Her Torment
Her Torment
It had been a full month since she investigated the Han-eun Group Underground Complex.
Ever since that day, Shin Ha-ru had found herself staring blankly into space more and more often.
"........"
While studying. While working as a hero. While resting. While trying to sleep.
The thought that kept surfacing, unbidden.
'....Why did he do that?'
She still couldn't say for certain what had really happened down there.
What was it, really?
Why would he have done that?
Feeling grateful to someone who saved you—that's only natural.
Especially when that someone sacrificed himself to save you.
Anyone would probably carry that gratitude for the rest of their life.
But here's the problem.
The person who had saved her had absolutely no reason to do so.
What exactly is the relationship between a hero and a villain?
Simply put, they were enemies.
Sworn foes who regarded each other as their greatest enemy.
To a villain, nothing was more irritating—or more deserving of elimination—than a hero.
A hero, meanwhile, gave everything to bring villains to justice.
A villain saving a hero was unthinkable, even as a joke.
Except that was exactly what had happened to her. That was the problem.
"..."
The Han-eun Group Underground Complex.
She still hadn't told anyone, but...
Egostic threw his own body on the line to save her.
If he hadn't stepped in... she probably wouldn't be here now.
Weren't villains supposed to be the first to celebrate when a hero went down?
Honestly, it wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say that every villain in South Korea had been hoping for her to disappear.
Dozens of villains had actually tried to kill her.
So why?
Why did that bastard Egostic save her?
No. Even setting aside the fact that he'd saved her—why had he thrown himself into danger like that?
"......"
Sitting at her desk, Shin Ha-ru sank back into thought without realizing it.
Lately, that thought had kept recurring. Over and over. No—what was it? Bafflement, and the curiosity that sprang from it.
Why did he save her?
This incident had essentially put an end to every doubt she had ever harbored about Egostic.
Yes. Something had been off from the very beginning.
He had gone around taking out other villains.
Not one of the terrorist attacks he had staged had caused a single death.
And then there were the things that only she knew.
He had told her not to reveal her face.
He had told her to stop the attacks—to believe in herself.
He had blown up a bridge to prevent a disaster that only he had foreseen.
And this time, he had put his own body on the line to save her.
Yeah. Yeah.
She had to admit it now. Really, truly admit it.
Egostic was no ordinary villain.
No, 'not ordinary' was not enough to define him.
She honestly wasn't even sure anymore whether she should keep calling him a villain at all.
Of course, the moment that thought surfaced, she immediately shot it down. No. He had staged terrorist attacks, threatened civilians, and killed other villains on a whim. If that did not make him a villain, what would?
But...
Beyond the incidents he had caused, he had done many other things behind the scenes.
When she thought about it, no civilians had died because of him.
But how many people had been saved because of him?
The terrorist attack his followers had staged with hostages. He had stopped it.
Alligator Man's rampage in the city center. He had stopped it.
The terrorist attack Monkey Spanner had staged at the hotel. He had stopped it.
The disaster caused by the monster Han-eun Group had created. He had stopped it.
...And he even saved her.
If one looked only at his criminal record, sure, he was a villain.
But looking only at his achievements, one could have called him a hero without exaggeration.
So why did he show those two completely opposite sides?
If he was evil, there was no explanation for why he saved people.
If he was good, there was no explanation for why he staged terrorist attacks.
Actually, the former could be explained.
If he was evil, why had he saved people? He had already explained that to her himself.
The attack staged by his followers: because it had damaged his reputation.
Alligator Man's attack: because being mentioned had pissed Egostic off.
He had told her to save the people on the plane to strengthen the rivalry between them.
Monkey Spanner’s attack at the hotel: because he happened to be passing by and felt like intervening.
The disaster caused by the Han-eun Group’s monster: because he did not want anyone stealing his spotlight.
Yeah. There were reasons for all of it.
Reasons he had painstakingly explained to her, one by one.
Was she overreacting to think all those reasons sounded like excuses?
No. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that he was right.
Suppose every good outcome he had produced really was just as he had explained, and he truly was an evil villain.
Even accepting all of that.
Even then, how could she explain his risking his own life to save her?
"Haaah...."
The truth was, deep down.
She was already leaning toward the view that it was hard to see Egostic as simply a bad person.
No—whether he was good or evil, she was in his debt, just as he had said. He had sacrificed himself to save her life.
But the terrorist attacks and villain killings he'd carried out kept nagging at her, making it impossible to say he wasn't a bad guy at all.
And yet, calling him a bad guy also...
"Ugh..."
Yeah.
That was a problem with no answer.
Honestly, merely thinking about Egostic left both her thoughts and emotions in such turmoil that her head spun.
He was a bad guy, wasn't he? But he'd done plenty of good too, hadn't he? Then why had he saved her?
And the most important thing.
Somewhere deep inside her, in the realm of pure intuition.
For some reason, she kept leaning toward the idea that he wasn't actually evil.
There was no logic to it. No evidence.
The feeling simply kept echoing through her.
Maybe I've been misunderstanding him all along...
Maybe the attacks Egostic staged all had some deeper meaning...
"I must be crazy."
She shook off the thought and downed a glass of water beside her.
Now she was even having ridiculous thoughts like this.
"..."
And whenever she got lost in all these thoughts about Egostic.
They always ended the same way. With one final thought.
Was he safe right now?
It was absurd, really.
A hero worrying about a villain. If word got out, she'd be a laughingstock.
...Well, considering Egostic’s popularity, perhaps not. Still.
Her thoughts about Egostic always ended with worry.
He had been so badly injured.
If he didn't get treatment right away, then...
No. Before that—was it even an injury that could be healed with treatment?
The last time she had seen him, the wound was so large it looked as though a hole had been punched through his chest.
...But surely, somehow, there had to be a way.
He had only acted that recklessly because he had something to fall back on, right?
....Surely he had not just died like that...?
After saving her. Just like that. Meaninglessly.
"....."
No.
She repeated it to herself, trying to stop the gloom that was creeping in without her noticing.
Egostic—that secretive, scheming bastard—couldn't have gone down so meaninglessly. He had to be resting somewhere.
Even while rationalizing it that way, whenever she thought, Am I, a hero, really worrying about a villain? she felt as though she was doing something wrong.
...This was not concern for a villain. He had only ended up like that because he saved her. Right. Even a villain should not die that way; he needed to face justice. That was all. Yes.
"Haaah..."
She was worried.
But even worrying freely was difficult.
And so she just kept agonizing like that.
...Right. She could not question him unless he was alive. First, she had to confirm that Egostic—that bastard—was alive.
With that logic, she logged into the Egostic fan cafe again today.
It was a place she found herself checking every day, hoping for some update on whether he was alive and what he had been doing.
*
[Newcomers, read this: Whining after only one month? Last time it was almost half a year, lol.]
[Daily dose of Mangostic appreciation... Day 26]
[Just wait without worrying. He will come back... Wait for him...]
[Highlights from the last horror stream, ver. 7]
[Wait, the clip was deleted. What happened?]
[So what do we do now?]
[I dreamed Egostic came to our university festival today.]
*
Looking through the same useless posts as always, she sighed.
Right. She would naturally find out whether he was alive when he staged his next attack.
And so, today as well—when one really thought about it—
a hero was waiting only for the day a villain would launch another terrorist attack.
***
"I'm not staging any attacks myself for a while."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I'm going to live quietly for a while, so please... please stop asking!"
"Good. After putting your body through that, you need to take care of yourself for a while."
"'You need to'? That's informal... Anyway, I won't be staging the next attack myself."
"What? Then how are you going to do it?"
"I'll outsource it."
I grinned.
Yeah. How long was I supposed to keep running around staging attacks myself?
To everyone waiting for my next attack, I had one thing to say.
There won't be one for a while!
***
[User Shin Ha-ru, you have been promoted to a Dedicated Member of the Official Egostic Fan Cafe. Congratulations!]
".....Ah."