Chapter 22: The Story Begins (5)

Confusion.

The first emotion I felt as I looked down at the utterly broken Janwol was confusion.

After all, I hadn’t intended to kill her.

Well, not entirely.

At the very beginning, yes, I had planned to kill her.

She was someone who shouldn’t be left alive.

She had to pay for what she did.

For weighing the lives of me, Cheonching, Byeolmu, and countless other magical girls against her own gain.

For creating that artificial unknown entity that killed Oksana.

For all the lives lost due to the Bureau’s twisted orders—I wanted revenge.

“A magical girl must never cling to her life.”

I had intended to live those words—words Ianna had constantly drilled into me.

If it meant I could take her down, I was willing to stake my own life.

I wanted to punish her hypocrisy.

I wanted to slaughter the Ianna who paraded herself as the Bureau’s whore—two-faced and rotten to the core.

That, I believed, would be the greatest honour I could give the Ianna I once idolized.

She herself said it: a magical girl must never cling to her life.

She was sacrificing other magical girls instead.

…

I couldn’t stand it.

Watching her grovel before those monkeys to survive—I couldn’t forgive it.

Janwol’s magical girl—Ianna—wasn’t supposed to grovel, beg, spread her legs, or sate anyone’s lust.

She was supposed to reign above them.

Especially above someone like me.

Ianna was supposed to lick my feet.

She was supposed to be on my side.

She should have chosen me, not them.

I could’ve given her everything she wanted.

I knew more than she ever taught me.

Just as she had raised me, a once-orphaned girl, I could’ve raised her—even with her legs lost.

This was all her fault.

She brought it on herself.

No guilt.

That’s what I kept telling myself.

She didn’t choose me. That was the price.

How much longer did I have to wait?

How many more magical girls had to die in vain?

What value did their deaths have to Ianna and the Bureau?

I was brilliant.

From planning to execution, quick thinking to improvisation—I did it all perfectly.

Even the Bureau’s psych evaluations couldn’t pierce through my act.

And yet, even I couldn’t grasp what Ianna and the Bureau were really after.

If they were truly planning a purge of magical girls, then I had no more reason to hesitate.

I would remind those inferior monkeys who ruled them.

All the signs pointed to a purge.

That’s why I brought Cheonching and the others to my side—to spark a revolt when the time came.

But.

If the purge was real…

Then the monkeys didn’t deserve salvation.

They would annihilate themselves within fifty years at most.

No way I’d save such idiots.

It was idiocy—whether limited or complete, the purge posed enormous risks.

Yes, the magical girl corps had grown.

But only because artificial girls were being mass-produced.

We still didn’t have enough, if we wanted to deploy them worldwide as planned.

The global magical girl organizations were complacent.

The Crusade of Magic hadn’t been a true victory.

The world just pretended it had.

We barely sealed that giant dimensional rift above Herzl Hill, my hometown, and immediately declared a win.

That’s what the Crusade was.

We forced Ianna into that rift, and so many magical girls never returned.

That was the truth.

We fought unknowns inside the rift, sealed it—and somehow their attacks stopped? It didn’t make sense.

Something was going on. Something I didn’t know about.

They were preparing a massive assault, no doubt about it.

And in that situation, we’re turning on magical girls?

…Are they insane?

Weakening magical girls would only mean victory for the unknowns.

And if that happened…

Every living organism on Earth would die.

Not a single one left.

I clenched my teeth.

This wasn’t genocide.

It was rule.

The superior magical girls would guide the inferior monkeys toward a better future.

We were just flipping the hierarchy back to how it should be.

The importance of life—Ianna’s words—had once swayed me.

But now?

Why?

Why was Ianna weakening magical girls to protect her own life?

Even knowing it would end in ruin, she was making desperate moves to stay alive just a bit longer.

“The kind-hearted weak.”

They weren’t kind.

Just disgusting monkeys—arrogant and greedy.

And Ianna, who once vowed to give her life for them, was now selling their future to preserve her own.

It was revolting.

Sickening.

That’s why it was justified.

For my comrades.

For the friendship Ianna once gifted me.

Even if it stained my name—I would separate her from those monkeys and “save” her completely.

It wasn’t that I lost control.

I just couldn’t resist the pleasure.

It was the madness of a magical girl that had always been inside me.

I didn’t lose my mind.

In fact, when I gently stroked Ianna’s stomach, I was more composed than ever.

It was blissful.

“If I kill her now, I can’t enjoy this anymore.”

That was what crossed my mind.

And there was another reason I didn’t kill her.

Rebellion.

I wasn’t ready to revolt.

My plans would fail, and I had no justification.

I had to push Ianna to expose herself.

That she planned to purge magical girls—starting with East Asia.

When she stopped breathing, I panicked.

My plan was in ruins.

If she died, it would be treated as treason.

And I would never feel that electric thrill from her again.

It crushed me.

How humiliating—to lose control for a moment of ecstasy, kill Ianna, and end up in a gilded cage made by the monkeys.

I regretted it deeply.

But.

When I heard that she recovered two weeks later—I laughed.

I sighed in relief.

I wanted to apologize to Janwol.

Knowing her, she’d accept it without hesitation.

Not killing the aide was the right choice.

I would’ve crossed the point of no return.

I’d mend our relationship.

Grow closer to her.

And.

I wanted to see her tremble.

To see her act tough when I approached, pretending nothing was wrong.

To watch her flinch and avoid my gaze when I raised my voice.

To see her curl up in pain and foam at the mouth when I clenched my fist.

To see her wet herself when I touched her neck, even by accident.

I wanted to see her terrified.

Carrot and stick.

The stick had been swung.

Now it was time to offer the carrot—and watch her reaction.

My magical girl instinct had never burned hotter.

Just as she reformed me from a vagrant, just as she became my parent, my teacher, my sister—I wanted to guide her, too.

So.

I wanted to train her.

Shape her to my liking.

Learn everything she was hiding.

What plan she made with the monkeys.

Why she wanted to purge magical girls.

What she aimed for.

[…The Director is awake.]

Han Hojoon.

It must’ve been one of the monkeys who stood on equal footing with Janwol.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

Heosang’s lips curled into a grin.

She felt no guilt.

It was all Ianna’s fault.

Because she didn’t choose her.

( TL NOTE: Monkeys is a derogatory term used throughout the chapter to refer to non-magical humans or inferior beings.)