Gluttony

“D-, d-di, Director…?”
“Yep, Amos, Director of Gluttony! That’s my name, y’know.”

The squirt threw her chest out and said it as though she were proud of herself. That a child like that was one of Beyond Villain’s Directors. I couldn’t believe it, but one look at her pale green hair and I had no choice but to accept it.

That hair is proof of a Gift.

In many cases, awakening a Gift brings outward changes to the body along with it: spines, say, like a hedgehog’s. But there are some for whom nothing changes except the color of the hair, and strikingly so. A bare handful even among the awakened: the ‘Peculiar Awakened’. Most of them went on to become Villains or Heroes of A-rank or above… among the awakened, they were the genuine article.

“Director Gluttony. It’s an honor to meet you.”
“Uh-huh… thanks. Looks like this one knows who I am!”
“I apologize for the trouble my senior has caused you.”

— Twitch.

For a moment Hong Jangwoo lost control of his face and his expression screwed up. Then, gingerly reading Amos’s mood, he smoothed it out again, and on a leg squirming like an octopus he somehow managed to get himself down on his knees.

“M-my apologies for the offense. Might there be some way you could put my leg back the way it was…?”
“Don’ wanna!”
“Sorry…?”

Amos shook her head, firm about it.

“That’s the price of your sin! Live with that leg for a while an’ think about what you did!”
“Th-, th-th, that’s…”
“Why’re you makin’ such a fuss over jus’ one leg! Keep sayin’ stuff an’ I’ll turn your other leg into an octopus too!”

— Fwip!

Amos leveled one dainty little finger at Hong Jangwoo, and he stared at it with a blank face.

Hong Jangwoo, one leg replaced against his will by a mollusk’s. He had exactly one option left.

“…I-I’m sorry.”
“S’long as ya know. Keep actin’ up an’ I’ll turn your whole body into an octopus!”

“…”

The declaration was enough to chill even a bystander, and I broke out in a cold sweat.

This woman is properly insane.

Working alongside Hong Jangwoo wasn’t the problem. The moment I crossed her, some part of my body might get remade the way his had been. At least Hong Jangwoo, unlike her, doesn’t do anything this grotesque.

“But how come I don’t see anybody else yet?”
“Our Strategic Analysis Office starts earlier than the other departments as a rule. There’s still more than twenty minutes before the regular start time.”
“Ohhh, I gettit…”

— Glance.

Amos’s gaze turned on me.

“Then I choose you!”
“…Sorry?”
“C’mon, follow me!”

Amos went on ahead, her white coat dragging along behind her.

The Villain Research Office’s TF team came to fewer than ten people, so the office itself wasn’t especially large. Its heart wasn’t the office anyway, but the small annex lab attached alongside it.

…It really is different, all right.

The lab was full of state-of-the-art machines whose purpose I couldn’t even guess at. Long culture pods big enough to hold a whole person, for one thing. And holographic screens of a kind I’d never seen in my life.

I wasn’t the only one who was surprised.

“Wooow… research is gonna be so fun! I always wanted to do research like this!”
“Uh… congratulations.”
“Hee-hee-hee, thanks. You take good care of me, don’tcha?”
“Thank you.”
“I’m in a good mood! From today you’re workin’ as my personal secretary!”
“…???”

I’d been humoring her just enough to keep her happy, and that was when she dropped the bombshell. A personal secretary? What the hell kind of bullshit was that. That wasn’t remotely why I’d come here in the first place.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve come from the Strategic Analysis Office, so being your personal secretary would be difficult.”
“You can’t…?”
“Yes, I’m sorry, but you see…”

— Bzzzt—!!

Before I could finish, my vision went hazy and the Gift fired.

At this exact moment…?

My confusion lasted only a moment; the footage was showing me Amos. Her face crumpled, screwed up as though she were about to cry, and before long she was throwing a fit, kicking and screaming exactly like a small child. And when even that didn’t work, her face twisted up hard, and…

Huh?

My field of view shrank abruptly. The suit that had been fitting me perfectly went loose, and my line of sight dropped below Amos’s. The footage inside Future Observation looked down at my body, and…

My body had been turned into a giant living cockroach.

“Hurk!!”
“Wuah!? You scared me… What’s wrong all of a sudden?”

The sight was so shocking that a noise came out of me before I could stop it.

“So are ya gonna be my secretary or not!!”
“…”
“You’re really not gonna? For real…?”

Her face crumpled further and further toward tears. A situation where Future Observation had already shown me what would happen if I refused her flatly here. There was nothing for it. I smiled and nodded.

“It’s an honor to be allowed to serve as Gluttony’s secretary. I’ll be in your care.”
“Really? Yaaay! Awesome! From now on I’m gonna call you Guinea Pig No. 1!”
“…Th-thank you.”

Hong Jangwoo was glaring at me with a face that said ‘what the hell is this bastard on about’, but I had no choice; I had no wish to be turned into a cockroach man.

And that was how I became Guinea Pig No. 1, and Amos’s secretary.

“I’m Jo Eunhye, team leader of Team 3 in the Villain Research Office, and I’ll be serving as team leader of this TF team.”

After everyone in the Villain Research Office had come in to work, we gathered in a huddle in the seminar room attached to it. Exactly ten people, counting Amos.

They’ve put together a solid haul out of every department.

Three from the Villain Research Office. Two from the Strategic Analysis Office. The remaining four seconded out of the Personnel Administration Office, the Combat Analysis and Evaluation Office, and the Villain Planning and Management Office…

“No. 1, your hand’s stopped!”
“…Sorry. Here you are.”
“Mm-hm.”

— Nom—!!

She took the snack I held out, ate it, and smiled happily. Amos in the seat of honor at the head of the table, and me beside her, feeding her snacks. I really was operating as her secretary.

Though it feels less like being a secretary and more like babysitting…

I had no younger siblings, but back when I had no money I had done a stint working part-time at a kids’ café. The work was brutally hard and the children drained the life out of me, so I quit soon enough. I think it’s thanks to the memory of those days that I’ve managed not to become a cockroach so far.

In any case, the TF team leader shared the team’s vision along with her presentation materials.

“The goal of this TF team is to make use of Director Gluttony’s Gift to manufacture Villains.”

Amos’s combat evaluation report came up on the presentation screen. A terrifying ability that could remake another person’s body ‘exactly as she imagined it’. The transformed body could be sustained at her own will, though as a rule it lasted somewhere between a week and a month.

Hong Jangwoo, watching the screen, let out a quiet sigh of relief. He must have been thinking that at the outside his leg would be back to normal in a month. If you asked me, he could have stayed like that for a year or so. A shame.

“What we have to do is clear.”

Team Leader Jo Eunhye worked the remote and the screen changed.

“Items three and four will require collaboration from the Villain Planning and Management Office, the Combat Training Office and the Strategic Analysis Office.”

Jo Eunhye’s gaze turned to us. Collecting combat data was precisely why Strategic Analysis Office people had been seconded onto the TF team, since ours was the department that managed everything from a Villain’s deployment through to the data it generated.

The Villain Planning and Management Office… I heard they handle the external side, marketing and scheduling and the like.

Villain training is overseen by the Combat Training Office. Handling and evaluating combat data directly is the Strategic Analysis Office’s share. It would be no exaggeration to say the Villain Planning and Management Office took on every other piece of fiddly administrative work.

And on a TF team, each department would have seconded out only the people who were good at their jobs. With this many capable people gathered in one place. Surely one man like me could get away with playing snack-feeder to a small child?

“If anyone has questions, please feel free to ask. For reference, in here I’d ask that we address one another by name rather than by rank.”

The words were barely out of her mouth before Hong Jangwoo’s hand shot up.

“Go ahead.”
“I’d like to know how industrial-accident compensation is handled for injury, illness or death arising in the course of TF team work.”

“…”

— Squirm.

Hong Jangwoo had risen from his seat, and every eye went to his octopus leg. There was nobody in that room who didn’t know what had happened to it.

Someone else had told Amos to get out, too, and had one arm turned into a mantis’s for it. Combat Training Office staff, for the record. The moment the arm turned, they bolted out of the company. If that person had still been here, wouldn’t they have thrown a hand up alongside Hong Jangwoo?

I was still thinking that when Jo Eunhye, instead of answering herself, looked to the figure from the Personnel Administration Office.

“Kim Hyeongbong, would you explain in my place?”
“Yes… well, it’s what I always end up doing anyway. Hong Jangwoo, you signed an employment contract when you joined, didn’t you?”
“Of course.”
“Then do you know what’s written in Article 12, Clause 4?”
“…Sorry?”

Hong Jangwoo’s face twisted for an instant. Not one line of Kim Hyeongbong’s face moved. The reply came in a flat, businesslike tone, as though this happened all the time.

“Since it seems you don’t, allow me to explain. Article 12, Clause 4. All physical and mental damage arising in the course of performing one’s duties is the responsibility of the individual.”
“H-hold on… what is that supposed to mean!”

— Thud!

He hammered the desk, his eyes bloodshot. Visibly worked up now, he went so far as to jab a finger toward Amos.

“My leg ended up like this because of this squ— hff, because of the Director’s little joke. Yes? And now you tell me it isn’t covered? What kind of nonsense is that supposed to be? Are you telling me to live like this? What century do you think this is, saying industrial-accident insurance doesn’t apply—”
“What century do you think this is, arguing about accident compensation inside a Villain organization?”

At Hong Jangwoo’s edged response, Kim Hyeongbong’s brows drew together too.

“Let’s talk plainly. You joined this place for the money and the benefits, didn’t you.”
“…Th-that’s true, but.”
“You came in looking only at the bright side, and now you’re raising your voice? Raising your voice… Have you forgotten where it is you joined?”

Hong Jangwoo’s lips moved, but no answer came out.

The place we were standing in was the Villain organization Beyond Villain. Screened by a thorough corporate system, excellent benefits and a high salary, but… when it came down to it, this was a Villain organization where fists were nearer to hand than the law.

“You’re a clever man, so I trust you’ve understood me.”

“…”

“Kim Hyeongbong, thank you for the explanation. Hong Jangwoo, if you have no further questions, please take your seat — and if anything comes up later that you’d like to consult about, go to Kim Hyeongbong. That is exactly why a member of the Personnel Administration Office was assigned to the TF team.”

Jo Eunhye answered with a bright smile, wearing the face of someone who had known perfectly well this would happen. She hadn’t been handed the TF team leader’s post for nothing.

Which means that I’m also…

My gaze drifted naturally to Amos, busy with her snacks. If I crossed her and some part of my body were Villainized, all I could do was wait for her temper to cool, or else sit tight and wait out something like a month.

“Before the TF team was even formed we had already taken delivery of personnel from the Villain Planning and Management Office. The Villainization work is scheduled to begin in earnest from this afternoon, so please be aware of that. Apart from our Villain Planning and Management Office member, you’re all free to attend to your own work through the morning.”

“…”

“That concludes the meeting. There will be a regular meeting every Monday morning from now on, so please bear that in mind.”

The curtain came down on the meeting in a bleak atmosphere. It was only to be expected. A workplace where one wrong move turned your body into something grotesque. Who could laugh, having to live with a risk like that?

“Let’s go! Piggyback, No. 1!”
“…As you command.”
“Yaaay!”

With Amos on my back, I headed for the TF team’s lab. There was still a fair stretch of time until the afternoon. Surely I wasn’t going to have to keep up this secretary business until then?

“Oh, that reminds me — Greed said they wanna see ya.”
“Greed…?”
“Yep, one of the Directors! I’m fine here, so hurry up an’ go. An’ don’t forget to buy snacks on the way back!”

— Hop!

Amos abruptly climbed down off my back.

Director Greed, she’d said… don’t tell me that was one of the seven Directors? Dealing with Amos of Gluttony alone was exhausting, and now another Director on top of that. However many lives I had, I doubted they would be enough.

“But where exactly should I go to find—”
“Ah! You’re gonna get called any second now, I bet?”
“Sorry?”
“Off ya go!”

Amos waved, beaming all over her face.

“…Huh?”

My vision twisted, like a rag being wrung out in someone’s hands. Before I could even cry out in shock, my sight went black, just like that.

And when I opened my eyes again.

“Well met, Im Taeseung.”
“…Belia?”

What faced me, in an antique-looking office, was Belia.