The Public Enemy Within
"Water... alcohol, huh?"
I watched the bewildered Park Tae-joon and let out a soft chuckle. The black void inside me still hadn't figured out what it truly craved, but if it could use this kid, it would damn well use him.
"It's not that hard... but somehow it feels impossible to swallow. I really want to try it once, though."
The boy recovered some of his composure. Controlling his emotions like this was impressively quick for a kid his age.
"Let's go. During break, I'll introduce you to the others."
He led me out of the classroom. I followed without a word.
Kim Su-jeong's helpless gaze clung to us, but I gave her a nod to reassure her.
"There are a lot of girls there. Su-han is like that too... I'll handle her. It's just a misunderstanding."
"Doesn't matter."
I smiled brightly.
I had zero interest in these childish games. My only focus right now was the loot I could harvest and the evil truth locked inside Park Tae-joon.
"Jin-ah..."
Break time had turned the classroom into a noisy mess. Kim Su-jeong stared at the empty seat beside her and muttered blankly.
I was glad to have made a new friend at this unfamiliar school, but that friend had just vanished into thin air, leaving her alone.
"Hey. The new transfer student."
"Your name's Kim Su-jeong, right?"
A few classmates approached her. All girls from the same class.
She flinched at first, then slowly nodded.
"Are you close with the other new kid?"
"Don't be too tense."
The girls chatted with her naturally despite the awkwardness.
Even Kim Su-jeong, who usually guarded herself against strangers, began to loosen up. These were just ordinary middle school girls, not scary seniors or abusive fathers.
"But Jin-ah..."
By the time break was almost over and Kim Su-jeong had relaxed enough to speak first.
"That..."
"Your name's Jin-ah, right? I..."
When Lee Jin-ah's name came up, the friends' atmosphere stiffened slightly.
Kim Su-jeong panicked, but the bell rang just then. She couldn't clear up the misunderstanding and the girls scattered back to their seats.
"What happened?"
"Mmm? Nothing much."
By then Lee Jin-ah had returned with Park Tae-joon.
Kim Su-jeong's eyes, filled with that unreadable abyss, shook as they met the gaze staring back at her.
"It's fine. At least there are friends who came to greet you first."
"But they misjudged you. We'll fix that misunderstanding later."
"No... that's not it. Pull yourself together."
Kim Su-jeong forced a cheerful tone. Lee Jin-ah shook her head firmly.
"W-what are you talking about?"
"I need something from Park Tae-joon's gang. So I'll be hanging around them for a while. But they scare the other kids. Right?"
"Yeah..."
"So you can't play together here at school. Grab those new friends tight. If it comes to it, you can insult them in front of me. They probably won't mind."
Social politics was basic survival in any group. The easiest way to join a clique was to make someone your public enemy.
Lee Jin-ah, a ruler and adult in this world, knew this axiom perfectly well.
But young Kim Su-jeong didn't. Insulting friends to get closer to others? It was impossible for her to accept.
"I don't really understand what you're saying."
"Then just think of it as something we're all doing for the greater good."
Lee Jin-ah clicked her tongue and ended the conversation. Unlike Kim Su-jeong, who always relied on her, the Demon King had never planned to play caretaker from the start.
...
Kim Su-jeong lowered her head in confusion.
The conversation during class ended there. The moment break resumed, Lee Jin-ah kicked open the classroom door again and strode out.
"What did you talk about? I peeked and... they didn't look that friendly."
"I don't know. Were they always like that?"
To the approaching friends, Kim Su-jeong frowned and muttered.
Something still felt off about calling it a change.
Thinking back, Lee Jin-ah had always looked the same since the moment they met. Even from the moment she stepped in to take a punch meant for her, until now. The only thing that had truly changed was Kim Su-jeong's own heart.
"Why? Feeling bad?"
"No... I'm fine."
Kim Su-jeong clutched her chest, which was inexplicably pounding.
*
"You..."
"Again, huh?"
This was the middle-school adaptation phase for the middle-schoolers.
At the nearby high school, an eerie atmosphere hung thick in the air.
Jeon So-hyun had arrived at school after a long absence. Her delinquent presence was impossible to ignore. She spotted Aria, the magical girl, and now the ordinary student Han Eun-seo and her brow twitched.
"Hah, whatever."
She bit her lip and walked past Han Eun-seo with icy coolness.
"I heard you're entering the facility."
The moment Han Eun-seo spoke, So-hyun stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes narrowed in fury as she glared at her.
"You bastard..."
"I know everything. How you survived Takilas's attack too. Don't cause any more trouble and behave quietly..."
"How much do you know!"
Unable to hold back, So-hyun grabbed So-hyun's collar despite the stares. But Han Eun-seo's expression remained ice-cold. She seized So-hyun's wrist with a strength that allowed no resistance and yanked her hand away.
"I have connections in the right circles. And you don't. That night was a miracle. Way more people died than survived."
"Urgh..."
She thrashed against the invisible pressure, but her fingers didn't even twitch.
"A miracle..."
"You met Takilas, didn't you?"
In those serious eyes, So-hyun swallowed hard.
Han Eun-seo hadn't slept a wink or eaten a thing since that night, the one right after the attack. She had faced the Demon Realm's dragon that Takilas summoned. The pressure she had overcome had been an overwhelming shock.
Unresistable fear. The overwhelming mana that had chilled her to the bone.
"So cherish this second life I gave you."
"I-I won't do anything like that again. I'll just work normal part-time jobs."
So-hyun, crushed by the pressure, finally nodded. Han Eun-seo released her.
"Why does she care so much about that kid? She wasn't like that before."
"...You have to be more careful now. She caught your eye, and those kinds of people get entangled easily. I just warned her."
As she watched So-hyun's retreating back, Han Eun-seo adjusted her glasses and kept walking.
But her mascot Ruru looked utterly bewildered.
"Those evil spirits she commands wouldn't be the ones getting chewed up by that thing, right?"
"But is that info really confirmed?"
She double-checked with the grumbling Ruru.
There was a separate reason she was this on edge after the night's injuries.
One of the reports from her agency was a prediction about a kaijin appearance. The creature had been marked as high-risk even by the fairy companies. And it was a top-secret piece of intelligence: this massive being was about to step onto Earth, specifically in this country.
"Confirmed. The kaijin Mammut who rules pleasure and desire. That bastard has finally... set foot on this planet. And it's our district, no less!"
Ruru's voice rose with tension.
An aberration level that matched SS-grade threats. The experienced magical girls were all on alert.
Since it was a mutual threat, they couldn't act rashly and steal its spotlight.
"The guy's main move is to lure normal people in, corrupt them, and turn them into his minions. The negative energy that comes from it is his food. We have to stop him before he gets too good at snatching magical girls alive!"
"I know that too. Good thing you're talking about it."
Mammut's information was already public. And Han Eun-seo had decided to report it to the Management Bureau.
"Kaijin Mammut. His ability is to enslave evil spirits and pollute people, bringing chaos."
"Another crazy monster..."
"We have to stop it."
"Yeah. Obviously."
Han Eun-seo's report triggered an emergency meeting in an instant.
The director of the Management Bureau rubbed his face with a sigh. The job was surprisingly stressful, enough to make anyone burn out. Handling the abnormal was to be expected.
"Aria alone isn't enough."
"This is a matter for the fairy companies, the contract partners of the magical girls."
Oh Yun-seo focused entirely on the briefing. When fairy-related topics came up, everyone flinched.
After all, the fairies who created the magical girls had been the ones to upend the world in the first place.
"Then what? What can we actually do?"
"Thorough information collection and monitoring... I suppose."
In the end, the Management Bureau retreated again and had no choice but to rely on the magical girls' actions.
"That damage will come back to us anyway, damn it. First, we set up a plan. Monitor like hell and report any anomalies immediately!"
Of course there was work to be done.
HP: [x] / [max]