Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

The next day when I woke up, I had to swallow my curses seeing the state of the house.

From the living room to the kitchen, to the bathroom. I put my hand to my forehead at the blood stains dripping along the path the guy had moved. While I was sleeping, he must have come out of the shadow and walked around, as the surroundings were a mess.

“Just what…”

From blood stains dried here and there, to ransacked household goods. I buried my face in my palms at the house that looked no different from a murder scene.

As expected, falling asleep just leaving that guy be yesterday was the worst choice.

“Haah…”

I sent a text message to the cleaning lady. With her timid personality, she’d faint right away seeing our house in this state. Though the thought of cleaning this alone made my head spin, there was no choice.

The problem is my work hours are approaching soon.

“Where are you?”

I looked around everywhere for the guy, but he was nowhere to be seen, hidden somewhere.

Irritation surged to the tips of my hair.

“Hoo…”

I exhaled and composed myself. Getting angry in this situation would only be my loss. Right, he’s like a beast. His head is a mess from Seol Rok-jin. Right, this can happen. He can make my house a mess…

“Come out right now!”

But the moment I saw the messy state of the house, my mind control failed miserably.

I rummaged around everywhere looking for spaces the guy could enter.

“Are you here!”

I shouted like that every time I found a shadowy space, but of course, the guy didn’t come out.

After going around everywhere shouting like that, my energy was completely drained.

‘Right, what’s the use of getting angry like this.’

I sat down and rubbed my face. The reason that guy behaves like this is all because of Seol Rok-jin. He may have succeeded in turning him into a killing machine, but he messed up his head so he can’t live a proper life.

It would have been nice if he at least made it so he could communicate.

I glanced at the clock. I jumped up from my seat as the time was approaching 8 o’clock before I knew it.

Though no one would say anything if I was late, I felt uncomfortable as the work hours approached.

‘No, wait. Isn’t it strange to go to work in this situation?’

I overlooked it yesterday because I was flustered, but normally you wouldn’t go to work with something like that, right?

What if that guy suddenly pops out while working?

‘Oh my! Mr. Lee! Th-there’s something dark attached behind you, Mr. Lee?’

‘Huh? What? I don’t see anything?’

‘Eeeek!’

It might be fun to tease people like that… but that’s too optimistic a thought, right?

No matter how much of a bad taste Seol Rok-jin has for tormenting me, he wouldn’t tell me to come to work with something like that.

Still, I had to check.

[Yes, what is it?]

I explained the situation to Seol Rok-jin. Roughly how the guy had made a mess of my house, how he damn well couldn’t be controlled properly. So now I’m continuing to play hide and seek with that damn guy.

Seol Rok-jin coldly asked at my words:

[…He didn’t listen to you even when you blew the whistle?]

Oops. I forgot I had an all-purpose item.

“They say snakes come out if you blow a flute at night. So I didn’t use it.”

Before Seol Rok-jin could ask anything more, I hurriedly changed the subject.

“By the way, I was wondering if I should go to work with this guy, no, how can I go to work with such a guy in the first place?”

[Hmm.]

I focused on every breath of Seol Rok-jin coming through the phone. I hope he goes along with how I changed the subject. Fortunately, Seol Rok-jin answered my question instead of pressing about the whistle.

[You have a week’s vacation.]

“W-wait. A week?”

It was good that he was giving me a vacation, but the problem was the duration. Leaving that guy with me and giving me a week’s vacation…

“Are you telling me to keep that guy for a week?”

[Should I extend it to a month?]

“…No.”

Even if I don’t have much work to do at the company, to give me a week off to take care of a dog? I sighed looking at the messy state of the house. Well, I do need time to clean up this mess.

[Don’t worry. I’m in the process of finding a trainer. I’m choosing a good one so this doesn’t happen again.]

He says that, but there’s no way he’ll choose a proper person. The week’s time is probably time to consider who it would be fun to pass that guy onto.

While he could grab anyone right away and entrust that guy if he wanted…

[Be patient even if you’re bored.]

I looked around the messy house and said:

“I don’t think I’ll have time to be bored at all.”

That was the end of the call.

Though I got a week’s vacation, I wasn’t happy at all.

Let’s eat first for now.

Fortunately, there was rice the cleaning lady had made and left yesterday in the refrigerator. I just need to heat it up and eat.

After pondering for a moment, I took out another rice bowl. Though he doesn’t have a single pretty aspect, I can’t let him starve. After setting the table, I shouted into the air:

“Come out! Eat!”

The guy appeared from somewhere.

“Haah.”

He was nowhere to be seen when I was looking, but now. I sighed watching the guy bury his head in the rice bowl without even chopsticks. Seeing him scoop rice with his dirty hands made my appetite plummet.

The guy disappeared somewhere again as soon as he finished eating.

“Ugh!”

Hateful bastard!

Seol Rok-jin warned me not to give affection to that guy, but seeing that sight, there was no need to worry about that. What affection! I only hated him enough to throw him out right away.

After finishing my meal roughly, eating some and leaving some, I headed to the living room.

“Haah.”

Seeing the piled up housework, I wanted to leave the house.

But I couldn’t run away.

I turned on the TV in the living room. I planned to clean while listening to the news. As I was wiping the blood stains stuck to the floor while listening to the news like that:

「Breaking news: Large-scale murder case occurs at ‘Gentry Pharmaceuticals’ headquarters building」

At the news coming from the TV, I realized the identity of the sense of déjà vu I felt from the building I saw yesterday.

The news was showing the building I had visited with Seol Rok-jin yesterday. With the building surrounded by yellow police lines in the background, the announcer calmly delivered the news.

Gentry Pharmaceuticals was just an ordinary pharmaceutical company that hadn’t received anyone’s attention until this year. But everything changed with a shocking announcement this year.

What they developed was a drug that could temporarily neutralize awakened people’s abilities.

Of course, not just South Korea, but the whole world was in an uproar.

Until now, the most popularized method of blocking awakened abilities was to make the subject wear an artifact.

However, this method had quite a few drawbacks.

First, the inconvenience of wearing, or having to make someone wear, an artifact.

I heard there were quite a few cases of people getting injured while trying to make criminals wear artifacts. Since their abilities would be sealed if they wore an artifact, criminals desperately tried to avoid wearing artifacts.

The second drawback is the cost of the artifact itself. Thinking about it, it was natural. How could artifacts that restrain awakened bodies and even block abilities not be expensive?

The identification tag I wore around my neck until I met Seol Rok-jin didn’t block abilities. Its only role was to detect the use of abilities and immediately notify my location to nearby awakened crime prevention departments.

Though Seol Rok-jin makes a fuss to people about how dangerous awakened are, it means the leashes actually put on those dangerous awakened were all ineffective.

But the drug developed by Gentry Pharmaceuticals was different. They said just one injection could block abilities for about 2 months.

Unfortunately, it’s useless for high-grade awakeners, but they said it could almost completely block the talents of C-grade and below awakeners.

Of course, what people immediately think of are criminals in prisons. Or released criminals. They were happy that a means to effectively control them had been created.

The public thought awakeners wouldn’t welcome the appearance of this drug, but that was only half right. While there were people who worried about the potential for abuse of this drug, those who wore identification tags all welcomed the appearance of this drug.

Why?

For people like me who couldn’t become hunters and wore identification tags, their talent was no different from shackles.

Anyway, as long as they can’t become hunters, there are few awakeners who can freely use their abilities. That’s because the government strictly prohibits awakeners from using their abilities.

Especially in the case of mental awakeners with high potential for abuse, wearing identification tags in places visible to everyone is mandatory, and on days when they accidentally use their abilities, they are immediately dragged to the awakener crime prevention department and interrogated about why and for what purpose they used their abilities at that time. If you move magic power even by mistake, you suffer that fate, so you might as well get an injection once every 2 months.

If asked whether they want to be treated as potential criminals wearing electronic collars around their necks, or get injections, most would choose injections unless they have a disease that would kill them if injected.

Just by removing the identification tag, they could escape people’s cold gazes.

So for awakeners who couldn’t become hunters, the news of that drug’s development was good news that made them expect a better future.

But that expectation also ended with that murder case.

I put down the rag and focused on the news.

「Though the culprit cannot be specified yet, judging from the traces left at the scene and the cruelty of the crime, it is presumed to be the work of an awakener…」

I clicked my tongue softly at the announcer’s words.

Why on earth do they say it’s presumed to be the work of an awakener based on the cruelty of the crime? Not all awakeners have cruel personalities.

Well, there’s nothing to feel wronged about. This incident was certainly a murder committed by an awakener.

The reason Seol Rok-jin committed terrorism at that company is obvious.

If such drugs become commercialized, and if the law changes so that awakeners can be controlled just by getting injections instead of wearing identification tags, it could shake the notion of ‘awakeners are dangerous’ that he’s built up so far.

To crush awakened people’s hope using awakeners. He really has bad taste.

Before I knew it, that guy was sitting next to me. I couldn’t pretend not to notice because of the unbearable stench wafting from beside me.

I stared at the guy.

Does this guy really know what he’s done? Of course, I already knew that this guy doesn’t have any intelligence left to think properly.

But still, the guy staring blankly at the news seemed as if he was regretting his actions, so I couldn’t take my eyes off him for some reason.

Right, even without intelligence, couldn’t he at least think about whether he dislikes or likes his actions?

“…What you did there yesterday. Did you not want to do it?”

The guy didn’t say anything at my question. He just turned his head and stared at me once again.

“Well, nevermind.”

I didn’t expect an answer anyway. I don’t even know if he’s in a state where he can speak in the first place. Even if I got an answer saying he didn’t like it to my question, I think I would have felt uneasy.

It’s not like I can save that guy, so what’s the use of getting into his heart?

“By the way, can’t you wash up today? I feel like my nose is going numb.”

At my desperate request, the guy immediately hid in the shadows.

“Damn it.”

I cursed and picked up the rag again.