Ch.243Chapter 10. I’m Not a Dine-and-Dasher (3)

The Syndicate’s executives are composed of S+ class or higher, but many of the Syndicate’s members or collaborators spread across various countries are not ability users.

And with their help, the Syndicate is clearing away darkness from the lowest levels of society.

With the help of people like Sister Haniela who live with dedication and service as their mission, the Syndicate cares for children and is laying the foundation for a peaceful world someday.

Because I am part of the Syndicate, I believe the Syndicate’s methods are right.

But there are those who say the Syndicate’s methods are not right.

Whether that’s unfair criticism or sincere opinion.

“A reeducation camp for thought criminals.”

After examining the condition of the church and discussing matters on site, I recalled what villains used to say as I drove down the roads of Pattaya.

“Hye-ra, what do you think?”

“Laplace? Are you talking about that church?”

“Yeah. Those villain bastards say that taking in orphans and raising them is actually just training Syndicate agents.”

“Hmph. It’s not like we’re brainwashing them or anything.”

Yoon Hye-ra, sitting in the passenger seat, answered while organizing data on her tablet.

“We’re just raising them to be functioning members of society. Thought criminal reeducation is what those other guys do. Like Laplace and the Crimson General.”

“Right. That’s what I wanted to hear.”

“What? Are you wavering?”

“I’m not wavering. Just thinking about the old days.”

“Old days?”

“Yeah.”

Perhaps because it’s only been half a year since I possessed this body as a villain, and just three months since the academy semester started, such thoughts still remain in my mind.

“I was thinking about how we might look from the perspective of ordinary people, not as members of the Syndicate.”

The mindset of an ordinary person.

An objective viewpoint that considers how outsiders might see us, rather than as members of a villain organization, the Syndicate.

From that perspective and viewpoint, the Syndicate is no different from villains who raise ability-user children as weapons.

“Huh? In the end, they’re just raising their own Syndicate minions.”

I actually heard such comments last year.

Regarding our protection and care of abandoned children in orphanages, villains sometimes referred to the Syndicate’s actions as “hypocritical indoctrination.”

“Making all humans fair and just.”

It sounds wonderful.

Somewhat utopian, and in some sense, dystopian as well.

“It’s an idealistic goal. But at least we have objectives that most of society can sympathize with, unlike those other guys.”

Yoon Hye-ra shuddered as if tired of talking about it.

“Raising children on islands to make them private soldiers, or killing ability users who don’t obey and grinding their bones to dust—these are all just fragments of darkness in this world. Just as Thailand is merely one country among many worldwide.”

Villains operate in various ways.

“Some call for the revival of imperialism, others divide people by race or gender. Some might genuinely believe in such ideologies, but the biggest reason is to accumulate wealth and power for themselves. There have actually been organizations created that way.”

“Which one are you talking about? There are so many of them.”

“Germany.”

“You mean Neo-Nazis?”

“Yes. The group that Taotie is struggling with right now.”

Yoon Hye-ra shook her head with a sympathetic expression.

“He’s working hard to completely eradicate them, but I think he could have just ended it there. Oh right, you were just a low-ranking member when the Neo-Nazis were crushed, weren’t you?”

“I was shocked to hear that the Neo-Nazi organization was annihilated just as I was getting ready to do something meaningful.”

One week after possession.

While it served as a device to show the Syndicate’s greatness in the original work, it was also news and an achievement that made me directly experience the Syndicate’s fearsome power just a week after possession.

-Announcement: Neo-Nazi collapse. Neo-Nazi leader, “Failed Art Student,” successfully eliminated.

The Neo-Nazis collapsed.

From my perspective, it was like the organization Hydra had been annihilated.

When you think of Neo-Nazis, you imagine an organization that extends its reach not just throughout Europe but to America and the UN, yet the Syndicate cleanly eliminated their leader.

The problem is that removing just the head doesn’t make an organization disappear.

“You weren’t there then, were you, Hye-ra?”

“No. Taotie and Hundun went together. Oh, you know about Taowu, right? Taotie was so furious he called in Taowu too, saying he’d kill them all.”

Yoon Hye-ra’s expression hardened momentarily.

“They had something in the facilities Neo-Nazis built throughout underground Germany. ‘We have failed. But with superpowers, we will rise again. The most superior race in this world is…'”

Yoon Hye-ra glanced at me cautiously.

“It’s okay. I’ll try… not to mind.”

“…not Koreans but us Germans, and Korea is just a country leeching off the lucky fact that a meteor fell into their sea.”

“…That’s still shocking to hear again.”

The race that Neo-Nazis envy.

The nation that makes nationalists around the world explode with rage in this era of great national pride transformed by the cataclysm.

“A race envied by Neo-Nazis. Haha.”

“Well, it’s not wrong, is it? How many ability users have been born in Korea since the meteor fell? Being envious, jealous, and resentful is natural. Think of ability users as oil.”

“It’s weird to suddenly think of people as oil, but somehow it really hits home.”

Although we haven’t confirmed that oil comes from this beautiful land of golden mountains and jade waters where Grandfather Dangun established his territory, after an incredible 4333 years of waiting, we became a race that settled in an ability-rich zone where an alien meteor fell.

It’s a joke, but people in this world, whether self-deprecatingly or sincerely, call Korea and the Korean people “a nation and race blessed by God.”

“That’s the reality. How many officially recognized S-class ability users were born in Korea? 30 people. Including those who died, became villains, emigrated, and so on—a total of 30 S-class users. But what about other countries? Japan has the most with just 10.”

“……”

In a world where S-class users pour out of one country like bamboo shoots after rain, while in other countries, producing even one S-class user is described as “barely” possible.

“Oppa, I think Korea is being really arrogant right now. Armored Taejo carries the title of S-class detector, but by other countries’ standards, Korea is overflowing with A+ class users who could easily be considered S-class.”

The world is already full of national pride, but it was quite something to see that pride permeating even the underworld from a villain’s perspective.

“Take Singapore below us, for example. An A+ class user who lost to Armored Taejo and immediately emigrated became Singapore’s only S-class user.”

“…That’s true. Come to think of it, Korea really has produced a lot of S-class users.”

I was outclassed by the detector in Korea, but in another country, I’d be the one and only S-class?

Such a story isn’t just a light novel title but something that actually happens.

That’s how it is in this world.

Korean things are great, and the Korean Wave is the best in the world.

In this world consumed by national pride, all logic revolves around it.

“But why are you suddenly talking about this? Here in Thailand. We’ve already done what we needed to do. Are you planning to work overtime?”

“Not overtime, I’m just worried.”

“About whom? Ah, Laplace’s children?”

“…Yes.”

Those who only knew the world as an underground space in God’s sanctuary.

Even if they knew a little more, they couldn’t cross over the bridge.

They have an official name, but people call them “Laplace’s children” for distinction.

“It seems the orphanage can’t handle children who’ve lived their whole lives as weapons. They need a separate facility.”

I thought about dispersing them to various Syndicate-managed orphanages across Thailand, but after coming here in person, I realized that wouldn’t work.

“If we group them together, they’ll form a pack, but if we separate them, they’ll feel like they’ve been cast into a vast ocean. More precisely… like they’ve been dropped alone into a different world.”

“That’s true. They’ve essentially moved from the world of God’s sanctuary to the world of Earth.”

It’s different from my case yet similar.

At least I was an adult who could recognize and accept changes in the world, but for them, it would be a completely different experience.

And what’s most frightening is that these children aren’t just ordinary children—they’re “ability users.”

“I hope there won’t be any need to call Ymir or for me to step in. If these children lose their mental stability, they’ll become demons.”

“……”

This is a world where even infants can become demons.

That’s why everyone is extremely careful when dealing with children who are ability users, but Laplace and the Crimson General used them as weapons regardless of whether they became demons or not.

“What should we do with these children? It seems even the Syndicate can’t handle this right now.”

“…There is one way, isn’t there?”

“Huh?”

“Oppa, are you building up to have me say it? You find it awkward to say directly, so you want me to suggest it instead? Right?”

“……”

Perhaps Yoon Hye-ra is right.

I didn’t consciously think of it, but subconsciously I might have found the answer.

“How to turn brainwashed children back into members of society. For that method, you’re thinking of ‘rehabilitation’ now.”

“……”

“Mental bleaching by the Sephiroth Knights.”

“……”

Screech.

I stopped the car.

It happened to be right in front of our destination, and I stopped at a red light and turned to face Yoon Hye-ra.

“Hye-ra.”

“Yes, oppa.”

“Which is more cruel: killing the personality that lived as a weapon and overlaying it with memories of an ordinary human, or…”

There is one certain method.

“…putting them through a Marine boot camp-style education with extreme training for two years.”

Currently.

Heading toward Thailand.

Intelligence reports that suspicious men wearing red hats are flying in by plane.