An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 112

It’s three thirty in the morning.

 

My aunt replied to my messages as soon as she received them. It’s late lunchtime at her place.

 

I had planned to wait until I was on my way to school to check her reply, but since I was up late,

I was able to read her answer right away.

 

–Isn’t it bedtime in Korea?

–It must be dawn.

–Did I wake you up?

 

After chat page 1 disappeared, I received a series of worried messages from my aunt.

 

About five minutes later, I’m sitting at my desk with the video meeting link she sent me open. 

 

She was wearing a crisp navy shirt and horn-rimmed glasses, as if she were a researcher.

 

“Auntie, you look better in thin, round rims than horn rims, and you need to dress up. Uh, you’re missing a button on your right sleeve.”

 

“Ugh, nagging as soon as you see my face. As for my glasses, the thin rim broke, so I couldn’t help it.”

 

After a quick catch up on how we were doing and if we were busy, we got right down to business.

 

“You mean the mission suddenly reappeared after the day you were first gifted?”

 

“Yes. Twice.”

 

“Twice? Besides yesterday, when was the other time?”

 

“Not long ago, at school.”

 

“How long ago was that?”

 

“End of May, not even a few weeks ago.”

 

“You should have told me right away when it happened.”

 

My aunt sighed, wishing she had known that I would have kept in touch more often.

 

“It’s not that I didn’t tell you on purpose…, I just half forgot.”

 

“Ahh, you forgot the other day… No, never mind. There’s no point in bringing it up now.”

 

She was probably referring to the time I didn’t tell my parents until a month after I accepted my exorcist gift.

 

I didn’t tell my parents about my career change simply because I forgot.

 

I forgot because I didn’t feel the need to tell them in the first place. They weren’t the kind of people who would really wonder how I was doing.

 

Instead, I called my aunt right away and told her everything, from my decision to give up my magical girl talent to my forced profile edit to my transfer to a new school.

 

Not just to ask about the status bar, but because I thought she’d be curious.

 

And sure enough, when my mom found out about it about a month later, she wasn’t angry or sad that I’d made the decision without telling her, she just called me once to check in, like it was a nuisance.

 

“Does your dad know? You have to tell him.”

 

That was the extent of her reaction. She didn’t ask me why I made the choices I did, didn’t offer any support or concern.

 

I didn’t expect it, and I was fine with it.

 

On loan, on the verge of deletion, on a mission… This is an unusual case. Very strange.

 

“Auntie, don’t look at me as if I were an unusual case. It’s an occupational disease.”

 

“Oh, you’re such a sweetheart. When have I ever said that… So, are you ever going to come to America?”

 

“Or I am just going to stay here and study day and night.”

 

“No, you’re still a minor… I’m not sure I like the idea of you living alone.”

 

“Oh, I’m fine, I’m even comfortable.”

 

I coughed hastily, realizing that the conversation would change if I left it at that.

 

I really appreciated her concern for me, but this was exactly the distance we needed to keep.

 

“Hmmm, that’s not the problem, what am I supposed to do now? Part of me just wants to stop getting mission notifications.”

 

“Well… But that’s just asking for trouble, because you’ll end up with a bunch of missions that are neither accepted nor rejected, and they’ll come back with a huge error. For now, you’ll just have to fill up that “defense progress” as quickly as possible. It seems that the process of accepting your talents as fully yours is giving you a virus.”

 

“A virus?”

 

“It’s like a virus, metaphorically speaking. It’s hard to describe a status bar in a single word, because it’s so much more than a mechanical system, it’s so much a part of the owner’s psyche.”

 

“Ha.”

 

Nothing was solved right away, but I felt a little better having talked it all out with a trusted adult.

 

Unfortunately, I had just dumped a heavy burden on my aunt.

 

“I’m sorry I kept you waiting for two months, and all I could do was tell you to wait a little longer.”

 

“But it’s not like I’ve been sitting on my hands.”

 

“I know, I know, I kept you busy, and I didn’t call you to rush you, it’s not like I’m a loan shark or anything.”

 

Any further backpedaling from here would only make her feel more guilty.

 

She often apologized to me more than was necessary.

 

So I would intentionally be more bold and confident in front of her.

 

It was necessary for me to adopt such an attitude on my part in order to keep the conversation on a comfortable track.

 

“What’s up with you… It’s not much different from what I’ve been studying, but it looks like I’m going to have a chance to confirm one of my favorite hypotheses about your status window sooner or later.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes. I have a meeting with a professor who’s working on something along those lines. I’ll be back in a week or two with some useful information.”

 

“Thank you, Auntie.”

 

“Thank you. Why are we thanking each other?”

 

“If you ever want to publish this in a journal, you can use my real name and photo.”

 

My aunt smiled wryly.

 

“When does your school start? I don’t know if I should keep you up like this.”

 

“Oh, it’s okay to sleep during the day, and I’m not going to sleep tonight anyway. If I fall asleep now, I won’t make it to school.”

 

“So you’re going to sleep after school?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Then why not skip school altogether?”

 

I had some time to kill before school, and my aunt was free, so we talked about more mundane things.

 

We talked about our latest hobbies, our friends, our neighbors, and our little mishaps.

 

“Oh, right. South Korea is in a state of panic right now because a serial killer escaped from prison.”

 

“You know, the one I saw on the news, the one who killed seven people, and how she was only twenty years old and did such a brutal thing…”

 

The aunt’s face immediately became worried.

 

“Ah, isn’t the world too dangerous? I’m worried… You shouldn’t go to school early.”

 

“Of course, I will go out with my friends today and come home right after.”

 

“Good, good, good. This aunt is relieved that you’re out of bed.”

 

“Ha-ha…”

 

I didn’t bother to mention that I was now strangely related to the serial killer.

 

It’s already clear that she’s not related to me, so there’s no point in asking my aunt about the family history, and telling her the truth would only make her worry.

 

Instead, I decided to ask something else.

 

“Auntie, didn’t you say you were also researching the felon status window?”

 

It might sound like I was changing the subject, but it was a preamble to a question that was meant to confirm part of the damn scenario that had been running through my head since the moment I realized that Choi Hee-young and my parents were different.

 

“Uh, yeah, right. How criminally related talents show up in the status bar, what the conditions are for a talent to turn into something antisocial, things like that. I don’t delve too deeply into it, just get the occasional briefing. A junior on my team is very interested in it.”

 

But before I could formulate my question, my aunt said what I wanted to hear first.

 

“Ah, speaking of which, I just remembered something.”

 

“What? What is it?”

 

“I didn’t hear it directly, but I overheard something this morning while talking to a junior. They said that the serial killer who escaped from prison was an F-rank exorcist.”

 

“Exorcist? Choi Hee-young?”

 

“Yes, Choi Hee-young. Anyway, there was a lot of noise about that story this morning. Why, you know, there are murderers like that. They say that they killed not of their own free will, but because they were possessed by evil spirits, that it was all done by evil spirits, and they make ridiculous excuses. I’ve seen a lot of them, but this time a real ghost-seer became a murderer.”

 

It wasn’t even in the US, but everyone was going crazy.

 

“Oh…”

 

“How is the exorcism business in Korea? I’m worried about the effects on young aspirants like you.”

 

“Well, we haven’t received anything yet, and I only heard about it from you.”

 

“Well, it is possible that you have never set foot in the exorcism business. Just because you have a talent doesn’t mean you have to pursue it. You may have other talents.”

 

“Right.” I swallowed, “Especially if it’s an F.”

 

Anyway, the question was easily answered. Now that I had a conclusion, I had a direction to go in.

 

“I’m sorry, Auntie. I have to get ready early today and leave.”

 

“Now? Isn’t it five in the morning in Korea… and school hasn’t even opened yet?”

 

“I have to stop somewhere.”

 

“This morning?”

 

I checked the time and smiled at my aunt, whose eyes widened.

 

“I’ll call you later.”

 

“Yeah, it’s a mean world out there, take care of yourself…”

 

“Sure. I’ll be careful.”

 

My aunt couldn’t stop looking worried. I reassured her and ended the video conference.

 

“I’m glad I didn’t tell her everything.”

 

She already has enough to worry about with my status bar, and I don’t want to add to her worries across the ocean.

 

That was me being a niece.

 

* * *

 

 

The room suddenly fell silent.

 

I thought about the new information I had just received.

 

Choi Hee-young had the talent of an exorcist.

 

The last chapter of this damned scenario, which was just a hypothesis I wanted to avoid, had a bright red circle that told me it was the right answer.

 

“Ah damn…”

 

A sigh escaped my parted lips.

 

I wanted to deny it so much, but what could I do, it was already clear.

 

When she told me to choose my friends, it wasn’t just unpleasant attention.

 

It wasn’t some vague possibility that they might do you harm and you’d better be careful.

 

It was a clear explanation and warning.

 

Choi Hee-young called me to give me a death threat.

 

A death threat to kill my friend.

 

At this point, Choi Hee-young’s escape from prison and her talent as an F-rank exorcist came to a conclusion.

 

It meant that of the three friends on the danger list, Choi Hee-young had revealed which one she wanted to kill.

 

“Seo Jun.”