Chapter 22 : You’re sharp

It was a year with unusually many wildfires, but thanks to the magical girls, they were quickly extinguished.

[Title: Aqua putting out wildfires.jpg]

(A photo of Aqua flying over the mountain using water magic)

Even though the smoke turned everything black, she was putting out the fire.

It seems she even did an interview before leaving.

• Using magic like this too, huh?
• Look at her living up to her name.
• A magical girl living in the metropolitan area went all the way there?
• Was she on a business trip to put out the fire?
• That’s admirable.
• I don’t think the 5th generation has enough magical power to put out a wildfire.

Scarlet Lily replenished her magic.

• If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be faster to put it out herself?
• There’s some reason, but I don’t really know.

People who are interested know, but the names of 5th generation magical girls are somewhat unfamiliar to the general public.

Because there are more of them than previous generations, it was even more so.

• What kind of girl is Aqua?
• Among the 5th generation, she has decent results.
• Seems like she’s good at flying and shooting water.
• Cute. She must be popular with the boys since she’s probably in high school.
• These days, kids might even have magical girls among their friends, that’s nice. I didn’t have that when I was in school.
• Old man…
• What’s your age group?

Along with Aqua’s slight rise in fame, stories about Scarlet Lily also came up.

• I heard she caught a monster in Seoul during the day. Did she fly there?
• That distance?
• Even if fast, wouldn’t it take several hours?
• Aqua’s comment made it sound like it was within an hour one way.
• Does that even make sense?
• Did she take the LKTX train and pretend to have flown?
• Scarlet Lily can fly, but Aqua can’t fly that fast.
• Lily carried her while flying.
• So she goes faster alone?
• Haha, that’s ridiculous.
• Aqua probably flew slower on purpose because she can actually fly supersonic.

Even though there was nothing surprising about that, the surprises kept coming.

The community was bustling again today.

[Aqua, I heard water magic is your specialty. Have you put out fires like this before?]

[Well… I did put out a fire caused by a salamander during the day…]

[Ah, you mean the salamander.]

[Yes… yes! Scarlet Lily said my magic might be able to put out wildfires…]

A scene from a few days ago, during an interview while putting out a wildfire, is playing on a smartphone screen.

“Kyahahah! Why do you stutter so much when talking, Aqua? Look at your trembling voice!”

Aurora Lola clapped her thigh and burst out laughing, and the 5th generation girls nearby giggled too.

The person herself was blushing, clearly embarrassed.

“It’s my first solo interview, that’s why…”

“Wasn’t Lily with you?”

“She ran away because she’s uncomfortable in situations like this.”

“What? What if the lead runs away!”

Aurora Lola’s words focused everyone’s attention on me.

“The lead is Aqua. I’m just the airplane.”

In reality, Aqua was the one who actually put out the fire.

I had nothing to say in the interview.

“She was injected with magical power, so she’s not just a simple airplane. Ah, what do they call that again…”

“Aerial refueling plane?”

“That’s right, that one!”

Beta and Gamma giggled.

“People tend to think magical girls exist to defeat monsters, but what we really have to do is help people. In that sense, what Aqua did was excellent.”

Frozen Princess praised Aqua.

The special power gained through the contract.

It’s not for oneself, but to help others.

That was the kind of thinking befitting a model magical girl like her.

“Aqua is totally obsessed with you!”

Parfait Alpha teased.

I heard Frozen Princess was her role model, and she seemed happy to receive praise.

“I’ll keep working hard from now on…!”

The warm atmosphere continued.

This is a fancy restaurant.

They held a celebration party to commemorate solving the gate simultaneous incidents.

A wealthy senior arranged the venue for the hardworking juniors, putting aside personal schedules.

They even rented out the entire restaurant.

Thanks to that, it was okay to call each other by their magical girl names freely.

“Since making up, you two have gotten along better.”

Beta smirked seeing Aqua and me side by side.

We just happened to sit there comfortably.

“Was there something before?”

Lola baited the topic.

“You seniors wouldn’t know. Before, our relationship was bad — Aqua couldn’t stand me.”

“Don’t say that…”

“Well, whatever. We’ve made up.”

Since the conflict was resolved, they could talk about it.

“After crying and everything, we decided to forget it all!”

Aqua fidgeted, and Parfait Alpha interrupted.

“Aqua cried?”

“She slapped me. About five times.”

“Why are you bragging about that? Why did you hit her in the first place?”

“Kids grow up fighting, right?”

“Where did you even hear that?”

Parfait Alpha winked at me slyly.

Was she deliberately being considerate?

I should take care of my juniors too.

“Since we’re all gathered, why don’t you join the conversation too?”

I spoke to Reaper Morse across from me.

She was quiet the whole time, maybe because she had no close friends here.

“I don’t have anything to talk about.”

“Just laugh it off.”

“…That’s not really my style.”

She awkwardly sipped her nearly empty juice.

Would forcing her to join just make her uncomfortable?

“Tonight, the princess is treating, so order whatever you want!”

“Wow!”

Aurora Lola’s shout was cheered by the juniors.

The Frozen Princess ate elegantly without a single sign of displeasure.

Truly like a princess.

She was seriously rich.

The minors only stayed until the first round.

The second round was held with only adults and Sonya remaining.

“Come to think of it, the Frozen Princess did cry once.”

“Li, Lily, don’t talk about that because it’s embarrassing…………!”

When I brought up the earlier incident, Yucia was very flustered.

“Yucia cried? I’ve never even seen that!”

“You got NTR’d, senpai!”

“Nooo! Wasn’t yuri supposed to be the concept!”

Gilhaeun screamed while Sonya was enjoying herself.

I never really took the concept seriously to begin with.

People just talked nonsense on their own.

Even if I explained why the misunderstanding happened, I doubted they’d listen.

“Lily, you’re a minor, is it okay for you to drink?”

Choi Yena asked with curiosity.

“Ah…… since we rented the whole place, it’s fine. It’s a secret from the others.”

Yucia quickly covered for me.

Except for Choi Yena, the other members had complex and subtle expressions.

Among them, she was the only one who didn’t know my true identity.

Looking now, it was a rather awkward combination.

“You said you donated during Lily’s broadcast before? I heard Yucia caught you!”

Gilhaeun changed the subject and dodged.

“I wasn’t trying to compete or anything!?”

“But you got caught.”

“Spending a million won on something trivial is abnormal!”

“Yucia is a princess. That’s why ‘Princess’ is in her name.”

Gilhaeun laughed loudly, drunk, and made a joke.

It wasn’t anything new, but a Reaper Morse.

So Choi Yena tended to avoid occasions like this.

She said she wouldn’t come, so I forced her to come.

She hardly spoke in the first round, so I wondered if I’d done something pointless.

But it seemed she got along well with Gilhaeun, so that was a relief.

“Who made the Dark Magical Gem?”

Yucia brought up a serious topic.

“Probably the mascot or the magical girl.”

“They said they got it by mail, can’t we track who sent it?”

“It seems the support office is already investigating. Since there’s no news, I guess they haven’t found anything.”

After that, I never heard from Choi Yena again.

She probably had no intention of doing any evil.

They seemed to judge she lacked the qualities to be an ally.

“What’s the plan going forward?”

All eyes turned to me again at Gilhaeun’s question.

“I’ll squeeze Armo for clues. That guy would know best about this kind of thing.”

“Lily’s pretty good too! Mascots have to be abused to be enjoyable!”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Even though mascots are the magical girl’s main enemies, killing or abusing them is another matter.

“In times like this, you have to agree~.”

“Ugh, the smell of alcohol.”

As Gilhaeun clung to me cutely, I pushed her away, and Choi Yena stared blankly.

“Lily seems older somehow.”

At that casual remark, everyone stopped moving.

“W-what? Why are you saying that……………!”

Choi Yena looked puzzled.

It must have felt like a scene from a horror movie.

I’d always felt she had a subtly sharp side.

“Maybe it’s better to confess everything.”

Yucia, Gilhaeun, and Sonya all hesitated to speak easily.

It felt awkward to keep making things difficult, and I’d built enough friendship with Choi Yena to visit her home.

Maybe the time had come.

“Oh, so one more member for the group chat?”

“A group chat?”

“Of course there is.” Hehehe,

Gilhaeun was excited with anticipation.

Yucia and Sonya didn’t say anything but seemed the same.

So there’s nothing to hesitate about.

“Listen carefully. I’m living now as Scarlet Lily, but I am—”

A woman is watching a monitor intently.

“No matter how I look at it, it’s Scarlet, isn’t it?”

She rewound the video and looked carefully.

This girl called Scarlet Lily.

Her features, expressions, and tone resembled Scarlet.

Even her habit of flying and reluctance to stand in front of people.

To the woman who knew the original Scarlet well, she looked exactly like Scarlet herself.

“She probably isn’t really a clone…………..”

There were rumors that she was genetically engineered, or an android trained with first-generation data.

She was absurdly strong.

Even though they knew it was ridiculous, they couldn’t explain it otherwise, so such stories came up.

The woman wasn’t foolish enough to believe that, but the circumstances were too clear to ignore.

“Scarlet is hiding her identity.”

This hypothesis made everything fit naturally.

“Will I know why she’s doing this if I meet her?”

It’s hard to meet a magical girl privately.

I don’t know if the chance will come, but there’s no rush.

The screen showed a picture capturing Scarlet firing a beam.

The woman stared at the photo for a moment, then closed the internet window.