I Woke Up as the Villain

Kim Do-Jin was determined, so he refused to allow any potential variables to stand in his way.

‘Yu-Seong already has a lot to hide.’

Do-Jin had to watch Yu-Seong as closely as possible.

‘He seems to have been well rewarded for his promotion evaluation to C-rank…’

While traveling to Pyongyang, Do-Jin had attempted to gauge Yu-Seong’s strength. However, he still hadn’t been able to uncover any of the man’s secrets. It felt a little frustrating, but he didn’t think it was strange.

‘I already knew that Yu-Seong is a sly one.’

This trip to Pyongyang was a tough one. Their surveillance team alone had more than ten people, and that had only been for their ride to the hotel. Even now that they were in the hotel room, the surveillance team still kept tabs on their every move. The team just wasn’t approaching them.

'Would Choi Yu-Seong know about this?' 

Kim Do-Jin glanced at Yu-Seong, whom he found difficult to evaluate. He thought it was possible that Yu-Seong's current nervousness was merely an act.

There was a long silence. Helen did not look for the two men, and the conversation between Yu-Seong and Do-Jin had died. The two of them also felt the watchful eyes on them slowly turning away.

Only then did Do-Jin look away from the window. He turned to Yu-Seong and had an odd expression on his face.

'Is he really asleep?' 

Yu-Seong was breathing deeply and calmly. He could be pretending, but Do-Jin felt that he was truly asleep.

‘So, his nervousness was just a pretense.’

Kim Do-Jin quickly took off his clothes and headed for the shower. As it was Pyongyang's only hotel, the water warmed quickly when he turned on the tap. As the water washed over him and got rid of the sweat, he looked at his handsome face in the mirror.

‘Maybe I felt anxious because I thought this was my last chance.’

With only him and Yu-Seong on this journey—excluding Helen, who was a neutral party, Do-Jin saw this as a chance to gain clarity on the enigmatic Yu-Seong, who was keeping secrets.

Do-Jin was plagued by the fear that if he missed this chance, he would remain at the mercy of Yu-Seong's manipulation.

‘I am sure about this.’

Believing that this was his last chance, Kim Do-Jin made a firm resolution.

‘During this journey, I will find out all of your secrets, Choi Yu-Seong.’

In the mirror, Kim Do-Jin's eyes sparkled with confidence.

***

In a spacious room with white stone walls, two people were playing chess in the center. The man looked irritated and dissatisfied with his clearly disadvantageous white horse. As for the woman, she was about to give the final blow with her black queen and had a joyful smile on her face.

"Checkmate. There's no way out, Vincent. Hoho…" said the woman with a laugh.

Vincent, a white man in his mid-30s with blonde hair and a fair complexion, had a crumpled expression on his face. "Dammit. Is this one win and 499 losses out of 500 matches?"

"In fact, except when you first taught me chess, I've always beaten you, Vincent!"

"Ha, Emilia. You're such a wild kid. I played it cool at first and lost on purpose, but imagine if I hadn't. The outcome would have been quite different, don't you think?"

"Who’s that man, Vincent, looking at me with sweat on his face and gritted teeth?" said Emilia mockingly.

Emilia, a white teenager with brown hair and a face full of freckles, playfully twisted a lock of hair.

"Wait and see. Next time, I'll win," said Vincent.

"Please do, Vincent. Don't just talk, show me~" said Emilia.

Vincent snorted. With a slightly bitter smile, he rearranged the chess pieces on the board.

Thud-!

"Vi-Vincent!"

The tightly shut door suddenly flew open. A middle-aged Asian man with a potbelly rushed into the room. He called out for both Vincent and Emilia.

"What? We were about to start the next game, why interrupt us?"

"Th-That... Helen Mirren is in Pyongyang right now!"

"What?! The Seductive Demon, that old witch, has come?" Vincent glared at the Asian man—Kim Un-Jeong, the ruler of Pyongyang.

Kim Un-Jeong froze. "Ah… I didn’t call her here. Vincent, you misunderstand."

"Of course not. I don't think you're bold enough to call her here," said Vincent, clicking his tongue. He then looked over at Emilia.

While Kim Un-Jeong was raging and mentioning Helen Mirren's name, Emilia had a disinterested expression. Her blue eyes were fixed on the chess board, seemingly eager to see how the next game would unfold. Still, she wasn’t ignoring the conversation entirely.

"Has Helen noticed something about the Philosopher's Stone?" Vincent cautiously asked Emilia.

"I suppose that she has," Emilia replied.

"But how?"

"Maybe someone told her?"

"It seems like there may be traitors among us,” Vincent said, then looked back at Kim Un-Jeong.

Kim Un-Jeong slammed his thick jaw shut and shook his head fiercely from side to side. "I'm not a traitor. And among the people under me, only two know about the Philosopher's Stone!"

"There are two~" Emilya said mockingly.

Vincent nodded.

“Those guys are definitely not traitors either. Do you know how much I've clipped their wings? Why would they risk their families' lives by talking about the Philosopher's Stone?” said Kim Un-Jeong.

"You never know," said Vincent coldly.

Kim Un-Jeong's face turned red. He blurted out, "Things that I don't know about can happen among the Demon King Worshipers too. Aren't there more people who know about the Philosopher's Stone there?!"

"What? Kim Un-Jeong, you little brat. Are you suspecting the Godfather now?" Vincent rose from his seat, trying to intimidate Kim Un-Jeong.

Emilia picked up a chess piece and said, "No, it does make sense. Quite a lot of people from the Demon King Worshipers know about the Philosopher's Stone. Even if you exclude Godfather, the leaders of the Hexagram and the Twelve Dark Kings all know about it, right? This already makes twenty who are aware of the Philosopher's Stone.”

Emilia moved the chess piece forward by two spaces and looked up at Vincent. She saw his predatory gaze.

Vincent was a skilled hunter, ranked in the top 100 among the Demon King Worshipers. His reputation as an S-rank hunter was also impressive. However, the Demon King Worshipers’ situation was different from what was known in the world.

Aside from Pride, linked with the Godfather, the leaders of the Hexagrams followed the Demon Kings of the Seven Deadly Sins. They were all highly skilled hunters of at least SS-rank. As for the Twelve Dark Kings following closely behind them, they lacked separate powers like the Hexagram leaders, but they were still known to be formidable in their own unique way.

‘Those groups have a significant number of individuals who are Irregular or non-human.’

The Demon King Worshipers had been around for several decades now. Like any group that sought power, there had been internal changes in ranking, but the leaders of the Hexagrams and the Twelve Black Kings had never lost their positions.

‘Well, I suppose there was one recent case.’

Recently, it was said that the Black Stain King, the least powerful of the Twelve Black Kings, had lost to an opponent and had to cede his position.

‘Who could it be? Who could defeat one of the Twelve Black Kings?’

Vincent quickly thought up the names of people who could possibly achieve that, but he was also quick to dismiss them all. This was not the time for such pointless thoughts. The important thing was that the woman in front of him, Emilia, was said to be the Black Gauze King, ranked tenth among the Twelve Black Kings.

Emilia was even more powerful than Vincent, who was not among the leaders of the Hexagrams or the Twelve Black Kings. She was a hunter of exceptional skill and talent, with her abilities estimated to be at least S-rank. However, her true strength was believed to surpass even that, reaching SS-rank or higher, and that made her an Irregular.

Information about the Godfather, members of the Hexagrams, and the Twelve Black Kings was seen as confidential even among the Demon King Worshippers. This meant that Vincent could not know the exact facts either.

Emilia, one of the Twelve Black Kings, was now looking at Vincent with a hint of suspicion. She often appeared as a playful, boisterous young woman, but when she displayed a look like this, Vincent was struck with fear.

‘We've been together for 2 years, but I still can't get used to it.’

Vincent shook his head sharply, just like Kim Un-Jeong did a moment ago. He said, "Not me either. This is for sure, Emilia."

"I know, Vincent. If you were a traitor, we couldn’t play the next round of chess together," said Emilia. She smirked and twirled a strand of hair, then asked, "Is that grandma Mirren alone?"

Vincent shivered and gestured towards Kim Un-Jeong, who quickly lowered his head. Un-Jeong said, "M-Ms. Emilia. It’s an honor to speak to you. Um... I heard that two assistants are accompanying Helen Mirren. They seem to be Oriental.”

"Chinese?"

"They came on a transport plane sent from Russia, and we were told they only spoke English during the trip… We aren’t sure of their identities. They also had no distinct accent," said Un-Jeong as he wiped the sweat from his face.

Emilia lightly tapped the chess board, then looked at Vincent. She said, "Vincent, investigate those two bodyguards. It might be difficult to deal with Helen Mirren, but the assistants should be easy, right?"

“Me, personally?"

Currently, there were many Demon King Worshipers in Pyongyang who were lower-ranked than Vincent. Quite a few of them were even Pyongyang hunters and military forces that followed Kim Un-Jeong. So, why did he have to do it himself?

"Yeah. It's better to be certain. Or...should I go?" asked Emilia.

The Black Gauze King, Emilia, had a reputation of leaving a trail of corpses and a river of blood behind her when she personally took action. Although he had not yet seen it for himself, Vincent knew that he could be among the corpses if he wasn’t careful too.

Vincent shook his head again firmly and said with determination, "No, I'll go. Kim Un-Jeong, Where are those guys now?"

"They're staying at the Pyongyang Koryo Hotel."

"Let's go right away."

The two of them left as if running away from danger. Emilia, who was left alone in the room, fell deep into thought. She moved the chess pieces absentmindedly and said to herself, "Helen Mirren. How did that grandma get wind of this? There doesn't seem to be any way for information to have leaked from our group. Is there really a traitor? But that can't be. There can't be any stupid guys in the organization who would ignore what the Godfather said. It's strange."

The phone with a cute cat face case on Emilia’s desk started to vibrate.

"Hmm? The new Black Stain King is coming to Pyongyang to meet me?" Emilia had a slightly annoyed look on her face. She said, "All because of a fool who was caught by a human girl. How bothersome. I'll just send the new Black Stain King back after discovering their identity."

Emilia yawned and flipped over the chessboard with her toes. She muttered, "I'm already bored. I have to send a message to Vincent."

- If you come too late, you'll die. ^_^**

Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

Emilia sent the message with a cute emoticon, got up from her seat, and walked toward her bed.

‘When I wake up from my nap, Vincent will have returned.’

She gave no consideration to how Vincent might feel after receiving her message.