Magic Power Riot

Emily's hard-earned evening snacks lay scattered across the floor, now deliberately crushed beneath someone's feet.

Jack pressed Emily's head to the ground. "You made these snacks, so lick them clean yourself. Don't leave a single crumb. Today, I'm going to make you understand your place."

Emily did not resist, but there was still a trace of stubbornness in her expression.

That only made Jack angrier. He raised his hand, ready to strike.

"Stop."

The boys turned around and saw Lucretia standing in the moonlight, her frail little body trembling in the draft from the leaky corridor window.

Yet in her eyes burned a flame that refused to go out.

Jack was clearly the ringleader of this gang of troublemakers. He did not take her seriously at all and instead smiled mockingly. "Oh? The freak's here too? Perfect. I've been sick of looking at you for a long time."

Lucretia said each word slowly, "Let go of Emily. This is my final warning."

She could feel that power frantically searching for a way out alongside her emotions.

Jack sneered and tightened his grip. Emily let out a muffled groan of pain and could not help collapsing to her knees.

"And if I say no, what can you do to me? Go tell the director?"

He burst into exaggerated laughter.

"Did you forget what happened the last time you tattled to the director? You got locked in solitary for a whole week and nearly starved to death in that little dark room. Do you know where the food they brought you every day came from? Your precious big sister begged us for it with her head bowed. If you ask me, you should be groveling in gratitude to us. Why are you throwing a tantrum at the people who saved your life?"

The other boys laughed along with him, their laughter full of malice. None of them believed a girl with arms as skinny as chicken claws could pose any threat to them.

Lucretia's fingertips gradually turned white, her nails leaving crescent-shaped marks in her palms.

She knew that in this Orphanage, Jack was the uncrowned king.

The director always chose to believe that "well-behaved" boy rather than an outcast like her or Emily, who was always mild-tempered and endlessly yielding.

Emily suddenly spoke, her voice unbelievably gentle. "Just let her go. I'll clean this place up. Viola, hurry back to your room and sleep. Don't worry about me. I'm fine."

There was even a comforting smile at the corner of her lips as she said it, as though this were truly nothing important.

But Lucretia saw the tear tracks still wet at the corners of her eyes, her disheveled hair, her trembling shoulders, and a fresh bruise.

Even in this situation, Emily was still trying to protect her.

"See that?"

Jack roughly yanked Emily's hair, forcing her to raise her head.

"This is the good friend you care about so much, a cowardly little bitch. She'd rather suffer herself than let you stay. Don't you think she's pathetic?"

The other boys let out piercing laughter. Someone began spitting on Emily.

Someone else picked up crumbs from the floor and maliciously smeared them across her face.

Emily's voice grew even softer, carrying a hint of pleading. "Viola, really, you should go... Don't let them bully you too..."

Those words became the final spark.

A hazy memory flashed through her mind.

Another self, betrayed. Another ending.

Back then, she had chosen forgiveness, using only her dying breath to curse those who betrayed kindness to never receive kindness themselves.

But now...

"Enough."

Moonlight poured down as if it had substance, and the air turned thick in an instant.

Lucretia could feel her fingers heating uncontrollably, her pulse accelerating, something surging in her chest and trying to break free.

"What did you say?"

Jack seemed not to have heard clearly and tightened his grip.

"I said, enough!"

With her furious roar, the floor suddenly split apart. Thick vines burst from the cracks like giant serpents and began growing rapidly the moment they emerged, as if alive.

Their surfaces were covered in thorns, and those things twisted beneath the moonlight as though they had lives of their own.

Before the boys even had time to scream, vines coiled around their hands and feet and hoisted them high into the air.

Jack finally released Emily's hair, the vicious grin on his face transforming into terror.

He tried to retreat, only to be surrounded layer upon layer by more vines and lifted into the air as well.

The thorns were about to pierce the fragile necks of those abusers...

"V-Viola?"

Emily watched everything in horror, but her first reaction was to take a step forward, as though she wanted to stop her.

"Stop, quickly! You can't keep going. You'll go to prison, and your life will be ruined. You won't be able to go to school anymore!"

That action made Lucretia's heart twist painfully.

Even now, Emily was still worried about whether those abusers would live or die, still worried about what would happen to her afterward.

The thorns along the vines stirred restlessly. If she wished, she could make those spikes pierce the abusers' flesh.

She could kill them here in an instant, before they could even cry out.

But when she met Emily's worried gaze, that killing intent suddenly faded away.

She took a deep breath and restrained the thorns, making them stop against the boys' skin and leave only tiny beads of blood.

No, she could not do this.

Not because she feared the consequences, but because she did not want Emily's kindness stained with blood.

If she had used a curse in her previous life to punish those who betrayed kindness, then in this life, she would use her power to protect this last remaining kindness.

The entire corridor descended into chaos.

The photos on the walls hung crookedly, and a vase fell to the floor and shattered.

The vines trapped the boys in midair like a net.

They screamed and struggled, but could not break free. The air was filled with the scent of soil and plants.

The boys' shrill screams woke the entire Orphanage.

When the director hurried out in a bathrobe, the beam of her flashlight swayed through the darkness.

The other children had been awakened as well. They noisily followed behind the director and poked their heads out, only to let out terrified screams at the sight before them.

The director's voice trembled as her flashlight shone over the writhing vines. "What the hell is this thing?! Quick, call the police!"

No one dared approach.

The vines stretched beneath the moonlight as if they were alive, turning the entire corridor into an eerie forest.

The boys suspended in the air had already wet themselves in terror. Jack's face was deathly pale, his lips trembling nonstop, yet he could not say a single word.

Lucretia stood in the jungle woven from vines. She stepped forward, helped Emily up from her kneeling position, and let her sit down.

Emily clutched her hand tightly, frightened yet worried.

"Viola... did you do this? Did you get hurt?"

Several minutes passed, but no police sirens sounded near the Orphanage. Instead, a group of people in suits walked in.