# Chapter 63
Suddenly, I remembered something I had forgotten. I turned my head without delay. Ben was sitting next to me—we had met by chance during lunch break and were now taking a rest on a bench.
“Mr. Ben, were there any other intruders that day?”
Ben, who had been watching the slowly falling leaves as if appreciating them, turned his head at my words.
“Hmm… Ah, now that I think about it, there were.”
After recalling his memory for a moment, he finally remembered and exclaimed.
Based on his answer, I continued my train of thought. Clearly, that day “Knock” was also supposed to attack Peace as a decoy. Since the schedule was confirmed, they must have shown up.
“But why hasn’t there been any mention of them?”
However, it bothered me that I hadn’t heard any talk about “Knock” this whole time.
As I mumbled quietly, Ben, who was eating ice cream, casually spoke as if he had heard me.
“That’s because I killed them.”
Then he went back to eating his ice cream. Several seconds passed as I struggled to accept his words.
“You, Mr. Ben?”
I hurriedly asked again after finally understanding what he meant, but Ben simply nodded willingly as if it were nothing.
“Yes, that’s why I easily detected the suspicious person in the lobby.”
Ben, speaking as if there was absolutely no problem, seemed very accustomed to this situation. I had expected that he might have killed someone since he became S-class through Peace’s experiments, but still.
“It’s okay. Peace gave me permission to kill them.”
“Knock” was a villain group notorious for killing even civilians. They were a radical organization that Peace would never let live. Additionally, they had shown hostility toward “Alice” and killed members of our organization, so I didn’t feel particularly moved by their deaths.
However, Ben’s words were the issue. He was saying that he had killed them not based on his own judgment, but on Peace’s orders. If he had said he had no choice but to follow orders, that would be one thing, but his reaction showed no such indication. He simply followed orders. That was all.
“What would you do if Peace ordered you to kill civilians, Mr. Ben?”
No matter what, blindly following orders without any personal judgment is a serious problem. I knew this better than anyone. After all, I too could follow any of Boss’s orders.
To be fair, I could follow them because I trusted that he wouldn’t give unreasonable orders, but I couldn’t be certain that I would refuse if Boss asked me to kill innocent citizens.
Because my refusal could disrupt his plans. However, always following orders wasn’t necessarily helpful to him either. Sometimes, refusal could be the best way to help Boss. The problem was that I couldn’t choose that path.
I was afraid of being abandoned. That’s why, even though I knew that having no personal judgment was a problem, I couldn’t do anything about it.
Ben and I were similar in this way. Just as Boss’s words were my answer, Peace’s words would be his. So I could anticipate Ben’s next words.
“Of course I’d have to kill them.”
There was no lie in his purple eyes, which were blinking as if he didn’t understand what was wrong. His appearance was like that of an innocent child who knew nothing.
I had expected it, but the bitterness was unavoidable. If someone had taken the wrong path, you should show them the right one. But I had no right to do so.
All I could do in the end was just stand by.
“I suppose so.”
If I were Ben, I would have said the same thing. Because I was someone who could only give affirmative answers to all of Boss’s commands.
I just hope Peace doesn’t completely break Ben.
* * *
After finishing his break with Kane, Ben headed to the control room as he always did. When he entered, a brown back of the head caught his eye. The owner of that head turned around as if familiar.
“You’re here again today.”
“I’m bored.”
“How about re-applying as a regular employee instead of being a hero?”
Tade’s words clearly showed his annoyance at Ben who visited at all hours, but as always, Ben let it go in one ear and out the other.
It was as good as saying he would continue to visit in the future. When Ben naturally sat in the chair next to Tade, he clicked his tongue loud enough for Ben to hear.
The problem was that due to recent staff shortages, the control room that was usually managed by two people was now covered by just one. Initially, since the workload wasn’t too heavy, it wasn’t a big issue, but the person in front of him was the problem.
After learning that only Tade was here, Ben kept visiting as if it were his own room. This was probably because he had memories with Hans here. However, to Tade, he was just an annoying person. How could anyone casually welcome an S-class hero?
Unfortunately, Tade didn’t have the power to stop Ben. Unless Ben left on his own, he had no choice but to endure this painful situation. Although Tade’s motto was to be content with what was given, at this moment, he couldn’t help but regret not being an S-class hero himself.
“What are you looking at so intently?”
Finally unable to drive Ben away, Tade turned his head following Ben’s gaze. He had been wondering what Ben was staring at so fixedly, and it turned out he was focused on one person on the screen.
“It’s Kane.”
“You know him?”
When Tade murmured the name of the person he was most interested in recently, Ben finally responded to his words.
“We became friends recently.”
Tade’s definition of friendship was a bit different from ordinary people’s. He considered himself friends with someone as soon as he felt close to them. It was a sense of closeness that completely ignored the other person’s wishes.
But Ben wouldn’t know that. His eyes sparkled at Tade’s words.
“Then do you know what Kane likes?”
“Roughly.”
“How did you become friends?”
Tade stared at Ben observantly, noticing his complete change in demeanor. This was similar to how he was when talking to Hans. Not like a cold, handsome man, but more like a large dog.
This level of reaction suggested they had a fairly special relationship. But when Hans was around, he had never mentioned Kane.
“I gave him some advice on a problem he had. More importantly, haven’t you ever thought about who Kane resembles?”
If so, he might have developed feelings for Kane around the same time as Tade. Tade’s green eyes shone strangely. His hands tapped on the desk as if waiting for an answer.
“Well… I do feel comfortable when I’m with him.”
“Like when you’re with someone else?”
To get the answer he wanted, Tade continued to lead Ben on. Unaware of this, Ben shared his thoughts without any suspicion.
“Someone similar—”
Although he hadn’t thought about it before, now that he did, one person came to mind so clearly that he wondered why he hadn’t realized it earlier.
“Hans.”
While they didn’t look alike physically, their personalities were surprisingly similar to Hans. His gaze returned to the screen showing Kane. Ben’s brows furrowed in perplexity.
“Strange. I never thought of him resembling Hans before.”
His connection with Hans wasn’t particularly long, but it wasn’t short either. Yet this was the first time he had such a thought. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t met Kane after meeting Hans.
Back then, Kane had been excessively timid. He was kind, but didn’t give the impression of being as straightforward as he did now. And that wasn’t all.
His eyes never looked at Ben directly. But now? Somehow Kane was now clearly looking at him.
“You’ve had this thought recently?”
“Yes…”
Ben had noticed that the current Kane was noticeably different from the past Kane. Was it possible for a person’s personality to change like this?
“After Hans disappeared?”
“I think so. But why do you ask?”
Moreover, Tade seemed to be aware of this. Ben’s eyes narrowed. He needed to know what Tade was hiding.
“Just… I thought something similar.”
However, Tade only gave an awkward response, avoiding a direct answer.
“How did you become friends with him?”
Instead, Tade asked Ben a question first.
“Ah, I met him in the research lab.”
Swept along by Tade, Ben spoke candidly. Tade was relieved by this, but when he reflected on the sentence, he couldn’t hide his displeasure.
“The research lab…”
People thought of Peace’s research lab as a place for studying and managing superpower users. But Tade couldn’t see it that way.
The atmosphere flowing around the researchers was far from normal for it to be considered ordinary research.
When researchers passed by him, he felt chills and goosebumps. It was as if a black fog covered them. Among all the people Tade had seen with such an atmosphere, none were decent people.
One hundred out of one hundred, all were people who had committed crimes. But someone like him without any power couldn’t investigate Peace’s research based on the atmosphere he felt.
That’s why Tade turned his attention away from them.
To think Ben was frequenting such a research lab. In fact, Ben had a mix of the purity only found in children along with a cold, damp feeling. This was a first. A feeling of things that shouldn’t coexist, mixing together.
Could this be related to the research? He hadn’t thought to connect the dissonance he felt from Ben with the atmosphere flowing among the researchers because it felt different.
“I guess that makes sense since Kane is a researcher too.”
But that thought didn’t last long. For Tade, dwelling on this was utterly useless.
If you can’t change anything, then don’t get involved from the start.
That was the way of life he had lived—something he couldn’t tell Kane.
