If You Did Wrong, You Must Be Punished (3)
If You Did Wrong, You Must Be Punished (3)
After confirming that Winterer was merely a Wannabe Villain,
the Chairwoman and I reached the following conclusion...
[What will you do, Chairwoman?]
[What would you have me do, Yujin?]
[I'd rather hand her over to the police. It feels too cruel to send her to the Bottomless Abyss.]
[Agreed. I was going to do the same.]
Dump her on the police—that was our decision.
...She wasn't even a villain, just an awakener.
Then she ought to face judgment under the law. Of course.
Strict adherence to the law was our creed.
[If I handle her myself... Whew. My stomach hurts just imagining the Villain Rights Group raising hell.]
[Ah. Now that you mention it, news like this would drive them wild.]
One more thing.
As Winterer had said, even villains had once had friends, lovers, and family.
Yet perfectly normal people had been branded villains and hauled away overnight.
It was only natural for people to make a fuss.
The Villain Rights Group was made up of such people.
They protested day in and day out demanding that villain classifications be reinvestigated, and filed national petitions if the meals were even slightly subpar.
But if those people heard about Winterer?
They'd be falling over themselves to worship her as a Saintess.
See? A villain might not actually be a villain.
That was how they'd play it in the media.
Avoiding complicated matters was the answer.
[They would stage sit-ins demanding that I reopen every case too... Haa. What a headache.]
[I-I'm sorry. I think I may have made things more complicated for no reason.]
[What did you do wrong? You saved an innocent girl from spending her entire life as a villain. You did well.]
[If you say so. Should I tell Winterer, then? That we're calling the police?]
[Go ahead.]
That brief discussion settled it.
Winterer would be handed over to the police.
When Winterer heard the news,
"The police? You're not sending me to the Bottomless Abyss?"
"Yeah."
"You think I'll just sit here and let myself be arrested instead of escaping?"
She reacted as if the idea were absurd.
Winterer still believed she was a villain.
—Fwoosh.
"Do ten thousand people really have to die before you come to your senses...?"
She even released mana and threatened to detonate every bomb she'd planted.
Master's burst of bloodlust seemed to have broken the hypnosis after all.
But we remained nonchalant.
"Oh. We already got rid of all the bombs."
"......Huh?"
"It is dangerous for children to play with things like that."
Did she think veterans like us were relaxed for no reason?
Forty-five minutes earlier.
Around the time I pulled Haru back and climbed on top of Winterer,
Sia had already dismantled every bomb and called the Chairwoman.
My shoulders rose with pride.
Because I was proud of my wives, who had wrapped it up far faster than I'd expected.
"Impossible. How...?"
"This is a photo Cadet Sia sent me. Would you like to see it?"
"......Fuck. What the hell? Did those bitches already rat me out yesterday? No. Even all the places they know put together only come to three or four..."
"I read your memories too. Did you think I wouldn't know?"
"Fuck!!"
Only then did panic spread across Winterer's face.
The bombs she'd spent ten grueling weeks planting.
Her reaction was only natural, since they'd been disarmed in a mere forty-five minutes.
I seized the opening and hypnotized her.
"Then I'll at least kill you—"
"Don't use your ability for nothing. Be good and stay still~ Don't you want to stay with Haru from now on?"
"......Hngh."
-Ding!
[The target falls under 'strong' hypnosis.]
'It took hold incredibly strongly.'
The hypnosis had taken hold quite deeply.
Apparently she'd longed for Haru deep down despite pretending otherwise.
With her aggression subdued, Winterer quietly burrowed deeper into my arms as if embarrassed.
"...Fine. Do whatever you want. Roast me, fuck me. I came here ready to die anyway."
"Tsk. A kid shouldn't say nasty things like ‘fuck me.’"
"You are one to talk. You fucked Subject 47 over and over when she didn't know anything. Trash. You absolute fucking piece of trash."
"......?"
I hadn't expected her to spout bullshit out of nowhere.
What the hell? Had the horny devil gotten into her head?
"Why would I do that to Haru? Her mental age alone rules it out, and more importantly, family doesn't do that."
"Hah? Earlier you clearly said something about m-merging."
"The merging game? I gave her a shoulder ride... Wait, did you think...?"
A belated realization.
I hadn't thought anything of it while talking to Haru...
Now that I thought about it, it might have sounded a little suggestive.
No wonder she'd been so hostile.
I could not help sighing.
"Come on. There is no way I'd have meant that in that context. Try reading the context."
—Tremble, tremble.
"Fuck, fuck. Fuck...."
"Yujin. I don't know what this is about, but my intuition is screaming that you did something wrong."
"That is strange. Even your intuition is wrong sometimes, Chairwoman."
"......."
For some reason, both Winterer and the Chairwoman gave me odd looks, but...
'Huh. Had I really done something wrong? I did seem to have worded it strangely....'
-Ding!
[The skill 'Complete Hypnosis' activates.]
'...No. Winterer was probably just dirty-minded. She had grown up among villains, so it made sense. Of course.'
As always, it had to be a misunderstanding.
* * *
After Winterer gave up resisting,
Seol Hayeon immediately called the police.
"Commissioner. We captured Winterer alive, but she's not a villain. Come take her in and have her investigated. Notify the Ministry of National Defense as well."
"......."
'Wow, she went straight to the police commissioner.'
That was going rather high up the chain, but anyway.
Yujin also prepared something in anticipation of the police's imminent arrival.
"You will not give Haru any orders or anything, understood?"
-Ding!
[The target falls under 'strong' hypnosis.]
"I'm not resisting... None of you assholes will listen when I tell you I'm a villain. What am I supposed to do...?"
"Good girl. Haru~!! Come here for a second~!!"
-Pitter-patter.
"Mm. I'm here."
Haru came running as soon as I shouted.
She was uncannily good at noticing whenever I called her, even if her ears were covered.
Winterer, who'd kept hiding in my arms, finally peeked out.
"...Subject 47."
"Dad, why are you hugging Big Sis so tight? I want a hug too."
"......."
—Droop.
Seeing Haru pay more attention to Yujin than to her made Winterer droop slightly—a perfect Wannabe Villain.
Before long, however,
a faint smile appeared on her face.
It was the confident smile the self-proclaimed villain often wore in front of Subject 47.
"Hey, lucky you. Your brainwashing is gone, and that Rice Cake you call Dad is even taking care of you. You have got it made."
"Yeah. I'm happy every day because I'm with Dad."
"Right. Ha, if I'd known this would happen, I would've tormented you more. Beaten you, shaved your head, fed you food waste."
Everything she said was pure villain.
She was going to rot in prison for the rest of her life now.
In other words, this was the last time she'd ever see Subject 47.
She wanted to remain the villain to Subject 47 until the very end.
She wanted the person Haru remembered to be a wicked Grade 1 Villain.
She wanted Haru to remember her as Winterer, the villain who had treated her like a slave.
'This was enough. Grade 1 Villain Winterer had remained a villain to the very end....'
"Liar. Big Sis, you never did anything like that to me."
"......?"
Haru did not understand that intention.
No, there was no need to read it.
Brainwashing had kept her heart closed, but Winterer's clumsy knocks had still echoed through her soul.
She at least knew her big sister was a good person.
"Big Sis and I are close."
"...Ha. Subject 47. Know your place."
"We're totally the Rice-Cake Sisters."
"......."
Haru's large, sparkling eyes. Winterer's murky, clouded eyes.
Both pairs of eyes were a beautiful bloodred.
They weren't related by blood, but anyone could see that they were sisters.
"...That Rice Cake and you are equally bad at listening. You really are like father and daughter."
"Dad and I are the Rice-Cake father-and-daughter pair. The three of us make a three-color honey-rice-cake family."
"Pfft. Why am I included, you doll bitch? We're too old to play house."
The corner of Winterer's mouth curled up slightly.
Unlike the smile she'd forced earlier,
this one formed naturally before she even realized it.
Her gaunt arm reached toward Haru.
-Pat, pat.
"Still, whatever. Fuck. This is the last thing your big sister will do for you. From now on, figure out how to live on your own. For better or worse, you were this Winterer's slave, so don't embarrass me by tripping and dying in the street."
"Last?"
"Yeah. The last. Thanks to those high-and-mighty Awakeners, I'm going to rot in prison for the rest of my life. I won't have to see your sickening face anymore either."
She stroked Haru's head as she spoke.
Winterer and Haru's relationship was about to end like that...
"———What are you talking about? Why would you go to prison?"
"...What?"
It was a little too early for the end.
Winterer froze in surprise.
Yujin patted her back and continued explaining.
"Ah. You only lived among villains, so you didn't know? Awakeners who aren't villains usually don't go to prison."
Yujin's explanation went like this.
Awakeners were indispensable to modern society, blessed with superhuman strength and mysterious abilities.
But at most only fifty or sixty people awakened in Korea each year.
They were an exceptionally precious human resource.
As a result, countless organizations needed Awakeners but couldn't obtain them.
The military alone begged for even a single Awakener to be assigned to its special forces.
But Awakeners didn't answer that demand.
Joining a clan and working Gates alone earned them hundreds of millions, while the public admired them as heroes.
Why would they do minor work for pocket change?
"That is why this law was created. Anyone sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment or less is automatically assigned forced labor instead."
It was a drastic measure introduced by the government.
Some Awakeners were bound to commit crimes.
Instead of locking them in cells, put them to work for the country!
That was the background behind the special law for Awakeners.
Winterer opened her mouth in disbelief.
"...There is a law like that? What the hell? The public would have to be insane to pass something like that."
"Half the money from the forced labor is paid as taxes, and the other half goes to any victims as compensation."
"......."
"For a while, plenty of people tried to scam Awakeners because of that. The Association cracked down hard, so it has quieted down these days."
Yujin, however, remained calm.
He'd wondered whether it was right when he first heard about it, but after living with it for fifteen years, he'd found it quite useful.
Winterer reluctantly accepted the explanation.
"What kind of Rice-Cake nonsense is that... Wait. A fixed sentence means you don't stay in prison for life."
"Right. It is the opposite of life imprisonment."
"H-hah. Here I was worried. I'm definitely life-imprisonment material, you know?"
Winterer refused to give up and raised a second objection.
She was going to rot in prison for life anyway.
She had committed crimes that warranted it—that was her argument.
"Do you know how many people I killed? Dozens."
"Back when you escaped the research lab?"
"Yeah. I'm that dangerous a villain. Life imprisonment, obviously."
"You weren't even ten years old then. You cannot be punished for that even under the Juvenile Act."
"......."
Her objection was brutally crushed.
Winterer's lips clamped shut.
She started to wonder whether Korea could really function like this.
'Well, even this terrorist attack would normally earn life imprisonment... but we could defend it as mere property damage.'
Even Korea was not that lenient.
That assumed support from the Chairwoman and Yujin, though...
Winterer hadn't caught on to that much.
Her trembling eyes slowly lifted.
"So, what happens to me now...?"
"First you will go to a detention center and see what sentence you receive. Once it's final, you will perform forced labor for that length of time."
"Forced labor? What, are they gonna stick me on a shrimp boat?"
"Would they waste an Awakener on something like that? The Ministry of National Defense will decide."
"......?"
Winterer's eyebrows twitched slightly.
It was because of one word she couldn't possibly ignore.
"Wait. The Ministry of National Defense? Isn't that where the army grunts work?"
"Yes. Awakeners are dangerous, so the Ministry of National Defense oversees the forced labor. For the time being, you'll effectively be a soldier."
"An army grunt? Fuck, me?"
"Still, you probably won't live on a military base, so you can go home after work and sleep under the same roof as Haru. Think of it as commuting military service."
"What kind of dogshit...."
So that was what forced labor meant.
Winterer's expression crumpled miserably.
Yujin also furrowed his brow slightly.
"...Want to hear something funny? Male Awakeners do something similar. They work for the country for a year and a half instead of serving in the military, like someone classified Grade 4 in the physical and assigned to public service."
"......."
"What I'm saying is that we're in similar situations. I am public service; you are a commuting reservist. Just a long-term one."
You and I were in the same boat.
Mine was only a year and a half, though. I had no idea how many years hers would be.
"So... Haru? Let us congratulate Big Sis together. Congratulations on your duty of national defense~"
"Congratulations, Big Sis."
—Clap. Clap. Clap.
"......Fuck."
The punishment given to the Wannabe Villain was forced enlistment.
* * *
Winterer went quietly when the police took her away.
"Me, an army grunt. Fuck, fuck..."
"......."
'Why did that feel so sad?'
What a bittersweet ending.
Of course, it was far better than being chucked into the Bottomless Abyss or rotting in prison for life...
Even with us covering for her, she would probably get at least ten years.
Ten years as a soldier. Oof.
'Still, that meant I'd safely survived the first unfair scripted disaster.'
"Haru, shall we go home with Grandma now?"
"Okay."
It was unfortunate, but she'd committed crimes, so it couldn't be helped.
I stood up with that thought.
I wanted to share some fried chicken with my hardworking wives.
"Right. Dad."
"Hm? What is it, Haru?"
"Something weird popped up in front of me earlier. It said something had been weakened..."
—Murmur, murmur.
"Huh. That is a lot of people."
"Oh. They must've gathered to interview Dad. It is nothing."
'Yujin Captures Winterer. Were they going to run an article like that?'
And then we made our triumphant return
toward the people who must have been waiting eagerly for our heroic tale.
"Oh? You call this nothing? How reassuring. I'll leave it to you, Yujin."
"What? Leave what...?"
—Rush.
"Mr. Seo Yujin!! Is it true that you learned swordsmanship from Aika Ninomiya!!?"
"Why is Prime Minister Nakanowatari here!!?"
"Is it true that you're preparing to emigrate to Japan!!!"
"Does your use of a katana mean..."
"......."
'Ah. Winterer wasn't the problem right now.'
For the first time in the Second Round,
the press tore me apart like they wanted me dead.