Chapter 64 : Group Life (5) Part-1

The night was bearable.

Of course, it was inevitable to think about how warm it would be inside that tent.

Even with a heater nearby, the tattered house with holes here and there, merely lined with a layer of plastic, couldn’t completely block the chill of the midnight air.

During the day, the temperature rose to the point where one might think, “Isn’t it a bit warm?”

But at night, while not cold enough to freeze to death, the temperature dropped significantly.

After all, in this country, spring and autumn are seasons of dramatic temperature differences.

“I have a good idea. Want to hear it?”

When Hayoon and Jieun were washing up, Iris came up with an idea.

It wasn’t something that could be called groundbreaking, but it was worth trying.

After dinner, Jieun disappeared into the tent with a seemingly upset expression.

The remaining magical girls exchanged opinions briefly before they started moving.

First, they searched the nearby forest for suitable branches.

They didn’t need to be particularly long, just enough to be noticeably larger than the stove Iris had made.

It took about an hour to gather branches that could also be used as firewood.

Initially, it was a bit chilly when they went outside, but as they moved, their bodies warmed up, and it felt a bit better.

The materials they needed were closer than they expected.

This wasn’t the only house with a stove.

To be precise, most of the abandoned houses in the area were similar.

Some even had backyards stacked with firewood for the stove.

While chopping thick logs into pieces didn’t mean much, there were places where moderately thick broken branches were piled up.

The girls selected a few sturdy, longer ones from those piles.

They then moved the stove a little closer to the tent from the center of the house and set up the thick branches around it.

The floor inside the house, whether concrete or cement, was solid and not easily breakable, so they used a few bricks to stabilize the base.

Thus, they pitched a larger tent connected to Jieun’s tent.

It was a transparent plastic cover, so it didn’t look very nice from the outside.

Inside, you had to crouch low to move around.

But at the very least, it could more effectively retain the stove’s heat.

The five girls stood outside the tent, looking at their makeshift shelter with a sense of satisfaction.

“Can we really call it ‘temporary’?”

Delphinium murmured with a slightly worried tone, but for a moment, they still felt a sense of achievement.

“We’ll have to dismantle it all anyway when summer comes.”

Rose joked a little, but her words didn’t exactly lift the mood.

Would they really have to stay here until summer?

No, more importantly, how long would they have to stay here?

All the girls, except Hayoon, were likely thinking the same thing.

In one sense, or perhaps in every sense, the girls gathered here were all runaways.

Even so, none of them was tactless enough to speak out loud and make everyone consciously aware of that fact again.

The first to go inside was Hayoon.

As if she had already accepted the situation with composure, her movements were confident and unhesitating.

Whatever conversation might have occurred earlier while washing up, the hesitation that had seemed faintly present was no longer visible in her now.

The remaining four exchanged glances.

“Sigh.”

Iris was the first to move.

She let out a deep sigh as if the ground would sink beneath her and entered the ‘temporary’ tent.

Next was Rose, scratching her head.

Then Delphinium and Dahlia followed.

Their efforts had not been in vain; the inside of the tent was warm enough.

Even covered with dry leaves stuffed into the plastic, it was enough to endure the night.

How were the others reacting?

Lying on the hard floor, Iris looked up at the ceiling beyond the transparent plastic and pondered.

The radio only provided extremely limited information.

All it said was that the magical girls had disappeared and that efforts from all walks of life were being made to find them.

There was no mention of how the citizens were reacting or what would happen once the magical girls were found.

Was the information being controlled?

She was scared.

What kind of reaction would her parents have when she returned?

She had skipped school without permission, abandoned her important duties as a magical girl, and even disappeared with a circuit in her possession.

Rose, Delphinium, and Dahlia, who were a year older than Iris and Hayoon, also wore uneasy expressions.

To make matters worse, they were all exam candidates this year, yet here they were.

Hayoon might be excused because of Jeong Jieun, but Jieun herself—

…It was hard to imagine.

Iris had enjoyed everything Jieun had never possessed.

If even the little Jieun had left was taken away—

Iris trembled.

Iris had recognized Jieun during the battle.

Even without knowing who she was, every time they met, Iris could tell it was her.

And she persistently tormented her.

She repeatedly aimed her cursed bullets at her, drove her elsewhere, and never considered what happened afterward.

She simply justified it by thinking,

“They’re bad people.”

They were the ones who backed corporations that bullied the weak and prevented Earth from being part of the galactic community.

Even though those corporations themselves came from beyond the galaxy—

Then, did that make everyone who worked for those corporations villains as well?

Was helping orphaned children with the earnings from working at such corporations also an evil act?

Iris had never thought about it.

She had only focused on how irritating that one soldier was.

The one who, no matter how many times they fought, fell, got hurt, and suffered, always stood back up and charged again.

The one who, even in hopeless battles, kept trying to land just one blow.

Iris had wanted to break them.

Did it hurt?

Of course, it must have.

Iris had never been hit by her own cursed bullets, but she wasn’t foolish enough to think they had no impact.

No, she attacked with them precisely because she calculated that they would hurt.

She imagined them, somewhere, limping back with serious injuries that she had caused.

Why hadn’t she thought about what happened afterward?

Magical girls could immediately return to be treated.

They had designated spaces to rest.

They could receive support anywhere—

If she thought about it even a little, she would realize that soldiers didn’t have such privileges.

Iris knew that thinking like this late at night wouldn’t help her sleep.

Still, she couldn’t stop her thoughts.

In the end, it was a long time before she finally fell asleep.

When she woke up in the morning, the tent was oddly warm.

Although it was a well-insulated tent, it was usually greeted with chilly air when stepping out of the sleeping bag.

When Jieun got up and touched the tent entrance, she felt even more puzzled.

Even with the stove outside, how could it be this warm?

Only after unzipping the tent and crawling out did she realize the girls had built another tent inside the house.

It must have been to endure the cold of the night since it was still a bit chilly.

The stove, powered by her energy, was running smoothly.

Lacking blankets or sleeping bags, they had apparently used a makeshift blanket made of plastic filled with dry leaves.

Seeing this rugged, survivalist setup, Iris was momentarily at a loss for words.

Were they serious?

Did they really plan to stay here?

Why?

To help her?

Did they truly want to support her so much that they severed ties with the Federation that had employed them and chose to remain here?

Even forgoing school?

No one was sleeping.

Through the plastic, the light outside the door was bright.

Perhaps they had all gone out to work.

Jieun stooped slightly as she stepped out of the plastic tent.

“Jieun!”

As soon as she exited the house, she heard Hayoon’s voice.

The girls were standing in a field.

It felt strange to just stand there after hearing her name called, so Jieun slowly walked over to where they were.

There was a vegetable garden.

Not just sprouting seeds but fully grown crops that reached toward the sky.

As the girls had said, they looked as though they could be harvested “soon.”

Perhaps even by next week.

Hayoon beamed at Iris with a bright smile, but Jieun could only stand there, speechless, staring at the sight.

On the girls’ wrists were circuits powered by Iris’s energy.

They didn’t use their own energy but merely resonated with hers to function.

With energy like mine, these children had sprouted new life.

“Jieun?”

At Hayoon’s words, I lifted my head.

I didn’t know what kind of expression to make.

Smiling felt odd.

Not long ago, I had been filled with resentment.

I hadn’t felt like smiling, not even once.

Getting angry felt… too pathetic.

Well, it’s not surprising that I’m a pathetic person.

Ever since I learned about the existence of magical girls,

I’ve never once stopped envying them.

In the end, my next action was just as pathetic.

I turned around and headed back toward the house.

I wish I could have done something more, but—

Beep-beep-beep-beep—

Before I could even reach the house, the pager went off.

The magical girls’ pager.

Of course, since I still held onto the others’ pagers, only mine was ringing.

I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced at it.

A monster had appeared, and the message urged anyone who received it to respond.

Judging by the tone, it seemed quite urgent.

Well, they had always relied on magical girls for help until now.

Though the police had introduced equipment to deal with monsters, they still couldn’t fully handle them.

Just recently, there had been a monster capable of melting wires.

I turned back.