Villain wants to live as a commoner chapter 115

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Time crawled by.

At first, I clung to the optimistic notion that this might all just be a bad dream.

But as the days wore on, that hope faded completely.

And eventually, two years passed.

This was the moment I’d been waiting for.

Awakening.

If I could awaken as an S-rank, I’d have a chance to escape.

The bomb planted in my head was a dud, after all.

The moment I awakened, I tried to break down the door and flee.

But, just as before my regression, I collapsed, coughing up blood.

And as if to mock my fleeting hope, a window I thought would never appear again lit up before my eyes.

[The trait [Villain’s Qualities] is activating.

According to fate, your actions will be compelled by the trait. If you wish to escape, follow the same method as in the past. ]

The message left me in despair.

The same method…

In my previous timeline, I escaped by killing everyone in the lab.

This system was now urging me to do the same.

I clenched my teeth.

Sure, these people deserved it.

They were trash who fed off others’ suffering to achieve their own ambitions.

Even if they were caught, I knew they’d only serve a few years in prison before walking free.

A sob caught in my throat, choking me.

Breathing felt impossible.

If they deserved to die, then who else would?

What reason could ever justify taking a life?

“Just do it. Don’t overthink it.”

The voice of the past “Seo Heewon” echoed in my head, mocking me.

“Just one.”

“…”

“Kill just one. You’ll see—it’s not as big a deal as you think. You might even feel relieved.”

Just one.

That single thought made it even harder for me to act.

My memories of the past were distant, like faded old photographs.

Yet some remained sharp and vivid—among them, the day I escaped this place.

Killing, killing, and killing again…

At first, Seo Heewon hesitated, but his hands soon became ruthless, and eventually, he even felt exhilaration.

It was the process of Seo Heewon transforming into a monster.

There are lines that must not be crossed.

Taking a life was undeniably one of them.

I didn’t want to become a monster.

No matter how much I suffered, I refused to become someone who found joy in killing.

If I had to die, I wanted to die as a human.

The experiments grew increasingly cruel, as if mocking my resolve.

Exploiting the fact that S-rank individuals were hard to kill, they subjected me to inhuman levels of torment.

Every day, the voice of Seo Heewon whispered for me to kill them and escape.

I barely resisted, dragging myself through each day.

There was no joy in survival, only the hollow question of why I endured at all.

I could only hope for an experiment to go wrong and end my life.

Yet, despite the despair, I survived each day, carrying on until I surpassed the point when the old Seo Heewon had killed everyone and escaped.

Then, one day…

In the lab, there was a dog.

A fierce-looking one.

Confused, I approached as the researcher directed.

The researcher ordered coldly,

“Kill it.”

“…What?”

“Kill it. If you do, we’ll pause the experiments for a while.”

I could feel the cold, unfeeling stares of the researchers in the laboratory as they fixated on me.

As always, their faces betrayed no hint of their thoughts.

Their gazes made me shrink in on myself, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

“Why… why do I have to kill it?”

“Because killing a person would be too difficult at first.”

“……”

So, this dog was brought here as practice for my first murder.

The dog’s black eyes, unaware of anything, stared back at me.

A chill ran down my spine, and my body trembled.

Desperately, I shook my head.

“I-I can’t do it.”

“Do it.”

“I won’t.”

“Really?”

The researcher chuckled, clearly amused.

I knew too well that his laughter always preceded a horrifying experiment.

If I disobeyed now, I’d face a brutal punishment in retaliation.

Just thinking about it made me tremble, but I turned my gaze completely away from the dog.

“Why is Heewon so disobedient?”

I was dragged away.

Until late into the night, I was subjected to something that blurred the line between experimentation and torture.

When I finally collapsed onto my bed, the hallucinations returned as expected.

‘— Poor thing.’

Seo Heewon’s voice whispered.

‘— Just kill it. It’s not even a person. It’s just a dog. If you kill it, you’ll get a few days of peace.’

No… I don’t want to…

Tears mixed with blood streamed down my face.

I wished they’d just kill me instead.

At times like this, my thoughts always turned to one person.

Baek Gunho.

What was Baek Gunho doing?

When we were kids, I understood that he had no power.

But by now, surely, he must have awakened.

Why hasn’t he come for me?

Whether to kill me or save me, I wished he’d do something—anything.

I resented Baek Gunho for not coming.

And yet, I missed him.

Out of all the countless lives I’d lived, the only one where I was happy was the previous one.

Even though it ended in disaster, the memories that glowed within me were all from that time.

I missed everything about that life… including Baek Gunho.

Even if he was only kind to me because he needed something, I didn’t care.

The moments when Baek Gunho was gentle with me, the feelings I had when I liked him… none of that was a lie.

To me now, those memories were dazzlingly bright, and I longed for them.

But I didn’t always feel that way.

Sometimes, I wished I could erase those memories altogether.

Anger boiled over, and I felt pathetic for longing for a time I could never return to.

Those emotions and memories began to fade.

All that remained was a faint, pitiful daydream.

A small, hopeless fantasy of Baek Gunho bursting through the lab doors one day to rescue me.

✧✧✧

Ten years had passed since I was brought back to the lab.

Just like before, the lab was breached by outsiders.

They tore through the facility, restrained the researchers, and freed the test subjects.

But the people who came weren’t Baek Gunho, as I had fantasized.

They were from the Hunter Management Bureau.

The bureau’s representative called me aside and greeted me with a warm smile.

“You’re Seo Heewon, right?”

It had been a long time since I’d been called by that name. I nodded instead of answering.

“My name is Lee Jungho.”

“……”

“Sorry it took so long to find you. But I’m glad we could finally rescue you.”

His words made me want to cry, but my dried-up tears refused to fall.

I simply bowed my head, my face twisting with emotion, and Lee Jungho pulled me into an embrace.

“It’s okay. Everything will be okay now.”

For a moment, I felt saved.

But of course, it was an illusion.

At first, Lee Jungho eagerly played the role of my protector.

He brought me to his home and cared for me.

“There are many people suffering like you, Heewon. With your abilities, you could save so many lives.”

“…What do I have to do?”

“You’d be helping to take down the bad guys in the Black Sea Guild.”

“I… I can’t.”

“I’m not forcing you. If you ever feel like helping, just let me know.”

Despite his words, Lee Jungho began pressuring me, little by little.

It felt like all his kindness had been a prelude to this.

The betrayal I felt surged for a moment but then quickly dissipated.

I was too exhausted to get caught up in emotions like that anymore.

I just wanted to disappear.

To go somewhere where neither the Black Sea Guild nor the Hunter Management Bureau could reach me.

Lee Jungho monitored me constantly under the guise of protection.

A security detail followed me everywhere, and he repeatedly summoned me to try and persuade me.

Then one day, as I was leaving the bureau after another meeting with Lee Jungho, I saw something that made me doubt my eyes.

In the distance, Baek Gunho was walking down the street.

Lee Jungho had told me Baek Gunho didn’t exist, and I hadn’t been able to find a trace of him in the news or online.

But there he was.

It was undeniably Baek Gunho.

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