Magical Sylph
Magical Sylph.
Among the first-generation magical girls, she had contracted with a lower-grade fairy, so she possessed no great combat power.
Yet she had shone as a support magical girl, disrupting enemies with the unique speed of wind fairies or granting buffs to her teammates.
I should have noticed from the beginning.
The magic wand in the shopping bag could have been nothing more than the kind of magical-girl merchandise commonly sold on the market. First-generation magical girls had been the sole, miraculous beings capable of standing against the chaos of monsters in those days, and even now they still enjoyed tremendous popularity. Still, a married woman in her thirties would never, by any stretch of common sense, keep a worn old magic wand inside her shopping bag.
I was an idiot.
When he first saw the nickname Sylph, he had dismissed it as something utterly ordinary. But the instant he discovered the magic wand and realized she was Magical Sylph, the image of that young human female he had faced on the battlefield long ago superimposed itself with perfect clarity upon the married woman now sleeping on the bed, her body smeared with semen.
Even now he could have torn out the throat of the slumbering Sylph—no, of Magical Sylph—without the slightest trouble. Yet Cayen did not act rashly. Even if he eliminated Magical Sylph, she was far from the only first-generation magical girl.
Living day to day as an illegal day laborer after picking up the identity card of a man who had long resided in and then died in the Republic of Korea, Cayen had weathered countless storms and grown far more mature in spirit than the reckless youth he had once been. In the past he had scorned demons who took hostages or exploited weaknesses, refusing even to associate with them. Now things were different. As the humans said in their proverb, a gentleman’s revenge is never too late even after ten years.
First I have to stay alive. And that way I can also learn what the other first-generation magical girls are up to.
Cayen left the master bedroom, picked up the smartphone resting on the sofa, and photographed both the magic wand and every inch of Sylph’s thoroughly debauched form.
Saturday, 2:12 p.m.
Rain fell in a steady drizzle.
On the bed, Sylph opened her heavy eyes at the growing roar of the downpour, let out a cute yawn, and slowly pushed herself upright. Her waist and legs trembled so badly she had to plant both hands on the mattress before she could turn her head.
“…He’s gone. It’s already this late—it would be weird if he were still here.”
She glanced at the wall clock, managed to lean her back against the headboard, and exhaled a hollow sigh.
“No different at all…”
One wild, violent night that had soothed two years of accumulated loneliness. Leaning against the headboard in the disordered room, alone—something she was long accustomed to.
“Whether he moves in or not, it’s just like always…”
She had anticipated this exact situation even before downloading the dating app and spending the night. Yet the thick foreign sensation still lingering in her belly, combined with the disappearance of the young heat that had crushed her body, made the solitude she had endured alone return several times heavier, sinking her into quiet melancholy.
“…It’s fine. I’ll get used to it again once some time passes.”
She hugged her knees, buried her face against them, and sighed—when a sudden knock sounded.
Knock knock!
“Wh-who is it?!”
Startled out of her thoughts, Sylph jerked her head up and called out loudly.
“It’s me, Sylph Noona. I ordered Chinese. Come out when you’re ready.”
Cayen’s voice—someone she had been certain had already finished his business and gone home.
“Noona will just throw on some clothes and be right out! One second!”
The loneliness that had been dragging her under lifted as though she were surfacing; she forced strength into her trembling legs and waist and slid off the bed. Opening a drawer, she pulled underwear and a tank top over her still-unwashed body.
“The clothes are in the small room…”
The master-bedroom drawers held only underwear and socks, and the clothes from yesterday had already been tossed into the laundry basket by Cayen, leaving her nothing decent to wear.
“Ah. There was that.”
Too embarrassed to call out to Cayen waiting outside, she opened the under-bed drawer as if struck by a brilliant idea.
“Thank goodness. I haven’t worn them even once…”
The pajamas she had begged her husband to buy on their honeymoon. Finding the still-sealed package of her husband’s pajamas, she sighed in relief—then her expression hardened. It was not guilt toward the husband working overseas after a heated night with a younger man from a dating app.
“…How can you not wear them even once, you bastard.”
She shoved the half-unwrapped pajamas deep into the drawer as if she could not stand the sight of them.
“Noona. The noodles are getting soggy.”
“Ah, I’ll be right there. Just a moment!”
The soft call from beyond the door. For a second she considered pulling the stuffed-away husband’s pajamas back out and putting them on, but she soon shook her head, opened the closed door still clad only in underwear, and stepped out.
“Did you wait long?”
“No. But what about clothes?”
When she first left the room she had felt not the slightest fear. The moment she saw Cayen sitting at the low table in front of the sofa, however, she hurriedly yanked the hem of her white tank top down to cover her black cotton panties.
“I just like to dress comfortably at home…”
“What would Noona like? Black-bean noodles, or three-delicacy spicy noodles?”
“Noona will take the black-bean noodles…”
“I ordered sweet-and-sour pork too, so eat plenty.”
His reaction was nothing like what she had expected. Had she done something wrong last night? Watching Cayen inhale the spicy noodles and sweet-and-sour pork, she poked listlessly at her black-bean noodles.
“Noona. You’re staying home all day today, right?”
“Huh? Well, yeah? Looking at the veranda, it’s raining…”
“And tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow I don’t really… have any plans…”
The appointment she had scheduled for today had been naturally canceled by the rain that had poured without pause since dawn. Crunching pickled radish, she answered every one of Cayen’s questions diligently.
“Then how about spending the whole day with me?”
“Huh? Th-the whole day?”
“No. Not for that kind of reason. Even if I go home there’s no one to welcome me. I just don’t want to be alone on the weekend.”
Hearing Cayen’s calm yet lonely confession, something dropped hard in Sylph’s chest. It was not simple pity or maternal instinct. It was the deep empathy and compassion that only people who shared the same bitter loneliness could understand.
“Let’s do that. It’s been two years since Noona spent time with someone else like this too.”
She decided on the spot. She had misjudged him: even though he was a boy left alone after losing both parents and friends in a Gate accident, she had assumed that, unlike herself, Cayen possessed an extremely strong inner core. Even if their connection had begun as a light one-night stand on a dating app, she firmly resolved that from now on she would cherish this wounded child as warmly as a real younger brother.
“If anything’s wrong, tell me. Noona will stay by your side.”
“Then could you put some clothes on?”
“Huh? Ah, I-I showed you something unseemly, haha…”
“It’s not that. Looking at Noona in her underwear keeps making it hard for me to eat.”
She had momentarily forgotten her state of undress; her face flushed belatedly.
“W-what? I already told you I dress comfortably at home… Still, you have to eat, so I’ll go put something on right away…”
She hastily set down her chopsticks, stood, and once more yanked the hem of her tank top as low as it would go. Trying desperately to cover her hips, she tip-toed toward the small room where the clothes were kept.
Cayen’s eyes followed the retreating, curving lines of Sylph’s body without a word as she fled. The moment the door of the small room clicked firmly shut behind her, he let out a long snort of laughter through his nose.
Saturday evening, 7:38 p.m.
“On rainy days it’s gotta be pajeon and makgeolli~!”
Wearing a loose white T-shirt and shorts that hugged her thighs, Magical Sylph drank makgeolli with obvious delight.
“You like makgeolli?”
“Only on rainy days~”
Her face already flushed red, Magical Sylph raised her glass; he matched her motion.
“Chicken drinks well~”
“I drink a lot on the job.”
“You drink while working?”
“Sometimes.”
So that was why Magical Sylph could hold her liquor, she thought as she tilted her glass. If he let her keep drinking it would be easy to get her thoroughly drunk, but right now—while she was still only pleasantly tipsy—was the perfect moment to find out the locations of the other magical girls.
“Come to think of it, I still don’t know Noona’s real name.”
A beat later came a delayed little “Ah!” of realization.
“You’re right. It’s weird to keep calling you Chicken. Noona was being shortsighted. Hehe.”
“It’s pretty late, but my name is Chulsoo. Kim Chulsoo.”
“Chicken’s name was Chulsoo~”
Speaking with the intimate tone of someone who felt they had grown closer, Magical Sylph set her glass down.
“Noona’s name is Gang Hayan. Gang. Ha. Yan. Unique, right?”
“I’ll call you Hayan Noona from now on.”
“Yeah, Chulsoo~”
“But there’s one thing I’m curious about.”
Magical Sylph giggled and asked what he was suddenly curious about.
“Hayan Noona, are you a magical girl?”
“…Huh? No, huh? What?”
Even with alcohol in her system her reaction was far too obvious.
“I didn’t mean to look. While I was turning off Hayan Noona’s alarm, there was a magic wand inside the bag on the chair.”
“Uh… th-that, I mean… that’s…”
No, she was so flustered it was starting to look pitiful.
“Perhaps Magical Sylph…”
“Ah, no, th-th-that’s…?!”
“You’re a fan, right?”
At the word “fan,” Magical Sylph—who had blanked for several seconds—nodded her head up and down in a frantic blur.
“Y-yeah! I-I’m a Magical Sylph fan…! L-liking magical girls at this age is super weird, right?”
The instant he left her the tiniest opening she could not wait another second; she rushed in and machine-gunned excuses. It was truly a pathetic sight.
“I see. I thought it looked like an old magic wand. I must have been mistaken.”
“Y-yeah! Noona being a magical girl. Th-that doesn’t make any sense. Haha…”
“Is that so? Actually, I’m a fan of Magical Sylph myself. Do you know the fan café called the Disciplinary Committee?”
Magical Sylph had been thoroughly panicked at nearly having her identity exposed. Yet the moment the name of her own fan café was mentioned, the corners of her mouth began twitching upward of their own accord.