Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

“You’re saying you want to take a few from the hostages we captured?”

Suspicious words come right back. I expected this too.

“As I said, I want to have souvenirs touched by your hands.”

“Souvenirs, huh.”

On the surface, they seem to find my words quite displeasing, but they’ll listen. There was a reason for my confidence.

From the moment I met them, I was ‘lying’ to them.

I told them I had infinite affection for the villains of the Top.

And my lie…

I smiled inside my mask as I watched an invisible lock fall with a click. As expected, lies like this work amazingly well on guys like these.

“Well, it seems you really do like us. To the point of wanting such insignificant souvenirs.”

Trickster readily granted my request.

“Alright, but not that guy.”

As expected, they immediately exclude Cha Song-jin. But there’s no need to worry. Everything up to here is as I predicted.

“Yes, that’s fine. Well, if that’s your taste.”

“That’s not my taste!”

Assembler immediately burst out shouting at my words. It was a joke, but he got angry. He was a person with no fun in teasing.

I picked out a few people. Those who had half lost their minds just stared blankly into space without any change in expression even when I pointed at them.

After picking a few people like that, I bowed my head to the villains and said:

“Thank you. I’ll make good use of those guys.”

It’s just words. I won’t actually use those people as test subjects. It’s true Han Seo-hyeon needs test subjects, but we’re well supplied with just bad guys.

Unfortunately, someone who heard my words doesn’t seem to think so.

Gemini said to me as I gathered the hostages:

“Come visit our Top sometime too.”

“Oh, what?”

Gemini, who said that, looked at me steadily despite the teasing from around her and said:

“I don’t dislike you that much. I really liked this incident too!”

—To say such things after committing such terrible acts.

Certainly, it’s not something to say after killing hundreds of people.

‘Well, these people have no awareness at all that it’s a bad thing.’

Repentance is only possible after realizing how bad what you did was.

These people’s thought circuits have been broken for a long time. They’re humans incapable of feeling regret.

“I’ll make sure to see you later.”

Saying that, I tapped my thigh with my fingers.

This is a signal.

Black sand that had dug through the gaps between buildings started to surround us.

The villains bared their teeth at the sudden event. The three immediately suspected me. But I was faster in shouting.

“W-what is this?”

“What?”

“This sand, the sand!”

In such matters, the side that makes a fuss first wins. I seriously shouted towards the three:

“Are you attacking me now?”

At my words, the three villains looked at me with dumbfounded faces.

“What are you saying! This sand is your doing…”

“Oh my, I trusted you three! If you dislike me, you should have just said so!”

At my words, the three villains simultaneously made aggrieved expressions.

“We’re telling you this isn’t our doing!”

“That’s right! T-to begin with, none of us can handle sand!”

“Aren’t you the one who can handle earth?”

Uh… how did they know I can handle earth? But I can’t show signs of being flustered. I quickly changed the subject.

“I can’t handle black magic power! Isn’t that black magic power moving that sand?”

Of course, Han Seo-hyeon, a member of Weltschmerz, could also handle black magic power. But Han Seo-hyeon being able to handle sand was still an unrevealed secret.

—What are you going to do if it’s exposed later…

‘We’ll think about that later.’

—You really have no plan whatsoever.

Anyway, clearing suspicion right now is important.

I asked in an exaggerated voice:

“If it’s not you three either, then who?”

Saying that, I slightly turned my gaze to the side. The three villains who turned their gaze following mine gaped.

They had just discovered ‘Smith’ appearing beyond the sand.

“That guy!”

The reaction of the three who confirmed that face was intense.

I quickly shouted in the meantime:

“Oh my, I’ll take my leave here. I’ll see you again later. I hope all three of you stay safe!”

Using the time when aggro was focused on Smith, I firmly grabbed the hand of one hostage.

The three tried to say something looking at me, but Smith(?) was faster. Following his gestures, black sand rushed at them.

While the three villains were surrounded by black sand, I pulled the hostage. The hostage resisted as if trying to push me away as soon as I grabbed him.

I whispered in the ear of the man struggling:

“Don’t you want to escape from here?”

The man wearing a mask that wasn’t his face looked at me trembling.

“Y-you were?”

“Disappointed it’s not a prince on a white horse?”

“C-crazy.”

Kim Chun-tae, no, Cha Song-jin.

I smiled brightly looking at him.

“Be satisfied with me for now.”

I patted his back. The black sand that blocked all the enemies’ sight gladly opened a path for me. Following that path, I went down to the lower floor and sent Han Seo-hyeon the second signal.

By now, the code I set with Yoo Seon-je should have appeared on the glass window.

And the action Yoo Seon-je would take after seeing that code was simple.

With the front glass window shattering, a flash, a huge lightning bolt big enough to cover all directions burst out.

* * *

Yoo Seon-je, who entered inside, immediately checked Trickster first.

He didn’t want to be played by his illusions again.

Lightning struck straight at Trickster. Trickster quickly rolled his body, but the lightning perfectly followed his movements.

“Urgh!”

He succeeded in reducing the power with the artifact wrapped around his body, but it was still pain that made his hair stand on end.

“You, bastard!”

At Yoo Seon-je’s appearance, the three villains immediately drew up their magic power. Gemini’s magic power immediately became flames that would burn the surroundings and spread in all directions.

Yoo Seon-je glanced and turned his head towards the hostages.

Fortunately, as Kang Yi-sin said, a wall made of sand was blocking the flames and protecting the hostages.

Though I don’t know what that guy usually does, he was certainly useful.

To think he pops out and helps me whenever something dangerous happens in my life. It would be impossible without always watching me.

‘Really, he said he doesn’t worry about me.’

As expected, he was a guy whose words and actions don’t match.

Yoo Seon-je relentlessly drove the three villains with lightning.

At that time, someone behind Yoo Seon-je spoke to him.

“My, aren’t you doing too much alone?”

Who was it? A guy whose name I don’t even know. Yoo Seon-je immediately took his eyes off that guy. He seemed to be saying something from behind, but Yoo Seon-je ignored it and stretched out his hand forward.

Even seeing that guy’s face crumple, Yoo Seon-je paid no attention. Yoo Seon-je’s attention was entirely focused on the three villains in front of him.

Though it seems quiet as if everything is over, their magic power was still the same. As expected, the counterattack began as Yoo Seon-je predicted.

“I-I’ll, I’ll kill you.”

Flames started to blaze from Gemini’s fingertips. It was high temperature enough to melt everything it touched.

Trickster wove illusions. But all of that had no meaning in front of the rushing lightning.

The three villains screamed at the pain of their skin burning and their whole body’s bones seeming to shatter.

“Damn it.”

The situation was absolutely unfavorable for the villains of the Top. They’re in this state even though only Yoo Seon-je rushed in among countless hunters.

Fighting a lightning mage in this narrow place was not an easy task.

Trickster twisted his mouth seeing pupils flickering with blue and white light.

The villains of the Top had outstanding talents.

But it was no comparison to guys like that who seemed to be born with all the blessings in the world.

Gemini’s flames were also fatal, but the narrower the battlefield became, the harder it was for the villains too.

“Are you trying to burn me to death too?”

At Assembler’s irritation, Gemini gritted her teeth.

“You just have to dodge properly!”

“How am I supposed to dodge here!”

His and Gemini’s abilities, which inevitably had to approach enemies to use, had bad compatibility.

Usually they fought by setting their own areas, but the narrow department store interior wasn’t a good environment for them.

“This won’t do.”

We have to run.

The three thought the same thing simultaneously.

That there’s no need to fight such a monster in such an unfavorable place.

But soon the three realized a shocking fact.

“W-what?”

While they were paying attention to Yoo Seon-je, their escape route had disappeared somewhere.

“It’s gone.”

“What?”

“I can’t see it!”

The way to escape from here was blocked. And in front of them were Sirius’s first string who were quite heated up.

“Fuck.”

Trickster realized.

They were really fucked.

* * *

Cha Song-jin, who came out with me, was making a stupid expression as if he couldn’t understand all of this.

The method of diverting Cha Song-jin was simple.

The mask I’m wearing is a fake with only a fancy appearance and no function. I sent two masks with the function to change faces inside in advance with Han Seo-hyeon’s help.

Cha Song-jin wore one of them, and a skeleton mixed into the sand wore the other.

While the skeleton wore a mask imitating Cha Song-jin’s face, Cha Song-jin wore a ‘different face’.

It’s the face of a man in his 30s that I often used. That’s also why I could easily pick out Cha Song-jin even among that crowd.

When I requested hostages as souvenirs, the Cha Song-jin the villains checked wasn’t the real one.

If they had looked at the skeleton more closely, they would have noticed something strange since it was placed on bones rather than skin, but their attention was all focused on me at that time.

And my ‘lie’ on top of that.

That alone was enough to deceive them. They didn’t have any interest in Cha Song-jin to begin with.

And when the black sand appeared, I succeeded in completely drawing those three people’s aggro just by changing the skeleton’s mask to Smith’s face.

And then, dump everything on Sirius’s hunters including Yoo Seon-je and leisurely escape.

The plan was to recall the skeleton at an appropriate time when attention was drawn to Yoo Seon-je, and divert the captured hostages with Han Seo-hyeon’s sand.

‘They might suspect me who rushed in right before that, but…’

For now, the aggro is drawn to ‘Smith’ and Yoo Seon-je. As Weltschmerz, I was planning to keep insisting I had nothing to do with this incident.

‘It would be hard to suspect that Cha Song-jin’s disappearance was my doing too.’

Emotionally they might suspect me, but Cha Song-jin was clearly there until then.

‘Rather, it would be easier to think Cha Song-jin escaped on his own taking advantage of the confusion.’

Therefore, they might resent Cha Song-jin if they want, but there’s no need to resent me too.

Is there any need to fight an opponent that’s hard to win against? When I can just extract what I want like this and slip away.

The people standing at the entrance raised their voices seeing the hostages wrapped in sand coming out.

“W-what is this sand?”

“There are people, people inside this! T-they seem to be the hostages who were inside!”

“What? Check the hostages’ condition immediately!”

I moved my steps leaving that commotion behind.

Now, it’s time to go home.

What happens in the department store was no longer my business.