Bound for Korea
In the end, all Radiant White managed to find by chasing the trail of starlight was a subterranean passage blackened by the blast and the already completely collapsed entrance to the research facility.
Out of sheer frustration she even tried clearing the rubble, but no matter how much she shifted aside, nothing came up but more stone. Looking up at the sky, she quietly gave up and had no choice but to leave the place behind.
It was not that she was afraid of falling prey to vampires. A magical girl under the protection of starlight did not corrupt or fall unless she herself wished it.
Unless subjected to mental interference such as brainwashing, a magical girl could keep fighting until her will and her starlight ran out.
And vampires were not the sort of monsters that attacked the mind, so she did not fear them in the slightest.
The reason she left was that the upper ranks had ordered her to avoid unnecessary friction.
Radiant White's combat style tended to produce a considerable amount of collateral damage, after all.
"Just who is it… the owner of that starlight…"
After returning to the U.S. military base in Romania and finishing her report to headquarters, she lay stretched out on the bed in the base's high-end quarters, trying to imagine who the owner of that starlight could have been.
Whether magical girl or monster, both ultimately made use of starlight, so figuring out what the owner actually was from starlight alone was practically impossible.
The only inference she could draw from the fact that it could emit starlight was that it was either a special-class monster or a magical girl.
Even the way a magical girl received a Mascot—an output stabilizer and companion AI—was only possible once she had been found by the Association or by another magical girl.
Figuring that fretting alone would get her nowhere, White immediately opened the Mascot app on her phone and asked.
"Pegasus, about the owner of that starlight. Who do you think it is?"
"Yeah… I guess so? Still, though—is it possible a vampire could become a magical girl? That person I met during the day said so, too. That there are vampires who still can't throw away their conscience. What if one of those good vampires got chosen by the stars…?"
White offered a somewhat hopeful theory, but her Mascot, Pegasus, immediately shut the possibility down.
"Right. Magical girls turning into monsters is one thing, but the reverse has never happened… So it really is a new kind of monster, then."
"No, no. Why are you apologizing? The monster's the one that's bad."
You simply defeat villains. That's what a hero does.
As she repeated her sister's words to herself, she soon thought of the woman she had met during the day.
Part of it was that Min-a bore a strange resemblance to her sister, and part of it was that the woman's circumstances had been more wretched than she could have imagined.
But more than anything, it was what she had said at the end.
Of course, White did not believe the woman had said it knowing anything about her situation.
She had said she was chasing starlight, so it must have been a wish for White to find the owner of that starlight.
And yet, for some reason, Min-a's words had sounded to White as if she were telling her to find her sister.
That was impossible, naturally. People closest to her might know, but there was no way someone who had come all the way to Romania to sell blood for hospital bills would know anything about her circumstances.
She had not even seemed to know who White was, so White decided not to wonder about the woman any further.
She would return to Korea, help the woman's family who were likely still lying in hospital beds, and help the woman herself if she could. That was as far as she would think about it.
She also did not forget to tell herself the careful lie that she was absolutely not helping because the woman looked like her sister.
"Pegasus. Searching for my sister is still…"
"…All right."
That was what she said, but Radiant White still believed her sister was alive somewhere, in some form.
If she was a hero, then she had to be.
"…Achoo! H-huh, did I catch a cold?"
In the middle of eating the in-flight meal, a sudden sneeze hit me along with a chill.
"Lady Min-a…? Come on, no way. However weakened you may be, you still have a baseline…"
Na-rae told me not to say something so ridiculous, insisting that with a body like mine, even if I wanted to get sick, I couldn't.
Fair enough. Even if I had suppressed my starlight, it wasn't as if the dragon and vampire factors would just magically vanish.
However deeply they were sleeping, they would at least keep the minor ailments away.
"Maybe you just dressed too lightly and you're a little cold? I mean, however hot it is, mornings and indoor spaces can still feel chilly."
She should have stopped there, but instead she had to go and ask whether I was cold because I was dressed too lightly.
In what world was this light? A black jacket of reasonable thickness and long jeans—if anything, that should have been on the warm side.
The T-shirt underneath was a little short, sure, but I had the zipper done all the way up right now.
If anyone's dressed light, it's you, you bitch. Looking like you belong in a white hospital coat, and you're out here in a miniskirt and a single dress shirt?
She was starting to get a little too comfortable. The urge to tighten the reins just once rose up on its own.
"You. Getting a little too casual with me, aren't you?"
I even dropped my voice a bit, trying to sound intimidating, but Na-rae showed no particular fear and had the nerve to say that look wasn't scary at all.
"Ah, right. You've never been hit yet, have you? Want a taste of a fist with solid fundamentals?"
In truth I had no idea how to throw a proper punch, but somehow I felt like with this body I might manage it.
Maybe it was the magical girl thing, but fighting was deeply ingrained in me. Even in ordinary human form, I probably wouldn't do too badly.
Once I barked at her like that, Na-rae immediately started fretting and crawling.
"Haa… What a life. How on earth did it come to this…"
"You worked in a place like that, so of course you're getting divine punishment now. You should've lived a decent life."
"Divine punishment, my foot… Where's a god in this world supposed to be?"
Muttering that, Na-rae then made a face like she didn't quite get something and asked me.
"Lady Min-a? It's nothing major, but… why are you speaking more casually now?"
Had this girl lost her mind? So I was supposed to speak formally to her?
She really needed a punch to knock some sense into her.
When I silently clenched my fist, Na-rae insisted that wasn't what she meant and begged me to please listen to the end of what people said.
"I mean…! You used to talk like some elder…? Some lord of the manor…? A king…? Something like that. I was just wondering why you're speaking normally now…"
Ah. That.
"…Good question?"
"Don't tell me you don't know?"
"I don't?"
"What?"
Na-rae stared at me like she couldn't believe how I could not know, but I genuinely didn't. Why I put on all those arrogant airs and talked that way in monster form.
…Come to think of it, the difference between when I was a monster and now was enormous.
As a human I had to eat, sleep, and go through all those physiological needs. As a monster? As long as I drank blood on schedule, there was no problem.
Also, as a monster I hadn't even been able to think about lying, whereas as a human, lies came out of my mouth the moment I opened it.
The speech patterns were different, and the frequency of other people's thoughts or voices intruding into my head dropped dramatically as well.
…Did becoming a monster mean I was that much more influenced by other things?
Once the thought reached that far, monster transformation started to feel a little unpleasant.
Not that I was going to stop using it. I would just have to be more careful.
Like how I still drank blood on schedule but was holding back from sinking my fangs straight into anyone's neck—I could control it with willpower.
…Probably.
"Whatever. Shut it, Na-rae. You planning on catching something that ruins you for life?"
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
Na-rae recoiled, asking why I was suddenly saying things like that, so after checking the people around us I quietly laid out what had happened.
"…Min-a? Do you really have to? It's a lie anyway. And why are you trying to get involved with Radiant White? You said you don't even have your memories."
Na-rae made a face of pure disgust and told me to find someone else, but she was still curious enough that she couldn't help asking.
I couldn't exactly say so I can pick a few fights with them and build some real combat experience, so after a moment of thought I cooked up an excuse.
"Because I want to know who I am. You said she was my little sister, right? So if I stick close to her, something might come back to me, don't you think?"
"Ah, yes, yes. Do as you like… Ugh. Just asking to be sure—you're not planning to let me go, are you?"
To Na-rae's question, I answered that of course I wasn't.
At first I had only taken her with me to keep my promise to spare her life, but the longer I dragged her around, the more convenient she turned out to be beyond anything I had imagined.
So I intended to keep using her until she died or broke.
"My life's completely screwed…"
"Well, maybe I'll let you go later?"
I was still teasing Na-rae when the captain's announcement came that we would soon be arriving in Korea.
We were really here. The place where all of it happened. The land of crosses and garlic.
Even if it wasn't the Korea I knew, there was still a kind of joy that came from the simple fact that Korea was still Korea.
And more than anything, what had me the most excited was the thought that I would soon meet the protagonist as well.
A character you like, living and moving right in front of you—who in the world would hate that?
The minor problem of having no money could wait until after we landed.
…Ah, right. Leaving without a word felt a little wrong, so I had left a note for Ilie—or whatever that elder-proxy bloodsucker's name was—down in the basement before we left.
She could at least read English, right?