The Virtues of a Magical Girl (9)

The Virtues of a Magical Girl (9)

“You’re quite remarkable too. When I recommended the path of a magical girl to you, I meant for you to relax and clear your head while having fun.”

Late at night. I came here transformed. The glittering night view of the city, high altitude with clouds beneath my feet.

There, Ren stood rigidly as if standing on solid ground.

“I couldn’t just stand by and watch.”

“I’ve heard the gist of it.”

I nodded with a bitter smile at her words. Apparently, the news was relayed through the mascot via the fairy company to Ren. Indeed, it was a much better method than throwing the mascot.

“So, why did you want to see me?”

“There’s something I wanted to ask.”

Ren’s eyes, which seemed to be avoiding me, now turned towards me. I read a faint fear in those eyes. I flinched for a moment, as I had never felt anything but interest and curiosity when meeting as the Demon King.

“Have you heard some rumors about me?”

“Here, even though you’re not the Demon King, people fear you. They say you’re a violent, rampaging evil demon. Is that… perhaps your true nature?”

“It’s up to you all to judge my actions.”

I didn’t bother to make excuses or refute her question.

However, while I did act as I pleased here, enjoying the deviation from my role as ruler and responsible figure in the Demon Realm, I thought I still maintained my standards, my principles.

“I merely judged those who deserved judgment. Judgment is the right of the strong. The same goes for judging challengers.”

“Then! Would you consider becoming a true judge in this world, as a magical girl?”

Ren’s eyes widened at my words, and she exclaimed urgently. It seemed she had something in mind.

“The power to fill incompleteness. If we use this power, we can correct what’s wrong or achieve what’s impossible. I want to recreate the power you showed in the Demon Realm here.”

“That’s a thought befitting an imperial princess who studied kingship, and I’ve heard about the bet you made with Aria, but I’m not interested.”

She looked somewhat desperate, but shook her head. I’m just a complete outsider. There are big problems piling up in this world even at this moment, but despite being a magical girl who acts for justice, or rather for achievements, I didn’t care about them at all.

The things I got involved in were only those that went against my mood or tried to harm me.

“Actually, I don’t think my current life is bad. Sometimes I feel it’s restrictive, but it also gives me peace. I think I understand why dragons enjoyed their leisure so much.”

Literally a new life. It’s like when I first fell into the Demon Realm.

However, the situation now is different from back then.

Back then, when I was nothing but an insignificant being, I killed, devoured, and grew just to survive. In that place where weakness was a sin, I trampled countless lives and fought until I reached the top.

It wasn’t at all the peaceful life I wanted when I faced death. Rather, the life I wanted was similar to what I have now.

“Besides, I have power now. The power to sweep away those who threaten me without compromise. Today, I was kicked out of the classroom for skipping lessons and called to the teacher’s office, where I was scolded for my usual behavior, but I didn’t feel particularly bad. Because it’s all part of my life, and I had the composure to know that it’s all in my hands. I don’t want to break that composure. It’s the achievement I’ve built here through various twists and turns.”

“That…”

“So, Seria Rene Laos, if there’s something you want to do instead of just playing around here, achieve it with your own power. You came to the Demon Realm as the concubine of a horrible tentacle monster, pushed aside by your brother in everything. That feeling of helplessness, that resentment. Do you think it would be resolved by borrowing my hand?”

I’ve seen more than a few people self-destruct, intoxicated by power that wasn’t their own. So I sincerely advised her. Her eyes widened and wavered, as if I had hit the nail on the head.

“I roughly understand what you want, so if that’s how you feel, prove your ability and power here, on this Earth. Your power and identity as a magical girl will help with that.”

She was born not as a caged bird, but as a wild bird of prey yearning for freedom and harboring ambition. Even at that moment when I first met her, sold as a hostage to the Demon Realm, that fire inside her hadn’t died down.

So someday, she will return to her homeland.

“If you succeed, you’ll go back as a new order, if you fail, you’ll go back as a corpse.”

“…Thank you.”

Whether she had realized something, her eyes changed, and she bowed her head to me in gratitude. Then she quickly disappeared, but I remained in the empty space for a while after.

“With that personality, I feel like she’s going to stir up something big. Hmm.”

“She’s not a child. She must have her own thoughts.”

Ren habitually started to worry. It wasn’t an unfounded concern. After all, I had become another Irregular, different from him.

And a very proactive one at that.

“I’ll handle it somehow.”

In the end, I returned to the facility and undid my transformation. Actually, I had come in a hurry during a break, so I needed to get back quickly.

“Everyone’s waiting, so come in quickly. But where did you go at this hour? It wasn’t just to the bathroom.”

“I had a quick errand. But you didn’t follow me to the bathroom, did you?”

“N-No, of course not.”

Hong Su-young, whom I encountered in the hallway, flinched. Even though she denied it verbally, her naturally upright personality made her lies completely transparent.

“Okay, you’re right.”

As expected, when I silently stared at her with narrowed eyes, she fidgeted uncomfortably before finally confessing.

“Why? I don’t have any particular suspicions.”

“Well, I thought you might be secretly doing something bad. You know, like smoking or something.”

“??!”

However, her following words were surprising even to me. I couldn’t even guess why that topic suddenly came up.

“Why would you say that? Do you really not know your own reputation? The teacher even told me to keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t go astray… oops.”

“…I see.”

Flustered, Hong Su-young blurted out something she shouldn’t have, but I didn’t particularly mind. I was already labeled as a delinquent for hanging out with Park Tae-jun in the beginning.

“Let’s go. Weren’t we supposed to study?”

“Y-Yeah.”

While I certainly didn’t care, I hated unnecessarily being misunderstood or getting into troublesome situations. Coincidentally, midterms were coming up soon.

I thought it would be good to use that to neutralize this bad reputation to some extent. After all, the biggest factor in evaluating students, now as ever, is grades.

“If there’s anything you don’t know, feel free to ask.”

Today was the day I was supposed to study in the break room with seniors like Hong Su-young and Kang Jin-su. As expected of diligent students, their concentration at this moment was extraordinary.

“Is it too difficult for you?”

[No. It’s too easy, I feel like I’m wasting my time]

Ren smirked and spoke to me as I stared blankly at the book, but in reality, I could only snort.

*

“W-What on earth are you thinking of doing?!”

“If there’s no transcendent strong figure to set the standard and provide a center, then we can create one. But it’s impossible to create such a thing. So, we can become a collective.”

At the time when Tequilas, who had returned to daily life, was halfheartedly looking at the book, Renee, who had parted ways with Tequilas, landed on the rooftop of a nearby building after crossing the sky.

While her mind was incredibly complicated, her heart was rather clear.

“A-A collective?! What do you mean by that!”

“Does it violate the regulations? In the 1,689 pages of regulations I read on the first day, there was no rule stating that it’s impossible for Magical Girls to band together and establish a new order.”

“You memorized all that after reading it once… No, even without that, that’s…!”

Fluffy was greatly flustered. It was something she had never even imagined. No, it was physically impossible from the start.

However, the fact that Tequilas and Renee were irregulars, that is, slightly unusual cases of Magical Girls that hadn’t existed until now, acted as a blind spot.

‘Is it possible? Or not? No, even if it’s possible, that’s a problem…’

Fluffy, more experienced than Ren, broke out in a cold sweat.

Until now, no Magical Girl had ever stood above the fairy company. They were the absolute superiors, and Magical Girls were merely tools.

Regulations anticipating this kind of situation? There was no way such a thing existed. From the beginning, what they wanted from Magical Girls now wasn’t genuine justice or anything like that.

“Are you worried about performance? Don’t worry. If this plan succeeds, we might even be able to alleviate that inefficient performance competition a bit.”

“No, that’s not it…”

“And I want to make Aria… that child the first button. I heard she’s the same age as me.”

Moreover, Renée blocked even the slightest chance of escape.

“Find her.”

Renée, her eyes shimmering faintly, stood up and cast a spell towards the sky.

It was a kind of search magic that emits magical wavelengths to find a pre-marked signal. Its range covers the entire city of Seoul.

First, she wanted to check.

Just how much justice this land truly has.

And if it disappoints her like her homeland did, she had no intention of holding back while executing her plan.