episode_0034

The only beings I can trust right now are Jigupa and James.

There aren’t many people around me.

First, I am treated as a problem child at the orphanage. I haven’t caused any trouble in the orphanage, but I often stayed out for too long without following the designated time, so it seemed like I was doing things outside late into the night from the perspective of the orphanage teachers.

From the teacher’s point of view, I seemed like a delinquent student who stays out late at night and they tried their best to discipline me and provide various counseling, but my behavior didn’t improve at all, so they’ve almost given up on me.

I wonder how the atmosphere at the orphanage has changed since I disappeared.

Is Ji-hye doing well?

Since I can’t even contact Ji-hye, whom I know well, my situation right now is akin to holding hands with people whom I can’t fully trust.

Jigupa is relatively okay.

Although we don’t know much about each other’s past, apart from that, we get along quite well. From Jigupa’s perspective, I was a “friend who could safely take them home even when drunk,” and from my perspective, they were “someone not particularly suspicious.”

I don’t really know why they help me so much without any complaints.

Perhaps it’s because I’m a magical girl. It doesn’t seem like they looked at me with the same eyes as when they used to look at Hae-yoon.

As for James…

If I had to pick the most untrustworthy person among those I’ve interacted with in my life, it would be James. Unlike Jigupa, who mutually doesn’t know much about each other, James, despite having information about me, has never provided his own information.

The problem is, in this situation, it’s entirely impossible not to receive help from James.

And the condition of that help is “revenge.”

If I could also seek revenge, I’d want to.

It’s not like there hasn’t been anyone in my past lives or this life whom I wanted to punch in the face. But every time I refrained from doing so, it’s because if I reacted like that every time, I would face tremendous social disadvantages.

It’s not just me; everyone else would do the same. Where in the world can you find someone who lives without enduring?

Even though I’m a magical girl, if I seek revenge and end up being chased by the highest authorities in the country, I have no idea what will happen.

“You come to such conclusions when you think of revenge in a narrow way.”

As if knowing what I’m thinking, James said in a very unfortunate tone.

I looked at James in silence. He seemed unaware of my gaze, perhaps lost in his own words.

“But that’s not possible in modern society. There’s law enforcement. If someone seeks revenge by harming or killing another, the police will come after them. And the ‘government’ would seek ‘revenge’ against those who break the law for personal reasons.”

“So, what do you intend to do?”

“Of course, you must use the power you have as a means.”

“In the end, isn’t that the same thing?”

Using my own strength means hurting or killing someone. I didn’t want to be a murderer like other magical girls.

“It means choosing your target carefully. Right now, due to the chaos caused by our plans, both the Federation and the company are in disarray, but they will likely start opposing each other again soon.”

James spoke with a wicked expression, chewing sunflower seeds.

“I had intended to hand over the most important being in the next research, but that being has disappeared. The Federation is now in a situation where it can’t help but suspect the company’s betrayal. The government, which trusted both organizations, is now being framed as an incompetent entity that couldn’t even catch the terrorists. On top of that, they are probably afraid of your truth being revealed.”

“So, you’re saying there’s a commotion about turning the whole situation upside down soon?”

“That’s just empty talk. We weren’t that closely involved from the beginning. The government doesn’t want the Federation to interfere excessively. The company needs to quietly conclude the succession of management, so this issue needed to be resolved quickly. The Federation had to find another way because the options for magical girls were overly limited.”

I’ve heard that there are magical girls or similar beings in other countries too.

Of course, their numbers are few. In terms of population, South Korea could be considered to have a relatively large number.

It was also mentioned as an important area in webtoons.

“Just once, the interests aligned. There was a fool who wanted to inherit the company’s management, and the government wanted to use that fool as a foothold to interfere with the company. The Federation wanted to find another path in that process.”

Just once.

The future of the story depended on how they moved, but they cooperated to create an opportunity advantageous to themselves. And the result is this chaos. If there’s a cause for the chaos, naturally, I was at the center.

I did well to run away then. Even if I hadn’t run away, my life would have been in ruins anyway. It’s better to be in a narrow, cramped ruin than in a slightly spacious one, at least.

“Isn’t it too disadvantageous for the company?”

“I was only going to hand over one technology to the company. It’s called ‘circuit,’ and except for the emotional part, the basic technology itself is almost the same… But the ‘technology to efficiently extract energy from ordinary people’ is a different matter.”

If they have the core technology or facilities, they might think they can keep the company running as long as they don’t hand that part over to the Galactic Federation.

“But in the long run…”

If you have the core technology, applying it depends solely on time and budget. Optimizing facilities and increasing productivity can be done by other companies as long as they have time. Of course, we don’t know how many obstacles there will be along the way.

“Some people are blinded by short-term gains and disregard long-term benefits. Or maybe what he sees as ‘long-term benefit’ is something else. He might run for office in decades. As a being who destroys the Earth’s environment, how to solve the problem.”

“And, as I mentioned, the two circuits share too much. On the contrary, if you spend time and budget repeating failures, someday the Galactic Federation could have made a ‘circuit.’ The next chairman may have seen that part. Of course, even if that’s the case, yes, as you said, it’s a stupid thing to do.”

“Well, let’s fix their relationship like that. Then, what about the government? They were taking advantage of both sides in conflict.”

“Because of this incident, both the Galactic Federation and the company have had to be mindful of the government. The government’s prestige has been damaged, but it’s not enough to overturn the country because of that. Who knows if the regime changes.”

That’s true. It’s not like a war broke out.

“You can blame the company’s lack of management for failing to prevent the terrorist incident, and the inability of the magical girl to arrest you for her lack of ability.”

“When I got caught? That was the whole point from the beginning, wasn’t it?”

The company does not intend to provide all technology immediately, and if they start supplying equipment to the Galactic Federation using underutilized facilities, the story will change. First, as someone who knows all the ins and outs of these events, weaknesses will be exposed, and second, even though the government may turn a blind eye to the facilities of the Galactic Federation, the company strictly manages its facilities according to domestic Korean law.

The reason why the company can profit outside the laws of the Galactic Federation by moving to Korea is that the company is currently paying for the transfer of technology to the Korean government.

Therefore, all facilities and equipment of “Nuar Corporation,” which is labeled as a “domestic company,” follow the laws of South Korea. They are diligently monitoring the technology transferred from the facilities.

In other words, supplying equipment to the Galactic Federation is impossible without the permission of the Korean government.

It still meant that the state of ‘profiting in the middle’ was maintained.

…Really, they are all guys who are faithful to their own desires.

“Well, finally.”

I looked down at James and said.

James seemed a little nervous, and he had been diligently eating sunflower seeds since earlier.

Well, his body size is completely different.

“So, what’s the reason you betrayed such a company? If your purpose was to sell technology, you would have had several ways to survive.”

“Of course, I do not want my technology to be exploited in power struggles.”

“Isn’t that too idealistic?”

“It’s difficult to use technology that can make ideals into reality just for the purpose of floating a ship.”

…If it’s just technology to float a ship, it’s an incredibly important technology.

“I want to reverse the entropy of the universe. I am looking at a development method that creates something out of nothing, or a method that emits more energy than it takes in.”

“Is the universe suffering from such an energy shortage?”

I don’t really know, but it seems like the Galactic Federation already knows how to fly spaceships while minimizing environmental destruction.

“That’s a misconception.”

James asserted.

“Just because we can go to space doesn’t mean resource extraction is free. In reality, we are constantly using limited energy in space. Its acceleration is getting faster and faster.”

“How long does that last?”

“There may only be tens of billions of years left. Research on how to obtain energy from other galaxies has not yet been conducted.”

At the bewildering words, I sat blankly for a moment before speaking again.

“Could the lifespan of a star be a few hundred million years?”

“There’s no difference from Earthlings.”

“In that case, the Galactic Federation might not last until then, right?”

“So, are you trying to make it sustainable?”

I think I know why he couldn’t hold on within that company.

“Did the chairman have the same thought too?”

“It’s the founding philosophy. Even when not a single star remains in the sky, it’s about constantly enabling the continuation of life for all living beings.”

So, is that ‘Nouar’?

I think I also know why the chairman was ousted.

“Do you think it’s absurd?”

“….”

I hesitated for a moment.

“Absurd or not, in the end, I have to collaborate with you, right?”

“If you want my technology, then yes.”

“…Well, I guess there’s no other choice.”

Well, at least if what he said is true, it just means he’s a bit delusional.

It must have been all the chairman’s doing to get to that position. It seems like he can’t even engage in political fights. If not, which crazy officer would provide various cutting-edge products to mere combatants every time they go into battle, and that too, upgraded with each battle.

“Are you seriously having such disrespectful thoughts?”

James asked me that way, but I just shrugged and remained silent.

It seemed like James didn’t really want to have much conversation with me, so our conversation ended there.

I started reading the comic book I had in my Earth bag again, and James started eating the seeds and nuts he had.

By the way, he really is a hamster and eats seeds.

People from that planet seem nice. They probably have relatively fewer worries about housing prices or construction costs. Or maybe their vision is incredibly strong, so there might not be much difference between their planet and Earth.

I had various thoughts, but ultimately, the last thought that came to mind was that the current situation is what it is, so I couldn’t help but focus on the comic book and put it back on the shelf.

*

The topic of housing prices came up, but of course, the house in the Earth bag wasn’t free.

It wasn’t his own house to begin with.

I’ve never asked about the Earth bag’s past, but if I think he was just an ordinary person living on his own planet, buying a house in the middle of Seoul, Korea, would be almost impossible. It would be as difficult as buying a house in a foreign developed country, mainly in terms of cost.

Of course, I don’t expect to live for free. But I didn’t have money right now.

So, ultimately, I ended up going to work at a temporary site following the Earth bag.

It wasn’t related to Nouar Corporation. It was just a regular construction site. Not a very large building, about five stories high, like a villa construction site.

People from the Earth bag’s planet are often stronger and healthier than they appear, so they are welcomed in places like this.

When there was no work at Earthpa, I worked there and made a living day by day.

…The more I heard, the more bitter the story was. Well, I heard that even though Earthpa Corporation’s work was hard, they paid a lot of money for a day’s work.

“Earthling? Student, you look young for your age.”

So, following Earthpa, I received such an evaluation.

Earthling. Even if I tried to look older, my face barely looked like it was in the early 20s.

James judged that when the age shown on the face did not match the actual age, the possibility of being deceived was high. As a result, the age shown on my face was that of a woman in her early 20s.

“Even though you look like this, you work hard. I would appreciate it if you could trust me just this once.”

Saying so, Earthpa politely bowed, and I quickly followed suit and bowed.

“Hmm…”

The man still had a skeptical look on his face as he rested his chin on his hand and said to me.

“This job is a demolition job. It’s not a big place, but you’ll also have to break down walls. I’m not sure if a student can handle it.”

“Please leave it to me.”

I said confidently.

If it required skills, there was a high possibility that I couldn’t do it, but if it was just breaking things, I was confident.

I had used a hammer before. …Granted, I had used it to hit people rather than walls.

If I were unarmed, it would be natural to be hesitant, but I currently had a circuit wrapped around my wrist. Since it was still winter, I could cover it with gloves, and James, who wasn’t unaware, had recently decorated the outer part of the circuit to look like a smartwatch. The circuit, which already looked like a smartwatch, even displayed a clock face, so there was hardly any reason to be suspicious.

“…I’ll believe you for now and leave it to you, Pong-Pong.”

Fortunately, the kind man allowed it.

Seeing Earthpa smiling at me, I shrugged my shoulders.

*

Thud!

No matter how much the world advances, even if technology develops to tear space and go beyond the universe, construction sites have not changed innovatively.

People still move loads and break things. Head protection is a helmet, and foot protection is safety shoes.

In the end, doing it directly is cheaper, right? Well, if you think about it that way, all soldiers should have been robots. Like the robot James was riding.

I swung the hammer again with all my might.

Thud!

If it was completely demolishing a house, it would be better to bring in larger equipment and break it all at once, but the word “demolition” includes not only destroying the house itself but also tearing down the interior of a floor or a unit.

Before remodeling, everything needs to be torn down, and sometimes there are things that cannot be simply torn down or additional walls made to divide the room need to be demolished.

And fortunately, I was perfect for the job.

When I loaded the debris of the broken plaster walls onto a cart and pulled it out, the man who had doubted me after hearing about me from the landlord in the morning looked impressed.

“You did that alone?”

He had told me to do only what I could for now since he was sending someone, but when I did it alone, the man seemed quite impressed.

“This much is manageable.”

It’s not just my own strength, though.

“Hmm…”

The man looked at me with eyes that were hard to understand.

My face was covered, but my figure couldn’t be completely hidden. So, although I tried to hide my figure by wearing loose clothes as much as possible, my body, except for my chest, didn’t seem particularly strong.

It would be difficult to think of me as a hybrid with an alien. After all, it’s been only five years since the aliens came to this land.

“Have you ever done something like this before?”

“…Yes, I’ve done something similar.”

“Hmm.”

After hearing my words, the man nodded.

“You’ve lived a hard life, young one.”

I had no words to respond to that, so I just nodded and went back to where I was pulling the cart and working.

I took the hammer again and smashed the place that needed to be broken cleanly.

Honestly, it wasn’t so fun, but it wasn’t a pleasant job. It’s like time is passing slowly. It’s inevitable that I’ll get tired after a few hours.

Still, one good thing is that I didn’t need to worry about my current state while doing this work.

Thud.

Thud.

Continuously swinging the hammer, I gradually broke down the parts that had been erected. Another company will come and neatly fill in the broken parts with a different interior.

It would be nice if I could break down the obstacles in front of me like this.

I don’t think anyone will rebuild it. Just thinking about that alone would make things much easier.

… The circuit kept running without stopping.

Thanks to that, I was able to finish the day’s work properly until the end.