Lord of Despair and Hatred (1)

Lord of Despair and Hatred (1)

“They’re moving around with fire in their eyes. Even more than the Magical Girls. It seems they’re competing with the Magical Girls outright.”

“That’s right. For some reason, after gaining power, they’re trying to drive out the Magical Girls. Using the monsters as an excuse.”

“But from what I see, those guys are constantly lying.”

Late in the afternoon, he smirked as he watched the Awakened Special Forces cross the street. Moving while drawing people’s attention, they were obviously responding to monsters that had appeared somewhere.

“A righteous force protecting citizens… No. They’re just the fangs of the strong. Simple fools who don’t even realize the meaning of the seeds I’ve sown and only know how to destroy. If it were for true justice, they would have at least tried to understand.”

“It’s an open secret that their root, The One Road, is deeply entangled with political interests.”

The middle-aged man beside him nodded emotionlessly. The man was dressed in a neat suit, contrasting even more with his shabby tracksuit.

“Oh Sun, please give us your next order.”

“Nothing special. Tell the followers to keep recommending those who can become seeds. We need to store more power. Originally, I was wary of the Magical Girls, but if they’re just competing among themselves, there’s no need to worry about them.”

“I will do so.”

Called the Sun with extreme honorifics by others, he smiled and naturally gave instructions to the man.

During lunch today, he gave a dagger imbued with his power to the pitiful new civil servant Lee Hee-chan, allowing him to fulfill his hatred and vengeance, and in return, he received blood exchanged for Lee Hee-chan’s life.

That was how he expanded his influence and power in this land.

He had already been using those intoxicated by the power they received from him as his followers for quite some time, and he had just started to move in earnest.

“Where are you going?”

“Sadness and hatred inherently tend to spread. The easiest prey will be nearby. I will devour those, so you should continue to expand your influence as you have been.”

He moved with a smile. His steps were incredibly light.

‘What a wonderful world this is.’

He genuinely liked this land. Even without his intervention, this land was already chaotic and turbulent.

Things that could be considered his food were scattered everywhere.

The numerous humans in this world created conflicts and hatred on their own, exposing their vulnerabilities. The resentment, hatred, anger, and disillusionment that arose from those gaps.

All of that was his food.

Especially the unique and diverse conflicts inherent in highly developed modern society were like an endless special meal to him.

“Oh, shit.”

At that moment, as he left the main road and entered an alley lined with houses, he bumped into someone who was just turning the corner.

“Are you okay, babe?”

The young woman next to him dropped the cigarette she was holding and made a fuss. Matching the woman’s commotion, the man who had bumped into him glared at him with a deeply furrowed brow.

And after confirming that his build was smaller than his own, he blocked his path, swaggering as if familiar with the situation.

“Hey. Are you walking with your eyes closed?”

The man casually showed off the tattoos covering his arms while puffing out his chest. It was an attitude that suggested he couldn’t let this pass quietly in front of his woman.

“You two don’t seem very tasty.”

“…What?”

“The world is so simple. No deep conflicts and despair, no sadness and grudges, just immediate pleasure is everything.”

“What nonsense is this bastard… ugh?!”

“You have no value.”

The tattooed man, who was about to grab his collar in anger at the lack of response to his threat, was startled by the golden eyes gleaming from within the hood.

“Hee, heeee… kuhek.”

He tried to scream but couldn’t. The man’s straight hand had pierced through his T-shirt and deeply into his stomach. The man looked at the hand that had penetrated his body with disbelieving eyes.

“So show your minimal usefulness by going berserk until you die.”

“O-oppa!”

When he pulled out his hand with a smirk, the man’s eyes rolled back and his body trembled violently from the force that had invaded his insides.

“Oh… ooooh!!”

“Kyaaak!”

And just like that, he went mad, screaming inhumanly and punching his girlfriend’s face who was standing next to him.

His body, which started to swell up like a horrible tumor here and there, was no longer normal.

“…Still, it tastes quite bland.”

He turned his back on the scene of the monster he created grinding his girlfriend’s screaming face into the asphalt, and continued crossing the alley filled with echoing screams.

‘Yes. This is indeed the right kind of chaos. The tangled and twisted distortions that stupid humans create among themselves!’

The place he arrived at was in front of an ordinary house. But now, the street that should have been quiet was bustling. He smiled slightly at the sight. Excitement welled up in his chest.

“Oh my, oh my…”

“What’s all this fuss about, how annoying.”

In the middle of the residential street. Nearby residents gathered and murmured. However, the police who rushed in controlled the spectators.

“Come on, everyone step back! This is related to an unidentified new type of monster!”

A heavily armed policeman with firearms, protective gear, and shields controlled the residents with a megaphone. The explicit mention of a monster made people even more restless.

“No, my brother is not a monster, I’m telling you!”

Amidst all this, a male high school student who was subdued by the police shouted. He was the younger brother of Lee Hee-chan, who was shot dead as a ‘monster’ at his workplace this afternoon.

“Quickly, enter. We don’t know what’s inside. Stay alert.”

“You, you humans… Argh!”

The police, who were assigned to this investigation in cooperation with the Special Forces, roughly pulled out a small middle-aged woman who was desperately blocking the entrance of the house and began to enter.

“How, how can this be legal! You notify us that our perfectly normal son was killed for being a monster, and you won’t even show us the body! Are you, are you even human, you bastards!”

Eventually dragged out to her second son’s side, Lee Hee-chan’s mother, though coughing, cried out through her tears.

Seeing this, the front-line police officers who were forcibly dragging her out turned back in confusion to look at their superior. After all, they were human too.

“Chief. Is this really…”

“Ah geez, just proceed. Do you think this is as light as a simple crime? The higher-ups are pressuring us like crazy. And ma’am.”

Chief Kang Chan-ho, who received the gaze of his subordinates, rather frowned and expressed irritation towards them.

“Your son became a terrible monster and killed people. There are witnesses and evidence overflowing, you know? So we don’t know about you people either. It’s better to behave. Unless you want to get shot.”

“How could you…”

“We’re doing this by the law. By the law. And your son, his evaluation at work was terrible too.”

‘This is really annoying.’

Kang Chan-ho berated the shocked mother and son. Of course, he was well aware that this wasn’t a normal procedure.

It’s just that even the police higher-ups were confused by the unreasonable demands coming from above, and middle-ranking officers like Kang Chan-ho had no choice but to move more roughly and quickly due to the increasing pressure for results as it came down.

‘That can’t be… Hee-chan… my son.’

The one-dimensional and simple-minded police response, moving only for visible results without even thinking about the cause and reason, showed no consideration or warmth.

As a result, Lee Hee-chan simply became a monster, a beast, a murderer who killed people.

“Ah…”

“Oh, Mom!”

Unable to withstand the shock, the already frail woman fainted on the spot.

“Please help! Call 119 or something…”

Flustered, he held his unconscious mother and shouted helplessly. However, no one came to help.

‘Ah…’

He sighed blankly.

“Monster.”

“They’re the family of a murderer.”

“Those people too?”

Though he couldn’t actually hear them, it seemed as if the onlookers were saying such things.

‘Why?’

What followed was an intense feeling of despair and resentment.

‘These bastards.’

And then, a powerful anger.

“Yes. That’s it. Will you just stand by and watch? The injustice done to your brother, the humiliation your family has suffered. Will you just endure it?”

It was then that he heard a whispering voice in his ear. He turned his head and looked up. Right beside him, visible only to him and not to others, including the nearby police officers, stood a presence.

“Take this. Take it and unleash your hatred.”

It wasn’t just a simple whisper. It was a fatal temptation, a seductive tongue that could corrupt a person. But someone pushed to the limit couldn’t escape this temptation. After all, it was an entity that could actually grant what he desired.

“It’s not difficult. They’re just paying for their sins.”

From under the hood, a beautiful youth with gleaming golden eyes held out an obsidian-like black dagger.