“He wasn’t blond, was he?” I asked.

While waiting for his answer, I had no choice but to calm my growing anxiety.

‘He wasn’t actually blond... right?’

I had said it many times before, but I really didn’t have good compatibility with blond men. Weren’t blond jerks always the ones causing massive disasters and turning everything into a complete mess? That guy from the first life, whose name I could barely even remember, practically proved my theory for me.

I had developed such a strange jinx over it that I even kept my distance from Rafael, the Gray Hero, despite not even knowing where he was or what he was doing these days.

Of course, there were exceptions. Our dear museum manager Max was the perfect example, but Max was permanently stuck in a child’s form, so he didn’t count as an adult blond man. Sera was the same. Speaking of which...

‘Sera is definitely going to cause some huge disaster once he grows up a little more. Oh man... just wait and see. Seriously.’

On top of that, handsome blond men were especially dangerous by default. Mr. Hypnosis Guy finally opened his mouth just as I was about to question him again.

“Umm... I-If I remember correctly, he wasn’t blond. I’m pretty sure he had black hair.”

“...”

“...”

‘Well, that’s a relief...’

The uneasy feeling growing inside me immediately eased. It was honestly ridiculous that I felt relieved at hearing that the new villain wasn’t blond, but that discomfort hadn’t disappeared entirely.

My theory that a villain’s appearance was directly proportional to their threat level was still ongoing, after all. Of course, it was still too early to immediately say that the mysterious villain's threat level was at maximum.

‘I can’t trust Mr. Hypnosis Guy’s taste though...’

The real problem was his absurd claim that this unknown man was more handsome than Kim Hyun-Sung. Sure, attractiveness was always somewhat subjective, so I could understand that much, but even so, it was only natural to question his tastes.

‘Right. Not everyone can be as objective as me.’

In the end, personal taste always influenced these things to some degree. It was impossible to make a completely objective judgement without the influence of personal preference.

Strictly speaking, the only person capable of that was me. More handsome than Kim Hyun-Sung? The idea was so ridiculous I almost laughed out loud. Judging by the look of things, this jerk’s ideal type was probably just some giant and tall pretty boy.

It honestly felt like he only scored the guy higher because he happened to be taller than Kim Hyun-Sung. There was no way an ordinary human could be more handsome than Kim Hyun-Sung. A face more perfect than his face simply couldn’t exist.

‘A person like that seriously cannot exist in this world.’

“But are you really sure he was more handsome than Kim Hyun-Sung?” I asked again.

“P-Pardon?”

“Forget your personal preferences and evaluate him as objectively as possible. Was he really more handsome than Kim Hyun-Sung?” I asked.

“Pardon? Ah... yes. I believe so...” Priest Benet answered.

“No, that’s exactly my point, Mr. Hypnosis Guy. Stop thinking subjectively. Let’s try following conventional beauty standards for once. Close your eyes for a second and think about it again. Put aside whatever weird ideal image you personally like. Alright. Got it now?” I asked.

“...”

“Do you still seriously think he's more handsome than Kim Hyun-Sung?” I asked.

“...”

“...”

“No... I don’t think so anymore,” he replied.

‘Yeah, I knew it.’

“Come on...” I muttered.

“I-I’m sorry,” he said.

“It’s okay. It’s not really something you need to apologize for,” I said.

“S-still... I’m sorry,” he said.

“It’s fine now, so back up a little while we walk. Once I signal to you, you can come closer again,” I instructed him.

“Okay...”

I knew it. Of course, the fact that Mr. Hypnosis Guy had said something like that still meant that the new villain was fairly handsome. At the very least, depending on their personal tastes, one or two people out of a thousand would probably think that he looked better than Kim Hyun-Sung.

Honestly, even with no other information, that alone was enough to make me certain that the jerk could become dangerous in the future. Right now, their organization didn’t seem that large, but another incident like the Second Hexagram could break out at any moment, so there was no choice but to stay cautious.

‘I think trying to openly hunt them down might be a bad idea.’

“...”

‘There’s a high chance that they are already hiding again like cockroaches. No, they're definitely hiding by now.’

After all, Mashed Potato was no more. One of their apparent higher-ups had died pathetically, so they were probably hesitant to make any further moves. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

There was also a good chance they’d cut ties with Mr. Hypnosis Guy completely. Like lizards dropping their tails and fleeing, they would want to hide every trace of the hole they had dug.

I frowned as a sudden headache crept in. Right then, Kim Hyun-Sung turned around to look back at me. Still ridiculously handsome, as always.

“Is something wrong, Mr. Ki-Young?” Kim Hyun-Sung asked.

“...”

Normally, I would just hide it from him, but...

‘I already learned that hiding too much isn’t a good thing.’

Kim Hyun-Sung would discover it eventually, anyway, and he needed to know this as well. I wasn’t sure if this counted as growth, but I forced myself to speak, saying, “About what happened earlier. Mashed... I mean...”

“Ah... yes.”

“Haa... don’t take this too seriously, Mr. Hyun-Sung,” I said.

“Pardon? What is it...?” he asked.

“...”

“...”

“I think Lucifer might be involved somehow,” I told him.

“What?!” Naturally, he immediately flinched in shock. Considering that he once had a contract with Lucifer and crossed over to the dark side, my words definitely sounded unsettling to him.

Of course, I wasn’t planning to tell him everything. I already knew that giving Kim Hyun-Sung too much information could make him act recklessly on his own, so I had to limit how much I revealed.

“Of course, nothing’s certain yet. I still don’t have enough information... There’s no concrete evidence, only suspicion for now. I can’t explain everything in detail, but... it seems like there’s a heretical group within the continent worshipping Lucifer,” I told him.

“Then we need to act immediately—”

“No, there’s nothing we can do right now. If they realize we’re watching them closely, they’ll probably disappear immediately, and they don’t seem large enough to openly reveal themselves yet anyway.

"I don’t know if this is something to be relieved about, but for the time being, whether willingly or not, they’ll probably have no choice but to stay quiet,” I interrupted him.

‘Ah, damn it. Maybe I shouldn’t have told him.’

He already had enough worries as it was, and now that Lucifer’s name had come up, I could see his face turning pale. I told him there was nothing to worry about yet, but there was no way he’d see it that way. This wasn’t just anyone involved. It was Lucifer.

If he were to have his way, he’d storm into their headquarters right now and tear the whole place apart. The problem was that he couldn't do that, and he wasn't supposed to do that as well.

Realistically, there was nothing Kim Hyun-Sung could do at this point.

“Mr. K-Ki-Young... I think this matter is something I should—”

“No, no. I already told you not to take this too seriously,” I stopped him.

“This isn’t something I can help but take seriously, Mr. Ki-Young,” he argued.

“I mean, it’s obviously serious. What I meant was that you shouldn’t start thinking about taking action right away. I already told you that their organization doesn’t seem very large yet.

"It makes sense to think we should deal with them before they grow stronger, but when a group is still small, it also means it’s easy for them to disappear,” I explained.

“...”

“I guarantee the moment we make any noticeable move, they’ll go into hiding and won’t show themselves again for decades, especially if they find out that someone like you is investigating them. We need to approach this carefully,” I added.

“...”

“You understand, right?” I asked.

“Yes. I think I more or less understand what you’re trying to say, Mr. Ki-Young,” he answered.

“To put it bluntly, you can even erase what I just told you from your memory. We’re going to continue living our lives normally. I know it’ll be difficult to focus on Rahel and the other problems after what I said, but that’s exactly what you need to do.

"I’m planning to do the same as much as possible. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’ll just sit around doing nothing,” I said.

“...”

“Think of it as putting together a puzzle. Right now, we’ve only just found our first puzzle piece. How are we supposed to complete the whole picture with only one piece?” I said.

“Even so, we can’t just sit still—”

“No, that’s exactly what we need to do. In this long-term mission, your role is to do absolutely nothing and act completely normal. Think of it as putting on an act. That’ll probably make it easier.

"Meanwhile, I—and just so you don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying I’ll personally dig into the enemy’s headquarters or anything. As I said earlier, I’m just planning to gather a few more puzzle pieces,” I told him.

“Ah...”

“I’m thinking of assigning the job to Cheru, Domi, and Thro, as they’ve never publicly revealed themselves before. Of course, Chang-Ryeol and Lian will work with them, too. I’ll also inform Ji-Hye and the core members of the Black Swan. Things like this should be handled by the professionals,” I said.

“I see. I understand what you mean,” he said.

‘This should be enough, right?’

It was a simple way to do things, but it was also the strongest move we could make right now. Especially the part about mobilizing the three siblings of the Outer Gods. The kids had already reached their teenage years. I had been planning to let them loose, and this felt like the perfect opportunity to do that.

Honestly, I wanted to let them mature a little longer, as they still seemed somewhat unstable, but at the same time, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this mission suited them perfectly.

‘Their rank is high enough...’

They would probably be immune to whatever strange abilities the enemies had at their disposal, and they had yet to make an official debut. There was also no reason to doubt their capabilities in the first place.

Whether it was Thronus and Cherubim's abilities, or Dominion’s overwhelming usefulness, the three of them were more than capable of outclassing most mages on the continent.

It was limited, but Dominions could freely use teleportation again, unlike in her previous life. She was basically another completely broken character capable of using teleport whenever she wanted, just like Jung Ha-Yan.

Of course, it was still hard to say that all three were fully prepared, but incidents would never wait until people were ready to deal with them.

To put it bluntly, there was no way to predict what kind of disasters would happen later, so they had to gain experience as soon as possible.

‘Honestly, I’ve already used them here and there whenever something came up anyway.’

One of the reasons Kim Hyun-Sung had accepted my decision so easily was that he also understood just how capable the three siblings were.

“Honestly, I still don’t think Thro is ready yet...” Kim Hyun-Sung said.

‘Wait, he just doesn’t trust him.’

“Hmm, I think he’s good enough already,” I argued.

“No, he’s still lacking in many ways. He's quick to absorb combat techniques, and he has a strong will, but he craves recognition too much, acts impulsively, and is mentally as well as physically weak. Honestly... I have doubts about whether he could truly fulfill his role,” he explained.

“...”

“...”

‘That’s a pretty harsh evaluation.’

Then again, Kim Hyun-Sung always judged Thronus harshly. Actually, now that I thought about it, it wasn’t just Thronus. He was harsh toward Rafael and practically everyone else as well. Honestly, the only person Kim Hyun-Sung had genuinely acknowledged was Sung Ji-Hoon, the Holy Sword Hero from the first life.

“Okay, thank you for your understanding, Mr. Hyun-Sung. I’ll make sure the reports sent to me are regularly shared with you, too, so we can discuss things whenever new information comes in or whenever there’s time to do so,” I told him.

“Okay...”

“Then for now...” I paused.

“Yes?”

“Since we’re already here, let’s at least enjoy the trip, alright? Just as I said earlier,” I suggested.

“Okay, Mr. Ki-Young.”

‘Though honestly, there’s no way I can really relax at this point.’

Naturally, the moment my bright smile toward Kim Hyun-Sung faded away, I immediately opened a certain communication channel.

"Commander."

— ...

"Commander?"

— What is it?

"It’s Lucifer."

— ???

"More specifically, Lucifer’s followers were inside the Republic. I just caught their trail."

— ...

"..."

— That bluff isn’t even worth responding to. Are you really that desperate to win?

"???"

— I have no intention of dancing to your tune.