The Fragment of God
In the distant past.
A time before the human realm and the fairy realm had ever existed.
There lived an ancient being who had dwelled alone in that empty space since time immemorial.
Bored beyond endurance, he created a world, and the world he shaped became the heavenly realm.
In the ages that followed, the entity later known as God lived in harmony with the angels.
They stood beside him as father and mother, as friend and comrade, this transcendent existence.
They never suspected.
That the being they believed would always stand on their side.
Would one day turn into a tyrant.
God’s transformation occurred after he grew bored once more—after he had fashioned the heavenly realm, then the fairy realm, and finally the human realm.
Having created three worlds and watched over their lives, he suddenly changed.
One day, he began to destroy his own stronghold, the heavenly realm itself.
Countless angels’ wings were stained crimson by his hand.
So the angels asked him.
Why are you doing this?
God answered.
I’m tired of it all…
Therefore, this time, I shall destroy the world.
Like a child kicking over a sandcastle he had painstakingly built.
God certainly possessed transcendent power, but he was not omnipotent. Nor was he a spiritually mature being who had mastered all things.
In the first place, nothing of that sort exists in this universe.
Perfection is boring.
Therefore, no perfect being could exist in this world.
Even if that being was God himself.
Naturally, the angels tried many times to persuade him.
But he would not listen. He simply slaughtered the angels without mercy.
In the end, they had no choice but to resolve themselves.
They would kill that existence.
The angels raised an army and waged war against God. After a brutal, blood-soaked total war in which they lost two-thirds of their kind, they finally succeeded.
The being who was thought to be beyond the very concept of death… died.
When he perished, his body vanished, and what remained were the crystallized fragments of his emotions.
Those were the Fragments of God.
“Now that I think about it, why did the angels begin invading the fairy realm?”
At Park Jinwoo’s question, the fairy answered.
“It’s simple… They went mad as well.”
After all, they had been created as the beings closest to God.
Having lived lives of eternal youth, they gradually grew bored.
Instead, the angels longed to feel the razor-edge tension of that desperate tightrope walk from their war against God.
In the midst of that boredom, they came to a conclusion.
Then let us invade another world…
“No! You’re telling me they caused all of this for such a pathetic pastime?!”
“As absurd as it sounds, that’s exactly right.”
What followed was predictable.
The angels invaded the fairy realm.
The Fairy Empire rose up to oppose them.
In the process, the fairies created magical girls to stand against the invaders.
Later, the angels began developing their own magical girls by utilizing the Fragments of God in their possession.
This was the origin of the Chronicle series.
Johnzalles stared at the Chronicle Ring on Park Jinwoo’s finger and continued.
“By the way, that ring has claimed countless victims so far.”
“What?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. The angels tried to create magical girls by forging Chronicle Rings from the Fragments of God, but not a single one of those test subjects survived.”
At this, Park Chiyou broke into a cold sweat and asked.
“Don’t tell me… those test subjects were…”
“Humans. They kidnapped the girls, of course.”
“...!!”
The shocking truth.
Both Park Jinwoo and Park Chiyou felt chills run down their spines.
Park Jinwoo voiced one of the questions on his mind.
“But… how? Didn’t you say the angels grow weaker when they come to the human world?”
The Heavenly Machines couldn’t have been developed that long ago either.
A massive hunk of metal like that walking around would have been impossible to hide.
“Did you forget? Those bastards can deploy barriers.”
“I see…”
When Park Chiyou asked about the barrier, Johnzalles continued his explanation.
“You, the magician, should know it. It’s called a Parallel Barrier.”
“A Parallel Barrier? That’s the magic the angels use, isn’t it?”
“Correct. The Heavenly Machines can also deploy something similar to a certain extent.”
A Parallel Barrier was a virtual world created by perfectly copying a desired area of space.
Using that method, they could kidnap humans one by one without drawing attention, transport them to the heavenly realm, and then conduct horrific biological experiments on the girls.
Many of the mysterious disappearances discussed on the internet had likely happened this way.
After all, the news had been full of missing persons cases lately.
“Anyway, that’s how I somehow managed to form a mana link with the Chronicle Ring while I was fleeing, and eventually contracted with Jinwoo.”
“But why was I able to enter that Parallel Barrier?”
At the question, Johnzalles seemed to have guessed something. The fairy prince asked seriously.
“You’re not an ordinary human, are you?”
“.......”
Otherwise, it made no sense.
A Parallel Barrier could selectively trap only its intended targets.
Yet Park Jinwoo had broken in from the outside.
That was impossible for a normal person.
It would require an immensely powerful World Power to make such a thing possible.
For example…
The power of yet another transcendent being being involved…
Park Jinwoo could not tell the truth. If it were just the two of them, maybe, but he did not want to say such a thing in front of Park Chiyou.
Above all, he had possessed the body of Park Jinwoo to come to this world.
That meant the original soul that once inhabited this body was essentially dead.
The shell remained, but the core had been replaced. If his mother Park Chiyou heard that, what would she think?
‘I should count myself lucky if she doesn’t call me a murderer.’
Just as he thought that, Park Chiyou’s emotional state changed as if by magic.
At this point, Park Jinwoo had no choice but to dodge the issue.
“What nonsense are you talking about? I may be a bit strange, but I’m an ordinary human.”
“....”
The fairy looked suspicious, but seemed to realize he did not want to speak further. It raised one eyebrow and opened its mouth.
“Well, it was only a barrier made by a tin-can bastard. It couldn’t have been perfect anyway.”
Thank goodness. It wasn’t completely resolved, but it seemed to have eased somewhat.
To be honest, Park Chiyou had already sensed that Jinwoo was not ordinary. However, that did not change the fact that the boy before her was her son.
So although she felt a slight doubt, she did not want to suspect him needlessly.
That’s right. Every family has one.
A slightly unusual son.
The only differences from before were that he had quit his womanizing, started exercising seriously, reflected on his mistakes, and reformed himself.
Once the story seemed roughly settled, Park Chiyou let out a sigh and spoke to the fairy.
“Since this incident has been resolved for now, it would be best if you canceled the contract with my son.”
At her words, Johnzalles scratched its pink nose with a troubled expression and stared at Park Jinwoo.
At the fairy’s gaze, Park Chiyou looked at her son with a puzzled expression.
“Mother.”
“Jinwoo?”
“I have something to tell you.”
Park Chiyou felt it.
This was ominous.
She swallowed hard, sensing another bombshell was coming.
And then…
With a tiger-like, booming voice.
Park Jinwoo declared with all his might.
“Wh… what did you saaaaaay?!!!”
At the completely unexpected statement, Park Chiyou’s eyes widened in pure shock.
She had assumed he had only become a magical girl to survive.
Of course, in that life-or-death situation, refusing to gamble would have been impossible.
If the ring had not accepted him, Jinwoo might have died, but he succeeded in the gamble and escaped the crisis.
Therefore, there was no longer any reason for him to remain contracted with this fairy.
That was what Park Chiyou had believed, which was why she could not hide her astonishment at his sudden bombshell.
“J-Jinwoo? Do you even know what the Magical Girl Academy is?”
The Magical Girl Academy.
Also known as the “Magic Academy,” it was exactly what the name implied—an academy attended by magical girls.
Awakening could happen suddenly during everyday life.
However, for awakened candidates to contract with fairies and become magical girls, they had to enroll in the Magical Girl Academy.
Normally, the academy admitted those with the aptitude for magical girl contracts and had them form the contracts inside the school.
Of course, prestigious magical girl families sometimes summoned fairies from the Fairy Empire in advance to form contracts, but that required enormous capital and time, making it nearly impossible for ordinary households.
Cases like Jinwoo’s—accidentally meeting a fairy on the street and forming a contract—were extremely rare.
“Mother. I formed a contract with him and transformed into a magical girl. Doesn’t that mean I also have the right to enroll in the Magical Girl Academy?”
“W-well, that’s true, but…”
Park Chiyou could sense it.
There was definitely mana emanating from her son that had never been there before.
It must have come from contracting with the fairy and transforming into a magical girl.
Still… no matter how she thought about it logically, it was hard to understand.
“Jinwoo, you’re a boy. Magical girls are supposed to be girls.”
Wasn’t it strange?
A boy becoming a magical girl.
She understood it had been unavoidable in that crisis, but he wanted to continue?
Moreover.
Park Jinwoo had acted like a complete delinquent before, but until now he had shown zero interest in becoming a magical girl.
If anything, he had seemed to dislike them.
As Park Chiyou pondered this, she reached one conclusion.
‘Could it be… because of me…?’
Ever since he was little, she had not been able to treat Park Jinwoo well because he was a boy.
That was why he had become twisted.
While suffering alone, he might have secretly wished to become a magical girl so he could earn her recognition.
But he was a boy.
Realistically it was impossible, so he had given up—until this opportunity gave him the key to fulfilling that dream.
He used to curse at her whenever he was bored, that hopeless son of hers.
‘All this time he was just longing for his mother’s love! My son…!’
Without Park Jinwoo realizing it, Park Chiyou had fallen into a massive misunderstanding.
“...???”
Completely unaware of any of this, Park Jinwoo could only tilt his head at the shifting emotional state displayed before him.
Even without an alert, he wondered if this was another effect of that insane probability.
Park Chiyou suddenly pulled Jinwoo into a tight embrace and…
Began to sob uncontrollably.
“Huuuuaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhng!!!”
“M-Mother?!!”
Park Jinwoo was utterly flustered by his mother’s sudden change.
At that moment, an alarm rang and a message appeared.
Park Jinwoo had unwillingly obtained a passive skill for free.
And so, the path to the Magical Girl Academy opened before him.