Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

Fortunately, it seems I didn’t die this time either. That was the first thought I had when I opened my eyes. That I somehow didn’t die this time either.

“Boss! Are you conscious?”

I turned my head to the side at the voice heard from beside me.

It was Han Seo-hyeon. Seeing him unharmed, my tension immediately dissipated.

“Are you conscious yourself? You don’t have any urge to kill me, do you?”

At my words, Han Seo-hyeon burst into tears on the spot. I was flustered. No, I didn’t mean for him to cry. It, it was a joke!

—That was the worst joke in the world.

Damn, is that so? Certainly, it probably wasn’t a good thing to say to someone who had been attacking me while under mind control. No, how dare I make such a mistake again.

I just waved my hand watching Han Seo-hyeon crying like a child. After shedding tears for quite a while, Han Seo-hyeon wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and said:

“I’m sorry.”

I sat up. Meeting Han Seo-hyeon’s eyes, I said:

“You don’t need to be sorry, I’m sorry for saying something strange too. I meant it as a joke but…”

“It was the worst joke in the world?”

Could it be that Han Seo-hyeon and Ray have telepathy? Are they secretly exchanging signals behind my back?

Anyway, seeing him throw words like that, it seemed his mood had improved somewhat which was fortunate.

“It’s enough that you came back like this. You’re safe, and I’m safe. That’s enough. So stop crying, we’ve come all this way alive so you should smile not cry.”

After saying that, I patted Han Seo-hyeon’s shoulder. At my words, Han Seo-hyeon bit his lip and nodded. His reddened eyes looked pitiful. Tsk, how much must he have worried while I was unconscious.

“Anyway, it’s good we safely came out of the Gate…”

Wait a minute, I feel like I’ve forgotten something important. I was shocked by the thought flashing through my mind.

“Acorn!”

Oh no, I forgot to even mention Cha Song-jin before fainting. For a moment my mind went blank.

“Acorn?”

Ah, I was so flustered the word in my head just popped out.

“Cha, Cha Song-jin?”

—You don’t need to worry about that guy. That one took care of him.

Along with Ray’s words, Han Seo-hyeon explained to me:

“Brother told me so I brought him.”

“Brother?”

At my question, Han Seo-hyeon’s expression sank. A white skeleton appeared in the empty space Han Seo-hyeon was looking at.

“Huh…”

The last thing I saw definitely wasn’t just an illusion created by my blood-deprived brain.

“So you’ve started calling it brother.”

“Well, it does act like my brother… after all.”

Han Seo-hyeon’s face looked complicated as he said that.

Though it was created using Han Jo-hee’s corpse as material, that skeleton is different from Han Jo-hee. But as I’ve felt recently too, there’s clearly another will residing in that skeleton.

Just look at how it beat me up. Anyone could see those were gestures full of the will to punish the villain who led his brother down a bad path. Plus what’s special about that guy is that it can act autonomously without Han Seo-hyeon’s will.

Even now it’s glaring at me with arms folded, which feels really strange.

“So even when you summon it now… it has a, what do you call it, a self?”

Originally that skeleton only showed a different appearance when Han Seo-hyeon was unconscious, but now it’s different.

Whatever he saw inside the Gate, it seems Han Seo-hyeon has grown like Cha Song-jin.

Hmm, to be honest, I want to ask what happened in there but…

“You can ask anything you’re curious about.”

Han Seo-hyeon told me as if reading my thoughts.

“Cha Song-jin told me he saw memories of the past in there. And he said it wasn’t a very good experience.”

That’s why Cha Song-jin had to escape from there as if running away, he said. Because he wanted to run away from those memories so badly.

I was worried that Han Seo-hyeon might have suffered from similar memories. To my question, Han Seo-hyeon shook his head slightly and said:

“In my case, it wasn’t such a horrible memory.”

“It wasn’t a horrible memory?”

“Yes, it was more of a nostalgic memory. My brother appeared.”

At those words, I closed my mouth. His brother was a complicated existence for Han Seo-hyeon in many ways.

“I wasn’t suffering at all. Rather, I was happy. Because I could say all the things I couldn’t tell my brother. So don’t make that expression.”

“What expression?”

“The expression like you feel terribly sorry for me.”

Ugh, did I make such an expression?

“I’m not sorry at all. Maybe if you felt sorry, but why me? I’m the one who saved you. Well, with the help of that skeleton, I mean your brother.”

I tried to brush it off with a joke, but Han Seo-hyeon didn’t let it go:

“You think you dragged me into this. You always think you’re sorry for making me a bad person, did you think I wouldn’t know that?”

“Uh…”

“That night when you sent Song-jin… I mean went to buy late night snacks. Did you really think I only sent the two of you alone?”

“You heard all that?”

Now it’s my turn for my face to turn red. Damn, how embarrassing!

“My decision to become Weltschmerz was my choice. Boss isn’t at fault at all.”

“Ha, no fault at all. You’re just a minor and…”

“Even if it wasn’t Boss, I would have tried to dig into my brother’s death somehow. Meeting Boss just made it this much, otherwise I might have done even worse things without thinking twice.”

At that moment, the skeleton that had been silent raised its fist and flicked both my and Han Seo-hyeon’s foreheads in succession.

“Ah!”

“Ow!”

We both put our hands on our foreheads at the same time, and just burst out laughing.

“Isn’t your brother’s hand really spicy?”

“Yes, it really woke me up.”

The skeleton shook its head looking at us both. Then it shrugged its shoulders and made a big show of sighing. We burst out laughing again at that sight.

It doesn’t matter whether Han Jo-hee is inside that or not. Whoever it is, that friend cared for Han Seo-hyeon, and its very existence was a comfort to Han Seo-hyeon. On top of that, it was even a hero who saved our lives.

Though its fist that strikes our heads at the drop of a hat is a bit too spicy.

Han Seo-hyeon turned his gaze towards the skeleton and said:

“My brother always sacrificed to make me a proper hunter. He earned money for me, he staked his life for me. But I betrayed my brother’s will and I’m here now. So I always felt sorry. Because I made my brother’s sacrifices worthless.”

I closed my mouth at Han Seo-hyeon’s words. I didn’t know he had been thinking like that. I just thought he was having nightmares because Han Jo-hee ended up like that, because he turned his brother into a skeleton with his own hands.

“But like Boss, I absolutely don’t regret becoming Weltschmerz.”

Those words made my heart flutter. It’s something that would anger Han Jo-hee who wanted to gift his brother a shining life, but hearing those words really…

Made me happy.

Ahem, but I can’t grin too much.

Now, it’s time for a proper conversation.

The last thing I saw was the skeleton approaching Han Seo-hyeon and striking his head as if to wake him up.

“What happened after I fainted?”

At my question, Han Seo-hyeon haltingly told me what happened in the Gate. That it was Han Seo-hyeon’s skeleton that took down that thing…

“…The Trial of Deception, huh.”

He said that the moment the skeleton killed the Deceiver, a system window popped up for Han Seo-hyeon saying he had passed the Trial of Deception.

Not much is known about Gates with ‘Trial’ in the name. Just that they’re more difficult than their grade suggests, and special monsters appear. To begin with, not many have passed Trial Gates. If I hadn’t gotten information about Gates from beside Seol Rok-jin, I would have passed by without knowing at all.

It was that rare of a Gate format.

Still, if there’s one common thing said about Trial Gates, it’s that they give special rewards to those who pass the trial.

“The reward?”

“I did get one passive. Called ‘Trial Passer’. But it was displayed as ‘1/5’.”

“Hmm.”

I secretly called up my status window to check, but I didn’t get any passive called Trial Passer. For me who nearly died several times in this Gate, it was an unfair thing beyond compare.

‘This is ridiculous.’

Is it because I didn’t get caught in the trial in the first place, so I’m judged to not have passed it? Damn it! Even so, that’s too much! I even got holes in my right forearm and stomach, but I’m the only one who gained nothing?

Whew, still it’s fortunate that Cha Song-jin and Han Seo-hyeon gained something. Even if it’s just a passive skill gained one-fifth, they can use their talents a bit better right away.

No, but splitting a passive skill is too much, too much! It’s not like you can encounter trials anytime! And the difficulty was extreme too.

—It seems the difficulty was that extreme because your skills were too excellent. If it was an ordinary party, they would have been hunters suitable for a C-grade Gate.

Certainly, I thought that if we had entered with personnel suitable for a C-grade Gate, we wouldn’t have suffered like I did.

—It seems the reason the Deceiver’s mind control became so strong, and the reason it upgraded to an S-grade Gate, was all because it absorbed Han Seo-hyeon’s magic power.

Ugh, so this problem occurred because we brought people too strong for a C-grade Gate?

Plus they were all on the weaker side mentally too.

“It’s my fault. If I had prepared mental defense artifacts in advance, this wouldn’t have happened.”

We were too unprepared considering Seol Rok-jin with his brainwashing ability is around. Of course, Seol Rok-jin’s brainwashing probably can’t be blocked by ordinary artifacts, but still not preparing at all was too much. Yeah, way too much.

When we get out of here, I need to get artifacts that can block mental skills right away.

The problem is that Kim Jae-ho’s daggers reject all other artifacts… I’ll have to deal with that somehow later.

Come to think of it…

“Where’s Jae-ho? Is he in the container?”

At my words, Han Seo-hyeon shook his head.

“I actually sent a spy there for a moment, but there was no one in the container.”

Damn it, where did he go? I clearly told him to stay put there.

I even left a note on purpose, where on earth did he go? They all take the boss’s words too lightly.

“For now, do your best to find him. What about Cha Song-jin?”

“His condition was serious so he’s in intensive care. They said his mana circuits were all twisted. It’s an internal injury so potions can’t heal it, so he needs to stay there for a while.”

“What?”

Well, I guessed as much when he was coughing up blood. Using a skill before the cooldown was over, in a place full of magic power hostile to him, while blocking mind control…

Even I, with super regeneration, was unconscious for two days without moving, they said. In this case, Cha Song-jin took all the rebound with his body so it might be even worse.

The situation was worse than I thought. To think his recovery is slower than mine whose whole body was torn to shreds.

Unlike me who can use super regeneration, Cha Song-jin has to heal injuries through pure grit, so it seems the speed is slower.

“More importantly, we have a big problem.”

“A big problem?”

“We need to get out of here quickly.”

“Huh?”

Why? Is he worried about the hospital bills? At my muttering, Han Seo-hyeon looked at me as if I was hopeless and whispered:

“Taika Cooper is here.”