Chapter 25 – I Became Someone Who Read Books To A Villain

“Then, what should we play?”

I gave a light-hearted smile intended for children.

When I played with my cousin, the first thing I did was give this kind of a smile to ease their nerves.

Ever since the old times, a smile was effective in relieving the other’s tension.

“W-Wait just a minute!”

Just like that, Ban Hana dashed out of my room as if she had remembered something.

Zoooom.

Since she was quick on her feet, her steps were light.

Shortly after, she returned to my room holding a pack of cards.

“Since you’re my pet animal, I’ll show you my undefeatable card skills!”

“I’m fine with whatever.”

I wondered what being a pet animal and playing cards had anything to do with each other, but I decided to overlook it.

In order to move on to the education aspect, the card game was the best tool.

Hana sat down on the sofa with a plop, and spread the cards on the desk.

Flutter.

She shuffled the scattered cards.

After shuffling it for a bit, she wore a content smile and split the pack of cards into two.

“Now then, this is yours. This is mine!”

“Hmm…”

She confidently thrusted a bunch of cards at me.

No matter how I look at it, mine was thicker.

Since villains learn from what they see, these kinds of dirty-handed tricks seemed natural to her.

“Ready, go…”

“Wait. It looks like I have more cards though?”

A game has to be fair.

In order for her to be shaped into a proper individual, I couldn’t let this matter slide easily.

When I pointed that out, Hana averted her gaze.

“I’m not really sure…?”

“If you look here, mine is thicker. See, see.”

Even just comparing it from the side, there was a huge difference in the thickness.

The size of my cards was about 1.5 times thicker than her stack.

As I continued to push my cards into her face, Hana threw a tantrum.

“Ah, alright! We can just even it! You’re playing dirty…”

Who’s the one playing dirty here?

Games must always be fair.

I’m the type of person who’d give it my utmost to bring down my opponent even if they are a child.

And that applied to the Ban Hana who was in front of me.

”H-How…?” 

The rule of the game was “Catching the Thief”.

Among the many cards, the last person holding the “Joker” loses the game.

The game of “Old Maid” proceeded effortlessly.

There was no need to even explain my sweeping victory.

For someone whose expression changed in all sorts of ways whenever I raised my hand over her cards, she was no match for me.

Hana ultimately lost, holding the Joker from the start to the end of the game.

“T-This…doesn’t count!!”

Maybe she was angry that her undefeated record was broken, but it looked like her pink aura turned to red.

That was improper behavior.

If you lose, you should accept the outcome, reflect back on the defeat, and work on how to avoid it in the future.

The way Bah Hana acted was like a child throwing a tantrum.

Her saying she was undefeatable is probably a lie.

She had a bad habit that villains possessed.

I was going to uproot her, and change her a little in this short span of time.

Hana kept throwing a fit at me.

“L-Let’s go again! I was unlucky in the last round! Pet, hey! Where are you going!”

“Aren’t we done? It’s not fun so I don’t wanna play.”

“Sit down…! The game isn’t over yet!”

I ignored her and got up from the sofa, then lied back on the bed again.

I’m going to ignore you, starting now.

Hana’s head was down and she was shaking at the message my action conveyed.

“You’re just a pet…you’re not gonna listen to me?”

It’s because I’m not a pet.

Before Hana explodes and turns things into a hassle, I decided to give her an offer.

“I’ll play Old Maid again, so let’s pick a punishment.”

“A…punishment? What kind of punishment?”

“The loser has to read a book that the winner chooses.”

“I don’t like reading…”

“Then, I won’t play. It’s no fun without a punishment.”

“A-Alright! No problem!”

All according to plan.

She said she didn’t read because books were boring. In that case, I had to force her to read and beat the knowledge into her.

Enforcing the punishment.

I don’t know if she’d follow through, but for starters, it was an attempt.

I sat on the sofa again and received a bunch of cards from her.

“It’s thick.”

“I-I got it already, seriously…!!”

She didn’t forget games were to be fair.

The round against Hana commenced again.

After getting rid of all the cards with the same number, I had three cards in my hand while Hana had four in hers.

“…I’m going to choose.”

Completely relaxed, I raised my hand over Hana’s cards.

There was no need for me to care that much since the Joker was in my hands.

Oh, it’s the same card.

The cards in my hand dwindled to two, with three cards remaining in Hana’s hand.

This time, it was Hana’s turn.

With my poker face on, I watched closely at where her pink gaze was pointed towards.

Her small hand brushed the Joker, and passed over a couple cards.

“Hmm… Is it this?”

Unlike the previous round, she was choosing the card carefully.

Then, as if she got some inkling, she picked one.

“…This is it!”

The card she picked out of sheer luck.

Unfortunately, it was a smiling clown sitting on the moon.

“N-No way…”

A total of four cards were in her small hand.

Hana froze, without even shuffling her cards from the shock.

I immediately snatched a card from her hand.

It looked exactly like the one I had.

“Nice.”

“That’s cheating!”

Hana stated I was cheating when she was the one who took the Joker without even shuffling afterwards.

The world of games was a cruel one.

There was no such thing like that.

I had one card remaining. By picking this, Hana lost.

It was my perfect victory once again.

In the first place, it all boils down to luck when playing Old Maid with two people. 

No matter what you pick, the same number will come out in a game of two.

For starters, I didn’t pick the Joker, so my win was inevitable.

Due to two consecutive defeats, Hana was holding the cards with an expression that looked like she lost a country.

“…”

“That’s game over. It’s time to read a book now, isn’t it?”

What’s fair was fair.

And so was the punishment.

With a crushed look on her face, Hana sharply turned to me and said, “I-I’m…going. You too, follow me.”

“What? Wait a…”

Hana looked like she had faced injustice and suddenly grabbed my hand then pulled me outside like that.

To my left was my own hand, and to my right was the rabbit’s hand.

I wanted to get some rest, but Hana, who was stronger than me, dragged me by the hand and brought me to the Black Dawn’s library.

 ***

The library.

It was referred to as a warehouse of knowledge, a place which filled up what people lacked within.

It was quite spacious inside and well-organized.

It meant that someone frequented it often.

I roughly scanned what kind of books there were here.

“Hmm…”

There were a variety of books. From fairy tale books to philosophy texts, there were so many it was almost difficult to find what book they didn’t have.

However, a majority of the books looked disturbing.

Adolf Hitler… Mein Kampf…

It’s because they’re reading books like this that they fall into the villain’s path.

I finished getting a rough grasp of what kind of books they had.

To Hana, whose brows were knitted in a scowl, I said, “The punishment is reading one book. I’m picking the book, alright?”

“Okay…”

But still, she seemed like she was going to stick until the end. Compared to villains who didn’t keep their promise, it looked like she intended to see through the punishment.

I immediately made my way to the shelf where all sorts of fairy tale books were tucked in.

What’s needed to make students keep studying is to raise their interest towards it.

First, introduce the book to her, so as to pique her interest in reading.

But, will she actually be interested…?

I was worried for a moment, but that easily disappeared from my head.

I can just make her interested.

I’m Han Sijoon.

Something like that doesn’t concern me.

After I immediately took out a book, I approached Hana, who was hunkered down on the sofa.

“We should read. Are you sulking right now?”

“…I’m not. I like books.”

“You do? Then I’ll bring more. There were a lot over there.”

“…No. I hate revolution, I hate fighting.”

Hana hated reading so much that she even dropped her bluff.

Still, the book I brought over was not about revolution and fighting, but rather about “heroes” and “villains”.

No matter how much she detests books, she will come to like them.

Hong Gildong.

He was labeled as a villain, but his actions were closer to a hero.

If she reads this story, it will leave an impression on Hana.

A sense of heroism.

Even with the course of time, the essence of the old hero never changed.

The outlaw, Hong Gildong. You of all people should at least walk his path.

Holding that thought in my mind, I handed the fairy tale book to Hana.

She quietly stared at it, then made a perplexed expression.

“…What’s up? Why’re you not taking the book?”

At this rate, my arm was going to fall off.

Hana kept wearing a bewildered look as if to ask, ‘What are you saying right now?’

Despite how much time had passed, to the point my arm was numb, her tiny pink lips uttered something shocking.

“You’re not going to read it for me?”

“…Why should I? Read it on your own.”

 “I can’t read words! You read it for me!”

She couldn’t read words even though we were about the same age.

The news came as a great shock to me, as if my head had been struck with a hammer.

“You can’t…read the letters?”

“Mhm… I never learned.”

She spoke in a dispirited manner.

Having grown up in the Black Dawn at an early age, she had not even the opportunity to learn words. From the day she was born to now, she had always been in their organization. It had been Shin Haeil who picked up the newborn Ban Hana who had been abandoned on the street.

There was no one among the villains who were capable of teaching her.

The reason for her illiteracy was due to the absence of a teacher.

It was the issue of being born in an extreme environment.

I sat next to Hana who was crouched up on the sofa since she couldn’t read.

“I’ll read it for you. Come over here.”

If you can’t read the letters, I’ll at least force you to read them.

When she heard that, Hana’s eyes popped wide-open in surprise.

“You’ll…read a fairy tale book? Do you really mean that?!”

“Of course. Why would I lie?”

“Hehe.. No revolution anymore.. No mustache guy either…”

What book did the Black Dawn people read to this child?

It seemed like they read strange things to her several times.

No wonder the kid hated books.

It happened the moment I found out why she rejected books and had no knowledge.

Hana, who had been observing my face intently, moved in between my legs where I was sitting on the sofa.

“If I do this, we can read it together! What do you think? I’m a genius, right!”

The volume of her voice went up as if she was in a good mood.

I could smell the scent of flowers coming from her pink hair.

Snuggled up in my arms, that position of hers made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

It’s a bit uncomfortable…

Wasn’t she sticking a little too close to me?

However, Hana seemed to like this posture since she comfortably leaned against me.

We just met for the first time yesterday.

It looked like she lowered her guard too much.

“Now then, Pet! Hurry up and read it!”

“Wait a minute.”

“Hurry! Hurry!”

 She wriggled around in my arms, rushing me to get on with the reading already.

I opened the fairy tale book about Hong Gildong and began to read it out to her.

–Long long ago, there lived a man named Hong Gildong.

I felt like a grandfather reading an old fairy tale book to a child.

I unintentionally felt at peace.

Was it because she didn’t think much of me, so she didn’t feel like a threat to my life as opposed to the other villains?

For a moment, I was confused at how I found her favorable.

Although she wasn’t guilty of a crime now, in the future she would commit a great crime that could not be reversed.

Do I look at her current self as a villain?

In my heart, it was shouting that she still had a chance for improvement, but logic identified her as a villain.

Seeing those sparkling pink eyes innocently look at the fairy tale book…

I couldn’t easily come to a decision.