The Heroine's Savior
No.
He had to protect them. His friends. Everyone. He had wanted to become a hero who shielded people from harm — someone who brought smiles and happiness wherever he went.
Se-hee.
Han Se-hee, his friend of four years. She had never once called him a friend, but he had always thought of her as one. She had refused when he asked her to be his friend, and yet, over those four years they had spent together, he believed they had become friends all the same.
But he had lost to a villain. He had not been able to stop Han Se-hee from being dragged away.
And it was not only Han Se-hee. Lee Ha-yeon — daughter of the Angel Guild's leader, the girl his beloved parents had told him to go escort, calling it a chance to raise the Baekho Guild's standing, his own reputation, and their connections — he had failed to protect her as well.
Why?
He already knew the answer. He was weak.
Damn it. I have to get stronger so I can protect them...
He had to become a righteous hero and protect people. He had to become the kind of hero who stopped the innocent from suffering.
As Baek Seo-jin clung to that thought, a sliver of guilt began to surface inside him.
Yes. He did. Baek Seo-jin answered with a will as firm as stone. But somewhere in his heart, something laughed at him for it.
No. His brother had just been a bad person who made their parents' lives miserable.
Having become an S-class hunter, he could recall memories from as far back as age four with perfect clarity if he wished. Even the memories that had once been hazy were rising now, sharper than before.
He remembered it now — from when he himself had been only six years old — Baek Seo-jun's last appearance, just before So Gang-seok dragged him away.
The truth he had spent all this time looking away from.
The truth he had been looking away from.
The bad person had not been his brother, Baek Seo-jun.
The bad ones had been his parents. And himself.
The memories of his childhood laid that fact bare, with nothing left to hide behind.
No. That wasn't true.
No. No. No. No. No.
"Seo-jin!"
"Are you awake?"
Baek Seo-jin realized he had opened his eyes in a hospital room.
And not just any room — a VIP suite, even by the standards of a hunter-exclusive hospital staffed with numerous healers. As the heir of the Baekho Guild, he had suffered severe internal injuries that had left his insides in ruins, so they had moved him to a private room at once.
"Ugh... Dad, Mom. Where's Se-hee?"
The moment he opened his eyes, Baek Seo-jin let out a faint groan at the nauseating pain still churning through his insides, and called for Han Se-hee.
"The Kangin Guild is... searching for her, so they'll find her soon."
Kim Yu-jeong spoke carefully as she looked him over. Baek Seo-jin heard the worry in her voice — but he could tell that worry was not directed at Han Se-hee.
To Baek Hyeong-won and Kim Yu-jeong, the only one they loved was him.
Han Se-hee had never particularly liked the two of them either, treating them with nothing more than the courtesy one reserved for superiors in rank. But even if she had gone out of her way to be warm, they would not have liked her. To those two, Han Se-hee was nothing more than a trophy reserved exclusively for their son Baek Seo-jin — her exceptional beauty and talent meant to be spent on him alone.
No. No. No.
Baek Seo-jin no longer even knew what he was trying to deny.
He could not remember clearly. But when he had lost consciousness, he felt as though he had recalled something.
"I have to save Se-hee..."
"Seo-jin! Don't push yourself!"
"That's right! Listen to your father and mother! The opponent is an SSS-class villain! Seo-jin, this is not your fault. This is something for the Kangin Guild to handle!"
Despite his parents' words, Baek Seo-jin tried to force himself upright to go save Han Se-hee. But no strength would enter his body.
Damn it. I'm the one who has to protect her...
He had to protect her. He had to save her.
But he did not have the power.
A dim, lightless chamber underground.
"Hahaha!"
Gye Un-jik had returned to his hideout, and he laughed with bright, unrestrained joy as he looked upon Lee Ha-yeon and Han Se-hee, who lay upon the altar in demure, composed postures.
Seomun Ye-jin, Gang Yu-ra, and Moriya Yuka had all been in positions too difficult to touch. Kim Ho-jun, that SSS-class hunter, was always glued to Seomun Ye-jin's side, and Moriya Yuka — even when traveling between Japan and Korea — always moved in secret under the protection of the Moriya Family. As for Gang Yu-ra, she was staying in the Kangin Guild's own facilities with the express purpose of joining the guild.
Lee Ha-yeon, too, had normally been difficult to approach. But they had obtained information that she would be getting off at the airport and taking a car into Seoul, and so he had made his move. On top of that, they had even secured Han Se-hee — who ordinarily stayed at the Kangin Orphanage and lived in downtown Seoul, making her equally difficult to kidnap. It was a stroke of fortune.
Truly, the great Apocalypse was watching over him. It was certain. Thinking this, Gye Un-jik offered a prayer of thanks to the being who would bring the end.
"I give thanks. O Apocalypse."
"This humble servant, who seeks your teachings, shall offer unto you the treasures of this world as sacrifices."
No answer to that prayer came immediately.
But it did not matter. Once he offered these two sacrifices, this world would draw that much closer to its end.
"Ahh, Apocalypse! O beautiful end!"
In the anticipation of hastening that beautiful end, and in the sense of achievement that he himself had played a part in it, Gye Un-jik felt a rush of ecstasy.
And yet, looking at Lee Ha-yeon and Han Se-hee lying motionless upon the altar in those demure postures, their figures — already boasting such beautiful curves — and their long eyelashes, made all the more vivid by the gentle close of their eyes, drew the gaze of their own accord and wrung admiration from him.
A villain with weaker self-control would probably have forgotten all about his mission and thrown himself at them, wouldn't he? No — more likely, knowing the value they possessed, he would have put them up for an overseas slave auction.
But Gye Un-jik had no interest in money. The only thing that interested him was the Apocalypse. The end! Even if the beauty of those girls was enough to bewitch even him, he could endure it as long as he needed to.
"Khhh!"
Gye Un-jik drew out a sharp needle, infused it with mana, and gently drove it into his left arm. The pain that surged forth drove out the lust that had been accumulating inside him.
Having forcibly expelled his desire with pain, he waited with madness in his eyes for a gate to open above the altar — praying that his faith in the Apocalypse would cross beyond this world and reach the being who would bring the end, waiting somewhere outside.
The ritual itself was nothing special. All he had to do was transmit his faith like this for several hours or more. Then his faith would surely cross the barrier called the world and reach the being who would bring the Apocalypse.
Why he knew this, why he was attempting it — he himself did not know. But it did not matter. So long as the end came, that was enough. Nothing else needed to be considered.
Was it because his earnest faith in the Apocalypse, the altar, and the sacrifices had all been assembled?
A black current woven of ominous mana began to envelop the bodies of Lee Ha-yeon and Han Se-hee.
"Ohh! At last!"
Feeling his faith begin to send a signal beyond the world — offering the sacrifices to the being who would lead them to the Apocalypse — Gye Un-jik rejoiced.
No.
Han Se-hee despaired as the black current enveloped her body.
This black current of ominous mana provoked a deep revulsion at the merest touch, but she could not shake it off. Her body and her mana alike had been suppressed so completely that not a single thing would move according to her will. Gye Un-jik's mana, which had invaded her body, was forcibly holding her down.
Left like this, the suppression would lift automatically within twenty-four hours — but before then, she might well become a sacrifice in that deranged villain's bizarre ritual.
I can't move.
Lee Ha-yeon was no more able to move than she was. If she could just stir even a little of her mana, she felt she could launch at least a single attack — but the power of an SSS-class villain was something her current self simply could not withstand.
A wave of despair washed over her. Was she going to die like this, without ever letting her talent bloom?
"Haha, rejoice! In just a few hours, you treasures of the world shall become sacrifices for the Apocalypse!"
She had no idea what "treasures of the world" was supposed to mean, nor what "sacrifices for the Apocalypse" was supposed to mean. But Lee Ha-yeon and Han Se-hee could understand this much: in a few hours, they were going to die.
Seo-jun Oppa...
Han Se-hee called his name again in her heart, desperately, wondering if just maybe Baek Seo-jun might come to save her.
In that moment, someone laid a hand upon her head and called her name.