Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

The pub near the ‘wall’ was filled with agencies with tired faces. Norman stopped by the pub out of habit. He had a day that he couldn’t endure without a cool beer.

“Norman!”

But this pub was full of people targeting him like mosquitoes.

‘They didn’t even acknowledge me usually…’

Norman internally sighed at the gestures calling him and moved his steps that way. As soon as Norman, who forced a smile, put his butt in the chair, people started talking to him.

After a few meaningless greetings exchanged, the main point of why they called Norman quickly followed.

“I heard your mercenary group’s performance is amazing these days? They cleared four Gates in just this week?”

“Is that true?”

As expected, there was a reason these opportunists who usually didn’t acknowledge him called him.

‘They’re curious about my mercenary group.’

Norman simply nodded. Until now, all the mercenary groups he handled were just terrible guys who could be considered the most C-grade among C-grade. No one paid attention to him who exclusively handled such mercenary groups.

Until he took charge of the mercenary group called Golden Day.

“But they’re all just C-grade Gates.”

Norman said with a forced smile. Hoping these opportunists would lose interest in his mercenary group. But that hope was immediately shattered.

“Even if they’re just C-grade, seven in ten days doesn’t make sense! I heard they’re Asians, where are they from? China? I’ve met Chinese people a few times. You know what? There are no agencies in China. Instead, the state leads all contracts. While taking 90% fees! So they accept whatever conditions we put, all saying ‘Hao!’, ‘Hao!’.”

“Uh, well… those people are from Korea.”

“Oh, I see. Well, nationality isn’t important. Anyway, isn’t that a communist country too?”

At those words, Norman just shrugged his shoulders. The man sitting to Norman’s left added an order to the bartender and continued speaking:

“If they cleared Gates consecutively like that, maybe that mercenary group isn’t C-grade. What about the traces left inside the Gates?”

“Well, I just handed them over to the group and didn’t ask for details.”

“You can’t do that, Norman. If you want to be a proper agency, you need to grasp the mercenary group’s situation better than anyone.”

The face of the man who said that while placing his hand on Norman’s shoulder was full of ugly emotions.

‘Yes, yes. I was lucky and fortunately contracted with a mercenary group that doesn’t match my level.’

Norman sipped his beer while internally muttering the words these people wanted to hear.

“They’re not interested in higher grades?”

“That’s right! If they can clear C-grade Gates like that, they could enter B-grade anytime.”

With the recent explosive increase in Gate occurrences, there was plenty of work. Though there weren’t high-grade Gates of S-grade or above yet, even A-grade Gates were appearing quite often now.

It was a time when securing hunters who could handle higher grade Gates was more important than ever.

Norman thought the same.

The problem is that they rejected this proposal.

“I actually made the proposal, but they rejected it. They said they have no intention of collaborating with other mercenary groups.”

“Really? That’s unfortunate.”

“Did you hear why they refused?”

“Yes, I did hear but…”

It was a reason Norman couldn’t understand at all.

“They said they want to focus on just C-grade Gates for now.”

“Really? That’s strange. Hunters who come all the way here to conquer Gates are usually crazy about money, but they don’t want to raise the Gate grade even if offered? This could stink.”

“Didn’t you say they came from Southeast Asia? It’s common for criminals from there to change their identity and work as hunters on our side.”

“But in that case, they don’t work so hard on conquering Gates like this. Since their purpose is just identity laundering.”

“Well, that’s true.”

Words about Norman and Norman’s mercenary group were exchanged without Norman having a chance to interject. The conclusion was one:

“Anyway, I think they’re too big for Norman to handle. Ah, don’t misunderstand. I’m just saying this out of concern.”

“Haha, to say it so bluntly despite everything. If I were Norman, I would have been quite hurt.”

How long do I have to listen to this bullshit? Norman just sipped his beer with a blank face.

‘Should I just overturn everything?’

If someone hadn’t entered through the pub door at that moment, sweeping away all the attention of these damn guys, Norman might have really put the thoughts rising in his head into reality.

The pub door opened, and the agencies examining the person entering through that door immediately stopped talking and threw their gazes there.

A high-end suit costing several thousand dollars per set, and a neatly styled hairdo. An Asian with features some disparage as pale, but others call clear.

“Oh my.”

“Oh, who’s this?”

Short exclamations and brief silence. And then interest pouring towards him. Oh Seung-woo walked into the pub with an unchanging smile despite all those reactions.

“Mr. Oh!”

“What brings you to such a humble place?”

“Is Taika Cooper here too?”

Among the agencies rushing to him like a swarm of bees, Oh Seung-woo, Taika Cooper’s agency, smiled with his eyes curved.

“Let’s start with belated greetings first. It’s been a while, Mr. Baker. Mr. Glen too.”

Despite dozens of gazes focused on him, Oh Seung-woo instantly picked out the names of the two most successful agencies here. Watching Baker and Glen’s cheeks twitch like they were about to burst after their names were called by his mouth, Norman internally cursed.

“As you all know, my most successful client is currently conquering an S-grade Gate. The agency with nothing to do came here to handle other business.”

“Yeah, I’m very curious about that other business. Why on earth did someone like you come here?”

Unlike the agencies here who mainly deal with contracts between mercenary companies and the US government, Oh Seung-woo mediated contracts between guilds and hunters.

Therefore, he’s someone who originally has no business in a place crawling with mercenary companies. Unless he’s trying to poach hunters from mercenary groups.

The welcome was brief, and tension soon circled the pub.

“Haha, don’t worry. It’s true I came for a contract, but I hear that friend isn’t currently affiliated with any mercenary group.”

At those words, sighs of relief flowed among the agencies. It meant they could at least stop worrying about Oh Seung-woo snatching away a mercenary group ace.

By the way, a promising rookie that Oh Seung-woo would be interested in is wandering without affiliation?

“So who is Mr. Oh interested in?”

Someone gulped at that question. As people’s eyes focused, the man who raised that question hurriedly waved his hands and added as if making excuses:

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not trying to poach in advance, it’s the opposite. I absolutely won’t touch them.”

“Well, dealing with Mr. Oh isn’t an ordinary matter.”

A sane agency wouldn’t leak information about who they’re targeting in a place like this, but he was Oh Seung-woo.

The legend of the agency world who has never lost someone he’s set his sights on.

“Albatross.”

At the name that came out of Oh Seung-woo’s mouth, all the agencies opened their mouths in surprise. Norman was surprised too.

“Oh, that migratory bird?”

“Yes, that migratory bird.”

At Oh Seung-woo’s words, someone opened their mouth as if lamenting:

“That guy is really a troublemaker. Around here, well, he has talent but is so hard to handle.”

“I wondered if there was anyone who could hold onto that guy who lives for the fun of churning through mercenary groups.”

“You’re targeting that guy, though of course Mr. Oh must have his reasons…”

Every agency here had experience handling the migratory bird at least once. Since he changed mercenary groups so often. Norman also had been with that man before. Well, and it remained a terrible memory he never wanted to experience again.

Despite the surrounding reactions, Oh Seung-woo’s face was still confident.

“I guess easy targets aren’t fun anymore.”

“In that sense, I understand. I also thought it would be good if that guy settled down somewhere.”

“Buddy, you? Didn’t you curse him to die last time?”

“Well, that’s because that bastard disintegrated one of my precious mercenary groups.”

“I got hit with that too.”

The talk gradually started heating up. Oh Seung-woo was listening to all their words with a smiling face. In the end, it was Baker who cautiously interjected into this situation:

“Everyone stop. What good words are you all making a fuss about? Besides, that’s all in the past, right?”

He was clearly watching Oh Seung-woo’s reaction. That snake-like old man. Norman quietly looked at Oh Seung-woo.

But he also became curious.

No matter how great Oh Seung-woo is, can he really perch that ‘migratory bird’ on a roost?

* * *

After handling the seventh Gate, we decided to take a short rest. Actually, our stamina was bursting enough to handle several more Gates consecutively, but the problem is that side.

Cha Song-jin lying face down on the floor shouted at us:

“You can beat me to death, but I can’t go out today.”

He certainly looked that way.

“I can just carry you.”

“No!”

Kim Jae-ho’s suggestion was immediately rejected. Well, last time Kim Jae-ho ‘carried instead’ the slow Cha Song-jin to move… Cha Song-jin showed us a magic show displaying everything he ate that day.

—That was really dirty.

‘Yes.’

Not wanting to see that magic show again, I told Kim Jae-ho to refrain from carrying and running with Cha Song-jin.

I casually went to Cha Song-jin groaning on the floor and spoke to him:

“Are you okay?”

“Urgh, urgh.”

The answer came out as a miserable groan.

“Want me to give you a massage?”

I asked with goodwill, but Cha Song-jin just shook his head. Last time I gave him a muscle-loosening massage once, and since then he winces whenever I try to touch him.

—I thought you were trying to kill someone then.

‘When the body is that stiff, should I just leave it alone?’

“If you don’t loosen it properly, it all gets stiff…”

“Don’t you know? If we gather we live, if we scatter we die…”

Seeing him make strange sounds, he really seemed to be having a hard time.

—Looks like your nonsense is contagious.

‘What are you saying? I’m not some germ that’s spreading something.’

—Looking at it positively, it means he’s relaxed enough to make such jokes.

Hmm, certainly. These days it seems like I’ve seen Cha Song-jin trembling in fear a bit less.

Kim Jae-ho approached Cha Song-jin lying on the floor and said tilting his head:

“What did you do to be so tired?”

At those words, Cha Song-jin shouted as if wronged:

“H-how hard it was.”

“But you didn’t do anything.”

“I followed hard!”

“You just followed. Me and Seo-hyeon and Boss caught all the monsters.”

I chuckled watching Cha Song-jin getting heated at Kim Jae-ho’s provocation. Yeah, he does seem to have gotten more comfortable.

Between the two people arguing hard with Kim Jae-ho, Han Seo-hyeon narrowed his eyes and said to me:

“They say a lot of Gates are occurring around here. When I checked for sure, the frequency is abnormally high.”

I nodded at Han Seo-hyeon’s words. It certainly was an abnormal number. The wall’s gates opened dozens of times a day and countless Gates were being conquered by countless mercenary companies. Despite that, Norman presents Gates without fail whenever I want.

—I think it’s strange too.

“The local media’s assessment is that something will happen soon.”

“How did you know the local media’s assessment?”

At my words, Han Seo-hyeon waved his phone.

“These days you can interpret pretty much anything with just a translator. I think a perfect interpreter will come out soon too. We might not need to bother studying foreign languages.”

“If you say that, what does that make Cha Song-jin who’s been studying foreign languages hard these days?”

“Well, an idiot?”

“So everything I made him do was idiocy, I see…”

“…!”

Han Seo-hyeon hurriedly made excuses at my words. Still, learning foreign languages gives you competitiveness, or it’s better to learn directly than translators that break when you hit them, he said.

“Humans break when you hit them too.”

—He’s sulking.

‘No he’s not.’

I should stop teasing Han Seo-hyeon here. I patted Han Seo-hyeon’s shoulder and said:

“You worked hard investigating. We should leave here soon.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to leave here right away?”

“Hmm…”

Certainly, the too frequent occurrence of Gates was a danger sign.

But don’t we have Cha Song-jin! Our escape route that can run away in any situation.

“For now, I think we have time to see what happens with our own eyes. We can run away in an emergency anyway.”

Han Seo-hyeon scrunched his face seeing the person my gaze touched, but silently nodded.

“Then you rest well today too…”

Just as I was about to speak to Han Seo-hyeon.

Thump thump thump.

Someone knocked on our container door.