The Real Culprit
Every gaze in the room snapped toward the human-faced serpent scale Han Mir had thrown.
Han Mir looked at the person who had pressed the oppose button. Kim Min-jeong sat crumpled on the floor, startled enough to collapse, the scale driven into the ground between her legs.
"W-what? Hold on a second! So you're saying Min-jeong is the c-culprit, not Kang Hyun-soo?"
"Mmph mmph!?"
"Hah. This is why I can't stand women."
"Eek! Unnie is the culprit!?"
Shock rippled through the group. Kim Min-jeong stared up at Han Mir, her face a mask of utter disbelief.
"W-what are you all talking about! I-I almost died in the first game — why the hell would I press the oppose button? Y-you've got to be mixing something up!"
Stammering in a panic, Kim Min-jeong insisted on her innocence.
"Think about it, everyone! I almost died right from the start — why would I ever press the oppose button!"
"...Come to think of it, didn't she say she was in the hospital?"
Kang Hyun-soo narrowed his eyes. At the boy's words, Kim Min-jeong's eyes went even wider with panic.
"W-what?"
"Heh. That reaction says it all. You're someone sick enough to be hospitalized, aren't you? Maybe even a terminal case, living day to day. You were that sick, and then you came here and got a healthy body back! So you liked that body so much you could never leave this place!"
Kang Hyun-soo crossed his arms, wearing a smug, self-satisfied look as he declared this with complete confidence. Lee Ji-han swallowed hard, watching Kim Min-jeong with a faintly tense gaze.
Ordinarily, you would let a hopeless edgelord brat talk out of one ear and out the other. But the fact that Han Mir himself had pointed her out made Kang Hyun-soo's words sound almost reasonable.
"...Is that true?"
"I-it's true that I'm sick. I-I'm suffering from an incurable disease so rare even the hospital couldn't find the cause. But that doesn't mean I'm terminal!"
"Hmph. And what exactly is this disease?"
Kang Hyun-soo leaned against the wall, glaring down at her.
"A-a disease that makes my skin rot."
"There it is. Women care about their looks, right? So she opposed leaving because she wanted to enjoy her beautiful appearance here. In the real world she probably looks like a mummy wrapped in bandages, huh? Tch. This is why I can't stand women."
"Th-that's not it! I-I would never th-think something like..."
"Really? Reeeaaally? You absolutely never thought that? Can you swear on your mother's life?"
"Th-that's..."
"Pfft. See? Sheesh. Tsk tsk."
Kang Hyun-soo shook his head with a sneer. Then a sudden, searing pain shot through his leg, and his mouth fell open.
"Aaaagh!"
Han A-reum had sunk her teeth into his leg like a savage stray dog.
"Aaaagh! I-it hurts! You crazy little brat!! Let go — let go of me!"
"Nooo! Don't huwt my big siiis!"
Kang Hyun-soo's scrawny frame couldn't hold up against Han A-reum, and he toppled over backward in a heap.
Lee Ji-han silently cheered Han A-reum on as he looked back at Kim Min-jeong. Her lips were trembling, and her eyes darted restlessly, unable to settle on any one spot.
"N-no. I-I... I really don't know anything."
"Mir, are you saying Min-jeong is truly the mastermind behind all of this?"
"Yes and no."
"Pardon? What do you mean by that?"
Han Mir gazed down at the terrified Kim Min-jeong with a cold, unreadable look.
"There's a story from my days as a hero. I got caught in an enemy's magic and dragged into a dimension they'd created. We played games there just like this, and even when we tried to escape — even when we killed the game master — someone kept voting against it, so we couldn't get out."
"Th-then one of your companions was the culprit? Like Min-jeong here?"
"That's right. There was a mage named Shurun, and she was the culprit. To be more precise..."
Han Mir's hand descended over Kim Min-jeong's head. It was an ordinary boy's hand, but to Kim Min-jeong it looked as enormous as a giant reaching down. She squeezed her eyes shut and shrank into herself.
"Eeeek!"
But strangely, what she felt was not the dull pain of being struck. A warmth like morning sunlight seeped through every part of her body.
"H-huh? I-it doesn't hurt?"
She opened her eyes, bewildered. Han Mir's face was right in front of hers. The boy's expression was completely unreadable. His hand rested on her shoulder.
Kim Min-jeong felt as though Han Mir's eyes were looking at her, and yet not at her — as if he were seeing something else entirely.
Han Mir's lips moved slowly.
"To be more precise, it was the thing inside my companion. Just like this one."
A sudden, gut-wrenching agony doubled Kim Min-jeong over, and she began to retch.
"Urgh!"
Something was climbing up her throat — a nauseating, invasive sensation. Her mouth ballooned like a bubble, and then a fountain of black liquid erupted from it. The black fluid gushed out freely and pooled on the floor. Kim Min-jeong gasped for breath, tears welling in her eyes.
The bizarre black liquid that had come from inside her began to writhe as if it were alive.
"Eek!?"
It darted nimbly out from between Han Mir and Kim Min-jeong and came to a stop some distance away. The black pool bubbled and boiled, then surged upward, taking shape. It was a human form — a woman's body, as if sculpted from black mud. Then the black liquid sloughed off the surface, revealing the being within.
"Oh my god. Th-that was inside me?"
Kim Min-jeong's mouth hung open in disbelief. The others stood frozen, eyes wide, unable to speak a word.
A voluptuous woman with a rat's tail and a sharp horn jutting from her forehead. Her lower half was sheathed in black fur, and the grotesque bat wings at her back gave one great, wet flap before folding in half.
Han Mir cracked his neck, bones popping.
"So you finally decided to come out. Didn't think you were still alive, Mihang."
She glared at Han Mir with eyes that were both alluring and sharp, her lips painted a vivid red.
"Don't say my name. It's disgusting, Hero. Hah. I finally manage to escape, and of course you'd be here."
Mihang scowled, her red hair fanning out around her.
"Cleaning's done, so I came home."
"W-what? Don't tell me you k-killed every last Demon King?"
"Yeah."
"...You monster. I can't believe it."
Her already pale complexion went even whiter.
"By the way, how did you know it was me?"
"I spotted a few of the Demon King's former subordinates I'd seen in The Other World. And you're the only one with a hobby this disgusting. Shurun had you sealed up and was carrying you around, but after a big battle you vanished, and I wondered where you'd gone."
Han Mir smirked and shrugged.
"Never thought you'd run off to the world I came from."
"Hmph. If I'd known this was your world, I never would have come here. But I'm not the same as I used to be, Hero."
"So you're saying you're not the Mihang that Shurun used to unseal whenever she was in a bad mood and beat like a stress-relief punching bag?"
"Urgh! Don't say it in that much detail!"
Mihang ground her teeth. How had she ever forgotten that? And that insane mage hadn't just beaten her. She would summon her every night and torment her endlessly with hobbies vile enough to put the Demon King's army to shame.
Just thinking about it still made her legs shake. It was a hell she never wanted to experience again.
"So how exactly did you get over to this world? Did other remnants of the Demon King's army come through too?"
"As for that~"
She stuck out her tongue with a playful expression.
"I'm not telling."
"Oh? Look at you, talking back. Feels like just yesterday you were collared and groveling at Shurun's feet."
Mihang's face flushed so red it looked ready to burst. She clenched both fists and shook them violently up and down as she shouted.
"Ugh, sh-shut up! I'm not who I used to be anymore! Coming here amplified my power. It's on a completely different level from before!"
Mihang's wings snapped open, and a single flap sent her soaring into the air. She glared down at Han Mir, pointing a sharp finger at him.
"Killing the Demon Kings must have weakened you! With the power I have now, I can play with you however I want! I'll make you pay for every filthy, horrific thing you people did to me!"
"Hey, Shurun did all that. Why are you taking it out on me?"
"Ugh, shut up! Bunny, cook that guy and bring him to me!"
"Yes, Master."
At Mihang's command, Bunny sprang forward. Lightning flashed in her eyes, and countless monsters erupted from beneath the ground. Every one of them was enormous — giant-sized — drooling as they roared at Han Mir.
A monster legion, conjured in an instant. And in Bunny's hand, commanding them, was a scythe larger than a person.
Mihang snorted and cried out.