“What are you saying? Of course you should say no.”
Evil stroked Cheche’s eye area regretfully, then suddenly narrowed his eyes.
“No, damn it. Now that I think about it, this is ridiculous. Why aren’t you resisting?”
Not even ten seconds had passed since he’d told him to stay still.
“Right, I understand because I’m ‘not just anyone,’ but if another bastard touches you like this, you need to break their fingers. No. You’re fucking weak, so instead destroy that bastard’s mind with Soul Aura. I’ll take responsibility.”
“Can you do such things with Soul Aura?”
“With S-rank Soul Aura, it’s a piece of cake. Whether the opponent is a Motioner or a No User, you can manipulate emotions, so incapacitating one person is easy. You probably don’t realize it yet, but you’re incredibly strong. At that level, there’s really nothing to fear except Adapters.”
“Adapters?”
“You need to be careful of Adapters. Really. There are no good Adapters in the world.”
“Are Adapters such scary beings?”
It was a warning that didn’t resonate with Cheche, who had lived twenty years as a No User. Evil saw Cheche’s reaction and realized this would be dangerous as is. He stopped stroking his face as he pleased and lowered his voice seriously.
“You just… absolutely don’t be alone with an Adapter. The Aura User Protection Law wasn’t made for no reason. If a kid like you who doesn’t even know how to use your own abilities talks back to an Adapter, you’ll be in big trouble. Don’t talk back readily like you do to me, just bow your head first and then come tell me, and I’ll get revenge for you.”
“You’re also a Souler weak to Adapters, Director.”
“Ugh, you disease… flycatcher. I’m different. To me, all people are like No Users.”
The relationship between Adapters and Aura Users is like scissors and cloth. Just as even the largest cloth gets cut to pieces by one small pair of scissors, even the highest-ranked Aura User could have their mind violated by the lowest-ranked Adapter. An A-rank Aura User could be taken down by an F-rank Adapter, and there were records of S Aura Users being taken down by A-rank Adapters.
But if it was someone like Evil, he wasn’t cloth but rock—no, diamond. The reason Evil’s rank was SSS-rank was because SSS-rank was the maximum measurable value with current science. As science advanced, his rank would rise further accordingly.
Rather, if he’d been an Aura User on whom Adapter abilities worked, he might have lived a bit more interestingly until now.
Because there was no being that scared him, living was too boring. Until he met Cheche.
“All humans are vomit-inducing trash, and that trash even has the ability to devour something like you in an instant. Then shouldn’t you avoid them?”
“…….”
“Whatever, fine. There’ll be no problem if I’m always by your side.”
Cheche stared at Evil wordlessly, and Evil came to his own conclusion and stood up.
“Let’s go inside now. You’ll catch a cold.”
“You’ve never caught a cold, Director.”
“Do I look like I’m doing this out of concern for myself? If you catch a cold, I’ll kill you. Anyway, the entire front of the villa is windows. You can see the ocean from inside too.”
He’d planned to threaten him to follow obediently, but Cheche stood up more easily than expected. Cheche just stood quietly beside him, then followed when Evil moved his feet.
Because everything was small, his footsteps were also very small. Listening to that sound, Evil suddenly… thought he wanted to walk side by side.
The villa’s interior was warm and had a very familiar scent. Because Evil had all his senses sharp including hearing, smell, and sight, James had brought the specially made solid perfume kept at the mansion here.
As soon as they passed the entrance, two comfortable-looking chairs and a tea table with a vase on a soft carpet, and a fireplace glowing red caught their eyes. Naturally, the fireplace was just an image. Evil walked without hesitation as if he’d been here dozens of times and sat on the comfortable sofa. Then he patted the seat next to him.
“Sit. Let’s watch TV and wait for food. It’ll come soon.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Yeah.”
It felt like a lot had happened today, but only about three hours had passed since arriving in Armal. It meant it had also been three hours since eating on the plane before landing. Still, Evil was brazenly hungry.
“…….”
Cheche rummaged through the crossbody bag he’d been wearing and took something out. It was a cereal bar studded with chocolate chips.
“Would you like to eat this….”
“Give it here quickly.”
Evil said to give it quickly but couldn’t wait and took the cereal bar with telekinesis. It was as if he was receiving something of his own that had been entrusted to someone.
Evil, who tore open the plastic and devoured it in an instant, raised one eyebrow toward Cheche.
“What’s gotten into you to have something like this?”
“Doris-ssi packed it for me this morning.”
“Who’s Doris-ssi?”
“She’s a chef who’s been working at your mansion for five years, Director.”
“When did you get so close?”
“We’re not close. I just ran into her when I went to the kitchen.”
“What else is in the bag?”
“There’s no more food.”
“Let me see.”
Evil spoke while once again lifting the bag with telekinesis. Cheche attempted to grab the crossbody bag’s shoulder strap just once, then quickly gave up and lowered his hand. The crossbody bag that settled in Evil’s hands all too easily was clean, unlike when he’d seen it before.
“What? Did you wash it?”
“I went to the laundry room to wash it, but Harvey-ssi washed it for me.”
“Geez… you really went around chirping away. You must have been incredibly cute.”
Evil opened the zipper without hesitation. The first thing that caught his eye was an old notebook. Turning the tattered paper revealed densely packed letters. Short Tar letters with numbers written beside them, and a few lines of Tar sentences. The numbers seemed to be phone numbers, and the few lines of sentences seemed to be brief explanations. Turning the pages, there were roughly over a hundred entries. That was the end of what was written in the notebook.
“Are they all Tar people?”
“Not all of them.”
“Where’s my number?”
“It’s not written down.”
“Memorize my number. You dum… I’ll give you until tomorrow, so memorize it.”
“Do you memorize my phone number, Director?”
“Yeah.”
Evil recited the ten-digit number as if it were natural. Cheche was somewhat flustered.
“Why… why do you have it memorized?”
“I memorize it after seeing it just once without trying to memorize it. Because I’m so smart.”
Cheche’s latest model phone, which had been provided when hiring him as a secretary this time, was also in the bag. The battery was barely hanging on. When Evil turned on the screen, the main screen appeared immediately. There was no password or anything. When Evil tried entering his own number, it came up as an unregistered number.
Incredibly Cool Director Evil
Evil saved it like that and returned the phone to Cheche.
“Until tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
Evil finished inspecting the crossbody bag. There was also a palm-sized Alcity language dictionary. One cereal bar, a notebook with phone numbers, a phone, an Alcity language dictionary. And the last thing to appear was a small plastic pack. Opening the plastic pack revealed a tightly wrapped cloth bundle.
The fist-sized thing looked like just trash at a glance. Evil had already noticed from the smell when he opened the plastic pack and frowned deeply.
“You just carry cigarettes around but don’t smoke them?”
“Yes.”
“Because I hate it?”
“I can’t smoke them anyway. They’re Tar cigarettes, which are illegal in Alcity.”
“What? So they’re not just cigarettes but drugs?”
“They’re legal in Tar, but in Alcity….”
“You were smoking that illegal thing so much at the hospital.”
Evil sneered, raising only one corner of his mouth, then threw away the cloth bundle along with the plastic pack. Not throwing it somewhere on the floor, but opening the villa’s window with telekinesis and dropping it into the deep sea beyond.
“There’s no need to carry around something you can’t smoke.”
“…….”
The cigarettes Cheche had received as a gift from a Tartarian and had cherished smoking disappeared like that. He’d secretly smoked them very occasionally, knowing they were illegal in Alcity.
Cheche suppressed himself to absolutely endure even when he wanted to do something. Cheche had deliberately lived in hardship so as not to feel pleasure, not to become accustomed to comfort, but only Tar cigarettes he could enjoy. Because Tar cigarettes, unlike Alcity cigarettes, were extremely addictive and contained considerable toxic components, he’d been smoking them thinking this act could be forgiven.
Evil, unaware of Cheche’s inner thoughts, just found Cheche’s reaction amusing.
The fact that the kid who was always indifferent and apathetic was now openly showing hurt feelings. The way his lips also stuck out slightly without answering was very funny and cute to Evil.
