Chapter 18 : Friendship (5)

Despite my worries, our first real battle ended without any issues.

Even though the Cerberuses were considered mid-to-high E-rank when together, they had foolishly separated themselves.

Individually, their strength barely reached mid-to-high F-rank.

“…”

F-rank monsters were the perfect difficulty level for a first battle.

“Honestly, I didn’t have high expectations for your first real fight, but you all performed even better than I anticipated.”

That’s not true!

I was cheering for you all the whole time, super excited!

When you defeated the monsters, I was so happy I could’ve jumped— Mmph!

Without a word, I grabbed the bear’s face, squished it, and then threw him backward.

“You all did really well. Is there anything you want? As long as it’s not something too big, I’ll grant your requests.”

“Then… come hang out with me~!”

At my question, Leaf approached me with a cheerful smile.

“I mean, that’s easy enough to grant… but are you sure that’s all you want?”

“Yeah, I don’t have any big wishes. Besides, being stuck in the military base gets boring, and I want to get closer to you.”

Was this really the same girl who, not long ago, made it blatantly obvious she had no interest in me?

I was too curious to let it go.

“Um… This might not be the best place to ask, but didn’t you dislike me not too long ago?”

“Ah…”

Leaf’s eyes widened slightly at my question before she quickly turned her head away.

“T-That’s… kind of embarrassing to say here. I’ll tell you later in private.”

“Hmm…”

Well, if she didn’t want to talk about it now, I wasn’t going to force her.

“As for the rest of you, take your time and think about what you want.”

The military is a place where rewards and punishments must be clear.

Since you all did well, I’ll grant reasonable requests.

“Now, the only thing left was…”

It’s time for the most important task as magical girls.

“Restoration magic”.

Though it was called restoration magic, it was essentially rewinding time for a specific area.

Naturally, this was a spell developed by Fairy Tale Land.

Originally, the cost of restoring areas destroyed by invading monsters from other dimensions was far too high.

After extensive research, Fairy Tale Land developed this magic to solve the problem.

Every magical girl had this spell ingrained within them, so casting it wasn’t too difficult.

Of course, I had used this spell so many times that I could cast it without a magic wand, but it wasn’t reasonable to expect that from girls who had just become magical girls.

What I could do was guide them.

“Alright, everyone, gather around.”

I called my students over.

Once they approached, I linked their hands together and began explaining step by step.

“This spell isn’t very difficult. It’s one of the most essential spells for magical girls, so it’s built into your wands.”

As long as they could draw it out, they’d be able to use it even without fully understanding it.

That was exactly what I planned to teach them.

“This spell converts everything within the defeated monster into magical energy, then uses that massive amount of mana to rewind time in the surrounding area.”

It might sound impossible, but since it consumes the monster’s existence itself, it’s entirely feasible.

In a way, it was the most efficient magic Fairy Tale Land had ever created.

The fact that monsters were ranked in tiers was proof of its effectiveness.

F-rank monsters only caused F-rank levels of destruction.

An F-rank monster wouldn’t be going around toppling buildings, it simply didn’t have the power for that.

So, using an F-rank monster as material would generate just enough mana to restore the damage it caused.

I demonstrated the process by manipulating my own mana.

Of course, it was just a demonstration, not an actual cast.

But this should be enough for them to grasp the concept.

It wasn’t particularly difficult.

Sure enough, all three of them channeled their mana into their magic wands just as I had demonstrated.

As a result, the tips of their wands began to shine, and soon, the light spread outward.

Like time rewinding, the destroyed buildings and objects started to restore themselves to their original state.

Individually, each monster had power comparable to a mid-tier F-rank, but gathered in one place, their combined strength was roughly that of a mid-to-high E-rank.

The destruction they caused and the people they killed were restored using the mana extracted from their corpses.

Since the magic wands handled that part automatically, there was nothing more for the magical girls to do.

“Wow… it’s like a miracle…”

Blaze looked around with sparkling eyes.

She was right.

Watching the shattered remains of buildings float back into place naturally made one feel that way.

But that wasn’t all.

Even the people who had died were restored as if time had rewound.

Not only that, but their memories of dying disappeared as well.

It was as if nothing had ever happened.

And if they did remember being attacked, they would simply recognize that a magical girl had been involved.

In the past, they wouldn’t have known anything at all.

Some people felt uneasy about the memory loss, but personally, I believed it was better than living with the trauma of having died.

However…”A miracle, huh…”

If someone asked whether this magic was truly a miracle, I wouldn’t be able to answer with a simple “yes.”

No, I could even say it wasn’t a miracle at all.

“Isn’t it? The people are coming back to life…”

Blaze’s voice wavered slightly, perhaps sensing my hesitation.

Oops.

I hadn’t meant to deny her words, but I must have come across that way.

“You’re right. It is a miracle.”

It was just… some old memories had surfaced.

And once you learned the truth behind this magic, it was hard to call it a true miracle.

***

“Finally home…”

After the mission ended, I returned home.

I was about to collapse onto the sofa like I was possessed when I noticed Hayun was already there, so I adjusted my path toward the smaller couch instead.

It wasn’t very big, but since I was small myself, I fit perfectly as I curled up on it.

“Oh, you’re back, sis?”

Hayun, who was lying on the couch, looked at me as she spoke.

“Yeah… why?”

“I saw an article earlier saying a monster appeared in Incheon.”

She responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, her voice half-drowsy.

“Yeah, there have been a lot of monsters lately…”

The bear muttered tiredly.

Monsters did appear quite frequently.

F-rank monsters, in particular, showed up randomly all the time.

However, they rarely caused major incidents, and the lightning division of magical girls was always on standby.

They could eliminate an F-rank monster in less than five minutes, so even if they appeared often, they didn’t pose much of a problem.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that magical girls were the ones keeping the world at peace.

F-rank monsters were so insignificant that alarms weren’t even triggered when they appeared.

Even if one showed up right next to you, there would be no warning.

If the system alerted people every time an F-rank monster appeared—considering that several appeared across the country daily—the flood of complaints would be insane.

Besides, F-rank monsters were so weak that there was no need to evacuate.

Anyone who made a decent effort could escape from one.

But E-rank was a different story.

E-rank monsters were strong enough to put up some resistance against magical girls, meaning they were capable of causing real casualties.

While they weren’t severe enough to trigger nationwide emergency alerts, people in the affected area would at least receive warning messages.

In locations where an E-rank monster appeared, an evacuation alarm would sound.

Even though the lightning division moved quickly, there was always a chance of delay, and an E-rank monster could easily kill a person in that time.

But…”There was an article about it?”

At the end of the day, it was just an E-rank.

It didn’t seem like something that would make the news.

“The news wasn’t about the monster—it was about you.

They wrote an article criticizing the Ministry of Defense for wasting manpower on something as small as an E-rank.

“Looked like a political hit piece.”

“… “

So it was just a political attack disguised as news.

Now even I was being used as political ammunition.

“Ugh, disgusting…”

I was sick of politics.

Losing all interest in the conversation, I sprawled out on the couch and closed my eyes.

“Hey, don’t sleep…”

“I’m gonna sleep… I’m tired…”

“Magical girls are supposed to have great stamina. Guess I’ve got no choice.”

Huh?

I sensed something approaching—”Wha—?!”

“You’re so cute when you’re just lying still like this~!”

Hayun grinned as she scooped me up and carried me over to the larger sofa, lying down with me still in her arms.

“Hey, let go of me…”

“Nope~”

What the hell?

Did she drink or something?

“Hehehe~!”

I struggled for a while, but eventually, I gave up and closed my eyes.

Strangely enough…It was warm and kind of nice.

Hmm.