Chapter 8 : Is this real ? (4)

I was only planning to exchange a brief greeting and head back.

“Th-thank you for your hard work! I am Magical Girl Blaze!”

As she saluted again, her voice trembling, I waved my hand dismissively.

“You really don’t have to salute… Ah, whatever.”

Even though I told her not to, she kept doing it, and it was starting to get annoying.

At this point, I might as well just ignore it.

But then…

“Your name?”

“Sorry! My name is classified!”

“Even to your instructor?”

“Yes, that’s correct!”

Wow, this girl has a loud voice.

They said she was from the special forces—maybe she’s from the National Intelligence Service or something?

I don’t understand why she can’t even tell her name to someone who is technically her superior.

Well, if it’s an order from higher-ups, there’s nothing I can do about it.

Still, I was curious.

‘I mean, I should at least be allowed to ask, right?’

I was assigned to train them, and the Ministry of National Defense even said they’d treat me like a general for this.

Yet, they won’t even tell me something as basic as their names?

That’s kind of disappointing.

‘The Special Disaster Response Command is in charge of this, so I can just ask their commander later.’

I’ll check in with them later.

“Alright then… I’ll just call you Blaze for now. What about the others?”

“I’m Magical Girl Icicle.”

“Leaf~ Nice to meet you~”

They’re using codenames?

‘They must really be officers.’

Regular soldiers don’t usually have codenames.

It’s something assigned when you become a non-commissioned officer or an officer.

So, judging from this, it’s clear that these girls are on track to become officers.

And considering their names—Blaze, Icicle, and Leaf—it means the Ministry of National Defense considers them important magical girls.

Names like these indicate a fundamental elemental affinity.

Blaze is probably fire, Icicle is ice, and Leaf is earth-based.

Maybe that’s why they decided to put me in charge of them.

“Hey, Leaf? Don’t you think your attitude is a little disrespectful to Sergeant Min Hayul?”

“He outranks us, sure, but he told us to speak casually, so what’s the big deal?”

“What?”

Blaze turned to Leaf with a look of disbelief, but Leaf just shrugged, as if to say, “What’s the problem?”

Icicle, meanwhile, simply looked up at me, ignoring the other two.

“Sigh.”

“Sergeant Min Hayul is a national hero who has protected South Korea for years!”

“Do you really think that attitude is appropriate?”

“But he said he doesn’t care. Why are you making a big deal out of it? You’re exhausting.”

As the two started arguing in front of me, I smacked my forehead.

I suddenly lost confidence.

Confidence in my ability to teach these kids.

***

I had only planned to introduce myself today, get a general sense of what kind of people they were, and leave.

Blaze looked disappointed, while Leaf seemed happy that I was finally leaving.

This guy is seriously hopeless.

Icicle… I have no idea what she’s thinking.

“I think I really screwed up.”

How am I supposed to handle three people with such strong personalities?

“Hey, got any ideas?”

Would I?

Well… I’ve dealt with some junior mascots in Fairy Tale Land before.

“Just tell me whatever you know.”

Uh… Some things are too painful to talk about.

Can I invoke my right to remain silent?

“What the hell did you go through?”

Is this guy guilty of hazing or something?

I shot him a suspicious look, and he coughed awkwardly, turning his head away.

I figured it wasn’t worth forcing an answer out of him, so I let it slide.

When I got back home and looked around the empty house, I let out a deep sigh.

“Mom, why did you just drop me off at the base like that…”

The Madam probably doesn’t know much about magical girls or the military.

She must have just assumed you needed to go to work.

You should understand.

“Whatever… I finally have a break now, so I’m just gonna go straight to sleep.”

Wait, you’re not gonna wash up first?

A stuffed bear flew toward me and grabbed my head.

Ugh, what’s his problem?

I’m already exhausted from waking up in the middle of the night.

Why bother washing up?

You didn’t wash yesterday either!

“You’re the one who said magical girls always stay clean. That they naturally smell nice even without washing.”

That’s… true, but…He trailed off, unable to argue.

Or maybe he was just in complete disbelief at how unbothered I was.

Either way, I ignored him and trudged to my room, removed my magical girl uniform, changed into my pajamas, and collapsed onto my bed.

Are you seriously not gonna wash…?

I threw my phone at him.

“Here. Use it however you want.”

Good night, sir!!

The moment I gave him permission, his expression changed from conflicted to downright sinister as he snickered and grabbed the phone.

Watching how quickly his attitude shifted, I chuckled to myself and closed my eyes.

Ten minutes passed.…I couldn’t sleep.

My body had already woken up, and now it refused to shut down again.

“Damn it.”

I sat up in bed and moved to my chair.

I played League all night yesterday, so I wasn’t really in the mood for that.

But there weren’t really any other games I felt like playing either.

Maybe I should just browse the internet.

The first thing you do when you go online is, of course, ego-searching.

I glanced around to make sure the bear wasn’t watching before finally opening up my browser.

‘Did the news about taking down the Cyclops get posted yet?’

I searched for the Songdo Cyclops incident.

[C-Rank Monster Appears in Songdo… Once Again, Magical Girls Save the Day.]

[“It was over in an instant.” Magical Girl Heart Still Going Strong.]

It was up.

‘Ah.’

I told them not to call me Heart.

This is so embarrassing.

“Sigh…”

Well, at least it made the news.

The view count was lower than I’d hoped, which was a bit disappointing, but I should be grateful it was posted at all.

Ordinary people don’t pay much attention to magical girls.

In other countries—especially Japan—magical girls are treated almost like idols.

By comparison, Korea is kind of an outlier.

According to analysts on YouTube, it’s because Japan’s magical girls are volunteers, while in Korea, most women either serve as magical girls for their military duty or pay a defense tax instead.

Magical girls are seen as an ordinary part of life.

The Ministry of National Defense also doesn’t try to commercialize them for profit, which plays a role.

But most importantly, there’s never been a major disaster involving magical girls in Korea.

That’s because of me.

I’m too strong.

Unlike other countries, Korea’s recovery rate from monster attacks is 100%.

Even if people die in an attack, they come back to life with their memories erased—so no one really feels the gravity of it.

Because of that, the only people who actually care about magical girls are niche hobbyists—basically, people into subcultures.

“That’s not really a place I want to go.”

I hesitated before clicking into one of those forums.

I wasn’t the only well-known magical girl, but I was by far the most famous.

If I went into those places, I’d immediately be met with content that would make me want to puke.

I usually ignored it, letting those kinds of posts exist without engaging.

But tonight, I was so bored I could hardly stand it.

“Just a quick look wouldn’t hurt… right?”

Modern humans are addicted to dopamine.

Without it, we can’t function.

I, too, had long since become a slave to dopamine.

Ego-searching… was an inevitable fate.

Carefully, I clicked into a community site.

[NUOOOOH ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Compilation.jpg] [25]

[So does Heart make you horny or does the girl next door make you horny?] [86]

[I drew a fanart of Heart!] [32]

[Saw Heart up close during the Songdo incident… txt] [27]

[Time for our regular worship service.] [12]

“…This isn’t as bad as I expected?”

I had just made the mistake of uttering words equivalent to “The inside looks clean.”

Like I was in a trance, I clicked on the “I drew a fanart of Heart!” post.

And then.

“Ah, fuck!”

I immediately hit the back button.

I didn’t see it clearly, but it was definitely a half-naked, 2D version of me about to get this and that done to me by a monster.

Thanks to my trained reflexes, I backed out before the image could fully register in my brain.

Crisis partially averted.

This is why these places are the dark side of the internet.

I shouldn’t have clicked in.

Now I just felt gross.