There Is No Right Answer (10)

There Is No Right Answer (10)

“Where’s the ambulance? When is the ambulance coming?!”

“P-Please calm down, Assemblyman. There are many other urgent cases and people are scattered everywhere…”

“Damn it, don’t they know who’s more important here? Huh?! I’m a member of the National Assembly of this country!!”

In the heart of Seoul, ravaged by Smalilian. This place was no exception to the massive disaster that struck regardless of age, gender, or status.

Especially Bae Su-hyeok, a first-term assemblyman who was recruited by Lee Jong-pil and falsely slandered Jo Ui-seok, was sprawled on the sofa, panting and fuming. The reason was that the barely functioning emergency services weren’t prioritizing him.

“These bastards can’t recognize an important person…”

“Stop exaggerating. Everyone else is in the same situation as you. There are people in more critical condition.”

However, an unfamiliar voice was heard from behind him as he grumbled. They turned around in shock, barely moving their bodies that had lost strength.

There, a magical girl in a cool fighter outfit revealing her arms and legs was floating behind the window, surrounded by blazing flames.

“Ah, Aria.”

There’s probably no one who doesn’t know her face. Especially those involved in politics these days.

Recently, Aria had started to focus on taking down high-ranking social figures involved in corruption and injustice.

“Uh, ahhh!”

“You crazy bitch! What are you doing!”

She entered the room by shattering all the windows with the wind pressure created from a single punch.

“What? Looks like you’re living well.”

Bae Su-hyeok jumped in fright and hid behind his aides, but Aria rather sneered at his quick movement.

Of course, Bae Su-hyeok, feeling insulted, also frowned deeply.

“Why are you here, you bitch? Property damage, show of force. If it’s for a trivial reason, I’ll make sure you’re held responsible by any means necessary.”

“Is that what you should be saying? Why does a magical girl need a reason to punish evil? Do you really think you’re innocent?”

“You, you bitch…”

Bae Su-hyeok gritted his teeth when he realized his threats weren’t working. Aria, on the other hand, was no longer impressed by such behavior.

She had seen all sorts of reactions from people facing her during her activities. Begging, threats, resistance, escape, and so on. Of course, she had crushed all of that to get here.

“You people really love evidence. Asking where’s the evidence for your evil deeds. It’s not wrong, but isn’t it a bit much for you to say that, Bae Su-hyeok? You’re the one who attacked others without evidence.”

“You bastard! So you bitches were in cahoots with that bastard Jo Ui-seok!”

He shouted as if having a fit the moment he heard a specific name. It wasn’t a wise choice. He had just admitted his involvement in that matter.

“It’s not even like there’s no evidence.”

Aria chuckled and played the recorder she was holding. What flowed from it was the voice of her accomplice who had kissed her. The accomplice, whose pronunciation was slurred as if beaten, spilled every detail of how Bae Su-hyeok had plotted and manipulated the incident.

“Is this all?”

It wasn’t. From information about the money and cash he had received somehow, to the promises of future nominations and deals with senior party members… everything was in her hands.

It was a massive bomb that could blow up the party if leaked to the press.

“Rotten ones like you need to be cut out by any means necessary. Only then can true justice and order be maintained in this society.”

“G-give that to me, you crazy bitch!”

Bae Su-hyeok, his eyes shaking wildly, lunged at Aria without thinking rationally, despite his weakened state.

If that information spread, he’d have to worry not just about his political life, but his actual life.

It was clearly a reckless charge. But he, who had never been in a fistfight in his life, unconsciously held the conviction that he would never be hit. The conviction that no one would dare to strike him.

“…Stupid human.”

However, that conviction was in vain.

“Aaaaargh!”

Aria extended her fist and unleashed a flurry of punches on him. Bae Su-hyeok, beaten all over his body by the instantaneous barrage delivered with just one hand while standing still, spat blood as he flew through the air and rolled on the ground.

And watching him tremble on the floor, Aria… smiled slightly.

A thrilling sensation dominated her hand and heart.

“Aria… l-let’s calm down a bit now, okay? No matter what, this is the first time you’ve beaten someone like this! They know all about your personal information, you know!”

“What are you talking about, Lulu? Today, I just took out another piece of trash. With these hands.”

On the rooftop of the building. Feeling the cool morning breeze, Aria watched as Bae Su-hyeok was carried away. As she wished, he was being rescued by the paramedics.

“Your body isn’t in good shape either!”

“There’s no time. There are still too many internal threats to order.”

Mascot Lulu cried out in pity at her pale complexion, but she shook her head instead.

“I have to strike them all down. I, I have to do at least that!”

Aria suddenly shouted through gritted teeth and stomped her foot. The floor cracked at that moment.

“I will become stronger.”

Ignoring Lulu who had closed his mouth, she muttered blankly.

She took out her phone and ignored Oh Yun-seo’s missed calls and messages, playing a saved video instead.

This video was taken by herself, showing her withstanding the attack of Smalilian without falling. The view count of this video, uploaded on a temporary account, has already surpassed 1 billion.

“Look. This is true strength. She is a true hero. A hero who performed miracles that vermin like us could never do!”

In the video, a black-haired girl annihilated a giant monster with a single blow. The zoomed-in screen showed a faint smile on the face of the horned girl.

At the moment Smalilian descended, when people were suffering, all she could do was barely take out her phone and record a video.

An insurmountable wall. Already then, Aria’s heart, whose beliefs she had been holding onto, was torn to shreds.

“Takilas was right.”

“Ah, Aria…”

“Sometimes, you need to crush with power.”

Her clouded crimson eyes glowed.

After despair came compromise and self-brainwashing. After being completely blocked by Takilas, whom she had considered wrong all this time, she instead brainwashed herself into believing Takilas was right.

“I caught evidence in Bae Su-hyeok’s messenger that he received orders from Assemblyman Lee Su-chan, son of Lee Jong-pil. I’ve sent that… Now it’s time to go beat up the villains.”

Aria, who now acts violently using force, has gathered substantial evidence of corruption through cooperation with Frontier.

Of course, now she’s more drawn to beating them up with her own fists rather than collecting evidence for legal judgment, but her obsession with evidence was the last bit of conscience she had left.

“It’s time to stop playing the righteous hero game. Han Eun-seo, second year at Saeil High School.”

But when she later ambushed Lee Su-chan, who had secretly gone somewhere.

What was waiting for her in the abandoned factory were armed special forces and police, as well as her personal information, as if they had known all along.

“You people…”

“I understand to some extent, but you should have known that what you were doing was a serious crime.”

Lee Su-chan sneered, mocking Aria’s contorted face.

“The world doesn’t revolve around your wishes. It would have been better if you had just lived as an obedient hunting dog. Well, since the Management Bureau conspired as a whole, it must have been nice to get your hopes up. In the end, you’re still in the pitiful position of being used by adults.”

“No! I move by my own will now. I didn’t take orders from anyone!”

Aria lost her composure and shouted angrily. Her body trembled and her breathing became rough. Lee Su-chan had properly touched on her sore spot of being a manipulated child.

“If it’s your own will, that’s even worse. If you had moved according to orders, the biggest crime would be on the Management Bureau’s upper echelons who exploited a child like you, but if you acted on your own will, that’s entirely your crime. Quietly undo your transformation. You’re still young, so if you turn yourself in and reflect, you won’t receive a severe punishment.”

“Surrender… to a villain like you?”

“Oh please. Let’s say I’m the villain from the perspective of your precious magical girl eyes. Then how many clean people do you think exist in this world?”

Lee Su-chan scoffed at her trembling appearance.

“Well, if you continue to resist, we can’t go easy on you either. Arrest her.”

He ordered those around him. Aria didn’t back down either. She was an S-class or higher magical girl who had achieved third awakening.

She was confident in her own abilities. She believed she wouldn’t lose to half-baked superhumans like the special forces.

“What’s with that kid?”

“…Korea’s S-class magical girl. Aria.”

But her opponents weren’t just the special forces. What appeared behind Lee Su-chan was a girl who looked about her age. The outfit the girl wore was proof that she was a magical girl like herself.

‘Chinese.’

Language is understood between magical girls. But Aria realized that the language this girl spoke was different from the one she used.