Black Friend Kim Sejin
Black Friend Kim Sejin.
Having declared herself my fan, Kim Sejin clamped onto my hand and spun circles around me, eyes sparkling like stars.
"This is incredible! Even with the mask, you're right in front of me, but your face won't stick in my memory at all—it's like looking through fog! Is this that Recognition Deterrent Chip?"
Valkyrie had seen straight through the chip the second she laid eyes on me. Kim Sejin, though, seemed to be affected just like everyone else; she couldn't tell who I was.
"Kid G! You have an ability, right? Of course you do! What is it? Wait—trade secret, so you won't tell me? How many places have you hit so far? Which one paid the most? Ever fought other villains? What about heroes? Who was the strongest?"
"Whoa, my eardrums are about to explode. Quiet down."
The endless chatter pouring out of Kim Sejin's mouth was enough to drive a man insane.
She clamped her mouth shut at once, but those heavy, worshipful eyes never left me for a second.
I'd known she nursed a vague admiration for villains, but I'd assumed it would be aimed at some S-class, or at least an A-class. Never in a million years did I think the target would be me.
"Anyway, I got you somewhere safe. Go home. A girl like you has no business hanging around a place like this, so don't even think about coming back."
"What did you just say?! Why am I 'a girl'? I am the terrifying ability user of evil whose very name stops crying children cold—the Friend of Darkness, Black Friend Kim Sejin!"
"Ah, is that so. You couldn't even handle ten lowlife street punks from the slums and you froze up. What kid is going to stop crying at the sound of that?"
"Urgh… Th-that was only because I let my guard down! If I go all-out, trash like that is nothing…"
"Save the self-praise for when you're home hugging your favorite plushie. Get going."
"W-wait! Don't kick me out! I'm a real fan of Kid G!"
"Why would you even be my fan? There are plenty of famous guys out there."
Kim Sejin hesitated, shuffling her feet, then finally spoke in a quieter voice.
"Because the other villains are just murderers and destroyers… But even though you're a villain, you help the weak! I like people like that!"
"Then you should've become a fan of heroes instead of me."
"I hate heroes! Those bastards are just dogs of the government and the Union! I want to be free and wicked and just, like you! Not some government puppet of a hero!"
Aha.
The picture was becoming clear.
In the original novel, Kim Sejin had occupied that awkward middle ground—neither enemy nor ally—constantly trolling Valkyrie for no good reason. She'd carried a vague longing for villainy without ever committing actual villainy herself, and she didn't much like heroes either. Stuck in that limbo, she'd stirred up pointless trouble, caused accidents, and trolled Valkyrie until she earned the title of most hated character in Heroic Valkyria. Plenty of people mindlessly simp'd for her looks, but her personality had sealed her fate as the story's resident unlikable girl.
That was why I'd spoken casually to her from the start. The Kim Sejin standing in front of me now, though, was a little different.
In the original she'd wandered because she lacked a concrete idol to admire. Now she had a clear target: me.
Which meant even the original series' most hated girl might be salvageable if I handled her right.
…And it wasn't just because her face was pretty.
"Hey, Kid G! Can I be your partner? Kid G and the mysterious new beauty at his side! A two-person bandit crew of proletarian fury, punishing the corrupt, rotten pigs of capitalism! A revolutionary duo that puts both heroes and villains on notice!"
"Are you a socialist or something? I prefer working alone. Running around in a group just means more tails to step on and more weak points to cover."
"Are you calling me a weak point right now?!"
"If someone who can't even handle ten street thugs isn't a weak point, what is she?"
"Urgh… Just you wait! I'll achieve something amazing and come find you again! When that day comes you won't have any excuse to turn me down! You'll regret kicking Black Friend Kim Sejin to the curb!"
"Sure, whatever. Now get out of here before I actually kick that butt of yours out the door, Miss Black Friend."
I gave Kim Sejin a light shove outside. She stomped off muttering furiously under her breath, but I had no time to deal with her further. I left her behind and headed straight back into the slums.
From far away, the last words she spat reached my ears.
"How dare you slam the door in my face… Until you accept me, may you stub your pinky toe on every door threshold, every single day!!!"
After recovering the bag full of the sale proceeds, I took a few detours in case anyone was tailing me, then pressed my hand to the wall of an empty building, opened a door, and returned home.
The moment I got back I ran down the list and roughly calculated the amounts.
"Hmm… about three hundred people, give or take. How much should I set per person? Half a year's wages from that company, maybe?"
After punching numbers into a calculator, I realized that once I distributed the money to all the temporary workers Cheonok Logistics had fired, even with tens of billions in hand, almost nothing would be left for me.
"Ugh. Looks like I'll be tightening my belt this month."
Around the same time, elsewhere.
Eun Seol had stopped by the Hero Union office. The moment she heard the news from the case officer, Han Juyeon, she raised her voice in disbelief.
"W-what did you just say…? Unnie, you're lying, right?"
"Haah… I wish I were. The people on-site are having a hell of a time right now."
"That can't be right. There has to be some kind of mistake! Please put me on the phone! Hello?"
"Huh? That voice… is that Valkyrie?"
"Yes, it's me. Is it true that CEO Lee Jeongseok is refusing to let the investigation team inside?"
"Don't even get me started. The second anyone takes one step onto the estate he starts screaming that he'll sue every last person for trespassing…"
In that instant, the words Kid G—Lee Yechan—had spoken earlier that day flashed through Valkyrie's mind.
When a private individual like Lee Jeongseok suffers a loss, the investigation has to go through multiple steps to determine the scale of the victim's assets and the exact amount of damage. In the process, the flow of his personal wealth naturally comes to light.
Go ask at Union HQ later. See whether Lee Jeongseok is cooperating with the damage assessment… or fighting tooth and nail to keep the investigation team from setting a single foot inside his mansion.
No. It's just a coincidence.
Valkyrie shook her head, denying Kid G's words inside her heart, and pressed on.
"I'll try talking to him. The CEO must be misunderstanding some—"
"What?! That voice—! That's Valkyrie, isn't it! Put her on right now!"
CEO Lee Jeongseok's furious voice exploded through the speaker, filling the entire office with his roaring.
"Valkyrie, this is all your fault! If you'd done your job properly that bastard Kid G never would have crawled into my room and robbed me blind! And he wrecked every floor of my house while he was at it!"
"What?! I caught Kid G! I only went upstairs after receiving the radio call telling me to come up… And you heard him admit with his own mouth that I had him!"
"Ohhh, so now it's all my fault? You're trying to pin everything on me just like that Kid G bastard—looks like the two of you are in cahoots! Huh?!"
"CEO, if you would just listen—"
"You couldn't even catch the criminal, and the so-called heroes ended up smashing my house to pieces instead! I'm not paying a single won. If anything, I should be suing you people for property damage!"
Seeing Valkyrie's face twist in distress, Han Juyeon couldn't take it anymore. She took the phone back and spoke in a calm, professional tone.
"CEO Lee Jeongseok, this is Han Juyeon of the Hero Union. That is exactly why our investigation team needs to go in and properly assess the damage and calculate the exact loss. If you keep blocking them, we have no way of determining anything."
"What more do you want to dig up by coming inside?! Not one step! I'll handle the damage assessment myself—you just prepare to pay for the house you wrecked!"
Click.
The call ended there.
"Ha… You fucking…"
Having dealt with cases like this more times than she could count, Han Juyeon let out a thick stream of curses. Then she caught sight of the girl standing beside her and heaved a deep sigh.
"Sniff… Uuuuh…"
Valkyrie—Eun Seol, still only a twenty-year-old girl—was clenching her fists so hard they shook, tears welling in her eyes.
"I really did catch Kid G… I don't know how he got upstairs, but I caught him… I only went up because they kept yelling for backup… And the floors… I only smashed them because I had no other choice while I was trying to catch him… Hic…"
"Seol-ah, don't cry. You didn't do anything wrong. That bastard Lee Jeongseok is just a complete psycho. Nobody's blaming you, so don't take it to heart."
After working her heart out on a commission only to have the client dump all the blame on her and scream at her, Valkyrie sank to the floor and sobbed. Han Juyeon stayed with her for a long time, gently consoling her.
Once she had calmed down a little, Valkyrie wiped her swollen eyes and asked Han Juyeon a question.
"Sniff… But why won't CEO Lee Jeongseok let the investigation team in?"
"Oh, that? The shady ones always do this. If the investigation team starts poking around the place under the excuse of assessing damages, there must be something they can't afford to have found."
"…!"
Hearing Han Juyeon say the exact same thing Kid G had said, Valkyrie froze completely.
"Something… they can't afford to have found?"
"Yeah, you know—undeclared hidden assets, illegal goods, drugs, that sort of thing. The guys who have that stuff always throw a tantrum like this."
At Han Juyeon's words, for the first time in her life, a tiny seed of doubt took root in Valkyrie's heart—doubt that the people she was supposed to protect might be the wrong ones.