Cheche listened to the lecture expressionlessly. His gaze was directed at teaching materials for children.
“All Aura Users must be careful of Adapters. Especially in the case of Soul Aura Users, there’s a high possibility of being swayed by Adapters. In Cheche-ssi’s case, since you’re S-rank, the Aura User Protection Law will apply strongly… but it’s still better to be careful…”
“What’s the Aura User Protection Law?”
“Literally, it’s a law created to protect Aura Users, who are the world’s precious assets. All Adapters must not invade an Aura User’s mind without the Center’s approval or the other Aura User’s acceptance, and if they invade without permission, they receive a minimum prison sentence of ten years or more. There was even an Adapter who tried to harm a certain Souler idol who received life imprisonment under this protection law.”
Cheche fell into thought for a moment, then asked again.
“What if an Aura User harasses an Aura User?”
“In that case, the Aura User Code applies rather than the Aura User Protection Law. It depends on the rank and situation.”
“What about a No User harassing an Aura User?”
“That’s subject to the Aura User Protection Law. Even if they’re No Users, who are relatively weaker, there are plenty of ways to harm an Aura User… This part is controversial, but if the perpetrator is a No User, they receive even stronger punishment than an Adapter. That’s why nowadays, No Users harming Aura Users almost never happens. In the past, No Users would kidnap Aura Users who had just awakened like Cheche-ssi and couldn’t properly control their power. They all received life sentences…”
“All of them…”
“Yes, all of them. Regardless of the criminals’ nationality, whatever backing they had, if the evidence is clear, they all get life imprisonment. The Aura User Protection Law is a regulation above national and international law…”
It was a very controversial law. Especially No Users claimed that the law protected the strong rather than the weak. However, no matter how unfair it was, this law would never disappear. Because the current Earth needs Aura Users more than No Users. For the sake of Earth, even if Aura Users were the strong, they had to be protected.
“Hey, there’s one more. Types of Aura Users. Besides Adapters, Motioners, and Soulers, there’s one more.”
Evil, who had been watching only Cheche with his arms crossed, suddenly interrupted. Thinking he was being tested, the instructor vigorously worked his brain and came up with an answer.
“Multi Users… there are also Multi Users who can use both Soul Aura and Motion Aura simultaneously.”
“How many are there?”
“Currently, there’s only one Multi User, Evil De… Endem-nim.”
When the instructor answered perceptively, Evil shrugged his shoulders and looked at Cheche.
Did you hear? I’m this amazing.
To Evil, whose red eyes sparkled with a confident face, Cheche asked indifferently.
“Then are Multi Users called Multiers?”
“…We don’t shorten it. Fuck, anyway there’s only me.”
Evil pursed his lips. The instructor could neither laugh nor cry and only stared at the corner. Multier. It was so trivial that managing his expression was difficult.
“Well, you did ask me how you’d make a mark in history without doing anything to me, the one and only SSS Multi User in history.”
Hieek, when the instructor inhaled, Evil glared at him with displeased eyes, perhaps irritated. At the murderous intent rising from those blood-red eyes, the instructor covered his mouth with both hands. Nevertheless, his legs trembled so much he ended up sitting down. Seeing that, Evil sneered.
“See. That’s a normal reaction.”
“……”
Cheche stood up abruptly and approached the instructor.
“Are you okay?”
“…I’m…”
When Cheche grabbed one of the instructor’s arms and supported his shoulder, sparks flew from Evil’s eyes. The instructor instinctively shook off Cheche’s hand. Smack—a rougher sound than expected rang out. The slender, tan-colored wrist quickly reddened. The instructor couldn’t even say sorry and just gaped his lips.
“These days all kinds of trashy things are annoying me just because I’ve been staying still.”
At the same time Evil kicked back his chair and stood up, Cheche lightly pushed the instructor’s back.
“Please leave.”
“But…”
“It’s fine.”
“What’s fine about it.”
Evil growled menacingly.
Like a herbivore frozen before a beast’s threat, Cheche pushed the instructor’s back again. Their eyes met—golden eyes. The moment he saw those eyes with no fear whatsoever, not just calm but even indifferent, the instructor gained the strength to stand.
“Where do you think you’re running? You should leave your right arm behind.”
The microphone speaker that had been on the podium flew through the air, heading precisely toward the instructor’s shoulder. The instructor screamed and cowered, but didn’t feel any pain.
Carefully opening his eyes, he saw Cheche’s back, and the speaker was floating right in front of Cheche’s forehead.
“Director.”
“Are you testing my patience? Testing how much of your behavior I can tolerate?”
“No.”
“Then get out of the way. I need to rip off that arm.”
“Why?”
“Why? That bastard hit your arm…!”
“I’m perfectly fine.”
Cheche pushed away the floating speaker and approached. Evil stopped in place, going uh, uh.
“Director, look. I’m not hurt.”
Slowly, approaching closer, Cheche pushed up his long sleeves to his elbows and held out his arm with exposed skin in front of Evil. The wrist the instructor had hit was still red, but as if only Cheche’s eyes couldn’t see the reddened skin, he brazenly came forward as if saying, look, aren’t I perfectly fine.
“You, ha…”
Evil seemed dumbfounded and couldn’t continue speaking.
The instructor, coming to his senses in that moment, fled the office with that subtle standoff as his last view. When his eyes met James, the secretary who had been waiting in the corridor because he’d heard the commotion anyway, James nodded as if he understood and guided the instructor to the secretary’s office.
The instructor signed a confidentiality agreement to keep silent about everything in the secretary’s office. Even while signing, he kept glancing at the entrance, and one of the secretaries brought their face close and whispered.
“Cheche is there. He won’t chase you, so rest assured.”
It was utterly incomprehensible and not at all reassuring, but as the secretary said, the demon didn’t appear until he finished signing. When the instructor headed to the elevator past the corridor where the office was located, there was no sound at all from the office.
Even as the instructor left the Center’s main entrance, even in the taxi going home, even in front of his housemate who was curious about what had happened, he worried that Evil Devil might suddenly appear and harm him. However, even after several days passed, that didn’t happen, and he only felt relieved when he saw the news that Cheche had completed all education as a Soul Aura User.
Only after feeling relieved did curiosity arise.
Cheche—isn’t he scared? Of having to be alone in the same space with such a demon. What happened after I ran away like that that day? How can he be so calm? He was even assaulted by Evil not long ago. In the news it was only once, but the instructor speculated there must have been habitual assault.
Acting without fear like that might be because he came from a battlefield. In the movie where he appeared in the role of a child soldier, his acting was terrible…
The stranger thing was Evil Devil. Why that demon was… caught by Cheche, that small, thin refugee. The reason for his anger in the first place was also that the instructor had pushed Cheche away.
The demon’s face at that time was very strange.
‘Well, you did ask me how you’d make a mark in history without doing anything to me, the one and only SSS Multi User in history.’
When he said that, somehow, though it really didn’t make sense, it was an expression of pride… though it really didn’t make sense, it seemed pleased.
Though it really didn’t make sense…
Looking at Cheche, who brazenly blocked the way forward while holding out his reddened wrist, looking at the refugee who dared not fear him, he seemed terribly delighted. Though it really didn’t make any sense…
***
During the one-week education period, they went through three instructors solely because of Evil’s tyranny, and the basic training for learning qualities as an Aura User was safely(?) completed.
“What do I do now?”
After finishing the test conducted in the morning, to Cheche who asked that, Evil said there was still much to do and told him to follow.
The place they arrived at was a helicopter landing pad, and the place they flew to for another twenty-some minutes by helicopter was a famous restaurant in a certain tourist city. Evil rented out two floors of this place for about an hour and a half of lunch time. He told the lower floor to be used by the attendants including the helicopter pilot, and only Evil, Cheche, and James came up to the top floor with the good view.
“Give me that.”
“Yes.”
Before the food came out, Evil gestured to James. James quickly took out a file from his briefcase.
The fact that the famous person who was Tar’s young hero and Evil Devil’s secretary had awakened as an S-rank Souler spread, and various organizations showed interest. Organizations specializing in performances using illusion techniques, organizations specializing in psychological treatment of trauma, organizations specializing in Luzem crafting, and so on.
