Chapter 61
Chapter 61
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Variable
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Send her back to C Wing.”
“Pardon?”
Orca said it indifferently, propping her chin on her hand. To the guards who had been watching Creep all this time, it was a decision that was impossible to understand.
“...Understood.”
Still, the guards said nothing more. They were just civil servants, after all.
Some of them carried live ammunition,
and some possessed abilities,
but in the end, that didn’t change the fact that they were public servants.
They simply hoped for a bit more pay and a stable income than most.
So all they had to do was follow the correctional officer’s orders. The correctional officer herself was undoubtedly following someone else’s, after all.
“...There’s no real danger anymore anyway. Even if she becomes a target for bullying now that her usefulness is gone, it’d be nothing more than reaping what she sowed.”
Just as she said, Orca was merely weighing the demands of the warden and others before making her call.
The higher-ups didn’t want the villains dead.
Those who possessed rare abilities were kept alive whenever possible. It was too much of a waste otherwise. Mysterious powers that couldn’t be mimicked through mere experiments...
That was why they spared most of them,
letting them brawl inside prisons like this one—granting them just enough convenience to squeeze out their value someday—but
every now and then, there were cases that inevitably called for elimination. Creep had been the perfect tool for those moments...
...because it didn’t look good for a correctional officer to issue summary executions herself. Far better to let inmates fight it out, suffer casualties, and then issue a statement about management failures.
The public never dug into the details anyway.
The bad ones had simply killed each other,
and all the correctional officer had to do was pretend to take responsibility.
“I’ve got a mountain of apology reports to write, so shove her back in C Wing quick and get back to your duties!”
But that perfect tool had broken.
Thanks to Orca’s own whim.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Reinserted into C Wing, Creep drew in a deep breath, her mood anything but cheerful. The familiar air after so long.
Her head was wrapped in bandages. The spot where Orca had struck her still hadn’t healed.
“Scardi’s been raising absolute hell while you were gone. Fuck, that bitch. She’s done for now.”
“Things in C Wing were a total mess without you, sis.”
A few villains who’d always been loyal to her were already sucking up, falling in line. Just seeing Creep’s ghostly face seemed to dredge up old nightmares.
Under Scardi, with all her annoying restrictions, they couldn’t run wild as they pleased.
So deep down, they hoped Creep would keep Scardi in check once more.
No one could surpass Creep in hand-to-hand or one-on-one combat.
On top of that, her innate charisma and wildly unpredictable personality had a way of captivating inmates, drawing them to follow her.
“...”
But the inmates watching her return soon grew bewildered.
Creep said nothing, just stood there quietly for a moment—then suddenly made a sad face and shuffled off toward the corner.
The Creep herself.
“Uh, sis?”
The beast-like aura she’d always had was completely gone.
“...”
All that remained was one quiet, docile woman. Her sniffling was almost cute.
Like a kid throwing a massive tantrum, Creep pursed her lips tight and made her way to the corner of C Wing before squatting down. Her eyes brimmed with tears.
“What the fuck?”
“D-Did she hit her head too hard...?”
Creep’s remaining loyalists couldn’t help but chuckle at the ridiculous scene.
“Sis, what’s wrong with you? Snap out of it!”
Even as they crowded around, shaking her shoulders to get a reaction, nothing changed.
“Fuck it, let’s go.”
“Goddamn it... Fucking bitch. Only useful when we need her...”
They quickly grasped the situation and switched gears.
Clinging to a Creep with no value left would be downright stupid.
So they bantered as if nothing had happened and sauntered back to their table.
Creep alone remained, huddled in place, tears trickling down her cheeks. She looked like she’d regressed to childhood.
Yet the strange part was,
after sobbing for a few minutes as her emotions settled, she’d hug her belly tight with both hands and stroke it gently.
As if tenderly caressing the baby inside. Of course, there was no tiny, precious life in there.
“What? Jeez...”
Passersby glanced at Creep as they went by.
Scardi and her crew watched the familiar woman’s change with equal intrigue.
The psycho bitch who’d always thrown insane fits had come back an idiot, her brain scrambled from the head injury.
Scardi found it hilarious, but she also let out a quiet sigh of relief that the unexpected turn had resolved things.
She’d known Creep’s solitary confinement was ending soon. Which meant she’d been wondering what to do if Creep returned to C Wing.
Just as some guards had testified, Creep had been shoved back in a pretty wrecked state.
A head injury plus a full month of isolation and mental torment? It wasn’t all that surprising she’d ended up like this.
“Rin, we can ignore Creep from now on. Just keep an eye on Lily going forward.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
So the remaining issues boiled down to exactly two.
One was the correctional officer. The other was Lily.
“That girl... we should get rid of her if the chance comes up.”
Scardi harbored especially bad feelings toward Lily. She was dangerous, and she knew far too much.
“Let’s leave Crow be until he breaks more.”
“Just say the word, and I’ll handle it right away.”
Scardi’s underlings were prepared to carry out her orders, even if it meant killing inmates and extending their own sentences.
As long as they stayed loyal to her commands, the safety and livelihood of their remaining families were guaranteed.
So if Rin passed along the order to kill Lily, at least five or six would roll up their sleeves without hesitation.
That was Scardi.
A woman who could move mountains.
The only reason she held back was one.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Crow.
“...”
His door slid open.
He looked so frail from the sickness that he seemed ready to collapse any second, but Crow wasn’t worried about his own condition.
The only thing on his mind was Lily.
She’d said she was just stepping out to the bathroom after their brief talk with Scardi, but ten minutes had passed with no sign of her.
Crow stepped out the door, risking it all to go fetch Lily himself. In his state, he could barely keep himself upright.
“Lily...”
The bathroom was quite a ways from his room, so he had to use the walls for support as he walked. His weak legs couldn’t bear his weight.
The inmates glanced at him fleetingly before looking away.
Among them were Creep’s remnants, who until moments ago had been beating Lily and Duksuni half to death—and Scardi, who’d turned a blind eye to it.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“...”
Right then,
another event no one could have anticipated unfolded.
Creep, who’d been huddled and sobbing in the corner, suddenly shot to her feet and stared straight at Crow.
Crow, who’d only been heading to the bathroom, couldn’t shake the ominous feeling. He scanned C Wing,
and with his own eyes, confirmed the return of Creep—the one with whom he’d forged countless grudges.
“Hrk...!”
Panicking, he let out a choked gasp and froze in place. He looked just like a rabbit staring down a tiger.
Even without Creep around, he’d been backed into a corner; now, visions of the hellish days ahead with her return flashed through his mind.
And now Lily was here too.
Could he, in his weakened state, protect her while facing off against Creep?
Crow couldn’t take another step. He sank to the floor, his legs giving out.
The fragile calm and reason he’d barely clung to evaporated. He couldn’t fathom why that woman was back in C Wing.
Had Orca thrown her in here on purpose to fuck him over even more? Was it punishment for tormenting him and Lily?
As all these wild thoughts raced through his head, Creep strode right toward him. A few looked like they tried to hold her back, but no one seriously intervened.
Towering over Crow where he’d collapsed, Creep stared down at him with burning eyes.
Crow couldn’t even speak,
just trembled from fever and fear, staring at the ground.
The first words out of Creep’s mouth were...
“Honey...”
Her habitual slip.
“Honeyyy! Where’ve you been... Waaah!”
Saying it once more,
in a voice a touch softer,
Creep pulled Crow into a tight embrace and bawled like a child.
Her innocent, childlike sobs echoed throughout C Wing.