144 – New Family
“Do you know what you’re talking about, student?”
Kang Maru, who had been glaring at Justia, who was holding her arm, for a long time asked a question quietly in her cold voice.
“Of course I know very well.”
Then, Justia looked at her with a calm expression and answered that way.
“Anyway, it’s been a while. Your impression has changed a lot in the time we haven’t seen each other.”
“…………”
“I don’t think you were this sharp back then…”
“Your legs are long.”
Kang Maru, who was quietly listening to her, begins to speak, omitting her honorific title.
“I don’t think you understand the situation, but you are protecting someone who almost caused casualties. It’s like defending a villain.”
“…Isn’t it customary for one or two students to run wild during a ranking match? Rather, this case seems to be a very good one with no injuries or deaths.”
“This is not a stadium that will be completely destroyed just because of an influx of students. This is the first time that it was so serious that all the officials had to evacuate.”
Justia frowned quietly upon hearing her words.
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“So, you’re saying it’s because of this kid?”
“Then whose fault is it?”
“Isn’t it the fault of the person who brought the mental state of a child with such power to this state?”
“Ha, you speak well even though you don’t know anything.”
She snorted and muttered at Justia’s cold remark.
“If she becomes the No. 1 Candidate, people around her will support her even if her head is a flower garden, right? But the reality won’t be so easy.”
“Could you speak in a more understandable way?”
“…Do you think I didn’t try hard?”
“Yes, I don’t think you did much.”
Justia answered her question immediately and took out her medicine cabinet from her arms.
“Did you know that Kang Ha-neul was taking this drug? Although it is a drug with extremely minimal side effects, did you know that he has been using it dozens of times more than the standard amount per day?”
“…I’m shocked.”
“Why on earth are you doing this?”
Nevertheless, when Kang Maru’s expression did not show any trace of guilt or pity, Justia eventually began to raise her voice with an angry expression.
“Is it a top-ranking hero to turn someone into an asshole without giving them even the slightest affection?”
“……..”
“In Kang Ha-neul’s way of thinking, the only thing that exists is to look good in your eyes. Isn’t it too much to do?”
“…Justia.”
Kang Maru, who was quietly listening to those words, opens her mouth with a straight face.
“No, Uriel Everay. You don’t know.”
“…What is it?”
“What kind of being is that guy?”
And then the silence began.
“I didn’t hold on to that guy because I liked it. To be honest, every moment was a struggle.”
“…………”
“Can you treat kindly a being who changed his biological parents, and who has no blood whatsoever?”
In the silence, Kang Maru looks down with disgust at Kang Haneul, who is silently lowering her head, and begins to mutter.
“Day after day, I have gritted my teeth and managed to manage an existence that was about to be consumed by a monster like that day when it swallowed everything I had!”
“…………..”
“I wanted to quit several times. I thought about leaving the house, and even thought about kicking it out. But, if I’m not there, who will stop that monster that periodically appears in the shadows?”
Her cracking voice came to a weak end.
“If left unattended, who will be able to handle something that will surely cause countless casualties…?”
“There was already someone who fully endured it once.”
“…What?”
Justia muttered quietly with a cold expression she had never seen before.
“…It’s happening again.”
“What now…”
“Yes, I understand your position.”
Then she quietly shakes her head, returns to her normal calm expression, and opens her mouth.
“I can roughly understand what you were thinking and doing until now.”
“Is that so? Then, please, won’t you let go of this arm and move out of the way?”
“…That doesn’t mean I can understand you.”
“I can’t understand.”
Then, when Justia heard what Kang Maru said with a pitiful expression, her expression got even worse.
“That’s the problem.”
“What?”
“The problem is that people don’t think they can communicate.”
At her whisper, Kang Maru quietly tilts her head.
“Have you ever thought about having a sincere ‘conversation’ with your younger sibling?”
“……..”
“Have you ever asked what that shadow is, when it appears, and whether you understand it?”
Justia looks at her directly in front of her and asks her questions.
“Have you at least tried to interact with something human-to-human?”
“…I said something.”
Kang Maru quietly listened to the question for a while, and then she answered with a sigh.
“Why should I put such effort into a monster?”
“……Ha.”
“That guy is a monster who will destroy the world. The child of prophecy has never gone astray in what he says. Just by being forced to live with him and control him until now…”
“There is no answer…”
Then, she looked at Justia, whose mood had changed slightly again, with her long, serious eyes.
“…You are the one creating that monster.”
“…….?”
“I’m not an idiot, and everything can get better with a few simple conversations, so why…”
In that state, Justia, who was jumping around and continuing to talk, soon managed to control her emotions and muttered in a slightly troubled voice.
“…I’m sorry. When I get emotional, sometimes I say things to myself that I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Is that so? I understand, so I’ll give you another chance.”
“…………”
“Let go of my arm and move aside.”
Kangmaru’s command suddenly shook Justia’s body.
“…Okay. How about doing it like this?”
However, Justia’s small voice miraculously withstood her command once more even as her body shook.
“I will manage Kang Ha-neul instead of you.”
“What?”
“It means that I will become Kang Ha-neul’s family instead of you.”
Her smile appears on the lips of Kang Maru, who was looking at her blankly for a moment.
“I can see ‘shadows’ like you, and as you may have seen, there is a good chance that I can overcome Kang Ha-neul.”
“…It seemed so.”
“So, if it’s such a hardship to live with Kang Ha-neul, please leave full authority to me.”
“Hmm…”
But that only lasts for a moment as Kang Maru carefully examines her expression with a straight face.
“What are you planning?”
“The intention is to save the monster from you.”
“You’ve been getting on my nerves since a while ago, so it’s better not to do that.”
“So, what do you think of my proposal?”
Then, after giving a warning in a cold voice about Justia’s remarks, she answers Justina’s question with a cold expression.
“If you want. It was already the limit anyway.”
“…Sister?”
“Of course, this will be after I trample on that guy with my own hands and hand him over to the heroes.”
Then, she moves her gaze to Kang Ha-neul, who looks at her with a blank expression and then makes a disbelieving voice.
“…I’ll take care of that.”
“What?”
“I heard you’re leaving all authority to me?”
Then, she frowned at the remarks of Justia, who spoke quietly next to her.
“Meaningless puns…”
“Noona. I’m sorry…”
At that very moment, a trembling voice began to come from below her.
“I-I was wrong. I-I’ll do better from now on.”
– Kuuk…
“So, is the black shadow the problem? Then from now on, I’ll always be in bright places. I’ll do much better in the future…”
The river Haneul crawled towards her with her battered body, holding on to her own sister’s legs and making her appeal.
“Please don’t abandon me…”
“……..”
“I’ll do anything… So please…”
Kangmaru looked down blankly at the river sky.
– Sigh…
“Ah…”
That was the moment when she lifted her foot with a nauseating look in her eyes and tried to trample his hand.
– Wow….!
A dull yet cheerful sound echoed through the ruined stadium.
“I told you, right?”
“…………”
“Now, I will take care of Kang Ha-neul.”
Justia, who punched Kang Maru in the face with all her might, whispered in a low voice to Kang Maru, who was sitting down in his seat, covering his bleeding nose with his hand.
“So don’t touch it.”
“That bastard…”
“I think I would just sit still.”
And then, she eventually begins to live quietly.
“You’ve never beaten me before, right?”
– Wow…
Justia, who heard those words, stumbled and got up from her seat.
“Are you okay!!”
“Securing victims comes first…”
“…Uh, there’s no one? A victim?”
The Hero Association’s after-action response team, led by Transfer, a person with teleportation abilities, arrived at the scene all at once.
“…Honestly, I have doubts.”
Justia whispers in a low voice to Kang Maru, who has stopped moving thanks to that, and begins to walk, supporting Kang Ha Neul.
“Which of the two is the real monster?”
Kang Maru’s hands trembled quietly as he looked at her back.
“She won’t have to deal with the poor guy who doesn’t even know what he’s getting into.”
It was triggered by a completely different emotion than the anger caused by getting hit by Justia, but Kang Maru was able to ignore it.
“…I’m sure you’ll regret it.”
.
.
.
.
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“Sister…..”
The next morning.
“Why on earth…”
So, the day Kang Haneul, who did not show any sign of distress even though he was finally released after being interrogated for 12 hours, dressed up in his apron and prepared a meal to somehow change his sister’s mind.
“…I’m truly alone now.”
But, cruelly, that day Kang Maru completely moved her residence to her own office near Rumia’s house.
“…Kang Ha-neul!”
“…….!!!”
Kang Ha-neul, who was sitting on the side of the road in her apron with a blank expression on her face, thinking that she was eventually abandoned by her older sister, is startled and turns her head when she hears her voice coming from behind her.
“Hello?”
No matter how much she thought about it, there was no reason for her to help herself like that, so Justia, who thought it was just a fantasy she had experienced when she was half asleep, was waving her hand with a bright smile.
“…Tsk.”
For some reason, Mystic Shine also had a bandage on her face.