Ch.228Episode 43. Epilogue (End)

“Aaaah! Ari unnie! Have you seen my bra?!”

While I was leisurely enjoying the breakfast Yoo Ari had prepared, Gu Yeonhwa suddenly burst out of my room shouting.

“Hey! Don’t try to seduce oppa first thing in the morning!”

“What seduction? Today’s operation day and I need to leave early, but I overslept!”

So energetic in the morning.

Even though we’ve lived together for a year now, I still can’t seem to get used to moments like this.

“It’s probably in oppa’s room. You tossed it under the bed yesterday when you were doing it.”

“Really? Thanks!”

As Gu Yeonhwa rushed back into my room, Yeon Muhui let out a sigh.

“So noisy.”

“Well… her energy isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”

“It is bad. I feel like all my daily stress is hitting me at once.”

When Yeon Muhui quietly voiced her complaint, Jeong Iyeon tried to cover for Yeonhwa with a forced smile.

I tapped Muhui’s back as she frowned.

“Why…”

“Let’s not criticize her too much. After all, thanks to Yeonhwa, you all get along better now, right?”

“…Not particularly better.”

If it weren’t for Gu Yeonhwa, we couldn’t have lived together like this in one house. She’s been a great help in bringing harmony among us.

“Iyeon.”

“Yes?”

“You should have woken me up. We’re going on the operation together.”

Gu Yeonhwa emerges from my room, expressing her disappointment.

She had already changed clothes and put on makeup. The familiar strawberry scent wafted from her.

“Maybe I should have? Seeing you passed out, I couldn’t bring myself to wake you. Sorry.”

“You should have been gentler, oppa.”

“She provoked me.”

In response to Yoo Ari’s scolding, I calmly replied while putting some spicy stir-fried pork in my mouth. As expected, Yoo Ari’s cooking skills are excellent.

“Acting all composed but going until you pass out. How stupid.”

“Why is everyone picking on me? Should I cry?”

“After all that crying yesterday, you still have tears left?”

“Eek! Stop teasing me!”

As the others took turns jabbing at her, Gu Yeonhwa’s face turned bright red.

“Come here and have breakfast with us.”

When I called her to the table, she quickly seemed to cheer up, approaching with small, quick steps and a smile.

That’s Gu Yeonhwa’s greatest strength. She holds no grudges and has a personality that blends well with anyone.

Even though the others make comments as if they dislike her, if they truly did, they wouldn’t pay her any attention at all.

How should I put it? She’s someone whose actions might be annoying, but you can’t help but like her.

I’m sure the others feel the same way.

“As always, Ari unnie’s cooking is the best!”

Gu Yeonhwa gives a thumbs up after putting the well-seasoned meat in her mouth.

“…Eat as much as you want or don’t.”

In response to Yeonhwa’s direct compliment, Yoo Ari answers with a pouty face while serving her more meat.

Has Muhui’s tsundere trait infected her? It’s kind of cute.

And so, except for Bin Yuni, I finished breakfast with the girls I live with.

* * *

“I’ll be going now!”

“Oppa.”

“Yes?”

“I’ve said this many times, but if you try to pick up other women at the academy, you’re dead, got it?”

Yoo Ari delivers her warning with a smile.

Starting with Gu Yeonhwa’s energetic farewell, everyone began to add their own comments.

“Come on, I wouldn’t do that.”

Yeon Muhui glances at me sideways, expressing the same sentiment as Yoo Ari.

“But considering oppa’s stamina, it might be possible, right?”

Jeong Iyeon subtly mentions the possibility.

“Then we’ll just have to drain him completely beforehand, right?”

Gu Yeonhwa suggests a solution while cutely clenching her fist.

“You all… just go already.”

As expected, when they’re all together, their personalities remain unchanged, and it still makes my head spin.

“I’ll be going then.”

“I’ve warned you, okay?”

“I got it.”

I wasn’t interested in anyone else anyway.

The reason I chose to stay in this world was to live happily with them. I had no time to worry about other people.

“Have a good day.”

Bin Yuni emerges from my room, covering her mouth as she yawns.

Her face still looked exhausted. With dark circles under her eyes and dry, messy hair, she had a strange, decadent beauty.

Recently, she’s been planning to create a new potion, and I noticed she came home around dawn yesterday. That’s about when I fell asleep too.

“You… don’t try anything unnecessary with oppa while you’re home alone. I’ll check when I get back.”

“That’s right. Monopolizing is bad.”

The girls standing at the entrance spoke warily of Bin Yuni.

“Stop it and get going already.”

Seemingly reluctant to leave me and Bin Yuni alone, they alternated their gazes between us with strange looks.

Finally, they opened the front door and left.

“I’ll be going then.”

Bang!

Only after they left did the noisy morning finally quiet down.

I headed to the kitchen to do the dishes before leaving for the academy. Then Bin Yuni hugged me from behind, wrapping her thin arms around my waist.

“What are you doing?”

“Oppa. I’m lonely.”

“And?”

“You have to go to work too, right?”

“That’s right.”

I was still working as an instructor even after all of them had graduated.

Originally, I had planned to quit when the entire special class graduated, but I was continuing reluctantly because they wanted me to remain as an instructor.

“Before you go… let’s do it once. I think we still have time.”

“What…? You just woke up.”

“It’s fine. Come on, hurry.”

Bin Yuni forcibly took off my rubber gloves and started pushing me from behind. Looking at her, I let out a chuckle.

Looks like I’ll have to go to work fully drained again today.

* * *

“Oppa! Look at this!”

“…”

As I was resting on the sofa after work, Gu Yeonhwa suddenly thrust a piece of paper at me. Looking at its contents, I couldn’t help but snort in disbelief.

“A request form…? Why are you showing this to me?”

“There’s talk that a really nasty Chinese criminal organization has snuck into Korea to escape Chinese heroes.”

“Yeah. So?”

“The Association passed this request to us, wanting to completely eradicate these villains before they can establish roots here.”

“Actually, that request was meant for another hero, but Yeonhwa took it upon herself.”

“Ah! I told you not to mention that!”

When Jeong Iyeon chimed in like a busybody, Gu Yeonhwa flared up in embarrassment.

“Yeah. So?”

When I responded calmly despite Iyeon’s comment, Gu Yeonhwa seemed to take it as a positive sign and continued enthusiastically, clenching her fist.

“Let’s do it together. I’ve already informed the Association. I told them the Brain God would be using his powers after a long time.”

“So… in other words, you accepted this request for my sake?”

“Yes! At this rate, I might lose the top spot to the Ice Queen due to insufficient achievements!”

“I see. Wow, I had no idea our Yeonhwa thought so much of me.”

“Right? Only I—”

Grab.

I seized Yeonhwa’s forehead with one hand. With a dumbfounded “Eh?”, she frantically started hitting my arm with both hands as I applied pressure.

“Agyagyak!! It hurts! It hurts!”

“Do you really want to die?”

“It huuurts!”

Despite her desperate struggle to break free, her efforts were futile against my grip. After giving her head a pressure massage, I let go, and she fell to her knees, clutching her head with both hands.

“It hurts…!”

I sighed as I watched her making a tearful face with tears welling up.

“I knew she’d be like this.”

“But the unnies agreed too! You all said you wanted to go on an operation with oppa!”

Gu Yeonhwa protested with a sense of injustice. She seemed upset that the others were acting like it wasn’t their business.

“Is it too late to refuse now?”

“It would be difficult. I already promised we’d do it.”

She muttered, belatedly checking my reaction. At least she realized she’d done something wrong.

“Alright. Then I guess we have no choice.”

“Yujin, are you really taking that request?”

Yeon Muhui asked with surprise at my words.

“Yeah. Cleaning up after this kid is part of my role too.”

I said while patting Gu Yeonhwa’s head. Yoo Ari let out a weary sigh in response.

“Oppa has a soft spot for Yeonhwa, doesn’t he?”

“I think I’m soft on all of you, not just Yeonhwa.”

“Hmm.”

Yoo Ari made a strange nasal sound and smiled meaningfully.

“Then I’ll go too. I’ve been wanting to do a request with oppa. This works out well.”

“I’m going too.”

“Ah! We don’t need the unnies too!”

Gu Yeonhwa pointed and shouted at Yoo Ari and Yeon Muhui’s decision to join.

“This is so unfair!”

“If the unnies are going, I want to go too.”

“Me too!”

Jeong Iyeon and Bin Yuni, who were doing the evening dishes, also raised their hands to express their intention to participate. Gu Yeonhwa looked at them, shaking her head from side to side, then reluctantly stomped her foot and said:

“Fine! Fine! We can all go together!”

“But is it right to use five S-rank heroes for this request?”

All the special class graduates had officially received S-rank evaluations from the Association and had achieved the highest number of accomplishments in just one year, placing them quite high in the rankings.

Using five S-rank heroes plus Korea’s best potion maker for a single request was truly an enormous waste of resources.

* * *

And so, on the day of the request.

After a long time, I was breathing the dawn air at the location specified in the request form.

When we told the Association that five S-rank heroes would be participating in one request, even the Association head was shocked, not knowing how much compensation to provide—a funny anecdote that remained.

“How about we finish this quickly and go home for a late-night snack?”

Before the operation began, everyone’s ears perked up at Jeong Iyeon’s suggestion.

“Oh, I’m in. What should we eat?”

“Pork hocks?”

“I’d prefer spicy chicken feet.”

“…Fried tofu sushi.”

The atmosphere hardly seemed like we were about to start an operation.

But even with this light mood, once they’re deployed, they’ll do their jobs properly, so it should be fine to leave them be.

“By the way, do we have a specific strategy?”

“No. We just go in and beat them up.”

“I like how simple it is.”

“It’s time.”

I said, checking the time on my phone.

“Well then, shall we begin? Is everyone ready?”

“Of course.”

Light emanates from Jeong Iyeon’s hand as a sacred artifact appears.

“You’d better reward me when we get home.”

Yoo Ari brings out weapons connected by black threads.

“As long as we don’t kill them, it’s fine.”

Yeon Muhui draws her sword, coating the blade with a red aura.

“Bad guys! I’ll knock you all down!”

Gu Yeonhwa produces a vast amount of fire sparks that could cover the sky.

“I brought enhancement potions, so drink these and fight hard!”

Bin Yuni shakes tubes containing potions of various colors.

“Let’s go.”

We boldly entered through the front door of the building suspected to be the villains’ hideout. The villains standing guard around the area focused their attention on us.

“Are you the villains who recently snuck into Korea?”

“Who are you people?!”

“What’s with those auras…!”

Hearing their awkward Korean, I smiled.

“Seems like we’ve got the right place. Are you all ready to go to prison?”

Crack!

Sparks fly as I hit my palm with my fist.

“We’ll eradicate all of you.”

As if my words were the signal, the girls charged at the villains.

We are heroes.

We exist not for grand goals like world peace and security, but simply to protect the powerless people nearby.

We will continue to remain heroes until all villains with malice disappear from this world.

– The End –