Villain Special City

“Don’t tell me… we’ve come to Villain Special City?”

“Outsiders do call it that, I hear. It makes no difference either way, does it? You can no longer leave this place.”

“That’s… true enough, I guess.”

“Now then. Follow me.”

Belia walked the night streets of Songnang without a moment’s hesitation.

“…”

Villain Special City had no shortage of menacing signs. Posters hung on the walls, some searching for missing persons, some tied to crimes. Here and there, vicious-looking people even gave us strange looks. For no good reason I quickened my pace and moved in closer to her side.

We finally stopped in front of a shabby-looking walk-up.

“This, precisely, is where you shall be lodging.”

“Here…?”

“The exterior is a touch vintage, I grant you, but unlike its appearance the interior should be quite pleasant. Let us go in for now.”

— Jingle-jingle—

The doorbell rang, and a pitch-dark interior opened up in front of us. Like a motel, the first floor had a counter, and a muscular man sat behind it. He was bald, and what caught the eye was the scorpion-shaped tattoo inked across his scalp.

The moment he saw Belia’s face, he shot to his feet.

“Scorpion. It has been a long while.”

“Oh, Lady Belia! What brings you here at this hour of the night?”

“I should like to leave this fellow beside me in your keeping.”

“Hm?”

Scorpion came striding over and looked me up and down.

“When you say in my keeping, do you mean simple lodging? Or…”

“You are to look after him yourself. You have the room to yourself in any case, have you not? Or do you have a roommate?”

“Perfect timing! My roommate Tekal died recently, after all. Gwahaha!”

“Then I shall leave it to you. Buy him a phone and some clothes, whatever will serve. I shall transfer the money.”

— Ding.

A cheerful notification chime went off in Scorpion’s pocket. He checked his phone screen at once.

“D-did you just transfer it right now?”

“Is that sum sufficient?”

“More than enough! Gwahaha! Good to have you aboard, young friend.”

“…Yes.”

— Snatch!

The man called Scorpion seized my hand roughly. A hand so hard and thick it made me wonder whether we were even the same species.

…I seriously have to live with this guy?

“You are to report to work by nine tomorrow morning. Anything you wish to know, you may ask Scorpion.”

“…You’re leaving?”

Belia stepped out of the walk-up with a light tread.

“It shall likely be difficult for us to meet again any time soon.”

“We can’t meet?”

“I am a busy woman. But there is a way. Should you keep the promise, we shall be able to meet again.”

“The promise…”

At her words, I cast my mind back. The day I first met Belia, in that virtual space. She had made me an offer.

“The Strategic Analysis Office is the department that analyzes Heroes and Villains of every stripe.”

“…You’re telling me to join a Villain organization?”

“Hoo-hoo. Precisely so. Should you enter the Strategic Analysis Office and produce fine results… I shall unveil the secret of your father’s death for you, a little at a time, as your reward.”

She had said it plainly: Beyond Villain’s Strategic Analysis Office. If I produced results there, she would tell me about my father’s death.

“The promise… you’re going to keep it, right?”

“I am not like the Heroes. I do not go back on my word.”

“…”

“I shall look forward to the day we meet again.”

With a hoo-hoo of laughter, she left the walk-up. I stood staring vacantly after her.

…So now I have to live here alone.

— Smack!

Just then, someone struck me hard on the back.

“Aagh!”
“Gwahaha! What are you staring after so mournfully, boy?”
“Huh? It’s not really like that…”
“What did you say your name was? Taejin?”
“It’s Taeseung. Im Taeseung.”
“Good to have you. Call me Scorpion!”

He put on a good-natured grin and rattled on breezily. Was he actually a decent person under that dangerous-looking exterior…?

He shrugged and led me off somewhere.

“Well, Lady Belia asked me to, so I’ll look after you all right… But don’t get your hopes too high. This isn’t exactly a safe neighborhood.”
“I see…”
“One look and I can tell you just got into Songnang from outside. Am I right?”
“You are.”

— Creak.

Scorpion opened a door behind the counter. Inside was one big room. Big only in the sense of a slightly roomy studio.

“This is the room you’ll be staying in. That bed over there’s empty, so clear it off however and sleep.”
“…”
“I’ll get you a phone off a burner dealer sometime today. I’m heading out to grab clothes, so stay put and don’t leave here. Oh, right. And this.”
“This is…?”

He held out a card on a lanyard. A logo I’d seen plenty of times on Hero Gamble. A business card for the Villain organization ‘Beyond Villain’… no, was it an employee badge?

“That’s a temporary employee badge. Wear it around your neck and the weirdos won’t come sniffing around.”
“Weirdos…?”
“That’s right. You walk around advertising you’re from outside the way you do, and the shitflies are bound to swarm in. Ugh, I’m already sick of explaining. Just stay here! I’ll be back.”
“Um, my clothing size is…”
“I’ll figure it out! Leave it to me, Gwahaha!”

— Thud!

He let out a booming laugh, shut the door, and was gone. Suddenly left alone. His clumping footsteps grew fainter and fainter.

I perched on the bed he’d told me to use. Several belongings with ‘Tekal’ written on them were piled on it. Probably the dead roommate Scorpion had mentioned.

Was I supposed to use a dead person’s bed?

…So I have to live here.

The room was spacious, but the junk kept it from feeling spacious. The feel of a place someone had lived in alone a long time, piling up his own things. I’d come empty-handed myself, so I had no luggage, but…

Did I really do the right thing?

I stared blankly around the filthy room. More cramped and dirtier than my old place. And on top of that, a situation more dangerous than my old life. The moment that sank in, my mind was suddenly a whirl.

If I’d never awakened a Gift. If I’d never fallen out of Cha Huigyeong’s favor. If I’d gone on living off the money she handed me… might I have been able to keep on with the same peaceful life as before?

No — get a grip.

I shook my head. The life of taking Cha Huigyeong’s money hadn’t been a human life. Just as she said, it had been nothing but the life of a kept animal. Sooner or later she’d have gotten me. If I’d awakened a Gift, I’d have been dragged off to the Hero Association, brainwashed, and used. And if I hadn’t awakened one… she’d probably have decided I wasn’t needed and killed me. Either way, it wasn’t a hopeful future.

Then why did Belia… save me?

Thinking about it coldly, there was no reason for her to help me. Simply because I’d stood out on Hero Gamble? Or, as she said, because she’d been watching me from long ago? Why had Belia taken an interest in a thing like me in the first place?

“Beats me…”

— Flump.

I shoved the junk off the bed and lay down just like that. Far too much had happened in this one day. The tension let go, and exhaustion came crowding in.

Work starts tomorrow…

Somehow or other, I’d gotten a job. After all this time unemployed, could I really adapt? Whether I could survive in Songnang, the place they called Villain Special City, was questionable too. And my father’s death, which I’d wanted to know about so badly and never managed to learn… I wondered whether I could really find it out.

Turning thoughts like that over, I fell asleep before I knew it.

“Oi, squirt! Get up!”
“Aagh!”

— Ker-thump!

A rough hand sent me tumbling straight off the bed. By the time I got my wits together, Scorpion was holding a suit out to me. What was this suit?

“It’s morning already. You’ve got work. That suit’ll fit a runt like you, so put it on.”
“It’s already… morning?”
“Move instead of asking questions! Damn it, I overslept too!”

The grubby clock on the wall already read eight. Belia’s face flickered before my eyes, smiling as she told me to be at work by nine.

…Where was I even supposed to be reporting to?

“We leave in ten minutes! Hurry it up!”

With Scorpion nagging at me, I dressed at once. Whatever had happened with the size, the sleeves swallowed my hands and the pants slid down miserably. The belt, I supposed, counted as a small mercy.

“Right, follow me. Keep that badge on your neck. Slip up and you’ll lose your neck.”
“Huh?”
“I said follow me!”

— Clatter-bang!

I loaded myself into the passenger seat of a beat-up car in the walk-up’s parking lot. A junker I doubted could even move. The car rattled and pulled forward. At the ominous jolting, I quietly grabbed the handle above the window.

“Gwahaha! Let’s fly!”
“Uurgh…”

The reckless driving went on and on, wild enough to pass for a race. A hellish stretch of time passed, and before I knew it the car jerked to a halt.

Where… was this?

“We’re here, so out you get, quick quick.”
“Is this… Beyond Villain?”
“Hm? Do you really not know a thing? Just get out first.”

A high-rise standing bolt upright among run-down walk-ups and buildings with every window smashed. The outer walls were clean, and not a single pane was broken. This one place felt as though it belonged to another world.

“I asked, is this Beyond Villain?”
“That’s right! I saved my number in your phone, so tell me when you’re off work. I’ll be at the walk-up! Gwahaha!”
“H-huh?”
“I’m off, then! Have a good time at work!”
“No, hold on…”

— Vroooom!

Scorpion’s car pulled heartlessly away. No shower, no food, a suit that didn’t fit, and this was my first day at work… I had to wonder if this was right, but there was nothing for it.

So this is… my workplace.

People in suits came and went. A building and people that didn’t fit Villain Special City at all. I looked up at it for a moment, and then straightened my tie.

No taking the card back now. All I can do is give it everything.

Scorpion had hauled me out of bed by force, sure. But now that I was reporting to work at a Villain organization, I meant to give it my best.

I already couldn’t leave Songnang. No Hero dared set foot in a crime-ridden district like this, which made it, ironically, the one place safe from Heroes. The moment I stepped out of here, I’d have to live shaking with the dread that Cha Huigyeong might come hunting me any day. Rather than that, it would be better to give the job everything and pry my father’s secret out of Belia.

Steeling myself like that, I was about to walk into the company.

“Hello!”
“…Yes?”
“Is today your first day?”

A woman I didn’t know had suddenly spoken to me. She was young, with a distinctive hairstyle, her hair twisted up on both sides so that it looked like a pair of dumplings. She looked up at me and beamed. Around her neck hung the same employee badge as mine.

“Yes, it is my first day, but…”
“What a coincidence! It was my first day too. I was a bit nervous, so I hadn’t gone in yet… and you looked just like me.”
“Ah…”
“We’re in the same intake, so shall we go in together?”
“S-sure. Why not.”
“Great!”

She chattered away just like a baby bird. Did she come in here knowing this was a Villain company? The question crossed my mind, but for now we opened the door together and walked in.

“Oh right, I never even introduced myself. My name is Yang Hayun. I’m twenty-four!”
“I’m… Im Taeseung, and I’m twenty-five.”
“Wow! Then can I call you Taeseung?”
“S-sure, I don’t mind.”
“Yay! So which department were you assigned to, Taeseung?”

I stood in front of the elevator with Yang Hayun, who never once stopped talking to me. Maybe it was because, apart from Cha Huigyeong, I’d hardly ever exchanged words with a woman. I had no idea how to keep a conversation going.

I feel like she’s draining the life out of me…

She, on the other hand, kept beaming away even at my boring reactions. Was she just excited because it was her first day?

It wasn’t long before the two of us realized one thing.

“Strategic Analysis Office…! I’m Strategic Analysis Office too!”
“Then we’re in the same… department?”
“What an incredible connection! Something made me want to talk to you, Taeseung, and sure enough…! This has to be what they call fate!”
“I wouldn’t go as far as fate…”

I boarded the elevator with her, her eyes sparkling in a way that was frankly a lot to handle. The floor we were headed up to was the ninth. The same floor. She was squealing away, delighted that we’d ended up in the same department.

“If I’d been the only new hire I might’ve felt a bit sorry for myself, but I’ve got someone from my own intake! Isn’t that just the best?”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes! Beyond Villain’s Strategic Analysis Office is famous for working people absolutely to death, you know. The pay’s just as big, but… I bet you went through an awful lot to get here too, Taeseung?”

“…”

You could call it hardship, I supposed. But until I came across Hero Gamble in the first place, I hadn’t the faintest idea what kind of company Beyond Villain even was. Heroes or Villains, I’d had no interest in either. Just thinking about them made my head run hot.

Unlike me, Yang Hayun was overflowing with enthusiasm.

“I never once lost the top spot at Hanguk University either, and even then, the effort it took to get here!”
“H-Hanguk University? The number-one university in the country…?”
“Yes! The Strategic Analysis Office doesn’t hire anyone but Hanguk graduates, you know. And on top of that, you can’t come up short on a single thing — GPA, internships, volunteer work, extracurriculars!”

“…”

The more I listened to her, the more lost in a maze I felt. Forget university. I’d never even properly attended high school? Could I really manage at a place like that? And why on earth had Belia stuck me here, of all places?

My head was aching more and more when, with a ding, the elevator opened.

“Whoaa…!”
“!”

Floor-to-ceiling windows looking clear down over the whole of Songnang. People in suits rushing breathlessly about, and stacks of paperwork.

And there in front of it all, a nameplate reading ‘Strategic Analysis Office’ gleamed.