Chapter 13
At This Rate, I Guess It’s Fine.
“I’m home.”
I opened the front door and switched on the lights.
It was well past midnight—already four in the morning.
“…You’re late.”
At this hour, any ordinary middle school student in South Korea should have been fast asleep, getting ready for tomorrow.
That was why it took me a moment to react.
“You’re still awake?”
“I just got up to use the bathroom.”
Standing in front of the shoe cabinet was Hyejin, dressed in her pyjamas.
For someone claiming she’d only just woken up, she looked incredibly exhausted.
Her bloodshot eyes made it painfully obvious that she’d been waiting for me the whole time.
“I told you I’d be late because of the company dinner. You should’ve gone to bed.”
“Who said I was waiting for you? I wasn’t.”
With her arms crossed, Hyejin answered flatly before suddenly staring straight at me.
“By the way… for someone who said they went to a company dinner, you don’t smell much like alcohol.”
“People don’t force drinks at company dinners these days. I just had a glass or two to be polite and left.”
“Hmmm…”
She clearly didn’t believe a word I said.
To be fair, believing that a company dinner with barely any drinking had somehow lasted until four in the morning would have been even stranger.
Still, I couldn’t exactly tell her,
“Actually, monsters appeared at the school where I work, so I stayed behind to fight them together with a magical girl.”
“That aside, you should go back to bed. You’ve got school tomorrow, don’t you?”
After hesitating, avoidance was the only option I could choose.
“I was going to.”
After giving me one last suspicious look, Hyejin finally turned around.
Watching my little sister disappear upstairs to her room on the second floor, I quietly let out a sigh of relief.
In my original world, I never really had a family.
Whenever I came home, only cold, empty air greeted me.
Not once had someone waited up for me with such obvious concern.
Because of that, I’d overlooked something.
In this world, I had a kind-hearted little sister who stayed awake worrying whenever her family didn’t come home.
“I’ll have to come up with better excuses next time.”
As I walked into the living room, I noticed a small bottle sitting on the dining table.
Checking the label, I realised it was a hangover remedy.
It was still slightly warm when I picked it up.
A faint smile spread across my lips without me noticing.
She really was terrible at expressing herself.
I downed the hangover drink in one gulp and sat on the sofa.
Even though I’d been awake all night, strangely enough, I wasn’t sleepy.
Maybe the excitement still hadn’t worn off.
“…”
I simply sat there, doing nothing.
It felt like I’d ridden a roller coaster at an amusement park ten times in a row without stopping.
That wasn’t surprising.
Just an hour ago, I’d been fighting something that wasn’t even human.
Knowing the strategy and being familiar with the future events were one thing.
Actually throwing myself into the battle was something else entirely.
Things had gone smoothly this time, thankfully.
But if even one thing had gone wrong, Void would have consumed my mind, and I would’ve ended up just like Yoo Eun-hye in the original story.
“And I have to do this… who knows how many more times.”
A deep sigh escaped my lips.
“It wasn’t all for nothing, though.”
I reached into my pocket and took out the item I’d picked up at the school.
A silver, star-shaped jewel that glowed with a gentle light.
Star Light.
The single most important item in this world.
A treasure capable of strengthening magical girls…
…and one that would eventually lead the world toward destruction.
While Unibel had been distracted by the replica created through Void’s berserk state, I’d quietly pocketed it.
As expected of an item dropped by Void—a top-tier Calamity-class monster—it was noticeably larger than the Star Lights I remembered.
It was about the size of an adult man’s palm.
《Would you like to upgrade Intuition Lv.1?》
As I held the Star Light against my chest, a translucent message appeared before me.
“Intuition, huh… Well, I guess that makes sense.”
I’d secretly hoped for the name of some special or extraordinary ability, so I couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.
Star Lights were essentially enhancement stones that amplified a person’s latent potential.
The talent each person could strengthen differed from individual to individual.
In my case…
…it seemed to be Intuition.
As soon as I let go of the Starlight, the transparent window floating in the air vanished along with it.
I had no intention of using it here and now.
Unlike magical girls, who could fully inherit the power of Starlight, ordinary people like me had terrible efficiency with it. Even if I levelled up, the effects were minimal, while the amount of Starlight required for each enhancement was enormous.
Efficiency wasn’t even the biggest issue.
The moment I started using Starlight, there was a high chance I would become Nova’s target.
Among Nova’s forces was a magical girl capable of sensing the presence of Starlight from an incredible distance.
Even if I spent it all raising my Instinct skill, without any means of protecting myself, I’d simply become one of the countless ordinary people who had been hunted down in the original story.
“…When you think about it that way, throwing it away almost seems like the right choice.”
I found myself hesitating.
There was no guarantee I’d ever get another opportunity to obtain Starlight of this quality without being noticed by a magical girl.
Now that I’d decided to actively interfere with the original plot, crossing paths with Nova was inevitable.
Perhaps it would be wiser to take the risk and prepare a hidden trump card for the future.
“If only I knew what this Instinct ability actually does…”
I let out a quiet sigh.
I’d tried recreating that sensation on the way home, but it never returned.
It hadn’t appeared when the Shadows or the Harvester attacked me either, so perhaps it only activated under certain conditions.
For now… I’ll hold off.
As I’d already concluded, chances to acquire Starlight were limited.
There was no reason to risk everything when I didn’t even understand what this Instinct skill was capable of.
If I ever decided to use it, it would only be after the story had completely diverged from the original.
In other words—
Only in a true crisis.
…Though, come to think of it, things are already pretty critical.
According to the original story, Unibel should have met Rania by now.
Meeting Rania was supposed to broaden her understanding of the magical girl world, and over time the two of them would become trusted companions as well as friendly rivals.
But that never happened.
Even after midnight had passed…
Even after Void was completely defeated at dawn…
Rania never appeared.
If events continued down this path, Unibel’s growth would fall behind what it had been in the original story.
And if the protagonist grew more slowly…
The difficulty of every arc that followed would skyrocket.
Not that I can just tell her everything, either.
What a troublesome situation.
“Good morning, sir!”
“Yeah. Hurry along.”
I lazily waved the children off after they bowed politely.
Even though they were middle schoolers, first-years were still basically children.
At that age, they still retained at least a little respect for their teachers.
I wonder how long that’ll last.
On the other hand, the older they became…
…the less authority teachers seemed to have.
Casual speech became the norm.
Then came the insults.
The complaints.
Sometimes I couldn’t tell whether I was a teacher or a babysitter trying to calm down oversized children.
In that sense, this stage of the school year was one of the few times a teacher could actually enjoy being respected.
Normally, I would’ve appreciated it while it lasted.
But now…
I didn’t have the luxury.
…I’m exhausted.
In the end, I hadn’t slept at all.
I’d organised my plans, crawled into bed thinking I could at least squeeze in a short nap before work…
Then I remembered.
Today was my turn for morning gate duty.
Gate duty…
How many years had it been since I’d last done this?
Along with those old maths workbooks, morning gate inspections had supposedly been abolished years ago in the name of respecting students’ freedom.
Apparently that freedom had been respected a little too much.
By the end of it all, there were days when it was hard to tell whether this place was a school or a nightclub.
“Are you alright?”
Unlike me, Yoo Eun-hye had been greeting each student with a bright smile.
Now she looked at me with concern.
Whatever had put her in such a good mood, her face practically glowed from the early morning.
“I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep very well.”
“Oh dear… How about you leave this to me and go wash your face?”
“No, it’s alright. It’d be difficult for you to manage everyone alone. Besides, the students are almost done arriving.”
I forced a smile in response to her worried expression.
Just then…
A familiar figure appeared beyond the school gate.
Nobody enjoyed walking first thing in the morning.
But that girl looked especially miserable.
To exaggerate only slightly…
She resembled a zombie from a horror film.
Apparently she hadn’t slept much either.
“Ah…”
The moment Ga-yeon noticed me, she froze.
Then, for some reason, she hurriedly rubbed at her fringe.
She even pulled out a compact mirror to inspect her face.
The instant she noticed the heavy dark circles beneath her eyes…
She looked shocked all over again.
…What’s she doing this early in the morning?
“Hey! Hurry up! You planning on being late?”
I called out to Ga-yeon, who seemed completely absorbed in her own little comedy routine.
“G-Good morning, sir.”
“Forget that. Get moving. One minute left.”
“…”
“What?”
“No… it’s just…”
She stared straight at me as I pointed towards the enormous clock mounted in the middle of the school building.
Tilting her head, she seemed to be wondering…
After everything that happened last night…
…how can he act so normal?
“Got something on my face?”
“No, it’s not that…”
“Then get to class. What were you doing last night? You look like a panda.”
“You’re one to talk!”
Ga-yeon’s face instantly turned bright red as she shouted back.
Well…
Judging by her reaction, it didn’t seem like she’d developed any lasting trauma from last night’s events.
Fantasy Requiem possessed mental corruption abilities that made Void look insignificant by comparison.
In the original story, anyone who looked at it without proper preparation would lose consciousness almost immediately.
I’d secretly worried she might spend the night plagued by nightmares…
Thankfully, that fear had been unfounded.
“You and your students seem very close, Mr. Woojin. I’m jealous.”
After Ga-yeon practically fled into the school building, Yoo Eun-hye, who had been watching the exchange from afar, walked over.
“I wouldn’t call us close. She’s just… unusual.”
There wasn’t much else I could say.
I certainly couldn’t explain that I knew she was a magical girl because I’d read the original story.
“Really? I think you’re close enough. Honestly… I still don’t know how to approach the students.”
Yoo Eun-hye sighed softly.
I understood exactly how she felt.
Teachers needed to build rapport with their students.
Children naturally preferred approachable teachers over strict authority figures.
Education courses repeated that lesson countless times.
But that only led to another question.
How?
How exactly was someone supposed to become close with children at least ten years younger than themselves?
Every teacher struggled with that question.
I certainly had.
There wasn’t one universal answer.
Every teacher eventually found their own.
“Right now, simply making the effort is enough. You don’t need to force anything. If you keep treating them with that sincerity, the students will notice.”
One thing, however, was certain.
Teachers had to make the first move.
If you gave up because it was troublesome…
Or because you believed it wouldn’t work…
Nothing would ever change.
I’d seen enough teachers in my previous life to know that was true.
“Mr. Woojin…”
“Yes?”
“You’re… rather unusual.”
A gentle smile rested on Yoo Eun-hye’s lips as she said it.
“Well then, shall we head inside? The vice principal said there’ll be a staff meeting during morning homeroom.”
She gave my back a light pat before walking ahead towards the school building, just as the warning bell rang.
Well…
At least all that effort paid off.
In the original story…
Yoo Eun-hye had been nothing more than another expendable extra.
Remembering the beautiful smile she’d just shown me…
I couldn’t help but think that everything I’d done had been worth it.
