“Haah—”
When she breathed out, a puff of white mist spilled from her lips, making it feel as though winter was slowly drawing near.
Her body was still sturdy enough that this much cold was fine, but she hated being cold all the same.
“I hope Haeun…… doesn’t catch a cold.”
Just as Lee Seoha hated the cold, so did her younger sister, and she found herself hoping the child would get through it without trouble.
Honestly, on a day like this, what she wanted was to sit in her sister’s hospital room, peeling and eating tangerines together in a warm, cheerful mood. But life, they said, did not flow the way one wanted.
“Haah……”
And so, once again, all she could do was sigh.
“What’s got our Nova so worried?”
“Ah, Jina unnie.”
“You little rascal, during an operation you’re supposed to call me by my hero name~”
At the mock-stern scolding, Lee Seoha realized her mistake and hurriedly covered her mouth.
She could not take back words already spoken, but fortunately, realizing that there was no one around besides the two of them, she let out the breath she had been holding.
The air today was heavier than usual—heavy enough to make even such a small mistake bother her.
“Ugh, I’m sorry. It’s been so long since we went on an operation together that I slipped up without thinking.”
“Pfft, sure, sure. Be careful next time.”
“Yes, Senior Spark.”
Spark, the senior who had mentored Lee Seoha in various ways when she first began her hero activities, smiled softly and patted her on the shoulder.
A high-ranking B-class hero, close to A-class, Spark was both an object of admiration and a reliable pillar of support for Lee Seoha.
“Anyway, what are you so worried about that your face is all dark? Our Nova’s charm is that she’s always so energetic, but when you’re gloomy like this, you become way too ordinary.”
“Ordinary… Ahem. It’s just, it’s going to keep getting colder now, so I was wondering what I’d do if Haeun caught a cold.”
“You, honestly. Do you know how good the facilities are at the hospital Haeun’s admitted to? I’m more worried about you than your sister.”
In truth, a hospital exclusively for heroes also allowed heroes’ family members to be admitted, so there was no need to worry about the facilities.
On the other hand, the gosiwon where Lee Seoha lived was an old building, and perhaps because of that, the rent was cheap, but the heating and cooling were a bit lacking.
“I-it’s not that bad, okay? I bought a new electric blanket too.”
“Hehe, I’m kidding, kidding. Be careful that blanket doesn’t catch fire, all right?”
A smile appeared on Lee Seoha’s face at the slightly mischievous joke, but soon she watched a massive container being loaded onto an enormous cargo truck and opened her mouth.
“Is that what we’re supposed to escort?”
Following Lee Seoha’s gaze, Spark looked at the container as well and answered.
“Yeah. To be precise, the ‘OOPArt’ inside it is the target.”
“An OOPArt……”
To be honest, Nova had not been particularly interested in this escort request at first.
She preferred helping people in trouble right before her eyes over protecting objects, but refusing was difficult when it was an order handed down by the Association, and the pay was quite high as well.
She had wondered why so many heroes, herself included, had been mobilized just to escort a single container, but she only understood after hearing what Spark said.
“I don’t know the details, but they said it was caught moving through illegal channels. From what I heard, information leaked during the seizure, so they had no choice but to mobilize heroes on a large scale like this.”
“There are a lot of people after OOPArts, after all.”
OOPArts—mysterious objects that caused phenomena that could not be explained scientifically.
In general, OOPArts were secured, isolated, and studied first by each nation’s government and the Hero Association, but because they were such mysterious objects, there were also many organizations and villains who coveted them.
“Well, even so, we’ve got A-class heroes and even an S-class on this escort, not just B-class heroes like us. If things get dangerous, they’ll step in too, so don’t be too nervous~”
“Haha… Yes.”
Indeed, with five A-class heroes assigned to this escort request alone, as well as Flare, the hot-topic hero who had recently been promoted to S-class, even if danger did arise, Lee Seoha’s role might never come.
Most likely, she would just guard the side of the cargo truck, take a quiet drive to the destination, and be done with it.
“But still, it’s an order from the Association, so we should take it seriously.”
“Right. At the very least, we need to pretend we’re working hard if we want a good reaction on our performance evaluations.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about a worst-case situation……”
“Hey now, our Nova. Looks like you’ve been reading too many comics.”
Spark laughed playfully and ruffled Lee Seoha’s hair.
“Listen carefully, Nova. It’s not just A-class heroes here. There’s even an S-class hero. A superhuman on a level so far beyond us that we can’t even compare is standing right there, so what could possibly happen? And even if, by some one-in-a-million chance, something like that did happen, you know? That would mean the A-class and S-class heroes had been defeated. What could mere B-class nobodies like us do in that kind of situation? Am I wrong?”
Spark’s words were not wrong.
Even thinking rationally, the moment something like that happened, it was safe to say there would be nothing Lee Seoha, who ranked near the lower end even among B-class heroes, could do.
No, perhaps she would be lucky just to run away.
Her head understood that clearly. And yet, even so……
“──Loading complete! Heroes, please move to your assigned positions!”
At last, as if preparations had finished, people began moving busily here and there.
“……All right, then let’s start getting ready too. After this request is over, how about we get some chicken together for the first time in a while? Oh, and of course, this unnie will pay, so don’t worry about money.”
As if to lighten the mood, Spark forced a smile and said that.
“……Yes. I’ll do my best.”
Lee Seoha, too, reluctantly tried to show some energy.
Just as Spark said, it might end without incident, making her nervousness seem foolish—more precisely, it might end before her turn ever came around.
Even so, Lee Seoha felt an inexplicable unease.
An ominous feeling, as though she had become a tiny sailboat standing before a massive wave.
Without even imagining who stood at the end of that intuition, Lee Seoha took her position beside the cold container.
@
Beneath the dark night sky, atop a skyscraper, I looked down at the glittering city lights and listened to Machina grumbling from beyond the hologram, her expression sullen.
『You’re seriously the only person who would use a Core Relic in such a stupid way.』
“Good grief, you’re still saying that even after coming this far?”
Remembering how she had been utterly flabbergasted and thrown into an uproar when she first heard my plan, I shook my head on my own.
I had already persuaded her enough and reached an agreement, but really, she was a brat who complained every time she opened her mouth.
『But still…… Is there really a need to make such a big incident out of this? We could resolve it quietly.』
“No buts or stills. Just give me the situation report. A protagonist’s awakening needs a stage worthy of it.”
『Tch, I was going to do that even if you didn’t tell me, you know?』
She really refused to lose even a single word.
『The Association has just departed. They’ll arrive at the point in less than an hour.』
“Okay, so an hour, then?”
『Oh, and as a special note, there are three cargo trucks carrying containers. Looks like they split up the target in preparation for a villain attack. Pretty clever, huh?』
“Of course the Association isn’t stupid. There’s no way they’d openly store a precious OOPArt in a single truck. Not that it matters, since it’s all in the palm of my hand anyway.”
『Hmph, I knew that much too, you know?』
Well, it was not as if I had failed to anticipate it.
In situations like this, splitting up the escort target was an obvious cliché, but precisely because of that, it could be called effective.
It was a device meant to confuse the attacker as to which one to target, but that did not apply to me.
“So, Machina. You’ve at least figured out which one is the real thing, right?”
『Ha, what do you take me for? I finished that long before I contacted you!』
The way she proudly puffed out her thin shoulders was like a child waiting to be praised, making me chuckle.
“Kukuk, well done, Machina. Absolutely perfect.”
『H-hmph! It’s not like I wanted your praise or anything!』
She said that, but judging by her reddened ears and the grin tugging at the corners of her mouth, she seemed to like it.
What a tsundere.
As expected of the only character I had liked while reading Unrivaled Transformation.
“All right, then, according to our operator’s briefing, real action finally begins within the hour.”
『To be exact, it’s 58 minutes and 27 seconds. Don’t be off by even one second.』
“That’s what she says. Is everyone ready?”
I asked the things behind me.
Just then, as the moonlight hid behind the clouds, the things concealed in the darkness began to burn with fighting spirit.
“──!!”
“Good spirit. Yes, it begins soon.”
The target was the container—more precisely, the hero Nova who was guarding it.
To turn our shabby would-be extra villain into a protagonist.
Starting with today’s terror attack, her life story would be rewritten anew.
Are you watching, Tanaka-kun?
That boring light novel you created will be rewritten by my hands from this point on.
Into a completely groundless, trashy novel where an extra villain who was meant to die miserably becomes the hero who saves the world!