I Became a New Magical Girl Priest

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In my past life, I had no particular interest in flowers.

Actually, even after being reborn in this world, it was the same. I didn’t care much for flowers or even plants. To me, plants generally didn’t move, and even if they did, their movement was not particularly fast. At first, I found it somewhat fascinating that plants could move, but soon enough, watching their sluggish movements would just bore me.

Well, it’s not like I ever raised animals either. Living in an orphanage made it difficult to take care of something in various ways. Even if I could, the little kids were often too curious, and that might stress the animals out.

But, human interest doesn’t just stay in one place for a lifetime. Following Yeon-woo, I ended up liking those brightly colored petals while tending to the flowers on the roof a few times.

I didn’t really memorize their names. I hadn’t thought to, and Yeon-woo didn’t push me to either. I just found myself appreciating those small leaves swaying together in the wind, and before I knew it, I was standing next to her, enjoying the view together.

“Pretty, right?” she would ask.

Sometimes, as I caught a whiff of the flowers, I’d turn to see Yeon-woo looking at me with her brown eyes. Those deep brown eyes didn’t seem gloomy. Rather, they sparkled with the bright sunlight that was reflected off the vibrant petals and vivid green leaves.

The scent of flowers wasn’t something so strong that it must’ve come from some perfume. It was a gentle, faint scent, a mixture of various floral fragrances that lingered on me after spending time sitting side by side.

Here in the flower garden, the varied scents hardly stood out, but oddly enough, Yeon-woo carried a fragrance that hinted of flowers. It was faint but made me unconsciously breathe in a bit when I noticed she was near.

No, perhaps that fragrance wasn’t even real. Like I said, the smell of flowers around us was likely much stronger than the subtle aroma wafting from Yeon-woo.

It was just how I felt… that Yeon-woo smelled like flowers.

And then it happened.

Well, yes. It was something I couldn’t think of in any other way.

“I got my driver’s license!”

Today, after finishing my morning university classes, I returned to the headquarters only to see Yeon-woo pop out and wave her hands excitedly.

“Oh, really? Congrats!”

I wasn’t surprised since she had been bubbling with excitement over the driving test for a while now.

“Then, how about we go for a drive as a celebration?”

Yeon-woo responded immediately to that.

It was just a brief moment, but I did hesitate a bit. It hadn’t even been half a year since she got her license, and she was just a total rookie. She probably got the license this morning.

But Yeon-woo’s expression was so bright that it could bloom flowers without the sun in the sky. Or maybe that was a little dangerous. I heard that if it’s too hot, it’s not good for the flowers.

“Well, sure.”

I figured Yeon-woo wouldn’t put me in danger, so I shrugged it off.

“Really? Let’s go, let’s go!”

Yeon-woo immediately grabbed my arm, linking it with hers and half-dragging me out from the headquarters.

I didn’t even manage to put my bag down.

Well, that probably didn’t matter much. Kids often whisked me away like this.

It was obvious what she was up to, but it was kind of cute, so I just let it slide.

…….

If my past self had seen this, I would have been so shocked that I couldn’t even laugh, but oh well, it probably didn’t matter.

The place we got dragged to wasn’t particularly pristine, but there was a car that looked like it was about five years old. Ah, well, since she just got her license, the only options for a car would be a used one or a rental. Plus, getting a brand-new first car is a bit overdoing it.

Accepting that, I hopped into the passenger seat, tossing my bag randomly in the back.

Throughout the drive, Yeon-woo hummed happily. Her pitch was pretty accurate. She was one of those kids who could really sing well when we went karaoke.

With her cheeks slightly flushed, it was probably because she was having so much fun, looking like an elementary student going on a picnic.

As I watched her face closely, her humming gradually faded away. And along with that, her face turned even redder.

“What, what’s wrong?”

Yeon-woo said, her face turning bright red.

“Uh, it’s nothing really. Just that you’re pretty.”

“Ugh.”

Yeon-woo often teased me, but when I hit her straight on like that, she crumbled.

“And, since I’ve been looking outside, it feels like the surrounding buildings are gradually getting shorter and fewer.”

Actually, at one point, they did seem to get taller slowly. It’s obvious since our headquarters is located on a relatively high hillside in Seoul. It’s naturally hard to spot buildings over six stories around here.

Well, since I said we’re going for a drive, I could consider that we would at least reach Jongno within 30 minutes by car. The Han River could work too. There’s a road running alongside it, and it wasn’t a peak time for traffic.

But for some reason, Yeon-woo wasn’t driving along the Han River; instead, she was crossing a bridge and heading toward Gangnam, or rather, she was just zooming right past it toward the outskirts of Seoul.

No, it’s not “heading”… rather, she was already out.

“Ah, did we agree on a destination when we said ‘drive’?”

I chuckled slightly, and Yeon-woo’s face turned even redder with embarrassment.

I casually reached out toward her side.

“Ahh!”

Yeon-woo exclaimed.

“Driver in action! Driver in action! I’m a newbie!”

And so, I burst out laughing at Yeon-woo’s antics.

She intended to abduct me, but instead of getting flustered, I ended up teasing her, making her a bit sulky and not saying anything for a while.

Although that silence didn’t last ten minutes. Soon we fell back into chatter, sharing trivial stories in that enclosed space.

Once we realized we couldn’t touch each other, we both strangely settled down, and Yeon-woo’s red face returned to normal.

After about another 30 minutes of driving, we reached a place that made me curious about where Yeon-woo got the information.

There was no shade around, but it didn’t feel bad at all. On the contrary, it was quite nice.

Flowers were everywhere.

Some of them were famous enough to know, but—

“This place has a lot of flowers that aren’t from Earth.”

“Flowers from other planets aren’t that different, are they?”

“They’ve been harmoniously planted with blooms that aren’t drastically different. Plus, they’ve selectively chosen flowers that can’t grow naturally in this land.”

Ah, I see. If not, invasive species might wipe out all the native plants here.

“You need magic to grow these flowers.”

The flower we were looking at resembled a hydrangea. The difference was that instead of growing thick leaves like a hydrangea, it had flowers jutting up on low stalks with almost no leaves.

If they grow with magic, does that mean they don’t need photosynthesis? Well, in that case, it explains why they can’t grow naturally on Earth.

These flowers stood about knee-high. There was an area stretching for roughly 200 meters like this.

Scattered along the narrow paths were people chatting, looking at each other, laughing, and having fun.

“…Oh.”

As we stood up again, walking hand in hand with Dalia, I spotted a particular flower.

It was yet another yellow flower without any leaves, just a thin stem poking up. The flower, with its many petals, looked a lot like Dalia.

It blended quite well with the hydrangea-like flowers. Though it did feel somewhat off-season.

Again, I caught a whiff of flowers from beside me.

Turning my head,

I leaned in.

Our lips touched softly.

Since we were both crouched down, perhaps it went unnoticed by those around us. Or maybe, since most of the people here were couples, this wouldn’t seem unusual at all.

Even if we both were girls, it might be noticeable, but what does that matter?

After enjoying that softness a bit longer, I pulled back slightly, noticing Yeon-woo’s cheeks reddening again.

“Nothing seems to be going right today, huh?”

I said with a laugh.

She probably tried to peck me on the cheek, but turned her head at the wrong moment, leading to this.

“Oh, ugh.”

So cute.

I reached out and held Yeon-woo’s hand.

Even with her face flushed, she nestled closer to me.

She gently leaned her shoulder against mine. This time, the scent of flowers was unmistakable.

…Nice.

Though Yeon-woo loved flowers, and what was before our eyes were indeed flowers,

I felt that the most beautiful and fragrant flower here was something else.

Right next to me.

 

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