Epilogue - Welcome to the Happy City
After shattering the contract between H City and the Fairy Queen and banishing her from this world, I began the cleanup. In other words, I started retrieving the World’s Enemies and artificial spirits I had scattered across other cities.
They were the creatures I had created to destabilize H Group and summon the Fairy Queen. Now that H Group’s monopoly had been thoroughly demolished, there was no reason to leave them running loose.
‘I’ve already sent the self-destruct order. Next…’
Next, I needed to make people realize exactly what had been done to them. That parasites had been living inside their souls, stealing their emotions all this time.
I had to explain how the World’s Enemies were born, and just how horrifying it was that they licked at human souls and devoured the feelings they found there.
The only problem was that I’d first have to explain the very concept of a soul, and shouldering the entire educational process myself sounded incredibly tedious.
‘Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure one of the Scholar members was researching souls…’
I recalled there was a member who explored the existence of the soul in order to scientifically reproduce the mystery of resurrection. While Scholar members kept their identities secret from one another, it was easy to access information about what each of us was researching.
I decided I would simply send that member a paper on the subject and began organizing my materials. It really had been a long time since I’d been this busy pushing a pen across paper.
Then again, there probably wasn’t a single scientist alive who could ignore a provocation like that. If my old supervising professor saw it, he would’ve applauded like a trained seal and told me I’d done an excellent job.
“Eight? You look like you’re in a good mood. Did something happen?”
“There was something. It’s over now.”
“Reeeally? That’s too bad. I picked the perfect time to bring good news, too.”
“Why?”
“The boss wants you. She said to explain yourself. Something about how you’re the one who released the spirits and the World’s Enemies.”
“Ah—”
I belatedly remembered that I hadn’t given the boss a separate report. The research funds I’d siphoned off to create and distribute the spirits and World’s Enemies would be clearly recorded in the account logs, so there was no way to hide it.
Worrying that the boss might die young from a stress-induced stroke, I cautiously left the lab and headed for the president’s office.
“Scientist—!”
The boss shouted in a clear, youthful voice that didn’t match her fury. The vein throbbing on her forehead looked ready to burst. Once again, I deployed the “pretend to be sorry” technique my professor had taught me.
The effect was tremendous!
The things that had appeared so suddenly vanished just as suddenly. The World’s Enemies that had been multiplying as if they would swallow the entire world, along with the artificial spirits that had been turning men and women of all ages into magical girls, popped like soap bubbles and disappeared.
Thanks to that, the villains who had been fading from relevance began rearing their heads again. Middle-aged men in their forties started frequently appearing naked on the streets, shouting “I am a magical girl!” in what could only be called public indecency performances.
Of course, even though the World’s Enemies had vanished, the research data studying them had not. As a result, people directed a storm of criticism toward H City.
While the reporters’ sharp questions flew like daggers, the mayor could only wipe away cold sweat and repeatedly claim ignorance. Of course, the journalists who had already taken the bait weren’t satisfied with that answer. They brought up the current mayor’s shady connections with H Group and pressed him even harder.
H Group was not free from blame either. With all the World’s Enemies gone, the employees who had been working diligently without a single complaint—drunk on artificial happiness—launched a collective strike.
“H Group, compensate us! Compensate us!”
“I only have three fingers left—how the hell can you say you bear no responsibility, you bastards—!”
“Executives, awaken already!”
H Group’s entire business model had relied on using cheap labor to produce high-quality goods at low prices and dominate the market. Now that the foundation of that strategy had collapsed, the only path left for the corporation was straight downhill.
There was no point trying to source even cheaper labor from other cities. After all, no labor force in the world had been cheaper than the one H Group had already been exploiting.
And then there was the Magical Girl Association—the group suffering the worst headache from this entire incident.
“Shut up, you damn rice bugs—!”
“Oh my, isn’t a magical girl’s language a little too crude?”
“First we need to figure out how to resolve this situation somehow……”
The World’s Enemies had disappeared. In other words, the magical girls had suddenly become unemployed. While they still possessed their powers as magical girls and their contracted spirits hadn’t vanished, all contact with the spirit realm—specifically with the Fairy Queen—had been severed.
Both the magical girls and the spirits fell into chaos. They had no idea what was happening or what they were supposed to do now.
“Can’t we just keep working as idols? I never really liked fighting anyway.”
“How would that work? We have to go out and fight someone—whether it’s villains or whoever.”
“Have you forgotten that using our power against humans means losing our qualification as magical girls?”
“Villains are fair game! They’re worse trash than the World’s Enemies!”
Of course, no matter how hard a bunch of teenagers put their heads together, they weren’t going to come up with a brilliant solution. True to their age, the association immediately split into two factions.
One group said it was great that the World’s Enemies were gone and they should just continue their idol activities. The other argued they should fight villains instead.
“That’s why I keep saying they’re never going to leave us alone! If that’s the case, we should show from the beginning that we’re willing to fight villains and squeeze out more support—!”
“No, I have a different opinion. And do you really think shouting at the top of your lungs makes you right? My ears are going to fall off.”
“What—?! You bitch! You’re just opposing me because you don’t like me, aren’t you? Come here, you whore—I’ll beat the shit out of you!”
“So that’s why you were so desperate to catch villains. It was self-loathing all along? How scary that you’re so willing to use violence without hesitation.”
“Fine. Looks like we’re getting one more evil magical girl today.”
Right as the magical girls were engaged in a fierce battle of nerves, the current association president—the most senior magical girl—cautiously raised her hand.
She had a timid and frail personality, so despite being the president she didn’t command much trust. Still, since she was the president, the other magical girls turned their attention to her.
“U-um……”
“What? Are you telling us not to fight? She started the argument first—”
“N-no, that’s not it… We have a guest scheduled to visit today……”
“A guest? Who? Someone famous enough that even the president would call them in?”
The magical girl aiming for the entertainment route smiled brightly, showing clear interest. The entertainment industry was a jungle. The stronger your connections, the more advantageous it was. Becoming close with someone powerful enough to be personally invited by the president could only be a good thing.
The president scratched her cheek with a troubled expression. Famous? Yes, the guest was certainly famous. If asked whether they held power, the answer would also be yes.
But it probably wasn’t the kind of fame the others were imagining.
“I’ll call them in, okay? Since it’s a guest, no fighting…?”
“Come on, we’re not children. Why would we fight a guest……”
“Hehe. Is that so? From outside it sounded exactly like children squabbling.”
And at that moment, the conference room door opened. A very familiar magical girl stepped inside. The instant the others saw her outfit, they swiftly grabbed their wands and began preparing spells.
“—It’s the evil magical girl!”
“How did she get in here?!”
“Perfect timing. I was just looking for something to vent my anger on……”
While the magical girls seethed with rage, the evil magical girl who had appeared in the heart of enemy territory casually took a seat as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Doesn’t this place even offer drinks to guests?”
“……A guest? You?”
“Yes. Why don’t you ask the president?”
At those words, every gaze turned toward the president. Receiving so many stares at once, she let out a small “Eep!” and nodded frantically.
The fire magical girl, seeing the president’s nod, exploded in fury.
“What?! Why are you treating that bitch as a guest?! Have you forgotten where we are?!”
“J-just hear her out first……”
“Shut up! Talking with an evil magical girl? Are you trying to fall to darkness—?!”
The moment she raised her voice and tried to hurl magic at the evil magical girl, Aile snapped her fingers with a crisp crack!. Her spell that covered the surroundings in darkness activated. The fire magical girl, whose power relied on light and heat, realized her magic wouldn’t activate.
“Hehe. Please calm down for now… If you listen to what I have to say, that anger of yours will subside as well.”
“……You son of a—”
“You’re all quite troubled now that the World’s Enemies have suddenly disappeared, aren’t you?”
“Oh, now that you mention it—every single World’s Enemy disappeared, so why are you still here? Why don’t you crawl back to your filthy homeland with the rest of them?”
“My, it’s because I’m not a World’s Enemy. I’m an evil magical girl. It’s only natural that I remain, isn’t it?”
Aile smoothly brushed off the question and immediately got to the main point—the real reason she had gone through the trouble of scheduling an appointment to visit the Magical Girl Association.
“—Ladies, don’t you need something to do?”
“……Something to do?”
“Yes. For example… new enemies to fight.”
As she spoke, Aile pulled out a small, adorably modified World’s Enemy from her palm. It was a pitch-black creature wiggling its tentacles. Compared to the previous World’s Enemies whose mere appearance could shatter one’s mind, this one had a cute design that could probably sell in a doll shop.
The magical girls who saw the creature made expressions that said, Just as we thought.
“Y-you… that’s……”
“It’s a World’s Enemy. Well, a fake, of course.”
“……A fake?”
“Yes. A fake.”
It was an artificial World’s Enemy the scientist had specially created at her request, for the magical girls who had lost both their enemies and their purpose.
Unlike the original versions, it was cute and far less threatening—perfectly suitable for television broadcast.
Aile had come with a plan to use these creatures to revive the magical girls’ popularity.
“Think of it as a kind of WWE… pro wrestling of a different variety.”
“……You want us to act?”
“Exactly! It’s something we’re already doing in our neighborhood, you know?”
She had benchmarked the model of Evil Organization versus Hero Association. Since she didn’t want to see the magical girls completely collapse, she had hastily come up with this scheme. The magical girls who heard Aile’s proposal looked at one another and groaned.
“……Just give us a moment. Just a moment.”
“I can’t give you too long, okay?”
“Yeah, it’ll only take a second.”
After that, the magical girls quickly went into a closed-door meeting. Inside the conference room, loud voices and fierce opposition flew back and forth.
Aile had zero doubt that her plan would be approved.
How on earth had it come to this?
“—You fucking bastard. Are you really that good at research?”
“……No, it’s not like that.”
“Then what the hell is this—? There’s a limit to how much you can ignore me—.”
I made a sour face as I looked at the bronze-skinned woman who had thrown a stack of papers at me. What she had thrown was the paper on souls I had researched not long ago, and the person throwing it was a fellow Scholar member.
In other words, the genius scholar who had devoted her entire life to soul research in order to unravel the secrets of life, aging, illness, and death.
‘…I literally gave her the answer key. Why is she angry?’
I genuinely couldn’t understand it.