Chapter 21
Chapter 21
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Alice Isn't a Rabbit!
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[Hello, Manager-nim! It's Alice! Please take good care of me during this shoot! ₍⑅ᐢ. ̬.ᐢ₎♡]
[Yes, nice to meet you, Alice-nim. I'm the manager assigned to Alice-nim. My magical girl name is Sapphire. My real name is Yoo Siyeon. Feel free to call me whatever you're comfortable with.]
[Then I'll call you Sapphire-yang! ₍ᐢ.ˬ.ᐡ₎ .ᐟ If you need to contact Alice, text this number, and if you have any materials to send, email them! I might not pick up calls since Alice is busy, so text if possible! Alice will check whenever she has time!]
[Understood. Then I'll send the materials you need to check via the email you provided. Please reply after reviewing.]
[₍⑅ᐢ. ̬.ᐢ₎♡ Sure!]
-Rustle-
After waking up, in a groggy state, she washed up casually while exchanging messages with the manager.
She had a separate phone and email for activities as Alice, so this level of contact was no issue at all.
The number wasn't widely distributed anyway, so unless they were business-related to Alice, no one could know.
"So... I wonder what she sent."
-Slide-
When she checked the materials the manager had emailed, it was clear why Emerald had recommended her—the shooting materials were neatly organized and delivered.
'...Pretty good, huh?'
First impressions were quite favorable.
She hadn't met her in person yet, but the materials included only the essentials without any fluff, the texting stuck straight to the point without dragging on with chit-chat, and the conversation wrapped up quickly.
There were plenty of people in social situations who padded things out with "Have you been eating well?" or "Nice weather today," which was frustrating for her since, as Alice, she had to play along, making the conversation drag annoyingly.
Emerald had said she assigned someone who knew Alice well enough not to fall for the concept, wouldn't cross lines unnecessarily, and could separate work from personal matters... and seeing it in action, it really seemed like running a business wasn't for just anyone.
She knew it was because they'd known each other so long that Emerald understood the Alice she played was a concept, and that her real personality fiercely guarded against revealing itself or getting entangled with others unnecessarily.
'Truth is, girls like that are the type you shouldn't get close to.'
"Sigh."
But to make a living, there was no choice.
It wasn't for nothing that people said if you wanted to appear as a magical girl in this neighborhood and earn a living, you had to go through Emerald's skirts in the end.
Emerald's market dominance was that strong.
Pretty much all magical girls could be said to rely on Emerald's company.
That was why, despite rarely going out to fight, she held the S-Rank 3rd place, one step above Alice.
She didn't envy it.
From the start, she hoped Alice would stay at the bottom of S-Rank—or even drop below if possible.
Did higher rank mean they fed you? No such thing.
Emerald's company did provide support funds to magical girls based on rank... but she couldn't claim hers since she couldn't prove she was Alice.
Emerald had even snapped at her once, "Why aren't you taking the support funds?! Are you rich or something?!"
The accumulated support funds for S-Rank 4th Alice must be substantial by now... but there was no way to claim them.
Going to Emerald now after never claiming them before and saying, "Here, Alice is right in front of you, so hand over the support funds," would look incredibly suspicious.
She'd long since accepted that support funds didn't exist for Alice.
So when she urgently needed cash like this, she ended up taking a role she really didn't want: appearing on TV as a teacher training magical girls, no less.
Teaching itself didn't seem hard.
She wasn't the real Alice, but the know-how accumulated over eight years of activity was genuine.
Compared to other first-generation magical girls whose minds were all over the place and too busy for this... Alice at least appeared kind, gentle, and strong on the outside, making her perfect for a teacher role... probably.
'...Even accounting for that, signing up for this feels like too much...'
She'd thought it'd be teaching 3 to 5 at most...
[Finalized it to 20. Way more applications came in, but if I took them all, you'd flip out, so I narrowed it down as much as possible to those with real determination to learn and who could show good growth if given this chance. Take a look. Oh, and if you try to run now, there's a penalty fee?]
'You damned woman...'
She'd even blocked the escape route in advance.
That woman's perceptiveness was on another level; even if she didn't know her exact situation, she probably had a good guess that 'Alice' wasn't exactly well-off materially.
The reason Emerald often offered 'Alice' such good terms wasn't just because she viewed 'Alice' favorably and her career warranted it—it was likely also to make Alice financially dependent on Emerald and eventually pet her head... something like that dark intent could be felt to some degree.
Rich folks were like that, and magical girls' mental states were hard to judge casually anyway.
From Emerald's position as an S-Rank 3rd magical girl running a successful company, supporting magical girls generously was probably because she genuinely liked them, but Alice wouldn't take support funds and put up an iron wall past a certain point even when she tried to get closer.
To use a metaphor, it was like a game where you pulled a pretty character, but the developers didn't include her route, making her uncaptureable. Something like that feeling.
Well, there was no way to know her real thoughts, and even if she thought that way, Alice wouldn't be captured.
Getting captured would be her bad end; no way she'd let that happen.
-Slide-
'Some familiar names here and there.'
She didn't remember juniors' names well, but she did recall the two from the recent tournament finals.
Black Rose and Berta.
As expected of magical girls, they were quite the wild ones... claiming to be Alice fans, and now following her to the next project.
How much more did they plan to suck out of Alice's marrow? She could pass on know-how, but absorbing it required them to hone it themselves through real battles over time.
[Got it. Then Alice will head to the location you provided on time, so see you there on the day, Sapphire-yang. ᘏ⑅ᘏ]
[Yes, understood. If there are any questions or things to watch out for during the shoot, let me know in advance and I'll handle it.]
[None for now, but I'll let you know if something comes up.]
[For drinks during the shoot, chocolate milk okay? I'll add extra sugar.]
[Plain chocolate milk is fine. ₍ᐢ. .⑅ᐢ₎↝]
Who're you trying to kill with diabetes?
She could tolerate the insanity of putting three sugar cubes in cocoa for Alice's concept when sipping occasionally in front of Emerald, but she couldn't drink sugar water like that as her shoot-long beverage.
She didn't hate sweet things. Just enjoyed them like a normal person.
She didn't indulge to the point of making her veins scream just hearing about that liquid as a drink.
The real Alice had.
Chocolate milk... she might like one or two glasses, but as a regular drink, it was burdensome—though tolerable for the concept.
She'd already done the cocoa-with-three-sugar-cubes stunt in front of Emerald, so saying "mineral water, please" to this preemptive offer would seem off.
[Yes, then see you on shoot day. Feel free to contact me anytime if something comes up.]
[ᘏ⑅ᘏ]
After finishing the texts, she began memorizing the provided script.
It was basically Alice as the teacher instructing magical girl students in a class format, so lots of ad-libs, but as a program, there was a basic script.
They weren't putting just Alice as the teacher; there were several.
The fact that Alice, famous for never showing her face properly, was taking on the role of teaching other magical girls must have caused a huge stir, she guessed.
...No way this has-been magical girl was that popular.
* * *
[Title: What the fuck are you doing, you bastards.]
[Author: Anon]
(A photo of Alice making a V-sign)
"Post it."
Recommendations: 654 (85) Disrecommendations: 13
Anon: This is fucking fake, you crazy bastard.
ㄴAnon: Hey, floaters are people too.
Anon: Fuck, the gal's acting up again.
Anon (222.155): But damn, she's pretty as hell...
ㄴAnon: Alice?
ㄴㄴAnon: Don't drag the princess into magi-gal dirt.
[Title: (Breaking) Ako's application rejected in real-time, crying lololol]
[Author: Anon]
Meanwhile, she didn't even put her own name on the application lololol
Anon: She's got lifelong magical girl talent.
ㄴAnon: You fucker, what did you just say?
[Title: Gal-rum attention: So who the hell is Alice?]
[Author: RabbitLove]
(Alice vs. Leviathan mad movie.gif)
This is the person.
Anon (412.214): Wtf is this?
Anon: ?
Anon (122.101): But where do you get vids like this?
ㄴRabbitLove: Downloaded and triple-backed up everything before it went down.
ㄴㄴAnon (122.101): You're a fucking criminal.
ㄴㄴㄴRabbitLove: Hey, fan heart.
JewelFan: Embasal (This comment was deleted by the poster)