Chapter 115
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 115
Chapter Title: A Bud of Suspicion from Distrust
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"Eek."
Magical Girl Purple Snake, Lee Seobin, let out a sticky sigh.
[You okay?]
"For now."
Lee Seobin managed a wry smile in response to her mascot's words, but in reality, she was far from fine. Her mind was a whirlwind of troubles.
First off, Magical Girl White Phoenix, Jin Soa.
A little while back, while she was sleeping, she'd gotten a sudden call from Jin Soa.
Honestly, up until the moment she picked up, she'd been hopeful.
What else could it mean if Jin Soa called in a panic when everyone else was asleep?
Obviously, it had to be a magical victory report announcing the success of her magical night visit.
That's what she'd thought.
'What the heck, asking me to fake a vacation for her.'
That was before hearing what Jin Soa had to say.
And even then, what Jin Soa was asking for wasn't some simple favor.
First: Change the already registered vacation roster.
Second: Do it cleanly, without leaving a trace.
Third: Get it all done within two hours.
Tricky magical conditions, every one of them.
Registering a nonexistent person was one thing; altering someone already on the list was a whole different level.
And on top of that, handle it perfectly without records—in just two hours.
It was a real hassle.
If anyone else had asked, Lee Seobin might've refused outright and even harbored some magical grudge.
But.
'Well, it's Soa asking.'
Annoying, sure, but not impossible.
Faking vacations was one of Lee Seobin's specialties in the first place. Compared to her old gigs, this request was practically baby submission level.
The reason was simple.
To give that idiot Jin Soa—who never took care of herself and just kept working—a break, this was the only way.
'Didn't expect her to hand it back in and go right back to work, though.'
But the real reason Lee Seobin's heart was in turmoil was something else entirely.
The vacation Jin Soa had requested was for Magical Girl Gold Retriever, who lived in the same magical barracks as Kim Siyul.
So, one of two conclusions.
Either Jin Soa knew about some circumstances with Gold Retriever and fixed it for her.
'Gold Retriever's not the type to ask for something like this, though...'
Or Kim Siyul had asked Jin Soa.
'Obvious, isn't it.'
In Lee Seobin's judgment, it was the former.
Jin Soa raising her voice and fighting for some acquaintance of a Magical Girl who couldn't even claim her own rights? That was par for the course.
This time was probably no different.
Magical Girl Gold Retriever must've suffered some injustice at the hands of Magical Girl Mint Turtle, and Jin Soa had caught on and set it right.
'Mint Turtle's exactly the type to pull that crap.'
She didn't know the exact details, but she could infer. Lee Seobin had a grasp on most Magical Girls' personalities and personnel files.
The only pity was.
'Oh, Soa, you dummy.'
She hadn't capitalized on it.
Sooner or later, Kim Siyul would've asked Jin Soa for a favor. Back when Magical Girl Black Kitty was being bullied, Kim Siyul had stepped in.
High chance Kim Siyul had promised anything during that request, so why not leverage it a bit?
For a magical unit date.
Or a secret magical overnight stay.
But Jin Soa hadn't.
She'd tried to handle it all on the down-low. Without gaining even a single magical weakness over Kim Siyul.
'At least take some credit for it.'
Truly foolish. Pitiful, even.
'Well, that's Soa for you...'
Still, Lee Seobin cracked a wry smile and nodded in satisfaction.
Grateful for her unchanging friend.
And nostalgic for the glimpse of their past.
But she couldn't dwell on that alone. There were plenty of other reasons for her unrest.
She still hadn't caught the informant for the magical major criminals or pinned down their identity.
And on top of that, her junior from the magical info broker's office hadn't brought results—instead, she'd gotten this random call about digging deeper into Kim Siyul's past.
Of course, it wasn't like she had nothing to say about it.
In the first case, they were really close.
Just one step away.
'Driving me crazy.'
That one step just felt impossibly distant.
Until now, she'd barely managed to find paths through tight spots, but now it was like stepping into empty air.
Not knowing if it was a cliff or another road.
For Lee Seobin, who hated magical gambles, it wasn't easy to decide.
As for the latter, she could understand that too.
She knew exactly what kind of person her old junior Magical Choi Nayun was.
She had a knack for slacking off and occasionally acting on gut feelings, causing unexpected magical accidents, but her skills were top-notch.
Lee Seobin had personally extended her service, after all.
'Made things easy for a while.'
For Choi Nayun to not have results yet?
That meant a serious issue.
One even Lee Seobin couldn't crack easily.
Of course, when she'd called before and gotten that sudden line about checking Kim Siyul's past more, she'd been thrown for a loop.
— "Senior, I'm really sorry, but give me a bit more time to look into it. Kim Siyul, right? The more I dig into this guy, the weirder it gets. I need more time."
No apology for the lack of results—just a one-sided update—but Lee Seobin regained her composure and replied.
Go ahead and do what she wanted.
Probably fixated on something after following her instincts, but trying it out wouldn't hurt.
Choi Nayun had unintentionally solved magical conundrums a few times before by doggedly investigating random leads.
'She's always had good magical instincts.'
Honestly, Lee Seobin was a little curious herself.
But the fact that no further magical contact had come despite the time passed.
That was why Lee Seobin was so troubled.
"Sigh."
As her thoughts turned to Choi Nayun, they naturally drifted to Kim Siyul.
Still amazing, no matter how she thought about it.
To hear magical testimony that Kim Siyul—who wasn't a Magical Girl or a Monster—could use magic.
'Though I didn't see it myself.'
Maybe that's why.
What Kim Siyul had said suddenly resurfaced.
Another world, and Hero of the Moon.
The magical lie detector chair had deemed those words true. And Kim Siyul had proven it all by using magic.
'Amazing.'
Of course, it still didn't feel real.
In a society leaning toward escapism, other worlds had been a fad for a bit, and heroes were just childish fairy tale stuff—surely nothing like that actually existed—
'...Hold on.'
Wasn't that weird?
There were Monsters, Magical Girls.
And even this pretty foreign thing called mana.
So why...?
Why were heroes and other worlds the only things she still couldn't believe in?
Sure, there were excuses. Right now, rationality in the corner of her mind was countering.
Magical Girls, Monsters, mana—these had been thoroughly proven over decades.
Other worlds and heroes? No proper magical verification yet.
But.
'What if, though.'
Couldn't she at least consider the possibility?
If not, she could at least entertain some doubt.
Lee Seobin was a Magical Girl and a magical commander.
Her role was to consider every magical variable and control the overall board and flow.
No matter how minor the variable, she couldn't ignore it—she had to think through every possibility. That's what a magical commander was.
So why had her first instinct been disbelief?
Anyone else maybe, but she, of all people, should've held out and questioned it to the end.
'Why?'
And what kind of world was this, anyway?
Magical Laugh Bell had turned Magical Illusion Country into a joke, and some folks seriously believed in Magical Flat Earth Theory.
Yet other worlds and heroes were the exception?
'Something's off.'
Two possibilities here.
Decision came quick.
Lee Seobin spoke to her mascot.
"Lock the door and stand guard outside? And make sure no one comes in from now on."
[Even Soa?]
Lee Seobin paused briefly.
But she didn't waver long.
She spoke in a slightly grave tone.
"Yeah. Not even Soa. Absolutely not."
No choice.
What she was about to do skirted the magical gray zone. Practically black.
'Can't drag Soa into this.'
Better to bear it alone.
[Got it.]
"Thanks."
The moment she heard the mascot click the door locked and leave, Lee Seobin pulled out her magic wand and transformed it.
Into the syringe form she used during Monster invasions.
Really been a while, but no problem.
She'd done it to death before.
Lee Seobin pulled back the syringe's plunger a bit.
"Creation."
A trace amount of purple liquid filled the syringe's barrel through the gap.
She brought it to her temple.
"Injection."
With the incantation, the plunger pushed forward without her touching it. The purple liquid slowly entered her body.
She let out a groan at the invading foreign substance.
"Urgh...!"
A natural reaction.
This was basically magical self-harm.
"...Been a while, so it hurts."
Injecting poison into her own body, after all.
Of course, it wasn't to melt a Monster's body or extract a confession extremely—no, she'd minimized the concentration and amount.
But poison was poison.
Just like a light knife prick still kills, even trace poison hurts.
'Using it like this is banned by magical regs.'
But no helping it this time.
One thing she had to check.
Whether there was magical mental corruption.
She planned to force poison into her body to trigger and treat any such corruption.
It'd be a kind of poison too, after all.
'Used to patch it up like this in emergencies.'
So-called magical poison attack poison.
Magical antidote with poison.
No wonder it was gray-zone magical.
Her magic shouldn't be used so recklessly.
Follow proper magical usage. At least have a magical antidote ready.
Poison and medicine were a magical hair's breadth apart.
'This is the exception.'
Anyway.
After a bit of time, Lee Seobin thought of other worlds and heroes again.
The feeling was still disbelief.
"Ha."
No magical mental corruption.
'Not a mental issue, huh?'
That left one possibility, naturally eliminated by magical negation methods.
Cognition.
The idea that other worlds and heroes don't exist had been made pervasive in the world.
Even in a world that accepted Magical Girls, Monsters, and mana, those two alone were utterly unbelievable.
In simple terms, magical opinion manipulation.
'Made it like common sense, huh...'
What kind of bastards? Lee Seobin grinned through the pain.
'Gotta look into it.'
Of course, her rationality still said.
Total waste of magical time.
Useless.
She knew. Knew well.
Investigating wouldn't be easy, no guarantee of results.
But her poison-addled intuition whispered like a snake.
Tough road, but at the end, she'd seize what she wanted.
Fill that missing step.
"Let's do it."
Lee Seobin placed her hand on the magical keyboard.
Mind clouded by poison, but her yellow eyes gleamed brighter.
Two emotions tangled in them.
One: self-loathing as a magical commander for missing the big picture.
The other: competitive fire toward whoever had pulled off this seemingly meaningless stunt.
'Try hiding.'
I'll find you and kill you. Her fingers began to move slowly.
And at that moment.
Kim Siyul, made up entirely of the world's disbelieved elements, was...
"From today, you're a magical flatfoot."
"???"
Being appointed as a magical flatfoot.