I Became a New Magical Girl Priest

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After diligently organizing the surroundings for about a week, it finally became a somewhat livable place.

But to be honest, I had only achieved the bare minimum, and it was definitely not a spot I could stay for long.

I ripped down all the wallpaper that had mold growing on it. There seemed to be something mold-like on the old walls, which seemed to be either cement or concrete, but thankfully, it was much less than what was on the wallpaper.

Thanks to putting away all the leftover remains of the robot James had been riding in a storage space, I was able to use the lantern and flashlight that I had prepared before leaving Pang-pang’s house, along with a wired earphone and a cheap speaker.

I even managed to make a radio to catch the news.

However, there was nothing I could do about the gas, so I decided to use the fireplace attached to the house. There would be some smoke, but that couldn’t be helped. I would just try my best to minimize it.

Honestly, considering I was deep in the mountains where no one would likely care, it might not even be an issue. And James had said he would look into it.

Goodness, a fireplace. But at least thanks to that, the floor could stay warm even without a boiler. If I could manage to keep the inside warm and dry to some extent, it should help curb the dampness.

While I savored the remaining spam, I focused my attention on the radio that James had made for me.

[The Black Magical Girl is still reported to be on the run. Is there any new information?]

[No, the government has not yet been able to locate the Black Magical Girl. According to officials, it’s considered possible that she has fled overseas due to possessing independent warp technology.]

Overseas escape, huh.

I had thought about that too.

Hiding in some corner of the Korean Peninsula might be less effective than hiding somewhere deep in the Amazon rainforest or in the vast Siberian tundra, where finding her would be that much harder.

But that creates its own problems. If by some chance the circuits break and I can’t repair them, or if my emotions become too stable and I can’t use the circuits, I’d be stuck in that remote area without any options.

My ultimate goal is to find a normal life, not to be forever separated from society. If I wanted that, I could have just confessed to a crime that I didn’t commit from the very beginning.

The radio discussion continued on how to capture me.

Having decided there was nothing more to hear, I turned off the radio.

There was no need to worry about the power supply. I had made everything run through the circuits.

“Did I forget to grab those armor pieces the aliens were wearing back then?”

“We can think about that next time,” James replied.

“Are you seriously considering meeting those things again?”

“I believe there’s a substantial possibility. The fact that they could be created again means they could certainly make them again.”

“…”

I fell silent for a moment.

“Were those aliens… directly created by the company? Do you know anything about that?”

“I don’t know. Noir Corporation is a massive company. It’s not surprising if the current chairman has a research institute that he runs himself, which could have produced them with company funds.”

I didn’t say anything in response.

James also didn’t choose to say anything further to me.

The aliens… they had been portrayed as naturally occurring phenomena in webtoons.

I guess that’s not entirely wrong. Most of them in reality would probably be like that.

But what if someone had figured out the conditions for alien transformation?

And if they could artificially promote that transformation?

The aliens turned into monsters were once ordinary people. They might be unfortunate tourists who ended up experiencing such things on Earth, or they could have been workers who came here for a paycheck.

Once they turned into monsters, there’s no choice but to incapacitate them.

It’s unavoidable that people get hurt in the process of transforming into monsters.

However, if there is a human being who creates those monsters…

And if the organization I worked for was that entity that creates them?

I thought, maybe I had chosen my job way too lightly.

“…I’ll sleep.”

I said this while stuffing the can of food into a plastic bag and tying it as tightly as I could.

“Let’s do that. Staying up late isn’t going to improve the situation visibly.”

No matter how neatly I tried to put it, I couldn’t escape the somewhat crude feeling.

I tossed the bag haphazardly into the corner of the room and crawled into my one-person tent.

The tent was cramped. It could barely fit one more person of my size.

Still, the ceiling was not as gloomy as the ceiling of the room, so I felt a slight sense of coziness.

Maybe I’ll try planting some seeds in the field tomorrow.

With that thought, I closed my eyes.

*

I didn’t remember setting an alarm of any kind.

I jumped awake at a sound that was shockingly loud.

With my sleep-fogged eyes, I barely managed to see what made the sound.

It was a calling device.

I pressed the button to turn off the sound and got out of bed.

My heart was pounding.

Was Ha-yoon calling for me? Or had the Magical Girl call been activated?

Either way, it probably wasn’t good news for Ha-yoon.

The circuits were said to have been recovered, though.

I got up from my spot.

“James.”

“I know.”

James was already on the drone.

The sound of the radio was playing from the opened drone.

[… Do not approach the creature nearby, and calmly follow the guidance of nearby officials…]

“Got it. Let’s go. Can we find out the location from the calling device?”

“Yes.”

I glanced at the calling device. On the small screen that James had set up, the location appeared.

It was a place I knew. I had only been there once, but I recognized it.

The areas with the highest frequency of alien appearances were Seoul, while most of the rest appeared in the metropolitan area.

Despite the talk of tourism and all, in this country, there are very few places where aliens can roam freely. The government didn’t like it much when illegal residents began to increase either.

Normally, the other spots where aliens appear are usually large cities where many people gather.

Could this also be related to the company?

I closed my eyes.

*

When I opened them again, the scene in front of me had a sense of déjà vu.

A rampaging giant monster.

And a group of police officers surrounding it, flailing helplessly.

But the Magical Girl still hadn’t appeared.

As soon as I showed up, all eyes turned to me. The police raised their heads to look at me as I hovered in the air.

I found myself holding a hammer in one hand.

I extended one arm.

Black substances erupted from the circuits and covered my body.

Now, even covering my mouth and nose with it wouldn’t bother me at all.

It was not a pleasant sensation, but somehow, I seemed to have already adapted to it.

In stories, the transformation scenes would often be skipped roughly halfway through and replaced with flashes, so maybe this felt somewhat similar.

My vision sharpened.

Fortunately, it seemed the monster couldn’t fly, and it didn’t attack even after witnessing my transformation.

“Quite impressive. If you had thrown something, you would’ve caught a beating in the meantime.”

This guy just had to add a comment.

Well, if this guy genuinely praised me, it would mean something had gone incredibly wrong somewhere in the world, so I suppose it didn’t matter.

“I just woke up, so I might be a bit confused about the order of things.”

I said this while descending.

“Uagh…?”

The monster didn’t attack right away upon seeing me.

I looked at that monster and thought.

It really was a wild mix of features.

Among aliens, there are cases like Pang-pang that have just slightly different skin colors, or ones that resemble animals. Or, there could be those whose body materials are close to inorganic substances by human standards.

If it’s closer to being inorganic, then at a glance, it wouldn’t even look like a life form, so there wouldn’t be many people to find it disgusting. Still, those resembling other non-human creatures often elicited rude thoughts like ‘How did it end up looking like that?’

So… it had a face a bit like a crab.

If it were a person with a crab for a head, it might have been hilarious, but its ‘torso’ part resembled some sort of squishy mollusk.

It did resemble a crab, but it looked like an alien life form attempting to mimic it poorly. Inside, there were some poorly positioned innards.

No, even though it was an alien life form.

I was wondering why it was considered a monster when—

Pff.

I heard a sound from the monster’s head. That amorphous part twitched slightly.

I watched as the ‘spit’ came flying toward me. It was an attack method combining two typical images that come to mind when a Korean thinks of ‘spitting.’

I managed to dodge it just in time, feeling a bit of heat near my face.

Thud!

“Wah!?”

Instead of me, the police officer hit by the spit cried out in shock.

When I turned around, the shield he was holding was melting.

The metal and plastic parts were all dissolving.

… Does slime melt plastic too?

“It seems to be some combination of slime and high heat. The facial part is probably too hot for their bodies to handle,” James noted.

“How bothersome.”

I frowned as I looked back at the monster.

Now that I noticed, the inside of its amorphous, translucent crab shell was bubbling away.

The ‘eyes’ of the crab were taut, as if they might burst at any moment. There was a bizarre contrast recalling those parasites that inhabit slug eyes—except the insides were wriggling with gaudy colors.

It looked quite painful.

Looking around, there were already melted wires scattered about. There were also remnants of something resembling bullet shells that had fallen when it shot at me, but most of them had already melted.

So, this monster was different from the formidable fighters I’d faced until now.

“…”

How should I deal with this?

To be honest, it was not a favorable match-up for me.

“Will the hammer hold up?”

“As long as it doesn’t get lodged inside, it should be fine. I expected something like this. However, do be cautious as some functions might get damaged. I recommend not using the main propulsion system.”

That seemed right.

Using the propulsion system would cause the hammer to split open.

I gripped the hammer, turning it to hold it backward.

If it was just an auxiliary propulsion device, I should be able to use it without the hammer opening.

The monster remained still during all this.

It didn’t seem like the kind that would thrash around wildly.

Was its first attack simply due to me entering its territory?

… Is saying this discriminatory? Even if the reason might have flown out of the window, it is still an alien after all.

I guess it couldn’t be helped.

I wasn’t here for justice.

The only reason I was here was to make those who made a fool of me pay.

The Magical Girls hadn’t made an appearance yet.

It would take a bit of time to receive the circuits again.

I wanted to see them digging a grave for themselves. Of course, it typically took a bit because such organizations are filled with stiff-headed upper management.

In the meantime, I would break down their equipment a bit and uncover the chairman’s location while I was at it.

I needed to be competent. I had to be elusive and powerful.

So that they could deeply regret treating me like this.

“Alright.”

I said to myself and took off running.

Circling around the monster clockwise.

The monster turned towards me and spit, but it missed.

My physical abilities had temporarily reached a level comparable to a Magical Girl. A non-combat type monster wasn’t fast enough to catch me right away.

The time it took to dodge was already calculated.

Utilizing that momentum, I jumped with a diagonal leap.

The monster’s gaze followed me, but it was delayed by just a beat.

Wasn’t I told not to smash directly into the head?

Then let’s aim for the shoulder or flank instead.

Whatever its appearance, if its side gets broken, it would be incapacitated—

Pff.

But soon I had to rethink my plan.

“Eek!?”

I saw a spout of spit jetting toward me like a spray bottle and panicked, twisting my body away.

My airborne figure twisted as I lost my balance and fell.

I barely landed on my feet, but this time a precise spit was flying right for me.

Instinctively, I swung the hammer to deflect it—

But it left melting traces on the surface of the hammer.

Seems like my magic can’t completely stop it.

I leapt backward, creating some distance.

“…”

What now?

I thought I had dashed in with some bravado, but knowing what this thing was forced me to reconsider my strategy.

… I could’ve caught it a bit more easily if it was a Magical Girl.

If it’s a long-distance attacker, then I should counter with my own long-distance assault—

“Wait.”

I glanced at the small, nimble-designed drone floating next to me.

“What? What are you looking at me for?”

Feeling some ominous tension from my gaze, James asked in slight panic.

Nah, it’s nothing.

If I win, you live too.

So let’s cooperate a bit.

When I smiled slightly, the drone trembled in response.

*

“What do you mean?”

Ha-yoon asked with a slightly confused voice.

She wasn’t the only one here.

All the other Magical Girls who usually fought alongside her were gathered too.

Each of their expressions varied, yet there was one thing they shared: none looked particularly positive.

“Are you saying… we have no need to go?”

“That doesn’t mean we don’t need to go,” replied the alien civil servant in a stiff voice. “It means it’s better to wait for a more opportune moment.”

“And what do you mean by a good timing?” Ha-yoon frowned and asked.

“… Last time, you showed up too early. This time…”

“Are you saying we should show up later?”

Jua, who had been listening from the side, asked incredulously.

“…”

But getting angry here would only be met with more bureaucratic nonsense.

In the first place, this civil servant wasn’t someone who usually dealt with such things.

To put it more accurately, the ‘such things’ didn’t even exist before.

This mess was concocted after the circuits were forcefully taken away by the federation.

They take the circuits recovered by the federation and hold onto them until the instant they are needed, to then give them back to the Magical Girls. And to assist with easing their tasks, they set up a civil servant at the most bottom rung to take the heat.

The high-ups are up there where their voices don’t reach. Even getting angry at the civil servant here wouldn’t do any good, as responsibilities would just circle around without proper answers in return.

“The Black Magical Girl is evaluated to be incapable of dealing with the monsters alone. Therefore, you should wait a little longer before…”

“What you mean is that we should catch both the monsters and the Black Magical Girl at the same time,” Ha-yoon interrupted.

Her expression, in fact, looked much calmer than moments ago.

Some emotion seemed to have surpassed a threshold, making it difficult for her to know how to express it.

“If we don’t take action, what will happen?”

“If it’s a weakened enemy, maybe we can manage to catch them somehow. Even if the attempt fails… next time, they’ll be more careful.”

“In other words, you hope the aliens would get scared back into not coming out anymore,” Ha-yoon surmised.

“…”

Naturally, the civil servant didn’t have the authority to respond to such queries.

Or perhaps he was just trying to nudge his own responsibilities quietly onto higher ups.

“Ha.”

Rose, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, let out a laugh of disbelief.

All eyes turned to Rose.

“Well, fine. Let’s wait and see whether that will go your way or not,” she said, before trudging over to an empty chair and plopping down.

Ha-yoon followed and sat next to her.

Then Iris, Dalia, and Delphinium did likewise.

“…”

The civil servant viewed this and seemed to sigh in relief as he returned to his duties.

“…”

The Magical Girls fell silent.

Ha-yoon could feel anxiety slowly rising within her again.

Would Ji-eun be able to hold out until we get there?

Even if I went there empty-handed, it wouldn’t do any help at all. I would only be a hindrance. Earthlings can’t use magic without their circuits.

So, for now, all I could do was wait anxiously.

Cherry, who had followed us this far, sat beside Ha-yoon, looking up at her with anxious eyes.

 

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