Bus
Bus
A penthouse in Busan.
In that place, where the Busan sea spread out before floor-to-ceiling windows, two women sat together.
"Ha-ru, Ha-ruuu."
"What?"
"I'm so jealous..."
"Of what?"
The blonde woman seated at the veranda table, sipping a cool mango juice with ice and looking outside, was the ordinary college student who followed her friend here on vacation while hiding her life as an A-rank hero, Shin Ha-ru.
The woman with the sky-blue ponytail sprawled across the sofa and whining at her was Lee Seol-ah, the A-rank hero Icicle. Unlike Stardus, however, she didn't hide that she was a hero.
"What do you mean, of what? You're becoming S-rank soon. And South Korea's first!"
"Haha, is that what this is about?"
Shin Ha-ru finally realized what Lee Seol-ah was talking about and smiled sheepishly.
"I'm jealous of S-rank... I wanted to become S-rank too..."
"I don't know. It still doesn't feel real to me. And I'm not sure changing one letter in my rank makes that much difference."
Shin Ha-ru spoke indifferently, stirring the ice in her juice with the straw.
Lee Seol-ah shook her head at her, as if telling her not to say something so ridiculous.
"What are you talking about? Becoming S-rank changes everything. Your public standing changes immediately. To ordinary people, the gap between S-rank and A-rank is like heaven and earth."
"Is it? I don't know... Ah, well, for you, a higher status is better for your company, so maybe."
Shin Ha-ru nodded as she said that. She knew Lee Seol-ah ran a company alongside her hero life. And that her hero activities were for corporate image-making rather than a sense of justice.
"Right. Haah... I want a higher rank too. But I need a strong villain to appear so I can build up achievements. Everyone around here is weak. There is nobody distinctive! I wish I had someone like Egostic too."
At Lee Seol-ah's sudden mention of Egostic, Shin Ha-ru flinched for a moment.
Maybe Seol-ah knew, maybe she didn't. She kept talking.
"Oh! Should I just move to Seoul? There have hardly been any villains here lately. Ha-ru, the next time Egostic stages an attack, can I handle him?"
"...No."
"Huh?"
Ha-ru had reflexively said that before she knew it.
And it was only when she saw Lee Seol-ah's tilting head and puzzled expression that she realized what she'd said. She hurriedly tacked on a reason.
"No, whenever he stages an attack, he always threatens me and demands that I come. If someone else faces him, he might do something unpredictable. And, um..."
"Okay, okay. Why are you so flustered?"
Watching Seol-ah smile and tell her to calm down, Shin Ha-ru exhaled.
'...Why did I answer like that?'
She was startled by the words that had escaped before she could think. What was that? The idea of Egostic fighting a hero other than her made her instinctively recoil.
...Right. It was because she knew Egostic best and had fought him the longest. Seol-ah might get hurt facing him for no reason. He was such an irregular villain who staged attacks that were hard to stop. She was worried it might be a bit much for Seol-ah to handle, so she would fight him instead. Yeah.
While she made excuses in her head without knowing who she was making them to, Lee Seol-ah watched with her chin propped on one hand and a knowing smile before rising.
She stretched her arms with a drawn-out "Nngh..." and spoke to Shin Ha-ru again.
"Mmm... Ha-ru, I need to stop by the company for a bit. I have something to take care of, so I'll be right back. Wait for me, okay?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah. See you later."
"Yeah. Bye-bye."
Smiling brightly, her tied sky-blue hair swaying behind her, she left the living room and Ha-ru alone, still touching her lips and lost in thought.
And a little while later, she arrived at the headquarters building.
The moment she stepped inside the company, her face returned instantly to blankness.
When she entered the hallway with a cold expression completely different from earlier, employees nearby all greeted her.
"Good afternoon, CEO Lee."
"Hello."
She looked around at the people bowing their heads here and there, and only then smiled slightly, returning their greetings.
"Yes, yes. Hello."
Of course, after the greeting, her face went blank again. When she reached the top floor where her office was, the building's atmosphere was noticeably different.
Rather than the bright, lively air of the lower floors, a solemn and slightly heavy atmosphere wrapped around her.
She stepped out of the elevator, untied her hair, and walked. Click, clack. The sound of her footsteps echoed around her. Soon, she arrived at her office and spoke to the security guard standing out front.
"While I'm working, don't let anyone in here. Understood?"
"Yes, miss."
At the robotic reply from the man in sunglasses, she nodded and entered her office.
Her spacious office was bigger than the living rooms of most houses.
Alone in the enormous office, she crossed the room with clicking footsteps and sat in the chair with its back to the window.
"Phew..."
She pulled one document from the stack awaiting approval.
Then she took a pen nearby and started signing the papers.
Like that, she worked on the documents, head lowered for a while.
How long had it been?
She set the pen down, lifted the coffee cup from its saucer, and spoke before putting it to her lips.
"Instead of just sitting there quietly, why don't you say something?"
Her voice echoed in the empty office.
And then, a man's voice came from in front of her.
"Shall I?"
She lifted her lowered head and looked ahead.
When she'd entered, the chair in front of her office desk had been empty. Now someone sat in it.
A man in a black hat and black cloak, legs crossed, wearing a grey mask covering half his face.
Then, he smiled slightly at her and spoke.
"Hello, Lee Seol-ah. My name is Egostic. Pleased to meet you."
***
Chad rule:
Charge in blindly first.
Having charged straight into Busan without a plan, I now sat face-to-face with Lee Seol-ah, her long sky-blue hair hanging loose.
As if she'd been expecting my arrival, she sipped coffee from her cup with an indifferent face.
...I decided to pretend I didn't see her fingers trembling just slightly.
She had been yawning over her paperwork before noticing me sitting across from her and flinching. I generously decided to erase that from my memory too. Watching her immediately pretend she had seen nothing and return to her work was a little funny, though.
After I secretly teleported into her office and sat there, she stubbornly continued her paperwork as though she had noticed nothing. Only after some time did she put down her pen and finally address me.
Her voice was so calm and quiet that it was hard to believe she was speaking to a villain who'd broken into her private office.
"Instead of just sitting there quietly, why don't you say something?"
So I kindly gave her an answer.
"Shall I?"
"Hello, Lee Seol-ah. My name is Egostic. Pleased to meet you."
At my smiling greeting, she quietly nodded.
She took a sip of coffee, then spoke again.
"So, what brings you here? Have you finally decided to turn yourself in?"
She smiled at me and spoke that way. I smiled back the same way and returned fire.
"Haha. As if. I came because I'm interested in you, Lee Seol-ah, the de facto ruler of Yuseong Group, who pretends to be a hero while behind the scenes trying to swallow South Korea whole."
"Oh my, is that so? And I assumed our Egostic here—who pretends to be a villain while behind the scenes looking after Stardus and protecting South Korea—had decided to put himself in a detention center."
"Ahahahahahahaha!"
"Ahahaha."
For a moment, my loud, hearty laugh and her dry laugh echoed through her office.
After laughing for a long while,
We both stopped laughing at the same time, as if we'd agreed on it.
"...Impressive. Truly impressive, Lee Seol-ah. I thought you might have anticipated that much."
"So are you, Egostic. I never imagined you thought of me that way. Where on earth did you get that information? It shouldn't have been leaked under any normal circumstances."
"Haha. No secret stays hidden forever, right?"
As I spoke, I crossed my arms.
Here, it was important to smile as though I were completely at ease. Letting my guard down in front of Lee Seol-ah would get me picked apart. She was terrifying.
She looked at me sitting in her private office with my legs crossed and an easy smile, then sighed as though giving up and spoke.
"...Fine. So, why did you come to me?"
When she finally asked me that, I grinned wide and answered.
"Lee Seol-ah. How would you feel about entering into a 'cooperative relationship' with me?"
The first rule of surviving this insane hero comic world.
Join hands with the hidden mastermind.
You don't beat the mastermind. You ride that bus.
***
"..."
Shin Ha-ru, visiting friend Lee Seol-ah's house and resting for a moment, suddenly felt a chill down her spine.
"...What?"
She had the sudden intuition that something incredibly bad was happening right now...