NOVEL NEXT Chapter 132
“…So, the fact that this world exists, which I had only accepted as a story from another universe, is something I only realized after I died.”
“……”
“……”
“In fact, the successor having prior knowledge of this world’s future was something even the Goddess of [Start] could not have predicted. Ordinarily, everything should have been conveyed to the messenger, Yuki Shikishima. However, the successor bloomed and took action in this land even earlier.”
“W-wait a minute.”
Dorim trembled with a truly disbelieving expression. The girl who had calmly prepared for the next steps after hearing about the gods and fate was finally beginning to be shaken after hearing my story.
The possibility that this world might have been one unreasonable story.
The possibility that striving in this world could be a meaningless action.
‘I thought I’d hide this to avoid such reactions.’
It seemed the story was going to stretch too long, so I skipped over my circumstances from my previous life and future goals and talked about this world’s original future and the trigger that made me aware of it, which felt shocking enough in itself.
War of the Magical Girls.
Normal people vs. Magical Girls.
Monsters raining down.
The destruction of the world.
It would have been hard for me to believe that this world’s fate was already predetermined in some story from another world.
“Are you saying you just found out by chance? That a novel you casually picked up and read at a secondhand bookstore before you died was a prophecy about this world?!”
“I don’t know if it was a coincidence, but at least it was a book I chose to read of my own will.”
“T-this… this world, being a world from a story, and that the protagonist was Yuki… is…”
I understood why Dorim was so panic-stricken and flustered.
Since being reborn in this world, the questions I had faced ever since the moment I decided to return to my original world.
Thoughts that perhaps this world itself might be an extension of the world I lived in.
The thought that maybe this moment itself is part of a story, and we might be mere puppets of that narrative.
“Yeah… something felt off. This world is destined to perish… fleeting…”
“Dorim.”
“Y-yes…?”
“I don’t think this world is fake or that it’s a world subordinate to the place where I originally lived. I don’t believe the people living in this world are mere characters, nor do I think Yuki is the only center of this world.”
“…Okay.”
“I believe… I might be a foreign entity that has flowed here as a result of a horrific probability or miracle in a larger flow than even the gods.”
“F-foreign entity…?”
Dorim murmured, possibly feeling some discomfort at my vocabulary.
‘This.’
The realization that I am not truly a part of this universe probably sounded lonely to those who love me.
“Perhaps in order to completely change the fate that awaits this world, a truly gigantic existence may have guided me here through a miracle.”
“Is that not the work of a goddess but rather some… god?”
“Well, who knows? It might be, or it might not be. It could be that I was led by a being so immense that it doesn’t even compare to the three transcendents who sporadically disperse clumsy curses and distortions from above.”
“…A gigantic existence.”
“Or it might just be that, like when countless monkeys type on keyboards, one might write a masterpiece by chance; perhaps I’m simply an outsider who has broken through thin odds.”
“……”
“Actually, I thought discussions like this weren’t very important, so I didn’t mention them. We’ve already met long ago, changed, and are changing. Honestly, I only know a little about the trials that remain.”
“Even so, that’s an unbelievable… miracle-like story.”
Sumire wore an expression as if she were dreaming while listening to me.
Guilt over how Fujimoto plays a large role in the destruction.
Having not attained true enlightenment and dying in vain.
Against all fate, we were finally carving out a new tomorrow.
“We’ve been resisting a massive tragedy that was already determined, and we’ve unknowingly been pioneering a new destiny. Truly… what a myth-like story. I would believe that Hikari is indeed a true apostle of a god.”
“……”
I was but a small human and couldn’t understand the truth of the gigantic universe.
As Sumire separated herself from Fujimoto’s history and dreamed of a greater cause.
I thought of myself as merely a vagrant who dropped in at an appropriate time with appropriate abilities to help them.
A divine apostle.
A fortuitous prodigy.
A goddess’s successor.
Such grand and noble concepts didn’t suit me.
I am just.
“I was simply someone who had the ability and knowledge to help at a time when I could assist in this world.”
I am just a single human.
“It was you all who accepted that.”
“Sis, you have a knack for wrapping something mythical in a humble package.”
“Well, I know the leader being an ordinary person because I’ve lived with her.”
“That’s why we follow you, isn’t it?”
“Hmph… By the way, FLAG, should we set it up now?”
“Uh-oh.”
“Just kidding, just kidding.”
“…Huff.”
Fighting against Fujimoto’s FLAG.
Sumire and Ichika.
Now they were just comrades, having returned to meeting again after intertwining paths turned completely divergent, no longer even a joke.
“By the way, to hear that Korea has already fallen… Seems like the idiots were incompetent as usual.”
“Hmm, maybe when the monsters attacked without a chance, the unbloomed White Wing Unit or Supernatural Ability Response Team were quickly sent to the USA. And it’s refreshing to see that Captain Hong has such deep patriotism.”
“Ah, in his household, he’s like a warlord.”
Dorim decided to temporarily put aside the notion that this world was a story upon hearing my words. Dawn was nodding along to Dorim’s insights.
Lee Meirin.
Laura.
Himari.
The gathered magical girls initially seemed surprised, but they organized their emotions as they viewed the current state, entirely separated from the world that had already succumbed to destruction.
After sharing our individual stories for a moment, we decided to return to the original topic.
“If that’s the case, how do the magical girls emerging from the rift remember the already fallen history?”
“One of my predictions is…”
As I continued speaking, I summoned a scale made of white starlight.
The dazzlingly shining white scale was small enough to place on my palm.
creak…
The scale began to faintly absorb the surrounding starlight.
“This is the greed scale originally held by the [Plague] Magical Girl. The [Plague] Magical Girl was an apostle endowed with the power to steal starlight from magical girls. I believe that her being cursed by the three goddesses in this world and turning into a monster is significantly related to this incident.”
“Is the fact that the [Death] Magical Girl said the magical girls’ souls were tied during their trials… related to this?”
“Yeah, probably. The will of the stars can interfere across time and space, so I’m speculating that through some sort of transaction with the [Plague] Magical Girl, it read the fate of destruction and brought back the starlight that imprinted the history buried within that destruction…”
“There are no tangible proofs, but circumstantially, it can’t be explained otherwise.”
“In other words, based on the predictions of the [Hope] Magical Girl and the experiences of the [Revelation] Magical Girl, those who lived through destruction aren’t themselves?”
Himari maintained silence until the end of the discussion, and when it was time for everyone to present the essential answer penetrating the heart of all questions, she finally spoke.
“That’s right.”
“That’s correct.”
“I see. Then from now on, even if a magical girl with the same face appears, we should not panic and make immediate decisions, particularly picking magical girls skilled in large-scale encounters based on their experience in friendly matches, and let them know.”
“……”
“……”
With that statement, everyone in the conference room agreed, and the vital issue regarding counterfeit magical girls was swiftly resolved.
‘Initially, counterfeit magical girls pose no real threat to the now significantly strengthened magical girls.’
Yet, I was slightly surprised by how rationally Himari accepted everything. While I knew that she had always been calm and collected, I didn’t expect even the deeply responsible Sumire, Dorim, and Dawn to share casual conversations without any reaction in light of such impressive narrative.
‘Well, this is more convenient, after all.’
It would be right to create a brighter future rather than be trapped by the past that has already elapsed.
As I contemplated this, Himari quietly asked me and Hecate so that only we could hear.
“By chance…”
“Yeah?”
“By chance… how about the Cheerleading Team?”
“…At least as far as I know, it didn’t exist.”
“It didn’t.”
“…I see.”
In the story that has vanished, the [Order] Magical Girl Tsugumi led the security team in connection with the disbanded police organization, but the [Nursing] Magical Girl Himari did not appear.
‘Perhaps she might have died emptily before blooming in the war.’
After that, Himari no longer questioned me.
But I could feel a weak sense of relief and pride emanating from her.
chatter chatter
I slowly surveyed the meeting room where the magical girls were conversing about their altered fates.
Dorim and Dawn.
Ichika and Sumire.
Lee Meirin and Laura.
Himari.
The shock of this world’s fate being predetermined washed over them in just a few minutes.
What truly astonished them was my true intent and the reason I had endeavored to assist this world.
They showed nothing but genuine concern and gratitude towards me.
‘Yeah.’
We’ve come so far now that we can no longer be astonished by such matters, and perhaps we’ve grown resilient enough not to be consumed by a past that might have existed.
I felt a swell of pride in that.