The Villain’s Recipe - Chapter 1.1
The world had changed, and the definition of a villain had shifted.
Those who acted in opposition to Espers, the awakeners who moved to protect the world, were the ones doing the opposite.
The world called them villains.
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Thud!
A large soup pot was placed on top of a commercial gas stove.
Tap, tap, tap.
Right beside it, a tall man wearing a hoodie was neatly slicing radishes into flat, square pieces. He had only recently started holding a knife, yet the width and size of the radishes were perfectly uniform. As Min-ha stared at him blankly, the man, Baek Seok-gyol, turned around and smiled at him.
“Why? Are you falling for me all over again?”
You’d think his sly smile would be annoying, but Baek Seok-gyol was far too beautiful for that. Even with his masculine features, he possessed an extreme level of beauty that naturally drew gasps of admiration. Because of this, Min-ha, who had a soft spot for pretty and cute things, had no choice but to always be weak against Baek Seok-gyol.
Baek Seok-gyol chuckled and laughed.
“I’ve sliced all the radishes. What should I do next?”
With that, he walked over to Min-ha and naturally pulled him into an embrace.
“I can’t see in front of me like this, you know?”
When Min-ha grumbled, Seok-gyol calmly shifted his position, turning Min-ha around so he was hugged from the front. Though their positions had changed, Min-ha was still wrapped in Baek Seok-gyol’s arms. At first, he used to panic at such actions, but after it kept happening, it felt like nothing.
“Let’s see. The ingredients for radish soup are all prepared, so shall we make rolled omelets next?”
“Eggs? How many?”
At those words, Min-ha casually turned his head to count the number of people filling the restaurant. Even excluding the ones out on missions, there seemed to be at least ten. Every single one of them was swallowing their saliva as they watched the two standing in the kitchen.
“Hk.”
“What’s today’s menu?”
“Beef radish soup, last time’s pickled radish cubes, and rolled omelets.”
“Whoa. Sounds delicious.”
Uhm. Min-ha gave an awkward smile and turned his head back to its original position. Right, that’s how it was. Those people belonged to “Zero,” a villain organization known in society as the absolute worst among villains. And they were currently waiting for the food Min-ha cooked.
No, how on earth did things turn out like this?
At first, he had just started cooking for them because it felt pitiful seeing how painfully thin every single one of them was.
Before he even realized what was happening, everyone had grown plump, eating three meals a day and settling right into the restaurant.
“Min-ha, where are you looking all the time?”
Among them was the very man helping Min-ha diligently right by his side: the sly Baek Seok-gyol.
“I wasn’t looking.”
“No, you were. Didn’t I tell you I’d pluck out the eyes of any other guys you look at?”
Shouldn’t it usually be the other way around?
As if reading Min-ha’s thoughts, Baek Seok-gyol spoke.
“How could I ever harm you?”
Then, he whispered affectionately.
“You are my only guide.”
Human life is unpredictable. Grandfather had told Min-ha to live hiding the fact that he was a guide, but before he knew it, he had become a villain’s guide.
At that point, Min-ha thought once more.
Where on earth did things start going wrong?
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The place where Min-ha lived was a small village in the countryside. Originally, it was said that over 50 households lived there, but now not even 10 households remained. And almost all of the remaining population were elderly.
Some people had left for the city, and some had died. Death was natural as people aged, but not all deaths were peaceful. Why? Because something called gates existed in the world.
Strange spatial gates that suddenly appeared as if moving through dimensions. Inside these gates were monsters that attacked people when they came outside.
“Back then, a lot of people died.”
Sitting on the wooden porch, Grandfather looked up at the night sky and told stories of the past. Gates opened, and the world fell into chaos. Some monsters could be killed with firearms, but there were many cases where they couldn’t be.
“In a big country across the sea, they even fired missiles.”
“Then, did the monsters die?”
“No, there were bastards who survived even after taking those hits. So they fired even bigger missiles.”
As a result, the land became desolate, and the spaces where humans could live shrank.
“What should we do now? Just as people were thinking that, Espers appeared.”
Espers, superhumans, heroes. The titles varied from country to country, but they shared common ground.
“What is it?”
“That they were strong against monsters. They caught the monsters and closed the gates. The world found peace once again.”
