I Wish Nothing Would Happen
Alice the Vampire — main villain of Part One.
She had a full name, I was fairly sure. I just couldn't remember it.
Set the name aside, though, and I knew plenty about her. Unlike Lee Yuhwa, the main villain of Part Two, Alice was a character whose past and foreshadowing had been unpacked at length, and that was how I recognized her. What I had only ever seen drawn in the webtoon had become flesh, difficult to match to the page — but a silver-haired, red-eyed girl named Alice could hardly be common.
So I tried to run.
I failed.
"Ugh... what am I supposed to do about this."
In the story, her personality came down to one thing: an interest-seeker. Whatever caught her attention, she latched onto and would not let go.
In the webtoon it was definitely Han Soyeon!
Around episode five, Han Soyeon ran into Alice while chasing one of the Villain Alliance's Failures. Until then Alice had never been discovered by anyone, so she took an interest in Han Soyeon — the first person to find her.
"So why is it me..."
Right up until Han Soyeon tracked her down, she was supposed to be a creature living in pure boredom. Which meant that now, before the original story had even started, she ought to be tucked away in some luxury penthouse, drinking the blood of Failures.
"This is the story screwing me over."
Was I going to have to stop going outside altogether? Every time I stepped out, I ran into a main character.
Is it because I'm the main villain?
Was this that corrective force — narrative gravity, whatever you wanted to call it? The further you strayed from the original, the harder it dragged you back.
A nagging text followed. Past the words, I could see Alice smiling as she drew a finger across her throat, aimed straight at me.
...I need to answer. Fast.
Tap. Tap-tap.
After that, nothing else came from her. All I had done was say hello, and already it felt as if there would be a next time.
"...I should just eat."
I trudged into the kitchen, thoroughly depressed. Depressed enough that a triangle kimbap was in order. From the bag on the table I pulled one stuffed with soy-glazed bulgogi.
Crunch.
Salty soy sauce and cold, unwarmed meat lingered on my tongue. It's good. My mood lifted, just a little.
"Ugh... and now I'm depressed again."
Seriously. How had it come to this.
Time slipped past quickly. Nearly a month had already gone by since I arrived here. A month wasn't long, but it was long enough to grow used to living in this place.
"Here you go."
"Yes, thank you~"
"Thank you."
"Come again~!"
Maybe because I showed up every single day, the part-timer knew me now. At first he had worked with a blank, mechanical face. These days he lit up the moment he saw me.
He kind of feels like a cute puppy. Even his tone had that wriggly, cooing energy — close to the way I used to talk when I looked after the youngest kid at the orphanage.
Is this how the kids felt? When I was little, the director had been a rather frightening person. No one had ever turned a look like that on me.
Ding.
"Hey."
Four days out of seven, Han Soyeon was wandering the park whenever I stepped out of the convenience store. And always—
"Hello. On patrol again today?"
"Yeah. I may be a nameless hero, but I still have to patrol."
That was a lie. The special forces were never assigned patrol duty. They were registered as heroes, yes — but only on paper.
Why lie, just to come see me... At first I had wondered if she was suspicious. It didn't feel like that anymore.
"Why...?"
"Ah, no. Just..."
Every so often, when she simply stared at me, I felt a small, guilty prickle.
"Oh! And... this. I'm not sure you'll like it, but please take it."
Every time I ran into her, I handed over a triangle kimbap. Not only kimbap, of course — sometimes chocolate, sometimes a drink.
"...Thanks."
"You're working to protect people like us, aren't you."
I hated these meetings. I wanted to avoid them. So why was I giving her food the moment we met?
Maybe if I bank enough goodwill now, I might survive even if she finds me out later.
The Han Soyeon I knew from the webtoon and the Han Soyeon standing in front of me were very different people. The one on the page was always blunt, always hating villains, and nearly every scene had her facing one down and killing them — a villain shredder. The real one had a surprisingly oblivious streak, and a warmth the pages never showed.
And later she tears herself apart between villains and heroes. If I piled up enough affection, then even if it eventually came out that I was a villain, I might still walk away from her alive.
"How have you been lately?"
"Same as always. Training every day. And... patrol."
We talked more often now. After I met Alice, running into each other had been nothing but awkward — a few stiff words, and that was all. These days the conversations actually lasted. Mostly I asked, and she answered.
"I see... That's impressive."
"...Thanks for saying so."
She really might be more oblivious than I thought. Whenever I complimented her, her face went slightly stiff. Not dislike. Closer to flustered.
"I'll head out, then."
"...Yeah. Bye."
A few minutes of talk, a small bow, and I left. Thankfully, nothing happened on the walk from the park back home.
It was only strange those first two days. Of course it was. Even in a world where villains and heroes stood opposed, running into them every single day would be the strange part.
"Well... I am seeing her every day, though."
Bzzzt. My phone went off.
...Heroes in person every day. Villains by text every day.
She didn't even seem interested in pretending to be a girl my age anymore. For about a week she had texted in an ordinary voice. Now it was identical to the way she spoke in the webtoon.
"I kept waiting for something to happen... and all she ever sends is this."
For messages from a villain, they were absurdly ordinary — scraps of everyday life. The juice she drank had tasted awful. She wanted something sweet for the first time in a while. Once she said she was bored and demanded I tell her an interesting story.
That time she even called. I nearly jumped out of my skin. The voice on the other end had been an adult's. I acted shocked and pointed it out, and only then did she switch to a girl's voice.
"Haaah..."
It was peaceful. Nothing had happened. I was simply living an ordinary life. The protagonist didn't seem to suspect me, and Alice, the main villain, hadn't tried to harm me either. The pestering was frightening, and so was being expected to reply — but if I answered decently, she was satisfied quickly and never let the conversation run long.
I sent her something halfhearted, then started unpacking the convenience-store bag I had filled with all sorts of food.
Thank goodness I can at least handle kimchi. It tasted a little spicy, but stir-fried kimchi was still within what my tongue could manage. I chewed a triangle kimbap and reached for the drink I had set out, holding my focus like that for about three seconds.
Shrrk.
With a rough, grating sound, the cap of the plastic bottle sheared clean off. The cut was jagged and uneven, as if someone had gone at it with a dull saw.
"Even stacking it over and over, this is all I get."
The only ability I could use right now, Sever, was pathetically weak. A power that had once diced through human bone with a single gesture could barely put a scratch on a porcelain cup, so I had come up with stacking it on itself, again and again.
Layer Sever about a thousand times, and I can just barely tear through a bottle cap. Any more than that was impossible. The ether each use consumed wasn't even that much — and yet doing it twice like this was enough to leave me lightheaded.
"Still, this much ought to work for self-defense."
Enough, I thought, to leave a stinging wound across someone's hand.
Crunch.
Tuna-mayo triangle kimbap. Very much to my taste. I sat at the table and mumbled around a mouthful.
"I hope nothing happens from now on..."
...with no idea what might be coming.