An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 123

My brief experience with Choi taught me a thing or two.

 

I realized that I had to act as stupid as possible to get her to talk.

 

If you ask her a question as if I don’t know the obvious or as if I don’t have anything in my head, she will overcome the urge to scowl and open up.

 

The same thing just happened.

 

I nudge her and she spits out a string of seemingly profound thoughts.

 

“I guess the fridge used to be a place to post ads?”

 

“Isn’t that what they do? Oh, sometimes they frame it when they win an award or something big, and then they freak out. There’s a big award hanging on the TV in the living room.”

 

“A big award? You said that was your first and last award?”

 

“Oh, that award is real…. You think I was the only child in the house?”

 

“Aha, right. Your brother.”

 

I nodded, pretending to notice.

 

“Hell, it was a refrigerator. If I’d asked you to frame that trophy-like dog statue, I’d have cursed you.”

 

I didn’t miss what Choi was muttering to herself.

 

When I put together the stories I had heard in the past few hours, I had a vague idea why this person was so obsessed with the title of “sister” and why she was so disrespectful of my existence.

 

At this rate, I’ll find out what Choi was lying about before I find out the destination of the room.

 

“Hey, about that trivia.”

 

“Trivia? Oh, that? What?”

 

“Is there a prize if you get it right?”

 

“Why is that?”

 

“Wow, that’s really bad. What about clues? No hints?”

 

 A satisfied smirk crossed Choi’s lips, as if she thought I really cared about the details.

 

“You pretended not to, but you really cared about X?”

 

“Then why not?”

 

“Ahahahaha, how about that, you were good at trivia, weren’t you? I’ve heard that time flies when you roll your head. That made it less boring, didn’t it?”

 

“Thank you tearfully. Although I don’t think I would have needed your trivia or whatever it was anyway, I have plenty to keep my brain busy.”

 

“I know. It’s just that I have a lot on my mind right now. What the fuck is this list and how long is it going to stay up, you fucking thing?”

 

As she speaks, Choi stomps her foot, unable to contain her sudden wave of anger.

 

You still have no idea.

 

It was time to make my own deal.

 

“Hey, Choi Hee-young.”

 

Choi looks at me, still annoyed.

 

“I’m going to give you a clue as to why the fridge door at your house is here.”

 

Her eyes flicker for a moment.

 

Yes, she’s tempted. I’m frustrated, but I’m willing to give her a hint.

 

It wasn’t a bluff, or a hint, or some bullshit I’d come up with in a hurry to get a clue.

 

There was a way to confirm that the “why” was correct.

 

“For your information, you’d better answer quickly.”

 

I glanced at the refrigerator door, then turned my attention back to the road ahead.

 

“By the time we get to the other end, you probably won’t need any clues.”

 

All I need is the final confirmation to see through Choi’s lie.

 

That’s the kind of assurance I could get if I knew just a little bit more about her, and all I asked for was a hint to take that one step forward.

 

I assure you, it won’t end with a plaque and praise tree.

 

I don’t know if it was about me or about Choi, but it was clear to me that there were a few more similar things on the road ahead that I hadn’t walked yet.

 

Something in our memories that had melted into this room.

 

Choi said nothing except for a twitching of the corners of her mouth, and she seemed to be studying my expression, trying to figure out if I was hiding some sinister intent.

 

“I’m not like you, I don’t lie. Either you believe me or you don’t and lose your chance.”

 

Finally Choi opened her mouth. The reluctance was still there.

 

“What do you want from me? What should I say?”

 

Okay.

 

The easy way to conviction was in front of me.

 

I didn’t waste any time and got right to the point.

 

“The lie you told today was about your family, right? I mean your real family, not X, like your father or sister or whatever.”

 

Choi Hee Young’s face fell as soon as she heard that.

 

“That Mr. X knows everything…!”

 

Ah, yes.

 

That quiz was an impromptu idea she came up with on the fly to tire me out mentally.

 

She didn’t lie for the quiz, she remembered a lie that happened to get mixed up and used it as a quiz.

 

It doesn’t make sense that she would have prepared a deliberate lie just for the fun of it, knowing it was false and intuitively sensing that I was in trouble.

 

There’s no way she could have predicted that I would be locked in a room with her, alone, spending time with her.

 

And above all, Choi Hee-young was a very clumsy person whose emotions took precedence over precision.

 

The more she talked, the more her true colors were revealed.

 

Yes, she’s not organized enough to improvise lies on the fly to avoid being found out among the important information I’m snooping for.

 

There’s nothing I can do about it, and I don’t like the idea of sitting back and waiting for my father to yell at me, so I’ll just have to watch as my hateful little sister’s judgment is twisted.

 

 I opened my mouth again for the final confirmation kill.

 

“When you said you cried when your parents died, that was a lie, right?”

 

 

* * *

 

 

The first and second children should be equally good and equally bad, but if one is exceptionally good, the other’s life will be hard.

 

Choi Hee-young was the first born who was destined to suffer in exactly that way.

 

Her younger sister, Choi Hee-jin, was born a year younger and was so good that she stole all the attention and expectations of her parents.

 

Choi Hee-young didn’t like her sister Hee-jin, but she didn’t hate her deep down. Whenever she ignored her or acted arrogant, Choi had the urge to bash her head in the gutter, but she sometimes felt sorry for her because she was suffering from her parents in a different way than she was.

 

It was their parents that Choi hated so much that she wanted to kill them.

 

So when their parents died, she didn’t shed a single tear.

 

When a friend told her that she couldn’t accept the loss because it was too much, she responded by looking as pitiful as she could.

 

“I’m not even sad about X.

 

Choi laughed inside.

 

Since the death of her adoptive parents, Choi Hee-young has had to take responsibility for Hee-jin and her own livelihood.

 

It was hard, but surprisingly not bad.

 

The number of times Hee-jin looked down on her with a glare has decreased significantly. 

 

She started to realize that she had to rely on her sister’s money.

 

Hee-young was happy to see the change.

 

It felt like the sisterly relationship was finally being set right.

 

Within a year, her sister died.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“…Baek Iri, you’re doing better than I thought, right?”

 

That was the first thing Choi Hee-young spat out after I told her the answer.

 

It was the right answer without a doubt. I didn’t even have to use the mirror of truth.

 

Choi made a subtle expression that she had never shown me before and spat on the floor.

 

“I don’t know why everyone is so intelligent and so fucked up…”

 

Choi Hee-young mumbled inaudibly and pushed her face in front of my eyes.

 

“Now it’s your turn, Ms. Genius. Don’t try to sugarcoat it, but explain it convincingly. If not, I’ll really screw you.”

 

And before I could even open my mouth, she started cursing again.

 

Each word was spoken with such force that it made an unpleasant hissing sound in my throat.

 

“You know I can’t touch you, so go ahead and blackmail me. I won’t stand for it, and I’ll kill half of you right here, with or without Father.”

 

She tried her best to grab my hands and shake me, but the tone of her voice told me she didn’t want to be toyed with.

 

“Is this really what you’ve been living for? You better listen, because I’m only going to explain it to you once.”

 

“Ha.”

 

Choi snorted and tilted her head as if to say, “Try it.”

 

“This “space” was created by using all the ghosts bound here as building materials, but…”

 

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a gourd.

 

“When I broke the bus window earlier, I trapped some of the ghosts in here.”

 

“What does that have to do with anything?”

 

“We’re running out of building materials because the ghosts who would have made the doors, walls, and tents were forced to leave.”

 

“So.”

 

“They have to fill the holes, but they don’t have the materials, so they took them from us in a hurry.”

 

It’s a kind of “thought body”.

 

It’s a form created by a person’s deepest memories or desires.

 

It is said that such intense thoughts naturally arise when they are collected for a long time.

 

In this case, however, the thought body was not formed naturally but was forcibly formed by external pressure.

 

The pressure of this place to fill the emptiness.

 

I explained my theory to Choi Hee-young.

 

That those bastards tapped into our memories and pulled out the most intense ones.

 

Well, that’s how I feel about having my soul probed by the needs of this weird collection of ghosts,

 

“This is fucking creepy.”

 

Oh, my God. For the first time, I agreed with Choi.

 

“That’s enough to explain it, right?”

 

“Oh, I wish I could use that as an excuse to beat you up. You’re an asshole.”

 

Choi clucked her tongue and turned away. There was not the slightest will to hide her malice.

 

‘Stupid Choi Hee-young.’

 

I laughed at her inwardly.

 

It hadn’t occurred to her that the parts of the thought body that were born from us could be the “exit”.

 

No matter how well the Law Body penetrated space, it was not always part of space.

 

It is like putting wooden planks into a hole in a house built entirely of stone, so of course the cohesion would be weak.

 

I didn’t bother to tell her about this. I didn’t make it a condition that I tell her everything I know.

 

I kept it to myself because I didn’t know if it would be the key to binding her.

 

“Damn, this is some kind of intense memory and it’s scary.”

 

 Choi sank to the floor, unable to continue.

 

She felt pretty dirty for suddenly having to face something so insistent inside her.

 

Well, that’s good. I didn’t want to discover another “praise tree” either.

 

So there we were, sitting in silence, about five meters away from the award and the praise tree.

 

I don’t know how much time passed.

 

The room slowly began to tilt forward.

 

“It’s finally going down, Ms. Genius.”

 

It wasn’t as sudden as the ascent.

 

The space surrounding us, waiting like a snake, slowly turned toward the ground.

 

Our destination remained unknown.