Everyone Has a Plausible Excuse (2)

The forest was still ablaze.

Even the trees that hadn't yet fallen caught fire, and the blaze began to spread further and further.

It was as if someone's anger was sweeping through the entire forest.

Michael's rage was just as hot and intense.

But...

"Oh right, since it's so hot, I can't just leave it like this."

I released cold air from my body to put some order to the chaos around me.

Just as I'd unleashed fire and lightning, I could also use skills related to cold.

[Hell Blizzard]

I couldn't do anything about the cracked earth or the crumbling ruins, but at the very least, I needed to stop the wildfire.

The cold spreading out in all directions snuffed out all the flames clinging to the trees.

Chiiiiii—

I heard the sizzling sound of scorched trees cooling.

Once the flames had completely disappeared, a mere wave of my hand dispelled the cold as well.

There's nothing good about leaving traces of ice around this place anyway.

A chilling wind blew, and all the temperature in the area dropped.

Even the resentment-filled anger from Kwon Sang-ah.

And also...

"No...!"

Even the mindless rage flooding through Michael Kang.

"I said no...!"

"...."

"This can't be happening...! It just can't!!"

With a face completely drained of color, Michael began backing away slowly.

Just moments ago, when he was under the protection of the hunters, Michael's face was filled with madness, but now he looked as panicked as a gnat in front of a frog.

In the cold atmosphere, he had no choice but to set aside his anger and surrender.

"Don't come... Don't come any closer! You monster bastard!"

"Monster? Haha..."

I was so dumbfounded I couldn't form words.

Who was he calling a monster when he himself was more of a monster than anyone?

This was finally the moment his true nature was revealed.

"You know this is assault, right? The police aren't just going to let this go when they find out!"

He suddenly started talking about assault.

Was he perhaps referring to me beating up the hunters lying around here?

If that's the case, there was nothing to worry about. Anyone could see these guys were murderer-hunters, and I'd merely acted in self-defense.

Besides, who would believe that a first-year middle schooler beat up these professional hunters?

And even if someone did believe it, erasing these hunters' memories would take care of that too.

Since I could do that.

But you know what was the most ridiculous thing?

"Then when you beat up Sumin-sunbae and tore off Chohyang-sunbae's wings—was that not assault?"

"...!"

Hearing those words, Michael flinched and started sweating coldly.

Even he knew his logic was inconsistent.

I closed the distance, speaking as I walked up to him.

"Even if I generously concede and admit to assault... You, you bastard, are guilty of attempted murder!"

Thwack—!

My anger got the better of me, and I kicked him in the abdomen.

The force of the kick sent him flying into a tree, where he coughed up a lot of blood.

"Guh!"

His next sound was filled with pain.

It must have felt like all his internal organs were being shaken up.

Barely lifting his head, he looked at me as I walked toward him again.

"Go away... I said go away...!!"

"...."

"Uwaaaaah!!"

In the end, Michael screamed and began running frantically among the ruins.

The terror in front of his eyes made him forget his own pain in an instant.

All his survival instincts were screaming at him to focus only on running.

"Somebody help!! There's a monster here...! There's a murderer!!"

He shouted at the top of his lungs, but there was no one to meet on this deserted mountain.

The more he ran, the darker it became, with not a speck of light in sight.

To anyone watching, it would look like someone running away from a ghost in the mountains, but the thing chasing him was a far more brutal reaper than any ghost.And that reaper... showed no mercy just because he was young.

"Murderer... Hrk!"

Suddenly, Michael stopped dead and let out a cry of pain.

That was because, in an instant, the reaper had overtaken him and grabbed him by the throat.

No matter how fast he ran, he was right in the palm of my hand with the 'Rapid' skill.

"Murderer? Wow, unbelievable. Really."

"Aaaah... haaaah...!"

As I smashed his throat into a piece of ruined building debris, the tears ran down his face.

He whimpered like someone who'd lost his parents, but until now, this piece of trash had laughed and watched as others bled.

"I don't think you have any right to call others murderers."

"Huuuuh...!"

Not only that, but he had committed murder himself.

For someone like him to throw around 'murderer' at me was the height of absurdity.

He even tried to kill me, for that matter.

"H... Have mercy... Just once... please..."

He began to sniffle and beg through his tears, and a change came over his body.

The horns that had grown longer earlier were now shrinking.

Given that orcs grow more excited and their horns longer when agitated, this showed how thoroughly his spirit had been broken.

"I was wrong! I'll never do it again...! Just once... please...!"

"So you knew it was wrong all along... and did it anyway?"

"Please, have mercy. I'm still just in junior high. If I repent even now, it's not too late to fix myself! I'll go back into the rehabilitation center—please!"

Hearing those words gave me a headache.

"Because you're young, you want mercy. Is that it?"

"Legally, that's pretty much how it is. That's why juvenile sentences are so much lighter, you know."

He wasn't entirely wrong there.

Punishments for juveniles are not severe.

Unlike fully grown adults, they're still immature, so it's easy to defend them and hard to give harsh punishment.

Since my father was a prosecutor, I was even more convinced of this than I had been in my previous life.

In fact, last year, a group of kids ran someone over and killed them with a motorcycle in the city, unlicensed.

'And those kids were out again before the year was even up.'

A few months ago, there were even students who orchestrated prostitution, and those punks are scheduled for release next year.

While I'd been living as a demon in Mewzealand, nothing about Earth's laws had changed.

So I couldn't help but think this—

"So, you're saying, 'Don't screw around just because the law will protect you?'"

"No, I..."

"Right now, in your head, you're thinking, 'Even if I go to court, I'll get only a light punishment.'"

"...."

"And not long after, you'll be out committing the same crimes again."

Would a punk who gets released so soon really repent?

On the contrary, he'd just take the world even less seriously and go on to do even worse things.

"With laws as laughable as these, you really think I'm just going to let you go?"

"T—Then what are you going to do? Can you even make my sentence worse?"

I didn't have the authority to increase his sentence.

No matter how competent the prosecutor, there was no guarantee a guy like this would ever repent.

So—

Grab—!

—I would just do this.

"Guaaaaaaah!!"

I grabbed his left arm with my other hand.

Then, I poured magic power filled with curses into that arm.

The magic power that seeped through his veins began to rip apart every nerve cell.

"Aaaaagh!! Please!! No!!"

The pain of having your nervous system jolted would be unimaginable, even for someone awakened.

Finally, when I let go, his left arm hung limp.

"Huff... huff... W—what... did you...?"

"Try moving your left arm."

"Huh?"

Michael's left arm would not move.

No matter how much strength he tried to muster, it was useless.

It just dangled there, dead weight.

"What did you do! Turn it back—!"

"Tough luck. That symptom will last your whole life, until you die."

"What?"

He'd never be able to use his left arm again, for life.

In that despair, Michael was flooding with renewed terror.

"Please, stop! Anything more is too much!"

"...."

"And this is too much! I'm still an inexperienced awakened! I just drew an unlucky trait that's too strong for me to control! That's why I went out of control!"

At that, Michael pointed at Kwon Sang-ah, who was sitting across by a tree.

"Look at her! She just went berserk and started the wildfire! There's no way she can control it either... How am I any different from her?!"

Kids with high-level traits are often unhinged.

Just look at some of the students at Hand.

Because of that, if an awakened who ends up in court is a child, these factors are considered—at least, so my father told me.

But...

"Then why do you go to Hand?"

"... What?"

"Why did you enroll at Hand?"

"Well..."

Awakeners enroll to learn how to control those damned powers.

That's why so many weirdos cluster at Hand.

But by the time they move from middle school to high school, most of the loose screws get tightened a bit.

Those students work hard and fix up what they lack through their own effort.

So what's the problem with the ones who don't?

"Did you even try to fix yourself?"

"Of course I did. I'm in third year already..."

"So what did you do during those years to let things get this bad? Seems like your symptoms only got worse."

"That's...."

"She trains late into the night to control her own berserk state. But what, you're no different from her?"

With his utterly unconvincing excuses, I grabbed his right arm this time.Sensing the danger, Michael began rambling incoherently to defend himself.

"I'm different! I really am! Ah! I'm an orc-type Mutamit! You know how orc breeds are violent and mean! That's why it's harder to control—Aaaaaaaaaah!!"

So many excuses.

Not bothering to hear him out, I cursed his right arm as well.

He was going on about orcs, but that, too, was nonsense.

Back when I was the Demon King, I had an orc serving as a lieutenant in my army.

Contrary to the stereotype of orcs as violent, that fellow was extremely clever.

'Borg... I wonder if he's doing well?'

Borg, when I first met him, had a terrible temper.

But as the years passed and the army was formed, he became a completely different person.

Because he worked hard to lead the army.

But this bastard...

"So, you make no effort to control it, and yet you've got so much to say?"

"Gyaaaaaaaaah!!"

"You're not nasty because of your trait, you were just a nasty bastard all along."

"My arm! My arrrrrm!!"

Michael's arms now hung limp, like the arms of a corpse.

From pickpocketing, to murder, to attempted murder.

Those hands, so used to filth, had lost their function.

"Give me my arms back!!"

Now he couldn't even feed himself or hold a pencil.

He couldn't use a phone or a computer.

If he entered a juvenile detention center in that state, it would be... interesting.

"You son of a bitch!!"

And yet he still hadn't come to his senses.

So, to finish things, I released the most vicious magic power I could muster.

"You damned... what...?"

That moment, he finally shut his mouth.

I approached slowly and spoke.

"That's right, pal. Everyone has a plausible excuse."

"Uh...?"

Terrified, Michael kept backing away.

He was so scared, he'd even forgotten to hate me for ruining his arms.

"Until they're educated."

"Uh... uh, uh!! Kyaaaaaagh!!"

There was no more Seongjin, the boy.

Now there was only a demon of indescribable power standing before him.

"Monster... no... a demon!!"

Meeting my eyes, Michael shrieked as if caught in a natural disaster.

Then, as if swept up by a dark wave, the enormous shadow of a demon engulfed him completely.

This way, he wouldn't just lose his arms—he wouldn't even remember how this happened to him.

The shadow that tore through his body also gnawed away at his mind.

When the shadow finally faded, the demon returned to my original form.

"It's over."

"...."

Leaving the quietly unconscious Michael behind, I approached Kwon Sang-ah.

She took my outstretched hand and stood up in silence.

Whether or not she was still on the verge of losing control, her eyes were alive again.

She asked, a bit shyly:

"Are you... really human?"

After seeing all that, it was only natural for her to wonder.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=There are fates worse than death...Although he didn't get beat up, living as an invalid for the rest of his life is an apt punishment.【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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