The Reality of Hollow Dreams
The checkpoint office at the main gate of the city of vain dreams. Jem sat with a thick cigar clenched between her teeth, jerking her chin toward Pania. “That sword Porim made for you?”
Pania’s body curled inward even more. I shot Jem a brief glare before answering. “Yeah. Got a problem with it?”
Jem exhaled a thick plume of smoke like a sigh. Her eyes carried the clear rebuke of someone wondering why I had to make unnecessary trouble. “Didn’t you hear the Association President’s warning? If you need a new girl, we can provide one for free. Why go through all this? Well… since you’re a dog, Porim, maybe you’ll have to pay a fee or eat some scraps, but still.”
Even while scolding me, Jem chuckled as if genuinely amused. Then she blew the smoke straight into Pania’s face.
“Cough—hack!”
“If that’s the kind of pathetic bitch you’re into, I’ll find you one. Just ditch this one and go grovel to the President. Don’t drag me into your mess. If you can’t do it yourself, I can dunk her for you.”
“What? Dunk her? What the hell did you just say?”
Whether they were slum rats or magical girls, I hated how they looked at Pania. My tone turned vicious. And the reason Serafina blocked Pania’s appointment was to maintain her own power. But Pania? Even a low-ranking magical girl like Jem could tell she had nothing. After all, she didn’t possess strong magic or lethal abilities. No variable that could threaten the balance of power. At this level, maybe I could convince Serafina. What tiger worries an ant might bite it to death?
Pania couldn’t say a word. She only stared at the floor, trembling. She seemed to have reacted to the word “dunk.” I rested my leg against her hand to reassure her. “Don’t worry. That won’t happen.”
She was the true magical girl I had found in this failed world. I would never let her die. She had a weak, pushover personality… but we could fix that gradually.
“Are you really going to do this? Stop being stubborn…”
“Who’s the one being stubborn here?!”
Jem fell silent. She knew that only fairies held the authority to appoint magical girls, so her reaction was natural. She probably also knew it was Serafina who was being stubborn, but she would never say it out loud. In the end, what she chose to say was:
“What are you relying on when you have no power? Porim, I didn’t want to say this, but let’s be real. If the President orders you to die, you’re basically on borrowed time, aren’t you? So just do as you’re told. Stop making everyone’s life difficult.”
It was Serafina’s authority. After spitting that out, Jem added one more line. “Just so we’re clear, if the President orders me to kill you, Porim, I will.”
Kill me? Her mouth really could say anything. Was she picking a fight?
Grants fists that can never be damaged. A magic born from the fierce might of offense and defense as one. Its origin is submission to power, and she will advance while looking down upon the masses from the highest seat. All will cheer before that fierce might. This is the price of the Contract, and it must be fulfilled.
This bastard’s ability description was annoyingly good. The gap in combat power was huge, and I didn’t think Pania’s ability could win either.
“……Let’s go, Pania.”
“Y-yes!!”
Pania shot to her feet as if she had been waiting for the words. I walked out of the checkpoint. Pania followed behind me, glancing nervously at Jem.
We had just passed halfway through the main gate when Jem’s voice called out from behind. “If that’s what you want, fine. We’ll probably meet again soon, and it won’t be pretty. Go on. And you, you fucking bitch. I’m letting this slide because of Porim, but if your beggar brats show their faces here one more time, I’ll let the kids loose and dunk every last one of you. Now scram.”
At those words, Pania squeezed her eyes shut and clutched her head. The gesture was so heavy with stress that even I could feel it. Used by the villagers, beaten by thugs, and now told to her face by another magical girl that she should be discarded…
I slowed my steps and walked beside her. Being next to her would probably help more than any clumsy comfort. It might be painful for her, but honestly, I didn’t think it was all that bad. Even as the lowest-ranking magical girl, she was still far closer to the ruling class than I was—someone who lived while reading the room with no power. If she had been even a little more selfish, she could have coasted through life, but she wasn’t that shrewd.
‘There are things you can only see once you’ve climbed up.’
With that thought, we reached the slum village.
The villagers’ gazes toward Pania had completely changed after the protest. Once they realized she wasn’t their savior, what came back to her was open hostility. No one said it out loud, but the indirect malice was thick enough that even I could feel it. What they wanted wasn’t to build a city—they wanted to get into one.
No one participated in the joint work. Pania just worked in silence every day. She grew thinner with each passing day, the shadows under her eyes growing darker. The confident figure she had shown right after becoming a magical girl was nowhere to be seen. She grew smaller and smaller until she walked with her shoulders hunched, glancing around nervously like she was sick, eyes fixed on the ground.
Watching her like that was painful even for me.
“Pania. That’s enough. Stop.”
“No… I can’t get the people into the city, so I have to work even harder…”
The moment Pania finished speaking, a clump of mud splattered across her face with a wet smack.
“It’s all your fault!”
A filthy child hiding behind a log shouted at her. Pania stared at the child, mud dripping down her face, as more accusations poured out.
“Because of you, my dad still can’t get up! Apologize right now!!”
Probably the son of someone who had joined the protest four days ago. It wasn’t strange that a malnourished slum dweller who had taken such a brutal beating still couldn’t stand after four days. But still—what right did this brat have to force Pania to accept this nonsense?
“Then who told them to protest on their own? They do whatever they want and then blame someone else?! Get lost!”
The child looked back and forth between me and Pania, sniffling, then ran off in the opposite direction. Only Pania, covered in mud, and I remained.
“Pania… are you okay?”
Pania didn’t even wipe the mud from her cheek. She just stared at the ground. Her shoulders began to tremble. Plip. Plop. Soon, droplets fell and soaked the dirt.
“Why did it have to be me?”
Her voice was muffled against the wet earth. There was no subject, but unfortunately, I understood exactly what she meant.
“……”
“Why did it have to be me?”
When I didn’t answer, Pania asked again. This time her voice was thick with tears. She had stopped trying to earn the villagers’ recognition. Seeing her like that made my chest ache even more.
“Pania is the most wonderful magical girl I’ve ever seen…”
At my words, Pania sank to the dirt and cried like a child. “No… sniff… that can’t be… hngh…”
Her voice dissolved into sobs. The sound mixed with a ringing in my ears. My brain felt like it was boiling over.
“You bastards worse than dogs! That’s enough! This is your village! You brought this on yourselves! You’re trash not worth helping!”
I shouted toward the line of tents. I wasn’t expecting an answer. But I couldn’t hold back the things boiling inside me.
Yet, unbelievably, an answer came back—shamelessly.
“Who asked for your help?!”
“If you’re gonna do it, do it right!”
“You think we want to live in this shithole either? We want to live in the city!”
The burning heat in my head froze over. So Pania’s efforts… had all been for nothing? The hollowness left me speechless. No—those bastards didn’t matter. What mattered right now was Pania. She had already been on the edge, and after hearing that, there was no way she was fine.
I lowered my head and slowly rolled my eyes upward to look at her. ‘What… what the hell…?’
The first thing that came to mind when I saw her face were the buckets set out in front of the slum tents to catch rainwater. The twisted, warped, pitifully crumpled traces were now clearly etched onto Pania’s face. The expression she had worn during the protest had deepened as she stared at the dirt. The original Pania would never have made a face like that. She had been bright and positive—the kind of person who gave energy to everyone around her. And I… had turned her into this?
I couldn’t bear to look at her. I tried to comfort her, but in the end, I couldn’t say anything and just lowered my head.
“You ran away scared of the city folks!”
“You’re the reason we stepped up, so take responsibility! The other magical girls were competent—why is ours the only useless one?!”
Countless accusations hammered into Pania’s back. She swayed unsteadily. “You shameless—!”
The moment I tried to shout at the tents again, my body lifted into the air. Pania carefully held me in her arms and dragged her feet as she walked. The place we arrived at was a particularly small and shabby tent in the corner of the village. Pania leaned against the wall, still holding me, and buried her face against my body. Her embrace trembled faintly.