From Villain to S-Class Guide chapter 76

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The thought made his mood rise unexpectedly, and a slow, intrigued smile crept onto Jaerim’s face.

“Hey, Seok Kiwoo. You’re thinking the same thing I am, aren’t you?”

“Not sure. Maybe.”

“Don’t play dumb. You know there’s something juicy behind that stiff bastard Lee Hyunjae . I can feel it.”

Kiwoo didn’t respond, but Jaerim didn’t care.

He was too caught up in the thrill of the hunt.

For the first time in a long while, it felt like they might finally get a real chance to bring Koo Hyukjun down.

Lee Dohoon had always been well-connected.

Even before his Esper awakening, he benefited from his family background, and his easy smile helped him get along with those around him.

At least, on the surface.

In truth, Lee Dohoon had one fatal flaw—he wasn’t the legitimate son.

Despite surpassing his older, legitimate brother in looks, talent, and intellect, he grew up facing constant discrimination due to his status as an illegitimate child.

From the moment he was old enough to understand the world, Lee Dohoon became painfully aware of the eyes watching him.

He hid his twisted nature behind a flawless mask and deceived everyone around him.

No, calling it deception might be a bit much.

From a very young age, Lee Dohoon had simply been clever enough to figure out how to survive.

His less capable brother received endless support from their father simply for being the legitimate heir.

Sure, Lee Dohoon wasn’t completely neglected, but there was an undeniable gap between being born a successor and being born as… him.

His already skewed nature grew darker over time, and by the time he reached adulthood, his dual personality had taken firm root.

That’s when everything changed.

When an unprecedented Gate opened and darkness began to consume the world, Lee Dohoon awakened.

As a powerful Esper—one born with extraordinary abilities.

From the moment of his awakening, he was already ranked S-class.

Just like that, the family that once treated him like an unwanted stone now hailed him as a golden treasure.

In a world on the brink of collapse, he became a miracle.

And his family?

They tried to use him for everything he was worth.

They couldn’t make him the successor now that he’d become an Esper, so they intended to exploit his fame to expand the family business.

In the end, that fame worked in Lee Dohoon’s favor.

It gave him the power to break free from his family’s grip with ease.

More accurately, his family had reached a point where they couldn’t say a word against him.

“So, what did Mother say this time? Was it another ridiculous setup with the second son of some foreign conglomerate who just happened to awaken as a Guide, or something equally stupid?”

[My apologies, young master. Madam was… quite insistent, and I had no means to stop her.]

“She can insist all she wants. What could our oh-so-graceful Mother possibly do?”

Lee Dohoon chuckled quietly.

The biting sarcasm in his voice made the person on the other end fall silent.

The “mother” he spoke of wasn’t his own—it was his brother’s mother.

“Tell her to keep living just as she always has. Quiet, invisible, and far away from me.”

[…Yes, understood.]

Without hesitation, Lee Dohoon ended the call.

He stared at the now-black screen of his phone, a faint smirk tugging at his lips.

They always tried to cross the line eventually—like pesky little rats that didn’t know their place.

“Guess I should thank them for keeping life entertaining.”

His words were light, but his gaze was sharp, almost cold.

He slipped the phone back into his coat.

The call had come while he was out gathering information on Koo Hyukjun and the Center.

From one of his mother’s aides, no less—babbling nonsense about another blind date.

But Lee Dohoon knew this wasn’t just his stepmother’s doing.

His so-called father was likely involved.

The idea made his smile widen.

The way they squirmed was almost laughable.

He started the car he had parked by the roadside, just about to re-enter traffic when his phone vibrated again.

His eyes turned colder.

If they dared ignore his warning and call again…

“Hm?”

It wasn’t a call.

It was a message.

From a temporary number used by an American Esper he’d previously hired.

Lee Dohoon opened it immediately.

“Subject identified as an unregistered non-citizen from Japan. Previously a street vagrant, reported missing. For full details, check your email.”

“A non-citizen… from Japan?”

The unexpected origin threw him for a moment.

He opened the email and scanned through the attached documents.

Non-citizens going missing wasn’t unusual in any country.

Even after Espers had brought relative stability following the Gate incident, the world had never fully returned to what it once was.

The light had been restored—but only to the surface.

The underworld had grown filthier, crueler, and the gap between classes only widened.

As he scanned the file, a particular detail caught his eye. His gaze narrowed.

“Huh. That’s… a lot of disappearances.”

Too many vagrants had vanished in a short span of time.

Even more suspicious was the fact that many of them had lived in Japan and China—regions close to South Korea.

The report noted that body parts of a Japanese non-citizen had been found near a local Gate.

That, in itself, reeked of foul play.

Lee Dohoon started to wonder if there had been some kind of covert communication between ability centers across nations.

Especially since the disappearances disproportionately involved non-citizens.

It was almost as if something was being hidden—some secret operation carried out in the shadows.

The real question was: what exactly were they doing?

“Most likely… human experimentation.”

Lee Dohoon tapped his fingers slowly on the steering wheel as he murmured to himself.

Finding human body parts inside monsters left only one plausible explanation.

If those experiments were real, then their purpose was key.

Why carry them out in secret?

What were they trying to achieve?

As he pondered, something clicked in his memory, and he made another call.

“Hey, it’s me. No, nothing serious, I just need you to check something. Remember when Koo Hyukjun was newly appointed as Center Director? He made that business trip to Japan, supposedly to visit their Esper center. But I doubt that was the only reason.”

He kept talking while adjusting the earring in his ear to bring up a visual display.

“Dig deeper. I don’t care how small the detail is—just get me everything from that time. Yeah, all of it.”

As the call ended, the video in his display showed Shin Heesung lifting Go Yeonwoo into his arms and setting him down in a dining chair, then gently feeding him.

Lee Dohoon stared intently as Yeonwoo slowly opened his mouth and accepted the food.

Ever since that porridge incident, Yeonwoo had quieted down slightly—and that irritated Lee Dohoon.

More specifically, the way Yeonwoo looked at Shin Heesung did.

“Is our little Yeonwoo too stupid to know who his real owner is? Maybe I need to remind him soon…”

Muttering with a chilling voice, Lee Dohoon kept his eyes on Yeonwoo’s plump, red lips.

Something about them stirred a dark craving in him.

He found himself swallowing hard before letting out a dry laugh.

Lately, he’d been losing focus whenever it came to Yeonwoo—and he couldn’t believe how far he’d fallen.

His gray eyes remained fixed on the screen, watching Yeonwoo shake his head, signaling that he was full.

“You’re just a little whore, and yet you dare put on airs.”

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