The Beach
The Beach
Waves crashed against the shore.
A cool breeze blew softly.
"Haa... this is the life."
Lying on a sunbed, I took a sip of the drink beside me and let out a sigh of contentment.
Yeah... this is what living is all about.
"Big bro. Are you just going to lie there all day?"
"I'll be there after a little rest. You go on ahead and play."
"Honestly... fine. Hurry up, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah."
Watching Seo-eun's back as she ran across the sandy beach, I put my sunglasses back on.
Phew, this is great.
This is the life. Gazing at the ocean while having a mojito...
Yeah.
We, the members of Ego Stream, had come on a trip.
To a beach somewhere in the east.
***
"Wow... so this is the sea..."
"What? You know what the sea is. Why are you so surprised?"
"Ack! Big sis Se-hee, stop splashing me!"
"If you come to the beach, you have to play!"
Mm, how lively.
I watched the others play while sipping a green mojito through a straw.
Yeah. Everyone really did brighten up when we came to the sea. It felt livelier than our usual hiking trips.
As soon as my body got a bit better, we rushed right over to the beach.
Of course, I'd probably cough up blood again if I overdid it, but I'd be fine as long as I didn't use telekinesis or teleportation excessively. In other words, there was no problem.
Watching them splash around and play, I stretched my legs back out on the sunbed.
"Dain, would you like one of these?"
"Ah, yes, thank you. Mm... oh, this is delicious."
"Right? They were selling them over there, so I waited in line."
I munched on the sweet-and-spicy fried chicken Soo-bin handed me.
This is really good.
"I'll leave it here so we can eat it together."
"Yes. We should buy a few more when the others come back later."
I said this while still munching on the chicken.
Right now, it was just Soo-bin and me lying on the sunbeds.
The adults were resting a bit, and the kids were having fun at the seaside.
Ha-yul and her younger brother Cha-yun were playing over there, building a sandcastle with Desik. For the record, Desik was wearing a mascot costume while playing with Cha-yun. I figured a ghost in black armor appearing on the beach might cause some problems, so that was our temporary solution.
The ones splashing around and playing in the water were Seo-eun and Eun-wol. And Choi Se-hee. I wondered why she was acting like that when she wasn't even a kid, but... well, she seemed to be having fun, so I guessed it was fine. Actually, their mental ages might have been similar.
"...It's amazing how warm the weather is."
I never imagined I could go to the beach in this season.
But I didn't know a place like this existed.
A beach managed exclusively by a heat ability user. This place alone is warm like Southeast Asia.
Of course, since a heat ability user who looked almost B-rank by hero standards was stationed here, the admission fee was quite expensive, but that was not my problem.
Anyway, I took another sip of my mojito.
Besides us, quite a few other people were on the beach, all enjoying a seaside holiday.
Thanks to the powerful Perception Impairment Magic Eun-wol had cast on all of us, however, no one noticed us. Even with our wildly varied black, white, and orange hair, no one gave us a second glance.
That was why I had dared to bring the entire Ego Stream crew here. Honestly, there was no way we'd get caught.
Just as I was about to take another sip of my mojito, Soo-bin, who was lying on the sunbed next to me and sunbathing as well, suddenly murmured.
"...It feels kind of nostalgic."
"Pardon?"
"That time we went to Busan together with you and Seo-eun. Back then, the two of us were sitting on sunbeds just like this, and Seo-eun was running around and playing in the ocean. That memory suddenly came to mind."
"Ah... you're right. And then when we went to the hotel to sleep, terrorists suddenly showed up and woke us up."
"Back then... I remember you stepped right up and called yourself Apple Mango. Pfft."
"Oh, please... forget about that..."
My head throbbed as the embarrassing memory resurfaced.
As I pressed my fingers against my forehead like I was dizzy, Soo-bin let out a clear laugh beside me.
"Haha. Still, thinking about it now, it's a good memory. I didn't know back then that things would get this lively with so many more people..."
She said that while staring toward the beach.
I also leaned back on the sunbed, holding a mojito in one hand and gazing out at the sea.
Our members laughed and played. Couples who appeared to be there with their children enjoyed the water, and people ran along the beach.
...It was a sight I could never have imagined in the Original Work. By that point, everyone's lives would have been so thoroughly ruined that a resort like that could never have operated normally.
Yeah. Come to think of it, I was the one who'd created this scenery.
Well... that doesn't feel too bad.
This opportunity had also introduced me to the heat-ability user who managed the beach, a woman who hadn't appeared in the Original Work. I thought she was the one wearing a life vest, red cap, and sunglasses. Her ability had to be fairly powerful to heat such a large area, so she seemed worth investigating later.
"Dain. Where should we eat dinner later?"
"Let's grill some meat together at the beach house behind us. A barbecue. It's always more fun with a group this size."
"Heh heh. Sounds good. Should I get the ingredients ready?"
"I think Choi Se-hee probably already took care of it... I'll check on it in a bit."
I said that and glanced back.
The beach house directly across from the shore.
That was where we'd booked our three-day, two-night stay.
For the record, we had packed all sorts of things in there: guns, masks, and even cameras. A slightly ominous feeling had prompted me to prepare everything in advance. It had become a habit after the Monkey Spanner incident at the Busan hotel. One never knew where something might happen. Of course, I doubted anything would happen that time.
"Big bro! Big sis! Don't just lie there—come play with us!"
"Yeah, you bums! You came all the way to the beach and don't even want to get wet? Does that make any sense?"
As I was thinking that, I heard voices calling us. Seo-eun and Se-hee were waving at us from the front. Eun-wol was also sparkling with anticipation.
"Soo-bin, shall we go play for a bit now?"
"Yes. Let's."
With Soo-bin's reply and a smile towards me, I got up.
We were both already wearing swimsuits, so we tossed aside the cardigans over them and headed into the water together.
"We're coming!"
Ha. How long has it been since I emptied my head and rested like this?
Yeah. I'd been living far too frantically until then. I needed rest too. People died if they did nothing but overwork themselves.
What could possibly happen on such a fun day?
If God takes pity on me, he wouldn't let that happen.
With that, I walked into the ocean.
What could go wrong?
***
"...Right about now, Dain is probably playing at that beach."
While working, Lee Seol-ah paused her pen at the sudden thought.
She remembered how joyfully he spoke, without realizing it himself, when he said the Ego Stream members were going on a trip together.
"..."
Egostic. It made no sense for him to fall completely into the villains' camp.
For Lee Seol-ah, who had been planning to draw him toward the heroes—and toward her side—in the long term, that possibility was a bolt from the blue.
Moreover, thinking about the other Ego Stream members who showed excessive wariness towards her made her head ache.
"...Right."
Pouring herself another glass of wine, Lee Seol-ah fell into thought.
Egostic. He definitely showed a slight obsession with Stardus.
And that was what she herself was most wary of.
Someday, Ha-ru might learn every secret surrounding Egostic, and Egostic liked Stardus.
If Egostic and Stardus became a team,
it wouldn't be easy for Lee Seol-ah to wedge herself between them.
But this latest opportunity had changed her thinking.
Right. It's true she needs to keep Stardus in check.
But there were people even more dangerous than her ensnaring Dain without her knowledge.
The Ego Stream members. What if they take Dain first?
"...Even if I have to hand him over to Ha-ru, I can't let them have him."
No. If the bond between Egostic and the members who distrusted her grew any stronger, they might even persuade him to cut ties with Lee Seol-ah.
That could not be allowed.
Then how about thinking the other way around?
It's a fact that Dain considers Stardus special to him, whether as a fan or something else.
In that case.
"..."
With Perception Impairment Magic in effect, Ha-ru would never recognize him as Egostic. Dain had boasted that one of his members had mastered extraordinarily powerful Perception Impairment Magic.
If he saw Stardus—the woman he liked so much—in private and even became a little closer to her, would Egostic not gradually lean toward the heroes?
The hero Apple Mango. He had looked rather cute in the video.
Yes, pretending it's a coincidence...
And so, Lee Seol-ah, somewhat unhinged by the alcohol,
After coming up with a plan that would make Egostic clutch the back of his neck and collapse on the spot if he ever heard it,
She turned on her phone and started calling Ha-ru.
"Hey~ Ha-ru. What are you up to?"
"It's nothing big, but do you wanna go on a trip to see the sea?"
***
On the living room sofa.
During a rare moment of rest, Shin Ha-ru was lying on the sofa blankly, fiddling with her phone.
Her fingers rested on the phone, but her thoughts had long since wandered elsewhere.
'...I'm sure that was Egostic...'
She was certain she saw someone on the rooftop.
But being told that no one was seen just made her feel frustrated.
"Haa..."
Come to think of it, I've been thinking about this all day lately.
...Maybe I'm the strange one for believing that a villain like him appeared there.
...This gives me a headache.
As Shin Ha-ru was having these thoughts,
Her phone began to ring.
"...Seol-ah?"
What's going on?
Though puzzled, she answered the phone.
"Hey, Seol-ah."
"What, the sea? You want to go play tomorrow right away? You say there's a warm place..."
At Lee Seol-ah's sudden suggestion that they go to the sea the next day, Shin Ha-ru, who normally would have declined, paused to think.
Right. My head's been aching lately because I can't stop thinking about Egostic.
Maybe going to the beach and forgetting all of that for a while would be nice.
After pondering for a moment, Ha-ru answered Lee Seol-ah.
"Okay. I'll go to the beach."
***
"Ah, I forgot to bring the water gun."
"Oh, Se-hee. What are you, a kid?"
"What, a kid? You think I can't splash water without a water gun? Hiyah!"
"Ahh! Big sis, why are you spraying me too!"
"...Wait. Hey! Dain, aren't you going to stop that? Using your ability to make a water bomb is cheating!"
"Nope. We've layered Perception Impairment Magic over ourselves, so no one will notice~"
"Hold on! I surrender, I surrender!"
While having fun, I suddenly thought of Stardus.
...I wondered what Ha-ru was doing then.
Knowing her, she's probably either working at the Hero Association or resting at home.
Come to think of it, I probably won't see her again for a while—not until my next staged attack.
With that thought, I hurled a water bomb at Choi Se-hee.
"Ack! Hey!"
Ah. This is kind of fun.