Chapter 26: Harbouring Hope (2)

“Ugh…”

As soon as the elevator doors opened, the suffocating midsummer heat overwhelmed her entire body.

The entrance disguised as an old container warehouse lacked proper ventilation.

Breathing itself was a challenge.

It felt like her entire body was melting.

“Lieutenant… um… will this body be okay…?”

Since the major surgery, her condition had improved significantly.

It wasn’t perfect, but she could now move around the Bureau freely.

Well, as long as she was in the wheelchair the lieutenant pushed for her.

Still, the constraints on her body hadn’t disappeared.

If she was exposed directly to the scorching summer sun, her artificial organs might not be able to endure it.

If her body temperature crossed a critical threshold, she would die instantly.

Her organs would shut down in a blink.

She had felt it firsthand thanks to Heosang.

The sensation of squishy silicone melting and bursting inside her abdomen was still vividly engraved in her memory.

And…

Her body felt slightly different when she moved.

As if there was something more inside her abdomen now.

She figured additional mechanical parts or artificial organs had been added.

There was no visible change on the outside, but her weight had clearly increased.

Moving her body was noticeably more difficult.

That’s also why she wet herself when she went into a panic.

If not, that would mean she consciously did something so humiliating.

Ianna was not a child.

Even if her body had regressed, her mind was that of an adult who had seen and survived it all.

Same for me.

She couldn’t have wet herself just out of fear.

It must have been because the added parts were pressing against her bladder.

It wasn’t her will. Really. Truly.

When she soaked her clothes while in the lieutenant’s arms, she wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

Every time she looked at the lieutenant’s face, that moment came rushing back.

When the lieutenant touched her burning cheeks, she felt like dying.

Whenever the lieutenant, just sometimes, teased her calling her a “bedwetter,” she became so ashamed she cried.

It was an unbearable humiliation.

Magical girls were supposed to be idols to the masses.

She didn’t want to be mocked by the lieutenant.

“…”

“Ma’am, you’ll be okay. They installed a new cooling unit. Your body can handle this much heat now.”

The lieutenant spoke with a soft smile.

It made her feel awkward.

…More than that, comparing it to swapping out a computer cooler…

The notion hit her with unexpected force.

No wonder her digestion had been off lately…

‘…’

She brushed it off casually and stepped outside the container.

“Ma’am, you’ll need this. The UV rays can’t be ignored.”

“…Okay.”

The lieutenant took out a straw hat and placed it on her head. The oversized hat created a complete shade around her.

‘Ultraviolet rays…’

That wasn’t the concern now.

She had come to realize it.

Ianna’s body wouldn’t last long.

Humans weren’t machines.

Some might call them biomechanical, but humans were far from being like machines that could last forever with proper maintenance.

Same went for me.

Even with all the resources spent on extending Ianna’s life—elite doctors, engineers, advanced life support—there were limits.

Those expensive devices couldn’t keep her alive forever.

She was already dead, practically.

After being gravely injured by a Misangche, the only treatment she received was enough to barely keep her alive.

From the ones who had kidnapped her.

What followed was something every magical girl would understand instinctively.

Torture.

Ianna’s corpse-like body had begun shutting down.

At best, she had three years left.

By the time the novel ended, Ianna would be dead.

‘…Ha.’

There was no guarantee that dying would return her to her original world.

Psychologically, she had nearly fused with Ianna.

Knowing that countless comrades, friends, civilians, and innocents would be slaughtered, she didn’t want to run away through death.

She wanted to change it.

The lieutenant, Heosang, Cheonching, Byeolmuri, Ae-won, even Hojoon…

She didn’t want the people she knew to suffer unjust deaths.

Knowing the future made the weight of responsibility crushing.

Though the path ahead was uncertain, she wanted to move forward.

Just once more.

To fulfill her duty as a magical girl.

It could be her last chance.

Slowly, ever so slowly—

Creak—

The wheelchair began to move.

The path ahead wasn’t cleared, so she couldn’t go far, but she could still observe her surroundings.

She could check on the people hidden deep underground.

The sound of cicadas rang out.

Along with birdsong and the chirping of insects—ordinary sounds.

All she saw was greenery.

Only verdant vegetation stretched out before her.

The Bureau was located deep in remote mountains.

The only trace of humanity was the container entrance.

The untouched natural landscape of the isolated mountain wilderness was breathtaking.

At least, she thought so.

She felt a strange peace.

No matter how vivid a monitor was, nothing compared to seeing it in person.

‘I won’t give up.’

With perseverance, she would overcome the worst.

Through hardship, toward salvation, she would take one step at a time.

She didn’t know how long it would take, or how long her body would last, or whether the predetermined bad ending could even be changed—but she would press forward.

That was what Ianna desperately wished for.

She wanted to make it come true.

Ianna’s life had been cloaked in darkness from the start.

Despite her name meaning “grace,” she was considered cursed from birth and was scorned by both her parents.

As a child, all she wanted was her mother’s love.

Ianna would smile brightly even while being strangled.

It was the only way she could feel her mother’s warmth.

Her mother always wished for Ianna’s death.

She begged and pleaded for Ianna to die.

Ianna, happy to oblige, wanted to fulfill her mother’s wish.

It was the only way to make her smile.

But—

Blood ties weren’t so easily severed.

Though her mother strangled her daily, she never broke her neck or fully suffocated her.

She couldn’t.

She couldn’t kill her.

Despite countless chances, despite no one caring if Ianna died, her mother couldn’t bring herself to do it.

She couldn’t kill her own daughter.

Even if she didn’t feel maternal love, that didn’t mean her humanity was gone.

Ianna managed to survive.

Even if she starved nearly to death and her growth was severely stunted, she didn’t die.

It was love.

She believed she was loved.

She convinced herself she had been loved, and that’s why she survived.

That’s why—

She wanted to give that love to everyone.

She wanted to stop unfair and senseless deaths.

Her mad obsession with love turned into deep respect for life.

That was what kept Ianna going as a magical girl for decades.

Twisted, yet righteous.

Obsessive, yet pure.

That contradiction was what drove her.

She never learned how to hate.

Even the brutal Heosang—she feared her, yearned for her, but never hated her.

Even now, as magical girls plotted to eliminate her, Ianna felt no hatred.

She was fated to die miserably.

Without understanding why, with her mind fractured, smiling brightly—until she was erased without a trace by Cheonching, raised by Heosang.

After Ianna’s death, things spiraled into chaos.

Hojoon died suddenly, and the last relatively stable institution—the Bureau—collapsed.

Ae-won went berserk.

The existence of magical girls was exposed.

Not as heroes who risked their lives for others, but as monsters who massacred the innocent.

Ae-won’s breakdown sparked a chain reaction of magical girl rampages worldwide.

The terrorists who had tortured the dying Ianna were behind it.

The incompetent central institutions, riddled with civil wars, crumbled one by one.

In that chaos, only Heosang stepped up.

She united the remnants of the old powers, gathered the mentally stable magical girls, and held the line.

To the bitter end, only Heosang tried to salvage the world.

In the process, Ianna’s condition came to light.

By the time Heosang realized Ianna had lost her mind and soul, it was too late. The damage had been done.

“To protect the innocent.”

That was Ianna’s legacy. Her sister, disciple, junior—and dearest person—Heosang carried it on.

Magical girls began to unite around her to protect the helpless.

In the end—

Heosang lost half her body but managed to destroy Ae-won.

But in the final moment, dimensional rifts opened across the world, and the Misangche reappeared—stronger, smarter.

Exhausted, Heosang was captured by them and met a horrific, unspeakably vile end—the most grotesque in the entire novel.

Compared to that, Ianna’s death could almost be called peaceful.

Cheonching, the protagonist, simply ran away.

And so…

‘…’

That was the rough outline of the novel—and the bleak future awaiting the magical girls.

‘…No.’

She couldn’t let that future happen.

No matter what it took, it had to be stopped.

If it were Ianna—Janwol’s magical girl—she’d give her life to change the future.

She couldn’t stand by and watch innocent people die.

So then.

One more time.

This time, for sure.

Even if it cost everything.

She would change it.

“Ma’am, shall we head back now?”

“…Yeah.”

She wished that kind people could die surrounded by their loved ones, smiling.

That was—

Ianna’s madness.

“…”