An Exorcist Magical Girl!

《Your

【Talent: Exorcist (Aspiring)】

is in danger of being deleted》

 

‘What the hell?’

 

I couldn’t move my body. I was afraid to touch anything.

 

Meanwhile, new pop-ups were appearing and disappearing at a rapid pace in the status window.

 

《Cause is being determined》

【@$&?@%】

《Failed to determine cause》

《New Mission》

《Temporary measures in progress》

《Cause is being determined》

 

This shouldn’t be happening.

 

I’d just changed a month-long rental to aspiring, and now they’re trying to take away the talent altogether.

 

I felt like I was going crazy, but there was nothing I could do but watch.

 

Unlike last time, when I was given a mission to save my talent, this time I wasn’t even given a chance.

 

Wait, no.

 

“You’re telling me you passed the mission with Seo Jun’s help?”

 

It was the most plausible hypothesis at the moment.

 

The way I passed the mission was deemed

“cheating”

and I was penalized with a skill removal.

 

There was no other explanation for the sudden deletion crisis.

 

Just then, a new popup flashed up.

  

 

《Cause Determined》

  

 

I held my breath and focused on the screen in front of me. Was it because the mission was interfered with by someone else, and would the mission be invalidated? But the message that popped up was far from what I expected.

 

《Baek Iri’s profile does not match the environment with her talent》

《Editing the environment》

 

And my profile was called up in the status window.

 【Profile】【Surname/First Name: Baek Iri】【Date of Birth: 20XX. 01. 13 (Age 17) 】【School/Grade/Class: Shenlin Girls’ High School/2/5】 

《Modify the environment》

 

The notification popped up once again. Soon, some letters on the screen began to flicker with a beeping sound.

 

【School/Grade/Class: Mukgyeong

Girls’ High School/2/5】 

My profile was being modified!

 

《Environment modification in progress》

《Environment modification completed》

Before I knew it, the profile modification was complete.

 

I squinted dumbly and brought up the profile window that had somehow disappeared.

 

《Modifications being applied》

 

And with that, the profile window reappeared. With trembling hands, I pulled down my profile.

 

It said it was modifying my

“preferences”

so it was unlikely that it had changed something fundamental about me, like my name or birthday. Maybe something like where I live or where I go to school.

 

【School/Grade/Class: Mukgyeong

Girls’ High School/2/5】 “Mukgyeong Girls’ High School.” 

Everything else was the same, only the school I went to had changed.

 

From Shenlin

Girls’ High School to Mukgyeong Girls’ High School.

 

Afterward, I realized from the messages in my status that the name of the school in my profile was changed and the transfer documents were automatically sent to both schools at the same time.

 

In other words, the transfer process was in full swing without me being a party to it.

 

That sucks.

 

The triple combo of talent deletion, forced profile edit, and transfer was pretty traumatizing and it all happened in less than 10 minutes.

 

The first emotion I recognized was fear. There was no guarantee that this was the end of the story.

 

I wonder how many times this will happen in the future, and if

“Status Pane”

will be able to respond to all those deletion crises as well as it did today.

 

‘Would this talent, after all, suddenly slip out of my hands one day?’

 

The fear soon changed shape and formed a new question.

 

‘Was this really meant to be given and taken away all along?’

 

Did I just unwittingly win the first prize that was never meant to be given in the first place?

 

And these thoughts twisted and turned and twisted and eventually became regret. Regret that I hadn’t been prudent enough.

 

‘Had I been too complacent, too blinded by immediate greed, to recognize the unusual circumstances of the arrival of a talent that was contingent on the deletion of an existing aspirant talent?’

 

Regret is an unpleasant emotion. Regret distorts memories, scatters ashes on resolutions, and creates useless fantasies.

 

The thoughts I’ve been avoiding crawl and squirm their way to the surface.

 

In the midst of the endless stream of thoughts, I desperately prevented this sentence from being completed in my mind.

 

It was the last line, a promise to myself: I must not cross it.

 

I tried to shake off the thoughts that clogged my brain.

 “No. I’m…” 

I said, forcing myself to speak when no one was listening.

 “I’ve been careful enough.” 

I wasn’t being complacent.

 

I had thought about it, researched it, consulted with status bar experts, and asked myself dozens of times.

 

I lifted my head up. I coveted the life of a genius.

 

It was only two days ago that I decided that if I could have this brilliant talent, I would do anything for it, and I would cling to it like a vice.

 

The moment I regretted it, I would be giving it away.

 

I had to remind myself.

 

***

 

On Sunday evening, I was stretched out on my bed, double- and triple-checking my transportation to Mukgyeong Girls’ High School.

 “It’s going to take an hour.” 

A new school, and a new training center. The original plan was for the training center to be the only new thing, but thanks to the damn deletion crisis, I moved to the school.

 “Environment modification.”

I slowly mulled over the messages in the status bar.

 

My profile said my environment didn’t match my talents.

 “You’re going to put me in an environment that matches my talents, and you picked “an all-girls high school”.” 

I’ve felt it since the first mission, but it seems like the will to make me strong is firmly wrapped up in this talent.

 

Mukgyeong Girls’ High School. The school I’ll be attending starting tomorrow.

 

It was a school that became famous for having more ghosts than teachers. It must have been only last year that they started boasting of such a high frequency of hauntings. The cause or circumstances of the sudden appearance of ghosts is unknown. Nothing has been found.

 

In the past year, Mukgyeong Girls’ High School, an ordinary high school in Jungnang-gu, Seoul, has become widely known across the country.

 

The nickname must have come from the fact that the school is haunted by ghosts as if it were a cemetery,

 ““Grave Girls’ High School” I think.” 

The school’s administration tried to silence the students in an attempt to prevent this dishonorable fame, but to no avail.

 

The so-called

“Grave Girls’ High School myth”

spread across social media and into the vastness of the internet.

 

And, unsurprisingly, the number of new students has decreased from the previous year, despite the ever-growing popularity.

 

Students were not willing to enroll in an all-girls school unless they were close to home.

 “Really? We? The school? Transfer? Didn’t you get us confused with Mingyeong Girls’ High School or Muryeong High School?”

,

The administrative staff who took my transfer documents asked me three times if I really wanted to come to this school.

 

Anyway, I can’t believe I have to spend more than half of my day in this haunted place. Maybe this is the perfect school for an exorcist. Especially for an exorcist like me who hasn’t had much experience with ghosts.

 

I’m still determined to succeed as a genius exorcist, so maybe that’s a good thing?

 

Maybe this transfer will be a springboard for growth, I thought.

 

Still, the anxiety of being in an unfamiliar situation didn’t go away,

 

***

 

I chanted a few times, as if self-brainwashing myself, before finally falling asleep.

 

And the next day.

 “Okay students, there’s a new student in our class. Please be nice to her. Her name is Baek Iri.”

, the teacher said as he gave the floor to me.

 Silence— 

Second-grade classroom 4, where the teacher walked in, twenty or so students stared at me in disbelief, some of them chattering loudly.

 “You transferred to our school? You transferred? You came?”

, blurted one of the students.

 

One student couldn’t help but ask,

“Why on earth would you do that? Everyone else in the school is desperate to leave.”  “Does she know that our school is haunted by a ghost?”

whispered one of the students.

 “Would she have come if she knew?”

another replied.

 

Hahaha, surprisingly, I did. I put on my best smile.

 

After I finished introducing myself, saying that I’d be nice, the teacher pointed to the back of the classroom and picked out my seat.

 “Now, where do you want to sit, let’s see, the empty seat at the end of the first row?” 

I followed her gaze and froze when I spotted an unrecognizable face. Sitting there was none other than Seo Jun herself.

 

***

 “I told you to “come” to branch 4, I don’t remember asking you to follow me to school.” 

Seo Jun was the first to speak, as I rubbed my eyes and took my assigned seat.

 

Yeah, I’m sure she’s just as weirded out by this reunion as I am. No, actually, she’s probably more puzzled than I am. We should have run into each other at the training center after school.

 “Just so you know, I’m not stalking you.”

, I explained.

 “Then what is it?”

Seo Jun pressed.

 “Oh, yeah…”

,

I mumbled.

‘Damn, I look terrifyingly suspicious. How do I explain this?’

I thought while trying to make a good excuse for her questions.

 “Is this like when you trespass into the practice assessment?”

Seo Jun speculated.

 “W-what do you mean, trespassing? D-didn’t I tell you that I had the teachers’ permission to come in?”

I stammered.

 

Seo Jun exclaimed.

“The director didn’t give you permission. He said he didn’t even know you were there.”  

Hahaha, my lies were exposed.

 

I nodded anyway. It was a similar situation to when I was forced to transfer because of my talent, but I wasn’t going to lie.

 “Yeah, well. I’m sure it was like a walk-on-the-park for your school. I just sent them a bunch of paperwork saying I’m transferring here.”

,

I remarked.

 “You did?”

Seo Jun asked not sure if I was telling the truth.

 “Uh, yeah. It happened. Anyway, I chose this school because, well, I figured if I was going to study exorcism in earnest, it would be important to have a lot of daily contact with ghosts. I mean, Mukgyeong Girls’ High School is famous for that.”

, I added.

 

When I said that and stopped talking, Seo Jun stared at me with an unreadable expression.

 

When she didn’t probe further, I realized that this topic was a bit of a stretch. So I blurted out the next thing that bothered me after the talent removal crisis.

 “Seo Jun, is your evaluation… okay?” “What?”

Seo Jun was startled by my sudden question.

 “You gave me points, did you get in trouble for that or something. And you said your April evaluation performance would determine if you were a mission team or something.”

I explained.

 

After doing some research over the weekend, it’s true that the final scores for the months of June, September, and November are not part of the official record. However, that doesn’t mean that the March, April, July, and October evaluations don’t have any impact.

 

It was the points earned in the previous on-the-job evaluation that counted when selecting the team for the mission.

 “Oh, that.”

Seo Jun nodded, as if she knew what I was talking about. 

 “I was going to go to the training center to talk about it.”

Seo Jun’s calm voice came out slowly.

“Baek Iri, I’m going to need you to team up with me on this mission.”