Chapter 38: New Identity

“Hey hey, are you awake?”

“Miss Maya has already taken care of your new identity! Miss Clara, please check your electronic ID card and remember to hide your original ID!”

The next morning, Fran sent a voice call request through QTalk.

She was talking about things that really concerned Squire.

“First of all, your sister getting hired isn’t really a coincidence. The Boss just happened to be looking for an intern, and your sister was looking for an internship. Miss Maya handled all of this. After some discussion, they decided to give your sister a chance~”

So it was Miss Maya…

Squire frowned. Didn’t anyone bother to consult me about this?!

“Your sister’s grades are excellent, and she was the one who proactively sent in her resume. Even if the Boss hadn’t hired her, any other company would’ve, since there are tons of hero companies in Central City… You have an outstanding little sister, huh?”

“Y-yeah.”

Squire hadn’t really paid much attention to her sister’s grades before, so hearing this from Fran made her feel a mix of complicated emotions and a little pride.

“Isn’t this a good thing~ Bringing her in means you can see how she’s doing at work, and salary and benefits are easier to negotiate. After all, you’re a department head, so you have some leverage.”

Hero companies seemed to have intense work demands. Compared to the grueling 996 at other firms, staying at Dream Witch at least meant she could keep an eye on her sister and feel at ease…

From this perspective, it wasn’t a bad deal. She even had to thank the Boss.

“Also, Miss Maya is really efficient. The dorm apartment is already arranged.

The Boss approved a pretty generous budget this time, so the apartment is in the city center, quite close to our office. Since we’ll be hiring more people later, there are several rooms…

Oh, and you can move in too.”

“Like I’m going to move in.”

“Living with your sister as a coworker while hiding your true identity—that’s not fun~”

“Don’t put me in a tough spot.”

“The employee card arriving the day after tomorrow will be issued in Clara’s name… Ah, I didn’t expect they’d actually use the name I picked for your new identity… I kinda feel like a proud mom.”

“Hey…”

“Uncle~ How about being my dad?”

Fran’s joke didn’t make Squire laugh. She took it seriously:

“Cut it out. You’re younger than my sister, what are you talking about?”

Squire, exhausted from staying up late the night before, held her forehead and complained.

“I’ve got enough on my plate already. Don’t joke with me.”

Then she hung up.

Squire’s new identity was Clara.

In the end, she still couldn’t keep using her sister’s name. At least as her sister’s colleague, she couldn’t continue to be called “Lucia.”

But she couldn’t come up with a name that sounded better, so she just went with Clara.

According to Fran, the Boss was very much in favor of it. It made sense since Dream Witch is a hero company; calling her Clara was normal and convenient.

But what about Teacher Nangong? How would she explain things?

Magical Girl Clara would have to officially appear eventually. Would that conflict with the manga’s setup?

Could it be that the mangaka drew the hero based on themselves?

Then claimed it was adapted from real events?

It sounded like a narcissist’s delusion.

Because of staying up late, by the time she got up and finished washing up, it was already past ten o’clock. The sunlight barely reached her bed.

Following the plan, she picked up her phone and dialed her sister using the new SIM card she got last night.

Deep breath.

This was to keep things authentic. Although Squire was somewhat confident in her acting, the person she was deceiving was her own sister, so she was a little worried her tone might give something away…

A short dialing tone, and Lucia Rou answered quickly. She even took the lead with her slightly accented Mandarin, “Hello? Are you Miss Clara of Dream Witch?”

This girl wasn’t shy at all?

Squire, losing control of the conversation, was a bit flustered.

Though she herself was a cautious type, her little sister was quite socially bold…

Or maybe this was just bravado?

“Yeah, I’m Clara… Lucia, I’ll come to the airport to pick you up tonight. Can you send me your spaceship’s flight number?”

“No problem… Oh! You can just send me the dorm address. I can take the shuttle myself. No need to trouble you.”

This girl was pretty polite. Didn’t want to trouble others?

Squire hurriedly said, “N-no trouble. You wait at the airport, and I’ll come get you.”

“Hehe, alright~ See you tonight~”

Squire didn’t want her sister wandering around Central City alone. This place had the most heroes and villains in the world. The taller the buildings, the deeper the shadows beneath. Her naive sister had no defenses—if she got caught up in some trouble, it would be awful…

Of course, these worries were born from brotherly concern.

After hanging up, her sister sent a photo of her spaceship boarding pass. The landing time was after ten in the evening…

That really was late.

“First, let’s finish the homework Miss Nangong left. Nyx, help me refine the storyboard.”

[Understood.]

Nyx took over, her tentacles shifting into assistant mode.

Squire had stayed up late last night finishing the serialized storyboard for Magical Girl Clara’s first chapter—more than twenty pages. The speed was thanks not only to the constant flow of inspiration but also the help of a like-minded intelligent assistant…

Squire still didn’t know much about Nyx’s background or plans, but at least for now, in terms of drawing, she was incredibly useful.

Eh, this is great.

————

Drawing continued until noon when the doorbell of the low-rent apartment rang.

“Oh! You’re here!”

Squire shuffled over in slippers several sizes too big, clacking to the door. Without even checking the peephole—too short to see it—she opened the door directly.

“Miss Nangong?”

Opening the door was a tall woman wearing a casual jacket, an orange chunky scarf wrapped around her neck, and carrying a laptop bag on her shoulder.

“Good morning, little Lucia~”

Thinking about no longer borrowing her sister’s name, Squire wondered how she should be honest with Nangong Hope. But after some thought, she invited her in first.

“…Hmm, off work this early?”

“Haha, are you confused? It’s the weekend.”

“Oh, I see…”

Even though weekends can still mean hero troubles, the Executive Department worked five days on, two off, but didn’t necessarily rest on weekends—it was a rotating shift system.

So Squire wasn’t very sensitive to weekends.

“Here, a little gift for you. You haven’t had lunch yet, right?”

“Thank you.”

Squire took the paper box from Nangong Hope’s hands and opened it. Inside were neatly arranged square cakes. Squire wasn’t picky about sweets, but these little cakes looked like something for little girls…

Oh, now she herself was a little girl, so no problem.

“Hm? What’s this?”

Nangong Hope took off her shoes at the door and glanced down at the cardboard box tossed there.

It was stuff Squire had brought back from the company. Clothes created by Nyx disappeared when taken off, but this box wouldn’t.

“Wah!?”

She hurriedly covered the box and stuffed it into the cabinet under the kitchen sink.

“T-this is stuff that’s useless to organize.”

Otherwise, how to explain? She couldn’t say it was stuff left behind after getting fired, right?

“Eh? Is that so?”

Nangong Hope seemed doubtful, but this little girl’s mysterious behavior wasn’t new. Without asking more, she entered what wasn’t exactly the living room and started looking at the storyboard pages without waiting for Squire to speak.

“Oh, the storyboard is quite detailed. You’ve been working hard these past couple of days!”

A couple of days?

No, it was really just one night and one morning.