Once the three of them had filled their stomachs with the lunchboxes Chris had made herself, the time had already slipped into the afternoon.
“Noona, I want ice cream~”
“Ice cream… Is that it?”
At her little brother’s pestering, Chris glanced around and spotted a food truck selling cone-shaped ice cream.
It seemed perfect for cleansing the palate. Besides, it had been quite a while since she had eaten that sort of ice cream.
“Well then, I’ll—”
“I’ll go buy it, so please wait here, Mr. Jade! All right?”
She could not let him trouble himself over even these small errands, so Chris cut him off and volunteered to do the buying herself. Faced with her suddenly forceful attitude, Jade had no choice but to nod.
‘Hmm, Neil wants chocolate, Jade wants vanilla… What should I get?’
As she joined the line gathered at the ice cream truck and pondered the menu, Chris found herself thinking once again about the man named Jade.
He was twenty-five, the same age as her, and a low-ranking member of the Silver Corps assigned to the Operations Support Department alongside another executive, Amber.
Setting aside his dubious claim that he had come from another world, he was more or less—
‘His evaluation within the Silver Corps is average, but recently he has the achievement of having uncovered the true identities of Magical Girls Ruby and Sapphire, I suppose.’
At first, she had found it impossible to accept that he had brought down Magical Girl Ruby, their archenemy, but considering Amber’s testimony and the circumstances before and after, it was not entirely some absurd, baseless story.
Above all, Chris herself had been drawn to the way he properly listened to others and gave sincere answers in return.
“Next customer~!”
Before long, the cheerful voice of the part-timer pulled the line forward, and Chris also took a step ahead.
[ …ady! Lady Crystal! Can you hear me?! ]
But at that very moment, the communication radio she had brought just in case crackled to life, and the voice of one of her subordinates reached her ears.
‘I told them to refrain from contacting me today if possible…’
Still, she could not simply ignore a subordinate’s plea. Letting out a small sigh, Chris stepped out of the line and headed toward a sparsely populated area.
“I hear you. State your business quickly.”
[ It’s…! Giant monsters have appeared all over the city! ]
“Monsters? That much happens all the time, doesn’t it?”
Countless mutant monsters were already appearing throughout the world. Under normal circumstances, there should have been no need to report each and every one.
However, it seemed the situation was taking a turn for the worse.
[ There are an enormous number of them! At this rate, there’s a possibility they’ll swarm the Silver Corps headquarters and the branch offices in each area—! ]
“Tch, what are the Magical Girls doing?”
[ It seems all of them are already engaged in combat, but with only four of them… ]
There was no way she could leisurely enjoy ice cream now, so Chris quickly began establishing the chain of command for the combat units.
“Ignore the districts where Magical Girls have been dispatched! Alpha Unit, report the battle situation in real time so that no Silver Corps branch is attacked!”
Of course, there was no reason whatsoever for them to help citizens being attacked by monsters. The Silver Corps was, from the beginning, an evil organization that committed crimes as a matter of course.
The only thing they had to protect was the safety of the Silver Corps. If, by some chance, they were caught up in the monsters’ rampage and their identities were exposed, it would become an outrageous disgrace.
[ Alpha Unit, situation resolved. We have eliminated all monsters near each branch. ]
[ Omega Unit, situation resolved. We have also eliminated the monster that reached the front of headquarters. ]
“Good work. Each of you, remain vigilant and await the Boss’s orders.”
Fortunately, the monsters did not end up hindering the Silver Corps, so Chris let out a sigh of relief and cut off the transmission.
‘Why would that many monsters appear at a time like this? Is this someone’s scheme?’
But since she knew nothing of the circumstances, there was no point in racking her brains over it. Deciding that she would return to headquarters once night fell, Chris first turned her steps toward the bench where Jade and Neil were waiting.
‘I’ve kept them waiting too long. I need to hurry back—’
“Kyaaaah!”
A little girl’s scream rang out, instantly changing the atmosphere of the once-peaceful park.
‘Don’t tell me there’s a monster in this park too?’
But no matter how much she looked around, she could not find any other monsters.
That meant the monster attacking this place was either alone or part of a small group. Chris guessed that it was probably an individual that had separated from the horde for some reason and reached this place.
“Save me… Please save me…”
The sight of a girl caught in the grip of a monster with a grotesque face, desperately begging for help, entered her eyes, but Chris had something else she had to do.
Confirm her little brother’s safety. From the moment she had lost her parents, her little brother’s safety had been Chris’s only priority.
Fortunately, they were far from the monster, and Jade was shielding Neil, so they did not seem to be in any particular danger, but…
‘Is no one going to save that brat?’
There was no sign of anyone who looked like her parents nearby. She had probably come to play here alone.
On top of that, as two more monsters of similar form appeared, everyone began hurriedly fleeing from the park.
“…What am I even worried about?”
Chris desperately killed the nameless emotion welling up in her chest. Even if she offered unnecessary concern, nothing would come back to her.
Her parents had lost their lives because of someone else’s carelessness. Everyone had called it an accident, but in truth, it had been closer to an act of murder.
That was why, even if she had to stain her hands with evil in this filthy world, she had to protect her one and only brother.
She had no reason to save others. Whether the people around her lived or died, in the end, strangers were strangers.
Besides, if she recklessly stepped forward here, all that would happen was that the identity she had carefully hidden would be exposed to Jade.
“……”
In a world where everything felt as though it had slowed like a revolving lantern, for some reason, she found herself recalling his actions.
The courageous act of risking his life to save her little brother Neil, with whom he had no connection whatsoever.
Could someone who made pointless excuses and cast aside a person they could have saved truly be called a superior worthy of respect?
“In the end, he’s going to find out.”
Chris moved.
Like a Magical Girl, the protector of this world. Displaying the overwhelming might of one who could stand against them.
***
By the time she had dealt with all the monsters without a single casualty, the sky had already begun to turn orange.
With the sun sinking into the vast lake behind them, the two of them were talking to each other.
“…You already knew?”
“I started to suspect it partway through. Your voice and hair color were just too similar to Lady Crystal’s.”
It was a shocking fact. Even after disguising herself to that extent, he had realized it was her before she had ended up revealing her identity.
Jade glanced at Neil, who was asleep on his back, and smiled faintly.
“He’s fast asleep.”
“Well, he did run around and play that much.”
In truth, until she met Jade, she had been nothing but worried. If her identity were exposed, her position as an executive of the Silver Corps would be endangered.
At the very least, because he was her brother’s benefactor, she had acted out the weak version of herself from the past so as not to burden him, but in the end, her identity had been revealed, rendering all of it meaningless.
“Um, Lady Crystal?”
“…Chris is fine.”
“Then, Lady Chris, I’m truly sorry. This isn’t an excuse, but I realized it too late…”
Seeing Jade bow his head for some reason, Chris lightly tapped his forehead with her finger.
“You must be disappointed. Having someone like me as your superior.”
At the sight of her voicing self-reproach that did not suit her usual bold demeanor, Jade seemed momentarily flustered.
“I’m still weak. At this rate, nothing has changed from back then.”
A weak person who was still dragging along the parents who had already departed. That was how Chris evaluated herself.
Of course, Jade thought the exact opposite.
“There’s no way I’d be disappointed. Not when Lady Chris is my superior.”
“Stop. I don’t need empty flattery.”
“It’s not flattery. Are you an idiot?”
“Ow! Hey, you punk, what kind of subordinate hits his superior?!”
With an incredulous expression, Jade flicked Chris on the forehead with his finger just as she had done to him earlier, then continued.
“You were cool until a moment ago, but seeing you act that pathetic is what actually disappointed me.”
“…Cool?”
“Of course, saving that girl was part of it, but your little brother doesn’t have anyone else to look after him, and yet he’s grown up this lively. That’s hard even for an adult.”
Chris had always liked herself as a dignified and confident executive of the Silver Corps. Because it allowed her to forget the crying little girl she had once been.
But Jade had not merely affirmed that side of her—he had gone so far as to judge it as even cooler than she was now.
“Neil was able to grow up like this because of you. If you try to run away like that one more time, I’ll seriously—”
“A-All right, I get it, so show some respect! You really do say the most embarrassing things, don’t you?”
Thanks to that, even Chris’s face turned red, and wanting desperately to change the subject, she rummaged through her bag and held out a wrapped gift box to Jade.
“It’s late, but this is my thanks for saving my brother last time. I really appreciated it.”
“Oh! This is a really expensive coffee grinder! Wow, there are beans too…”
“…Are you that happy about it? Honestly, you’re a strange one.”
At the sight of his eyes sparkling like a child’s, Chris let out a small laugh.
It seemed worth it to have gone so far as to consult Amber in order to prepare it.
‘He really is a strange one.’
And so, as she watched Jade remain absorbed in the grinder for quite some time, Crystal’s day flowed on.