Chapter 56: False Truth (3)

“…What do you mean by that?”

Salvation?

If Hojoon truly wanted to save the magical girls, he should have searched for a way to help them.

Not driven them into death, forced them to kill each other, modified them into his limbs and tools.

He should’ve shown even the smallest shred of mercy to those who had devoted everything to protect humanity until their last breath.

What he’d just said wasn’t worth hearing.

Had he forgotten all the things he’d done?

For the first time ever, she found Hojoon repulsive.

“I mean it literally. I plan to save the magical girls.”

“…Hojoon, are you trying to deceive me?”

“I’m not. I’m serious.”

His eyes gleamed with reflected light.

But within those pitch-black irises—so much like Byeolhwa’s—burned a twisted ideology.

“You know just as well as I do… how many unjust deaths we forced on them. What kind of deaths they were made to endure. You bear responsibility too, Ianna.”

“…Are you serious right now, Hojoon? The one who drove them to their deaths—”

“Yes. Me. I won’t deny it. I led them there. To horrific, irrational, grotesque ends. I made them die in ways I can’t even speak aloud. I feel the weight of their vengeful spirits pressing on my shoulders every single day.”

I thought he was just putting on a show.

But his voice trembled.

And it didn’t take long to realize—he meant every word.

“So many girls had to die unjustly. Pushed to the brink of despair, forced to choose death.”

“You’re the one who did that, you murderer.”

“We did that, Ianna.”

No.

Ianna never did any of that.

You’re wrong—clearly.

She wouldn’t be shaken by Hojoon’s pleas.

No matter what he said, she would ignore the slander against Ianna.

She would ask Ianna herself—face-to-face—when they met again.

Whether Hojoon’s words were true or not.

“It’s contradictory… Why claim you want to save them, yet keep purging them?”

“Because they’re pitiful time bombs, created by the Central Organizations.”

“…Hojoon.”

Time bombs?

How many of them actually volunteered to become magical girls?

Most were orphans dragged in off the street.

Then they were subjected to unspeakable horrors, turned into puppets—and now he calls them time bombs?

“They’re tools of the global order. Lives that should never have existed. I’m only saving them.”

“You sick f*ck…”

“An honor.”

I knew better than anyone that Hojoon was still in his right mind.

But—

To say such things with a sound mind was even more terrifying.

“So this ‘salvation’ of yours… it means separating body and soul, doesn’t it…?”

“Do you believe in souls?”

Hojoon adjusted his glasses and stared down at me.

“For them, there’s only one path to salvation.”

“Don’t say anything more… I don’t want to hate you…”

“Ianna. You’ve done the same. You’re no different from me. Don’t pretend to be some kindhearted innocent now.”

There was only one thing he could mean by that.

Extermination.

“They are destined to fall into madness. Preemptive salvation is best. Especially now, when their numbers have swelled.”

“They’ve increased in number!? You… you… monsters…! You created them! You mutilated them! And now, just because they’re not useful anymore—!!”

“At the time, the situation was urgent. There were daily incursions by Unknowns. Have you forgotten the Beirut Catastrophe?”

( TL NOTE : “Unknowns” — extradimensional creatures that invade Earth.)

“…You.”

“The mass-production plan wasn’t mine. That came from the upper Bureau. Innocent children who shouldn’t have suffered were turned into magical girls.”

It felt like a dagger had been shoved into her chest.

More than learning Hojoon had deceived her—it hurt that her friends and juniors were killed by his hand.

“What I’m doing is justice. I will free them from pain. I will end this broken cycle, bound to the Central Organizations. I have the power to do so.”

“…You’re scum. A revolting villain. You reek of evil.”

“Say whatever you wish. I learned it all from you, Director.”

This “great purpose” Hojoon preached—

It was no different from a psychopathic delusion.

“You know this, Hojoon. If your plan comes to pass, everyone will die. It’s a failed blueprint that will doom humanity.”

“Because of the Unknowns?”

“That threat isn’t gone. I know. I can feel it. They’re waiting, just beyond the dimensional veil. Holding their breath. Watching. Now’s not the time to reduce our forces—it’s the time to strengthen them.”

It was true.

Unknowns of various sizes and forms were waiting for their moment to cross dimensions.

After consuming countless humans, some even gained intelligence.

They united their kind under collective leadership.

A war of species.

Humanity was on the brink of a war for survival.

We couldn’t afford to lose the magical girls—the backbone of that fight.

“…Ianna.”

Hojoon gave her a chilling smile.

“Does a species this vile really deserve to continue?”

“Y-you… you psycho…”

“Watching my daughter. Watching her bear the curse of being a magical girl in the few years she has left. I realized something.”

Hojoon brushed his hair back, smiled like a lunatic, and stroked her head.

Then whispered softly—

“This cursed fate must be brought to an end.”

“…Even your daughter?”

“She’s not just my daughter. She’s a precious child I wouldn’t trade even for you. She’s the only legacy my dead wife left me.”

“Then what are you planning to do?”

“There is a way. A method by which only a chosen few—those I deem pure and good—will survive.”

This bastard really is insane.

Her bladder shuddered.

If she relaxed even a little, the coolant mixed with waste might start trickling out again.

Hojoon was that dangerous.

But more than that—

The way he blurted out his plan like this…

He was clearly forcing her to choose.

Join him—or die.

‘You bastard…’

“The dimension where the Unknowns reside lies just beyond Earth’s backside.”

“…What are you talking about?”

“A space veiled in shadow. Another dimension. The Unknowns invade by causing dimensional fractures. You could call them predators from another world.”

“What are you trying to say?”

There was darkness in Hojoon’s eyes.

Endless darkness.

“Along the cracks between dimensions, there are microscopic fissures. A precise fracture line.”

“…Don’t tell me.”

No.

She could already guess what Hojoon was trying to do.

“I’ll shatter those fractures. Completely. I’ll open permanent dimensional rifts and fuse this world with the other dimension.”

“You’re insane. You know what will happen. Everyone will die.”

“Only the unworthy will. Here, beneath the Bureau, the chosen few will survive.”

He was wrong.

Unknowns devour anything that moves.

They don’t leave any living organism behind.

If they roam free across this world—

Everything will die.

No bunker would stop them.

All that would remain was a wasteland.

“Ianna, have you ever heard of Unknowns fighting amongst themselves?”

Infighting?

Unknowns devouring each other?

No—she’d never heard of that.

They could distinguish their own kind. Like silicon-based aliens, they could identify each other.

“They don’t fight because food is plentiful.”

So if food ran out—

They would start devouring each other?

No—there was too much uncertainty.

“Six months ago, I secured a specimen of a ‘Parubus-class’ Unknown. I threw it to another of the same class that hadn’t eaten in nearly a year. Do you know what happened?”

Of course she did.

The starving one ate the other.

“They consume organics to reproduce. Once the dimensions merge, within six months, Earth’s food sources will be exhausted.”

“Then they’ll find this bunker and make you their dessert…”

“I won’t be here. I won’t be among the chosen. My fate is to die first, once it’s all over.”

He looked like a child—giddy with excitement.

As if finally someone understood his grand plan.

To her, it was revolting.

“They won’t find this bunker. And even if they do, they won’t be able to enter.”

“…”

“When food runs out, they’ll turn on each other. In the end, only one will remain. My daughter, and the magical girls preserved in cryosleep, will destroy it. And after that—”

Only desolation would await them.

“Only the pure and righteous will remain. Civilization will be reborn. A golden age will begin.”

“…And the magical girls who survived to the end? You won’t save them?”

“The third generation—those whose cognition has been removed—will quietly fall into eternal sleep. Their flames extinguished painlessly. Preserved as a relic of the past.”

“Byeolhwa…”

Hojoon’s face contorted as if pondering it.

This bastard.–

After all this time ignoring Byeolhwa—

Now he pretends to care?

“…Byeolhwa is a good child. You—no, the Teacher—should know that best. She would never want to hold anyone back. When it ends, she will—”

“…”

The way he acted, like he already owned her—

Made her sick.

“—give her life. And after that, there will be no more magical girls. Humanity will be few. The Unknowns extinct. And the curse that has tormented us for centuries will be rooted out. Isn’t that… a beautiful thing?”

Yeah.

Beautiful enough that her body let out a soft trickle of coolant-laced urine again.

Hojoon’s plan was so grotesque, so grandiose, it belonged in a middle schooler’s apocalypse notebook.

Even offering himself up as a sacrificial pawn—it reeked of a psychopath’s martyr complex.

But—

The foundation of his theory was wrong.

Unknowns had evolved intelligence.

They no longer followed simple instincts for food.

His premise had a fatal flaw.

And with a sneer, I said—

“You’re right, Hojoon.”

There was mockery in her voice.

But Hojoon didn’t notice it.