Even I Don't Know Myself That Well (3)
“In times like that, you should have listened to Senior Yuni yoyo! Mana is so important to a magical girl yoyo. And for someone like Lord Cosmo… it’s even more crucial yoyo.”
Salbyeol sounded genuinely heartbroken that I had lost all my mana. “An Astra-rank magical girl like Lord Cosmo was one of the few even in Magica yoyo! And among them, the greatest of all, Lord Cosmo, has ended up like this… like a magical girl who’s only just learned to walk! This is a tremendous loss for all of humanity yoyo!”
“Salbyeol. Calm down.”
“I know it’s easy to say in hindsight, but if Lord Cosmo had crossed over to Earth through the abnormal gate while preserving all that mana, it would have been an enormous help to the people of this planet yoyo!”
Maybe he was getting worked up as he spoke, but Salbyeol was ranting so fiercely it looked like his neck would bulge with veins if he were human. I watched him for a moment before murmuring quietly.
“Salbyeol. That’s enough.”
“So Lord Cosmo—!”
He was too emotional to hear normal words anymore. In the end, I cut him off cleanly.
“If you don’t stop, I’m going to sleep.”
“…Huh? What did you say yoyo?”
“It’s noisy. I’m sleepy, so I’m going to sleep. Did you not understand?”
I repeated it once more and stared at him quietly. Finally realizing something, he shut his previously noisy beak.
Whew. Finally some quiet.
Ever since I ended up in this body, my senses had dulled considerably, but for some reason my hearing seemed to be the exception. Even though it wouldn’t matter once I fell asleep, I could still hear sounds clearly right up until the moment I drifted off. That’s why I had come to hate noise. It grated on my nerves.
In that sense, if someone asked whether I disliked the usually chatty Salbyeol, the answer was no. I had grown used to this bird’s babbling over the years we spent together, so it was fine. But having him raise his voice like this was another matter.
“…I’m sorry yoyo. Lord Cosmo.”
“Good. Now you know.”
The mood had turned chilly. It felt as awkward as if someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over us. Only the cool breeze eased the silence.
“…Haaam.”
Yeah. Sleepiness was hitting me. Still, I didn’t think I needed to actually sleep. Even though I had suddenly dozed off at school yesterday, I had gone to bed earlier than usual, so I had already gotten my minimum eighteen hours. But the weather was so nice that wasting the chance to nap felt like a shame.
The wooden bench under the wisteria was hard yet reassuring. It felt like lying on an earthen bed or a stone one. The moment I closed my eyes, Salbyeol gently flew over to the side of my head.
“Um… Lord Cosmo. Are you sleeping yoyo?”
“Daddy’s not sleeping.”
“Huh?”
“I said I’m not sleeping. I was just resting my eyes.”
“But you’re going to fall asleep anyway yoyo?”
“Pro…bably… not?”
“Lord Cosmo… your voice is getting slower yoyo.”
“That’s why… I’m… not… sleeeeeping…”
Even moving my mouth was starting to feel bothersome. My thoughts were fading little by little too. If I just let myself go with the flow like this… wouldn’t everything be fine…?
“Jihye!”
“Seyeol! She’s, she’s lying over here.”
“I knew it. I could tell this would happen.”
Familiar voices rang loudly in my ears. Who was it? Not Salbyeol. Irritation surged up from having my sleep interrupted. Still, waking up just to snap at them would be more annoying than simply ignoring it and going back to sleep, so I decided to tune them out.
But the feeling of someone shaking my body made my eyes open on their own. Who the hell was disturbing my sleep? I was about to lash out at the person who had woken me with clear annoyance written all over my body, but the moment I saw their faces, I dropped the idea entirely. It was the class president and my friend Miju.
“Whew. We finally found you.”
“I, I never imagined… you’d be here of all places.”
“Right? I thought you’d be inside. Didn’t you?”
“This is the first time I’ve seen Jihye sleeping outdoors… Hehe.”
“…Mmmnya.”
Click. The sound came from my friend Mijeong taking a picture of me with her phone.
“She must have been sleeping really happily.”
“Seyeol. Doesn’t Jihye’s expression look… darker than usual?”
“Now that you mention it. Did we wake her too roughly?”
At least they were self-aware.
“If you know that… then let me sleep again.”
“We can’t do that!”
The class president grabbed me as I tried to lie back down on the bench. “This isn’t the time to be doing this!”
“Why… Haa. Did something happen?”
The class president spoke with a displeased look. “Don’t you remember what the teacher said during morning assembly?”
…Yeah. Because I was half-asleep, I never remembered the content of assemblies. Except on days when I was in good condition.
“What is it exactly?”
“F-from today, the second-year seniors are… starting their midterms!”
“Ah… That makes sense.”
The first-years had taken their exams last week, so it was only natural that this week was the second-years’ turn. But what did that have to do with me? Or with us?
“The first-years are supposed to observe the second-year seniors’ sparring exams starting today.”
“Why? Is it necessary?”
“Maybe it means we should watch their magic skills with our own eyes and learn from them?”
The difference in skill between freshmen and second-years wasn’t that big. And since they weren’t official magical girls yet, it was all about the same anyway. If anything, freshmen sometimes thought the seniors’ bad habits looked cool and ended up copying them clumsily. There was nothing worse than imitating sloppy upperclassmen.
Even so, the teachers must have decided the benefits outweighed the drawbacks when they scheduled this. In that case, it was right to follow that judgment. Right now I was nothing more than a simple freshman, not an educator. The academy, with far more data and know-how, was probably correct. I decided to trust the cold-hearted teacher’s decision, even if she held grudges.
…Still, I didn’t have the luxury to worry about something this pointless. My own nose was on the line here—who was I to worry about others? Fine. Going to the sparring grounds was okay. With both grades gathered, there would definitely be a lot of people, and it would be noisy with chatter and cheers. My plan to nod off in the spectator seats was probably going to fail because of all the noise. Looked like comfortable sleep was off the table.
“Huh…? J-Jihye. What are you… doing right now?”
But overcoming obstacles like this was what made someone a magical girl. Of course, since I had no magic power I was basically half a magical girl, and having retired once made it awkward to call myself one now. Still, I was a freshman at the Magical Girl Academy.
When they saw me waving my hands randomly in the air, the class president and Mijeong looked at me like I was crazy.
“Um… Jihye, are you okay?”
“I-if we woke you too roughly and made you a-angry, I’m sorry! S-sorry!”
Of course this wasn’t some silent protest aimed at the kids. Since Salbyeol was invisible to them, gesturing into empty air must have looked strange.
“Understood yoyo. You just need me to bring that, right yoyo?”
Luckily, Salbyeol seemed to have understood the hand signals. I had learned them back when I did something like infiltration missions in the field—I never thought I’d use them here. Salbyeol also looked a bit awkward reading signals he hadn’t seen in a long time.
“Then I’ll be back yoyo. See you at the outdoor sparring grounds yoyo.”
This should be enough. I looked at the class president and Mijeong as if nothing had happened.
“Haaam… Shall we go then?”
“Uh… yeah… sure.”
“Y-you’re not mad, right? Jihye?”
“Huh? Why would I be?”
“That’s a relief. Then let’s hurry to the outdoor sparring grounds. The teacher is waiting.”
The kids grabbed my hand tightly and headed for the sparring grounds. I let myself be dragged along without any resistance. Just like always.
In this regard, I guess I haven’t changed much from the past to now.
“What the heck was that?”
In the shaded area of the wisteria resting spot, a girl quietly revealed herself. She couldn’t make sense of the conversation she had just overheard. She chewed on her lip, sinking deep into thought.
“What is Magica anyway? Another world besides Earth exists?”
The girl’s name was Yun Yuri. She was the one who had eavesdropped on the conversation between Kim Jihye and her mascot, Salbyeol.
“More importantly, what is Sister Jihye’s true identity? What is an Astra-rank magical girl? Was Sister Jihye really that strong?”
She should have felt relieved now that her questions were answered, but instead the flood of information left Yun Yuri confused. Although Salbyeol had joked around a lot until now, he wasn’t the type to lie even in a situation like this. That meant the conversation between the two wasn’t bluffing or falsehood—it was the truth. But everything they said was too hard to believe.
It was almost more credible to claim that both Salbyeol and Kim Jihye were suffering from delusions. Her head was starting to throb. She felt like she had heard something she shouldn’t have. At the very least, it wasn’t the kind of story worth secretly listening to.
She could at least understand a little why Salbyeol had been reluctant to speak about it all this time. No matter how seriously you explained it, not many people would readily accept such an unrealistic story. And Yun Yuri definitely wouldn’t be part of that small group.
She fell into deep thought.
“Let’s organize this first. Sister Jihye was an amazing magical girl. Then she came to Earth for her little sister, but the price was losing all her mana. That’s why she became so vulnerable to sleep like she is now.”
Even though she tried to summarize it as simply as possible, there were still many sticking points. Why she had to use up all her mana just to come to Earth. And what the connection was between having no mana and sleeping so much. She didn’t understand, but she decided to let it go for now. If she started nitpicking, there would be no end to it.
“Magica. Forsythia. Mascot. Yuni. Astra.”
Yun Yuri slowly listed the keywords she couldn’t understand. Salbyeol had once told her that clearly distinguishing between what you knew and what you didn’t helped organize your thoughts better than before. She was using that technique now.
“And… oppa?”
Among them, that one word felt especially out of place.
“Why oppa?”
Unable to understand the question no matter how she thought about it, Yun Yuri tilted her head.