That’s How They Became Villains

#48. Look at the camera and say your name and age

3 days later, in the outskirts of the city, the Villain Alliance Maker and the assassination company Red Witch gathered again at the Evil – Base.

“So. You’re the one who saved my life and took care of the children so they wouldn’t go astray.”

The boss of the Red Witch, Eltrinde, said. “Yes, what do you want from me?”

Eltrinde was a woman with an impressive wine-red hair in an old-fashioned red uniform that didn’t quite match the contemporary landscape.

“Ah…haha…”

Honestly, she was a somewhat difficult type.

Starting with her speech pattern, it was as if she was advertising, “I’m crazy about my concept.”

Even when reading comics, I would scroll down quickly whenever her face appeared.

I tried hard not to show such inner feelings and answered Eltrinde’s question.

“As you probably already know from your subordinates, what we want is for the Red Witch to come under Maker’s umbrella.”

“Oh…That’s quite a bold request.”

Eltrinde leaned back on the sofa and crossed her legs. Then she rubbed her chin as if lost in thought, looking just like a precious jewel from some distinguished medieval house.

It wasn’t completely wrong. Eltrinde was once a resident of Royal Road. She had only become a hitman after losing her royal qualification due to some incident.

To think they introduced such a woman with her head cut off instead of utilizing her. Once again, I was amazed by the original work’s desolation.

“I have one question. What exactly does this ‘umbrella’ you speak of mean in practice?”

“You will never be treated like slaves. You can just think of it as a family relationship, like older and younger siblings.”

“Hmm…That’s interesting.”

Eltrinde let out a nasal sound.

Her scarlet eyes moved up and down as if evaluating me.

Perhaps finding that gaze unpleasant, Nazha, who was standing beside me, pounded the sofa.

“Hey, since when did you become so high and mighty? To be frank, if it weren’t for us, wouldn’t you still be slowly rotting inside an ice box?”

What’s with that sudden outburst?

Then, not to be outdone, Laman also pounded the sofa and stepped forward.

“You’ve got quite a mouth on you in front of the boss. Why don’t you mind your expressions before I fix that cute little mouth of yours?”

“What? Little brother, what did this hulk just say?”

“You may have saved the boss’ life, but that doesn’t mean you can speak rudely to the boss!”

“Ha, I…this No.1 hulk is really…”

Nazha rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward but Seolhwa held her from behind to mediate.

From a distance, it was quite a funny picture.

A girl who looked less than 150cm tall was trying to step forward to punch a muscular man who was over 2m tall but up close, it was a tragedy.

Setting aside what would happen to Laman if he got hit by Nazha’s fist, Nazha was Eltrinde’s former attending physician.

The person who had watched every move Eltrinde made as she went through whatever process to become a hitman under Royal’s orders.

“…Laman.”

Glancing over, I could see Eltrinde trembling with the teacup in her hand, unable to overcome her shame.

“Man! I’ve eaten meals with your boss!! Gone to saunas together!! Hmm? I’ve done it all, man!!”

“So who are you to!! Spout such nonsense since earlier!!”

“Laman!!”

Unable to bear it anymore, Eltrinde said, “She was my attending physician in the past. She made me an enhanced human and advised me to quit jobs that didn’t suit me.”

At that moment, Laman, who had suddenly become mute as if he’d swallowed honey, looked at Nazha with round eyes.

Nazha was still growling in Seolhwa’s arms.

“Ahem…!!”

Laman, who had somehow become the guilty party, stepped back while clearing his throat.

Come to think of it, Nazha struck first.

This is why people go around saying things like blood ties, school ties, and regional ties are divine and invincible.

“Shall we continue our conversation?”

Of course, there was no need for me to remind them of that.

When I said that shamelessly, Eltrinde, whose face had reddened with shame, answered while fluttering a hand fan.

“Yes, you said you wanted to form a sibling relationship with our Red Witch.”

“To be precise, it’s a bit different, but well, it’s not wrong, so let’s move on.”

“I think it’s fine. However, I’m not sure if my children think the same as I do.”

“Ah, don’t worry about that.”

I took out a recorder from my inside pocket.

When I pulled out the recorder, I could see the faces of Laman, Goliath, and Grumsch colored with embarrassment.

-Click.

“Then our obedience to you will be after hearing the boss’ opinion.”

Laman’s voice played from the recorder.

“If you’re okay with it, your subordinates will naturally be okay with it. I’ve already received their assurance.”

“You’re thorough. No wonder you have Nazha under your command.”

“I think there’s a misunderstanding, but we’re not that kind of relationship. We’re family.”

“Then, are we now included in this family thing?”

“Hmm…”

What I just said wasn’t particularly a metaphor, but I didn’t feel the need to explain it deeply.

I extended a welcoming hand to Eltrinde.

Nago Special City, Outskirts District.

There, an androgynous figure with long red hair, Kilke, sighed.

Originally, the outskirts district was a kind of “lawless zone” that the Noah Group tacitly left alone.

Seeds of plants secretly obtained from the surface, endangered species, illegal drugs like Winter Dead were traded underground, and acts like rape and murder occurred casually.

It was so bad that even the official death insurance provided by the city didn’t cover people who died in the outskirts district.

However, Nago’s outskirts district was different. After several fights, most of the villain alliances in Nago were absorbed into Yeongwol’s Sewers.

In other words, Nago’s outskirts district had become a small domain governed by the autonomous entity called Yeongwol’s Sewers.

“Sip…Paha.”

It took 10 years to get here.

When I eventually met my family again, I wanted to be a worthy sibling, so I worked hard.

When I accidentally saw my sister Sawol’s face on the news, I don’t know how much I cried silently.

You were alive, you were alive.

If someone had died in that accident, I thought Sawol would have been the first to die.

While the other siblings each had special abilities, Sawol was always bedridden due to her poor mobility but Sawol’s appearance on the news looked so healthy that her previous frailty was nowhere to be seen.

I wanted to meet her. I had so many things I wanted to talk about, like what had happened all this time.

So I had my subordinates try to kidnap her to Nago’s outskirts district.

I shouldn’t have done that.

Because of my incompetent subordinates’ mistakes, not only did I fail to achieve my goal, but all smuggling routes to Cheongang were closed.

I want to see my sister as soon as possible. I want to be praised for what I’ve done so far.

Then, an idea suddenly occurred to Kilke.

Yes, if the smuggling routes to Cheongang are blocked, why not just devour the organizational network operating those routes?

I heard that Red Witch, which had established itself in Cheongang’s outskirts district, had dissolved after losing its boss.

That would be the place to start.

About 2 weeks passed like that as regular reports came in from subordinates who had been stationed in Cheongang since the train terror incident.

It made me laugh.

Just from the reports, the remnants’ purpose was obvious.

Red Witch’s boss was an enhanced human.

According to what I heard from father at the research institute, enhanced humans can survive even if their heads are cut off. So they’re probably trying to revive the boss by gathering as much money as possible. Kilke wasn’t going to let that happen.

Kilke began to apply continuous external pressure to prevent the remnants from making money. According to Kilke’s calculations, it was about time for the remnants, unable to withstand the pressure, to come and bow to him.

“Kilke sir!!”

And finally today, a subordinate in charge of reporting rushed into Kilke’s room.

“Why are you coming in panting like that? Have the Red Witch guys finally decided to kneel before me?”

“Huff… huff… P-please look at this… We haven’t heard from those stationed in Cheongang lately, so I checked and…”

Kilke looked at the tablet PC the subordinate handed over.

The screen displayed a channel named ‘Maker’ on the Arc, and the banner of the only video uploaded to the channel.

“What is this? Look at the camera and say your name and age…please? Why is the video title like this?”

“Well…”

As if seeing once was better than hearing a hundred words, the subordinate clicked on the video thumbnail.

-Buzz…Buzzing…

The noise of a microphone failing to filter out static and a black screen showing nothing continued. Normally, one would have closed the video, asking what this was about.

“Ah, can you hear me?”

But the familiar female voice that followed caught Kilke’s attention.

Kilke had heard that voice before.

Anyone who had seen the live broadcast of the airship terror that had recently heated up Minos would never forget that voice.

“Shall we start right away?”

“Do I… really have to do this…?”

Buzz…Buzzing…The camera was finally beginning to focus.

On the video that had been just a black screen until 5 seconds ago, some subject began to appear. It was the image of a woman with long red hair, elegantly dressed in a somewhat anachronistic suit. The overall atmosphere of the room was sinister, and the contrast made it feel decadent.

“Now then, Eltrinde. Would you look at the camera and state your name, age, and affiliation?”

“…”

The woman called Eltrinde, as if finding the whole situation extremely shameful, covered her face with one hand and carefully answered the question.

“Name Eltrinde, 27 years old…I’m the boss of the villain alliance Red Witch.”

“And?”

“…”

“Come on, why are you being like this? You need to do it as we practiced earlier. We’re going to be family from now on.”

-Thump, thump…

Goliath and Grumsch walked over in their boots and stood behind Eltrinde.

“As of today, Red Witch has formed an alliance with the villain alliance Maker…So, I ask for everyone’s cooperation…”

“Okay, cut!”

With a jump cut, the screen changed. And this time, a woman wearing a navy blue hood looked at the camera and grinned.

“And that’s how it is, everyone. As our family has grown, next time we’ll come to you with a more splendid and glamorous entertainment, so please look forward to it~”

Fade out. The video ended.

“…?”

Kilke stared blankly at the black screen for a while.