Chapter 17 – Day 17

Day 17

Thud-.

“Here, eat. And you, come with me.”

The woman who put down the fried rice in front of Cheon Seoa disappeared somewhere with the light.

Growl-.

Although it was just frozen fried rice heated in the microwave, perhaps because she was so hungry.

Just smelling the fried rice caused a loud sound to resonate from her stomach.

“Thank you for the meal.”

With a bow to no one in particular, Cheon Seoa took a big spoonful of fried rice.

“Hap.”

Munch munch.

One bite. Two bites. Three bites.

As the number of bites of fried rice increased, the amount of fried rice entering Cheon Seoa’s mouth gradually decreased.

In the end…

“It tastes bad…”

Cheon Seoa frowned and put down her spoon after barely taking a few bites.

How could it taste this bad, even for frozen fried rice?

Or perhaps this was the average taste.

Everything Cheon Seoa had eaten since returning to Earth had been either made by top-class chefs or desserts carefully crafted by first-class patissiers.

Now that her palate had adjusted to those, it might be that Cheon Seoa’s body could no longer tolerate such ordinary frozen food.

Still.

“I should… eat it out of consideration for their effort, right?”

Cheon Seoa muttered in a trembling voice, then picked up the spoon she had put down with a resigned expression.

Meanwhile, Kang Yeseul, the woman who had prepared the frozen fried rice for Cheon Seoa, closed the door and immediately turned to Gwanghwi.

“You, what’s that about?”

“Well, that’s…”

At Kang Yeseul’s question, Gwanghwi, or rather Jin Yuri by her real name, couldn’t readily open her mouth.

Because of what she had been doing until now, she had nothing to say even if she had ten mouths.

However…

‘But her expression seems too serious for that.’

Jin Yuri’s eyes, which had briefly observed Kang Yeseul’s expression, showed a light of incomprehension.

This wasn’t the first time Jin Yuri had taken care of girls like Cheon Seoa.
It was something she had done several times before, and each time, although Kang Yeseul might grumble outwardly, as Jin Yuri’s sidekick of sorts, she had knowingly or unknowingly helped out as well.

However, Kang Yeseul’s expression now looked extremely serious.

No, beyond serious, she even looked terrified as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have.

Of course, Kang Yeseul tried to hide it in her own way, but Jin Yuri has been with her for over 10 years now.

There was no way she wouldn’t notice such things at this point.

“What’s wrong? Your expression is so serious.”

“You, do you really not know what that is?”

“Stop saying ‘that’. If that child hears, how hurt would they be…!”

“Jin Yuri!”

Kang Yeseul shouted Jin Yuri’s name angrily.

Jin Yuri was somewhat surprised by the fact that Kang Yeseul called her by her full name.

Until now, when she called her by her full name, it was either because she had made a big mistake and was very angry.

Or…

‘It’s only when I’ve made some big mistake.’

However, in the current situation, there’s no reason for her to be angry enough to call her by her full name.
Then there’s only one possibility.

Jin Yuri could tell that she had made some huge mistake.

But.

‘What on earth did I do wrong?’

Jin Yuri’s expression showed that she genuinely couldn’t understand.

All she had done was focus too much on her hero activities and come home too late? That’s about it.
That’s how I entered the dormitory and met Cheon Seoa, and I just brought her along.

Could it be a problem that I came in late at night?
No, that wasn’t it.

Until now, while doing hero activities, I’ve come in at such late hours, and sometimes even stayed up all night.

Yeseul wasn’t the type to get angry about such things now.

Then…

“Could it be that bringing Seoa is the problem?”

“You-!”

When Seoa’s name came out so naturally from Jin Yuri’s mouth, Kang Yeseul’s eyes widened.

At the same time, Jin Yuri could understand through Kang Yeseul’s reaction why she had called her by her full name.

‘As expected, it seems bringing Seoa was the problem. But why?’

Jin Yuri couldn’t understand.

The Seoa she saw was just a poor runaway girl with nowhere to go.
Neither a villain nor a person with special abilities. Literally just a simple runaway girl.

It wasn’t the first or second time she had helped such a runaway girl, so why was Yeseul so angry about it?

As Jin Yuri looked at herself thinking this, Kang Yeseul let out a deep sigh and held out her smartphone.

“You didn’t go to the meeting a week ago, did you?”

“A week ago…? Ah, then. I was fighting with a villain then. Even if I wanted to go, I couldn’t.”

“Ha, right. So you wouldn’t have recognized her.”

“What’s going on?”

“Stop talking and just look at the screen first.”

As Kang Yeseul spoke with a hardened expression, Jin Yuri reluctantly looked at the smartphone screen she held out.

The screen displayed information provided by the Hero Association, which included Cheon Seoa’s face along with…

“W-What is this?”

A villain who committed the great sin and taboo of heart devouring?
She was imprisoned in Tartarus, but the Agent personally moved to break her out?
In the process, it was revealed that the warden of Tartarus was actually a subordinate of the Agent?

“Is this… real?”

As Jin Yuri asked with a stiff expression, Kang Yeseul nodded heavily.

“Haa-.”

Jin Yuri let out a deep sigh.

The girl she thought was just an ordinary runaway turned out to be a villain who committed the great sin of heart devouring.
Moreover, she was important enough for the Agent, one of the rulers of the evil organization Illuminate, to personally rescue her.

Additionally, there was speculation that she might have the same ability as the Heart Devourer, which could be the reason for her heart devouring.

Certainly, if the Agent personally moved to rescue her, it was reasonable to assume she had the same ability as the Heart Devourer.

No, perhaps the girl outside the door might even be the daughter of that terrifying Heart Devourer.

The possibility that the Heart Devourer, unable to move for some reason, had personally asked the Agent to rescue his daughter couldn’t be ignored.

“This is driving me crazy.”

With her thoughts becoming more complicated, Jin Yuri scratched the back of her head.

What should she do?
How on earth should I do this?

Of course, she’s a hero, Gwanghwi.
A hero ranked 8th in the Korean hero rankings, receiving adoration from everyone.

But.

‘Is that child really the same person as this villain?’

Certainly, their faces look alike.
No, it’s not just similar, it’s completely identical as if it’s the same person.

The outfit they’re wearing is also the same.
Even that strange, lifeless gaze filled with a subtle boredom is identical.

But.

“Is that child really… the villain?”

Jin Yuri muttered with an expression that still couldn’t comprehend.

She is one of the few S-class heroes in Korea.

Being an S-class hero means being an S-class ability user.
Furthermore, S-class ability users like her could, to some extent, deduce whether a person had abilities or not, and what grade those abilities were, just by looking at them.

But.

‘I couldn’t sense anything from that girl.’

If she really had an ability like the Heart Devourer, she should have noticed it.
But she didn’t.

From the first time they met until now.
Jin Yuri couldn’t detect any trace of supernatural abilities from Cheon Seoa.

If Cheon Seoa truly possessed supernatural abilities, and furthermore, if she hadn’t noticed it, there was only one possibility.

That Seoa had abilities far stronger than her own, to the point where she couldn’t even detect them.

In fact, Jin Yuri had experienced such cases a few times before.

Nearby were the thirteen absolute powerhouses known as the Ten Strongest of the Hero Association, and far away were the nine rulers of the Illuminati.

Could it really be? Could Seoa really possess power on par with those monsters?

As Jin Yuri was pondering with a stern expression, deep in thought.

“What are you going to do?”

Suddenly, Kang Yeseul’s voice rang in Jin Yuri’s ear.

Startled, Jin Yuri looked at Kang Yeseul, who had already pulled up a ‘Emergency Call’ button on her smartphone screen.

Jin Yuri was also familiar with that button.

A button that, when pressed, could summon all nearby heroes.
Of course, not just anyone could use it.

It was a button that could only be used by at least a Grade 1 hero like Jin Yuri, or when a minimum Grade 2 villain appeared.

Although Cheon Seoa’s official villain grade hadn’t been determined yet, considering she had performed heart predation and even had an agent directly move to break her out of Tartaros, it wouldn’t be strange if she was classified as Grade 2 or higher.

Even for Kang Yeseul, who was merely Jin Yuri’s sidekick, the conditions to press that button had long been met.

To this, Jin Yuri said.

“Let’s confirm first. Yes, let’s check. Who knows? It might just be someone who looks like her at a doppelganger level.”

Kang Yeseul looked at Jin Yuri, who was saying this, with heavy eyes.

Kang Yeseul knew all too well why Jin Yuri was reacting this way.

He probably wants to deny it.
That a girl around the same age as his deceased younger sister is a villain who committed heart predation.
Furthermore, he likely wants to deny that such a girl might possess the same ability as the heart predator who killed his sister.

Meanwhile, Kang Yeseul, who had been silently watching Jin Yuri, soon let out a deep sigh as if there was no other choice.

“Just promise me one thing.”

“Wh-What?”

“If that child outside the door is really a villain…”

Kang Yeseul trailed off.
However, Jin Yuri nodded heavily as if she understood what she wanted to say.

As the two, now in agreement, opened the tightly closed door.

“Ah, certainly. I guess I forgot about that possibility since I’ve been cooped up in the Great Magic Field for so long.”

Cheon Seoa was already standing in front of the opened door.
Cheon Seoa was looking at the smartphone in Kang Yeseul’s hand, to which Jin Yuri spoke with a trembling voice.

“Can I ask you just one thing? Seoa.”

“Go ahead.”

“Really. Are you really the villain who committed heart predation?”

As Cheon Seoa nodded with an innocent smile, Jin Yuri struggled to speak.

To Jin Yuri’s question, Cheon Seoa.

“That’s right. But it’s strange. I only ate one heart, but I didn’t expect everyone to react so intensely. I wonder what that child had been doing on Earth? Well, I suppose it doesn’t change the fact that the child was a ‘poor child’.”

Sigh.

Cheon Seoa’s answer made Jin Yuri let out a deep sigh.

At the same time.

Flash-!

A bright light burst from her entire body.

Jin Yuri’s hero name, Radiance.
It was identical to the name of her ability.

Radiance.
Its dictionary meaning is a dazzlingly bright and beautiful light. Or light itself.

And, true to her name, Jin Yuri could manipulate light itself.

Although she couldn’t move at the speed of light due to having a ‘human body’ as her physical form, she could easily break the sound barrier and move at that speed.
Furthermore, she could erase her opponents without a trace using the overwhelming heat contained within light itself, among other things.

Perhaps, people speculated, the reason Jin Yuri remained a 2nd-class hero was simply because she found it bothersome to take the promotion test to 1st class…

Meanwhile, the moment Jin Yuri used her ability, Kang Yeseul also unhesitatingly pressed the ‘Emergency Call’ button that appeared on her smartphone screen.

No, she was about to press it.

As Jin Yuri, enveloped in bright light, stretched out towards Cheon Seoa, and just as Kang Yeseul was about to press the emergency call button.

The world stopped.

This was not a mere metaphor.

The moment Cheon Seoa clapped her hands together in sync with their movements, the world turned gray, and everything froze.

All movement of living and non-living things.
Even the flow of air and the rotation and revolution of the Earth.
It extends beyond that, to the movements of planets and the flow of the universe.

The dimension called the solar system, to which Earth belongs, has completely ceased to function.

In that stopped world, the only being that can move is.

“Hmm, what should I do?”

In the frozen world, Cheon Seoa muttered while looking at the smartphone in Kang Yeseul’s hand.

Should she completely turn back time to before she performed the heart predation?

No, that was too troublesome.
It’s not impossible, but reversing the time of an entire dimension is quite a bothersome task even for Cheon Seoa.

Then, as expected.

“I guess I’ll just ‘modify’ it comfortably.”

Mmm! With a satisfied smile, Cheon Seoa nodded and extended her index finger, waving it in the air.

Each time Cheon Seoa’s finger waved, a zipping sound echoed.

Furthermore, one ‘fact’ spread across the Earth was modified.

The changed fact.

It was that a few days ago, the villain who performed heart predation in Seoul had the appearance of a girl.
But no one knows the face of that girl… that was it.

Cheon Seoa’s ‘modification’ didn’t just touch human memories, but also altered the records engraved in data boxes like computers and smartphones.

With this.

“Now no one will know that I’m the culprit who performed the heart predation.”

Cheon Seoa muttered with a satisfied smile, and as she clapped her hands once more, the world that had turned gray regained its original colors and began to flow normally.

At the same time.

“Uh, oh! Aah! Stop!”

Yuri Jin, who was running towards Seoa Cheon with a radiant aura, suddenly changed her course while letting out an urgent cry.

Yeseul Kang, who was holding a smartphone.

“Yuri Jin! What are you doing!”

Surprised by Yuri Jin’s sudden use of her ability and charge towards Seoa Cheon, she shouted angrily.