Chapter 342: Her Disarray

After Egostic retired, Stardus, on the surface, hasn’t seemed much different.

…Yeah. On the surface.

“…Die.”

“Kwagga…!”

Kwagaga Kwagaga Kwagaga Kwang-.

In the center of Seoul another villain has emerged, unleashing terror.

Stardus rushed to the scene and quickly grabbed him by the throat, slamming him into a building.

Then she went straight for him.

“Ugh… Ugh.”

 

The villain’s body was smashed against the building, and he was left unconscious.

“Tsk…”

She looked down at him with a cold expression and threw him to the ground.

After defeating the villain, she contacted the Association with an expressionless face.

“S-class villain, Knowing Monkey has been dealt with. Please come and clean up the mess.”

[Yes, yes, yes! Got it!]

-Poof.

That was the end of the call.

She took to the skies again, silently glancing around at the wreckage of the city center, and then stiffened.

Stardus hasn’t changed on the surface.

 

Except, somehow, she’d become even less merciful and more violent in her dealings with villains than before.

Unbeknownst to Stardus herself, the reason she had grown colder to the villains who unwittingly caused terror was simple.

‘…No, it’s not you.’

When she was told that it was the villains who caused the terror a slight sense of anticipation that blossomed without her realizing it but when she heard the name of the villain, a name that had nothing to do with Egostic, the bitterness, the anger, the “I knew it” that comes with it made her despair.

All of these stresses were made more apparent when dealing with other villains that weren’t Egostic.

“…..”

Why are you stealing my time?

The sight of Stardus flying through the air with such thoughts in her dead eyes was enough to scare any other villain away…

Anyway, that’s how she got back to the Association.

Sitting in her office, typing away at her  laptop, she looked impassive, but inside she was a whirlwind of emotions.

 

Most of them, of course, were about Egostic.

‘If I hadn’t spoken so coldly at the end, would he have left?’

Self-hatred and regret.

“…It’s too bad. How could he leave so quickly…?

Resentment towards Egostic.

‘Egostic…Hmph. I can’t cry in the office.’

Sadness.

‘Still, I’m sure he’s still thinking of me. Ah… At least he’s not dead.’

And bargaining.

‘…Yeah. It’s good that an S-class villain has retired, and I don’t give a damn about him anyway… I’m sure this feeling will be temporary, huh?’

Finally, a mental victory.

This was her usual state lately.

A storm of emotions swirling around in her mind, finally settling on one, only to reset again the next day.

Today, though, it seemed to end in a mental victory.

…Of course, for someone who says she doesn’t care about Egostic, she was typing Egostic on the internet as soon as she turned on her  laptop…

And so she went through her usual routine.

“Uh…?”

Suddenly, she saw a post and froze.

*

[[BREAKING NEWS] Egostic starts terrorism with a new hero overseas! Was it just a breakup with Stardus, not retirement?]

*

Her mind went white at the sight of it.

What are you talking about?

Egostic, that can’t be right, that can’t be right…

Even as she thought that, she grabbed the mouse with a trembling hand and clicked on the post.

What she saw as soon as she entered the post was.

It was a picture of a robot with a cold expression.

*

[[BREAKING] Egostic starts terror with new hero overseas! Was it just a parting of the ways with Stardus, not retirement?]

(photo of a white robot with a hand on its head)

=[Comment]=

[What the fuck]

[Where do you live? I’ll give you a gift, so call me with the address.]

[I came in as soon as I saw the title, but ahhhhhh]

[Stardus hates this post]

[No, it has a lot of recommendations, so it’s real, why are you guys liking this?]

[That’s right… I can’t be the only one to get caught…]

[But honestly, Egostic said he doesn’t play with Stardus, not that he doesn’t terrorize, so it’s plausible]

[lol]

*

“……”

Kwah!

“Stardus, what’s going on!?”

“…Uh, it’s nothing, you don’t have to come in!”

Stardus slammed her desk in anger at the moment’s post, and in response to the employee’s question from down the hall, Stardus blurted out

“Ha… They’re really bad guys. Even if you catch them, why do you catch them like this…?”

Stardus muttered as she leaned her head back in her chair and covered her slightly reddened eyes with her arm.

For a moment, she felt her stomach twist in knots at the thought of Egostic abandoning her and going off with another heroine.

She wasn’t even sure how she would react if that actually happened…

“Egostic…”

She muttered his name.

Once again, Stardus was caught in a storm of emotions.

She realized, for the first time, that she liked him.

Why hadn’t I been more honest with myself?

If only I had been more honest with myself.

If only…

Stardus, who had been mulling over her regrets and self-loathing, didn’t know.

…It’s only been three weeks since Egostic retired.

Three months, the limit of her body’s memory of life without him, hadn’t even arrived yet…

As she dug, she sighed and thought to herself.

‘…Right. Just don’t dig too much by yourself.’

Maybe I should ask my friends for counseling.

She looked at her contacts.

I thought of Kim Ja-hyun, Shadow Walker ,who recently decided to marry his girlfriend soon.

It had been a long time since she had last spoken to him.

‘…I’ll see if I can catch up with Seola.’

Stardus fiddled with her phone, thinking about it.

Maybe she could help her with her relationship counseling

~A family home~

Inside, a man with dark black hair sat with a beer in his hand.

His name is Kim Ja-hyun, otherwise known as Shadow Walker, South Korea’s A-list hero and guardian of the night.

He watched the news and drank his beer with a confused mind.

[It’s been over a month since he retired, and he hasn’t been seen since he announced his retirement. In the time since his retirement, the terrorism rate in Korea has…]

“Egostic…”

He muttered that quietly, bitterly.

The news reports the retirement of the villain Egostic as common gossip.

Shadow Walker knew the truth.

“…Haha, no one knows but me.”

On the real reason for the retirement of the S-class villain that shook Korea.

“He was… was a true hero.”

Yeah.

He was a hero who hid in the shadows behind a mask, protecting Korea.

He was the only one who knew that he was cosplaying as a villain to save the world.

And…

There’s only one reason he’s retiring.

“Egoistic… because he’s on a time limit.”

Shadow Walker muttered the truth, the truth he believed, a truth that no one else in the world knows, only he does.

That the dark hero, Egostic, was, in fact, a dead man walking.

That’s right. Shadow Walker had seen it before, the sight of him coughing up blood and hiding it.

And then, through a series of logical deductions, Shadow Walker arrived at the truth…

Ah, that the Egostic had only a few days to live.

Before he dies, he intends to burn everything he has in service to his country.

Ever since then, Shadow Walker has watched over Egostic.

Especially with the stories of his exploits as the years passed, it was only natural that he would nod in agreement.

He’d often reminded himself to stop complaining and fulfill his mission as a hero.

But finally.

The time has come.

Seeing him retire…

‘…probably only has a few days left to live.’

“Hah…”

The heavens are not kind, taking such a righteous man away so soon.

But don’t worry, Egostic.

After you’re gone, I’ll take charge, reveal the whole truth, and restore your honor to the world.

It’s the least I can do.

With that, Shadow Walker made up his mind.

When his phone rang, Shadow Walker flinched without realizing it.

‘…Ugh, is that Sook-hee?’

It was only yesterday that his girlfriend had given him a stern look and told him not to drink for a while.

…But today, as he was gulping down a beer, he was stabbed without realizing it.

He hurriedly picked up his cell phone and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the caller.

“What the…Stardus.”

Long time no see.

How are you?

With that thought, Shadow Walker answered the phone.

After a brief hello, Stardus asked if he could meet with her, and he nodded in agreement.

While they were on the phone Shadow walker thought quietly.

‘…Now that I think about it, since Stardus was also an arch-enemy of Egostic, I should take this opportunity to tell her the truth before it’s too late.’

Egostic is dead…that’s the sad truth.