Hongryeon
With a vicious crash, the chain shot out and slammed into the floor where I’d been standing just moments before, making a sound no ordinary chain should ever produce.
In the brief instant the tip of the chain was embedded in the ground, the spearman lunged forward at a speed too fast to follow, thinking to strike while it was stuck.
But—
Kaaang!
The chain, wreathed in a dark crimson aura, blocked his attack with almost insulting ease.
“What the hell…!”
While the spearman was still reeling in shock, the tip of the chain that had been driven into the floor ripped free, shattering the ground to pieces as it came out. Then, as if it had suddenly gained a will of its own, it moved with perfect freedom and whipped toward the back of the spearman’s head.
“Kh!”
The spearman tried to escape with a high-speed dash, but—
Clink.
“…!”
The woman gripping the chain wound it tightly around his spear and locked him in place.
“Damn it!”
Without hesitation he let go of the spear, but even with high-speed movement it was already too late to dodge the chain flying at the back of his head.
Wham!
Unlike the woman holding the chain, however, we had numbers on our side. There’s an old saying for a reason: no one stands alone against a gang-up.
The soldier snatched the middle of the chain with his one remaining arm and, for a fleeting moment, brought it to a halt. In that opening the now-spearless spearman—Jabi, for short—used high-speed movement to slip right over beside us.
That chain, though… I’d suspected it ever since it was pure black, but it wasn’t just some random chain she’d picked up to use as a weapon. It had been forged as a weapon from the start.
Even after taking the spearman’s strike head-on while her ability was active, it didn’t have a single scratch. And until now, with her constantly spinning and swinging it, I hadn’t been able to see it—but when the soldier caught the chain and forced it still for a second, the small blade fixed to the end finally came into view.
This wasn’t an ordinary weapon. It was a tool made for one purpose only: killing people.
The chain that had been stopped in the soldier’s grip moved like a snake, twisted around, and shot straight at him. Cecilia swiftly knocked it aside, and the two of them retreated together.
I’d been half-uncertain because of the mask, but the moment I saw the tip of that chain I was sure.
She was a character from How to Become a Hero.
Not just any character—a villain who showed up only occasionally in the early story, then began appearing in earnest once the direct clashes with Eclipse started in the later half: Hongryeon.
Of course that wasn’t her real name. Just another title people called her by.
The way she stood in one place and freely manipulated her chains, tearing apart enemies charging from every direction, looked from afar like a blooming red lotus. That was how the moniker stuck.
Childish, maybe—but it suited her perfectly.
Yeah. Looking that beautiful, of course she’d earn a name like “lotus.”
It was a real shame she was wearing a mask right now. At least from what I’d seen in How to Become a Hero, her face was exactly my type.
Hidden behind the mask at the moment, but the face underneath was actually quite cute—almost unbalanced against her firm, long-limbed figure.
She’d only appeared without the mask a handful of times, but according to the lore she was said to possess the most outstanding beauty in the entire Eclipse family.
Ah, I can’t take it. I want to rip that scrap of black cloth covering her pure white skin—her face—right off this second.
I want to see the look of pure fluster on her face after I force it off…!
It’s not like I’m having weird thoughts or anything. In How to Become a Hero she always wore a blank expression, so I just want to see a different one for once.
Did she notice my heated stare?
In the middle of the drawn-out standoff, Hongryeon’s gaze suddenly locked onto me. Maybe my interest had been a little too intense; she furrowed her brow ever so slightly. Even that somehow looked sexy.
After staring at me for a moment, Hongryeon opened her mouth. The mask hid her lips, but the words came through clearly.
“You…”
“Yes?”
What was she hesitating over like that?
Could it be a confession? Is she about to confess? What do I do?! I’m not ready for marriage yet…!!!
Besides, I already have Tania, and Adel, and Luna, and Rina, and Cecilia, and the pretty healer unnie, and the big-chested Association unnie…!
I’ve already got so many—what’s one more?
I’m a broad-minded person, after all!
But the words that actually left Hongryeon’s mouth were so far from my imagination they might as well have been from another planet.
“What the hell is that disgusting stare…”
And the tone—pure revulsion, as if she’d just seen something she never wanted to see, complete with a look of utter contempt…!
…Oddly enough, it wasn’t bad.
I took one deep breath before answering her.
“Huuu… haaaa……”.
Before talking to a beautiful girl, you have to expel the dirty air from your lungs and draw in fresh, clean air. That’s just common sense!
There could only be one reason she was looking at me like that. My passionate love and interest must have been too much for her!
So I calmed my racing heart as much as possible so I wouldn’t overwhelm her, then spoke with perfect composure.
“Would you mind giving me your phone number?”
“…What?”
Hongryeon asked back in pure disbelief, so I started to say, “Because you’re exactly my type!”—only for Cecilia to kick me square in the ass.
Technically I only got as far as “Because you’re exactly my type” before the kick cut me off.
While I was rubbing my stinging rear and whimpering, Hongryeon let out a sigh and tightened her grip on the chain.
“Haa…. So you were just a crazy bitch.”
Crazy bitch?! Compared to all the colorful characters in manga, I’m extremely normal and well-behaved! Probably!
For some reason I’ve been hearing “crazy bitch” a lot ever since I reincarnated into How to Become a Hero, and it makes me a little sad.
Still…
My face was burning and a laugh threatened to spill out, so I covered at least my mouth and left cheek with my free hand.
Ah. Yep—my face is definitely hot.
Is it because this is basically the first time a beauty on Hongryeon’s level has called me a crazy bitch?
It somehow feels like a compliment, and my heart is pounding. How embarrassing.
If I could, I’d cover my whole face with both hands, sit down right here, and savor the afterglow of this feeling… but my remaining right hand was still holding a dagger, and the situation was a hair-trigger away from exploding into a fight, so sadly that wasn’t an option.
I’ll just have to hurry home and continue enjoying this afterglow there.
After a nice fluffy wash, lying on the bed Tania bought me…!
I was chuckling to myself when Hongryeon furrowed her brow even harder and glared at me. Then she relaxed the stance that had looked ready to charge at any second, cracked her neck left and right, and muttered,
“Mm, well. I guess I’ve done about as much as I was asked.”
With that she flung the chain behind her with a sharp whoosh. The chain buried itself in a distant wall; Hongryeon gave a light hop, yanked hard on the chain, and shot backward. She pulled the chain free, drove it into an even farther wall, and repeated the process—in and out, in and out—until she was racing away into the distance like some friendly neighborhood spider-person.
“…So her goal from the start was just to buy time.”
The soldier, who had been holding his weapon ready to swing at any moment, finally loosened his grip as he spoke.
Well, no matter how strong Hongryeon was, taking on three A-ranks alone was still a bit much for her right now.
Of course, by the later half of the story she becomes so overwhelmingly powerful that three A-ranks would be nothing more than a light snack. I’ve never clashed with her myself, but late-game Hongryeon would be able to put up a solid fight even against Luna.
According to the lore she’s younger than me. Same age as the protagonist Yi Siyun—same class, even.
Huh? Why didn’t I think of that until now?
Hongryeon attends the Academy while hiding the fact that she’s Hongryeon, so of course she doesn’t wear the mask there.
Which means…
“If I go to Siyun’s class I can see her without the mask…!”
I mean her face without the mask, obviously.
“…What are you doing?”
While I was making a huge fuss all by myself over this incredible discovery, Cecilia walked over with narrowed eyes and pinched my cheek, stretching it out.
My soft, precious cheek flesh began to be mercilessly violated by Cecilia’s ruthless fingers.
“You! Completely failing to read the room in a situation like that!”
“Eugh! Eueeeegh!”
Cecilia clearly had no intention of going easy on me this time; she yanked on my cheek for all she was worth.
Why all of a sudden? Ah! Is it because I asked Hongryeon for her number?
Come to think of it… I still haven’t gotten Cecilia’s number yet either.
From her perspective it must feel like she got cut in line.
Haa… Cecilia really is the jealous type when you look at it this way.
“I suppose it can’t be helped…”
“…What can’t?”
“I’ll specially give Teacher my phone number too!”
“…….”
Huh. That wasn’t it?
In the end I had to climb the mountain with my cheek still pinched, crossing over the collapsed exit.
While we ascended I could hear the others whispering among themselves.
“Since she came from this direction, it’s safe to assume the support team stationed here has been wiped out.”
“That woman from earlier won’t come back, right…? She looked insanely strong…”
“I don’t think she will, but…”
The soldier still scanning every direction with a stern, serious expression; the healer unnie looking so terrified it was actually cute enough to make me want to nibble her; Cecilia reassuring that same healer unnie; and the spearman walking in silence with his half-broken spear in hand.
When all of us finally reached the summit, what spread out before our eyes was a clearing far too wide to believe it was a mountaintop—and an unidentified man sitting atop a mountain of the support team’s corpses.