He looked at Cheche as if he had something to say. Or it felt like he was waiting for something. For some words to flow from Cheche. Then after some time passed, Evil finally opened his mouth first.
“Why the suit?”
Surprisingly, it was about Cheche’s attire. As if finding it strange that he came wearing a black suit, different from usual.
The fact that it wasn’t about the phone call content that had turned the secretary’s office into a mess sent chills down the secretaries’ spines. He had just made a statement about ruining someone’s life so easily, but that matter truly meant nothing to Evil.
However, at Cheche’s answer that followed, the secretaries’ eyes bulged as if they would pop out.
“I’m going to the joint funeral for the wildfire fatalities.”
Cheche very simply reminded Evil of what had just happened. Evil frowned as if his mood had been ruined.
“Damn it, why are you going there? Did the Center force you to go?”
“Because I know someone.”
“What kind of person would a refugee know?”
“There’s one Tartarian among the deceased.”
“……”
“They’d been living in Alcity for three months, and were waiting for siblings who hadn’t escaped yet.”
Saying he’d only found out this morning too, Cheche calmly recited the deceased’s information.
Tasmin was thirty-three, worked as a restaurant assistant, and that day was a day off so they were on a hiking trip with restaurant staff. A video will to their sibling was recorded on their data-restored phone. He gave even completely unnecessary information.
Evil was silent. Because he was looking down at Cheche, the secretaries couldn’t see Evil’s expression from their seats.
“That…”
When Evil finally opened his mouth, James was startled. He heard Evil’s trembling voice for the first time in his life. He had never even imagined Evil Devil stuttering or his voice trembling.
“…Were they among those fifty people?”
“Yes, they were among the fifty people.”
On the other hand, Cheche’s voice flowed out calmly. Without hesitation, without emotional highs or lows… However, at this voice no different from usual, Evil’s large shoulders flinched greatly. Evil averted his gaze first from the golden eyes that held no emotion.
Evil stood up without delay and left the secretary’s office. James felt the demon-like arrogance disappear for a moment from Evil’s face as he passed by. The face with the arrogance gone was a twenty-one-year-old young man, somewhat flustered and troubled.
***
Cheche’s appearance at the joint funeral became a big issue. The Endem family wanted to use the fact that Evil Endem’s secretary was attending the joint funeral to spread the perception that Evil wasn’t hostile to the bereaved families of the wildfire incident victims. They released articles on a large scale and even held a press conference.
When Cheche stood in front of reporters wearing a black suit, camera flash sounds poured out. Cheche received several questions from reporters.
“Didn’t Advisory Director Evil Endem block you from paying condolences?”
“No, he said nothing.”
“What was your relationship with the deceased Tartarian?”
“…Their name is Tasmin.”
“……”
“I met them once. I introduced them to a job. Out of a monthly salary of 1.7 million daal, they were saving 1.5 million daal. To bring their siblings from Tar.”
Cheche now had to inform them of their older sister’s death.
He found out too late. Just before Tasmin was processed as an unclaimed body, the restaurant owner informed the director of the refugee facility Cheche had passed through, and he informed Cheche. Upon hearing the news, Cheche was dazed, unable to do anything.
Would they have lived a little longer if he hadn’t helped them escape from Tar? With family… in their family’s embrace.
“Don’t you resent that if Evil Endem had come earlier, the deceased could have been saved?”
A question was thrown once again from the reporter section that had briefly quieted. Cheche answered immediately.
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t resent him?”
“I don’t think they could have been saved even if Director Evil had come earlier.”
It was an answer no one expected. The reporters’ eyes immediately lit up. It was perfect for drawing a provocative headline in many ways.
“Why? Don’t you trust User Evil?”
“Do you think current disasters can’t be resolved with a Multi-User’s abilities?”
“Do you perhaps mean Aura Users don’t have to help no-Users?”
Blatant questions poured out. The Endem family secretary who was watching them signaled the moderator to end it, as the press conference was going differently than intended.
Since there’s a joint funeral schedule soon, we’ll end the Q&A here.
The moderator hurriedly tried to organize the venue. Even without Cheche’s answer or supplementary explanation, the reporters had already decided on headlines in their minds anyway. The Endem family’s secretaries gestured for Cheche on the podium to come down. Cheche slowly scanned the reporters getting up with laptops and opened his mouth.
“Because Tasmin is a Tartarian.”
It was a voice with no emotion.
“Because they’re someone who should be rescued last. I think it would have been difficult to survive even if Director Evil had come.”
“……”
“If I should resent anything, I resent the cause of the wildfire. Resenting Director Evil isn’t my part to play.”
The image of Cheche speaking quietly with a calm face toward the reporters was captured on camera and broadcast live throughout the country. The broadcast was soon interrupted as the Endem family secretary went up to the podium, but people reacted hotly to this press conference.
Because Cheche’s words could be interpreted in any way.
***
Cheche attended the joint funeral schedule until the end. Because he had gathered attention at the press conference, even channels that hadn’t planned to broadcast it briefly covered him as breaking news.
The funeral ended in the evening, but Cheche was detained by the Endem family and had to hear several precautions. All the precautions were ultimately one thing.
‘Don’t make statements or actions disadvantageous to Evil Endem.’
Cheche answered that he would do so.
Late at night, the luxury sedan carrying Cheche stopped near the officetel prepared by the Endem family. Cheche, who got out of the car, put on the hat prepared by the family secretary and walked into the alley avoiding people’s gazes.
The small-framed boy with a hat pulled down low on a dark night didn’t draw people’s attention. The house where he currently lived was inside a narrow alley behind the officetel. Cheche stopped for a moment in front of a small iron gate.
In one year, he’d brought fifty people to Alcity, and one of them had died. The time Tasmin stayed in Alcity was too short to make a family. There was no one to stand as chief mourner. Ownership of the belongings passed to Cheche. In the house where Tasmin had stayed, there was only a wardrobe and floor desk, a small mirror and winter blanket, and a few household items. Cheche signed that he would donate everything.
Cheche looked up at the night sky. The white stars embedded in the black sky weren’t much different from the sky seen in Tar, but below them was so different. Even in Alcity’s poorest area, there were no walls with bullets embedded or unexploded ordnance. Even if he closed his eyes and listened carefully, sounds like shells falling couldn’t be heard. In that place, explosions could always be heard from afar, but this place was quiet and peaceful.
Even now, in that place, an entire village would be becoming a wasteland and countless lives would be dying.
Under this quiet night sky, if he closed his eyes, it was as if all those things didn’t exist.
“……”
Cheche, who had been calmly catching his breath, opened his eyes again. The faded golden eyes no longer faced the sky.
Cheche immediately headed to the rusty iron gate. He went down the dim stairs toward the small room where he currently stayed, and as soon as he arrived, picked up the small military knife placed on the desk. The sharp end of the knife pointed at the inside of his forearm.
Just enough to not be caught by the quick-witted Multi-User.
Just enough to not become soaked in Alcity’s peace.
One more scar increased on Cheche’s arm.
***
After the joint funeral ended, the wildfire incident, which seemed like it would quiet down, rose to the surface again because of the no-User citizen who made the complaint call. Evil’s announcement that he would help in future disasters only if the no-User citizen knelt and apologized shocked many people.
Voices demanding an apology grew louder, asking how he could make such base threats with people’s lives at stake. After sending Cheche to the wildfire fatalities’ joint funeral the other day, to do such dirty power harassment behind the scenes.
The complaining citizen joined hands with citizen groups and began a sit-in in front of the User Center. Evil looked down at that scene from his 201st-floor office with his arms crossed.
James looked at that back view nervously. What if he runs down right now and attacks to kill them….
When Evil finally whirled around with a terrifying expression, James opened his mouth without realizing it.
