Congratulations on Your Magical Girl Duties

1 – Stranger From Another World (1)

“Mr. Kim Si-yul, let’s bring this to a close.”

“Please, just one more verification.”

A phrase dripping with exhaustion and a servile request drew parallel lines.

The conversation, failing to mesh, caused the officer opposite me to grimace.

“How much more do I need to show you to satisfy you? I’ve already shown you more than five times.”

But, I couldn’t just accept it either.

“No, honestly, it’s strange, isn’t it?”

What I was seeing and hearing was something utterly beyond my comprehension.

No matter how I thought about it, it didn’t make sense.

I couldn’t even believe that there was an official document stating that I deserted from the army, but there was something even more significant.

“Why is there nothing left?”

Not in a figurative sense, but literally.

The elementary school, middle school, and high school I graduated from.

The convenience stores and shops where I worked.

My tiny, three-pyeong studio apartment where I lived alone.

The army base where I’d finished my service.

And even the whereabouts of my parents.

“No, how could it all just… disappear?”

Everything. Now, not a single trace remained.

Or, to be more precise, even the word “remained” felt inappropriate. There was simply no record of any of it.

The places, alright, maybe those could somehow vanish, but my parents? It made absolutely no sense.

What kind of country was Korea, anyway? If nothing else, it was a nation that clung stubbornly to records of a person’s whereabouts.

They say they don’t catch criminals not because they can’t, but because they simply don’t bother. Which, truth be told, wasn’t entirely wrong.

Yet, there wasn’t a single indication that my parents had ever existed.

Missing? Deceased? Even that would be preferable.

At least there’d be a record.

But the results screen was blank. Only a message saying it couldn’t be found.

As if they’d never existed in the first place.

“That’s impossible!”

But.

“Why is that impossible?”

“Huh?”

The officer just replied, apathetic.

“You think you’re the only one in the world like that? What’s so surprising?”

Like a true civil servant, he even let out a sigh reeking of weariness. As if he were dealing with a perpetually difficult complainer.

Fine, you b*stard.

I’ll become a truly difficult complainer.

“Whatever else, you can’t just call me a son of a b*tch with no parents! And to even add that I deserve it!”

I yelled, my voice close to a sob, reaching a fever pitch. Making sure every single person in the police station was paying attention.

“Wait, just a moment! When did I ever say that!”

“Is this really the police! You can’t bring up someone’s parents like that! Is that written in the police handbook somewhere?!”

The result was immediate.

The other officers, who were working, frowned, some giving me looks of outright contempt. As if I crossed a line this time, even considering the investigation.

Especially the man who seemed to hold a rather high position, he clicked his tongue and started taking notes. Probably intending to reflect it in the next personnel evaluation.

Thanks to that, I witnessed the precious spectacle of the police officer across from me turning ashen-faced in real-time.

Congratulations, you son of a b*tch.

“Ah, no! That’s not it!”

“Then what is it!”

I continued to press him, eager to keep the momentum going.

With a desperate voice, wet with fear.

But with eyes that held not a shred of sadness.

The sole purpose:

To drag this b*stard’s reputation all the way down to hell and ruin his life until the very end—

“You know Kim Siyul too! That a majority of the records for all of Korea disappeared before!”

“…Excuse me?”

For a moment, my mind went completely blank.

I don’t quite remember what I was thinking anymore. No, that doesn’t matter now.

Because a more important statement just slipped out.

“The records… why did they disappear?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know?”

No, if I knew, would I be asking, you shithead?

Suppressing the impulse that surged momentarily, I stared intently at the police officer. The officer asks again, with eyes filled with doubt.

“You really don’t know? Back then, it wouldn’t have been strange if the world had ended.”

The more I heard, the harder it was to answer.

“I don’t know.”

In the end, I could only spew out the word ‘don’t know’ again.

“The whole world was in an uproar about it, and you don’t know? Where the hell have you been all this time?”

Ah, this I can answer with confidence.

“In another world.”

“Huh?”

The police officer let out a hollow question.

I added a little more to my words.

“I was dragged to another world for ten years and just returned.”

“Goddamn it, what the…”

A sigh escaped the officer’s lips.

Perhaps my explanation was a bit lacking; he didn’t seem to grasp it properly. A little more detail, and he’d surely understand.

“I’m telling you, it’s true! Listen, right after I was discharged ten years ago, I went to another world.”

“Do you have any proof?”

“No.”

“…And what did you do in this other world?”

But contrary to my expectations, the officer’s response was icy.

“I was a hero.”

“…”

“Kim Si-yul, the Lunar Hero.”

“…”

He didn’t even bother to speak now.

“I can’t do this job, I swear. What a goddamn lunatic…”

He just covered his face, cursing the situation he found himself in.

But what was I supposed to do?

I really did go to another world.

Of course, all the evidence I had was gone now, but still.

“Should I just quit, seriously?”

The officer earnestly lamented his lot, but only for a moment, before meeting my gaze with eyes full of resignation.

“Fine, let’s just say you went to another world. Then, Mr. Kim Si-yul, you wouldn’t know what’s been happening in Korea all this time, right?”

The officer had neatly summarized my position, in his own way.

However, there was something to correct.

The incorrect part needed to be set right.

“No, I’m telling you, I really went! You’re not listening properly. Are you feeling unwell, maybe?”

“Just! Let’s move on! Please! Just for a bit!”

He did seem to be genuinely unwell.

Just a few words, and he was already pouring out his frustrations like that. It almost made me feel sorry for him.

It wouldn’t hurt to offer a little comfort at this point.

“Hang in there. I’ve been there, as a hero, and let me tell you, being a civil servant is the best. You get job security, and a pension later on.”

“Ah, really! Please! Just shut that mouth of yours! How can I even explain it, like this!”

Seeing him unable to accept even simple comfort, I was certain he was ill. Quite seriously so, at that.

Well, what could I do?

A sane man like me had to understand.

I was a hero, after all.

“So, what in the world happened?”

“Do you know what a magical girl is?”

I nodded. Even if I’d been to another world, it wasn’t a word I didn’t know.

Magical girl.

A girl who uses magic, appearing in various media, mostly of the subculture variety.

I knew it well. As the major shareholder of Top□ and No□pia, there was no way I wouldn’t know one of the mainstays of subculture like magical girls.

But why suddenly bring up magical girls?

“Then, what is the enemy of a magical girl?”

However, the officer only produced another question, its meaning inscrutable.

“A monster, of course.”

Even so, my response was thorough. After all, it wasn’t a question I couldn’t answer at all.

Monster (怪人).

To put it simply, a humanoid monster.

A being positioned opposite of the magical girl.

“Yes, you’re right. As you said, Mr. Kim Siyul, monsters.”

“But why are monsters suddenly coming up now?”

The officer sighed, “Hoo,” before slowly continuing.

“Because of the invasion of those monsters, Korea was turned upside down. Practically ruined, one might say. Other countries were in similar situations.”

I heard him clearly, but I wondered if I heard him correctly.

While I was in another world, Korea had perished.

At the hands of the magical girls’ enemies, the monsters.

Which meant.

“Those monster b*stards completely erased all of Korea’s records?”

“To be precise, not completely, but mostly.”

Either way, it isn’t much different, the officer added.

A rough picture was forming in my mind.

For him to speak like that, it must have been a true catastrophe. A whole nation teetering on the brink of collapse; there was no way the old records would have survived intact.

Still, TopCorp and Nopia had weathered the monster invasion. As expected of companies that ruled the world.

And, I was beyond grateful, that my own account was still perfectly fine.

But two questions, stemmed from all this.

“Where the hell did these monsters even come from?”

First and foremost, the source of the monsters.

Monsters in magical girl stories always appeared suddenly, but they didn’t just show up for no reason. They had, at least, an origin story.

It varied a little depending on the series, but the most common setup was that they were born from humanity’s collective negative emotions.

But that couldn’t actually happen, right?

If negative emotions could birth beings capable of destroying nations, this world would have ended long ago.

Even before I was dragged into this other world, South Korea was already drowning in pessimism.

Other countries couldn’t have been all that different, but even so, South Korea was particularly bad.

Yet, even in those times, no monsters appeared. Of course, even without monsters, it was a country destined to fall apart before long.

So, where did these monsters come from then?

“The North.”

“Ah, so these monsters were North Korean monsters?”

Monsters, magical girls, these were foreign concepts, but to summarize: North Korea had messed up South Korea, and the world.