NOVEL NEXT Episode 12 – Code Red (3)
“Uh, how…?”
Aria couldn’t believe her eyes. The arm she had twisted and shattered was now in remarkably good condition, contrary to her expectations that it would take a long time to heal.
Even now, her body ached all over, making it difficult to move, which was the complete opposite of how her arm looked.
[Uwooooo! Magical Girl!]
“What an insane troll-like creature…”
In the meantime, the monster that had been under her feet rose up with a furious roar. She leaped lightly and landed on a nearby vehicle.
[Die!]
The blood-dripping monster swung its fist, a fist that was half the size of her upper body.
Smirking, she didn’t move an inch, as shadows writhing from below surged forth, wrapping around the monster’s body like tentacles.
“Is it only strength you rely on? Then die now.”
[Gyaaa…]
She gently waved her hand.
At the same time, a blade of shadow erupted from her hand, beheading the monster that couldn’t even move.
“…Was this guy also subjected to some strange experiments? How crazy is this world?”
“Good. An impressive performance.”
As the monster’s head was severed, its body began to melt away.
What was revealed in the half-melted remains was a portion of a once-ordinary human’s body that couldn’t dissolve.
*
“There are plenty of suspects. There should be more than a few evil organizations using bio-weapons.”
“This place is really insane.”
I clicked my tongue at Ren’s words. Even in the Demon Realm, it wasn’t this bad.
The Celestial beings who were desperate to hunt us down weren’t this extreme either.
“…Anyway, the job’s done, right?”
I glanced around to find a way to leave. People had gathered around, all taking pictures of me with their phones.
Though I’d gotten used to living as the Demon King, I wasn’t an attention-seeker to the core, so such attention felt uncomfortable.
“Are you just going to leave? Didn’t you come here to see another Magical Girl?”
“What’s the point in looking at someone sprawled out over there? Of course… there was an unexpected harvest.”
I chuckled at Ren’s words. Just as he said, I had briefly stopped by because I felt the presence of a Magical Girl somewhere around here.
Thanks to that, I ended up having another encounter.
“There’s another one here?”
Our eyes met. Did she notice that I recognized her?
No matter how much I tried to hide, I could detect the faint flow of magical energy; the girl who had just rushed over was definitely a Magical Girl too.
“So what are you going to do now?”
“What do you mean by that? I have to go look for a place to stay!”
I took to the skies once more. Finding a place to stay wasn’t easy.
If it came to it, I might have to actually go to the facility on my own.
“One, two… three. This is getting too popular.”
I felt the gazes directed at me as I soared. The Magical Girls were keeping an eye on my movements, and their intentions were clear. They were waiting for me to drop my transformation and return to my original form.
“Give in and you’re a fool.”
As I entered the clouds, I increased my speed. It would be tough for anyone to chase me in this obscured visibility.
“I’ll gather a little more information or just head to the facility.”
Shaking off the monitoring eyes, I released my transformation in an alley between buildings. Then I blended naturally into the crowd.
“…It’s ridiculous that something like this is right in front of me and I can’t have any.”
I clenched my teeth as I passed by a street vendor giving off delicious smells.
It had been ages since I caught a whiff of such food. But right now, all I could think of was sweet potato fries and tteokbokki. It’s not like I had any actual need for food, but the diverse dishes of Earth were one of the main causes of my nostalgia.
“Looks like today’s going to be another aimless wandering ending.”
“…I think so too.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at Ren’s comment. In this day and age, there wouldn’t be anyone to pick up a poor girl without a home or money like me.
“Hey. You.”
While I’d been wandering around, it had somehow become late afternoon when someone approached me.
“Who are you?”
“U-uh?!”
I must have sounded too stiff, as the girl my age flinched a bit. I scanned her up and down.
Both her clothes and face indicated that she wasn’t in a normal situation.
“I sense some ill intentions. Very, very faint, but.”
Ren commented that he felt a hint of malicious intent. I figured I understood her intentions.
“My name is Kim Soo-jung… Or rather, you’re a runaway, right?”
“Why do you think that?”
“You’re aimlessly wandering around with nothing and meeting no one.”
She adjusted her cap and, regaining her confidence, pointed a finger at me. I glanced down at my own appearance.
Admittedly, I looked like a total street rat.
“If you follow me, I can give you a place to sleep and food.”
“What’s your boss like?”
“Uh?!”
I couldn’t help but smirk.
There was no way some little girl could act on her own; she definitely had someone pulling the strings.
“What exactly do they give and offer to wander around and take in minors? Are they going to use them for sex work or sell them off as experiment subjects?”
“What are you talking about!? Oppa Kwang-hoon doesn’t do that kind of stuff!”
“Is his name Kwang-hoon?”
“Uh…”
Watching her tremble piqued my interest. It was obvious that any shady characters would be involved here, and the offer of food and a place to stay was tempting me.
“We’re stacking up achievements…”
“Show me the way.”
Ignoring Ren’s words, I instructed the girl, who introduced herself as Kim Soo-jung, to lead me to their hideout. She blinked in confusion before motioning for me to follow her.
“If you go, Oppa Kwang-hoon will give you something to do. He told me to bring in girls like you. But what’s your name?”
“My name?”
I hesitated at Kim Soo-jung’s question. I couldn’t reveal my demonic name or my active name.
“It’s Jin-ah.”
“Jin-ah?”
I quickly changed my human name Lee Jin-woo by altering just one character. Of course, she didn’t seem to suspect anything, but it felt oddly uncomfortable.
“Do you live here?”
“Only girls live here. Be careful; the older girls can be scary…”
Kim Soo-jung led me to an old villa in a neighborhood a bit away from the city. It didn’t seem to be a professional organization.
“There’s a lot of malice here, but they’re all just a bunch of low-rank members.”
Ren also confirmed that there didn’t seem to be anything special. They looked like regular runaway kids, after all.
“What’s this? Who is she?”
The first person to appear in front of us was a girl who looked about my age, probably a troublesome teenager.
“Newbie?”
She smirked and looked me up and down.
“Have you been out of your house for long? Hey, why did you come here?”
“I came because she said there was food and a place to stay. Ouch.”
“Who taught you to speak like that?”
She punched me on the head. Caught off guard by the unexpected attack, I forgot to respond.
“Don’t regret it, just crawl back home. Why did you leave?”
“…I might die. Yow.”
If I stayed in the Demon King’s Castle, I might die from homesickness. I wasn’t lying about that!
“Damn.”
But for some reason, she scratched her head, misunderstanding something.
“I don’t feel any strong malice from this girl. She seems pretty normal.”
Meanwhile, Ren assessed her. My judgment was similar; she seemed weathered but not completely tainted.
“Come in.”
Ultimately, she opened the door for me. The one-room villa was a mess. It didn’t seem dirty so much as it looked impossible to organize due to too many items.
“Right now, everyone is out, but there are 13 people living here, so you’ll probably have to squish in under the sink with her.”
“Are they all like ‘her’ too? Yow.”
“…Yeah. Just a bunch of runaways. I’m Jeon So-hyun.”
Smirking, she extended her hand to me. I introduced my alias and shook her hand. It wasn’t the most satisfying sleeping arrangement.
But I was already intrigued, so I wanted to do at least some investigation. This had become a habit from my time as the Demon King.
“You said we could just laze around? Is this really it?”
[Shut up. I consider it simple entertainment.]
I scoffed at Ren’s words.
Indeed, there were plenty of things to do, yet I ended up caught up in these crazy circumstances upon coming to Earth, and I hadn’t even had a chance to try any of the things I wanted to do.
“But really, can I just live here so freely? Yow.”
“You only need to get permission from one person—Kim Kwang-hoon. This is technically his house. We can be kicked out at any age if he says so. And are you speaking properly?”
“…What does that person do?”
Jeon So-hyun punched me on the head once more.
It didn’t particularly hurt. There was no malice, and I knew well enough how weak she was, so it felt more like a cat playfully hitting me than anything else.
“I don’t know. He’s a crazy person. But he gives out jobs, so if you work hard for a bit, you can become independent.”
“Job?”
“You’ll find out soon enough. Since you’re young, you probably won’t get assigned anything different from Soo-jung.”
As dusk fell, she prepared to leave while roughly answering my question. I didn’t inquire about what kind of work she was doing. It seemed likely she wouldn’t answer anyway.
“Let’s hurry and go.”
“What are we doing?”
“Doing the laundry that the older girls said… or we’ll get hit.”
“This is a mess.”
I snorted at Kim Soo-jung’s comment.