This Villain is Soft - Chapter 31



Only Noblemtl

Episode 31

Joo-yeol, who had been blankly staring at the dark ceiling, rode out on his bike without thinking.

I repeated those two things so many times that my sense of time became dull.

They say that the longer a case goes on, the more futile it ends, but I didn’t know that the case I was chasing would end like that.

I have no intention of denying that the initial desire for revenge and anger has faded over the past ten years.

But even though it was rusty, anger was an anchor to him.

The line connecting the anchor was cut off for no reason.

The broken anchor did not disappear but was stuck on the bottom of the sea, so he was helpless in the directionless anger that followed the feeling of emptiness.

When I drive on the road for a long time without a destination, sometimes I think of an engineer with a loose screw.

‘What do you mean you know?’

Joo-yeol parked his bike by the dark riverside and let out a heavy sigh.

Several times a day I regretted my decision to let Gowon live.

I should have killed you after all. I didn’t come looking for you to receive such a lukewarm judgment.

The thoughts that had been seething with such anger suddenly disappeared at some point.

Still, it is because my younger brother was freed from the stigma of being a lost firefighter.

As he was wiping his face, he flinched when he heard a voice calling him, “Juyeol-ah,” lingering in his ears.

‘Because you keep calling me weird… … .’

Haon roughly rubbed the cheek he had been wiping. The wind touching his face felt unusually cool.

He kept talking so loudly that it looked like he was about to burst into tears.

‘I hired a very capable engineer, but I couldn’t use him properly.’

As I kept grumbling, my mind became dizzy and my chest felt heavy.

As I was looking at the river, feeling like I was sinking into deep water, I felt a movement behind me.

I instinctively pulled out my gun and turned around to see it was Hunter.

“You wander more quietly than I thought?”

“… … Are you going to set fire to the rehabilitation center?”

The anger that flared up in an instant suddenly died down without a trace.

Joo-yeol, who had put the gun in the holster, turned his eyes back to the river.

“The first storage facility didn’t even let me in after all. Whatever clues were written there are useless now.”

The hunter standing next to him also glanced at his expression and looked at the river.

“Are you sad?”

“… … Sad?”

He snorted and continued.

“Were you afraid that they might go to Macau and commit massacre? Or that it would turn into a diplomatic issue? No, did you plan on showing them the materials from the First Repository in the first place?”

“… … .”

The hunter just watched the river flow silently.

A minute passed, then five minutes, and still no answer came. Only the sound of water filled the silent void.

Joo-yeol chuckled as if he knew that would happen.

“I quit. Hero.”

“Who cares?”

Only then did he look straight at the hunter as he received the answer.

“Can’t I just hit him as I please? I was planning on stopping after I caught the culprit.”

“You still have some time left on your suspension. Use that time to cool your head.”

“What do you want me to do now? There’s nothing I can do.”

The hunter also turned around and looked straight at Juyeol.

“We must protect it. Like we always have.”

“… … What are you protecting?”

“It’s where you live. I’m telling you to guard the place where you live, not where your brother lived.”

“… … .”

This time, Juyeol didn’t answer for a long time.

The hunter turned his head to the river and said something else.

“Dr. Eun lost his memory and changed?”

For some reason, Joo-yeol took his gaze away from the hunter.

“How much has it changed?”

He opened his mouth and answered with difficulty.

“It’s so good that I almost believe it’s someone else.”

“Can you check?”

The wind blew fiercely.

“… … Okay.”

The voice of the answering man was so small that it was almost buried in the sound of the wind.

“Look at this?”

The hunter let out a hollow laugh, perhaps because of the unexpected reaction.

“Do you just want to believe that I’m someone else?”

Then he took off his glove and held out one hand.

Joo-yeol, who had been looking at the scarred hand with disgust, took it in his hand.

“That annoyingly weird sound… … .”

A red number 4 appeared on the back of his hand.

“That’s right. I guess he didn’t kill anyone this time to vent his anger.”

“I’m just being careful, so don’t push me.”

As soon as Juyeol shook his hand away, the numbers disappeared.

The Hunter’s ability was to reveal the number of people he had killed by the person he came into contact with.

Sometimes you have to kill villains to save hostages, and sometimes you fail to save someone.

Even if you couldn’t help it, the count goes up as long as you feel like ‘I killed him’.

As soon as the numbers appeared on the back of his hand, those memories could not help but come back vividly every time he held Hunter’s hand.

An incident where he stabbed a robber who entered the house where he lived alone with his younger brother.

An incident where he shot a human trafficker while he was wandering the streets.

I killed a villain shortly after becoming a hero.

The incident where a hostage fell out of a window and was not saved.

‘Fuck.’

Joo-yeol looked at his hands with an uneasy expression and then stuffed them into his pants pockets.

The hunter, now wearing his gloves, spoke again.

“The last time I checked on Dr. Eun was a month ago. He was 11 then, so if he really has been rehabilitated, the number should remain the same.”

“… … .”

“I’ll leave you alone for now since you’re being quiet, but be careful not to get involved in anything complicated. You know what kind of person Dr. Eun is.”

Joo-yeol immediately understood that Eun-ha-on and Nova were trying to tell him not to create trouble.

Anyway, there’s nothing to see anymore. I tried to answer like that, but strangely my mouth wouldn’t open. I couldn’t utter such a trivial answer.

I couldn’t say anything until the hunter, who had been staring at my frowning face, left.

* * *

[Haon. Next person coming in!]

Haon dropped his head and then opened his eyes wide in surprise.

“Uh uh… … ?”

It was a waiting room/cafe on the first floor of the research center.

Haon yawned with tears in his eyes and stretched.

I was meeting potential business partners one by one to purchase a large quantity of materials to go into the dimensional gate.

A business partner just came by and I fell asleep while he was there.

“Barney asked worriedly, clearing the empty cup from the table.

“Sister. Are you okay?”

“Uh. Could you make me a cup of coffee cold?”

“Again? You’ve already had four glasses today. And they’re really strong!”

“Did you drink that much? But I’m so sleepy… … .”

I nodded off again, keeping my hazy eyes tightly shut.

Barney’s expression became serious.

For several days, Haon would sit and doze off, talk and doze off, and even drink coffee and doze off.

The area under my eyes got darker and my eyes got bloodshot. If this continued, the person giving me my paycheck would collapse, which would be a big problem.

“Ah, Dr. Eun! Long time no see!”

At that moment, a man wearing a fancy suit came walking in with a heavy gait.

Bunny tapped Haon on the shoulder and moved to prepare a new car.

Thanks to that, Haon suddenly came to his senses and stood up unsteadily, shaking hands.

“Yes, Mr. Yang. Welcome.”

“Hahaha! I’ve even heard Dr. Eun call me boss. I guess I’ll live long and see what happens!”

President Yang laughed heartily and waved his hands up and down vigorously.

Haon, who had stumbled and barely managed to sit down on the sofa, picked up the newly brought out cup and looked at Bunny.

It wasn’t a cold, strong Americano, it was just ice water.

Bunny put down his teacup in front of CEO Yang and left without even glancing at Haon.

“These days, the tombs, no, they say it’s gotten warmer, but it looks much nicer!”

He drank the green tea bag without even finishing brewing it.

“I think you’ll be quite satisfied with the items I brought, so look forward to it.”

Then he slammed a large briefcase down on the table and opened it.

President Yang glanced at Ha-on’s sleepy eyes and smiled quietly. He might be able to make a bigger hit than he expected.

Rumors spread that Haon had lost his memory and was no longer accepting requests.

If you have forgotten how to make commissioned items, your ability to see materials will naturally become clouded.

“It’s made of titanium so it’s very sturdy, but it’s incomparably lighter than other products.”

What he took out was a large crank.

Haon, who had been quietly listening to the talk about how it was a hard and non-melting material, nodded.

Mr. Yang’s guess was not wrong. Ha-on was so sleepy and tired right now that his eyes were blurry compared to usual when he was picking out materials.

“Blue. Check it out.”

But it wasn’t Haon who checked the quality of the materials.

[It’s not titanium, it’s painted copper!]

“… … !”

The expression on President Yang’s face, which had been smiling confidently, cracked.

“They say it’s Guri?”

“No way! What on earth is that strange bird?”

“It’s a very smart AI software. You can think of it as my secretary.”

“I guess there was some mistake,” muttered CEO Yang, sweating profusely.

Then he put the crank in and took out the bolts and nuts and showed them to me.

“Then how about this? It’s definitely titanium.”

“Blue.”

[It’s made of titanium.]

“Even if we face each other!”

[I covered up the wear and tear. It’s a used item!]

“… … !”

President Yang was sweating profusely. How did he find out something like that?

I thought I was an idiot for not being able to take on any requests, but it seems like he’s developed better skills somewhere.

He was feeling angry, but Haon was yawning.