Ch.62Chapter 11. Group Life (3)

Of course I don’t plan to be friends with the magical girls forever.

But since we’re temporarily together, we need some basic rules to make group living easier.

I only agreed to let them stay briefly; I didn’t acquire slaves.

…For some reason, Hayun said something similar to me, but as a civilized modern person, I had no intention of taking full advantage of that statement.

“First of all, this is a radio.”

I placed the radio in front of the children as I spoke.

It looked just like a speaker, but it had two knobs. One for volume control and one for frequency adjustment. Below was a small screen showing the current frequency setting.

“You don’t need to worry about electricity. I can power it with my weapon.”

Magic and electrical power actually work quite differently.

Electricity requires separate generation facilities and charging devices. Even if you work hard to generate power with a generator, you can’t store it for continued use without somewhere to put the excess.

But magic is different.

Once generated, it lingers in the surrounding area. Of course, you can make it last much longer with separate condensers or batteries, but as long as the circuit keeps running, it can be maintained stably even without separate storage.

So… think of it like a video game. In survival games where you can build various things, if there’s a generator function, it often works within a certain range without having to install individual wires or other equipment like in real life—that’s how “circuits” work.

Aliens, who can basically handle magical power, solve this by deploying many relevant personnel or using batteries charged with small generators.

It’s much simpler than how humans produce and use electricity, but having a circuit that generates power just by being carried by a person is quite revolutionary even by alien standards.

That’s why magical girls and heroes from other countries only exist on Earth, and why it’s difficult to make generators. They need to handle enormous power generation while remaining stable.

…Anyway, thanks to this, there’s quite a lot we can solve here if we just make the equipment.

[The location of the magical girls has not yet been identified. The authorities are cooperating with the Galactic Federation to—]

From what I can gather from the radio, the government still doesn’t understand why the magical girls ran away with me.

Even after consulting with the Federation, they haven’t made much progress.

“Don’t they usually have counseling sessions?”

I threw out a sarcastic comment, but—

“Then I suppose you had frequent consultations with the company?”

“…”

Rose’s response left me speechless.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

When I turned to James, he responded with disbelief.

Well, you did provide something like counseling, didn’t you?

Oh, it wasn’t counseling but threats. Come to think of it, he bears some responsibility for my current situation.

“Let me tell you in advance, Squeakeans have more bones than flesh. Eating me would be far from satisfying.”

He looks quite plump to me. When I hold him in my hand, he feels a bit squishy.

Well, that might be because of his skin or fur. If I were to eat him, I’d have to remove all the internal organs and blood, so maybe there really wouldn’t be much meat left.

Still, there is a bit of a solution.

A large portion of my food supplies consists of nuts.

The reason is simple: both I can eat them, and so can James. I didn’t really want to stock up on things like dried mealworms either.

So I could force-feed him nuts to fatten him up before slaughtering. That way I could increase one mouthful to two, couldn’t I?

If that doesn’t work—

“How many children do you usually have?”

I almost said “offspring” instead of “children,” but then remembered that James is an alien who is treated as a “person.”

The magical girls’ faces turned pale, seemingly understanding my intention.

“…Let’s not make such brutal jokes, even in jest.”

His voice trembled as if he found it creepy, despite being a villain himself.

Hmm.

Rodents often have many offspring at once, and their lifespan is only about two years. That means they reach adulthood very quickly.

I thought if I could secure enough of them, I could solve the food shortage by raising them.

But he’s not really a rodent, is he? Even if they have many offspring, assuming they’d become adults in just a month or two would be difficult.

“If we can’t solve the food problem, it’ll run out in a few days with them here.”

I said, looking at the magical girls.

They all slightly avoided my gaze. At least they have some conscience?

“But we can’t surrender, right? That’s not what you want either, is it?”

“No matter what, surrender would be better than being eaten.”

That’s true, but.

“Um… excuse me…!”

As I shrugged my shoulders, Dalia raised her hand slightly.

This world has various hair colors, but Dalia’s hair wasn’t red. Come to think of it, in magical girl shows or sentai shows, the “yellow” character often doesn’t actually have yellow or blonde hair.

Dalia’s hair was orange. She’s described as moody, but that moodiness wasn’t clearly visible right now.

Her hair, which came down just below her neck, wasn’t particularly neat, and her long bangs were tucked behind one ear.

Her hair was a bit greasy from not washing properly, but she had clearly done her best to keep it tidy.

Impressive. I had only quickly washed my face at the stream this morning. The water was still quite cold, so I gave up on washing thoroughly.

“I-I can solve the food problem to some extent.”

“How?”

When I tilted my head, Dalia continued with a still somewhat tense expression.

“You cleared that area in front for a field, right?”

She must have seen the furrows in front of the building.

Actually, it was already somewhat organized when I arrived here. It was probably used as a vegetable garden originally.

If it had been midsummer, unknown plants would have been growing abundantly, but after winter, most of the plants there had died.

Since I had plenty of time, I pulled out all the roots that had been there.

I hadn’t actually plowed the field myself, but I had seen it done, so I made it look like what I thought a “field” should look like. It must have been carefully tended before people left, as there were hardly any large stones.

When I nodded, Dalia’s expression became somewhat relieved.

“That means you have seedlings too.”

“…And?”

I didn’t have many varieties, but I did have some “things that can be grown from seeds” that I could think of.

Cucumber, eggplant, zucchini. And a few alien vegetables too. There are several planets with natural environments similar to Earth, and many of the plants and animals that grow there can be eaten by humans. It’s the same principle as James eating Earth nuts.

…Actually, I didn’t really gather them with serious intentions to grow them, but just thought it would be better to have them than not.

It would take at least a few months to grow them, and above all, I had never grown anything before, so it was questionable whether I could maintain them until harvest.

But seeing Dalia’s face brighten after hearing this, she seemed to have something else in mind.

“I can handle that somehow.”

“…You know how to grow them?”

“No, something much better. I can accelerate plant growth.”

I stared at Dalia for a moment, then looked down at James.

“It’s possible. However, it’s not my specialty, so I can’t be certain.”

Indeed, vegetable and fruit prices had dropped significantly after contact with the Galactic Federation. I thought it was because they could grow them on many planets.

“If you have alien vegetables, that’s even better. There are breeds specifically cultivated to make magical growth seem natural.”

Dalia continued to explain.

“It’s similar to what healing centers do. Since contact with the Federation, wound healing only takes a day. That means there’s technology that enhances healing power without serious side effects, while maintaining the lifespan of the treated area.”

They could probably control human growth rates too. I guess that’s natural in some places in space.

Actually, I’ve heard that many aliens have lifespans vastly longer than humans. It’s probably too early to discuss lifespan issues in depth since we’ve only met them five years ago.

In reality, they might already be deeply integrated into Earth’s culture, but I might not have felt it because there was no one around me who needed to worry about death.

“…Alright.”

Tired of thinking further, I nodded.

Well… if she says she can do it, she probably can. I doubt she’d lie about something like this in this situation.

I glanced at Hayun. She was smiling brightly. It’s a bit awkward to say this, but her smiling face made me trust her more.

“…I’ll help too.”

Seeing Dalia stand up, Delphinium followed suit.

Aren’t those two supposed to be rivals?

Well, that’s how it was portrayed in the webtoon, but they’re not exactly enemies. It was mentioned that they could set aside their relationship if necessary.

I eventually got up and went into the tent to retrieve the seed packets.

There weren’t many seeds, but we could increase the number by harvesting. If that doesn’t work, I could always stop by a supermarket the next time a kaijin appears.

After handing over the packets and turning back, I found Iris and James in conversation.

“If you can utilize energy, couldn’t you make something like a heater?”

“Originally, I wasn’t planning to stay long, so I maintained a state where we could withdraw immediately, but hearing what you say, that seems like a good idea.”

Are they trying to install a heater? Not a bad choice.

I have a sleeping bag, but they don’t have anything like that.

When I checked this morning, they were sleeping huddled together, wrapped in leftover plastic.

I don’t know about the others, but seeing Hayun among them made me feel quite uncomfortable.

I have plenty of spare parts stored in subspace. I could take them out now, and the two of them could probably figure out how to build something. James had made all sorts of things by himself, after all.

“Then let’s make a bathtub!”

Hayun exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

“Oh, that’s a good idea. I was feeling a bit grimy.”

As Hayun stood up, Rose followed.

“The bathtubs are all broken… but I saw a large basin. I think we could sit in it.”

…Was there something like that?

When I first arrived here, I was exhausted and not in a great mental state, so I didn’t bother searching places that had completely turned to ruins.

“We should find water containers and bring lots of them. It’s annoying to fetch water every time, so we can boil a bunch at once and store it in containers.”

“Yes, that would work well!”

“Hmm… if we could make something like a motor, we could pump water too. I’ll look into it.”

Iris responded after listening to their conversation.

And I was quite bewildered watching the children move about.

Why are they all so serious about this?

I understand Hayun wanting to stay. It’s a bit embarrassing for me to say this myself, but we’re quite close friends.

Hayun has… relied on me at times, and I’ve been there for her too. Plus, since I tend to be a bit irritable toward people who approach Hayun, she doesn’t have many close friends.

Of course, those people usually approached her with ulterior motives… but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t become friends despite those motives.

It’s common to become friends despite having a bad first impression.

So, in a sense, the fact that Hayun has so few friends is partly my fault.

“…”

While I was standing there with my mouth open, unsure what to do, the children were all finding their own tasks and moving about.

As I was about to get up—

“Jieun, you should rest.”

Hayun said.

“What?”

“We’ll handle this, so it’s okay for you to rest a bit.”

“…”

I looked up at Hayun with a somewhat blank expression.

Hayun gave me a bright smile and immediately left the house. Rose examined my face for a moment before following her.

Now only Iris, who was fiddling with something, and one hamster remained in the house.

Naturally, those two were engaged in their own conversation and didn’t pay much attention to me.

Attention—well, not getting their attention was actually more helpful.

Iris had a wristwatch on her wrist that was almost identical to the one I use. It was a slightly improved version of the spare wristwatch that James had made.

So it could operate using my energy.

According to James, that alone wouldn’t reveal the source of energy, but I’m not really sure. Well, what difference would it make if it were discovered now?

The situation was unfolding very differently from what I had expected.

If I were to put it in terms the magical girls would prefer, this situation could be called “hope”—

But why? The despair circuit on my wrist wasn’t stopping at all.

*

As a result, by evening, the situation had changed quite a bit from when I was alone.

First, plants had been planted in the field. They hadn’t grown enough to harvest yet, but in just a few hours, sprouts had emerged and grown a little above the soil. As they said, we might really be able to harvest in a short time.

“If we keep managing them like this, it won’t even take a week. We’ll be able to harvest before the current food runs out.”

“…If we buy cultured meat, we could add more menu options.”

From listening to Dalia and Delphinium, the situation doesn’t seem entirely bleak.

They even praised me a bit for securing food in advance, but I wasn’t particularly happy about it. I had just thought, “This might be okay,” without any real plan.

If it weren’t for them, I might have faced disaster before properly harvesting those plants.

Iris and James tinkered around and actually made a heater. A heater that raises temperature using only 100% eco-friendly energy.

“We might need to modify the structure a bit when the temperature rises more.”

Iris said as if it were nothing special. And her expression wasn’t one of showing off, but genuinely suggesting it was “nothing special.”

As if anyone could have done it.

Not me though.

“Iris made a spare one for us, so we can heat water without firewood. It won’t boil, but it should be warm enough to wash with.”

Hayun’s words made me feel even more inadequate.

If nothing else, making a bathtub was something I could have done with just a little thought.

Although Hayun and Rose spent several hours scrubbing that basin clean, it wasn’t something I couldn’t have done alone.

…I just lay around after coming here. Just opening canned food and eating a little each day.

“Jieun!”

“Yes?”

While I was trying my best not to show my gloomy mood, Hayun suddenly called me.

“Let’s take a bath together.”

“…What?”

I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard Hayun’s words.

“We only have one basin, and it’s just big enough for two people to barely fit.”

“No, we can just take turns one by one.”

“We don’t have enough water if everyone bathes separately.”

Ah, I see.

Even if they secured many containers, everyone needs to bathe, so it can’t be helped. If two people get in, the water needed to fill the basin would be reduced by one person’s worth, so it was rational.

With six people including me, if exactly two people get in each time, we’d be done in three rounds.

“That does seem rational.”

Rose nodded in agreement. Not just Rose, but all the others agreed as well.

I… felt like my brain froze for a moment.

No, even so…

Is that how it works?

I feel like these girls would understand if I said I wanted to bathe separately. They seem like they would.

But after watching them work all day, I couldn’t bring myself to say it. It was definitely the most efficient way.

“Or would you prefer to bathe with someone else?”

“…”

This time I was speechless for a different reason.

So that’s… how it works.

I don’t want to.

If I had to choose, bathing with Hayun would be the most comfortable. The others are complete strangers to me.

But still—

Before I could organize my thoughts, I was led by Hayun to the fireplace area.

“Jieun, have you ever bathed with someone else before?”

“…No.”

I answered blankly.

I had many times in my past life. I’d been to public baths, of course, and when I was very young, I bathed with my parents.

But in this world, I didn’t have parents.

During school trips, we didn’t all go into one big room but were divided into smaller rooms with a few people each. I was usually in the same group as Hayun, so there was no problem washing separately.

So, no.

“Me neither. Actually… I’m a bit embarrassed about bathing with the others.”

The magical girls must have their own facilities. They could wash there before going home.

Wasn’t it set up for group bathing?

No, that’s not the important thing right now—

“Do you dislike it?”

“…”

Hayun looked up at me with raised eyes and asked.

After being unable to answer for a long time, I finally let out a long sigh.