First Meeting with the Belt
First Meeting with the Belt
As soon as Han Jae-jung arrived back at the hospital as Alkaid, he rushed to the bathroom and threw up everything he had eaten. He still couldn’t adapt to being exposed to the stares of a crowd of strangers. It wasn’t just a mental problem. His whole body was in bad shape.
It was the result of pushing a body that hadn’t yet recovered. Like an athlete competing the day after an injury, or taking an exam while burning up with a fever. Looking back, it had been a considerable gamble. If Libra hadn’t let his guard down, he might have been the one reduced to ashes on the spot.
The thought made him shudder. Next time, he would prepare more thoroughly before stepping forward. Han Jae-jung resolved.
His head was spinning. The Belt, which normally would have been noisy with quests by now, was silent. More than anything else, that was a precise indicator that his body wasn’t normal.
He flopped face-down onto the bed. It was more comfortable than the floor of his yellow-linoleumed home, but his mind was uneasy.
‘Maybe I should’ve just gone home.’
He felt indebted to Blue Sirius. Being protected by the person he was supposed to protect—there was a limit to how humiliating this could get.
That wasn’t the only reason, of course.
Han Jae-jung couldn’t be certain that his current self was truly Han Jae-jung. So he couldn’t simply enjoy Blue Sirius’s kindness. She was looking at him, but it wasn’t really him. Goodwill directed at the wrong target was nothing but uncomfortable.
Like a misdelivered package or a mistaken bank transfer, it left a bad taste. The difference was, accepting this came with no legal penalty.
He could have shamelessly taken everything she offered and then acted as if he knew nothing, but unfortunately, Han Jae-jung wasn’t that kind of person.
Besides, the body called Han Jae-jung was her ex-lover. A past tie that should now be forgotten. A relationship where seeing each other would only dredge up the past and cause mutual pain.
Nothing good could come of it, yet he still dragged himself back to the hospital. There was a reason.
The current Han Jae-jung was officially listed as a key witness who had been kidnapped by a monster and returned. Now that all the abductees had been rescued overnight, he might no longer be “key,” but he was still a person under the protection of a national agency.
A short walk might have been fine, but simply going home for good would be a problem.
“Haaah....”
He pressed a hand to his throbbing head and let out a sigh. It was good to know the ideal. Good to be able to wield all his power near-perfectly.
But he had only just reached the starting line. He still lacked the strength to fight and kill Dilemma’s major monsters. And this wasn’t just about killing them—he had to protect others while doing it, which made it even harder.
On top of that, there were practical life problems. Since he couldn’t openly show his face, earning a salary like the magical girls was impossible. A normal job was out of the question with quests getting in the way. A sponsor was an option, but no reputable corporation would sponsor a monster, so that was ruled out.
He felt utterly lost. The ideal was clear, but the path toward it was so dark. He was tired, so he decided to push the thinking to tomorrow and closed his eyes.
In that moment, fire erupted from the Belt. The glowing Belt let out a clamorous sound and woke Han Jae-jung from his sleep.
[A Star has been discovered.]
“Agh, shit, you startled me.”
Startled, Han Jae-jung turned toward it.
“What do you mean, discovered a star?”
[While collecting Libra’s starlight, I succeeded in illuminating one star that had been obscured until now.]
What did that mean? Perplexed, Han Jae-jung racked his brain to interpret the Belt’s words.
‘Completely illuminated one star... Ah, don’t tell me.’
After a moment’s thought, something occurred to Han Jae-jung.
The Star Fragments, quest rewards. The Belt collected the starlight that spilled out when monsters were defeated and eventually forged it into a complete star. Discovering a star undoubtedly meant a new star had been completed.
A boost in power—for Han Jae-jung, who had just been feeling his limits, this couldn’t be better news.
“Good. Show me, quickly.”
[Understood. Please lie down in a comfortable position.]
As the Belt said, Han Jae-jung relaxed his body and lay on the hospital bed. He closed his eyes.
Nothing in particular happened. No flashing sacred light appeared. He felt something was off, but he was so terribly sleepy that Han Jae-jung gradually sank into a deep sleep.
And as he fell asleep, Han Jae-jung dreamed.
**
Late one night, I was walking down the street. I’d run out of money to keep studying for the civil service exam, and I had no way to enter university and build my résumé at this point. My social anxiety was still severe, so talking to people wasn’t easy.
In a society where the internet solved everything, a lonely young man who also suffered from internet avoidance was one of the information-vulnerable.
There was still money in my account. Wicked money from my parents’ death, and the heavy money my lover wired out of guilt. The moment I touched either of those, I would feel like I was losing my humanity.
It was a kind of stubbornness that everyone has at least once. I absolutely could not bring myself to covet the money of parents who died because of me and a lover I had hurt, all so I could live well on my own.
Someone might chastise me, call it the self-righteousness of a full belly, ask if I knew how many people died in poverty without even that kind of money.
But I didn’t care. Ethical standards are inherently personal. Their standards and values were merely different from mine. Money is a very important value, but to me, there was a value more important.
Living with guilt was worse than living hungry, never knowing when I might die.
“Fuuuuck....”
I let out a long curse instead of a sigh and moved my feet listlessly. The night wouldn’t pass no matter how much I walked. I was at my wit’s end.
What now? How should I live? While walking with such worries, I saw a light in a back alley. Going into a dark, secluded alley just for that reason was insane. But my feet moved toward it.
There was no logical reason. Just a gut feeling.
A hunch that if I went that way, a new possibility would open up for me.
As I stepped inside, a sticky, viscous sensation gradually pooled around my feet. I couldn’t see what it was in the darkness, but thinking back now, it was probably blood.
Without fear, I went deeper inside and finally saw the source of the light. It was a lens, shining brightly as it reflected the moonlight.
A belt.
A strangely shaped belt that resembled a telescope somehow lay there. To be honest, when I first saw it, I didn’t think it was a belt. It lacked the strap a belt was supposed to have.
As if possessed, I picked it up and examined its structure. In the process, my eyes met the lens.
A searing pain, as if electrocuted, surged up from the tips of my fingers gripping the belt. What I saw was another memory.
It was like a dream within a dream. A memory glimpsed within a memory. At the edge of my blurry vision, someone came into view again.
A figure lying on a peaceful-looking bed, fidgeting while holding a smartphone. The face, the body, the situation—everything was different, yet somehow I was certain that it was me. It was strange. There was no evidence whatsoever to justify that judgment.
It felt as if I had met a person whose soul, not body, was a perfect doppelgänger of my own. Yes, there was no other way to explain it. A parallel-world version of myself. Was that it?
On the screen of the smartphone I held, an entertaining comic was drawn. I scrolled down briefly, and the title came into view.
Magical Girl Golden Age.
**
“Ugh!”
The bed sheets were damp. Proof that he had sweated too much in his sleep. His breathing was ragged.
“Hahh... hah... hah....”
What had he just seen? Han Jae-jung managed to pull himself together, calming his racing heart and his heaving chest. At the same time, he turned his head to look at the Belt.
Unlike its appearance in the dream, it was now a clearly defined object. It was still taciturn, offering no words.
He rubbed his face several times and massaged his tired eyes. He’d just woken up, but he didn’t feel the least bit refreshed. He was still exhausted, even disgusted.
The dream he’d just had wasn’t a simple fantasy—it was a definite memory. He must have recovered additional memories while observing the completed star. The Belt’s earlier claim that completing a star could restore memories was clearly true.
He’d let his guard down just because it was a high probability. He hadn’t expected it to hit him like this.
“Haaah....”
He let out a long breath and barely steadied himself. Based on the memory he’d just seen, Han Jae-jung began to infer.
He had met the Belt before the point where he was chased by a monster, and through that Belt, he had observed someone. That someone was, with very high probability, a parallel-world version of himself. The webtoon he had been reading was called ‘Magical Girl Golden Age.’
‘Did I confuse those memories and mistakenly think I had possessed him?’
If so, that explained everything—this familiar body of Han Jae-jung, his values, his trauma, even his actions. But it was too early to be certain. The clues were insufficient. He needed to recover more memories.
‘In the end, it means I have to defeat more monsters.’
Well, that was a good thing. It was what Han Jae-jung himself wished for.
Just defeating a clone of Libra had allowed him to seize this much starlight. He realized anew that quests to eliminate S-rank monsters were the fastest way to gain memories and power.
But if he focused only on shortcuts, he might end up on a shortcut to the afterlife. Han Jae-jung judged it best to pick his situations carefully when gathering stars.
He shifted his gaze back to the Belt.
The memory he’d just seen made the Belt seem even more suspicious.
How had it shown him something like that? Who had made this thing to begin with, and for what purpose?
His head was a mess.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Just didn’t sleep well.”
Han Jae-jung answered naturally, then flinched and spun toward the source of the voice.
“What... what the.”
“My apologies. I’m often told I make no sound when I move.”
“No, that’s not—who are you....”
Han Jae-jung stopped mid-sentence and observed her carefully. A woman with light beige hair, neatly tied back so it wouldn’t flow loose. She was in civilian clothes, but there was no mistaking it.
“Golden Aldebaran...?”
“Thank you for recognizing me.”
A magical girl who was a master of concealment.
“Why are you here?”
“I’ve come to take your testimony.”
“At this hour?”
“Yes. I thought it best to conclude this matter as quickly as possible.”
“Isn’t this... a little too early?”
He glanced at the clock. 7 a.m. It was a bit early for a visit.
“A magical girl’s working hours are always twenty-four hours a day.”
“Admirable work ethic. Except you’ve applied it to someone else, too.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
“I was being sarcastic....”
Looking at Golden Aldebaran standing there stately, Han Jae-jung heaved a deep sigh.
“Huh? Wait a moment. Weren’t Pink Deneb or... Seol-hwa... ahem, Blue Sirius originally in charge of the investigation?”
“Yes, that was originally the case, however....”
Aldebaran hesitated.
“Both of them are currently unable to come.”
There were only a few matters that called for that kind of reticence. Han Jae-jung guessed the rest.
“They fell victim to the S-rank monster Scutum... and both remain unconscious.”
Yet the moment he heard those words, a sensation of his heart plummeting overcame him.