Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

The day after tomorrow, I drove off in a cargo van packed with the children. The cargo van was disguised as a kindergarten school bus, and the children were all dressed in kindergarten uniforms.

“This is my first time wearing something like this.”

Decked out in bright yellow outfits, the children chirped excitedly like little chicks.

“Aren’t they just adorable?”

Uncharacteristically relaxed, Han Seo-hyeon had let his usual aloof composure slip. To be fair, the children did look immensely cute wearing those little yellow hats.

But Han Seo-hyeon’s cheerful demeanor instantly vanished, his expression falling.

“Are we really sending them away?”

“Yes.”

My decision remained unchanged. To be honest, I had grown quite attached to the children over these past few days as well. How could I not? Despite the horrors they had endured, the children remained vibrantly cheerful, seeming to have no recollection of those traumatic events.

Despite my efforts not to bond with them, they clung adorably to me, showering me with affection and gratitude that eventually melted my resolve.

They truly were lovely children.

But that was precisely why I needed to let them go.

Tightening my lips, I drove in silence. Our destination was Wolmido in Incheon.

Baek Do-san and his subordinates were there to greet us. Upon seeing the suited, burly men, the children exiting the vehicle froze in their tracks.

“Are these the kids?”

“Yes. And did you really need to stand around so intimidatingly? You’ve scared them.”

“My apologies. We did attempt to present ourselves properly.”

I clicked my tongue at Baek Do-san’s remark.

While we traveled to China to handle our task, the children would be left here temporarily. At Baek Do-san’s signal, one of his men approached the children – a burly fellow with an unkempt hairstyle that only further alarmed the kids.

“Ajeossi!” (tl/n: uncle)

The fear in their eyes as they called out to me was palpable.

“Don’t worry. These uncles here will look after you until we return from our business in China.”

“Uuh.”

Their apprehensive reaction seemed to wound the scruffy man as well.

“We have a kid too, you know?”

Baek Do-san shrugged at his subordinate’s words.

“We may be gangsters, but we’re not that kind of gangsters.”

Yes, I believed him. While undoubtedly an evil man, the Baek Do-san from before Seol Rok-jin’s corruption would never have harmed children.

“If anything happens, tell this one.”

Han Seo-hyeon handed the rat summon to Il-ho. Seeing that, I nodded in understanding. If any issue arose with the children, I intended to immediately return here, war be damned.

“Take care.”

“Come back safely!”

The children’s unified cry brought a smile to my face as I followed Baek Do-san, Han Seo-hyeon trailing behind us.

Surveying our trio, Baek Do-san tilted his head.

“Is this your entire party?”

“For now, those accompanying me, yes.”

I revealed partial information without divulging everything.

“I’ve never seen these two before…”

“Their capabilities are assured, so have no doubts.”

Baek Do-san nodded at my reassurance. We had decided to travel to China by sea to bypass identification issues, as I was the only one with a secure alternate identity arranged by Professor Geum. Han Seo-hyeon and Kim Jae-ho lacked legitimate documentation for air travel.

Before boarding the ship, I donned a disguise mask – a middle-aged man’s appearance, in contrast to Han Seo-hyeon and Kim Jae-ho’s unaltered faces. I had suggested disguises for them as well, but they declined, claiming it was unnecessary.

And the ship we ended up boarding was…

“Ugh.”

With his heightened senses, Kim Jae-ho seemed distressed, though his incredible adaptability allowed him to quickly overcome it.

I had never suffered from motion sickness. The issue was Han Seo-hyeon.

“Uurrgghh!”

He had already vomited twelve times by now.

“I wish someone would just knock me out already.”

“Should I help you with this?”

“Ah, no! Jae-ho hyung!”

Fleeing from Kim Jae-ho, Han Seo-hyeon huddled in a corner, soon falling into an unconscious slumber. Upon disembarking, his face was deathly pale.

After arriving in China, we immediately relocated to our accommodation. And from that lodging, unfamiliar presences began shadowing our every move.

Not just me – even Kim Jae-ho’s eyes had narrowed sharply, clearly sensing those presences as well. Perched on the windowsill, he kept craning his neck outwards, as if monitoring the outside.

“Don’t wander too far. Leave those people be for now.”

Before I could even finish speaking, Kim Jae-ho had already vanished.

—Did you send him out?

‘No, I merely anticipated he would step outside eventually, given his aversion to confinement.’

“I’m dying here.”

As Han Seo-hyeon collapsed onto the bed, the four rat summons that had remained ‘deceased’ in his pocket emerged and scurried about.

“Why don’t you just rest?”

“It doesn’t take much effort to move these guys around, you know.”

Aside from the single rat summon left behind with Il-ho in case of emergencies, Han Seo-hyeon had brought the remaining rats along.

At his gesturing, the rat summons dispersed in various directions.

“Still, don’t overexert yourself…”

Though I cautioned Han Seo-hyeon, he didn’t respond – likely already asleep.

In the meantime, I had another matter to attend to.

I scrutinized the system window that had appeared:

-[Mana Circuit Expansion]-

Potential: S-Rank

Type: Passive

Utilizes mana circuits to convert one’s mana into any desired form.

The system window only provided a basic conceptual outline. How that concept was ‘applied’ and ‘utilized’ fell entirely upon the awakener’s ingenuity.

I had obtained this ‘Mana Circuit Expansion’ skill by accepting Ray into my body, which had resulted in an immense number of mana circuits being etched within me.

However, the mana circuits I could actively manipulate were only a fraction of the total.

In fact, I had yet to fully grasp which mana circuits were even inscribed into my body. For now, I had only memorized the frequently used ones, without properly investigating the rest.

Ray had mentioned I could only utilize mana circuits up to the second stroke level.

Which meant any talents requiring three or more strokes were completely impossible for me to activate.

For instance, the ‘Super Regeneration’ talent that could fully restore even damaged tissue cells.

Apparently, from the fourth stroke level onwards, it could even regenerate severed limbs, with the minimum third stroke still enabling substantial regeneration.

In any case, to fully leverage the mana circuits etched into my body, I needed to somehow increase my ‘stroke count.’

And the factor determining that stroke count was my brain – more specifically, my processing power and mental fortitude.

“Kughh.”

I strained to elevate the number of strokes I could simultaneously activate, but two seemed to be my current limit no matter how hard I tried.

‘As expected, it’s not easy.’

—That’s simply your innate limitation.

Ray wasn’t trying to discourage me – it was the harsh reality. Two strokes. Despite having all these mana circuits inscribed, I could only utilize talents up to the two-stroke level.

Because the mana circuits within my body only possessed B-rank potential.

‘But the passive was S-rank…’

—That’s a separate category.

‘Tsk.’

I wondered what might have been possible if Kim Jae-ho or Han Seo-hyeon had received these circuits instead.

The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth.

—But those naturally gifted might not have delved as deeply as you into understanding their talents.

For once, Ray offered me genuine praise rather than complaints.

‘Well, you’re right about that. There are few who obsess over their talents as singularly as I do.’

The previous owner of this power Park Se-woon had never utilized more than a single ability simultaneously.

Perhaps he had unconsciously employed multiple talents, but never consciously attempted combining them.

It was simply preconceived notions.

Few awakeners possessed composite talents, so the very idea of intermixing abilities had likely never occurred to them.

But I was different.

Even if I could only activate two-stroke talents at present, I could still simultaneously use two separate abilities in combination.

Combining just two talents opened up immense possibilities.

Blending water and lightning?

The synergies would be tremendous.

What about wind and fire?

—Your mind is certainly racing with ideas.

If raw power was insufficient, overcoming it through synergies would suffice.

If I could eventually utilize a third talent simultaneously, I could enhance all those combinations further by channeling the mana bracelet’s firepower.

Which was why I couldn’t afford to slack on my training efforts.

‘If I can somehow manage using three strokes…’

My thoughts trailed off upon hearing a soft whimper from the bed where Han Seo-hyeon lay.

“I’m sorry… Hyung, I’m so sorry.”

It was only natural, really. He had witnessed his beloved brother’s gruesome death firsthand. Going beyond that, driven by an obsessive desire for closure, he had even resorted to summoning that cherished brother’s remains as part of his necromancy abilities.

No matter how unaffected he might outwardly appear, such trauma couldn’t simply be shrugged off.

However, the burden of shouldering that anguish fell solely upon Han Seo-hyeon.

I too understood, having lived while shouldering the weight of others’ lives myself.

All I could do was support him whenever he seemed on the verge of collapse.

Listening to Han Seo-hyeon’s tear-stained mumbling, I remained seated on the floor until dawn, meticulously refining my mana manipulation.

* * *

Kim Jae-ho returned just before sunrise. The lingering scent around him suggested he had been wandering amidst the wind. Just what had he been up to, roaming so far?

“Don’t stray too far. This isn’t our territory.”

In response to my words, Kim Jae-ho stated:

“No danger.”

“Perhaps not from anyone capable of harming you. But this still isn’t our territory, is it?”

He didn’t seem entirely convinced, but oh well.

“Hungry.”

“Yes, it is about breakfast time.”

“Uhh. Jae-ho hyung is back?”

Roused by our conversation, Han Seo-hyeon had finally regained consciousness as well. While still appearing unwell, he seemed better than the previous day, seemingly unaware of his sleep-talking incident.

There was no need to inform him about such trivial mumbling.

We filled our stomachs with the hotel’s breakfast fare. In the meantime, Han Seo-hyeon had retrieved his rat summons.

Lowering his voice to a whisper, he informed me:

“There are ten individuals monitoring us. I can’t tell if they’re awakeners, but they’re no ordinary people. They’ve been keeping vigilant watch over us practically all night.”

“Hmm, it seems they have rather high expectations of us.”

—Or the opposite – they simply don’t trust us at all, so they’re keeping close observation. In this case, the latter is more likely, isn’t it?

While hasty judgments were unwise, it didn’t seem like they viewed us favorably.

After breakfast, we traveled by car again for quite a distance alongside Baek Do-san.

Our eventual destination was a towering hotel that seemed to almost graze the heavens itself.

The moment we arrived, the car door swung open – even before we could open it ourselves, someone had already done so from the outside.

A woman in a crisp suit stood before us. Her tightly bound hair and piercing gaze were strikingly memorable.

“Hello there.”

Despite Han Seo-hyeon’s polite greeting, no response came. Pursing his lips, he retreated behind me.

The woman led us to a restaurant on the upper floors of the hotel. It seemed we had rented out the entire place, as there were no other guests present aside from our group.

At the table we were guided towards, someone was already seated there.

A man wearing an exquisitely embroidered blue-green qipao with his long hair tied back. This must be Jang Riu-won, the leader of the Silver Moon Society – or as the local language would render it, Zhang Liuweian. (tl/n: here the author pointed out ‘two’ names of the one person, – the difference is simply in Korean and Chinese pronunciation. Don’t bother too much to remember 2 of them, because up to the end of this ‘arc’ only ‘Zhang Liuweian’ will be used. This will also be true for other newly introduced characters from China)

His chiseled jawline was as sharp as an ancient tree trunk, exuding an overwhelming aura of authority. Beneath that qipao, his physique seemed devoid of any excess fat, clearly rigorously trained. Indeed, he possessed the charismatic presence befitting the head of a major criminal syndicate.

A sumptuous feast was already laid out on the table before Zhang Liuweian.

Kim Jae-ho, standing beside me, audibly gulped down his saliva.

The woman who had escorted us approached Zhang Liuweian and whispered into his ear.

[I’ve brought them.]

That woman was undoubtedly an awakener.

An exceptionally powerful one at that.

—Seems to be his personal bodyguard.

Before taking our seats, Baek Do-san exchanged greetings with Zhang Liuweian.

[Greetings, I trust you’ve been well?]

[And you are?]

[Just getting by, as always.]

[Then have a seat with your companions. You’ve come all this way as our guests to engage in pleasant conversation, have you not?]

After that brief exchange, Baek Do-san turned to me.

“Please, have a seat.”

“Thank you.”

As I took my seat, I directed my gaze towards Zhang Liuweian.

[This friend here is the one I mentioned. Weltschmerz. His skills are quite impressive. I owe him a debt of gratitude for saving my life, you see.]

[He seems ordinary enough, but appearances can be deceiving. In any case, if you vouch for him, I shall trust your judgment for now.]

“Allow me to introduce them properly. This is Zhang Liuweian, the leader of the Silver Moon Society. And this is…”

I interrupted Baek Do-san’s words to speak up myself.

[Greetings. It is an honor to meet you like this. We are Weltschmerz – you may address us as such.]

Ah yes, I was fluent in Chinese. Seol Rok-jin had previously assigned the Anti-Society matter to me, after all.

I had been in charge of the Anti-Society.