episode_0108

“……”

The Hero, Yang Chan-ho, was dumbfounded. It was due to none other than the scene unfolding before his eyes.

He paused the work he was doing inside the tent and lifted his bewildered gaze upwards.

“……Hmm.”

Receiving the Hero’s gaze, Lee Hyunjin, seemingly with a guilty conscience, subtly turned his head, letting out an awkward hum.

The Hero couldn’t suppress the sigh and dizziness rising from deep within, and clutched his forehead.

His head was spinning. He’d naturally thought there would be something more when Lee Hyunjin said he wanted to interview a villain.

But to break out such a villain and bring them before him?

Given his title as Hero and his position as Dean, it was not a scene that could be easily accepted by common sense.

He’d thought he knew well from their first meeting that the Ice Empress’s disciple was a pleasant fellow with a screw loose.

Or perhaps even that was only a part of it? Had he prided himself on understanding the full extent of his madness just by catching a glimpse of a fragment of it…?

Feeling a strange, complex sense of self-reproach, the Hero put down his pen and stood up.

He then glanced sideways at Lee Hyunjin and the S-rank villain, who was hiding behind him like a rain-soaked puppy, anxiously watching his mood.

Tap-

He took a step. With leisurely footsteps, the Hero arrived at none other than the gun storage cabinet located in a secluded corner of the tent.

No, it was something like a storage cabinet where mops were stored in large quantities.

“……!”

Violet flinched, shuddering as she pulled Lee Hyunjin’s collar tighter. Lee Hyunjin, in his own way, couldn’t completely hide his tension either.

Although he had come to find the Hero in person, relying on a certain belief…

What if, without even listening, the Hero pulled out his holy sword, cut Violet down, and then cut him down too, telling him not to be lonely on the way to the underworld?

Then there would be no way out. Lee Hyunjin prided himself on now having the skill to exchange blows with S-rank Awakened, but…

‘This guy’s on a different level. A lot.’

There was no solution with the Hero. An absolute powerhouse, with no way to win, let alone a corner to escape to.

Lee Hyunjin earnestly prayed that the Hero would listen to his words and reconsider at least once.

Just as the Hero, of all things, picked up a purple-tinged mop and began to unleash his mana, Lee Hyunjin urgently opened his mouth.

“Dean-nim.”

“What is it?”

Despite the Hero’s indifferent reply, Lee Hyunjin didn’t lose hope. The next words he would say would surely even capture the interest of that monster.

Believing that, he swallowed dry, and Lee Hyunjin spoke, cold sweat pouring down him.

“I think I can find out the Moonlight Cult Leader’s location.”

One word.

“……”

And surprisingly… The Hero’s movements, as he exuded purple energy from the mop, about to create a holy sword, completely halted.

He raised one eyebrow in bewilderment and gently looked back at Lee Hyunjin.

“Moonlight Cult Leader?”

“……Yes.”

“Why does that name suddenly come up? Are you trying to say that psychopath has something to do with this absurd situation, Lee Hyunjin?”

‘Lee Hyunjin,’ not ‘Hyunjin-gun.’ It was a simple change, but its implications were not light.

A premonition that if he made a single mistake, his head might be chopped off right here.

Lee Hyunjin faltered slightly but didn’t stop speaking. Once a story was started, wasn’t it supposed to be told to the end?

“……Would you take a look at this?”

Thus, while a bit nervous, Lee Hyunjin pulled Violet, who had consistently been hiding behind him, forward without his voice trembling.

And then, he lightly lifted her top, revealing her wide eyes.

“?!”

“……Huh?”

The reactions came in two forms. Violet’s face turned bright red as she immediately tried to pull her clothes down, and the Hero let out a hollow laugh.

“What is it…? Surely you don’t think a honey trap would work on me again. More importantly, does Soyul-yang know you’re doing this-?”

“……I didn’t lift it for that reason.”

Lee Hyunjin cut off the Hero’s words and let out a deep sigh. Well, he wouldn’t complain about being suspected, given his past record.

Besides, since he’d just had a physical encounter with this villain a little while ago, there was even less he could say in his defense…

Even so, he genuinely hadn’t lifted Violet’s clothes for *that* reason this time.

Lee Hyunjin gave a quick, pointed glance, indicating Violet’s waist and stomach area.

“Do you know this tattoo?”

“……”

The Hero remained silent. The reason he didn’t answer immediately was that he, too, was not unfamiliar with that ‘pattern of a moon and a snake entwined as if fighting.’

Finally, the Hero let out a shallow hum.

“Moonlight Cultist.”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t I notice? Now that I think about it, there was someone with a similar pattern tattooed on their body last year…”

“Even a Hero can have poor observation skills, right? Haha.”

Lee Hyunjin let out an exaggerated laugh, attempting to lighten the stiff atmosphere.

Unfortunately, it only resulted in the Hero’s eyes turning fierce for a moment.

“Don’t add unnecessary words.”

“Understood.”

Lee Hyunjin awkwardly scratched his cheek, and at that point, Violet slapped his hand away and quickly pulled her clothes back down.

Even for her, exposing her stomach in such a place seemed quite embarrassing.

Lee Hyunjin awkwardly patted her lower back as an apology.

“……! A gasp, a faint groan.”

Because of that, a peculiar moan escaped Violet’s lips…

Anyway, as a result, it was clear that Violet’s complaints completely subsided.

Lee Hyunjin turned his head back and observed the Hero’s expression. The subtly serious look hinted that he was contemplating something.

It was a situation that could be called an opening, if there was one.

“……If I were to summarize the conversation I had with this villain in the underground prison…”

Seizing the moment, Lee Hyunjin, deciding that he should finish explaining everything while he was at it, immediately began speaking again.

It was a pattern he had seen before, a tattoo that had caught his eye from the start.

And the moment he became certain she was a Moonlight Cultist, he requested an interview with her as a reward to dig up information on the Cult Leader.

In that conversation, he found room for negotiation and compromise. A mutually beneficial deal.

“She says if I release her, she’ll let us know the Moonlight Cult Leader’s location. I doubt if she truly knows their whereabouts, but…”

“……”

“Even so, there’s nothing to lose [literally: at worst, you break even]. If she’s released and still doesn’t give proper information, wouldn’t it be fine to transfer her to a detention center then?”

At these words, which could even be called quite cold, Violet wore a crestfallen expression, but neither Lee Hyunjin nor the Hero cared.

“Tch.”

Realizing her act wouldn’t work, Violet quickly changed her expression and clicked her tongue.

Lee Hyunjin shrugged his shoulders and continued.

“As you know, the Moonlight Cult, how incredibly despicable are those guys? They’re also one of the few factions to have directly attacked the Academy.”

“Hmm…”

The Hero, too, stroked his chin as if conflicted, letting out a hum.

Certainly, Lee Hyunjin’s words made sense.

The incident last year, where the Academy almost collapsed from within due to the Moonlight Cult, was still a great humiliation for the Hero.

Attacks from outside, like this current incident, were simply a matter of sweeping them away with an overwhelming difference in power.

But if cultists were infiltrated as faculty members and took students hostage, like that time, there would be no solution.

The Hero still vividly remembered the frustration of being able to do nothing in that situation.

He had always intended to retaliate if given the chance… but how could he exact revenge against those who didn’t appear?

After a major sweep once, not a single high-ranking cultist had shown their face.

‘…Surely, those cult freaks weren’t involved in this attack as well.’

The Hero frowned. This was a situation where he couldn’t help but get angry.

If he left it as it was, it might even become a double score [meaning double the trouble].

Naturally, complaints piled up against Violet. After all, a cultist was right before his eyes.

He glared at Violet with a chilling gaze, still gripping the mop.

“……”

Violet, too, swallowed dry at that point, bracing herself for a potential clash.

If the Hero’s killing intent materialized, she would have no choice but to struggle desperately for her own survival.

In other words, it was a hair-trigger situation. Just as Lee Hyunjin narrowed his eyes to observe the situation…

“……Hmm.”

It was the Hero who first reined in his momentum so anticlimactically that the tension drained away.

Casually pushing the mop aside, he then let out a wry chuckle.

He looked at Lee Hyunjin with his usual sly grin on his lips.

Lee Hyunjin instinctively flinched, and the Hero shrugged as if making a joke.

“Hyunjin-gun? I’ve heard your story for now. Since this woman knows the Moonlight Cult Leader’s location, you’re telling me to weigh which of the two options is more beneficial, correct?”

“……Yeah, well.”

It was a half-hearted, if not awkward, reply. Lee Hyunjin reluctantly nodded, and the Hero mumbled to himself, ‘I see, I see.’

And silence hung in the tent.

“……”

“……”

It was about then that Lee Hyunjin and Violet secretly exchanged glances, trying to read each other’s expressions.

“Let’s see…”

Just then, the Hero, pulling out an unusual-looking pair of handcuffs from a desk drawer, swept his chilling gaze over the two of them alternately.

“My answer is—”

*****

“……And so, this is Ms. Violet, who will be living in the next room starting today.”

“……”

Lounging on the bed, reading a magazine, Cheon Soyul dropped her snack with a thud.

She looked at the two people standing beside her with a dumbfounded expression and gaze.

“……Aha?”

After a long silence, she sat up. Stretching as she rose, Cheon Soyul kissed Lee Hyunjin’s cheek.

Smack.

“So, um…”

And then, she gently stroked Lee Hyunjin’s head with a palm that had generated lightning.

A bright smile appeared on her entire face.

“So, you want to die from sex on top of me?”

“……”

Cold sweat began to pour down Lee Hyunjin’s back.