Ch.43Beast-Like Man

I decided to give him more food, but now I’m having second thoughts.

After making the decision, that thought just naturally came to mind.

“These days, there are way fewer villains coming to the soup kitchen.”

“It’s peaceful, and that’s good.”

After essentially making Han Mu-ryo the security guard for the free soup kitchen, the 4th district became peaceful beyond belief.

According to police officers from the 4th district, not only had villains stopped targeting the soup kitchen, but they’d disappeared from the entire 4th district altogether.

[…There’s information that Gu Seo-ryong was spotted on a train heading to B City.]

“Really? Then does that mean you can stop worrying about this annoying situation?”

[Annoying…]

“You usually don’t care about these things, sis. Of course, I don’t have the luxury to care either.”

[You, you don’t have to put it that way…]

“…Alright, I’m sorry. Get some rest. You said you were busy this weekend.”

According to the news, that villain boss—Gu Seo-ryong or whatever—has disappeared, and the villains who lost their leader are gradually falling apart.

Villain arrests in W City continue, and the news keeps saying things like “Gu Seo-ryong on the run, downfall of the crime city” and “Major victory in the war against crime, Starlight leads crime eradication.”

When journalists who usually criticize Starlight for everything are all praising her, things must be going well, right?

So I could stop feeding Han Mu-ryo now… though I’m hesitant to do so.

“Mr. Mu-ryo? Could you help move this too?”

“Mm.”

After asking him to stand guard to prevent villains from causing trouble, Yu Hye-na thought the large man who took naps beside her while smelling the rice during early weekend morning meal preparations was just someone big who slept all day.

He really was like a bear—waking up only at mealtime, sleeping after finishing his food, suddenly sitting up to stare somewhere, then going back to sleep.

Finding this annoying, she tried waking him up to make him work, and he worked so well it was almost unbelievable.

Han Mu-ryo was a human crane.

“Wow… how can someone carry loads so well?”

“I’ve never seen food preparation finish this early before.”

“Enhanced-type superhumans really are amazing.”

He moved sacks and boxes of ingredients weighing dozens of kilograms with ease, set up serving tables single-handedly so they only needed assembly, and carried gas tanks for kitchen facilities with one hand.

There was something captivating about watching his muscular body effortlessly lifting heavy objects.

With Han Mu-ryo around, the preparation and closing time for the free meals was reduced to less than a third.

He stacked dishes so quickly and efficiently into the truck after washing that the volunteer team had nothing left to do.

“Even if villains don’t show up, isn’t Mr. Han Mu-ryo earning his meals just with this?”

“Maybe a quarter of a quarter of a quarter of his meals.”

“Well, considering how much he eats…”

Not only that, Han Mu-ryo was great at playing with the children of the 4th district.

The children loved him so much it was surprising… wouldn’t his large build be scary? It was amazing to see children approaching him without hesitation even when he was just sitting still.

Perhaps his beast-like aura was the secret to his popularity with children.

Children do love animals, after all.

“Well, everyone did great work today!”

“Thank you, Director!”

“Good work everyone~!”

“Goodbye, Director!”

“Is the Director moving?”

“She’s not moving away~ See you next week!”

After the volunteer work ended, the volunteer team split into two trucks and left the 4th district.

By this time, Han Mu-ryo would have disappeared somewhere, only to be seen again the next weekend.

He was like a neighborhood cat you could only see in that specific area.

He was there, but it wouldn’t be strange if he disappeared at any moment.

“Ms. Hye-na, good work today.”

“You too. I think you could stop the escort duty soon. Why don’t you go back to being heroes?”

After parking the truck at a building rented by the Starlight Foundation in the 3rd district, where W City’s commercial area was concentrated, and sending the other volunteers home, Yu Hye-na tied up her hair and spoke.

These superhumans were temporary escorts sent by her sister, Yu Anna, who thought the current situation was dangerous.

Previously, weaker superhumans had taken turns protecting Hye-na’s volunteer activities.

“Ahaha, we’re fine with this.”

“It’s actually nice not having to fight dangerous monsters.”

“That’s not something a hero should say. Though… I don’t want you to be in danger either.”

To Hye-na, heroes were always those who fought monsters.

Always, always…

She shouldn’t force that idea, but she always thought it was natural.

“Well then.”

“Yes, please get home safely.”

At the foundation, Hye-na tied up her hair and put on glasses, making it difficult for people who knew her to recognize her.

In reality, many people couldn’t recognize her with just this.

It was thanks to her simple disguise, posture change, and her ability, which she named “Mirage.”

Hye-na, who awakened her superpower at a different time than her sister Yu Anna, was an E-rank superhuman.

E-rank refers to those with abilities barely different from ordinary people, powers that couldn’t even harm a human baby.

Hye-na’s Mirage slightly increased her heat resistance, allowing her to easily hold hot pots and keep her hands and feet warm in winter by creating temperature differences on her skin surface.

It was useful for ordinary life but completely useless for hunting monsters.

Nevertheless, there was one special way to use it.

Hye-na could use Mirage on her face and body to create a very slight refraction.

The refraction, limited to just 1-2 centimeters of difference, made her look like a completely different person.

Once, it even helped her narrowly dodge a knife from a mugger on her way home.

It was a useless ability, but for Hye-na, who lived as Starlight’s younger sister, no ability could be more useful.

Though, what Hye-na had actually wanted was a different ability.

As she headed home with her ability activated…

“…Something’s strange.”

Sensitive to being followed, she instinctively felt someone tailing her.

There shouldn’t be any paparazzi anymore, so… a mugger?

She hoped she could shake them off somehow, but Hye-na’s running speed was below average.

As she debated pressing the emergency button in her pocket, she shook her head and ran down an empty alley.

The man following her started running too, making Hye-na more desperate.

She approached some men smoking cigarettes in the alley to ask for help.

“Ex-excuse me…!”

“Oh my? Miss, are you in some kind of trouble?”

“Hehehe…”

The smoking men grinned and pulled knives from their pockets.

Then the man who had been chasing Hye-na caught up, panting and taking out a small knife from his pocket.

“Huff…! Huff…! This fucking bitch…!”

“Haa…! Haa…! Haa…!”

Hye-na panted and clicked her tongue.

A group mugging, so they were ordinary people…

In this era with many security gaps due to monsters, villains weren’t the only ones committing crimes.

Thinking she was unlucky, Hye-na took out her wallet and threw it to the criminals.

“Huff… huff… take this and let me go. I want to go home.”

“Huh? Look at this, she’s being reasonable.”

“Hey, there’s quite a bit of money in this wallet.”

Hopefully they were just short on money, hungry, and that’s why they turned to crime.

Thinking this, Hye-na tried to walk past the men checking her wallet, but the knife-wielding men blocked her path again.

“Wait, you’re from the 3rd district, right?”

“You look like a rich girl. Let’s get some money from your parents.”

“Sigh… I don’t have parents. They’re already dead.”

“Really? You’re an orphan? Even better!”

“We won’t get reported if we take her and have some fun. She’s cute too.”

“Khe… I like feisty girls like her.”

This is ridiculous, Hye-na told them they wouldn’t gain anything by taking her, but the criminals were determined to prove they were trash.

Finally, as Hye-na reached into her pocket… a thud sound came from the shadows in the corner of the alley.

“Wh-what? Mmph?!”

Swoosh! A black figure rushed forward at high speed, instantly knocking away the knife in front of Hye-na.

Then with a rapid popping sound, the muggers flew through the air and hit the wall.

Ugh! Kek! Argh! Kugh! Each screaming and clutching their injured bodies, a large beast-like man approached them with heavy steps and spoke.

“…Do you have parents?”

“Ugh, aaah…! What the hell, this bastard…!”

“Seems like you don’t.”

“Eh? H-Han Mu-ryo…?”

The figure emerging from the darkness was Han Mu-ryo, the superhuman who had recently appeared at the free soup kitchen.

Moving with surprising agility for his large build, he grabbed the fallen men’s hands one by one and began crushing them.

“Aaaaargh!”

“Ack, aaaagh!”

“Ugh…! Stop! That’s enough!”

“Why are you telling me to stop?”

“P-please… spare…”

“Grrrrrr…”

Crunch, crunch… Despite Hye-na’s pleas to stop, Han Mu-ryo continued crushing the criminals’ hands, then looked at Hye-na with blood dripping from his hands.

Was it because they were facing each other in the darkness? The atmosphere was too heavy and brutal to be the gentle Han Mu-ryo she knew.

Gulping nervously, the trembling Hye-na said:

“C-criminals should be… punished by the law, by the police, so you shouldn’t do this.”

“The police aren’t here.”

“That doesn’t mean you can commit such violence!”

“Even though they held a knife to you?”

“…This is excessive force, it’s illegal. You’re even a superhuman.”

“Strange, I heard thieves get their hands cut off.”

“Th-that’s… too extreme.”

“Is it excessive?”

“Well, that might be appropriate punishment, but still, we’re in the monster era now…”

“Hmm.”

At Hye-na’s words, Han Mu-ryo stopped like a curious beast, blinking his wide eyes.

After a moment of silence and tension, Han Mu-ryo stood up, leaving the subdued men.

“I understand. I’ll leave them one hand.”

“Hiiiiiii…!”

“U-uaaaa… police, police…!”

“Ha, haaa…”

As Hye-na sighed in relief, the would-be muggers staggered to their feet and limped away.

Han Mu-ryo stared at Hye-na quietly and offered his characteristic greeting.

“You seem to have gained weight in this short time.”

“Th-that’s rude!”

“It’s a joke. You’re a superhuman.”

“A useless ability though… can’t catch monsters, can’t catch villains.”

Beep beep beep beep, Hye-na took out her phone and reported to the police the direction and coordinates where the muggers had fled, then looked up at Han Mu-ryo.

Was it the night fog, or because she had just seen blood? Unlike during the day, he had a dangerous, sharp aura about him.

Hye-na placed her hand on her pounding heart, perhaps from shock, and asked:

“Why is Mr. Han Mu-ryo here…?”

“I was hunting a monster nearby.”

“What? But no alarm went off.”

“Because I caught it before the alarm could sound.”

Is this a joke too? Monster alarms ring as soon as monsters enter the detection range, and heroes only know where monsters are after the alarm sounds…?

They say Starlight can detect monsters too, but even Starlight has never claimed to detect and catch monsters before they appear.

After pondering briefly, Hye-na blushed at a sudden thought.

“Y-you shouldn’t lie, Mr. Mu-ryo… and you shouldn’t follow women like this.”

“Follow? I don’t see any footprints.”

“No… I mean, tailing, stalking, you know what that means… right?”

“Tailing?”

“When you secretly follow a woman you’re interested in… well, I guess you weren’t doing that.”

When Han Mu-ryo came around behind her and innocently examined her back, Hye-na’s face grew hotter and heat haze rose from her head.

It was because Hye-na’s body temperature had risen dramatically as she failed to control her ability due to embarrassment.

Then, Han Mu-ryo stared at the top of Hye-na’s head and swallowed.

“Looks delicious.”

“You shouldn’t say things like that to women.”

“Mm.”