I Became The Villain The Hero Is Obsessed With
chapter-380

Chapter 380: Premonition of doom

…after parting ways with Egostic in the temple of the Sun God.

“Hey, don’t you realize that the saint is praying here, and no one is allowed near her?”

The Aetheria, a group of villains led by Celeste.

In the prayer hall, where only the most loyal are allowed to guard the door, Celeste was neatly dressed in her dazzling white saint’s robes, eyes closed, concentrating on her prayers to the Sun God.

…No, she was trying to concentrate.

‘Because, Celeste, being around you…I’ve grown quite fond of you.’

“…..”

‘I’ll always be by your side, Celeste. I want to stand beside you and see what path you take.’

“…Oh, really.”

…She tried to focus, if not for the memories that kept popping into her head and interrupting her prayers.

‘He must be crazy… How do you say something like that so casually?’

With a slightly flushed face, she thought to herself.

In fact, this was the first time she had ever been distracted from her prayers to the Sun God…but she didn’t care.

Celeste, chosen by the Sun God at a young age, when she lost her parents and siblings and wandered the back alleys, she was given powers…Perhaps it was because of what she’d been through, but no one trusted her.

Not even her loyal subordinates, the members of Aetheria, the villainous group she leads.

She always thought.

‘Maybe one day, they could betray me, too.’

It was a paranoid, human distrust, really.

‘If I were to lose my power, would they still follow me? No, they wouldn’t. Would they turn against me and try to get rid of me?’

She didn’t know.

That was what scared her.

For that reason, she hadn’t let her guard down for a single moment since her ascension to the top.

…Maybe that’s why the moment her greatest fear happened, the moment she lost all her power.

‘Don’t worry. I’ll protect you, just hide behind me.’

He didn’t hurt her.

Instead, it was those words that made her trust Egostic more than anyone else, because he stood by her side until the end.

Until now, she’d never put herself in that position before.

For the first time that day, she experienced someone protecting her in her weakest moments.

For the first time, she truly believed in someone.

Maybe that’s why she had, without realizing it, kept Egostic close.

When she thought about Cathedral, when she planned her plans, and when she did anything else, she thought of him first, especially since he had been chosen by the gods to work with her.

So, over the past few months, she came to realize that he’s…

‘…He’s too good.’

He was so competent that her burden was lightened many times over.

‘…Shouldn’t we do it this way?’

Whenever he was asked for tactical instructions, he always found and presented the best way to do something at once.

Whatever it is, he does it once and for all.

“I think this is the best way to handle this situation.”

It took him only a few minutes to come up with the answer that would take hours of thought.

She realized why the Sun God had chosen him.

…Of course, since Egostic had seen most of the situation in the original, he was giving her the correct answer from the original…but Celeste couldn’t know that.

Anyway, just like that, unbeknownst to Celeste, she’d come to rely on him more and more.

This time, thanks to him, thanks to him, thanks to him, she was able to find out more information about the Sun God…

‘So…’

The god was a good man.

He had always been good to people, and always would be.

‘…The path I am walking is not wrong.’

With that thought, she strengthened her resolve.

…And that, too, is thanks to Egostic.

Until then, she had only been ‘chosen’ by the Sun God himself, and had no knowledge of the existence of the Three Gods in the beginning.

She had only found out about them by scouring the archives of various nations, believing that there must be some record of the ancient gods.

And that’s when Egostic came along and started pouring out information about the gods.

“Egostic…”

Thinking about him, Celeste muttered quietly, her eyes narrowed as she knelt in the prayer room.

…She had to admit it now, that she could no longer make concessions to him.

Even…

“Uh…wait a minute…! Uh…’

“…”

Now, she can accept the prophecy that her future self is going to kiss Egostic.

“That’s all well and good, but…Why is he in the position of being the one who gets to take the lead…”

Still, she had some complaints.

***

After the tour of the Sun God’s ruins with Celeste, I returned home, feeling like I hadn’t been here in a very long time.

…Actually, I traveled all the way to the temple of the Sun God after Cathedral, so it’s been a long time, right? Anyway,

“…Slowly, Celeste’s side is being finished.”

I muttered to myself as I headed home.

I have to do two things to turn Celeste against the Sun God on Judgment Day.

One is to make her believe that the Sun God is good, and the other is to make her psychologically dependent on me.

Slowly, these two things were working well.

Of course, I still needed to go deeper and harder…but at this rate, it would be enough to get me through until Judgment Day.

I’m going to try to find the rest of the relics and get as close as I can to Celeste, which is hard to do.

Anyway, the point is, the important stuff is over for Cathedral.

‘…So now.’

It’s probably time to focus on internal stability.

For that reason, as soon as I got back to Korea, I didn’t go home, but I went to the office of the chairman of Yuseong Group where Lee Seola was.

“Da-in, what’s going on? I heard you went abroad.”

“Take a look at this.”

When she heard I was here, she sat down in front of me with her light blue hair flowing.

She looked puzzled at the USB I handed her, then walked over, plugged it into her computer, and looked surprised.

“…What is this?”

“It’s some overseas data I got from Cathedral. If you can use it, use it.”

“Oh…Thank you, Da-in!”

…I have a lot more work to do, but at least I have this information…

Before I knew it, she was sitting in front of her computer, smiling like a child who’s had a bad idea.

I left her behind, made myself a cup of tea, and went through the materials I’d brought with me.

Inwardly, I was thinking of something else.

‘…Okay.’

Let’s look at my situation.

How many elite troops can Korea field?

‘…Well, on the hero side, we have Stardus, Shadow Walker, etc.

The combat members of our Ego Squad: Seo-eun, Eun-woo, Choi Se-hee, Seo Ja-young, Shin Young-san, and Halo.

The heroes from our PMC, one by one, stronger and stronger, now numbering in the hundreds.

Especially now, it was important to identify the heroes from PMC and Ego Squad.

“Seola, do you have a list of our kids or some sort of data book? Give it to me.”

“Uh…The PMC kids? They’re organized…Here you go.”

“Uh, thanks.”

I casually pulled a few papers out of the printer, looked them over, and muttered to myself.

“I see…”

“Huh? What is it again?”

“Nothing, I’m going to go now.”

“Yeah~ See you soon.”

“Yeah.”

I smiled sheepishly, gathered the materials, and quickly took the elevator out of the building.

The sunny blue sky welcomed me with the warmth of the sun.

‘…Let’s see. I wonder if I should teleport there.’

After exiting the building, I thought about how to get home from here and came to that conclusion.

As I walked down the street by the side of the Yuseong Group building, I heard a familiar, cold voice behind me.

“Egostic.”

“…..!”

I spun around, startled.

“Hey. Where have you been?”

There, smiling at me, was Stardus.

“Hey, Stardus, it’s been a while, haha. How did you know I was here…?”

I ask, momentarily stunned, and she puts a finger to her mouth, still smiling.

“Well… I hadn’t heard from you lately, and I was worried, so I had a hunch and came here, and there you were.”

…Her senses are scary.

While I’m breaking out in a cold sweat, she glances up at the Yuseong Group building next to me, then back at me and smiles.

…Of course, her eyes weren’t smiling at all.

“I thought you had gone abroad for business…But here you are. Haha.”

“That…Stardus, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong. I’m just here to pick up some materials.”

I say, and she replies, still smiling.

“Yes. Of course I believe you. You can do no wrong, Egostic.”

…Which means someone else is at fault.

“Oh, well, I have someone to see. Can I go first?”

“What? Wait…”

And before I could respond Stardus disappeared, like a mirage.

I looked up at the Yuseong Group building one last time, and muttered to myself.

“…..”

I watched her go, and after a short moment of silence, I began to walk away.

…Hopefully, she’ll survive to tell the tale.

***

“Seola, can we…Can we talk?”

A-class hero and chairman of the Yuseong Group, Lee Seola, thought to herself as she watched Stardus walk toward her, dead-eyed, as soon as Da-in left.

‘…Finally, she’s here.’