The Masked Villain (1)
Everyone dreams of being a villain at least once.
Not in some grand, theatrical way. Sometimes you just want to smash everything to pieces. There are moments when you’re so disillusioned with society that you fantasize about dropping a massive nuke on it all. I’m serious. Even after ten years of playing hero in this insane hero-obsessed world, I still have those moments.
Like right now, for example.
I stared blankly, completely dazed, at the person in front of me.
My gaze had landed on a massive iron cage that looked exactly like something used to house wild animals. Inside it was a single silver-haired, sickly-looking girl. She must have sensed my stare because she gave me a faint smile. It wasn’t vacant so much as resigned, and her red eyes held no spark of life, like a candle about to flicker out.
What the hell?
My pupils trembled. This was the basement of the Hero Association. I had been ordered to secure the area after a villain group called Blood Queen suddenly stormed the building. They had shouted things like “Hand over the Queen!” and forced their way down here, eventually breaking open the door to this secret laboratory.
I looked around. The members of Blood Queen were all collapsed on the floor. Their red eyes, now unconscious, were all fixed on one thing: the frail-looking girl I had knocked out using my ability.
When my confused gaze turned back to her, the girl smiled sweetly.
“Who the hell are you?” I asked, still stunned. Even I could tell how stupid my voice sounded.
The girl closed her mouth at my question. Her eyes grew cold for a moment, but she quickly forced another smile and spoke again.
“Why do you want to die? And why is a kid locked up in a laboratory?”
“I’m a villain, apparently. That’s what people say.”
Ar’s expression darkened mid-sentence.
Even while speaking, Ar kept glancing nervously at the computer in the lab. Her anxious eyes were fixed on the time displayed on the screen. As if something were chasing her the longer time passed, her complexion grew paler by the second.
What is this? My head’s a complete mess.
I hadn’t even known the Association had a facility like this. I hadn’t known about Ar, or that anyone else might be here. I couldn’t begin to understand why the Association would imprison a girl in the first place.
Why? What were they hiding?
“They’re coming.”
The girl suddenly whipped her head around. She bit her nails frantically, trembling as if terrified. Her shaking gaze was locked on the elevator that led to this floor.
I hadn’t noticed before, but pressing a strange sequence of buttons—1, 6, 9, 7, 13—brought the elevator straight down here. The Blood Queen villains must have known somehow. They had broken past me and taken this elevator all the way to the basement. I had followed them too late and ended up here.
The fact that she’s reacting like this…
It was most likely someone from the Association—researchers or someone similar. When the Blood Queen villains had arrived, the silver-haired girl hadn’t been this terrified.
Ding.
The sound of the elevator arriving echoed through the room.
“Ah…”
At the same time, the girl stared at the opening doors with hollow eyes. When they slid open, a cold-looking woman in a suit stepped out, followed by several researchers in lab coats.
I knew the woman in the suit very well. Long, neatly styled blue hair. Cold, silver eyes.
“…Flan.”
“How unexpected. I didn’t think you’d come all the way down here.”
Flan raised an eyebrow as if genuinely surprised and made a show of looking around. Then her icy gaze shifted back and forth between me and the girl.
She was the youngest President of the Hero Association in history, my former classmate, and an S-class hero—Flan.
“Hmm.”
“What the hell is this? Who is that girl…?”
“I know. I figured you’d react like that.”
Flan looked at me with eyes completely devoid of emotion, then glanced at the researchers. They immediately surrounded me. I struggled in panic and tried to activate my ability, Mental Derangement, but Flan’s voice rang in my ears.
Her emotionless eyes continued to stare at me. I was dragged away with a blank expression.
Just before the elevator doors closed, I looked back at Ar inside her cage. She let out a hollow laugh.
Clang. The elevator doors shut.
…
“As you know, this was a necessary action.”
Flan sat with her fingers laced under her chin, speaking with a serious expression. The office was quiet. Sunlight streaming in from the window lit up the space behind her, casting her face in shadow. I sat across from her.
“You look pretty dazed and helpless. I understand. A hero is supposed to protect people, and to you, even that calamity probably looked like someone who needed saving.”
“Calamity, huh.”
I smiled bitterly. The image of Ar flashed through my mind—smiling as she begged to be killed. That grotesque, tragic sight. The very next day after the incident, I had been summoned here.
Is this really right?
After possessing this body, I had spent a full ten years working as a hero. The villains were always clearly defined, and I had fought with the goal of protecting others. Even when comrades died, when I was resented, when I received cold glares, I never wavered.
But the Association—the very organization that managed heroes—had kept a girl locked up. The Association wasn’t supposed to do something like that. Not the Association I had sworn to follow.
Flan’s eyes remained coldly indifferent.
“That child is a True Ancestor. To put it simply… she is an enormous calamity. If she ever develops a wicked heart, she could bring ruin to the entire world at any moment.”
“Then why did you lock Ar up?”
“Did you develop some affection for her in that short time? Or have you grown soft after so many years of hero work?”
Flan tilted her head, asking as if truly curious. Of course, even that was just an act. It wasn’t mockery—it was a genuine question. Flan had always been an unfathomable woman. We had known each other for a long time, and even when we went on that one date, she had been the same.
“Maybe so.”
“Then I’ll give you some time off. Seeing a counselor might help. I’m not very good at comforting people. I think you already know that.”
“…”
I lowered my head. Instead of looking at Flan, I stared silently at the floor. I heard her make a small thoughtful sound. Then she rose from her chair.
Tap. Tap.
Flan stopped right in front of me. Only then did I lift my head and look at her wordlessly. She asked in a voice laced with curiosity.
“What do you want? No, rather than putting it so bluntly… this might be better for you. What are you thinking?”
“I’m a hero. I had no idea there was a secret facility underground. You might not think anything of it, Flan… No, that was a slip of the tongue. You’re human too.”
Flan shook her head slightly as if it didn’t bother her. Then she gave a small smile.
“It’s fine. It’s always been like that.”
“Just because it’s always been that way doesn’t make it okay. If you watch those trashy movies we used to watch together every day, you’d know it’s not fine.”
“Is that so?”
Flan tilted her head with a question mark practically floating above it, as if she genuinely didn’t understand.
“Anyway, the Association has been hiding something from me. And I don’t know what that girl’s purpose is or what’s going to happen to her. Flan, I… I don’t understand why she’s locked up.”
“Medicine.”
Flan crouched down to meet my eye level. I stared into her indifferent gaze.
Medicine?
I frowned at the sudden word. Flan pointed out the window.
“The blood of a True Ancestor is incredibly valuable. It’s used to create cures, and it’s potent enough to be used as a stimulant as well.”
“So you’re saying…”
“That child has been providing precious medicine for heroes. You’ve probably taken some yourself.”
“Ha.”
I let out a hollow laugh. My expression was rotting in real time. I clenched my clothes tightly in my fist.
Is that girl having her blood drawn all day long?
Flan blinked her long lashes as if wondering why I was reacting this way, then lightly poked me with her finger.
“Like I said earlier, she is a calamity. We simply found the most efficient way to make use of her.”
“Has she killed anyone? Has she ever been publicly declared a villain or officially designated as one?”
“…”
Flan fell silent. She made a small thoughtful sound, twisting her lips as if she understood, then looked at me with something resembling pity.
“You really never change.”
“Neither do you. Do you really think other heroes would still use that medicine if they knew how it was made? That’s why you’re hiding it, right? Is that what you call a rational solution?”
“Always trying to understand others, always thinking about them… Doesn’t a life like that get exhausting?”
Flan observed me closely, as if studying me.
…In the end.
Even if I told her that what they were doing to that girl was too unethical, even if I openly opposed it, Flan would simply give me more vacation time. It would be better to stop resisting and start planning around the girl instead.
“My mind feels too chaotic. Put in a request for leave. I’ll rest for a few days.”
“…Alright.”
Flan nodded. She stood up from her crouched position and stretched.
“Don’t try to understand others too much. Don’t concern yourself with it.”
I was about to open the office door and leave when Flan’s voice made me pause.
“I’ll try.”
“…It hurts to watch you try so hard to understand even me.”
“It’s just hypocrisy.”
As I was about to close the door, I thought I heard Flan’s bitter voice, very softly.
“Maybe that’s why I liked you.”