If You Did Wrong, You Must Be Punished (2)
If You Did Wrong, You Must Be Punished (2)
The No. 1 S-rank was gripped by unprecedented fury.
The reason was absurd. Her one and only disciple was holding a woman tightly in his arms.
'What the hell is that? They're hugging each other all affectionately, and she's even biting his neck. And my disciple is petting her too? Hah?'
—Tremble, tremble.
She was so furious that the aura leaking from her unconsciously made the surrounding air shimmer.
That left Yujin and Winterer trembling in each other's arms.
The more they trembled, the angrier Aika became, making her aura surge even harder.
It was a perfect vicious cycle.
...A deep crease formed between Seol Hayeon's brows.
'Ninomiya. Even for you, this is far too unseemly.'
She understood perfectly well why Aika was angry.
Yujin was her one and only disciple.
Yet there he was, embracing a villain like that in front of everyone.
It was not strange for her to be angry that he was disgracing his master's name.
But there were limits to such things.
Wasn't that just a little incidental contact during a grapple?
To Seol Hayeon, a martial artist, that was an everyday occurrence.
It was only natural that Aika looked ridiculous for getting angry over it.
She could only sigh.
'Jealous of a woman clinging to her disciple at her age. Pathetic. Just pathetic.'
Especially since her Sixth Sense had long since picked up on feelings neither of them had noticed themselves.
Still, that was only how it looked from a distance.
Up close, a thriller was unfolding.
"E-eek."
"Eek, hyeck...!!"
—Squeeze.
"You little..."
Winterer was on the verge of fainting after taking that bloodlust head-on.
Yujin felt like he might piss himself from the aftershock alone.
And Aika was starting to show her true temper.
Finally,
—Murmur, murmur.
"They say Aika once caused an earthquake in Japan just by swinging her sword. Surely she won't do that here in Seoul...?"
"Why is she even acting that way in the first place? What's she so upset about?"
"Someone do something..."
The shrimp were terrified their backs were about to break in a fight between whales.
Representing the shrimp, Seol Hayeon stepped forward with a long sigh.
She sensed that disaster would strike if she left things alone.
'I already knew experience couldn't keep pace with raw strength, but I didn't realize it was this bad. I'll have to give her a stern talking-to.'
—Step.
"Ninomiya. That's quite enough."
"Seol Hayeon."
Thus began a conversation between two S-ranks.
An unexpected Korea–Japan showdown between the strongest was underway.
"Why are you so angry?"
"My disciple, with a villain—"
"That much is normal when you're grappling in a fight."
"That's normal? Hah. Bullshit...."
"I've been fighting with my fists for forty years. No one is more familiar with a brawl like that than I am."
"......Tch."
Round 1. Aika's defeat.
"Besides, what he does with another woman is none of your business."
"Hah? She's a villain! If it were some other woman, even I—"
"Then it matters even less. Yujin is a man. Who would blame him for putting his hands on a villain?"
"H-hah!? Seol Hayeon, have you lost—"
"Ninomiya, do you perhaps like Yujin? Are you jealous because your sweetheart is getting frisky with another woman?"
"......!!?"
Round 2 began with Seol Hayeon's unblockable move.
Hit where it hurt, Aika's face turned red.
"M-me, like my disciple!? What kind of nonsense is that!?"
"If not, leave him alone. Yujin is a man too, isn't he?"
"No! My disciple isn't like that... Hngh."
'...Then again, he does have a manly side.'
She somehow blushed midway after remembering something else, for reasons not even Seol Hayeon could guess.
Round 2 was also Seol Hayeon's complete victory.
"Then stop making such a fuss. If you hate it that much, let Yujin touch your breasts once in a while."
"Bre-breasts...."
"———More importantly, isn't this whole mess your fault?"
And finally came Round 3.
Seol Hayeon delivered the finishing blow.
"You kept chattering at him over Telepathy from beside him, so he lost the villain he'd had under control. Yujin, I mean."
"...How did you even notice the Telepathy?"
"When both sides were blasting mana back and forth at each other, did you think I wouldn't notice?"
"......."
"Anyway, this entire mess is Aika Ninomiya's fault. Not Yujin's or Winterer's. The No. 1 S-rank's."
She struck straight at the heart of the matter.
Aika's eyes flew wide open.
The words snapped her back to her senses like a splash of cold water.
"That's..."
"Winterer bit him over the carotid artery. Yujin was only fine because he's freakishly tough. He could easily have died because you distracted him."
"......!!!"
—Fizzle...
Her aura gradually diminished.
Only then did she notice the teeth marks on Yujin's neck.
The Chairwoman let out a deep sigh.
"I understand. You are the strongest in the world, so it is only natural that you have developed a habit of acting before you think."
"I-I was only giving him advice for my disciple's future—"
"But spare a thought for the people caught up in your actions. Yujin nearly died just now."
"That's..."
"Take this as a lesson and do not act rashly again. If you continue living so arrogantly, one day you truly will have a funeral to hold."
"...Okay."
"If you understand, go over there and reflect. We cannot have a proper discussion with you here."
"Okay......"
—Droop.
Aika, who had never once in her life been scolded by anyone except her mother, was utterly deflated.
It was Seol Hayeon's third consecutive victory.
[Disciple, I'm sorry. I overstepped.]
[N-no, Master! This only happened because your disciple was inadequate....]
—Fidget.
[This hardly makes up for it, but later tonight... um....]
[...?]
[I-I'll tell you later! Tonight, when it's just the two of us. In secret!]
"......?"
Before she withdrew, she sent a telepathic message meant only for Yujin.
Had Seol Hayeon heard that, a fourth round might have ensued...
Unfortunately, Seol Hayeon heard nothing.
Aika only stepped away after seeing her disciple nod.
With a strangely flushed face.
And then,
'Something we had to discuss alone at night? I was curious, but... I'd ask about it later. First, it was time to take credit where it was due.'
"Thank you, Hayeon!"
"......?"
The young man she'd saved began laying the flattery on a little thick.
* * *
I had been worrying only about how to explain myself in the face of Master's towering rage.
But instead, I received an apology from my master.
It was all thanks to the Chairwoman's passionate defense.
'Madam...!! No, Hayeon!!'
This was Seol Hayeon, the No. 4 S-rank. A legend of Korea.
I apologize for slandering you as an old hag and a geezer all this time.
I worship you. GOAT.
My mouth moved on its own.
"Thank you, Hayeon!"
"......Pardon?"
My surging respect made my form of address grow more familiar.
My conscience was screaming bloody murder, but just for today, I decided to be completely shameless.
When you receive something, you must give something in return. Flattery of this level was the least I owed her.
"Did you just call me Hayeon...?"
"Here's the thing. I wasn't petting her out of lust or anything."
"Hm?"
"She looks like a villain, doesn't she?"
I jerked Winterer's head toward the Chairwoman as I said it.
Her blinking, bewildered eyes turned that way as well.
"Obviously she's a villain..."
"She's actually not a villain. She's just an Awakener."
"What?"
The Chairwoman's expression grew grave.
She did not even say anything like, 'I'm the villain expert. What are you talking about?'
"What kind of bullshit is that!? I'm a villain—"
"She does feel a little different from a villain, but she is just as unsettling."
"That is because she has been hypnotizing herself into believing she is a villain. Ever since she was a child."
"H-hah?"
"The truth is, I took a peek at her memories with hypnosis."
Then I started the spin cycle in earnest.
The 'she was actually a victim too' cycle.
'If I told them I was just petting a villain, Master would chew me out later. I'd pretend I had seen her past and hugged her out of pity.'
"The truth is, she..."
My explanation was quick and concise.
The horrors of the human experimentation she had endured were already public knowledge, so I skipped over them.
The important point was,
"Why are you peddling my sob story on your own, you Rice Cake...."
"What's more, she hasn't killed a single person since then."
"......Hik."
She hadn't gotten so much as a drop of blood on her hands since that day.
As Winterer shrank back, the Chairwoman let out an impressed exclamation.
"Ho-oh. Winterer, is that true?"
"Bullshit!! I've killed tons of people. At least ten a day..."
"That's a lie, isn't it?"
"Mm. It is a lie."
The living villain detector and lie detector confirming it was a nice bonus.
Winterer, now reduced to a Wannabe Villain, thrashed wildly.
"N-no!! I really am a villain!!"
"This is a little ambiguous. She seems to genuinely believe she is one."
"She's spent most of her life hypnotizing herself. I might not have noticed either if it were not for Haru."
"It's only natural that even I mistook her for a villain."
We discussed it as though we had not heard her.
She was not a villain, right? Nope. Not one.
That was more or less how the discussion went.
The Chairwoman's eyes turned to Winterer once more.
"Then let me ask one last thing. If you have not killed anyone since then, why did you attack me?"
Why had a mere Wannabe Villain committed a genuine act of terrorism?
I, too, fixed my eyes on Winterer.
I wondered about that too.
"I-I wanted to kill you and create a nation of villains. So I was going to throw this country into chaos..."
"You are not a villain, so I suppose you don't know, but real villains don't come up with lofty causes like that."
"That's why I am saying I really am a villain!!"
She was not going to answer easily.
I had no choice but to stroke her head a little.
—Stroke, stroke.
"It hurt, didn't it? You had not done anything wrong, but people kept doing horrible things to you and tormenting you."
"Keep your pity to yourself!! I'm a villain, so I don't need any of that—"
"Still, tell us honestly, okay? Then we'll think about whether we can help you."
[Activating the skill 'Complete Hypnosis'....]
I coaxed her gently.
That was the part I needed most for the spin cycle.
Naturally, Winterer clamped her mouth shut as if determined never to speak, but...
"You might even be able to live together with Haru."
"......!!!?"
[The target is falling under 'ordinary' hypnosis!]
Her weakness. Haru.
When I pressed it, her tightly closed heart cracked open just a little.
"S-someone as amazing as you would not rescue a kid like Subject 47 even though villains are holding her. It pissed me off, so..."
"......."
'Good grief. So it was love-hate.'
The answer made me frown.
Why had Winterer attacked the Chairwoman?
Because someone so capable had repeatedly failed to capture her, a notorious Grade 1 Villain, let alone rescue Haru.
That was probably why she had left Haru at the academy too.
She hated her, but the Chairwoman was just that capable. She might be able to cure Haru's brainwashing.
The logic was a complete mess, but...
She wasn't sane to begin with. It seemed she had acted on emotion rather than logic.
I met the Chairwoman's eyes.
[Mm, so that is what she says. What do you think, Hayeon?]
[Drop the first-name act. If you make my heart flutter, are you going to take responsibility?]
[Eek. Shameless.]
[Tch. In any case, her crimes are serious, but she is too pitiful to throw into the Bottomless Abyss.]
[You do not care that she targeted you, Chairwoman?]
[Not particularly. If anything, I am sorry I failed to notice sooner.]
A discussion passed back and forth over Telepathy.
We were discussing what to do with Winterer.
It didn't last long.
[Then should I tell her?]
[Do so.]
"Ahem. Winterer?"
"W-what? If you're going to pity me, say you'll let everything slide, or spout some bullshit like that..."
Winterer was already grinding her teeth and squirming, apparently expecting exactly that.
However,
"Let it slide? Who are we to erase what happened? If you did something wrong, you have to be punished."
"...Huh?"
"We're calling the police."
Reality was cold.