Chapter 110 – No Answers (10)
“Where’s the ambulance? When the heck is it going to get here?!”
“Pl-Please calm down, Member of Parliament. There are many other urgent situations and people in need…”
“Who the hell do those jerks think they’re more important than me? Huh?! I’m a Member of Parliament in this country!!”
In the heart of Seoul, ravaged by Smalillian chaos, everyone — regardless of age or status — was affected by the catastrophe.
Among them, the rookie Member of Parliament Bae Su-hyeok, who was ensnared by Lee Jong-pil, was sprawled on a sofa, panting and fuming. He couldn’t understand why the rescue team wasn’t prioritizing him.
“Those bastards can’t even recognize an important person like me…”
“Quit whining. Everyone else is in the same boat. Some are in way worse conditions.”
But as he grumbled, a strange voice came from behind him. They barely managed to turn around, their bodies refusing to cooperate with their wishes.
There, behind the window, floated a magical girl clad in a breezy fighter’s outfit with fiery flames swirling around her.
“Oh, Aria.”
No one could possibly not recognize her face, especially those involved in politics lately.
Recently, Aria had been ruthlessly targeting the corrupt upper echelons of society.
“AHHHH!”
“What the hell? What are you doing, you crazy bitch?!”
With a single punch generating a shockwave, she shattered the window and burst in.
“What? You’re still alive, huh?”
Bae Su-hyeok jumped in shock, hiding behind his aides, but Aria couldn’t help but laugh at his panicked reaction.
Of course, Bae Su-hyeok turned beet red with embarrassment at being mocked.
“Why are you even here? Damage to property, show of force… If it’s for some ridiculous reason, I’ll definitely make you face the consequences.”
“Is that really what you’re concerned about? What’s wrong with a magical girl taking down villains? Do you honestly think you’re clean?”
“You little…”
Bae Su-hyeok grit his teeth at her lack of fear. But Aria was unfazed by his threats; she had witnessed every possible reaction during her escapades: pleading, threatening, resisting, fleeing, and so on. She had crushed them all to get this far.
“You guys are obsessed with evidence. Always whining about not having proof for your evil deeds. True enough, but isn’t it a bit rich for you to say that? You shot someone without any evidence yourself.”
“You bastard! So you and that fool Jo Ui-seok were in cahoots after all!”
At the mention of a certain name, he shrieked in a rage. Not the wisest choice, as it inadvertently confirmed his involvement.
“There’s even evidence, you know.”
With a sly grin, Aria pressed play on the recorder in her hand. The voice of a conspirator she’d colluded with came out, detailing how Bae Su-hyeok had orchestrated and manipulated the incident.
“Is that all you’ve got?”
That was just the tip of the iceberg. Information about the bribes he had pocketed and deals made with influential insiders for his next nomination were all in her possession.
If this made it to the press, it would be a massive time bomb for his party.
“Scum like you needs to be uprooted by any means necessary. Only then can true justice and order be maintained in this society.”
“Give that back, you lunatic!”
Bae Su-hyeok, eyes wide with panic, lunged at Aria, an absurdly reckless move considering his weakened state.
If that information got out, he wouldn’t just be worried about his political career; his real life would be at stake.
It was a foolish charge. But never having thrown a punch in his life, he had an irrational certainty that he could never be hit. How dare someone hit him!
“…Foolish human.”
That certainty was utterly misplaced.
“GAH!”
Aria stretched her fist and unleashed a flurry of punches. Bae Su-hyeok, struck with a single hand from his stationary position, was sent flying, spitting blood and rolling on the ground.
Watching him writhe, Aria smiled softly…
The exhilarating sensation overwhelmed her mind and body.
“Aria… C-Come on, ease up a little. This is the first time you’ve hit someone like this! They know everything about you!”
“What are you talking about, Lulu? I just took out some garbage today. With this very hand.”
On the rooftop, basking in the fresh morning breeze, Aria watched as Bae Su-hyeok was carted away by the rescue team. Just as she wished, he was getting rescued.
“You’re in terrible shape!”
“There’s no time. There are still too many internal problems threatening order.”
Seeing Aria’s pale complexion, her mascot Lulu shouted in distress, but Aria just shook her head.
“I have to get rid of them all. I need to do this!”
Clenching her teeth, Aria suddenly shouted and stamped her foot! The ground cracked beneath her.
“I’m going to get stronger.”
Ignoring Lulu, who was at a loss for words, she muttered to herself.
She pulled out her phone, ignoring missed calls and messages from Oh Yoon-seo, and played a video she had saved.
The video was one she had recorded herself while withstanding the Smalillian attack. The views on this video, which she posted on her private account, had already surpassed one billion.
“See? This is what true strength looks like. She’s a true hero, performing miracles that bugs like us could never achieve!”
In the video, a black-haired girl obliterated a gigantic monster in a single blow. The zoomed-in shot showed her, horned, faintly smiling.
At the moment Smalillian descended, while people were suffering, they’d merely taken out their phones to record the event, unable to do anything else.
An insurmountable wall. In that moment, after her cherished beliefs crumbled, Aria’s heart was torn apart.
“Takilas was right.”
“Oh, Aria…”
“Sometimes, you have to crush things with power.”
Her once-vibrant scarlet eyes sparked with an eerie light.
After despair comes compromise and self-brainwashing. With her previous belief that Takilas had been wrong completely shattered, she convinced herself that he was right.
“I caught evidence of Bae Su-hyeok giving instructions to Lee Soo-chan, the son of Lee Jong-pil, through the messenger he used. It’s already been sent… So now, let’s go take down the villains.”
With the brute force at her disposal, Aria had amassed significant evidence related to corruption through collaborations with the Frontier.
Of course, it was far more tempting to smash them with her own fists than wait for legal proceedings based on collected evidence, but her obsession with evidence was all that remained of her dwindling conscience.
“It’s best if the hero act is put on hold. Right, Ha Eun-seo from Second Year of Seil High?”
But when she secretly ambushed Lee Soo-chan later on…
What awaited her in the abandoned factory was armed special task force members and police, along with her personal information.
“You…”
“I understand enough, but you should have been aware that what you’re doing is a grave crime.”
Lee Soo-chan smirked, mocking Aria, who was grimacing.
“The world doesn’t turn as you wish. You should have just lived quietly as an obedient hunting dog. Though I guess it worked out well since the Management Bureau was colluding. In the end, you are just a poor soul being used by the adults, aren’t you?”
“No! I’m moving on my own will now! I don’t take orders from anyone!”
Fuming, Aria shouted, losing her composure. Her body trembled, and her breath grew ragged. Lee Soo-chan had struck at the very nerve of this flailing child.
“If it’s your will, then it’s worse. If you were just following orders, the worst crime would be the upper management of the Management Bureau for using a kid like you. But if you claim to act on your own will, then that’s entirely your fault. Release your transformation. You’re still young; if you surrender and reflect, you won’t face severe punishment.”
“Surrender… to a villain like you?”
“Well, if you see the esteemed magical girl in my eyes as a villain, then how many truly clean people exist in this world?”
Seeing her trembling form, Lee Soo-chan scoffed.
“Well, if you keep resisting, I can’t just let it slide. Make the arrest.”
He ordered those around him. Aria refused to step back. She was a top-tier magical girl who had achieved her third awakening.
She was confident in her abilities. She wouldn’t lose to those mediocre superpowered agents.
“What’s with her?”
“…Korea’s S-rank magical girl, Aria.”
But her opponent wasn’t just the special task force. Behind Lee Soo-chan appeared another girl who seemed to be her age. The outfit she wore was proof that she was also a magical girl.
‘Chinese.’
Magical girls communicated with each other in their own language. But Aria realized that the language the girl spoke was different from her own.
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