BXBX NOVEL Chapter 45 - I'll take care of her!
"I had no doubt you\'d do a great job with this, you\'re definitely our ace in the hole."
"Thank you for the compliment. I will continue to be a proud and hardworking public servant."
"That\'s a good attitude. You got back from this one pretty quickly, didn\'t you?"
"Of course, monsters don\'t stand a chance with a single punch from me."
"You\'re very strong. By the way, Hye-Rim."
"Why did you bring that monster all the way here?"
The head of the Awakened Crime Division looked at Yoo Seo-Eun, who was standing next to me with a very tired look in his eyes.
"Ever since I joined the department, you\'ve been the first person to bring a monster to the Awakeners\' Association."
"To think that I\'m making history, I\'m honored."
"Now, can you cut the crap and explain it to me properly?"
A vein popped out on the chief\'s forehead. The way he\'s looking at me is also strange.
If I make a mistake, my civil service career will end not with a monster or a villain, but with death at the hands of the chief.
"Mr. Chief. This monster...... No, I don\'t think Yoo Seo-Eun is a monster."
"She\'s not a monster, she\'s a human; is that what you\'re saying?"
"Yes, she looks human, doesn\'t she?"
I pulled Yoo Seo-Eun, who was standing stiffly by the side, and brought her in front of the chief.
"Hmm... Except for the irises, ears, and horns, it\'s human."
"You even said you were human yourself, didn\'t you, Seo-Eun?"
"Uh, what?! Uh... yes. I\'m a human."
Yoo Seo-Eun continued to stammer to the chief of the Crime Division, who was staring at her.
And she told him everything, from how she became a monster to why she crossed over to the human world.
The chief of the Crime Division gave me a look of disbelief, but then I handed him the documents and explained further.
"I asked So-Young to look up the data on Yoo Seo-Eun."
What I showed the chief was Yoo Seo-Eun\'s personal information.
I asked Lee So-Young to look up Yoo Seo-Eun\'s data immediately after capturing the monster. She asked me why, but I said I would explain later.
"Yoo Seo-Eun went missing five years ago. What we have here about her and what she said are completely consistent."
"Yeah. She looks the same, too."
The document also contained a photo of Yoo Seo-Eun when she was human. A black-haired beauty with a slightly cold expression, this is what she looked like in her original form.
"What I\'m trying to say is this: Yoo Seo-Eun is just a victim who was sucked into the demonic realm by a gate that appeared out of nowhere. Since it\'s our job to save people, shouldn\'t we extend a helping hand to her as well?"
"......I see where you\'re coming from, Hye-Rim."
The chief sighed, rubbing his brow. Yoo Seo-Eun, who is standing between me and the chief, has been sweating profusely since earlier.
She must be uncomfortable with this situation, too, because she followed me because I promised to let her live a human life, but now she\'s being interrogated by the Awakened Association.
Of course, I could take her in on my own and help her. But even that has its limits. After all, Yoo Seo-Eun is an illegal alien living in the human world.
It would be better to report her to the Awakened Association.
"There are some people who have fallen through the gate and crossed over to the Demon Realm, but only occasionally, and I\'ve rescued them many times. However, I\'ve never had a human return as a monster before, so I don\'t know what to do when this happens."
"Well, we have victims who were captured and experimented on by the Monster Association, so we can put them under medical supervision like they did."
"Is there any medicine in the world that can turn a monster back into a human? If there was, I\'d be all for it."
"I can do it."
"...Huh?"
"Huh?"
My words startled both the chief and Yoo Seo-Eun.
"I know what influenced Yoo Seo-Eun to become a monster, and I know how to suppress her power."
"Are you sure about that, Hye-Rim?"
"...Really, you can cure the monster power that has eroded into my body?"
"It\'s difficult to completely purify it, but I can do it to a certain extent."
These words are not false. I\'m not just saying this because I know what kind of power Yoo Seo-Eun gained in the original story.
I am capable of purifying her.
"I\'m a magical girl, not an ordinary Awakened."
Not that I\'m an ordinary magical girl, either.
"Anyway, Chief. What I\'m requesting is that you let me take care of Yoo Seo-Eun myself. She\'s still in her monster body and needs constant supervision, and I\'ll be the one to do that."
No matter how much Yoo Seo-Eun cries out here, "I won\'t cause any accidents or get into trouble!", no one will believe her. After all, she has the powers of a monster, and she\'s already almost gotten into an accident.
Her only crime so far is that she injured one Academy student, causing minor injuries. A minor incident that could have happened to any normal Awakened.
But it\'s a big deal when it\'s a monster who did it.
"...I don\'t think it\'s my place to judge this alone."
The chief of the Crime Division pondered for a while, then said that he had to report to the top.
"Hye-Rim, I think this is a matter for the Awakened Association President to decide, not me."
"That\'s what I think too."
"Well, I\'ll pass along your thoughts. But you know, whatever the president decides to do with Yoo Seo-Eun, we have to abide by it."
In other words, if the president deems her dangerous and orders her to be killed, I have to go along with it.
"I understand. I\'m not going to argue against it."
"...Okay, then."
The chief of the Crime Division smiled bitterly at my confident answer.
I wish the process of delivering the report could be expedited, but since most of the staff have already left for the day, it will probably be tomorrow morning before Yoo Seo-Eun and I will have a face-to-face meeting.
In the meantime, the obvious question of what to do with Yoo Seo-Eun came out of the chief\'s mouth.
"Since I can\'t let her out yet, I\'ll let her sleep in my office. I\'ll keep an eye on her tonight."
I decided to use Team 5\'s office as a detention center.
"I\'ll feel better if you watch her yourself, but are you sure about that? You\'ll be up all night too."
"I\'ve spent days and nights writing reports in the past, so why can\'t I keep an eye on her?"
After hearing that, the chief of the Crime Division agreed that it was true.
Anyway, Yoo Seo-Eun and I spent the night in the office together.
"I didn\'t expect ...... this incident to become so big. I\'ll be okay, right?"
When we were alone, she finally spoke up.
"It\'s okay, just trust me."
"...Even if I trust you, you still have to go along with the decision of the president of the Association, right?"
"I said it\'s okay after considering all that, so you don\'t have to worry about it."
I said as I walked to my seat in the office and flopped down in the chair.
"What you need to figure out is how you\'re going to live your life."
"How to live?"
"Yeah. Like a real human being, not just figuring out how to survive another day. Like, what\'s for lunch tomorrow, what show to watch when I get home, how to balance my bank account so I can feel good about myself."
"...That last one is not a good one."
"Well, life isn\'t all about happy things."
I leaned back in my chair and propped my legs up on the desk. As I lay back, I looked up at Yoo Seo-Eun.
"I promised you such a normal life, didn\'t I? I told you to trust me with your life, and you chose to trust yourself to me."
"Yes... I did."
"Then just trust me, and everything will be okay in the end."
I put my arms behind my head and closed my eyes. Yoo Seo-Eun wasn\'t going to run away anyway, so I might as well get some sleep.
Isn\'t it dereliction of duty to sleep without monitoring, you ask? It\'s smart to work flexibly.
There\'s no reason to do pointless surveillance, right?
"Hey, can I sit next to you?"
"Huh?"
Just as I was about to fall asleep, longing for my bed at home, Yoo Seo-Eun pulled a chair over and sat next to me.
"It\'s up to you. I\'m supposed to be next to you anyway. If you come here first, then I won\'t have to go there."
"That\'s true now that I think of it. Haha."
Yoo Seo-Eun sat down, pulling her chair right next to mine, and then turned her head toward me, keeping her chair tilted back like mine.
"Can I call you Hye-Rim? I\'d like to call you by your real name now."
"Of course. We\'ll be seeing each other for a long time."
"For a long time...huh?"
Smiling slightly, Yoo Seo-Eun apologized.
"Hye-Rim, I\'m so sorry."
"Oh, so you know how to be sorry, at least? How pitiful is it that I can\'t go home and have to sleep here because of you?"
"No, not that! Of course I\'m sorry for that too!"
"Then what are you apologizing for?"
"...Just because a lot of people have suffered because of my vain thoughts."
"......"
"You\'re right. My personal desire to become human came at the expense of others, and if you hadn\'t found me quickly and stopped me, I would have took a road of no return."
I turned my head to look at Yoo Seo-Eun, who was now in tears.
"I realize now... I realize now how foolish I was to try to do something so inhuman as someone who dreamt of being human. I realized it all."
I just stared at Yoo Seo-Eun, who was crying as she confessed her sins.
I don\'t know how to comfort her in this situation. I can\'t even empathize with her in the first place. It\'s a fact that Yoo Seo-Eun did something wrong.
So I just said one thing.
"As long as you know."
At that, Yoo Seo-Eun, who was crying, burst out laughing.
"Yes, I found out because of you. And I\'m here now because of you."
“Thank you so much.”
Whispering softly, Yoo Seo-Eun slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep. She was very tired and drifted off to dreamland.
No wonder; she\'d had quite a day.
"...I should really go to sleep now."
The chair is uncomfortable to sleep in, but if I force myself to close my eyes, I\'ll be asleep soon enough.