Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

The murder case at Gentry Pharmaceuticals turned the world upside down. While people chased after a formless culprit, Seol Rok-jin moved busier than anyone else in the shadows.

I thought the reason Seol Rok-jin dealt with all the people at Gentry Pharmaceuticals was to completely bury the drug the pharmaceutical company was developing from this world.

Though it was receiving attention from many people, if they burst a few news stories like ‘A drug that was ineffective anyway’, ‘A secret hidden in a collapsed small and medium pharmaceutical company’, expectations for that drug would turn to disappointment, and disappointment would soon lead to indifference.

They say you can recite poetry after three years, so there were things you learn after spending about three years by the side of someone like Seol Rok-jin.

But Seol Rok-jin had an even grander plan.

At my question asking if it wasn’t a waste to get rid of the company like that, Seol Rok-jin said:

[Did you think it was a waste?]

“Well, yes. It’s a drug that seems like it could be used anywhere if you just make it.”

I thought someone like Seol Rok-jin could find a way to use it for something else even if not specifically ‘for’ awakened people.

[That’s right.]

“Huh? Didn’t you kill those people to prevent that drug from coming out into the world?”

At my question, Seol Rok-jin said:

[No, I got rid of them because they refused to negotiate.]

“Negotiate?”

[Yes. They were going to sell such a dangerous drug to anyone.]

Seol Rok-jin slowly told me the reason why they had to die.

The president of Gentry Pharmaceuticals wanted to make the drug cheaply available anywhere for awakeners.

Freedom from identification tags.

And freedom to live as ordinary people, not awakeners.

The goal of Gentry Pharmaceuticals’ president was incomparably altruistic. If he had been a person blinded by money, there might have been a possibility of surviving through negotiations with Seol Rok-jin, but he was too good of a person.

The reason he developed this drug was solely because of his daughter. His daughter was a mental awakener, and like mental awakeners usually do, she received sharp gazes from others her whole life.

After being rejected from entering the academy due to her low grade and entering a regular school, she was severely bullied for being awakener.

His goal in developing the drug was only one.

To prevent victims like his daughter from appearing again.

But that goal absolutely needed cooperation from the National Assembly. Even if the drug was released to the market, if the National Assembly didn’t pass related legislation, people would still have to wear identification tags, so the positive effects they were trying to achieve with the drug would be useless.

The president of Gentry Pharmaceuticals was too naive. She, a scientist who had only made drugs her whole life, was too ignorant of how the world works.

So she must have directly visited Seol Rok-jin to explain her drug, explain the repercussions it would bring, and ask for support for the legislation.

Not knowing that those words were putting a noose around her own neck.

[Unfortunately that company went bankrupt, but that technology won’t be buried. Luckily, there’s a survivor who lived thanks to leaving work early.]

And that survivor, he said, is scheduled to be scouted by Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals operated by Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk’s son. Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals will promise unconditional cooperation to the government. To be precise, not to the government, but to Seol Rok-jin.

Only Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk and Seol Rok-jin benefited from this incident.

Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk’s mouth that already gaped open just seeing Seol Rok-jin might now stretch all the way to his temples.

‘Ugh…’

I shuddered imagining Assemblyman Kim Seong-deuk’s broadly smiling face.

“By the way, if Hyeonmu Pharmaceuticals produces that drug, um, what will happen from now on? You said they won’t use that drug on just anyone.”

[The government will only use that drug on criminals.]

Seol Rok-jin’s words made it certain. The drug won’t be distributed to the general public.

The public won’t accept that drug positively, and mental awakeners won’t throw away their identification tags.

The wish of a mother who dreamed of her daughter’s freedom has crumbled like this.

The desperate wish of those who hated their talent and wanted to receive ‘treatment’ even was also trampled by the greed of those in power.

[By the way, it seems taking care of the dog is quite doable?]

Seol Rok-jin’s words pulled me out of my thoughts.

“…No. So please find that trainer person quickly.”

At my grumbling, Seol Rok-jin said with a smile:

[Alright, so take good care of that guy. But don’t…]

“Don’t give him too much affection? I got it, I got it.”

I grumbled and hung up the phone.

Getting attached, I got plenty of bruises.

Today I finally succeeded in washing him.

I pressed my burst lip with my tongue. His resistance was fiercer than expected.

‘I thought you said he can’t harm me.’

Still, seeing the shattered bathtub and sink, he did hit me gently in his own way. The problem is that his gentle hitting was to this degree.

“Urgh.”

I got up from my seat groaning.

Though he washed, he was still dirty. His hair was still full of dandruff and grease, I couldn’t even remove the dirt stuck like fossils between his nails, and I couldn’t properly change him into clean clothes.

But it was much better than before. Though I still want to scrub him about five more times.

“Hey.”

I looked at the guy crammed into a corner with a gloomy face and said:

“You don’t have to act like the world has ended, you know? You too, huh? Don’t you feel good after washing clean?”

At my words, the guy buried his head further between his knees. Tsk, why does he need to act like he lost something huge like that? This is all for everyone’s benefit including his and my nose.

“Should I give you something delicious? What was it, chocolate chips? Chocolate chips?”

I chuckled seeing the guy turning his head at my words.

It seemed like I roughly learned how to handle him over the past few days.

* * *

Seol Rok-jin said a week, but it was actually after two weeks that he brought the so-called trainer.

I quietly glared at Seol Rok-jin.

“Sorry, I was a bit busy.”

He certainly looked very busy dealing with the Gentry Pharmaceuticals incident. I narrowed my eyes and looked at the man behind Seol Rok-jin.

The newly hired trainer looked quite inadequate to take care of this guy.

The hardships I went through over the past two weeks are beyond words.

First, there’s hardly any intact furniture left in my house. It’s almost at the level of ruins. I had to swallow tears of blood seeing the furniture that all got broken or damaged through big and small scuffles with the guy during that time.

The experience of doing housework myself because I couldn’t call the cleaning lady wasn’t very pleasant either.

Though I figured out how to lure him with food, that alone wasn’t enough to control him. Rather, after luring him with food was the worst.

He ate all the hidden snacks in a day and got an upset stomach and threw up everywhere… Ugh, let’s stop thinking about that. I feel like I’m going to throw up what I ate again.

Still, I felt strange thinking about parting now. Just when I thought I was finally getting attac… no, just when I thought I finally figured out how to properly handle this guy.

I opened my mouth handing the whistle I was tightly holding to the trainer:

“He’s weak to food, and um, he hates washing but if you fill the bathtub with water and sprinkle bath powder and float a rubber duck, he likes to play in the water? That’s when you can wash him…”

Seol Rok-jin looked at me spouting such words to the trainer with contemptuous eyes.

“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t get attached?”

Who got attached?

“I merely provided appropriate care.”

I was dignified.

I thought this would be the end of my relationship with this guy as I watched his back heading towards the trainer, flinching at Seol Rok-jin’s order.

But that was my misconception.

* * *

It was when I had just redecorated my house that had become a mess after sending that guy away. I was sitting on the sofa sipping cola.

Until my phone rang, I was thinking my life was quite livable.

I frowned as soon as I saw the name appearing on the screen.

Seol Rok-jin’s phone calls in the middle of the night always carried terrible news.

[I told you not to give affection, Yi-sin-ah.]

An ominous feeling crept up my spine at those words coming through the receiver.

“What’s the matter?”

Instead of answering, Seol Rok-jin gave me an address.

I ran towards that address.

A building in a secluded place, and the fishy smell of blood coming from there. It was like the scene I saw not long ago had been moved exactly as it was.

Seol Rok-jin’s face standing among the corpses was cold.

“What happened?”

“The dog killed the trainer again.”

Seol Rok-jin said tilting his head. Now that I looked, that guy was trampled under his feet.

Seol Rok-jin’s toes were pressing down on that guy’s back.

“I asked what the problem was this time…”

Seol Rok-jin looked at me and smiled.

“It seems he quite liked you. This stupid guy thought he’d return to you if he killed his trainer.”

Chills ran down my whole body at those words.

“Director Cheong, you tell him.”

Only then did I realize there was one more person here. It was Director Cheong of the private detective agency Seol Rok-jin uses for miscellaneous tasks.

“Director Cheong is this guy’s owner.”

“Owner?”

I blinked at those words. Wasn’t Seol Rok-jin that guy’s owner? Seol Rok-jin said to me:

“I have no intention of raising two dogs. One is already too much.”

I gaped dumbfounded at those words.

“You said he was ‘my’ dog last time!”

“Did I? I must have been mistaken because it’s been so long since I borrowed that guy from Director Cheong. It happens sometimes, right? When you borrow something from someone and forget to return it, keeping it for so long it feels like your own. It must have been like that.”

I clenched my fist watching Seol Rok-jin spout nonsense so innocently. Well, what’s important now isn’t who that guy’s owner is. It’s what the conclusion of this nonsense is.

“So what do you think, Director Cheong?”

Director Cheong glanced at me, Seol Rok-jin, and the guy struggling under Seol Rok-jin’s feet, then opened his mouth:

“Well, if his habits have gone bad, shouldn’t we correct them…”

“Who? Who should correct those habits?”

“Well, shouldn’t the person who provided the cause correct them?”

Damn it. Is this because of me? As if reading my thoughts, Seol Rok-jin continued:

“Don’t you have any thoughts about him killing the trainer because he wanted to go to you? You’re too much, Sin-ah. Making such an annoyed expression even though a person died because of you.”

“Can’t you just add a condition that he can’t kill the trainer?”

Then there would be no reason for me to take charge of that guy.

“There are dozens of boxes piled up in that guy’s head in a disorganized state right now. Every time a small box is added on top, the probability of that guy’s head exploding increases.”

“You added one simply last time.”

You added the order not to harm me simply, isn’t this all just excuses? At my suspicious gaze, Seol Rok-jin said:

“No, it wasn’t simple.”

It means he implanted the message not to harm me at the risk of that guy’s life.

“I didn’t even treat him that well…”

I made excuses like that, but compared to the inhumane treatment he received, the treatment I gave must have been good.

His complexion certainly improved quite a bit in two weeks.

My head was complicated. Did he really kill the trainer because of me?

“That’s why I told you not to give affection because his habits would go bad, Sin-ah.”

I gulped at Seol Rok-jin’s words. I watched Seol Rok-jin’s expression. At times like this, Seol Rok-jin always scolded me harshly.

“You ruined his habits, so you take responsibility.”

“How?”

“You’ll become that guy’s manager from now on. And turn him back, to how he was before.”

“B-but…”

I wanted to say I didn’t want to, but there was no way to refuse Seol Rok-jin’s words to take responsibility for my actions.

And so I became the guy’s manager.