What is Right (1)

What is Right (1)

“…Tae-jun will be fine. Are you, are you alright?”

“Yes. I’m perfectly fine.”

“I, I see.”

In a private hospital room, Director Jang Woo-seok nodded with a bewildered expression.

‘What exactly is this child? Is she really a magical girl after all?’

The cause of his confusion was Lee Jin-ah, who was standing there perfectly fine. Although she had been rescued from the basement that had been torn apart and mostly destroyed, unlike Park Tae-jun, she was incredibly unscathed.

Not just physically, but mentally as well.

Even though she had been involved in an incident that would have severely affected even a healthy adult, she didn’t bat an eye, which further solidified his suspicions.

“Let’s go out for now. Since you say you’re fine, I’ll take you home.”

Jang Woo-seok left the hospital room with Lee Jin-ah. Almost simultaneously, someone rushed into the room.

A young man with a face quite similar to Park Tae-jun’s, as if proving their blood relation. He bit his lip upon seeing the pale, nearly collapsing face of the young man.

“Director…!”

“Please calm down. His life is not in danger for now.”

All he could do was offer words of comfort.

But he knew that his consolation would have little effect on someone whose household had been destroyed in an instant.

“…”

Jin-ah, who had been momentarily pushed aside, watched the scene with eyes full of inscrutable meaning.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting. Let’s go now.”

It took well over an hour to calm down the mentally shattered man. Jang Woo-seok, with a haggard face worn out from fatigue, staggered out of the hospital room and took Lee Jin-ah’s hand, who had been waiting.

However, just as they were about to leave the first-floor lobby, news that stopped them in their tracks was flowing out.

“Taquilas…”

Jang Woo-seok sighed as he saw the image of the girl appearing in the breaking news. Just a day ago, that magical girl was an existence living in a completely different place.

But today, Taquilas appeared before him, eliminating the monsters wearing human disguises. Moreover, she even gave him instructions without hesitation.

“She saved you too, right?”

“…Yes.”

Jang Woo-seok spoke while looking down at Lee Jin-a, who was blankly watching the TV just like him.

“What do you think about Taquilas? They say it’s the first time she’s come out so openly.”

Under the suspicion that Lee Jin-a might be a magical girl, Jang Woo-seok subtly probed her.

“She seems quite annoyed… I mean, she looks annoyed.”

“An-annoyed?”

“Because she’s unnecessarily putting herself out there like that.”

In fact, Lee Jin-a nodded with a serious face as if she knew the answer.

‘I understand the Demon Lord’s intention. She hopes these humans will overcome this well without her having to step in. But it doesn’t seem like it will be easy, so she’s annoyed.’

Lee Jin-a, or rather, Doppelganger Corps Commander Flesia disguised as Lee Jin-a, inwardly snorted as if certain.

“We need to prepare and overcome, but will people really follow along? Won’t they only move after sacrifices occur, as they always have?”

“That… I don’t know either.”

Jang Woo-seok, startled by Flesia’s words, couldn’t answer easily.

For one, he strongly agreed with Taquilas’s words. He had directly experienced the power of the monsters, the horrific devastation caused by that power, and the wounds and sorrows of those left behind.

But looking at the reactions of people around him right now, there were no dramatic responses at all.

They feared Takilas, but that fear was not a true reverence or terror towards the Demon King. It was merely the reckless act of a girl dismissed as a ‘psycho’.

‘Stupid fools.’

Plesia mocked them. She was only used to seeing the people of the continent react extremely sensitively to every word of the Demon King.

In the first place, Takilas didn’t need to persuade anyone in the Demon Realm. One word from Takilas was the law and order.

“It’s not wrong at all. If we don’t prepare, we’ll suffer.”

“I believe. There are so many diverse people, and we’re developing in a way that protects and respects that diversity. There are certainly drawbacks, but there are advantages too. Even at this moment, there must be people working busily. For us.”

Plesia advised Jang Woo-seok as if she was doing him a favor, and Jang Woo-seok didn’t deny it.

However, unlike Plesia, Jang Woo-seok still had hope. That there was still hope and light in this world.

*

“What’s the current situation? How are foreign intelligence agencies reacting?”

“They are, of course, reacting sensitively and keeping a close eye on us.”

Inside the Magic Anomaly Management Bureau located in the heart of Seoul. After Takilas’s warning, everyone here was moving extremely busy without a single person missing.

They were all people who didn’t ignore the warning and were sincerely moving to prepare for the future.

“So what’s the result? Is an anomaly really starting as Takilas warned?”

“We don’t know if it’s the work of monsters. However, it’s true that something is happening.”

Oh Yun-seo, with a grim face, showed the organized data to Director Lee Min-hyung.

Comparing the figures before and after the dimensional gate appeared, there was clearly an increase in unexplained disappearances and deaths in the country.

“…We can’t say this is definitive evidence to change people’s perceptions.”

He sighed after looking at the data. We could say something was happening, but this wasn’t enough.

“Takilas. If that kid would cooperate, it would be easier.”

“But Director.”

“I know too. Now that they’ve told us, they expect us to figure out the rest on our own. From the beginning, she’s been a magical girl who doesn’t seem like a magical girl at all.”

He rose from his seat with a bitter smile. It was because he had just received a message.

“Let’s go down. It seems everyone has gathered, so we’ll negotiate new regulations for all of us.”

The place where the senior officials of the Management Bureau, including him, headed was the top-secret underground facility of the Bureau. The magical girls who had been contacted were just arriving there.

“The, the atmosphere is no joke…”

At the time when Lee Min-hyung and Oh Yun-seo departed, the magical girls gathered in the underground of the Management Bureau were maintaining distance, wary of each other.

Aria was the same, and her mascot Lulu was flying by her side, muttering in a cowed state.

In fact, the main cause of this heavy atmosphere was the silver-haired magical girl, Karin, who was sitting crookedly in a chair, chain-smoking more than six cigarettes.

“Thank you all for coming.”

Director Lee Min-hyung appeared then. His eyes immediately turned to Karin.

“Especially you, Karin. I thought you wouldn’t come.”

“I wasn’t going to. After that day, I was scolded like a dog for being absent without leave the next day. I regretted it so much. Why did I confront such a mad dog?”

Karin flicked away her cigarette butt and immediately lit a new one without a trace of a smile.

“But I had no choice. After all, I’m a magical girl, and a member of this world.”

“…Thank you. I think everyone here came with the same thought. Believing Taquilas’s warning to be true, and coming here out of genuine concern for this world.”

He bowed his head to Karin and naturally began to speak. He had already made all the plans.

“The circumstances are different now. So I thought… we needed a single force that transcends companies, tendencies, and performance. Especially after seeing Casilena. They showed that even magical girls can unite as one, breaking conventions.”

Oh Yun-seo took up the conversation. Despite being a top elite with sufficient education and experience, her slightly trembling voice proved how desperate Oh Yun-seo was.

“Trust us. As members who must live together in this world, let’s become one too. Frontier, a true joint organization of human society and magical girls sharing a single purpose. We’ll overcome the crisis and pioneer a new world.”

The starting point of this new project, led by Planning Director Oh Yun-seo and fully supported by Director Lee Min-hyung, was none other than Casilena, the first magical girl organization that shocked the public.

Oh Yun-seo, seeing that, decided to create a new order that breaks away from the existing system in response to the crisis facing reality.

“Magical girls are not subjects to be managed, but partners to collaborate with. Magical girls are not separate entities, but members of this society who should receive protection and attention.”

“I still can’t believe it. The contradictions, shamelessness, and ugliness shown by adults. How will you prove that you’re not trying to use us? I trust you, Director, but other people aren’t as clean as you. Right now, what are other people doing? What about the politicians in the National Assembly? What about the bureaucrats in the administration?”

Aria coldly spat out, looking at Oh Yun-seo. Expecting her anger towards the flawed social system recently, Oh Yun-seo smiled bitterly and bowed her head.

“Not everyone is bad! I too fulfill my duty as a civil servant of this country. We have only one purpose. To save people.”

“As an adult, I’ll say this: there will always be bad people anywhere, anytime. I admit that. Because we’ve been complying with that system silently until now. But at the same time, I believe there is clear good and evil in this land. Also, good should not be sacrificed to defeat evil. What needs to be protected must be protected.”

Lee Min-hyung cut in firmly.

Thanks to this, the choice now returned to the magical girls.

Will they continue with the existing methods?

Or will they make a new decision, embracing uncertainty?

“I promise one thing.”

In that situation, Lee Min-hyung drove the point home.

“No matter what situation arises, even if it’s against anyone, our Frontier will not conform to injustice. We will not use you.”

It was an extremely dangerous statement for a civil servant living on the country’s salary to make, but he pushed through with it.