Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

Until they discovered the illegal Gate, Do Chae-hee and Jeong Ho-san thought they had finally gained some results.

Even until they entered inside, arrested the disgusting people called managers, and rescued the victims, the two were filled with hope that they could find the mastermind behind this incident.

But before they could even properly begin interrogation, the managers took their own lives using poison needles hidden in the rings they were wearing.

"Th-this!"

When the two approached the managers foaming at the mouth in surprise, their breaths had already stopped.

"What kind of threats did they receive to take their lives so unhesitatingly?"

"...That's what I'd like to know."

Do Chae-hee and Jeong Ho-san fell into a state of panic at their sudden deaths.

But they couldn't drag out time for long with victims in need of immediate rescue.

"What should we do with those people?"

Behind them, about twenty people who had been exploited in this illegal Gate were looking at them with desperate eyes.

At Do Chae-hee's question, Jeong Ho-san cautiously opened his mouth.

"Contacting the Awakener Crime Department..."

"Would be like directly informing our enemies of our activities. I told you. We can't trust the ACD yet."

"Right, you did."

After going through the trouble of secretly making time to raid this place, reporting to the ACD would make it all for nothing. But they couldn't ignore the victims in need of help either.

At that moment, one person came to Jeong Ho-san's mind.

"Could you wait a moment?"

After pondering, Jeong Ho-san contacted Kim Myeong-cheol.

When Jeong Ho-san said he needed help after contacting him after a long time, Kim Myeong-cheol willingly lent a hand. No, more than just lending a hand. He flew over as if he had teleported right away.

At Kim Myeong-cheol's appearance, Jeong Ho-san said with an embarrassed expression:

"You didn't need to come in person..."

"No, I had to come in person. For something like this."

Kim Myeong-cheol said as if pitying while looking at Jeong Ho-san's face:

"Your face looks pretty bad."

"It's nothing."

"Nothing! It's become half of what it was."

At Kim Myeong-cheol's worried words, Jeong Ho-san scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression. For reference, Jeong Ho-san's weight hadn't decreased at all.

After examining Jeong Ho-san's face for a while, Kim Myeong-cheol's gaze turned to a woman hiding behind Jeong Ho-san.

"The police officer there who took away my precious guild member, that..."

At that call, Do Chae-hee, who had stiffened up as soon as she saw Kim Myeong-cheol, trembled her shoulders.

"Ah! I-I'm sorry!"

"What are you sorry for? I know it's all because of this guy's stubbornness."

Kim Myeong-cheol's eyes moistened as he said that.

"Yes, he's so bull-headed..."

Do Chae-hee couldn't say anything at that wistful expression. All the victims were safely rescued under Kim Myeong-cheol's guidance.

Though their future was obvious since most people were suffering from mana poisoning, it was still a much better end than meeting their final moments in the Gate.

Officially, it was decided that this incident was resolved by Kim Myeong-cheol who received a report from a citizen who 'coincidentally' saw an illegal Gate while passing by.

It was to protect the two of them.

"Illegal Gate cases are dangerous. It's too risky for an individual's name to be involved. If you want to achieve what you want, you need to stay alive for a long time, right?"

Kim Myeong-cheol persuaded Jeong Ho-san with those words.

"Won't it cause trouble for you, hyung?"

At Jeong Ho-san's words, Kim Myeong-cheol burst out laughing and said:

"Cause trouble? I'm Kim Myeong-cheol! And this is the Crimson Hound Guild. If someone touches us, they won't get away unscathed either. Why? Because I'm a rabid mad dog on fire who never lets go once I bite onto something!"

Do Chae-hee flinched at those words. She too was once called by the nickname mad dog.

Kim Myeong-cheol patted Jeong Ho-san's shoulder and said:

"If you need my help again in the future, contact me anytime."

At those words, Jeong Ho-san quietly bowed his head.

"Thank you, truly."

"I'm not saying this just for you. I want to see the bastards who commit such horrible acts caught too."

Kim Myeong-cheol was a guild master. Chasing criminal organizations wasn't his job. With Gates that would break and spew out monsters if not handled on time, his first priority should always be conquering Gates.

But that didn't mean he wanted to turn a blind eye to crimes clearly happening right in front of him.

"If supporting you can be of even a little help in dealing with those crimes, wouldn't that be a truly happy thing?"

At Kim Myeong-cheol's words, Jeong Ho-san was able to lighten the burden in his heart a little.

"I'll take responsibility for those people, so don't worry about things here."

After Kim Myeong-cheol left, Do Chae-hee and Jeong Ho-san moved back into the illegal Gate.

There might be more information they missed earlier.

It wasn't pleasant to see corpses in a horrible state, but the two stood in front of the bodies again.

"It might be good to search these people's belongings just in case."

At Jeong Ho-san's words, Do Chae-hee nodded.

They searched even small pouches just in case, but nothing meaningful came out. Not even IDs. Do Chae-hee examined their fingerprints, but they had burned all their fingertips so fingerprints couldn't be obtained either.

The moment she saw the burned fingertips, her whole body broke out in goosebumps.

"Why go this far..."

Nothing important came out of the tent where the managers had stayed either. The only things they salvaged were a few cell phones and a book that looked like a work log.

Those who managed the illegal Gate had cleaned up the scene neatly, as if they had anticipated something like this.

"It's so clean, as if they anticipated something like this would happen."

"How about the cell phones?"

Do Chae-hee, who examined the phones, said:

"They seem to be burner phones. It's strange that they left the address books intact when they cleaned up everything else so neatly. I'll check the contacts in the address books against a database separately. You never know, there might be someone worth catching among them."

All that remained were calls only. No messages were left at all.

The two focused on the work log.

"They used aliases."

Everyone was marked with alphabets. There were a total of ten managers, forming two teams of five each and rotating every two days.

"It might be worth waiting until the next rotation team comes."

The two decided to stay at the Gate until the next rotation team arrived. Just in case the next manager team might come.

It wouldn't be easy to endure two days in this desolate place, but they couldn't let go of the thread they had barely caught.

The two took up positions near the entrance.

"Taking their own lives right in front of us, what on earth could be the reason?"

At Do Chae-hee's words, Jeong Ho-san frowned.

"They probably received severe threats. If someone has something they want to protect, they're bound to become desperate."

"You mean those people weren't just working here for money?"

"Maybe."

Jeong Ho-san shrugged his shoulders.

"It's all just speculation for now though."

As long as they couldn't know their exact identities, there was nothing they could say for certain.

"It's terrible though. To think they erased all traces to this extent..."

"Because there was someone who took down an illegal Gate once."

"Ah."

Before Kang Yi-sin, no one had been able to bring an illegal Gate case to the surface.

"That case was quite heated."

"Though a proper investigation didn't follow. Still, these people must have thought they should never create such a gap again."

Do Chae-hee nodded at Jeong Ho-san's words.

"Thanks to that, we're the only ones left empty-handed."

"It's too early to give up hope. We still have the contacts left, and the log too. We need to dig up more information from there."

There was still hope in Jeong Ho-san's eyes. The flame wasn't big, but it burned faintly like embers. Seeing that, Do Chae-hee could also make up her mind.

That she wouldn't give up no matter how difficult this path was, even if it looked like a thorny road.

While staring at Jeong Ho-san like that, something she hadn't seen before caught her eye.

"By the way, what's that on your finger? I don't think I've seen it before."

"Ah, this, this?"

Jeong Ho-san hurriedly hid his hand behind his back.

"It's more suspicious when you hide it like that. What is it?"

"...It's the Vampire King's Ring."

"What?"

How could she forget that name! It was the item stolen during Weltschmerz's debut that gave Do Chae-hee terrible overtime! Because that ring was stolen too, she had to write at least five more reports!

At Do Chae-hee's gaze, Jeong Ho-san opened his mouth with an awkward smile:

"It would be natural to return it, but I thought I might be questioned about what relationship I have with Weltschmerz if I did."

"Of course! That's officially an item stolen by Weltschmerz. Then perhaps..."

"Yes. Yi-sin gave it to me. He sent this after the ultimatum."

"Oh."

Do Chae-hee rolled her eyes. The image of Jeong Ho-san looking very depressed flashed through her mind. Jeong Ho-san, who examined Do Chae-hee's expression, smiled and said:

"I'm okay now. I've decided to respect Yi-sin's path. Come to think of it, Yi-sin was that kind of guy since we were young."

Come to think of it, the two were childhood friends. Kang Yi-sin's childhood. To her who thought of the crimes he committed first when it came to Kang Yi-sin, the keyword 'Kang Yi-sin's childhood' was extremely unfamiliar.

Jeong Ho-san began the story with eyes immersed in memories:

"It was when we were young. Around when we just entered elementary school. We were on our way back to the orphanage with the other orphanage kids after school ended."

Despite the sudden childhood story, Do Chae-hee quietly lent her ear.

"At that time, Yi-sin liked a girl. I don't remember her name, but she had pretty long curly hair. That girl didn't like Yi-sin very much, but their relationship wasn't bad. They got along quite well even while bickering. It was an ordinary day. Until that girl's hair got caught in a thorn bush."

The girl whose hair got caught in the thorn bush screamed. The girl tried to pull her hair out of the bush, but the hair caught in the bush wouldn't come out easily. The children beside her tried to help detach her hair from the bush, but the clumsy hand movements of young children only entangled her hair in the bush more.

"Wh-what do we do!"

"It hurts! It hurts!"

"Wh-what should we do?"

Everyone was flustered and didn't know what to do. Jeong Ho-san held the hand of the girl who was crying in fear.

At that moment, a car was seen entering the end of the alley.

"Oh no! I think it's coming this way!"

"Su-surely! It will stop!"

"Yeah, they'll see us!"

"Bu-but what if they don't see us? Should we run away?"

At someone's cowardly voice, Jeong Ho-san frowned.

"Run away? We should all stay together!"

The children just stamped their feet.

That's when Kang Yi-sin stepped up.