Chapter 351:
After things with Celeste were put on hold, I came back, and started doing things normally again.
"Kuluk."
Before doing so, I wiped the blood from my mouth. Hah, it's been so long since I've used my telekinetic powers inside the Sun God's temple, and I'm bleeding again…
Anyway, I was doing my job.
…Of course, that's all well and good, but what I was most interested in was.
"No, Stardus, what's really going on with you lately?"
The world is very turbulent these days. If you listen to the news from around the world, you can hear that a villain has taken over the capital of a country, or that a country's economy has been destroyed by continuous terrorism. Other villains are not all like Katana…
Anyway, maybe that's why Korean news seems to try to show only hopeful things about their country as much as possible. I mean, they just showed Stardus, the hero, and started promoting "Korea is safe, everyone!"
In reality, Stardus had been so good at beating up the villains that there was nothing to worry about. However…
‘…weird.’
That didn't fool my Stardus expert eyes.
The Stardus I've been seeing on the screen lately has been strange.
She's always had a stony expression, but lately she's become more subtly expressionless.
More than that, she seemed tired. More precisely, she seemed empty, as if she had lost her purpose and was just killing villains out of habit.
Stardus…
‘…doing something so self-destructive.’
I thought to myself, pen in hand, a serious look on my face as I stared at the screen.
This was something that I was more sensitive to as an observer of Stardus, not just as a Stardus expert, but as someone who had seen her in the first person through the original story.
For example, just watching this video today, I was like.
[Oh no, there's a villain breathing flames nearby! I think that's how he's trying to distance himself from Stardus…As we speak, Stardus just flies straight through the flames!]
As the enemy breathes out flames, Stardus flies straight through them.
…Normally, she would never do this.
She'd step back, see if there was a way around the flames, if so, she'd go around them, if not, she'd wait a moment for them to die down before charging.
But she didn't, and when the flames came, she walked right through them.
Of course, being the stronger woman she is, she wasn't hurt too badly… but the problem is that this behavior is repeating itself.
"….."
I stared at her, my hand on my chin, silently thinking.
…The public would have seen her like this and thought, "Ah, how brave Stardus has become!”
But I knew better. I knew that what Stardus had been doing lately was a kind of self-inflicted wound. She's been doing risky things over and over again, as if death isn't scary enough. It was almost as if she had lost the will to live.
And these behaviors were already similar in the original story.
‘…When her best friend from college, Kim Chae-hyun, died, she briefly went into a tearful rage and showed this kind of radical behavior.’
The problem is, she's not dead, but lately Stardus has been acting like that.
There was no trigger for it, and she's been relatively normal since I retired, and then all of a sudden she's been acting like that lately.
‘What happened?’
I wondered to myself, and then shook my head.
‘Yeah. I should ask someone close to Stardus about this.’
With that thought, I whipped out my cell phone and dialed somewhere.
"Uh, Seola, what are you doing?"
***
Lee Seola, chairwoman of the Yuseong Group.
…I found her office and greeted her, who was staring blankly at one of the piles of papers in front of her desk.
"Hey, Lee Seola, what are you doing?"
"…Ah, Da-in!"
She looked up at my words, smiling broadly as if she had been waiting for me, then signed the paper, tossed it aside, and stood up.
"Haha. Are you here?"
"Uh… But you look a little busy?"
"Ah. Ahahahahaha, yeah. Life is not easy."
After answering me with that smile, she just plopped down on the couch in front of the small hospitality table that sat in the center of the office, facing the armrests.
"…Are you okay?"
"Ahhhh. I'm fine, except a little busy… Um, no, actually, I'm pretty busy, and I'm pissed off about assholes…Other than that, I'm fine."
Lee Seola, who was smiling and talking like that, didn't look okay to anyone.
Even though she was smiling, she looked almost disheveled.
Especially now, she threw away her usual suit and tie and wore a t-shirt, lying on the couch, laughing like a wild maniac, not like the chairman of a large company.
I guess she's having a hard time these days…
I left her behind and turned my head toward the TV that was turned on alone in the large office.
Lee Seola's voice was playing on it.
On the screen, Lee Seola was standing at a lectern in front of hundreds of people in suits and reporters, delivering a speech.
[We, the Yuseong Group, will work together to the best of our abilities to protect the economy, security, politics, diplomacy, and peace in Korea and Northeast Asia, and to that end, we first announce our three-year plan for economic growth…]
The headline below Lee Seola was saying [[Breaking News] Yuseong Group, effectively formalizing interference in internal affairs?]
"What, you're just going to deny that you ate Korea now?"
In response to my question, Lee Seola, who was sitting on the couch with her legs propped up on the armrests and her hands playing with ice crystals, replied.
"Ahaha, yeah. I don't think I can hide it anymore. I'm involved with other countries, and the media and public opinion are on my side anyway, so it doesn't matter."
"But you touch this news organization? They're calling it interference in internal affairs."
In response to my question, Seola smiled wryly and replied in a languid voice.
"Oh, that's what I told them to do, too. It's awkward to have a place like that, because if you smother them too much, the opposition might burst out, but they're all on my side anyway, so I'll make them turn to me."
"Aha…"
"I'll have to slowly teach this country who's the boss."
…Seola had a plan, didn't she?
I nodded, and then, feeling uneasy at the moment, pulled a handkerchief from my pocket and covered my mouth.
"Kuluk, kuluk."
I tasted the bitter taste of blood in my mouth and wiped it on the handkerchief.
Phew, it's a good thing I knew to bring a handkerchief. I'd pushed myself too hard last time, feeling like an S-class in the Sun God's temple.
"….."
Lee Seola, who had half-raised herself from the couch, was staring at me with a stern face.
…And I, cringing unnecessarily at the sight, opened my mouth and changed the subject.
"Oh, it's nothing. Anyway, so…the reason I'm here. Stardus."
Her complexion darkened even more at my mention of Stardus.
I opened my mouth, sensing something in her expression.
"…She’s been acting a little strange lately, is something wrong?"
She sighs, averting her gaze at my question.
…Then she looked at the bloody handkerchief that was still in my hand and sighed once more.
"Haha…More than that, Da-in, are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Look me in the eye and answer me honestly, Da-in, are you dying?"
"…What do you mean?"
After arguing with me about my health for so long, she finally realized that I wasn't dying and sighed.
"…Stardus, haha….I don't know. Egostic, you can find out for yourself later."
"…Okay."
I nodded as she laid back down on the couch, shielding her eyes with her arms, looking like she had a story to tell.
…I'm going to see her again soon anyway. I might be able to find out if I look at her then.
Anyway, after a few more words with her, I left.
"And don't be surprised if a weirdo shows up in Seoul sometime next week."
"Uh… What's this weirdo? Isn't he some kind of disaster or something?"
"There is such a thing."
I gave her one last friendly warning.
Was it better to be right than wrong?…or was it the other way around?
***
And with that, Egostic left.
"Phew…"
Sitting back down in her seat, she fell silent, lost in thought.
In fact, she knew Stardus' current condition.
…That she was like that because she thought that Egostic was dying.
But she couldn't reassure her because…
‘Are you sure he's not going to die…?’
Because she wasn't sure in the first place.
In fact, he was still coughing up blood today but according to him, he's not dying, so…
‘Maybe if you two meet in person, you'll make progress.’
Looking outside at the sky, she muttered to herself.
…until she remembered that she still had a lot of work to do, and realized that she'd gotten less than two hours of sleep today.
***
Anyway, that night I returned, and I was thinking about what to do next.
I thought, "Okay. We still have time before the next event, so let's rest and think about it until the day after tomorrow.”
I concluded that and went to sleep.
The next day, I woke up with a heavy feeling.
"Woke up?"
"Ugh…"
On my stomach, Seo Ja-young was sitting up and staring at me,
…She must have gotten into bed again during the night, so I wasn't surprised.
"…Mmm…what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Having said that, she looked at me with her violet eyes and said,
"Today, let's play together."
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