Dead Serious
Dead Serious
Last time.
After the meeting with Stardus, Shadow Walker, and the Association President.
Icicle—Lee Seol-ah—returned to her office and sank into thought.
"...Haah."
As if by habit, she tilted the bottle on her desk and poured herself a glass of wine.
After taking a sip of the violet liquid, she replayed what had happened earlier in her head.
'...Shadow Walker defended Egostic right in front of Stardus.'
A strange thing for her to even say.
But it really happened.
'...Why on earth?'
Shadow Walker's words were clear.
Stardus had practically figured out that she had not defeated the monster herself—that someone else, specifically Egostic, had done it.
Shadow Walker had disputed that. He said he'd looked, and there was no one else anywhere near the scene.
"...A lie."
But it had to be a lie.
Because she herself had heard from Egostic that he'd sniped from a nearby rooftop that day.
If Shadow Walker had really looked around that day, he would have seen Egostic, which meant he was lying.
And if he had not looked around, then he had lied by claiming no one was there despite not knowing. Either way, it was a lie.
In the end, no matter how you looked at it, Shadow Walker's statement could only be a lie.
"...Then why would he tell such a lie?"
Lee Seol-ah murmured as she traced the rim of her wine glass.
Shadow Walker. What was he trying to achieve by lying? What was he thinking...
"..."
Lee Seol-ah.
Despite her young age, she had already taken control of Yuseong Group and was steadily swallowing up South Korea. She could confidently claim to have been born with exceptional ability and political instincts.
Admittedly, her plan to conquer South Korea had been faltering lately, but still...
Her intuition was second to none in the country, so she quickly arrived at the truth.
"...Egostic contacted Shadow Walker."
Right.
That was the most likely explanation.
"..."
She was right here. Why would he go to someone else?
For a moment, a surge of indignation rose up, but she calmed herself with another sip of wine.
...Well. He'd first approached her too, so it wasn't strange for him to make contact with another A-rank hero. He'd only said he wouldn't mess with Stardus — he'd never said he wouldn't mess with anyone else.
"...Haah."
Lee Seol-ah sighed.
...What is this feeling?
Yes, this was impatience. This was anxiety.
The fear that Egostic might be taken from her.
In fact, when she thought about it—
it was because Egostic did not trust her.
That was it.
The president's office on the top floor of Yuseong Group headquarters, South Korea's largest corporation.
Warm sunlight streamed in from behind her.
Dressed in a suit, Lee Seol-ah ran her fingers through her sky-blue hair and sank into thought.
It had already been quite some time since Lee Seol-ah began meeting regularly with Egostic.
When they actually met, though, they spent more time on idle chat than on business. Whatever was going on lately, feeling good, feeling tired... the sort of trivial things you'd share with a friend.
And as those moments accumulated,
Lee Seol-ah realized, without even noticing it, that she had begun to look forward to spending time with Dain.
Her life was always being crushed under company work and backstabbing, but when she was with him she could forget all of that and have a genuine, laughing conversation. Because he was one of the very few people who treated her as a person, rather than as someone special and far above him.
And strangely, she didn't know why.
She got the feeling that he understood her — understood Lee Seol-ah — better than anyone else. She had no idea why.
Anyway, his ability.
'...Honestly, if it weren’t for Dain, it wouldn’t be strange for South Korea to have collapsed several times over already.'
In Lee Seol-ah's view, South Korea's current situation was extremely unbalanced.
It felt as though enormous terrorist attacks—each almost capable of destroying South Korea—had been erupting one after another over the past few years.
Because Egostic had blocked most of them, in hindsight, everything had worked out.
Conversely, it meant that without Egostic, the country could crumble like a sandcastle at any moment.
"...That can't happen."
In other words,
Egostic was irreplaceably precious.
Both to Lee Seol-ah personally and to South Korea as a whole.
The only problem was—
The only problem was: '... Why doesn't he trust me?'
That.
He had approached her with extreme caution.
It took months to learn his real name, months to see his face.
And she still didn't know where he lived. He knew where she lived, though.
'...Maybe he thinks I could betray him. That seems possible...'
He gave off an air of unmistakably being on guard against her.
And that point felt terribly unfair to Lee Seol-ah.
No, why would she ever betray him? Considering everything she'd received from him and everything still to come, she'd absolutely no intention of doing so, no matter what he did. Lee Seol-ah herself was hardly a moral person, which made that even more certain.
She had intended to remain by his side for life.
Why was he so wary of her?
Even now, after hearing that he had collapsed from overexertion, she could not visit him because she did not know his address. That was her reality.
'...Did someone slander me to him?'
Depressed again by that thought, she poured herself another glass and gulped it down.
After downing nearly a whole bottle by herself, she finally started to feel a pleasant buzz.
"..."
Her cheeks flushed, Lee Seol-ah stared at her phone for a moment.
Right. If she stayed still like this, she'd fall behind.
Even if it meant making one reckless move, she needed to confront him.
After all, she was drunk. If things went badly, she could just say she'd been rambling while drunk.
Having reached that conclusion, she called Dain.
***
The call with Dain went surprisingly well.
Maybe her emotional approach — crying a few tears, totally unlike her — had been worth it.
In the end, Lee Seol-ah got an invitation to his home.
...Of course, recalling the process still made her face flush.
But since the result was good, wasn't that what mattered?
Her first impression upon setting foot in that remote mountain valley was—
".....Wow."
His house was incredibly, incredibly huge.
A mansion that looked like it could easily hold dozens of people.
Her own home was not small, but his wooden, antique-looking mansion carried an indescribably imposing air, almost like a castle.
The door opened.
A woman greeted Lee Seol-ah.
"Hello. You're Lee Seol-ah, right?"
"Ah... yes. Hello."
"Hello. I'm Lee Soo-bin."
With a kindly smile, the woman, Lee Soo-bin, welcomed her.
And Lee Seol-ah, smiling back at her in the same way, was internally very flustered.
...What? Why was this woman at his house?
Ah, she must have come to take care of him while he was sick. That had to be it.
But that expectation was completely shattered after she entered the house.
"...Hello."
"..."
"Haha, hello?"
As she walked toward the room where he was lying down, she encountered a large number of women.
An energetic orange-haired woman who looked at her with displeasure, a silver-haired girl watching her warily, and even a woman in what looked like shrine maiden robes, wearing an unreadable smile.
All of them were villains belonging to Ego Stream.
And just from exchanging brief greetings in the living room and passing by them, she could tell.
Those clothes, that comfortable atmosphere, that lived-in feeling.
They hadn't come here for a visit.
They simply lived here.
She fell into extreme confusion.
...Why? Why was one man living together with several women under one roof? Was there a reason?
With that thought,
With those thoughts, she opened the door and faced Dain, lying in bed.
"Hello, Dain."
"Oh... Seol-ah, hi. You got here awfully fast???"
He looked a little surprised that she'd shown up the very next day after the call.
He moved aside the laptop he had been using on the bed and greeted her. Watching him, she found herself smiling as she spoke.
"Yes. It's the first time I've been able to visit your home, Dain. Of course I had to come right away."
She smiled after saying that.
...
Ah.
I shouldn't say that right now.
Lee Seol-ah, you didn't come here to say something like that. You came to visit Dain because he was sick.
...Still.
I could at least ask this one question, couldn't I?
Still smiling the same way,
Lee Seol-ah opened her mouth and asked the bedridden Dain.
"...By the way, I noticed on my way to your room. There are a lot of other women in the house? Are you all living together?"
"...Haha. It just sort of happened."
In response, he averted his eyes as if embarrassed.
He must be embarrassed himself... Deep down, she'd been waiting for him to deny it.
"..."
That was a little disappointing.
That's a little off.
***
"President Lee, did the meeting go well?"
"...Could you bring me a bottle of the '56 vintage wine?"
"Yes, understood."
Receiving the bottle from her secretary, Lee Seol-ah sat in her office, poured a glass, and drank quietly.
"..."
She'd had a long conversation with Dain today.
But honestly, all of that was irrelevant. The only piece of information she'd gotten was a single fact.
That Dain and the Ego Stream members were extremely close.
So close that Lee Seol-ah could hardly dream of competing.
"...Well, nothing in the world is easy."
She'd claimed Dain in her mind long ago.
Only now did she realize: he was actually better suited to be a hero, not a villain.
He could not remain entangled with villains like them.
"..."
Recalling the female members who had looked at her with guarded eyes, Lee Seol-ah lifted the glass to her lips again.
Right.
So that's how it is.
Her brain already thoroughly pickled in alcohol, Lee Seol-ah's thoughts began to run irrationally.
...Egostic, he'd been obsessed with Stardus, hadn't he?
Right. He was suited to heroes.
But she alone was no match. The opponent was a group of villain members.
What should she do?
'Right... Did he say he was going on a trip soon?'
"....."
With that thought,
before she knew it, Lee Seol-ah was staring at Shin Ha-ru's contact information.
An alliance. An alliance, was it?
Stardus didn't know Egostic's true face anyway, and there was also Perception Inhibition.
"..."
Sitting quietly, Lee Seol-ah grinned.
Right.
Let's do it that way.
***
"Ugh... I've got a bad feeling. Is something gonna happen on this trip too, like last time?"
"Big bro. Don't jinx it."
No, I simply had a bad feeling. What was I supposed to do?