Chapter 45: Plea (1)

The feeling of lightness filled my body.

I couldn’t explain why, but it felt as if the oppressive weight that had been pressing down on me all this time had lifted.

My mind was also unusually clear.

‘…’

Blinding lights entered my vision.

It was the familiar LED lights, the ones always overhead in the medical ward.

I lifted my body.

“…Ah.”

A thin tube was inserted into my neck.

From a hanging IV drip, a blue liquid was flowing into my throat through the tube.

It was undoubtedly a solution designed to neutralize the effects of the sedative.

Thanks to it, I had been able to wake up safely.

‘…Was it a dream.’

No.

Meeting Ianna was certainly no dream.

It couldn’t be called a dream.

It had been far too vivid to be likened to a midsummer night’s dream.

All five senses had been sharp.

The cries of the insects, the soft texture of Ianna’s skin, the radiant moonlight and starlight — all of them remained etched in my mind.

The memory was clear.

It could never be mistaken for a dream.

It couldn’t be considered a dream.

It wasn’t some midsummer night’s illusion.

Meeting Ianna had been reality itself.

I chose to believe so.

‘…Wait for me.’

I would turn Ianna’s sorrowful smile into a brilliant one.

I had sworn it.

Even if I had forfeited my chance to go back, I would not regret it.

I had resolved not to look back anymore.

To move forward, to open the tomorrow that Ianna so desperately wished for, I had to face ahead, not back.

At some point, I had started to place myself on the same line as Ianna.

Unlike Ianna, I hadn’t fulfilled my duties unilaterally, but the betrayal by those we trusted and being cast into despair — that we shared in common.

Maybe that was why I felt even more of a bond.

Of course, Ianna was a far more virtuous person than someone like me could ever dare to speak of.

And.

She was a pitiful person.

Despite everything done to her, she never once thought of revenge.

She didn’t even harbor hatred or anger toward those who had crippled her.

She took her own sacrifice as a matter of course.

She accepted being discarded once deemed useless without question.

She was someone whose kindness was almost foolish.

Such a child.

There was no way I could turn my back on her.

There was no way I could ignore her.

I wanted, even if it meant offering everything I had, to fulfill Ianna’s modest dream.

I wanted to make her laugh in relief with a bright smile.

Because Ianna’s desperate wishes had been more sincere than anyone else’s.

I could feel it.

I could feel Ianna alive and breathing within me even now.

I was sure she was watching over me, holding her breath in worry.

I was certain.

If that was the case—

Then I would make her only wish, her lifelong yearning, come true.

I would keep my promise.

For the day we meet again.

I would place a period on everything, then face her and ask:

To smile brightly.

She was a child to whom smiling suited more than anyone else.

Though she seemed calm, she was a child full of laughter.

A lively child.

Even if she couldn’t reclaim her past self, I would ask her to smile brightly.

Just like that faint smile she once wore beneath the lingering moon.

Yes.

This time, for Ianna’s smile—

For the smile that once overlapped with my sisters’ faces—

I would look to the summit once more.

So that I wouldn’t regret anything this time.

Because Ianna deserved that much.

Because she was worthy of being rewarded.

I brushed off my seat and stood up.

Even if I couldn’t stand proudly on two legs—

At least I could still look up.

I couldn’t afford to keep her waiting too long.

Ianna had no reason to lie to me.

If she said her life wouldn’t last long, or about the fusion of personalities — it had to be true.

There wasn’t much time left.

And then.

At that moment.

“Oh, she’s up…!”

“She woke up! Candy…!”

“Looks like she’s returned from the brink of death.”

Three of them.

Three girls, each around my size, burst into the medical ward, slamming the door open.

Mechanical devices were attached to various parts of their bodies.

The red glow in their eyes and the numbers inscribed on their foreheads revealed that they were 3rd-generation artificial girls.

“Summer! Go get the doctor… Tell them she’s awake!”

“Teacher… Candy…!!!”

The girl called Summer bounced and darted out of the room again, slamming the door as she went.

She was a lively little girl with ‘8’ marked on her forehead.

Her blonde hair sparkled briefly in the light before disappearing from view.

“…”

I was a bit scared of the girls, but I didn’t show it.

The wounds left by Heosang were still vivid.

Both physically and mentally.

The fear of magical girls had not yet faded.

Not yet.

The two girls who had been staring blankly at me approached the bed.

“Are you a magical girl too…!? What generation are you…? Did you get your codename…!?”

“I can’t feel any power from Lemegaton at all. She’s a failure, trash.”

“…B-be quiet.”

I forced out a trembling voice, trying not to meet their eyes and lowering my gaze to the floor.

‘3rd generation….’

Unlike the 1st and 2nd-generation artificial girls, who were mostly volunteers, orphans, or prisoners, the 3rd generation had a much more diverse background.

Women and girls from various fields were secretly abducted by the Administration Bureau.

Most of them had no close friends or family to notice their absence.

Ether energy, inexplicable by modern science, could only be used by women.

It was the natural selection of pure magical girls that allowed the manifestation of Lemegaton.

Here, the criteria weren’t biological s*x, but rather factors like differences in the preoptic area near the third ventricle of the brain’s hypothalamus and the spinal cord’s erection center.

Thus, only women were selected, their brains and spinal cords separated, and they were “processed” into artificial girls, discarding anything unnecessary.

The people of this world, having tasted forbidden knowledge and the fruits of the devil, created artificial girls this way.

Even Ianna had not been able to forgive this method.

When Ianna had been alive, mass production like this had not been tolerated.

Volunteers or orphans with a strong sense of justice were prioritized and transformed into artificial girls through “humane” methods, while criminals were turned into disposable mass-produced artificial girls, used as meat shields.

In that case, even Ianna couldn’t raise her voice much — for the Bureau treated criminals not even as tools, but as something less than human.

The weakest artificial girls were those made from criminals.

At the Bureau’s whim, their implanted explosive devices could detonate at any moment.

They were always sent to the front lines against unknown entities, collecting battle data for the Bureau, only to be devoured afterward.

None of them survived to this day.

After the Magical Crusade ended and the appearance of unknown entities died down, all were systematically “disposed of.”

…Anyway.

The selection criteria for the 3rd generation artificial girls were simple: no family, no ties.

Of course.

No one would come looking for them.

Starting with the 3rd generation “Strages,” memory-suppressing chips were implanted or their frontal lobes were severed to completely castrate their sense of self.

Their background didn’t matter.

As long as they had a minimum level of intelligence, anyone could be reprocessed into a 3rd generation artificial girl.

Without any self-awareness, obeying orders until death — that was the duty of a 3rd generation artificial girl.

It was utterly repulsive.

Mass production of the 3rd generation had begun right after Ianna’s fall from the pinnacle.

Ianna had been powerless to act.

‘…Memory suppression chip.’

I wondered if one had been implanted in my head as well.

It didn’t seem like it.

Most 3rd generation artificial girls had completely lost their sense of self.

They were faithful puppets of the Bureau, absolute tools that followed Hojoon’s orders without question.

I had no real connection to them. In the hollow Director’s seat, I had no authority over the mass production of artificial girls.

They were under Hojoon’s jurisdiction and obeyed only him.

‘…Did Hojoon send them?’

I thought they were pitiful and tragic.

To have become artificial girls at such a young age.

“Why don’t you have legs, sis…?”

“Failure.”

“U-uuuh…….”

…And in an instant, any pity I felt evaporated.