The Novel’s Villain

55. Chaos (1)

A moment of silence passed.

Yoo-na blinked. Realizing what she had just said, she felt extremely embarrassed.

Jin-woo was satisfied.

It was nice to see her flustered. It made her seem more human, considering she always tried to maintain her composure when dealing with him.

There were times when the enormous amount of work she needed to do broke her poker face, but that had become rare these days. She had grown completely accustomed to her.

He sometimes wondered if she had killed her emotions too much.

Right now, however, she looked quite innocent and lost. If she had grown up in a normal environment, this was probably how she’d always behave.

‘Well…’

He wanted to tease her because of the state she was in.

Jin-woo’s expression turned mischievous, making Yoo-na swallow.

“This is all I have here…”

“I like ramen too.”

“Really? It’s delicious, isn’t it?! Ramen is—!”

“Of course, I also like other things.”

“Huh?”

The atmosphere grew strange again.

Yoo-na’s eyes grew wilder, her cheeks already on the verge of exploding.

“I’ll go boil water.”

Before she could get lost in Jin-woo’s eyes, she stumbled her way to the kitchen, nearly falling multiple times. Reaching it, she rinsed her face with cold water before hastily filling her kettle.

But her face was still hot.

She returned to her seat again.

“Want to watch TV?”

Yoo-na pressed the power button on the remote control.

[What do you think?]

[Wow! Amazing!]

Upon turning it on, the tv displayed an adult channel. The video in it was about to reach its climax.

Yoo-na immediately turned it off.

But the damage had already been done. The situation became even more awkward.

Wheeeeewwwww!

The kettle’s whistle sounded strangely stimulating.

When their eyes met, she gradually moved closer to him, seemingly possessed by something. Reaching a distance where they could feel each other’s breaths mixing, she blanked out.

It was as if their breaths were going to melt her.

It hadn’t been long since they met, but she felt like they had known each other for a long time already.

Was this just a passing flame of passion?

‘Should I even be doing this?’

That thought just made her feel even more thrilled.

Everything was perfect!

This moment couldn’t be any better, considering even the sound of rain falling outside the window added beauty to its ambiance.

Their noses touched.

At that moment, her blurred eyes cleared up.

Twook!

A Setting Fragment spewed out of her chest and fell to the floor. Jin-woo thought the timing was quite unfortunate.

But that wasn’t where it all ended.

Yoo-na wrapped her arms around his nape and pushed him to the bed. He was slightly surprised, but he didn’t resist at all.

Rather, he admired her.

“Five… !”

She got on top of him.

Jin-woo could only blink as he stared into her cruel eyes.

“Hello, Master.”

“… How was your vacation?”

“Thanks to you, I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

“That’s great to hear.”

Yoo-na took her top off forcefully, causing a few of its buttons to be torn away and fall on the floor.

Jin-woo found that pretty cool.

Smiling softly at him, she put her hand on his chest, transmitting his heartbeat to her.

“I’m going to enjoy it even more from now on…”

“I look forward to it.”

Yoo-na’s ears were burning red. She was holding back her shame. What happened in the afternoon was a big event for her as well.

Noticing the corners of her lips trembling a little, Jin-woo laughed bitterly.

Unfortunately, there was a reason why they couldn’t go further than that.

“Someone’s watching us.”

“I agree.”

He had been sensing it since a while back.

Jin-woo raised his upper body as he grabbed Yoo-na’s waist.

He turned his head and looked at the wall, finding a small black dot on its surface.

Behind it was a pupil.

‘A peephole?’

When it met his gaze, he heard someone jump backward in surprise. The gap also began to disappear.

Crack!

Jin-woo stretched out his hand and pulled, causing the space in front of him to shatter and disappear.

The black shadow tried to escape, only to crash into a window and fall onto the ground.

Yoo-na tilted her head.

It didn’t harbor dignity worthy of an Emperor.

“Is that the Emperor?”

“Maybe.”

As Jin-woo approached it, Yoo-na followed him after putting a new top on.

While it was stunned, he used the Magic Eye of Information on it.

[C] Emperor of Settings

“An innocent cat girl full of dreams!”

‘My cat ears aren’t fake!’

She carries a settings encyclopedia that records all the dimensions’ settings. Her hobby is observing and creating settings.

She seems severely weakened for some reason. Unfortunately, because of the immature trait Young-hoon gave her, she couldn’t mature completely.

Skills:

*[S] Peephole

Allows the Emperor of Settings to sneak through space and observe her target through a hole. Its presence is unnoticeable for those below Emperor-level.

*[A] Barely 17 years old

Since she’s both pure and immature, she doesn’t know what Rated R means yet. In fact, she made a book to write such settings on, but it’s still blank.

Hearing the Great Emperor’s excellence, she began laying down the groundwork, only to be caught right before they could reach the climax.

‘She’s strange.’

The Magic Eye of Information was right about the Emperor of Settings.

She was only ranked C, which was quite low. And that was only because of her powers. Her physical abilities were much lower than that.

She was far too weak for an Emperor.

Since she was in the form of a small black cat, Yoo-na decided to grab her by the nape, lifting her and surveying her body.

“It’s a female cat.”

Weirdly enough, her nose was bleeding.

The Emperor of Settings opened her eyes, her gaze fluttering with extreme anxiety.

“Nyah. Meow. Meow.”

Looking away from them, she pretended to be an ordinary cat.

However, it was too late for that now.

After thinking thoroughly, Jin-woo opened the dimensional shop. There were quite a few cat people from the Middle-World. They were particularly quite common in the Village of Saint.

As a result, golden catnip often came up for sale.

Tributes to Goddess Luna were also automatically registered in the dimensional shop since she was running an automatic tribute macro.

Jin-woo bought a fish-shaped doll containing a golden catnip. When he positioned it in front of the cat, she began to salivate. Yoo-na let her go, allowing her to wipe her saliva with her front paw as she stared at him.

“You’re the Emperor of Settings.”

“…”

The way she rolled her eyes was pretty cute.

With a smile, Jin-woo set the fish doll down right before her, who approached it cautiously but trapped it in her mouth swiftly as soon as it was within reach.

After that, she backed away slowly then made a run for the window.

Transforming into a human in front of it, she hastily opened it, vaulted to the other side, then closed it again before escaping as fast as she could.

He could easily catch her, but Jin-woo didn’t bother.

“You let her go.”

“She didn’t seem like a bad person, and she seems to have her own circumstances to deal with too. Besides…”

The Emperor of Settings’ setting encyclopedia was in his hand.

When she snatched the fish doll, he used the power of domination to swipe it away.

Jin-woo looked through it, allowing him to see the settings she witnessed and created.

One of the most prominent lines he read was, ‘This world will disappear upon collecting all Setting Fragments.’

‘This is…’

There was also information about the resurrection of the 12 Emperors and the Devil.

Jin-woo studied that part earnestly. The 12 Emperors’ powers and names were written on it, including the one they hadn’t met yet. It even had information about the world where the demons were sealed.

It was an unexpectedly valuable loot.

‘A galaxy at the end of the universe, serving a foreign entity…’

According to it, going to that place would teach them about the location of the last Emperor’s location and the demons’ prison. All of those were beyond the end of the foreign war, so they had nothing to do with Yeong-hoon anymore.

The last Emperor was apparently in a place called the World of the Dead, and the demons were in a place called the World of Gods.

He couldn’t find any more details about those areas, which meant he’d just have to go and find out for himself.

Among those he rescued from the pirates, there were some born there.

Even in the Dark Empire, a church was built to serve the foreign entity, but Jin-woo, as always, didn’t care since it seemed to be caused by one of Young-hoon’s strange settings again.

‘I have a clue.’

All that was left was to find the Golden Women’s Association members and return their memories. It would be even better if he could have fun while doing so.

“Whew…”

Yoo-na took a deep breath. When their eyes met, she slightly avoided his gaze.

She pursed her lips.

“I don’t want to be swept away here since this is all because of someone’s interference. This isn’t real.”

“Really?”

“So… Let’s continue where we left off once we return to reality. Then you better be prepared.”

Jin-woo smiled slightly at her words.

“Let’s go eat.”

Yoo-na cooked the ramen, and after eating, Jin-woo got up.

As he approached the front door, it started raining again. The Emperor of Settings had already run away. Hence, considering this situation was still ongoing, it seemed the world itself had been set up this way.

“I think you should go to sleep before you go, Master.”

“That would be better.”

Rain wasn’t a problem at all, but Jin-woo decided to go to sleep beside her anyway. They had always been together, but this was the first time they had done this.

Flutter!

When Yoo-na remembered what happened in the afternoon, she kicked her blanket. That wasn’t like her at all.

Jin-woo couldn’t stop himself from laughing because of it.

With her body shaking from embarrassment, she turned to face him while lying down.

“… Master.”

“Hmm?”

“I shouldn’t be the only one suffering from this.”

Jin-woo looked at Yoo-na.

Her ears were unusually red.

‘It’s sweet.’

The Strategy Committee gained another member!

* * *

When he woke up the next morning, he found himself in Yoo-na’s full embrace. She had a quiet sleeping habit, but the Settings World’s influence made her behave differently.

He also noticed his hands were in quite amazing positions.

‘That’s really attentive.’

The Emperor of Settings might as well be the Emperor of Details too.

Each of the settings she employed was created with utmost dedication and sincerity. It was so passionately made that he could feel her craftsmanship from it.

What amazed him even more than that was that Yoo-na, who didn’t sleep that much, was now slumbering soundly while hugging him tightly.

‘This is amazing.

It was such a shame that such a great world had to disappear.

He decided to find a way to maintain this dimension along with the Emperor of Settings once they met again.

Yoo-na opened her eyes, immediately locking gazes with Jin-woo. Pulling up her blanket, she covered herself all the way to the tip of her nose.

“See you in school.”

Jin-woo came out early in the morning to stop by his house, finding Luna waiting for him in excitement. She anticipated this moment so much she seemed like she couldn’t sleep at all yesterday.

“How is she? Did she suffer? Did she scream?”

“She kicked her blanket.”

“Hahaha!” Luna clenched her fists and cheered.

“I really wanted to see her reaction, but just imagining it is already enough to satisfy me!”

“You like it that much?”

“Yes! There’s a big difference between us despite both of our names having ‘na’ at the end of it! But now that we share the same pain, we’ve become a real family.”

Logically speaking, that made sense.

Jin-woo went to school as usual.

He had been in this world for three days now. He had already gotten used to its culture, and he was beginning to feel like a real high school student. Still, though occasional relaxation was a must, he thought it would be best to make his move now since he still had a lot of work left to do.

‘It’s time to find the rest.’

Jin-woo started going around the school as soon as the time for club activities came, searching for the other Golden Women’s Association members on the campus. He thought they’d be easy to find since they’d appear quite unusual.

And he was soon proven correct.

He heard people whispering.

“Look. The Student Council president…”

“She’s so beautiful…”

“How can someone be that perfect?”

The Student Council president.

A sophomore in Temple High School, she was said to be the best candidate for the Holy Shaman position because of her beautiful appearance, unparalleled brain, and indiscriminately kind personality.

Moreover, her power was so immense it was second only to the principal.

“Oh my god!”

“Please look over here!”

“Ms. President!”

Whenever she appeared, students flocked around her.

She was much more popular than Hee-yeon, who was a student idol.

‘Who could it be?’

If she were that popular, she wouldn’t just be playing a normal supporting role.

Curiously, he approached her as she walked slowly among the students, her long glossy hair fluttering in the wind. Students were even escorting her, which just made her seem more like she was from another world. Still, the biggest giveaway was her aura, which he found quite familiar.

However, Jin-woo shook his head in confusion as soon as he identified her.

‘Maze?’

If Maze had grown up, she would have looked like her.

When their eyes met, she smiled at him softly.

She had grown into a woman elegant and beautiful enough to give him complicated thoughts.

He bet Luna would be surprised by her appearance, but he decided to leave Maze alone for now.

It would take him a while to get used to her new look.

‘On the bright side, nothing can surprise me now that I’ve seen her all grown up.’

“Look how they huddle together. That’s why they’ll always be commoners…”

Hearing a familiar voice, he swiftly turned to look at its owner.

She was gorgeous.

She was wearing the same school uniform as the other students, but its texture seemed different, perhaps because of its brand.

There were also a lot of her bodyguards escorting her.

As she walked with them, she bumped into another student. She merely looked down on her when she fell.

The student’s expression seemed like she was begging for mercy.

“I-I’m sorry, Se-yeon…”

“Have you no manners? If so, then I’ll engrave it all over your body. Consider it an honor. After all, you’ll be receiving guidance directly from me.”

“I-it’s an honor…”

Se-yeon raised the girl’s chin with her finger arrogantly. Her victim’s eyes now looked hazy.

Jin-woo’s jaw dropped.

Se-yeon was running wild even in this world. Her personality was so strong that the Settings World’s influence hardly worked on her. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say her delusion was at the level of an Emperor.

Se-yeon looked at Jin-woo, slowly approaching him.

“I like you, baby…”

Jin-woo quickly left the area, unable to stand what was happening. He felt as if his mana had just been consumed.

‘I can’t bear watching them.’

He decided to put off retrieving Se-yeon, too.

He let out a long sigh.

Considering how much Se-yeon and Maze surprised him, he again doubted anything else could shock him at this point. Leaning against the wall to calm himself down for a moment, someone called out to him.

“You! You’re Lee Jin-woo the first year, right?”

“Hmm?”

“I am Zhuge Mi-xian, the head of the disciplinary committee. I won’t forgive anyone who disturbs the school order! Students must lead a healthy life!”

Her current position didn’t suit her.

When Jin-woo looked at her blankly, she covered her chest and backed away.

“Are you trying to examine my body with that lewd gaze of yours? You may break my body, but my mind won’t yield! Do your worst!”

She spread her arms wide.

“…”

“I saw you coming out of Kim Yoo-na’s house! I don’t know what trick you used to corrupt her, but…”

“Ah…”

“Are you going to use it on everyone, starting with me?”

He should’ve expected this. In this world, events like last night wouldn’t pass without someone miraculously witnessing them. Moreover, of course, it had to be the head of the disciplinary committee.

Zhuge Mi-xian wore her school uniform and did her hair according to the rules. However, in this genre, such characters became more alluring the more she stuck to the bylaws.

Since that role was assigned to her, its effects were doubled.

‘This is getting more and more complicated…’

Up to this point, all of his problems were within the tolerable range.

He just had to sort everything out one by one calmly.

However, at that moment, he felt a presence right next to him.

“That’s…”

Hee-yeon was standing not too far away from him with a shocked expression.

‘Did she hear what Zhuge Mi-xian said?’

“Ughh…”

The word chaos came to his mind as he felt himself rapidly becoming exhausted.

For the first time, he thought this world wasn’t that good.

‘This is interesting, isn’t it?’

‘Yes. Let’s not intervene.’

Luna and Yoo-na, watching the situation from a corner, smiled mischievously.

They were like family now.