116
Ch.116 Kaleidoscope
"...It's not your fault. That child... As someone with power, took responsibility."
Yeo Woon-jae dismissed the others and apologized to me, who was sitting blankly in the dark incinerator passage.
Hearing those words, I couldn't hold back the anger rising inside me.
"Not... My fault? Then whose fault is it?"
That Yeo Ryeong who chose to save humans was wrong?
That the human who rushed to protect their family, even in panic, was at fault?
You call that a fault?
"Yeo Ryeong did nothing wrong! If anyone’s at fault, it’s me... And you!"
If there was any fault, it was Yeo Woon-jae’s for not killing the monster faster.
"Why didn’t you raise her to be more selfish?"
Yeo Woon-jae never had time to raise Yeo Ryeong properly.
"If only you hadn’t taught her that awakened ones must sacrifice themselves..."
Because Yeo Woon-jae was that kind of person, I survived.
"If only you hadn’t prioritized protecting the weak!"
Because I grew up under such a person, I was saved.
I loved Yeo Ryeong.
"Ugh, ah, aaaaah...!"
It’s not Yeo Woon-jae’s fault.
Yeo Ryeong died because I was weak.
Too weak to protect even one person I loved.
"AAAAAAAAAAAH!"
What angered me the most was my own weakness.
And the incompetence that let the monster grow unchecked.
Everything that led to Yeo Ryeong’s death.
Everything that dishonored her memory.
"I’m sorry. Ho-young, I’m... I’m sorry."
Why are there so few heroes?
Why do citizens exist who can’t even evacuate properly?
Why were citizens left to be devoured while the monster evolved?
Why, why, why, why?
"Why didn’t you do anything until now...?"
I eliminated those reasons, one by one, like exterminating monsters.
To increase the number of superpower humans choosing to be heroes, I gave them reasons to become heroes rather than villains.
I enforced mandatory evacuation drills and passed laws exempting heroes from liability for citizens who failed to evacuate.
I developed strategies to ensure no monsters escaped and prevented the government from treating heroes like tools.
But as a result, those who became heroes for material rewards muddied the purity of heroism like dirt in water.
Heroes who abused the laws appeared.
Some in the government, deprived of their personal hero escorts, began to oppose me.
Reality doesn’t bend to wishes.
The strong aren’t inherently good, nor are the weak inherently good.
Both good and evil can be strong or weak.
So, I compromised.
Heroes with tainted purity became my hands and feet, directed one by one.
I introduced flexibility into the laws, tolerating minor abuses while punishing only the worst crimes.
To block the hostile government officials, I used Yeo Woon-jae.
When I needed more power, I smiled and approached former enemies, becoming a politician like them.
I ignored problems I couldn’t solve immediately.
If necessary, I shook hands with villains and killed even the innocent.
Reality cannot be changed without compromise.
It takes too long.
Everything rots before it can be fixed.
This filthy, muddy reality can’t be bailed out alone, no matter how hard you try.
‘Professor Yeo.’
‘What is it?’
‘...How’s your body?’
‘It hasn’t been long since the surgery. Why ask now?’
‘Some washed-up villain gave you a fatal wound, so things got busy.’
‘Tsk... Just eat and go.’
To bail out filth, you must get dirty yourself.
‘Starlight.’
‘What? You need help with something?’
‘You can’t even handle your own work, and now you’re talking nonsense? Focus on your job.’
‘Grr...’
‘What’s this? An A-rank hero getting beaten up by a B-rank villain who took a hostage? Sure, you bought time and saved them, but for an A-rank hero...’
‘Right, one citizen’s life isn’t as important as yours.’
‘Next time, I’ll kill the hostage myself.’
‘What? Are you insane?!’
I don’t want to accept this reality.
Heroes are supposed to fight monsters.
From the very first step, I was trash who couldn’t even be a hero.
If I don’t do it—
Because I am the wall.
‘What... Is this?’
A wall that can’t even protect what’s within reach.
‘Where did this monster’s analysis data come from?!’
‘Paper? Looks like old records. Everything’s digitized now.’
‘That doesn’t matter. Can you separately analyze the flesh cells of every monster I bring in from now on?’
I—
‘What are these monsters?’
—was always too late.
‘Was the data manipulated?’
‘Behind these monsters... There’s something...’
To compensate for my lack of power, I compromised.
When time was short, I accepted collateral damage.
When something had to be eliminated, I accepted sacrifices.
But without doing this, I couldn’t stop anything.
Changing things without compromise is impossible unless you’re superpower human.
‘Ah, really... I wish some impossibly perfect superpower human would appear and fix everything.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Haha, a perfect superpower human wouldn’t need the bathroom, wouldn’t smell, would be handsome, tall, rich...’
‘And could eat spicy food without flinching?’
‘And organize the shoe cabinet perfectly.’
A joke shared with Yeo Ryeong—the absurd idea of a perfect superpower human.
I’m not that impossible being.
‘Someone who handles everything perfectly.’
Everything is a castle built on sand.
A hastily erected, flimsy wall to block the waves.
‘No greed for wealth or power... Never loses, never dies.’
Without wealth or power, too much is impossible.
I’ve lost countless times.
I’ve never died, though.
‘Protects the weak, ensures no one suffers—a superpower human among superpower humans?’
I’ve already exploited countless weaknesses.
Created victims who died unjustly.
‘What do you even want from such a superpower human?’
‘Hmm... Just a little peaceful time?’
Still, I kept moving forward.
To see with my own eyes the world I wished for.
‘You, me, Dad... Time for the whole family to go on a trip together... something like that.’
A reality just slightly better than now.
A little peace.
A world where heroes wouldn’t have to fight.
The beach Yeo Ryeong wanted to visit, where no monsters could be seen.
The ocean we reached in Yeo Woon-jae’s car with Yeo Ryeong.
Building sandcastles, eating watermelon together, laughing, running along the shore.
‘Ho-young! What are you doing? Come here!’
Yeo Ryeong’s unfulfilled wish—in a memory that doesn’t exist, she opens her mouth.
Chasing after her, I reach for her hand—
[Huh? What’s this? Sagugu, you can’t just pick up and eat anything.]
—her hand—
[Who’s this guy?]
[Huh? What the—haah? How’d you find this mess?]
[Sis told me?]
[Sis? What sis?]
Yeo Ryeong’s bright smile—bzzt, bzzt—the memory tears apart.
[Don’t know?]
[Don’t tell me you ate a human’s memories? You didn’t secretly snack on some weird human, did you...?]
[Sagugu didn’t eat anything nya~.]
Yeo Ryeong’s hand splits into two, three layers, moving grotesquely.
[They were still alive, huh? Hmm... Then eating them might not be the best idea.]
Yeo Ryeong stabs a syringe into my chest—where did she get that?
Her bright smile—the white ocean waves turn black like muddy water, then pure white, vanishing.
[The enemy of my enemy is a friend, right?]
Lips moving out of sync with the voice.
A superpower human’s sharp senses read the shape of those lips.
‘Not yet, don’t come.’
***
“Kage!”
“Ghk, huff...”
Startled awake by the loud voice, Jung Ho-young blinked, adjusting his blurry vision.
One of his two closest aides—women who acted as his secretaries—was pressing down on his chest to stop the bleeding.
Gasping for breath under the pressure, Jung Ho-young checked the state of his body.
“You’re—you’re awake? Ahh! Thank God!”
The unnatural sensation in his heart, the pain—the shattered core of his superpower human ability.
Belatedly, memories of what happened before he collapsed resurfaced.
Yeo Woon-jae’s hand piercing his chest, the momentary surge of power, followed by a wavelength unmistakably inhuman.
“Damn old man...”
Whatever had happened, something unnatural had occurred to Yeo Woon-jae.
Still gasping, Jung Ho-young called to his secretary as he felt tremors from underground.
“What’s... Happening?”
“There’s no problem. Kage, you need to get to the treatment room—!”
“Then what’s this noise?”
“Ehk...”
“Don’t... Make me ask twice... Lee Ha-rin...”
Boom! Boom...!
The continuous explosions shaking the earth and sky, the circular ripples of fog formed by ruptured night air.
Under Jung Ho-young’s urging, the woman named Lee Ha-rin parted her lips.
“After you collapsed, Starlight arrived. Six Despair-class monsters appeared—Black Cat took down three. Really... You can rest now.”
“The Hero Cannon... So Yoo Anna rode it... Keuk, kuh-huk! Kuh-huk...!”
Even through his dazed mind, Jung Ho-young laughed at the absurdity of Yoo Anna already being in A-City.
He wasn’t the only one who’d experienced that monstrosity—something no sane human would even think of creating or riding.
“The situation?”
“It’s under control. You hear it, right? Everyone’s fighting the monsters.”
“Without me, at least three out of ten would’ve fled... Yet they’re holding the line well.”
“Starlight is doing well. The Black Cat too...”
“You’re lying.”
His heart was already destroyed. Even with a superpower human’s vitality sustaining him, Jung Ho-young was an S-rank hero.
A wavelength this strong—he could tell who was fighting just by feeling it.
Right now, it was Yoo Anna and... Whatever Yeo Woon-jae had become. Nearby, something strangely familiar.
And two rampaging monsters.
“What’s the Black Cat doing?”
“Th-that... Sleeping...”
“Keuk, kuh-huh... Ah, I see...”
To sleep in this situation—monsters really are monsters. No, cats are cats.
Amused, Jung Ho-young’s smile faded as he realized something.
“We’re... Short on heroes...”
If Jung Ho-young was right, the Black Cat wouldn’t wake up anytime soon.
Yoo Anna, fighting the frenzied Yeo Woon-jae, wouldn’t have any spare capacity.
Baskerville couldn’t hunt Despair-class monsters.
Left unchecked, casualties among heroes and citizens would only rise.
“Lee... Ha-rin.”
Remembering a solution, Kage pointed with a trembling hand.
The moment he’d struck Yeo Woon-jae’s body like a shield—
A white cylindrical object had fallen from his pocket.
“N-no, you can’t!”
“Do you want to create another one?”
Following his finger, Lee Ha-rin’s face twisted as if she might cry, pressing down on Jung Ho-young’s body.
Staying still. But Jung Ho-young’s next words froze her.
“If I don’t move, citizens who don’t have to die... Will die.”
Crushed by reality, painfully aware he wasn't a superpower human, Jung Ho-young had wished for a superpower human to emerge among the heroes.
Calling City A’s awakened ones ‘superpower humans’ instead of ‘heroes’ was that wish.
But no superpower human appeared.
So he tried to become one himself.
“Those deaths... Weren’t necessary sacrifices.”
The lives of those who died—
To ensure their sacrifices weren’t in vain.
To make them necessary sacrifices.
To save even one more person from monsters.
“You’ll really die! If you—!”
His heart was barely holding on, already destroyed.
Even if it recovered, he’d never return to being the Kage of before.
“I’m... Already dead.”
“Uu... Uuuuuh...”
A-City’s greatest superpower human, Kage, was already dead.
Placing a hand on his heart, Kage took Lee Ha-rin’s tearful hand and pointed it in the same direction.
“I’m grateful to you.”
The strange pill that likely turned Yeo Woon-jae into a monster.
Its contents were suspicious, but that pill had allowed Yeo Woon-jae’s ruined body to move like a superpower human multiple times.
Kage had long since stopped caring about methods.
Villains, monsters—if they could be used, he used them.
“Bring me... The pill.”
He couldn’t let all his efforts as Jung Ho-young go to waste.
Everything he’d built to become Kage, the superpower human.
This sandcastle couldn’t be allowed to collapse yet.