It's Not Easy... 2
At Jaehee's words, Dan Ahyeon broke into a cold sweat inside.
No — it wasn't only inside.
Outwardly, Dan Ahyeon's face remained composed, but beneath the table her legs trembled like a quaking aspen, and her hands, clenched tight around her trousers, kept twitching.
Why?
Because it was none other than Officer Dan Ahyeon who had suggested actors, celebrities, idols, singers, and non-celebrity panelists as Jaehee's new career(?).
'N-no, well... looking at a face like Jaehee's, even the most successful idol or actor would turn into a squid in comparison... so wouldn't this field actually suit her...?'
It seemed like it would suit her.
If it went well, even she herself thought it would be a lovely thing to watch.
If Jaehee — who normally suppressed every trace of exposure and never wore makeup — actually dressed up, did her makeup, and styled herself like a genuine celebrity?
Wouldn't that be a spectacular sight too?
If they went all out and even shot a pictorial, it would surely sell like wildfire. That would be good for Jaehee, and a feather in the cap of Officer Dan who proposed it.
But how on earth did she know that I was the one who pushed for it!?
"Officer Dan, I know I'm beautiful, but I'd rather not have my life made inconvenient under a barrage of camera lights just to prove it."
"...But the label of Special Management Returnee is one you'll have to shed someday."
"Couldn't I simply live out my days under your care, Officer Dan?"
"No!"
In truth, Dan Ahyeon was a special civil servant assigned to manage Jaehee, yet she genuinely wished for her complete independence.
What, after all, was a [Special Management Returnee]?
It was a designation granted to beings whose individual power rivaled that of an S-Rank hunter, or who could single-handedly exert massive influence over society at large.
To the government, such people were a headache and a critical threat to the established order; to ordinary citizens, objects of envy; and to hunters and awakeners, prime talent to be courted above all others.
'But if someone could blend into society without any problems, they wouldn't be tagged as a Special Management Returnee in the first place...'
Whenever a returnee's personality, mental contamination, erosion, values — or their racial or physical nature — made it dangerous for them to live among ordinary people, they became a Special Management Returnee.
'In Jaehee's case... her personality and values aren't the problem. She feels human enough, and pleasant enough to get along with. The real issue is that she's the Succubus Empress... and her ugly history with the government probably played a part too...'
First and foremost, Jaehee was the Succubus Empress.
That alone was a problem. Among the demonkin who could not survive without devouring human vitality and life-force, she stood at the very apex. Naturally, the vitality and essence Jaehee had to consume were beyond anything a common succubus required.
A considerable number of succubi and incubi had already blended into modern society, but the impulses and desires of demonkin were difficult for human reason to control.
So among the incubi and succubi — the umma — many became criminals branded as villains, and cases of people drained to the point of death were far from rare.
The two names most commonly cited these days were the Succubus Queen Sitrah, and a certain incubus villain known as the Child of Gold and the Sun.
'Sitrah, at least, doesn't engage in active terrorism.'
Sitrah was a first-generation hunter who clashed with the government and chose to vanish entirely into the underworld. It wasn't that Sitrah herself picked the fight — it was an era when the government of the time demanded sacrifice from all first-generation hunters and awakeners alike.
The Child of Gold and the Sun, however, had become an incubus while still a teenage boy.
At the exact peak of adolescent sexual desire and mental turmoil, no less.
With no intention whatsoever of restraining his lust or his impulses, he racked up every kind of incident imaginable and made countless women his own. These days, he was said to be an active villain engaged in terrorism, kidnapping, and robbery.
'He even went so far as to declare, "I will make this world a world for me." The absolute lunatic... Compared to that, our Jaehee is a genuine lady.'
Beyond them, some high-ranking succubus had used the natural traits of the umma to puppet politicians and business tycoons alike, while another committed indiscriminate life-force theft so savage it left its victims mummified husks.
A succubus who merely seduced a rich man and lived off him? By comparison, that would earn a rating of very, very, very good — practically a paragon of human-friendly social integration.
As case after case piled up, the government grew eager to build every safety mechanism it could around other-species returnees and awakeners — the umma included — and around Jaehee, the Succubus Empress.
Both the Hunter Association and the government believed there was a nonzero chance that Lee Jaehee, the Succubus Empress, could one day become one of those so-called villains, criminals, or terrorists.
The official position of the Returnee Management Agency was that if she ever truly turned hostile toward the government, the Association, or humanity itself, there would be nothing anyone could do to stop her.
'And the people who treat that as gospel keep spouting nonsense day in and day out about bringing a leash to restrain Jaehee, about building a control device... ugh.'
Jaehee herself couldn't care less, but from the perspective of ordinary humans — Officer Dan included — the label of [Special Management Returnee] was a kind of dishonor. A social stigma. A government-issued stamp reading THIS IS DANGEROUS.
And Officer Dan Ahyeon's fundamental mission was to fully, gently, and completely integrate her charge — the [Special Management Returnee] and Succubus Empress Lee Jaehee — into human society.
'The Agency did say that if she develops something to be devoted to, she'll form attachment and obsession with human society, which would make her easier to control...'
That was why Dan Ahyeon had intended to introduce Jaehee to professions both familiar to us and built entirely on "beauty" — idols, singers, celebrities, actors.
Even without that, Dan Ahyeon already knew Jaehee carried a subtle streak of the characteristic succubus habit of self-praise — 'Perfectly beautiful me. Magnificent.'
With a face like that, with unconscious allure constantly radiating off her, how could she possibly not know she was pretty?
"...Still, wouldn't it be worth at least trying? Appearing on television itself would suit Jaehee quite well, honestly—"
"That's not happening."
"Why not? I do know your personality type and temperament, Jaehee, but you do enjoy being the center of attention, don't you?"
"......"
Well, that much was true.
Jaehee was indeed a recluse by nature, but at the same time she welcomed awe, cheers, and reverence from others quite gladly.
It was no accident that the Succubus Empress could convert not only physical contact but also others' adoration, joy, gratitude, and reverence into life-force and vitality.
Others' attention delighted Jaehee. And she could eat that delight as food.
That a woman who had become the Succubus Empress remained a virgin with zero interest in carnal love owed much to this very reason.
"I-I'm not an attention seeker. What on earth are you—"
"Are you aware that your lips move every time you watch the news about that violin sound that rang across Seoul in the early morning?"
"..."
For reference, the TV and various news outlets had been reporting on the violin music that had spread across all of Seoul on the day the fog rolled in.
Of course, that had been the very melody Jaehee had played.
Jaehee's melody had calmed the citizens' minds — and, because it calmed them a little too well, households reportedly grew harmonious at remarkable speed, and no small number of acquaintances blossomed into couples.
Naturally, no matter how much the news speculated, all anyone knew was that the melody had been played by some unidentified psychic-type awakened. But the moment Officer Dan saw the broadcast, her intuition fired: Oh. That's Jaehee.
Dan Ahyeon had every awakened and hunter in Seoul catalogued in her head, and the only being capable of driving off a horror that arrived with the fog and soothing the minds of the populace with a single violin melody was the Succubus Empress.
"Jaehee, I know! I know you're a tremendous attention seeker!"
"...No, that's—"
Praising my beauty is only natural, but calling me an attention seeker makes me look seriously cheap...
"What's wrong with wanting other people's attention? You find it a hassle to go outside and receive excessive attention, yet you still want someone to cheer for you — that's not so strange, is it! Sure, you could call it contradictory, but for someone of your caliber, Jaehee, it's hardly unusual at all!"
"..."
"And there's nothing strange about a succubus being an actor or celebrity either. Just between us, Jaehee — quite a few of the registered succubi and incubi actually hold those exact jobs. It wouldn't be odd for you to do it at all!"
Having nothing to say in her own defense on the attention-seeker charge, Jaehee simply pressed her lips shut.
And so she thought to herself.
What if I became a singer, an idol, an actor, a celebrity?
'I'd succeed, obviously...'
But would she be able to go out and about in peace?
Even now, the moment she made eye contact with someone, they'd ask for her number, beg to meet her, or — like that shameless old lecher — offer money and invite her to a motel. She ran into types like that all the time.
Jaehee did enjoy these situations, in her way.
But for it to get even worse than now?
That might be a bit much...
Having roughly sorted out her thoughts, Jaehee gazed at the coffee spilled on the floor and gestured with her hand. Drawn by her life-force, the coffee began rising into the air of its own accord.
"I understand your intentions perfectly well, Officer Dan. But the reason I've declined professions that put me on television is... well, first, they don't suit my temperament — and frankly, they'd be an unforgivable cheat."
"A cheat?"
Resting her chin on her hand, Jaehee regarded Dan Ahyeon with the coquettish, teasing gaze unique to succubi.
"It's true that my face is pretty. Beyond pretty — beautiful. I'm confident that the moment I appeared on a terrestrial broadcast, I'd instantly become a star with the largest fandom on Earth. I sing well, I play instruments well, and there's nothing I can't do if it makes me look beautiful."
"...Every word is true, so why does it sound so insufferable? It makes me want to hit you."
"Ahh~ There it is. Beauty alone is a sin, you see."
She was merely reciting objective facts, yet somehow it came across as insufferably smug. Of course, even that insufferable quality had become a kind of charm of its own, as far as Jaehee was concerned.
"But, Officer Dan. None of this was something I worked for, was it?"
"Pardon? What does appearance have to do with effort—"
"I am beautiful and captivating for one reason and one reason alone: because I am the Succubus Empress. Now tell me — what kind of effort have the idols, singers, and actors on television put in?"
Jaehee feigned a sorrowful expression and regarded them with pity.
"Their looks may fall hopelessly short of mine, but they too surely possess features superior to and more beautiful than the average person's."
"I... suppose?"
"They stayed up all night on skincare for that flawless complexion; they couldn't touch a single bite of the foods they loved; exercise, yoga, makeup... If they were singers, they practiced until their throats bled for that voice. Countless trainees stretched their ankle ligaments and wrenched their backs, desperate to succeed somehow, to be caught by the camera just once — working and working until they were gasping for breath."
Jaehee gestured once more at the coffee floating in midair.
And her life-force, blazing hot as fire, vaporized every last drop of it.
"But the moment I appear, their effort — like this coffee — will be slammed to the floor, vanish without a trace, and be forgotten."
"...I understand what you're saying."
"I'm hardly virtuous enough to lose sleep over it, of course. But is there any real need to do something that isn't essential to me — something that would merely render other people's labor meaningless?"
That said, the Jaehee who said this could, if necessary — or simply on a whim — wake up tomorrow and completely reverse herself with a breezy, 'Oh my, I suddenly feel like being an idol.'
Beautiful people are fickle by nature.
"But for now, at least, I have no desire for any of that."
In conclusion: Jaehee was indeed an attention seeker, but she had no wish to become a tremendous attention seeker(?).
So long as she could maintain her image as the mysterious Succubus Empress who concealed her identity from the citizens of Seoul and played her violin at dawn to drive off the horrors, she would happily feast on the awe and adoration directed her way, converting it all into life-force.
"I... see. Understood. If you refuse, Jaehee, there's nothing to be done."
"Fufufu, thank you for understanding."
KRRRRRAK—!
"...By the way, what on earth is wrong with that violin?"
"No idea."
Jaehee kicked the noisily complaining violin with her foot.
Of course, apart from what she'd told Dan Ahyeon, Jaehee had her own separate reason for refraining from television appearances.
'One simply cannot indulge in pleasure every single moment of one's life...'