Being a Villain is My True Calling

After finishing my shower, I arrived at Ahn Ye-ri’s room.

Kkeek…

‘Huh, the door’s open?’

Whether Ye-ri left it open while tending to Irene or not, this door should normally be firmly closed.
On a whim, I suppressed any sound of my presence and entered the room.

“?”

What’s she doing?
Inside, Ahn Ye-ri had her back turned, pointing at herself with her finger as she had Irene repeat something.

“Ja, jaa…Ri, Rirra. O, Olke Unni…”

“Oke Unning?”

“Olke Unni…Ah, is ‘Olke’ still too difficult for you to pronounce? Then how about ‘New Unni’…”

“…What are you having the kid do, Ye-ri?”

“Hyaaaaack!!!”

Startled by my voice, Ahn Ye-ri jolted like a scared cat.
She stiffened her body as if she’d committed a wrongdoing, regarding me with a flustered expression.

“M,M,M,Maker…!!”

“Ah! Oppa!!”

Ye-ri stuttered excessively, unlike her usual self, while Irene saw me and came running with her tail wagging rapidly.
Chuckling at their contrasting reactions, I scooped up Irene as she stretched her arms towards me.

“Khrung! Khrheung!! Oppa! Bogoshipsseoyo!!”

“Have you been well, Irene?”

“Nyee!!”

As her ears perked up and her tail swished incessantly, I stroked her head, prompting Irene to giggle delightedly.

“Were you playing?”

“Nye!!”

“What were you playing?”

“Um…I drew pictures of Oppa and Ga-yeon Unni! Then me and Ye-ri Unni played house games! And…”

In response to my question, Irene began chattering like a baby bird.

“Ye-ri Unni taught me honorifics!”

“Honorifics?”

“Like Samcho and Imo…”

She seemed to be referring to family relation honorifics.

“And! The one who marries Oppa is Olke Unni!”

“I see. Is that so?”

I glanced sidelong at Ahn Ye-ri.
Her face was so flushed, it looked like it might burst.

Her head hung low as she mumbled incoherently, prompting an amused chuckle from me.

“Thank you for looking after Irene, Ye-ri. I hope she wasn’t too much trouble?”

“Huh, huh? Ah, ah! No! Th,that’s not it at all!! Kkheu…!”

Flustered, Ye-ri spoke rapidly before letting out a pained “Eukk!” sound as she shuffled her feet.
It seemed she had bitten her tongue.

“Ye-ri? Why are you so tense?”

“Uu, uuh…Ganchan, ganchanayo…”

With her instantaneous reactions to my every word, it was quite entertaining to tease her.

‘As much as I’d love to keep teasing her, time is limited.’

I decided it was time to get to the main point.

“Just to be safe, you should get checked by the doctor. Or if you finish your tasks, we could go together.”

“Go, go together…? But, but what tasks…? Did, did you come to see me for, for a reason…?”

“We have a mission to undertake together.”

I briefly explained the events from this morning and informed her that Astra had assigned us a mission together.

“Most likely, an assault will follow once the investigation concludes.”

“Ah, I see…!”

After hearing my explanation, Ahn Ye-ri nodded vigorously and clenched her fists tightly.

Afterwards, I spent the day resting alongside Ga-yeon, who had come to fetch Irene so she wouldn’t be left alone.

-So, you’ve got another mission?

“It would seem so.”

-Won’t this disrupt your plans?

“If it’s not an investigation but an assault, it’ll be over in a day. And even if we delay the timeline, it won’t particularly matter.”

While the timeframe was set to a month, the goal was simply to draw attention towards Alpha. If attention wasn’t sufficiently captured, I had planned to prolong the duration slightly.

“And, it looks like it’ll be over soon anyway.”

The next day, after receiving Astra’s summons, I was heading towards her office.

“I’ll cut the call here. If you need to ask anything or have any issues, feel free to contact me, Narin.”

-Arrasseo~

Not long after, I arrived at her office.

Kkiik…

“…Ah, Maker, you’re here?”

Upon entering, an even more haggard-looking Astra greeted me compared to yesterday.

“Were you up all night?”

“Huhuh…I had too much work to rest.”

Astra’s desk was littered with piles of paperwork and discarded mixed coffee packaging.

“But thanks to that, I managed to identify the culprit!”

“That’s quick.”

“I stayed up for two nights, so it would be a shame if I couldn’t accomplish at least this much!”

Her bloodshot, glistening eyes exuded an eerie mania.
Letting out a small sigh at her state, I trudged over to the coffee pot in her office.

“…Your hair is disheveled, Astra. You should get some proper rest.”

“How can I when we have a rat scurrying around headquarters?”

Well, I suppose that’s fair.
Given an outsider had infiltrated the organization undetected, her high-strung reaction was understandable.

“Haah…”

Whiik Whiik…

Moreover, with the ailing Director incapacitated, Astra was essentially handling Eclipse’s overall responsibilities.
Bearing such a burden, her hypersensitivity in this situation couldn’t be helped.

‘But what if she collapses from this?’

Concerned, I passed a warm cup of herbal tea to the fidgeting Astra at her desk.

“Maker…?”

“Drinking only coffee is unhealthy. Have a warm cup of tea instead.”

Touched by my words, Astra’s expression softened.
In response, I offered her a gentle, affectionate smile.

“Please don’t overexert yourself, Astra.”

‘You can’t afford to collapse.
Then who would handle the work?’

While only a first-year, excluding Astra, I was the most capable among the executives when it came to administrative duties.

‘I only want the power and authority, not the responsibilities.’

So I hoped Astra would persevere through the suffering for an extended period, rather than me.
Whether aware of my thoughts or not, Astra chuckled softly as she regarded me.

“Alright, Maker. I only rushed this time out of fear the culprit might sever their trail and flee. Next time, I’ll take it easy.”

Astra accepted the tea I offered, taking a sip before calmly speaking.

“Let’s get to the main point. Maker, do you recall Z-Biotech?”

“I do recall them.”

Z-Biotech.
Outwardly, a massive benevolent biotech pharmaceutical company endlessly striving for future advancement. But behind the scenes, a deranged group unabashedly engaged in illegal drug manufacturing, human experimentation, and unrelated experiments beyond pharmaceuticals.

‘We encountered them during a mission in the slums, where I also retrieved Irene from their research.’

Additionally, on a personal note, I had previously raided Parliamentarian Idugup’s villa, stealing the biochemical weapon that would have ended up in their possession.

“It seems the rat that infiltrated yesterday was from Z-Biotech.”

Z-Biotech had infiltrated Eclipse?
But from their perspective, there was nothing to gain by provoking Eclipse.

“Were they after Irene, the former test subject?”

However, it seemed odd for them to seek out Eclipse solely because of Irene.
There was no way they could have known she was affiliated with us.

‘While I did bring Irene here, she hasn’t engaged in any notable external activities.’

Being an indoor child who avoids crowded places, she rarely ventures outside beyond health checkups, making it implausible for her presence here to be detected externally.

“I’m not sure what their purpose was for infiltrating, whether it was because of Irene or some other objective.”

Astra used her telekinesis to clear away the trash on her desk.

“The important thing is, they dared to provoke us.”

Regardless of their motive, the fact that they encroached upon Eclipse sealed their fate.

Astra’s eyes glinted sharply.

“We’ll have to make an emphatic statement about the consequences of provoking Eclipse.”

“But Z-Biotech is a massive corporation with footholds in other countries. Completely toppling them might be somewhat difficult, no?”

“Admittedly, utterly destroying them may be impossible. But neither of us intends to let this transgression slide, correct?”

She made a fair point.
If Z-Biotech was indeed the culprit, and Eclipse was infuriated by their actions…

‘It’s the perfect opportunity for pillaging.’

Coincidentally, there was something I intended to procure from their side regarding Alpha.
As part of the month-long plan, I had considered raiding one of Z-Biotech’s research facilities.

“How many were you considering demolishing?”

“At the very least, we should dismantle four or five of their research facilities.”

Astra smiled faintly as she drained the last sip of her herbal tea.

Retaliation was to be decisive.
This was precisely the reason Eclipse could maintain its standing and establish itself as a formidable major organization.

‘Still, isn’t being overly antagonistic towards Z-Biotech, another major organization, a bit much?’

But I’m sure Astra has considered a suitable approach.

Rather, I was delighted to receive the organization’s assistance, enabling me to pillage to my heart’s content.
Since I would have to visit those locations eventually, this allowed me to accomplish the task more efficiently with ample manpower.
What’s not to like?

“The members have been quite stressed lately, so this will be a good opportunity to release some tension as well.”

“I’ll select some suitable research facilities ripe for ‘borrowing’ items.”

“Oh my? Pillaging, you say! We should use a more refined term, like ‘procuring on loan.'”

“My apologies for the crass phrasing. I’ll identify facilities amenable to ‘lending’ us their possessions.”

Astra and I exchanged light banter with smiles.

‘I’m uncertain of their exact motives for infiltrating, but regardless, thank you Z-Biotech.’

You’ve provided us justification and items to ‘borrow’ – I’m so grateful, my friends!
After harboring gratitude towards Z-Biotech for roughly a second, I solemnly began formulating plans with Astra.