The Tyrant's Entrance
The entrance to Talos City. With every step I took, the men in black suits drew closer. Anyone without a magical girl's permission would never be allowed inside. It was the strictest rule Serafina had established after founding the Association. The same applied not just to Talos City, but everywhere else. Yet even that ironclad rule had one single exception: magical girls themselves. A glimpse of the privilege that said they alone stood above every regulation. In a way, it made sense. If a magical girl was truly determined to force her way in, no one but another magical girl could stop her. Even a low-rank magical girl like Gem, who couldn't even hold the position of mayor, only worked twenty hours a week. There was no way they'd assign another magical girl to stand guard twenty-four hours just to block her. In the end, it was probably just a calculated show of generosity—opening the gate before it could be broken down anyway. Which meant that as a magical girl, I had a free pass.
I walked forward without hesitation, head held high and chin slightly raised. A magical girl must never shrink back. For the sake of every magical girl's dignity, I had a duty to present an imposing figure. After all, I was no longer Porim. I was the ruler of this world—a magical girl.
The sharp click of my heels rang out crisply across the tiled plaza in front of the main gate. The thugs stood motionless, eyes fixed straight ahead. But their pupils tracked my every movement. How pathetic—too cowardly to meet my gaze directly, yet leering at me with those servile expressions. A snort escaped me.
At the sound, the thugs' bodies twitched. Even then, their eyes never left me. Well, I could understand it. All magical girls drew attention, but among them, I—Xena—was an especially striking beauty. Of course, that was only if I kept my mouth shut… Wait. No. Hold on. I had almost fallen into self-obsession again, letting my thoughts run wild.
“Um… Are you a magical girl, ma’am?”
One of the thugs stepped forward and cautiously blocked my path. His demeanor was so careful it was hard to believe these were the same bastards who beat the poor like dogs.
“That’s right. If you know that, I’d appreciate it if you’d get out of my way.”
As I answered, my palm began to itch. Why was this happening? Was this also because of Xena’s mindset? What exactly did it want to do?
The thug lowered his head even further, his attitude growing even more deferential.
“Yes! Of course you may enter! But before that, may I ask who you are? I need to report to the boss.”
“Do you really think a worthless mutt like you would recognize any name I gave? Just fuck off already. I’m starting to get pissed.”
In truth, answering him wouldn’t have been difficult. Any random name would have satisfied him and cleared the path. But that was out of the question. Whatever came from a magical girl’s mouth had to be an order, and they were never allowed to demand anything from a magical girl first. Not even something as trivial as asking for a name.
I need to make it crystal clear who’s above whom. No matter how much I act out, these insects can’t do a damn thing to me anyway.
As expected, the thugs’ expressions twisted slightly. They must have received training from Gem on how to handle magical girls, but they had probably never dealt with one this uncooperative. Normally, out of respect for Serafina—the mayor of this city—no one would treat the security forces this rudely.
“Look at those faces. Seems like you still don’t understand the situation.”
I snatched the sunglasses off the nearest thug’s face, hurled them to the ground, and stomped on them. Twisting my ankle to completely crush them was just a bonus. The sound of something shattering like a cookie echoed across the open space in front of the gate. A thick bead of sweat rolled down the cheek of the thug watching the scene. Silence fell once more.
I slowly lifted my foot. The completely pulverized sunglasses lay scattered across the dirt. “Get lost. Want me to turn you into that too?”
“…My apologies. Please, go right in.”
The thug bowed even deeper, maintaining his professional smile. He naturally stepped backward in that posture, clearing the way. About time.
I swept my hair back and strode between the thugs toward the gate. That was when it happened.
Ptui.
The sound of someone spitting behind me. My palm itched even more intensely. I curled the corner of my mouth and turned my head.
“Explain yourself.”
“What do you mean, ma’am?”
The bastard shrugged nonchalantly. On the surface, he hadn’t done anything overtly rude, so he was acting bold. But he had picked the wrong opponent.
“I know. I understand. It must feel like shit. But you know what? I feel like shit too. The fact that trash like you would dare make demands of me instead of requests. You shouldn’t be making me tell you my name in exchange for stepping aside. You should have cleared the path first and then begged me to tell you my name, shouldn’t you?”
Every human in this world was nothing but a prop. A prop meant to make magical girls shine. Props had to be treated like props. Otherwise, they would forget their place, try to shove their responsibilities onto others, or reach for things far beyond their station. The kind of bastards who took kindness for granted, then schemed to climb higher. The kind who used, criticized, and betrayed. I knew that truth better than anyone—because I had experienced it firsthand.
I slapped him across the face immediately. I thought I had held back as much as possible, but his head snapped sideways and several broken teeth scattered across the ground along with a spray of blood. At the same time, the itching in my palm finally subsided. Silence fell once again. Not just from the one who had been hit, but from everyone around him. But the silence didn’t last long.
“I-I’m sorry! Please forgive my rudeness!!”
Fear flooded their eyes all at once. The thugs hurriedly bent at the waist in a ninety-degree bow toward me. They finally seemed to realize exactly who they were dealing with. The ruler of this world. The tyrant. A magical girl. Even a low-rank magical girl who couldn’t even hold the position of mayor carried this much authority. Perhaps this very dynamic was what had turned the magical girls into what they were now.
Thinking back on it, Pania had never known how to use this power properly. If she had slapped that village chief across the face like I just did, so many things might have turned out differently. What a shame.
As I stood there looking down at the thugs while lost in thought, their bodies trembled even with their heads bowed. Ptui. I spat on the crown of the thug’s head as he remained bowed. Just moments ago they had been openly showing their displeasure at my uncooperative attitude, yet now—even after this blatant insult—not one of them dared lift their head. The role of an extra was always to feel fear, never anger. It was a rather satisfying picture.
“Now that you’ve been hit, do you finally understand your place? Even if I killed a few of you here, do you think your boss would even care?”
It wasn’t a lie. Gem wasn’t the type of superior who cherished her subordinates. Unless it was an act of defying the Association’s order or attempting to shake the system, she wouldn’t bother touching another magical girl. For Gem, magical girls always took priority. Which also meant that killing a few grunts who wouldn’t affect the security force’s operations was acceptable. Not that I actually planned to kill them, of course. I wasn’t the type to kick a snowman on the side of the road just because it was there.
Still, what should I do with them now? Telling them to raise their heads right after beating them felt awkward. While I was pondering this, one of the bowed thugs spoke up first. It was the one I had slapped.
“Um… Magical Girl-nim. If it’s alright with you, we would like to escort you to our security force office.”
“Not ‘we would like to escort you.’”
“Y-yes! Would you please permit us to escort you?”
Good. He was finally learning to speak properly. An unaffiliated magical girl was treated with caution in any city, but a controllable one was a different story. Managing humans was an incredibly annoying and troublesome task, after all. That was why they ran violent organizations as security forces. But no matter how many humans they gathered, a single low-ranking magical girl was far more useful in reality. For that reason, the highest-ranking magical girls kept other magical girls under their command to solidify their power even further. Girls like Serafina and Teris.
This current offer was probably a scheme to determine whether I was the controllable type and to tie me down to the city. After thinking for a moment, I decided to accept their proposal. It seemed better to look for an opportunity first. Confronting Gem right away wasn’t the right move. I had more than enough information—practically overflowing with it—but my control over this body wasn’t perfect yet. My abilities felt somehow crude. Actually, it felt less like they were crude and more like there were other uses for them that I didn’t know about yet. A danger level of 1.6 wouldn’t have been assigned for nothing.
Anyway, if I fought Gem in my current state, would I even win once out of ten attempts? Right now she was groveling before Serafina and playing the role of a thug boss, but Gem was by no means an easy opponent. At this point, with Part 1 already over, Gem had accumulated plenty of real combat experience through all those battles. The combat senses and miscellaneous techniques she had learned were all things I had personally taught her.
To think I would have to counter the very techniques I had taught. I swallowed a dry laugh and opened my mouth.
“Lead the way.”