Chapter 140 : What Remains Unchanged (2)

September 8

The village below Elysion’s lighthouse. Originally the only place on this island where nothing existed where golden girls gathered to live, it has now become an open space at the very center of the expanding magical city due to people gathering on the land of giant magical girls flying through the sky.

“Wow! This house is still here!”

“Oh my goodness! It’s exactly the same!”

“…”

The original village, now left as a kind of tourist attraction, as the golden magical girls now stay at shops set up by their close friends or in the tent village frequented by Hikari, the successor of the goddess. There, houses made of dazzling white bricks were clustered together, facing a circular statue honoring the goddess of [Beginning].

“Nayeon! Come here!”

“You’re finally on vacation, cheer up a bit!”

“Haah.”

Originally, people visiting Elysion went to see the central plaza and downtown, so visitors to this place were very rare. A middle-aged couple and a girl in military uniform were walking down a quiet street where only the sound of passing strollers echoed.

And they stopped to look at a certain house.

The house they stopped at was a bleak space with a bed for two adults and an old table. Though dust had settled and it no longer felt lived in, traces left by the middle-aged couple who had resided there were clearly still alive and breathing.

“We lived here for 2 years! Hahaha! It’s nice to see this cabin after so long.”

“Oh my, when we first came here. How uncertain everything was, but now seeing it again makes me want to cry with nostalgia.”

“Hmm.”

“Look here! Nayeon! Come and see! These scratches are from when Dad was counting the days missing you.”

“There aren’t many?”

“…I forgot how many days it had been partway through and gave up.”

Captain Hong, who had become younger-looking than his peers due to accumulating the goddess’s blessing in his body from long-term stay on the island, sheepishly pushed back his hair that had completely fallen out and then regrown abundantly.

“Dad, aren’t you pushing your hair back too often lately? You keep doing it every time you speak.”

“Haha, you don’t know how precious this sensation is.”

“By the way, doesn’t the White Wing Unit have hair regulations? How long are you going to keep that messy blue dye!”

Nayeon stuck out her tongue at her mother’s nagging and quickly covered her two-tone dyed short hair with her military-issued cap. Mrs. Kim looked at it disapprovingly for a moment before focusing again on the house in front of her. There were no longer any wrinkles around her eyes trembling with nostalgia.

Nayeon felt that her parents’ side profiles looked both unfamiliar and nostalgic.

‘They really suddenly got younger, it’s like looking at different people.’

The blessing bestowed on this land by the goddess of [Beginning].

The remnants of the final blessing representing the golden age of immortality were now slowly disappearing.

‘To think this used to be normal in the old days…’

Nayeon recalled the request of the strange white-haired girl who insisted she wasn’t a goddess while having a halo, using miracles, and boasting a body like a Greek statue.

-For the human era to continue, this is something that must disappear naturally. So please help prevent unnecessary misunderstandings among others, okay?

Because the miracle experienced by Captain Hong’s couple was only possible during a time when there were few people staying on the island. Hikari didn’t want to widely publicize this fact, and Nayeon’s family also agreed, not wanting to get entangled in others’ attention anymore.

“Oh my, there’s nothing left in Busan anyway, should we just come back here to live?”

“Ohoho! Should we? It was so nice to see Iris after a long time too.”

“…I, I like Busan.”

“Since when did this kid have hometown pride.”

“As a soldier of the Republic of Korea Army, I have endless pride in residing in the Republic of Korea…”

“Puhahahahaha!! Nayeon! The Soldier’s Creed!”

“Our resolve!!”

Clap―!

Father and daughter shared a high-five filled with mutual understanding.

For Captain Hong, who had gradually grown distant from his daughter as she entered puberty, to share this kind of understanding again. He was just so happy with the current reality.

During the past few months since returning to Busan after drifting to Elysion, Captain Hong and Mrs. Kim were satisfied just with their daughter being alive and well. So they settled all the commotion by just filing legal suits against the union members and villagers who had extorted their property.

Of course, there were minor incidents like passing Nayeon’s whereabouts to American headhunters or getting into fistfights with those who had picked fights with their daughter.

-Still, it’s something that she didn’t run out with a sickle. Our Mrs. Kim has really calmed down a lot.

-Mom, were you like that in the past?

-No, I hid the sickle.

-Huh…

As Nayeon was recalling these incidents from over half a year ago.

“Nayeon.”

“Yeah?”

Captain Hong put his arm around his daughter’s shoulders with a truly proud smile, not a playful one.

“Protecting people. It’s hard, isn’t it?”

“…”

Well.

Was it hard?

When she received training from Lee Minseul, the Magical Girl of [Shooting], to the point of vomiting,

When ordered to defend Busan while a tremendous battle was taking place in Japan,

When fighting in Europe with unfamiliar magical girls to defeat the sea serpent.

‘It wasn’t hard.’

Though she had seen many incredible battles where she thought she might die.

Though she was called out whenever rifts appeared over the sea.

Though she grumbled with a duck face every time she was called out, making Minseul laugh.

But the moment she put on the blue dress and raced across the sea to save people, she didn’t feel it was hard.

-Thank you!! Magical Girl of [Sea]!!

-You’re so cool!! Blue suits you!!

-The platoon leader is awesome, sir.

-See, I told you.

Ah, that’s what Minseul said during training.

“Magical girls are beings who strive to protect people, so it’s not hard at all.”

She thought it was meant to tease her when running laps.

But now she understood.

That brilliantly shining feeling in her heart.

Mrs. Kim and Captain Hong burst into hearty laughter as soon as they heard those words.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Our daughter. You’re the best.”

“Didn’t you know?”

“No, I knew.”

Nayeon laughed like that again and slightly regretted.

That day when the silver-haired girl suddenly came.

‘I should have just opened the door then.’

She regretted only now realizing that saving people like this was such a thrilling thing, not being dragged into the military.

That emotion was something the girl in some destroyed world hadn’t realized, as she defended the gradually shrinking human domain while thinking she was just guarding a place for her parents to return to, ignoring the voices of outsiders.

“I want to protect.”

As Nayeon’s blue glass star emitted a quiet light, she began walking towards a fate different from the one set by the goddess of [Beginning].

It wasn’t some dramatic change in an individual, but it was a truly massive change in the world.

In a conversation shared by an ordinary family, the fate of the stars moving forward took one more step towards somewhere. It was one of the massive changes in fate that even Hikari, even Yuki, didn’t know about.

The direction of stars shining more brilliantly than the dazzling white star.

It was a change in the universe.

* * *

“Kohane.”

“Yes? What is it, Boss?”

Kohane, who was assembling a plastic model in her room, scratched her wide forehead with nippers and looked at Sumire who had entered with a pale face.

“Do you have something you want me to do? Nyuhuhu. I was just about to start on this awesome new armored…”

“We found them.”

“…What?”

Sumire often came to her with a serious face, but this time was different.

Though she didn’t understand what she meant.

Kohane suddenly realized what Sumire was trying to say.

Clatter

Clatter

The nippers in her hand shook, making a sound.

Tears were forming in the corners of her eyes that had been smiling mischievously.

Kohane’s weak side that she rarely showed even to her friends, the wound that everyone shared and thus never touched, burst open again, bringing pain to her heart.

“Kohane’s family… your brother.”

“B-Brother.”

“He was… using an alias in Southeast Asia.”

“Brother.”

“It’s… a difficult situation to discuss in detail. I think you need to come.”

“W-What do you mean.”

Timid

Fat

Naive to a fault.

The otaku brother who always put her small self on his knee and watched mecha anime together.

The clumsy brother who helped her live confidently by making her empathize with pilots riding giant robots so that her small self wouldn’t feel discouraged.

Why on earth would the foolish brother, naive enough to be deceived by women in cosplay bars, suddenly be using an alias in Southeast Asia?

What kind of state must he be in for the boss, who had been through everything, to be so restless?

All sorts of ominous imaginings flooded into the quick-thinking Kohane’s mind.

Thud

The head of the plastic model armor that Kohane dropped in shock hit the floor and cracked.

“…”

-The highlight of armored plastic models is the horns!

-Nyuhuhuhut!! That’s right!!

“Brother.”

The horns of the plastic model were broken.