Chapter 22: The Fabricated Past and a Sister’s Scheme

“Just ten years ago, as Sister Ira, you were on the verge of retiring as a Magical Girl. Your younger sister, whom you had rescued from the ravages of war and painstakingly raised, became tainted by the black mud.”

“In her desperate quest for power, driven by a desire to fight alongside you, she lost herself, ultimately succumbing to depravity and transforming into the White Dark Demon Princess.”

“To save tens of millions of lives and your most cherished student, you, Sister Ira, made the arduous decision to integrate the black mud into your own body.”

“This act granted you forbidden power, turning you into a black Magical Girl.”

“The two of you arranged to meet atop a snow-capped mountain, where you engaged in an earth-shattering battle. You shattered each other’s Gungnirs, delivering the final blows with your bare bodies.”

“Ultimately, Sister Ira, you succeeded in pulling your student back from the brink, but you yourself plummeted into a chasm, your fate unknown ever since.”

From the moment Mona began recounting the backstory Shula had concocted for her, leading up to Mona’s current tearful state, even Ira—who typically remained aloof despite having weathered countless storms—felt her lips twitch slightly in shock.

‘This…’

‘In the five years she and Shula had lived together, how had she never realized that old hag was such a storyteller?’

‘And such an outlandish one at that.’

[Second Master, what about your sister’s story isn’t normal? I find it quite touching. I never expected Master to design such a moving narrative for you.]

Yaya, having flown down from the upstairs pool at some unknown point, stealthily slipped onto Ira’s hand while the three young girls were distracted.

As for how a person and a bat could communicate telepathically, Shula had explained it to the amnesiac Ira.

She claimed that the energy unleashed when a Magical Girl transforms into a Dark Demon Princess is so immense that it created Yaya, within whom a portion of Ira’s power as the Blood Demon Princess was sealed.

When combat was necessary, Ira could transform into the Blood Demon Princess by biting the magical rune threads on her wrist. When not needed, this power also allowed them to communicate telepathically.

Whenever Ira detected Mona approaching her room, she would use this method to prompt Yaya to disguise herself as a hair ornament.

After all, it would be far too unscientific for someone to open the door and find a mechanical bat playing video games on the bed.

[It’s too abnormal.]

[What’s abnormal about it? Is it because the story Master wrote doesn’t align with the history of the surface world? Are there plot holes…]

[That shameless old hag actually didn’t fabricate a scandalous past relationship between us! Completely illogical!]

[Uh…]

Yaya was so startled they nearly lost their grip on Ira’s hair and tumbled off.

Ira had initially expected Shula to simply concoct a story about her being hit by a truck on the main road, not transmigrating to another world, but merely losing her memory and wandering.

Instead, her background had been painted as someone who chose to wield the power of black mud to save the world and her sister, ultimately plunging into a chasm?

‘Heh, truly, she never stops trying to make me completely blacken and embrace the power of the black mud.’

‘As expected of my dear sister.’

Any fleeting guilt she had felt for misunderstanding Shula had largely dissipated. She would apologize for the misunderstanding later, but the crime of fabricating a background story to mislead her sister would definitely be added to Shula’s list of transgressions.

Right is right, wrong is wrong; the two cannot be conflated. In Ira’s mind, there was no such thing as good deeds compensating for faults, or merits cancelling out wrongs.

However, this ready-made backstory could be utilized, but it needed modification. At the very least, her choice to use black mud had to be removed.

Otherwise, over time, it would subtly alter the three girls’ attitudes towards black mud, potentially allowing Cadaver Beasts to exploit weaknesses in battle.

Just as Ira prepared to speak, Mona and the two others—who had, at some point, detached themselves from the television and converged—were collectively moved to self-pity, sympathizing with Ira’s past sorrow and hardship.

“Sister Ira, I’m so sorry! You didn’t want Teacher Belle to instruct us in combat techniques, surely because you didn’t want us to recklessly pursue power and lose ourselves before our minds were mature. You, Sister Ira, bore the bloody lesson gained from embracing darkness…”

“It was I who failed to understand your good intentions, Sister Ira, and then I even troubled you and Teacher Belle to save me from the Cadaver Beast. I am truly very sorry!”

Mona suddenly adopted honorifics, bowing respectfully as she apologized to Ira. This left Ira, who had been about to revise her backstory, momentarily at a loss for words.

Seeing her younger sister bow respectfully in apology, Ira, as the elder sibling, turned her face away and said somewhat awkwardly,

“It’s really no big deal… It’s what I, as a senior, should do.”

“No, no, no. Wrong is wrong, and an apology is due when it’s due. That’s a principle my older brother taught me.”

‘…’

‘The boomerang came back so fast.’

‘Forget it, this is fine.’

Ira pursed her lips in a bitter smile. Seeing that these three nascent Magical Girls were already fully convinced by the story Shula had spun, she abandoned the idea of trying to rewrite her own background.

At most, she would just need to pay closer attention to the psychological changes of the three Magical Girls in the future.

‘It’s not as if little Mona would yearn for power and actively seek out black mud like her in the backstory, would she?’

However, this backstory did have one advantage: Ira could openly use this identity to better impart her knowledge and experience as Magical Girl White Rose to these three new Magical Girls.

She could also leverage this senior Magical Girl background to ensure Mona and the others had less contact with the Dark Demon Princess Shula in their daily lives and battles.

Over time, that old hag Shula might just lose her role as a teacher, and Ira could use this very boomerang to train these three Magical Girls into seasoned warriors!

‘There would be absolutely no need for Shula!’

“No need for me to do what, my dear sister~”