Everyone’s Circumstances

Whoosh-!

Six months after the so-called B District Annihilation Incident.

“You are surrounded! Surrender immediately!”

“How many years have we been suffering because of you?! Please get caught already! We won’t punish you inhumanely, I’m telling you!”

“As if he’d listen to us…”

Alpha was being chased by the hero team Hound.

“Miss Phantom Luna! Can’t you make this animal friend move faster?!”

“..Wait!”

Woo-ung-!

Phantom Luna, who had already summoned a griffon, activated her ability again.

“Sylph! Use wind to accelerate the griffon!”

-Peep!!

And out came the second summon.

Compared to only being able to summon one before, this was significant progress.

Whii-ing-!

As the transport-type summon griffon gained acceleration, they slowly began to catch up to Alpha.

“..Tch.”

Seeing this, Alpha stopped running away and turned 180 degrees to charge towards the griffon.

Ku-ung-!

Energy radiating from his heart gathered in both arms, and just as Alpha was about to deliver a powerful blow to them.

“Where do you think you’re going!!”

Ice Queen’s ability activated, erecting a huge ice wall in the blink of an eye.

Ku-ung-!!

If it had been made by the previous Ice Queen, it would have disappeared without a trace.

But now, even if it crumbled to powder, it completely blocked his blow.

“..You’ve gotten stronger.”

Alpha finally came down to the ground, unable to successfully land his attack.

The Hound team members also dismounted from the griffon in unison and stared at him.

“Old man, let’s get caught today, shall we?”

“..I said I’d leave when the time comes.”

“When is that! It’s been a year and a half already, you know?”

“We can’t leave someone who keeps causing disturbances alone.”

“Even if you were a great senior in the past.”

Alpha looked at the heroes before him one by one.

Over the past year and a half, as they chased Alpha, they had grown incomparably stronger than before.

Among them, Phantom Luna and Ice Queen stood out the most.

‘Phantom Luna. Her attacks have become fiercer.’

Until six months ago, there wasn’t such a noticeable change, but something must have happened during the terrorist attack in B District.

From that day on, she worked insanely hard and her skills improved rapidly.

And then.. Ice Queen.

To Alpha, she was the most powerful force in this team and the trickiest opponent.

‘Awakening. I know its power well. I’ve experienced it firsthand.’

A sense of intense elation and evolution, as if breaking through a frame to the next level.

Gaining power on a different level from your previous self, feeling almost godlike.

‘Because of that, it seems easy to look down on or ignore others.’

In fact, in past cases, there were instances where personalities became twisted after awakening.

However, even though Ice Queen had surpassed A and reached S after awakening, she showed no such signs.

Was it because of her nature?

Or was someone guiding her well?

‘Come to think of it, awakening always requires some insight or experience..’

Alpha looked at Ice Queen.

Her uniform-style clothes, a reformed version of the outfit she obtained when she awakened.

As he carefully examined her appearance, Alpha’s gaze eventually settled on the coat draped over her shoulders like a cape.

Unlike his own, it was a coat without any special abilities.

However, it was a very familiar coat.

‘..Akaoni, did that guy do something strange again?’

His real villain name was Maker.

He had known him for well over a year and a half, so he knew that much.

He just kept calling him Akaoni because it stuck better than Maker.

Anyway, if it was him, Alpha thought he might have done something strange, as he often did incomprehensible things.

“You’re lost in thought.”

While Alpha was briefly thinking, Ice Queen had already moved ahead to attempt an attack.

Phantom Luna also created wind arrows behind his back and fired them.

Alpha looked at them and muttered softly.

“..Still, I’m stronger than you.”

The reason he was having trouble despite their increased strength was purely because it was difficult to subdue them without killing them.

Nothing had changed.

Alpha raised his fist as he watched them charge.

“Haah..”

In the end, Alpha managed to escape safely again today.

“Ah, you’re here?”

“..Yeah.”

And when he headed to the Vigilante, the organization members greeted him warmly.

“Perfect timing, Alpha-nim! A guest has arrived, so you should go up. Though you must be tired..”

“A guest?”

At the member’s words, Alpha climbed the stairs.

“Ah, you’re here. Alpha.”

And what he saw in the guest room was Akaoni.

Alpha, without showing any particular surprise, closed the door and sat on the opposite sofa.

“What’s your business?”

“It’s time to think about the finale.”

Along with the sudden main point, Akaoni showed Alpha a news video.

[Hello, citizens! We are now at the international airport! With the sudden news of the current world’s No. 1 hero Viktor’s visit to Korea last evening..]

“You understand what this means, right?”

Alpha nodded as he looked at Viktor’s figure on the screen.

He seemed to know why he had come here.

“So it’s finally time to fulfill our deal.”

“Yes, the promise we made when I got you out of prison.”

Akaoni nodded obediently, acknowledging his words.

And fulfilling the deal meant, as stated earlier, that this would be the last time they’d be together like this.

“So it’s really the end.”

“Do you dislike it? You seem quite attached to this place.”

It also meant that life at the Vigilante would end at the same time.

Alpha turned his head to look at the door.

The Vigilante organization members, the child he brought, and his former assistant Black Wood would be beyond that door.

“No.”

Alpha took his eyes off that place and looked back at Akaoni.

Then Alpha smiled comfortably and opened his mouth.

“I feel utterly relieved.”

It seemed it was time to end this quasi-villain life as well.

Alpha’s appearance was enough to confuse many people.

The reappearance of the strongest and most famous hero of the past, who eventually tried to destroy everything and met his death.

The story of a hero thought to be dead actually being alive, and eventually becoming a villain, was quite sensational and captured many people’s attention.

[Where has Alpha been all this time to only show up now?]

[I heard he was hiding to get revenge on the people who made him like this!]

[They say an ability user who handles corpses revived him as a zombie?]

[Wasn’t he locked up in the Hero Association’s secret basement?]

[I heard he was in Tartarus.]

Various rumors circulated, and many people paid attention to his every move.

Many people were curious about him.

Why he came out only now.

How he survived instead of dying.

Why he maintains a youthful appearance without aging. And so on.

The thoughts that followed one after another could eventually reach one question.

[Come to think of it, why did Alpha turn evil?]

A story briefly summarized in history as well.

His past began to be illuminated.

And his story became known.

[I heard Alpha’s personal information was leaked in the past?]

Author: James Kim

(Photos of foreign newspapers from over 40 years ago, much worn.)

My father collected these as a hobby when he worked as a journalist overseas in the past.

It seems he was able to collect them without being suppressed because he was abroad when the association was suppressing the media ㄷㄷ.

==

Alpha’s identity, which could be called a hero’s Achilles’ heel, was revealed.

[ㅇㅇ]: Damn, so this was why.

And as everyone knows, the world was infinitely harsh to heroes whose identities were revealed.

[ㅇㅇ]: ‘Hero Alpha, as many as 190 injured.. Couldn’t he have saved them a little faster?’ What kind of crazy talk is this ㅋㅋ?

A stricter gaze than for other heroes.

[ㅇㅇ]: If even eating makes the news, that’s real madness ㅋㅋㅋ

Feeling like his every move was being monitored, if he failed to save even one more person, he was likely to be beaten by citizens.

[ㅇㅇ]: Damn, they’re posting pictures of dead people without even blurring. Really the age of the wild.

On top of that, even his family was killed by villains.

Among some users, sympathetic public opinion began to boil.

[Alpha did nothing wrong]: I didn’t know, but isn’t it really pitiful?

[ㅇㅇ]: For real, he received all the world’s unfair treatment alone.

Although the story afterwards couldn’t be known because the newspapers were lost, this much information was enough to understand why he went on a rampage.

And some people said that it was people’s fault that he became like that.

That it was the citizens who criticized him as soon as his identity was revealed.

That it was because they cursed and tore apart him whose identity was revealed, as they were too scared to blame the villains.

“Bullshit.”

However, Heart Queen, who was browsing the community, gritted her teeth and denied it.

The content that was currently stirring up the entire community.

It was certainly a story that Heart Queen hadn’t known properly.

But that was just his circumstances, it had nothing to do with her anger and she had no intention of forgiving him.

“If he was going to go crazy, he should have done it nicely.”

Just because he was a victim, it doesn’t erase the harm Alpha had done to those around her.

Thud.

The queen turned off her phone and let her body fall onto her bed.

‘I won’t forgive him no matter what kind of story he has.’

And her words were spat out as if crushing something.

It was natural, if anything.

“There’s no way I’d forgive the enemy who killed my parents.”

After all, Alpha was Heart Queen’s enemy, the one who killed her parents.