S-Classes That I Raised to Devour - Chapter 104

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 104. The Critical Point (2)
A place where the entire panorama of Seoul spread out below.
Perched on the railing at the top of the tower sat Magic Girl.
Twin tails of pale pink, soft as strawberry milk poured from a bottle. Her dress, adorned with lace and frills of every imaginable kind, remained exactly as it was.
Her back, which looked so vibrant and full of hope from behind, was drenched in nothing but desolate loneliness.
Without thinking, I stretched out my arm first, then stopped. I couldn’t let urgency take over.
I moved slowly forward. As naturally as one would walk from the living room to the kitchen for water, I settled beside her with ease.
“…….”
I gazed in the direction she was looking.
The endless expanse of gray buildings and the dazzling daylight of the Han River flowing busily below stood in such stark contrast to her profound solitude that it felt cruelly peaceful.
But I knew. She wasn’t here to admire the view.
She was looking at something else.
“The Märchen Kingdom was geographically quite similar to Seoul, I found.”
There was no answer, but I spoke on alone.
“Cities and villages nestled between hills both large and small. Every morning you’d wake and go to the balcony to look down at the city. But that wasn’t the reason you did it.”
“It was because of the barley bread. Every morning, when you caught the scent of freshly baked barley bread, you were the happiest person in the world.”
From the diary I’d read in her dimensional vault.
I hadn’t merely learned her weakness. I’d experienced the pain and joy, the sorrow and happiness of her life myself.
To protect Seoul while yearning for the Märchen Kingdom was certainly good intent, but I couldn’t say that intent was entirely right.
“This place is not the Märchen Kingdom. So you needn’t bear the duty of protecting it. No—now you must set that burden down.”
Then the princess spoke.
“…You read my diary, didn’t you?”
Her gaze remained hollow, but her voice was terrifyingly calm.
“Yes.”
“I destroyed the Märchen Kingdom.”
“……?”
The diary hadn’t ended with that. It had ended with words of protecting the kingdom for eternity.
“I tried to protect the kingdom from monsters, but at some point I realized. I had become a monster myself.”
She extended her palm. The Golden Arrow revealed its seductive form.
“One day, when I came to my senses, there was nothing around me. I wandered the entire world. Searching for the disappeared Märchen Kingdom. For a hundred years.”
“Countless people called me a monster and challenged me to fight. I fought to survive, and I did survive. They called me a Demon King and feared me, but I didn’t care anymore.”
The Golden Arrow entered her body. That artifact, which granted transcendent power, had become not a tool but her very self.
“The Märchen Kingdom and its queen are one and the same. Which means that wherever I am, that is the Märchen Kingdom.”
“Princess, surely you don’t mean…….”
“Protecting a nation is not a duty—it is a calling.”
She rose and looked down at me.
What showed in her eyes was not vitality but an abyss.
“Therefore, all who stand against me are surely monsters.”
The moment I saw her raise the Magic Rod overhead, instinct and reason screamed at once. It can’t be dodged, they said. Block it, they cried.
‘Celestial Barrier!’
A golden curtain of light protected my entire body. The supreme barrier that had withstood even the full onslaught of the Sea King Kraken.
But the instant Rije’s Magic Rod touched the Celestial Barrier.
Crackle.
The barrier shattered like a biscuit.
* * *
Boom!
With a deafening roar, Namsan Tower exploded entirely.
The impact was so violent that an emergency earthquake alert was sent to every citizen’s phone. A magnitude 4 earthquake had struck Namsan.
The Great Magic Special Task Force emerged unscathed. They had maintained sufficient distance in preparation for just such a contingency.
The Squad Leader Kim Hyung-gyu immediately issued orders to his team.
“Large formation C!”
Twelve operatives dispersed in perfect synchronization and surrounded the blast center.
“Stand by!”
As the building collapsed, dust and debris obscured everything from view.
The Squad Leader withdrew a button and gripped it in his hand.
The Hunter Association had planted a ten-ton High-Concentration Mana High-Explosive beneath Namsan Tower. It was as if a miniature nuclear warhead lay at their feet—capable of vaporizing the entire mountain.
“Squad Leader. You must press it.”
At the operative’s words, the Squad Leader clenched his teeth. Bullets had no effect whatsoever on Magic Girl. Self-detonation was the only option.
Yet the reason he didn’t press it wasn’t fear—it was trust in Chae Mujin.
“We hold position!”
The operatives didn’t protest. They obeyed his command loyally, eyes fixed on the rubble.
As the wind shifted, the dust cleared dramatically, and two silhouettes began to emerge faintly.
A dainty Magic Rod bore down upon the World Tree Shell Shield.
Chae Mujin screamed out under the suffocating pressure crushing his entire body.
“Don’t shoot!”
It wasn’t friendly fire he feared—he worried the Magic Girl’s aggression would turn toward them.
Magic Girl raised the Magic Rod, then brought it down again. Chae Mujin didn’t meet the blow but rolled away.
Crash!
The Magic Rod never touched the ground, yet the earth and structures split with violent cracks and collapsed entirely.
Chae Mujin drew out a Flash Bang Grenade. He thought that if Magic Girl maintained human form, the flash should work—but…….
He had no moment to pull the pin. Magic Girl appeared before his eyes and struck down with her Magic Rod.
Using Form Shift Evasion, he spun behind her. With a Light Sword wreathed in maximum-output blade energy, he thrust at the nape of her neck.
Thunk.
The blade’s point crumpled. Stopped by her delicate skin.
Even with a Legendary-grade reinforced weapon and blade energy that could cut steel like tofu, he couldn’t draw a single scratch.
Watching Magic Girl turn slowly, Chae Mujin understood.
‘I didn’t evade. I didn’t need to.’
Despite witnessing her incomprehensible defense, Chae Mujin didn’t lose his will to fight.
“Märchen Rije!”
Calling out her name, he drove his fist forward.
Crack!
His knuckles collided with her face—her face unharmed, his knuckles bleeding.
But Chae Mujin hadn’t expected the strike to land, nor did he hope his emotional cry would awaken her.
Drip, drip.
What trickled down her face was not only Chae Mujin’s blood.
Clear, transparent liquid—water from the River Lethe.
Whoosh!
At her casual wave, Chae Mujin flew like straw, snapping six trees before skidding to a halt.
Yet he bounded back up immediately and shouted.
“Queen Rije! Are you plotting to destroy this nation once more? Didn’t you promise to protect it?”
If she had lost her memory and gone berserk, then restoring her memory was the answer.
“……!”
Whether from the human blood streaming down her face or from the River Lethe restoring her memory, Rije staggered at his words.
Then, from far away, someone shouted.
“Chae Mujin, get clear!”
It was the Eunpyeong-gu Sword Master, flying back. He took his stance.
“The Sword That Cuts All Things…….”
As he began to invoke his Awakening Ability, Chae Mujin stopped him with a shout.
“Don’t!”
“Don’t what! We have to finish this while she’s still! We have to end it now!”
Kim Bong-sik didn’t know the full circumstances, but of this one thing he was certain.
If they couldn’t eliminate Magic Girl here and now, Seoul would fly apart.
It wouldn’t end with millions dying. The entire nation of South Korea would cease to exist.
So no matter the circumstances, he had to cut down Magic Girl.
Despite Chae Mujin’s fervent objections, Kim Bong-sik unleashed his Awakening Ability.
“Behold the Sword That Cuts All Things.”
Swoosh!
The Awakening Ability manifested with his draw, descending upon Rije.
It was a sword that cuts through all things in this world.
Chae Mujin ran. To protect Rije. He would have blocked it even if it meant losing his arm.
Kim Bong-sik was shocked. He’d never imagined Chae Mujin would recklessly throw himself in front again.
He couldn’t counter it like with the Illusion Sword Dance. Awakening Abilities couldn’t be used consecutively.
Splash!
A horrific sound of blood and flesh rang out. Everyone’s eyes went wide.
Chae Mujin wasn’t hurt at all. Magic Girl had saved him. She’d thrown her body forward and blocked the Sword That Cuts All Things with her arm.
But it was not the arm of a delicate girl.
It was the arm of a monster—dark fur soaked in blood, five hooked claws whose very sharpness wounded eyes and skin just by existing.
Yet despite bearing a monster’s arm, Magic Girl spoke with a gentle smile.
“Are you all right?”
“…That’s what I should be asking you.”
Drip, drip.
Blood streamed from the monster’s arm. Even she could not emerge unscathed from the Sword That Cuts All Things.
“What pain would a monster feel?”
“You’re not a monster.”
“Thank you for saying that. Because of you, my mind feels a little clearer.”
“Give me a moment, will you? I need to resolve this situation somehow.”
I couldn’t make light conversation while the Great Magic Special Task Force contemplated detonation and the Code Master considered calling for reinforcements.
“Everyone, calm down. She’s fine.”
“…How can you say she’s fine when a person has transformed into a monster?”
“To my eyes, she looks like a monster and nothing else.”
Both the Squad Leader and the Code Master expressed wariness, their alarm unmistakable.
It was unavoidable. Their instincts were warning them. That thing is a horrific monster. Either flee at once or kill it.
Chae Mujin understood that sentiment well, which is why he answered all the more calmly.
“If you see her as a monster, then you must be all the more careful with your actions.”
“……!”
“If you have no intention to help, then stay far back. I’ll handle it myself.”
“That’s…….”
“I take full responsibility. Whatever the President says, whatever the Association Head says.”
No one dared say: “What are you to take responsibility for anything?”
The hottest potato in South Korea—the representative of Hunter Management Company.
He who had received congratulatory wreaths from both the Association Head and the Association Chairman.
Most critically—who would dare disregard a survivor of the Deep Dive?
“…Even if we don’t report it, the current situation has surely already been transmitted via drone.”
“I know. Tell the higher-ups. Don’t act recklessly. Seoul really could fly apart.”
Though the River Lethe had restored her memory and reason had returned, no one knew how long it would last.
* * *
Everyone had left, leaving Namsan desolate. Only Chae Mujin and Rije remained.
Rije, crouched down, spoke first.
“You said you’d kill me.”
Rije got straight to the point.
Chae Mujin simply nodded silently.
“Are you ready?”
“No. Not yet.”
He didn’t casually explain what he’d been doing or why he wasn’t ready, and Rije didn’t ask.
“How much longer will you need?”
“One month. Just one more month is all I ask.”
“One month…….”
Rije buried her face in her own knees and drew a heart on the ground with her Magic Rod.
“Will you really be able to kill me in one month?”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
He didn’t hedge. He answered with conviction.
At this, Rije looked at Chae Mujin.
“Have I told you? I can’t take my own life.”
“I heard it in my previous life.”
“A previous life’s experience—that’s convenient. Back then, you said that in my previous life, I detonated myself. Thanks to that, I realized something. Oh, I can die alone like this too.”
Just as Chae Mujin had gained a hint from his previous life’s experience, Rije too had benefited indirectly from her previous life.
She had come to understand how to detonate herself.
“I could die alone in a place where no one is. The sea would be nice.”
Theoretically, it was the best method. There’d be no need to fight an Overlord-Class Magic Girl, and no damage to anyone.
But Chae Mujin shook his head firmly.
“No. That will never happen.”
“Why? Do you really want to kill me that badly?”
“It’s the only way to save you.”
“…I don’t understand what you mean.”
Rije smiled innocently, but it was precisely that smile that made Chae Mujin all the more certain.
“You said it yourself. That you had a connection with me in a previous life. And in this life, you said this: I failed again in the end. When I heard that, I was certain.”
It was someone else’s concern. He had no reason to care.
But to Chae Mujin, she was not a stranger.
“You only find freedom when you’re killed, don’t you?”
She already lived freely. She could do whatever she wanted.
But what Chae Mujin saw wasn’t her appearance. It was her soul.
Her soul was mortgaged to someone else. That’s why, across countless worlds, she lived as a monster.
“Why is it that no one has ever been able to kill Queen Rije? It’s not that. You—every time, you must have taken your own life. For the sake of those who would be hurt because of you.”
At his words, Rije shook her head. It wasn’t denial. Painful memories she’d wanted to forget came flooding back.
“I will end it. This cycle of your suffering.”
“Don’t give me pity! I just dressed up as a girl—inside, I’m a hideous monster!”
“It’s not pity. It’s just…….”
Though she shot at him with a cold voice, Chae Mujin took her hand and spoke.
“I’m tired of living in a world where only kind people get hurt.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————