Chapter 6 : Flowering

I’ve never particularly liked children. Human or fairy, they’re uncontrollable, and thus, unlikeable.

The reason I’m reminded of this yet again is the line of children sitting in front of me.

“Quiet down, everyone. Ms. Amber is here.”

“Fairies only eat sweets and do nothing all day.”

“Yeah. My mom always tells me not to eat too much candy, but they can eat whatever they want.”

“Well, that’s…”

Most of the younger students reacted similarly, chattering amongst themselves. The older students, however, were glued to their smartphones, completely indifferent to my presence. The teachers, as if bound by a restraining order, simply clung to the walls, observing.

I wasn’t particularly surprised by the children’s reactions. I’d seen similar behavior in the online communities I used to manage.

[Aren’t fairies just freeloaders?]

I recalled a post with that title. It read something like, ‘They don’t deal with Magical Girl privacy protection or wage issues, just eat sweets and sleep all day. #goals I wanna be reincarnated as a fairy in my next life.’

I chuckled at first, but the post quickly gained over 5,000 upvotes. Thankfully, someone started a flame war in the comments, giving me an excuse to delete the whole thread.

Anyway, the reason I was rambling on stage was Dahye’s request. I’d given them a simple demonstration of passing through a gate and explained the workings of the fairy realm, but they weren’t interested in the slightest. Another fairy had already covered the same topics on MaTube, and I’m not exactly a gifted speaker.

♬♬♪―

“Wow!”

“Kids, it’s not over yet…”

Ignoring the teacher’s pleas, the children burst through the doors and ran off. Their destination: the cafeteria.

A bald, elderly man approached me, wiping his head with a handkerchief pulled from his trouser pocket.

“I apologize. The children consider mealtime sacred…”

“It’s fine-ppi.”

Whatever. I hadn’t expected anything, so I wasn’t disappointed.

“Well then, we’ll be going now. Mr. Han, please take care of the rest.”

His face brightened as he turned to join the group of teachers. Unlike the subservient demeanor he’d shown me, he now held his chin high.

Once they’d left, only three people remained in the auditorium: Dahye, Harin, and the white-haired girl from yesterday’s protest. I assumed Dahye and Harin had stayed to offer me words of comfort, but I wondered why the girl was still here.

As I walked towards Dahye, who was mumbling as if chewing on stale bread, the girl quickly stepped between us.

“Teacher!”

The sunlight made her hair sparkle, and her smile seemed brighter than anything.

Dahye hesitated for a moment but returned the smile.

“Yes, Jangmi? You seem to be in a particularly good mood today.”

Jangmi… the girl who wanted to be loved? She seemed so different from how she’d appeared in her diary.

“Yes! I have something to show you, Teacher!”

She pulled a fluffy Magical Girl doll from the sleeve of her roughly sewn cardigan.

“Oh my, it’s the doll I fixed for you. Did you come to thank me?”

The girl shook her head.

“You know… the transformation you showed me yesterday? I can do it exactly the same!”

“Huh? You showed her your transformation? Show me too!”

Harin, attached to Dahye like a barnacle, pouted. Upset that she hadn’t been shown the transformation, she clenched her fists and pounded on Dahye’s leg. Dahye broke out in a sweat, trying to calm her down.

“I’ll show you later, I promise. And Jangmi, we agreed to keep it a secret, didn’t we?”

So that’s why she transformed… Strange… She swore she wouldn’t transform in front of others after countless on-camera transformations to pay off debts. And she never goes back on her word… She must be brainwashed or something.

Just as I was starting to get suspicious, Jangmi suddenly knelt down and clasped her hands together, looking more earnest than a saint praying to God.

“I’ve practiced really, really hard. Please, just watch me this once.”

“Oh, alright. Get up. Someone might think I’m scolding you.”

“Um, Ms. Amber, please watch too.”

The girl’s pleading eyes were pitiful.

“Alright-ppi.”

I readily agreed, figuring I’d end up at the tavern after some cleaning anyway.

It’s probably just an imitation of an anime transformation pose. The girls who saw Dahye transform have been obsessed with mimicking it.

Jangmi took a few steps back, spread her legs slightly, and assumed a serious stance.

“I saw you on TV once, when I was still living with my mom. I’ll do it exactly like that.”

“I… I see…”

Flustered, Dahye began fanning herself with her hand.

Taking a step forward with her right foot, Jangmi recited Dahye’s transformation incantation.

“Oh Lily of Hope, bloom with a brilliant miracle!”

“Ugh, I shouldn’t have agreed to this.”

“Ppi-ppi, What!?”

I scoffed at Dahye’s reaction, then quickly turned towards the sudden burst of pure white light. The source: Jangmi.

Something impossible was happening. The flowing frilly dress, the long gloves extending to her wrists, the enamel shoes and knee-high socks—it was all identical to Dahye’s childhood Magical Girl outfit. Her hair was already white, so that went without saying. And that icy, pure magical energy was undeniably a mixture of mine and Dahye’s. If anything was different, I should’ve felt pain in my chest, but there was nothing.

“Pure light, embrace me! Bright Lily!”

A young lily bloomed, revealing a pure, innocent smile.

“How is it? Just like you, right?”

There was no hostility. The demon seemed just as amazed by her transformation as I was. It could still be a disguise, though. There have been cases of demons infiltrating us using polymorph abilities. But mimicking magical energy was unheard of.

Get a grip. The surveillance cameras and sensors have already recorded everything. If I kill this demon now, we can prove our innocence. But… No, there’s no time to hesitate. The Association has probably already alerted the other Magical Girls.

“Amber!”

I tried to open a gate beneath the demon’s feet, but Dahye blocked me. I glared at her, and she looked as if she was about to burst into tears.

“Don’t do it, please?”

“Do you have any idea what’s going on here!?”

No matter how much I pressed her, she just bit her lip and shook her head.

“Then what do you suggest we do?”

“Let’s take her home.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!!”

“Waaah…”

I’d forgotten that we weren’t alone. There was the demon, looking like dew trapped in flower petals, and Harin, embracing the girl.

“Please don’t fight…”

“I’m sorry, girls. I shouldn’t have raised my voice.”

“Where are you going?”

I grabbed Dahye’s arm as she moved towards the children. She effortlessly shook off my hand and embraced them. Thankfully, nothing happened.

“Can you handle this?”

“I have to. I must.”

The look on her face was resolute. You really haven’t changed, have you?

She opened a gate to her house and led the children through. Her lips curled into a smile, as if she’d received a bouquet of flowers.

I started to follow but stopped. Whether I looked at the cameras, the booths, or simply walked past, they could use anything against me. Giving up, I returned home.

Two foreign objects occupied the sofa in my otherwise familiar space. The demon was wiping away moisture with a tissue, and the chick kept pecking at me with its tiny beak. The pecking stopped when Peng, who had been preoccupied until then, finally showed up.

[Harin-nya. What’s going on? Why did Dahye-nim transform again?]

“Peng! Listen to this! At the auditorium, Ms. Amber was talking about the stuff she said on MaTube, and then everyone left to eat. So, we thought we were alone and went to talk to her, but Jangmi was there too. At first, I thought she’d missed the line for lunch, but then she came up to the teacher and…”

[Ah, are Senior-nim and Dahye-nim there too?]

“I’m here.”

I snatched the brooch from Harin and answered.

[Thank goodness-nya. Harin was so excited, it was hard to understand-nya.]

***

[Dangerous-nya. I heard nothing-nya. I know nothing-nya.]

“You’re already one of us.”

[Aaah, I shouldn’t have called-nya. So, where does the magic power come from-nya? How can a hornless demon use magic power-nya?]

That’s what I’d like to know. There’s definitely a reaction, but there’s nothing visibly different about her. I even checked if it was hidden in her hair, but there was nothing.

“Um, Ms. Amber…”

The demon feebly raised her hand and deactivated her transformation. Her attire reverted to her usual pink cardigan and polka-dot dress.

“Are you perhaps talking about this?”

As she began to unbutton her dress, Dahye grabbed her hand.

“Don’t take your clothes off.”

“But it’s right here.”

“What’s there? Can you just show it to me, then?”

Dahye wrapped the girl’s upper body with her own shirt, ensuring only she could see. I didn’t mind, but it was a thoughtful gesture for her student.

*Click* *Click*

Dahye’s expression darkened with each unbuttoning sound. She turned to me with a stiff neck, a look I’d never seen before.

“Amber.”

As Dahye slowly pulled back her jacket, the girl’s skin was revealed. Beneath her collarbone, where there shouldn’t be anything, a Mana Stone was embedded—a transparent stone, like those only fairies possess, revealing the reddish flesh beneath it.