True Education
Mihang stared blankly at Han Mir — at the man whose bright, cheerful smile sat atop an aura so vicious it made her skin crawl.
She couldn't make sense of any of it. She hadn't opened a portal back to reality. So why was the Hero standing right in front of her?
Just looking at his face was enough to rip her trauma wide open. Her whole body began to shake like a leaf in a gale.
Han Mir stroked her red hair with almost tender care.
"What was it you said earlier?"
"Heh — heheh. Th-that's, um, well, you see...!"
Mihang tore open a portal on the spot and vanished through it. Han Mir's easygoing expression didn't so much as flicker. He shrugged as if he'd seen it coming, then strolled out of the internet cafe at a leisurely pace.
"Hah... hah...!"
Back in her own dimension, Mihang gasped for air and clutched her chest as though it might burst. What she'd just seen had to be a hallucination. The shock had been so bad she'd started seeing things. Yeah. That was it. She sucked in a long breath and forced herself to settle.
Then her eyes snapped open and she bellowed.
"Bunny!"
"Yes, Master."
Bunny appeared before her wearing an uneasy look. The girl Mihang had designed to be bold and cheerful at all times now looked dark and ashen.
"We're finally free of that wretched Hero, so it's time to find new prey! Bring me more humans. Now!"
"A-are you sure...?"
Bunny asked it carefully. Mihang tossed her red hair and snorted.
"Ha! Of course I am! And those things over there?"
She jabbed a finger at the monsters that had betrayed her.
"Dispose of th—"
A burst of light swallowed everything.
Mihang blinked, dazed. A second ago Bunny had been standing right in front of her, waiting for orders. Now she was looking at the inside of some unfamiliar house. The space she'd built was a village, not some ordinary home. Suspicion prickled through her.
And with it, the heart she'd barely managed to calm began to hammer like mad. The blood in her veins ran ice-cold. A chill crawled up the back of her neck as if a ghost had just passed behind her, and every hair on her body stood on end.
Then she felt it — a gaze so intense it burned the back of her skull.
She swallowed hard and slowly turned her head.
"Boo!"
"KYAAAAAAAH—!"
Han Mir's face — a perfect copy of a demon lunging for the kill — sent Mihang screaming as she toppled over backward.
A shadow fell across her. She looked up, teeth chattering.
Han Mir wore a wicked grin, cracking his knuckles with a string of wet, ugly pops.
"Well, well. Who do we have here? Could it be our adorable little Slave Number One, who still hasn't figured out the situation and ran away again?"
"Eh? Eh, eh... W-why? Why?"
Mihang's mind went white. She stammered, tilting her head at odd intervals like someone who'd come unglued from reality.
"Gee, I wonder why. Maybe because you hurled a bunch of cursed insults at me on your way out? What was it you said again? That you'd kidnap people behind my back and kill them? And that I'd regret not finishing you off?"
He started toward her. Mihang's survival instinct slammed awake. She snapped back to her senses and thrust both hands out in front of her, cold sweat beading on her forehead.
"Th-that's—! W-wait a second, Hero! I mean, you see! Heheh!"
A portal bloomed behind her. She flicked her tail and dove through it.
"M-Master?"
Bunny stared at the returning Mihang in confusion. Mihang's face had gone deathly pale. She clutched her own trembling shoulders.
"Hah, hah, hah! I-it wasn't a dream! I wasn't hallucinating! What do I do? Wh-what am I supposed to—"
Light flared again.
"Yeah. What should you do?"
"HIIIIIEEK!!!"
Facing Han Mir for the third time, Mihang shrieked and landed hard on her rear.
He smacked his lips and seized one of her solid horns.
"Want to know why you keep ending up back here no matter how far you run? I mixed my energy into your body and branded you. Right there on your stomach. Anyone wearing that brand, I can summon whenever I want. You getting this, slave?"
He yanked the horn and dragged her face right up to his.
"No matter how desperately you struggle and run, you're still in the palm of my hand. I figured you'd pull something like this, so I took precautions ahead of time. And look at that — you moved exactly the way I thought you would."
"I-I see, Master! Heheh! A-as expected of you! I simply cannot help but marvel at your magnificent foresight!"
Mihang clasped her hands together and groveled like a sweating courtier. Han Mir smiled gently as he stroked her thick horn.
"Then why don't you use that foresight of yours and tell me what's going to happen next?"
"Y-yes? Th-that's, well. I-I, um, heheh! I-I believe that you, Master, with your ocean-vast generosity, will surely forgive this pitiful, wretched creature!"
Han Mir's eyes widened. He grinned.
"Oh, that's the right answer!"
The unexpected words made Mihang's eyes go round. Hope bloomed across her face.
"R-really? Y-you're going to forgive me?"
"Yep. After I beat the living hell out of you."
"HIIIIIEK! N-NOOOOO—!!!"
Han Mir dragged her by the hand straight into the bedroom. From behind the firmly shut door came the sounds of things snapping and being struck, tangled with Mihang's agonized screams and broken moans. She wailed and begged for her life, but Han Mir just smiled cheerfully and refused her every time — he was going to fix that rotten brain of hers, and he was not taking requests.
Whenever her screams cut off, he would mutter something and a bright green light would flood the room. Then Mihang would start moaning again, writhing in despair, passing out, waking up — over and over and over.
How much time passed like that?
Only after the bright sun had set and the cool hours of moonlight arrived was Mihang finally able to crawl out of the bedroom.
Her body was completely unharmed — not a scratch on her. But the dark circles under her eyes had sunk so deep they reached her mouth, and her cheeks had hollowed out until she looked like a gaunt, hollow-eyed wreck. She barely managed to drag her trembling limbs forward, crawling on all fours like an animal. When she reached the living room sofa, she collapsed face-first onto the floor with a dull thud.
Her eyes were vacant and unfocused. Drool leaked from her slack, open mouth. Even lying still, her body kept twitching on its own. In a hoarse, ruined voice, she muttered the same words over and over.
"I-I'm soooorryyyy. I was wroooong."
Han Mir appeared behind her at a leisurely pace, his clothes soaked through with some unidentifiable fluid and a great deal of blood.
He grinned.
"And who are you?"
"I-I'm Master's loyal Slave Number One..."
Satisfied, Han Mir nodded, tossed his filthy clothes into the washing machine, and stepped into the shower.
Moderately warm water washed the fatigue from his body. He closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander.
The Anomaly Management Bureau. Those familiar monsters that had suddenly appeared. How Mihang had ended up in this world.
Put the whole chaotic mess together and it seemed likely that the real world was now a mix of two things: monsters that had crossed over from the Other World — like Mihang — and the Anomalies that had already been here.
From the information he'd extracted through torture, Mihang had been in this world for less than a month. She'd discovered the portal while fleeing roughly two years after the Demon King had been slain.
Which meant the portal that had appeared before her — much like the Saintess's reverse-summoning magic that had sent Han Mir back to when he was eighteen — was capable of delivering someone to a specific point in time.
The odds of other remnants of the Demon King's army showing up were high. He'd just finished cleaning those forces out, only to come home and find trash lying around the house. Annoying. Infuriating.
His hand shut off the shower. He slowly opened his eyes and drew a deep breath.
He was no longer a Hero.
So even if remnants of the Demon King's army turned up, there was no reason for him to get involved. This world already had its own group of heroes — the Anomaly Management Bureau. They'd handle it themselves.
Han Mir seized his wavering mind and held on tight, determined not to forget his original goal: a sweet, easy, healing life of kicking back and doing absolutely nothing.
"Alright. Starting today, I'm going to enjoy myself properly again."
He finished his shower and stepped out.
Ding-dong!
The doorbell rang, sudden and loud. Nobody should have been coming over at this hour.
Han Mir walked past the still-unconscious Mihang and yanked the front door open.
"What, Lee Si-a?"
Lee Si-a stood in the doorway with her head bowed. She fidgeted with her fingers, shifting from foot to foot, then lifted her flushed face and looked at him with a strange light in her eyes.
"Um. So, listen. Want to come over to my place and have some ramen?"