Chapter 81
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 81
Chapter Title: Interlude - Not the Wrong Path, but a Different Path
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Right after Kim Siyul's sudden Magical outburst.
Ray and Sora showed completely different reactions as they headed toward the Magical simulation room where Kim Siyul had entered.
"This is fucked... Now the whole Magical operation's gonna get involved... And tomorrow's already Magical weeding duty."
"Ah, seriously, what the hell is our senior thinking?!"
Ray looked like the world had ended, while Sora stomped her feet in a Magical tantrum.
And then.
Taishi wore an expression of utter disbelief.
It was only natural. He could've refused the Magical mock battle, but he accepted it without hesitation. And not only that—he was the first one to step into the Magical simulation room.
It was something Taishi would never do.
At the same time, it was something she could never do.
She would have avoided it out of fear of the inevitable failure she'd face, terror at the thought of walking the wrong path again this time.
So Taishi couldn't believe it.
Kim Siyul had chosen a different path from hers.
But.
What was even more unbelievable was the sight unfolding right before her eyes.
"Wh-what the hell happened...?"
No one contradicted Taishi's words.
The scene was just that absurd.
Inside the Magical simulation room weren't two people, but five.
Kim Siyul and the rest of the Magical Girls.
And not only that.
All of them were unconscious in a wretched state.
Kim Siyul's condition was relatively decent by comparison, but he was out cold just the same. His body wasn't free of Magical wounds either.
No one knew exactly what had gone down inside the Magical simulation room. Only high-ranking Magical Girls who could spectate the matches had access to that info.
But it wasn't impossible to make an educated guess.
Flesh scattered irregularly here and there.
Blood splattered everywhere, enough to make anyone dizzy.
It meant Kim Siyul and the Magical Girls hadn't done a Magical mock battle—they'd gone full Magical combat.
In other words, they'd chosen the Magical Safety OFF condition.
There was no way Kim Siyul's side had picked it. The conditions in the Magical simulation room were chosen face-to-face. No one would pick that after seeing four opponents.
Even the two high-ranking Magical Girls who were supposed to be spectating looked utterly baffled.
The other Magical conditions must have been set to private.
"Fuck, I take a nap and this shit happens...?"
"Ah, I went to add hot water to my Magical cup ramen..."
Or maybe they were just slacking on Magical duty.
Anyway.
The private setting had to have been Kim Siyul's choice.
If he'd wanted to avoid showing a humiliating defeat in the Magical feedback to everyone, it made some sense.
Of course, the Kim Siyul that Taishi knew wouldn't do that, but unless the other side had special Magical privileges, it was logical that he'd picked it.
'Otherwise, it just doesn't make sense.'
To sum it up, it went something like this.
These Magical Girls, who were skilled in their own right, had blatantly chosen that Magical condition to inflict fatal Magical wounds on a mere civilian.
And they'd gone to extremes with Magical special assaults—what the vulgar called a Magical beatdown.
Yet they'd all lost to that one civilian.
This Magical deduction wasn't just for Taishi—every Magical Girl there could figure it out.
Sora and Ray were no exceptions.
"These fucking bitches, what the hell did they try to pull on our senior?! I'm seriously gonna kill them!"
"Sora! Calm down! Calm down! We'll deal with it later!"
That's why Ray was desperately holding back Sora, whose eyes were rolling back in rage.
Meanwhile, the high-ranking Magical Girls finally snapped out of it and started making calls to handle the mess.
Probably contacting the Magical medical team.
"Um, we're at the Magical training grounds right now—could you come quick? We've got Magical casualties here. Total of five."
"Sorry, but can we cancel the Magical chicken we ordered? Not really in the mood to eat now."
It hadn't even been a few minutes.
A blaring Magical siren rang out, and soon Magical Girls from the medical team rushed into the training grounds.
The moment they saw the Magical disaster, they froze for a second, then got to work with emergency Magical treatments.
"Magical doctor, what do we do? Everyone except one is hurt bad."
"Take one to the Magical medical station, the rest straight to the Magical capital hospital. We can't treat injuries that severe here anyway."
"And looks like one even pissed themselves Magical-style."
"Tch, Magical incontinence at such a young age."
Everyone's faces soured—the Magical Girls' conditions were worse than they'd imagined.
At that moment, Sora and Ray hurriedly made their way to Kim Siyul.
"We'll help too!"
"I'll lend a hand!"
They couldn't do professional Magical treatment, but they figured they could at least help load him onto the Magical stretcher.
"Ah, in that case, sorry to ask, but could you? We're short-staffed."
"Leave it to us."
Sora nodded to the Magical medical team Magical Girl, then turned to Ray with a serious look.
"I'll move senior onto the Magical stretcher, so sis, cover him with a Magical blanket! Wash the blood off his face with some water!"
"Got it!"
Sora carefully lifted Kim Siyul onto the Magical stretcher, and Ray quickly draped the Magical blanket over him.
From his legs all the way to his head.
And then poured water on his face in that state.
"All done!"
It was definitely effective Magical first aid.
"This fucking trash bitch, who the hell were you trying to kill."
"Oh, I revived him!"
Thanks to that, Kim Siyul came to.
As Ray cheered triumphantly, Sora approached him with a face full of worry.
"Senior, you okay? What happened?"
"Just dodged like I did with the Monsters and let them stab each other, that's all. Got a little banged up in the process."
"How is this 'a little banged up'? Anyway, glad you're safe."
Taishi still couldn't believe it.
Surviving relatively unscathed against not one, but four Magical Girls. Casually claiming he'd just dodged everything.
But.
Taishi didn't pay attention to what Kim Siyul said. She had more pressing questions that made all that irrelevant.
That's why, almost without thinking, Taishi walked up to Kim Siyul and spoke.
"Inferior... why..."
Kim Siyul turned to her.
"What's up, octopus? What's on your mind?"
"Why do you push yourself that far?"
Taishi was genuinely curious.
Wasn't he scared?
Did he not know fear?
It was obvious he'd fail, so why didn't he hesitate even a little?
Even when he entered the Magical simulation room and faced the four of them, he could've just chosen to declare Magical defeat right away.
"Was there really any reason to go that far?"
And that wasn't all. Before, when Taishi was being bullied, Kim Siyul could've ignored it.
He and Taishi were strangers, after all. Bound only by the vague tie of being Magical recruits.
She hadn't even known he existed back then.
If he'd turned a blind eye, she never would've blamed him.
But Kim Siyul hadn't.
He'd just faced it head-on, without looking away.
Stubbornly, without a care.
Despite being outnumbered, outmatched physically and Magically... despite the overwhelming gap in ability between him and the Magical Girls...
Still, Kim Siyul hadn't hesitated or turned back. He didn't fear failure.
Unlike Taishi.
"Why?"
Kim Siyul looked at Taishi and smiled faintly.
"Because I'm a Hero."
With that, Kim Siyul waved as he was quietly wheeled away on the Magical stretcher.
"Anyway, I'm out. I'm fucking exhausted."
Watching him go, Taishi realized.
"Ah."
She'd finally gotten the answer to what she'd wanted to know.
How Kim Siyul thought. How he lived.
The answer had been there all along. She'd just kept ignoring it.
Hero.
A figment from fairy tales at best.
A fictional being that couldn't exist in the real world.
Yet Kim Siyul kept claiming that's what he was.
In response to Taishi's past question of why he'd helped. To Sora and Ray's frantic outrage just now. To the question Taishi had asked him moments ago.
His answer never changed.
Even if it was dismissed as delusion, a mental illness—Kim Siyul always called himself a Hero. He never denied it once.
That's why he could move forward.
Toward a different path, not a wrong one.
Without fearing failure in the slightest.
It was such a simple answer.
'So that's it.'
But.
Getting the answer didn't mean Taishi was satisfied with it.
'Then, this girl...'
She wanted to walk side by side with that Hero.
Without distinctions of superiority or inferiority, from the same position, toward the same direction.
Even if just for a moment. Even from a distance. Even if he ignored her completely.
'That doesn't matter from the start.'
Taishi just wanted to know.
How to walk the same road differently.
How to see the same scenery in a different light.
What the world looked like from his eye level, matching his stride.
Love?
She didn't know. Probably not. She couldn't be sure.
Admiration?
Not quite to that extent.
An ambiguous feeling that was neither love nor admiration.
She still didn't fully grasp what a "Hero" even meant. Or how important it was to Kim Siyul.
Honestly, it still looked like a severe Magical mental illness to her.
But.
If she could just walk with him, whatever feelings she held now, whatever that "Hero" thing was—it wouldn't matter.
If they just walked together like that.
'Someday...'
Maybe the life she'd seen only as failure would start looking a little different.
Taishi gazed at Kim Siyul being wheeled away.
For some reason, he seemed to shine a bit brighter than before.
Like the moon rising in the dark night.