Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

“Why…”

“Because the villains of the Top won’t leave you alone.”

“What? Why, why?”

“Well, they’ll think things went wrong because of you. I don’t know if you know, but those three are currently arrested by the Awakener Crimes Department.”

“Arrested?”

“Yes, thanks to the efforts of Sirius’s hunters. But the ones they’ll resent most are probably Cha Song-jin, you. They’ll think if only you hadn’t run away, they wouldn’t have been caught.”

Cha Song-jin’s mouth gaped at Kang Yi-sin’s words.

“Wh-what are you saying? I just moved as you told me to! I did run away, but! It wasn’t me who tricked those people, it was you!”

“That’s true, but the only ones who know that fact are us here now.”

Cha Song-jin was appalled at Kang Yi-sin’s nonchalant words. He’s going to pin all the blame on me like this?

“If I had known it would be like this!”

“If you had known, what. Surely you weren’t going to say you were thinking of staying there?”

“No, that’s not it, but!”

Cha Song-jin pounded his chest in frustration. Kang Yi-sin shrugged his shoulders and said:

“We’re probably better than those guys.”

“Y-you’re villains too. I, I don’t want to become something like a villain. Villains are the worst.”

Ah, he said it.

Cha Song-jin rolled his eyes looking around at the words he blurted out without realizing. Fortunately or not. There was no sign of anger on Kang Yi-sin’s face after hearing those words. But he couldn’t feel at ease. The person in front of him is a villain. Though wearing human skin, he’s a villain who could throw off that seemingly normal skin anytime and commit terrible acts.

“I, I just want to go back. I just want to go home. Please, please send me back!”

Cha Song-jin shouted with his eyes tightly closed. Honestly, he wanted to run away from here right now. He was sick of the Top, Weltschmerz, all villains.

To that desperate plea from Cha Song-jin, Kang Yi-sin said:

“Okay, I understand. I don’t like keeping someone who doesn’t want to stay either.”

For a moment, the word hope filled Cha Song-jin’s heart.

“But as I said earlier, we can’t just let you go.”

But hope was immediately crushed.

What kind of word play is this! In the end, you’re planning to keep me captive, aren’t you.

“I don’t know what misunderstanding you have, but if we let you out in your current state, you’ll be caught again right away. You only have Sirius to go to anyway, right?”

“Huh? Well…”

“It’s better here than there, right?”

“Are you joking? There’s no way it could be better here than Sirius Guild!”

“If you want to be locked up under 24-hour surveillance, you can go back to Sirius.”

“What?”

“Surely Sirius Guild won’t just leave you be. You’re a precious talent who was even kidnapped by the villains of the Top.”

“Huh?”

“The moment you return to Sirius, you’ll be isolated. You’ll be locked in a prison-like room with no contact with anyone, only allowed out when conquering Gates.”

“Surely Sirius wouldn’t do such a thing…”

To those words barely uttered, Kang Yi-sin added with a snicker:

“Well, Sirius probably doesn’t want to do that either. But without such methods, they won’t be able to protect you from the ‘Top’.”

Gulp, Cha Song-jin swallowed. There was no hint of joking in Kang Yi-sin’s expression.

“I told you. The villains of the Top will target you as their top priority. I guarantee, the moment you return to Sirius, that news will reach the villains of the Top. As Sirius is the greatest huge guild in Korea, there are many related people. The moment you return to Sirius, a bomb that’s only a matter of time before exploding is hung around your neck. But here is different.”

Tap tap, Kang Yi-sin who tapped his knee grinned.

“No one knows you’re here.”

Cha Song-jin bit his lip hard. He wanted to deny it, but Kang Yi-sin’s words made sense.

If the villains of the Top are targeting him, hiding here might be good…

No, how could it be good!

“Y-you’re saying that trying to lure me in? Hmph! Not a chance, I’ll absolutely! Absolutely leave here.”

At those small words, Kang Yi-sin burst out laughing. Pretending to wipe tears from his eyes, Kang Yi-sin patted Cha Song-jin’s shoulder and said:

“Alright, I’ll cheer you on. You can leave here anytime you want.”

At the unexpectedly generous response, Cha Song-jin rolled his eyes looking at Kang Yi-sin’s expression. Can he really escape from here?

“If you can leave, that is.”

At the following words, Cha Song-jin’s mouth opened.

“What?”

“Okay, conversation over! We’ll talk more details tomorrow.”

Cha Song-jin just gaped. No, I think I just heard something strange. Kang Yi-sin who patted Cha Song-jin’s shoulder clapped his palms together like a director finishing filming and said:

“Now, it’s bedtime for good children.”

At Kang Yi-sin’s words, Han Seo-hyeon and Kim Jae-ho went into their rooms with displeased faces. Kang Yi-sin turned his head towards Cha Song-jin and cleared his throat as he opened his mouth in a low voice:

“Ah, and one last thing I want to ask.”

“What is it.”

“How was that chair?”

At the sudden question, Cha Song-jin raised his eyebrows. Chair? What chair?

“Just, how did it feel when you sat on it.”

“It, it was extremely uncomfortable.”

“Damn it. I thought so.”

Kang Yi-sin who cursed while scrunching his face went straight into his room.

“Wh-what is it.”

Cha Song-jin left alone was flustered, but there was no one to care about him.

* * *

The next morning. I checked the news in detail.

I roughly confirmed before sleeping yesterday that the villains of the Top were arrested, but I need to find out now how things progressed.

The three villains of the Top were arrested by the Awakener Crimes Department, but unfortunately there were casualties in the process.

Gemini exploded the magic stones at the scene and summoned huge flames covering the surroundings, and several Sirius hunters were burned by those flames.

Fortunately, the hostages I (or more precisely, Han Seo-hyeon) diverted are fine.

Among the hunters, the one who suffered especially heavy damage was a hunter named Han Ji-mu who is considered Sirius’s promising rookie. Fortunately his life isn’t in danger, but he suffered severe burns with almost his entire upper body including face melting.

Though treated with top-grade potions, the skin damaged by magic power didn’t return…

He was said to have many fans especially for his handsome looks, it’s a shame.

Yoo Seon-je seems to have safely avoided that explosion with the technique he showed me.

‘Hmm, I wasn’t particularly worried, but it’s good he’s safe.’

The only decent thing about that guy is his handsome face. With that personality, imagine if he was ugly too. It would really be an eyesore.

Anyway, with the three villains arrested, Seol Rok-jin’s plan was ruined.

Originally, he would have covered everything with ‘awakeners are bad’. He’s the kind of person who knows how to use even a disaster where many people died politically.

It’s true that terrorism occurred and there were many victims, but afterwards Sirius’s hunters and the Awakener Crimes Department came out to arrest the terrorists and save the hostages, so it’s enough to package the picture prettily.

‘Moreover, Sirius’s side will actively intervene too.’

In my previous life there was no reason to comment on the terrorism at all, but now it’s their business. Sirius’s side will want to prevent this incident from being talked about, so they’ll try to cover it up as smoothly as possible.

Though using the victims sacrificed there for a media battle won’t change, it’s better than being played by Seol Rok-jin.

It would have been good if I could have prevented that terrorism from happening at all, but this was the limit of my ability.

‘I should find comfort in preventing greater sacrifices.’

For now, this terrorism incident is over. The problem is…

—By the way, are you really going to let that guy go?

At Ray’s words, I turned my head towards Cha Song-jin sprawled on the living room floor. I tried making him do planks, but he was rolling around saying he’s dying after not even lasting 30 seconds.

His statement about working in factories for a long time wasn’t a lie, he did have quite a bit of functional muscle, but he was quite weak since he had never professionally trained his body.

Plus his basic stamina was all cut down after staying at the Top for a few weeks.

“Huff, huff.”

“If you’re done resting, get back in position.”

“I’d, I’d rather die.”

“You don’t want to live with us forever, right? If you want to leave here, you need to train hard.”

At my words, Cha Song-jin glared at me. At first he just trembled in fear, but now he’s learned to glare at me with such eyes.

“I told you, you can leave anytime if you can leave here.”

At my words, Cha Song-jin gritted his teeth and got back in position once more.

—If he’s going to leave anyway, isn’t there no need for you to look after him?

‘Well, even if he leaves, I feel like I don’t want him to die a sudden death somewhere.’

I originally planned to subtly incorporate Cha Song-jin into Weltschmerz. But my conscience pricks at keeping someone who cries and screams he doesn’t want to become a villain.

—So that’s why you’re rolling him like this?

‘I said he needs to at least be able to protect his own body.’

After saying he can leave here anytime if he can leave, the one I assigned as Cha Song-jin’s monitor was Kim Jae-ho.

—A prison with bars would be better.

‘Isn’t it better than having no hope at all?’

On the surface, he’s just one adult man with a big build. Since I said I won’t use abilities to catch you, quite a bit of hope is probably growing in Cha Song-jin’s mind.

“Huff, huff.”

That’s why he’s training so hard like that.

“Rest and then do lower body.”

At my words, Cha Song-jin groaned, but I lightly ignored that moan. Today’s groans become tomorrow’s muscle fibers.

But since his body was quite damaged, I couldn’t push him too hard. After rolling Cha Song-jin moderately, I decided to check the abilities of Han Seo-hyeon and Kim Jae-ho, which I had been putting off.

It’s been quite a while since I trained with those two.

Especially Han Seo-hyeon’s sand handling and Kim Jae-ho’s shadow ability needed to be properly tested. It seems they’ve figured out how to use their talents quite well without me, but I need to refine them a bit more properly.

Moreover, as their leader, I always needed to know their exact strength. That’s how I can make proper strategies.

—You’re living quite diligently.

At Ray’s words, I raised my head.

‘What’s with that sudden remark?’

—No, I just remembered you were holed up not wanting to do anything just a few days ago.

‘Ah.’

Certainly, even now I get stressed to the point of my stomach turning when I think about Jeong Ho-san and Do Chae-hee. But…

‘If there’s one good thing I learned while under Seol Rok-jin, it’s that it’s not good to cling uselessly to things I can’t do anything about. Sometimes you need to let things go appropriately.’

Without this thought, I would have gone crazy long ago. There are things I can’t do anything about. So I shouldn’t think about that anymore and do what I can do right now.

‘Still, there were times when I felt I really couldn’t bear living like that…’

But I had done too much to run away through death.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Anyway, what’s important right now is Seol Rok-jin.”

I’ll prevent you from destroying my world ever again.

And I was no longer alone.