The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess - Chapter 151



151 – The Hour of Heroes Has Come! #2

151 – The Hour of Heroes Has Come! #2

A back alley, set slightly apart from the department store’s main entrance.

There, a megalithic structure, fashioned from stacked planks, stood.

A makeshift ‘Door,’ courtesy of Teacher Koga.

Supposedly, it connected to the department store’s underground parking lot.

Truly, a most convenient ability.

“I want to go to the parking lot too! With my power, I’d surely be of help!”

Bbangdengyi, bursting with eagerness.

Bbangdengyi, who was increasingly becoming a Death Majin, seemed to be testing the limits of her power, her fervor for battle was unmistakable.

Yet, I found it unsettling, rather.

If Bbangdengyi’s power were to run rampant, the situation ‘Red King’ ignited would pale in comparison to the cataclysmic disaster that could unfold.

Therefore, until she could fully control her abilities, it seemed best to keep Bbangdengyi in reserve from combat and the like.

“Bbangdengyi, for now, stay with Mibbang.”

“I’ll go.”

Yu Yeoreum offered her services for exploring the underground parking lot with bravado.

Indeed, with Yu Yeoreum along, it would be as reassuring as having a force of a hundred.

However, there was no one as deadly as Yu Yeoreum in instantly repelling the dark creatures pouring onto the ground.

To defend the barely established strongholds above ground, Yu Yeoreum’s assistance was desperately needed.

Yu Yeoreum was simply too valuable, thus making her a pass for this exploration.

Chang-sik, a VIP in this ruined world, albeit a perished one, was likewise a pass.

“Truth be told, I wouldn’t be much help in a fight…”

Deok-soon, unsuitable for battle, was also a pass.

In the end, the only one deemed suitable to descend to the underground parking lot from this gathering was Seo Ga-eul, a somewhat…indistinct resource.

“…Am I… indistinct?”

Seo Ga-eul scrunched her face as though deeply wounded by the notion of being considered ambiguous.

But what could one do when it was the truth?

The current Seo Ga-eul was a peculiar individual.

Truly, a white elephant.

Like a loser of this era.

Just as I was harboring such thoughts, Seo Ga-eul glared at me with venomous eyes.

“Ha Nam-jin! You were just thinking of me as a loser of the era, weren’t you!”

“…!?”

How did she know?

Was she capable of telepathy?

As I marveled and trembled in many ways, Seo Ga-eul clenched her fist tightly.

“Just you wait. Everyone will see how helpful and useful I can be. You think I’m worse than Yu Yeo-reum or Baek Yeo-ul? Absolutely not!”

And so it was that Seo Ga-eul and I were dispatched as the investigation team to this underground parking lot.

Wooo-.

Passing through the dolmen-like gate, the sight of an underground parking lot filled with a viscous, liquid-like substance unfolded before us.

A nameless, viscous slime clung to the air, making my skin prickle as if even stillness wouldn’t offer respite from the itch.

“Looks just like the nest of a Xenomorph from *Alien*,” Seo Gaeul declared, with a touch of uncanny aptness.

For someone like me, a lover of film, it was a metaphor that struck deep.

Just as Seo Gaeul suggested, it felt as though some alien creature, ready to implant its eggs within a human host, might leap out at any moment, and a wave of caution washed over me.

So, where should we head now?

As I glanced around, trying to decide on our next direction, Seo Gaeul folded her hands together, shaping them like a bird in a shadow puppet show.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s a miraculous bluebird, guiding our way.”

A moment later, from the shadow puppet, a bluebird fluttered into existence, taking the lead and heading somewhere. Whatever it was, following seemed like the wisest course.

“That’s a fascinating ability.”

“While you were running off with Baek Yeoul, canoodling, I wasn’t exactly idle, you know.”

I wasn’t exactly idle either…

I had been shattering rocks and developing new special moves.

And so, following the bluebird, we reached the fifth basement level.

*Blub, blub, blub–.*

We discovered something like a pond of black liquid, bubbling and seething on the floor of the fifth level. Like black asphalt, heated to a rolling boil.

“The stench is vile.”

*Moraek, moraek–.*

A putrid stench, as if a cement mixer had been filled to the brim with pepper and capsaicin, emanated from that bizarre pond. My eyes stung so fiercely that tears, the kind a man shouldn’t shed, streamed down my face.

Even more dreadful were the fiends crawling from the pond.

━Gurrrgle-.

━Geshaaak-.

That black pond was as if a spawning pool, churning out creatures of darkness.

The creatures of darkness, birthed from that place, were encroaching upon the land, so of course the vicinity was in disarray.

「The Pond of Darkness: A form where a king’s soul, defiled by the concept of darkness, has become stuck. The king’s soul, having lost its humanity, spews out the anxiety and fear nesting within it.」

Bearing the sting in my eyes, I continued to gaze at the black pond, and words surfaced before me.

According to what I grasped through 「Emotion」, the identity of that black pond was the king’s soul.

Could it be considered a fragment, shattered and scattered when the 「Crimson King」 was destroyed by the concept of 「The Sea」?

As I built plausible hypotheses in my mind, Seo Gaeul, her hand on the hilt of the sword at her waist, spoke a word to me.

“Hanamjin, whatever happens, don’t try to be the hero and sacrifice yourself. I’m tired of searching for you every time you casually go missing. This time, we’re definitely going back together.”

Though she said “going back together,” the way she was loosening up her body was ominous.

“What are you planning?”

“We have to save those people.”

At the tip of Seo Gaeul’s finger, people who looked to be unconscious were lying collapsed.

Plop-!

Plop-!

The fiends, as if offering food to baby birds, were stuffing the people into the black pond, and whatever would happen to the humans who fell in there, it was certain to yield a gruesome result.

“Seo Gaeul, you know our mission was just reconnaissance, right?”

“I can’t just leave after seeing something like that. And we need to clash with it and figure out if it can be destroyed before we leave.”

A true thing spoken.

Suddenly, I recalled Seo Gaeul from half a year past.

To think that Seo Gaeul, who did naught but preen at parties, summoning celebrities to impress, could utter such righteous words.

That Seo Gaeul and this Seo Gaeul were truly different souls.

And barely half a year had passed.

“Gaeul-ah, you’ve changed.”

“And whose doing is that?”

The things I’ve done, it seems, were meaningful; a fulfilling thing, indeed.

Seo Gaeul’s plan was simple.

“A diversionary tactic. You draw the monsters’ gaze, and I shall strike.”

Thanks to ‘Leap’, with my swift legs, I’d play bait and evasive tank.

Seo Gaeul, with ‘Miracle’ allowing for lethal ranged attacks, would be the main damage dealer.

A truly righteous division of labor.

To conjure such a strategy on the spot, in the field…

From Seo Gaeul, once dubbed ‘the worst b*tch’, to the universally envied ‘Supernova Seo Gaeul’, she was steadily evolving, and a swell of pride rose in my chest.

Is this, perhaps, the feeling of a master watching their disciple grow?

“Hanamjin, you charge when I give the signal. And should things, by any chance, turn ill, we flee together without a backward glance. Then, one─”

*Schwing*-.

Seo Gaeul drew her blade from its sheath.

She took a deep breath.

“One─.”

# # #

Two─.

The instant Seo Gaeul’s lips parted, I bolted toward the black monstrosities like a well-trained hunting hound.

“─Eyes─on─me─!”

━Kryaahk!

━Keyaaahk!

Tatatat-.

The creatures of darkness, reacting with the immediacy of leukocytes eliminating an intruder, surged after me. Not missing her chance, Seo Gaeul swung the blade in her hand.

Shoong shoong shoong-.

The sword wind surged forward, like a technique straight from a cartoon.

A gigantic, crescent-shaped surge of sword ki cleaved through the ghastly abyss of a pond.

Chwaahk-!

Gooo-.

To cut water with a sword ought to be a futile, meaningless act. But the black pond writhed at Seo Gaeul’s attack, like a living thing.

Gooo-!

Proof that the assault was taking hold.

However, an unforeseen anomaly manifested.

Squirm─wriggle─.

The black pond seemed to twitch, as if it were alive, then disgorged something from within, like vomiting it up.

First, a sticky palm slithered upward, the rest of her body following like a swamp crocodile emerging from the muck.

“A woman…!?”

The words slipped from Seo Gaeul’s lips, laced with wary caution, for indeed she was a nude woman.

The peculiar thing was that her ears were more than twice the length of a normal person’s – she appeared to be a fairy of some kind.

But the sight of her naked form, stained with black liquid, only held my gaze for a moment before a cloth, as soft and pliant as rose petals, enfolded her.

And, I hadn’t even noticed when it appeared in her hand, she swung a thorn-studded whip, and if I hadn’t reacted instinctively─.

*Jjeo-eo-eo-eong-!*

*Jjeo-jeo-jeok-!*

Like this asphalt shattering into fragments like parched desert sand, my body would surely have been torn to pieces as well.

“What is it? What the hell is it? Ha Namjin! Do you know what that woman is?”

I don’t know either.

Shall I try to glean something with my senses? It will take a little time, but…

「Name: Red Queen, Shadow of Kserde」

「Description: She is a shadow of the former ruler of the Fairy Kingdom, ‘Queen Kserde of the Poison Roses.’ With strength beyond measure and the erosion of ages, her will is worn and weathered, leaving only lingering thoughts.」

Understood.

She’s a shadow of one of my ancestors on my mother’s side.

I don’t know how something like this is possible, but what truly matters is what happens from here on out.

*Huuu-ung*, *jja-ak-! Jjaa-aaak-!*

It was as if my ancestress felt bitter that a proper ancestral rite was never held for her during holidays, for she began to lash out wildly with her thorn-studded whip.

Crack-! KWA-BOOM-!

Rumble-!

The passage to the upper floor collapsed under that barrage, a chain of attacks lethal if even grazed. The problem was that I was focusing on “feeling,” and a rogue whip lashed out at me.

“Hey! Ha Namjin! Watch out! aaagh!”

Thwack-!

In the end, Seo Gaeul pushed me away, taking the whip for herself and collapsing.

“Namjin, reverse assault!”

Rat-tat-tat-!

I scooped up Seo Gaeul and quickly got us out of there.

The Whip Queen, seemingly about to pursue us, seemed to alternate between looking at the black pool and us before stopping.

I didn’t know why, but it was a relief.

Judging by my senses, the Whip Queen, powerful enough to be compared to at least a Rank 4 Awakened, would have made escaping with an injured Seo Gaeul damn near impossible.

“The path to the surface is all collapsed and blocked. Seo Gaeul, we’re going one floor deeper for now.”

To avoid the monsters’ pursuit, I carried Seo Gaeul further down into the depths.

Even the sixth basement level parking lot writhed with monsters, but thanks to the large, foreign cars parked there, we could at least hide inside.

Click, clack-.

Unlocking a car in this ruined world? Child’s play to someone like me.

Beep-beep-beep-!

Of course, the alarm went off.

━Kyaaak-!

━KIEEEEEK-!

The monsters surged toward the sound.

I hastily pulled out a few bottle caps from my pocket, imbued them with the power of “Leap,” and flicked them away with my finger.

*TZZZZZZ-!* *TZZZZZZ-!*

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP-!*

*BEEP BEEP BEEP-!*

The vehicles struck by my bottle caps wailed their alarms from all sides, and in that brief cacophony, I slipped into the car I’d just unlocked, concealing myself.

The car windows, deeply tinted, seemed to obscure our forms from the monsters’ view.

But they roamed about busily, no doubt searching for any sign of us.

“Ugh…!”

Seo Gaeul gasped.

━KYaaaK-.

As if hearing even that slight sound, the monsters drew closer to the vehicle where we hid.

I clapped my hand over Seo Gaeul’s mouth, conveying “Shhh─.” with a silent urgency.

Had a minute passed? Slowly, the monsters seemed to drift away again, and a small measure of relief finally washed over me.

“We’re alive, right?”

“’We’re alive, right?!’ Are you kidding? We almost died, you b*stard!”

“Shhh─.”

I quieted Seo Gaeul, who was about to explode.

There were still monsters nearby, after all.

But Seo Gaeul, she kept twitching and shuddering, like a greater amberjack pierced by a thorn – no doubt from the wounds of the whip.

Looking at the back of her knees, there truly were injuries, as if stabbed by sharp barbs.

The thorns attached to the whip, likely.

The problem was, those parts were swollen and red, so much so that it looked… wrong.

「Name: Seo Gaeul」

「Condition: 《Poisoned》 – Addicted to the venom of the viper snake.」

Poison?

Come to think of it, earlier 「Sentiment」 called the whip woman ‘the Poison Rose Queen.’

Indeed, it seemed she was a woman who wielded poison.

There’s no other choice.

“Seo Gaeul, I’ll have to draw the poison from your body, for now.”

“What? You dare put your mouth on me? Absolutely not! I’d rather die!”

The “Fair Lady” Seo Gaeul seemed averse to my lips touching her body –

No matter.

Even Seo Gaeul, flexible enough to lick her own elbows, couldn’t lick the back of her knees.

In fact, she lifted her leg as if trying to touch her lips to the back of her knee, which only looked comical, like a four-legged beast grooming its hind leg.

Of course, not even her tongue could reach.

“See? You can’t do it. It’ll be over quickly, so just bear with it.”

“…Hey! Get those lips away from me! You’re just using ‘drawing out the poison’ as an excuse to kiss me! You kiss Ms. Kogae too, you just like kissing any woman anywhere! That’s you, isn’t it!”

“Even if that were so, what could you do about it?”

“…….”

Seo Gaeul’s expression turned serious.

From noble mtl dot com

Perhaps she realized that in this situation, there was nothing she could do.

Like a true man, I directed my lips towards the space between Seo Gaeul’s knees!

*Chwaaap!*

“Eungyaaak!!”