I Became The Villain The Hero Is Obsessed With
chapter-434

Chapter 434: Lily of the Valley (9)

Shortly after the terrorist attack on the Hero Association, Seo-eun lost contact with Da-in.

“Heh, heh, heh.”

Han Seo-Eun was running in the direction of the Association in a hurry.

[He’s not answering his phone right now…]

“Oh no, why isn’t Da-in answering his phone…!”

Still in her school uniform, Han Seo-eun dragged her aching legs as she ran toward the smoldering Association building.

As soon as the incident broke out, she immediately called a taxi.

It didn’t take her long to get to the neighborhood, but due to the accident, the area was closed to traffic… She was running hard from a long way away.

She wishes she’d packed her tools beforehand, but in her haste to get out, she’d only brought a few emergency weapons.

Still, Seo-Eun’s spirit remained strong.

She had some idea of Da-in’s strength. He would have been able to teleport away from the attack.

However,

[He’s not answering his phone right now…]

His unanswered calls gave her a sense of foreboding, especially since he always answered the phone right away, no matter what.

‘Of course he’s busy, he’s probably not answering right now,’ she told herself.

‘What if the attack was too sudden for him to avoid?’

‘What if he was injured while saving others?’

What if he was hit by a bomb while trying to take down the villain?

The more she thought about it, the more anxious she became.

…And then she stepped up to the plate.

Her panic was compounded by the real-time news coming from the earpiece she’d placed in her ear.

[BREAKING NEWS! The attacks on the Hero Association and religious facilities have now been traced to the ‘HanEun Group’…]

The moment the name came out, Seo-Eun’s brain shut down.

…It’s okay, let’s hold on a little longer.

This time, let’s see the researcher inject the drug H-■33.

The test subjects are running away! Kill them all!

“Huh… Huh…”

The name appeared so suddenly, that the deeply buried memories resurfacing in an instant.

Learned fears, imprinted despair, the unforgettable sadness, all of those emotions, combined with the fear that Da-in might be hurt…made her panic, even more than usual.

No, no, no. No, no, no. Not you.

You’ve taken everything from me.

You can’t take him from me.

I only have him now.

How can you, how can you do that?

With that, she ran alone in terror, panting, toward the burning building, which no one else was approaching.

Finally, she came upon a group of people, presumably Association employees.

Really…

Thank goodness, she could see.

“Ha, ha… Ha ha…”

The masked figure of a man, all too familiar to her was standing in the crowd with a cell phone in hand

“Da-in!!!”

She called out, and immediately ran over to him.

“Uh, what is it?”

For a moment, the staff members of the association who didn’t know her were puzzled by the high school girl who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Da-in was even more confused than they were, and when he saw Seo-eun running toward him, he grabbed his cell phone and started to make some sort of excuse.

“No, Seo-eun, this is what I’ve been busy with….”

Before he could finish his sentence Han Seo-eun immediately ran to him and hugged him tightly.

“…Seo-eun?”

“Da-in, I was worried about you… Really, why aren’t you answering your phone…?”

While saying that, Seo-eun hugged him even tighter.

Da-in just smiled faintly, patted her back with one hand and continued to speak to Seo-eun.

“It’s okay, I’m fine.”

Feeling his hands stroking her, she buried her face deeper into his arms, tears welling up in her eyes.

***

After the terrorist attack on the Hero Association was over, a meeting was taking place in an underground lab near the Association, presumably safe for now.

“Hah…what the hell is going on?”

The Association agents have reassembled, minus the injured who have been taken to the hospital.

Minus Stardust, who had been rushing people to the hospital, the meeting was once again in session, with the head of the Association sitting at the head of the table.

And, of course, I was sitting there, too.

“Ugh… What did the grown-up kid do in front of everyone…I’m embarrassed…”

And for reference, Seo-eun was also following me.

It was a meeting related to the HanEun group, and she wouldn’t stay away from me even if she died, so I roughly called her a coworker.

It was definitely a strange atmosphere to see a high school student sitting in a room full of adults.

She was mumbling something under her breath, but her young mind was in shock…I can understand that.

Anyway, somehow, after getting into a temporary meeting room, the president of the association, who had been sighing heavily since earlier, finally wiped his face with a handkerchief and spoke in a tired voice.

“Hah… It’s a good thing that the jamming near the association didn’t leak your appearance, but let’s keep the media under control…”

After saying that, the association president took a gulp of bottled water and set it down with a thud.

“Hah! I still can’t believe I would have died there if it weren’t for Egostic. Once again, I thank you on behalf of the Association.”

“You’re too kind.”

“…So, Agent, why don’t you give us a damage report? What the hell happened?”

“Aye, sir. Currently, the following locations have been attacked: the headquarters of the Hero Association and a total of eleven other places of worship across the country. The casualties are currently being treated, and in the case of the destroyed places of worship, Stardus is on the way to assess the damage in more detail.”

The employee paused, then continued.

“And unlike the Association’s headquarters, the destruction of the places of worship was focused on the facility itself, so casualties are low.”

After that brief damage report.

“Ha… What the hell are they thinking? Okay, well, that’s out of the way…Now to the most important thing.”

The association president stiffened and spoke in a heavy voice.

“How is the HanEun Group using superpowers?”

‘Yes.’

That was the part I was most curious about, too.

Apparently, most of the world’s superpowers were gone and the Star God herself had assured me of this.

Then why is the HanEun Group using superpowers?

“…Yes. As you said, the people who attacked the Association and religious facilities this time are believed to be psychics. Their main ability seems to be the ability to manipulate flames.”

With those words, a makeshift beam projector flashed up an image.

It showed a group of helmeted villains flying around, shooting sparks into the sky.

“The abilities themselves appear to be A-grade…but what’s unusual is that several of them are using the same ability.”

“Damn. What the hell is this…? The International Association is contacting us but we’re ignoring them for now.”

The head of the Association clicked his tongue.

For reference, the Korean branch of the Hero Association has power that rivals that of the entire international association. Because externally, only Korea currently has one (+1) hero…

Anyway, after pondering this for a while, the president turned his head to look at me and said,

“Okay. You and Stardus are the only ones who still have their powers. Are they similar to you?”

“Well…”

And with such an abrupt question, I couldn’t help but think for a moment.

In the case of Stardus and me, our powers were given to us by the Star God, so we had no connection to the Sun God in the first place.

But did they receive their powers from the Star God? I couldn’t help but be skeptical.

Therefore, I, too, answered with a firm expression.

“I think it’s a different case.”

In the first place, this didn’t happen in the original story. The HanEun Group is led by Kim Sun-woo and rides giant robots, not utilizing psychics.

“Hah…That begs the question. And why did they destroy the religious facility?”

The association president muttered something like that and continued the meeting.

I was also focused on the meeting and didn’t see the expression on Seo-eun’s face as she sat behind me.

“……”

Her face paled as she watched the helmeted pyromancers flying around.

***

“Dr. Han. Operations report, all operations to destroy the heretics were successful, survival rate is 100%.”

“As for the operation to destroy the Association’s headquarters…the headquarters were destroyed but neither Egostic nor Stardus were killed. Also, no survivors from the entire ops team, I apologize.”

“It was to be expected, anyway. Get back to your report.”

“Yes, sir. In today’s operation, the Association suffered devastating damage to its headquarters building…”

Technical Advisor to the HanEun Group, and current Acting President, Dr. Kim Sun-woo, dressed in a white coat, stood at his desk, staring at the documents in his hands and listening to the report in silence.

“…That’s all.”

“Well done. Go downstairs.”

And with that, Dr. Sun-woo began to read through the operational report.

It was a report written by the staff that contained all the miscellaneous details of the operation.

Kim Sun-woo read through them, unimpressed.

“…Hmm.”

He paused when he saw a sentence in the report.

[There was a testimony of a silver-haired girl running towards the Association building]

“….”

Kim Sun-woo stared at that one sentence with that little bit of information for a moment.

“…Interesting.”