Inside an office, a woman worked diligently at a desk.

In her flawless and angelic right hand, this woman signed papers with perfect cursive, her eyes glancing over their contents in mere moments.

Her corrupted and withered left hand held a mug with a steaming brown liquid, which she sipped while not taking her eyes off the papers in front of her.

"The production of food has skyrocketed beyond the needs of the city, and this has allowed for a focus on other areas. Factories are being redesigned as we speak to be used for production of building materials, amenities and other commodities. The arena will soon be designated as a theater for movies, which can be projected using the spider projectors which Gary mass produced."

If one were to look around this room, it would seem as if the woman was speaking to herself.

She spoke with a kind yet firm tone, completely focused on the piles of work in front of her.

The desk looked as if it had been shoved into the corner of the massive room, which had a couch for reception and a large area for people to gather.

Even so, the person who sat at this desk was the most important person within this city.

"Movies, eh? I guess you don't want to reestablish those arena fights?"

"Why would I do that? Do I look like the type of person who would enjoy seeing people killing each other for fun?"

"You may not be. But I am."

The woman seemed to be talking to herself, yet the tone of the voice changed back and forth between the cute voice of a young woman and the mature yet sinister voice of a demonic one.

"And I am you. Yeah, I already have heard this before. That's fine and all, but I'm not going to do something like that. Fina had a really tough life because she was thrown into the arena, and I have no intentions of making anyone else go through such a thing."

"No fun. So? Aren't you a bit worried about the city?"

"If I wasn't worried then would I be here working my ass off?"

"True enough."

With overlapping laughs, the angelic figure with two voices sat back in her seat, her angelic wings hanging behind it.

"Theo said that something was going to happen soon. And I need to be ready for it."

"He did say that."

The angel put one hand to her mouth and began to bite her own fingernails in anxiety.

"I know that he likely has already predicted what will happen, but do you really think everything is alright?"

"You sent the slaves off to look around. If anything happens they'll tell you either way."

"But what if something happens to them?"

With the roll of her eyes, the second voice responded with slight irritation.

"Do you think something would happen to the very women who used to lead this city as the bosses of their factions? If nothing else, that robotic girl wouldn't fight someone she couldn't beat. After all, the only reason we beat her was because we can mess with reality itself, and so we didn't appear to be very strong in a physical or magical sense."

"And as for Tiffany, she would have beaten me if it weren't for a technicality..... I suppose you're right. Although, if she really had permanently paralyzed me and then attacked, what would have happened?"

The angel closed her eyes, posing a question to the other voice which spoke.

"Hmm.... well, if she tried attacking your right side then time would've just turned back. It would be an infinite stalemate probably? She would've attacked over and over in the same way, and you wouldn't have been able to move to change anything."

"OI!!! You didn't tell me anything about that!?!?! Are you telling me that I have such a horrible power that I might get stuck in a time loop for eternity!?!?!"

"Mmmm.... yeah that's possible. But that's why I was careful not to get caught in her trap. After all, it only takes one of us to react and change the condition of the universe. Plus we have some other ways to counter such a thing."

Holding her hand to her chest in relief, the angel breathed out a sigh.

"I guess I have to be more careful then as well. It seems that the antiheroes have acquired some extremely dangerous powers as well, so we have to make sure we don't end up accidentally destroying the universe or wrecking the timelines or anything like that."

"That would be the real worst case scenario. Speaking of which, none of them know about your abilities yet, right?"

"Ah, I guess that's right. I never really had a chance to tell them, and to be honest...."

The angel looked to the side with a slight expression of guilt.

"I don't really know if I should."

"Why is that? Won't your abilities help them take over the world?"

"It's true. My abilities can help them. But I was thinking that perhaps I should understand them a bit more myself before I really go around using them."

"Ehh.... so boring. How will you understand them if you don't use them?"

"Mmm.... good question..."

Closing her eyes to think for a bit, the angel seeped into deep thought, her halo hovering gently above her head.

Furrowing her brow and scratching her own hair furiously, the girl shouted in desperation.

"Ugh!! I don't know!"

"Then my idea it is. I wonder if you really are me? You're such a blockhead sometimes, you know that?"

"Hehe..."

The angel tapped her balled up fist to her head with her tongue partially stuck out, playfully shaking off the statement of her other self.

"Looks like they're back. Stop fooling around."

In a moment the angel became serious, sitting straight up and folding her hands on her desk in front of her. The door bursted open and the four who walked in were met with an angelic smile.

"Is everything alright? You're back so-"

The eyes of the angel went wide as she looked over to the four who entered.

The ferret who took pride in her looks at all times seemed to have been tossed around, with dirt on her clothes and her high class shoes missing.

The robotic gerbil who didn't carry a hint of emotion or pain had a hand which had been horribly twisted as if someone had crushed it with sheer strength. Her entire outfit was splattered with blood, and it was certain that she had just returned from a fight.

In her mechanical arm she carried two people- a rat boy and a mouse girl who were both beaten and bruised all over.

Looking over with concern, the angel quickly stood up from her seat.

"What happened!?!?! Fina? Tiffany? And.... that's Lisa and Mori! What on earth happened!?!?!"

Rushing over to the group, the gerbil laid the two bruised children on each of the couches to rest and then took her position, kneeling before the angelic figure.

"Your eminence. There were a number of people in the streets who disobeyed your law and used violence on these two. I have brought them to you as evidence of the actions of the men who did this."

Rushing over, the angel laid her demonic hand on the two.

[Set condition: Unwounded]

[Set condition: Unwounded]

The bruises disappeared and the two continued sleeping peacefully, their breathing returning to normal.

Looking down on the two, the angel felt at peace knowing that they would be fine.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Thank goodness.... it looks like you brought them to me in time.... and you too. Come here, Fina."

The girl looked up, wondering what she would be told. To her surprise, she felt her own hand being gripped by a demonic and rough hand.

[Set condition: Unwounded]

In a moment, the twisted hand went back to normal, and Fina looked up at the angel before her in confusion.

"Why did you waste your own ability on myself, your eminence? Are you not too busy to assist me?"

"Too busy? What am I, some sort of careless boss who has too much work to give up even a second to help my workers?"

"I am your slave, your eminence. You said so yourself. Why did you take the effort to heal not only myself, but even the other slaves over there?"

Claire looked down on Fina with a smile, patting her head with her angelic hand.

"Because I wanted to."

Standing up, Claire walked back to her seat.

With those angelic wings in front of them, Fina and Tiffany were put at ease.

"I care for each and every one of you. You may be slaves, but all that means is that you have given your all to me. Am I not allowed to return the favor?"

----

Sitting at her desk, Claire looked up at the two.

"Sit down in front of me. Do you want me to get you something to drink?"

"Never. I cannot allow you to serve me, your excellency.", Fina replied promptly.

"The same for myself.", Tiffany agreed.

The two sat down in front of Claire, eagerly awaiting her words.

"What happened?", Claire asked. "Why did so many people come back with such injuries?"

"Of course, there was a fight. What else could have happened?"

"Silence. I'm going to listen to their story."

Claire immediately shut Clarice up, turning to the two.

"Well?"

"Your eminence, it is as you say. There was a fight. Myself and Tiffany happened to arrive at the scene of those two being brutally beaten by some crazed men. We took it upon ourselves to enforce the very law which you set forth."

"Which is?"

"If anyone commits an act of violence within this city, they are to be slain."

Closing her eyes as if not wanting to hear such a thing, Claire flinched with guilt.

"So you killed them?"

"We did."

Nodding bitterly, Claire looked up.

"If they disobeyed the law I set down..... then I suppose that is that."

Looking out the window beside her, Claire wondered if she had actually done something horrible.

She had intended for such a law to be used as a deterrent to violence. It was not intended to be enforced as a punishment.

Yet here she was. Her subordinates had killed people for using violence, and that blood was essentially on her own hands.

"Then.... you've listened to my orders. I won't say any more. I...."

Folding her hands together, Claire noticed that her right hand was shaking.

Her left hand was perfectly still, yet her right hand was trembling like a vibrator, causing her own hand to hit the wood with repeated knocking.

"I.... what type of person were they?"

Placing her own hands in her lap, Claire decided that she needed to at least hear about the people who had died at her orders.

"The first was a man who would abandon a woman if it meant saving his own life, only to run back to her as soon as all the issues had been fixed."

Claire looked at Fina with surprise, wondering how she had such a specific description of the person.

"How.... do you know all that?"

"The man I killed was a beast that I would refer to as an ex."

"An.... ex? Fina, you have an ex??"

"I have no such thing. I refer to the ex of my sister."

Claire nodded, the trembling in her hands having ceased.

"So in other words.... he was a person who would abandon someone when things became difficult… only to come back crying as soon as the weather had subsided?"

"I am certain, your eminence. He was a man who did not deserve to live. Furthermore, there was something which was off about him even after this."

"What do you mean?"

It was at that moment as Claire was thinking about these things that she felt as if time around her had stopped.

Claire originally felt guilt at having sent the order for someone to die, but as Fina described the person who had died, something struck her heart like a blade.

The image of her own body, and the cold yet shocked expression of the young girl after being mangled by a sports car flashed into her head.

The carefree and heartless words of a certain blonde haired man resounded within her brain.

New words which she had never before heard.

"Ah!! There's blood all over my hood now!! Not cool, little girl!!!"

A scene played of the man hitting the gas so that the body of the girl was thrown off his hood, slamming into the wall of a building, painting the building as well with a splatter of blood before he reversed and drove off.

"Rude!!!! If your parents were around I would have them pay for the paint job!!"

The body of the girl slid down the building, and her eyes had now become completely lifeless.

Blood spread out from her terrible wounds, lubricating the sidewalk.

Her organs fell out. Her intestines and stomach layed across the ground, and the young silver haired girl looked down with dead eyes as she grabbed her own stomach, holding it within her own bloodied hands.

Blood now dripped from her own mouth, pouring out of it like a waterfall.

The hood ornament had dug into her stomach, and when the girl had been thrown off the vehicle, her own innards were ripped out violently.

The body fell over, dead.

Claire awoke as if from a dream which had been forced upon her, panting and gasping for air.

"Your eminence!!!!"

"What's wrong!?!?!"

The demonic tar had overtaken half of her body, and Claire found it difficult to breathe.

"What.... happened?", she asked the two girls who were holding her in concern.

"Are you alright, your eminence!?!?"

"What's wrong!?!? Is there something hurting you!?!?"

Grabbing her head, her own hand caught on her horn that had grown from her left side.

"Ugh.... these visions.... I keep on seeing them more and more....."

"What do you see, your eminence?"

"What is wrong!?!?"

Fina and Tiffany were right in Claire's face, clearly distraught at the state she was in.

"I keep on seeing.... my own death."

----

"Your... own death?"

"What do you mean, your eminence...."

"Hahaha.... what do I mean? My own death? I'm right here, aren't I? I'm alive, in this world.... that other one.... it might not have even existed for all I know..... after all, at least half of it didn't. Who is to say the entire thing wasn't just a lie!?"

A flash of madness entered the eyes of the half demonic angel, and she begun to smile with madness as she spouted her own ramblings.

"Hah.... Hahaha!!"

The woman begun to laugh with insanity, however she slowly raised her own eyes which had turned red with veins.

Looking up at her clearly concerned subordinates, Claire realized her position and straightened herself.

"Ahh!! I'm sorry!!! Please don't think anything of that!!! Haha! I.... I was just having a bad dream or something like that. Just.... please forget you ever saw anything...."

Claire looked down with a deep sadness, terrified at what she was devolving into.

"I will forget it if you command me to do so, your eminence."

"Even in distress you are still beautiful, your eminence. You are a shining angel and a ray of hope for me."

With a light smile, Claire looked up at the two.

"Thank you. I am glad to have taken both of you under me."

Standing up, the demonic tar which had overtaken Claire had already retracted for the most part.

"Where were we? Ah right.... it was my own orders that ended in the death of a man."

Walking around the desk and to another window, the light footsteps of Claire resounded in the ears of the two as they followed their leader with their eyes.

"It is true that the man who died was scum. But the fact remains. It is as if I killed him myself."

Pulling back the curtain from a window, Claire gazed out of it as the afternoon sunlight peeked into the room.

"I want to save as many people as I can. And now I have killed one."

Placing her hand on the window, a bitter expression came across the face of Claire, and tears came to her angelic eyes.

"Am I any better than that man?"

----

"Your eminence, it was not one man who was killed. There were actu-"

Fina found a hand being shoved into her mouth as she tried to inform Claire of the other man who had died as a result of her orders.

"You really are just a robot without any sense for these kinds of things, aren't you?", Tiffany whispered as Claire looked out the window, wiping her tears from her eyes.

"Mph hm um mmm ph. Hum mpp um."

Fina continued trying to speak despite her own mouth being covered by the hand of Tiffany.

Yet Claire did not turn her gaze from the window.

She instead placed her arm, leaning it on the window and then shifting her own entire body weight onto it.

Using her free arm to wipe her tears and her other to hold herself up, Claire's knees buckled as a remorseful expression came across her.

"I'm.... no worse than him, right? I'm just a killer who leaves the scene without giving it a second look..... I came to this city to fix things.... to make things better.... but now I've already become a worse person than before....."

"You're wrong, your eminence."

Tiffany spoke with a firmness as Claire weakly looked over.

"I think your orders have done much good throughout this town. And who was it who created the new factories? Your subordinates. You singlehandedly stopped not only all the fighting within this city, but also the very reason for the fighting. That is something that nobody else in this world could have done. And you cry for the life of one man without even listening to the story of what he said and did? You are far too kind of a leader."

Tiffany smiled.

"But it is that kindness that resounds within you as the ultimate beauty."

"That man went insane before I killed him. He lost all reason and began to blindly attack, overcome by rage. It was as if some sort of drug had been used on him to rob him of all sense of anything else. He was overtaken by his anger. He was no longer a man, but a beast.", Fina explained.

Looking up from the windowsill, Claire was filled with a mix of emotions- a strange combination of confusion, anger, and even hope.

Confusion as to why the man would take such actions.

Anger at the fact that he had attacked two innocent children.

And hope that she was more than just a monster who ordered the deaths of others from afar.

"A beast? Why.... why would such a man be so filled with rage? What happened to him to put him in such a state?"

"I am unsure. It was an unusual occurrence, but the root was his own anger within himself. He was furious because.... because sister would not get back with him. I deemed him to be a threat to sister's life, and eliminated him. You do not need to be angry with yourself. It is true that he violated your order, and for this reason I was allowed to kill him. But I cannot say that I did this for that purpose alone. I killed him because it was a part of my own objective to protect my sister. Allowing him to live would have put her in danger."

Claire looked forward at Fina.

"Ah.... that's right. I suppose that's the way it is, isn't it?"

"Yep. That's how it is."

The angelic and demonic voice of the being both spoke to one another, and a smile returned to the face of the woman.

"My actions..... even if one man died as a result of them.... many others have been saved as a result. Is that what you are implying, Fina?"

"Indeed, your eminence."

Standing up and stroking her own silver hair, the angel nodded.

"I see. It is as the antiheroes have said over and over. We cannot save everyone. No matter what decision we make, there exists no world where everyone can be saved from their own wickedness."

The sinister face of the handsome man flashed through Claire's mind once more as she said this.

"There is so much suffering in this world..... no matter what you do, there will always be one person who is intent on making everyone else suffer. There is no way to change their mind or convince them otherwise."

Walking back to her desk, Claire's hair fluttered as she took a seat, plopping down and resting her chin on her demonic and angelic hands.

With a soft smile, she looked over to the children who slept peacefully on the couch.

"The man who died as a result of my orders was one who would harm such peaceful children without reason...."

Looking forward, the angel grinned at the two subordinates who sat in front of her, to show off a set of fangs despite her own fully angelic appearance.

"If we live in a world where patiently waiting to save some people will result in the deaths of a thousand others....."

A lock of hair fell over her head, and her eyes became filled with a sinister resolve.

"Then I'll ignore such people, and throw their crooked lives aside. I will create a world where the number of people who are saved is maximized."