He just placed it there without any thought.
However, Cheche didn’t know, but that trivial, small contact saved Dimmaz. Because Cheche himself didn’t realize that he had touched first for the first time since the Armal sea, but Evil recognized it immediately.
The murderous intent that had been swirling in Evil’s eyes faded, and his interest turned from the bug who dared try to touch Cheche to Cheche. His voice also became quite soft.
“Why were you so intimately facing each other when you don’t know each other?”
“We weren’t being intimate.”
“Don’t let just anyone pet you. I’ll cut off the wrists of anything that touches you.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why? You’re my secretary.”
Evil answered as if it were obvious and turned Cheche around.
The face of Evil that Cheche looked up at was the same as usual. A somewhat arrogant and sulky face. Only Dimmaz and the others saw the expression thick with murderous intent.
“My secretary needs my permission when talking to other people.”
“Secretary-General James doesn’t do that.”
“You have to do that because you’re from a refugee background. If I say so, then that’s how it is.”
Evil spread nonsensical logic while messing up Cheche’s gray hair with the hand not embracing his waist.
“I work hard saving people and come back, and what do I find but you chattering away with some bug bastard.”
“I’m sorry.”
The apology that followed perfectly calmed Evil’s anger.
After making Cheche face him, Evil raised one eyebrow toward the breath-holding Dimmaz.
“So, what are you?”
“I, I’m A-rank Dimmaz South. I, I’m sorry.”
In fact, Evil had heard everything. While moving the crane to a safe location with psychokinesis, his ears were listening to all the conversation. He also knew that the documentary production team had released part of the unedited footage online, and he knew which fan club distributed which lunch boxes on last year’s documentary intro filming day.
Cheche has many fans. It was natural since he had quite a cute and pretty appearance, a kind and righteous heart, yet was always humble and gentle.
Evil had also visited several large-scale fan sites. In fact, he’d gone in and out dozens of times. Because the photos directly taken of Cheche during external activities were quite high quality, he couldn’t help but enter. Honestly speaking, they were much better photos than articles that just used provocative pictures, so every time he went in and out, he saved a bunch of photos.
After Cheche was determined to be a Soul Aura User in the first measurement, the fan sites were flooded with verification posts from people saying they were actually Aura Users too. Aura Users hoping to join the Center also surged, and there were also many users who stayed at the Center for no reason even when they had no work.
Some large entertainment agency contacted the Center saying they wanted to develop Cheche as an artist, and offers from the Adapter Association side were pouring in for resource support to enhance Cheche’s aura (it was common for early awakening Aura Users belonging to the resource center to have Adapters attached to amplify their abilities).
Evil scanned the trembling Dimmaz up and down. He was a male who appeared to be in his late twenties, and his aura ability was mediocre. He looked like a squid too.
“If you’re his fan, you’d better quit being a fan quickly. He hates everyone except those from Tar.”
Evil rubbed his palm against Cheche’s soft cheek while holding Cheche in his arms. Only his back was visible to Dimmaz’s view.
“He has this cute face, but inside he’ll be disgusted with you. For being an Alcity person who has everything but didn’t help Tar. Of course, I don’t dislike you. I helped humans nine times today.”
Evil shrugged his shoulders and asked Cheche.
“Am I right?”
“No.”
“…What?”
“Dimmaz-ssi helped Tar. He said he’s currently sponsoring twenty children.”
Cheche raised his head from within Evil’s embrace. A face that was gradually getting sulky was reflected in his golden eyes.
“Fuck.”
Evil cursed and glared at Dimmaz. Dimmaz was even more flustered than Evil.
“You sponsored twenty Tar refugees?”
“W-well, exactly twenty-five…. I started sponsoring when Cheche-ssi saved the war correspondent and was first known in the press…. Five have graduated….”
“……”
“Now they’ve found jobs… they sent handwritten letters saying I don’t need to sponsor them anymore… so….”
“How about that.”
Dimmaz, who felt a threat to his life, was very dizzy and confused, so he blurted out even useless information. Evil’s eyes sank. The thick murderous intent didn’t leak out like before. He seemed displeased rather than angry.
“Let’s go back.”
Evil immediately got in the car with Cheche. The tense driver headed straight to the residence.
Because Evil’s mood was considerably low, the Luzem cutting that day became a thing that never happened.
He didn’t even eat. It was extremely rare for Evil, whose basal metabolic rate exceeded human levels, to skip a meal. Although he was a Motion Aura User who could go a week without eating and be physically fine, hunger pangs existed, so Evil couldn’t stand his giant stomach being empty.
That Evil declared he wouldn’t eat dinner and went up to the second floor. Naturally the residence employees fell into confusion and deduced from the previous day’s experience that it must be related to Cheche.
Hips stopped Cheche as a representative.
“Did something happen by any chance?”
“I don’t know.”
Hips pondered for a moment and asked again.
“Cheche-nim, we’ll make the judgment, so please tell us exactly what happened.”
“…The Director went out to an accident scene and encountered a certain Aura User, and he got angry knowing that Aura User sponsors Tar children.”
Getting angry that someone sponsored Tar?
Just listening to Cheche’s story, it seemed like Evil’s mortal enemy from a previous life had reincarnated as a Tar refugee child or something.
“I’ll explain.”
Fortunately, the driver who was nearby corrected it.
“Our young mas… our Director Evil helped with icy road accident processing as many as nine times today, but Cheche-nim showed more interest in an arrogant and irritating Aura User just because he sponsored Tar children, so he seems to be angry.”
“How could you!”
“He was ugly and short too.”
“Oh my…!”
Hips looked at Cheche with resentful eyes.
However, Cheche himself also looked at the driver with wide eyes. Like someone who heard something they never thought of.
Cheche really didn’t know why Evil was sulking. Cheche, who learned the truth, seemed somewhat shocked, so this time Hips let it pass without scolding.
The residence servants were very worried.
“He must be quite hungry, what should we do?”
“If food smell wafts, won’t his appetite be stimulated?”
“I wonder if he might get angry instead.”
Because the homeowner, who normally didn’t skip meals for psychological reasons, declared a hunger strike, all the residence employees were confused with gloomy expressions. They also watched carefully to see if it would be okay to cook food and let the smell waft.
“It’s better to skip dinner today. Go in.”
Cheche made the decision for everyone. Anyway, the employees ate separately at their quarters, and they only came to prepare meals for two people, but one person was thoroughly sulking and declared a hunger strike, so it was an awkward situation for the other one to just eat deliciously. Cheche also didn’t have confidence in eating food and digesting it because his stomach kept feeling bad.
“Should we… but Cheche-nim is hungry too.”
“I’m fine.”
“Hmm….”
Everyone was in agreement. It seemed dangerous to let food smell waft anyway….
Just as that was being decided, thud, thud, footsteps were heard from the second floor where Evil had gone up. Evil, who came down making loud sounds like a charging rhinoceros, shouted with terrifying red eyes.
“Feed the refugee bastard!”
And then he went back up with thudding sounds.
“……”
“……”
The chefs quietly gathered ingredients and headed to the kitchen. Cheche, who had been standing still, had to go to the dining room, unable to overcome Hips’s silent pressure.
***
Cheche couldn’t sleep until late. He had many worries. Lying on the floor with his body curled up, he pressed down firmly on his aching head.
Evil’s mood was hurt because of him, there were still six more days until the Soul Aura re-measurement results came out, and there had been no contact from John Gale for over a week.
