The Hero and the Villain
I gave the unconscious man a light push with my foot and called over Ahn Param, who sat kneeling outside the iron bars.
"Param."
"……"
"Ahn Param?"
When I shook his shoulder, his upper body swayed limply along with it, like a bean sprout.
"Ahn Param."
Only after I called again did his body stiffen up all at once, and suddenly Ahn Param jerked his head up.
"Y-yes, sir!"
"Answer quietly."
"……Y-yes, sir."
I looked down at the cult leader, unconscious with a nosebleed streaming down his face.
It was a mercy that Yoo Jinchae had subdued him so easily. I'd been genuinely stumped about what to do with the man, but then I'd blinked and it was already over.
That's a former field team leader for you.
While Yoo Jinchae, who had come over, subjected the cult leader's face and build to a thorough inspection, I patted Ahn Param lightly on the shoulder and spoke.
"You see that man over there, asleep?"
"……Asleep? You're kidding, right? He's not asleep! I have eyes too! That lady beat the living daylights out of him and that's why he's like that!!"
"Oh dear, you saw that, did you? Well…. Anyway, there's something you need to do for me."
"N-no, no way! I won't do it… You adults sort it out yourselves! I'm just going to lie here playing dead and then, uh, uh! Quietly slip away!"
Ahn Param shook his head a hundred times a second, his face gone white as a sheet.
Well, someone really doesn't want to.
…Honestly, I could manage without the kid. Still, I'd been planning to keep him glued to my side until security was assured, and only then cut him loose.
"Hmm…. Is that how it's going to be, then?"
I nodded as if I couldn't care less.
"That said, everyone out there has seen your face, so you'd be better off heading out with the rest of us in a little while. Unless you want to get dragged back here."
Then I released the shoulder I'd been holding and began stretching my arms and legs out one by one.
Hmm…. Well, I suppose I should at least tell him this much.
He was a loud, annoying brat, but a kid was still a kid.
Lacing my fingers together, I stretched my arms up toward the ceiling as I spoke.
"Everyone's leaving together later, so time your exit with that. And that Jaehong person, whether it's a hyung or a noona—cut off contact with them the moment we leave here…. Go straight home. Your parents are worried about you."
He was a high schooler. Surely he could make it home on his own.
"How about this—should we strip his clothes off and wear them?"
Yoo Jinchae lifted the hem of the cult leader's robes and asked me. It was a white ceremonial garment, the kind priests typically wore for religious rites.
"Sounds good. If we're doing this, let's do it properly."
While I helped Yoo Jinchae strip the cult leader of his clothes, I swept a quick glance around us.
Thankfully, the chatter of the crowd below the altar seemed to have drowned out our commotion.
Nobody's coming.
More importantly… what was that?
I shifted my position slightly and looked at the altar again. Something strange had caught my eye.
Now what is that supposed to be?
On the altar stood a waiting table, and on top of it… an antique dagger, and a washbasin beautifully carved out of marble.
"Did demon summoning always require a knife and a washbasin?"
At the sudden voice, I turned to find Yoo Jinchae there—somehow a full hand-span taller than before, her face completely changed.
Looking, to anyone's eyes, exactly like the cult leader.
"You've… already transformed?"
"My mana recovered more or less while I was lying down. Some skill on the building is why I'm still this stick-thin, though."
Wow. She really is identical.
Even the mole embedded in the cult leader's cheek had been faithfully reproduced. I was staring open-mouthed in admiration at Yoo Jinchae's flawless imitation of his face when a phone alarm suddenly rang out.
Without so much as a flinch, she used her lengthened legs to rummage through the man's trousers, fished out his phone, and brought it back over to me.
"Looks like it's almost time."
So she set an alarm, huh.
The summoning ritual the cult leader had spoken of was nearly upon us.
…The time had finally come to put the plan in motion.
I quietly raised my voice toward Ahn Param, who was still staring blankly in our direction.
"What are you doing over there? Aren't you getting ready to leave?"
For an instant, a flicker of hesitation crossed Ahn Param's face.
Didn't he already make up his mind?
I'd fully expected him to bolt, given how violently he'd refused before. But Ahn Param swallowed hard, slowly made his way toward us, and said:
"I'll just… do whatever you tell me to, sir."
What brought this change of heart on, I wondered.
"Why the sudden change of mind?"
"Between this lady's combat power and you having an actual demon, sir… this side just seems to have better odds of survival."
Well, well.
"Flitting from side to side like a bat, are we?"
Yoo Jinchae crossed her arms and regarded Ahn Param through narrowed eyes. At that, Ahn Param averted his gaze and answered in a crawling, groveling voice.
"Ah… well, you could call it keen survival instinct."
"Funny how you keep changing what you call us, too."
"That's also survival instinct…."
"Unbelievable. The nerve."
Yoo Jinchae shook her head vehemently and pressed down firmly on Ahn Param's head—something only possible now that she was taller than him.
While I watched the two of them, I went to fetch what I'd had my eye on this whole time from the corner.
Saw this when they dragged me in. Did they have this ready for the summoning ritual too?
Yoo Jinchae looked down at what I held in both hands and asked, with an air of resigned disbelief.
"You're… really going to do this, aren't you?"
I carefully set the things down on the floor.
"Of course I am."
Yoo Jinchae made to head straight for the altar, but I stopped her.
The moment she stepped up onto that platform, she would be looking down at the sky's floor. And yet…
Increased mental stability ratings don't cure a phobia, after all.
I couldn't guarantee her acrophobia wouldn't make her collapse all over again.
Putting on as calm a face as I could manage, I looked at Yoo Jinchae as she turned back to me and spoke.
"Teacher, if my plan succeeds, this place is going to be an ocean of fire. Right?"
"……I suppose so? That's gasoline, isn't it."
Yoo Jinchae pointed at the plastic containers set at my feet.
Two garish red plastic containers labeled GASOLINE sat there, practically radiating presence.
"Yes. Which means, Teacher, what you're about to do is really no different from evacuating all those people from below the altar in a fire."
"……Sorry, what?"
"Eyes forward. Don't stop, don't look down, and think of nothing but saving people. That's all you do."
"Th… those people aren't going to see it that way, though. I'll be lucky if they don't start throwing rocks at me later, calling me a fraud."
"Who in their right mind would dare throw a rock at the cult leader's face? Don't worry about that. Let's just stick to our roles. You're the hero; I, carrying the gasoline, am the villain. Devote yourself to your role and nothing else. No stray thoughts."
"…I know you must not trust me after showing you such a shameful side of myself, but I'm hardly a child…."
Yoo Jinchae faltered, the corners of her mouth trembling. But I shook my head firmly.
Nope. Not a chance.
Plant even a childish idea like this in her head, and she won't have room for any other thoughts.
Let me say it again: Yoo Jinchae is frighteningly rational.
To keep her from being swallowed by fear a second time, giving her something to do right this moment would work far better than emotional comfort or some quote she'd heard somewhere.
Even if that something happened to be a rather juvenile game of make-believe.
"You're the hero, I'm the villain. Okay? A follower has to obey her cult leader, after all. You did join the Church of Nabi, didn't you?"
"……You truly are juvenile, you know that? But then again…. I suppose I have only myself to blame for joining a cult I knew nothing about."
"Be more careful about joining religions in the future."
"……"
Juvenile or not, so be it. The important thing was that all of us walk out of here alive and safe.
I took hold of Yoo Jinchae's broadened shoulders and turned her to face forward. Then I gave her arm a light pat, and after only the briefest hesitation, she strode up the stairs leading to the altar without a trace of doubt.
A moment later came the scuffle of a microphone being adjusted… and then a smooth, masculine voice flowed out over the crowd.
"Thank you all for waiting so long."
Seamless. Not a single stumble.
Her lips curving into a gentle arc, Yoo Jinchae effortlessly captured the gazes of the crowd seething with excitement below the altar.
Having watched the perfect cult leader take shape, I moved over to Ahn Param and jerked my chin at him.
"See that man over there? Pick him up and follow me."
"You mean the unconscious one? …You want ME to carry him? Me? I'm a high schooler?!"
"Whether you carry him or drag him is up to you…. Now, where did that boy who swore he'd be my dog go, I wonder?"
"……Ha. Unbelievable…."
Ahn Param glared at the cult leader crumpled in the corner, then heaved a deep sigh, all the fight drained from his face.
When I picked up the two containers of gasoline and called him over, he hoisted the cult leader onto his shoulder in one motion, his face scrunched up in disgust.
Awakened, my foot. No need to be dramatic.
Just as we finished preparing, Yoo Jinchae launched into the preamble she'd prepared to rouse the crowd.
"Everyone—have you never had this thought? Is this hall truly… big enough to receive our Lord Demon?"
It was a trivial question, but the crowd's murmuring spread like ink in water, growing steadily louder.
"He's right, isn't he?"
"Yes. Even the illustrations in the Holy Text show Lord Astaroth is quite large."
"There's merit to that."
Then, amid the commotion, someone below the altar thrust a hand high into the air and asked:
"Then what do we do? The summoning site has already been set to this basement."
And at that very moment, a benevolent smile bloomed across Yoo Jinchae's lips.
Because the questioner had asked exactly the right thing.
"Fear not. That is precisely why I have prepared an alternative."
"Ooooh! The cult leader delivers, as expected!"
"We simply conduct the summoning ritual outside."
"……"
In an instant, the hall fell dead silent. But Yoo Jinchae, unbothered, continued with a low chuckle.
"Haha, I understand your shock at such a sudden change of venue. But on this most auspicious of days, would it not be better than fumbling the ritual through endless deliberation over means and methods?"
And then she went a step further, slyly shifting the blame.
If the summoning failed because they refused to consent here, wouldn't that failure be on their hands as well?
People waver easily. The moment even one of them voices agreement…
"Excellent! Let's go outside! For Lord Astaroth!"
"Yes, yes! Wonderful! Let's do it!"
"Honestly, there's nothing to debate as long as it works!"
The ending was always predetermined.
Unanimous.
"Very good. Follow me, please—those of you at the front may begin making your way out."
4:30 in the morning.
An abandoned commercial building nestled in the folds of a Gangwon Province mountainside.
The crowd of fanatics who worshipped demons in that building's basement began, one by one, to crawl out into the open air.
And behind them waited a high schooler with the real cult leader slung over his shoulder, and a kindergarten teacher carrying a 20L gasoline can in each hand.
All of this—waiting to be burned to the ground.