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As the gangsters soon discovered, however, reality was often quite different from what one would expect.
Not only did the girl seemingly on the verge of collapse not fall to their combined assault instantly, but the ‘last bits of her power’ seemed nearly inexhaustible as their comrades continued falling one after another. If anything, her attacks only got more ruthless over time.
Of course, some inevitably had the idea of fleeing once they realized this, but terrifyingly enough, the crimson-haired little devil seemed to be able to read their minds and pounce on them almost immediately after.
Compared to the gangsters who were right in the midst of the whole mess, the staff filming the scene naturally had a clearer view of the situation, and they couldn’t help but be impressed at the little girl’s ability to persevere.
What kind of willpower must one have to be able to last so long and burst out with so much strength even after hitting their limits again and again?
Not to mention a little girl like Emi, maybe even veterans with decades of experience would have exhausted themselves at this point.
The ones who still believed it all to be a badly planned shoot only felt some admiration for the girl’s skills, while the ones who suspected the gangsters to have actual malicious intentions even started looking at her like a star.
Of course, aside from cheering her on silently and doing their best to capture it all on camera, there was nothing much they could do, regardless of their varied conjectures.
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It didn’t take long for the numbers in front of her to dwindle down to single digits, and as it did, Emilia’s confidence in keeping them from escaping grew stronger and stronger, and she naturally stopped trying so hard to pretend to be weakened.
Maybe they finally realized that the little girl they had been unable to defeat for so long was really out of their league, or maybe they felt the sudden ‘increase’ in her strength, either way, the remaining gangsters stopped attacking her soon, and started backing off while looking for a way to escape.
Of course, given that they were surrounded by the filming crew, it looked like all their paths were sealed.
Had it been before they fought the little girl in front of them, they would have definitely not put these weaklings in their eyes and run right through them. But now that they’d already fallen into such an absurd trap, everything started looking terrifying in their eyes.
Maybe these weaklings were really special agents all along, and were only waiting on the sidelines for them to try to escape and deliver themselves right into their clutches!
In that case, wasn’t it better to get two more hits in on this little devil who humiliated them so?
Of course, it was easy to think about it, but almost impossible to do. They couldn’t even muster the courage to look her in the eyes anymore after witnessing her ‘slaughter’ so many of their much stronger comrades, even when they attacked her together.
Several more grunts and groans echoed through the suddenly silent field as the last few gangsters failed to avoid Emilia’s ‘surprise’ attacks and fell down while clutching their bellies and legs, and the last one shook like a leaf in terror.
“G-Get away from me, y-you de—!”
The man’s words terrified curses instantly cut off as a flying kick landed on his temple, and his world went blank just like all his other comrades.
The manager broke out of her daze just as ‘little Emi’ dusted her hands with a satisfied smile. “Cut!”
“Wow—!”
The rest of the crew cheered as Penny rushed forward and lifted Emilia into her arms. “You did great, Emi!”
Of course, she’d never had any doubts, but when else would she get the opportunity to lift her princess up in her arms like this? Why would she not take advantage of the situation when she could?
Emilia either didn’t seem to notice her thoughts, or indulged Penny as a reward for her hard work as she smiled. “Thank you.”
No one mentioned the fact that the ‘actors’ on the ground were still not showing any signs of getting up, and a ‘clean up crew’ called in by Noelle’s subordinate soon cleared the mess on the ground.
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Emilia knew that compared to the actual shooting, the ‘post-processing’ of the video was actually much more important.
After all, what was captured on film was just a fight between a little girl and some gangsters. At best, it was exciting, and at worst it was absurd and unbelievable. Either way, it wouldn’t have the effects she intended if not handled properly.
Fortunately, her girlfriends were quite talented at finding the right people for every job, and the finished video that was sent to Emilia for the ‘final review’ not only satisfied her, but exceeded all her expectations.
Perhaps even the crew who filmed it wouldn’t be able to recognize their own shots if they saw it now.
The video started with several scenes of the gangsters hanging around the area menacingly, threatening and harming the people around, and harassing the crew as well. Of course, the people involved had already been ‘taken care’ of now, and there was no issue in exposing them like this.𝒪𝒱𝓁xt.𝒸𝑶𝐌
A normal person watching this would only feel some resentment for these ‘bad guys’, but for the people of Carmen, it would definitely be able to evoke much stronger emotions.
After all, they suffered like this all the time, and showing things like this on camera was like opening up their wounds with a rusty knife and sprinkling it with salt and pepper.
These ‘oppressive’ scenes lingered on the screen just long enough to let these emotions fester in the viewer’s heart, and then the camera suddenly panned to the bright, glowing face of a young crimson-haired girl.
Even Emilia failed to recognize ‘herself’ for a moment, but the girl’s eyes were so full of hope and confidence that she almost stopped breathing. ‘Is that really me?’
“Technically…?”
She almost rolled her eyes at Cynthia’s sarcastic response, but soon focused back on the scene in front of her.
Even though she knew it was herself, she still found her heart palpitating for a moment when the scene showed a whole bunch of gangsters standing in front of the little girl.
She could almost imagine what the ‘typical’ ending of such a bright-eyed child would have been had it been anyone else, and she couldn’t help but frown. ‘It’s a good thing those morons will never see the light of day again, but just getting rid of them is far from enough.’
Naturally, the ‘clean-up crew’ wasn’t tasked with sending the criminals to a hospital. She’d made it clear to Noelle exactly how she wanted these parasites to be handled, after all.
As for any investigations or suspicions coming their way because of their disappearance… were they supposed to keep tabs on those miscreants after they fled?
Emilia might not be able to force the government of Carmen to do anything normally, but she could still defend ‘her people’ as the Empress of Blue Dawn, couldn’t she? If they really tried to go too far, she didn’t mind showing the world why she wasn’t so easy to bully.
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