Ch.38Call Me a Lawyer (3)

Hero City’s first-floor lobby.

The place that should normally be the busiest in the building with heroes coming and going was now as quiet as a grave.

Or more precisely, it was the calm before the storm.

“M-Master Makoto! I understand, but please, put away your sword first!”

“I’ve already told you. Bring that child to me first.”

It was supposed to be a peaceful afternoon.

…Until Okami Makoto, the clan head, arrived at the Hero Association with her blade drawn.

Currently, her face showed extreme displeasure.

Like a hero facing a ‘monster’ right before them.

The high concentration of killing intent flowing from within her body was enough to put the entire cloud-reaching building in a state of imminent crisis.

Several association executives belatedly came to greet her, but nothing changed.

The now ‘ferocious’ Master Makoto had only one demand.

To take back the ‘possibility of change’ she had given to her daughter.

“Based on this presence… Janghoon seems to be exactly 400 meters above my head.”

“W-what?!”

“I know that place is the interrogation room where the Hero Association questions captured monsters or apprehended criminals with malicious abilities.”

“Well, that’s…”

“Umm…”

“And you dare take a child who is like my ‘son’ to such a place?”

Any further words would be wasted.

As if to say so, Master Makoto raised her sword high, ready to slice in half this very building—the symbol of all heroes.

Thud. Thud.

“That’s enough, S-Class Hero.”

“…?”

“Oh, oh!”

“It’s the A-Class Hero! Death Stronggirl!”

Of course, there were heroes who dared to intervene when they saw her crossing the line.

However.

“Any further and—gack?!”

THWACK.

“Huh?”

“D-Death Stronggirl?!”

“Be grateful I didn’t kill you.”

The arrogant juniors flew away like flattened meat, unable to even react to her speed.

Even they couldn’t stop the greatest power in Hero City.

The overwhelming might of an S-Class hero. At this rate, the building stretching to the sky would truly be split in half.

“I’ll say it one last time.”

“Eek!”

“P-please calm down, Master Makoto!”

“If you don’t bring Kang Janghoon to me, from now on, the Hero Association is my enemy!”

***

Rumble rumble.

‘Strange, the building seems to be shaking a bit?’

Inside the interrogation room, I, as a clear citizen of Hero City, had the right to exercise my right to remain silent.

So when I demanded a lawyer, Yoon Haeun was completely stumped, like someone who’d ruined a perfectly cooked meal.

“Come on, what lawyer does an elementary school kid need? Just tell the truth! You’re a monster, aren’t you?”

“I exercise my right to remain silent.”

“If you’re honest with your teacher, I might just forgive you, you know?”

“I want a lawyer.”

No matter what was said, I had only two responses.

Exercising my right to remain silent and requesting a lawyer.

“Arrrgh!”

Thanks to this, Haeun, who couldn’t do anything, let out a monster-like(?) exclamation, but what could she do?

‘Do I look like an idiot who would just confess everything?’

This is exactly like those suggestion boxes in the military.

They tell you to write down all your problems and put them in the box, but as soon as you do, the entire unit gets in trouble, and everyone immediately knows who wrote what.

The moment I confess, I’d be thrown into isolation at minimum. No one but a fool would talk.

“Ugh…! I never expected you to stall for time like this.”

“I want a lawyer.”

“I’m certain about my suspicions… Damn! Of all things, there’s no physical evidence!”

“I exercise my right to remain silent.”

Go ahead and try me.

I’ll hold out till the end.

After denial and anger, the third stage of grief is supposed to be bargaining, right?

“Janghoon, just be honest with me.”

“I exercise my right to remain silent.”

“Come on, don’t be like that. Please?”

Since I hadn’t been completely proven to be a monster yet.

Unable to use force, Haeun soon changed her approach, remembering that kind words bring kind responses.

“Janghoon, the reason I’m doing this is because you don’t seem like a bad monster.”

“I want a lawyer.”

“As my fan would know, I’m a contractor who has a contract with a monster, right? So I actually have some good feelings toward monsters.”

“I exercise my right to remain silent.”

“So, if you answer honestly now, I’ll specially guide you to a nice private room. Okay?”

“…I’ll skip the rest.”

“Ugh?!”

However, my resolve was firm.

I didn’t need any of her offers.

Because I had a ‘backer’ who could help me escape this place safely.

‘Miss Hoshino, please come quickly!’

Our miss.

The fox lady who only cares about me.

I believed that the Okami family, including her, who owed me a debt, would somehow help me.

“Hey, Janghoon…”

“Right to remain silent.”

“Then how about we make a deal?”

“…A deal?”

That’s when it happened.

Suddenly, after trying to persuade me, Haeun now openly suggested making a deal?

‘Wait, even though it’s not confirmed yet, an S-Class hero wants to make a deal with a monster?’

Naturally, in this <Monster Front> world, while a ‘power contract’ between humans and monsters might be acceptable.

Any other kind of trade was illegal.

The reason was obvious—monsters never make beneficial deals with humans.

Unless it was a contract that couldn’t be broken.

The setup of getting backstabbed after making a deal with a monster was a classic trope that brought trouble (events) in this world.

Yet an S-Class hero who should know this all too well is proposing a deal to a child she suspects is a monster?

What could this deal possibly be?

Curious, I perked up my ears.

Swish swish.

“…?”

“I might be able to let you off the hook.”

Oh, has this virgin bitch gone crazy?

I thought she was being unusually serious for Haeun.

She made a circle with one hand and moved it back and forth in front of her mouth, drool dripping.

To her, who was panting like she was in heat, I…

“I exercise my right to remain silent.”

“Ugh?!”

Returned to my original stance and exercised my right to remain silent.

***

Yoon Haeun was currently facing a crisis.

‘This is strange. Despite his appearance, Janghoon must be that horned mask monster, right?’

Of course, there was no physical evidence.

But all the circumstantial evidence she had gathered, and above all, her instinct told her:

Kang Janghoon.

This child must be the unidentified horned mask monster who saved Y City from the violent monster.

He must be a monster.

No, he had to be a monster.

Because she had dragged her young elementary school disciple all the way to the Hero Association in A City.

If it turned out he wasn’t a monster after all, everything would have been for nothing.

‘Besides, I’d feel terrible for Janghoon, and my image would plummet.’

Well, her image was something she could rebuild through hero activities.

But if Janghoon really wasn’t a monster, this situation could legitimately be considered child abuse.

So, trusting her instincts.

‘How can I make him reveal his true nature?’

Haeun, still convinced that Kang Janghoon was the horned mask monster, was lost in thought.

She shouldn’t let her guard down just because he looked like a child.

Among monsters, there were those who could change not only their size but even their gender.

Judging by the size of the horned mask monster, she believed he had adult-level intelligence, which is why she even tried ‘sexual appeal.’

But when even her greatest asset didn’t work, what should she do?

‘I guess… I have no choice but to call my contracted monster?’

The solution that came to mind was none other than help.

She had heard that monsters were much stricter about hierarchy than humans.

If she couldn’t do it, Haeun planned to ask her monster assistant to help with this interrogation.

So using an ability like telepathy that only contractors could use, she began to contact her monster who should be confined underground.

“H-hello?”

“…?”

“It’s me… um, could you help me out?”

To Janghoon’s eyes, it just looked like she was oddly talking to herself with her fingers pressed against both sides of her head.

“What?! You’re already on your way up?”

Her eyes sparkled with heart-shaped pupils as if seeing hope.

As Janghoon tilted his head at the sight of Haeun smiling, the door creaked open.

Creak.

“Ah! You’re already here!”

Haeun smiled brightly as the interrogation room door, which not just anyone could enter, opened wide.

“Is it you?”

“…Huh?”

“Master Makoto!”

Instead of the monster she called.

“The vixen who took away a child who is like my son.”

…Why is my senior here?

“M-M-Master Makoto?!”

“Senior? Shut up. I never had such a disrespectful junior. An ‘enemy,’ perhaps.”

“Eek?!”

Okami Makoto, her vertically slit pupils flashing between blood-red irises, finally reached Janghoon.

Seeing her clearly not in a good state, Haeun hurriedly tried to summon a massive shield in mid-air.

Snip.

“Sni…”

“p?”

But this was an object created through a contract with a monster.

Yet Master Makoto cut it in half with a single stroke as if it were nothing.

“Hey. Bow your head.”

“W-what?!”

Facing this supreme human power with a drawn blade, Haeun’s heart-shaped pupils were, for the first time ever, brimming with tears.

“P-please spare meeeee-!!”