Day 18
“Hey, Jin Yu-ri! Have you lost your mind?”
“Ah—no! That’s not what I—”
At Kang Ye-seul’s sudden shout, Jin Yu-ri’s face went blank with shock.
Confusion and panic were no less fierce in her own chest. If anything, they burned hotter than in Kang Ye-seul, who had merely watched. After all, she—a Rank 2 hero—had just charged a girl who looked no older than fifteen or sixteen, powers blazing.
And yet…
Why did I rush at Seo-ah like that?
The bewilderment lasted only a moment before the question rose unbidden.
Cheon Seo-ah, for her part, looked back and forth between the two flustered women and spoke with perfect calm.
“I’ll be heading out now.”
“Huh? Wait—why?”
“I can’t keep imposing any longer.”
Jin Yu-ri stammered; Seo-ah answered as if nothing at all were wrong. Jin Yu-ri, however, read it differently. She was certain the girl wanted to escape because she was afraid—afraid of the hero who had just lunged at her with powers drawn.
She opened her mouth to protest.
“Do you have somewhere to go?”
Kang Ye-seul stepped neatly in front of her and cut in.
“I should head home now.”
Seo-ah’s reply only confirmed what Kang Ye-seul had already begun to suspect: this was no ordinary runaway. The clothes, the manner—everything—failed to match the usual atmosphere of a girl on the streets. What Kang Ye-seul sensed instead was something far simpler: the brief, willful fling of a rich young lady. Nothing more, nothing less.
Still…
“Th-then how about staying here for tonight? It’s late. You can go home tomorrow. I’ll talk to your parents for you, okay?”
Heroic duty, maybe. Or simply her nature. Jin Yu-ri could not bring herself to send a young girl out alone at this hour and kept trying, desperately, to persuade her.
It was useless. Seo-ah had already decided to leave, and once her mind was set, no one could turn her.
They weren’t bad people, though.
“I’ll come visit sometime. That much is all right, isn’t it?”
“Huh? Oh—of course it is.”
Seo-ah smiled lightly. Jin Yu-ri found herself nodding before she quite realized it.
“You can come out now.”
The moment they left the house Jin Yu-ri and Kang Ye-seul shared and stepped into a deserted alley, Seo-ah spoke. The only light was a faint streetlamp; not even a stray cat showed itself. Yet she continued as if someone were absolutely, inevitably there.
“Chilgeomje. That child sent you, didn’t he?”
Heavy silence settled over the alley while she stood alone. Then her voice grew colder still.
“If you keep this up, I’ll have no choice but to tell Chilgeomje. So if this is a prank, stop it here.”
Emotion drained from her eyes. The voice that left her small mouth turned glacial.
The surrounding shadows rippled, and several figures emerged—three men and women in all. Among them, a youth with a deliberately slovenly air clicked his tongue, making no effort to hide his irritation.
“Tch. Sharp little thing. Or does she have some kind of ability?”
He glared at Seo-ah with open distaste.
“What the hell does the Master even see in a brat like that…”
“Silence. We only need to carry out the Master’s orders.”
A woman answered him, her presence sharp as a drawn blade. She wore a crisp black suit and dark sunglasses that hid her eyes—the very image of a bodyguard from a drama. She frowned at the youth’s continued grumbling, then turned and bowed deeply toward Seo-ah.
“I apologize for the earlier discourtesy, miss.”
Her posture and tone placed herself firmly beneath Seo-ah. Yet—
“Do you know something?”
Seo-ah smiled faintly at her.
“To be honest, I felt nothing at all about that ‘child’s’ words or behavior.”
Child?
Is this little shit calling me a kid right now?
The youth nearly exploded, but a second man—an eerie figure whose entire body was formed of wavering shadow—restrained him at once.
The woman who had bowed only looked puzzled, unable to follow Seo-ah’s meaning.
“I’ve long since passed the age where I would flutter over a child’s clumsy attempts at emotional expression. Still, even at my age, there are a few things I truly dislike.”
“Things… you dislike, miss?”
She still could not fully grasp the words, yet the order had come from their Master—one of the nine rulers of the Illuminati, Chilgeomje himself. So she maintained her subordinate bearing without fail.
Seo-ah regarded her with eyes empty of every emotion.
“Liars.”
A violent tremor ran through the woman’s body the instant the word left Seo-ah’s lips.
“Of course, a certain amount of lying is unavoidable if one wishes to live in society. That does not mean you need to keep performing the role of a liar in front of me.”
A low laugh escaped the woman the moment Seo-ah finished.
“Really now.”
Her tone had changed. Not only her tone.
“When did you notice, little one?”
“Hmm… from the start? More precisely, the moment our eyes met.”
“Some mind-reading ability, was it? Ha. Then I’m completely screwed.”
The sudden transformation startled even the slovenly youth and the shadow-formed freak. They had worked beside this woman for three full years and had never once seen her like this.
The youth stammered,
“N-Noona? Why are you suddenly—!”
Crack!
“Guh—!”
A bone-breaking impact rang out; the youth collapsed with a strangled cry. In the blink of an eye she had moved and subdued him. The shadow freak jerked into motion, alarmed.
“Who the hell are you?!”
Shraaa—!
He unraveled the shadows that composed his body into whip-like threads and lashed them at her from every direction—dozens of shadow lashes pouring in at once. The woman merely swung her fist as if annoyed.
Thud-thud-thud!
Her punches moved faster than the eye could follow, batting every lash aside. The freak’s eyes flew wide. The woman he knew possessed teleportation; her physical ability had always been mediocre compared to other ability users. The strength she displayed now rivaled a body-enhancement user of at least Rank 6.
“Mm…?”
With heavy, sinking eyes he studied her—and then let out a low sound. Whether from incomplete defense or the shock of the clash, a faint scratch marked her left cheek. Yet instead of blood, another layer of skin showed beneath.
“What…?”
“Ahaha, you don’t know? This is called a Human-Skin Mask!”
As the shadow freak cried out in horror, the woman grinned and tore the mask away. The hyper-realistic covering peeled free, revealing her true face. Recognition hit him like a blow; his entire body shuddered.
“The Mad… woman…?”
“Fuck! Who the hell are you calling Madwoman?!”
She roared at his mutter.
“Seriously, why am I the Madwoman? I honestly can’t understand—!”
BOOM!
“Guhahk—!”
Her fist shot out and smashed into the freak’s abdomen; he screamed as he was launched backward. Only after flying dozens of meters did he tumble across the ground and stop. Constantly keeping his ability active had let him survive the blow, but a long hospital stay was now unavoidable.
Having dealt with the shadow freak as well, the Madwoman turned.
“Heh. So this brat is the little darling that great Chilgeomje dotes on so much?”
Faint madness flickered in her eyes as she looked down at Seo-ah. Seo-ah parted her lips lightly.
“How did you obtain that?”
“Hah?”
“That thing can’t be found on Earth.”
“You little shit of a brat, what the fuck have you been yapping about this whole time?”
With every word the madness in her gaze thickened. Seo-ah stared straight into those eyes and spoke.
“Mad Dragon. That is not a soft-body technique humans are permitted to practice.”
A violent shudder seized the Madwoman the instant the name left Seo-ah’s mouth. At the same moment—
Crunch—!
Her hand clamped brutally around Seo-ah’s throat.
“Where. Did. You. Hear. That.”
She growled like a savage beast. For the first time since arriving on Earth, Seo-ah’s eyes curved into perfect crescent moons.
“Who knows?”
“You little bitch—!”
Realizing she was being mocked, the Madwoman exploded with rage and swung her free left hand. Shaped like a dragon’s claw, the strike tore through the air, ready to shred Seo-ah’s skull—
Shhhk—.
A clean, almost elegant cutting sound rang out.
“Wh… at…?”
Beginning with the hand that still gripped Seo-ah’s neck, the Madwoman’s body collapsed into hundreds, thousands of neat pieces.
And behind the falling fragments stood Chilgeomje—one of the nine rulers of the Illuminati, a man who had never bowed his head to anyone—his face rigid as stone as he lowered it toward Seo-ah.
“I apologize.”