3
# Villain Disguises Himself as a Hero (3)
A man approached me while swinging his arms around. He was probably the person who was supposed to test me. Judging by
his presence, his physical abilities seemed quite decent, and the amount of magic power radiating from him was also
considerable.
“Mr. Kang Do-hyeok? My name is Secretary Jeong Myeong-seok.”
“Yes.”
“Technically speaking, sparring is prohibited in the interview room.”
“Yes. I understand. You mean I have to sign an agreement saying that I won't hold you responsible no matter what
happens?”
“Ah. You're quite familiar with it.”
After hearing my answer, the man named Jeong Myeong-seok turned his head and nodded toward the Personnel Officer. The
Personnel Officer nodded as well.
“Then... you're requesting this evaluation yourself? You won't say anything different about it later?”
“Yes.”
“Then... here I go.”
Whoom—
I could feel a wave of magic power.
The magic power pouring from his hands was violently pulsing, enough to cause an explosion the moment it touched my
body.
“Haa!”
He leaped forward with impressive momentum, concentrated the magic power in his hand, and amplified it after gathering
it properly.
I knew he was C-rank, but he seemed to be quite skilled. At this level, he could probably rise to B-rank, or even
A-rank, without much difficulty later on.
Unless something particularly unlucky happened to him.
Whoosh—
His magic-infused hand flew toward my head.
It was sharp, but the attack still felt somewhat blunt, like a sword that hadn't been properly sharpened yet. If I
concentrated, it wasn't threatening at all.
No matter how powerful an attack was, it had to hit its target to be effective.
In that regard, his attack was impractical in an actual battle and rather poor.
“Damn it.”
As he continued swinging at empty air, I could feel him becoming increasingly impatient.
That anxiety would gradually creep into his mind and force him to make reckless movements. And eventually, he would make
a large movement even though he knew it was dangerous.
Just like now!
Tap!
I slipped into the opening and struck his side with my shoulder.
“Guh!”
The sudden collision would have shocked his lungs, making it difficult for him to breathe.
Naturally, his body would have no choice but to curl inward.
“Cough, cough.”
I struck his chest just above the solar plexus with my palm.
If I hit the solar plexus directly, I could actually make him stop breathing, so I deliberately aimed slightly above it.
The impact sent Secretary Jeong Myeong-seok crashing into the wall before he collapsed.
*
“I... I can't believe it.”
The Personnel Officer doubted his own eyes.
He had never seen Secretary Jeong Myeong-seok, who was considered a promising prospect, get pushed back this badly.
He even began to wonder whether Kang Do-hyeok had deliberately falsified his abilities on his application.
But he soon dismissed the suspicion.
Of course he did.
Who would deliberately hide their strength during an ability test?
Normally, people tried to demonstrate themselves beyond their limits, even pushing themselves recklessly.
“Seol-a... what do you think?”
“He's as experienced as an awakened person who's been through all kinds of hardships. But he's much more fierce and
sharp than they are.”
“Seol-a... could you beat him?”
“I don't know.”
Team Leader Kim Hae-jin's eyes widened.
He hadn't worked with her for that long, but even after working together for several years, this was the first time he'd
ever heard her say that she didn't know.
Especially when it came to questions about competing in terms of ability, she had never once given such an ambiguous
answer.
“When you put it that way... I'm suddenly even more curious about this person named Kang Do-hyeok.”
Boom!
With a loud crash, Secretary Jeong Myeong-seok collapsed onto the floor.
The match was over.
No, calling it a match was too generous.
It had been an entirely one-sided battle.
It was almost like watching a well-fed cat play with an insect before finishing it off once it became bored.
“This can't be.”
“Personnel Officer.”
“Yes... Team Leader. Go ahead.”
“That Kang Do-hyeok. I want him.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“If we don't take him, a major guild or the Management Bureau will definitely want him.”
“Wouldn't that make him even more dangerous? If such a powerful hero were uncontrollable, wouldn't it be the same as
carrying a bomb around on your body?”
The Personnel Officer was worried about Team Leader Kim Hae-jin's thinking.
But Kim Hae-jin had a completely different thought after personally witnessing Kang Do-hyeok's strength.
If we let someone like that, someone who could go off in any direction without warning, loose into the world, wouldn't
that be more dangerous?
Kim Hae-jin thought it was far better to keep the bomb on his own body than to live anxiously searching for a bomb that
could be anywhere.
“Wouldn't it be safer if the bomb were strapped to my own body rather than placed in someone else's hands?”
“You might regret it.”
“I'll take responsibility. Don't worry.”
*
“Hello, Mr. Kang Do-hyeok. I'm Kim Hae-jin, the team leader of the Initial Response Team.”
“Yes, hello.”
“And this is... the ace of our team. Ms. Han Seol-a.”
“...”
Instead of greeting me, Han Seol-a simply stared at me.
Was she trying to have a staring contest with me?
“Anyway, it's nice to meet you. You're part of our team now, so let's work well together.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
“But... if you don't mind me asking such a personal question when we've just met, there's something I've been curious
about.”
“Yes, of course.”
Unlike Han Seol-a, Kim Hae-jin wasn't the type to rudely challenge someone to a staring contest upon meeting them.
He had a friendly appearance and looked like the kind of person who took good care of others.
Getting along well with this type of person at work was more important than anything else.
“Why... did you apply to our Initial Response Team? There are other departments too...”
“Ah. That's simple.”
“Really?”
The answer was simple.
But there was someone who was bothering me a little.
Han Seol-a.
Wasn't she still staring straight at me?
She definitely looked like she wanted to pick a fight.
My instincts, sharpened from spending so many years wandering around as a villain, were telling me so.
“Wait a moment. Hoo!”
So I walked toward her and forcefully blew air toward her face.
Han Seol-a blinked her wide-open eyes and stepped backward.
She looked wronged.
Well, who told her to open her eyes that wide?
“I heard the cafeteria here is the best in South Korea.”
“What?”
“I heard that lunch and dinner are served every day with menus carefully planned by an exceptionally beautiful and
highly skilled nutritionist.”
“Ah... yes. That's true, but... did you apply because you wanted to see that nutritionist?”
“Yes. That's right.”
“As expected, Mr. Kang Do-hyeok, you are a healthy man after all.”
Why was she suddenly talking about me being a healthy man?
We had clearly been discussing the cafeteria meals prepared through the efforts of a skilled nutritionist.
“What... do you mean?”
“Oh. I thought you applied because our nutritionist, Yoo Yeon-hee, is beautiful...”
“I did say she was beautiful, but... that was merely to support what I was going to say next. What I said afterward is
what I truly meant.”
“Then you really applied to our Initial Response Team because of the cafeteria?”
There was that strange look again.
Whenever I went on about the greatness of school meals, most people tended to look at me like that.
This world clearly underestimated school meals.
People with full stomachs often didn't understand that if you didn't get enough nutrients, you couldn't perform at your
best.
That's why eating meals every day with a perfect balance of the three major nutrients, vitamins, and dietary fiber was
more important than anything else.
“Yes, exactly.”
“You really are a unique person.”
“...”
Team Leader Kim Hae-jin said something that I couldn't tell was a compliment or not, then stood up and said he would
show me around the building where I would be working from now on.
What I was really curious about was the cafeteria, but I decided to follow his tour for the time being.
“All right, this is the department where the Initial Response Team is located.”
“Yes.”
“Not immediately, but you'll soon be assigned a sidekick too, Mr. Kang Do-hyeok.”
“A sidekick?”
“Yes. Every hero is supposed to have a sidekick.”
“Yes.”
I'd heard about sidekicks before.
It sounded nice to call them sidekicks, but they weren't much different from servants during the Joseon era.
Perhaps servants from the Joseon era had simply been given the modern, more refined term of sidekick.
“Among the sidekicks, you'll be assigned someone who's extremely experienced.”
“I see.”
Someone who had been a sidekick for a long time.
In other words, an eternal sidekick who had never managed to get promoted to hero.
Basically, someone who had no value as a hero.
“Hello, Team Leader.”
“Oh! Speak of the devil. Mr. Kang Do-hyeok, say hello. This is Mr. Bong Chun-sik.”
“Yes, hello.”
“Ah! Are you the new hero who just joined?”
The man named Bong Chun-sik looked exactly like someone who could be described as skin and bones.
The magic power I could sense from him was also barely noticeable.
Anyone looking at him would have immediately thought of him as the embodiment of weakness, yet he was welcoming me.
“Hello, I'm Kang Do-hyeok.”
“My name is Bong Chun-sik.”
“Huh? Bong Chun-sik?”
The name Bong Chun-sik suddenly triggered a memory.
Only now did I realize what that name meant.
“So you're Bong Chun-sik?”
“Yes? Do you know me?”
“Huh? Mr. Kang Do-hyeok... did you know him before?”
Both Team Leader Kim Hae-jin and Bong Chun-sik looked surprised.
And understandably so.
In this life, it was true that I was meeting Bong Chun-sik for the first time.
But I'd met him before my regression.
To think I would meet this person here.
The world really was a small place.
“No. I was mistaken. Your name just sounded familiar.”
“Really? Bong Chun-sik isn't exactly a common name... You really are unusual.”
“I hear that a lot.”
“Since we're already here, could you show Mr. Kang Do-hyeok around for the rest of the tour?”
“Me?”
“Yes. Ms. Han Seol-a and I have a meeting.”
“Ah, yes! Of course.”
Team Leader Kim Hae-jin and Han Seol-a said goodbye to me and left.
“I'm honored to become your sidekick.”
“I'm glad to meet you too.”
“Then shall we continue?”
“Yes, let's.”
For a while, Bong Chun-sik showed me around the building.
There wasn't anything particularly special about it.
But when I entered the cafeteria I'd been waiting for so desperately, I was genuinely shocked.
“S-so it's self-service?”
“Huh? Ah. Yes, it is. You can take as much as you want.”
I'd spent several decades living as a fugitive.
Because of that, I'd developed a habit of preferring to have too much rather than too little.
In elementary, middle, and high school, however, it wasn't easy to eat as much as I wanted because people were always
talking about saving food and such.
But this place was different.
“Does the nutritionist check everything every day?”
“Huh? Uh... I'm not really sure about that either.”
“Whether the carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are properly balanced. Whether there are various types of vitamins. The
kinds of vegetables that help digestion and cleanse the blood...”
“I'm sorry. I don't really know that much.”
It was disappointing.
How could someone who called himself a sidekick be so ignorant about what happened in the cafeteria?
In my opinion, this was probably why he had remained an eternal sidekick.
“I can answer that question for you.”
A woman wearing a white coat with her hair tightly tied into a ponytail approached us.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Yoo Yeon-hee. I work as a nutritionist for the National Defense Bureau.”
“Nutritionist...”
“First, to answer your questions from earlier... We do our best to ensure that carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are
evenly distributed. We also pay attention to preventing excessive vitamin intake while providing a variety of vitamins.
On top of that, we provide various vegetables as well. It may not be the absolute best, but we strive to provide the
best meals we can.”
Ah.
My heart felt overwhelmed.
At that moment, I finally felt that all the hardships I'd endured had been worth it.
Her words sounded like a sweet harmony from an orchestra to my ears.
“Um... Was that answer sufficient?”
“Yes. I like it too.”
“Huh?”
*
“Seol-a. Shall we eat?”
“Yes.”
After finishing their meeting, Team Leader Kim Hae-jin and Han Seol-a headed toward the cafeteria.
During the meeting, Team Leader Kim Hae-jin had been reprimanded for excessive responses.
It wasn't really because of his own mistake, but rather because he was responsible as the team leader for Han Seol-a's
carelessness.
He had heard such things countless times before, so he could simply let them go in one ear and out the other.
But for Han Seol-a, who was the ace of the team yet still merely a team member, it could naturally weigh on her mind.
When they arrived at the cafeteria, picked up their trays, and joined the line, Han Seol-a suddenly stopped.
Seeing this, Team Leader Kim Hae-jin worried that she might still be upset about what had been said earlier.
“Um... Seol-a? Don't take what Team Leader Jeong said earlier too seriously...”
Han Seol-a didn't move at all despite Team Leader Kim Hae-jin speaking to her.
At that moment, Kim Hae-jin followed Han Seol-a's gaze.
And there, he saw Kang Do-hyeok talking with Nutritionist Yoo Yeon-hee.