Villain Eaten By The Hero - Chapter 21
CHAPTER 21
Always being more inclined to take the lives of others than to end one’s own, it was a feeling she had never known before. It was new, unfamiliar, and something she never wanted to go through again.
“It hasn’t even been 5 minutes since you said you’d manage yourself.”
“I’ve developed gastritis recently due to stress.”
It was a trivial excuse, but she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t think straight when she found herself in a situation she had never considered before.
Who would ever imagine such a thing? Although, she had thought about it once, to prepare for the unforeseen future, that she might have a one-night stand with her enemy while drunk. The kind of scenario that was often portrayed as a cliché in various media.
But to find out that both of them were conscious of their actions when they passionately played around with each other in the dream was unexpected. And she couldn’t even count how many times they had kissed!
Belze felt like she might collapse right there from frustration. Hiding her face in her palms or…
Not blowing up was the best she could manage.
“…What are you doing?”
Seo might not be a very perceptive person, but he wasn’t completely clueless. It had been a while since he saw Belze, and he could tell that something was off. Everything the Belze in the dream had said matched up, and she seemed to be freezing, as if she would disappear and crumble into ashes. Something was definitely off.
If there was a second tragedy for Belze, it was the fact that Seo was very familiar with the tricks of the villains who were after him.
Seo’s thinking was much more straightforward compared to Belze’s. Instead of thinking rationally or going through deductions, he would automatically suspect and view everything as the work of villains whenever something strange happened.
A water pipe broke? A villain must have done it.
Someone’s suddenly being friendly? They’re being paid by the bad guys as part of their scheme.
Since he had been deceived so many times, it had become a habit for him to think that way and view things with suspicion as a first reaction.
“Hey.”
“….”
“Are you by any chance…”
“I’m going home.”
“In my dreams.”
“I’m meeting my parents after a long time.”
“Did you come out?”
“You must have mistaken me for someone. It’s natural to be confused. It could be an illusion. You said it was a dream. Yeah, it must be a delusion.”
“…Really?”
But it was the right answer, and Belze had no strength left to pretend.
When Seo caught on to the clues, Belze unconsciously went through cycles of tearing up, blushing, turning pale, then repeating all that again, while slowly but surely, the ominous suspicion in Seo’s mind turned into certainty.
“You.”
Seo’s pupils shrank into tiny points, and his face turned pale. Soon after, just like Belze, his face flushed with a vivid crimson, and a shudder ran down his cheeks.
“Y-You, you’ve been toying with me…?”
If the villains of Meteor City saw this, they might have gone wild, claiming that it was a doppelgänger in Seo’s guise, or deemed it a sign of an impending doom. It was an unusual scene that seemed ripe for speculation.
However, Seo’s face wasn’t even registering in her mind at the moment. Belze barely managed to steady her collapsing body and used the wall as support.
“It’s not me! It’s a dream! A succubus! A creation of science, technology, and psychic abilities! An illusion! Do you really think it’s me? Would I be that?!”
The opportunity to act nonchalant and feign ignorance passed like a high-speed train, and what remained was only to confront the situation head-on.
There was only one answer. As long as she didn’t reveal that the person in the dream was her, that would be enough. Belze desperately tried to defend her last psychological defense.
But, Seo was equally persistent.
“How could you… play with a person, manipulating and messing with them like a toy? Do you find joy in mocking innocent people? Are you having fun ridiculing the naive? Even if you’re thrown to the pits of hell, you’d survive because you’re heartless.”
He crumpled the lamppost with one hand, pouring out his grievances. The lamppost Seo leaned on bent like a spring and then abruptly snapped off with a loud noise.
Just looking at her face, it was a face that showed embarrassment, a face that had done something shameful. Frustrated by the situation, Belze couldn’t help but kicked her feet in frustration.
“Where are you making that up from? You’re the one who played around! How could I possibly toy with you!”
“You must have laid the groundwork for me to move according to your intentions!”
“Does that even make sense? No matter how hard I try, it’s you who acts around…!”
Belze bit her tongue, realizing that she was firmly entangled in Seo’s words at this point. She bit too hard but it didn’t bleed, but the tip of her tongue ached faintly.
Regaining her senses, she looked at Seo’s face. His expression was still vivid. If it were a well-constructed scheme and she had been fooled, she might have dismissed it as the nature of the trick, but he seemed genuinely embarrassed, which left her utterly dumbfounded.
Still, Belze snapped back into focus. As Seo snapped the broken lamppost while turning his head, she seized the opportunity and quickly grabbed her collapsing colleague and fled. She created an explosion in the distance to divert Seo’s attention, attempting to blind him.
But, Hyena’s words echoed in her ears throughout the escape back to their hideout.
―Its effect lasts for three days.
Tonight marked the fourth day.
*
Back at the hideout, Belze alternated between clinging to Hyena and the bed, sobbing.
“You should’ve told me that the other person was conscious, too! You should have explained in detail and with specifics! How am I supposed to take responsibility for this? How on earth am I going to handle this? Ahhhhhhh hoo, hoo.”
“I told you it’s about meeting the person you want, and if you talk to them, you should have realized that you were both dreaming, right?”
“How would I know? Who would have guessed?”
“I see. But even if you didn’t know, it wouldn’t have mattered that much. Since it’s a dream, if one side doesn’t want to continue, you can wake up from the dream.”
“For crying out loud! Don’t try to explain the details now! And don’t casually bring up that topic anywhere! Got it? It’s just like real life, that’s why I couldn’t resist, okay?!”
Belze screamed frantically, kicking and hitting at the research equipment and rolling around on the floor. Somewhere nearby, the defeated villain who had been easily beaten by Seo watched as Belze wreaked havoc, trying to salvage the scattered items and shaking his head in disbelief.
“Belze, you’ve been working hard despite not delivering any results. It takes real strength to endure that kind of negativity. I can’t possibly fight that guy. How did you manage to endure it for two years?”
“I can’t do it either! I can’t do it anymore, so change positions with me immediately!
“No, I saw you taking me and running away. You’re really something special. I’ll count on you to handle him from now on.”
The man patted Belze’s back, exhausted from rolling around on the floor. Belze had now lost the ability to speak human language, screaming in incomprehensible words that nobody could understand.
Watching this, Hyena’s face twisted in a mix of worry and suspicion.
“I think I know who it is.”
“No, you don’t know! You might be wrong!”
Her attempts to persuade were futile.
*
Day four. There was no way to escape from the dream of the dreamer pill effect, and in the end, she had another dream. And of course, Seo was there. He was dressed in his conqueror outfit, sitting on the edge of the bed with a chubby expression on his face.
As fucked up of a situation as it was, the only good thing was that if one person didn’t want to continue, the dream would end. Seo was unaware of this.
That fact was truly, truly, truly fortunate thing– a tiny thread of hope for Belze, who had been dragged away by Hyena while collecting pretty scarves to make into a rope.
Seo wanted it too! Though it could have been anyone since they thought it was a dream, he still wanted it!
This was not just a melodrama driven by Belze’s personal delusions. The fact that it wasn’t just her own delusion lifted some of her embarrassment and helped her rebuild her shattered self-esteem.
Belze regained her composure, determined not to let her sandcastle-like self-esteem crumble. She looked down at Seo with a steady gaze. When their eyes met, he suddenly stood up and coldly muttered.
“Now you’re playing tricks on me in my dreams. I don’t know where you’re going with this.”
“You’re the one who started this.”
Belze replied, cutting him off. Before he could deny the events of the past three days or try to sell her out, she had to hit him. When there was an imbalance of information between them, the side that initiates manipulation and fabrication often wins, and Belze desperately wanted to win.
“Yeah. I approached you to get something out of you. But you initiated it, didn’t you? Isn’t that true? Even if I don’t know the details, there’s one thing I’m certain of. You were willing to be sleep with me. So, that’s a win.”
“I… It’s all just your delusion. None of that happened.”
Seo opted to not just deny but rather vehemently reject the accusations. But, Belze didn’t yield. This was a dream, and three days of experience had given her a slight advantage.
Seo also responds to visual cues. Especially those involving herself.
“Really?”
Belze’s combat attire turned into a jet-black sheer lace slip, revealing her inner layer. The short slip barely reached her thighs and swayed. It felt embarrassing to wear such revealing clothing, but at this point, she thought that showing a bit more might give her an upper hand. It felt a bit crazy to think about it in a dream, though.
Approaching Seo with measured steps, Belze looked up at him.
“Since this is a dream, if you beg me to, there’s no reason not to do it one more time.”
With a smile that was purely strategic, Belze’s attempt to assert dominance made, but Seo revealed in it and let out a chuckle.
“Don’t project your crude tastes onto me.”
Though it was an attempt to restore her shattered self-esteem and pride, but she’s having none of it. Right now, there’s silence between them, but she thought that she might try a little more. Suddenly, the ceiling disappeared.
Following that, the walls and windows vanished too, then the bed scattered, obscuring Seo’s figure.
Belze intuitively realized that this was the phenomenon of waking up from a dream. On all three occasions, she had been the first to disappear, so she hadn’t realized it until now.
This time, he didn’t want it. It was fine when she didn’t know, but now that she knew, she didn’t like it. In a fleeting moment when she could sense a looming sense of defeat, the fading figure of Seo mumbled.
“A white slip would be better.”
And Belze woke from the dream.
<<Unable to escape>>
A month had passed. During that time, nothing had happened between them.
They often crossed paths at the field. Belze was once again assigned to Seo, and Seo was in a position where he couldn’t take a long vacation. If something happened, they would inevitably meet face to face. But that was it.