The Paperwork of Peace
President Baek Haeun set the stack of files aside and reached for her glasses. She wiped the lenses with the corner of her sleeve, but the haze that remained had nothing to do with dust. The real problem was the documents themselves.
“Prison B-block expansion budget, updated wanted posters for remaining villains, third post-war damage report, final casualty list…”
The piles on her desk had already swallowed the monitor whole. Another pile beside them. Another after that. Another after that.
Peace was supposed to arrive after the war ended. All that had arrived instead was paper.
She knew the thought was childish. Last time she had felt lighter had been before the final battle, when the body count had been almost nothing. No need for compensation. No need for reconstruction. No need for anything except the steady stream of captured villains that kept the Association’s power and budget growing. Those days had been simpler.
Haeun slid the glasses back onto her nose and leaned back in her chair. The chairman’s office.
The man who had once occupied this room had died during the war. She had fought hard for the position, but timing had been cruel.
“Thirty-six, and I’m the chairman…”
People would call it impressive. In reality she was a thirty-six-year-old woman who hadn’t married yet, who sat at dawn wrestling with mountains of paperwork.
She picked up her phone. A message from her father waited.
*Haeun, this weekend free? The boy next door is thirty-five this year and studying to be a doctor.*
Time off? Three villain cells had been spotted at the same time. The government had rejected the Association’s budget again. The compensation standards for families of the fallen had to be raised by tomorrow.
*Dad, I’m really busy lately.*
She sent the reply and let out a long breath. She had used that phrase too many times lately.
Her father had raised her alone, working night shifts, suffering bad women who broke his heart every time he tried to date. She owed him. She would make this up to him somehow.
If she could just weather this one final storm, things would finally settle.
She adjusted her glasses and picked up the next file.
The B-block expansion plan.
More captured villains had been taken than anyone had expected. The old facilities could no longer hold them all, so expansion was mandatory. The problem, however, was not merely money.
*The male villain detention wing separation criteria…*
Male ability users were rare in this world—estimated at one in ten thousand. Even rarer were villainous male ability users.
The Association had seen the face of one such man only a handful of times in years.
Rare meant precious. Precious meant difficult to handle.
Ability user or not, male detainees could not be placed in the same wing as female ones. Regulations forbade it. Public opinion would never allow it.
Any article that read *“What kind of environment are they forcing these men into?”* would be the last straw for the current Association.
Haeun swallowed the bitter taste and stamped the approval seal on the expansion proposal.
Next file.
*Operation: Hunt the Fugitive Villains.*
The list of escaped villains after the organization’s collapse floated on the monitor. Most were low-level members—low combat power, no organization left to rely on.
She scanned the list and marked them in red.
A-grade—immediate arrest. High combat potential, possible re-formation.
B-grade—surveillance then arrest. Could operate alone but threat level was moderate.
C-grade—encourage voluntary surrender. Not a threat as individuals.
The pen stopped on one name.
*Chaerin.*
A-grade.
Telekinesis. Top-tier combat ability.
Missing right after the collapse.
Haeun stared at Chaerin’s profile picture. A gloomy face, dark circles, eyes that looked at the camera with complete indifference.
The hardest kind to catch.
They moved on their own judgment, not loyalty.
*We have to capture her…*
She muttered under her breath, then shook her head. Even with all available staff, they could not pursue every A-grade at once. Most Magic Girls were still recovering from war trauma; only a fraction had returned to active duty.
Among those who had returned, only two could take an A-grade on their own: Paladin—Han Seoyul—and Iris—
*Irin.*
Haeun’s hand froze.
Irin.
Rank 1.
Second Awakening.
Purple chains.
After the war, Irin had vanished from all official activities. She ignored Association summons. She skipped post-war briefings. When contacted, she refused meetings.
*“I have a civilian under protection.”*
That was all Irin had said.
A Rank 1 Magic Girl using civilian protection as an excuse to drop every responsibility.
Technically within regulations. Protecting civilians was something the Association encouraged for ability users.
But Haeun’s gut said otherwise.
She pulled a classified document from the stack.
*Top-secret…*
*Final war report.*
*Records from the moment the Mana Condensation Pillar collapsed.*
*“At the moment of nuclear-level destruction, one unidentified ability user’s mana response vanished. Suspected affiliation with villains. Identity unknown.”*
Identity unknown.
Haeun traced the four words with her finger.
The one who had destroyed the pillar had been a villain.
He had smashed his own organization’s core with his own hands. In the process his mana response had vanished.
Death estimated.
Yet.
Haeun turned the monitor on and opened the ability-user database.
List of personnel affiliated with villains.
Those who had taken part in combat during the war.
She checked every name.
Death confirmed. Captured. Escaped. Death confirmed. Captured. Escaped. Death confirmed.
Her finger stopped on one line.
*Yoon Siwu. Male. Top-tier magic aptitude. Transformation: Black Crow Wings.*
*Status: Death estimated (mana response vanished).*
*Notes: Mana response vanished near the time of Mana Condensation Pillar destruction. Body not recovered.*
Body not recovered.
Haeun removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes.
Death estimated, yet no body.
They had processed it as death because the mana response vanished, but they could not recover the corpse.
The report stated the field had been buried when the pillar collapsed.
Yet.
Haeun opened another file.
Reports from Magic Girls present at the final battle site.
Irin’s report was short.
Unusually short.
*“Confirmed pillar destruction. Wing collapse. One villain-affiliated ability user death estimated. No abnormalities.”*
No abnormalities.
The day she achieved the Second Awakening ended with the words “no abnormalities.”
Han Seoyul’s report contained a different sentence.
*“Immediately after the pillar collapse, Irin rushed toward the destruction site. Could not be stopped. Spent approximately seven minutes searching through the rubble, then left alone. Has not rejoined since.”*
Seven minutes.
Searching through the rubble.
Alone.
Haeun placed the two reports side by side.
Irin had thrown herself into the rubble the moment the pillar fell.
Seven minutes searching for something.
Then she had vanished alone.
Other reports confirmed most Magic Girls had stayed far from the pillar, which was why they believed it had collapsed and the villains had won.
But Jeong Yuha—the Saintess, the new recruit who stood out for her rare healing magic—had been one of the few who had reached the pillar’s vicinity.
She had witnessed Irin facing off against a villain with black wings and had reported it.
Alone departure. After that, Irin had dropped every activity.
*“I have a civilian under protection.”*
Only that.
Yoon Siwu.
A male ability user.
Mana response vanished.
Body not recovered.
And circumstantial evidence pointed to him as the prime suspect for destroying the pillar.
Haeun slowly slid her glasses back on.
“…Is he alive?”
The words dropped into the empty office like stones.
No one answered.
If he was alive…
A villainous ability user was being hidden by the Rank 1 Magic Girl.
Regulations demanded immediate handover of the captive.
But.
Haeun set the pen down.
Irin was Rank 1.
The Magic Girl who had achieved the Second Awakening—the unparalleled hero who had ended the war.
Turning her into an enemy would make the Association impossible to hold.
Finishing off stragglers. Operating the prisons. Post-war reconstruction—everything depended on Irin’s cooperation.
Yoon Siwu.
One of the rarest male ability users.
Top-tier. Stunning enough to look like an idol from his photo.
If they could reform him inside the prison…
He would become the greatest propaganda asset of the post-war era.
Perhaps a reliable card.
Popular.
Controllable.
If he failed… Irin would turn against the Association, and public opinion among civilians would shatter.
*“Negotiation. This is a negotiation…”*
Haeun picked up a fresh sheet of paper and picked up her pen.
She wrote the title.
*“Irin—Request for Interview (Draft).”*
She stared at the words for a long time.
The pen trembled above the paper.
The most difficult negotiation of her thirty-six-year life.
She glanced at the clock.
Three in the morning.
A message from her father waited.
*Have you eaten yet, daughter?*
Haeun read the message, turned the phone over, and set it aside.
If this one task went smoothly…
If she could firmly secure the position of chairman…
She did not know.
Right now she had no time to think about that.
She splashed her face with cold water, picked up the next file, and read on.
***
At the same time, in a narrow alley.
“Start the engine.”
Cars carrying several men in black clothes idled.
The Black Hand headquarters had fallen.
A crack had begun to spread across the impregnable fortress everyone had once thought unbeatable.
The cars stopped in front of the construction site.
People began to get out.
“Push!”
The place looked like an unfinished construction zone, but there was a path underground.
One of the Black Hand’s lower branches.
The timing was perfect—some members were absent because of the conscription.
“Those bastards! Stop them!”
Men in suits pulled knives from inside their jackets.
The few who charged first were easily taken down, but the numbers pushing and falling downward were too many and too strong.
One of the many organizations that had waited for the Black Hand to shake.
To them this site was
nothing more than a lower branch.
A lower branch with its core personnel out.
An empty house, nothing more.
The men who had once spewed blood and slogans from all sides fell one by one, their bodies cut to pieces.
“Even the Black Hand is nothing now.”
Deeper inside the battlefield, among the dying comrades, a villain gripped his pocket watch tightly.
She was an ability user.
If she transformed, no one would feel her mana. But the Association would detect it.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it!”
“What if the headquarters guy and the branch chief aren’t here!”
She shoved the remaining members as far back as possible and slipped toward another exit.
Failing to hold the position would be only disciplinary. But summoning the Association here would dismantle the entire branch and trigger pursuit—whether the villains fled or were captured.
One life was not enough to end the nightmare.
“Please… pick up the phone.”
Her phone, still ringing with unanswered calls, displayed a message.
Caller: Chaerin.