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The Stregonics modification surgery was successful.

Of course, it was a temporary measure, so we couldn’t send it into battle right away, but at least the psychological effect was tremendous.

I never imagined that the people in the banquet hall would accept it so quickly.

“I’m glad I spoke up as soon as I woke up.”

“The surprise on their faces when we explained our situation was unbelievable.”

Irene’s father now instructed everyone to retreat to the Clan Headquarters.

Although he must have intended to have a private conversation with his siblings.

The people in the banquet hall began to evacuate under the escort of the search and excavation team’s hunters.

The Scholarship Officer siblings seemed to have sensed the atmosphere and withdrew.

What remained were the Violets and Rigel’s Group.

Orion asked Rigel, his faction, and the relatives from both sides why they had done such things.

“No! We only did it for the clan…”

“We were deceived! This is all…”

Meanwhile, Irene quietly posed a question to the purple-haired woman before her.

“Aunt, what on earth is going on?”

“…I just needed some money. That’s all there was to it.”

Asking the others was a pointless exercise.

What remained was Irene’s pathetic uncle.

“Why did you do this? We’re family, right? If we were short, I could have given you more…”

Rigel muttered through gritted teeth.

“Ha, so you let my sister die like that? Huh?”

“That was… an accident.”

“I guess you’re talking about how Irene’s mom died.”

Rigel began to wail.

“This is all your fault!”

“…?”

“You don’t understand what it’s like to live in the shadows! Neither father nor mother, not even classmates! Everyone compared me to my older brother and ignored me! No matter how hard I tried, I could never measure up to him. Not in sports, academics, popularity… everything!”

Did he have some awareness of it? A voice cautiously streamed from Orion’s speaker.

“Rigel, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were feeling this way…”

“Shut up! What are you apologizing for now? Don’t be hypocritical!”

Rigel screamed, cutting off his brother.

“You stole my last hope! Zora was the one I loved first!”

I whispered to Irene.

“Who is Zora?”

“…That’s our mother’s name.”

“Oh, that’s insane…”

Yikes, this guy can’t possibly be a niece-lover, right?

As Violets with a healthy family culture, we absolutely could not let this go. We were preparing to aim our guns and eliminate that intrafamilial marriage suspect.

Suddenly, Irene and I felt a chill down our spines.

“Could it be that the reason that uncle threatened his niece was…?”

“Y-you’re insane! Please tell me you’re not looking at Irene like that!”

“You monster!”

I hesitated, wondering if I should kill him quickly as he spat on the ground.

“Disgusting. What? Why would I want that girl? Don’t make me laugh. After confessing now, do you even know how uncomfortable I felt every time I saw her face?”

We were increasingly disgusted.

“Irene, you are an insult to my last memory! Those eyes, that nose, that face! Why does that thing have to have Zora’s face stuck to it? You’re a hideous abomination that shouldn’t have been born!”

As Irene stood there in shock at this ridiculous verbal assault, Orion spoke up.

“No. I’m sorry, but Zora confessed to me first. Until we talked, I had no idea you thought that way.”

“What?! That can’t be true!”

Ugh, it sounds terrible.

It must be that he hated seeing the appearance of the girl he had a crush on mixed with his brother’s face.

But that’s his problem. Irene is a wonderful beauty!

Unable to stand it any longer, I smashed his head with the butt of my gun.

He made a spitting sound and fell silent.

“No, honey, this is…”

“Rigel, why…”

Everyone was shocked by Rigel’s shocking confession, including his wife and Orion.

“…Ugh!”

Irene whispered.

“Is it a side effect of the modification surgery…?”

The Stregonics body, which had been awkwardly moving, shook. We looked at the condition of the Stregonics body. The various readings on the tablet were decreasing.

Whether it was due to my brother’s disgraceful act or the hastily done surgery, the nerve synchronization state had worsened.

“Then I’ll take him!”

I took Irene’s father back again. I’ll have to make the Magnavis slaves work more for a while.

*

As the Stregonics body withdrew, the Violets drew their weapons.

The sound of the loading handle being pulled and bullets being inserted into the chamber.

The sound of a sword being drawn rang out.

“Let’s kill them all!”

“Extermination!”

That was before the unexpected request reached the ears of the girls who had been planning to cleanse the banquet hall.

“What? Are you okay?”

“Thank you. But I’m fine.”

Irene thought.

“I’ve wrapped up things with my father.”

She was saddened and depressed, but her weakened father could not stop his daughter.

And she herself had no intention of backing down.

She had to be the one to put an end to it all.

“This is my duty.”

This was something she had started herself, something she couldn’t leave to her friends.

The dirtiest jobs had to be done with her own hands.

This was something that only she could do, not her father or the Violets.

Irene stood facing Rigel’s faction, spear in hand.

As the Violets stepped back from their prisoners, doubt and anxiety rushed over their faces.

“Surely, you’re not going to let us go, right?”

One man asked with trembling anticipation.

Irene shook her head.

There wasn’t a shred of hesitation in her golden gaze.

“No.”

With a cold and emotionless reply, she delivered her sentence.

“Everyone, close your eyes.”

“W-what do you mean…”

Someone stammered.

“Hey… we’re still family, aren’t we?”

A near-screaming shout erupted.

“Relatives have already passed away.”

Irene’s voice carried no sign of emotional waves.

It felt as cold as speaking to the dead.

“Ugh, aaah!”

And the end approached. The members of Rigel’s faction, who had been bound, began to fall one by one.

At the crossroads of life and death, some desperately resisted. A few hunters forcefully broke their restraints and charged forward.

The spear, imbued with golden magical power, cut through them mercilessly.

“You’ve broken free. The restraints were too weak.”

She murmured with bloodstained lips.

“Yeah, come at me. If you can take me down, I’ll give you the chance to live.”

“Graaaah!”

“Die! I said die!”

Irene’s spear sliced through the air.

There was no hesitation or doubt. She simply mechanically and coldly carved flesh.

“Wait! Irene! We were wrong! Is shares not enough? We’ll give you more!”

One man begged, tears of blood streaming down his face. But there was no disturbance on the girl’s face.

“Don’t worry. You’ll officially be processed as having died fighting against monsters.”

Irene calmly continued.

“According to regulations, the compensation and condolence funds will be delivered to the bereaved families. Please rest in peace.”

“You’re… really insane…”

Watching this, Rigel exclaimed, horrified.

Irene gave a self-mocking smile.

“Yes, I must be insane.”

She muttered while looking around.

“A crazy academy, a deranged board of directors. And on top of that, a lunatic family situation.”

She whispered, blood soaking the spear.

“I just realized how tightly I’ve been trapped in this small enclosed space.”

The girl who stepped outside made her decision to paint her own vast picture in this world using blood as pigment.

“Please, spare me!”

A desperate scream echoed. Another sweeping strike happened. The body was cleaved in two.

An unnamed cousin had their head lopped off in one swift motion. The blood-soaked corpse lay sprawled on the ground.

The mountain of accumulating corpses.

As she climbed the bloody remains of her kin, the girl took one step at a time towards adulthood.

With every swing of the spear, blood spattered around her.

“Ahhh!”

“No! Kelly!”

As his wife fell, the last of Rigel screamed madly.

“You were looking for our mom earlier, but now suddenly you long for your wife.”

“Ugh…!”

“I don’t care. Your trivial personal matters are no longer my concern.”

The screams of his enraged uncle no longer stirred any emotion in her.

“This vicious girl! I will have my revenge! If I can’t do it, my subordinates will… or my child will take revenge!”

The declaration of vengeance came amidst his cries. The next sound was a dry response.

“Your child’s revenge? I understand. Wait for me in hell. I’ll send Bethel straight away. He will surely miss his parents too.”

At that moment, Rigel regained clarity.

When he faced his niece in a hurry, his breath nearly caught in his throat.

“What? What did I just say…?!”

There was no trace of emotion left in Irene’s eyes. What appeared was an iceberg-like coldness.

Imagining the calamity that would befall his only child, he fell into despair.

“I… I’ve created a monster with my own hands…”

In the final moment, he prayed.

“No! Please, just spare Bethel…”

With bloodied spear tips shining, Rigel’s consciousness faded into darkness.

The bloodied head rolled away.

As the massacre ended, the Violets approached, breathing heavily.

Irene stared vacantly ahead as she muttered.

“That’s strange. I don’t feel anything.”

“What do you mean?”

A Violet asked, puzzled.

“I thought I would feel the sting of regret or the thrill of revenge…”

She smiled. But that smile was merely sad and hollow.

“Now I just feel… nothing at all. It feels empty.”

The Violets hesitated to ask.

“By the way… what about the children of the dead?”

After a moment of contemplation, Irene shook her head.

“This is where it ends. If they come at me again, I’ll gladly face them, but I’ll let them exist in ignorance as much as possible.”

She gazed down at the blood-soaked banquet hall floor.

“Parents are heroes to their children. Just like ours were. There’s no need to shatter that image.”

Regret flickered in her golden eyes.

Her golden gaze fixed into the air.

“Even if there’s a complicated situation behind the masks, the little ones don’t need to know. Well, whatever choices they make moving forward are up to them.”

Irene stood up. Leaving behind the mountain of bloodied corpses, she began to walk slowly.

“Whatever choices they make in the future, that’s their freedom. My job is merely to accept their choices.”

The door to the banquet hall closed, and the remaining Violets began to clean up.

The mountain of corpses vanished without a trace as if it had never been there.

**

While returning to the clan, Irene changed her clothes.

Her clothes and weapons were all soaked in blood. It would be hard to hold a meeting like this.

“Let’s change our clothes first!”

A while later, a cute girl in a formal outfit appeared.

The car came to a stop in front of the Command Center.

“Miss…”

Perhaps because they had heard the situation, Team Leader Land looked at us with a somber expression as Irene and the Violet escort entered the elevator.

The target was the meeting room.

Due to the nature of the year-end party, key executives were gathered, so we could hold a temporary board meeting right away.

Since it was such a place, only two Violets could enter, but that wasn’t a big problem.

“…Even if it’s something you deemed necessary, how can a child represent…?”

“Do you not trust her? With that kind of ability…”

As we opened the door, we saw the executives who had been whispering to each other.

Some familiar faces appeared, along with some newcomers.

One of the board members asked.

“Umm, Lady Irene. Where are the others? That group…”

“Effective today, they have all resigned.”

The moment those words were heard, everyone seated in the meeting room flinched.

The gazes of the people crossed.

Having finished speaking, Irene approached the meeting room seats.

Her direction was the highest seat.

“Wait a moment. Where do you think you’re going?”

“Too late. The acting CEO.”

As someone hesitantly began to speak, Chief Morgan interrupted him.

He surveyed the surroundings as if to assert his dominance and then opened his mouth.

“I had a lot to deal with.”

“So, what are you going to do moving forward?”

“That’s what we’re going to discuss from now on. First, we’ll advance into the western sector…”

Chief Viktor turned his gaze toward us as if he was interested in hearing what we had to say. His eyes held expectations and curiosity.

“Well then, let’s begin the meeting.”

With two escorting Violets behind her, Irene took her seat.

In the meeting room’s highest seat, in the position once held by her father.