Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

Taika, who read my expression, smiled and said:

[Everything comes to an end eventually, right?]

After finishing my revenge against Seol Rok-jin, and sweeping away all the bad guys I know…

It’s unimaginable now, but certainly someday that end will come, as Taika says.

‘When that end comes…’

Taika’s offer to pardon all the crimes committed so far and live as an American citizen was certainly tempting. I changed my mind. Instead of keeping Taika at a distance, I should keep him as close as possible.

—Can you change your thoughts like flipping a pancake?

‘He has no intention of reporting us, and he’s friendly towards us. We don’t know when that thought will change, but for now, there’s no harm in being friendly with someone like that.’

Hmm, that’s right. Besides, he’s offering to be a solid insurance for the future. There’s no need to refuse, right?

Having organized my thoughts, I said to Taika:

[Is that offer still valid later?]

At my words, Taika’s face brightened.

[Of course!]

[Though I have no idea when that future will come yet.]

A future where I’ve taken down Seol Rok-jin. Right now, it’s like a dream-like future. At my words, Taika smiled brightly and said:

[I hope that future comes quickly. It seems like it would be really fun to go around with you.]

[Not me, our mercenary group.]

I corrected Taika’s words. Where are you trying to take just me? It’s a sensitive statement from the position of someone with many dependents.

[My mercenary group and I are one.]

Taika nodded at my words. Before Taika’s thoughts could continue, I threw out some words:

[It wouldn’t be bad to meet like this occasionally until that future comes.]

Taika’s eyes sparkled at my words.

[Really?]

[You said you wanted to conquer Gates with us, right? Well, I think we could do something like that together…]

It’s just that we need to conquer Gates too. This time we focused on gathering magical beasts and gaining practical experience by rummaging through low-grade Gates, but there wasn’t much to gain from low-grade Gates.

With Taika Cooper, we could choose and conquer high-grade Gates. We can’t miss the opportunity to operate with such strong backing.

[Great! Should we look into the next Gate to conquer right away?]

[Let’s not rush too much. Our situation isn’t that good yet.]

I barely calmed down Taika who was excited like a dog hearing it’s going for a walk.

Han Seo-hyeon, who had been quietly watching that scene, frowned and asked me:

“What on earth did you say to that guy to make him so excited and jumping around?”

I answered with an awkward smile. Well, if I speak honestly, I might get grabbed by the collar in front of Taika.

—Is this that damned ‘Team Yi-sin Without Yi-sin’ operation?

‘Why is an artifact so quick-witted?’

—Anyone listening would know you were trying to dump your team on that guy.

‘It’s just that we don’t know what will happen in the future.’

We don’t know what state I’ll be in when that end comes. It would be bad if I’m stuck in Korea after getting a ticket to America.

—Ha, without you. As if your kids would stick to Taika well.

‘I told you. It’s just preparing for the future.’

Before Ray could grumble at me, Taika said:

[That’s right, recovery should be your priority for now!]

Taika who said that shrugged his shoulders and said:

[Then how about keeping me company during my vacation this time?]

[Keep you company?]

[Yes! I’m on vacation, and you have to stay in here too. It’s boring, right?]

Actually, I’m not that bored, but if I said that he’d probably make a very disappointed face. I nodded unconsciously.

[I’m not that interesting of a person to keep company…]

[Just having someone I can talk comfortably with like this is good.]

For a moment I wondered if he had no friends, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. Even the world’s strongest hunter could have no friends. Well, look at our Weltschmerz. Out of three people, all three have no friends. Though I haven’t asked, Cha Song-jin probably has no friends either.

Yeah, at this point. Is it actually strange to have friends?

—I’m so dumbfounded I have no words.

Suddenly Taika Cooper looked pitiful. Yeah, how friendless must he be to come asking someone like me to play with him.

‘He might regret asking us to play with him later.’

He sees us in a good light now, but his thoughts might change after meeting a few times. If all the freshness he felt towards us disappears and he just finds us tiresome.

Certainly Taika was attractive, but I couldn’t fully trust him.

Still, it didn’t feel bad to have made a potential safety net just in case.

Even if Taika doesn’t help, just knowing there’s such a law in America isn’t a loss.

[I look forward to our future association.]

Taika smiled and nodded at my words.

“Boss, what on earth are you talking about with that guy?”

Ah, right. Han Seo-hyeon was beside me. I turned my gaze to Han Seo-hyeon. I said to Han Seo-hyeon who frowned as if he had noticed something:

“We’re going to go around conquering Gates with that friend from now on.”

“What? How did it come to that?”

“Well, he paid our hospital bills too, and um, as we talked it seemed there’d be nothing bad about going around with him.”

I said to Taika:

[Smile, kindly.]

[Hello!]

Even after seeing that face, Han Seo-hyeon’s expression didn’t soften.

“Are you in your right mind? You’re going to be friendly with that guy?”

“Well, it seems we could get help conquering Gates in the future too…”

“Are we not enough by ourselves?”

It feels really strange when you say it like that. I shook my head.

“It’s not that kind of problem. It’s just a matter of various conveniences. Look at this time too. Just from solving one S-grade Gate, all this attention is focused on us. If we tag along with that friend, at least this won’t happen.”

Only then did Han Seo-hyeon’s mouth close.

That day I appeased Taika well and sent him off. As I was sending him out, as he was reluctant to leave, I said:

[You can come again tomorrow, right?]

[Tomorrow! I can come tomorrow?]

[Didn’t you say to keep you company for a while?]

I need to send him out quickly, if only because of Han Seo-hyeon glaring at me from behind. Having successfully sent Taika out, I carefully turned my head back.

Han Seo-hyeon was there, glaring at me with a terrifying face like an ogre.

“It must be nice that Boss is so good at English.”

Anyone could tell it was a sarcastic tone. Ugh, is it because I left him alone for a while dealing with Taika? He was much sharper than usual.

“Well, it was just formal hospitality.”

“What formal hospitality! You were loving it!”

“Umm, it’s good news for you too. We need to conquer S-grade Gates too to improve our skills, get more items, uh, improve a lot.”

“Do we have to go around with that guy of all people?”

“His skills are certain at least.”

At my words, Han Seo-hyeon narrowed his eyes.

“It’s strange.”

“What is?”

“No matter how skilled someone is, I don’t think Boss would decide to accompany them just for that. I feel like there must be something more that I don’t know.”

“There’s nothing like that. There’s nothing.”

Han Seo-hyeon was really quick-witted. It was really fortunate he was bad at English. If he had understood even a little of the conversation between Taika and me, he would have tried to shake me down asking what it meant.

—It seems like he’d try to kill you if he knew you were thinking of sending him to America in the future.

‘Yes, so it’s really fortunate he’s bad at English.’

I’ll have to keep this a secret between Taika and me until that day actually comes.

“Are you really not hiding anything from me?”

Just as I was about to answer Han Seo-hyeon who was questioning me like that-

Knock knock.

At the knocking sound heard again, Han Seo-hyeon irritably opened the door. The nurse standing outside took a step back with a startled face.

[So-sorry.]

Han Seo-hyeon, who made a surprised expression, immediately apologized to the nurse. I poked my head out from behind Han Seo-hyeon’s shoulder and asked:

[What brings you here?]

At my question, the nurse said:

[Ah! Mr. Cha has woken up!]

It was welcome news in the midst of everything.

* * *

Edward Sihelis regretted his action of knocking on the container door that day. He really regretted it tremendously! Looking at his shadow, Eddie said:

[Please, get out. Please…]

If he had known he’d pick up this leech that day! If he had known this leech would torment him so terribly! He would never have knocked on that door.

How nice it would be if he could shout ‘Stop! Please!’ to his past self.

For the past two days, Eddie was constantly harassed by this damn guy. First of all, this guy had several problems.

The first problem. When there were people around, that guy in the shadow absolutely wouldn’t come out. It was the same even if Eddie begged and pleaded.

He asked through the translator ‘I’d like you to come out of the shadow. Is there a reason you’re not coming out?’, but there was no answer.

No, to be precise, there was an answer. It’s just that he couldn’t understand it at all.

‘The conservative told me not to wander around extravagantly? You need to say something that makes sense!’

This was because the translator malfunctioned due to Kim Jae-ho’s terrible spelling, but Eddie had no way of knowing.

For reference, the sentence Kim Jae-ho wrote was ‘Boss told me not to wander’.

Even after that, Eddie constantly tried to communicate with the man in the shadow, but communication was one-sided.

No! It wasn’t even one-sided.

Just as he had unhesitatingly taken out his dagger when told Eddie’s help was needed, Kim Jae-ho fingered his dagger each time he heard Eddie’s words.

Eddie had no idea what was wrong with what he said to lead to this conclusion.

‘Damn it, I don’t know Korean at all so I don’t know what the problem is. Were there any words that could be understood as saying to attack or pounce?’

Eddie blamed the translator and himself, but the problem wasn’t him.

The culprit was Kim Jae-ho who thought there was only one solution to every problem.

‘I need your help!’

Help? I’ll help you nicely with this dagger.

‘Let’s come out and talk.’

The name of this dagger is Conversation.

No matter what input was entered, the output was always the same.

And how much trouble it caused. Every time Eddie passed by a food truck, no, Eddie couldn’t pass in front of food trucks at all. Why? Because a hand popping out of the shadow firmly grabbed his foot!

It wasn’t just once or twice that he almost fell. Today was the same. Eddie sat down right there and patted the hand that popped out from between shadows.

[I got it, so stop popping out suddenly like this!]

Eddie, who sat down on a park bench, threw a sandwich at his feet. A hand popping out of the shadow quickly snatched the sandwich.

Kim Jae-ho even ate meals inside the shadow. Looking at his shadow dejectedly, Eddie cursed:

[Damn it.]

How long do I have to keep buying sandwiches for this guy?

I can’t stay like this.