Chapter 39
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Magical Clue, and...
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Late at night, in the Magical Major General's private quarters.
Two magical girls were holding a conversation there.
"Oh god, you idiot. You're seriously promoting him?"
"B-but..."
"You know damn well that if Kim Siyul makes corporal, it's really over for us. We haven't even made proper progress yet, and you're already bumping him up to private first class. What the hell?"
"Well..."
To call it a conversation was a bit of a stretch, really. It was more like one side relentlessly chewing out the other.
The one doing the chewing out was Lee Seobin.
The one getting chewed out was Jin Soa.
Of course, Jin Soa wasn't entirely blameless in her own mind.
She hadn't exactly promised such an outrageous magical reward in the first place.
Her mascot had gone off on its own magical tangent, and she'd just gotten dragged into it.
Lee Seobin knew that too. So she wasn't pushing Jin Soa too hard over it.
Eventually, Lee Seobin let out a sigh.
"Fine, you probably couldn't help it, Soa. You couldn't exactly back out on the promised reward. If you think about it, it's all that mascot's fault anyway."
Jin Soa nodded silently.
Lee Seobin flashed a grin.
"You did train your mascot properly this time, right?"
"Yeah..."
And just like that, Lee Seobin's smile froze solid.
"......"
Because of what Jin Soa quietly pointed to with her finger—her mascot.
It was utterly pathetic.
Even if you were making magical chicken stew, you wouldn't chop it up that badly.
If anything, with a bit of exaggeration, grinding it up in a magical blender might've looked more presentable.
"......Is it okay to turn your mascot into that?"
Lee Seobin had left out "as a magical girl" at the start of her sentence.
"It's a phoenix anyway, so it'll come back to life."
"No..."
That's not what I'm getting at, Soa.
Lee Seobin swallowed the words bubbling up in her throat and forced her smile to stay in place.
"......Yeah, good job."
Well, as long as it revives, it'll be fine. That was what she told herself.
"Anyway, Soa, can we get to the main point now?"
"Sure."
Life slowly returned to Jin Soa's orange eyes, which had been thoroughly deflated until now.
Naturally, she hadn't urgently summoned Lee Seobin so late just to get scolded.
"Seobin, did you get the report on the interrogation of those major magical criminals our unit captured?"
It was about the major magical criminals Jin Soa's unit had apprehended this time.
Lee Seobin nodded, her eyes a little troubled.
"They had dicks hanging off them and everything..."
"Yeah..."
Jin Soa had much the same reaction.
It couldn't be helped. Who wouldn't be shocked after seeing that massive magical dick up close—not even in a photo, but the real thing?
But.
The important part wasn't the existence of the magical dicks.
"How the hell did they even attach those things?"
"With magic."
How they'd attached magical dicks.
That was what mattered.
"A spell that grows a dick? Wait, can it make them bigger too? Please, just use it on my husband once—no, twice—"
"More precisely, it's magic that manifests imagination into reality. Nothing on that high a level, though."
"Whoa! Soa, that's..."
To anyone else watching, it might've seemed weird. If magic can do anything, what's so strange about attaching a magical dick?
But Lee Seobin and Jin Soa saw it differently.
"If memory serves, that's the magic of that magical girl in your unit, right, Soa? The one you said was a rising star."
"Yeah. She retired not long after joining."
What Jin Soa had just said pointed to one of two possibilities.
Either the magical girl had betrayed them.
"No way she became a major magical criminal, right?"
"Nah. She really retired because she couldn't use magic anymore. I confirmed it myself."
Or.
"......Someone stole her magic again."
"Seems like it."
Her magic had been stolen.
Honestly, it was absurd. How do you steal the unique magic each magical girl possesses?
Jin Soa knew that full well.
At first, she hadn't believed it either.
She'd just assumed it was some magical condition issue preventing the magical girls from using their powers.
But.
"The one right before that was the direction-control magic, right? It's been so long, it's fuzzy."
"More precisely, magic that imparts direction."
"Oh, yeah. I remember now. At that fire scene, the flames burned downward. The sprinklers shot water sideways the second they activated."
She couldn't deny it anymore.
Several magical girls had retired because they "couldn't use magic," yet traces of their spells lingered.
"Roughly how many times has this happened?"
"Third time for our unit."
"At least we're better off. Just once on our end."
If it had happened in their presence, fine. But no—the traces showed up in impossible places, at times when they couldn't possibly have been there.
Not once or twice, but multiple times.
And repeatedly.
"Soa, the exams on magical girls who can't use their magic come back normal, right?"
"Yeah. Perfectly normal."
Perfectly normal, to an unnaturally flawless degree, according to the magical aptitude testers.
That was why Jin Soa had reached her conclusion.
Someone was stealing magical girls' magic.
What the hell is going on?
Jin Soa bit her lip.
Questions everywhere. Who was doing this? How? What was their goal?
"Did interrogation turn up anything?"
"No, they couldn't remember a thing. They didn't even understand why they were caught."
Of course, interrogation hadn't been effective.
The answers they got boiled down to two things.
I don't know. Or I don't remember.
"Nothing recovered from the scene?"
"There was a camcorder, but it was smashed. More like sliced clean through, really."
No special magical clues from the arrest site either.
Just one already-broken magical camcorder.
That was it.
"Too bad."
"But."
Still.
"I found something. That's why I called you."
They'd nabbed a magical clue.
After combing every inch where the magical major criminals had holed up, they'd barely salvaged a magical diary with meaningful entries.
That magical diary kept mentioning one specific term over and over.
Informant.
"Those bastards had an informant?"
"From what it said, yeah. Circumstantially, it looks like this guy used the magic from one of our retired magical girls this time."
This informant had to be at the heart of the magical mess.
Even if not, they were connected somehow.
Lee Seobin caught on quick. She knew exactly what Jin Soa wanted from her.
"What you're saying is, you want me to track down this informant guy?"
"Yeah. I'll compile the details and send them over."
"Sounds doable. If they're using magic, they have to be a magical girl."
Lee Seobin grinned confidently.
"It said they don't seem like a magical girl."
"What?"
Of course, her smile didn't last.
"Soa, does that even make sense?"
Honestly, Jin Soa thought it didn't either.
How does a non-magical girl use magic?
Impossible.
But the more they pieced together the informant's traits from the notes, the more solid the conclusion became.
"Couldn't estimate build, gender, age, looks, or anything. But they said it doesn't seem like a magical girl. Probably accurate."
The informant wasn't a magical girl.
"So we gotta find someone who isn't a magical girl but can use magic... Yeah, this won't be easy."
"Sorry. I'm counting on you. I'm no good at this stuff."
"It's fine. This is my wheelhouse anyway. Might take a bit this time, though."
Even lumbered with the annoying task, Lee Seobin waved it off with a casual laugh.
"By the way, Soa. Why the still-worried face? Isn't this wrapped up?"
"It's just..."
Jin Soa trailed off.
Lee Seobin smirked mischievously.
"Kim Siyul again, huh?"
"......Yeah."
"What's got our Soa so worked up this time?"
Jin Soa hesitated a moment, then met Lee Seobin's eyes and spoke quietly.
"There's just too much other stuff. That's why I'm worried."
"Ah."
Short, but Lee Seobin got it.
She knew exactly what was bugging Jin Soa. It was the same worry from when Kim Siyul first became a magical girl.
"Worried he'll get discriminated against?"
Jin Soa nodded.
"Yeah."
Humans were ridiculous creatures.
Even before the monster invasions, and after—they never changed.
Discrimination.
If it was for some grand reason or noble cause, maybe. But the petty, trivial excuses people used to discriminate against each other...
Different gender.
Personality clash.
Not fully part of the group.
That was it.
And yet, people discriminated boldly, without hesitation. As if being different was justification enough.
Whispering behind backs was standard. Slyly dumping crap jobs on them. Even outright violence.
No basic human decency for the targets.
She knew.
Jin Soa especially, more than anyone.
"What if he gets bullied like I did?"
She'd been a victim once too.
A scrawny build unfit for a magical girl.
No money, no connections—just ordinary.
Her talent was top-tier, sure. But back when it hadn't fully bloomed.
Prime bullying material.
Maybe that's why. The discrimination from other magical girls was way too much.
"I was so miserable back then."
They ignored her, sure. But dragging family into personal magical attacks? Baseline.
And pretending it was "training" for group beatdowns? Constant.
They even shot magic at her.
Not training wands—real monster-killers manifested from personal wands.
Not once or twice. Dozens, hundreds of times.
"Honestly, I wanted to kill them all."
"But you didn't."
"Yeah..."
She'd wanted revenge, but Jin Soa couldn't bring herself to act. Her nature wouldn't let her hurt others.
Plus, her bullies had dug up her little sister's whereabouts—a cruel twist.
Rebel, and we'll kill your sister.
Threats like that, nonstop.
So Jin Soa endured the discrimination in silence.
Just put up with it this once. Bear it a little longer. It'll get better eventually.
That's all she could tell herself.
"Sigh, our Soa is just too nice for her own good."
"......Shut up."
Lee Seobin gave a wry smile and pinched Jin Soa's cheek lightly.
"But if you help him out like I did for you back then, it'll be fine, right?"
"Easier said than done."
Even now, Lee Seobin was Jin Soa's lifesaver. Thanks to her, the bullying stopped.
She didn't know how.
One day, Lee Seobin just found Jin Soa crying alone and said:
— "Soa, it'll all be okay now."
Rumors said the bullies all met bad ends.
She didn't know the details.
Didn't want to.
Jin Soa was content knowing Lee Seobin had handled the dirty work for her.
What if.
No Lee Seobin—what then? Horrifying to imagine.
Probably suicide.
Or snapping and killing them all.
Either way, a tragedy.
"Seobin."
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
"Good, you know it, you brat."
The two magical girls shared a silly laugh for a moment before Jin Soa circled back.
"Anyway, I'm worried Siyul might get discriminated against."
"Don't stress too much. Worst case, I'll step in again."
"Thanks. Still, I'll do my best."
"I believe in you, Soa."
And so the two magical girls exchanged smiles, each hoping for Kim Siyul's well-being.
And at that very moment.
Kim Siyul—who, unlike typical magical girls, was surely facing discrimination from them—was...
"Magical girls of the world, unite!"
...rallying everyone.