The Reptilians' base was located in Namdong-gu, Incheon, where the city hall had originally stood.
It had once been land ruled by humans, but now it was a byproduct of civilization completely occupied by the lizards. Instead of dismantling this byproduct as something profane, the Reptilians had remodeled it into a form befitting them and were meticulously using it. The former parking lot had become a training ground, and a nearby building had become barracks for the stationed soldiers, warming the lizards' backs.
[How pleasant...]
[I'm glad the sun is out. It was cloudy just a few days ago.]
The Reptilians were draped over the building's railing like laundry. Ian watched them from a little distance, a low murmur escaping him.
He didn't entertain thoughts like 'Let's retake South Korea from the Reptilians!' It was true that the DNA of a fervent independence fighter flowed through his veins, but his resistance blood didn't influence him in this non-real place. He coolly estimated the situation.
'The building being used as barracks can just be bulldozed... The problem is the city hall building.'
In effect, the city hall was being used as the Reptilians' Blue House. Inside, there were not only Reptilians. The humans they kept as slaves also coexisted there.
[Move quickly! If you keep dawdling, I'll throw you into the breeding grounds, so know that!]
"...Damned lizard bastards."
"I don't care if we all die, I just wish a nuke would drop..."
[What? You there. What did you just talk about? Come here and repeat it exactly.]
"Ah, aaah!"
"S-sorry! Sorry!"
Reptilians were fundamentally lizards, but their intelligence level wasn't lizard-like. Over long years, they had melted into human society and acquired a plausible intelligence. Thanks to that, they knew very well how to handle the natives of the countries they ruled.
Just as Britain had enslaved the natives of the Americas, they were also in the process of turning all of humanity into slaves. Except for the fiercely resistant United States, the rest of the world had already effectively fallen into their hands.
Occasionally there were those with the hearts of freedom fighters, but they had all become meals for the Reptilians or converted into gestation sacks. Thus, only those whose free will had been castrated remained. Though they voiced complaints, no one openly resisted anymore.
Well, that didn't matter to Ian. The important thing was that there were living 'humans' inside the city hall.
If they had been openly vile like a cult, Ian would have just crushed them without a second thought, but since they weren't, it was impossible to simply trample them with the Circulator's sheer power.
Of course, if he didn't care about them, he wouldn't need to use his brain at all. He could just give the Circulator the order to sortie and watch from behind, and the situation would resolve itself. It was the simplest and most effective solution.
But it wasn't the option he wanted to use. If there were no other appropriate means, Ian would have made a quick decision, but there were more ways to handle this than expected. There was no need to sweep them all up and feed them to the Circulator.
"Why don't I use some proper magic for the first time in a while..."
Ian muttered to himself as he rose from the Circulator's back.
Come to think of it, he had hardly used any wizardly magic recently.
Well, he did, but most of the time he just bulldozed through with the Deep Sea Bestiary's summoning magic. It was simple and effective, so there was no reason to use other methods.
So, oiling up his rusted magic skills after a long while wouldn't be a bad idea.
"Alright, shall we go?"
Ian stretched his stiff body and opened his grimoire.
The grimoire that had been with him the longest.
Touch of Recreation shed a pure white light above his grasp and flipped its pages.
*
It was a peaceful morning. At least, that's what the Secretary of the Reptilians' Korean branch thought.
He walked down the city hall corridor, his coat—made by a German Reptilian comrade—fluttering behind him. The shoes, crafted to fit his giant feet, produced a crisp sound.
[Ah, Comrade Secretary of the Korean Peninsula.]
Just then, a Reptilian walking towards him spotted him and deeply bowed his head.
Secretary.
Originally a title for the supreme leader in communist countries, among Reptilians it was used to mean the party member in charge of that country. But since the word 'Secretary' itself carried a certain intimidation, most Reptilians treated the Secretary with respect. The Korean Peninsula Secretary was no exception.
[Hmm. Good morning, comrade. Nothing unusual happened last night, I trust?]
the Secretary said. Through his low-pulled hat, his reptilian slit eyes flashed menacingly. But the Reptilian officer didn't waver and shook his head.
[Nothing special. Some remaining human remnants in Pyongyang caused a disturbance, but we quickly suppressed them.]
[Did you capture them alive?]
[No. We used them as provisions on the spot.]
The two lizards walked together. The sunlight streaming through the windows pleasantly warmed their scales.
[I considered bringing them as livestock, but I figured it'd be better to throw them in as a reward. Fortunately, the soldiers liked it.]
[Human flesh is a delicacy. It's not for nothing that the human religion that settled nearby craves human flesh.]
[Indeed. Though, it's thanks to us that they're still alive.]
A cult that bizarrely fused Buddhism and Christianity. The reason they could settle in Incheon and hold services unharmed was because they regularly offered believers to the Reptilians. Otherwise, they would have been torn to shreds and used as slaves long ago.
Of course, the amount of offerings wasn't huge, so they could just ignore them and kill them all without issue.
But the idea of them offering up their own kind to survive was so amusing that they left them alone. And then, delighted, they offered even more followers.
What ridiculous creatures.
The Secretary let out a chuckle as he recalled the face of a vile-looking old man, then suddenly turned to the officer as something came to mind.
[Come to think of it, I heard a monster was rampaging around here a few hours ago. What happened with that?]
[Ah... We haven't been able to subdue it yet. It moves too fast, so even capturing or killing it isn't easy, they say.]
[Is that so?]
[Yes. Even the unit patrolling this area has lost contact. It was near that cult's location, so chances are...]
[They got wiped out.]
The Secretary clicked his tongue.
[It's the size of a large bus, fast, strong, and sharp-toothed... An absurd creature. Does it really exist?]
[Well, I've only heard reports. But it's highly likely it's real... Uh, hold on, Comrade Secretary. My vision is a bit strange—]
The moment the officer said that, adjusting his monocle, his figure suddenly vanished before the Secretary's eyes.
[...!]
The Secretary's eyes flew open. He immediately sharpened his claws and scanned the surroundings.
An unprecedented event—a comrade vanishing before his eyes—had occurred, but instead of panicking, he calmly observed the situation. As if to show the title 'Secretary' wasn't earned for nothing, he dilated his pupils and took a deep breath.
But... everything that met his eyes was normal. His sense of smell was fine.
Sounds? Only a still silence lay. His heat-sensing pits were working normally.
No matter how he looked, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. That, in turn, felt even more foreign. The Secretary walked slowly down the corridor, his sharpened claws leading the way.
[...Is there no one nearby?]
He shouted loudly.
No answer came. Instead, his threat-detecting sensor buzzed.
[...I don't care if you're human! Anyone, answer!]
He shouted a bit louder.
Still no answer. Only his voice echoed back off the walls.
[...I'm fucked.]
The Secretary let out a curse and took a deep breath.
Of course, Reptilians didn't have the ability to suddenly teleport. But the officer had disappeared as if 'evaporated'. If something external hadn't intervened, it would have been impossible.
Unless. He was hallucinating under the influence of drugs.
[No, I'm perfectly fine.]
The Secretary dismissed the assumption. He had never touched drugs, nor had he ever consumed hallucinogenic food. If he had, he wouldn't be maintaining his sanity like this.
Then.
In that case, what had happened to make the officer disappear?
The Secretary was just thinking that and gulped.
[...? What is that?]
In the lower right corner of his vision. At the end of the corridor.
In a spot that should have been empty, a single white flower had suddenly bloomed.
From the fully bloomed flower, a faint hyacinth scent wafted. But the flower was not a hyacinth.
Spider lily.
Corpse flower, funeral flower, ghost flower, fox flower—
It went by many names, but the most famous was, of course, higanbana.
The beautiful red flower that bloomed on the other shore had bloomed on the corridor, bleached white. As if entranced, the Secretary walked toward the spider lily and flopped down beside it.
[...Ah.]
From the white spider lily, a strong hyacinth scent filled the air. And through it, a faint scent of blood spread.
A scent of utmost beauty. The Secretary slightly opened his mouth and lightly touched the petal of the spider lily with the tip of a sharpened claw.
The petal swayed without resistance. As it trembled, the slender pure-white petal that split to both sides produced a strange resonance. It resembled a cry, or perhaps a scream.
At the same time, it was a sound with a subtle charm.
[...More. I want to hear more.]
The Secretary's lips twitched as he kept touching the spider lily's petals.
He did this for a long while.
He casually raised his head and, discovering a mass of white spider lilies that had dyed the entire corridor white, let out a sigh of admiration. These flowers hadn't been there before, but instead of dissonance, the Secretary felt an inspiration that made his heart tremble.
[Truly beautiful...]
Now, the existence of the vanished officer was erased from his mind. In its place, the white spider lilies took over. The Secretary beamed and carefully walked through the field of the other shore, careful not to crush the flowers. The spider lilies, blooming as nothing but petals without green stems, sang a bizarre a cappella as if in return for his cautious movements.
[P-please save me, Comrade Secretary!]
[From now on, you are the Secretary in charge of the Korean Peninsula. I look forward to working with you.]
[Please accept this. It's a uniform made personally by the German Comrade Secretary.]
[I don't want to die... I don't want to... die...]
[Ah, aaaaaah!!!]
A beautiful a cappella that gently caressed the voices in his memory.
The Secretary smiled as if enraptured and laid himself down on the flower bed as if collapsing. As if it were a bed, the spider lilies didn't collapse and fully supported his body. All the while, they sang even harder, notes that didn't exist in this world.
Then, suddenly, the bottom of the fully bloomed petals came into the Secretary's view.
The spider lily, born without stem or root, had bloomed on green-tinged scales. As a Reptilian could recognize others through the detailed patterns on their scales, the Secretary instantly realized who those scales belonged to.
[Officer...]
The long-time comrade who had vanished before the Secretary's eyes. He had become fertile soil for the spider lilies and was scattered everywhere.
It wasn't just the officer.
The one who ran the breeding grounds.
The one who managed the dining hall.
Those active in various fields—administration, military, law—all of them rested here.
As soon as he realized this, the Secretary felt intense fury.
[How dare you! How dare you become one with this sublime sight without me! Unbelievable! I'm joining too!]
The Secretary immediately tore off his uniform and madly slashed his upper and lower body with his own claws. Red blood spread everywhere, dyeing the bleached spider lilies a bloody color. As if cheering in response, the spider lilies sang beautiful music.
[Hahaha! You're happy too! Good, I shall burn this body to become one with you specially! More! Sing even more beautiful songs!]
Sliiiice!
His abdomen split open, and organs spilled out in a heap. Along with them, he collapsed to the floor. The spider lilies, which had been still until now, entered his opened body and greedily devoured the remaining flesh, muscle, and bone.
[Take it! Take it all! And thus, the music for me—!]
Before he could even finish. The moment the spider lilies that had infiltrated his body absorbed his brain without a trace, his movements stopped as if by magic.
Along with the abruptly cut-off voice, his heavy body went limp. Leaving only the scales, the spider lilies sucked up everything that maintained the body as nutrients.
Before long, nothing remained but green scales.
...Scrape.
A moment later, atop the scales that glistened under the sunlight pouring through the window, white spider lilies bloomed in an instant. Even the flowers that had just dyed themselves red returned to pure white as if nothing had happened.
And at the same time, at the end of the corridor, someone appeared.
[...? Were there flowers in a place like this?]
Kyahahahaha!
At the appearance of new nourishment, the flowers produced a chilling harmony.