Chapter 4. Twisted Loyalty and the Prelude to Disaster
Chapter 4. Twisted Loyalty and the Prelude to Disaster
"The top priority for this raid on the Korea Hunter Academy is a male student named 'Park Haneul'. You've seen the photo, right? That national treasure-level beauty... slurp, just imagining him wailing and crying under our entire executive team makes me itch already, hehe~ Make sure you kidnap him safely. If he gets even a single scratch, I'll pull the plug on your younger brother's life support system."
Black Wings executive meeting room.
The high-ranking executives, reeking of disgusting mana, licked their lips as they spoke, and every word made me want to puke.
In this world where women are strong and men are rare, the base sexual desires displayed by powerful women were a form of violence in themselves.
'To think they'd treat a fragile man as nothing more than a tool to satisfy their own lust instead of protecting him!'
I kept my head bowed and clenched my fists tightly.
My nails dug into my palms and blood seeped out, but even that pain couldn't drown out their lewd laughter.
'Filthy bitches. One day, I will definitely slit your throats with my shadow.'
But I had no choice right now.
My only younger brother, my precious flesh and blood, was suffering from an incurable disease, and I was begging for his life using their technology.
I just had to become a hunting dog that kidnapped people and threw the world into chaos, just as they ordered.
And so, the academy raid began.
It was only difficult to infiltrate the interior of the academy, which boasted ironclad security.
Once I succeeded in infiltrating, a first-year student was just...
But the scene I encountered in the training grounds was completely different from what I had expected.
"No!!! Let him go! He's my Haneul! He belongs to me!!!"
Kim Sia, roaring like a madwoman with a bone-chilling, obsessive madness that made my skin prickle, was pouring out golden mana.
Her momentum was not that of a first-year academy student.
No, it was closer to an ancient divine beast whose territory had been invaded than a human.
Wherever the waves of her [Wish] touched, the earth screamed and overturned.
'What is that...? How is a monster like that in the first year?'
Cold sweat ran down my spine.
If Park Haneul hadn't pushed himself toward me, I might have been burned to death by Kim Sia's golden mana right there.
After many twists and turns, when I snatched the boy and leaped through space, I was finally able to escape the pressure that felt like my whole body was burning.
When I arrived at the hideout and threw off my shadow cloak, I was overcome with extreme fatigue and self-loathing.
The fact that I had to offer another innocent man as a plaything to those monstrous executives weighed me down.
But the reaction of the kidnapped boy—Park Haneul—was bizarre.
"Because I know you're not a bad person, Noona."
A smile as clear as sunshine.
A relaxed attitude where not a trace of fear could be found.
He saw right through my past and even the name of my younger brother's disease, and made an unbelievable offer.
"My ability is [High-Speed Recovery]. The reason you're being held by Black Wings... I think I can solve it for you~"
I thought it was insane.
But the moment the blinding white light pouring from his hands wrapped around my younger brother's pale skin, a miracle became reality.
My brother, who hadn't been able to even breathe without machines for years, regained his breath, and life returned to his eyes that had been clouded with the light of death.
That wasn't just a simple healing.
To me, it was a divine salvation and a creation that rebuilt my crumbling world.
"Ah... Ahhh..."
I held my brother's hand and sobbed.
And I lifted my head to look at Park Haneul.
A dazzlingly beautiful boy.
The only light that pulled me out of hell.
At that moment, something inside me snapped.
'I will be loyal to this child for the rest of my life. I can give my life and my soul for this child.'
I don't know why, but the loyalty that should have been directed at someone else, not Park Haneul, at some point...
Just as a pure loyalty toward him, not her, began to sprout, another voice echoed from the depths of my shadow.
'No, isn't it strange? Isn't it weird how that child knows your situation so well? It's suspicious, isn't it~'
My shadow ability amplified, and the darkness within whispered.
I'd never felt like this before; I was different from those filthy women of Black Wings.
'Anyway, you're the same filthy bitch who's been doing dirty work while saying no, no, aren't you? That child might be holding your weakness and shaking you. So... just lock him up in your shadow. So no one else can take him. Make it so that only you can see that beautiful face!'
'N-no... that can't be. Haneul is my benefactor...'
I clutched my head and struggled with the conflict.
But my eyes looking at Haneul were already being dyed dark like flickering shadows.
A bizarre emotion where loyalty and obsession, gratitude and possessiveness were mixed together.
I wanted to worship him as my benefactor, but at the same time, the impulse to grab that slender leash and throw him into my own birdcage began to consume me.
"Hehe, Sohee-noona. Your brother's condition has really improved, right? You don't need to be in a place like Black Wings anymore."
I looked at Han Sohee's reaction with a satisfied smile.
As expected, knowledge of the original work is a cheat code.
Since I've healed Han Sohee's younger brother, she will now become a powerful shield that pledges loyalty to me, not the original protagonist Kim Sia.
'Ihihi~ If I make my own new lifeline like this, a happy future... It's much better than being under that scary kid Sia!'
Han Sohee was staring at me with a dazed expression.
Her gaze was a bit sticky and strange, but I figured it was just because of her extreme respect and gratitude toward me.
After all, I am a bit excessively handsome.
Suddenly, the image of Kim Sia crying out for me the moment I was kidnapped came to mind.
That eerie golden mana that was running wild, smashing everything around her.
'...But surely Sia wouldn't do anything weird, right?'
A moment of anxiety flashed by, but I soon shook my head.
'Nah, no way~ She got a little(?) weird because of me, but she's the protagonist of the original work, she wouldn't cause trouble! The protagonist is on the side of justice. She'll be sad for a bit, then regain her sense of duty as a hunter and go around sweeping away villains. That's how the original story flows.'
How much could the grand epic of the original work change just because one person like me disappeared?
Sia will soon pull herself together and become a cool hero, and I can just live the good life next to a reliable bodyguard named Han Sohee.
Where could there be a more perfect happy ending than this?
Not knowing what was one inch ahead, I drank the 'shadow-dark' tea offered by Han Sohee and smiled a smile of victory.
Haneul has disappeared.
My light, my breath, my only world has been dragged into that filthy shadow.
"Haneul... Park Haneul..."
The academy parade ground was already in ruins.
Dozens of students had fainted from the mana I emitted, and half the building had collapsed.
Professors ran over to try and restrain her, but their voices couldn't be heard.
The [Wish] inside her was howling.
That holy power, which should have protected the world, had now completely changed its form and was burning with a bizarre black-gold color.
'Protect? The world?'
Don't make me laugh.
A world without Haneul, what value does it have to be protected?
The villains who took Haneul?
The academy that couldn't stop them?
And my incompetent self who couldn't protect Haneul?
I have to destroy it all.
"HaneulHaneulHaneulHaneulHaneulHaneulHaneulHaneulHaneulHaneulHaneulHaneul...!!!!!!!!!"
What burst from her mouth was not a human voice.
The final stage of [Wish], a forbidden awakening that never even appeared once in the original work—[World of Obsession]—was manifested.
A pillar of mana that seemed to pierce the sky soared from the center of the academy.
The clear sky was instantly dyed with a sunset as red as blood.
Terrified professors screamed, but she erased their mana with just a flick of her finger.
"My Park Haneul... where are you...?"
She reached out toward the empty air.
The eyes of the hero who would save humanity were now nowhere to be seen.
Only the eyes of a disaster, ready to burn the whole world to find a lost doll, were flashing.
"Black Wings? Academy? The world? Doesn't matter."
She slowly floated into the air.
The cracks that started beneath her feet were spreading across the entire Republic of Korea.
"Haneul, wait. I'll come find you soon."
I will find you even if I have to search this entire world.
And I will tear the limbs off the bitches who took you, and so you can never run away from my arms again, I'll bind your legs... no, your soul too.
"Park Haneul is mine. Even God can't take him away."
The guardian of the Korea Hunter Academy.
No, the girl who should have been called the guardian of the world, Kim Sia.
Today, she was reborn as a 'disaster' more dangerous than the worst villain in human history.
The comfortable future Park Haneul had dreamed of was sinking into blood-soaked madness like that.
Of course, Park Haneul, who didn't know that fact...
"Huh? Is someone badmouthing me? Why is my spine so chilly?"
It is said he was shivering from an unknown chill.