That’s How They Became Villains

#29. Forewarned Terror -3-

Royal Road, is the only golden city shining in Minos, which is covered in eternal darkness, and where Noah Group’s headquarters is located.

Connected to all cities—Unhwa, Nago, and Cheongang—in three different directions, and strictly prohibits ordinary citizens from entering through the main passage.

Royal Road, with no information about who lives there or how to move in, was Minos’ darkest darkness and a great mystery.

Because there was nothing certain, only plausible speculations continued—perhaps one could get in by earning an unimaginable amount of money, or by becoming famous enough for everyone in the city to know about.

Even the fact that Noah Group’s headquarters was located in Royal Road had only recently been revealed.

And that there were seven families ruling Royal Road was also only recently revealed.

Would you believe that all of this was revealed by the hands of a single Vitaloid who just uploaded videos targeting villains?

Branch Manager Park Seong-tae remembered a certain Vitaloid whom fans called “a woman with no back.” *

“Agio!”

-Blink.

Agio, who had momentarily lost consciousness after hearing such shocking words, looked up.

“Yes, yes…!! What is it…!!”

“Did you hear what I said?”

“What…? What, what did you say…?”

‘Sigh,’ a sigh of lamentation escaped from Chae Yu-ha’s lips.

“So. I said that after boarding the airship, Agio needs to change appearance to look like me and pretend to be me.”

“Huh…?”

At those words, Agio nearly lost consciousness again.

“Why me…?”

“Honestly, I’d prefer to leave non-combat personnel somewhere safe and only go in with combat personnel. But there are too many constraints.”

Chae Yu-ha pointed at Nazha with her finger.

“First, unnie needs nanomachines to fight, which makes her too easy to identify.”

Next were Seok-ho and Seolhwa.

“Uncle and Seolhwa are a set. Healing ability is an unprecedented power that has never appeared before, and strengthened humans who use force well are everywhere. They won’t be discovered.”

Next was Chae Yu-ha herself.

“As for me, I think there’s no need to explain.”

“This is really messed up.”

“It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

And finally, Agio.

Agio’s round face, pointed out by Chae Yu-ha, turned pale.

“That’s why the only person left is you, Agio.”

“Ugh… ugh. Ughh…”

“Confused? Please understand. It seems an S-class is being dispatched from next door to stop this attack.”

“S-class…!? Which S-class…? Athena? Isis? Jupiter? Juno?”

“Athena. Have you heard of her?”

“A… Athe, Athena…”

After hearing Chae Yu-ha’s words, Agio melted and slid down under the chair.

Athena is Unhwa Special City’s S-class hero. The only pure human, not an enhanced human, among the heroes registered with Hero Corporation.

And someone who freely handles the walking suit “Sangsul Special Investigation,” which was specially made for her.

She is an exemplary figure for Unhwa’s public security organization, the Amhaeng-eosa.

She was truly the best hero with all the conditions that Royal Roaders would like.

Because she is human, she can cut down all enemies whether they are Origin, Non-Origin, or monsters.

And because she is human, she doesn’t violate the Royal Roaders’ ideology, which emphasizes pure blood.

“Ah, her? The one wearing a derivative of the suit I made?”

Nazha said dismissively while picking her ear.

“You know her too?”

“Of course I know her well. Usually I don’t care how other cities operate, but I know about her particularly. I referenced a lot of her movements when making the suit I’m wearing now.”

At those words, Chae Yu-ha covered her mouth in surprise.

She hadn’t expected Nazha to speak words of respect for someone like this.

“Then, what are our chances of winning if we face her head-on?”

“Hmm… being generous, about this much?”

Nazha used both hands to make the numbers 3 and 4 respectively.

“…You mean 34 percent?”

Nazha nodded in response to Kim Seok-ho’s question.

“I’m a maker, not a user. There’s probably no one in Minos who can handle a suit better than her.”

When Nazha, the most reliable person in Maker, said such things, shadows fell across everyone’s faces.

Kim Seok-ho, in particular, felt this more intensely as he had personally witnessed Nazha’s one-sided massacre on the train.

“Indeed, we should avoid a frontal battle…”

And among them, only Chae Yu-ha was looking for a solution.

“After our discussion, I’m even more convinced. Agio, it’s right for you to transform into me.”

“Ugh…I thought I could get out of this somehow…”

“Everyone else keep this in mind too. We will never fight head-on. Like proper villains, we need to use underhanded methods…”

At that moment, Chae Yu-ha began poking at the air again as if she had seen something.

“…we need to use underhanded methods.”

The group was puzzled by Chae Yu-ha’s continuing strange behavior, but again, they decided to remain quiet.

D-1 until the terror attack.

Meanwhile, in a mansion somewhere on Royal Road.

“Miss, weren’t you going to sleep early today?”

-Buzz buzz.

The figure addressed as “Miss” shook her head on the bed.

Mary Nathan Rothschild is a paraplegic enhanced human who was called Meneros in the original work.

Mary was staring intently at her pad on her large, luxurious bed, waiting for something.

It was Chae Yu-ha’s Instagram.

For some reason, uploads have become infrequent lately.

Until recently, it was understandable as negligence due to aftereffects of the train accident, but not now. Hadn’t enough time passed to overcome the wounds?

In the past, when posts didn’t come up, she would have people send death threats to force new posts.

That hadn’t been very effective lately, so this time she gave money to Instagram’s subsidiary and sent a direct message.

That was one of the wisest decisions in Mary’s life.

Thanks to that, she would be able to see Chae Yu-ha in person tomorrow.

There could be nothing more luxurious in the world.

“Miss, you should go to sleep soon.”

Mary glared at butler Alfred with an electric look.

He was good in all aspects, except he always had one thing too many to say but he did his job well.

It was too early to replace him.

-Ding.

“!!!”

Mary looked at the pad as soon as she heard the alert.

There it was—Chae Yu-ha’s Instagram upload that Mary had been waiting for.

-Squeeze…

She pressed the tablet-sized pad strongly against her chest, charging today’s nourishment.

Butler Alfred watched his mistress’s manic behavior and sighed with concern.

Mary hadn’t always exhibited such eccentric behavior.

A sudden incurable disease. Serum dialysis for survival. Imperfect transformation into an enhanced human. And implicit severance from the family.

All those misfortunes combined to create the Mary of today.

For Royal Roaders, being impure blood was unacceptable. This applied equally to Mary, who was once a promising talent.

Enhanced human Mary could not be accepted anywhere in Royal Road.

Not to mention her blood relatives, even employees tried to disparage or ignore Mary.

Each time, Mary relieved her stress by grinding up employees who talked behind her back, but it was all futile.

Even if she resolved the immediate stress, the fundamental cause remained unresolved.

Paraplegic, family disgrace, dirty-blooded hybrid, enhanced human—all these modifiers pointed to Mary.

Then one day, sunlight entered Mary’s utterly devastated heart.

That day, as usual, Mary was analyzing social issues, the changes in Minos that followed, and future trends that Alfred had brought her.

Cheongang Department Store hostage incident, skip. Yeongwol’s sewage concealment, skip. 7th Orbit Elevator completion, skip. Red Witch’s downfall, skip.

Two news items caught Mary’s eye.

ENIAC’s verdict, Minos’ first recognized enhanced human without nanomachines, identity veiled as a first-generation?

Witness’s tearful plea, revealing Cheongang Supreme Court’s lobbying and inside story

An enhanced human without safety nanomachines? And ENIAC acknowledged their existence? First-generation?

They were all interesting words.

Mary immediately clipped all related articles and began to devour them.

This story would clearly cause a big commotion in Minos, whether positive or negative.

While gathering information for a while, Mary discovered the video in question.

The video featured a beautiful woman with a lovely smile.

She changed the solemn atmosphere of the courtroom the moment she entered, and that could be felt even through the video.

The woman continued her defense of the first-generation who had saved her, seemingly calm at first glance.

Then once, as if overwhelmed with emotion, her smiling face began to crack.

Soon after, she dropped her head and began to shed tears.

Mary couldn’t remember ever watching a video with more concentration in her life.

Every plea, every agitation, every gesture, every attitude felt as if they were mourning Mary’s own misfortunes.

Wasn’t sadness an emotion solely for oneself?

Was it possible to shed tears for others?

That’s when Mary’s manic stalking began.

“Haah…”

Mary exhaled an excited sigh as she removed the pad she had been clutching to her chest.

Although she had become unable to speak, her dark and sinister emotions were conveyed.

Shed more tears for me.

09:30 until the terror attack.