Chapter 30: Domination and Submission

Following the Flow

Finding the flow of water and following it wasn’t particularly difficult for me. Having spent so much of my life submerged in water, my lung capacity had naturally increased, allowing me to stay underwater for long periods.

I was grateful that I didn’t need to cast magic. If I had, Happy might have detected me. Just before my oxygen ran out, I picked a destination, then deactivated my magic, which had been guiding me through the currents.

After roughly ten minutes, the darkness around me gradually began to fade. The warmth of sunlight piercing through the water’s surface felt like a welcoming embrace, as if celebrating my successful escape.

I still had some oxygen left, but I wanted nothing more than to reach the surface and let out a triumphant shout.

But that light—

It wasn’t sunlight.

Splash!

“!”

Even if I was once the Queen of Darkmoon, there was no way I wouldn’t be startled by a corpse suddenly crashing into the water right in front of me.

Especially when the corpse was dressed in a magical girl’s uniform—just like Happy’s.

My mind reeled at the sight, my breath escaping in a rush of bubbles.

Boom!

And it didn’t end there.

Snapping out of my daze, I sharpened my senses, finally realizing what was happening above the surface.

Explosions erupted as magic clashed against magic.

Voices screamed in pain.

Weapons and spells filled the sky, brimming with killing intent.

Shattered debris, discarded weapons, and lifeless bodies rained down into the water.

I had surfaced in the middle of a battlefield.

Caught off guard, I had unknowingly used up all the oxygen in my lungs.

If I didn’t surface soon, I’d drown—ridiculous, considering I was once the Queen of Darkmoon, a master of water magic.

That was out of the question.

Breaking through the surface, I gasped for air, gulping it down desperately as I took in my surroundings.

“Shit.”

And then I laughed, the absurdity of it all washing over me.

Of all the places I could have surfaced, I had ended up right where my downfall had begun.

The pawn shop where I had been blackmailed was now nothing but rubble, as if a massive beast had crushed it beneath its feet.

It wasn’t the battle raging above that had destroyed it—no, the police tape surrounding the ruins told me exactly whose work this was.

It was Happy’s.

Or rather…

“Why am I thinking about Happy?”

I gritted my teeth, hating how just thinking of her made my heart race.

The punishment from the Quest Jewel was still affecting me, twisting my emotions.

I tore my gaze away from the wreckage, forcing myself to focus on something else.

Boom!

Another explosion echoed across the sky.

I should have panicked.

Or maybe I had already panicked enough, and now I had gone numb to it.

I couldn’t tell.

And frankly, I didn’t care to figure it out.

What mattered was that I could now hear the battle with perfect clarity.

The sounds of magic colliding, the fury in the voices of warriors, the screams of the dying—

I knew them all too well.

Dread coiled in my stomach as I looked up at the sky.

There, above me, a full-scale battle was raging.

Darkmoon soldiers clashed against magical girls.

And of course—

Happy was there.

The moment I spotted her, my heart pounded violently in my chest.

Not from the sight of my forces, not from the state of the battlefield, but from her.

The fact that my body reacted to her before anything else—

It disgusted me.

I forced my gaze downward, trying to suppress the emotions boiling within me, but it was too late.

Just a few seconds of looking at her had already left a mark on my mind.

If this had been the old me, I wouldn’t have been able to endure it.

But that was the old me.

I wasn’t that person anymore.

I had already discovered a way to suppress my instincts—to force myself back into rationality.

I scanned the battlefield, searching for something sharp.

There.

A discarded blade, still clean and razor-sharp.

“Found it.”

Without hesitation, I picked it up and sliced across my palm.

“…Nngh!”

The pain was sharper than I expected.

Whoever said the second time was easier was a liar.

Even though I was cutting over an existing wound, the pain still shot through me like fire.

But I didn’t complain.

Letting myself get too used to this would be a bigger problem.

As blood trickled from my palm, I forced myself to stare at it, grounding myself in reality.

“Don’t forget why you escaped, Yeres.”

Escaping was just a step toward my goal, not the goal itself.

Even after repeating 131 lifetimes, there was still so much I didn’t know.

I didn’t even fully understand what I was supposed to be looking for.

And yet here I was, wasting time thinking about Happy.

I had to get it together.

I couldn’t let myself fall any further.

I couldn’t love her.

I couldn’t even think about loving her.

I couldn’t let her consume me again.

I had to fight back.

So I dug the blade deeper into my palm.

Not enough.

Deeper.

Still not enough.

A little more.

Not Yet. Just a Little More.

Not yet.

Just a little more.

Not yet.

Just a little.

“…Ugh!”

The saying that the second time is easier than the first wasn’t a lie.

Still, I couldn’t endure the last part.

A delicate whimper escaped through my tightly clenched lips.

Since I had achieved my goal, I tried to smile.

Feeling relieved, I tilted my sweat-covered face upward and searched for Happy.

“Good.”

Overcoming pain with pain was incredibly effective.

When I saw her, the first emotion that surfaced wasn’t love.

It was doubt.

I knew how strong she was.

She had killed me 131 times.

I clearly remembered how she single-handedly destroyed the Darkmoon Organization.

Then… why?

Why had Darkmoon not been completely wiped out yet?

Was she weaker than I thought?

Or was there still an awakening she hadn’t yet reached?

…

…

No.

That wasn’t it.

“She’s not fighting seriously.”

She was pretending she hadn’t fully awakened.

She was deliberately allowing my subordinates’ attacks to land.

She was countering with nothing but pathetic, low-level magic.

“Why?”

Could it be… because of me?

To find out, I took out the smartphone I had kept in my pocket.

It was soaked, but thankfully, the screen turned on.

However, it wasn’t responding properly, so I instinctively prepared to cast magic to dry it—

What the hell are you doing?

Are you crazy?

Happy is right there.

Instead, I shook the phone violently to remove the moisture before checking the blocked calls list.

As expected.

Even in the middle of battle, she had been calling me every minute.

“Ignore it.”

Right now, my relationship with Happy wasn’t important.

I had to figure out what information I needed to uncover today.

“Ahh!”

At that moment, a magical girl crashed to the ground beside me.

She was sprawled face down, struggling to get up.

I immediately sat down in place.

Casting a spell to alter my appearance would have been the best course of action—but that wasn’t an option.

Instead, I hid my face with my hands, pretending to be an ordinary civilian caught in the middle of the chaos.

“That damn Happy!”

It was a useless effort.

I forgot that I needed to keep my identity hidden—because I found myself staring at her.

“If I gave her money, she should at least be fighting on my behalf! What the hell is she doing?”

The words came in fluent Korean, spoken by a girl with striking blue hair.

Korean.

Blue hair.

And she gave money to Happy.

With just those three pieces of information, I knew exactly who she was.

There were only two magical girls in South Korea.

One of them was Joy.

“Why the hell is she just messing with her phone? This whole battle is a disaster because of her!”

Even in the midst of battle, she seemed more concerned with brushing off dust from the frills of her outfit and fixing her hair.

“Just wait until this fight is over. I’ll make her regret—hey. Who the hell are you?”

Shit.

I had been staring for too long.

I quickly averted my gaze—but it was too late.

“If we’re fighting like this, you should be running. What the hell are you doing here?”

Joy clicked her tongue and slowly approached me.

“And just now… you heard that, didn’t you?”

Then, she pointed her staff at me.

“Forget.”

She cast a spell for memory erasure and sleep.

I couldn’t afford to let it hit me.

I had to fight back.

“Oh? That spell—?! You’re…!”

No turning back now.

The battlefield was filled with water.

I immediately drew upon it as my source and cast a spell to knock her unconscious.

Then, I ran.

If I stopped using magic now, I could escape.

If I just got far enough away, Happy wouldn’t be able to reach me in time.

So please.

Please…!

“Did you sleep well, Sis?”

Happy’s voice came from behind me.

A chill ran down my spine, and I instinctively turned back—

That’s when I realized.

I wasn’t falling anymore.

The water that was supposed to carry me away had stopped.

Gravity itself had been overturned.

Happy’s magic was pulling me toward her.

She wore an expression of pure rage, her clenched right fist brimming with power.

She was going to hit me.

To punish me for betraying the love she had poured into me.

Her fist drove into my stomach.

“Urgh…!”

Pain exploded in my abdomen, and I vomited up the undigested apple I had eaten that morning.

My body trembled uncontrollably.

I couldn’t even stand.

But I refused to give up.

There was no way I was going back to that basement.

Frantically searching my surroundings, I spotted Joy lying unconscious nearby.

I crawled toward her like an insect, dragging myself across the ground until I reached her.

Then, I conjured a blade of water and pressed it against her throat.

Still gasping for breath, struggling against the saliva that dribbled from my mouth, I forced out a command.

“Don’t move.”

“Sis.”

“I said don’t move!”

But Happy…

She was exactly the same as before.

“You can kill her if you want.”

“…What?”

“Did you not hear me? Let me say it again. I don’t care if she dies. It wouldn’t be a problem at all.”

She wasn’t going to back down.