The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess - Chapter 118



118 – Bbangdaeng2 # 2

118 – Bbangdaeng2 # 2

“Mr. Bada, the ‘witch’ has disappeared from the lab!”

“Disappeared? How? Are you saying the one who was trapped in the tank teleported?”

Nam Bada, who received the report in Seonam’s chairman’s office.

While he leisurely wiped the blood off his 7-iron, Kim Miro, the head of Seonam Group’s strategic planning department, urgently added an explanation.

“A massive unexplained explosion occurred, completely destroying the lab. Most of the survivors inhaled toxic gas and lost consciousness, and the CCTV records were blown away with the explosion…Hic!”

Whooong-!

Kim Miro flinched when Nam Bada swung the golf club.

As she broke into a cold sweat, Nam Bada swung the golf club again.

“I love how spacious the chairman’s office is. I can swing the golf club without any interruptions. Miro, do you know why I like golf clubs? Because when you hit people with them, they don’t die easily.”

Objects have their purposes.

Golf clubs are meant for playing golf, so they are not suitable as weapons for hitting people.

Nam Bada knew this very well from personal experience.

“No matter how much you get hit with this, you won’t die. Because it’s a golf club. That’s how purposes work. Each has its own suitable use. My purpose was to pick up coins in the subway. If I failed, I got hit with a golf club.”

A faint smile on Nam Bada’s face.

From noble mtl dot com

Kim Miro shivered and adjusted her skirt.

“What is that…?”

“Everyone has a role. Your role, Miro, is to find out what happened there. It’s the way of the world to discard useless things that can’t fulfill their roles.”

Whoosh-!

Nam Bada swung the golf club again with a smiling face.

It barely grazed Kim Miro’s nose, causing a severe injury to her silicone-enhanced nose, and she started bleeding.

“Ahhh!”

Kim Miro collapsed to the ground.

“Oh, did it hit you? Sorry.”

Although he said sorry, Nam Bada grabbed Kim Miro’s hair and pulled her up forcefully.

Smack-!

He didn’t hold back, even for a young and pretty woman.

“Miro, how much was your annual salary? I know you received at least two big ones. Do you think that money was given to you for plastic surgery and overseas trips?”

“Ugh…”

“If you don’t know, you should find out. Do you think saying ‘I don’t know the cause’ will end the case? I’m really sad that you think making money is that easy.”

“Ugh, ugh, someone saw… someone saw someone taking the ‘witch.’ It might be a planned terrorist attack. Last year, North Korea tried to kidnap an awakened one, remember? It could be something like that!”

Kidnapping…

Nam Bada recalled the time when Seo Ga-eul and Yoo Yeoreum were kidnapped.

The kidnapper was known as Nam San-ho, but Nam Bada didn’t think that idiot could have pulled off such a grand scheme.

‘The kidnapper is most likely Hanamjin.’

What did he intend to do by kidnapping Seo Gaeul and Yoo Yeoreum?

And how did he manage to manipulate and threaten them to frame Namsanho as the culprit?

Hanamjin’s kidnapping ultimately benefited the Namtaegeon regime and Nambada’s power, so they were just observing for now.

‘What if Hanamjin is involved in this kidnapping too?’

In Nambada’s mind, Hanamjin was capable of anything, and he had the skills to pull it off.

Because his eyes resembled his own.

He would stop at nothing to achieve his goals.

‘Yoo Yeoreum, who was kidnapped, returned alive. Hanamjin let her go. This is proof that the missing Hanamjin is alive. But the reason he hasn’t shown himself is because he knows I’m watching him.’

If Hanamjin, who faked his disappearance to avoid detection, went to the underground lab, what could be the reason?

Nambada pondered for a long time.

Two possibilities came to mind.

To steal the “Witch,” the core of the current regime.

The “Witch” was Nambada’s fatal weakness, his Achilles’ heel.

─Or to access the “Great Labyrinth.”

Currently, under Nambada’s orders, access to the “Great Labyrinth” was strictly prohibited and monitored, and only the “sealed door” in the underground lab could evade that surveillance.

Of course, this was all just Nambada’s hypothesis.

Until proven, it was mere delusion.

“Taeseong, are you there?”

“Yes, hyung.”

Geum Taeseong, a male student from Yeongsa High School who had been waiting outside the chairman’s office, entered the room. The boy frowned as he saw Kim Miro, a woman with a nosebleed streaming down her face.

Here we go again─.

That was the expression on his face.

“The ‘witch’ has disappeared. You know that if she goes missing, your friend’s treatment will be delayed, right? What was his name again? Kim Mori, was it? So, you need to bring her back. I’ll leave the method to you.”

“Yes.”

# # #

“The sun is so scorching that it stings…! This weather is summer…! Summer in Chinese characters is 夏…!”

Little Baek Yeoul.

Mini Bbangdaengi.

In short, Mibbangi.

Mibbangi, who had come out of the lab, was hopping around under the dazzlingly hot summer sun.

That appearance suited her small frame well.

If I had a younger sister in elementary school, she would look just like that.

“She really looks just like Baek Yeoul. When Baek Yeoul was in elementary school, she used to mess around like that while studying Chinese characters and Chinese with her mom. Whenever something happened, she would say, ‘Hiek- Seogaeul’s weight is heavy (重)-‘ and stuff.”

“…When did I ever do that!”

Baek Yeoul blushed as she looked at her doppelgänger.

Was she embarrassed?

“…There were times like that, but I don’t think it was to that extent.”

At the end of Baek Yeoul’s gaze, Mibbangi, wearing a tattered white gown and hopping around, had an innocent side to her.

“Hanamjin! I’ll show you my tumbling!”

Who would have imagined that this guy, who blew up the underground lab and ran away, was the “Witch”?

“The problem is, we’ve become this guy’s kidnappers.”

Codename “Witch” was a national secret and strategic asset.

The concept stone of “Life,” containing the essence of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

That was the true identity of Mini Bbangdae, shortened to Mibbangi, and by whimsically bringing such a guy out from underground, we had essentially become national enemies.

“Han Namjin, you… you’re the president’s grandson, right? Is that true? If that’s true, wouldn’t we be forgiven for blowing up the lab?”

Baek Yeoul seemed to recall what I had said earlier.

It was about me revealing myself as the grandson of Nam Taegun.

I wondered when he would ask, and finally, he did.

I answered simply.

“It’s not a lie, but it won’t have any effect. Nam Taegun is a ruthless man who would burn down a mart where his own son is just to maintain his regime. Even if I’m his grandson, it won’t matter.”

In other words, claiming to be Nam Taegun’s grandson in the underground lab earlier was just a bluff.

I’m glad it worked.

“Han Namjin, the president’s grandson…! That means you’re a prince…! This Baek Yeoul likes such a Han Namjin…! In Chinese characters, it’s the character for ‘like’ (好)…!”

Wham-.

Mibbangi hugged my waist and rubbed his face against me again.

He was a guy with a very high level of affection for me.

I asked Mibbangi.

“So, Mibbangi, you received everything Baek Yeoul saw, heard, and ate here in that tank telepathically, right?”

“Yes, yes! Han Namjin helped me! I want to help too!”

It was truly fascinating.

The one I helped wasn’t this guy, but the big butt over there.

To be precise, I didn’t even help the big butt that much.

I just did my job, and somehow the result also helped the butt.

“Flowers! Butterflies! Dragonflies!”

Mibbang now seemed like a child who had just been born into the world.

A baby born in the form of a girl attending elementary school. That would be a good way to describe it.

Although she had lived her whole life trapped in a tank, learning about the world through the butt’s gaze, it seemed like it was her first time seeing and hearing things for herself, and she was curious and fascinated by everything.

“You bark like a spider! Barking! Spider in Chinese characters is….”

━Bark…!

“Ugh!”

At that moment, Mibbang clutched her chest in pain.

She shoved the medicine she had been keeping in the pocket of her white gown into her mouth and took a deep breath.

Since escaping the tank, Mibbang had been suffering from this unpredictable pain.

Was it because her very existence was an incomplete “life”?

Or was it because “life” itself is inherently painful?

“Hanamjin, shouldn’t we take her back to a facility or something? She’s in constant pain, how long can she endure with just medicine?”

Seogaeul was more worried about Mibbang than Baekyeoul. Perhaps she saw her own mother, who had lived every moment in pain, in the small girl.

Of course, Mibbang disliked Seogaeul.

“I hate you! You bullied and ostracized me! I liked you! I really liked you, but you betrayed me!”

In truth, Seo Ga-eul had never bullied Mi-bbang.

The one Seo Ga-eul bullied was Baek Yeoul.

However, for Mi-bbang, who was linked to Baek Yeoul, it seemed she disliked Seo Ga-eul.

Growling like an angry red panda, Mi-bbang soon leaped across the flower-filled field and caught a small insect.

“Hanamjin, look! I caught a dragonfly!”

Just a moment ago, Mi-bbang, who had wielded terrifying violence against the guards, now acted innocently as if it had all been a lie.

I was troubled.

If we kept this child with us, it was certain that the authorities would target us.

Human experimentation through awakened beings had been conducted regardless of the regime or political parties.

The fact that opposition leader Yudogwan and the current president Nam Taegun’s successor, Nambada, were deeply involved was proof of this.

The desire for immortality was a fundamental wish of rulers throughout all ages and factions.

To make my position and power thicker and longer-.

If that wasn’t possible, politicians dreamed of passing on wealth and power to their children who inherited their genes.

To such greedy people, a “witch” with the concept of “life” was a treasure to be hidden and used exclusively by themselves.

Taking the witch around like this meant increasing my enemies regardless of political parties.

My worries deepened.

Facing a showdown with the “Red King,” I knew well how foolish it was to increase my enemies.

“I, Baek Yeoul, wanted to meet my friends in person…! Hanamjin, Deoksun, Jjangsik, Taeseong! And… also… also… there are so many things I want to eat…! Ketchup ramen…!”

But I also wondered if it was right to put the girl, who had been confined to a tank all her life and had just been released, back into that cold tank.

The child, who had enjoyed the shared memories from Baek Yeoul all her life, had finally set foot on the ground with her own feet.

That figure resembled me, who met Seo Ga-eul in the shantytown and miraculously returned to the past.

I felt the same way back then.

“Mibbang, the choice is yours. If you want to go back to the adults, go back. If you want to stay with us, then stay.”

“To reveal the entrance to the Great Labyrinth…! Hanamjin, let’s go quickly…!”

Mibbang chose to stay with us, despite the pain.

Seo Ga-eul also pouted but didn’t grumble any further.

We followed Mibbang into the forest, a little away from the “Eden Farm” on the surface.

It was a place where “Witch’s Grass” and “Blood Roses” bloomed in abundance.

A stone gate rose among the sharp thorny vines.

It looked like the entrance to the Great Labyrinth, appearing old and abandoned like a ruin.

Soon, Mibbang spoke.

“It’s an abandoned entrance…! But I’ve heard we must be careful…. Because the place connected to that door is said to be the domain of the ‘fearsome monsters’ feared even in the land of fairies…!”

Does that mean entering through that gate leads to a bad place?

I understand why it’s abandoned.

Thanks to that, we could easily approach it.

“We will contact the ‘Red King’ tonight.”

“About that story. Are you sure?”

Seo Ga-eul interrupted.

What else does he want to say?

“I heard that the ‘Red King’ is the fallen and ruined king of the fairies. The nymphs said so. That means….”

Something seemed to be on the tip of his tongue, but the words wouldn’t come out.

Not like him at all.