This Villain is Soft - Chapter 1
Only Noblemtl
Episode 1
Kwaang! Kwarreung─.
In a flash of yellow light, the terrorists’ last plane was destroyed.
As the wreckage of the airship poured down onto the pier, which had collapsed beyond recognition, waves of dust rose.
Kugu Palace─.
After the echo of the loud noise that followed, silence fell on the dock.
As the dust that had filled the ground slowly settled, the fallen terrorists were revealed.
“Wow!”
“Eww!”
At the same time, shouts poured out from all over the place. It felt like the sea was shaking.
People with obvious signs of exhaustion shouted, forgetting the pain of their injuries and the hardships of battle.
The young woman at the forefront, Eunhaon, raised her clenched fist awkwardly and let out a sound similar to a shout.
“Ugh.”
Haon burst into tears and collapsed. His limbs were shaking, but he managed to hold his fists up.
“Finally… … It’s finally over… … !”
The war of magic engineering that had lasted for two long years had finally ended in victory.
“Haon! Eunhaon!”
A man with a bruise on his cheek approached, limping on an injured leg, pushing through the crowd.
“Juyeol-ah!”
Haon hugged his childhood friend Woo Joo-yeol tightly with a tearful face.
My heart was filled with joy just knowing that my best friend, who was like my only family to me and who had no family, was safe.
“Ugh, Haon-ah.”
Joo-yeol groaned while patting Ha-on’s back with one arm.
Haon, who had fallen down in surprise, examined his body. It seemed like his arm was broken.
“I, I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I liked it too much.”
“Me too. I love it.”
Joo-yeol smiled warmly and wiped away the tears on Ha-on’s cheek. It was a loving and affectionate touch.
“You worked hard, Haon. We survived.”
“Yeah. You too. You had a hard time too.”
Joo-yeol stroked Ha-on’s brown hair as he sniffled.
Soldiers took away the surviving terrorists amidst shouts and sobs from all directions.
They were terrorists who wanted to conquer the world by monopolizing the mana cores needed for magic engineering.
The place in Korea with the most mana cores was Gimpo Institute of Technology, also known as GIT’s Central Research Institute of Mana Engineering.
There was no way to stand by and watch as GIT’s magicians terrorized the school and plundered its mana cores, so many professors and researchers naturally joined the war.
Haon and Juyeol were the same, and Haon, who was called the genius of magic engineering of the century, took the lead.
Someone held up a tattered, torn, magician’s t-shirt and shouted a wartime slogan.
“There’s someone on top of Mana!”
“Wow!”
GIT’s magicians, who had made a great contribution to defeating the terrorists, were everywhere, holding up their cellphones and shouting.
The professor, who was being carried out on a stretcher, also held up his cell phone while his nose was bleeding profusely.
If wizards in movies have wands, magicians have cell phones.
The cell phone was a device that could operate mana, and was an indispensable ‘magic wand’ for magicians.
Ha-on, wiping away his tears and suppressing his emotions, pointed to the stretcher and said.
“Juyeol. You too, quickly follow the professor and get treatment.”
“You should come too. Even the place you got hurt last time hasn’t fully healed yet.”
When Joo-yeol woke up, she shook her head.
“I’ll make sure it closes and then go.”
The place Haon’s fingertips were pointed at was a cylindrical iron structure. It was a dimensional gate.
The terrorists continued the war by drawing mana from other dimensions. If only there were no dimensional gate, the war would have ended much sooner.
A group of relatively sound magicians gathered to close the dimensional gate. Golden sand-like mana sparkled near the dimensional gate.
“If we just close the dimensional gate, it’s really over.”
Two years of hardship flashed through Haon’s brown eyes as he looked down the long corridor.
Although we won the war, too many people were killed and wounded.
People who could not be saved. People who were saved but lost their lives due to serious injuries.
My eyes welled up with tears as I vividly recalled the scene.
Juyeol, who had been quietly watching Haon, wrapped his arms around his small shoulders.
“Haon-ah. There’s something I’ve wanted to say to you for a long time… … .”
Haon raised his head at the words he spoke with his mouth wide open.
At that moment, a red light blinked among the debris of the plane.
“……uh?”
Haon froze at the feeling of his heart pounding.
“Haon? What’s wrong?”
“That.”
The red light blinked faster and faster. It was such a familiar and terrifying light.
“Ah, no… … !”
Haon instinctively ran towards the wreckage. His body moved before his head.
“Blue! We have to take out the bomb!”
[Yes! Just trust me!]
Blue, the AI secretary installed on the phone, responded cheerfully.
As Haon swung his phone, Mana transformed into a pair of tongs from a heavy equipment vehicle and snatched the bomb from the rubble.
It was a time bomb. There was not enough time to defuse it.
Haon kept running without stopping.
It wasn’t a sense of sacrifice or responsibility.
It wasn’t because I was brave that I stood at the forefront of the magicians fighting against terrorism. I would cry and walk along trying to survive with the person next to me, and before I knew it, I was standing at the forefront.
So there was no way to explain this impulsive behavior.
Haon hugged the bomb and jumped into the dimensional gate.
The researchers who were trying to close the dimensional gate screamed, and behind them, Juyeol’s voice shouted, “Galaxy On!”
‘Juyeol. What should I do? I’m scared.’
Even though I was half out of my mind, tears welled up in my eyes. But my feet didn’t stop.
Soon, the edge of the dimension became dark and spread out.
Haon stepped onto the edge of the narrow passage and threw the bomb with all his might.
But the bomb didn’t go away, it just floated up in the same spot.
Now it was glowing so red that the blinking was no longer visible.
“… … !”
Haon, whose heart sank, looked back at the passage. Judging from the light in the distance, it seemed like the dimensional gate hadn’t closed yet.
If it explodes like this, this entire area will collapse.
Haon bit his lips tightly and thrust his cell phone in front of the bomb.
“Blue! Pour out all your mana to create a shield.”
[Run!]
He stood firm on the spot and blocked the passage with a mana shield.
Boom! Kwaaang!
Just then, there was a huge explosion with a loud noise. The shield cracked.
“Ugh─.”
My body was thrown backwards by the aftermath of the explosion that seemed to turn the world upside down.
I held on tight to the railing and held on, but the protective barrier gradually broke apart.
“Oh, no! Blue. Please!”
I squeezed out all the mana I had, but the ground beneath my feet crumbled and my vision went black.
* * *
“Ugh.”
Ha-on opened his eyes, taking a deep breath, and his whole body felt tingly.
‘What, what? Am I alive?’
I gasped for breath and felt the remaining cold pain in my body. Fortunately, all my limbs were still intact.
As I turned my head while lying down and looked around, familiar objects caught my eye.
Various experimental tools and a large diagram floating on the screen. A sealed door is visible at first glance.
This was clearly a laboratory, but it didn’t seem to be a magic laboratory.
If that was the case, it wouldn’t have been this normal.
“Over there. Over there.”
Haon looked for someone with a locked voice.
“There are survivors here. Is there anyone else?”
There was no reply.
Judging from the fact that there isn’t a speck of dust on the floor, it doesn’t look like it was evacuated during the war and then turned into an empty laboratory.
Maybe everyone is gathered somewhere and having a party.
‘Because the war is over!’
Haon, who had thought that far, suddenly felt strength and sat up straight.
“Ouch. Ugh.”
Then he groaned, holding his aching back. Shrapnel from the bomb was lodged in his side and bleeding.
Ha-on, who had pulled out the fragments while holding back a scream, grabbed a white gown from the half-open cabinet. He needed to press the wound urgently.
‘I’m sorry for writing without permission. Who is that?’
Haon pressed the wound on his side and searched for the name engraved on his gown.
“… … Galaxy?”
A bewildered voice leaked out from her small mouth.
Coincidentally, the owner of this gown also had the same name as me, ‘Eunhaon.’
‘This is the first time I’ve seen someone with the same name as me.’
Just as I was thinking that.
Squeak─.
From somewhere came the sharp screech of tires, followed by the loud sound of a siren.
‘Who causes an accident right after the war ends? They must be busy rescuing the wounded.’
Haon groaned as he grabbed his cell phone and got up.
I wanted to check the situation outside, but there was no window visible.
Still, I couldn’t help but laugh when I came into a perfectly good lab.
‘I guess my being safe means we managed to prevent the explosion?’
When I thought about it that way, a sense of relief came over me.
It felt like a peaceful day with nothing happening, laughing heartily in a quiet and clean lab.
It seemed as if two years of war had been erased.
‘… … I can’t erase it. I’ll never forget it.’
Haon tightly clenched his fist against the wall and turned his eyes back into the lab.
‘By the way, how do I avoid falling into a building if I get caught in an explosion?’
I looked around but couldn’t figure it out, so I checked my phone’s battery. It was close.
‘Juyeol will be worried. I need to contact him quickly.’
But no matter how many times he tried to call, the line was dead. Ha-on, who became anxious, held the phone tightly and opened his mouth.
“Blue. Where am I?”
[%on, ¿G#haW∑œ!]
“… … Blue?”
[Is this þυ?@doΠ∃!]
The reply I got was an unintelligible, mechanical sound.