I Became a New Magical Girl Priest

---

Regret is unavoidable, but for now, I had to sort things out.

It feels like sorting things out is just leading to more work, but if I don’t put in the effort, nothing gets resolved, so it was just a checkpoint.

As soon as I woke up in the morning, I turned on the radio.

And next to it, there was someone who had to sit and listen to it day and night. I couldn’t miss the news.

It wasn’t really that difficult. James and Cherry were busy fixing the building’s interior, so all I had to do was listen to the radio while working.

We checked on the fields, made sure the meat hadn’t spoiled, and measured how much it had grown.

The daily chores were set. These magical girls wouldn’t just sit idle even if they claimed they had nothing to do.

As the weather warmed up, we cleared the weeds growing around us and tidied up the large stones and trash scattered on the road.

We didn’t go inside the completely collapsed house to tidy up, but at least there wouldn’t be any tripping over stones while walking around at midnight.

Even the house we were living in was beginning to look quite ‘livable’ from the outside.

We somehow patched up the broken parts of the wall with magic and equipment, and cleaned the dusty places to make it neat. We didn’t have paint to add a fresh coat, though.

With five out of six of us moving so diligently, could I possibly sit idly by?

In the end, I ended up wandering around with Ha-yoon, doing various things.

“Haah.”

As she bent over to work, a bead of sweat rolled down Ha-yoon’s neck as she straightened up and caught her breath.

Her face was glistening in the sunlight.

And seeing that, I unintentionally thought she looked pretty.

“……”

No, aside from my thoughts, Ha-yoon is pretty. She was depicted as a stunning beauty in webtoons, and in reality, she was one of the most popular among the magical girls.

There were quite a few related merchandise like bromides and stuff. I’m not sure if they’re still being produced and sold now.

If they have stopped production, would the prices drop or rise? There were a few items I directly received from Ha-yoon sleeping in the orphanage warehouse.

I left them there because I thought Ji-hye would burst out laughing if I hung them up in my room… but, well, at least they didn’t break during the last attack, thanks to that.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Noticing my blank stare, Ha-yoon asked with a smile.

“Nothing, just nothing.”

It’s not like I wanted to sleep with someone who I’m stuck with in the same tent every day.

No, even if it wasn’t in the tent, I somehow felt that if it were Ha-yoon, it would be like that. There had been precedents.

I didn’t know why. To be honest, that’s what occupied my mind at night.

I probably thought she was someone so close because we were good friends.

But still, do friends of the same gender really sleep that close?

Suddenly, the talk about ‘yuri’ that Ha-yoon mentioned comes to mind.

In this world, the genre is still called ‘yuri.’ Of course, I checked it out. It’s not like I don’t have any hobbies here. I occasionally read web novels or webtoons.

I somehow doubted that Ha-yoon would know about that. She doesn’t have much knowledge about such things, surprisingly.

“……”

So, it’s probably not that significant.

I had already mistaken things on my own once, so there’s no reason for me to get confused by myself now.

It must be because she’s a character from a webtoon in a world inside a webtoon.

As I was shaking my head alone while thinking this, Ha-yoon tilted her head.

I forced myself to focus on my thoughts again.

Thankfully, I still had something else to think about. Not just thinking, but it was a presence that made me feel various complicated emotions.

……I wonder how Ji-hye is doing.

Every time I think of Ji-hye’s face, I feel regret. Should I have brought her along?

But Ji-hye is surely doing well at school. Forcing a girl like her to come out wouldn’t help her in the future.

Comparing this might be a bit harsh, but still, the magical girls have a foundation.

I had told her not to worry about me, and what Rose said isn’t entirely wrong.

In this world, there are people who can ‘fail just once’ and those who ‘can fail multiple times.’ And the more money you have, the more you can afford to fail.

Ji-hye, who lives in the orphanage, is one of those who can ‘only fail once.’

If she trips once, she might never get back up again, that kind of person.

I’m the same.

On the other hand—

No, no way.

It would be troublesome to say such things to the magical girls who came to help me.

That would just be self-satisfaction rationalization. Would anyone want to leave school and end up stuck in such a remote area?

Iris, Rose, Delphinium, Dalia.

And Ha-yoon too—

“Ji-eun?”

Ha-yoon’s voice snapped me back to attention.

In the end, my thoughts returned to Ha-yoon again.

“What’s up?”

What could there possibly be?

Since we live here together, there’s no way anything would be hidden.

“Nothing, it’s nothing.”

“If you’re too tired, should we go inside and rest? It’s getting a bit warmer, isn’t it?”

It wasn’t hot yet. It was still mid-April.

“Let’s finish what we were doing.”

I said that while bending over to work.

Yeah. Let’s get the work done.

That way, I wouldn’t have to drown in my thoughts.

—In the end, that day passed by just like any ordinary day.

The country said they would hold a ceremony of thanks, but the schedule wasn’t set. I couldn’t tell how long that schedule might be delayed.

*

That night.

I walked in a different direction than usual.

It was the direction leading into the forest.

To be more precise, it was toward the water source we used.

When I wandered around the village, Ha-yoon always followed me closely. Then I couldn’t help but think about her.

Not that I had anything else I needed to focus on, but, well, that’s how it is.

Sometimes, I just want to spend time alone without thinking about anything.

……I can’t tell Ha-yoon that. I’ve already said too much.

“There you are.”

Listening to the sound of trickling water, I leaned against a tree, and suddenly, that voice came.

“Iris.”

“Didn’t I tell you to call me Jua?”

“……What’s up?”

“I’m worried about Ha-yoon.”

It was always a unique way of speaking. It sounded strange written in Korean.

“Because I disappeared?”

“Yes.”

I closed my eyes.

“Did you two fight?”

“No, not at all.”

Looking at my expression, it seemed that I made her uncomfortable being with Ha-yoon.

Not that it was necessarily uncomfortable.

Now?

Considering how much we’ve seen of each other, it’s not really awkward anymore. Besides, emotions take effort too. Disliking someone is harder than liking them.

Especially when that person is someone you already like.

Jealousy and inferiority complex still linger, but at least they don’t feel as intense as they used to.

That’s because Ha-yoon seemed to want me to stay by her side, giving me a magical girl name.

Moreover, I felt that in battles, I wasn’t being overwhelmed by Ha-yoon anymore.

After all, if we fought, she would still be the one to win.

So there’s still inferiority and jealousy, but—

……More than that, the emotion I feel now is guilt.

Guilt for being the person who made a bad choice from the beginning, leading things to this point.

“If you hadn’t fought, there shouldn’t have been any reason to run away.”

“If so… it’s nothing serious.”

“Is it nothing serious that you ran away?”

To my surprise, she was persistent.

Yet, I could see Iris doing just that. Even when I was a combatant, Iris would often bump into me without warning.

Iris had hated me.

It was easy to dislike someone who kept charging at you to hit your face. Especially when she pointed out my skirt, or whatever.

Looking at her expression now, it didn’t seem like there were only bad feelings.

Perhaps it could be because she was scolded for my skirt last time.

When I didn’t answer at all, Iris finally settled near a tree.

She leaned against it like I did.

We weren’t all that close in distance. Just enough space between us.

“Why don’t you come a little closer? We’ve bathed together, after all.”

Seeing her arch little brow like that made me a bit stubborn, so I just blurted it out.

“Hmph.”

However, Iris simply scoffed and ignored me.

It was a little disappointing considering how flustered she was during the battle earlier.

“I can’t believe it.”

“What did I say?”

“Your one word is ridiculous, but I have no idea why you talk like that. Don’t you exercise a bit of caution in front of other people?”

“……Is that so?”

It seemed like that was the case.

I realized that we hadn’t been talking frequently.

I never thought it was difficult to talk to Ha-yoon first before.

Although I was doing combat now, I had planned to quit once I became a college student.

And until then, I thought I could go through without Ha-yoon figuring it out.

Even if we fought, there was no way I would defeat a magical girl, right? I had only accomplished my goal as a combatant once, and I had never broken anyone’s arms.

So I might have assumed I could be confident.

Finding out this mess of entanglements was due to my presence made me feel uncomfortable in my heart.

……It’s weird, isn’t it?

In this mess of tangled stories, it was the same for Iris.

But why could I say such things to Iris?

“……Am I easy to talk to?”

“Should I kill you?”

“I haven’t heard that in a while.”

I stared at Iris seriously.

If we were to talk about our relationship, it was Iris who always acted awkwardly.

Ever since she saw my true face as a combatant, she must have thought she did something wrong and never talked much.

“Didn’t you avoid me before because it was uncomfortable? On the contrary, I think your attitude is weird.”

“……Ugh.”

At my words, Iris fell silent again.

After a moment of silence, Iris cautiously opened her mouth, her eyes widened a little.

“Did I make you uncomfortable?”

“You… you can say that?”

“……”

“The part about wanting to kill me isn’t brought up anymore.”

“Should I do it?”

“No, well, whether you do it or not is your business unless you mean it.”

I hesitated for a moment before saying.

“But you saying that you seem easy to deal with could actually be true.”

At my words, Iris shot me a glare.

“No, you were incredibly emotional when you fought me. You were never an easy opponent. I never won against you. However… no one else has shown such feelings towards a single combatant. Usually, they just take down a bunch of mooks and go about their business.”

Iris was coming straight for me from a distance, recognizing me… At that moment, she definitely hadn’t seemed easy.

To be honest, it scared me.

But at the same time, among the magical girls, she was the least scary. It was only Iris who would aim for me in the air or act as if she recognized me from a distance.

“How did you recognize me? I told you before, I’ve even changed my helmet.”

“…….”

Iris was quiet for a long time before finally speaking up.

“I have a way of recognizing everything.”

But it seems she wasn’t willing to share that way.

In that case, I decided to let it go.

So we stood there for a while, without saying anything.

“Actually, do you not like being a magical girl?”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

As if Iris was abruptly asking, I responded in a bit of a daze, and she looked at me seriously.

“Since the vibe has been like this ever since I heard that story. Do you dislike it so much?”

“Are you okay with it?”

I looked at Iris, saying that.

“What is?”

“That I am a magical girl.”

“Haven’t you been a magical girl since months ago anyway?”

For her to think that much was a bit unexpected.

Of course, being together while going through hardship certainly did change the atmosphere a bit. I thought it was simply because I looked pitiful.

But at the same time, I thought Iris was even more stiff about the word ‘justice’ than Ha-yoon.

In the webtoon, Iris hardly got along with the other magical girls apart from Ha-yoon due to her uncompromising nature.

The reason she constantly clashed with Dalia, who made no special distinctions, could be that too.

Iris and Dalia didn’t actually show any public fighting, despite having witnessed battles myself.

This must be a special circumstance, making it hard to fight back. After all, since they were both just girls with no major personal issues, at the end of the day.

“That’s a different thing. Right now…”

“The important thing is your will.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t really know how you feel about being a magical girl. But like, we didn’t choose to be magical girls or anything, right?”

“……”

“We were simply fighters affiliated with the federation. We have to have hope to fight, but aside from that, I think that’s all it was.”

I blinked.

Is she blaming herself now?

I hadn’t actually shown it on the surface, but perhaps she had started to have doubts about the activities she was doing since she began to refuse to follow the federation.

“Now, no one would oppose it. We’ve fought together many times, used magic, and even turned out to be girls transforming into magical ones.”

“……It certainly is.”

“The federation’s so-called justice hasn’t been held up now.”

“……”

I stared at Iris for a while.

“Iris.”

“I told you to call me Jua.”

Iris made a retort to my words.

“No, I’m used to saying it now.”

“Just recently, you were calling me by name, and now you say you’re used to it? What kind of logic is that?”

She said it with an expression of disbelief.

“When we were defusing the bomb, you called me by name.”

“……”

I closed my mouth.

I was about to say something, but I ended up saying more than I intended.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

And I nodded, saying.

“Okay, Jua.”

“Why?”

Her expression was that of displeasure, as expected of Jua.

Well, when I think about it, we had already fought for our lives together. There’s no reason to revert to calling each other by nicknames now.

Usually, you would become closer by calling each other by nicknames, but anyway.

“Have you talked about that in front of the others?”

“Would you be able to?”

I looked at Jua with astonishment at her very certain question.

“Yet you can talk to me? How long have we known each other?”

It couldn’t even be six months yet.

“Because… well…”

As she was about to answer, Jua suddenly got a strange expression.

As if she was thinking, ‘That’s true.’

“Perhaps, it’s a conversation we might have been able to have because we haven’t known each other for long.”

Then she continued slowly.

“……You can say things you can’t say when you know someone for a long time.”

“Ah, I get that.”

I nodded and said.

Somehow, Jua seemed to be getting angrier as she observed my face. Why?

“Ah, I see. And I think I know one more thing.”

As Jua raised her chin and looked at me, she said something with a smirk as if she had met me when she was a combatant.

“Because you seem easy to deal with. I could probably talk to someone I find easy to deal with like that, right?”

“If the whining behind it wasn’t present, it would have been a much better comeback.”

“Whining…!?”

Jua yelled at my words.

And upon seeing her face, I chuckled.

Somehow, that face looked a lot like Iris’s.

Well, it was the same person.

But it had been a while since I’d seen something like that.

“Let’s go back.”

“Wait, what was that whining just now?”

“By the way, you seem to be following me around for a while. Last time you pointed out my skirt and repeated what I said, didn’t you?”

“That was just me returning what you said! And you were literally wearing just panties under that!”

“……Since I had only panties on, wouldn’t that mean I should refrain from saying anything? That’s sexual harassment.”

“Sexual harassment!? You have no memory of what you did at all!?”

“Hey, quiet down. We’re hiding away, and if others hear us…”

“Because you started it first…!”

It was strange.

This was the first time I had a conversation with Iris like this.

Somehow, it didn’t feel unfamiliar.

……Well, it might be because she’s the ‘Iris’ I had in mind.

I’m not sure exactly what kind of image I had of Iris, though.

Hmm, maybe it’s because she resembles a chihuahua? Could that be why she feels friendly?

 

---