Congratulations on Your Magical Girl Duties

75 – Magical Simulation (2)

“You remember, yes?”

Those words triggered a sudden memory.

The wild-haired magic girl’s earlier pronouncements.

Clearly, while tormenting Squid, this magic girl had urged me to go back, promising I would inevitably pay the price.

And then.

“It won’t end so blandly this time.”

It seemed they intended to collect their due now.

Looking closer, the three magical girls who tormented Taishi stood directly behind this one.

In other words, they were harassing the poor guy as a unit.

Truly, the more you looked, the more repulsive it became.

“You are, of course, free to refuse. If your turn is skipped, we will simply wait until you accept.”

The magical girl even drove the wedge deeper.

Ensuring the mock battle could not be avoided.

“It would be best to do it now. At least it won’t be a waste of your time.”

Sora and Whitey, seeming completely unprepared for this situation, wore quite flustered expressions.

“Senior, what happened? Why are they suddenly requesting a Magical Mock Battle? Those of higher rank usually don’t request one from those of lower rank.”

“We have to cancel! The matchup is absolute sh*t! Utter CRAP! They’re all Majors or higher over there!”

A completely understandable reaction.

Unlike us, everyone on their side was at least a Magical Sergeant.

Even if a magical girl’s rank wasn’t an absolute measure of strength, you could still presume they had a certain amount of achievement and experience.

Meaning there was a disparity.

And those magical girls, with that disparity, were now challenging us, specifically me, to a mock battle.

Simply because I had tried to help Nakji.

“What will you do?”

A veiled threat cloaked in a facade of inquiry.

“Though, should you still refuse, we do have ways of re-enacting the previous situation. Though, unlike last time, it won’t end so neatly.”

No, correction.

It was just a blatant threat.

Instead of answering, I silently shifted my gaze to Nakji.

“…”

Nakji’s face looked as though she were about to burst into tears, her head bowed low.

Though considerable time had passed, it was as if the nightmare from back then was still vividly imprinted in her mind.

In that instant, Nakji’s figure seemed to overlap.

With the image of the girl, remembering the memories when everyone denied her, began to cry sadly.

To ignore the octopus in this situation felt like betraying the promise I made to the girl.

That precious vow to become a hero.

If that was the case, then there was only one thing left to do, wasn’t there?

Grip the sword. Remain a hero.

“So, have you decided?”

The magical girl pressured me once more.

“Yeah. It’s what I wanted.”

“Excellent.”

Sensing the strange shift in the situation at my words, Whitedog and Sora urgently called out to me.

“Cancel now! It’s still okay because we haven’t started yet! Wait for me, I’ll do a good job!”

“Senior! If you’re going to do it, let me go first! I have the best chance!”

“It’s fine. That thing is a chump anyway.”

I waved my hand dismissively, opening the door to the simulation room.

“I won’t lose, so put up an ‘I’ll win’ emote.”

“Senior! Saying that these days actually guarantees a loss!!!”

“Stop reading so much manga, you moron!!!”

Leaving Whitedog and Sora’s shouts behind me.

*

It felt like I waited for about two minutes.

“You’re surprisingly unperturbed.”

Across from me, the disheveled-haired magical girl slowly materialized.

“About what?”

“About why the condition setting screen isn’t appearing after entering the Magical Simulation Room, why there’s nothing inside, and why all your senses feel so real.”

Well, it wasn’t that I found it completely normal.

The instruction sign outside the simulation room had example pictures showing that condition settings could be done inside, but when I actually entered, I couldn’t see anything.

An empty, white space.

That was all I saw.

Furthermore, even though it was supposed to be unfolding in a virtual space, my senses were so sharp that I was slightly puzzled.

Only, it was my first time entering the simulation room, so I just thought the loading was slow, but it seems that wasn’t the case.

If that’s true, then…

“What’d you do?”

It had to be some kind of trickery.

“We just thought they might have trouble choosing the conditions, so we picked them for them.”

The wild-haired magical girl nodded, confirming my suspicions.

I don’t know how she did it, but to pick someone else’s conditions too… that b*tch would eat both drumsticks if she had the chance.

Then, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

Didn’t she just say ‘we’?

“So, you came in a group, you b*tch.”

“Well, that’s how it is.”

No sooner had the wild-haired magical girl finished speaking, than three more figures appeared behind her.

Magical girls, each reminiscent of a hawk, a horse, and a squirrel.

“You’re not even surprised? How boring.”

“Whatever, let’s just get this over with.”

“It’ll be quick anyway, since he’s just a regular guy.”

I wasn’t surprised or flustered.

I’d anticipated something like this.

The reason for that anticipation was simple. I couldn’t imagine girls who ganged up on people playing fair with a one-on-one fight.

Whether it’s this world or my own, scumbags think and act the same. So, a situation like this isn’t all that shocking.

Well, if I had to pinpoint something, it’s maybe a little fascinating that they’d come in such numbers when they’re definitely going to get their asses kicked later.

However, there was one thing I hadn’t foreseen.

“Transform.”

“Transform!”

“Transform.”

“TRANSFORM!!!”

It was the magical girls’ transformation.

Of course, not the transformation itself.

“…Hey.”

“What is it?”

The fact that their outfits were all in the form of armor.

They were magical girls, so there was plenty of exposed skin, but still, the vital areas were protected quite thoroughly.

Moreover, their wands had transformed into armaments befitting armor.

Longsword, rapier, spear, bludgeon.

In that instant, a ‘déjà vu’ washed over me once more.

More nauseating than before.

“That attire, don’t tell me you’re knights?”

“Yes, as you can see.”

Was that why?

Unbidden, my mouth opened.

“What do you think a knight *is*?”

“To not turn a blind eye to injustice, and to raise one’s sword for the powerless – *that* is a knight.”

“Then why did someone like you torment that Octopus girl before?”

Octopus was simply weak.

Even if not an innocent weakling, she wasn’t a being deserving of excessive violence.

Yet, these so-called knights, why did they torment her?

The magical girl, however, simply tilted her head, as if utterly uncomprehending.

“Shouldn’t a knight first and foremost obey their master’s orders? Why ask such an obvious thing?”

The unsettling déjà vu intensified.

A feeling of something about to surface.

A sudden sharp twinge made me glance down – I was clenching my fist without realizing it. So tightly that blood was beginning to bead under my nails.

Wiping the blood away, I asked once more.

“You, what’s your name?”

The magical girl answered my question calmly.

“If you were someone important, I might tell you my magical girl name or my real name, but you are most definitely not that kind of person, so there is only one name I will give you.”

Adjusting the wand transformed into a sword.

“My name is, Knight.”

Only then did I understand.

The reason I loathed the unkempt magical girl to whom I was speaking so respectfully, so intensely.

They were the same.

Not even slightly different.

As the knight commander I had seen in that other world.

He, once lauded as noble, had refused the girl’s desperate plea to slay the Demon Lord.

Politely, with utmost formality. Yet he’d cloaked his refusal in bureaucratic pronouncements: no orders received, a formal request required.

And now, after *I* had slain the Demon Lord, only then did he stir his heavy arse and come seeking me.

Naturally, to kill me.

— “Villain, who falsely claims the title of Hero.”

— “With that foul tongue, how many young women have you brought to tears, how many have you mocked? How much innocent blood stains those hands?”

— “Therefore, on this very spot, I shall personally sever this evil!”

— “Remember this, for the name you hear now will be the last you ever hear.”

— “My name is… Knight.”

It was truly revolting.

That Commander of Knights, he who wouldn’t lift a finger when the girl begged, was now the first to arrive the moment I became a public enemy.

I burned with rage then. That Knight Commander was so different from the knights I knew.

What, in the first place, is a knight?

One who stands with the weak, sees through the eyes of the weak, and looks upon those as frail as themselves.

A noble being who willingly takes up the sword for a just cause, to perform good deeds.

Knights do not wield swords for grand reasons.

Not because they are courageous, nor because they are strong, nor because they are superior.

Simply.

Because it is right.

Because it is just.

Because it is obvious.

That is all.

And thus, the name of a knight *is* knight.

Having laid down their name, they are simply a knight.

That is the knight I know, the knight from the novels.

I yearned for their romance, revered them. Knowing I could never be such a being made me yearn even more.

However.

In this world, not a single knight existed as noble as those in the novels.

And it was the same in the modern world as well.

Those Magical Girls, though they styled themselves as knights, were so different from the knights in the novels.

Of course, considering what that magic girl said earlier, I could understand it, just a little.

— “Living that way is just tiring. Who’s going to acknowledge you for doing good deeds no one asked you to do?”

Perhaps, that magic girl had been hurt and twisted by people who didn’t acknowledge her for helping the weak with good intentions.

A plausible story. It’s a common thing for a virtuous soul to be disappointed in humanity and fall from grace.

However, I couldn’t accept it.

Just because you take up the sword for the weak doesn’t mean the end will always be beautiful.

Not all the weak are virtuous weak. That’s why some see wielding a sword for the weak as a failure.

The same goes for knights.

Even a knight, is ultimately just a human.

They might not accept a failure that comes naturally and become twisted.

But.

Even so, a knight must continue to take up the sword for the weak and move forward.

Bearing the endurance of failure.

Rising above despair.

Once again, one step forward.

The knights in novels had always done so.

At that moment, the wild-haired magic girl took a step forward, twirling her long sword a few times.

“Now that it’s come to this, the conditions we chose aren’t anything special.”

And then, she pointed it at me.

“Just to be permanently injured, without anyone knowing.”

It meant they had chosen the conditions of being private and Magical Safety OFF.

“I won’t kill you, but I can’t guarantee anything. Anyone can make a ‘mistake,’ after all.”

In other words, this b*tch was planning an assassination.

“What if someone else had come in instead of me?”

“Well, nothing would have changed. Have you forgotten who the magic girl we were originally messing with was?”

Soon, the wild-haired magic girl spoke to me with an indifferent face.

“Do you have any last words?”

Last words, eh?

Of course I did.

“Thank you.”

“Huh?”

The magical girl’s face was the same as before, but for the first time, a strong question bloomed in her eyes.

“What did you just say…?”

“Thank you.”

Because I was going to choose that.

Truthfully, as soon as I entered the simulation room, I was going to pick the Magical Safety OFF condition.

The reason I wanted to choose that condition wasn’t special. I just wanted to screw things up permanently, without any loose ends.

But instead, the other side picked it for me.

Even with the condition that it be kept private.

I unintentionally ended up hiding my abilities from others, but it’s not a bad thing. It’s actually good.

At least I wouldn’t have to show my colleagues the process of getting on my nerves in real-time.

So, I was truly thankful.

Meanwhile, did the other three magical girls take my words as a provocation? They glared at me, a smirk playing on their lips.

“You’re so screwed, you know? Why are you saying thank you. Are you really crazy?”

“Ha, I can’t even believe this.”

“Hey, I’m going first.”

At that moment, one of the magical girls, reminiscent of a squirrel, stepped forward and struck a pose.

“You won’t even be able to breathe under my swordsmanship!”

“Oh, I didn’t think I’d see that swordsmanship again.”

“Ha! It must be because my swordsmanship is a little famous!”

The magical girl twisted the corner of her mouth.

I nodded earnestly.

“Indeed, the Sow Cunt Spread-Eagle Swordsmanship is quite famous.”

“No! It’s not that!”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t notice that the stance was slightly different. You’ve got the stance down well, hey.”

“It’s too late to try and sweet-talk me! You don’t even know what kind of stance it is in the first place!”

“No, I really do know. I swear on my mother.”

“Spit it out!”

Looking at the puffing magical girl, I offered a bright, full smile.

“Isn’t that the Royal Ass Wide-Open Stance? Right?”

“Hey, you son of a b*tch!!! You bet on your mom, what kind of bullshit is that!!!”

“How can I bet if I don’t have one, you moron.”

“You… I’m really going to kill you!”

A magical girl, reminiscent of a squirrel, gripped a rapier-like magic wand and dashed forward with incredible speed.

A truly explosive situation.

The charging magical girl forcefully unleashed lightning gathered at the tip of her rapier.

“Squirrel’s thun─!”

“朔月(Sakwǒl) – New Moon.”

Through the surging lightning, a moon arose.