I'd believe you'd surrender?"

"..."

It's a valid point.

Doubting me for accepting that proposal too easily...it's kind of expected.

But there's no other way.

Otherwise, Soo-yeon would remain a villain forever.

There's no escape.

I know too well how persistent they are.

We're already on a path of no return.

After catching all the villains, would I be able to stand proudly beside Solace again?

Like Soo-yeon hid being Luna from me, can I hide being Dice beside Min-Bom?

If I set my mind to it, I can do it again, even better than before.

I can destroy the Hero Association, tear everything down.

The Association's combat tactics are a decade behind me.

I can bend and twist the rules to my whim, do as I please.

But in doing so, I'll be walking the same path as before.

Causing countless citizens to tremble in fear, squeezing tears from the eyes of children.

I will inspire the birth of many villains, with no heroes to stop them.

Laughter will vanish.

Only heroes like Solace will make people smile.

...Even if it's all an act.

And that brings as much revulsion to me as murder does.

I didn't want to enforce my will to that extent.

Call me a pushover, a loser, but I didn't want that.

Especially after realizing how precious happiness is.

Even without the Chairman's words, I might have surrendered anyway.

Solace may not believe it since she couldn't see into my thoughts.

"...I'll catch one each week. I'm not trying to buy time.

Solace smirked and started folding her fingers one by one.

"Liquid, Riem, Tryno...excluding Luna, that's three weeks."

"..."

"How could I know what will happen to you in those three weeks? Luna threatened me. How could I possibly let her go?"

Seeing her unwavering stance, I was plunged into nostalgia.

She was subtly different from the Solace in my memories, yet her actions were similarly unyielding.

Unyielding. Unshakable.

Of course, it wasn't because of her sense of justice that she didn't back down.

Now, she didn't back down out of concern for me, Jung-gyeom.

Maybe she was hypocritical...not the hero I had in mind, but personally, I was grateful.

She didn't know how reassuring it was to have someone care for me like this.

It was a feeling I had never had before my regression.

That's why it only hurt more.

I didn't want to fight.

Her keen senses had already picked up on that.

Maybe that's why she was coming at me even more aggressively.

-Shwooosh...

My abilities left my body.

It was time to roll the dice again.

To face Solace, I needed at least some abilities.

I rolled the dice in front of her.

-Thud.

The number was 2.

"......"

In this situation, a small laugh escaped me.

This too felt nostalgic.

Whenever I faced Solace...the roll was always like this.

I had never rolled over a 3.

Only 1 or 2, day and night.

As if the universe itself was blessing her.

Once or twice could be a coincidence, but when it's every time, perhaps it's her ability.

Solace looked at the dice.

Her sharp eyes alternating between me and the dice.

This was the third time she had seen this dice.

And when the same thing happened repeatedly, Solace quickly caught on.

"...It seems the number of abilities is determined by the dice."

I nodded my head, smiling bitterly under my mask.

"...Right."

"Currently...it's flight and shadow movement."

I shrugged my shoulders.

Solace readied herself for battle again.

I prepared myself as well.

I've never been so reluctant to fight.

---

---

Song Soo-yeon ran through the streets, phone in hand.

In the midst of everyone fleeing, she was the only one moving forward.

Heroes and police officers directed the citizens.

"Come this way! Solace is fighting inside this block!"

"It's dangerous! Come this way!"

Soo-yeon didn't listen.

Instead, she ran towards the very area described as dangerous.

Somewhere in the distance, the sound of something breaking and shattering was heard.

The ground shook and resounded.

It was surely the chaos created by Solace and Jung-gyeom.

Tears kept flowing, unabated.

Jung-gyeom said he didn't want to see her again, but that doesn't mean Song Soo-yeon didn't want to see him.

Even though Jung-gyeom was purging the Villain Alliance.

Even if she could be one of his targets, Soo-yeon wanted to see Jung-gyeom.

But deep down, she faintly understood.

Even though Jung-gyeom said he didn't want to see her, she wasn't one of his targets to eliminate.

The warning not to use her powers.

His hand on her cheek the night before.

She might not know his exact feelings, but he hadn't completely pushed her away and turned his back.

Soo-yeon was more afraid of not being able to see Jung-gyeom than the falling signs and glass windows around her.

"...Huk...uhk..."

The tears kept streaming.

It wasn't that it didn't hurt.

Being alone from now on scared her more than anything.

She had become someone who couldn't live alone anymore.

How lonely and hard it is to be left alone, she had learned from his existence.

Without him, death seemed better.

Telling her to live without him was like asking her to kill herself.

But gradually, the sounds faded away.

No matter how much she ran, she couldn't get any closer.

Even as she found traces of the battle everywhere, she wasn't getting closer to them.

Even the vibrations in the ground began to fade.

Her breathing quickened.

Heroes spotted her, running into the battlefield alone.

"You can't stay here! You need to get out!"

"Inside...! Huk...! That man..."

"We'll get him. You need to go out first..!"

Several heroes grabbed her arms.

Song Soo-yeon ultimately couldn't reach Jung-gyeom.

Crying and screaming, she was forced to leave.

---

---

It took several hours to finally get away from Solace.

I returned to our hideout.

Fighting with her drained a lot of my mental energy.

More than physically, it was mentally exhausting.

I kept avoiding her, but there were still a couple of times when I had to push her away.

Each time, the sight of her stumbling made my heart ache.

-Thump.

I closed the door and entered.

"..."

And the first thing to greet me was the smell of delicious food.

The varied scents of roasted vegetables, the deep aroma of soup.

It had been a long time since I smelled such warm fragrances.

I couldn't help but remember the past when Soo-yeon, Min-Bom, and I used to prepare meals and eat them together.

"..."

As I was lost in these memories, Han Yoo-jung ran up to me.

"Gyeom, you're back?"

"..."

Wearing an apron, she held out something with chopsticks toward me.

"Try this. See how it tastes."

"..."

I already knew she was overdoing it.

I knew she was doing this to get closer to me.

I also knew she wasn't clueless.

Her slightly trembling hands were proof.

But no matter how much I tried to understand her,

Even though I tried to consider her circumstances.

Anger surged and rose.

The conversation I had with Song Soo-yeon today, the times I had to fight Solace, came back to me.

Soo-yeon, who was swayed, was at fault... but knowing that Han Yoo-jung was the one who swayed her, hatred emerged.

I reached out my hand towards her face.

Han Yoo-jung flinched for a moment, then stood still.

-Click.

"....Ugh...!"

I grabbed her throat with one hand.

It was soft and delicate.

The desire to apply force and the thought that I shouldn't wrestled with each other.

Han Yoo-jung let out small moans.

But she did not push me away.

Even as her face crumpled in pain, she did not reject me.

I gritted my teeth.

It felt like if I applied a bit more force, it would break.

Then, Han Yoo-jung, who had closed her eyes in pain, opened them.

Our eyes met.

I saw in her the same sadness that I carried.

Seeing that, my resolve weakened.

"...."

I let go of my grip.

"Haa...! Haa...! Kuuk!"

Han Yoo-jung fell to the ground, gasping for air.

I moved further into the room.

Only a bitter aftertaste remained.

...Once again, I realized that violence leaves behind such bitterness.

"...Eat...eat your meal, Gyeom..."

But as I walked away, Han Yoo-jung spoke to me.

"...If you...if you don't want to see me, I'll stay inside...just eat your meal..."

Memories of Song Soo-yeon returned in every situation.

I too had forced her to eat when she didn't want to.

The situation was obviously different now, but flashes of those times came back to me.

Han Yoo-jung staggered to her feet and rushed towards me with quick steps.

My eyes fixed on her neck.

Where I had applied pressure, my handprint was visibly red.

But she spoke as if she had already forgotten about it.

"You haven't been taking care of yourself lately. I'll...I'll be going then...okay?"

We looked at each other for a long time.

Then, she looked at me and placed her hand on my chest.

Suddenly, her hand started to glow brightly.

-Thud.

I pushed her away lightly.

Han Yoo-jung staggered and fell to the floor.

Before I could even ask, she spoke first.

"You'll...have a good dream."

"..."

"It's the only ability I have...but...you'll sleep more comfortably tonight...last night, you moaned as if...you were having nightmares..."

I let out a long sigh.

"...Please, do it in moderation."

And then I opened up.

"...Huh?"

"Do you know me?"

"..."

"Do you truly know me?"

I asked, tapping my chest.

She stammered in response.

"Gyeom..."

"That name, you only knew because I told you a few days ago."

"..."

"Before the regression, you and I didn't know each other. Why do you keep pretending to be close to me? Why do you keep trying to approach me?"

"...No..."

"You knew Dice, not me!"

Han Yoo-jung gradually bowed her head as she lay on the floor.

Even so, I didn't stop.

"The people who knew me, because of you, have become distant. It's now irreparable with Soo-yeon and Bom."

At my outburst, tears flowed all too easily from Han Yoo-jung's eyes.

That, too, could not stop me.

"I hated being a villain. That's why I didn't show up. I wanted to live more like a human..."

-Drip...drip...

Tears slowly soaked the floor.

I crouched down in front of her and this time, I held her cheek.

I lifted her head so she could look up at me.

Her tears wet the back of my hand.

"Why did you look for me? Why did you appear and ruin my happiness? What did you want? Why did you have to do this..."

I don't know what expression I had when I spoke to her, but I'm sure my emotions were plain on my face.

To my question, Han Yoo-jung swallowed her tears and replied.

"...You died because of me..."

My grip loosened slightly.

"...What?"

"...I didn't know you didn't want to become a villain...I just wanted to take revenge on the heroes who killed you...to be of help to you...to say thank you...to apologize..."

"..."

It was then I vaguely remembered her.

Due to Solace's overwhelming presence when I died, and Soo-yeon's presence after regressing, I couldn't remember her.

She was buried deep in my memory, not surfacing until now.

But now, I felt a faint familiarity, as if I had encountered her somewhere before.

Lost in recollection, Han Yoo-jung pushed my hand away.

And then she suddenly rushed in and hugged me tightly.

"..."

She wrapped her arms around my back and pressed firmly into my embrace.

As she wet my clothes with her tears, she asked,

Again, she dropped the formalities.

"...Dice, do you really not remember me?"

".........."

"...We've crossed paths so many times... you've saved me several times... you were my hero..."

Her words froze me, and I blinked for a while.

I belatedly tried to push her away through her shoulders.

But for some reason, she wouldn't budge.

I thought she would fall if I applied strength, but she remained in my embrace, unmoving.

---

---

As time passed, her grip loosened.

She wanted to look at my face and started to pull away from the embrace.

But the moment she let go of me, I got up.

Leaving her and the food she prepared behind, I headed deeper into the hideout.

Searching for a place to rest, I continued further in.

That night, I indeed dreamed happy dreams.

There were two dreams.

One was of traveling with Min-bom, experiencing new places.

The second was with Song Soo-yeon, sitting closely together in our restaurant, feeding each other.

Both dreams were filled with smiles and laughter.

---

[raei: Author note was a little interesting so I thought I'd share:

The names of the heroines and their relationships with the protagonist are closely related.

I named them based on the order of influence they have on the protagonist.

While Jung-gyeom is considered Earth, the Sun has the greatest influence, followed by the Moon, and then the stars.

The motif of their relationships is also derived from this.

Jung-gyeom orbits around Solace, and Luna orbits around Jung-gyeom.

When Solace rises, Jung-gyeom doesn't pay attention to Luna.

Even though the Moon is the closest, its relationship is pushed away.

Personally, I think the Moon is prettier haha.

I thought it'd be more fun if I shared this.]

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