Extrajudicial Authority
The weakest, and yet the most powerful Awakened.
That was the epithet the world had given me — Lee Dohwa.
The press, the public, and the hunters themselves were startlingly unanimous in their assessment. The gods had granted the woman named Lee Dohwa overwhelming power, they said — but they had never given her a vessel capable of controlling it, or of bearing its weight.
A cold countenance. Features cut as if with a blade. A beauty so severe it seemed a pinprick wouldn't draw a single drop of blood.
She looked more ruthless than anyone alive. And yet, inside, she was unbearably fragile.
Easily swayed by other people's voices. Easily taken in. A woman who possessed immense power and still couldn't make a decision of her own, always trying to hide behind someone else's back. A soul that feared conflict, feared being hated, and gasped beneath the weight of the power she'd been given.
That was the life Lee Dohwa had lived until now. That was how the world looked at me.
And so the gazes of hunters and civilians alike were always thick with unease. A single unspoken consensus circulated among them.
An Awakened that weak-willed, that indecisive, should never have been given power like that.
And today was the day that fear became reality. The day the frail strongest being in the country would be inaugurated as President of the Hunter Association — the very summit of every hunter in South Korea.
I stood before the mirror and studied my reflection. Black hair falling to my waist. Crimson eyes. A figure even a tailored suit couldn't quite conceal.
As I stared at the woman in the glass, a tidal wave of information crashed through my mind.
...A past life.
A modern fantasy novel I had read, once. A supporting character who appeared in that novel — and who, in the end, degenerated into the root of all evil. That character was the woman standing in front of this mirror. The woman named Lee Dohwa.
The Lee Dohwa of the novel had been so fragile, so thoroughly manipulated by everyone around her, that she eventually became a puppet of the politicians. They slapped the title of Association President on her head, draped her in every kind of filth and corruption, and turned her into a hunting dog that handled the government's dirty work.
The original ending, as I remembered it, was wretched. Branded as the mastermind behind every Gate scandal and every case of hunter exploitation, Lee Dohwa took the fall for all of it. They cut her loose. Poisoned until she couldn't even use her power, then abandoned in the heart of an S-class Gate.
That was how Lee Dohwa's story ended.
"Ha."
If there was a mercy in any of it, it was that there were no side effects — no headache, no fracturing of the self. Twenty years of memories lived as Lee Dohwa had bled together like watercolor, dissolving naturally into a single whole. There was no confusion. If anything, the world had snapped into a resolution so sharp it was almost frightening.
I slowly retraced the life this woman had lived. A life of possessing the strongest power in existence, and still spending every moment watching someone else's face. Years of bowing her head to whoever shouted the loudest. Years of surrendering her own rights.
Why I had been seated as Association President was painfully transparent. A fool with overwhelming strength who was easy to steer. A sturdy scarecrow to hide their graft and rot behind. And so, somehow, I had ended up as the 17th President of the Hunter Association.
"Get a grip, Dohwa. If you don't want to end up like that."
I murmured it low, to the woman in the mirror.
An hour later, the murmur of reporters washed over me.
"Stay back! No closer than that!"
"Ms. Lee Dohwa! As Association President, what will your first move—!"
"Even as controversy swirls over whether she should hold the office at all..."
Arrayed around me were members of the National Assembly, figures from politics and business, and hunters, all standing in formation. Their expressions could not have been more sharply divided. Naked greed and triumph gleamed on the assemblymen's faces. The hunters, by contrast, looked as wretched as if they were staring at a corpse.
I supposed I could more or less read what they were thinking.
The moment Lee Dohwa takes office, the Hunter Association will become nothing more than a dirty subcontractor for the Korean government and its politicians...
That would be it.
I stepped out of the limousine and set my foot on the ground. Through a barrage of camera flashes I walked forward, my face expressionless, my pace unhurried.
Waiting for me in the front row was Representative Kim Hak-su — a ruling-party heavyweight and Chairman of the Hunter Special Committee — who came toward me wearing a warm, good-natured smile.
"Ahh, our seventeenth Association President! President Lee Dohwa! My sincerest congratulations on your inauguration!"
He scraped and bowed, seizing my right hand in both of his. His manner was scrupulously deferential. The arrogance and contempt coiled in his eyes were another matter. There was hunger in them, too. Well — even I had to admit I was easy on the eyes.
The other assemblymen crowded in to shake my hand as well, pouring out nauseating praise.
"We look forward to close cooperation between the Association and the government going forward, Madam President!"
"The safety and future of the Republic of Korea rest on your shoulders. Haha!"
I accepted each handshake in turn, and offered them a faint, pleasant smile. Still holding that smile, I let my gaze sweep the crowd. Then I opened my mouth, and my voice came out very soft, very calm.
"So... the Hunter Association President has something called Extrajudicial Authority, doesn't she."
In the intermittent click of camera shutters, the politicians' expressions stiffened, just slightly.
Extrajudicial Authority. In the turbulent years after the Gates first opened and the Awakened appeared, the government had granted a single person — the President of the Hunter Association — an absolute, misshapen power, in order to stave off a bloody collision between superhuman Awakened and a state desperate to preserve the old order. Command authority over monster hunts was only the beginning. The power to arrest criminals involved with Awakened. Summary judgment over political offenders who threatened national security. The authority to investigate tax evasion by major guilds and corporations. Even the authority to investigate military corruption. It was an absurd iron-fist ruling power, one that leapt over every judicial system and procedure in the Republic of Korea and allowed the Association President to mobilize force and control everything on nothing but her own personal judgment.
Of course, it had only ever been authority in name. The first Association President had never used it. No Association President in history had ever used it. None of them had even spoken it aloud. It was a dead statute, never once put into practice.
And I had just mentioned it. At my own inauguration.
I could read their thoughts in the faintly mocking look on their faces.
They think I'm going to lay that authority down.
Representative Kim Hak-su arranged his features into something solemn and benevolent, and nodded.
"Ah, of course, I'm well aware. A rusty leftover from a bygone era. If you wish to lay down that heavy burden yourself, the National Assembly would be more than happy to move toward repealing the statute..."
"No."
I cut him off, and let the corner of my mouth curl into a smile.
"I mean that I will be putting that law into effect. As of this moment."
"...Excuse me?"
Kim Hak-su's dazed echo was joined a beat later by a similarly stupid What? bursting from the hunters.
Without releasing his hand, I spoke.
My gaze was steady as I looked, one by one, across the faces of the five assemblymen lined up in front of me. The leeches gnawing this country down to the bone. I already knew their crimes. I had read the novel, hadn't I?
Representative Kim Hak-su. Illegal trafficking of A-class Gate Magic Stone mining rights, and the establishment of a slush fund amounting to three billion won.
Representative Choi Tae-ho. Embezzlement of Hunter family support funds, and illegal labor exploitation of minor Awakened.
Representative Park Jin-woo. Smuggling of Ministry of National Defense anti-monster military supplies, and facilitation of illegal arms trading.
Representative Lee Hyeong-cheol. Sponsorship of an illegal human-experimentation guild, and the kidnapping and unlawful confinement of whistleblowers.
Representative Jeong Man-su. Willful neglect of Gates in redevelopment zones, resulting in the massacre of civilians.
The assemblymen's faces went white as paper in an instant.
Silence.
In a hush so complete that even the camera flashes stopped firing, Representative Kim Hak-su — still holding my hand — gave an awkward twitch of his facial muscles. Cold sweat poured down his face. He worked his bloodless lips and squeezed out a laugh.
"Ha, haha...! Madam President, the jokes are a bit much for inauguration day! I understand you're trying to break the tension, but this kind of joke is a little past the line..."
"A joke?"
I wiped the smile from my lips, cold as a blade.
"Does this look like a joke to you."
I put strength into my grip.
CRACK. GRIND.
Flesh and muscle burst apart. Bone fragments pulverized into powder.
"AAAAAARGHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Kim Hak-su's eyes rolled back in his head as the scream tore out of him. He hit the ground where he stood, foaming at the mouth, and rolled across the floor. His right hand had been mashed into a pulp of blood and meat, crushed beyond recognition, dangling from his wrist.
The government bodyguards recoiled, hands flying to the weapons at their hips — but the aura I released crushed them in place. Not one of them managed a single step. Aside from Kim Hak-su, screaming and thrashing, no one made a sound. Police, politicians, hunters, reporters — every last one of them had frozen, holding their breath.
I turned my gaze and called to the secretary frozen behind me.
"Yuri."
She was just as gone — mouth hanging open, frozen solid.
"Don't make me say it twice."
"Y-yes!!!!"
"Throw these pig bastards in the basement."
"Yes!!!!"
I gave my bloodied hand a light shake, and spoke, quietly.