151) Chapter 21. ......Huh? (10)

Somehow, the atmosphere ended up turning into a career counseling session.

Still, it seemed like it might be nice to hear the perspective of an adult who was already working as a hero.

“Auntie likes being praised.”

“P-praised?”

The conversation went in a direction I hadn’t expected, and it caught me off guard.

After all, Auntie Yujin was one of the greatest heroes.

So I had expected something more philosophical, something profound and complicated.

“When I was little, I once helped an elderly man who had fallen down on the street. Then all the people around me started praising me. They said things like, ‘What a thoughtful child.’ It felt good.”

“Hmm.”

That certainly made sense.

There aren’t many people who feel bad about being praised.

Even if you tell people to stop and act embarrassed on the outside, it still makes you secretly happy inside, doesn’t it?

“After that, I stopped wanting to do bad things. I liked it when people smiled at me. So I kept working hard, and before I knew it, I ended up here.”

“Yeah...”

Perhaps my response sounded a little absent-minded, because Auntie Yujin let out a small giggle.

“What? Were you expecting some grand story?”

“Mmm...”

Come to think of it, I didn’t think Auntie Yujin had some American comic-book hero-style backstory in the original work.

More precisely, there had never been any story about how she lived before.

No.

Maybe that kind of background had never been necessary.

Because in the original story, Uncle Dohyun had died.

In a sense, the fact that she had lost the person she loved was itself Auntie Yujin’s past.

After all, it had all happened before the main story began.

“My way of thinking changed later, though. You know, even if you do this kind of work, not everyone is grateful. Some people look at you with resentment. Some ask why they should be thankful when heroes live such good lives because of the work they do. And honestly, I think they have a point. We do live well.”

And that was precisely why people aspired to become heroes.

If society simply relied on people’s goodwill and expected them to use their powers for free, who would volunteer?

There might be some people willing to do it, but you couldn’t expect them to stay forever.

So instead, society offered substantial rewards and advertised that this was the kind of life you could have if you became a hero.

And then actually paid those rewards.

That way, fewer people would be tempted to become villains.

“T-then why have you continued until now?”

“To put it selfishly, one reason is that the money I earn from this job is quite good.”

Auntie Yujin lightly took my hand as she looked at me.

“And thanks to it, I got to meet Rua too. That means I succeeded.”

“......”

My face heated up for no reason.

Auntie Yujin’s words were completely sincere.

She wasn’t saying them just to make me feel comfortable.

She truly felt as though she had gained another daughter.

“T-then...”

A voice suddenly spoke up.

It was Jinwoo.

“T-then, ma’am... do you do hero work as a profession?”

“Mm-hm. That’s right. And that’s actually very important.”

“Important?”

“What do you think it would be like if being a hero wasn’t a profession?”

“Well...”

What if it weren’t a registered occupation?

Then it would essentially be a militia.

Or, if that sounded too extreme, perhaps a neighborhood vigilante group.

Of course, some people might argue that such a thing isn’t inherently bad.

Sometimes laws and society are unstable and unfair, and there are times when people need to stand against them.

But in a society where rules are functioning properly, the position of such a militia becomes very dangerous.

“A profession means there are principles. There are things you must do and things you must not do. I’m human, and other heroes are human too. There will absolutely be moments when you get so angry that you want to cross the line. There are many kinds of crimes.”

“......”

The crimes superhumans dealt with were usually crimes committed by other superhumans.

And that meant the methods of those crimes could be unimaginably horrific.

From assault to torture, murder or rape; people who believed that because they possessed power, they were entitled to do all these things.

When confronted with people who had crossed those lines, wouldn’t you be tempted to cross them yourself?

Just as I had been.

...And just as Auntie Yujin had been in the original novel.

“And once you cross the line once, every line afterward becomes easier to cross. That’s why you need standards. A point beyond which you must not go. But it would be a problem if I set those standards all by myself, wouldn’t it? I’d move them whenever it suited me.”

Auntie Yujin paused in thought again.

“Of course, those standards can never be perfect. They probably never will be. Depending on the person, the time, and the place, people will keep debating what’s right and what’s wrong. So when that happens, you discuss it and gradually adjust things. There’s no need to completely affirm everything or completely reject everything. Um... do you understand?”

“Uh, yes?”

Whether I understood or not.

Well, I had been an adult in my previous life, so these were ideas I had thought about before.

“B-but...”

Jinwoo asked,

“T-then the reason you’re a hero is...”

She had started because she liked being praised.

But it wasn’t just that.

Standards were important.

Yet neither of those answers was the direct reason Auntie Yujin continued being a hero.

Apparently Jinwoo had noticed that.

Auntie Yujin grinned at her.

“That’s because of Rua and Soi.”

“Ah.”

“Because I want to protect them.”

“Protect them?”

“Mm-hm. Because when Auntie works hard, the world becomes that much safer. If nobody stood up to fight them, what do you think villains would do?”

If someone commits evil, someone comes to stop them.

Because that standard exists, villains can’t openly run rampant.

They have to hide.

They have to scheme.

They can only strike in isolated incidents.

Not because they want to, but because that’s all they can do.

And because of that, most ordinary people can live reasonably safe lives.

In other words, Auntie Yujin loved Soi and me so much that—

Because she could protect us, she did.

For some reason, my nose stung slightly.

“I-I see.”

Jinwoo nodded blankly.

“So? Do you want to become a hero now?”

“Yes!”

Had she already found someone she wanted to protect?

Well, the original Nam Jinwoo had been that kind of character.

The sort who wanted to protect everyone and poured every ounce of her power into doing so.

The sort who later tried to take other people’s wounds onto herself.

...Back then, I had simply thought, Well, he’s the male protagonist, and moved on.

Actually, it wasn’t even about whether she was a man or a woman.

Wasn’t she smaller than me in all kinds of ways?

And her face was so gentle and harmless.

If someone like that said they wanted to take my injuries onto themselves, even I would refuse.

She looked so fragile that she might die if someone poked her.

“Hehe.”

Auntie Yujin patted Jinwoo on the head once and then turned toward me—

And did absolutely nothing.

Because I freak out whenever someone pats my head.

And whenever someone hugs me.

“......”

Auntie never blames me.

No matter how much she treats me like a daughter, she has never blamed me for being unable to respond like one.

If anything, she openly tells me she loves me.

“...I-I want to become a hero too.”

I didn’t have any grand ambitions.

I didn’t want to save the world or anything like that.

I just wanted to become someone like her.

Someone people could lean on.

Someone who made others feel safe simply by being there.

I had never been that kind of person.

“I see.”

Auntie Yujin simply smiled and squeezed my hand.

*

The following week.

My injuries still hadn’t fully healed, so I went to the hospital again.

And once again, a woman boarded the bus with me.

I hadn’t remembered her face immediately from our previous encounter, but the atmosphere around her made it obvious she was the same person.

Even during the ride to the hospital.

Even while waiting for my name to be called.

She didn’t try to talk to me.

Not even after my appointment ended and I went to the pharmacy with my prescription.

Was it because I hadn’t really answered her properly last time?

Maybe she didn’t think it was worth asking again.

And then, on the bus ride back.

This time, the woman confidently sat down beside me.

Then she looked at me and spoke.

“So? Have you thought about what we talked about before?”

“...Huh?”

“No, I was just wondering whether you still feel the same way. About people who bully others. About people who run their mouths without doing anything. Sometimes you feel like doing something about them, don’t you?”

“N-no.”

I shook my head.

“N-not really.”

“Mmm. Really?”

“Yes. I...”

If I did something like that, the people around me would get hurt.

The people I love in this life would get hurt.

I want to live while holding everything I love tightly in my arms.

Just like Soi and Chae-yi do.

So no.

I don’t want that.

“Hmm.”

The woman gave a faint smile that looked slightly troubled.

“Is that so?”

That was all she said.

After that, she fell silent.

Not long afterward, the bus arrived in front of the academy.

Just like before, the woman didn’t get off with me.

After stepping off the bus, I stood there staring at it as it drove away, then tilted my head.

But wait.

Wasn’t the way she talked almost like she was trying to recruit me?

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Pub: 31 May 2026 08:49 UTC

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