Preparations (2)

The two of them weren't even proper luxury. They were the classic rich punks, the kind who draped themselves in clumsy imitations of designer goods and tried to inflate their own worth with the costume.

The one doing the blatant sexual harassment had dyed his hair a dingy gold, like wet straw, jammed three piercings through one ear, and strapped on a chain belt from some fashion cycle nobody could date. The longer I looked, the harder my eyes wanted to shut.

Blocked by the triplets, the two slick punks ran their eyes up and down the girls, then tried to shove them aside behind rotten smiles.

"The hell are you? Flat as boards, built like dudes. Get out of the—aaagh!"

"H-hey? Aagh!"

The moment foul-mouthed Sleazebag A reached out to shove them, the triplet on the right shot a hand out, caught his arm, and twisted it around. The one on the left seized Sleazebag B—who looked somehow sloppier—and wrenched his arm the other way.

Arms bent, the two of them howled that they were dying. Kim Chang-hyun started to rush in, then backed off with an awkward look on his face.

Ninety percent of what left Sleazebag A's mouth was pure profanity. At that tirade, Han Go-eun, Su Yu-ri, and Kang So-ra bolted into the fitting room with frightened faces. The princess, though, stood where she was and took both punks' curses with cold eyes.

Extremely cold. A businesslike gaze.

When she stepped toward the two of them, the triplets who had pinned their arms and forced them to their knees parted left and right to open a path. The picture was of criminals bound and kneeling before a princess.

She spoke in a cool voice.

"Your words and conduct could escalate into a diplomatic matter between Korea and the United Kingdom. Do you understand?"

"Aagh! Fuck!! What kind of bullshit is that?! Let go!!"

"It's broken! My arm's broken!!"

The pain flooding up their arms didn't seem to let her voice reach them at all.

Face flushed and twisted, spit stringing from his mouth, Sleazebag A rolled bloodshot, murderous eyes up at her and screamed.

"You fucking piece-of-shit bitch!! Do you know who I am?! Do you?!!!"

"Who are you?"

"My dad's a department head in the raid team that uses this building!! Fuck, I've got every one of your faces memorized!! I'll track you down, find your house, grab you and your mother, rip your legs open, and sell you off to a whorehouse, kagh!"

The princess had clearly never heard abuse like that. Her face went a little pale, and the girls who had changed and come back out looked frightened too.

So I kicked the kneeling bastard's leg sideways, a light shove. Sleazebag A's body tipped, his balance collapsed, and a dull crack came from the shoulder of the arm they were holding.

"Gyaaaaaagh!!!"

I wasn't listening to any more of that garbage. Leave it like this and it really might blow up into a diplomatic incident—and something he'd said was nagging at me besides.

After that gym incident a while back, I'd looked into how far an ability user's self-defense was allowed to go. Verbal abuse, curses, acts that caused sexual humiliation—this much self-defense sat inside the permitted range.

They say that in the old days, even if the other guy came at you with a knife, landing a single blow got you booked for mutual assault. These days they're a good deal more lenient about defending yourself.

"Franc. What should we do with people who've insulted a British princess? Hand them over to the British embassy?"

"This is the first time I have seen a case like this. I am not certain."

I watched Sleazebag A scream like a pig at slaughter as his arm tried to leave its range of motion, then told the triplet standing there, calmly holding it, to let go.

The triplet looked back at the princess. Only when she nodded at that look did they release the arm.

Freed, and with the force that had been bracing him gone, Sleazebag A collapsed and smashed his face hard into the floor. His nose started bleeding. Whether the shoulder hurt worse than the face he'd just planted on the concrete, he poured cold sweat down a reddened face and kept spitting fuck, fuck, fuck.

He glared at me, the triplets, and the princess behind us with eyes full of spite, and was about to open his mouth, so I reached out and clamped it shut.

Ugh. Fuck. Grease.

Sleazebag A slapped at the arm covering his mouth and tried to tear it off, but if a civilian's strength could pry my hand loose, I might as well quit being an ability user.

"After I take my hand away, if a curse comes out of that mouth, something unpleasant is going to happen. Like this."

I raised a finger and pressed hard into the concrete. The floor caved in exactly in the shape of the stab.

Sleazebag A saw it. His eyes bulged, and then they started glittering like a viper's spawn.

…Look at this bastard's eyes. Eyes that would eat a person.

The moment I saw killing intent glittering like an aberrant's eyeballs, my mood soured hard, and irritation began to well up through my body.

I took my hand off his mouth. Maybe from the pain climbing into his shoulder, his face had gone pale. He spilled cold sweat and spoke.

"Fuck. You're an ability user? An ability user gets to swing on a civilian? You're fucked. Say it back, you fuck."

"The one who's fucked is you. Do you even know who you just cursed?"

"Why the hell would I care, you little shit. My dad's a department head in Hwarang, got it?! They're taking him on as a department head even at the outfit merging with Time River, and ability users bow and scrape to him! One word from my dad and there's a truckload of ability users who could bury trash like you! Fuck, I'll background-check every last one of you brats, your dads and your moms—gyaaaaagh!!"

This son of a bitch… who?

I grabbed the back of his head and slammed it into the floor with a thud. He started letting out this weird, keening scream.

Ah. I shouldn't be doing this. But the irritation kept climbing. My chest was heaving, and the world in front of my eyes wanted to go red.

Why am I like this. I closed my eyes, briefly turned the Mana Sieve inside me, found my calm, and asked.

"Your dad's a department head in the raid team that owns this building?"

"Krrrrgh!!"

I held the back of his head and turned it little by little, the way you'd dig earth with a stick. Each time, only a teeth-grinding scream came out.

Clearly not a situation where he could talk. I looked through his clothes, pulled the wallet from his back pocket, and took out Sleazebag A's ID.

"Twenty-eight. Name's Ha Cheolsu?"

All at once I remembered the advice Dad had given me. If you're going to bury someone, bury them completely. The parents who let their kid turn out like this were at fault too, so maybe I ought to bury them along with him.

Seemed like I could. He'd committed abuse this bad against a British princess. There was no taking it back.

…Damn it. Why does this happen when Hwayeon isn't here, and Boss Park Jiwoong isn't either. If I use this bastard cursing the princess as a pretext and the British ambassador files a protest with Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, things get annoying.

And he'd said he was the kid of a Hwarang executive, hadn't he? Between the former Hwarang general affairs director who gave Aunt Hyeryeong such a hard time, and this bastard's father now, it felt like Yeongeun wasn't keeping Hwarang properly in line. That was going to disappoint me a little.

I thought of the cute face that had rested on my thigh this morning and fallen asleep, of the way she'd acted spoiled, and I wanted to kill the bastard who'd made me feel disappointed in Yeongeun.

"Princess? I have a favor to ask."

"Yes? What sort of favor?"

"Would you let us handle this bastard? Then I'll call you by your name, too."

"All right! You promise?"

Isn't she accepting this far too easily? Use a thing like this as a pretext and she'd have no choice but to grant almost any request.

"Yeah."

If it had been me, I'd have taken this incident as leverage and demanded a favor or two like a threat. Seeing her agree so simply to a condition that amounted to nothing, the princess seemed like someone a long way from schemes and negotiation.

Well. She'd said getting close to me was a secondary objective, so I'd patch that over by building a reasonable acquaintance out of this.

At some point the screaming had vanished, and only rough breathing came from under my hand, so I caught his skull and lifted it.

"You… f…fuck."

"You still don't get the situation? People reacting like this even after hearing who your dad is—you don't have a brain that can guess who they are?"

"So what, you little shit. Fuck, I'll bury you no matter what I have to use. After that it's your family's turn—kagagak!"

At curses that wouldn't stop, irritation shot to the top of my head. I put strength into the hand holding his skull, and a scream burst out of him on reflex.

Since P.E., thoughts and hallucinations of Alastor's Terrible Dark Castle had been circling in my head, laying a strange feeling along the bottom of my heart. Sleazebag A kept poking my temper, my chest heaved, and an impulse I couldn't name started to rise.

I didn't know what it was. I was sure that if I gave my body over to it, something terrible would happen.

Then I felt something strange behind me and turned. The princess's face had gone bloodless, and the triplets wore the same look, blocking her—and they were wary of me, not the punk.

Why are they like that? The two punks were looking up at me too, terrified.

And from somewhere, the smell of piss. This bastard had wet himself.

It was absurd, and I didn't even feel satisfied staring at him, when he suddenly started babbling as if he'd lost his mind, a thin heh-heh of a laugh.

"Fuu…ck. An ability user… hitting a… civilian…. You… dog. You're f…fucked…. Heh."

Sleazebag B had been too scared to open his mouth since earlier, but Sleazebag A was still burning with hostility even after pissing himself.

What is this bastard? How can he spray enmity even in a situation like this? Is this actually some kind of rage disorder?

…In comics and novels, the ones who burn with poison like this keep obstructing the protagonists until they die. Maybe it'd be better to just…

At that moment Sleazebag B pissed himself too, then thrashed and screamed in a fit.

"Hiiik! I-I-I-I have n-nothing to do with this bastard! I-I was wrong, so p-please forgive me!! I won't, I swear I won't do it again!!"

Tears, snot, and spit all running, shaking from head to toe—he didn't look sane. Why is this one like this now?

For a while now a strange displeasure and a nameless impulse had been getting worse, and Sleazebag B's reaction seemed to speed it up another notch.

If it got even a little worse here, I didn't think I could control myself. I let go of Sleazebag A's head and stood, and someone from behind wrapped me in a warm embrace and whispered at my ear.

"Seoha. Please calm yourself. There is no need to wound your heart by dealing, one by one, with those who do not even know what honor is."

At Franc's warmth and her whisper, the impulse that had been rising to a dangerous pitch began, slowly, to sink.

"Hooo…."

Even pale with fright, the bastard was still glaring at me. I met that glare head-on, switched on my Certifier, and called Aunt Hyeryeong.

While the ringtone went on, a strange feeling crept over me, and I looked around the shop. Every customer inside was staring at me with a face rigid with fear.

The triplets nearby were so locked up that a single touch would have made them strike on reflex, and what they were watching wasn't the punk. It was me.

…?

The princess tapped the twins' shoulders from behind and stepped forward, and that was when the call with Aunt Hyeryeong connected.

"Aunt. Among the department-head-level officers who came over from Hwarang, is there anyone with the surname Ha?"

"Department Head Ha Yucheol?"

Checking whether that was really his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠father's name, the punk flinched, his face asking how I could possibly know that.

"I need a detailed look into one person. Is there a way?"

"I'm heading up to my office right now, so please come yourself, and bring the security director. Department Head Ha Yucheol as well."

I hung up and looked at the princess. Her color had come back, and behind her Han Go-eun and the others were watching me with worried faces, wondering what was going on.

"Prin— Lydia, you'll need to come up to the office with me. Han Go-eun, you guys, I'm sorry, but…"

"The office? We can't see it too?"

At the words my office, Han Go-eun and Su Yu-ri seemed to have tossed aside the fright from a moment ago. Curiosity flooded back in, and they asked with their eyes sparkling.

"…Not right now. I'll show you later, so for now keep shopping and enjoy yourselves."

"Okay."

I felt a little sorry at the flicker of disappointment, but if that punk really was the son of a department head in the new raid team, the problem got big. Showing them that wouldn't do.

Kang So-ra, Kim Chang-hyun, and Kang Ju-chan seemed to have caught on to how this was going. Catching on and confirming it with your own eyes are different things.

Five big security guards in black uniforms strode quickly into the shop, came toward me, then flinched in surprise as if they recognized me. Had Aunt Hyeryeong called them? This was too fast for that.

Then I noticed a smartphone in one of the shop clerks' hands. That older girl must have reported it.

At the guards' appearance, Sleazebag A seemed to think they'd come to save him. He looked at them with an I'm-saved expression and shouted.

"H-hey, over here! Mister, I said over here!! This bastard's an ability user attacking a civilian…!"

The five ignored him. One of the guards saluted me and spoke in a calm voice.

"Park Sun-hyeong, Grand Blue security team. A report came in, so we were dispatched."

"Were we the ones reported as the assailants?"

"No, sir. The report was that two men of poor conduct approached shopping customers and committed sexual assault and sexual harassment."

"I see. If you dig into the circumstances, it isn't that simple, and we'll need to go upstairs. Would you help?"

"Of course."

Sleazebag A still didn't seem to understand a situation in which they ignored him and I talked with the guards. How ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stupid was he? Shouldn't he have caught on by now?

Just as the guards were about to haul the two punks to their feet, three men in uniforms different from theirs rushed into the shop. The five guards looked dumbfounded, then quickly stepped aside left and right with crisp, disciplined movements.

The executive protection detail, then.

All three newcomers were physical-reinforcement ability users. The man in the middle was F-Class, and the two flanking him were G-Class. So the security team had ability users too.

"Yoo Jun-kyung, Security Director of Grand Blue. I am acting on the orders of General Affairs Director Lee Hyeryeong."

Yoo Jun-kyung, with a bearing that was somehow a soldier's, raised a salute toward me. Only then did Sleazebag A seem to sense that things were turning strange. Unease spread across his face.

I explained the situation in brief. Director Yoo Jun-kyung nodded, sent the mall guards back, and ordered the two men beside him to restrain the punks.

"Ah, um, Seoha."

Su Yu-ri came over then, holding her smartphone in both hands, and showed me something.

"Here. I got everything that person said on this. Don't you need it?"

"Of course I do."

I'd been recording with the Certifier's video function partway through, but the more evidence, the better.

"I hadn't even thought of it. Thanks for grabbing it."

"Ah, i-it's nothing."

While I took the file from Su Yu-ri, who shook her head with a flushed face, the princess came out of the fitting room as well, changed back into her school uniform.

After that, with the security director guiding us, the princess and I left the swimsuit shop.

On the way to the elevator I ran into Kang Ju-chan. He was holding ice cream for every one of us, and when he saw me moving in a crowd with the princess, he blinked.

"The others are waiting in the shop, so go on. I've got something to take care of, so I'm heading out first."

He seemed to have sensed it wasn't a good matter. His face soured. Then he quietly nodded, turned, and went off toward the swimsuit shop.

Sharp, as expected.

I stepped into the wide elevator in the office wing, set my palm on the wall panel, and entered the fortieth floor. The car began to move fast and without a sound. The higher the floor, the more the two punks' faces died to a black pallor.

Watching them with a blank expression, I spoke.

"Can't you stop punks like this from coming into the mall and picking fights with customers?"

At the question that came out of me so suddenly, the security director flinched, then answered in a tense voice.

"That… is impossible. It is a complex shopping mall open to the public. The floating population is too large for us to screen them one by one. To prevent cases like this, we would have to ban outsiders from entering…"

"We can't do that. Then we'll need to increase mall patrols, or take some other measure, so this doesn't happen. To filter out abusive customers while we're at it."

"I will place it on the agenda for the next meeting."

I talked quietly with Security Director Yoo Jun-kyung, then slipped behind the punks and used Healing Touch.

Part of me wanted to just leave them, but I couldn't let them get a hospital certificate and put on a wheelchair-martyr show.

Sleazebag A's shoulder ligament was only slightly stretched, but maybe from the mental pressure he didn't seem to feel the pain. Thanks to that, he didn't notice I'd healed him either.

We entered the office on the top floor, and I sat at my desk. Sleazebag B's face had gone black, as if he might faint any second. Sleazebag A twitched at the eyebrow and glared at me with an expression of pure disbelief.

Soon another elevator opened. Aunt Hyeryeong, my sister, and a man I'd never seen came in together, bowed to me where I sat, and approached.

The moment the stranger entered, he looked at Sleazebag A in the security team's grip, and his expression grew heavy.

So that was Department Head Ha Yucheol. For a middle-aged man, he was hard to believe—big, and solidly built.

"…It is an honor to meet you, Master. I am Ha Yucheol, department head of Business Support Department 2."

Sleazebag A—Ha Cheolsu—saw his own father bow to me, and only then did his face die past black into something zombified.

Lydia was sitting on the sofa with the triplets, watching this side with curious eyes, her expression asking how I meant to handle it.

"Hello. I'm Jung Seoha. I'm sorry our first meeting has to be over something like this."

While Department Head Ha Yucheol couldn't find the next words, my sister came up beside me and looked around at the others in the office with a puzzled face.

"Master. May I ask what happened?"

…Oh. Hearing my sister call me Master improved my mood a little. It felt like I'd become someone who outranked her.

"First, let me introduce everyone. The person sitting on that sofa is Lydia Isla Marietta, a princess of the British royal family, here at Euihan High School for a one-month short-term study abroad."

The people seeing Lydia for the first time, Aunt included, looked at her in surprise. Lydia rose with elegance, bent her knees slightly, and offered a courteous greeting.

"And the ones held by the security team are the ones who spewed abuse and curses meant to sexually humiliate Princess Lydia. Please listen."

I opened the Certifier's video function and raised the hologram. The moment it showed them approaching the princess and being subdued, the remarks insulting the princess and the Queen, the slurs against my family and the murder threats aimed at me, every face in the office twisted.

Department Head Ha Yucheol in particular flushed as if his face would burst, then clenched his fists until he was trembling.

When the footage ended, he had his eyes closed and both arms hanging limp. He looked profoundly exhausted.

"Fortunately, Princess Lydia has no intention of making this an international issue, and she left the handling of it to me."

"Did I really?"

Lydia looked a little flustered. Under my gaze, she gave a small nod.

"Ah. That's right."

"I asked Department Head Ha Yucheol, the father of one of the parties, to be here so we can decide how to handle this without it becoming an international problem. And… I used a little force to stop Mr. Ha Cheolsu's abuse. That part needs to be checked as well."

I'd been confident this much was legitimate self-defense, which was why I'd kicked his leg, covered his mouth, and pinned his head. Still, thinking about it now, I wondered if I'd done something that could be picked apart. Well. Even if the thought had occurred to me then, there was a good chance ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'd have ignored it because of that unpleasant ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠impulse.

"No. What Master did was not violence. It was defensive action to protect your companions. As for my son…"

Department Head Ha Yucheol closed his eyes again, his face tight with strain, then forced the words out.

"I ask that the General Affairs Director and the Integrated Management Director see to it, through lawful procedure, that he receives severe punishment."

"Ah, Father! How can you say that!!"

"Shut your mouth! Do you imagine your worth is high enough that a diplomatic clash between Korea and Britain would be acceptable on your account! How many times have I told you! Conduct yourself properly!"

A voice like a tiger's roar filled the office, but the punk still hadn't come to his senses. With a wronged look, he thrashed, trying to free both arms from the security team's grip.

"I-I was just saying it without much thought, the way I always do! If you get down to it, that little brat's an ability user who swung on a civilian…!"

Smack.

Department Head Ha Yucheol stepped up to him and struck his cheek hard with a hand like a cauldron lid.

The blow sent the punk reeling. His cheek swelled red, and blood burst from both nostrils, streaming down his face.

Ha Yucheol stared at the dazed punk with fury, then turned with a face that seemed to have aged ten years, came to the front of my desk, took the employee badge from around his neck, and set it down before me.

"There is nothing I can say. I am sorry. The cause of the wrong my child committed lies with me, who failed to educate him properly. I will resign my post as department head and share my child's crime."

"…Department Head Ha, you don't need to go that far."

"No, General Affairs Director. For the father of a man who caused an incident this grave to hold a high post in a raid team is grounds to cast doubt on that team's integrity."

Aunt Hyeryeong turned to me with a troubled expression. My sister looked back and forth between me and Department Head Ha Yucheol, equally at a loss. Capable, then, and well regarded. That had to be what their faces meant.

In looks and in character he was like a tiger. I couldn't see how a wastrel like that punk had been born under a man like him.

Having come to, the punk now glared at Department Head Ha Yucheol as well, as if he meant to devour him, grinding his teeth and glittering his eyes like a viper. Looking at him, that bizarre impulse welled up again.

This is going to kill me. Why am I really like this.

I turned my gaze from him and picked up the badge Ha Yucheol had offered. Aunt Hyeryeong wore a look that said we absolutely could not accept the resignation, fidgeting where she stood, and my sister's face began to crease as well.

"I'll hold this badge temporarily until Boss Yoo Hwayeon and Boss Park Jiwoong return. We'll talk about Department Head Ha Yucheol again then."

"But…"

"Are you going to throw the work aside and walk out, irresponsibly, on the excuse that you're taking responsibility for your child's wrongdoing?"

"N-no."

"Right? So I think the proper thing is to review your treatment again where the raid team's key people are all gathered. The matter of Mr. Ha Cheolsu, though, can't be put off."

"Yes…"

I nodded to Department Head Ha Yucheol, who had bowed his head with a heavy look, and gave the security director his orders.

"Director, please look into whether Mr. Ha Cheolsu has other problems besides this incident, and do your best so he receives a punishment Princess Lydia can accept."

"Yes."

Partway through, I heard the punk grinding his teeth. Not a thought for his own fault—treating me as a mortal enemy, he didn't even wipe the blood running from his nose. He trembled and glared as if he meant to kill me.

Don't stare that blatantly. You cursed my parents and my family and threw murder threats around like they were nothing. No matter what happens, I won't leave you alone.

I put killing intent in my eyes and glared back. He flinched for an instant. To the end, though, he didn't look away, and his eyeballs glittered.