Chapter 162: What Must Be Protected [R-18]

*

In her dream, Isabella was reliving the first memory she had of thinking, ‘Something is wrong with my sister.’

“It’s mine!”

“No!”

It was a fight over a favorite doll, no different from any other pair of sisters.

But things took a turn when Zenobia, as if to make a point, ripped the doll’s head off.

“Waaaaah!”

Little Isabella burst into tears.

Her older sister, Zenobia, simply watched her and smiled.

When their parents heard about it later, they dismissed it as nothing serious, thinking it was just ‘an expression of excessive possessiveness,’ a common trait in early childhood.

But Zenobia often hit and tormented her younger sister, and when asked why, she would answer, ‘Because seeing my sister’s crying face makes me happy.’

It was around then that her parents began to think she was a peculiar child.

They consulted several authorities in neuroscience and had their daughter’s MRI—magnetic resonance imaging—taken. After a series of tests based on the results, the conclusion was reached.

“There is a functional problem with your daughter’s cerebral cortex. This kind of brain function issue can manifest as a lack of empathy and an ignorance of others’ pain.”

Zenobia was a congenital psychopath.

She felt almost no emotion and was not just numb to the pain of others, but she also failed to experience the negative feelings one should have when doing something wrong.

Instead, Zenobia had learned a sense of elation and excitement from hitting Isabella.

“What should we do?”

“You must never treat your daughter emotionally. It is best to establish clear principles and deal with her firmly.”

Isabella would learn of these circumstances later. At the time, all she knew was that her parents seemed different after returning from the hospital.

It started that day.

The strict rules, the curfews, the severe punishments that were introduced into their home.

While raising their firstborn this way, they had no choice but to raise their second child just as strictly, but Isabella adapted well.

In fact, she grew into a girl who was loved by everyone.

The same was true for Zenobia.

“The daughters in that house are so lovely.”

That was what the neighbors all said.

Both Zenobia and Isabella grew into well-behaved young women who listened to their parents, and their parents, in turn, felt gratified, believing their methods of education had been correct.

But Isabella, who was always close to her sister, knew.

She knew that an unfillable darkness resided in Zenobia’s heart, and that for now, she was merely hiding it….

“Ugh…”

Isabella flinched as she opened her eyes in the hospital.

The moment she regained consciousness, the memory of Zenobia’s attack came flooding back. The black, black eyes she could never forget, no matter how she tried.

And that flat tone, devoid of any emotional inflection. It was unmistakably Zenobia.

“Kim Sang-hyeok!”

Isabella shot upright and was startled once again to see Sang-hyeok keeping watch by her bed.

“Yes? I’m right here.”

“You… how…”

Weren’t we both critically injured?

But it was all too vivid to have been a dream. Isabella felt a sense of wrongness, precisely because her body felt perfectly fine.

“You should lie down for now.”

“What happened?”

“First, this is a private room in the academy hospital. A whole night has passed. I was getting worried when you wouldn’t wake up.”

Kim Sang-hyeok began to peel an apple as he told her what had happened after she lost consciousness.

It was a story she found hard to believe.

“First of all, the reason your and my wounds are healed is because a certain Saintess from the outside world helped us. It’s one of my powers.”

“What about Zenobia? Did she just leave?”

Kim Sang-hyeok hesitated for a moment, unsure where to begin.

“She wouldn’t have just left. She wouldn’t have stopped until she had broken you…!”

“To put it crudely, I beat the shit out of her.”

“…What?”

Kim Sang-hyeok explained another one of his powers.

『Rule of Immortality』

The Death Collector summoned by that power had protected Kim Sang-hyeok, displaying a transcendent strength.

It had beaten Zenobia, who had raised her output to 100%, to a pulp.

And then she was sent straight to the Correction Bureau.

Isabella was so stunned she couldn’t even speak. The fact that this D-rank student before her had solved a problem that had plagued the Hero Association for five years was unbelievable.

“She was taken to the Correction Bureau… Zenobia?”

“In the end, Master Seridwen came and sorted things out. I should have just turned her into an onahole right then and there.”

Kim Sang-hyeok said as he handed her a beautifully peeled slice of apple.

Isabella, lost in the story, took it in her mouth and began to munch on it.

“Is that so…? Master Seridwen…”

To think it had all ended while she was unconscious…

Isabella felt a slight sense of emptiness.

“Is it good?”

“…Ah.”

Squeeze.

Isabella gripped the clean patient blanket tightly, her cheeks flushing red.

No… I’m letting my guard down too much around him….

“You were cool, you know. President. Was it, ‘Thanks for calling me a great hero’?”

“…Hmph. Don’t get the wrong idea.”

Her face grew hotter.

She hadn’t even been able to protect him properly. The only heroic thing she’d done was act as a meat shield.

And she’d done it to protect Kim Sang-hyeok!

She was so embarrassed she couldn’t even lift her head.

“I was just doing my duty as a hero. It wouldn’t have mattered who it was. I would have done the same for anyone.”

“Ooh, a tsundere.”

“I am not!”

“I’m not teasing. You were genuinely cool.”

This guy… he’s so sly, always poking at the things that make a person embarrassed.

“It was pathetic, wasn’t it? That’s the true face of the woman they call Seoul’s strongest S-rank hero.”

“What is?”

“The way I was so pathetically defeated by a real villain.”

“That Zenobia is a ‘real villain’?”

Hasn’t he heard anything?

Don’t tell me….

Isabella was shocked when she saw that Sang-hyeok was wearing the same clothes as yesterday.

“You… you didn’t go home? You stayed by my side all night?”

“Yes. It’s already past time for school to start. Please overlook my absence again.”

“…”

“The reason is nursing my savior back to health. Oh, by the way, Evangeline-seonbae was here too, but she stayed until dawn and then left because of work tomorrow.”

How embarrassing.

Savior? Don’t be ridiculous.

“Kim Sang-hyeok. If anything, you are my savior. I couldn’t protect you properly.”

Kim Sang-hyeok remained silent.

…It feels like he’s waiting for me to compose myself.

He reminded her of her father, who would quietly watch over her and comfort her whenever she cried as a child.

…Why does this problem student who needs my care seem so dignified?

‘Sang-hyeok… I can trust him….’

“Zenobia… is my sister.”

Kim Sang-hyeok picked up another apple and began to peel it in a slow, circular motion.

“My blood relative… diagnosed as a congenital psychopath. An S-rank villain. The head of Korea’s largest villain syndicate.”

“She was a huge deal. I heard Korea was relatively peaceful, but she even had a masterpiece-level monster that surpasses you, President.”

“It’s because gravity waves of an incredible rank appear in the Forbidden Zone.”

This wasn’t information released to the public.

Most people could only guess, ‘That’s probably why.’

Dungeons of S-rank and higher appeared in Seoul’s Forbidden Zone. And the villain syndicate, hiding in the Forbidden Zone—Korea’s shadow, so to speak—was a force that gathered power by illegally hoarding unpermitted magical beast steel.

“The head of the underworld that monopolizes those gravity waves… it’s widely believed that’s Zenobia.”

“So she got strong all by herself, hogging the good stuff. How cowardly. And here you were, busy with work, President!”

“…?”

Isabella tilted her head, seeing Kim Sang-hyeok suddenly get angry on her behalf.

‘Is he… trying to comfort me?’

For the sake of the pride of Korea’s top hero, who had been defeated not just miserably, but shamefully.

“…Stop it. I couldn’t become a symbol of justice. I couldn’t even protect a single male student by my side.”

“Now I get it. Why you wanted to punish villains so severely. Was it because Zenobia is family?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I said it had nothing to do with it.”

She had always known that Zenobia would come for her one day.

That was why she couldn’t form a deep relationship with anyone.

Isabella had kept it a secret all this time.

『The Symbol of Justice』

She pretended to be a perfect, flawless hero who had nothing to fear from anyone.

“Five years ago, Zenobia was the villain who killed our mother and turned the heart of Seoul into a sea of fire. The casualties were over fifty thousand…”

“…”

“After that incident, people saw me, my family, as potential villains. They said you never knew what we were thinking behind our smiling faces.”

From that day on, Isabella fought for her family’s honor.

She never considered a path other than being a hero.

That was why she had taken on the position of Director of the Villain Correction Bureau.

Pursue justice.

Enforce justice.

Embody justice.

Look. I am different from my irresponsible sister.

Perhaps she had just been shouting that to the world.

…It’s a fake conviction. My days of acting high and mighty in front of my junior are over. There was no such thing as a ‘real hero’ anywhere.

Being a ‘symbol of justice’ was a wish far beyond her.

“So is that why you fought? To get people to look at the just Isabella?”

Sang-hyeok handed her the plate of prepared apple slices.

“Yes…”

…He must be disappointed.

Me, who even incited him to do terrible things to villains….

He must have realized that my strictness didn’t come from a sense of justice, but from a desperate struggle to show that I was different from my criminal sister.

The more arduous her work became, the calmer Isabella’s heart grew.

「Hero of Justice」

「Towards a 0% Crime Rate」

「Korea’s Representative Hero」

Behind all the plausible phrases people attached to her, there I was… anxiously worrying if my sister’s heinous crimes would once again make the news headlines, rounding up any conspicuous villain I could find.

As if I were making an excuse to the world: ‘If my sister appears, I’ll be the one to catch her.’

“I feel like I’ve gotten to know you better, Isabella.”

“You must feel betrayed, right?”

“You think so?”

Sang-hyeok smiled brightly.

Seeing that smile, Isabella couldn’t help but wonder why he had stayed.

Why.

Why would he stay up all night by the hospital bed of the student council president who tormented him, calling him a problem student?

Why is he listening to my story?

With such a gentle look on his face….

All her speculations pointed toward a single conclusion, but she couldn’t reach 100% certainty.

The idea that ‘Kim Sang-hyeok likes me’ felt too embarrassing.

Let’s go with ‘He might like me’….

When their eyes met again, Sang-hyeok was wearing a playful smile.

As if he had been waiting to say this very thing.

“By the way, the official announcement was made yesterday at 10 PM. The ultimate hero who took care of the heinous S-rank villain Zenobia was none other than you, President. The ‘White Devil.’”

“What!”

Isabella shouted, then hastily covered her mouth, remembering she was in a hospital.

“But you’re the one who caught her!”

“Me? I just beat her up with my power. Technically, it’s borrowed strength, and no one would believe a D-rank student caught her anyway.”

“Then what about Master Seridwen? You could have just said she did it.”

“It was Master Seridwen’s idea. To say the White Devil did it.”

Master Seridwen!?

“She said she’s officially supposed to be in the US right now, and she got summoned to the Blue House for illegally crossing into Korean territory at a speed that violates the World Hunter Association’s regulations. If it got out that she did it to deal with a Korean villain, it could blow up into a diplomatic issue…”

“Even so… Are you okay with that? Kim Sang-hyeok? It means I’m stealing your credit.”

“I’m fine. Because you’re safe, Isabella.”

‘He’s casually… using my first name.’

Thump, thump….

Isabella was flustered by this new feeling.

At first, she thought it was a warmth like her father’s, but now…

It was something with a much stronger flavor… an uncontrollable feeling.

“From now on, don’t push yourself so hard alone. Let’s do it together.”

“D-do what?”

“Zenobia may be caught, but villains will keep appearing. Let’s do it together with Onahole Man. You know, that.”

“…I’m not the perfect, flawless hero of justice you think I am.”

“That’s why.”

Kim Sang-hyeok said, placing another slice of apple in Isabella’s mouth.

“Because you’re not a perfect, flawless hero. You can date, lean on someone when you’re having a hard time, things like that.”

“…Date? With who?”

“You’re not asking because you don’t know, are you?”

……….

…….

…!!

I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m going to pretend I don’t know!

Unable to accept this sudden change of heart, Isabella whipped her head away, trying her best not to meet Sang-hyeok’s eyes.

“I have no idea. I don’t have time for things like dating. I’m only going to get busier from now on!”

“Get some rest. I’m going to go try and catch what’s left of my classes.”

Is it okay to just let him go?

Once the problem student process is over, I won’t have a reason to talk to Kim Sang-hyeok. I won’t be able to threaten him with, ‘Get over here right now.’

He’s not some stain on the academy anymore.

He’s a hero, just like me. A kind and handsome man who might even be stronger than I am….

Once I sign off on his file, we won’t be able to see each other anymore….

The thought made her body move on its own. When she came to her senses, she was out from under the patient blanket, tightly gripping Sang-hyeok’s sleeve.

“W-wait.”

“Isabella?”

“…”

More blood than ever before rushed to Isabella’s head. Her cheeks burning, she spoke in a trembling voice.

“You’re… going to keep being a hero, right?”

“Yes.”

What kind of change of heart had he had?

Right now, she was just grateful. She was glad she didn’t have to part with him.

Sang-hyeok tucked the blanket around Isabella as she lay back down and said.

“Because I have more to protect now.”

---

Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

Please do consider subscribing to my Patreon for requests or to get early access to chapters