The Line to Protect (10)

The Line to Protect (10)

“Is that her…?”

“With Kim Su-han…”

The annoying whispers tickle my ears again. Exasperated, I put down my pen and slump in my chair.

The seat next to me is still empty without Kim Su-jung, and I’m alone. Neither the kidnapping victim Kim Su-han nor that bastard Park Tae-jun are here.

Thanks to that, I alone was responsible for tanking all the aggro after coming to school by myself. Everywhere I went, people whispered and glanced at me, some even avoiding me as if I were something dirty.

[There’s a lot of talk about juvenile offenders these days. Shouldn’t we just kill them? I could take care of more than half the kids here. Kids these days are really cunning]

“Please, please, just… Ugh!”

As the stress built up, my irritation grew. I barely managed to calm myself down by crumpling Ren in both hands.

At this point, I couldn’t help but feel doubts about the fundamental problem.

Why am I here like this? It was all about coming to enjoy the entertainment I missed while feeling nostalgic for my hometown on Earth.

But what’s my current situation? The nostalgia for home was being destroyed by damn monsters and criminal organizations, and instead of having fun, I was busy running around doing magical girl work to punish those who upset me.

[If I knew it would be like this, I would have gone with the first plan. If I had caught someone and threatened their life, they would have brought me anything, whether it was identity, alcohol, or whatever.]

“It’s not your fault…”

Ren, crumpled in my hand, resisted, but I didn’t let up. It’s too late to turn back now, so there’s no answer.

Frustrated, I stormed out of the classroom as soon as break time started.

“…Huh?”

It was a bit less intense in the hallway where many people didn’t know me, but it seemed like it wouldn’t take long for it to spread throughout the school.

But as I was coming back from the school store, someone appeared in front of me.

“Sunbae-nim. What brings you here suddenly?”

“During our first meeting, you confidently said it would be fine on the bus. How does it feel now? Everyone whispering and glancing at you.”

“Not particularly.”

Hong Su-young, with a stern face, spoke bluntly. It turned out her words on the bus, seriously advising that I might have a hard time, were right. But I had ignored them.

“…Don’t lie.”

She sighed as she watched two female students quickly pass by, glancing at us.

“This is the gaze we always receive. Hatred, curiosity, prejudice. How does it feel to experience it directly? Unfair, isn’t it?”

“Ah. Did you come to make fun of me?”

“I came to help. Just in case.”

She shook her head with a dark expression. The white glove on one of her hands fidgeted.

Well, I’m being criticized for no reason now, but it’s different for her. She’s an actual victim of illegal biological experiments, and until now, she’s received more discrimination and hatred than comfort and embrace because of it.

Just a 15-year-old.

“Crazy world.”

I muttered quietly. It was a crazy world from the moment they started talking about magical girls and whatnot. But is it really any different from the Earth I used to live on?

“No need to worry, senior. I have a steel mentality.”

“You…”

“It’s true. So take care of yourself first. I’ll gratefully accept your concern.”

The ones we really need to worry about are the stupid kids who are on the verge of crossing the line. I guess I’ll have to deal with those spreading nonsense before it gets worse.

I passed by Hong Su-young, who looked slightly surprised, and returned to the classroom while sipping my juice.

But even I didn’t know that there would already be kids crossing the line before I even stepped through the classroom door.

“Wow. Did the seating arrangement change while I wasn’t aware?”

“You, you sit over there and attend class from now on. We’ll tell the teachers.”

I burst into a hollow laugh as I entered the classroom. Naturally, a thick demonic energy flowed from my body. Not so much out of anger towards the kids, but just out of annoyance.

“You never know. It was even on the public news!”

While the kids, crushed by my energy, turned pale and struggled to breathe, there was one child with courage befitting a hero.

One of the girls who used to get along well with Kim Su-jung, this one looked at me straight in the eye with trembling eyes.

The problem was that this courage was expressed with misguided beliefs.

“Public news? That’s ridiculous. So what did they say?”

“They said that since it’s the first experiment to show results, we don’t know what side effects might occur, so if we’re not going to isolate them, we should keep our distance from the victims and be thoroughly prepared…”

“I see.”

For now, the list of people to kill after looking into this has grown. If Cyber Wrecker is lucky enough to get a good job, it’ll be those guys.

I smiled and brought my desk, which had been pushed to the back of the classroom, back to its original place.

“What are you doing?”

“Let me warn you, don’t do anything unnecessary. It’s not like you’re isolating me, so what’s the point? If I really had to be like those victims, with my head split open, skull cut, brain exposed, and electrodes implanted one by one to follow their orders.”

With each word I spoke, the frightened children began to stagger and whimper, but I didn’t care.

“You’d all die by my hand in seconds. Necks snapped, stomachs pierced, limbs severed.”

“Waa, waaah!”

Some kids finally burst into tears, unable to bear my killing intent. I didn’t feel sorry. I had shown mercy by sparing them this time. Being young is no reason to avoid consequences.

“Let’s go prepare for class. Uh… Min-jung.”

I read her name from her nametag. She bit her lip and returned to her seat without saying anything.

“You made a good decision. But… I guess it’s no wonder the other victims can’t come to school.”

Ren, sitting at the desk, tapped my arm. I ignored it and searched through my phone.

To find the people at the national broadcasting company who had harmed and shamed me with their petty news. My mood was already foul, and now they’ve given me a reason to act out.

[Being a magical girl is nice. Since they’re all people who deserve to die anyway, it’s easy to do as I please]

“…Right. That’s true.”

Unable to stop me from saying I’d kill these guys, Ren smiled bitterly and lowered his head.

It’s quite remarkable, really. I couldn’t help but sneer.

The humans I killed as a demon lord could be counted on one hand, but as a magical girl, I’ve already killed over a hundred.

*

“What about the children who were experimented on? Are they okay?”

“W-well…”

Tequilas, now a schoolgirl named Lee Jin-ah, at the point where she’s about to attend class in an irritated state.

Magical Girl Aria, still in the hospital room, was asking Management Bureau Director Oh Yun-seo about the well-being of the experimental girls.

“It’s difficult. Their methods are so cruel that we can’t even touch them now, we’ve only restrained them.”

Dr. Heo Seung-hoon, a doctor and state-certified Magical Girl researcher, shook his head at her words.

“They open the skull and implant dozens of chips directly into the brain to control them. Their minds have already collapsed in the process. Even if we remove the chips, they’re just empty shells. As if their souls are gone. There was no way… to save them.”

He lowered his head with a gloomy voice. Aria, covering her eyes with her arm, couldn’t contain her anger and gritted her teeth.

Recently, too many things weren’t going according to her intentions. She felt the inadequacy of an S-class Magical Girl’s power more strongly than ever before.

‘Taquilace!’

She knew the cause.

The newcomer Magical Girl Taquilace, who appeared like a comet.

However, the epithets attached to that black-haired girl who wouldn’t stop the slaughter were becoming increasingly harsh.

Reaper from hell, Demon Girl, Psychopath Witch, and so on.

She was already breaking all records.

“How’s the bet with Taquilace going?”

“I’m not sure. Mammoth appeared in Shanghai, China this time, and killed dozens of people there. On the other hand, we managed to find their facility, even if it was just the tail end. But.”

Aria paused and sighed.

“We ended up losing, were in mortal danger, and were saved by Taquilace’s hand.”

There were certainly opponents Taquilace didn’t kill. But the only one she ‘deliberately saved’ was herself.

Aria, who vividly remembered that moment, furrowed her brow. She had technically won the bet, but she couldn’t confidently say so to Taquilace.

“No, you won the bet. Taquilace should comply.”

Oh Yun-seo comforted her with kind words.

“Get some rest. Everything’s already been taken care of.”

“But that organization…”

“It’s an international organization. Let’s be satisfied with taking down the Korean branch for now.”

Oh Yun-seo and Heo Seung-hoon left the room. Aria ended up lying there blankly until the sunset and nightfall.

“…Taquilath has never killed a single magical girl. The companies don’t really have a reason to take action.”

“That kid is neither a psychopath nor insane. I know, she kills an enormous number of people, but she clearly doesn’t kill just anyone.”

“If that kid isn’t a crazy bitch, then who the hell is crazy?”

The mascot Lulu grumbled incredulously. However, Aria shook her head.

“That kid, she seems almost inhuman. A deeper, heavier, colder being.”

Aria remembers Taquilath who saved her just before she went berserk.

That moment when she revealed the authority of the Demon Lord. Having seen that, she couldn’t hide her confusion.