The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess - Chapter 99



099 – Become a Myth # 1

099 – Become a Myth # 1

“Your grandfather is that Nam Taegeon? President Nam Taegeon?”

Even the fickle cat that was Yoo Yeoreum seemed to know the name of one of the most famous people in Korea.

But it seemed she didn’t completely trust my story, as she took a step back, looking at me with a guarded stance.

“You’re lying.”

“Why would I lie? A man doesn’t lie.”

“You kidnapped me, lying to me.”

“Sometimes there are exceptions.”

How can a guy just eat hot, hearty soup every day? Sometimes, I crave a cute little macaron.

Sometimes I’m drawn to pink, the symbol of young girls.

My story only made Yuyeoreum’s expression scrunch up even more fiercely.

“Hanamjin, I can’t trust your words.”

What if she attacks me again and bites my shoulder?

That kinda hurts!

I should probably calm Yuyeoreum down first.

“If you want to believe it’s a lie, go ahead. Nothing will change anyway.”

“If what you’re saying is true, then Nam Taegun intentionally set fire to the N-Mart where his own son was? That’s impossible.”

“I think so too. But it happens sometimes. Figures like Saturn, who devour their own children.”

Saturn, who devoured his own children for the sake of power.

Abraham, who sacrificed his son as an offering, hoping for prosperity from the gods.

Some beings, for the sake of their goals, are prepared to burn and sacrifice even their own flesh and blood.

Mainly extraordinary figures from mythology did such things.

Figures who bore a mission so great that it seemed cruel and ruthless to ordinary people.

In other words, President Nam Taegun was a man living his own myth in the 21st century.

A man who would willingly endure some sacrifice and shame for the sake of his goals.

“Yuyeoreum, if a man could burn his own son, getting rid of a high school girl who might stand in his way would be nothing to him. But the choice is still yours.”

In other words, I had just handed a loaded gun to Yuyeoreum. I even helped her release the safety and aim.

All that’s left for Yuyeoreum to do is pull the trigger.

“If everything you’re saying is true, why are you living like this?”

“How am I living?”

“You’re purposely taking the hard way. I know very well how many privileges you could enjoy as the child of a powerful politician. It’s not without its downsides, but the advantages are much greater.”

Yuyeoreum, who had become the adopted daughter of an opposition party leader, seemed to know well how luxurious the lives of politicians’ children could be.

Even though that position led to her participation in suspicious secret research and continuous inhumane experiments like torture, she still thought of it as a privilege.

“First of all, Nam Taegun doesn’t know about me. They say that after cutting ties with his son, he hasn’t given him any attention at all. There’s a chance he doesn’t even know his son burned to death. He definitely knows nothing about me.”

From noble mtl dot com

The current me, Hanamjin, was quite famous.

I was even being touted as the next generation’s “Supernova”.

“If it comes out that I’m actually the monstrous criminal who kidnapped you and Seo Gaeul, it won’t just end with me plastered on the front page. My family connections will be dragged into the spotlight again too.”

Ultimately, it was only a matter of time before my relationship with Nam Tae-geon was exposed.

And then, I’d become that giant’s Achilles heel.

Nobody knows how a superhuman (超人) whose weakness has been uncovered might react.

“……”

Yoo Yeoreum looked at me, clearly struggling to understand.

“Summarize it in three lines.”

Lately, I’ve been feeling like Yoo Yeoreum isn’t that bright. The type of jock you’d see once in every class back in school.

The kids who slept at the back of the class during lessons.

“Yeoreum-ah, what’s your average test score?”

It was pure curiosity that made me ask.

Yoo Yeoreum’s shoulders tensed, as if I’d offended her.

“Are you looking down on me? I’ve passed 50 on everything so far.”

“So, you haven’t passed 60.”

“50 is good enough.”

She had a point.

There’s a saying that if your body’s good, your brain doesn’t have to suffer. It’s the people with bad bodies who have to use their brains. That’s me exactly.

In that sense, Yoo Yeoreum had a golden physique.

Her muscle fibers were as strong as thin, twisted steel, and the power she derived from them was reminiscent of heroes from mythology.

The more I thought about it, the more questions arose.

Why wouldn’t someone this perfect have existed in the future I knew? I’d thought she’d been defeated when we were suppressing 「Villainers」, but—

Thinking about it now, it’s unlikely that non-registered Awakened like the 「Villainers」 could have taken her down.

To have trained her ‘Light’ individual power, which is almost as strong as Nam Woo-joo’s ‘Star,’ to level 4 and show no signs of becoming a Demon is impressive.

Her potential alone surpasses Nam Woo-joo.

So, how could someone like that have died?

If Yoo Yeoreum had been alive, the future I knew might have been a little better.

As my thoughts reached that point, it began to feel like keeping Yoo Yeoreum here was the right thing to do.

I’m protecting her.

But, of course, she wouldn’t accept that.

# # #

After Hanamjin left, Yu Yeoreum was left in the dark.

Her mind was more complex than usual.

Because she’d heard too many stories.

“I have to choose.”

Yu Yeoreum was bewildered by the situation where the trigger had been passed to her. Come to think of it, she’d rarely made a choice with her own hands since birth.

Being born, being abandoned, being adopted again, participating in experiments, being kidnapped—all of it was someone else forcing their will on her.

Everyone had forced a life on Yu Yeoreum where she was a tool.

But Yu Yeoreum had never really complained.

Living a life according to others’ instructions was, in its own way, comfortable.

But now, to give her the power to choose?

‘I don’t know what the right choice is.’

She was still deep in thought when,

*Clunk-*

The secret window in the ceiling seemed to open and someone appeared.

“That nasty man has gone back…! This Inonoi was worried that Koresga might get hurt…!”

It was the nymph of the ditch water, Inonoi.

*Flail, flail-*

Inonoi, her feet pointing toward the floor, slowly descended from the ceiling.

Her small frame, like a late elementary or early middle schooler, and her plump cheeks, still filled with baby fat, were so out of place in this dark space.

Yu Yeoreum snapped her fingers, and *thwack-* the lights of the ‘Food Storage’ all blazed on.

“Ahhh-! The Food Storage has become bright…! That means Inonoi can choose her dinner menu in more detail…!”

*Wham-*!

Inonoi, overjoyed, hugged Yu Yeoreum.

Yu Yeoreum felt a strange mix of emotions from the fairy’s unique floral scent and soft, warm embrace.

‘I don’t know what kind of expression I should make in times like this.’

Looking at Inonoi, happy about the now-bright ‘Food Storage’, Yu Yeoreum thought that she was glad she’d practiced manipulating external light sources.

This dark space had actually been a great help for her in refining the concept of “light.”

The fact that they implemented a completely dark room and trained inside it during the experiments Yu Yeoreum was involved in was probably for similar reasons.

Now, the fairy Inonoi was darting all around the brightened Food Storage—*pitter-patter-* The familiar thought of the younger sisters at the orphanage brought a moment of longing.

Inonoi spotted the photograph in Yu Yeoreum’s hand.

“Aah-! That is, what is that, I’m asking…! It’s a suspicious picture…! And on top of that, he’s wearing clothes that this Inonoi absolutely loathes…!”

Inonoi was furious at the picture of the man in the military uniform. It was the first time anyone had ever seen the fairy Inonoi so angry.

*Flap-.*

Yu Yeoreum held out the picture of the man to Inonoi and asked,

“This is a photograph. You take it with a camera to capture a person’s image. But, do you happen to know anything about this person?”

“Kore is a thief…! He’s a very bad man who stole the fairy princess…! Kore, I can never forget that thief’s face…! Even gentle Inonoi is angry…!”

Fairy Princess, Kore.

Yu Yeoreum remembered the person she had spoken with a few times through the miraculous walkie-talkie.

The princess of the fairies, who existed 20 years ago but went missing.

Nam Haneul, the man in the military uniform, was involved in her disappearance.

Something huge, like a significant thought, swirled in her head like a whirlpool, but Yu Yeoreum couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

It was because Yu Yeoreum never usually thought about things and just did whatever people told her.

That’s why Yu Yeoreum always scored a 50.

Would Seo Gaeul have explained all this if she were here?

“I don’t know.”

Yu Yeoreum decided to just be herself for now.

She was sleepy.

But her bed was occupied by the suspicious and fearsome cloud monster Yingyingi.

So, Yu Yeoreum crawled into a box she saw nearby and curled up.

It was a cramped box, but for some reason, it felt very good.

# # #

Back home, I looked at a family picture.

Mom, Dad, and me.

Those were nostalgic times.

So nostalgic, in fact, that a tear even welled up in this man’s eye!

How good it would be to go back to that time.

When Seo Gaeul sent me back to the past, if she had sent me to that point in time instead of when I was kicking her ass, that would have been very good…!

If she had sent me further back, many things would have been easier.

But there must be a good reason why she couldn’t.

My thoughts drifted, and then – *zzt-chkk* – the news on the broken, static-filled TV blared about the launch ceremony for the subjugation force that had happened today.

“The entire world is watching their actions, which hold the fate and destiny of the nation.”

“Foreign press hasn’t held back their praise, calling them ‘The boys and girls heading toward myth’ –”

“The subjugation force is scheduled to depart two days from now, in the morning.”

The subjugation force’s departure is two days from now, in the morning.

That’s what the pretty announcer noona said, but my phone already had a text: “Gather at Yeongsa High by 6 AM tomorrow.”

Looks like they’re feeding the media false information to move things along. Who knows what b*stards might be aiming at the subjugation force on the day of the event, with all the attention focused on them.

The “Villainers”.

The “Witch Cult”.

The “Mains”.

It’s probably a plan to protect the subjugation force from those three antisocial groups.

Is this Nam Ba-da’s doing? He’s not totally brainless, I guess.

He must have a hidden card he believes can defeat the Main of “Stars.”

What could it be?

I have one hunch.

Something like the concept carrying the name “World,” like the “Star” that Nam Woo-joo holds.

But what if its energy is insufficient and the subjugation fails?

*Clink-*.

I took out the white concept stone I’d carefully hidden away at home.

The concept stone of “Conquest” that I obtained from Nam San-ho.

“Can I handle this?”

I held it in my hand, agonizing for a while, when sunlight streamed in through the window.

The morning of destiny had arrived.

The day of the subjugation force’s departure.

I slung my bag over my shoulder and headed for school.