I Became a Demon Queen

Code Red (3)

“H-how…”
Aria couldn’t believe her eyes. The arm she had clearly twisted and broken. That arm which was expected to take a long time to heal was now in perfectly fine condition.
Completely different from herself who was still bothered by movement due to her aching body all over.
[Uooooh! Magical girl!]
“This crazy troll-like bastard…”
Meanwhile, the mutant crushed under her feet rose with a rage-filled roar. She lightly jumped and landed on a car right beside her.
[Die!]
The mutant, blood streaming from its broken nose, swung its fist.
A fist whose size alone was half of its upper body.
She grinned and didn’t move at all, and shadows surging from below rippled and burst out like tentacles wrapping around the mutant’s body.
“Power is all you trust? Then now die.”
[Guaaa…]
She smoothly drew her hand.
At the same time, shadow blades bursting from her hand cleanly severed the immobilized mutant’s neck.
“…Was this one also subjected to strange experiments? Just how crazy is this world?”
“Good. Superior grade achievement.”
As the beheaded mutant’s body lost breath, it began melting.
What was revealed in the middle of the half-melted body was someone’s body part that was once an ordinary human, fused with unmelted flesh.

“Well there’s no shortage of suspects. Evil organizations using biological weapons aren’t rare.”
“Really crazy neighborhood.”
I clicked my tongue at Ren’s words. Even the demon realm doesn’t go this far.
Even those celestial realm bastards desperate to beat us weren’t this bad.
“…Anyway the job’s done.”
I looked around wanting to leave. People had gathered before I knew it. Everyone was taking pictures of me with their phones.
Though I got used to it living as a demon king, I wasn’t attention-seeking to my bones, so such attention was just uncomfortable.
“Just leaving? Didn’t you come here suddenly to see another magical girl?”
“What’s the point of looking when she’s lying over there. Though… there was an unexpected harvest too.”
I smirked at Ren’s words. As he said, I just stopped by briefly because I sensed magical girl energy somewhere here.
But thanks to that I had another encounter.
“There was another one?”
Our eyes met. I wonder if she knew that I noticed too.
No matter how much they hide, my eyes can detect subtle flows of magic power. That girl who just ran over here is definitely a magical girl too.
“So what are you going to do now?”
“What else? Have to wander again. Need to find a house!”
I flew into the sky again. It’s not easy finding a place to stay.
If push comes to shove, I might have to walk into a facility myself.
“One, two… three. This is getting too popular.”
I sensed gazes directed at me as I soared into the sky. They were magical girls watching my movements and their intention was obvious. They were waiting for me to undo my transformation and return to my original form.
“I’d be stupid to let them.”
The moment I entered the clouds, I increased my speed. They’ll have trouble following me in here where you can’t see an inch ahead.
“Let’s look around a bit more, or maybe try going to a facility.”
After shaking off the watching eyes, I undid my transformation in an alley between buildings. Then I naturally blended into the crowd.
“…It doesn’t make sense that I can’t eat when such things are right in front of me.”
I gritted my teeth passing by street vendors giving off delicious smells.
How long has it been since I smelled this street food aroma. But right now the fried food and tteokbokki were just pictures to me. Though this body doesn’t particularly need to eat, Earth’s various foods were one of the main causes of my homesickness.
“Looks like today will end with wandering all day again.”
“…I think so too.”
I let out a bitter laugh at Ren’s words. No matter how much I wander around, there’s no way someone would readily take in a poor girl with no home and money in today’s world.
“Hey. You.”
Until now. Someone approached me who had been wandering until late afternoon.
“Who are you?”
“Uh… uh?!”
Perhaps because I asked too harshly, the girl around my age who approached first flinched. I scanned her.
From her clothes and face, she wasn’t a child in a normal situation.
“I sense evil. Very very faintly but.”
Ren assessed that he sensed evil. I roughly understood the intention too.
“I-I’m Kim Su-jung… but more than that, you, you ran away from home right?”
“Why do you think that?”
“You’re wandering the streets with nothing, not meeting anyone.”
She adjusted her hat and spoke pointing at me, seemingly having regained confidence. I glanced down at my body.
Certainly, I do look like a penniless beggar.
“If you follow me, I can give you a place to sleep and food.”
“What kind of person is the boss there?”
“Umm?!”
I smirked.
Of course a young kid like this wouldn’t move independently and surely has a leader.
“What do I have to give in return for food and shelter? Sexual favors from minors with nowhere to go? Or selling them as test subjects?”
“W-what are you saying!? Brother Gwang-hun doesn’t do such things!”
“His name is Gwang-hun?”
“Eek…”
Looking at her trembling, I became interested. Besides them being obviously suspicious, the offer of a place to stay and food was appealing to me.
“W-we’re building achieve-”
“Lead the way.”
Ignoring Ren’s words, I ordered the girl who revealed her name as Kim Su-jung to guide me to their hideout. She blinked her wide eyes looking dumbfounded, then gestured for me to follow her.
“When we get there, Brother Gwang-hun will give you work. He said to bring kids like you if we see them. But what’s your name?”
“My name?”
I hesitated briefly at Su-jung’s words. I couldn’t give my true name which was both demon king name and activity name.
“Jin… ah.”
“Jin-ah?”
I hastily made up an alias changing one syllable from my human era name Lee Jin-woo. Of course she didn’t suspect anything but it felt strange.
“You live here?”
“The girls live here. Be careful of the older sisters, they’re scary…”
The place Su-jung took me to was an old villa in a neighborhood somewhat removed from downtown. At least it didn’t seem like a professional organization.
“Lots of evil, but all crude ones.”
Even from Ren’s mouth came certainty that it was nothing special. Seemed like just an ordinary runaway family.
Some low-quality thugs probably latched onto such kids.
“What? Who’s this?”
“B-Brother Gwang-hun said to bring new recruits like he mentioned.”
The first person to appear before us was what looked like a teenage girl.
“New recruit?”
She smirked while looking me up and down.
“Haven’t been out of home long? Hey, why did you come here.”
“She said she’d give me a home and food. Ow.”
“Watch how you talk.”
She hit my head. Surprised by the unexpected strike, I forgot to show a reaction.
“Don’t regret it and crawl back home. Why did you even leave?”
“…Afraid I’ll die. Yo.”
Afraid I’ll die of homesickness if I stay in the demon castle. Not a lie?
“Aish.”
But she misunderstood something and scratched her head vigorously.
“I only sense weak evil from this girl. She’s just ordinary.”
Meanwhile Ren evaluated her. My judgment wasn’t different. Though she seemed somewhat worn down, she wasn’t completely corrupted.
“Come in.”
Finally she opened the door for me. The one-room villa was a mess. Rather than dirty, it seemed impossible to organize because there were too many things.
“Everyone’s out now but 13 people live there, so you… will probably have to curl up and sleep under the sink with her.”
“Are they all people like ‘her’? Yo.”
“…Yeah. All runaway idiots. I’m Jeon So-hyeon.”
She smirked and held out her hand to me. I took her hand telling her my alias. Not exactly a satisfying sleeping arrangement.
However, since my interest was already piqued, I wanted to investigate at least. This was also a habit from my demon king days.
“I thought you said you’d play around but is this right?”
[Shut up. Think of it as simple entertainment]
I snorted at Ren’s words.
Certainly, there’s so much to do but since coming to Earth I’ve just gotten caught up in this crazy stuff and haven’t done anything I actually wanted to do.
“But, is it really okay to just come in and live here like this? Yo.”
“You just need one person’s permission. Kim Gwang-hun. This place belongs to him anyway. No matter our age or who we are, we get kicked out with one word from him. And what’s with your way of talking?”
“…What kind of person is he?”
Jeon So-hyeon hit my head again.
I didn’t particularly mind. There was no malice and since I knew how fragile she was, to me it was no different than a cat throwing a cute punch not knowing any better.
“Don’t know. He’s crazy. But he tells us about jobs, so with a bit of hardship we can become independent.”
“Jobs?”
“You’ll find out soon. Since you’re young, you’ll probably get similar work to Su-jung?”
As the sun was setting, she gave rough answers while preparing to go out. I didn’t particularly ask what kind of work she was going to. Probably wouldn’t answer anyway.
“Come quickly.”
“What are you doing?”
“Laundry the sisters ordered… get hit if we don’t do it.”
“What a mess.”
I snorted at Kim Su-jung’s words.