The Taste of Blood and Freedom
The vulgar bitch—thud!
Amid the cheers shaking the square, I looked up at the vivid red fireworks bursting in the sky. A head wearing sunglasses spun through the air before landing squarely in the middle of the plaza.
That makes eleven now. She really plans to kill them all, doesn’t she?
The entire city had dissolved into a festival atmosphere. With the dissolution of the security force, the citizens had finally escaped the magical girl’s tyranny. The days of holding their breath in terror at the tyrant’s every expression, glance, or gesture were over. Even though we stood in the middle of a blood-soaked slaughterhouse, who cared about the location? This place was filled only with the joy of reclaimed freedom and hope for a new future… or so they probably thought.
Idiots.
Victory for justice? My ass.
“Everyone! We are now ready to move beyond victory and step into a new future! And in that new future, don’t we need a new leader to guide us? I, Park Sang-pil, will shoulder that heavy burden!”
After slicing through that entire horde of thugs in an instant, the blood-soaked ground had turned into a campaign stage. He was drinking kimchi soup by the bowlful. Having tasted blood, his head must have gone soft too. They couldn’t have forgotten the existence of Serafina, the mayor. They were probably acting like this because they believed Porim and I would take care of her. After all, there were two of us and only one Serafina.
But these morons had no idea about the power gap between magical girls. Serafina was undeniably the strongest magical girl and the protagonist of this world. She didn’t strut around with her shoulders squared for nothing. That’s why we had to leave this city before Serafina returned. For that reason, I had no intention of cleaning up after this mess. More precisely, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.
Even if Porim and I numbered as many as these citizens, fighting Serafina itself would be impossible. Two days remained until she finished her inspection and returned to Talos City. That was our deadline to escape the city—and the expiration date on the new future and hope these fools were screaming about from the gallows. I hoped they would spend their remaining two days of life without any lingering attachments.
“Let’s go.”
I turned my back on the execution platform. Porim naturally fell into step behind me.
“Where to?”
“The train station. We need to get as far away from Talos City as possible.”
“Then we should gather whatever we need here before leaving. Want to grab lunch too?”
“I don’t need any junk. There’s nothing I need right now anyway, and I don’t want more luggage. As for food… yeah, we should eat before we go.”
Porim didn’t ask why I wasn’t trying to fight Serafina. Maybe she was thinking the same thing. Well, with the memories of her original body that had been killed by Serafina, she probably understood that facing her at our current level was still too early. Or perhaps she had doubted my words, dissected them piece by piece, analyzed them, and finally accepted them.
…We don’t seem to match at all, yet we sync up perfectly on the most useless things. Anyway, since there’s no need to drag it out, I guess it’s fine if it works.
“What are we eating? You’re buying, right, sis?”
While I was lost in those thoughts, a slightly excited voice reached me. What was she, a pig? Getting all giddy over a single meal.
“Something that can fill our stomachs quickly. We’re not exactly in the mood to leisurely hunt for a good restaurant, are we?”
We had basically declared war on the strongest being in this world, yet here she was casually worrying about lunch options. I couldn’t help but snap at her.
Come to think of it, do corpses even eat? I looked around for something decent and spotted a street stall. It was the same one I had knocked over on the way to the underground passage. As a final meal before a long journey, junk food was the worst choice, but that didn’t apply to magical girls. For us, who converted everything we swallowed into magical power, calories mattered far more than nutrients.
When I lifted the flap and stepped inside, the owner I had seen in the square greeted us warmly.
“Welcome!! Oh, what an honor to have such esteemed guests!”
Porim and I sat side by side on the grimy plastic chairs. Only then did he ask cautiously.
“Right. Do you have money…?”
“No need.”
What did a magical girl need least in the world? Money. Why would we pay? Just grab anyone, hold out a hand, and they’d strip off everything down to their underwear to offer it up. Magical girls neither paid nor stole. In the first place, there wasn’t a single magical girl in this world who carried cash.
“Ah. Right? We can just take what we want.”
I glanced at Porim and let out a sigh. Villains really all had the same kind of brain. The real Porim would never have even thought something like that.
“Enjoy your meal!”
In the meantime, a plate of tteokbokki was placed in front of me. I gently brushed off my sleeve, raised my hand with just the right amount of strength—not too weak, not too strong—and carefully picked up a single rice cake using only the tips of my chopsticks.
“What kind of nonsense is this? Did you think we were at a restaurant?”
Porim clicked her tongue at me, then dragged over a plastic bag stuffed full of boiled eggs and set it in front of herself. Ignoring the knot at the top, she tore open the side of the bag, ripping it to shreds.
“Ugh… ugh…”
The sight made my head throb. Why wouldn’t she just untie the knot and take them out? The opening was right there—why rip the side? Disgust surged up inside me. But her bizarre behavior didn’t end there.
Porim began stuffing the boiled eggs into her mouth with both hands as if she had never seen them before in her life. She was in such a hurry that she barely peeled the shells, and the crunching sounds echoed inside her mouth. If only that had been the end of it.
Bits of white and yolk clung messily to the corners of her mouth. The table was covered in eggshells with bits of flesh still attached and crumbs from where she had frantically torn the bag open. That wasn’t eating. It was literally devouring.
The sight was so filthy it killed my appetite completely, and I frowned without thinking.
“What kind of manners are those? You’re a person, not an animal. Can’t you eat cleanly?”
“When I’m eathing… even dogth… don’t touch it…”
Every time Porim opened her mouth, pieces of egg flew out and decorated the table. My brows drew tighter and tighter, and it felt like flames were spreading through my head.
Yeah… she had a point. No matter who you were with, it was polite not to make someone uncomfortable during a meal. I placed a hand on my chest and took another deep breath. After a moment, I felt the irritation slowly subside and reached for my tteokbokki again with the chopsticks.
That was when a piece of yolk flew out of her snout and landed right on my plate.
The flames finally exploded.
“Oh, really? So you’re worse than a dog, huh.”
At my words, Porim blinked blankly. She swallowed the egg filling her mouth and shamelessly shot back.
“Isn’t that because your eyes are crooked, sis?”
“The only thing crooked is your disgusting table manners. Can you stop acting like an uneducated slob?”
She should have been apologizing immediately, yet here she was talking about my eyes? My reply was equally sharp.
“What? Uneducated slob? You got something else to say?!”
“Of course I do! I could talk all night and it still wouldn’t be enough, you filthy bitch!”
“You fucking cunt!”
Porim shot to her feet, teeth bared. At the same time, the plate of tteokbokki flew straight at my face.
“Pffft! Keck, keck…!”
Ugh… it’s spicy! So fucking spicy! The sauce is in my eyes…!
The sticky broth and chewy rice cakes clung to my face. I frantically wiped at it with my hands, and my vision slowly returned. A furious face was glaring down at me. The moment our eyes met, the pain vanished and rage flooded in.
What the hell did she think she was doing!
I immediately grabbed the soy sauce bowl and smashed it into Porim’s face.
“Kehk!”
When she had ignored me and executed Gem on her own, I had let it slide once. After that she seemed to be watching my mood, so I let it go without saying anything, but this was the result. Bitches like this—if you gave them an inch, they’d take a mile!
This was the perfect chance to put her firmly in her place!
“You rag of a bitch!”
I grabbed a fistful of Porim’s hair and slapped her across the cheek.
“Agh… ah…!”
Maybe her vision still hadn’t returned, because even after getting slapped she flailed her hands in the air. This wasn’t enough. Trash like her needed to be completely crushed so she would never dare talk back again!
“You fucking bitch!”
The moment I raised my hand again, Porim’s flailing fingers snatched my own hair first.
“Making a scene over food, seriously!! I’m gonna rip all your hair out!”
“Let go! Let go right now, you vulgar bitch!”
It felt like my scalp was being torn off. I thrashed wildly, but the more I struggled, the tighter her grip became. There was no shaking her off. I grabbed her hair with both hands as well.
“Fine! Let’s settle this once and for all today!”
Our bodies tangled together. The two of us rolled across the floor, each gripping the other’s hair.
“Oh dear, please calm down! What are you doing!!”
The startled owner rushed over, but I didn’t even register him. My mind was filled with nothing but the thought of ripping every last strand from this damn bitch’s head.
The scuffle continued until the short shadows had stretched more than twice as long.
.
.
.
Inside the public restroom, Porim and I stood side by side in front of the sink, washing off the sauce and dirt. Neither of us spoke a word. When I looked in the mirror, I saw the vivid nail marks and scratches standing out clearly on my dripping face.
What a sight.
The resentment that had begun to fade after the fight flared up again, sharper than before.
—Slam!
She turned the faucet with deliberate irritation, as if to make sure I heard it.
—Slam!
The sound echoed back like a mirror image. At that moment, I decided I hated this bitch more than anything else in the world.