novelraw Chapter 246 : Chapter 246
Chapter 246 : Chapter 246
Chapter 246: Ji-an
Unhappy’s base.
I had kidnapped hostages several times by now, but while they were called kidnappings and hostages, they were practically treated as VIPs beyond mere guests.
They were in the position of being the only ones allowed to stay on the top floor, which I had practically rented out for myself.
Starting with Se-ah, then Da-yeon and Ye-jin, and now even Ji-an.
There was even a joke floating around advising people not to create awkward situations by talking to the hostages here, as they were my precious people.
However, today’s kidnapping was a real kidnapping, and a real hostage.
For that reason, a place for the Association President was created in a corner of the basement that had been firmly locked until now.
Drip— Drip—
Because it wasn’t finished properly, water droplets fell from the ceiling at regular intervals.
As expected of a damp and dark basement, the unique musty smell of mold wafted through the air.
Nothing about it was pleasing, but there was a valid reason why I had designated this place for the Association President.
Thanks to it being deep underground.
“Aaaaargh—!”
No matter how much he screamed, it wouldn’t leak outside.
“Old man, you have good lungs.”
Sitting on a chair far away, I shook my head with my brows furrowed.
He had been screaming his head off like that for nearly 10 minutes already, yet there was no sign of his voice going hoarse.
Truly amazing vocal cords.
S-rank recognition for his vocal cords too.
His limbs were firmly bound to a tree, and several vines were stuck into his body.
The wriggling vines were reminiscent of tentacles sucking nutrients from his body.
Of course, it wasn’t that he couldn’t endure simply having a few holes in his body.
The key was what was being drained out through those holes.
And Ji-an, who was standing right in front of the Association President, seemed unable to tolerate the noise pollution any longer, as she eventually turned around and asked me.
“Ugh, it’s loud to death. Mister. Can’t we just block this person’s mouth?”
“That doesn’t matter, but we don’t have anything like a gag. Should I ask them to bring one from upstairs?”
“Eh, what? It was okay to block it? I thought not.”
She had only been listening to those screams until now because she thought there was a reason his mouth had to be kept open.
If it didn’t matter, there was no need to endure it.
Ji-an snapped her fingers.
Swish—
New vines soared from the floor and wrapped tightly around the Association President’s mouth.
I, who had vaguely let him keep his mouth open because there was nothing to use as a gag, realized it had been a useless worry.
“Ah, doing that works.”
“Mmph! Mmmph! Kuh-mmph!”
The Association President, now with his mouth blocked, twisted his whole body and struggled, but it was of no use.
It hadn’t even been three hours since he was first captured, but he looked 10 years older.
It wasn’t just for psychological reasons; his youth was actually being drained in real-time.
He was no longer even on the edge of middle age; he stood clearly on the threshold of being an old man.
While flipping through documents with my chin resting on my hand, I asked a question that suddenly came to mind.
“That. Does it hurt a lot?”
The pain of having a Trait stolen.
If it were an ordinary Awakener, it would be normal to have no experience of a similar kind, of course.
Wasn’t the Association President, who hadn’t leaked a single small moan even when two holes were blown in his shoulder, crying like a newborn baby?
I couldn’t even get a sense of how terrible and painful it must be.
At my question, Ji-an placed her index finger on her lips.
“Mmm. I’ve never really been in the position of having it done to me, so I don’t know very well.”
She soon took the hand she had placed on her lips away and snapped her fingers.
“Ah, but back when I was busy hunting for Traits. A researcher from the other side said that if you just forcefully take it without using their facilities, it’s on the level of extracting a fingernail-sized urinary stone without anesthesia.”
“Ugh.”
I made a rare, openly disgusted face and waved my hand as if to say don’t speak anymore.
“I shouldn’t have heard that. I’ll just have to pretend I didn’t hear it.”
Of course, I had never experienced a urinary stone either, but I definitely understood the nuance of what was said.
It probably meant it was a pain better left unexperienced in life.
I felt a little bit, just a little bit, of pity for the Association President.
As I chatted about this and that with Ji-an, the Association President’s appearance had become even more miserable.
His hair was turning white, and his wrinkles were deepening.
His cheeks were sunken hollow as if he had starved for days.
“Have you extracted almost all the Traits?”
“Yes. About 80%?”
I closed the document I was reading and stared blankly at the Association President, who was making sounds of dying in pain again.
“……It doesn’t feel entirely good.”
In truth, I didn’t enjoy watching a villain suffer, but I was feeling a sort of gratification.
And to me, the Association President was a villain without room for doubt, and there was no room for rehabilitation either.
Normally, I would have mocked him saying it was payment for his karma, but…….
Just before I kidnapped the Association President, I had raided the President’s office and obtained information about his active duty days decades ago.
Ironically, in the records, the Association President during his hero days was clearly a person of excellent character and a hero.
Of course, he could have harbored other intentions inside.
However, by my standards, I rated a human who dedicated themselves to others like that, even with such a nature, even higher.
But after seizing power, aging, his judgment blurring, and his character dulling, he had changed into that. Whether he changed, or revealed his true nature.
The result was that he had fallen.
Knowing that whole process left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.
“Time is truly scary.”
“Yes?”
At my mumbling, Ji-an asked back as if she found it strange.
Why say such a thing suddenly?
“I wondered if I would change like that later on too.”
“What’s wrong with changing?”
Ji-an answered immediately without a shred of hesitation.
“How can a person not change? Mister, and I too, have already changed like this. Isn’t the important thing not the change itself, but how you’ve changed?”
“Is that so.”
Looking at me leaning back against the chair as if unsure, Ji-an nodded vigorously.
“Because what I wanted to find so badly was the Mister who was a villain when we first met. The Mister I’ve finally met again has changed tremendously compared to back then. But that doesn’t mean my feelings have changed.”
Ji-an created a villain organization to find me and even turned the world into her enemy.
The Ho-cheol she liked was definitely the Ho-cheol of that time.
However, comparing the current me to the past me, clearly…….
“I like the changed Mister now much better. Actually, Mister back then was a little scary.”
She laughed softly.
“Is that so.”
I smirked and raised my body.
It was funny to worry about things that hadn’t even happened yet.
Watching me get up and even grab my outer coat, Ji-an blinked in confusion.
“Where are you going?”
“What would I do staying here? I have to go attend to business.”
“……Then what about me?”
“You finish up what you were doing.”
Ji-an tilted her head left and right, looking back and forth between the Association President and me.
At least 30 more minutes were needed for her Trait extraction to finish.
If I left now, was she supposed to stay stuck in the basement alone with that smelly old man for another 30 minutes?
Ji-an shouted in bewilderment.
“That’s not right!”
At a glance, it looked like she was leaving all the work to the vines and just chatting with me, but in fact, Ji-an was dedicating considerable concentration to this task.
Considering how much stamina and Trait power itself she was investing.
Actually, since it was a task that involved feeling quite unpleasant sensations, her true feeling was to not do it if she could avoid it.
But she endured all those things for my sake.
But to think that I wouldn’t even do the one thing of staying by her side.
Honestly speaking, beyond being a little, just a little hurt, she was disappointed.
Even when I came down to the basement, I had just looked at documents while letting everything she said go in one ear and out the other.
Suppressing those emotions with effort, she smiled faintly and asked.
“Ugh. I’m working hard today. Can’t you just stay by my side a little longer?”
However, failing to understand her feelings at all, I answered bluntly while draping my coat over my shoulders.
“I’m busy.”
Beating up the Association President was good and all, but the Association would foam at the mouth and search for him again.
And it would only take a few hours to figure out I was the culprit.
Of course, they would also find out what the Association President had done by reading the memories of the location, but in the end, they were all birds of a feather.
Wouldn’t they try to pin even that on me?
Anyway, dealing with the aftermath, investigating Smiley’s tracks, and so on—there was a mountain of work to do.
“You finish up and rest too.”
In fact, I could have pushed everything onto Ji-an and another executive from the start, but I had only made time briefly out of consideration for her awkward position.
Of course, my rational judgment wasn’t necessarily…….
“Rather than me right in front of your eyes. You’re doing this because that person is more precious.”
It didn’t sound rational to others, nor was it something they could accept.
I, who was about to turn back, paused.
Was ‘that person’ Ji-an mentioned Smiley?
Or So-hee?
There was no need to ponder which one it was.
The important thing was the fact that such words came out of her mouth.
Ji-an bowed her head, clenching her two fists tightly.
Was it because it was a dark basement?
Or was it because she was irritated by the Association President screaming for hours?
The emotions of hurt she had secretly harbored rushed in like a tide.
“I’m always number 2 to you, Mister. No, number 3.”
Sneaking into my bed or jumping onto my lap—physically, she was closer to me than anyone.
Yet, paradoxically, while being the closest, she felt the greatest psychological distance.
The reality where only our bodies were close, but my mind was further away than anyone else around me.
It chipped away at Ji-an’s emotions and heart bit by bit.
“I hate it. Why am I the only one who sees Mister closer than anyone else but you won't even look at me or give me attention and I am trying so hard but why are you only strict to me if that's the case to be together forever I should just kill every.......”
Ji-an, mumbling like that with her head deeply bowed, had eyes that were endlessly murky, with an ominous light swirling within.
I was momentarily lost for words.
I had simply overlooked it because she hadn’t caused any major problems recently.
Ji-an harbored the greatest mental issues among those around me.
It was also true that I hadn’t been able to give attention to her, who was relatively strong, because of the dangers scattered around the people near me lately.
Especially since coming here, I had left things to Da-yeon and Ye-jin, and my involvement with her had actually decreased.
Inwardly, I thought this situation was fortunate.
If she had kept those inner thoughts until they rotted and festered inside, only to explode in a situation I couldn’t handle, that would have been impossible to even fix.
I let out a shallow sigh.
“Lee Ji-an.”
A cold, low voice rang out in the basement.
When I called Ji-an, the title was usually ‘Kid’.
Sometimes I called her by name, but this was definitely the first time I had called her with her surname attached like this.
Ji-an, who had been blinded by jealousy just a moment ago, belatedly came to her senses.
An ominous sensation rode down her spine and spread throughout her entire body.
Realizing something had gone terribly wrong, Ji-an snapped her head up.
“Ah, Mister, that’s not it!”
She desperately tried to make an excuse, but my gaze looking at her was too cold.
The corners of her mouth trembled.
She made a mistake.
She had endured it well somehow until now…… but what if I felt disappointed, or even worse, disgusted with her?
If she were abandoned by me, she had no way to endure it.
It would be better to just die.
Just as her imagination reached such an extreme situation.
I swept my hair back and let out another sigh.
Hearing that sigh, Ji-an shrank back and trembled even more.
However, the actions and words that followed were completely opposite to her expectations.
I opened my arms wide.
Ji-an simply stared at me blankly, unable to understand the situation for a moment.
“Come here.”
Until now, a hug between the two of us always involved Ji-an hugging me first, as she pleased.
But this time, I opened my arms first and pulled Ji-an into my embrace.
Ji-an was still dumbfounded, but she instinctively raised her arms and wrapped them around my back.
“……Sorry.”
I apologized briefly.
Excessive obsession, the emotion of wanting to possess someone even if it hurts them—it cannot be eliminated.
But that was a problem that arose because one couldn’t know the other’s true feelings, and deemed the emotions they sent as meaningless and unrequited.
Obsession cannot be eliminated. But it can be made endlessly faint.
If I gave her firm belief and assurance that obsession wasn’t necessary, and gained her trust, it was a problem that would resolve itself.
“If you’re feeling those emotions from me, it must definitely be my fault. But the reason I acted that way is definitely not what you think.”
I always try to prevent misunderstandings in relationships with others.
Yet, this situation happened again.
In the end, it’s all because I am lacking.
Reflecting on that, I continued speaking.
“You are a much more important and amazing existence than you think. That’s why, unlike the other guys whom I vaguely think I have to protect, I’m relying on you a little.”
Ji-an’s body in my arms trembled.
My true feelings heard for the first time.
She could clearly tell it wasn’t simply to escape the situation or to comfort her.
To think she had tried to do such a thing to such a good person.
“Maybe because I haven’t sorted things out either, I’m a bit incoherent.”
What should she answer?
After pondering for a long time, instead of opening her mouth, she simply buried her face deeper into my embrace without a word.
Silence flowed for a long time.
Ji-an barely opened her mouth.
“……It’s okay.”
Sniff—
Sniffling, Ji-an whispered softly in a locked voice.
“Mister must have had your own struggles too, but I was too selfish.”
“I’m thankful you understand. If all the current matters are resolved, right, since you’ve suffered all this time.”
After thinking for a moment, I suggested a place that suited her tastes.
“Let’s go play at a botanical garden or something.”
Ji-an raised her head and asked with anticipating eyes.
“Are we gathering several people and going noisily again?”
“No.”
I smirked and patted her head.
“I’ll clear that day entirely. Let’s play, just the two of us.”
Ji-an’s eyes grew wider than ever.
She jumped just like that and hung onto my shoulders.
A single phrase rose to the tip of her tongue and hovered around her lips.
She wanted to shout it sincerely, but she held it back firmly.
Because if she said that, perhaps even the current relationship might crumble.
Instead, she expressed this emotion by chewing gently on the nape of my neck.
***
Having seemingly resolved all her hurt feelings, I came up from the basement, leaving behind Ji-an’s confident declaration to leave the Trait extraction to her.
And as if he had been waiting for me, Wolf Fang ran up.
“Bo, Boss! It’s a big problem!”
“Is it an urgent matter again?”
“Yes! You need to see this immediately!”
“The Association will throw a fit knowing the Association President has been kidnapped. You mean it’s more important than dealing with that aftermath?”
I expected Wolf Fang to laugh awkwardly, scratch the back of his head, and back off.
However, his expression was just as serious as before—no.
It was even more serious.
“It can’t even be compared.”
Only then did I recognize the severity of the situation.
Something more serious than the Association foaming at the mouth and charging at us?
I couldn’t even dare to guess what on earth it could be.
Is a meteor falling in real-time or something?
If it’s something like that, it really is a serious matter.
Wolf Fang, turning pale, spoke of that ‘big problem’.
“……Right now, on every channel, Smiley’s face is appearing.”
“Oh, f*ck.”
It would have been better if a meteor was falling.