Become a Hero
The Grace of Prophecy ensures that once you see a vision of the future, you never forget it no matter how much time passes. The child standing next to Sera was definitely the new member of the five-member girl group Red Blossom. Her baby face combined with a voluptuous, glamorous figure created a blessed harmony that made her the perfect debut fairy to captivate countless men.
I placed my hand on both of their foreheads.
‘They’ve just fainted.’
Having grown accustomed to the Grace of Healing, I could now sense things just by touching them. I couldn’t diagnose them as precisely as a doctor, but I could at least tell whether they were in pain or not.
It is only natural to meet the child you saw through the Grace of Prophecy, but I never imagined she would be in a place like this.
‘Exactly. When she wakes up, I’ll have to ask her what happened.’
Are you planning to take her with you?
The cultists could rot for all I cared, but I couldn’t just abandon the women who had been kidnapped.
‘That’s the plan, but I can’t only take those two. I have to find some way to get the rest out too.’
As expected, Master never passes by someone in need of help.
‘Because I’m the only one who can help them. If it weren’t for that black smoke, I wouldn’t have even found this place.’
This location was so remote that you had to drive down an unpaved road for quite a while to reach it. If I left these women behind, even if they woke up later, they would have no way to get back.
‘I should call Yeoreum and tell her I found Sera.’
When I looked at my phone screen, I was stunned.
‘Uwaaah, what the hell is this?’
What is the matter?
Ryu Yeoreum: 321 missed calls. Cha Soyeon: 344 missed calls. I had switched my phone to silent mode because I thought the ringtone might give me away while I was sneaking in here. In that time, the two of them had called me over six hundred times combined.
‘I can understand Yeoreum doing this, but why is Cha Soyeon…?’
I called Yeoreum first.
“Manager-nim!! Hooowaaaaang~”
She picked up the instant the call connected and immediately burst into loud sobs.
“Wait, um… Yeoreum-ah, hold on… calm down for a second…”
I needed to explain the situation, but she wouldn’t give me a chance to speak.
“It’s me, Cha Soyeon. Where are you right now?”
A different voice came through. Why were the two of them together?
“Why is Soyeon-ssi with Yeoreum?”
“That’s not what’s important right now!!”
Whoa, that startled me. I didn’t know she could raise her voice like that.
“Tell us where you are right now!”
“The location is…”
I told them where I was and explained the current situation. Since I couldn’t mention the Grace, I conveniently left out the part where I had beaten everyone up myself.
“They were fighting among themselves inside something like a chapel, so I snuck upstairs and rescued Sera and the other kidnapped women. By the end, there weren’t many left, so I took care of them.”
It was fine to say that much. After all, I had subdued a guy with a knife using only my bare hands.
“So you’re saying you’re going to bring Sera and the kidnapped women out with you?”
“Yes. The place is so remote that it would be difficult for the women to get out on their own.”
“Have you taken care of all the bad people there?”
“Yes. It’s safe now.”
“Then please wait there until I arrive. I need to see the situation for myself.”
“Wait, Soyeon-ssi. That’s…”
Click. She must have left immediately. This was going to be a problem.
‘Cha Soyeon says she’s coming here.’
She has taken quite an interest in you, Master. It is not surprising that she would do this.
‘That’s not the issue. How am I supposed to explain this place? The chapel is full of guys with cracked skulls, and the lake is a sea of blood.’
One moment, please.
For once, the Divine Spirit was taking its time.
I have considered what that woman will do when she arrives. Up until now, she has been constantly trying to elevate your image, has she not?
‘She has.’
We must create an alibi that matches her behavioral patterns. The situation is awkward, but since there are no witnesses, you can simply insist on your story.
‘That’s why I said they were fighting among themselves.’
It did sound ridiculous that hundreds of people would suddenly start brawling at the exact moment I came to rescue Sera, and that every single one of them ended up with cracked skulls. But just as the Divine Spirit said, I was the only witness, so I planned to stubbornly insist it was the truth.
Even if no one else believes you, that woman and the girls will. Do not worry.
I couldn’t argue with that. Given all the goodwill they had shown me so far, they would believe me.
I will restore the lake to its original state first. I had planned to let them soak for a few days, but it is a shame.
The lake, which had turned a vivid crimson, began to bubble violently. It looked hotter than magma flowing from a volcano.
‘I thought you said you were going to restore it.’
This is the final touch. A short but intense burst of pain. The ones submerged are currently tasting hell.
‘It’s amazing that they can endure something like that.’
Well, they will not die, but the side effects will be severe.
‘Side effects?’
Experiencing extreme pain in such a short time will damage their brains. Their intelligence, as well as their memory, will decline significantly.
In other words, they would become idiots. A fitting ending for cult members.
‘I hope the guys sprawled out in the chapel end up the same way.’
They were struck in the head with a weapon imbued with Grace. Do you really think they will be fine? The side effects on that side will be considerable as well.
That was good to hear.
When they turn back into water, they will float to the surface. Move them onto the dock or the bridge. Place a few there, then throw the rest into the grass at the far end of the lake where they won’t be easily seen.
‘Why do I have to do that?’
It must match the alibi. I will explain everything from now on.
*****
The violently bubbling surface gradually calmed. The vivid red slowly faded until the lake returned to its original color. Bubbles rose to the surface as people began floating up one by one.
You may move them now.
I ran across the water, pulling up one person at a time and throwing them into the grass. It would have taken forever if I had to swim or use a boat, so this was incredibly convenient. I scattered a few people across the dock and the bridge. Every single one of them had pale faces twisted in agony. When I spotted the cult leader, I tossed him in the most visible spot on the dock.
After finishing with the lake, I took a breather. That was when I saw lights coming from the entrance. It looked like Cha Soyeon had arrived.
‘She got here fast.’
I checked my watch. It hadn’t even been three hours. It had taken me over four hours to get here, so this was basically flying.
*
“Oppa! Blood, there’s so much blood on you!!”
“Manager-nim! Are you okay?”
“It doesn’t look like you just finished things up.”
Yeoreum and Lina had come along. Besides the three of them, there were two more burly men. They didn’t look like anyone I had seen at the company. They seemed more like bodyguards.
“I borrowed them from Grandfather for a bit. They know how to keep their mouths shut, so you don’t have to worry.”
Just who was her grandfather that he could lend out people like this? They clearly looked like martial arts experts.
Yeoreum and Lina were patting me down all over, as if checking a cherished item for scratches.
“Hooowaaaang, what do we do? You’re scratched here.”
“Oppa! Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“I’m fine, so back off a little. You keep doing that and I can’t even talk.”
The two of them sniffled and moved over to stand beside Cha Soyeon.
“How did you find this place?”
The question the Divine Spirit had predicted finally came. I recalled the alibi I had heard earlier and began speaking.
“Sera’s mother wasn’t answering her phone, so I went to her house in person. But no one was there. I found a shop in the neighborhood that had been in business for a long time and asked about Sera’s mother.”
I explained how I had asked around like a detective until I learned which church she attended. When I went there, it turned out to be not a normal church but the corrupt pseudo-religion called the Jinsaeng Sect. While I was staking out the area, I saw a group of men and women moving together. I followed them and ended up here. I waited until nightfall, then climbed over the poorly maintained barbed wire fence.
“It looked like they were holding some kind of assembly. All the people were gathered on the second floor. So I was searching the empty upper floors when I heard screams from below and everything turned chaotic. I waited until it quieted down, then went down and found that almost everyone had already collapsed except for a few. I took care of the ones that were left.”
“Then what about these people here?”
“They’re the ones who tried to run and fell into the lake. When I came out of the building, a few of them who couldn’t swim were flailing around before they sank. So I pulled them out.”
“Why are you going through all this trouble for scum like them! You should have just let them drown!”
“That’s right. Manager-nim is too kind for your own good.”
I wondered what kind of faces they would make if they ever found out that I was the one who had beaten everyone up.
“Juwon-ssi really doesn’t hesitate when it comes to anything involving Red Blossom. I’m almost jealous.”
“I just got lucky. I came here to find evidence that it was a cult and report it to the police. I never imagined Sera would be locked up on the floor I was searching.”
“It’s because Juwon-ssi pours his heart and soul into Red Blossom that luck follows you.”
Cha Soyeon interpreted everything in a positive light, so the story resolved more easily than I had expected.
“The building you mentioned is that one, right? Let’s go.”
She said she wanted to see exactly what had happened.
*
When they saw the horrific scene inside the chapel, Yeoreum covered her mouth. Lina dry-heaved beside me. Even Cha Soyeon, who usually kept a perfect poker face when cameras weren’t around, frowned.
“I took care of the few guys by the door, but it looks like the ones inside started fighting among themselves. Maybe it was some kind of power struggle.”
I glossed over it roughly, but the shock must have been too great. None of the three said a word.
We crossed the chapel and went up to the floor where the kidnapped women had been held.
“These are basically hotel rooms. Juwon-ssi, those women… perhaps…”
I nodded silently. Emotion flickered across Cha Soyeon’s normally expressionless face. Her expression remained the same, but that emotion was unmistakably rage.
I led the three of them to the cult leader’s room.
“Sera!!”
“Unnie! Unnieee!”
Yeoreum and Lina ran to Sera, crying. They kept calling her name and shaking her, but Sera didn’t regain consciousness.
“Stop shaking her. She’s only unconscious. There’s nothing wrong with her body. Let’s get her to a hospital in Seoul right away.”
“We can’t leave yet.”
“We’ve seen everything.”
“I called the police. They will be here soon. Juwon-ssi is a witness, after all.”
“I can give my statement when they actually need it. Right now, Sera is more urgent.”
“I didn’t only call the police.”
Huh?
“I contacted all the major news outlets. Since I called them, they will all come without missing a single one. Juwon-ssi is a brave citizen who single-handedly destroyed a heretical cult that deceived people, stole their money, and violated women.”
Cha Soyeon’s eyes sparkled.
“You are a manager with an extraordinary sense of responsibility who, upon hearing that the artist under your care had been kidnapped, rushed here without regard for danger. Juwon-ssi, you have every qualification to become a hero.”
It looked like she had made up her mind to turn me into a proper hero.