Chapter 7

[I can travel anywhere. Whenever you are in need, open any book and call for me in your heart.]

“Then—”

[Hurry and move on. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up trapped in the dungeon!]

The book practically pushed her onward.

Without hesitation, Iji started walking.

Then she heard her homeroom teacher’s voice from the direction she was heading.

“…Iji! Junseo!”

Looks like she had come the right way.

Relief washed over her—and at the same time, a message appeared.

You do not have much mana remaining.

I’m so tired…

Her body suddenly felt heavy and limp.

Looking down, she realized that her fluttering magical outfit had changed back into the clothes she had worn that morning.

“Hurry over here, you two!”

For the first time ever, the hood of her hoodie felt unbearably heavy.

A moment later, Iji collapsed to the ground.

* * *

When she regained consciousness, she was staring at the ceiling of the experience center.

As she sat up, the blanket someone had draped over her slid off.

“Oh my, Iji’s awake too!”

Her homeroom teacher, who had been looking after Junseo beside her, let out a huge sigh of relief.

A little later, a person wearing an ID badge labeled Dungeon Management Department approached.

After prefacing with, “If talking becomes difficult, you can stop anytime,” he asked:

“What happened inside?”

“In the desert, a bandaged person picked up my tumbler and then disappeared.”

“Then it must’ve been that bandage monster that came out earlier. Were you scared?”

“Only at first.”

“That’s good. Sometimes frightening memories can suddenly come back later. Make sure to visit a counseling center if that happens, okay?”

“But I was really fine…”

The bandaged man had seemed kind.

…Lonely, living all by himself in that desert.

At that moment, the official adopted an exaggeratedly stern tone.

“You mustn’t underestimate dungeons! This time, you were lucky enough to end up in a lousy dungeon. Low-rank dungeons sometimes get cleared purely by accident.”

It wasn’t luck. I cleared it myself!

She barely resisted the urge to say it.

Is this person a Hunter too?

Just a few hours ago, she would’ve had countless questions to ask a Hunter.

Now, that feeling had completely disappeared.

For one thing, she no longer had to worry about being “unawakened.”

And—

I’m a magical girl! Magical girls can’t let people discover their identities!

In every magical-girl cartoon, the heroines hid who they really were.

For their own sake, and for the sake of their families and friends.

She remembered what happened to Bunny Princess in Hug Me☆Pink Me!

The evil scientists had approached with scalpels in hand and said:

“A lifeform we’ve never received reports on before.”

“Shall we see how it differs from an ordinary rabbit?”

Iji probably wouldn’t be treated exactly like a rabbit…

But who knew what might happen to the flying book?

It could get dissected in her place.

YouTubers might swarm her house.

Her sister would cry.

I absolutely can’t let anyone realize I’ve awakened!

“D-Don’t worry! Now that I think about it, dungeons are super, super scary! I never want to go into one again!”

“Haha, calm down. Right. It really was frightening, wasn’t it?”

Good. He believes me!

But her relief was short-lived.

Seeing another official talking to Junseo in the distance, Iji suddenly realized a problem.

What if Junseo tells them that I said I could see the dungeon’s clear conditions?

They’ll find out I awakened!

It looked like Junseo’s interview had just ended.

After politely seeing the official off, Iji quietly followed behind.

The surrounding area was chaotic, making it easy to eavesdrop.

The two officials huddled together.

The one who had spoken with Iji asked first:

“What did the boy say?”

“He said he was running around with the girl when the monster’s bandages came off and it disappeared.”

“What do you mean, ‘he said’?”

“He was kind of rambling…”

Then he asked,

“What did the girl say?”

“She said the bandage monster stole her tumbler and disappeared.”

Oh no.

Even though she’d gotten the tumbler back, the story had somehow gotten twisted.

The only thing she’d actually lost in the dungeon was the cupcakes she’d worked so hard to make!

Silently, Iji apologized to the bandaged man.

Unaware of that, the officials sighed.

“An F-rank trash dungeon causing property damage. Unbelievable.”

“Just bad luck. Let’s clean up the dungeon.”

The two officials headed toward the dungeon.

Iji finally let out a sigh of relief.

Junseo didn’t say anything about me.

Not about how she’d seen the clear conditions.

Not about how she’d transformed into a magical girl and talked to monsters.

Maybe he was helping me avoid getting dragged into trouble?

Still, asking him now might attract attention.

She decided to leave that conversation for later.

Instead, with trembling anticipation, she opened her status window.

That wasn’t just a dream, right?

[Awakened Information]

Name: Shin Iji

Awakening Rank: EX

Trait: Magical Girl☆

White letters floated clearly against a translucent background.

That star wasn’t there before.

The clear reward had supposedly been a trait enhancement.

So that was the result.

As Iji stared blankly, the screen shifted to her skill list.

[Trait-Related Skills]

[It’s a Secret That I’m a Magical Girl☆ (S)] (Passive)

Witnesses who see the “Magical Girl” cannot, through information leaks or similar actions, cause harm to the Hunter’s everyday life.

A tiny NEW! sparkled beside the skill name.

It seemed that enhancing her trait had granted her a new skill.

So that’s why Junseo couldn’t talk about me!

Of course.

A magical girl’s identity was always secret!

Excited, Iji continued scrolling.

[A Magical Girl Wants to Talk! (B+)]

And beneath the skill she’d seen before—

The most important skill in the world shone brightly.

[Magical Girl Daisy, Transform! (B)]

• Become a magical girl within a dungeon.
• Additional Effect: Unawakened

Even the short description made her heart pound.

Additional Effect: Unawakened.

That meant she could gain something else later, right?

I want to transform again already!

Just then, her homeroom teacher called out:

“Class 2-3, everyone gather up!”

“Yeees!”

At the meeting area, even kids she wasn’t close to started cautiously approaching her.

They probably wanted to ask about the dungeon.

But her teacher beat them to it.

“You’re all glad our two classmates returned safely, right? And absolutely do not ask them about the dungeon.”

“Huh? Why not, teacher?”

“If you got hit by a car, how would you feel if your friends asked you to describe the accident in detail?”

“It’d suck!”

“…How would it feel?”

“…Bad.”

“Right. It would feel bad. Help your friends avoid reliving today’s frightening experience, okay?”

“Okay!”

Pretending to be frightened, Iji hugged her bag tightly.

One of the girls who had approached her handed her a strawberry-flavored candy.

And just like that, Sparrow Elementary School’s second-grade career experience day came to an end.

While waiting for the bus home, several parents who had received the news rushed to the experience center.

Among them, Junseo’s father arrived the fastest.

“Junseo!”

“Dad… mmph!”

The huge Junseo disappeared completely into his father’s embrace.

The other children weren’t much different.

…My sister probably can’t come here.

It’s really okay if she doesn’t.

Nothing serious had happened, after all.

Turning away from the emotional reunions and noisy chatter around her—

The officials from earlier spotted her and approached.

“You’re the student who got dragged into the dungeon earlier, right? Come over here for a moment.”

Her shoulders immediately tensed.

“Why?”

They’d said they were going to clean up the dungeon.

Did they find traces of my transformation?

In her imagination, she was dragged to a laboratory, the magical book was burned, her sister cried, and somehow the world ended—

When the official added:

“We got rid of that dungeon. You won’t be dragged into it again, so don’t worry.”

“You got rid of the dungeon?”

At school, she’d learned that dungeons were treasure troves of resources.

You could repeatedly enter them and harvest valuable materials.

“Don’t dungeons stay around after they’re cleared?”

“Smart girl. That’s right. They’re kind of like vending machines that refill themselves. But what if a vending machine is blocking the road?”

Iji immediately understood the analogy.

“…You remove it.”

“Exactly. If it were a vending machine giving out precious items, we’d leave it alone. But this dungeon wasn’t. So we removed the dungeon’s core… its root.”

The official puffed out his chest proudly.

“The bandage monster is gone forever now, so you don’t have to be afraid anymore!”

She knew she should say thank you.

But the words didn’t come easily.

I’ll never see the bandaged man again?

Even though they’d only exchanged a few words…

He’d been kind.

And he had definitely not been a monster.

Thinking about him left her feeling strangely unsettled.

“…Thank you.”

“It’s only our job. Now, where’s that boy… Ah, there he is.”

The official headed toward Junseo, probably to reassure him as well.

But before they could, another guardian confronted them angrily.

“You’re from the Dungeon Management Department, right? What exactly happened here? Does the Forecast Team not do their jobs?”

“We’re investigating. These things aren’t one hundred percent predictable—”

“One hundred percent isn’t the issue! Even ten percent would’ve been something! Who’s taking responsibility for this?”

“Exactly! Dungeon accidents aren’t even covered by the School Safety Insurance—”

The adults began arguing loudly.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Iji ran to the laboratory where the dungeon had appeared.

But behind the DO NOT ENTER tape, only a shattered experiment table remained.

Nothing else.

She couldn’t even sense any mana.

It really is gone.

Dejected, Iji trudged back.

And because of that—

She failed to notice that something inside her school bag was quietly bubbling and wriggling around.