The Virtues of a Magical Girl (3)

The Virtues of a Magical Girl (3)

“De-Demon Lord!”

“I’ll say… good job. But what’s going on here right now?”

After confirming that Kim Su-jung was completely asleep, I grabbed the hair of the soundly sleeping Pleshia and dragged her out of the bed.

The surprised creature scratched its head as if embarrassed.

“I’m sure I told you to perfectly act as ‘me’.”

“Th-that’s why I did this. I thought this is how the Demon Lord would act.”

“What?”

My brow furrowed at Pleshia’s words. The probability of Pleshia refusing my order and lying was low. This means that what this creature is saying now is the truth.

“It’s probably true. She perfectly acted as you for the past few days.”

Ren chimed in at that moment. It seemed that something had happened while I was in the Demon Realm. Small incidents that weren’t significant enough to contact me about.

“Tell me. No, transmit it to me.”

“Then I’ll do so.”

Seeing is believing. Pleshia grinned at my words and pulled out one finger. Then that finger gradually elongated, becoming a thin tentacle made of mucus.

That tentacle slithered up my body and placed its tip against one of my ears.

“Is it really okay? Can I freely knead and violate the Demon Lord’s brain?”

“Stop talking nonsense and hurry up. You know you can’t even scratch me anyway.”

I clicked my tongue seeing the creature smile mischievously. This wasn’t the first time anyway. I had given a part of my memories to this creature, which is why Pleshia had been able to act as me until now.

Even then, I had allowed it to directly extract memories from my brain, and I could control that process anyway.

“Ugh…”

Soon, the slimy tentacles began to creep into my ears. Although I spoke calmly, it was still an unbearably horrible sensation.

“Ugh.”

“It wasn’t a big deal.”

How much time had passed? As the tentacles slipped out and I opened my eyes, I first saw Ren’s disgusted face.

Using magic to regenerate my destroyed eardrums, I could understand everything that had happened while I was away based on the memories Pleshia had passed on.

“You might think so. After all, it’s just this guy’s personal desire.”

“I never wanted to create such a deep connection from the beginning.”

I sighed at Ren’s words. As expected, nothing major had happened while I was away. It made sense since I hadn’t been active since catching the guy after Mammoth died.

Kim Su-jung clinging to Pleshia, who was pretending to be me, was also a minor incident. Apparently, the homeroom teacher Ahn Seon-young had mistakenly given her chocolate containing alcohol that had been given as a gift. It was ridiculous, but she had just gotten drunk and acted out.

“But that drunken behavior was sincere. This human girl harbors strong dependence and obsession towards the Demon King pretending to be human. It’s uncertain when she might cross the line.”

“That’s understandable. It’s my mistake that I couldn’t shake off.”

Pleshia wasn’t wrong. I’m not an ordinary human. This body is just a fake, it doesn’t age or grow.

In other words, it meant I couldn’t continue to maintain connections with the locals. After all, I’m just here for entertainment.

“Alright. I’ll handle this myself, so go and wait until I call for you.”

“Ahem, then I’ll do as you say.”

I opened a dimensional gate for Pleshia, who had returned to her original slime form, to go back.

After she left.

Now, only Ren and I were standing in the dimly lit room in an awkward silence.

“Now that you know my true identity, you won’t say unnecessary things anymore, right? Let’s keep it comfortable between us.”

“…”

I slumped down in the chair and chuckled as I spoke first to Ren, who was sitting on the bed. Ren’s expression was actually quite enigmatic. I thought he would be completely intimidated once he knew my true identity.

“No. I’ll continue. Right now, you’re not a king, but a magical girl.”

Moreover, his answer was different from what I expected. Slightly taken aback, I was at a loss for words.

“It’s my job as a mascot to keep guiding you until you, who are selfish and inconsistent, acquire proper virtues and become a proper magical girl.”

“…Ha, nonsense.”

I laughed dryly at his confident attitude. However, for some reason, I didn’t feel bad about his attitude.

“I now know why you became a magical girl. But is that really all? Is this current life of yours nothing more than a meaningless pastime?”

However, my face hardened at Ren’s following words.

“It doesn’t seem that way to me.”

It was a topic I hadn’t thought deeply about myself. Whether I was truly satisfied with this, and whether my entire being now was just chasing after nostalgia from over 100 years ago.

“I can’t say it’s not true. You’re right, if it was all just for fun, I wouldn’t be going through all this trouble. Maybe I wanted another life. I guess I’m disqualified as a Demon King.”

“…I don’t know exactly what you want. But all I hope for is that you come to cherish this life.”

Ren finished speaking and lowered his head with drooping ears. It was a resonant statement.

It meant that the current me, Magical Girl Tequilas, should become another side of Demon King Tequilas, not just a simple toy or a journey.

“I’ll have to think about it. Not now, but later.”

Dawn was slowly breaking outside. I put on my school uniform and pushed away all the complicated thoughts for now.

*

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…It’s nothing. Just feels like the atmosphere has changed again somehow.”

In the commuter vehicle.

Hong Su-young, whom I hadn’t seen in a while, asked a sharp question as soon as she saw me. Perhaps it’s thanks to the magical power implanted in her inner self, but her intuition is good.

Even if Pleshia copies my memories and appearance, she’s still not the real me.

“It must be your imagination.”

Of course, I brushed it off with a sneer. It’s just an individual’s intuition without any clear evidence.

She didn’t push it either, and other people like Kim Su-jung didn’t bring up this topic again.

In the meantime, we all got off together in front of the school we had arrived at. The mammoth that had been grating on my nerves for a while was gone, and I thought maybe only easier things would happen from now on.

“So what do we do now?”

“Um… it’s midterms now, Jina.”

As I got out of the car and tried to stretch while speaking cheerfully, Kim Su-jung, who was watching, informed me of the cold reality.

At that moment, my face froze. Of course, there was no reason to care about middle school level studies, but I didn’t like that tense atmosphere unique to exam periods anyway.

“You should study hard. If you get good grades, you’ll get a reward from the facility.”

“Even if I study hard, my grades need to improve for it to matter…”

However, other students, including Hong Su-young, were somewhat enthusiastic about studying, even if they were reluctant.

So I expected other students to be similar. I had heard a lot that kids these days are incredibly passionate about education compared to my time.

“But somehow the school atmosphere is a bit different from what I expected.”

“Yeah…”

However, the classroom atmosphere we entered was noisy and chaotic itself.

“What’s going on?”

“Right. It’s news we just found out.”

While Kim Su-jung went to her friends, I deliberately distanced myself from her. Instead, the one I ended up talking to was Park Tae-jun.

Although he had become a bit more docile after the evil spirit possession, compared to Kim Su-han, a female student who had dropped out for recovery purposes as befitting her inherently dark nature, he seemed mentally fine.

“Magical Girl Serum. You believe in such a thing?”

“Strictly speaking, it’s probably not a Magical Girl Serum? From what I heard, they’ve uncovered part of the secrets of Magical Girls. It’s apparently a Nobel Prize candidate.”

Unlike the other excited children, Park Tae-jun himself reacted with honest disbelief.

“That’s nonsense. Humans do a lot of strange things, but this is unheard-of nonsense.”

Ren also had an attitude of disbelief. Well, even I couldn’t believe that Earthlings, who don’t know even the basics of magic power, or rather whose constitution isn’t compatible with it, could handle magic power.

But at the same time, some memories flashed through my mind.

The various illegal experimental subjects I’ve encountered so far. Especially seeing the monsters created by those who collaborated with Mamut, it seems that even with the condition of horrific biological experiments, it’s not entirely impossible for Earth people to handle magic power.

“Then we should listen to their explanation. Whether it’s really, and ‘legally’, a technological evolution.”

The children weren’t just excited about seeing news of a successful experiment. Some of those who led the experiment were coming to the school to explain it themselves.

Of course, I couldn’t shake off the thought of ‘why on earth?’

“I sense… malice.”

Both I and Ren, who just muttered absentmindedly, could detect it.

Another malice slowly approaching this place. The problem was that we couldn’t accurately determine what that malice was just by looking at it.