Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Lily
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"Huh? Oh, you want me to go in first? No, no, our little one should wash up first."
The Director kept fiddling with the gun in his pocket. He had steeled himself to blow the girl's head off if necessary, but he just couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger.
He had already realized he could never kill the girl.
The girl's serene face and demeanor didn't change even in the face of death.
The cult's guards carried illegally smuggled firearms, but their bullets could never kill the girl.
The Director had witnessed her using her superpowers even after taking shots to the eyes and forehead.
"The towel's right here. Alright, go wash up quick and come out."
The space where the girl lived was oddly empty. Aside from the bed and fairy tale books, there wasn't a single daily necessity.
Instead, she seemed to line up various dolls and sleep hugging them. Cute rabbits, teddy bears, and plushies shaped like whales or puppies...
It wasn't so much eerie as it felt like a space suited for an even younger child.
"..."
While Lily was showering, the Director stepped out briefly and began searching the cult's interior.
There had to be records on the girl. There was no way the cult hadn't run any experiments on such a dangerous being.
As expected,
the Director soon found the cult's private lab not far away.
It was pristine. Or perhaps pale.
Under the Director's gaze, the lab interior was filled with records of their various experiments, along with speculations and hypotheses about the girl's potential.
With every document he read,
the Director's expression grew darker.
The girl was a calamity.
A calamity far too early for this world.
"Damn it."
The video footage was also well-preserved.
Victims begging desperately to be spared,
the girl behind them raising a finger.
The cult members all clapped and cheered wildly.
Witnessing the boundless potential of superpowers beyond human comprehension, they believed without doubt that the girl was the second coming of God.
The girl wasn't human. Even from injuries that would instantly kill any ordinary person, she rose again without so much as batting an eye.
Gunshots healed in an instant,
and severed limbs reattached as if nothing had happened.
When the Director returned, the girl stood there dripping water, blankly tilting her head as if asking where he'd been.
"Whew, there's not a single place around here to get water. My throat's so dry."
With his trademark nonchalance, the Director hid his fear. The girl's eyes brimmed with an eerie curiosity probing the depths of the human soul.
"So, what does our princess usually do for fun?"
The girl never spoke a word,
but surprisingly, she seemed to understand speech.
She brought over two dolls
and handed one to the Director.
"...Ah, you play with these, huh."
She probably wanted to play with dolls.
Unlike the horrific side she'd shown so far, the girl had a surprisingly pure and cute side.
"So cute."
Perhaps,
the lack of love and proper upbringing had created this monster.
"Auntie loves stuff like this too~ We're a great match, right?"
The Director swallowed hard, desperately averting his eyes from the young girl.
She was undoubtedly terrifying,
but the Director kept repeating to himself that this girl was nothing more than an immature child.
He had to cuff this inexplicable girl somehow.
If he failed, she would surely become an irreversible threat.
The Director could easily imagine the horrific calamity she would bring in the future.
For one month,
the Director stayed with the girl.
Having realized that no Hero could ever kill this child, he began approaching her in a whole new way.
"How's this? Feel okay?"
The two looked just like a mother and her daughter.
The Director cooked meals every day and spent time playing together.
Was it a fresh shock for the girl?
She started following the Director around without killing or twisting him.
He seemed like a non-bothersome human to her. One who gave her tasty food and played with her...
To this auntie-like friend,
the girl appeared to have opened her heart, in her own way.
"Yes."
When the girl spoke her first word,
the Director flinched in surprise and broke into a genuine smile.
"Fairy tale again today?"
"Yes."
The two would sit side by side and read fairy tales. Despite being middle-school age, the girl had been exposed to nothing but fairy tale books.
The cult must have controlled her information. They had shown this little child only a narrow world.
[The outside world is dangerous. You must stay here. God, please save us from here.]
If the cult members had known all that pent-up stress would erupt in an instant like this, they might have survived.
Some children have remarkably calm and gentle temperaments. However, that doesn't mean they feel no stress.
They simply endure it.
"...Once upon a time, in a certain kingdom, there lived a princess. The princess was the most beautiful in the world, loved by all, and lived happily."
The Director read the fairy tale aloud, pondering how long the little girl must have endured.
The girl especially cherished that square book. Unlike her own drab little space, the fairy tale book was always filled with vibrant colors and beautiful illustrations.
"...Pretty picture."
"...Yes."
Even with her utterly emotionless, dry expression, the girl's eyes greedily drank in the picture, filled with complex feelings.
Dreaming of that fantastical place,
the fifteen-year-old girl silently blinked.
It was longing,
curiosity,
fear,
and betrayal.
"Baby, the world is a good place. You might come to hate it someday, but out there is an even more beautiful world."
Inside the cult building, where the countless corpses and stench of death had now melted away like snow,
the Director extended his hand in place of all the adults who had only ever exploited the girl.
"..."
If he left her as is, a worldwide calamity would surely come someday.
It wasn't just to prevent that.
He pitied the little girl too.
Her delicate, fern-like hand,
and the characteristically dry face of a child who had closed off her heart from wounds.
Gazing at that beautiful face devoid of all expression, the Director felt both sympathy and terror.
For her, who had forsaken family to devote herself to the nation,
this young girl's tragedy and the looming calamity ahead carried even heavier meaning.
"...Wanna go with Auntie?"
"..."
Though he offered his hand,
the girl didn't take it easily.
Whether fear or anxiety,
while curious about the outside world she'd always dreamed of, she hesitated, wondering if it wouldn't be as beautiful as she'd hoped.
She just
wanted to turn her eyes away from everything.
Her days imprisoned here,
the prince who never came for her,
and herself, who could never become a princess.
If it all ended here, wouldn't she find peaceful rest?
She didn't want to see the noisy world anymore.
So she'd made everything quiet.
And now she didn't want to trust the world.
Then an unexpected outsider caught the girl's eye.
She was a woman who, trembling in fear, still managed to smile and wave.
"Let's go with Auntie. You'll learn someday. The world is way more fun than our princess thinks. Sometimes too sad, sometimes too infuriating, but in the end, you can't forget its beauty and end up smiling."
The girl, whose shift in emotions delayed the apocalypse just a bit longer,
timidly grasped the Director's hand.
"Auntie will be your friend. Or should we find a prince for our princess? How about this guy? Works with me, face like a movie star. Wanna see a photo?"
"..."
"Oh my, getting shy. Right at that age."
Gripping tight the hand of the girl whose name he didn't even know,
the Director left the empty cult building.
She showed the little child a new world.
Like a mother to her child,
the Director birthed the girl from her heart.
"...Baby, before we go, Auntie will give you a name. Out there, no one calls you God or Master or anything like that."
Trampling through the garden, the two walked.
Neglected for a month, weeds sprouted here and there and flowers wilted, but the garden was still beautiful.
"Friends need to know each other's names. You can call me Mullen?"
"Mullen Auntie."
"Ahem! Honestly not quite auntie age, but... whatever."
Gazing at a particularly striking lily, the Director said,
"...You're Lily. That flower there—they call it lily overseas."
Lily looked at the flower.
"Lily?"
"Lily. That's your name."
A lily with a slightly reddish hue that suited her pink hair quite well.
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Chapter 6 - Calamity
end.
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