Lord of Despair and Hatred (5)

Lord of Despair and Hatred (5)

It’s certainly an embarrassing and cringeworthy thing to say. Asking if all of you could win, or claiming to be stronger than the entire country.

But it’s only mocked and ridiculed when it’s a complete lie.

If it’s accepted as an undeniable truth, that laughter quickly turns into overwhelming fear.

“Protect me! Protect me!”

Moon Seok-yong, who had fallen into panic, whether he believed in the Special Forces or thought I would be cautious in the current situation, sat down and cried out loudly.

“Ah…”

But no one stepped forward. No, they couldn’t step forward. Of course. Stepping forward now would mean challenging me.

“Know your place. All of you.”

“Please! I, I just did what I was told! It’s true! Please spare my li…”

After clearly conveying this to those who were focused on this scene, I swung my hand, shooting out a shadow blade.

The head of the Korean National Police Agency Commissioner, cleanly decapitated, sprayed blood through the air, and his body fell pathetically, twitching.

“When I warned you about the great invasion of monsters, it wasn’t for any other reason. I was just telling you to do the basics, to do your job.”

In the cold, silent space, I spoke to the people who were staring at me, unable to utter a word.

It feels incredibly awkward for me to appeal like this without sweeping everything away.

“Don’t dare to calculate with that pathetic head of yours. Don’t even try to predict when and for what reason I might appear again.”

The purpose was to imprint on the real culprits who are surely watching this scene that you’re alive just because you’re lucky.

At the very least, to make them unable to act recklessly, to make them understand what’s more important.

If I engrave this fear, they’ll become a bit more docile.

“I thought you’d kill more, but you’re stopping here?”

“This is enough. And if I do more, it becomes a real hassle. As I’ve said several times, I didn’t come here to work.”

Ren asked with a puzzled look, but I clicked my tongue.

If I go crazy and kill everyone in the name of punishment, I’ll end up having to clean up everything one by one. This is where I’m living well now, after all.

So the best scenario is for them to fight among themselves moderately and achieve self-purification.

“They need to grow strong.”

Above all, I hated spoon-feeding.

***

“It’s quite a commotion.”

“Well, it’s not the first time, but it’s the first time it’s been this blatant and merciless.”

The events of last night once again struck the peninsula, and beyond the peninsula, the world.

The Management Bureau, which had been mostly paralyzed due to recent concentrated checks and is currently operating as a secret organization called Frontier, was also shocked and couldn’t sleep a wink.

“In the end, Taquilas struck and retreated quite appropriately. As if it was intentional.”

Director Lee Min-hyung smiled bitterly while touching his rough beard.

The ripples caused by Taquilas were exactly as expected.

Most people were shocked, but Taquilas, the bomb, just acted as it always had.

Instead, they became angry upon learning that the police had deliberately omitted information and investigations, and treated innocent victims as monsters for the sake of performance.

Due to Taquilas making such a grand fuss and openly adding fuel to the fire, the media outlets could no longer keep their mouths shut.

“It seems the incompetence of the Special Forces has also been highlighted.”

While it was said that SS-rank Karin or S-rank Aria had fought against Taquilas publicly, the Special Forces team leader who was killed with one blow by her last night was enough to cast doubt on the combat ability of the Special Forces.

“Should I tell the children to start moving according to the plan?”

“I think that would be fine. From what I can see, the political circles have taken a big hit too. They don’t know when Taquilas might come barging into their homes. This is too convenient, having an ally who’s an unreasonable crackpot that doesn’t abide by laws or common sense, isn’t it?”

He chuckled at Director Oh Yun-seo’s words. He couldn’t help but laugh as all his worries had been shattered overnight in the face of overwhelming power.

However, that laughter was mixed with self-mockery and a sense of emptiness.

“Director Oh. Until now, there has been a rough balance. Even superhumans like magical girls had their limits. Even Karin, who was the strongest. But Taquilas, what is she? She has extraordinary power and wields that enormous strength without a moment’s hesitation.”

No matter how he thought about it, it was alien. Taquilas’ strength, and the way she wielded that strength, was far beyond common sense.

Especially since he roughly knew what kind of mental struggles Karin, who was once called the strongest like Taquilas and whom they tried to control, went through and what kind of psychological state she was in during her childhood and adolescence.

“It’s as if she’s not from this world.”

“That, that child must also be harboring hidden wounds. If we could embrace that…”

“Director Oh, your problem is that you like magical girls too much. I guarantee you, no child specialist in this world could handle that one.”

Oh Yun-seo still thought of Taquilas as a rampaging child who needed to be embraced, but Lee Min-hyung already saw Taquilas as a disaster and a more thorough and stable personality than most adults.

“Let’s focus on our work now. We need to seize the game-changing opportunity that Taquilas has created for us.”

Once acknowledged, all that’s left is to use it.

Soon, according to his orders, a piece of information was sent to all the magical girls belonging to Frontier.

“Have you come?”

“…You received the contact too, right?”

“Indeed. Our Casilena will move according to plan. However, I will move separately.”

Under the bright sunlight, Renée and Aria met on the rooftop of a building. They had to coordinate with each other for efficiency before taking action.

“Move separately?”

“Yesterday, the targets Taquilas warned about weren’t just them.”

Renée nodded with a tense face. Aria was startled to see her showing such obvious signs.

“What do you mean by that? Of course, it was directed at those who weren’t doing their job properly.”

“No. That warning includes us as well. Us magical girls too. They must know that we act collectively.”

Renée felt chills remembering Taquilas’s appearance yesterday. Although their relationship wasn’t long, it was the first time she felt the subtle anger and irritation in those red eyes.

‘He won’t spare me either. Here, we’re strangers… after all.’

Knowing Taquilas’s true identity, she couldn’t help but be more tense. Taquilas was a being who could potentially burn and conquer this entire land if things went wrong.

If that happened, Renée herself would suffer losses too.

“We cowered because we wanted to… No, he’s right. We did wrong. We ignored justice and order to win.”

“Now it’s time to pay for that.”

“I’ll take care of the people’s side.”

Aria placed her hand on her chest with a stern face. Her eyes were full of anger.

The time they had been forcibly waiting to gain justification. During that time, the disgusting and vile political machinations, incitement, slander, and dereliction of duty that had been committed.

Aria couldn’t tolerate it. It was her belief to strike down all the internal parasites threatening the order of reality.

“Then the rest will focus on the monsters.”

The reason magical girls had been avoiding conflict with the special forces until now was because of this conviction. The certainty that those arrogantly running wild would eventually trip over their own feet.

If they strike when the bought media and institutions can no longer hold out, they can solidify public opinion.

Just that time was pulled by the existence called Taquilas.

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I will track down the mysterious person Taquilas mentioned.”

However, Ren also turned his attention to another matter.

A mysterious person who incites people’s despair and hatred to turn them into monsters. Although the impact is still lacking, Ren instinctively felt certain that he had to catch that person.

“Ren-nim, here are the items you requested.”

“Thank you, Rina.”

Right after Aria left, Rina, a magical girl who was practically Ren’s loyal servant, approached Ren who was still there.

Rina was holding a shopping bag in her hand, which she handed to Ren.

“Um, but couldn’t you just undo your transformation?”

“Undoing the transformation alone wouldn’t be enough.”

Ren, who received the items, smiled faintly and undid his transformation.

Startled by the sudden change, Rina unconsciously squeezed her eyes shut. For a magical girl, one’s true form is extremely important.

“…Huh?”

But when she opened her eyes slightly.

Rina was stunned to see Ren’s true form, the appearance of Celia Ren Laose, which was completely different from what she had imagined.

“Ren-nim… you’re really a foreigner? Caucasian?”

“That’s why simply undoing or doing the transformation doesn’t mean much. Instead, I can do this.”

In that state, she used magic to change her hair color to black and changed her eye color as well. Then she changed into ordinary Earth clothes that Rina had brought.

What appeared was a girl with a mysterious and beautiful appearance.

“From now on, I will blend in with people and trace the footsteps of the monster.”

Rene, wearing frameless glasses that would change his image, for the first time stepped into Earth’s society, which he had always been one step away from.

‘…Will it be okay? A person who can’t even use a smartphone properly, no, whose speech is awkward from the start.’

Retina, in fact, had a strange expression as she watched his back.