Chapter 10 : A Blind Box Surprise—Father, I’m Scared

“Eh? Senior Herrera, you’re back already…? Don’t tell me that thing ran away?!”

“No, no. Nothing like that. I finished it off cleanly.”

“It’s only been a minute!”

Luo Zining was dumbfounded.

After being rescued, she’d slumped to the ground in a daze.

It felt like barely any time had passed at all!

The king-class dimensional beast that had nearly wiped out all the magical girls in Huahai City… was taken down in under a minute by Senior Herrera?

“Senior Herrera is incredible…”

A sense of admiration welled up in Luo Zining’s heart.

Such overwhelming strength—if everyone on the front lines were like her, then dimensional beasts wouldn’t be scary at all.

[No… It’s not what you think, Little Red Riding Hood!]

From the command center, Zhao Xin’s panicked breaths rasped through the comms.

Her fingertips trembled, paralyzed by a fear rooted deep in her soul.

She couldn’t even raise her voice.

“Little Red… run…”

“Commander Zhao?”

“Don’t stay there! Go! She’s—That person is…!”

Zhao Xin shouted out the name with terror choking her throat.

“She’s that Aurora Witch… Herrera!”

…Eh?

The Aurora Witch? Herrera?

Luo Zining slowly raised her head.

Though Herrera’s face was obscured by a mask, it felt as though her gaze pierced straight into her soul, stripping her bare.

Herrera… was she really that same Herrera?

The one who hunted magical girls, who crushed countless futures with her own hands?

What!?

Luo Zining whipped her head toward the two local magical girls who had suddenly collapsed earlier.

“Oh yes, that was my doing,” Herrera said casually, clasping her hands together.

Her tone was cold, devoid of emotion.

“But don’t worry. I may have a nasty reputation, but none of the magical girls I’ve dealt with have actually died… Well, unless you count the ones who wished they were dead. If so, just pretend I said nothing.”

“Why… would you… do something like this…”

Luo Zining’s eyes dimmed, light draining from them.

“Ooh-hoo-hoo~~ That moment when fear flickers in a magical girl’s eyes… it’s just so irresistible.”

Herrera caressed the corner of her eye, as if admiring a delicate work of art.

“Little Red! Give her your headset—I want to talk to her directly!”

Zhao Xin shouted.

Luo Zining, like a puppet, removed her earpiece and handed it over.

Herrera, without hesitation, slipped it on.

Fsssshh—

Zhao Xin took a deep breath, forcing her tone to stay calm.

“Lady Herrera, thank you very much for saving our team. Without your assistance, we would have suffered casualties. We are deeply grateful and will certainly prepare a generous reward. Might I trouble you to—”

“I think you may be misunderstanding something.”

“…What?”

Herrera gently patted Luo Zining’s head and said softly, “I don’t know what happened on your end, but I came here on my own. Rescuing your people just happened along the way. As for compensation… I’ll take care of that myself.”

Zhao Xin’s blood ran cold.

The chill reached her bones.

She hurriedly spoke up, “Lady Herrera, please reconsider! That child—you absolutely mustn’t harm her. If you do, the consequences could—”

Crack!

The headset shattered into fine powder in Herrera’s hand, the fragments drifting away on the breeze.

At that exact moment, Luo Zining’s body went limp like a marionette with its strings cut.

Her vision faded to black as she collapsed to the ground.

“Lady Herrera? Lady Herrera! Herre—”

Zhao Xin called out again and again from the command room, but there was no response.

Just then, a drone arrived at the scene, capturing footage of Herrera carrying Luo Zining away.

“Damn it!”

A Blind Box Gone Wrong—Shocked Father, Fractured Lines

Crash!

Objects scattered off the desk and clattered to the floor as Zhao Xin slammed her fists down in fury.

“Why…! Why did something like this have to happen?! The future of the Magical Alliance—argh!”

And of all people, it had to be Little Red Riding Hood who caught Herrera’s eye… What’s worse, she still carried a portion of the divine particles distributed earlier by the Magical Alliance.

Herrera was already unimaginably powerful because of divine particles.

If she managed to absorb the ones Little Red carried as well, who knew what kind of twisted evolution might take place?

Just then, an unexpected voice crackled through the earpiece.

“Commander Zhao… let me go.”

“What?! You—no, don’t joke around, your condition still—”

“I will bring Little Red back safely.”

***

Next City Over — Hotel

Luo Zining lay silently on the soft bed, breathing evenly, her clothes disheveled.

A faint fragrance, girlish and sweet, lingered in the air.

Herrera’s desire surged to dangerous heights.

“Oh right, right, better confirm her real appearance first. I can’t afford to make the same mistake again.”

A soft, bluish ripple of light spread across the room, dissolving illusions and false forms.

Compared to the aggressive pinks and oranges, the bluish glow—with its ability to pierce deception—was more subtle and supportive.

Though it looked unimpressive, it was Herrera’s favorite type of light.

With this ability, not only could she see through magical girls’ disguises, but even the hiding places of dimensional beasts couldn’t escape her gaze.

“Heh… let’s see what you really look like, Little Red…”

As the light rippled gently, the magical features on Luo Zining’s body began to melt away like snow in fire.

And in that moment, Herrera suddenly recalled her earlier call with Zhao Xin.

“That woman… she even dared to threaten me? Told me I couldn’t lay a hand on her? Hah. In this world, is there any magical girl I can’t sleep with?”

Herrera chuckled, shaking her head.

Even among the top ten seats of the Magical Alliance, several had already been—no, not “defiled,” let’s say “blessed” by her.

At this point, what was there left to debate about who she could or couldn’t touch?

As the illusions peeled away, revealing the girl beneath, Herrera felt the wolf inside her rear up in hunger.

“Oh? You’re going to threaten me? Then I’ll sleep with her just to spite—HUUHH!?”

Smack!

Herrera reflexively slapped her own face hard enough to make her stumble back.

Who am I?

Where am I?

What in the hell did I just see?

…No, no, something must’ve gone wrong. One more peek.

Heart thudding like a drum, Herrera cracked her fingers open to look through them slowly.

Heh. Ha.

Hahaha… This must be a trick.

A lie.

There’s no magical girl I can’t—wait, the hell!?

That—that’s really her!

This one… is absolutely off-limits!

Herrera reeled backward, slamming into the wall, as if she’d seen a ghost.

“It’s Zining?!”

She was completely stunned.

Whatever desire she’d felt for magical girls had just been doused with a bucket of sub-zero Siberian water.

What was supposed to be a casual blind-box draw from the magical girl pool had turned into a full-blown landmine.

Thank god she checked the girl’s true form beforehand, or she might’ve made that mistake again.

Her daughter—her own daughter—had somehow become a magical girl.

And not just any magical girl, but one with this cutesy, fairy-tale style?!

No—no way anyone could’ve seen this coming!

With how Zining normally acted, who would guess she’d transform into a magical creature of another species?

“Maybe she was right all along. I know more about gym equipment than I do about my own daughter…”

Herrera let out a bitter laugh.

Now what?

She couldn’t exactly return Zining just as she was, no questions asked.

She’d already kidnapped her.

If she didn’t do something, it’d look suspicious.

But if she did anything, it’d be too horrifying.

To touch or not to touch—that was the question.

Hmm?

Herrera suddenly noticed a strange necklace around Zining’s neck.

At the end of it hung a small, glass-like vial containing nine shimmering colors.

“Divine particles…? Are those really divine particles?!”

As the particles flared with vivid light in reaction to her presence, Herrera’s eyes softened with recognition.

This—this was where it all began.

This miraculous substance was the starting point of everything in her life.

No one knew where they came from.

Some believed they were tied to the object the Outsider Organization had been hunting all this time.

“No wonder the Magical Alliance said not to touch Zining… it’s because of this.”

After inspecting it for a moment, Herrera carefully placed the necklace back around Zining’s neck, without the slightest thought of taking it.

Others saw divine particles as treasures worth killing over.

To her, they were like public buses—free to anyone who had the guts to climb aboard.

She’d long since wanted to purge the divine particles from her own body.

Encountering more now held no temptation at all.

“…Wait a second. My own divine particles suddenly flared back to life recently… Could it be because of this brat?!”

Herrera remembered something from the organization’s old research—those who merged with divine particles, regardless of gender, tended to become more feminine over time.

She also recalled the meal Zining had made her yesterday.

That little brat knew what would happen, and still snuck divine particles into the food?!

That foreign contaminant must’ve been what reawakened the slumbering divine particles in her body—and now she was stuck in this mess!

To think… her own daughter was the depraved culprit all along!

Knowing full well that she had an obsession with muscles, Zining still went ahead and turned her hard-earned physique into a delicate cream puff?!

Shrimp and pig heart!

You unfilial child! How vicious can you get?!

Ding dong—

A sweet female voice called through the hotel door.

“Hello, would you like room service?”

“Huh? Who needs… wait, yeah. Send up a few machines. Whips. Candles. Restraints. Clamps—everything. Bring it all.”

Herrera had almost walked away.

But now?

She changed her mind.

Even if she couldn’t actually do anything to the brat, she’d make sure she suffered at least a little.

Hehe… When this little imp wakes up and sees all those terrifying props?

She’ll be too scared to eat for half a month!

Herrera remembered a magical girl who fainted and wet herself just from seeing this setup.

And Zining?

She wouldn’t be much stronger, right?

Five minutes later, Zining began to stir just as a knock came from the door.

“Ma’am, your order has arrived.”

“Bring it in.”

Click.

The door opened.

A soft-spoken young woman entered, pushing a cart loaded with all the terrifying items Herrera had requested.

Seeing the girl’s face, Herrera raised an eyebrow.

Such a pretty girl, working as hotel staff?

Probably from some “special” industry… this was an adults-only hotel, after all.

Hmm.

Not a magical girl, but since she couldn’t touch Zining anymore… maybe this one could be her appetizer.

“Just to be clear and avoid any misunderstandings, you are from a special… service, right?”

“Hmm? Yep~”

The girl blinked with a smile.

Her answer was exactly what Herrera had expected.

Pleased, Herrera pulled out her wallet.

“Three days, two nights—this much okay for you?”

The next second—

BOOM!

The window exploded inward as a shockwave of magical power tore through the room.

Through the roar came the girl’s furious voice:

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND?!”