Chapter 18: Inevitably, the Heroine

I Hate Hurting People (4)

Fight? With who? Probably a villain. By the time the thought reached that point, my body was already moving. I was in the middle of finding a lost child's home, but that was long gone from my mind.

...I didn't care if someone called me selfish. Wasn't the reason I came here to get revenge on my father anyway? In the end, what I think is important takes precedence.

Heading to District B, where Aisha was probably fighting, was more important to me than anything else right now.

Tadat-

A myriad of thoughts flooded and swirled in my head. Villains, I thought they might appear. But with Aisha's skills, she should be able to easily subdue most villains. However, even after some time had passed, the ice pillar that had risen was not disappearing.

Why?

At that moment, a face flashed through my mind. The owner of the voice I heard on the rooftop not long ago.

"Hera..."

I'd rather deal with Kaisar, who openly dislikes me; Hera's personality was impossible to grasp. Smiling on the outside, but secretly holding a poisoned knife, ready to stab you in the back. If her interest was directed at Aisha...

From the beginning, the two of them talking on the rooftop felt unsettling. I hadn't been able to think properly for a few days because of what Aisha said, but... I definitely felt like something was up.

Clench-

If I had come to my senses sooner, if I hadn't been swayed by those words, this wouldn't have happened. But even if I blamed myself inwardly, nothing would change. What I needed to do now was to reach Aisha as quickly as possible.

I pulled out the sword hanging from my waist and detonated the area in the opposite direction of where I was running. Even as my body was swept away by the explosion, this was the only way. Faster, even just a little faster.

Before I knew it, the ice pillar had disappeared, and a smaller ice barrier had formed in its place. Was she exhausted from using her Ability? My heart grew anxious. My vision narrowed, and all I saw was ice. I used it as a landmark and ran for a while,

In the distance—in a place where ice wasn't rising—I found Hera, blocking my path and looking at me.

"...Long time no see, Xenon."

"Move."

"I will. But not right now, hmm. Where are you going? You seem busy."

The way she raised her eyebrows and tilted her head, as if she really didn't know, made me feel like I was going to vomit. She knew everything, she knew where I was going, what I was going for. Wasn't this just a ploy to buy time to hinder what I was doing?

"...I won't say much. Come out, Hera."

"You don't even call me Noona anymore. I'm a little sad. When you were little, you were always clinging to me, calling me Noona—."

"......"

I gripped my sword with a blank face. There was no need to exchange any more words. From the start, it was clear that she intended to stop me. If she really intended to just let me go,

Swoosh-

She wouldn't have used her Ability in the first place.

"I don't want to fight with my little brother. No matter what Father says, you're my precious little brother, Xenon."

I couldn't bear to look at her anymore, pretending to shed tears, pretending to be sad, acting as if I were really her precious little brother.

Clang-

A slow sword won't reach. Then, a fast sword, even if its power is weak.

Hera's Ability was perhaps similar to Aisha's. A simple Ability that manipulates 'water' itself. If ice is sharp and heavy, water is soft and light. The concept of breaking and splitting doesn't work, so it's an Ability that's practically the opposite of mine.

Fighting directly with water was meaningless. I had to aim for the main body. Cutting through the streams of water shooting at me, I slowly—approached her without her noticing.

The power transmitted by stepping on the ground, from my feet to my thighs, from my thighs back to my legs, the acceleration that started that way soon surpassed the speed of the water streams. Five steps, three steps, one step again, when I got close enough to swing my sword and cut her down,

Hera opened her mouth.

"Oh, do you know how many people Aisha is fighting right now?"

And my movement stopped. How many people? My eyes wavered, and the hand holding the sword fell weakly. As Hera folded her fingers one by one, I felt like my lifespan was being folded as well. Five, six, and when all her fingers were folded, she smiled and opened her mouth.

"Wow, 10 people."

"...Don't lie."

Aisha was just a student. 10 people to deal with a student? And, if they weren't trying to kill her in the first place, there would be no need to waste that much manpower...

A terrifying thought occurred to me. Even though I thought I had become accustomed to such malice, I couldn't help but shudder at the chilling malice behind that smile.

Hera is trying to kill Aisha.

Clang-

I didn't need to think anymore. Hera, nothing else mattered. A momentary explosion, taking advantage of the thick mist that covered the surroundings, I ran towards the direction where the ice pillar was rising. Blood flowed from my bitten lip, and my face cramped from clenching my jaw.

There was no reason for her to die. I don't know why she's targeting Aisha, but I could easily guess that the reason was me.

Again, she's trying to take something away from me.

Even if it's someone who has nothing to do with Carmen, even if it's someone who has done nothing wrong, just because they're a hindrance, because it hurts me.

I ran, detonated the air, and moved forward with the recoil from the explosion. When I arrived at one place, I barely held onto my legs, which were about to give way, and blankly stared at the scene.

Scattered blood, broken pieces of ice. Even someone's severed wrist. No matter how—no matter how I thought about it, it was close to the worst situation I had imagined.

"...No way."

Weakly, I muttered, touching the cold, hardened blood on the floor. Again, again, I... Why? I couldn't continue thinking. My mind had gone blank, and I barely managed to fix my dizzy vision, and barely managed to get up.

...Not yet, I couldn't say she was dead.

I tried to calm myself. It was too early to assume that this blood was hers, that this wrist was hers. Considering the Ability that froze me and Kaisar, maybe she had subdued all 10 people. And since the Ability alarm went off, a hero probably came and fought with her.

"...Let's think calmly."

I was too impatient. For some reason, whenever I thought of Aisha, I felt like I was going crazy with anxiety. If I had come to my senses sooner, if I had stayed with her, this wouldn't have happened.

I wiped my face once with my dry hand and started walking again. In the distance, there were traces of something being 'transported'. If I followed that, I might reach her.

As I ran along the traces, I thought about what this frustrating feeling was. Swayed by a single word, feeling empty in a moment of silence, and even just thinking about it made my chest feel heavy.

...A disease?

No, it wasn't that. This feeling didn't arise unless it was related to Aisha.

Haa-

Another sigh escaped. Even if I wanted to get rid of this unknown feeling, I hesitated every time I tried to get rid of it. I shook my head. Let's think about it later, right now... it was much more important to know what happened to her.

The traces continued endlessly. Probably traces made with Ability, there were no traces of something struggling, or a fight breaking out. Was she transported in a cleanly subdued state? I increased my speed again at the traces that didn't seem to end.

Clang-

And at the sound of a roar, like ice freezing, I stopped in my tracks and blankly raised my head.

A snake, a giant snake made of ice, was puffing up its body and glaring at someone. Every time it swung its tongue, the surroundings froze. Even though spring was long gone, the breath that escaped from the snake felt so cold that it fogged up the air.

"...Aisha."

At some point, I was moving forward, causing explosions.

The direction was towards the hero office, I didn't know why Aisha was there. However, that giant ice snake let me know that she was still alive.

The other giant stream of water coiling around the snake was probably Hera's. Clench, my teeth grinded. She couldn't do it with villains, so she stepped in herself? Knowing Hera's strength to some extent, my impatience grew even more.

A little more, a little faster.

As I ran, suppressing the feeling that my lungs were about to burst, I was finally able to see Aisha. In the rubble of a collapsed building, she was sitting down, catching her breath.

What should I say? What, how should I apologize? The reason she was driven to this point was because of me. Because I was Edwin Carmen's son, born from a political marriage, an annoying guy.

I couldn't lift my face. As I slowly approached Aisha,

"...Hey."

I heard a voice.

"Why are you standing there blankly?"

Even though blood was flowing from various places, as if she had been injured at some point, she smiled as if nothing was wrong.

"Are you hurt?"

"...A little."

It's not a little. I wanted to say something, but I knew there was no time to argue in this situation, so I closed my mouth.

"...I'm sorry."

She looked at me for a moment, then lowered her gaze and said that. I didn't understand why she was apologizing to me, and I was blankly standing there, until I realized that it was an apology for what she had said on the rooftop. Thinking about how I had struggled for a while after hearing those words, I felt my face burning for no reason.

However, there was only one thing I was curious about right now.

"Was that... what you said, was it sincere?"

More than ever, more than when facing and fighting villains, my body tensed up at the answer that would come from her mouth. After looking into her red eyes for a moment, Aisha tapped her ears a few times and muttered softly.

"...No."

"Then that's enough."

"...Really?"

Aisha looked at me, tilting her head as if she was puzzled, but I was serious. I felt relieved. The corners of my mouth rose on their own, and I was smiling before I knew it.

...I felt, really good.

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