Chapter 306 : Chapter 306
Chapter 306: Aftermath—Jeong Ho-cheol
The sky, drizzling with rain, had the gray hue of an old movie.
And gathered beneath that gray sky were people clad in even darker black mourning clothes or uniforms.
A somber atmosphere.
The hope of the nation.
Everyone's hero.
The true champion of this era.
Who could have guessed that a hero bearing such titles would meet her end at such a young age?
Someone ascended the platform next to the grave.
The middle-aged man cleared his throat repeatedly, his voice tight, before finally speaking.
“Smiley was everyone’s friendly neighbor, and a great hero. Her warm smile still remains in our hearts.”
A eulogy, both sorrowful and firm, continued.
She was probably one of the high-ranking officials of the Association.
“...We will all remember her as a true hero and miss her eternally.”
The official’s eulogy ended, and the funeral ceremony concluded as dirt was cast over the coffin. Ho-cheol merely watched the process silently from a distance.
As people scattered one by one, Ho-cheol finally rose from the bench and approached the grave.
He removed his hat and let out a faint sigh.
His breath fragmented into white in the falling rain.
How long did he stand there?
He spotted a precarious, wobbling bench nearby.
Since he was already soaked like a drowned rat without an umbrella anyway, he sat down heavily on the wet bench, nonplussed.
The pouring rain had now changed from a drizzle to a downpour.
How long did he sit there, lost in thought?
A female hero sat next to him.
Although he didn't know for sure if she was a hero, he just assumed so, as nine out of ten people here probably were.
She spoke, looking straight ahead.
“Smiley was a friend before she was a hero and a colleague. A great hero who would have saved tens, even hundreds of thousands of people in the future, died because of you.”
The distinct fingerprints left on the corpse’s neck.
Although severe bleeding and internal organ injuries were the fatal wounds, the cause of death and the culprit were clear.
All the evidence and circumstances pointed to Ho-cheol as the perpetrator.
“I...”
Ho-cheol opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again.
Despite knowing the full story, he didn't make excuses.
No, he didn't even feel the need to.
Friends?
Colleagues?
These people who didn't even know her true face, who never felt her true sincerity.
To him, their sadness looked no different from the regret one feels when a useful tool reaches the end of its lifespan prematurely.
Biting his lip, he spoke instead of defending himself.
“Yes. I killed her. The annoying woman. She should have bothered people moderately.”
Having said that, Ho-cheol pulled a cigarette from his pocket.
The cigarette she used to despise.
But now, there was no one left to nag him.
He placed the cigarette in his mouth and nervously tried to light it.
Why won't this damn lighter catch fire?
The hero who watched him said.
“You put the cigarette in your mouth backward.”
“Ah.”
Only then did Ho-cheol spit out the cigarette in his mouth and let out a dry laugh.
No matter how many times he denied it, it was confirmed.
He was terribly, desperately grieving right now.
His hand, as he picked the cigarette up again, was trembling pitifully.
The female hero looked on in surprise, unable to believe it.
She had naturally assumed he came to mock her.
But that reaction... he looked like he was the one grieving the most here.
She couldn't say anything more.
Ho-cheol covered his eyes with one hand and bowed his head deeply.
“Damn it. Why is it raining so much?”
Drip— Drip— Drip—
Water droplets fell, dampening the ground.
The woman sighed and lifted her head.
The gray clouds had parted, and the sun that rose behind them enveloped the world in bright light, as if mocking them.
However, the rain continued to fall over the spot where Ho-cheol sat for a long time.
***
Ho-cheol woke up and blinked blankly at the ceiling.
The familiar ceiling of a bus.
And he realized what was happening.
Right.
I fell asleep on the bus.
“...A dream. Was it a dream?”
It was still unbelievable.
That such a vivid situation and emotion was just a dream.
And why would he suddenly have a dream like this?
What possessed him?
It was a dream he hadn't had in years.
He briefly touched his eyes with his fingertips.
Only dry skin was rubbed by his fingertips.
Fortunately, it seemed he hadn't cried.
Ho-cheol was tormented by this nightmare every day for nearly half a year after his release.
So-hee said that every time, he would cry, apologize, and beg wretchedly in his sleep.
Suffering from severe insomnia was a bonus.
Of course, he hadn't had the nightmare since he had a proper conversation with the resurrected Yu-hwa and sent her back to where she belonged.
So this was the first time for Ho-cheol.
Not crying after having this dream was probably proof that he had completely let go.
Did he have such a dream simply because he was heading toward a place closer to death than anything else?
Or...
“Did she come to say goodbye one last time?”
Muttering so, Ho-cheol turned his head and looked out the window beside him.
He opened the window and reached out his hand through the sunlit opening.
“Hello. I wonder if she’s doing well there.”
As if responding to his greeting, the wind blew, tickling his fingers.
“I’m doing well. I’m learning, receiving, and giving the love you talked about. It would have been great if you were here next to me.”
He clenched his fist, trying to catch the wind.
But the wind freely vanished, flying far away.
“Goodbye, my friend.”
He could finally completely let her go.
Ho-cheol’s long dream, which began as a nightmare, was no longer a nightmare.
***
Ho-cheol got off the bus and arrived at a columbarium on the outskirts of a quiet city.
The other people, who usually followed him like glue, had enough sense to let him go alone this time, with the exception of Ji-an, who got smacked on the back of the head after saying, “I have to greet my future parents-in-law!”
Walking past the solid marble corridor, Ho-cheol moved toward one section.
After walking for a while, Ho-cheol stopped in front of an ossuary room.
He hesitated for a moment, then spoke with a sigh.
“I’m here.”
His parents' ossuary room.
Although it was cleanly maintained, the place, with only a photograph remaining and not a single flower, looked quite lonely.
His parents in the photo, whom he faced after over a decade, were smiling too brightly, unlike Ho-cheol's faded memories.
He had accumulated countless sins as a villain, and even after his eventual repentance, he could not bring himself to visit his parents with these dirty hands.
He couldn't lift his head in front of them.
He kept postponing the day.
He decided that he would face them again only when he could stand correctly as a respectable, proper human being.
That's why he never visited even after his release.
“Hmm.”
He scratched the back of his head silently, then opened his mouth again.
“It feels like it's been a really long time since I saw you. I honestly don't know where to start the story.”
If I start with my villain days, it would be too provocative for you, who were just ordinary citizens.
So, Ho-cheol started with the efforts he made to change.
As if confessing, he recounted what had happened over the past few years.
Whom he met and how he lived.
How he realized the importance of the direction, purpose, form, and identity of great power, and how he put it into action, not just words.
“I’m a professor now. Well, it’s similar to a civil servant, right? They say I get a pension, too.”
Sometimes, there were stories of trivial daily life mixed in.
After a few hours of talking, Ho-cheol looked at the photo again and asked.
“Am I... a respectable son now?”
Ho-cheol asked that.
Of course, no answer came back.
He knew the answer better than anyone.
“I’ll get going now. I just stopped by because I have something else to do.”
After saying that, Ho-cheol turned toward the exit.
But he stopped after only a few steps.
Turning only his head, he spoke briefly.
“I’m leaving now, and I’ll be back.”
His footsteps as he walked outside were much lighter than when he first entered the place.
***
Ho-cheol marveled at the building visible in the distance.
It had been smashed a few times in recent years, but they managed to repair it, rebuild it, and even upgrade it.
Zero—Chain.
It was the prison intended to hold the most critical and dangerous villains in the country.
Of course, Ho-cheol, Ji-an, and Byeong-hoo had a history of raiding it as if it were their backyard, but conversely, it was also an excellent facility that even they judged impossible to penetrate alone without any intelligence.
He tapped the bag tucked under his arm.
Well, I showed up confidently, but now that the situation is here, I’m secretly getting nervous.
I hope I'm not causing a major incident by doing something unnecessary.
But his worries were short-lived.
When was I ever not like this?
As Ho-cheol approached the checkpoint, a guard approached him with his hand on his gun.
“What is your business?”
“Oh?”
He couldn't see the face through the heavily tinted helmet, but he remembered the voice.
It was the same guard who had stopped Ho-cheol when he broke into Zero—Chain to rescue the captured Ji-an in the past.
The guard also seemed to remember Ho-cheol, as his voice was thick with tension.
His finger was on the trigger, ready to fire at any moment.
Ho-cheol merely smirked at their tense reaction.
He had fought the guards back then, but he didn't hold any ill will.
Ho-cheol was just doing what he had to do, and they were faithfully carrying out their duty.
“I’m here properly today.”
He pulled a card from his pocket and handed it over.
He had received permission for visitation through a legal process.
“I will verify.”
The guard pulled out a strange-looking terminal and scanned the card.
After a short while, a beep— sound was heard, and a green light illuminated the terminal.
“Verification confirmed. Opening the hatch.”
The guard signaled toward the back, and the closed door opened with a ku-gu-gung— sound.
It was much thicker than when Ho-cheol had breached Zero—Chain in the past, and the material's properties felt different.
Back then, it was just made of metal that interfered with Trait activation, but was this metal that absorbed energy to become harder?
It’s amazing they managed to get that much of a material more expensive than gold of the same weight.
“Right. Keep up the good work.”
Ho-cheol patted his shoulder and passed through the door.
And an identically constructed checkpoint appeared. They ignored the fact that he had just passed the previous one and asked Ho-cheol about the purpose of his visit.
“Here. The card.”
Ho-cheol let out a dry laugh in disbelief and handed over a new key card.
“How many more checkpoints are there?”
“There are two more after this.”
I wondered why they gave me four access cards.
It seems you can't pass the gate without every single one.
It was a system designed to ensure that even if someone was lucky enough to steal one, they could never pass.
And it also meant that even if the person had legitimate permission, if they were foolish enough to lose one, they shouldn't even think about entering.
They're incredibly meticulous.
At the final checkpoint, they even scraped a small piece of flesh from the inside of Ho-cheol’s cheek to compare his DNA before finally opening the door.
As he entered the main building, a familiar face greeted Ho-cheol.
“What, Warden. You still haven’t been fired?”
The Warden of the Zero—Chain prison.
Although they clashed significantly over the rescue of Ji-an last time, they weren't necessarily on bad terms.
The Warden had witnessed Ho-cheol's transformation closest and rooted for him.
In a way, he was Ho-cheol's first ally.
Ho-cheol also held no particular grudge against him.
Rather, he felt a certain gratitude.
The Choco Pies the Warden secretly provided him every weekend during his imprisonment were one of the few, or rather, the only pleasures during Ho-cheol’s long confinement.
He didn’t forget that kindness.
The Warden, arms crossed, twitched his lips.
“Jeong Ho-cheol. I feel like I’m going to die of anxiety every time you visit.”
However, despite their past connection, his tone was surly, clearly indicating his displeasure with Ho-cheol’s presence here.
“Oh, I'm living a good, honest life these days.”
Ho-cheol said that and offered the set of drinks he was holding in his left hand.
“This is a gift.”
He felt awkward coming empty-handed to a place where he had incurred a debt for several years.
But the Warden didn't uncross his arms and answered firmly.
“I don’t accept bribes.”
“I figured, so I took one out to drink already. You wouldn’t consider leftovers a bribe, would you?”
“Confirmed.”
At that, the Warden snatched the drinks.
He immediately pulled one out and asked suspiciously.
“So. Is the purpose of your visit really just that? I don’t recommend seeing that, especially head-on.”
“You shouldn’t slander a person like that.”
“It’s not a person. That thing. It’s just something wearing human skin. It’s been years since it was brought here, but it sends chills down my spine every time I see it on CCTV.”
Seeing the Warden’s serious expression, Ho-cheol waved his hand dismissively.
“A person and a non-person. How do you distinguish them? Appearance? Nature? Ideology? None of that matters. All that matters is choosing to live as a person.”
“If you say so, I won’t voice any more concern.”
Having said that, the Warden pulled a key from his pocket and offered it.
“This is the key to the deep levels. Be careful to keep it, as you won’t be able to return without it.”
The key’s usage was complex and excruciating.
It was designed so that one had to pass several stairwells in the correct order, press specific floors in the elevator, and insert the key at the top to finally open the path.
The path wasn't just complicated; the space was twisted with Traits, so if the order was confused, they would definitely be trapped until a rescue team arrived.
Ho-cheol complained, feeling the heat rise in his head.
“Wow, why is this so complicated?”
Even during Ho-cheol’s time as an inmate, it was simply a matter of taking the elevator to the lowest floor and walking down a few stairs.
This was like a method of movement straight out of a ghost story.
“Isn’t this another genre altogether?”
“It changed this way thanks to someone repeatedly smashing the place up. The high command judged that simple physical force couldn't stop it. Ha ha. Thanks to who indeed.”
The Warden laughed in words, but his eyes were not smiling.
Both knew full well that the "someone" was Ho-cheol.
“I had my salary cut and almost failed to renew my contract because of the disciplinary action back then. I almost retired completely.”
Under that harsh gaze, Ho-cheol waved his hand as if escaping and headed for the emergency stairs.
“Anyway, I’ll be back.”
After almost getting caught once mid-way due to a wrong turn, he somehow arrived at the deep levels of Zero—Chain.
This area was dedicated to a single criminal, which in a sense was the highest form of treatment.
And the visitation room connected to it.
Ho-cheol waved to the man visible through the thick glass wall.
“Wow. You seem to have a prison constitution. You look better than when you were walking around. You're four years in, I think.”
The Sun, Eclipse. Lee Byeong-hoo.
And now, just an inmate.
Byeong-hoo answered testily.
“And you seem to have a professor's constitution better than your villain days.”
“Well, it’s certainly not bad.”
“So, what is your business?”
“Well, I didn’t just come to say hello.”
“Not here to tease?”
“Only a little bit. Anyway.”
Ho-cheol started rambling about his own life.
“Students these days, I tell you. They don’t listen properly, and if you ask them to do anything, they just talk back immediately. They ask me what’s so important about becoming a hero.”
Ho-cheol nervously messed up his hair.
If he had alcohol nearby, he would look exactly like a drunken whiner.
“It’s not like the professors have no problems either. Since the Association tries hard not to let competent heroes retire, either useless blockheads come in, or just genuinely old people whom I have trouble even talking to. It’s enough to drive you crazy.”
After listening to his complaints for a long time, Byeong-hoo sighed and said.
“Surely. You didn’t come all the way here, getting permission from the three major organizations, just to whine like this. Get to the point.”
Only then did Ho-cheol release the hand propping his chin and smirk.
“Ah, well. I was going to talk more since visitation time is plenty, but if you insist, I have no choice.”
Ho-cheol took a thick bundle of documents from his bag and waved it up and down.
“It’s a simple trade. C-rank gets one year off, B-rank gets ten years off, A-rank gets thirty years off. And.”
Ho-cheol was no longer the Villain Professor.
He was just one of the ordinary professors who could be found anywhere in Clington, having served out his sentence by teaching for a few years.
But even so.
“S-rank gets a 100-year reduction in sentence. How about it? Interested?”
The Villain Professor had never truly ended.