Euthanasia sanctioners were managed by the Bureau of Life Management (BLM), with branches spread across both New Seoul and Old Seoul.
Yu-Han brought Alice to one of these branches. A civil servant sitting at the desk, sipping a can of beer, greeted Yu-Han.
"Yu-Han! You brought another girl?"
"Hey, don't make me sound like some sort of womanizer. It's strictly business."
"Pfft! Just kidding, just kidding. With your twisted personality, there's no way you'd get a girlfriend!"
Yu-Han, looking annoyed, introduced the civil servant.
"This is Ju Il-Jang C, the manager of the Sector B-4 branch. He also runs a smuggling business on the side."
'C' was the universal honorific of Korea. It was a convenient, all-encompassing title replacing both 'Mr.' and 'Ms.'.
In Korea, it is standard practice to append 'C' to a name, address them by their position, or simply avoid addressing them directly altogether.
"Hey, Yu-Han! Why are you telling a stranger that!"
Ju Il-Jang shouted, but he didn't look particularly angry. Perhaps this atmosphere was their daily routine.
"Hello. I'm Alice. I came here to become a sanctioner."
"Alice? A foreigner? But nothing comes up in the search..."
At that moment, Yu-Han leaned in and whispered to him.
"Just take care of that part for me."
"Ah! I see!"
Ju Il-Jang handed a USB 6.2 drive to Alice.
"Miss? I'll be back after finishing the registration process quickly. Watch this while you wait. It's the sanctioner training video."
Ju Il-Jang scurried away into the space behind the desk. Yu-Han yawned.
"That boring video again. You don't really need to watch it."
"Still, I don't know anything about being a sanctioner, so it might not be bad to watch."
Sitting on chairs in the lobby, the two activated the playback device built into the USB 6.2.
A hologram floated into the air, and intro music resembling an educational broadcast began to play.
[Hello, prospective sanctioners!
I am 'Mr. Euthan', the mascot of the sanctioners!
Let's all depart into the world of sanctioners together~!]
Seeing the bizarre mascot—which looked like an upside-down ampoule with eyes and limbs attached—Alice felt an urge to turn off the video immediately.
"You really were a model student type, weren't you? You're going to endure watching this?"
"Shut up. I'm going to watch it all, just out of spite...!"
[Lesson 1: The Duties of a Sanctioner.]
The narration began reading sentences that looked like they were made in PowerPoint, in a flat, monotonous tone. If it was going to be like this, why did they make that useless mascot in the intro?
Alice felt like she was about to go into 'Sleep Mode' despite her robot body.
To summarize the long and tedious 30-minute video: The first generation of sanctioners started by helping suffering patients end their lives peacefully. However, through the civil war and the ensuing chaos, they evolved to remove entities harmful to society, indirectly contributing to maintaining public order.
The rest was just obvious rules and warnings that even a child would know.
Just as the video ended, Ju Il-Jang returned.
"Here you go~ Miss Alice! Here is your sanctioner ID! It also serves as your identification card, so don't lose it!"
"Huh? An ID comes out that easily?"
No matter how naive she was about the world, it was strange for an ID to be issued so easily to an unidentified robot. Moreover, this Ju Il-Jang person seemed suspicious in many ways...
"Alice! Even at this moment, terrorists like Yang Jin-Mu are roaming around... What are you dawdling for!"
Yu-Han persuaded Alice with the resolute, righteous eyes of a shonen manga protagonist. Naive Alice was swept up in the atmosphere and nodded.
"R-right. The duty of a sanctioner is maintaining public order... I absolutely won't commit murder, but I should at least suppress them!"
"Yes, that's the spirit!"
Ju Il-Jang, indifferent to their exchange, brought something in a leather case.
"Yu-Han is spouting nonsense again. Anyway, Miss, take this. It's a carbon-coated blade, the basic issue weapon for sanctioners."
"You're giving me a weapon too?"
"It's only 20,000 won, anyway."
In the 22nd century, productivity had drastically improved due to the development of science, technology, and magic. A knife like this, which would have cost at least 200,000 won a century ago, was now rolling around like cheap junk.
"It has good cost-performance, so it's good to use as a consumable in close combat. Engrave a summoning inscription on it so you can use it anywhere. Well, once they save up some money, everyone uses custom weapons."
"Magic... I wonder if I can use it?"
"Come to think of it, we need to figure that out today, too. We'll need an expert's help! Thanks for the help!"
Watching Yu-Han turn around and leave immediately after saying thanks, and Alice bowing slightly before hurriedly chasing after him, Ju Il-Jang gulped down his beer.
"That young lady doesn't seem to know Yu-Han very well yet... It'll be fun to see her face when she finds out."
The place they arrived at this time was a run-down studio apartment building.
Passing through the entrance, Yu-Han arrived at unit 401 and pressed the doorbell.
"Hi!"
[Fuck off.]
The enthusiastic welcome of a woman with a husky voice came through the speaker. However, Yu-Han didn't give up. He pointed at Alice and spoke to the camera.
"She's a robot. Interesting, right?"
As soon as he said that, the door opened silently.
Inside, piles of paper were stacked like mountains, leaving barely any room to step. Furthermore, the room was soaked in the acrid smell of cigarettes.
"Ugh, what is this smell..."
As Alice, who had never smelled cigarettes in her life, spoke, a woman hurriedly pushed through the piles of paper.
She was a woman with a 'cool beauty' vibe, with dark circles under her eyes and hair that had turned slightly gray, perhaps due to chemical exposure. However, facing Alice, she seemed to have lost her cool.
"A robot can smell?! And what is this skin texture! What material is this!"
"This is Yang Su-Hyeon C. She's very smart."
"Yu-Han, shut up."
Alice realized once again that Yu-Han was treated this way by most people. It made her wonder just what kind of things this self-proclaimed 'good, law-abiding taxpayer citizen' had done.
Alice explained her situation to Dr. Yang, and the doctor examined Alice from various angles. At Yu-Han's suggestion, she even detached a finger to inspect it.
"Truly chilling over-technology... The entire body is composed of mana elements. Like amino acids in the human body, mana elements have combined to form polymers..."
"Enough with the theoretical explanation. Answer a more practical question. Can she use magic or not?"
Yang Su-Hyeon glared at Yu-Han, but her expression said, 'I'll let it slide since you showed me this.'
"It's an academic consensus that robots can't use magic... but this hardware seems designed to use magic optimally. I'd have to tear her open to be sure, though."
"Wait, that's a bit...!"
"Don't worry. I'm not fool enough to recklessly tear apart a delicate machine without knowing the proper method."
So, does that mean she would tear her apart if she knew the proper method? Alice decided not to ask that part.
"Anyway, give it a try."
"Huge thanks for your cooperation. By the way..."
"You mean the EV terminal terror?"
Yang Su-Hyeon guessed the topic before Yu-Han even finished. Yu-Han smiled and declared:
"Yeah. I'm going to kill him."
At Yu-Han's declaration, Yang Su-Hyeon's eyebrows twitched for a moment.
"...Bringing that up now? None of my business. Anyway, how long are you going to stay? If you're done, go away!"
Yang Su-Hyeon nervously chased Yu-Han out, but she suddenly turned gentle when looking at Alice.
"Ah, Alice... take care. And don't get too deeply involved with this piece of trash."
"Y-yes..."
"What happened between you and Yang Su-Hyeon C?"
"Well, just another old grudge. Anyway! I'll give you some simple training here!"
"Training sounds good, but really... here?"
The place Yu-Han brought her to was a back alley even darker and shabbier than where Alice had first woken up.
"In principle, sanctioners aren't allowed to kill unless the target is sanctioned for euthanasia. And places like this are teeming with human trash and mutant entities that are targets for sanction."
"Even so, calling people trash is a bit..."
"Heh... really?"
Alice felt a sense of foreboding at Yu-Han's unpleasant chuckle.
"Then look for mutant entities first. Even if they aren't registered targets, killing mutants basically gives you a reward."
Alice looked at the beam sword equipped on her right wrist. It had only been a few seconds since she took it out, but the battery had already drained by 1%. The power consumption seemed extreme.
"Hmm, but I don't see anything like monsters."
"Of course. I told you hunting mutants makes money. Do you think other people would leave them alone?"
"Now that I hear it, you're right. Making money isn't easy..."
As Alice sighed—technically just intake and exhaust—she put the beam sword away.
Just then, the 'Standard Type 3-Person Thugs' appeared from a distance.
"Whew~ Miss, wanna play with us?"
"Look at those milk jugs. Nice and firm, huh?"
Alice wondered if these thugs were mass-produced in a factory somewhere.
At that moment, Yu-Han pulled up a hologram and spoke.
"These guys, they are sanctioned targets. Murder, robbery, rape... achieving a Triple Crown, aren't they?"
"Hiiik... A sanctioner?! P-please, can't you just pretend you didn't see us...?"
The thugs trembled, their hands twitching, but Yu-Han smiled benevolently.
"However, you guys are very lucky! Starting today, I decided to become a humanitarian who doesn't kill anything except monsters! I changed my policy after being persuaded by a certain saint!"
"Huh...?"
"Then, have fun, everyone!"
Alice was outraged by Yu-Han's words.
"You, what on earth are you talking about! What humanitarian?! What about my human rights!"
"You're a robot, so you don't have human rights. Go and please the humans."
"Oh my~ Boss! Thank you so much!"
The thugs bowed to Yu-Han, who looked younger than them, and grabbed Alice's wrist.
Yu-Han didn't just ignore it; he turned his back and started walking home.
"You... bastard...!"
"Miss, you shouldn't use such harsh words! By the way, you said you were a robot? Now, why don't you try calling me 'Master'?"
Hearing that word, the red glow in Alice's eyes flashed.
And the beam sword popped out again, slaughtering the thugs' bodies in an instant.
However, filled with rage, Alice charged at Yu-Han, intending to thrust the blade into his back as well.
"See? You have a talent for being a sanctioner. Making money so easily."
Yu-Han blocked Alice's attack with a mana barrier without even looking back.
"Now do you admit it? That there is human trash in this world that deserves to be killed."
"Yeah, I get it clearly. But... if you pull this crap on me again, I might consider you as human trash. Got it?"
"Sure. I'll look forward to it."
Yu-Han, seemingly not considering Alice a threat at all, continued walking without looking back.
Alice eventually followed him.
After all, it was true that Yu-Han was helping her... and she thought he might show her the true face of reality.