## Chapter 116 – (7)
We entered the large shopping mall, our faces tense as we surveyed our surroundings.
Well, three of us did, excluding me.
Even Soi, who always maintained a calm expression, seemed tense this time.
Her smile wasn’t its usual self.
But strangely enough, the mall was quiet.
As if by some agreement.
“…It’s quiet,” Jaehoon said, looking around the mall.
The fact that none of the people who had been here during the tutorial were present was definitely strange.
Even if they had gone out to hunt monsters for the current mission, some people should have remained.
Sensing this oddity, Jaehoon looked at me and said,
“…You were right, Hyung.”
At some point, Jaehoon had started calling me Hyung.
Since Eunjeong, my childhood friend, was reluctantly calling me Oppa, it was a natural consequence.
“I told you, didn’t I?”
The message Jaehoon received was as follows:
The people in the mall were being indiscriminately attacked by a group of men, and his constellation was in danger, so please help.
If another person had received such a message from a constellation, they would have ignored it.
But Jaehoon was the one who happened to receive it.
Being a constellation, it had a good eye.
It knew exactly who to send the message to.
However, there was something the constellation hadn’t anticipated.
That was me and Soi.
“It doesn’t make sense,” I said with a laugh.
No matter how crazy the world was, it was still early days. There shouldn’t be people massacring others in a shopping mall.
No, there wouldn’t be many even later on.
The violence of numbers was significant.
Unless someone was a crazy person devoid of fear, they wouldn’t usually think of fighting against so many people.
Besides, it wasn’t easy for humans to commit such cruel acts.
Yeah, usually they couldn’t, but—
I glanced at Soi next to me.
…There’s someone like that next to me?
Of course, it was a future event, but still.
That’s why I gave Jaehoon a hint in advance.
It might be a trap.
The people you saved might attack you.
But Jaehoon didn’t believe me.
More precisely, he believed in people.
The people he and Eunjeong had saved.
He couldn’t believe they would attack them.
So after that, I refrained from speaking.
No matter how much I said, it would be better for him to experience it firsthand.
“Like you said, Hyung, there’s no sound of fighting, no traces, no people…”
Yeah, they’re all hiding.
To attack us for the points.
We headed to the second floor.
To the ground-level parking lot on the second floor.
The entrance to the parking lot came into view, and I slowly raised my hand.
It meant to proceed slowly.
The three nodded.
The parking lot entrance.
This was the place where Eunjeong and Jaehoon had the memory of defeating the mascot.
Although I didn’t know if that could be classified as a memory.
The parking lot was dark to begin with, but was it just my imagination?
It seemed darker than usual.
Finding that strange, I slowly looked at the entrance, and my newly acquired Detection and Observation skills activated on their own.
I could tell.
From the unnatural shape of the shadows at the entrance and the tense, rough breathing.
That if we passed through this parking lot entrance, two sturdy men would be waiting for us on either side, holding something up.
Just like Eunjeong and Jaehoon when they attacked the mascot.
Jaehoon and Eunjeong’s eyes wavered as they heard my words.
They didn’t seem to believe it.
“No way—”
I grabbed Jaehoon, who was about to go ahead, and shook my head.
“I’ll go first.”
“…What? Why are you—”
I had no choice.
The ambush was still dangerous for Jaehoon and Eunjeong.
I entered the parking lot entrance first.
As expected, two men swung their weapons at me.
Whoosh!
As if they had been waiting for someone to enter, they swung their weapons without hesitation.
But I quickly twisted my body to avoid them.
A large aluminum bat brushed past me.
If I hadn’t dodged, and if it had been someone else instead of me.
It would have definitely resulted in a major injury.
Knowing that, I didn’t hold back either.
Thwack, thwack!
I punched the man on the right in the stomach and elbowed the man on the left in the jaw.
Both of them collapsed with just one blow.
They clutched the areas they were hit and collapsed to the ground.
“Ugh… W-wait… The constellation told us to…”
I figured.
I knew better than anyone that the constellations were bad guys.
But seeing these guys making excuses, shouting loudly, filled me with anger.
“So what? Does that make you guys righteous?”
“…”
“You guys swing bats at people…”
The two men who had fallen silent, unable to say anything to my words.
Jaehoon and Eunjeong looked at the two fallen men with complicated expressions.
And Eunjeong looked at me.
At first, she hesitated, but then she met my eyes with a determined look.
“…Why did you do that?”
“Huh? What.”
“Why did you take the lead instead of Jaehoon? It was dangerous just now. Do you know that?”
Eunjeong said, a little angry.
Dangerous, huh.
I guess it looked that way from the side?
Since I had barely twisted my body to avoid it.
I replied nonchalantly to Eunjeong, who was getting angry.
“Hey, who do you think I am? This is a piece of cake.”
“Who are you?”
“Huh?”
“We… I still don’t even know your name. Even though we’ve been helped so many times…”
“…”
Eunjeong looked up at me with a guilty expression.
It was an expression I had never seen before.
She looked like she was about to cry, and she still seemed a little angry.
Where did all her sharp expressions go? Why was she suddenly acting like this?
Come to think of it, I hadn’t even told them my name yet.
“Were you that curious about my name?”
“…Yes, I’m curious.”
Even when I asked in my usual cheesy tone, Eunjeong didn’t frown or avoid my eyes.
It was a different reaction than before.
I was more flustered by that reaction.
So I answered without thinking.
“…Call me Seonghan, Oppa.”
“…Yes, Seonghan Oppa. Thank you.”
Eunjeong smiled faintly.
Now I could tell.
The expression Eunjeong made to someone she had opened her heart to.
Honestly, seeing that expression made me think it was a good thing I stepped forward.
I looked at Jaehoon.
“So, what are you going to do? With these two.”
“…”
I pointed at the two men who had fallen.
This was something Jaehoon had to choose.
Because that’s how it was in the original story.
Jaehoon was biting his lip.
His expression was full of betrayal and emptiness, but Jaehoon soon returned with clear eyes.
“Let’s just… just leave them.”
“They might attack again?”
“It’s okay, I’ll subdue them then. As many times as it takes.”
I nodded with a faint smile.
He was just like the protagonist, as righteous as he always was in the webtoon.
So it was a satisfactory answer.
And in fact, I didn’t think those two would attack again.
I glanced at Soi.
“Let’s go back, while being careful of any other possible attacks.”
The three nodded at my words.
Soi stared intently at the two men’s faces before turning away.
And I, who was watching that scene, made eye contact with Soi.
“…”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Soi raised the corners of her mouth.
It was different from usual.
“Nothing.”
I knew it was a subtly different smile from her usual one, but I didn’t bother pointing it out.
I just wanted to watch for now.
To see how Soi would act.
***
We returned to our respective bases.
Soi said she needed to stop by the convenience store for a moment and parted ways with me.
I asked if she wanted me to go with her, but Soi smiled and waved her hand.
She said that even though I liked her so much, I was following her around too much, and she spouted a nonchalant line as if I were saying it to Eunjeong.
And about 30 minutes after I arrived at the base, Soi returned.
“…You’re back.”
“You’re not surprised, as expected.”
Soi smiled as she saw my reaction when she entered the living room.
There was dark red blood splattered on the sleeves and waist of Soi’s white dress shirt as she returned to the base.
Her hands and face were wiped clean, so there was nothing on them, but she couldn’t even erase the traces on her clothes.
No, she could have just changed, but Soi didn’t.
“Do you know what I’ve been up to?”
“Yeah.”
I was thinking wrong.
She wasn’t exactly becoming a villain because of the constellation.
The constellation had just given her a little help.
She, Soi, was that kind of person from the start.
The kind to become a main villain.
Soi was on her way back from inflicting great injuries on the two men who had attacked us.
“…Jaehoon will hate it, right?”
“He probably will.”
Soi chuckled at my words.
“I wish everyone could understand me like you, Oppa.”
I understand Soi?
It was a hard thing to accept, but.
It was also hard to deny.
What if I had been attacked when I was alone?
What would I have done to those two?
“Jaehoon is too foolishly kind.”
“He has that side to him.”
“Don’t you think I can fill in those shortcomings of Jaehoon?”
Soi smiled brightly.
It was a chilling but—, beautiful smile.
No, it was a smile so beautiful it was chilling.
I realized that this was her real smile.
All the smiles before were just masks.
Only this smile, as she laughed loudly, excited, with blood on her dress shirt.
Was Soi’s real smile.
