James vowed that from next time, he would make any excuse to skip the two’s meal gatherings.
***
It became the second day of the snowfall period. Usually the days with the most accidents during the snowfall period are the first day and the second day. Yesterday, as Evil expected, icy road accidents continued all day long, and Evil expected that today would be more if anything, never less.
Evil, who came to work at the Center, approved only urgent matters for exactly one hour then left work, but even until then, requests to send Aura Users because of icy road accidents continued. Evil clicked his tongue because it was so pathetic.
“How can they have accidents when they clearly know it snows around this time? The snowfall period—don’t they learn it in school? Really, a feast of idiots. This country must be full of idiots.”
From morning to afternoon, Evil went out to a total of eight icy road accidents… with all kinds of curses in his mouth from “pathetic,” “stupid” to “the fool who dies without proper preparation is the idiot.”
Though it absolutely wasn’t a scale that Evil needed to respond to, the reason he went was because he’d announced it to Cheche in the lobby yesterday morning.
Receiving praise that you did a good thing.
Evil took Cheche along to every accident site, and when Evil finished and returned, Cheche faithfully kept that promise. Last time he was distracted by hearing praise for the first time, but after hearing it a few more times, he quickly came to enjoy that praise.
To be precise, he came to enjoy Cheche’s face giving the praise.
The process of vitality blooming in an expression that had only seemed like a well-crafted doll was extremely addictive. Evil was very pleased with that change.
Evil demanded praise until he was satisfied and Cheche recited praise tirelessly. It was truly enjoyable.
‘Will he sleep on the bed today?’
Evil secretly hoped.
Yesterday they only visited three accident sites, but today was a whopping nine places. Since I worked this hard going around helping humans, I hope that small refugee sleeps on the bed today.
His chest swelled with anticipation.
The ninth accident site Evil chose was close to the Center. Evil, who was returning to the Center after handling the eighth accident, had them turn the car around nearby.
“I’ll end it with this today. Let’s do Luzem crafting when we get home.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve been waiting with my neck stretched out and finally we’re doing it. I don’t know how I held back wanting to do it. You should have urged me to hurry up and do Luzem instead of praising me moderately.”
“…”
“You imagined various things, right? What kind of crafting to do, what gems to use, what content to include. Running simulations in your head too. I can’t even imagine what someone indifferent and dry about everything like you would create.”
Evil kept grinning. While it was true Cheche had been waiting for Luzem crafting, Evil seemed to have much more anticipation.
The last accident site was the most dangerous place they’d visited today. A collision accident occurred due to ice, and a truck trying to avoid the cars crashed into a crane. The collapsed crane broke the asphalt and blocked the road, and the problem was it was near a gas station. A lower-ranked user dispatched first was evacuating people when he saw Evil and was so shocked he seemed about to faint as he stepped back.
“You stay here.”
Unlike other times, Evil left Cheche in the car and got out. Cheche, alone for once, let out a small sigh as soon as the car door closed. His stomach kept feeling bad. To say it was because he ate too much yesterday morning, this morning’s meal wasn’t that much, and his stomach had felt stuffy for several days.
As he was pressing his palm firmly below his solar plexus, someone knocked on the window—tap, tap.
When Cheche raised his head, the Motioner who had arrived first waved and greeted him with a flushed face.
“Should I open the window?”
“Yes, please open it.”
With Cheche’s permission, the driver rolled down the back seat window.
The Motioner placed his hand on the window frame and smiled brightly.
“As expected, Cheche was in the car. Hello, I’m really a fan.”
“Hello.”
“My name is Dimmaz South, A-rank Motioner. I’ve been a real fan since you were in Tar, Cheche-ssi. I’m glad to see you like this. Though we met under bad circumstances. I really wanted to see you.”
“Thank you.”
After coming to Alcity, Cheche occasionally met people who called themselves his fans. They requested autographs and photos, wanted to exchange numbers, and some wanted to become friends. They were burdensome people to Cheche.
“Could I possibly get an autograph? And take a photo together? If it’s not rude, your phone number too…”
Dimmaz stepped on all three landmines at once and instantly rose to the top of Cheche’s list of burdensome people.
When Cheche didn’t even get out of the car and just stared up at him, Dimmaz scratched his head and smiled.
“I’m not a bad person. I may look like this but I’m a Motioner… Ah, I started sponsoring Tar because of you, Cheche-ssi, and now I have twenty sponsored children.”
Clack—Cheche opened the car door and got out.
Cheche bowed his head to him in greeting.
“Thank you for helping Tar.”
“Oh my, not at all. I feel sorry I can’t help more actively.”
“That’s enough.”
Cheche signed the paper Dimmaz held out and let himself be photographed with Dimmaz’s phone. However, he didn’t exchange phone numbers. When he said this phone wasn’t his but something Director Evil gave him, Dimmaz seemed to lose the desire to press for the number too.
“It’s really amazing to see you here. Did yesterday’s remeasurement go well?”
“Yes.”
“When we heard Cheche-ssi was an Aura User, our side was completely turned upside down. Since you’re S-rank, it’ll be difficult to overlap when dispatched to sites from now on. But I hope we can meet again.”
Dimmaz had a very cheerful and proactive personality. He grabbed Cheche’s hand and shook it.
“I even did support when you were filming the documentary around this time last year. You probably don’t remember though. I belonged to a different place but when Cheche-ssi became Evil-nim’s secretary, I even changed my affiliation to the Center. In case we might run into each other. And we really did run into each other like this.”
“…”
“Ah, Evil-nim requested the documentary’s unedited footage a while ago, right? When the documentary production team sent it to Evil-nim, they also briefly released a few clips on SNS. It was really delicious bait for fans, but I don’t know why Evil-nim requested the unedited version.”
Dimmaz, who had been chattering happily by himself, suddenly leaned his face in and whispered in Cheche’s ear.
“We’re speculating it might be to find a weakness. Be careful. All the reasons for suddenly revealing ability values or donating beastmeat must be because there’s some vicious scheme. Looking at how he’s going out to icy road accidents he doesn’t even need to personally handle today, it’s suspicious. People say he’s aiming for a good deed award, but in my opinion, there’s something deeper, darker, and more terrifying…”
“That’s not true.”
Cheche, who had been listening quietly, slipped his hand out of Dimmaz’s grasp and stepped back.
“The Director is doing good things.”
“…?”
“He’s helping people with good intentions.”
“Ah, Cheche-ssi.”
Dimmaz smiled as if he found it cute. He approached as much as Cheche had stepped back, then reached out his hand without hesitation.
“Your Alcity language must still be poor. Are you confusing ‘good’ and ‘bad’?”
It was a hand trying to stroke his head. Cheche didn’t avoid it this time. Even if he stepped back, he’d approach again anyway. Cheche’s gaze followed the hand reaching toward his head.
“What’s this?”
A chilling low voice came from above his head, and Dimmaz’s hand couldn’t settle at its destination. The pupils looking at Cheche’s back shook mercilessly.
Cheche was about to turn his head toward the voice’s owner when this time a firm arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him toward itself. A body hard as a wall touched Cheche’s back.
“What are you?”
“I, I…”
“Fuck, what are you doing getting all handsy with him?”
It was a voice with a cutting edge. Dimmaz hurriedly stepped back. The freezing cold avoided only Cheche. Though Cheche couldn’t see it, Dimmaz could fully see the process of killing intent settling in blood-red eyes.
Silence descended on the place that had been noisy with ambulance sirens and murmuring sounds. Before they knew it, everyone was watching this way with tense eyes.
“Hey, refugee. Do you know him?”
Evil asked while holding Cheche in his embrace.
“No.”
When Cheche twisted his body slightly to escape, the forearm tightened even more firmly. Cheche eventually gave up on escaping and only placed his palm on Evil’s forearm.
“……”
