Chapter 60: Song of the Four Seasons (3)

“What do you mean, what? We need to wash your body…!”

Byeolhwa’s face flushed as red as a virgin bride’s as she lifted me up.

‘…To be honest.’

The coolant expelled from my body was relatively eco-friendly.

You could even drink it with no ill effects.

Colourless and odourless.

It was only used to cool the body.

So I could’ve just waited for it to dry…

The cramped bathroom in the room.

The bathtub barely fit two people.

Once we were in, there was no space left.

Unable to face Byeolhwa, I sat with my back to her.

Honestly, I wanted to die of embarrassment.

I had begged the “doctor” several times.

Asked if they couldn’t fix this body somehow.

‘…That’s a matter of willpower. According to your charts, there’s nothing wrong….’

That was their answer the last time I asked.

I had never in my life felt my heart sink that hard.

I told myself over and over.

It’s the bladder that’s broken—not my will.

Even by normal standards, it didn’t make sense.

I barely kept my face from going pale as I pushed Byeolhwa and escaped the infirmary.

If I had stayed any longer, I might have broken down completely under that unbearable humiliation.

It’s not my fault.

It’s this body’s.

The doctor lied.

They just didn’t want to bother helping me.

Yeah, that’s it.

That has to be it.

Byeolhwa’s hands started brushing through my hair.

‘…’

The sensation was familiar.

My younger sisters used to bathe me like this too.

I left my body in Byeolhwa’s hands.

The bath ended not long after.

Once my whole body was toweled dry, I lay naked again on the bed.

“I’ll take these with me.”

Byeolhwa gathered up the pile of my clothes and left the room.

Silence settled in.

As always, I let myself drift into the flow of consciousness.

***

“A dispatch?”

“Yes, the Committee contacted us. They’re sending an inspector.”

“…Understood.”

The higher-ups had begun to move.

They were likely going to punish the use of Aeon.

The upper ranks of the Bureau treated Aeon as a kind of strategic weapon.

Something between a nuke that could flatten a region and a chemical bomb that could wipe out everything in range.

There had been no other choice but to use Aeon to stop the evolved misangche.

It was the only option left.

Many of the Bureau’s veteran magical girls had already died.

They could have sacrificed more, but weakening the Bureau’s forces any further under the current circumstances would have been a terrible move.

Even though the Mediterranean-Atlantic Magical Girl Detention Bureau had disappeared overnight, the higher-ups had said nothing.

Everyone was silently pretending it didn’t happen—a deeply suspicious situation.

It wasn’t solely because I listened to Ianna that I deployed Aeon.

If the number of magical girls dropped too rapidly, the Bureau could face serious upheaval.

I had acted with caution.

Hojoon’s goal of “salvation” by reducing the number of magical girls remained unchanged.

There were many suspicious aspects about the Detention Bureau’s sudden disappearance, but I couldn’t intervene.

Foreign affairs were under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal.

As Deputy Director of the Bureau, I had no formal reason to act.

At least, not on the surface.

I had dispatched magical girls to narrow down the Detention Bureau’s location.

Launching an assault immediately was unrealistic, so we focused on observing the surrounding area for anomalies.

The footage sent back by the magical girls showed the Detention Bureau’s exterior eerily quiet.

It was a bunker carved into the Alps, but there were no signs of life.

Even the Bureau regularly interacted with nearby supply bases disguised as decommissioned military outposts.

Yet the Detention Bureau hadn’t moved or made contact in over a month.

I couldn’t act rashly.

“So it’s about Aeon after all.”

“That seems most likely. They authorized the deployment themselves, and now they’re blaming you…”

Passing the buck.

It was a skill you had to master if you wanted to secure a stable position among the Bureau’s upper ranks.

“And, it seems they’re also upset about the enormous funding going to the Director. The higher-ups said they’ll be closely monitoring her to evaluate her usefulness.”

“…We’ll have to take action.”

An enormous portion of the Bureau’s funding was going toward keeping Director Ianna alive.

Maintaining a barely functioning body took a great deal of money.

Just recruiting the world’s top bioengineers to the Bureau had cost an astronomical amount.

Of course, the result was that our artificial magical girl technology surpassed all other agencies by far.

But to the financial managers upstairs, Ianna was nothing more than a money sink.

‘…Not yet.’

There was still a long way to go before the judgment could be executed.

Until then, I had to keep my claws hidden.

“…Who’s being dispatched?”

“Mr. Steven and Chairwoman Kakoshinomiya.”

Hojoon’s expression hardened instantly at Soreem’s report.

The Bureau’s upper ranks were currently divided into three factions.

Steven’s “external faction,” Kakoshinomiya Miko’s “internal faction” backed by enormous Far East wealth, and the “neutral faction,” unaffiliated and opportunistic.

The weakest of the three was the neutral faction—

Lacking leadership and always siding with whoever had the upper hand, they had little real power.

The external faction had slowly taken over the upper ranks through foreign support and was now the strongest group.

Close behind was Kakoshinomiya’s internal faction, backed by powerful corporations with offices in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S., supported by the old traditionalists.

Hojoon had sided with Kakoshinomiya.

It was she who had helped him usurp power on the day he slaughtered that pig’s entire family.

Both faction leaders were now being dispatched directly to the Bureau.

Even Hojoon couldn’t afford to let his guard down.

Steven looked like the stereotypical American.

A burly, muscular build rivaling Hojoon’s, short blond hair, a U.S. Army cap, cigar in his mouth, and sunglasses.

He resembled MacArthur.

In contrast, Kakoshinomiya Miko, from a noble Japanese family, kept her long black hair swept behind her back, her bangs perfectly straight.

She had alabaster skin and sharp, golden eyes.

Her appearance made it obvious that she was the polar opposite of Steven, especially with her traditional Japanese hairstyle.

Their personalities were just as different.

Steven was loud, bold, and brash.

Kakoshinomiya, by contrast, always covered her mouth with the long sleeves of her kimono and never revealed her emotions.

She always smiled—and used that smile to stab her enemies in the heart.

Hojoon’s favorite method of operation was modelled after Kakoshinomiya’s.

In that sense, Kakoshinomiya Miko was like another mentor to him.

Of course, she’d threatened him many times recently.

“…Director. Summon her, and the others as well.”

He had to prove Ianna’s worth.

If he didn’t want to see her disposed of by Kakoshinomiya’s hand.

Steven was dangerous too, but compared to Kakoshinomiya, he was nothing.

Even though she belonged to a rival faction, Hojoon had no reason to antagonize Steven.

There were some third-generation artificial girls, including Ianna, whose trauma Hojoon couldn’t erase—not even he could break them completely.

He planned to start with those girls, to prove that Ianna still had value in other ways.

It was a project he had originally planned in secret to support his daughter Byeolhwa.

But now that things had reached this point, he had no choice.

‘…She cannot be underestimated.’

Hojoon already considered Kakoshinomiya an enemy.

Because he knew just how dangerous she was.

After all, her right hand had once been Hojoon himself.

And stabbing someone with a smile wasn’t a skill exclusive to Kakoshinomiya—Ianna had taught him that, too.

“They’ll be arriving in an hour.”

“…Get ready to greet them. Make it extravagant.”

In the meantime, he needed to speak with Ianna.

And with the others.

And if possible—

He wanted to see Byeolhwa’s face just one more time.

He had a bad feeling.

Like a storm was coming straight for her.