People love to rank everything.
They began to predict the rankings of guilds formed by hunters, then ranked the strongest hunters among them, and finally even measured the strength of villains living in the shadows.
The Top refers to the 10 villains considered the strongest among them.
At first it had the tacky name of ‘Top Ten’, but soon the name ‘Top’ itself came to encompass the meaning of the top 10.
And ‘Top’ became a proper noun in itself.
When people heard ‘Top’, everyone thought of the great evil writhing in the shadows. And they feared it. If you encountered a villain worthy of the Top, your life would no longer be your own from that moment.
The Top became the dream, goal, and final destination of villains, to the point where every villain dreamed of rising to it.
And here, at the place people call the Top.
At the peak of the Black Tower, where only those permitted could set foot even among the Top, an occasional meeting was being held.
At the top floor of the tower, which stood crooked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, there was a round obsidian disc, and black granite chairs were arranged in a circle around it.
Five people sat in those chairs, each showing off their individuality.
Blood Magician Chu Ma-geol, wearing a black robe and sitting with his back to the light streaming through the tower’s windows, opened his mouth.
“The Butcher has certainly fallen in rank.”
His voice was rough, as if he hadn’t properly spoken for months. Gemini, sitting in the opposite position from him, picked up his words.
“Indeed, I’ve wanted to kill him every time I was associated with him as part of the same Top.”
She spoke in an innocent voice, her hair divided into black and white sides and braided down.
“It’s fortunate the newcomer seems quite good.”
“It was certainly a proper initiation.”
Gemini nodded at Trickster’s words, spoken with a hint of laughter. Though Trickster was blended into the shadows and didn’t properly reveal himself today either, Gemini didn’t pay much attention.
Cube, a man in his mid-30s quietly listening to their conversation from the corner, opened his mouth.
“It’s certainly been a while since an interesting fellow appeared.”
“But you know. Does really no one here know who they are?”
Gemini moved close to the disc and scanned everyone’s faces. Blood Magician Chu Ma-geol hiding his face with a black robe, Trickster concealing himself in shadows, Cube watching her with his usual dry expression, and Puppeteer sitting in the corner saying nothing again today.
She scrutinized everyone’s faces carefully, but truly no one said they knew Weltschmerz.
“It’s really strange. No one knows, really no one? You’re not just saying this to maintain their mystique while actually knowing them, right?”
“I’d like to ask you the same. Since they might be complex talent holders too, don’t you know anything yourself?”
“Are you asking if they’re twins too? No way! There can’t be another set of adorable twins like us in this world!”
Cube nodded at Gemini’s words.
“Well, your case isn’t common.”
A strange person who lost her awakened twin at age 10, but embraced her own twin with her ability. Gemini turned her head with a grin.
“Do the dolls have nothing to say either?”
At Gemini’s words, everyone’s gaze turned to the woman in her 40s sitting silently in the corner. The woman slowly opened her mouth.
“Nothing.”
“Hmm.”
The Puppeteer rarely spoke, but her intelligence network was superior to anyone else in this Top. Because all the dolls she had scattered throughout the world were her ears and eyes.
Even she didn’t know about this.
“How strange.”
Gemini rolled her eyes.
“Even before I came here, you all knew everything about me. It was the same when Cube came.”
Cube pretended not to know at Gemini’s words, but Gemini didn’t stop there.
“There was a big news story then, wasn’t there?”
Cube became a villain because he ‘accidentally’ caused a classmate’s death at the hunter academy. The classmate whose ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ were reversed by Cube’s touch apparently lived horribly for a while.
Gemini knows all those stories. She also knows the stories of Chu Ma-geol and Puppeteer who became villains before she was born.
Because there are no complete secrets in this world.
“But why are there no stories about those guys?”
It’s difficult to become this level of villain overnight without any precursors or history.
Trickster said:
“We do know about one. That little necromancer.”
“He seems quite talented.”
Gemini cackled at Blood Magician Chu Ma-geol’s words.
“Are you showing interest because he uses the same dark magic?”
“But his heart is too weak. If it were me, I would have used those little ones as materials instead of saving them.”
“Unlike you, old geezer, he’s a necromancer. I guess tiny skeletons aren’t very useful.”
“Is that so?”
Chu Ma-geol shrugged towards Gemini. If anyone else had called him an old geezer, he would have turned them into a handful of blood, but Gemini was an exception. He was quite fond of her, who had joined the Top at a young age.
Gemini, perched on the disc, said:
“Anyway, that’s not important. There are three of them. Only one has been identified. The masked one is the leader, but we don’t know anything about him.”
Gemini narrowed her eyes and whispered:
“You never know. They might be ‘fakes’ like last time.”
Fakes. Sparks flew in Gemini’s eyes. What Gemini hated most were hunters. Those who disguise using their abilities for the sake of this world. Hypocrites who do all sorts of shady things behind the scenes but still claim they are good and you are evil.
“If that’s the case, I’ll burn them to death myself.”
At Gemini’s words, the Blood Magician said:
“I’ll look into it.”
“You, old man?”
Gemini craned her neck. Chu Ma-geol, always wrapped in a black robe, was the longest-serving villain in this Top. As such, he doesn’t move for small matters. He’s usually too busy perfecting his own blood magic to get involved.
At his words about taking action personally, not just Gemini but everyone seated around the round table looked at him with slightly surprised expressions.
“Those guys will bow their heads when they see me too.”
It was over 30 years ago when Chu Ma-geol rose to this Top. Back then, this Top didn’t exist, and wasn’t even called the Top. Since the Top was formed, he had never fallen from it even once.
As such, the name Chu Ma-geol carried quite some weight in the villain world.
“Great, those guys will fall over backwards when they see you, old man!”
Gemini cackled. But the laughter quickly faded. Small sparks flew in her eyes, and her playful tone changed to a polite one. Gemini, who had changed like a completely different person, asked Chu Ma-geol:
“Will you really be alright?”
“I’ll be fine.”
Chu Ma-geol smiled faintly. After looking at him with a worried expression for a moment, blue flames flickered in her eyes and she put on a mischievous expression again.
“If, just if, those guys give you trouble, I’ll get revenge for you.”
It was a strange sight, as if her personality had suddenly flipped, but no one was perturbed.
As suggested by the name Gemini, taken from the constellation of twins, she had two personalities in one body.
“That won’t happen.”
Chu Ma-geol cut off that worry in one go. He wasn’t someone who would be easily defeated by novice villains.
Trickster asked:
“What will you do after finding out about them?”
A coin had appeared in his hand at some point and was gleaming. Flicking the coin with his finger, he said:
“Recruit them after all?”
Since they killed someone who was in the Top, it was natural for Weltschmerz to become part of the Top. The recruitment Trickster mentioned had a different meaning.
“You mean bring them here?”
Cube, who asked that, added:
“That Butcher fellow never set foot here until he died.”
“That bastard was filthy.”
Gemini added.
“Filthy and noisy and rude and disrespectful!”
Insults towards the Butcher poured endlessly from her small mouth. Trickster said, flipping the coin upwards:
“He’d cry quite a bit if he heard that in the afterlife.”
“I hated that guy.”
Trickster also nodded at Gemini’s words. The Butcher was not to their taste at all. Then what about Weltschmerz?
“Let’s see them and judge.”
Everyone nodded at Chu Ma-geol’s words. As the longest-serving member of the Top, the others here trusted him quite a bit.
“If the discussion is over, can I leave now?”
A very tired voice drifted over to the round table. It was the Puppeteer. Gemini asked her haggard-looking face:
“Is there some problem? Why are you nodding off like a sick chicken?”
The Puppeteer didn’t particularly open her mouth at those words. Gemini crossed her arms and pretended to be upset at being ignored, but still got no answer. Trickster, sensing the strange atmosphere lingering between the two, quickly spoke up:
“Sorry, but there’s one more agenda item left.”
“What is it?”
“Representative Seol contacted us.”
“Why that guy again?”
Gemini, who asked that, opened her eyes wide and added:
“Is there another chance to pick up some easy money like last time?”
He’s not the only one approaching to use the Top for a big score, but Seol Rok-jin was quite special among them.
Because he threw out bait that was quite tempting to ignore. Trickster said from within the shadows:
“He was asking about Weltschmerz.”
At those words, Gemini said with a disappointed face:
“We don’t know much about those guys either. This is going to look really bad. It’s awkward to say we don’t know anything…”
After being deflated for a moment, Gemini said in a high voice:
“But if the old man brings them here, it’ll be fine!”
“Then let’s postpone that answer until after that.”
“Is it really over now?”
Cube asked that while glancing at the Puppeteer. A gloomy aura had been flowing from the Puppeteer’s direction for a while, making it difficult to keep pretending not to notice.
Trickster said:
“Representative Seol Rok-jin said…”
“Hurry up hurry up hurry up!”
“He asked if we’re interested in hunting an S-rank rookie.”
At those words, the eyes of the villains seated around the round table sparkled. Not just Gemini, but even Cube who had been acting composed, and the Puppeteer who had been slumped lifelessly, raised their heads and looked at him.
“We’re very interested.”