Episode 148 – The Endless Evolution of the Lord (8)
“Huff, I guess I have to go find them.”
“R-Really?!”
“But!”
I made my decision. Both Kim Soo-jung and Park Tae-jun looked surprised while glancing at each other. It seemed they felt something was off.
“What’s up with you?”
“What do you mean?”
Rather, it looked like they were more concerned about each other’s reactions. Soon, they realized that they both knew my identity, and they screamed in shock. It seemed both thought they were the only ones in the know and had been trying to read the other’s mind.
“That can’t be! You—you know what Jin-ah looks like transformed?!”
“N-No.”
“Huff. Then that’s fine.”
Kim Soo-jung trembled in shock, and when Park Tae-jun said he didn’t know my transformed appearance either, she nodded as if relieved.
“Then we don’t need to be sneaky. Are you really going to look for her?”
“…Yeah.”
“But do you even know where to look? Even if you transform into a Magical Girl, it would be hard to find her. What if the police try to catch Jin-ah?”
Nodding at Kim Soo-jung’s words, Park Tae-jun provided a rather realistic outlook. He was right.
In this foreign land, where I didn’t even know the geography, and among all the crowds at the tourist spot, it didn’t seem possible to find someone.
“You two just stay put. I’ll handle the searching.”
I shoved the two kids into a room.
“What are you planning to do? Are you going to transform and sweep them away?”
“Even if I do that, will I be able to find them easily? I’m not omnipotent.”
Ren, who hated causing trouble, seemed oddly addicted to sweeping everything away, insisting that I transform. But I knew there were other methods.
“Come out, Urchi. Conceal your appearance.”
“Demon King… I never imagined you would seek me out.”
I opened a Dimension Gate and brought back a mercenary from the Demon Realm. He was Urchi, one of the commanders—a giant wolf the size of a village bus.
“I need you to secretly find humans around here.”
“As you command.”
He followed my orders without complaint. After giving him some items belonging to the missing people to imprint their scent, I watched as he transformed into an ethereal form and dashed out of the hotel.
“Will you be able to find them right away?”
“While there’s no magical interference with the victims’ belongings, it will take at least two days.”
This was the best option for now. While it would take some time, the accuracy would be reliable, making it more effective than poking around randomly.
“Isn’t two days way too long?”
“I can’t help that.”
“What if… we’re late?”
The kids, who came out again, looked anxious upon hearing my mention of finding them soon.
Kim Soo-jung was right; if we were late, it would be too late. Bringing the dead back to life was impossible.
“I promise you.”
Instead, I made one promise to the gloomy children.
“If I can’t save even one person completely, I’ll kill every last one of them without leaving a single one behind.”
“No matter how much of a Magical Girl you are, is that really possible…”
“Yeah. Believe me.”
Park Tae-jun clicked his tongue, seemingly incredulous at my statement, but Kim Soo-jung was different. There was no hint of doubt or hesitation in her gaze as she looked at me.
And then two days passed, and finally, Urchi sent me a lead.
“I have located them and been monitoring them closely. I tried to enter their base, but… I couldn’t go in as a spirit.”
“Good work.”
Urchi did his best. It was absurd that he could infiltrate the base of a mere criminal organization, but at least we confirmed that all the kidnapped individuals were safe.
“I don’t have any further leads yet, but what I’ve found is that a group of Korean criminals subcontracted to abduct people and sold them to local crime organizations.”
“Is this a movie or something?”
“But I couldn’t confirm what was happening inside.”
Given the condition of needing to rescue the hostages, this was quite a headache. Reporting to the police wasn’t an easy decision either.
Could the local police really be clean? I was the one who just beheaded a corrupt chief of the Korean police headquarters.
“You all stay here. I’ll sort this out.”
In the end, my plan was to infiltrate under disguise. It was a method I had employed repeatedly, but this time it was different.
I wasn’t approaching them by chance; I was deliberately stepping into their territory from the start. Plus, I had to rescue the hostages.
“You’re going to get abducted on purpose and go there? That sounds dangerous!”
“Dangerous? Me?”
I chuckled at the shocked expressions of the kids and waved my hand dismissively.
“…Isn’t it too odd to do this alone?”
However, Park Tae-jun’s muttered words held weight. He was implying how strange it was for kids to wander around a tourist area alone without any adults.
While he had a point, he didn’t bring it up for no reason. He was thinking of going along himself, unaware of the world’s dangers.
“You both will regret this. Definitely.”
“If I can help, I will.”
“…You two should play rock-paper-scissors. It’s too hard to protect both of you.”
Kim Soo-jung felt the same way. In the end, I allowed them to duel in front of me, and Park Tae-jun was the winner.
“When the boss comes, just be honest. Tell them I went out thinking I could find them.”
“Okay.”
Park Tae-jun and I quickly finished our preparations, leaving the gloomy Kim Soo-jung behind in the room. We knew the direction, and we even knew their faces.
“This way.”
It was Urchi, concealed, guiding us.
So, we disguised ourselves as teenage kids out in a tourist area and gradually moved toward them, naturally.
*
“Is today the end? Honestly, I just want to let it slide. Maybe because there are missing reports overlapping… security is tight.”
“The boss wants to scrape until the last moment.”
“What could they possibly want with kids? Organs? But they said they didn’t care about old folks.”
In a local district slightly removed from the tourism area, two men in a van were grumbling while scanning their surroundings.
They were waiting to catch prey as instructed, but with the increasing security at the tourist spot, there were only locals around since they got here.
They wouldn’t target locals who might be involved with the local gang; they were aiming for individuals that walked alone or tourists with Korean nationality who looked smug about the poor response from the embassy.
“Looks like today might just end like this.”
But today, such targets were nowhere to be seen. After hesitating, one of them decided to change seats in the van and started it up.
“…Hey, look at that.”
At that moment, something caught their eye.
“Huh, are those kids crazy? Where the hell are their parents?”
“Should we care about that now?”
It was a pair of boys and girls approaching, looking different from the locals; they were wandering around all alone without any adults in sight.
“Looks like they need some proper education.”
Smirking, they opened the door and stepped out.
“Hey, you two young lady and young master.”
They casually strolled over to the kids who were looking around. Seeing them approach, the kids hesitated and showed signs of caution.
“You’re speaking Korean. Who are you?”
“We’re just uncles working around here. Did you come here alone? Where are your adults?”
‘What a cheeky girl. Look at her attitude.’
The boy couldn’t help but twitch his brow internally at the dark-haired girl in blue hot pants who was openly wary of them while still putting on a smile.
“It’s dangerous for kids, especially pretty foreign kids like you, to be walking around alone. Go back to your parents. Where are they?”
“Our parents are at the beach.”
“What? You came quite a distance, huh?”
They naturally pointed to their car.
“Come on, we’ll give you a ride to the beach.”
“Aren’t we meeting for the first time?”
“Haha! It’s what fellow Koreans do; we help each other abroad.”
While the boy hesitated, the girl remained vigilant until the end. The boy internally swore he would make them cry and beg.
“Come on, don’t be shy. Just hop in.”
Somehow, they succeeded in getting the two kids into the car. With a grin behind their sunglasses, they locked the doors tightly and set off.
Naturally, the vehicle wasn’t heading to the beach but deeper inland.
“…This doesn’t look like the way to the beach.”
“Right, you dumb girl.”
One of them, casually snacking on chips, mocked the silent girl.
“Don’t you realize the situation? This is the trend these days. You two… are about to be kidnapped… bwoof!”
“Well aware that we’re getting kidnapped.”
However, just as they playfully tried to tape up the girl, a sharp smack echoed, and his cheek turned as the skin ripped apart and blood splattered.
Several broken molars fell along with the blood.
“And now, you’re screwed.”
At the same time, her hand that penetrated the seat grasped the neck of the remaining driver in the front.
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