The Crazy Villain Regains His Sanity - Chapter 92

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 92

Franz’s stated reason for visiting South Korea was revenge for his disciple, but the truth was far more complex.
He didn’t much care where his student had gotten beaten.
Lora was already an acknowledged Superhuman. If she’d taken a thrashing outside, she should overcome it through her own strength.
Besides, if she’d survived defeat, then Heaven itself had aided her.
Since becoming a Superhuman, she’d grown arrogant about her own prowess, so he figured she’d gained valuable experience from the ordeal.
Franz fixed his gaze on the figure before him.

‘Choi Jun-ho.’

A prodigy who’d risen like a comet across the sky.
He’d crossed the sea to see this man. In Franz’s eyes, deep suspicion lay coiled and waiting.
The sinister epithet: Head Breaker.
And if the numbers didn’t align, he showed no hesitation whatsoever in striking.
The cruelty of grinding an otherwise invincible enemy into ruin.
Franz glimpsed in him a nature far closer to Villain than to righteous Superhuman.
His power was coveted, his standing as a state-sanctioned Superhuman assured, yet a Superhuman with a corrupted heart would only birth another of the Three Evils of League.
Franz had formed this conviction while watching video footage from the World Awakener Day event, where Choi Jun-ho had faced Schvantner, Lora, and Traore simultaneously.
All three belonged to the European Union and Franz knew their strength well. Three Superhumans of equal caliber had joined forces against Choi Jun-ho—and still come up short.

‘This man is far too dangerous.’

Left unchecked, he could become an earth-consuming calamity.
Franz recalled old memories of meeting the Three Evils who’d founded League. Even in their youth, they’d been formidable masters.
There had been an era when he thought—twisted ideologies aside—if they protected the world from Monsters, it didn’t matter. But that complacency had spawned the monstrosity known as League.
Franz still regretted it.
Had he acted when he’d first felt that wrongness, or changed their minds, or steeled himself and intervened—League might never have risen. But the Three Evils had climbed beyond his reach.
So before Choi Jun-ho strayed too far, Franz wanted to know what was in his heart.
If Choi Jun-ho were to join League—an organization that had grown powerful by exploiting the conflict between Awakened Persons and Non-Awakened Persons—what then?

‘If his thoughts are corrupted… I will stop him.’

Even at the cost of my life.
A Superhuman of Choi Jun-ho’s caliber joining League wouldn’t mean –1, but –100 or worse.
Humanity, already straining against Monsters, could face extinction.

“Come at me.”

Franz’s voice rang out with grim resolve.
Thirty minutes later.

“Ow! I’m done for! This young bastard’s beating an old man to death!”

Franz lay sprawled on the ground, wailing.

* * *

The results of testing Choi Jun-ho had been devastating.
His left shoulder, arm, and wrist were shattered entirely, while his right arm was broken in the opposite direction.
Even his legs, barely holding on, were in peril from the relentless Mines boring into them.
While Franz himself lay utterly broken, Choi Jun-ho remained unmarked—just torn clothes and minor cuts.

“How dare a young punk pummel an old man like this!”

Yet as Franz spoke, his voice trembled.
But glimpses of Choi Jun-ho were visible in those fragments—absolute madness and murderous intent. There existed in him a purity that could never be mixed with the League, which justified itself in the name of saving the world.
This was the strength of someone who’d been a Superhuman for less than a year?
He’d never experienced cruelty of this magnitude. It was like facing a killing machine programmed to know exactly how to annihilate a person.
As a Superhuman from Germany, Franz had stood on countless front lines against Monsters and had battled the League’s Villains since the organization’s inception.
Among them was the Hell Master, and Franz was one of the few Superhumans who’d faced him and lived.
Even the Three Evils of the League wouldn’t resort to methods this vicious. Choi Jun-ho was far stronger and more dangerous than he’d anticipated.

“So why were you testing me?”

Choi Jun-ho drew closer, clicked his tongue, and sprayed a Recovery Potion. Broken bones slid back into place, and fragments took on solid form once more.
The pain that had wracked his entire body vanished as though it had never been. The way he produced the potion as if he’d prepared it beforehand suggested he’d foreseen everything from the start.
Against his serene expression, the madness and murderous intent glimpsed moments before felt like they might have been illusion.

“…You knew, didn’t you?”

Franz felt utterly blindsided by words he’d never expected.

“I know you’re not part of the League.”
“And you knew I was lying?”
“That’s why you’re still alive.”

Otherwise, he’d have snapped his neck.

……

Then what had all his acting been for?
His resolve? These injuries? What was the point?
Casting aside his confusion about Choi Jun-ho’s true nature, Franz cried out.

“You know all that and you still beat me into this state?”
“Because you’re strong, sir. I couldn’t win without injuring you.”
“Don’t lie to me, you bastard!”
“Think of it as the price of trying to test me.”
“…Fine. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have thought to test you in the first place. It’s all my mistake.”

Paradoxically, hearing that eased his mind.
If he’d been part of the League, there was no way they would’ve let him live.
It was a glimmer of hope wrested from the ruin of an aging body.

“So you do know how to reflect on things.”
“Enough. Spray more of that Recovery Potion!”
“This stuff is expensive.”
“You think I don’t have money like that?”
“I’ll bill you for it.”
“Stingy bastard! Back in my day, if a comrade owed a debt, I’d take out a loan to cover it!”
“That’s crossing the line.”

He’d been dancing in this kid’s palm from the very beginning.
There was a hollow feeling, even as the injured areas began to throb.

Zing!

The Recovery Potion was effective, sure—but it hurt like hell in the process.

* * *

I’d known from the start that Franz was testing me.
I went along with it because I was curious about the strength he still retained.
Though he’d stepped back from the spotlight, I wanted to experience the power that had once earned him the title of Ten-Year-Old Prodigy at his peak.
If I’m being honest about the results, I was quite impressed.
His expertise and the application of Mines were things I could learn a thing or two from myself.

“So you’ve had your fun, roughing up an old man like this?”
“You’re perfectly fine.”

The anticlimactic result of the fight was simple: when experience and skill clashed against an opponent, the way to overwhelm them was to strike harder and faster.
Though the outcome looked rough, the power of the Sungsung Group Special Recovery Agent was extraordinary. It had succeeded in making me look unblemished on the outside, even if rot festered within.

“Cold as ice, aren’t you.”

Franz, who had been glaring at me, slumped into his chair with the wind knocked out of him.

“So what about it.”
“About what.”
“My skill level.”
“…Don’t you dare say you’re heading to the League. I’ll call every person I know and run you through a raid myself.”

Anyone watching would think I was as mad as during the Blood Cult incident.
And even if I were, they still couldn’t catch me.
Franz’s words didn’t seem to come from genuine intent.

“Are you really that worried about me going to the League?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? These days, kids flip everything over at the slightest inconvenience, run away, and become Villains.”
“I won’t do that.”
“Have you forgotten how much you’ve already turned upside down?”

I had no idea what he was talking about flipping upside down.
Seeing my expression, Franz let out a heavy sigh. Something was irritating him.
So he was saying I was a walking disaster, then?

“I suppose because you’re so oblivious, the worst hasn’t happened yet.”
“I have no intention of going to the League.”
“I know. Who do you think I am, deaf?”

He doesn’t believe me, and yet he plays the disbelieving old man so naturally.

“That’s exactly how dangerous the League’s ideology is. Didn’t the things I said just now appeal to you at all?”
“Not in the slightest.”
“Truly?”
“Being swayed by nonsense just means you’re that much of a fool.”

What the League preaches is sweet, but in the end, that’s all it is. The words spouted by any force attempting revolution are always just sugar—nothing more.
If they can’t offer an alternative, it’s nothing but chasing clouds in the sky.
Creating a world where Awakened Persons are treated well? Then what about the Non-Awakened?
Just because I’m an Awakened Person doesn’t mean my entire family is.
The League carefully excludes any mention of this contradiction, spouting off as if they’ll create some righteous world led by capable people. So the incapable deserve to die? Even if I felt sympathy at first, would I smile and accept it if my family were the ones to be culled? The League’s internal contradictions should be resolved internally, the way I handle mine.
The League’s internal contradictions should be resolved internally, the way I handle mine.

“…Heh. I see. I’ve been wrong about this from the start.”

After hearing my thoughts, Franz gave a hollow laugh.

“Do you believe me now?”
“Couldn’t you have told me all this beforehand?”
“Would you have believed me if I had?”
“Maybe I would have.”

Franz’s voice grew faint.

“You already know the answer yourself, don’t you.”
“Not giving an inch, are you? Stubborn as they come.”

Who was he calling stubborn?
Watching him cling to that old-fashioned tone all the way through—I had to admit it was impressive in its own way.

“You don’t seem particularly worried about the League.”
“Why should I waste energy on people like that?”
“Because if the world falls to ruin, it’ll be on account of them.”
“The world doesn’t collapse so easily.”

It didn’t fall even when I became a bloodsucker and went mad.
It just broke down badly enough.
Franz shook his head. What now?

“In the early days when Awakened Persons first appeared, there was a Seer who possessed the Gift of Prophecy. Do you know of them?”
“I don’t.”

I’d never heard of them, and I’d had no reason to care.
Was prophecy even possible in the first place? It seemed to me like people just spouted whatever came to mind and then patted themselves on the back when one or two things happened to align.
By that logic, I could prophesy too.
I prophesy that I won’t go mad, that I’ll live peacefully, and that I’ll cause no trouble.
Prophecy—remarkably simple.
Contrary to my cynical response, Franz spoke with utmost seriousness.

“Unfortunately, the Seer was someone who never received proper education. But they recognized that the world could fall to ruin not by Monsters, but by humans—and they left several prophecies etched into the stones of their homeland.”

According to Franz, the great calamity the Seer had prophesied came to pass exactly as foreseen.

“But we haven’t recovered all of them. When we found the prophecies, much of the Seer’s work had already been lost.”

The Seer was said to have come from a small coastal village in Namibia, untouched by any civilization.
Unable to read or write, they had carved their prophecies in pictures upon stone.

“The Seer’s final prophecy read as follows: ‘A darkness that mistakes itself for light shall devour all the world’s blessings.’ We interpret this darkness as the League, and these blessings as Gifts.”
“…….”
“The League boasts absolute powers in Black Hound and Hell Master, but without question its true center is Argos. That one doesn’t age, keeps the entire world in his sights, and schemes with cunning precision.”

I agreed with Franz’s assessment that Argos was cunning.
Who on earth had said such a thing was born to be a Villain?
I’d never heard such crude language before.

“Interpreting the prophecy, we see ‘devouring blessings’ in two possible ways. First, it refers to multiple Gifts. It’s already common knowledge that Argos possesses far more than a Dual Gift.”
“What’s the other interpretation?”
“To devour Gifts means to take Gifts away—it refers to the Awakened Persons who are absorbed into the League.”
“That seems plausible.”

To my mind, it felt like making the interpretation fit whatever you wanted it to mean.

“In the end, it suggests that Argos is a Villain capable of bringing destruction to the world.”
“Have you ever seen Argos?”
“I have. But I couldn’t be certain that even that form was the real one.”

So that’s how cunning they were.

“So in the end, this amounts to saying we must join forces to eliminate the League.”
“Precisely.”

Franz nodded.
I hadn’t realized the League’s forces were quite that formidable.
The number of Superhumans currently affiliated with the League was estimated at around forty.
No single faction possesses this many Superhumans, and since the League is scattered as a cell organization, they cannot concentrate their full force in one place.
Whenever they gather in unnecessary numbers, we simply eliminate them all.

“You don’t need to accept what I’m saying right now. Just don’t dismiss it.”
“Of course.”

The end of the world, a Prophecy—it all sounded grandiose.
I decided not to overthink it.
Kill them as they appear, and eventually they’ll vanish.
We had the restaurant staff find us fresh clothes, changed, and headed to the hotel where Franz was staying.

“The world exists because there are many people in it. Remember that.”

After leaving those words, he went inside.
He seemed determined to make me understand the danger of the League until the very end, but I wasn’t sure.
Since South Korea was the freest from the League in the world, perhaps there was something I simply hadn’t felt.

“Still.”

The content of the Prophecy Franz had mentioned earlier kept nagging at me.
Consuming all Blessings?
It sounded like he was talking about my Blood Consumption.
Surely not, though.

* * *

Franz’s visit to South Korea had been fruitful.
Experiencing the power of the monster called Choi Jun-ho, and confirming that his nature was fundamentally at odds with the League—all satisfying.
Even if he’d emerged from the League itself, his personality would have gotten him a complete skull-crushing.
Aside from the fact that his methods were cruelly excessive.

“No courtesy, no courtesy at all.”

The external wounds had healed, but his joints still ached.
It was a testament to how severe the injuries were from his clash with Choi Jun-ho.
Lora showed her concern.

“You’re sure you’re all right?”
“Ugh, even if I’m not, I have to pretend I am.”
“…That’s exactly why I said we should be careful with Choi Jun-ho.”
“So a guy like that ran off saying he didn’t want to hang around Choi Jun-ho?”
“I’m sorry.”

Lora apologized immediately when Franz opened his eyes. But in truth, he understood where she was coming from.
That lunatic who thought only he was normal.
Still, his visit to Korea had been satisfying overall.
The food was good, and he’d witnessed a city functioning under such thorough defensive posture.

“Did you see enough?”
“Yes, I saw everything worth seeing.”
“Sounds like you had all your fun while your master was getting beaten down.”
“…….”
“When I was your age, my disciples used to revere me like the heavens themselves.”
“You’re just repeating the same thing?”

They bickered their way to the Airport, where Franz and Lora were immediately surrounded by waiting journalists.

“Franz! Did you enjoy your visit to Korea?”
“What was your impression of Korea?”
“What did you discuss with President Jeon Han-chul?”

Journalists who had been kept at bay by Choi Jun-ho’s presence descended like hungry wolves, firing questions at him from all directions.
Franz answered the interview with practiced grace, his smile never wavering.

“It is a beautiful nation, dynamic and full of capable people. I have glimpsed in South Korea the potential to become a global leader as an Awakened superpower.”

When he spoke fluent Korean, the journalists were visibly startled, pressing forward with fresh questions.
A foreign giant praising South Korea was a narrative that always played well, regardless of the era.
The atmosphere only froze when the questions shifted from what Korea should improve to warnings about its weaknesses—and then, finally, to attacks on Choi Jun-ho.

“We’re seeing growing social conflict due to the emergence of Choi Jun-ho. What’s your take on that?”
“Some say his methods are no different from a Villain’s. How do you respond?”
“Don’t you think it’s an embarrassment to the nation when a Superhuman acts with such frivolity, like an idol?”
“We’re witnessing Hunters more brutal than Villains themselves. What do you make of this social phenomenon?”

All of it was prime scandal-mongering material.

…….

Lora, who understood Korean, went rigid. Franz, who had been answering with measured softness, also stiffened, his jaw tightening quietly—the telltale gesture of a man whose patience was wearing thin.
The journalists fell silent, as if they’d swallowed honey.
The pressure radiating from Franz had crushed them.

“Those who serve their nation—or are they merely parasites feeding on the peace?”
……!

The journalists froze under his icy gaze, unable to form a response.
Even if he had stepped down from the Ten-Year-Old Prodigy rankings, Franz remained a titan of Europe and was counted among the strongest Superhumans alive.
Ordinary civilians like these journalists had no hope of recovering from the crushing weight of his presence.

“The peace we enjoy was built on the sacrifices of Awakened Persons. Yet we, drunk on that peace, forget their sacrifice, and in our comfortable blindness, we turn their trials into gossip fodder, sowing conflict in our own fields.”

No one dared counter Franz’s indictment.
Every word was being broadcast live.

“This peace was not conjured from thin air! Never forget that!”

And that’s why Superhumans had grown sick of it all and fled to the League.
A few of the journalists bowed their heads, unable to withstand the force of his words.
These people—lacking even the courage to face this much.
He swept his contemptuous gaze across them and spat out his curse.

“Filth! Ficken!”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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