Chapter 18: From angel to messenger.

The clerk was a girl around 20.

A name tag reading “Yena Choi” was pinned to her chest.

Her eyes resembled a cat’s, but her overall vibe was gentle.

So this is Reaper Mors untransformed.

“How’d you find me…?”

“Told you, I can track you anywhere.”

Yena glanced around nervously.

I was the only customer.
Great for a clerk with no work, but bad for her now.

No one else would show up for a while.

“Tracking magic even when I’m untransformed? Thought it was a bluff.”

“Your Magical Gem’s embedded in you.”

The Magical Gem is a vessel for storing magic.

Activating it is transformation.

The magic radiating now is faint, but knowing its signature makes it traceable.

“Didn’t peg you for dyeing your hair pink. That big a Scarlet fan?”

On the surface, I’m Scarlet Lily, a 5.5th-gen who’s a huge fan of the first-gen Scarlet.

I’m not a narcissist, but me being my own fan? Ridiculous.
Too late to clarify now.

I let it slide.

“When’s your shift over?”

“It’ll be a while. Why?”

“Wanna hang out.”

“You, with me?”

Yena frowned.

“I’ll wait, so give me your number.”

“What if I say no?”

“Not a request.”

“…”

Realizing her situation, she reluctantly complied.

“Give me your phone.”

A resigned sigh.
She handed over her smartphone, typed her number, and called.

A buzz came from near the counter.

“I’ll call after my shift.”

A missed call logged, so she got my number too.

Should’ve done this sooner.

Yusia and Haeun are busy.
Me? I’m… almost always free.

This case might tie to my escape from the demon world, so I can’t just dump it on the juniors.

I decided to take the lead and lighten their load.

“Didn’t expect you to bring her home.”

I met Yena in a residential area.

She was tired after work and took me to her place.

“You said you could find me anywhere.”

“It’s not precise enough for an address. Finding the store was tough.”

“…You found me anyway, so I’m busted.”

She claimed a mental victory.

“You said you wanted to hang out. What’s the plan?”

“Just want to know who you are.”

I didn’t have a specific agenda.

Since the fourth gen seems like prime targets for the mastermind, I wanted to understand them better.

“Sounds like you’re treating me like a kid.”

You are younger, but I didn’t say that.

Yena didn’t complain outright.
She seemed to take it as part of magical girls’ casual camaraderie.

“We’re different ages, got little in common. Not much to talk about. Why even bother with this?”

She grumbled like a rebel.

“Heard fourth gen’s full of loners. You an outsider?”

“No way!”

She denied it vehemently.

“Thought that might’ve pushed you toward corruption.”

“I just prefer a small, tight crew…!”

Yena pouted.

Total outsider.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to get close with your gen? No one clicked?”

How’d she end up isolated?
She’s not bad with words or particularly unsocial.

Maybe a bit prickly.

“It wasn’t always like this. Over time, everyone found their place.”

“The outsider spot?”

“I said it’s not like that!”

“Tell me about Angelic Luna.”

Before Reaper Mors.

I wanted to know what she was like as an angel, not a reaper.

“Nothing special. As newbies, we stuck together, but as we gained experience, we teamed up with those who meshed. I was left floating.”

“Why?”

“I was weak.”

I tilted my head.

“You seemed pretty good flying.”

“That’s all I’ve got. Doesn’t help kill monsters.”

I disagreed but didn’t argue.

“So fourth gen’s all about meritocracy?”

Hearing how a proud magical girl came to be, I felt pity.

Armo should’ve handled this.

In my time, it was just the three of us.

We clicked well, but we also had to rely on each other.

Naturally, I was tight with Stella and Spica, but from the third gen, the number of contractees spiked.
Without deliberate effort, isolation became common.

“I talked with Reaper Mors. Doesn’t seem like a bad kid.”

Evening, I met Yusia and Haeun at a café.

“Only those with potential become magical girls. She’s not rotten at her core.”

Telling them about visiting Yena—Reaper Mors—Haeun nodded knowingly.

“Weren’t you the most suspicious of her?”

I can still picture her waving a wrench threateningly.

“Once I knew the second Armo was the root cause. That guy was utterly irresponsible.”

“We were lucky, but the fourth gen had it rough,” Yusia added.

“Third and fourth gen contracted with the second Armo? What’s the difference?”

“Well…” Haeun began.

After the first Armo’s murder, the second Armo took a different approach.

Neglect.

Don’t interfere, don’t make enemies.

With that simplistic mindset, he contracted new magical girls and left them alone.

“It was a business-like relationship. He didn’t mediate conflicts, just told us to sort it out,” Haeun said, frowning.

“No complaints?”

“Of course we had them! But what could we do? We chose to be magical girls. If I’d known he was like that, I might not have signed.”

Once contracted, the mascot’s the boss, the girl’s the subordinate.

Not absolute, but hard to defy psychologically.

Especially for naive teens.

“After we debuted successfully, the second Armo got cockier. By the fourth gen, he basically checked out. Dumped training on us seniors.”

Hiding safely, watching from the sidelines.

That seemed his goal, but life isn’t that easy.

If it was, everyone would do it.

“In the end, one fourth-gen held a grudge, and… you know the rest,” Yusia said, hinting at karma.

Despite his opposite stance, the second Armo was killed like the first.

“Judgment. We risk our lives fighting, and he just sits it out,” Haeun said.

I got the picture.

Mascots are mascots, no matter the generation.

“So you don’t see Reaper Mors as all bad?”

“Eh… it’s complicated,” Haeun said.

“Oh?”

I thought they blamed the mascot.

“I don’t really know her. Reaper Mors—Angelic Luna—barely shows up, so we haven’t had a chance to connect.”

Haeun laughed awkwardly, scratching her head.

Small crew, my ass.
Total outsider.

Yena abandoned the name Angelic Luna for a fresh start.

Being a magical girl wasn’t as glamorous as it seemed.
Behind the bright smiles lay hidden darkness and struggles unknown to the public.

The mascot was trash, the duties heavy.

She was crushed by the gap between ideals and reality.

Her deployments dwindled, and she drifted from her peers.

Starting over was her only option.

“Tch, even losing to Scarlet Lily.”

Her monitor showed a magical girl popularity ranking site.

Scarlet Lily, a fresh debut, was already mid-tier.
Her dramatic entrance and unique streaming style fueled rapid fan growth.

Meanwhile, Angelic Luna’s name was near the bottom, barely above the lowest.

“Damn it…”

Not every magical girl is an idol.

Even popularity doesn’t pay the bills.
You’ve got to fend for yourself.

Streaming offers some perks, but only for a few.
Yena earned her living at a convenience store.

“Guess I’ll go out.”

On gloomy days, fresh air’s the best.

“Brr… cold.”

Transformed as Reaper Mors, Yena floated in the night sky.

Despite winter’s end, the air was chilly.
She flew, seeking a wind-blocking spot, and landed on a building’s rooftop.

The night view was stunning.

Seeing it from the highest perch was one of her few privileges as a magical girl.

When she needed a mood lift, Yena took to the skies.

“Scarlet Lily… not a bad person.”

Swinging her legs, she mumbled to herself.

Lacking respect for seniors, but her heart seemed true.

It’d been a while since someone approached her first.
Barging into her store was a nuisance, though.

“Making assumptions is dangerous.”

She’d thought Scarlet Lily was arrogant.
Strength breeds cockiness.

That was her misunderstanding.

Talking changed her mind.

Being worried about by a younger girl was humiliating, but the attention wasn’t all bad.

Buzz.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket.
A DM arrived on her SNS.

[“Gates will open tomorrow. Exact time TBD. Join the banquet this time.”]