I'm Not a Beyond Battler. I'm a Realist.
"Mr. Baek. I'm scared..."
"Come here."
I watched the situation unfold as Yumi naturally snuggled into my arms.
We faded into the background to let the upcoming story progression play out. After all, the main characters right now were Taeyang and his friends.
"I didn't expect my tail to be caught so quickly," Han Gang spoke through Man-bok's body. "I was planning to slowly expand our territory and swallow Seoul next. I never imagined we'd be found out by kids like you. Though, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. That red-haired brat over there is someone we in Locust have had our eyes on."
"I knew it! Now I'm absolutely sure!" Taeyang shouted. "You're the guy who ambushed me in the alleyway and tried to steal my Princess, aren't you?!"
"Isn't it obvious?" Han Gang sneered. "Or did you not recognize me right away because I was in a different body back then?"
"So you're the guy Taeyang was talking about!" Saet-byeol exclaimed.
"What did you do to Man-bok?!" Chae-rin demanded.
"Ho. Saet-byeol. And Chae-rin. Both of you are Beyond Battlers recognized by Locust," Han Gang said. "And the woman behind you... you're the Saintess who once ruled this area, aren't you?"
"...Ugh!"
Terrified at being mentioned herself, Yumi pressed even closer against me.
Knowing for a fact that the owner of that voice was the same age as Taeyang, I couldn't feel even a shred of intimidation.
"And... who is that man over there?"
It was a pretty good scene, but the flow got interrupted right here.
I raised a palm toward him.
"Just a passing extra, so don't mind me. Go ahead and finish your villain monologue."
"..."
"What?"
"I was planning to..."
Scratch.
Scratching the back of his neck awkwardly with Man-bok's hand, he introduced himself once again.
"I am an executive of Locust and the current Seoul Branch Manager. My codename is Han Gang. As you've probably realized from today's events, we are gathering cards. Rare cards, to be precise. Naturally, the cards you possess are also—"
"Hold on."
"What is it, mister? You just told me not to mind you."
That was true, but something was bothering me way too much.
"Before that, let me ask you one thing. If your codename is Han Gang, does that mean the Busan Branch Manager is Gwang-an, the Jeju one is Halla, and the Daejeon one is, what, Gyeryong or Gapcheon? If we go even more local, is the guy operating in Suwon named Hwaseong?"
"Call the guys right now. Tell them we need to hold a meeting. There's a problem with our codenames, so hurry."
"Yes, Branch Manager Han Gang."
A woman's voice mixed in, coming out of Man-bok's mouth. It seemed he was communicating with a subordinate on the other end.
"M-Mr. Baek!" Yumi whispered urgently.
"Sorry. It just slipped out."
I mean, how could I not poke fun at that?
His childish voice became even more obvious when he got flustered by the painfully predictable naming scheme. Since Yumi, an adult woman, was standing right next to me, the contrast was even easier to spot.
"What? Is he the same age as us?" Taeyang asked.
"S-Shut up!" Han Gang barked.
Well, it would be weird if the antagonist rivaling Taeyang was a full-grown adult. Besides, a kid leading an organization while bossing adults around is a classic trope in children's anime.
I wondered what on earth those adults being ordered around were thinking, but now wasn't the time to ask.
"Sorry. I won't interrupt the flow anymore, so go ahead and keep talking."
"Damn it. Since it's come to this, I'll just get straight to the point. Han Taeyang, I hate you."
"All of a sudden?"
"It's not 'all of a sudden'! The very first place I targeted after becoming the Seoul Branch Manager was your school! But you had to interfere with our work right from the start, and we even failed to take your card! Do you have any idea how much the other branch managers laughed at me?! Argh! Just thinking about it makes me furious! Those bastards!!"
His arrogant facade completely crumbled, and by the end, he was throwing a childish tantrum.
"So that's why you targeted Man-bok, who was close to us?" Little Dragon Princess asked, her voice echoing from the card.
"As expected of the Princess. Yes, I targeted him on purpose. Who should be next? Well, there are plenty of ways to get close, so you'd better look forward to it. Maybe I'll target your mother next?"
"You coward!!" Taeyang yelled.
"Heh. Calling me cowardly is a compliment. When people call you cheap or dirty during a battle, you feel a little proud, don't you? It's the same thing. I'm going to torment you completely one-sidedly, just like this. Until you meekly hand over the Princess to pay for ruining my dignity. So if you want to surrender, just say the word. I'll be counting down the days! Hahaha!"
He laughed loudly through Man-bok's body. Yumi and Gaeun finally processed the reality of the situation, their faces turning pale. Even though he acted like a child, he wielded a power that could easily take or spare a life. It was like handing a loaded gun to a monkey.
Yet, despite the incredibly dangerous situation, Taeyang and his friends didn't falter for a second. They knit their brows and shouted back.
"We won't lose to a coward like you!" Taeyang declared.
"That's right! None of us are cowards who hide because we're scared to fight! Unlike a certain someone!" Saet-byeol chimed in.
"We'll definitely catch you and make you realize that Beyond Battle isn't meant to be used for things like this!!" Chae-rin added.
Inwardly, I clapped for the three of them, praising how they proudly wrapped up their heroic scene.
When you're young, you sometimes find yourself admiring the villains. But as you grow older, you realize just how difficult it is to stand up for justice. In that sense, the kids' pure dialogue and courage brought a refreshing warmth to my dry, adult heart.
"Smells like the 20th century in here. Why does this friendship stuff feel so nostalgic and heartwarming?" I muttered.
"...Mr. Baek?" Yumi looked at me, confused.
"It's nothing."
Unlike me, whose heart was feeling all warm and fuzzy, Han Gang sneered coldly.
"What a grand speech. It's almost touching. But it's utterly meaningless! What can you possibly do when I hold your friend's life hostage?!"
"Ugh!"
A dark energy began to pour out, and the atmosphere felt as if a field was about to manifest at any second. As the situation escalated to this point, Gaeun, desperate to save her son, clung to me.
"Excuse me, is there really no way? He's still my boy! No matter how bad he's been, he doesn't deserve to lose his life!!" she cried.
She seemed to believe that since I was a fellow adult, and a man at that, I could do something about it.
I had planned to stay out of it if possible, but hoping to live up to her expectations even just a little, I decided to open my mouth.
"Hold on a second, kiddo Han Gang."
"Kiddo?!"
"Whoa, whoa. Don't get triggered by that. First of all, everything you just said is wrong. It's not like we can't do anything."
"You've been getting on my nerves since earlier, mister! What do you mean by that?!"
If everything up until now had been a scene from a children's cartoon, from here on out, it was reality.
"Think about it. You said you were just appointed as the branch manager or whatever, right? And that you're going to take over Seoul from now on?"
"That's right! We in Locust retrieve rare cards by deploying capable branch managers to various regions. And I, the great Han Gang, was assigned to the capital region, Seoul!"
I really loved how he just spilled everything so easily.
"If that's the case, then you definitely can't kill Man-bok."
"Why not?"
"If you harm that kid, the police won't be the only ones moving. If you kill someone, make threats, and your identity is unknown, you'll almost certainly be treated as a terrorist. Naturally, the military will get involved."
"..."
Oh, he went dead silent.
I didn't actually know what the military in this world was like. I just threw it out there thinking they'd be more aggressive than the police or the Association, but the comparison seemed to hit home.
"Besides, this hypnosis trick is something you're revealing for the first time, right? If we report this to the police or the Association, they'll develop countermeasures immediately. And if what Man-bok said is true, you guys are doing the legwork yourselves. That'll easily be blocked once they step up patrols. Now that we know the pattern behind your codenames, a massive investigation will begin."
"What do you think Locust is?! We can recruit as many lackeys as we want over the internet—"
"Even if you recruit using overseas servers, this country is a censorship state that blocks sites in no time, so that won't work either. Look, just from this one incident, it seems like you've caused massive damage to the Locust organization. Don't you have anything to say about that?"
"Wait. No, wait a minute! Don't say things like that! The subordinate sent by headquarters is right next to me!!"
Ah, so that female voice from earlier was a sort of monitor or secretary.
Realizing why they had assigned an adult to him, I kept pressing without giving him room to breathe.
"In the first place, it's weird to brainwash a kid just to collect cards. How many good cards could children possibly have? Besides, there are countless organizations all over the globe that will absolutely lose their minds if you target children. People who will risk their lives to fight you for free. Are you really going to brainwash kids at the cost of making enemies out of highly motivated vigilantes? On top of that, if you collect cards this way, it'll quickly become obvious that we just need to ambush you when you try to retrieve them. Even a civilian like me can figure this out without needing the military to get involved."
"..."
"Don't look at me," the female voice on the other end said. "That's not my department. The retrieval team will handle it."
"And if they can't?" Han Gang asked.
"If they fail, the one getting scolded will be the branch manager who acted on his own without orders from above. It won't be my fault."
Man-bok's body trembled. I could easily picture the looks being exchanged on the other side.
So, brainwashing the kid and targeting Taeyang was indeed Han Gang's rogue decision.
With his mistakes laid bare, the brat ultimately resorted to violence.
"I take back what I said earlier. As of today, Han Taeyang and that mister over there are officially on my blacklist."
"He said you're on his list, mister," Taeyang said, looking at me.
"I'm not scared at all of someone with that level of intelligence hating me."
"Ugh! Ha, let's see how long you can keep up that attitude! Fine, I'll deal with that mister... later! For now, it's you, Han Taeyang! Step forward! Duel me!"
The field was about to manifest. What a shameless brat, trying to do this in someone else's living room.
"If I win, I'm taking the Princess! But if I lose... since they said I can't take his life, I'll just break his legs and cripple him instead!!"
"You're using Man-bok as a hostage to steal the Princess?!" Taeyang yelled.
"Of course! I know very well how much you care about your friends! Let's see if you can stop me!"
"That's dirty!" Saet-byeol shouted.
"Fight fair and square!" Chae-rin cried.
"I told you, that's a compliment! In the underworld, being called cowardly is the ultimate praise! Hahaha!"
Right after that, leaving Gaeun clinging to me, I lunged toward the field.
It was fine for the kids to play out their little drama, but I couldn't just stand by and watch them cross the line.
"That's enough."
"Wait, what? Get lost! I'm about to battle Taeyang—*cough*!!"
"Kyaaa! My Man-bok?!" Gaeun shrieked.
I kicked Man-bok right in the solar plexus without mercy. As he collapsed, retching, I took the opportunity to scatter the deck he had pulled out all over the floor.
Gaeun looked like she was about to lose her mind seeing her son suddenly kicked by an adult. Fortunately, Yumi held her back, preventing her from lunging at me. I immediately shouted to the kids.
"Search the cards! If you see anything suspicious, pull it out of the deck! He's almost certainly using some weird card to control him!!"
Of course, I also advised them not to hold the cards directly, but to slide them away with their fingertips. If they held them and got possessed too, it would be an absolute disaster.
"That mister sounds like he has personal experience with this," Little Dragon Princess remarked innocently.
"Ah..."
At the Princess's innocent question, Yumi's eyes darted around frantically like flying fish.
We couldn't exactly tell the kids, of all people, that such a thing had happened between the two of us.
"Taeyang. That card, and that one. Oh, and that one looks suspicious too," Saet-byeol pointed out.
"You're right! Just as we thought, there are a bunch of cards that don't fit Man-bok's deck at all!!" Taeyang said.
"Right, he said he received fifteen cards earlier!" Chae-rin recalled.
With the kids working together, the suspicious cards were quickly filtered out, and Man-bok's consciousness slowly began to return.
"Uh, Mom?"
"Man-bok! Can you hear me?!"
"Y-Yes... but my head still... ugh!!"
"Man-bok!!"
Using the last of his connection, Han Gang screamed at me.
"You dirty coward... and you call yourself a Beyond Battler?!"
"I'm not a Beyond Battler. Maybe I was once, but now I'm just a weary, realistic middle-aged guy."
"What?!"
"And you just said being cowardly is a compliment. Why the attitude? Go ahead and laugh like you did earlier, you little brat."
"Ugh! I really hate this mister!!!"
An event that would have taken at least three chapters of Beyond Battles if left to the kids was cut short with a single kick.
Afterward, I had to restrain Gaeun, who was screaming and lunging at me, until she came to her senses, take them to the hospital, and call the police...
I had a crazy day yesterday, and today was just as busy. I couldn't get a single moment of rest.