Beast of Burden
There was no longer any trace of the grimy, sweat-stained girl from before. In her place stood only Pania, the radiant magical girl of love shining brilliantly amid the ruins.
Pania set down the massive log she carried in both hands in front of the warehouse. It was a weight that would have required four grown men to move, yet she handled it with the casual ease of someone tossing aside a tree branch. The ground trembled in response, and a cloud of dust billowed upward.
“No matter how many times I see it, it’s still unbelievable… Yeyeun… No, Pania…”
The old warehouse keeper muttered in disbelief. Pania answered with a bright smile and brushed the dust from her clothes.
“Not at all. Is there anything else you’d like me to do?”
Even as she spoke, her fingers kept fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. She had grown used to the power of a magical girl, but those frills and layers still seemed to baffle her.
“Thank you so much, Pania…”
“Thank you, Lady Magical Girl!”
Amid the cheering crowd, Pania scratched her head in embarrassment. In the slums, the value of a magical girl was absolute.
First of all, they no longer needed to rely on those flimsy wooden fences. Wild animals driven mad by magical energy wouldn’t dare set foot inside the territory of a magical girl, the apex predator. Her mere presence served as a perfect barrier.
The same went for the remnants of the demons. A single punch from Pania would turn them to dust.
But the greatest advantage was her labor power. Before becoming a magical girl, Yeyeun had struggled just to carry a single sack of grain. Now, as Pania, she could sprint at full speed while shouldering twenty of them.
And most important of all was Pania’s ability.
Object Creation: Generates objects made of magical energy.
A magic born from the desire to help others out of love. Its root is self-deception, and once she realizes true love, she will stand upon the earth in a body that can never be loved. This is the price of the contract and must be fulfilled.
⟨ Pania's Ability ⟩
Let’s just ignore that ominous description. Every magical girl’s ability explanation sounded like that anyway. Since nothing terrible happened even after defeating the final boss, the Demon King, it was probably just some setting the original author had scrapped.
Back to the point. Objects created with magical energy could even move. They weren’t capable of complex actions and were rather slow, but still. Think of it like a human 3D printer.
In this barren land where even a decent tool was hard to come by, that ability was practically a cheat key. Of course, since they were made of magical energy, they didn’t last long. But when needed, wheelbarrows, hoes, and hammers could be whipped up in an instant.
To the people of the slums, that alone was nothing short of a miracle.
In short, she provided unlimited tools, eliminated the need for fences or security forces, and supplied the labor of hundreds of people. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the slum grew into a proper town…
That belief lasted less than a week.
Five days later.
During the morning communal work hour, the only figure visible through the swirling dust was Pania, hauling logs. My face twisted into a frown.
Where the hell did everyone else go?
It had started to dwindle little by little from the second day. Now, on the fifth, not a single person was participating in the communal labor.
In truth, since Pania was doing almost all the work anyway, their absence didn’t cause any major problems. But still…
This isn’t right…
Pania’s figure blurred within the sandy haze. Something—something I couldn’t quite put my finger on—was twisting out of place. The unease turned into déjà vu. I was remembering the exact feeling I’d had when Serafina declared she would create the Association.
“Pania…? Why are you working all by yourself…?”
“Hmm… I’m not sure? Maybe everyone’s just busy with something. Don’t worry too much. I’m fine. As long as I can be helpful to others, that’s enough for me.”
Pania looked at me and smiled. It was a pure smile, completely untainted by any impurity. The smile of the ideal magical girl I had always imagined.
In the original story, Pania had always stood on the side of the weak. While other magical girls aimed to exterminate demons, Pania’s goal had always been to rescue civilians.
She was exactly the kind of magical girl I had wanted… so why?
Wrinkles began pressing down on my eyelids. A powerful wave of disgust followed, burrowing into my heart. Pania’s kind heart was being taken advantage of.
The sandy dust grew thicker.
“Those bastards… Get back here and work!”
“I-I’m really okay! I can just work harder and cover for everyone else! I’m confident I can handle it!”
Pania waved her hands in a fluster, trying to stop me. The one who ended up feeling hollow was me. I hadn’t called her a brainless flower-head for nothing…
“Did the villagers ask you to do anything else?”
Those parasitic bastards had started sinking their straws into Pania. If so, they wouldn’t stop at simply exploiting her labor. Unfortunately, I knew this kind of situation all too well. The chances that these parasites were scheming behind the scenes were more than high.
“W-well…”
“Spit it out already!”
At my shout, Pania, who had been hesitating, finally opened her mouth with difficulty.
“They asked me to make a few things… so I did…”
Even now, she was hesitating to answer properly out of fear that it might cause trouble for the villagers.
“What did they ask you to make? Tell me clearly.”
“A megaphone… and some signs… things like that…”
“Those crazy fuckers…?”
No way. It couldn’t be.
I broke into a desperate run across the dirt ground. Pania followed close behind. Our destination was the city entrance.
My ominous premonition hit the mark without a single error.
“We are under the protection of a magical girl! Let us into the city!!”
“The magical girl has acknowledged us!”
“You guys and us are both under a magical girl’s protection! It’s the same thing, isn’t it?!”
The slum residents had gathered at the city entrance, shouting at the top of their lungs. They held the signs and megaphone Pania had made for them.
The megaphone blasted noise into the city. The signs, written in mud, read things like The magical girl chose us and Let us in. Their attitude suggested they believed it was only natural for them to enter the city.
Pania and I couldn’t even think of approaching. We simply watched the scene from a distance.
In that moment, I witnessed Pania’s previously dazed, vacant face twist for a split second. But the distortion vanished as quickly as it had appeared. She stepped into the crowd with her usual bright, silly smile.
“Everyone? You can’t do this. Please go back. Let’s build our own city with our own hands, okay?”
“Look here! Our magical girl is right here! Take a good look!”
But Pania’s mediation was drowned out by the crowd’s roar. Her appearance seemed to have only given them more strength.
“Pania! Pania!”
The villagers began chanting her name. The situation was snowballing.
“Stop it! You’re all going to die for real!”
These idiots had no grasp of the situation. If they kept this up, they really would die. Did they not realize that the only reason they were still alive after treating a magical girl like a begging tool was because it was Pania?
As far as I knew, there wasn’t a single other magical girl who would tolerate such nonsense. It was only natural they didn’t know—after all, they were humans who had lived farthest from magical girls.
Then the city’s main gate opened.
“Waaaaah!”
At the same time, the villagers cheered and rushed inside.
But what greeted them were burly men blocking the entrance. Every single one of them wore suits that clung tightly to their bodies.
“Have those beggar bastards completely lost their fucking minds?!”
What followed was raw, unfiltered violence. The men moved in unison and began beating the villagers.
“Agh!”
“You bastards! We’re with the magical girl—urgh!”
Pania stood beside me, staring at the scene in blank despair. I could feel her body trembling little by little. Well, of course. She had only become a magical girl five days ago. She was still a civilian. Had she ever witnessed such merciless violence before?
“Leave them. The fact that the thugs came out means they don’t plan to kill them.”
Those thugs were the violent organization that managed security in place of the disbanded police. The fact that they had shown up was actually fortunate. It seemed the city had decided to suppress the protesters by beating them moderately and then driving them away. If a magical girl had come out instead, they all would have been torn apart alive.
In other words, they had judged that a trivial disturbance like this wasn’t even worth a magical girl stepping forward.
“I can’t just stand by…”
Pania muttered under her breath and stepped forward.
“Pania! Wait! What are you trying to do?!”
Before I could stop her, Pania had already plunged into the chaos.
“Stop this at once! How can you beat people who can’t even resist?! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
Pania’s fierce protest stood out immediately. The thugs spotted her, froze all at once, and approached.
“…Are you the magical girl, ma’am?”
“Yes! Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves for doing something like this?!”
The thugs silently scratched their heads. Their cautious attitude was completely at odds with the carnage they had just caused.
“Ah… This is getting troublesome.”
“Let’s make a report first.”
The thugs stopped moving. They whispered among themselves, then pulled out phones and began calling someone.
Shit…
“Pania! Hurry up and gather the people and get out of here! Now!”
“Porim? What are you suddenly talking about?”
“Don’t ask questions, just hurry! There’s no ti—!”
My words were cut off there.
Because from behind the main gate, a woman in a suit and sunglasses was walking toward us.
Damn it. She came out.
Gem, the security chief who oversaw the violent organization and the magical girl of ferocious might. She swept back her short-cropped bob with a nervous gesture as she approached Pania.
“First time meeting you. You the representative of these beggar fucks? Which city did you crawl out of?”
“From the village right in front…”
Gem was tall even for a man. Her massive frame, well over 180 centimeters, looked down at Pania with suspicion. Crushed by that pressure, Pania kept swallowing hard with her gaze lowered.
“The village right in front? When did you become a magical girl?”
“About five days ag—khk!”
Before she could finish, Gem’s fist slammed into Pania’s abdomen.
“Khup… kuhk… ugh…”
Pania collapsed to the ground, curling up and shaking. Gem stepped on her head and twisted her foot slightly.
“Fucking hell, a fresh little shit like you… Thought you could drag a bunch of beggars around and play queen? Then do it in your own damn kingdom. Why the hell are you stirring up someone else’s turf and muddying the waters?”
The faces of the slum residents hardened as they watched Pania fall. Gem slowly scanned their expressions as if savoring them, then gradually lifted her leg.
“That’s enough, Gem.”
At my words, Gem froze mid-stomp. Her foot had been about to crush Pania’s head. She frowned and turned to look at me.
“Porim? Is that you, Porim? What are you doing here?”