Day 10: The Burden of Kindness
"Miss, how do you like this outfit?"
"You look beautiful as always, Miss."
"Miss! Please try this!"
Called by so many voices at her back, Cheon Seo-ah fled into her room as if escaping.
Even in the luxurious mansion where the Proxy resided, Seo-ah's chamber stood out as the most extravagant of all. Having fled inside, she let out a deep sigh.
"It's overwhelming."
The Proxy was without question a being who reigned at the peak of countless villains. Yet not everyone under him was a villain. Villains were among them, certainly — but far more of the people were ordinary. Completely ordinary people with no powers of any kind. The great majority of them did not even know the Proxy's true identity; they had simply been hired for money.
To them, Cheon Seo-ah was not the mastermind who had created the nine most terrible villains. She was nothing more than a cute, beautiful girl.
Perhaps that was why. Whenever Seo-ah stepped out of her room for even a casual stroll, every person she met called her over. Someone wanting her to try a newly made dessert. Someone wanting to dress her in something lovely and adorable. Someone simply drunk on the sight of her waddling along, soft and round and impossibly cute.
As a result, Seo-ah found herself spending more and more time shut up in her room, unable to do anything else. The Proxy knew that fact all too well.
Knock, knock.
"May I come in, Lady Cheon Seo-ah?"
"Ah, please do."
The Proxy's voice arrived with the knock. When Seo-ah answered with a nod, the firmly locked door opened and he stepped into the room.
"You seem to have been put through it again today."
"I have, yes."
At his words, Seo-ah puffed out her cheeks and nodded. But—
"Please do not dislike them too much. They meant no harm."
"I know that perfectly well. That is precisely why it feels all the more overwhelming."
Seo-ah nodded at the Proxy's words. She did not dislike them. She was simply overwhelmed. That someone's goodwill — goodwill that demanded nothing in return, goodwill that felt nearly infinite — could weigh this heavily was something she was learning for the first time in her life.
Meanwhile, the Proxy gazed at Seo-ah as she lay on the bed, her whole body wrapped tight in the blankets, and spoke.
"Then how about an outing, as a change of pace?"
"An outing?"
"Yes. Going outside, eating delicious food, enjoying something fun. Ah — what about an amusement park? I recently heard that a rather fine one was built in my homeland."
"Hmm."
At the Proxy's suggestion, Seo-ah fell into deep thought. An outing. An outing, was it? It was not a bad idea. She could not lean on the Proxy forever. And if she went out, she would not have to flee the overwhelming kindness of so many people by locking herself away in the mansion.
But—
"You cannot come with me, can you?"
"Regrettably, no."
At Seo-ah's question, the Proxy nodded with a bitter smile. There was no helping it. He was one of the nine most terrible villains the entire world was hunting. Most people did not even know his face — but that was only "most." The upper ranks of the Hero Association. The heroes who stood at the peak of each nation. And others who did not work as heroes but still possessed formidable abilities… Somewhere out there, people who knew his face certainly existed. If he went out with Lady Seo-ah and was recognized by any of them, it would ruin what should have been a pleasant outing for her.
Having guessed why the Proxy wore that bitter smile, Seo-ah shook her head.
"I appreciate the suggestion, but I really am more comfortable at the mansion…"
"There is no need to refuse on my account. I cannot go with you, true — but watching you like this is far more painful for me."
"Uuung."
As if the bitter smile and sad expression had never been there, the Proxy spoke with a gentle smile in the blink of an eye, and Seo-ah tilted her head. Was it truly all right?
Then…
"Let's save the amusement park for another day when we can all go together. Today, I would like to visit Seoul."
Seoul, the capital of Korea. The city where she had lived long ago, before she fell into the Immortal Realm and became a cultivator. Of her hundreds of thousands of years of life, it was a span of barely twenty years — a speck of dust. And yet Seo-ah still regarded Seoul, and Korea beyond it, as her hometown. Having come to Earth like this, paying a visit to her hometown after so long was not a bad idea at all.
"Seoul, you say? Understood. I shall prepare at once."
At Seo-ah's sincere words, the Proxy smiled softly and left the room.
"What kind of bullshit is that!"
Boom!
In his half-man, half-wolf form, the villain Hyeolrangje slammed the floor and roared.
"Raku—! No, you're going to let Lady Cheon Seo-ah leave the mansion?! What kind of bullshit is that!"
"It is what Lady Cheon Seo-ah herself desired, Hyeolrangje."
"Even if Lady Cheon Seo-ah desires it! Do you honestly think it makes any sense to send her into a place that dangerous?!"
Grrrrr—.
Agitated, Hyeolrangje bared his fangs and let out a threatening growl. In answer, the Proxy let out a short, almost mocking laugh — and then—
Whoosh—.
Crack-crack-crack—.
Whoooosh—.
He raised flame, freezing cold, and wind. Each one a power so great that even first-rank ability users or heroes could not withstand it. And still Hyeolrangje showed not the slightest sign of being cowed, letting out a hollow laugh.
"You want to do this right now?"
Rumble—!
As he finished speaking, a colossal presence erupted from Hyeolrangje's entire body. The demonic cultivation art he had mastered, the Blood Wolf True Body Art, did not grant any flashy abilities. But the body of Hyeolrangje, who had perfected it, could justly be called the strongest among the remaining eight villains present. Swept up in a nuclear blast, not a single hair would be singed; exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, his regeneration outpaced the collapse of his flesh. He had never tested it, but Hyeolrangje was confident that even if he were cast into outer space, he would survive.
And so the Proxy and Hyeolrangje faced each other, both drawing up their power, while the remaining seven villains watched with looks that said, Here we go again — when a voice reached them from somewhere. Cute and utterly innocent.
"Are you all worried about me going out alone?"
At the same moment, a faint breeze slipped past the Proxy and Hyeolrangje and wiped their power and presence clean away. The gathered villains wore startled faces at Seo-ah's sudden appearance — and—
"L-Lady Cheon Seo-ah!"
Hyeolrangje, who had been so fiercely opposed to her outing, looked as if he might faint on the spot.
I'm finished!
Hyeolrangje cried out inwardly. Because he had opposed her outing so absolutely, he might already have fallen out of favor in her heart. His actions could easily have looked, to her, like someone desperate to keep her locked inside the mansion no matter what. His tail drooped in dejection — and Seo-ah offered him a soft smile.
"I will not dislike you over something this small. I think I understand why you opposed my going out."
"L-Lady Cheon Seo-ah!"
At her words, Hyeolrangje's face lit up as if the dejection had never been there. Meanwhile, Geomma and Maraseung, who had been silent until now, spoke up.
"But… why Korea of all places? Japan would be better than Korea…"
"Heh heh. My homeland of China is not so bad either, you know."
Starting with those two suggestions, the rest of the villains began recommending their own homelands, each in turn. There was no longer any talk of stopping Seo-ah's outing. The only thing filling the heads of the nine villains was the desire to show her their hometowns by any means possible.
However—
"That would be because Korea is my hometown."
Having answered the nine villains that way, Seo-ah let out a cute little hehe. At those words, though, Geomma's and Maraseung's expressions hardened to stone. And no wonder — everyone here knew all too well what their homelands, Japan and China, had done to Korea.
Even so, one question remained unresolved.
"Lady Cheon Seo-ah's hometown is Korea, you say? Do you mean that the peninsula where Korea now stands is your homeland?"
"No? Modern South Korea — that is, the country called Korea — is my hometown. Not the many nations that once stood on that peninsula."
"But… the era in which I met the Heavenly Maid— no, Lady Cheon Seo-ah, was before Korea even existed."
The Proxy spoke with an expression that said he could not understand. The age in which he had met Seo-ah was before America had even taken root in that land — no, more precisely, a time so ancient it lay unimaginably far from the present. The world believed he had lived for a few hundred years, but in truth the Proxy had been active on Earth for well over two millennia.
Of course, the other eight villains also stared at Seo-ah with the same incomprehension. In the eras when they had met her, Korea had not yet existed either. The one who had met her closest to the founding of Korea was Chilgeomje. And so Chilgeomje said—
"Now, now, let's leave the pointless talk there. Wasn't Lady Cheon Seo-ah's mysterious nature something we all already knew perfectly well?"
"You little brat."
At Chilgeomje's words, Geomma clicked her tongue. Chilgeomje and Geomma were both among the nine villains who had founded the Illuminati, but their relationship was far from good. And no wonder — the era in which Chilgeomje had been born and active was the Japanese colonial period. In other words, the very age when the country had been plundered by Japan.
"More importantly, Lady Cheon Seo-ah wishes to go to Korea, so it only makes sense that I should be the one to guide her, doesn't it?"
Chilgeomje said with a sly grin. Born latest and meeting Seo-ah latest as well, he had always held relatively little influence compared to the other eight villains. Of course, the Illuminati was not an organization where age alone let you do as you pleased, so less influence meant less power — which in turn meant his mastery of the Demonic Cultivation Art Seo-ah had handed him as a "small favor" lagged behind the others. Chilgeomje, who normally could not hold his head high, made no effort to hide the bright smile of a man who never expected fortune to come to him this way.
Seo-ah looked at him and spoke.
"Come to think of it, you were that pitiful child from the Japanese colonial period."
"That is correct, Lady Cheon Seo-ah. That you remember me is an infinite honor."
At her words, Chilgeomje bowed his head in answer. To think she had remembered him. Then he would attend her properly this time and receive a little more of her help. Chilgeomje made no attempt to hide that desire. The Seven Desires Demonic God Art he practiced maximized the seven desires of humanity and made their power his own. For Chilgeomje, concealing desire was a concept that simply did not exist. Seo-ah, who knew that fact well, showed not the slightest sign of discomfort toward Chilgeomje as he openly hungered to raise his realm with her help. Only the other eight villains frowned, as if offended by the naked ambition he did not bother to hide.
But—
"Your face is known in Korea as well, is it not? So for this outing, I will accept the Proxy's help."
"Ah…!"
At Seo-ah's words, Chilgeomje's expression crumbled as if the sky itself had fallen, and he sank to the floor. In contrast, the Proxy said—
"Please leave everything to me, Lady Cheon Seo-ah."
—and resolved to do his utmost for the one who had chosen him.