41. Unreality (4)
Dudududududu!!
An attack helicopter cut across the skies above Incheon.
Below, the ground was half-destroyed and burning, and above it a single monstrous creature roared.
—Kwooooh!!
A shockwave burst outward in an instant, shaking the helicopter, but those on board did not panic.
Because they knew there was someone who would protect them.
“Point. Deploy Code Magician.”
The one confronting the monster was not a fighter jet, a tank, or a missile.
It was simply one ordinary girl.
Flame, a high school girl, jumped lightly down from the helicopter as it slowly descended toward the ground and flicked her staff.
Flash!
—Ohhh, so that’s magic……
—It’s my first time seeing it in person, but still.
—Amazing.
A collision between light and monster.
When lances of light rained down from magic circles inscribed throughout the air and pierced the creature, the monster responded by spewing flames in every direction.
“Ah!”
The helicopter hurriedly performed evasive maneuvers, but Flame did not dodge.
Standing still with a wall of light raised before her, she lifted her staff high into the sky.
Flash!
A massive pillar of light pierced the dark clouds and descended—
Then cleanly severed the monster’s neck.
Kuung…!!
—Ooooh!
—She did it!
—Flame killed another monster!
The monsters all carried a special barrier over their skin, making them extremely troublesome opponents since no missile or bullet could affect them—
Yet to Flame, it seemed to pose no problem at all.
The arrows of light she fired pierced through the monsters’ skin with absurd ease, and there was not a single creature anywhere that could withstand her blades of light.
“Hoo……”
Having once again successfully finished the hunt, Flame turned around, smiled toward the air, and waved.
It was fan service directed at the countless drone cameras that were surely filming her from somewhere even now.
She could not hear them.
But she could feel them.
The passionate cheers of her fans.
Because she was the only magician on Earth.
And their savior.
Treatment like this was only natural.
Click! Click!
Chrrrrrrk!
“Miss Flame! You’ve successfully finished another monster hunt—could you please share a few thoughts?”
“Isn’t it difficult balancing your school life with your hero activities?”
“The principal of Chilwol High School has officially offered words of encouragement—would you like to respond?”
On the flight back in the helicopter, countless reporters had already gathered at the landing point and were shoving cameras and microphones toward her.
Flame answered their questions one by one.
It was a little tiring, but not difficult.
And her fans seemed to love it even more when she did.
School life, huh…
She had not wanted to give it up, but in the end she had more or less done so.
Monsters had begun appearing all across the world, and Flame had no choice but to fly across the globe over and over.
Had her grades fallen because of it?
Not at all.
[First in the Nation, Magician Flame!]
[“How did you rank first with so little time?” “I studied mainly from the textbooks.”]
[Top universities around the world are all calling! What will her choice be?]
She had only studied the bare minimum, and yet still ended up taking the top rank in the country.
Even leading universities overseas were reaching out to her one after another.
Honestly, even if she had not studied at all, getting into a prestigious university might not have been difficult anymore.
Everything was going smoothly.
Anything she touched, she succeeded at.
Without a single failure.
Study was study.
Dance was dance.
Singing was singing.
Magic was magic.
If Flame bought a lottery ticket, she won first prize immediately.
If she donated casually, the entire world praised her as if she were an angel.
The clothes and accessories she wore became trends and exploded in popularity all over the world.
The world pays attention to me.
The world follows the direction I move in.
The world nods in the direction I point.
It felt as though she had become the center of the world.
Could other people possibly understand this feeling of walking down a road opened wide and flat before you, without a single obstacle in the way?
She was happy.
Surely…
From here on, she would continue opening up a bright future, just as before.
That was what she thought.
“Miss Flame! Are you able to deploy immediately?”
One day, she received a call in the middle of class, and Flame hurriedly left school.
Her schedule was now managed under government supervision, so missing school had become routine already, but at the very least she had thought she could maintain the minimum level of study.
Lately, however, monster appearances had become far more frequent.
“A monster has appeared simultaneously in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, and Okinawa, Japan. We plan to deal with the one in Gangwon first, then move to Japan immediately, but if we’re too late, we may have no choice but to use missiles.”
“Ah……”
Simultaneous monster appearances?
Nothing like that had happened even once before.
Missiles are not an option.
Okinawa was a famous tourist destination, with heavy traffic from visitors.
The fact that they were talking about missiles meant they were already considering the possibility of the city itself collapsing, so that had to be the absolute last resort.
Besides, there was no guarantee that missiles would even kill the monster for sure.
She had to hurry.
“Please make haste.”
Flame had decided she should feel a sense of mission toward what she did.
If not for me, no one can save the people of Earth.
People want me.
…But not everything goes the way you want.
Kuuung!
“Khk…!”
“Miss Flame! Are you all right?!”
“I-I’m fine!”
Height: fifteen meters.
Red skin.
A single eye.
That was the second monster she encountered after defeating the one in Cheorwon and heading to Okinawa.
Its special feature was…
That it fired lasers from its eye.
It’s too strong…!
By then, after acting as a magician for half a year, Flame had begun noticing something.
Her magic was not growing at all.
Well… of course it wouldn’t.
…I don’t even know where or how I learned magic in the first place.
Knowledge of magic had simply been engraved into her head all at once, and she had been using it as if it were her own.
Growing any further than that was impossible.
Judging her own level as objectively as she could, Flame had concluded that she was at “Level 4.”
The monsters that had appeared up to now had only been around Level 2 or 3 at most.
Until now, they had not been hard to fight…
But—
Jiiiiing! Kuuung!
“Ugh!”
She threw herself flat to avoid the violently erupting laser, and the ruins of the building behind her came crashing down.
At least Level 5…!
Even she could not easily produce that level of destructive force.
Fortunately, the giant monster could not control its massive body properly, so its mobility was poor, but the destructive force of the laser from its eye was so extreme that even fighter jets could not approach it properly.
Can I… really beat this?
Jiiiiiiing—!
Dooom!
Every time the giant’s eye swept across somewhere, another trace of civilization crumbled away.
And in the middle of all that, Flame could do nothing.
That destructive power was at least two full levels above her own.
She had no confidence that any barrier she could cast right now would withstand it.
What… am I supposed to do…?
At the moment Flame hesitated, gripping her staff tightly—
Whoosh!
A wind as light as a feather scattered around her, and something brushed past her ear.
When she realized it, a boy was standing before her with his back turned to her.
It was a familiar back.
“Baek… Yuseol……?”
He stared quietly at the giant, then turned and spoke to Flame.
“This was my mistake.”
“Huh…?”
“You started drawing happiness in too quickly, so the balance of the world fell apart.”
“What are you… even talking about……?”
“…Just wait a moment.”
Unlike her own, Baek Yuseol pulled out a short, small staff.
Mana flowed from it, and a white blade of light sprang forth.
“Wait, with something like that you—!”
But before Flame could even finish speaking, Baek Yuseol shot into the sky.
Blinking between buildings, he reached the giant’s immediate vicinity before she could even follow him with her eyes.
Jiiiiiiing!
The giant spotted Baek Yuseol and fired a laser into the air, but it did not hit him.
He evaded it with exquisite precision, at the same time guiding it away so that it would not strike the ground.
“Huh…?”
It all happened in less than the blink of an eye.
Moving freely through the air, Baek Yuseol finally reached the back of the giant’s neck and drove his blade deep into the blue mark located there.
And then—
—Kwooo……
The giant lost all strength and collapsed weakly to the ground.
Kuguuuung!!!
“Ugh!”
The thing was so enormous that the force of its fall was no joke either.
Flame hurriedly threw up a barrier and crossed her arms in front of herself, and then she heard footsteps right nearby.
She quickly raised her head.
Baek Yuseol was looking down at her with a troubled expression.
His clothes were not disheveled in the slightest, as though he had not just been fighting a giant monster moments before.
“H-how…?”
A monster she could not even hope to face properly no matter how desperately she tried…
And he had killed it with a single strike.
“You could have done it too.”
After saying that, he glanced toward the place where the giant had fallen.
“From here on, it’ll be harder. More monsters, and stronger ones, will start pouring out.”
“Wait, what do you mean by that?”
“I mean exactly what I said.”
After that, Baek Yuseol stayed silent for quite a while.
Unlike before, he did not vanish like the wind.
He was waiting.
Waiting until Flame asked him something.
Her mind was in chaos.
She had finally met Baek Yuseol, yet she could not even figure out what she ought to ask him.
Who are you?
Are you another magician too?
Why are you wearing our school uniform?
Countless questions rose and disappeared.
At last, the question Flame actually asked was this:
“…What happens from now on?”
He had said stronger monsters would appear, and in greater numbers.
Modern science-based weapons could not stop them.
Why?
She did not know.
No one had yet explained the monsters’ barriers through science.
“This world will be destroyed.”
“W-what…? There aren’t any other magicians? People like you… and, well, me…?”
Could she even really call herself a magician?
When referring to herself, Flame hesitated a little, but Baek Yuseol did not seem to care.
“No. You and I are the end of it.”
“That can’t be……”
Staring blankly down at the ground, Flame slowly parted her lips and asked:
“…Then what am I supposed to do?”
Why had she asked him that?
Why had she thought Baek Yuseol would know the answer to this whole situation?
She did not know.
And yet, instinct told her:
If you ask Baek Yuseol, it feels like anything can be solved.
He hesitated for a long time.
Then at last, stepping away, he said:
“You have to choose death yourself.”
Whoooooosh……!
She looked back up, about to ask what the hell he meant by that—
But Baek Yuseol had already left.
I… have to die……?
That was absurd.
If she died, then who would stop those monsters?
How was she supposed to give up a life this happy…?
“Ah……”
For a long time, Flame remained collapsed there, unable to move.
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That night, Flame had a terrible nightmare.
It was dreadful and horrifying, and yet more realistic than anything.
In the dream, Flame was a wanderer.
Shhhhhhh—!!
Pushing through the pouring summer rain, Flame walked through a ruined street.
Civilization now existed only in traces.
The science and technology of humanity, once dazzling and noble, had been destroyed by monsters, and now it had become natural to live like a rat, hiding just to survive.
Flame was no different.
She crossed the ruined city.
Apparently to find food for the day, she kept walking and walking.
The me in the dream hid behind a building.
A huge monster passed between the fragments of a collapsed skyscraper.
I held my breath and waited only for the monster to pass.
The Flame who had once stood at the center of the world was gone.
In that dream, I was nothing more than prey for the monsters.
—Kwooooh!
—Kyaaaak!
Right nearby, monsters slaughtered each other.
The skies had been occupied by monsters with demonic wings, so no one could move freely above, while underground was filled with terrible poison gas, making it impossible even to breathe.
If there truly was such a thing as living hell, perhaps this was it.
As the me in the dream crept along between ruined buildings, holding my breath, I discovered something.
[Jibiwol High School]
It was my ruined alma mater.
Everyone had died.
On the day monsters took over the world, my school had been among the first places to fall.
And atop it—
Baek Yuseol was sitting there.
Holding an umbrella, he looked up at the rainy sky and said:
“You became happy too quickly… and because of that, the balance of the world collapsed.”
The me in the dream knew.
The me in the dream was blaming herself.
“Hhk…”
The me in the dream was crying.
“It’s my fault. It’s because of me.”
And I cried and cried.
Endlessly.
