Goblin Slayer Girl (2)
The low, resonant hum of an engine filled the air.
A sleek black Cadillac Escalade.
It was a top-tier transport vehicle provided by the government for high-ranking Awakened. Though it had that typical rugged American bulk, there was no better ride for ferrying VIPs.
Inside sat Yu Jihun, Lee Suyeon, and another Awakened handpicked by the state—a quiet young boy.
Despite his age, he was a mage of considerable skill: Kim Ri-el. He had been a strong candidate for recruitment when Jihun was forming his guild.
“Is your name seriously Ri-el?”
Jihun asked again.
“Yes.”
“Ha… This country is going to hell.”
“It’s already on its way.”
“Ha. Says the guy named Kim Ri-el.”
“Did I make it fall apart?”
“……”
At least those two were talking, even if the conversation was awkward. Suyeon, on the other hand, refused to make eye contact with either of them. She simply stared out the window.
There was one person she couldn’t stop worrying about.
What’s going to happen to Junil oppa if they kill the World Boss today?
She already knew the answer.
He would lose his Awakening.
But she had no idea what that would mean for his life. Given how hard he’d fought to survive as an F-rank, it seemed like he had an incredibly strong will to live as an Awakened. Wouldn’t having that taken away be devastating?
She hoped he wouldn’t be swallowed by despair.
“By the way, why the hell is Kang Hae-il insisting on coming alone?”
Ting!
Jihun muttered as he lit a cigarette.
“Hey. You’re smoking inside the car? There’s a kid here.”
“Ah… Habit. Sorry.”
Hiss.
Jihun extinguished the cigarette with his ice-covered hand and tucked it away.
“……”
Suyeon glared at him for a moment before turning her gaze back to the window.
Sigh.
A soft exhale escaped her lips.
Jihun watched her quietly.
She’s gotten a lot pricklier since the last incident.
Ever since she’d made contact with Moon Junil, she’d changed.
“Anyway, where is that bastard?”
Jihun asked the people in the front seats. They were government officials. The one in the passenger seat was Kim Daecheol from the Special Disaster Management Headquarters.
“Ah. He’s on his way. No need to worry.”
He answered while stroking his signature scruffy beard.
“Why is he coming alone in the first place? Is being S-rank some kind of special privilege for solo action?”
“Come on, it’s not like that.”
Kim Daecheol waved his hand with a chuckle and explained.
“He says a motorcycle is better in emergencies, so he always brings it.”
“……You’ve got to be kidding me. What a pain.”
Jihun had initially dismissed it as nonsense.
“Whoa, whoa?”
A sudden commotion erupted from the front seats.
“The, the cars are all suddenly driving the wrong way?”
“What? Hey! This is a one-way street!! You’re the ones going the wrong—”
The driver suddenly started spouting nonsense about everyone else driving the wrong way—then crashed the car.
BOOM!
“You… son of a…”
Hiss…!
Smoke billowed from the wrecked vehicle as Jihun, Suyeon, and Ri-el barely managed to climb out.
“Haa… I, I’m truly sorry. The traffic in this area is a bit… unusual… My mistake…”
Of course, it hadn’t been a mistake.
Zap—
Kim Ri-el sensed a strange flow of mana and spoke.
“There’s… something here.”
He couldn’t identify exactly what it was at his level.
“This place feels wrong.”
But he could definitely feel that something beyond his comprehension had taken control of the area.
“The… filming crew is following us. You can ride with them. Unfortunately… we don’t have any seats left for ourselves.”
“It’s fine. I’ll drive.”
Jihun volunteered, sliding into the driver’s seat and starting the engine.
A short while later.
They stepped out of a surprisingly shabby car and set foot in the Mok-dong academy district.
Hm?
Jihun noticed it the moment he got out.
Something was off about this place.
“Where did all the people go?”
“Didn’t the government evacuate everyone? They gave us that information.”
Suyeon answered.
In truth, this wasn’t her own reasoning—it was the effect of the barrier Isilen had cast. A convenient rationalization.
“Is that so?”
Jihun nodded, accepting the explanation without question.
Once inside the barrier’s range, there was no resisting its influence.
“But if there are no people, that’s going to be a problem…”
“?”
Suyeon looked at him like he was speaking nonsense.
If there were no people, there would be no casualties. Wasn’t that a good thing?
“You’re looking at me like you don’t get it. Casualties give us justification for intervening. Don’t you know? Without them, our position becomes awkward.”
“……How can you say something like that? So you’re saying kids have to die here for us to have a reason!?”
“Ha.”
Jihun let out a cold, mocking laugh.
“So that’s what you are? I thought you had a decent head on your shoulders.”
“!?”
Now that Suyeon’s screen time had increased, quite a few Constellations were watching her stream as well.
Her viewers called Jihun an insufferable prick.
But in truth, he was right.
There was real risk involved in defeating the World Boss. The majority of Awakened would lose their powers. The World Boss needed to demonstrate a threat greater than that risk for them to have any justification to act.
Suyeon knew that too.
Still… preventing casualties should come first.
That was when it happened.
VROOOOOOM!
Kang Hae-il was approaching from the distance.
“You’re here. But… why are you guys in that piece of junk? All four of you.”
It seemed Hae-il had expected them to arrive in a larger vehicle.
Jihun answered with a sneer.
“Why? It’s an F-rank used car. Just like the ones you love. Got a problem with that?”
“……”
“Haa… What are you doing again? We got into an accident on the way and had to switch cars.”
Suyeon explained on their behalf.
“Ah…”
“Anyway, what do you think, Mr. Kang Hae-il?”
“About what?”
“There are no people here anymore, right? So even if the World Boss is summoned, there won’t be any damage… which means we won’t have any justification to kill it.”
“Who said that?”
“Yu Jihun.”
She pointed directly at him.
“Tsk. Snitching on everything. What are you, an elementary schooler?”
“I’m a university student, actually? Seriously. What about you, Mr. Kang Hae-il? Do you agree?”
Suyeon asked him again.
She had assumed Hae-il would share her way of thinking.
After all, wasn’t he the guy who spouted cringe lines like “Ranks are just numbers”?
But—
“He’s right.”
“!”
Suyeon was shocked.
“There’s no justification for us to kill a World Boss that causes no harm. Once the majority of Awakened drop out, we don’t know what will happen in Chapter 3.”
“You rotten bastard… So it was all an act?”
Suyeon’s anger flared.
Stupid Junil oppa. What the hell did he see in this guy’s so-called convictions? It was all lies.
She was furious that Junil had been gaslit by someone whose entire belief system was fake.
“You said human lives are the most important thing! You’ve been running around doing all that PR! What!? People have to die before we get justification!? Is that really something you should be saying!?”
“……”
On the other hand, Jihun was laughing.
“Hahahahahahaha!?”
He liked Hae-il’s answer.
“Finally, someone who speaks sense. But you’re not saying that because of that porter, are you?”
Jihun suspected Hae-il was thinking about the porter when he said that.
“…No.”
Hae-il averted his eyes as if struck by the truth.
“Yeah, sure.”
Ting!
He lit another cigarette and leaned against the car.
“Because of the porter?”
“Yeah. That porter he drags around. Still nowhere near level 30.”
“……Ah.”
Jihun carefully observed Suyeon’s expression.
When I mentioned the porter, her hostility toward Hae-il softened again. So that’s it…
Jihun was now certain why Suyeon harbored such animosity toward Hae-il.
Suyeon has some kind of connection to that porter.
There was clearly a special relationship between the porter and Suyeon. He could smell it.
She might even know the porter’s true identity.
He wouldn’t press her right now. That would only make her wary.
He would just keep her close and observe. He might find out naturally. She might even spill it herself.
“Huu.”
He exhaled smoke and spoke leisurely.
“Let’s see how things play out first. Stopping the World Boss from being summoned altogether would be best for today, right?”
“Stop the summoning?”
“Didn’t you hear the briefing? According to the intel, it can’t be summoned without a sacrifice.”
“Then what about the next summoning attempt?”
“……We’ll think about that when the time comes.”
Hae-il’s expression grew complicated.
That’s just postponing the problem.
Ideally, he wanted to let the World Boss be summoned now and cleanly defeat it. That would minimize casualties.
But if they did that, the porter would obviously lose his Awakening and become an ordinary human.
“Hmm……”
As his inner conflict deepened—
Wooooong!
The entire academy building flashed red.
“It’s here.”
Tap.
Jihun flicked the ash from his cigarette and pushed off the car.
“So we’re all in agreement on stopping the summoning for now?”
Everyone nodded silently. No one would object to this plan.
But then—
EVERYONE INSIDE THE ACADEMY, LISTEN WELL! YOU HAVE ALL BEEN TRAPPED BY THE SEALING TECHNIQUE OF A GREAT ONE! IF YOU DO NOT COOPERATE, YOU WILL ALL BECOME SACRIFICES TO THE JUDGMENT ENTITY!
“……?”
Everyone froze.
“Are there actually people inside?”
“No way. If they were evacuating, they would’ve evacuated everyone.”
Suyeon thought it couldn’t be true.
But Hae-il spoke with sharp intuition.
“They’re way too confident. They’re serious.”
Of course they were serious.
The group had just realized it too.
“Why isn’t there a single scream?”
“Maybe the education level here is just that high?”
“What kind of education would even…”
“You idiots! That makes no sense! Damn it! Something’s gone wrong!”
One warlock ran to the rooftop railing and looked down.
It was a twenty-six-story building. The dizzying height made his head spin, but something far more terrifying waited below.
“……There are no moving cars!”
There really was no one.
Not a single sign of life.
“There are no people either! No one’s here!”
“That can’t be! The academy should be packed right now!”
“What do you want me to do when there’s actually no one!?”
That was when—
BANG!
The rooftop door burst open and another warlock rushed in, panting.
“B-big trouble!”
“What is it?”
“Th-there’s no one inside either!!”
“……What?”
There was no one inside the building either.
That was when a voice rang out from somewhere.
“Who said there’s no one!?”
A perfectly timed, dramatic soundtrack blasted overhead.
“It’s above us!”
From above.
A man and woman descended onto the rooftop, riding the wind.
Thud!
They struck a perfect pose.
“Wh-what the—!”
“Who the hell are you!?”
They glanced at each other before Junil shouted first.
“If I say I’m the 4th Line Goblin Slayer… does that answer your question?”
“If I say I’m Goblin Slayer Girl, does that answer your question?”
“Ahahahahaha!? What kind of guts do you have to show up here!?”
The leader of the Pollak-ers laughed mockingly.
“A little rat walked right into the trap!”
“Oh yeah?”
Junil shot back.
“By the way, that spell of yours.”
“?”
“What happens if you can’t find a sacrifice?”
“……What?”
“Those chains look like they went through absolute hell to climb up from the demon world. They seem pretty desperate to find a sacrifice. But there isn’t a single one in range, is there? So who exactly are they going to take as a sacrifice?”
The warlocks looked at each other.
Then their eyes turned to Junil.
“You?”
After all, he was the only one left.
But he shook his head.
“Nietzsche once said,”
“?”
“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”
Snort.
Junil grinned.
“If you think it’s me—run.”
CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK!
The massive chains suddenly reversed direction and began swallowing the warlocks whole.
“Uwaaagh…!?”
“G-guhk!”
“Aaaaaaaaagh!”