I’m Not That Villain

101 – Lee Seoyeon (4)

There was a reason why, despite enlisting so many hands in the search, she remained unfound all this time.

“Lily… hid me.”

Lily Bennetwater. A conspicuously veteran, professional mercenary employed by the bakery company.

She had protected her.

“A stranger came looking for me.”

“A stranger?”

“…I… I don’t really remember. What happened back then…it was so terrible…”

Renata, wrapped in a blanket, ran a hand over her face.

Her exhaustion was so palpable, it felt wrong to press her further.

“Let’s rest for now. But before that… is Lily alright?”

“…Alright… she’ll be alright… she was alive when I last saw her…”

“Was alive?”

“…She was badly injured. She acted nonchalant, like nothing was wrong, but the bandages covering her whole body… they made her look like a mummy. In that state, Lily hid me in a safe house, telling me to find Lee Seojun after some time had passed.”

“…And then?”

“She said… to tell you… to never leave the shelter, Lee Seojun. That she would handle this herself and return.”

Eliminating the risk factors associated with me.

That was the fundamental principle of guarding, she had always said.

I nodded heavily. First, I brought the disheveled Renata inside the facility.

Later, having regained some strength, she devoured a meal ravenously. As if she had been starved for an age.

“…I thought I was going to die… truly…”

She sniffled and burst into tears.

I asked only one more thing.

“Do you know who was targeting you?”

“It was an individual who was targeting me… but the name they uttered… it was a group. Noise… I heard them say Noise.”

“Noise?”

A rather infamous collective, were they not?

Followers of the Bad Sector. A runaway cult, notorious for their amplified abilities.

A veritable haven for criminals, utterly divorced from the constraints of the law.

Pushing the ideology that abilities should have no limits…

The most dangerous crime syndicate birthed after the Seoul nights.

“…”

My prediction was true.

They’re targeting me. Not just some enforcement agency or fixer’s office, but the worst criminal outfit imaginable.

I turned to look at Baek Soyeon, who had been listening to the story with me. She scowled.

“If you even *think* about leaving because you’re scared… I’ll kill you?”

“Won’t happen.”

A trade.

Yes. I made a trade.

I chose my own fence, and in return, I vowed to make sure that fence wouldn’t fall to anything.

Run away now? I can’t. I’m already in the thick of it.

Hundred Eyes is using me.

And I am using Hundred Eyes.

Our cost-benefit analysis is perfectly aligned. It would be difficult to find a fence like this elsewhere, certainly.

So, I’ll play it out here.

To become so strong that no group can dare target me.

“Protect me. I’ll bring you a reward worth the effort.”

“…That’s more like it. Hundred Eyes is a fledgling organization I built from the ground up. Rolled around in the dirt since I was a minor to build it. This is my home. A place I have to protect. And you’re a member of it now.”

Baek Soyeon chuckled.

“There’s no need to be scared if you have me as your partner. Why? Because I’m the strongest. I’ll sweep them all away for you, so don’t worry your head. Got it?”

“I’d like to add one more clause to that.”

“…Huh?”

I closed the door to Renata’s hospital room.

I looked down at Baek Soyeon.

“I’ll participate in the battles directly.”

“…What? No, why?”

“Because this is my war too.”

“…Hey. You’re a craftsman, right? Have you ever really fought before? Huh?”

“No. My experience is lacking. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to back down. Besides…”

I slowly stretched my stiff body, after a long time.

“Even if I ignore the rest, those who went after my acquaintances—I have to take care of them personally. If I don’t even do that, I won’t have the face to see those people.”

. . .

Things progressed in steady increments. The custom-made equipment, finished just scraping past the deadline, also returned to their respective owners.

The high-ranking combat personnel, including the executives, received their customized gear first. They were floored—a belated taste of the fruits of the non-stop labor.

Enhanced ability output.

Abilities that had been practically reforged.

That growth couldn’t be simply expressed with a single “became stronger.” It was, quite literally, a cataclysmic shift.

With the increase in ability output, their overall physical prowess, including the durability of their bodies, had risen across the board.

Tsubame, the third-in-command of Hundred Eyes, who usually glared daggers at me, even sought me out directly.

“H-how did you make this?! Are you insane?!”

“You can be rough with it, but get it checked regularly, once a month. As for the internal structure…”

Seeing the gleam in his eyes, I subtly shortened the explanation.

I doubted he’d understand even if I explained it all.

“Overclock. It’s a product designed to continuously maintain the maximum output that the equipment can produce. The overall durability is flawless, but the internal parts will break down quickly. Even if you use it carefully, they’ll all be tattered after a month…”

“…….?”

“…Just bring it to the workshop on the 1st of every month. Got it? Then it’ll keep running like new.”

“Black Mirror. Ability user.”

“Good, you understand now…stop biting my head.”

Darco, already aware of the final product, also repeatedly voiced his admiration.

“…Mr. Lee Seo-jun, are you a genius?”

“I suppose so.”

“If someone else said that, I’d find it infuriating, but I can’t say anything to you. At first, I thought the Boss had picked up some weirdo from some strange place…but to reel in such a prize…Is the Boss using something similar?”

“Not quite. That one was made with a little more effort. It’s one of my best works, customized for the individual. As far as the creation process being fun and…being something that I personally liked…it’s about second-best, though?”

“What?”

Baek So-yeon, who had been nodding and puffing out her chest, twitched her eyes.

“Hey. Why second best? Are you crazy?”

“…….? No. So, it’s second best. What’s the problem?”

“Wh-who’s first?! Who’s number one?!”

“Number one?”

I clicked my tongue.

“That woman.”

“That woman?”

“Bad Sector.”

“…Ah.”

Having already heard my whole story, Baek Soyeon’s brow furrowed.

“That woman’s equipment is that well-made? Really?”

“The requirements were unusual from the very start, so…”

“Unusual?”

“…Well…”

It felt like touching manufactured artificial ability factors.

But perhaps that was just a feeling. I thought so. Because outwardly, she seemed no different than someone with a special ability factor.

“Soyeon.”

“H-hey, don’t just suddenly use my name in a professional setting…!”

“Ah. Right. Boss.”

“I don’t like ‘Boss’ either!”

“Why?”

“…It feels distant.”

“What am I supposed to do, then?”

Towards the boss, who was puffing out her cheeks, I broached a subject based purely on conjecture.

“I was the one who handled Bad Sector’s exclusive equipment. But that doesn’t mean I know all of her abilities.”

“…….?”

“You know that Bad Sector’s ability is, literally, uninterpretable, right?”

“…Well, isn’t that common knowledge? People gossip about it being some bizarre ability that never gets caught on media. They say no one knows what it is except for the people who’ve actually seen it… and even they testified that they didn’t know what happened.”

“From my perspective, Bad Sector is your department.”

“My department?”

“Lots of them. She has a great number of abilities she can wield. Perhaps what I made, that ‘exclusive equipment’… was just something that enhanced one of them.”

“What th- I mean, how many could there be…?”

“…I don’t know.”

Even I wasn’t in a state to accurately predict that number.

But even so, one thing was certain.

“There’ll be many. A great deal. And her control over those abilities will be perfect, too. If my deduction is correct, she can extract only the abilities she wants…someone capable of showing them to me.”

. . .

The Bad Sector.

Recalling her, the one I suspected I might cross paths with again someday, I gradually prepared myself in my own way.

The media was in an uproar. SNS was the same.

Rumors circulated of the Executive Agencies, including the Hundred Eyes, having completed their war preparations and confirming the situation.

An invasion without warning. It would certainly proceed as before. Since it was impossible to know exactly when an incident would occur…

I also accelerated the work I was preparing.

Didn’t the belatedly ringing SNS warn that?

The Bad Sector.

She, who should have been confined, had escaped from prison.

She’ll be coming for me. It’s obvious without even seeing it.

I couldn’t understand why she was so obsessed with me, but her resolve seemed certain.

Sending people to pry into my whereabouts.

Trying to ruin the people around me.

Now, wasn’t the word that she was openly preparing to reveal even that form?

But you see.

I wasn’t one to sit idly and be victimized. Nor was I someone who cowered in fear of obstacles suddenly blocking my path.

There is always a way out.

It’s my way to create a method to seize it with my own hands.

I quietly visited a secret space not even the Hundred Eyes knew about. The deepest level of this underground facility. The interior of the facility I had drawn in my mind since I thought of building a workshop inside the Hundred Eyes.

I visited that place alone. Only Scarlet and I knew of this facility’s existence.

From the beginning, this place was meant to be a personal facility that operated solely for me.

One must always create an escape route. Insurance. For me, this place is the insurance.

Originally, it would have required a bit more time…

But starting with the Hundred Eyes’ budget, deliberately pouring excessive resources into it greatly shortened the time.

“Scarlet. Is everything ready?”

“Perfect, Master.”

I quietly watched the internal lights flicker to life throughout the entire secret facility. I turned my back on my secret weapon laid out beneath them.

A craftsman is not one who wields weapons.

But one who creates them.

I didn’t want this either. From the start, fighting or killing anyone was far from my taste.

I simply wanted to craft tools I liked, and be curious about the effects they produced. Not just a simple desire for honor, I genuinely loved my work.

Truly.

But if they kept interfering, preventing me from doing it, what choice did I have?

Forcing a weapon into the hands of a craftsman, instead of a tool.

That was *their* choice.

“…Yours.”

Leaning against the railing, I said it calmly.

To solidify my own resolve.

“You messed with the wrong person. The wrong human being.”