Right after sending Maker into the banquet hall,
Heart gazed at the spot where Maker had left with a pounding heart.
“Actually, I knew that Heart-nim was quite different from the others here.”
“What do you mean…?”
At first, I thought I was completely caught…
“Heart-nim, aren’t you actually one of the people in charge here? Specifically, the guide assigned to me by the Queen of Black Night when I first arrived here, right?”
Fortunately, thanks to his reasonable misunderstanding, she was spared from dying of shame.
“Heart-nim, could you perhaps ask the Manager here if we could secure a separate spot after the information exchange is over?”
“…Huh?”
“I have something I’d like to say.”
Not stopping there, he had something to say to her (the Queen)!
Of course, Maker thought of Heart and the Queen as separate individuals, so he obviously didn’t have any ulterior motives.
“Aww, I dunno~”
Still, the girl’s heart couldn’t help but feel a bit of anticipation.
“……”
“……”
“…Girl, my foot.”
“Shut it.”
Whack!!
Heart, immediately responding to the impure gaze directed at her, crossed her legs as she sat on a luxurious chair.
The 3rd-floor staff area.
Heart slightly lowered her head and glanced at Maker, who was chatting with other villains on the 1st floor, before turning her gaze to Clock Rabbit.
“Kyaah…! Why! How old do you think the Queen is!!”
“Oh? My body and heart are forever 17, you know?”
Clock Rabbit, holding her head and whining as if wronged.
Heart smiled at her and poked her own cheek with a finger.
“Sure, the shell is like that…”
“Just the shell?! It’s not just the appearance, all my physical activities are set to 17 years old, you know?”
Clock Rabbit glanced at Heart.
Heart, puffing up her cheeks in front of her, expressing her dissatisfaction with her whole body.
Indeed, looking at her appearance, she seemed no older than a teenager or in her 20s.
No, it wasn’t just that she looked that way—her actual physical age was truly in her late teens to early 20s.
“That’s seriously like cheating…”
“Well, it’s both an accident and a stroke of luck from my younger days.”
Back when Heart was truly 17,
she swallowed a Mystic Trace due to a series of coincidences and accidents.
Normally, if damaged beyond a certain level, the power within the Mystic Trace would disappear.
But strangely, the Mystic Trace Heart swallowed didn’t lose its power and instead transferred it to her.
“Thanks to that, I’ve been able to maintain this appearance until I die!”
The power she gained from the Mystic Trace was preservation.
Originally, it was a simple power that affected objects, keeping them in their best condition.
But when that power entered Heart’s body, her body stopped aging and maintained a healthy state.
Agelessness.
She wasn’t just young-looking—her entire physical age stopped aging, allowing her to live forever in a youthful body.
Of course, it didn’t mean immortality, so she would eventually die someday.
But having lived for decades without aging, she found that alone quite satisfying.
“Above all, as proof of youth, I can still get pregnant, you know!”
With her physical age fixed in a youthful state, she could bear children without any issues, even in her 30s, 40s, or 50s.
“Oh.”
For some reason, Clock Rabbit clapped for her, who was boasting.
“But that… kinda feels like frozen eggs or something.”
“Drop dead. Seriously.”
Bickering with Clock Rabbit, she felt a slight anticipation about what Maker wanted to say to her.
“‘The Worst Hero’ will reappear. And he plans to set Korea on fire.”
Boom.
That was until she heard his low voice.
*
“Is this the 3rd floor…?”
Indeed, as explained, the 3rd floor seemed to be the staff area.
Unlike the 1st floor, it was less organized and had a more lived-in feel.
Following Clock Rabbit, I took a moment to look around.
“Here.”
Clock Rabbit stopped in front of a door and glanced at me.
Knock knock.
She then knocked on the door.
“Queen. I’ve brought the guest as you requested.”
-Good job.
A calm voice came from inside the room.
A voice with some noise, perhaps to disguise it.
It wasn’t hard to recognize that the voice belonged to someone I had been with just a few hours ago.
“Come in, Maker-nim.”
As Clock Rabbit opened the door with a serious expression, I followed her into the room.
‘So this is how they prepared it?’
Inside the room, a large curtain hung like a divider.
A black doll visible beyond it hinted that someone was there.
“..Welcome.”
“Nice to meet you, Queen. I’m Maker, an executive of Eclipse.”
I greeted her politely, as if meeting her for the first time.
“……”
Then, a flickering shadow.
It seemed like she was greeting me in return, just as I had greeted her.
“I hope you enjoyed your time here at Black Night.”
“Thanks to the people you assigned, I had a great time without any inconvenience.”
“Is that so?”
“Though the staff’s affection was a bit overwhelming. Haha.”
Jolt.
Both Clock Rabbit and the Queen flinched at my words.
“..Ahem, I’ll make sure to re-educate them. My apologies.”
Her voice carried a hint of awkwardness.
“But please, don’t scold them too much. Thanks to them, I enjoyed the banquet more.”
“…Understood.”
Glancing at Clock Rabbit, she seemed relieved not to be scolded, her lips twitching.
‘The atmosphere isn’t as bad as I thought?’
I imagined being heavily interrogated or arguing, but the small talk made the atmosphere quite pleasant.
Or maybe they just saw me as a witness or informant.
Anyway, we exchanged light conversation for a while.
“So, why did you call me here, Queen?”
I decided to get straight to the point.
“……”
The Queen seemed to ponder for a moment.
After catching her breath, she spoke to me.
“..Where did you hear the information about trying to break Alpha out?”
Her voice was heavier than before.
Her tone seemed lighter, but there was a sense of seriousness.
“No comment.”
“Come on..!”
“Even if you’re the Queen, I can’t just reveal someone else’s trade secrets.”
She must know that asking such things is quite rude.
Like asking for a restaurant’s secret recipe or a company’s product manufacturing method.
Asking an informant how they got their information is a bit much, since it’s their livelihood.
Hmm, I’m not an informant, am I?
I decided to be a temporary informant for just today.
‘To be honest, the biggest reason is that I can’t properly reveal the source.’
What’s there to hear about trying to break someone out? I’m the one planning to break them out.
It’s not that I won’t say, I just can’t.
“Is the source of my information really that important?”
I shifted my gaze and stared at the Queen, lowering my voice.
“Anyway, what’s important is that my information is true.”
The source? Reliability?
Once the <Discriminator> declared it important information, questioning it became meaningless.
“..That’s true.”
Since it’s highly likely to be true anyway.
What she should focus on is the content, not the source.
“Let’s make a deal.”
“Do you want more detailed information about what I said?”
“Yes.”
The flickering shadow suddenly stopped, and I felt like it was staring at me.
“You already know as much as you need to, don’t you? I assume what I said downstairs reached your ears as well.”
“There must be something you’re hiding. People like you always keep a secret or two, don’t you?”
“You know me well.”
Is this experience?
I was momentarily impressed by her insight, filled with confidence.
“Any information will do, please tell me.”
“Any information, huh…”
“Who’s trying to break him out, what’s their goal, when they plan to execute it, etc…”
The Queen’s voice was filled with suppressed anger.
Her body trembled so much it was visible through the curtain.
“I need to know who’s trying to pull such a stunt.”
Thud!
She slammed the armrest of her chair and coldly muttered.
‘As expected, they were being nice to me.’
Knowing the Queen’s past, I had already vaguely sensed this.
After all, everything about Hero Alpha was her sore spot.
