Two Years Later
Two years had passed since the extermination of the Barug.
Emily had left the 7th Area immediately after the Barug extermination to carry out her designated mission from above.
I began hunting calamities and collecting their essences.
Of course, I wasn’t alone—I hunted alongside the poachers.
It was thanks to Mary. After exterminating the Barug according to my advice, she gathered every poacher, introduced me, and declared that she would accept me as one of their own.
At first, the little girl had been skeptical about a girl like me joining the poaching, but once she learned I was the greatest contributor to the Barug extermination, she accepted me with the attitude of “let’s watch first.”
After accompanying them on several hunts and proving my worth, I was finally recognized as an honorable poacher in the group.
[Ah, you know I put safety first, right?]
“Of course. I always put safety first.”
[Oh, keep it up today too.]
“Alright, Shan. Let’s go.”
As promised with Shan, I never hunted in groups.
Shan and I collected the essences of the necessary calamities one by one, fitting the pieces of the puzzle for the next growth.
Once I had gained the power to protect this body with ease…
“Die.”
Thud!
I began hunting villains.
At first, it was simply to gather the essences I needed.
“Why are there so many villains who target kids these days?”
[Th, those guys are fine to kill, right?]
This world was overflowing with ability users, and the structure was one where villains who used their powers for crime kept increasing endlessly.
Of course, crimes caused by villains never ceased, and as a result, many children who suffered wounds and trauma at a young age and fell into darkness increased.
Most of the villains who grew into antagonists also carried such tragic pasts.
“Yo, you are…?”
“Stop there. It’s still possible to turn back.”
While absorbing essences during villain hunts, if any unfortunate souls were entangled in the mess, I helped them enter the orphanage whenever possible.
Of course, it wasn’t the ordinary reformatory—it was the orphanage built by me, the former cult followers of Shan, and the people of the 7th Area.
Named after the dandelion flowers Dorothy loved, we called it the Dandelion Orphanage.
I hadn’t intended to choose the same path as Shan from the beginning.
One child after another… as I saved them, it naturally became necessary to have a space for them to stay.
I contacted the disciples and teachers of the surviving Shan who needed teachers and capital for the orphanage.
“Will they really come? It’s been quite a while.”
[Th, I’m sure they will. Th, they’re all my faithful… disciples.]
At first, I was half-doubting, but surprisingly, with just one phone call, every single one of them gathered at the Dandelion Orphanage without a single person missing.
There were no complaints or dissatisfaction—only joy that they could now serve Shan again.
After that, influential figures around us—Mary the poacher, the gruff Weapon Shop Owner uncle from the Merchant Union, Emma the former hero with connections to the city area—gathered saying they were doing good deeds and claimed to be sponsors.
Of course, the possibility that New Order or villains would invade the orphanage at any time still existed.
In fact, there had been a few crazy guys who attempted terrorism several times.
But after White Ghost appeared, such incidents never happened again.
The appearance of White Ghost had been completely unexpected.
Without any warning signs, she appeared suddenly, just as if she had always been there, and naturally slaughtered every villain present.
After that, she wrote the words “[Being Watched - White Ghost]” on the wall and vanished.
After that, the Dandelion Orphanage became a sanctuary that no one in the area—not even New Order—could touch.
…
…
“Nothing special today.”
After reinforcing my mimic ability and acquiring White Ghost’s technique, while hunting villains I never once had my tail caught.
In the past two years, encounters with heroes or hunters had been so rare they could be counted on one hand.
Even if I accidentally crossed paths with them, I quietly slipped away without any collision.
Rather, even if they noticed me by accident, instead of being on guard, I sometimes felt a sense of encouragement.
After roaming the 7th Area for the past two years and beating down villains, the 7th Area sometimes had lower crime rates than even the formal areas.
[Then, o, should I go home early today and sleep?]
“Probably so.”
Soon it would be the academy entrance season, so I had to stop climbing the skyscrapers.
With entrance exams, it was time to start preparing for the tests.
Thud.
I returned home early after a long time and threw myself onto the bed.
“…Shan?”
[Um…]
I had been dozing off since earlier and finally fell asleep.
Since there hadn’t been any major dangers recently, Shan had become completely relaxed.
While I slept, she would roam the net at will, play all night, and sleep during the day.
In the past two years, I had collected essences while searching for the functions Shan needed.
Among them, of course, there were ordinary abilities, but there were also unexpectedly unique ones.
One of them was the function to connect to the net using Shan’s psychic ability.
As befits her moniker “Whispering One,” with an explanation that was hard to understand—that she could connect to the network through her ability to interfere with others’ minds and transmit her voice—she asked me to collect essences related to mental power first, and then she really connected to the net.
[Hehe… now, without a smartphone, I can freely roam the sites…]
Wasting decades-old abilities on net browsing… I suppose that’s just like Shan.
Ding.
“What is this?”
A notification from an unknown site appeared on the terminal linked to my account.
I had created an ID in my name for Shan’s smooth net activities, and since it was linked to my terminal, the notification had come from there.
After a long time, I opened the net and scrolled through it.
“W, what is this?”
I saw something I couldn’t have imagined.
It was as shocking as seeing the deep cosmic horror on the net.
“White Angel-nim,” “Children’s Guardian Angel,” “Angel Who Protects Children,” “Baby Angel,” “White Hero”
All sorts of unique search terms and results.
Following that, the net connected to it had an article dealing with the hot topic of the town.
And in that article…
There was a story about the “hero who is not a hero” protecting children in the 7th Area.
A dark hero who was not a hero but had accomplished more than a hero.
But at the same time, a beautiful (estimated) existence like a small white angel.
“This, no matter how I think about it, isn’t it me?”
My story had become the hot topic of the town on the net.
Well, the fact that I had preemptively dealt with related guys to prevent children who would become villains or black villains from falling into darkness in the future was true, but…
I never expected such nicknames to start following me.
[Um… Tiss?]
“Shan, how did this happen?”
As I woke Shan up and started to get angry, Shan, who had been stammering, dropped a huge bombshell.
[I, I found out recently too. Dorothy told me.]
“What… Dorothy?”
This is some nonsense.
How does Dorothy know about that?
…
…
The poacher’s gathering I visited after a long time had grown to an unprecedentedly large size compared to before.
Surprisingly, the poachers had also concluded new city partnership contracts like New Order.
It was the result of a long-term intrigue.
By making Mary, who had the potential to become an S-rank villain, the leader, and gathering local forces around her, they had made them resist New Order.
They blocked all impulsive responses to not get entangled in their dirty and treacherous tricks.
Originally, New Order should have absorbed all these forces, but the current New Order was only half the size of the original work.
It was a result of fighting alone against a giant corporation for two years and slowly gnawing away at it.
“Wow! Angel-nim! It’s been a while!”
Dorothy jumped and dove into my arms.
Wah!
When hunting long, I stayed at Mary’s house and shared a room with Dorothy, but…
“Angel-nim! Can I hug you too?”
Dorothy’s eyes sparkled as she said she wanted to hug me once too, so I thought, why not, and lightly hugged her.
“Angel-nim~ Hug me!”
Wah!
After that, thinking I had given permission, she kept diving into my arms whenever she had a chance.
“Here, I hugged you.”
“Hehe. Angel-nim is so nice.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
While stroking Dorothy’s head wriggling in my arms, a large shadow approached quietly from behind our backs.
Kwook.
“Tiss, this cutie came?”
“Hello, Mary.”
“Mary unnie!”
Mary hugged me, who was holding Dorothy, as is.
[Hum…]
At first, Shan, who laughed saying it was cute that Dorothy flew to me like a flying squirrel and hugged me, started showing jealousy a little as time passed.
Previously, it was uncomfortable because I couldn’t talk to Shan in front of people, but now such worries were no longer necessary.
Just as I learned to communicate with telepathy through essences, like Shan discovering her mysterious technique to connect to the net.
[Bu, envious. I, I want to do kwook too.]
[Uum… That’s not enough. Something something… I want to pet.]
[Um…]
Now, even with Dorothy, who was rubbing against me in my arms right in front, I could talk to Shan without any problem.
After Dorothy drank the tea she had boiled and chatted casually first, she slowly brought up the main topic.
“Dorothy, actually, I came because I had something I wanted to ask.”
“Angel-nim asking me something…”
No, why was she blushing and getting embarrassed again.
“Please… ask me anything.”
“I became curious too since Tiss has something to ask Dorothy.”
“Perhaps it’s about the rumors floating around these days.”
I asked about the rumors of “Baby Guardian Angel” etc. floating on the net.
“I know it well!”
Dorothy knew my rumors spreading on the net in much more detail than I expected.