Chapter 36

“Umm.”

Smartphones are hard.

At best, I could use them for messaging, checking emails, or going to portal sites to watch baseball games or check results. But smartphones were just too difficult for me.

“If you spread your fingers like this…”

Whoa, the map on the screen zoomed in…

“And if you pinch them like this…”

Oh, the map zoomed out…

Tomorrow is the end of October, finally Halloween.

With the decisive day approaching, I was looking at a map on my smartphone to get a sense of what Itaewon looks like.

But maybe I was looking at the map awkwardly because Dusik, sitting next to me, said…

“Unnie… If you use a smartphone like a feature phone, what are we supposed to do…”

He was looking at me like I was from the Stone Age.

“I just didn’t have much use for it…”

“Unnie, you’re in your early 20s, but it’s more surprising that you’re this clueless about modern technology… Did you live in some remote area or something?”

“No, that’s not it…”

I didn’t think I’d hear something like this.

“Anyway, the number of minions is small. We don’t know how many will come from their side. If it’s around 4 like in the previous simulation, it should be manageable.”

We couldn’t install the production device.

Originally, it was supposed to be installed in the Magical Girl Association building, but since that changed, the installation location also had to be changed. Because of that, we were delayed in setting up the production device.

“That’s true…”

Actually, there was an unspoken agreement with Eve that we would lose this raid.

It’s not a matter of pride, but since the magical girls were sponsored for advertisements, this fight was meant to showcase those sponsorships.

But this is a conversation that only Eve and I had, so it’s not something I can tell Dusik.

“Dusik.”

“Yes, unnie.”

“Can you print out this Itaewon map for me? I can’t make sense of it just by looking at the screen. A paper map is easier for me.”

Dusik looked at me like I was crazy when I asked him to print out the map.

I get it. I’m 23 years old, around the age of a college graduate, and it’s weird that I can’t handle a smartphone.

But I have something to say about this.

When I was a man, working as a salesperson at my previous job, smartphones exploded in popularity, and many people in our sales department started owning them.

I also bought one back then, and I used it to input client addresses and stuff, thinking I’d use the smartphone map feature.

Then my manager called me and said this:

“Manager Lee, I have some advice for you. It’s nothing major, but don’t blindly trust smartphones. Convenience comes with increased risks. Smartphones are convenient and nice, but sometimes analog is better. Maps, for example, can be more accurate with the ones we’ve used for a long time than the latest smartphone maps.”

After that, using smartphone maps was banned in the sales department.

It became a habit, and now I can’t read anything unless it’s on a paper map.

Thinking about it now, it’s ridiculous.

“Here, unnie. I printed it.”

Dusik sat next to me and unfolded the map. He printed it on several A4 sheets and taped them together, so the entire map of Itaewon was visible.

Now it’s easier to see.

“We can choose the starting point, right?”

“Right.”

“Okay… Hmm, let’s see.”

It’s obvious that I should be in the rear.

From the last simulation, we learned that just my presence on the battlefield gives the minions a combat power buff.

So, it’s better to keep me on the battlefield for as long as possible.

It’s not like this is a battle that requires some grand strategy.

“Oh, right, unnie.”

“Yeah?”

“What about Kabe? Is Kabe waiting at the hotel?”

Objectively speaking, Kabe should be brought to the battle.

Kabe is also a minion I summoned, and even though I’ve been treating her like a daughter, that’s not right.

Keru is investigating Kabe’s true identity, but as usual with that brat, there’s no clear result yet.

If we take her to the battlefield, at least we’ll know what role Kabe can play.

So, of course, we should take her…

“But what if she gets hurt? She’s still a kid.”

But my mouth isn’t cooperating.

“Unnie, you need to think objectively. Kabe isn’t your real daughter, after all. So if we take her to this battle, we’ll find out what role she can play.”

“Yeah… You’re right, Dusik.”

I scratched my head.

I need to think objectively.

“But what if she gets hurt…”

“Unnie.”

“Okay. I got it.”

I nodded at Dusik, who was glaring at me with stern eyes.

*

“There’s nothing… huh.”

I slowly flipped through the few documents I received from Yoran.

Most of the pages were blank.

“We used every possible means… no, every cruel means to investigate, but there’s no record of this woman’s past identity.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Birth records, of course, and compulsory education records, as well as various insurance and pension records were all investigated, but nothing came up.”

Is this even possible?

Before that, was there really a need to erase her past so thoroughly?

In Korea, where you can’t live a normal life without identification, was there really a need to erase her past records to this extent?

“So, this is just a guess…”

“Yeah?”

“I made this assumption.”

I leaned back in my chair.

“It’s possible that she’s someone whose past must not be revealed.”

“Her past must not be revealed? What do you mean?”

Yoran made a hand gesture.

It’s supposed to signify burning karma for what’s about to be said, but what is he trying to say?

“Someone who was treated inhumanely.”

“Inhumanely treated?”

“Do you remember the experiments conducted when magical girls first appeared?”

“Ugh…”

That’s a painful memory.

A sudden headache came, and I pressed my temples.

The appearance of magical girls was shocking in many ways.

They could stand against the Mogmog Group’s minions, possessed powers that human weapons couldn’t match, and had a friendly stance toward humans.

I, too, was driven by a sense of justice to protect humans and actively responded to their requests for experiments.

Later, it gradually went too far…

“If, for example, she was captured by humans and forcibly turned into a magical girl.”

“That’s impossible.”

“But Association President, if that’s not the case, then it doesn’t make sense for her entire past identity to be erased like this. For it to be this thorough, there must have been government intervention.”

I’m at a loss for words.

Not many countries have as thorough and strict an identification system as Korea.

In such a system, for someone like Yoon-Woo to appear out of nowhere like she fell from the sky doesn’t make sense.

“So… Yoran, are you saying…”

“I think this assumption is possible. In other words, the magical girl awakened, and before we noticed, and before she became aware of her powers as a magical girl, she was captured by a government agency. Then, at the government level, all her records were erased, making her a person who never existed, and she was subjected to biological experiments…”

“And by chance, Keru secured her custody?”

“That’s right. And during the investigation, I heard that her magic power is also abnormally high.”

That’s true.

The first boss of Mogmog, Cyclone, had about 30,000 liters of magic power, and I have a bit less than four times that at 110,000 liters.

But she has even more magic power than me.

She created a shield out of pure magic power to block Prilly’s Aura Cannon.

She uses magic power directly without converting it into magical formulas.

That’s definitely abnormal.

“So, she’s the result of human biological experiments, huh.”

“That’s the most likely possibility right now. I’ve never seen a case where someone’s entire past identity was erased so thoroughly, Association President.”

Good grief.

So that’s why I could so easily treat Kabe like a daughter.

It’s natural to want something you don’t have, like family.

“And that daughter, Kabe, might also have been subjected to harsh sexual experiments…”

“That, that’s!”

“Huh?”

“No, it’s nothing…”

That’s definitely not true.

But if I say that now, the question of how I know that will come up.

Most people know that I’m unofficially acquainted with the Mogmog Group, but they don’t know that branch managers openly visit the Mogmog Group’s base.

In other words, Yoran doesn’t know this.

He doesn’t know that I know how Kabe was born, or that Kabe calls me dad.

So there’s no need to tell him.

“Those humans… No matter what, she’s a woman, how could they… Oh, Buddha… Are you still sleeping…”

I couldn’t say anything as I watched Yoran grinding his teeth.

“Anyway, I got it. Good job.”

“Should I investigate further?”

Investigate what? Her entire past identity is erased. Things like becoming a woman or whatever…

“Yoran, by any chance. Is it possible that memory manipulation, or… the aftereffects of experiments caused confusion in her memory, or her sexual identity was manipulated… Is that possible?”

“Hmm…”

Yoran fell into thought for a moment.

Since he’s in charge of various investigations, he probably knows more about this than I do.

“It’s possible that the shock of sexual experiments made her deny that she’s a woman… or made her want to escape her gender.”

So it’s possible, huh?

“Got it. You can go.”

And I picked up the bundle of receipts stuck between the papers.

“And the meal expenses are really too much. How can you eat 230,000 won worth of beef tartare for lunch? I didn’t tell you to go this far… Where did you go?!”

The empty Association President’s office was left with only me.

I sighed, got up from the chair, and walked to the window to look outside.

A woman who lost even her identity due to cruel human experiments.

A woman who denied that she was even a woman.

An unbelievable reality.

They say reality is harsher than fiction, and it’s true.

Does she not even have a family?

Is that why she could accept Kabe as family so quickly?

Sigh…

I think I need to take better care of her…

*

“So, you guys go ahead.”

There are 24 minions.

Dusik, Keru, Kabe. And me. That makes 27 and one more.

“It’s quite far to Itaewon, unnie. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“What’s the big deal.”

I loaded the minions onto a minibus.

Originally, the Mother-Body would open a Dimension Gate or something to move everyone to the operation zone, but I can’t use magic.

And this is a legacy magic that only the Mother-Body can use, so Keru can’t do it either.

We had no choice but to rent a bus, but large buses weren’t available, so we rented a minibus, and now there aren’t enough seats.

“Kabe and I will take the subway. Nothing will happen. When you arrive, don’t get off the bus and wait there.”

“The event starts at six, so if you’re running late, take a taxi, unnie. Got it?”

“Don’t worry and go ahead.”

The bus left, and only Kabe and I remained in front of the hotel.

“Itaewon Station… Take Line 2 and transfer to Line 6.”

“Mom, are we going to fight?”

“Yeah. Kabe, you have to stick close to me. Okay?”

“Kabe can fight too?”

“Well, you can fight, but… I don’t know how you fight yet. When the fight starts in Itaewon, show me then. Okay?”

“Okay, got it. Mom, Kabe is really strong!”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re my daughter, so of course you’re strong. I know.”

*

“Does this kid need a ticket? She looks like a kindergartener.”

“Ma’am, she doesn’t look like a kindergartener at all…”

I got caught trying to go through the ticket gate with Kabe.

“She’s just tall for her age, but she’s a kindergartener…”

The station staff looked back and forth between me and Kabe, then sighed deeply and opened the gate.

Well, if they insisted, I would’ve bought a ticket… but no, Kabe doesn’t have an exact age yet! She could be kindergarten age!

I’m justified!

“I’ll let it slide this time.”

“Thank you! Come on, Kabe, say thank you too.”

“Thank you!”

I quickly took Kabe inside and got on the subway.

It’s about 40 minutes from here, so we’ll get off at Sindang Station and transfer to Line 6.

“Mom, the metal thing is moving!”

“Shh, you can’t be loud here.”

Luckily, there were seats. Kabe and I sat side by side, staring blankly out the window when my phone buzzed in my pocket.

-Unnie, are you on the subway right now?

It was Dusik.

How did he know? He’s like a ghost. I answered yes, and he sent me a link. I opened it, and it took me to a website.

This isn’t some kind of hacking, is it?

My bank account is already draining day by day; if I get hacked, I might really cry.

But what appeared on my screen wasn’t hacking or anything like that—it was something I never expected.

「Gallery Master is on the subway with his daughterㅋㅋLooks like they’re going to fightㅋㅋㅋ」

That was the title of the post. And in the content, there was a photo of Kabe stomping her feet and me trying to calm her down.

-Dusik, what’s going on?

-Is there someone around you taking pictures of you, unnie?

I looked around, but I didn’t see anyone like that. Everyone was busy looking at their smartphones, so no one seemed to be paying attention to us.

It’s not like I’m upset or anything, and I’ve already caused two accidents on broadcasts, so it’s natural that people would recognize me. But what I’m curious about is…

What’s a Gallery Master?

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