Ch.7373. No More Heroes

“Hah.”

Lu-a withdrew her ability with a displeased look and lowered her hand.

“You two aren’t my parents, so why all the nagging? I was just getting emotionally invested.”

“I said that because it seemed like the children were your goal rather than that man’s life, Lu-a.”

Lu-a closed her mouth. Eventually, she turned around.

“Geo, keep this man alive for torture for now. I’ll decide what to do with him later.”

“Understood.”

I crouched in front of Dr. Sun and smiled refreshingly.

“Congratulations, Sun. I’ll assign our organization’s best torture specialist to you. You’ll spend the rest of your life regretting that you didn’t die today.”

“Ugh? Ungh, unnngh…!!”

Dr. Sun shook his head tremblingly, but I had not a shred of mercy to bestow upon him.

***

“…Hah.”

Lee Lu-a cooled her head under the cold stream of water for a long time.

The operation ended quickly. Considering the Villain Alliance’s capabilities, it wasn’t a difficult task to begin with.

The reason she hadn’t told Jung Ui-seok until now was because she was afraid to reveal the truth about the Switch to him.

Yet she couldn’t locate the research facility on her own, and mobilizing her subordinates might have interfered with Ui-seok’s plans, so she had been waiting for the right moment.

In that situation, Ui-seok had resolved everything in an instant, treating it as his own personal matter and acting with rage.

Lu-a’s revenge was essentially complete.

Everyone associated with the research facility was dead. Ui-seok would track down anyone connected and wipe them out. Dr. Sun would live in agony, continuously treated and tortured for the rest of his life.

The rescued children would stay in an expanded and more systematized orphanage.

Lu-a felt relieved.

She had finally completed the task she had been putting off.

Now that this problem was solved, she had no more regrets in life.

“…That’s a lie.”

Though she thought she had none, she already realized that another resentment, another desire, had settled in a corner of her heart.

“…But I can’t. The time I have left is… a year and a little more… Until then, I’ll help Geo…”

Lu-a made a resolution. This determination must never waver. She engraved it in her mind once more.

After showering, Lu-a dried her hair with a towel and walked into her room wearing only her underwear.

There was an uninvited guest.

“Isn’t it too early in the season for cold showers, Lu-a?”

Lena was sitting at the table enjoying tea. Lu-a wasn’t in the mood to argue with her right now.

“I just felt like it.”

“‘Come here.'”

Lu-a’s body was gently pulled to sit naturally beside Lena.

Lena pushed a teacup toward Lu-a, offering it.

“It will warm you up.”

“What’s the occasion? …I’ll drink it well.”

Lu-a put the cup to her lips and slurped. Unlike Lena, she lacked refinement, but Lena smiled lightly and gazed at Lu-a steadily.

“Do you feel refreshed now?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Your revenge is over.”

“Yes.”

“Would you like some cookies too? ‘Biscuits, come.'”

“…Thank you.”

Lu-a munched on the cookies Lena had made. They were full of butter flavor and tasted quite good.

Lu-a was puzzled by Lena’s attitude.

“…Why are you taking care of me?”

Lena chuckled at Lu-a’s question.

“I had an older sister but never a younger one. Isn’t it an older sister’s role to take care of her younger sister?”

“I never intended to be your sister.”

“My, weren’t you the one who first demanded a human relationship?”

“Me?”

“Yes. Without being suppressed by social status or fear of ability, you apologized for your mistake. Despite being a villain.”

“Ah… before, on the Dark Kingdom ship? Well, that was… because I was wrong…”

“Until now, people who apologized to me with ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘I apologize’ had only one reason. They feared for their lives.”

“…Out of cowardice?”

“Yes. Your life is protected by Ui-seok, isn’t it? I took your apology as respect for me as an individual.”

“It wasn’t that meaningful… I just did it because I had to.”

Lena gently placed her index finger on Lu-a’s lips.

“That mindset is uncommon. Take pride in it. I like it.”

“Mmm.”

“Shall we read a book together then?”

Lena took out an old fairy tale book from her handbag beside her.

Lu-a thought that Lena was indeed a picky person with sensibilities different from ordinary people, which was troublesome.

Still, it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.

So she decided to go along with it for a while.

Lena turned the pages as if each one was precious.

The fairy tale was short, and she soon closed the final page.

“Well, did you enjoy it?”

“Honestly, it was just okay.”

“Hehe. I see. Who did you like best, Lu-a?”

Lu-a thought Lena’s sparkling eyes were strange, but she answered honestly.

“The king from the neighboring country.”

“My, isn’t he a minor character who dies at the beginning? Even though the princess and queen are the protagonists?”

“Yes. But without the king, the two of them couldn’t have started their adventure.”

Hearing Lu-a’s matter-of-fact explanation, Lena nodded.

“Indeed. That’s an interesting perspective. It was good reference, Lu-a.”

Lena looked at Lu-a and smiled brightly.

***

“Hey, Red Dragon bro! Who would’ve thought you were the famous Gerogius. I spilled all my tacos in shock!”

There was a video message from Exile, an American hero. On screen, the guy was crassly partying with strip girls, drugs, and alcohol.

“Thanks to you, our Absolute League is soaring with the S-Sentai. It’s a real money festival! Yesterday we crippled all the Canadian sentai teams! Thanks to bro managing the villains too, I’m feeling really comfortable, haha! Give me a call when you come to Washington, I’ll buy you a drink!”

I turned off the screen because his voice was annoying. Emma bowed to me.

“I apologize, Master. I anticipated it would displease you.”

“It’s fine. I already knew they were trash.”

“Lots of trash? Master, should I grind them up?”

Boksil wagged her hair like a tail. I patted her head and sat down at the conference table.

Lena and Lu-a were already waiting.

“As I explained to you before, my initial plan was to grow Vengeance as much as possible before six months and attack and defeat Recter.”

“That’s what you said.”

“Originally, I needed heroes for that process. Their resources could protect the city infrastructure from the Galaxy Empire’s attack, and if the next S-Sentai Tournament didn’t happen, Boksil might have ground me up.”

I had incorporated Lu-a and Lena into Vengeance, but I left the final boss of the fourth scenario alone. I judged that some modifications were possible since Lu-a was a mid-boss and Lena was the hidden mastermind.

The main enemy of the fourth scenario is monsters caused by Pestam, so I thought they might appear somehow.

“But I’ve confirmed from Nameless that there’s no such danger now. And thanks to Kang Yerin, the scenario is already as twisted as it can be. Washington’s resources, combat power, and funds are still enormous, but I’ve determined that with Lena’s proposal, there’s nothing we can’t break through.”

“Hmm. So you’ve made your decision.”

Lena seemed intrigued.

“Yes. The Villain Alliance will expand its power globally. We have two months until the final battle with Recter. Within one month, I’ll take control of and unify all villain organizations worldwide.”

“And then what?”

To Lu-a’s question, I answered simply.

“I’ll eradicate heroes from this land.”

Lena smiled slyly. Lu-a looked a bit tense.

“Now I’m certain. Heroes are cancerous tumors eating away at society with their hypocrisy and fake justice. Guys like those at the Switch research facility aren’t rare. Moreover, the world’s resources are being wasted on useless wars like the S-Sentai Tournament. I’ll eliminate them all.”

With the money spent on creating hero images, thousands of orphanages could be built.

Such garbage people.

“There’s no need to follow the scenarios in order. I’ll clear the S-Sentai Tournament first. The heroes’ clear condition is to maintain the S-Sentai title and protect the US President during the final battle against Dillitter’s attack. But this event has now disappeared.”

“Then what’s the condition for the villain side?”

“It’s for the time limit to expire without any team holding the S-Sentai title. In other words.”

“If there are no heroes, there are no sentai teams, and no one to take the S-Sentai title. What a devilish idea. I quite like it.”

“Yes. Specifically, it’s the associations that have the authority to grant S-Sentai status and are parties to the treaty. From now on, all hero associations worldwide will collapse.”

Lu-a nodded.

“Just give the order, Geo.”

Lena chanted a spell.

“‘Contract, come.'”

Thud. Lena handed me ten thick envelopes of documents.

“What kind of contract is this?”

“I haven’t given you anything precious yet, have I? I was preoccupied then, but thinking about it, the demerit of pride isn’t limited to precious ‘objects,’ is it?”

“It seems not.”

“Take it.”

I opened the envelope and checked the contents. I was a bit surprised.

“You’re transferring Holy Tree to Vengeance?”

“Lena, really?”

Lu-a also jumped up in surprise. Lena wore a relaxed smile.

“To expand globally, shouldn’t the villains of this small country be unified? Of course, I’m not giving it away for nothing.”

That was true.

The contract detailed the merger of the villain organization Holy Tree with Vengeance into the Villain Alliance Vengeance, and while my name was written as the leader, Lena would gain more benefits as the organization expanded.

“It’s a kind of investment.”

“To have the world at your feet, this level of betting is quite cheap.”

Converting Holy Tree’s personnel and infrastructure into asset value would be worth at least hundreds of trillions.

Indeed, Lena is not someone to be taken lightly. I felt it once again.

“And someday this contract will become meaningless anyway.”

I didn’t understand that statement, but for some reason, Lu-a’s expression became serious.

“I accept. From now on, we’ll reorganize as the Villain Alliance Vengeance. And.”

I declared.

“One month from now, Vengeance will be the only villain organization on this planet.”

Lu-a and Lena nodded.

“What shall we do first?”

After signing, I answered.

“Lena, call the villain alliance bosses and order them to reorganize and prepare for deployment. The target is Los Angeles. Lu-a, prepare for teleportation and help Lena.”

“Do you have something to do, Geo?”

“Yes.”

I stood up.

“First, I’m going to take down the sign of the nearest hero association.”

Kang Yerin and Ji Se-hwa.

Let’s see how they respond.