Congratulations on Your Magical Girl Duties

42 – The Same Road, and a Different One

“First, drink.”

I ordered the coffee I was getting for myself, and added a tea for Nakji, handing it to her.

It wasn’t like a single cup would break the bank.

And I felt bad just leaving Nakji to wallow.

Then it suddenly occurred to me to buy something for Whitedog and Sora, so I placed another order.

“Ah, a set of yubu chobap and your most expensive, sweetest drink, please. To go.”

As I received the things for takeout and extended my card, the magical girl who owned the Magical Café whispered quietly, just loud enough for me to hear.

“Settle up when you’re leaving. Right now, it seems solace is needed more than payment.”

“Thank you.”

A small consideration from the owner magical girl.

Her perceptiveness was appreciated.

It allowed me to focus on Nakji.

Meanwhile, Nakji said nothing, simply sipping her tea over and over.

Had she regained some composure? Nakji spoke to me in a tone calmer than before.

“Why… did you assist this maiden…?”

The very same question as before.

I couldn’t help but smile wryly. Because Taishi’s figure overlapped so strongly with her appearance.

— “Why… did you save me…?”

The girl I met in that other world, that is.

Well, if you were to nitpick, you couldn’t say they were exactly the same. Unlike Nakji, the girl had already given up on life when I first met her.

The girl, scorned by the hero, had cast herself from the cliff’s edge, losing all will.

And that’s when I found her.

No grand plan came to mind. I simply acted, rescuing her on instinct.

She asked me then,

why I had saved her.

So desperately did she wish for death. If the curse would take her anyway, she would at least choose the moment.

A mere child, only eleven years of age, driven to the brink of ending it all.

I believe I answered,

simply because I wanted to.

Nothing more.

“Why… why did you help this girl?”

But now, unlike before, I can offer a reason, spoken with conviction.

“Because I am a hero.”

“…Eh?”

Why so surprised?

I’ve barely begun.

“Besides, I’m a major shareholder in No□pia. Of course, writers like you are precious to me.”

The Octopus, clearly stunned, stared at me with wide eyes, speechless.

Then, she shook her head.

“Even so, claiming to be a major shareholder of No□pia is taking it too far.”

Naturally, I expected this, so I let it slide.

Such things don’t sting in the least.

“I would sooner believe you were a hero. That at least makes you seem less unhinged.”

“Ah, you little…”

That one stung a bit.

No, a lot.

A wave of existential dread washed over me. She would rather believe I was a hero than the major shareholder of No□pia?

Regardless, the Octopus seemed to have recovered some of her spirit. Just a few more words of encouragement and she would be fine.

“Well, I believe in you. So, if you’re going to write, make it a masterpiece. And no dropping the project midway.”

It’s all for No□pia’s stock price, after all.

Even so, no sign of a smile graced Nakji’s face.

“But… I’m not all that good at it, you see. In Magical Buddhism terms, it’s like I haven’t been able to shake off my worldly troubles, you see.”

“So what?”

I gave Nakji a slight smile.

“What if you’re not good at it? No one’s good at anything from the start.”

In the first place, writing is akin to farming.

Impossible to achieve in a single day? Of course. How could farming be accomplished in a day?

One simply persists, quietly, diligently doing what must be done.

Until the day one sees the harvest.

That’s what writing is like.

“There isn’t a Mara Belarus that can make me a good writer in exchange for shortening my lifespan a bit, is there, you see?”

“If there was, I’d be the first one to do it, goddamn it.”

Clearly, Nakji was truly consumed by worldly desires. Without the slightest hesitation, she’d offered to trade her lifespan.

Come to think of it, wasn’t it Mara Papiyas?

Why Mara Belarus of all things?

Something felt like it was about to be utterly devastated.

Meanwhile, Nakji, with sorrowful eyes, quietly moved her lips.

“On the other hand, I’m not good at anything, and no matter how hard I try, nothing ever improves, you see. I’m always stuck at the bottom, you see.”

“So what?”

So what if you’re at the bottom?

Being at the bottom is a blessing, in fact.

Even if you fall, run away, give up, you’re already at the bottom anyway. There’s nowhere further to fall.

And so.

“You’re at the very bottom, where there’s nowhere else to retreat. So someday, you’ll be able to climb up.”

Now there’s only climbing left to do, isn’t there?

You don’t have to climb as high as others.

Just a little, just a little higher than yesterday.

That’s enough.

“There’s a bottom even to the bottom, you see.”

“Do you really have to say something like that, you crazy b*tch?”

And what if… we descend below even the bottom?

Take this chance to truly sink to the bedrock of the bedrock, to become the king of the abyss, crawling along the floor.

In that instant, Nakji locked eyes with me.

“If that is so, I only wish to ask one thing.”

Her pair of crimson eyes were brimming with worry and apprehension.

“If one strives, strains every nerve, labors more than others… and yet can never reach the summit… if at best, one barely scrapes by to the middle slopes, a life of only failure…”

Something seemed to surge up within her, and Nakji trailed off, choked with emotion.

After a moment of silence, she spoke again.

“What in the world is one to do, then…”

It’s a bitter story, to be sure.

It’s incredibly difficult for everyone to reach the summit. Even if one works themselves to death, as Nakji says, there are those who never reach it.

But that is not a failed life.

“Then I’ll sell bottled water on the middle slopes, won’t I?”

It’s simply another life.

“…Pardon?”

“In the first place, reaching the middle slopes, how is that failure? For the time you sell water, it’s a successful life.”

Is there some law that demands you reach the summit?

Even if you want to reach it, you might not be able to.

Even if you barely cling to the middle slopes, it will only be for a moment.

Then.

During that brief time I’m on the middle slopes, I’ll just do my best.

I’ve always done that. I will continue to.

“When selling water, I’ll sell it in gacha form. Lucky ones will pull ice-cold water in one go. It’ll get lukewarm after a while, so they’ll have to pull it quickly, though.”

“You truly are a son of a b*tch.”

“That’s why it’s a limited edition item.”

In any case, this much should be enough of an answer from me. The rest depends on how Nakji accepts it.

“Is this enough? I’m going.”

With a casual wave, I left first.

Hoping that Nakji would arrive at her own answer.

There exists a magical girl by the name of Taishi.

Her magical girl moniker: Black Kitty.

Rank: Magical Private.

She yearned to surpass others.

To play the bass a little better, to pen words a little finer than other authors.

She toiled harder than anyone. Skimping on sleep, whittling away at her own body, endlessly whipping herself onward.

But, her efforts always betrayed her expectations.

Even after joining a Magical Band, she was invariably dismissed, and the countless pieces she wrote were buried in lonely indifference, without even a common criticism.

Failure.

Terrified of that mere two-syllable word, Taishi began to cloak herself in the word, ‘Superiority.’

She entered Magical Buddhism, reformed her manner of speech, and gradually shifted her way of thinking.

She was far superior to those others.

That they were inferior and thus, could not understand her.

She whispered it to herself, over and over.

“Oh dear, the concept isn’t working, is it?”

Well, now she had become addicted to the point of no return, however.

Even so, Taishi was always uneasy.

She knew. If you peeled back the shell she’d built around herself, all that remained was just a single magical girl.

The path she had walked.

The path she was walking.

The path she wished to walk.

All of it besmirched with the word, ‘Failure,’ a wretched and insignificant magical girl.

Taishi was afraid. Afraid of having to continually face failure, that the word ‘Failure’ would be etched onto every footprint.

Even then, unable to relinquish her lingering attachment, she found her own dogged efforts utterly pathetic.

A failed life. A rock-bottom existence that she could not refute, even if others mocked and trampled upon her.

However.

Today, Kim Si-yul, who had assisted Taishi, spoke these words about Taishi’s failed life:

That it wasn’t a failed life.

That it was merely a different life.

The path Taishi considered wrong, he thought of not as wrong, but simply as a different path.

The path was the same length, and yet, the way of walking it was different.

‘Of course, your idea is a bit of a bloody b*stard, though…’

Well, even so, it was a little difficult to definitively say that Kim Shiyul was completely right, either.

Anyway.

And so, Taishi watched his departing back, and harbored a small wish.

He wanted to know.

How to walk such a path.

How to find a path that was different, not wrong.

How Kim Shiyul thought and lived his life, Taishi wanted to know just a little bit more.

“Um… excuse me, but…”

At that moment, a voice that came suddenly snapped Taishi from his reverie.

It was the Magical Café’s owner, a magical girl herself.

“Is there something I can help you with?”

“If you’re finished, could you settle the bill?”

“Ah! Of course.”

Kim Shiyul had ordered two Magical drinks, and it seemed he’d forgotten to pay before leaving.

Taishi handed over his Magical Patriotic Card.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you, I’ll get you rung up quickly.”

The prices at Magical Café were generally a bit of a burden, but this time, he felt generous.

‘Well, this much, this girl will offer!’

This was someone he wanted to get to know better; it wouldn’t hurt to be a little generous, he thought.

“Here you are, your Magical receipt.”

“…Huh?”

That was, until he received the Magical receipt.

“What’s wrong?”

“The, the amount is strange!”

There was no way it could be this much.

“One set of inari sushi and one drink to go. Two drinks here. So, three drinks in total and one food item.”

“……”

Taishi’s head began to throb.

So hard that his focus wobbled a little.

He’d anticipated a bit of a financial hit, but he hadn’t expected it to be more than double.

Closer to triple, actually. The prices on the to-go food and drinks were particularly atrocious.

At this rate, he’d have to live like he was barely breathing until the next Magical paycheck came in.

“Hah.”

Thanks to this, Taishi suddenly had one more thing he wanted to know.

“You are so dead, you know?”

How to clock someone upside the head, good and proper.