Lee Seoha, emerging from the hospital, looked down at her own hand, wound round and round in bandages.
She had just finished receiving treatment for the injuries she’d sustained that morning while dealing with a rampaging villain.
She had been left in tatters after protecting civilians from the villain’s indiscriminate slashes, but fortunately, thanks to her physical enhancement ability, the doctor had told her no scars would remain and that she would recover in three or four days.
Her recovery speed was faster than an ordinary person’s, but in any case, this was the extent of Lee Seoha’s ability. Anything beyond this would require at least A-rank.
‘Just what could that civilian’s ability be?’
That was why Lee Seoha was even more curious about the identity of the man who had healed her back then.
A man with healing abilities that could instantly treat injuries serious enough to have kept her hospitalized for months in a hospital specializing in heroes—abilities that, even at the lowest estimate, would be around the upper tier of A-rank.
Who on earth was he, with his black hair, red eyes, and frightening impression?
Ever since that day, Lee Seoha had searched through the hero database, but there was no one anywhere who resembled him.
An ability of that caliber wasn’t something that could be hidden just because one wanted to hide it, and if he wasn’t registered in the database, then…
‘Could he be an unregistered ability user? But that’s a crime.’
She had found it bothersome to be questioned, so she hadn’t reported anything about him. Should she report him even now?
—You are my hero.
His face was a little scary, but he hadn’t seemed like a bad person.
Even now, when she recalled what he’d said to her then, her heart began to race. What was she supposed to do?
“Meowww~”
In the midst of her inner anguish, she turned her head at the sound of a cat’s cry beside her, and there stood a yellow cat staring intently at Lee Seoha.
“Oh my, a cat. Hello, kitty.”
Having discovered the cat, Lee Seoha bent her knees and carefully reached out a hand.
She wondered if it might run away, but the cat accepted her touch without much resistance.
“Hehe, what a good kitty you are.”
“Meowww~”
As though enjoying the feel of the hand stroking its head, the cat rubbed its head against her and began purring.
The sight of the cat was so cute that a pleased smile spread across Lee Seoha’s face, which had been full of worry.
For a brief moment, it felt as if all her troubles had been forgotten.
It was only a single stray cat, but just feeling that warm touch seemed to make her weary heart a little lighter.
“Right. For now, let’s trust him.”
If he were a bad person, he wouldn’t have said something so warm to her.
She decided to put off troublesome thoughts about reporting him or whether it was a crime, and if she ever met that man again, she would ask him directly and sort it out then.
“Thanks to you, I feel better. Thank you, kitty.”
Lee Seoha stroked the cat’s head one last time, then rose from her spot.
Though her hand was throbbing, her steps toward home were much lighter than when she had left the hospital.
@
“—And that, in short, is the hero I’ve set my sights on. Nova.”
After barely making it back to Korea with Machina in tow, I poured out to the guy all the information I had gathered so far on Lee Seoha—Hero Nova.
But after hearing my entire explanation, Machina’s face was filled with blatant disappointment.
“Ha. The hero you set your sights on is just a B-rank hero?”
As if he had found the perfect opening, Machina looked at me with eyes full of contempt and spat venom.
“I mean, since you were so confident, I thought she’d be an S-rank hero or someone with some special ability. But this? She’s so ordinary I’m at a loss for words.”
He smirked and drove the nail in.
“You went on about a perfect hero being better than some half-baked compatible candidate, but it turns out you just have terrible judgment, don’t you?”
It seemed like he was trying to get under my skin and piss me off, but this much was well within expectations.
Honestly, Nova’s current state was so wretched that even I had held my head in my hands when I first saw her.
Why else would I have rated her not as a two-star, but as a one-star trash unit?
That was why I didn’t particularly deny Machina’s words.
“You’re right, Machina. Just as you said, Nova is a wretched B-rank hero.”
“H-huh? R-right. So you do know.”
When I admitted it so calmly, Machina looked bewildered, but soon regained his confidence and shrugged.
“Hmmm~ You remember what I said last time, right? That if the hero you chose was pathetic, I’d stab you in the back.”
“Kekeke, of course I remember.”
How could I forget when it had only been the other day that he said it in Okinawa with his face all scared?
“If you know, then why are you making that face? D-don’t tell me you’re planning to hit me first before I can stab you in the back? N-not a chance! I knew this would happen, so I prepared too…”
The sight of him spreading both arms wide like a threatening red panda was extremely funny, but before he could cause some kind of accident, I opened my mouth.
“Machina, I think you’re misunderstanding something.”
“What? Misunderstanding? What am I misunderstanding?”
Suppressing the urge to grab and yank those pouting lips that appeared whenever something unfavorable was said to him, I gave a faint laugh.
“Whether a hero is S-rank or B-rank, whether they have a special ability or are an ordinary civilian, that kind of thing isn’t what matters to a Core Relic, is it?”
“Urgh…”
When I struck at the heart of the matter, Machina flinched.
“B-but even so, she’s too ordinary. Way too ordinary…”
“Ordinary or not, if you aren’t chosen by a Core Relic, it’s all the same anyway. If the conditions for being chosen were powerful strength or a special ability, would you have had any need to come back to the past?”
“Damn it, then what! What does that Nova or Roma or whatever have that makes you care so much?!”
Machina finally exploded and started screeching, but I lightly snapped my fingers.
At that signal, a video began playing on the screen.
“Hero Nova is certainly a loser, but when it comes to her heart, she’s an exceptionally kind one.”
The video showed Nova’s daily life, captured by the small action cameras I had attached to animals all this time.
“…I’d heard that you gathered information using animals, but seeing you stalk someone this blatantly is kind of creepy.”
“Enough chatter. Just watch.”
Honestly, what a little brat who couldn’t read the room.
In any case, after that, I recited information about Nova to Machina—no, to be precise, toward the other “things.”
That she was foolishly upright and kind, and that despite leading an unlucky and difficult life, she had never lost her goodness—a true hero.
But Machina’s impression of this was still merciless.
“No, it’s no different from what you told me earlier, is it? Was there any need to show me your stalking results again? What changes just because you do this?”
“You know, but they don’t.”
“What? What’s that supposed to… Huh?”
Machina’s eyes went wide as he looked in the direction I was pointing.
There, seated side by side on toy chairs, were nine tin cans—no, Core Relics.
“Core Relics possess egos, don’t they? In that case, shouldn’t I show them what kind of person Nova is too? They should at least know who she is.”
“No, I do know that, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be moved by something like th…”
But before Machina could finish speaking, the Core Relics began trembling as if by agreement.
They weren’t simply trembling.
The nine metal bodies each began emitting radiant light and letting out resonant hums.
“H-huh? No, eek? What the hell is this?? Why are they suddenly getting excited!”
“It’s exactly what you’re seeing.”
I gave the answer to this little brat who still hadn’t grasped reality.
“The Core Relics reacted after seeing Nova! Even those high-and-mighty things that fussed over compatible candidates and whatnot seem to have acknowledged Nova after seeing her.”
“No way!! Even if they have egos, they’re reacting as a group like this, and to someone whose compatibility verification isn’t even complete? There’s no precedent for this in my data!”
As the common sense of the future he knew collapsed in real time, Machina fell into confusion.
Watching the brat clutch his head and shout, “This is logically impossible!” I held back the laughter that kept threatening to spill out.
‘Moved? As if.’
These were Core Relics that had shown no reaction even while watching humanity face extinction.
They were cold mechanical devices that had stood by while the creators who made them were slaughtered. There was no way they’d be moved now just by seeing Nova’s image as a true hero.
They might have egos, but the only reason these fundamentally psychopathic things could show that kind of reaction was because of my resonance ability.
Honestly, I hadn’t been sure whether my ability could move the emotions of these heartless tin cans.
It was just that the animals I’d tamed through my ability also seemed to feel a strange fondness for Nova, so I had tried it on them as well. Who would have thought it would work this perfectly?
If it hadn’t worked, I had planned to force a resonance like last time and hand them over to Nova, but fortunately, succeeding in one go made my future plans much easier.
After all, compared to forcing things to fit, making them react on their own was far more efficient.
‘Kekeke, you little brat. I wonder what kind of reaction you’ll show if you find out I pulled this little trick with my ability.’
His reactions were so varied that he was truly fun to torment.
Since I was casually doing things he couldn’t do even if he died and came back to life, his worldview must have been turning to powder and scattering even at this very moment.
Since Machina’s current appearance, with his mentality breaking down in real time, was entertaining enough, I decided to tell him the truth slowly later.
“Kekeke. Do you realize reality now, Machina? In the end, my eye for talent was correct.”
“U-uuuugh…”
Perhaps because the shock was too great, Machina, half on the verge of tears, couldn’t even speak properly and simply trembled.
…Ahem. Maybe I went a little too far?