Villain Eaten By The Hero - Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
“I’m not very good at fighting and confronting head-on, but….”
To be precise, it’s not that she’s just bad at it but when it seems like Seo is going to break something, she just simply runs away. Getting hurt is painful and annoying, after all.
The memory of her leaving with the classic line “Let’s wait and see!” came rushing back.
“It’s not like I’m the type to hold a grudge after getting hit a couple of times, and I’m not lacking in determination either.”
Still, even though she fights with heroes and gets hurt, she’s not the type to accumulate grudge. She might grit her teeth to win, but that’s only natural, and even though they may have been enemies during a battle, after clashing for a while, she’s capable of acknowledging the opponent’s skills and putting on a friendly show.
“…So, I guess it would have been fine for us to fight like that too…”
If Seo had preferred to engage in a full-fledged physical clash using their bodies, Belze had enough willingness to accommodate that. There would be a significant difference in strength, like between a martial artist and a ten-year-old child, and it might have been a tough endeavor, and there was a possibility of getting hurt quite a bit. Still, it was better than building a sweaty bond with someone.
Back then, she didn’t realize it, but now she understood. Belze wanted to be Seo’s worthy opponent.
Watching her comrade engage in a battle with Seo, using every ounce of their strength, made her heart ache with envy.
That’s mine. I should be the best. The attention of people and Seo’s interest—it’s all supposed to be mine!
In frustration, he stopped his hands that was moving up and down her body and his raspy breathing also quieted down. Seo then turned her body around.
“…Stop talking like a masochist.”
With a slightly embarrassed expression, he couldn’t take his eyes off Bellze’s face. There was a hint of uncertainty, like a young child on the verge of tears, not knowing how to handle a difficult situation.
Belze found him quite amusing. In front of people who held grudges, people who screamed in anger, people who were just plain angry, he would just smile as if telling them to still try their best, but when he saw the sadness on their faces, it seemed to break something within him. Perhaps that was the minimal conscience he carried as a hero.
“It’s natural that when you’re into something like this, this kind of work, you put your bones and even your life on the line. Are a few pains really that important when you’re getting swept up in all of this? And acting gentle just because you look delicate – that’s going to backfire on you sooner or later.”
The problem was that revealing a pained expression was the most embarrassing thing. It would have been better to get beaten up or arrested. The sympathy of a hero is a pain in the ass.
At least it was a dream, so she stopped complaining while avoiding eye contact. If it had been reality, she would have likely exploded again.
“I hate talking about getting hurt.”
Seo’s hand brushed against her eye. Even though she wasn’t crying, she didn’t like that gesture, so she tried to swat his hand away, but it was useless.
“I hate losing even more, so why don’t you consider that?”
“Would you?”
He’s actually right. For lack of a better word, Belze quieted down.
In truth, she knew she had no choice. There was no one to blame but herself for being clever instead of strong.
She tried to roughly accept it and move on, but as she turned her gaze away, she noticed that Seo, who had been rubbing his neck, kept glancing in her direction. When she sent him a look asking if he had something to say, he hesitated and let out a sigh.
“Are you real, Belze?”
“You can tell just by looking.”
“You’re usually a bit of a proactive personality It’s like you’re real, but you keep saying strange things.”
“It’s what I want to say.”
Once again, she hadn’t expected such words to come out. In this dream setting, nothing was properly functioning except for the spatial configuration and their outfits.
Even now, instead of ignoring the small talk and just fuck, she was giving a steadfast response. Belze resented Seo a little bit, seeing him sitting there with his knees tucked between her legs while her body was slightly twisted.
Just as she hadn’t given Seo the words he wanted to hear, it seemed the opposite was true as well.
This dream was quite arbitrary. Belze decided to write about ten pages of feedback as she waited for Seo’s lips to move.
Instead of fulfilling their purpose of delivering warmth, his lips unleashed unnecessary words instead.
“I’m not sure what you find unfair, but just because you’ve been fighting for a long time and you haven’t been winning, doesn’t mean they’re stronger than you. They’re not a more worthy opponent to fight with. It’s the same when you’re reading or playing games.”
“No, it doesn’t. You’re just holding onto the things you enjoy for a longer time.”
“No. With things I’m interested in, I want to finish them quickly.”
This kind of thing depends on personal preferences. Like whether you save the best food until the end or eat it first. Or whether you carefully cherish your favorite book by investing time and effort into it, or if you can’t take your hands off it and just read it in one sitting.
Seo was mostly the latter type. He doesn’t put up with things he doesn’t have to, and he puts off things he’s not interested in until the last minute.
“Without you, things got a bit boring, that’s why I fought the villain that came in your absence.”
So, there wasn’t really a good reason for engaging in a prolonged fight with her substitute villain.
After some deliberation, Seo reluctantly confessed, carrying a bit of embarrassment in his tone.
In that moment, Belze woke up from the dream. An intuition told her that it might not be a good idea to look at Seo any longer.
*
[Excessive Vividness of the Subject’s Reality]
[The situation is not controlled, but ideal results are derived by understanding the subject’s disposition.]
She heard comforting words in the dream, but as she got up from the bed and thought about it, she realized it was just a dream. Something she created herself.
Feeling a bit miserable, Belze continued to write feedback about the dream of the dreamer pill effects. As she was doing so, she received an emergency call and went to the scene, where she saw Seo holding down her colleague, a crumpled lamppost, and a three-way intersection partially destroyed.
Seo, who had been crouching on the crumpled lamppost, gently set down her colleague on the ground. Though it was a drop from a height of about 3 meters, the way he released his grip, without throwing or slamming them, was surprisingly considerate considering the circumstances.
“You really came.”
“Wouldn’t I not come?”
She couldn’t figure out why he was acting surprised when he called for her.
It took a total of 2 minutes and 30 seconds for her colleague, who went to the scene, to be subdued by Seo. Seo quickly defeated the villain and demanded that they should bring Belze along. The man had held out for 20 to 30 minutes, only to be defeated by Seo in one fell swoop.
“I thought you might have been hurt since I haven’t seen you lately, but I guess that might not be the case.”
Seo said. It felt like the words she heard last night, so Belze shrugged her shoulders.
“I can’t dream of conquering a city if I can’t even take care of myself. It was just a momentary lapse.”
From the distance, she could hear Wonha shouting, ” Why are you saying that!” Though he thought there was nothing she could do, Seo asked in a curious manner.
“Why, did that guy fight with you longer than me?”
“Huh? Ah, um, well, yeah, but…”
“And he inflicted less damage on you?”
“Well, uh, that’s true too….”
“Does it seem like you’re having more fun fighting with that person than with me?”
“Well, uh, did a new hero with a selfish attitude come in?”
Seo knows the things Belze haven’t told Wonha or Hyena about.
It wasn’t until later that she realized she should have hidden herself, whether by lying or bluffing. Without giving her a chance to think, Seo kept bombarding her with questions, so she ended up answering honestly without thinking.
In truth, there was another reason why she answered honestly. It’s because of Hyena’s pill. After spending three days meeting in a dream and having long conversations without worrying about anything, it seemed like the effects of the dreams were still lingering.
Belze clenched her fist and struck a perfectly fine lamppost to bring herself back to reality.
The first issue was that she didn’t hurt herself much because she had only hit it gently, fearing it might hurt badly. The second issue was that when under the pill’s effect, even within the dream, her senses were relatively vivid, so she was still confused if the situation now was still a dream.
But the biggest issue, however, was the fact that Seo was behaving similarly to Belze.
He had also struck a lamppost with all his might, gauging whether this was reality or a dream.
“It doesn’t seem like a dream…”
As if he’d ever had a dream that could be confused with this.
For instance, just like Belze that had a daydream…
“…….”
“…….”
Underneath them, police officers were holding shields and directing traffic, cars stuck in tangled lanes honked their horns, and citizens evacuating were shouting. The intersection was incredibly congested and noisy, but the two of them were immersed in silence as if they were cut off from their surroundings.
Belze was undeniably the brainwave executive of her organization. She was in charge of their research department, creating weapons, occasionally devising strategies, and took charge of deducing situations from meager clues.
She often experienced moments when she suddenly understood the situation like a revelation, even when she hasn’t tried to make a deduction yet. Fleeting clues combined in her subconscious to present solutions. This case was similar; it was the same mechanism that allowed her to realize the situation in an instant.
– This allows you to meet the person you want in your dreams.
– “You could have held a grudge, but instead of trying to kill me, you’re even coming after me in your dreams.”
– It’s difficult to reach a consensus without the hypnosis function….
And after a long time, Belze’s meeting Seo again. He doesn’t seem unfamiliar like they have just met yesterday and he knows the stories from her dream as if they had really met in reality.
Belze had misunderstood the invention’s function from the beginning. It wasn’t ‘making you dream’ but ‘making you meet in a dream.’ Now that she thinks about it, Hye-na was intentionally being poetic when she introduced the invention.
She didn’t dream of sleeping with Seo, she slept with Seo inside a dream.
She felt like all her blood was being drained out from her body.
She desperately hoped it wasn’t true, but her suspicion was so deep that she couldn’t brush it aside. If she treated this ominous suspicion as the truth, it would be strangely realistic. Seo, who didn’t move as she wished in her dreams, and his continuous insistence that it was all just a dream, now made sense.
What else could it be for Seo, who had never before taken a hostage before, just to call Belze? Was it related to the circumstances within their organization that Belze had revealed, believing she was in a dream, and the way he guessed her true intentions?
The last time we saw each other, we didn’t get closer and talked about personal matters. So why did he suddenly ask about my well-being?
It’s like revealing an undeniable fact, that we kissed on our way out of the movie theater, and ending the matter as if we’ve already talked about it and moved on, has he changed?
She couldn’t deny it. She didn’t know how to pretend otherwise, no matter what she do.
If it was going to be like this, she’d rather remain completely unaware until the end.
If she remained ignorant due to her cleverness, knowing something good, and not having to acknowledge it, felt bitter. Belze stood there in despair, like someone who had opened the gates of hell. So, this time, it was Seo’s turn to notice the change.
“What’s wrong?”
“…My, my stomach hurts, oh, my stomach.”
She felt painfully embarrassed, to the point where she wanted to strangle herself or disappear. Belze experienced a grim feeling she had never felt in her life, the kind that makes her want to say, “I want to die.”