So-Called Evil

"Take care, boss."

"Stay safe on the way."

Off work!

One of the happiest times in life.

This salary thief had risen into the ranks of upper management, minimizing unnecessary conflicts with subordinates and reducing the risk of being reported for slacking off.

Ye Qing treated subordinates of different races like friends.

There was no pressure, and the office atmosphere was exceptionally friendly. As a result, he was well loved by his subordinates.

So whenever work ended, he received a chorus of polite concern.

"See you next week. Have fun over the weekend."

Ye Qing gave the office's concern a collective response, then hurried toward Karina's office without stopping.

He absolutely had not forgotten that she had promised to give him a limited-edition figure.

After getting the Magical Girl figure, he forcibly suppressed the excitement that made him want to lose it outside, stuffed it into his bag, and efficiently left the base.

Before getting off work, he had specifically ordered a build-your-own 1+1 meal from a burger joint.

He could pick it up on his way home and solve dinner for the day while he was at it.

Since he had not done any work at all, he was not particularly hungry. That was enough to fill him up.

Dusk.

The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the sky orange-red, while the breeze before the weekend felt especially pleasant.

When Ye Qing left the burger joint, every passerby in sight seemed to be in pairs.

He walked alone down familiar streets, his silhouette carrying a faint air of desolation.

The laughter and chatter of strangers lingered in his ears. Though not all of them were human, the harmonious scene could not help reminding him of the past.

Once, he had kind parents and close friends too, chatting about everything as they walked down the streets.

Regrettably, on his twenty-sixth birthday in his previous life, he had been carrying a cake home when a truck that ran a light struck him and took his life.

He had reincarnated into a baby with his memories intact. Raised under the near-abusive care of his biological parents until the age of five, he had survived only through the memories from his previous life and his young body.

After being cruelly abandoned, he had been taken in by kind adoptive parents, successfully received an education in this world, and lived to his current age of twenty-four.

Ye Qing, twenty-four years old, was a reincarnator who had lived on Demon Star for more than twenty years.

Demon Star was simply an abbreviation for the Magical Girl Galaxy.

It was a world where vampires, beastfolk, demons, and many other races coexisted, with Magical Girls maintaining peace between them.

It sounded colorful and diverse, so the various public facilities surely had to be different.

But after actually living here, he found it was not all that different from a world inhabited entirely by humans.

Just as a beautiful girl he happened to meet on the street would have nothing to do with him, the other races had no special connection to Ye Qing either.

Although Demon Star's technology, education, healthcare, and all kinds of conveniences for ordinary people were no worse than those of his previous world, he still found himself reminiscing about his past life.

He simply could not stop himself from missing it.

People were like that—nostalgic, and especially fond of things they no longer possessed.

He had not stood out in his previous life, and he was no more remarkable in this one.

He had no painful memories constantly surging up, nor any deep-seated grievances he needed to share.

All he could do was sigh at life's unpredictability.

Still, he had been given another life. An ordinary, peaceful life was what truly mattered.

So once he had come of age and graduated, he had followed the path of his previous life, bid farewell to his adoptive parents, and gone out to work for a living.

Like any other ordinary member of the masses, he lived a life that belonged to him.

If he had to name anything unusual about himself, it was his job.

A senior executive of the Evil Organization Abyssal Echo!

Why would a Magical Girl fanatic become an evil villain in a Magical Girl world?

Do not condemn him. This job ran from nine to five, with weekends off.

Not only that, it offered six types of insurance, two housing funds, and a monthly salary close to ten thousand.

That was after taxes. Before deductions, it was over ten thousand!

And the work was easy, simple, and pressure-free. Every week, he only had to use AI to cobble together a work report for meetings and submit it for the BOSS to hear.

Sounded great, right?

It was not just great on paper. It was genuinely great. Hahaha.

Why did he think there were no other lonely wage slaves on the streets? Because he got off work early.

Only when he had free time did he have the means and leisure to reminisce about the past.

But joining Abyss Return was no simple matter.

Only those whose "evil" was acknowledged by the BOSS qualified to join.

Back then, Ye Qing had also gone through immense effort to prove his own "evil."

His evil was...

"Outsider species, get off our planet!"

"Look at her. Those pointy teeth and red eyes are hideous!"

"It's a freak, a freak. It doesn't deserve to eat food made by us humans."

The malicious, cutting mockery interrupted Ye Qing's recollections. He turned toward the source of the voices.

Two little boys were blocking the path of a young Bloodkin girl.

Without the slightest courtesy, they snatched the two lollipops tightly clutched in the girl's hands.

"G-Give them back," the Bloodkin girl said, anger mixed with nervousness in her voice.

A mist of tears clouded her large eyes as she struggled to reclaim the candy that belonged to her.

But how could her frail little body resist two boys older and bigger than her?

"Admit you're an inferior breed, and I'll give them back."

"With arms and legs that short, you shouldn't waste our food anyway."

The two boys took turns speaking, not letting the Bloodkin girl get a word in as they cruelly demeaned her.

Impatient, they shoved away the girl who was waving her arms in front of them. Unable to steady herself, she fell to the ground.

The pain in her bottom added to her grievance, and tears overflowed from her eyes.

A figure approached from afar, quietly arriving behind the three children.

"Hey, brats. My mouth feels a little bland. Hand over the candy."

The mature male voice stood out sharply amid the children's usual shrill voices. The two boys had only just turned around.

Before they could react, the candy in their hands was snatched away by overwhelming force.

Blond hair gleaming beneath the sunlight, a vicious expression, a body far larger than theirs, and a ferocious tattoo on his neck—fear instantly overtook the two boys.

"What are you staring at? Get lost already." Ye Qing clamped one hand around each boy's cheek and spoke menacingly.

"Want to compare yourselves to me?"

With that, he violently shoved the two boys away.

They hit the ground with a solid thud, clearly falling harder than the Bloodkin girl had earlier.

The authority of an adult left them unable to think. They scrambled up and fled.

They had no time to see whether he was chasing them. They only knew to run with their heads down, terrified of being caught.

"Hey, brat." Ye Qing could not be bothered with the two boys. He crouched down halfway and called to the girl in front of him.

The Bloodkin girl had mostly stopped crying and stared blankly at Ye Qing.

"Waaah!!"

The next instant, she cried even harder, even wailing aloud.

The sound gave Ye Qing a headache. He took out one lollipop and forcibly stuffed it back into the girl's hand.

"Take it!"

The young girl struggled to make sense of what had happened. Looking down at the candy, she forgot to cry for a moment.

"If I give you candy, you're not allowed to cry!" Ye Qing ordered fiercely.

"Mm..." The Bloodkin girl immediately stopped crying and stared longingly at the other lollipop in Ye Qing's hand.

"You want the second one too?" Ye Qing asked.

The Bloodkin girl looked straight at Ye Qing with her watery eyes and replied weakly, "I do."

"Hehe..." Ye Qing grinned, revealing an evil smile. He tore off the wrapper in one motion and popped the lollipop into his mouth.

"Nope! I stole it, so it's mine."

"Bad guy!" Tears welled up in the Bloodkin girl's eyes again as she "fiercely" scolded him.

"You thought I'd give it to you? The first one is mine too."

Ye Qing reached out, pretending he was about to take the remaining lollipop.

The Bloodkin girl hurriedly drew both hands back and stepped away, clutching the candy protectively to her chest.

"No! Bad guy! Bad person!"

"Resistance is futile. Hehehe."

Ye Qing was about to scare the girl a little more and enjoy the feeling of being a villain for a while longer~

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted an adult sprinting straight toward him.

"You damn human punk! You want to die for bullying Yun'er?!"

"Holy shit! An adult Bloodkin!"

Ye Qing shuddered in fright and hurriedly got to his feet.

The moment he started running, he pushed himself as desperately as he would during the last few meters of a thousand-meter fitness test, fleeing in a panic.

The candy I stole is mine!

I did a good deed. Asking for a little reward on my own initiative isn't too much, right?

Bloodkin old man, you'd better not chase me!

His movements were a mess, but Ye Qing thought the swagger in his heart looked pretty cool.

His panicked expression and level of fear seemed no different from those little brats he had just scared shitless.

That was right. Ye Qing's "evil" was the ultimate evil of picking on anyone, no matter how weak they were!

Among the five Abyss Return executives, he was also the only evil one who would lay hands on anyone regardless of age or gender.

Bullying the weak, using his status as an adult to bully children, and stealing lollipops from adorable little girls.

Even the BOSS would have to call him a scumbag.

Though his past test behavior had not been exactly the same, it was broadly similar.

In any case, his "evil" had been certified by the leader of the Evil Organization.