Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

“Boss and Jae-ho hyung think of me just like any other person. Not as a monster, or weirdo, or psychopath… they just see me as me.”

Han Seo-hyeon said he was terribly unpopular with other kids even before awakening his necromancer talent. It’s probably because collecting and dissecting insect carcasses is creepy.

“My brother was a good person, but he couldn’t understand me. He just pretended not to know. ‘My kind brother wouldn’t do such things.’ The day I heard my brother’s words, I threw away all the insects I had collected.”

Han Seo-hyeon pretended to be the most normal person in front of Han Jo-hee. Because he hated the thought of his beloved brother disliking him more than anything.

“Until Boss appeared, I thought there was no one in this world who could fully understand and accept me.”

“I don’t fully understand you either.”

“But Boss sees me as me.”

Han Seo-hyeon who looked into my face snickered and said:

“Boss just sees me as me. So I feel comfortable in front of Boss. Because I don’t have to worry about how I’ll be judged. When I say I need ‘test subjects’, people think I want that because I’m a terrible psychopath.”

Han Seo-hyeon who said that looked at me and added:

“But Boss just says ‘Oh, you need that.’ and that’s it.”

“Well…”

“Boss might think it’s nothing, but you don’t know how comforting that was.”

Because I know someone a hundred times more terrible than you. No, I was a hundred times more terrible person than you.

The truth I couldn’t speak choked my mouth.

“Boss, and Jae-ho hyung are the only ones who accepted me. Instead of thinking I’m weird, instead of being scared of me. They just accepted me as me.”

At Han Seo-hyeon’s words, I clenched my fist. I know what Han Seo-hyeon is saying. I too always lived as a loner because of my lying talent and my lousy personality.

Except for Jeong Ho-san, I didn’t have a single proper friend, and after he died…

I was alone.

I couldn’t tell anyone the words contained inside me.

“At first, I only thought about getting revenge on those who killed my brother… But thanks to Boss, living has become quite okay.”

“Oh, oh. Is that so.”

I turned my gaze away avoiding Han Seo-hyeon’s eyes. I don’t know what to say. I didn’t bring Han Seo-hyeon in for some grand reason like this. I was just planning to use you.

At that moment, Han Seo-hyeon’s words pricked me:

“But that person is different.”

“Ah.”

Certainly Cha Song-jin is different. Cha Song-jin is an ordinary citizen who lived normally. To Cha Song-jin, we are terrifying villains. Even if he’s become ‘less’ afraid of us, accepting us is a different matter.

“So I don’t like him.”

At Han Seo-hyeon’s words, I scratched the back of my head. Like this, I really can’t bring myself to tell them to get along. I understand it’s not just simple dislike.

Han Seo-hyeon who examined my face added with a gloomy expression:

“Boss might be disappointed, but I don’t like what I don’t like.”

Seeing the dejected kid, my conscience pricked.

Right, why does Cha Song-jin matter. In the end, what’s important to me is our Weltschmerz. Anyway, Han Seo-hyeon is my precious subordinate. Always reliable necromancer, good at housework, and always dependable even when he causes trouble sometimes, our eldest.

That eldest says he dislikes Cha Song-jin.

“I don’t like people who dislike us either.”

We may not have friends, but we have pride.

“Are you just saying that while secretly trying to bring him into Weltschmerz?”

“You said you don’t like him.”

“That…”

“What’s more important than you saying you don’t like him.”

“I’m sorry. Because of me.”

“No need to apologize. I told you, I don’t like people who dislike us either. And forcing someone to stay won’t make anything work anyway.”

Even if we keep Cha Song-jin like this, can he truly become ‘one of us’?

When I first created Weltschmerz, I didn’t have high expectations for Weltschmerz.

Just a seventeen-year-old kid, and one remodeled human who lived a messed up life. Like a castle built on sand, I thought our relationship was flimsy and a mess.

But even if it’s a castle built on sand, if it becomes a home for someone and this relationship becomes precious to someone, it can no longer be called a castle on sand.

At least if that kid thinks of me like that… I should think properly of Han Seo-hyeon too.

—You’ve changed somehow.

‘Yes.’

I realized while going through the incident with Jeong Ho-san.

Maybe I’ve grown quite attached to these kids without realizing. That I, with my status, have developed something I want to take responsibility for.

I don’t know where to put my eyes from needless embarrassment.

The conclusion is this:

“I’ll let him go once the situation is roughly sorted out, so don’t worry.”

“Okay. I’ll believe you.”

Han Seo-hyeon who caught his breath for a moment carefully asked me:

“But we can’t just let him go like this, right? He’s come to know too much…”

At those words, I blinked. Certainly that’s a problem.

The reason I showed everything to Cha Song-jin at first was because I had the thought of bringing him into Weltschmerz.

That thought was too naive too.

I only considered the conditions, without asking the kids’ or Cha Song-jin’s thoughts.

So this happened. But there’s no need to worry.

“I can distort memories with my ability. It needs some creation of a fearful atmosphere and threats but… Anyway, I can just mess with his memories appropriately before letting him go. He won’t remember anything about us.”

I’m newly grateful to Seol Rok-jin who taught me this method… No, go to hell. Anyway, I can’t not use a skill I learned with effort.

It’s a technique I originally didn’t want to use on people who would become ‘my side’, but Cha Song-jin is no longer ‘us’ now.

“I’ll let him go once I think he can fend for himself somewhat, so don’t worry.”

“But when exactly does that ‘fending for himself’ time come?”

I pointed at Cha Song-jin floundering on the floor and said:

“Looking at that state, it seems still far off.”

“Damn it.”

I snickered looking at Han Seo-hyeon muttering curses lowly.

* * *

After that day, I started contemplating Cha Song-jin’s treatment.

Even if I distort his memories, there’s no proper place to send him.

It would be better to send him back to Sirius rather than not belonging to Weltschmerz, but then there’s a high possibility he’ll fall into Seol Rok-jin’s hands again, and if that happens, incidents like the department store terrorism will happen again…

‘I guess the answer is overseas after all.’

As long as he’s in Korea, it’s difficult to avoid Seol Rok-jin’s eyes.

I’d like him to move with us if possible, but if that’s not possible, it’s better to send him abroad.

The problem isn’t just building stamina, I should teach him a foreign language too.

“Do you know any foreign languages by any chance?”

At my question, Cha Song-jin’s face turned pale.

“F-foreign language? Why?”

“Just answer.”

“I, I can barely speak Korean…”

He certainly seems to barely speak it. I clicked my tongue looking at Cha Song-jin trembling as he answered me like that. But shouldn’t he be able to roughly do English at least. I bought a few practical English textbooks and handed them to Cha Song-jin.

“Sob!”

I don’t know what he’s thinking, but he was looking at the textbooks I gave him while sobbing.

‘Does he hate studying that much?’

This guy Cha Song-jin. Not just his body, but his mental state is messed up too.

“I’ll check in the evening, so make sure to study up to where I marked before then.”

I left with a stern warning.

After Cha Song-jin, it’s Kim Jae-ho’s turn. Kim Jae-ho who met my eyes was pouting his lips.

“What is it.”

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. What’s the matter?”

When I poked his side, he finally opened his mouth slightly.

“Why did you only give him books.”

“Ah, are you upset about that?”

Well, Kim Jae-ho might need education too. But before English, I should teach him Korean accurately first. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever tested Kim Jae-ho’s Korean skills.

“Shall we start with dictation first?”

“Dictation?”

“Yes, you just need to write down what I say.”

I dictated a few sentences. Since it’s almost New Year’s…

“Happy New Year and best wishes.”

Next, I thought of and said a few sentences that might appear in elementary school textbooks.

“Cats go meow meow, chicks go cheep cheep.”

Well, he should get all of these right at least?

「Hapi Nuw Yer」

「Kats go miawaw, jicks ko chee chee 」 

How naive I was!

How could this be.

Not a single word was correct.

I fell to my knees.

“It’s my fault.”

This is the result of neglecting Kim Jae-ho’s education. I should have taught him letters first instead of teaching how to kill people! I only knew how to chop off people’s heads, now our kid doesn’t even know spelling!

“Why are you doing that?”

Kim Jae-ho who looked at me kneeling in front of the paper tilted his head and said:

“Is this so amazing? Enough to make Boss kneel?”

“That’s right. It’s amazing in many ways.”

I stood up staggering. This won’t do. I can’t leave our Jae-ho as an idiot like this.

“This won’t do. You need to study with Cha Song-jin too.”

“But we were going to do something else today. You said you’d look after me.”

“…Well, we don’t have textbooks right now anyway. Okay, today is training for now.”

I patted Kim Jae-ho’s back. Kim Jae-ho who nodded his head had a different look in his eyes. Our Jae-ho may not know letters well, but he’s certainly a genius when it comes to moving his body.

I came outside the house with Kim Jae-ho. The chilly wind scratched our cheeks.

Unlike my footsteps that made clear crunching sounds stepping on snow, there was no sound under Kim Jae-ho’s feet.

Suddenly I remembered shouting at Kim Jae-ho to move quietly on fallen leaves in autumn.

He failed then, but during the season change, Kim Jae-ho succeeded in handling his body.

Now if I closed my eyes, I couldn’t feel Kim Jae-ho’s presence at all.

But I had a rear camera – Ray – and…

“Urgh!”

I succeeded in catching Kim Jae-ho approaching from behind me at once.

—That’s cheap.

‘A boss should always maintain a cool image.’

—You weren’t so cool when you left cooking to Seo-hyeon.

‘We can’t eat scrambled eggs 365 days a year. That was a matter of survival.’

Besides, targeting the boss’s back. He deserves punishment.

The joke ends here.

“Pick up a sword.”

At my words, Kim Jae-ho took out a dagger. I also drew the dagger strapped to my thigh. When I gave a signal with my eyes, Kim Jae-ho rushed in.

“Kut!”

I’ve felt this from before, but he really had monstrous physical abilities.

He immediately targets openings and rushes in. I twisted my wrist to deflect the dagger. But Kim Jae-ho soon follows.

I drew up magic power to respond. Even enhancing my body with 3-stroke mana circuits, it was difficult to keep up.

Kim Jae-ho’s movements that absorbed my teachings like a sponge were already perfect to the point where I had nothing more to teach.

The daggers clashed in the air several times. Sparks flew, and the dagger flew straight at my head.

“Ugh.”

I barely avoided it, but a wound appeared on my cheek.

As I said not to stop even if we saw blood, neither Kim Jae-ho nor I stopped. I kicked off the ground forward and rushed into Kim Jae-ho’s arms. The distance closed abruptly. I grabbed Kim Jae-ho’s right arm and twisted it.

A normal person’s arm would have broken, but Kim Jae-ho’s forearm didn’t budge.

Rather, he hugged me like that and choked my neck. If a few more seconds pass like this, I’ll lose consciousness.

I strongly hit Kim Jae-ho’s stomach with my elbow.

“Kuh!”

Since I put magic power into the strike, this time there was impact. The moment Kim Jae-ho let me go, I distanced myself again.

We clashed like that several times. Small wounds increased on my body, but there was still not a single wound on Kim Jae-ho’s body.

How long did we move our bodies like that. Though it was cold weather, we soon became drenched in sweat.

“That’s, enough.”

If we keep going, I’ll collapse. I wiped the blood on my cheek with the back of my hand.

“Are you okay?”

At Kim Jae-ho’s words, I nodded. When I drew up magic power, the wound on my cheek soon disappeared. The other wounds on my body were the same.

This much is nothing.

The problem is that I failed to inflict effective damage on Kim Jae-ho while receiving so many wounds.

‘It’s probably impossible to face him without using abilities now.’

Kim Jae-ho has grown. Now that he properly knows how to use his body, he can no longer be stopped with ordinary talents.

‘Well, I could win if I use my talent too.’

—You’d know plenty of underhanded methods.

‘Not underhanded methods. Call them winning methods.’

I caught my breath and put on my jacket.

Now it was time to check the other side.