The Big House
The Big House
Lee Ha-yul.
A week had already passed since she came to live in this mansion.
"Big sis, you up?"
"Huh? Yeah..."
Her younger brother Cha-yun walked in from the next room, yawning.
She ruffled his hair a bit, then got ready to start her day too.
Washed up and changed.
After walking down the long hallway into the living room, she found a woman with long, straight black hair preparing breakfast in the kitchen.
The woman must have heard her approach, because she paused and looked up from the food.
Their eyes met, and she smiled brightly and greeted her.
"Ha-yul, you're up. Sleep well?"
"Yes, big sis. Did you sleep well too?"
"Mm."
She smiled softly and went back to serving the food.
Ha-yul stood beside her and helped prepare breakfast.
Soo-bin tried to stop her at first, saying she was fine on her own, but when Ha-yul firmly insisted on helping, she reluctantly agreed.
Breakfast was simple: fried rice and various side dishes.
Soon after, footsteps sounded on the stairs and two figures appeared.
"Seo-eun, open your eyes while you walk. You're going to trip."
"Mmm... Big bro, hold onto me."
"Good grief..."
A woman with short silver hair appeared with a man supporting her as they came up together.
They were Han Seo-eun, a girl two years younger than Ha-yul, and Dain, the owner of the house.
"Did everyone sleep well? Yaaawn."
"Good morning..."
The two shuffled over to the sofa, sat down, and closed their eyes. Ha-yul hadn't lived with them for long, but both of them always seemed terrible with mornings.
The cooking was nearly done.
Soo-bin went to wake the two dozing on the sofa, while Ha-yul went to get her brother from his room.
"Cha-yun... you're already studying?"
"Yeah!"
When she opened Cha-yun's door, she found her brother already sitting at his desk studying before breakfast.
He was starting school the following Monday and had declared that he wanted to study ahead until then.
She was proud that he studied without anyone telling him to, but...
'Cha-yun. Why are you studying so hard?'
'I'm going to study hard, become someone important, and help big bro!'
...Watching her brother make such a bold declaration, she could only give a bittersweet smile.
"Food's ready. Let's go out and eat."
"Okay!"
Cha-yun scribbled at a problem until the very last moment, then got up and headed to the living room.
Watching him, she felt a little bitter.
He wanted to study this badly, yet until now she hadn't even been able to feed him properly, much less let him learn...
When she came back out, everyone was already seated at the table.
Only after she and her brother sat down did everyone pick up their utensils.
"Thank you for the meal."
"Thanks for the food."
And so they ate together.
The fried rice was good.
"Seo-eun, open your eyes while you eat. Your eyes!"
"Ah... they're open..."
"Cha-yun, you eat everything without being picky, don't you?"
When Soo-bin said that with a pleased smile, Cha-yun answered energetically between bites.
"Yes! I have to eat well so I can grow big like big bro!"
"That's right! Hahahaha. If you want to grow up to be as great as me, you've got to eat up."
"Ugh... big bro, your overinflated ego is so cringe."
"Tch..."
Watching Dain and Seo-eun bicker and banter like that, Lee Ha-yul smiled a little without realizing it.
It had already been one week since she'd come to live with them in this house.
A week could be short or long, depending on how one looked at it.
During that week together, Lee Ha-yul had learned a great deal.
The man sitting across from her and bickering with the girl beside him was Dain.
His true identity was Egostic, currently the most famous villain in South Korea.
So far, he had staged three terror attacks and killed dozens of other villains.
She'd been too busy scraping by to know it, but he was also tremendously popular—so much so that even Cha-yun was a fan.
She'd wondered what Cha-yun was always watching in those videos where things kept getting destroyed. Apparently, they were Egostic reruns. Honestly...
The Egostic she had seen while living with him was, how should she put it... a good person? He was nothing like the public image.
At first, when he invited them to live with him and promised to support them, she had suspected that he wanted something from them.
She no longer did.
Her suspicion over how he could spend so freely on them had also vanished once she saw this enormous mansion.
Ah. He really did have money. A tremendous amount of it.
Egostic—Dain—had kept his word, and he had not done anything to them.
Living with him had also shown her that he simply wasn't that kind of person. He played with Cha-yun and quietly looked after her too...
Then there was Soo-bin, who lived with him. She cared for Ha-yul and Cha-yun as though they were her own younger siblings. She took Ha-yul shopping for clothes, taught her to cook, and helped them through the school enrollment process...
Lee Ha-yul was deeply grateful to her—and deeply sorry.
It had only been one week.
She still felt as though she were dreaming.
The orphanage director's abuse, which had continued for as long as she could remember, and the days spent scraping by in a tiny shack until only recently still felt like yesterday.
Yet overnight, she was suddenly living like a noble young lady in this grand, old-fashioned mansion and eating three proper meals every day.
More than her own comfort, what made her happiest was knowing that her brother Cha-yun could grow up without enduring that cruel suffering.
He had been frail since childhood and constantly persecuted by the orphanage director, so Ha-yul had always been the one to care for him.
Just seeing him eat, laugh, and talk so brightly was enough to fill her heart.
At the same time, she stole another glance at Dain.
Every comfort she now enjoyed was thanks to the man in front of her.
In fact, if he hadn't helped them, she and her brother might have died right there.
Yet somehow, he had known and arrived at exactly the right moment.
He'd saved both her and her brother.
Soo-bin had also played a large part in Ha-yul coming to trust Dain. After moving into this house, she'd searched for everything she could find about Egostic, and in the process, she'd learned about Soo-bin too.
Dain had taken Soo-bin in much as he had taken Ha-yul in.
After Soo-bin carried out a terror attack, Dain had taken her with him.
Netizens had argued endlessly over what Egostic might have done to her.
Now Ha-yul knew. Soo-bin was doing perfectly well.
Soo-bin might seem as kind as an angel, but she too was technically a terrorist who'd carried out an attack.
Egostic had been an A-rank villain under the Hero Association's scrutiny from the start.
And the silver-haired girl over there looked small and cute, but she was apparently a genius hacker.
But what did any of that matter?
What mattered was that they had welcomed Ha-yul and her brother like family.
Ha-yul was hardly blameless herself. She'd survived by pickpocketing, after all...
As time passed, her gratitude toward Dain grew overwhelming. By now, most of her suspicion had faded, leaving her full of gratitude.
He seemed unaware of her ability—the power to heal almost any human injury.
'If he comes back hurt someday...'
When that happened, she would repay her debt without fail.
She quietly made that promise to herself.
***
"Mister. Let's go to the basement."
"Seo-eun... we just moved. You should get some sunlight once in a while."
"Ugh, hurry up."
"Fine, fine. Got it."
Seo-eun kept pestering me until I finally headed to the basement. If I refused, she looked ready to keep calling me 'Mister' forever... First 'bro,' and now 'Mister'...
Getting there is simple. Just take the teleportation device.
The Teleportation Device I'd spent three months hounding Seo-eun to build looked a bit like the TARDIS from Doctor Who. Open its door, and it took you straight to the basement.
It could only travel between places where another Teleportation Device had been installed, but... well, its original purpose was simply to connect the mansion and the underground base.
After being holed up in this underground base for three months, I could say with confidence that it wasn't fit for human habitation.
Before, I'd been too frantically busy to notice. Once I had time to rest, though, it became hopeless. People needed sunlight.
So I made a major decision and bought a huge mansion deep in the mountains. Even for someone like me, who had more money than he knew what to do with, it was an enormous expense.
The stately grandeur of that old-fashioned, almost-eighties mansion made my heart swell just looking at it.
There was only one reason I had bought such a large house.
I planned to recruit more ability users in the future, and the mansion would become the headquarters of my villain alliance—the so-called Ego Squad.
For now, only the five of us lived there together, but I had no doubt the place would be full someday.
...It will be, right?
"Ahh. Home really is the best."
"Seo-eun, our home is that palace-like mansion up there..."
"I'm more comfortable here. Ahh, my monitors. Did you miss me?"
...Though of course, there were people opposed to the move, like Seo-eun over there hugging her monitors.
At least Soo-bin seemed to like the move. Watching her diligently care for the two children warmed even my heart. Apparently, she had a soft spot for kids. Come to think of it, she had become close to Seo-eun quickly too.
As for those siblings, I seemed to have succeeded in getting close to them somehow. Then again, I'd given money and a home to kids who had been living like beggars and had practically saved their lives. It would've been stranger if they disliked me, right?
Lee Cha-yun, was it? The fact that the kid was one of my followers had helped enormously. From what I'd glimpsed, he was practically brainwashing his sister about Egostic... reassuring!
Anyway, recruiting Lee Ha-yul had been an excellent decision. It was practically the same as gaining several spare lives. Even if I were on the verge of death, I could run to her and she'd save me. Probably?
In any case, now that I had Lee Ha-yul on my side, I felt as though I had completed most of what needed doing.
Three months... no, was it almost four months now? Either way, I felt I had used the time well. Winter was nearly here.
"Big bro, what are you thinking about now?"
I had drifted into thought when Seo-eun puffed out her cheeks and glared at me. Ever since the siblings moved in, she had started clinging to me much more.
"Nothing. Right, Seo-eun. Let's get to that thing now."
"Huh? What thing?"
Seo-eun tilted her head, so I grinned and answered.
"What else? A new terror attack."
I'd rested way too long.
At this rate, the public was going to forget about me.
It was time to inject some tension into the complacent peninsula, draw Stardus's attention, and prevent a future crisis while I was at it.
*
[If Mangostic doesn't show up next week either, I'll shit my pants.]
You've been warned.
=[Comments]=
[I support this]
[I will shit in front of Gwanghwamun. Don't try to stop me.]
↳ [Screenshot saved]
↳ [So we'll see you at Gwanghwamun next week, right?]
↳ [M] [Screenshot saved. If you don't shit, you're banned. Later.]
↳ [The manager is here lol]
[The OP reportedly ordered an extra pair of pants.]
[Damn, you're still waiting? That's dedication LOL]
*
...And to stop the members of the Mangostic Fandom from shitting their pants. It was time to serve up a fresh terror attack.
Seo-eun's face lit up when I suggested an attack. Had I raised this kid wrong...? She had become a middle-school girl who loved terror attacks. No, she was in high school now...
"Whoa! We're finally doing it?"
"Um... yeah. The concept for this attack is..."
Let's go with 'Mapo Bridge Has Collapsed.'
Mapo Bridge was going to collapse, you bastards.
Because I was going to bring it down.