The Villains' End
"Seo-jun, say aah~."
Seomun Ye-jin picked up a snack between her fingers and held it to Baek Seo-jun's lips. Rather than obediently opening his mouth, however, he was looking at hers.
"I'd rather you feed me with your mouth than your hands."
At his shameless request, Seomun Ye-jin barely managed to stop her face from turning red all over again. She could feel herself slowly building up a resistance. Gently sweeping her light purple hair aside with her left hand, she smiled with her eyes — a smile she had carefully composed to look as lovely and alluring as possible — and asked, her voice playful.
"If that's what you want, Seo-jun, I'll feed you with my mouth as much as you'd like. But do you really like my lips that much?"
"If I'm being honest with you — no hiding anything — then yes. I could kiss you again and again and never get tired of it."
"Because my lips taste that good?"
"That, and because you look so unbearably adorable."
The knowledge that he meant every word made Seomun Ye-jin's expression falter. She tried to hold on to her composure, but each time he spoke like that her chest trembled, and her face softened whether she wanted it to or not.
"I love you too, Seo-jun."
She laid her own feelings bare, just as he had. Saying it out loud was embarrassing, but it wasn't a feeling she disliked.
He had saved her from despair after villains had kidnapped her. He had been genuinely furious at the women's group that had slandered her out of jealousy, and he had punished them for it. To her, Baek Seo-jun would always be a hero. She could have called him her dark knight — though he himself didn't seem particularly fond of that comparison.
I'd rather have a husband than a knight, anyway.
Looking at the man who cared for her so deeply that he would even set aside the revenge he had planned, Seomun Ye-jin knew her world had been decided. She could no longer imagine being anything other than Baek Seo-jun's woman.
"Seo-jun, then I'll feed you with my mouth. Get ready."
"I'm always ready."
"Okay! Then..."
She held a snack between her lips and leaned in toward the man she loved. Baek Seo-jun met her mouth, ate the snack in a single bite, and then claimed her lips in earnest. Seomun Ye-jin closed her eyes.
This was the first romance of her life, but she believed it would also be the only one. Even if he were to touch the most secret places of her body, she would welcome that touch with joy.
My husband, who would stand by my side even if the entire world turned against me.
Holding those words inside — still too embarrassing to speak aloud — she lost herself in the heat of his kiss.
When it ended, his hand came up to gently caress her face.
"Well then, young lady. I'll be stepping out for a bit."
"To deal with those villains?"
"That's right. I'm going to take care of the ones who hurt you."
Seomun Ye-jin no longer cared how those villains would meet their end. He had promised to show them all hell, and that was enough. She only needed to trust his methods and leave it in his hands.
What she did care about — what she still resented — was that she was only fifteen.
I can't exactly tell him I'll take a bath and wait for him to come home, can I...?
She found it a shame that he wasn't wearing a tie. If he had been, she could have straightened it for him and played the part of a proper wife seeing her husband off. Denied even that small performance, she offered a different farewell instead.
"Seo-jun, is there anything you'd like to eat when you get back?"
"Hmm? Anything you make would be fine with me."
"I knew you'd say that. Is there really nothing that comes to mind?"
"Then I'll ask for something made with your heart in it."
"Yes! I'll prepare it with plenty of heart and love!"
"Alright. I'll be back."
Lamia, coiled around my shoulder after Seomun Ye-jin had seen me off, spoke up.
— Why did you bring me along?
Having been dragged away mid-movie, she made no effort to hide her displeasure.
"What's the harm in missing a little of your movie? Besides, Lamia — hunting villains is something you'd enjoy, isn't it?"
— Those things aren't even mana-awakened. And they look as though they were assembled from every curse this world has to offer.
"That's just discriminating based on looks."
— Seo-jun. The ugly ones need only have their souls eaten after they die. The beautiful ones can simply have their fine souls and flesh absorbed and synchronized. That is all humans have ever been to me.
She was cooperating with me, but her view of humanity hadn't changed much. To Lamia, I was the only human who counted as special — the one who had absorbed her power, the one who stood a chance of killing The Fox that Devours the World. By her measure, humans were livestock scratching out a living in a tiny world, no different from the way humans themselves looked at ants.
And even this was a considerable improvement.
"That's rich, coming from someone who spends all her time glued to the TV shows and movies humans make."
— Mm. I'll concede that point. I've discovered pleasures I never knew before. Being in a situation where I depend on you... I find myself feeling things I had not expected.
Having thrown in her lot with me — depending on me to survive the hunt of The Fox that Devours the World — Lamia's perspective on humans was shifting, if only a little.
— Still, those things did something terrible to the girl you pour so much affection upon, did they not? What is wrong with looking down on those who treated her so cheaply?
"That's confirmation bias. Being ugly doesn't automatically mean there's something wrong with someone. Even if one or two out of a hundred fit the pattern, you can't just declare it as a rule."
— And yet those of that appearance gathered together and did terrible things to that girl, Seomun Ye-jin, did they not? Is that not simply the nature of those who look like that?
"Well... I can't deny that. It's true there are a lot of people like that."
Chatting like that, I headed first to Choi Kang-in. I reached his mansion in Gaeseong without anyone trying to stop me, and I was able to see him at once.
"Welcome. What brings you here without so much as a call beforehand?"
He greeted me with a practiced, professional smile, but I had no intention of lingering in conversation. To him, I was a hope that had to be recruited for the sake of the future. To me, Choi Kang-in was useful only so long as his relationship with Baek Seo-jin stayed broken.
There's no need for me to personally run the Kangin Guild.
I wouldn't refuse if he offered it, but I had no desire to be pulled around either. Beyond saving the world, taking my revenge, and living with Seomun Ye-jin, I had no ambitions to speak of.
Yu-cheon would have built himself some impressive status and influence.
My friend from my previous life, Seomun Yu-cheon, would have established a high position for himself and quietly enjoyed the power that came with it. Unlike him, I didn't feel I particularly needed those things. When a problem required political muscle, it was far more convenient to just have this old man in front of me handle it.
"That's quite the look. As if King Sejong were gazing upon Minister Hwang Hui."
"You know your history, old man."
"I may look like this, but I keep up with the internet. If I grew old and stopped paying attention to how the world changes, how could I possibly claim the will to save it?"
I nodded at Choi Kang-in's sly reply.
"Yes, yes. Of course you do. Well then, Old Man Choi Kang-in — I think it's about time I collected those villains who hurt my young lady. They're so wretched I wouldn't even waste calling them bastards."
"Collect them, eh. You mean the ones currently sitting in prison?"
"Yes. They seem to be living far too comfortably in there. So I'm going to send them somewhere much nicer — a proper hell. Some of their seniors have already set up shop, so I'm sure they'll get along wonderfully."
"Hmm. The villains are all conveniently gathered in prison, so do as you like. You know the location, I assume?"
"Yes. Just make sure nobody makes a fuss about them suddenly disappearing."
"That's simple enough."
Nobody would care even if the likes of villains vanished without a trace. Their families might go looking, but there was no reason to look after villains for the sake of their families.
"Haa."
The villains embedded in the walls watched the researchers writhing through another day's torture and felt a flicker of relief that their own situation was better than that. But in the next moment, a chill crawled over their skin. Women were flooding into the place — what looked like a four-digit number of them.
As villains, they were well accustomed to things like rape. Looking at the women who had just appeared, however, they felt not the slightest stirring of that kind of desire. They would rather die than have sex with things like that.
"Aaaah! Where is this?!"
"Take me back right now! I-I didn't do anything wrong! This is a human rights violation!"
"I'll sue you! Waaah! I'll sue! You male-pig bastards!"
"This is all because of those fugly bitches who mooch off men!"
Watching the pandemonium of hideous women spewing deranged nonsense, one of the villains let out a groan.
"I can feel my eyes rotting."
It was a sentiment every villain nailed to the wall as decoration could agree with.