Chapter 105 – There’s No Answer (5)
“You, you are…!”
“Get back!”
Jo Ui-seok’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at her. To be fair, she was just as surprised. She had intended to wait for Jo Ui-seok to respond for a reason.
However, contrary to her expectations, he was not consumed by despair and hatred.
“These damn creatures…”
In the meantime, Kim Joo-hyun, hit directly by the perm’s light, rose with a burnt and mangled body, twisting grotesquely.
“Do you want to die!!”
Watching the monster roar in madness, Jeon So-hyun bit her lips inside her mask and prepared her second spell.
“Ugh… cough.”
But she didn’t need to fire that spell. A steel ball flying at incredible speed from somewhere crashed into Kim Joo-hyun’s body, literally bursting him apart.
“Ah, should I have captured him? I was too hasty.”
Clicking her tongue, Karin pulled the chain back to retrieve her weapon. It was only then that people finally rushed to the scene, including Lee Min-hyung, who had dashed out immediately, along with several Frontier members.
“Director! Are you okay!”
“I-I’m fine.”
Lee Min-hyung fussed over Jo Ui-seok. However, Jo Ui-seok sighed as he gazed at the broken USB on the floor, unable to take his eyes off it.
Because of the girl, radiating a blue light, who saved him.
“But you’re not a magical girl, are you?”
Karin smirked as she pointed a finger at Jeon So-hyun. At the same time, she tightened her grip on the chain.
“It’s weak, but you’re still harboring a minor malice as an ordinary person. Who are you?”
“I came to find you out of desperation, but I didn’t expect this to happen.”
Jeon So-hyun raised her hands to show she meant no harm, responding to the armed Management Bureau agents who had drawn their guns.
However, no fear was in her demeanor. Gabi, who was invisible to others, was watching over her under Takilas’s orders, ensuring that she wouldn’t come to harm.
“Enough. It’s better to discuss who you are inside.”
Finally, Lee Min-hyung stepped in to end the tense standoff. As the agents lowered their weapons, Karin scoffed and disarmed herself, while Jeon So-hyun let her guard down.
“Jo Ui-seok’s protection is…”
“We’ve assigned two magical girls along with our agents. They will take turns.”
“That’s fine. Focus on this matter for now.”
In the secret underground facility, Lee Min-hyung nodded after receiving the report. Now that Jo Ui-seok’s situation was resolved, he was ready to focus on the task at hand.
“Then, shall we have a quiet conversation, Jeon So-hyun?”
“Ugh?!”
“It’s not like your appearance changes like the magical girls… hiding your face with a mask doesn’t prevent someone from pinpointing you based on your frame and body type.”
Jeon So-hyun, sitting there, flinched at his words, realizing he already knew her identity. She sighed and removed her mask. After all, she had no intention of hiding her identity like the magical girls.
“How fascinating. Usually, mediums or shamans try to avoid interfering in worldly matters.”
“I’m not a normal psychic.”
She defensively retorted, though it clearly didn’t faze Lee Min-hyung.
“So, why did you come looking for us?”
“I couldn’t just sit back while monsters were running rampant trying to corrupt people. I was wondering if you had any clues since there’s been no news.”
Jeon So-hyun spoke frankly, as there was no point in hiding the intention.
“But… it seems like there is some news after all.”
Her eyes glanced at the pastor trapped behind a glass wall, wearing a tiara. He was still growling and banging against the glass.
“Thanks to the magical girl Rene’s efforts, we managed to capture him, but we can’t have a conversation. The problem is that tiara; if we try to touch it, it cracks and tries to self-destruct.”
“Rene…”
Jeon So-hyun flinched at the unexpected information. It was the moment she realized the magical girls had united under a single name.
“…this time, I’ll ask as a regular student. If you manage to get a lead on the enemy, will you really handle it decisively, without acting cocky like the Special Task Force?”
“I promise.”
It wasn’t a plea from a warrior wielding the power of the perm, but a genuine appeal from an ordinary student. Everyone in the Frontier leadership, including Lee Min-hyung, made a firm promise.
Forget about politics and power struggles; let’s deal with the enemy with full force.
After all, if they achieved results in this way, the political gains would come naturally, but Lee Min-hyung didn’t voice such trivialities.
“Then, I will break that tiara and purify the evil energy.”
Having made her decision, Jeon So-hyun stood up. She didn’t think she could solve everything alone anyway. Collaboration was necessary, and inspired by Jo Ui-seok’s conviction, she decided to trust the grown-ups of the Frontier.
“Are you really okay…”
“Shh.”
As everyone looked on with uneasy gazes, Jeon So-hyun stepped over the firewall and headed alone toward the glass chamber.
“Ugh, eek…”
The middle-aged pastor, with bloodshot eyes, drooled as he stared at her, clearly out of his mind. The eyeball embedded in the tiara also rolled around wildly as it fixed its gaze on her.
“What a bizarre power.”
Gabi, who had been hiding nearby, chuckled with interest.
“But if that essence is with Mae, then she won’t be able to withstand the power of the perm for long.”
“I’ll get ready.”
Jeon So-hyun committed Gabi’s words to heart and drew up her strength. Soon, blue flames erupted from her whole being.
This power was salvation and a path. It saved the child she was, who had been helplessly floating on the waves of life, and it was a beacon showing her the way forward.
“Perm Sorcery, Genesis.”
Grinding her teeth, Jeon So-hyun unleashed it all forward.
“Kyaaa!!”
From the pastor’s body, black steam began to tear away rapidly. However, she too had to grit her teeth against the impact that was crashing down on her.
“The battle between the perm and the demonic is one where they stab at each other with swords. No defenses—just attack, attack, attack. The one who endures will be the victor.”
“Ugh.”
Gabi’s voice echoed in her ears. Jeon So-hyun clenched her teeth and bore it.
To drive away what had consumed the pastor and turned him into the Smalillian’s minion, she had to overcome it to achieve victory.
‘What on earth is this? Why is he suffering and sorrowing so?’
Having tasted those fragments, she squeezed her eyes shut. The culmination wouldn’t take long.
“The traces of a filthy hybrid have shattered.”
At Gabi’s words, she opened her tightly shut eyes.
The pastor’s fallen body returned to its original state, and the tiara that had adorned his head was smashed to pieces.
*
“The reason we follow that being is simple… because that being gives us miracles.”
“What kind of miracle?”
“He returned my mother, who was suffering from dementia. Thanks to that, I was able to witness my mother’s last moments fully. Do you understand? The feeling when my mother, who couldn’t even remember my face, called my name!”
Pastor Choi Cheol-min laughed while simultaneously crying. Both Lee Min-hyung, who was interrogating him, and Oh Yoon-seo, who was beside him, momentarily lost their words.
Even Karin, who was watching, clicked her tongue softly.
“This isn’t a miracle shouted about in words or written in the scriptures. That being gives us everything we truly desire. Nothing more.”
“And the price for that is death.”
“Only those who should die are dead. Am I wrong? If you’re going to bring up that trivial law, don’t even talk to me.”
Choi Cheol-min openly mocked them with laughter. Lee Min-hyung didn’t provoke him further. After all, it wasn’t entirely wrong to tell them not to mention laws.
In a world descending into chaos, the laws inscribed in legal books were far too heavy.
“Even if you have a point, the ultimate goal of the monster Smalillian is ultimately for itself, right? Are you planning to not cooperate in the end?”
“Ha! Are you going to torture me or something? That’s a tradition in this country since my time as a public security prosecutor, ugh hah!”
Choi Cheol-min clearly wasn’t going to open his mouth easily. Of course, it was something everyone had expected.
“Uh… uh?!”
Without him realizing it, Choi Cheol-min’s head began to hang limp, then droop. It looked as if he had lost consciousness, but that was not the case.
“My help ends here.”
Gabi, having used her charm magic to put him in a trance, smiled at Jeon So-hyun. Thanks to that, they could extract a majority of the information regarding Smalillian from Choi Cheol-min’s testimony by just asking a few simple questions.
For instance, the “Black Sun,” which doesn’t stay in one place, but is a powerful right-hand man and the root of its followers, “The Prophet” Lee Kyung-sik.
“Should we inform the police and issue a wanted order?”
“No, relay this to all magical girls immediately. We need to wrap this up on our end. There’s no choice. But with high-ranking ones like Rene or Karin, do you think we can’t win?”
The Frontier began to move quickly. Summoning the magical girls was the first step.
“I’m sorry to involve kids like you.”
“…It can’t be helped.”
Lee Min-hyung spoke to Jeon So-hyun, who had begun to move alongside them, but she shook her head with a bitter smile.
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