Chapter 21
[Hello, Manager! I'm Alice! I look forward to working with you during filming! ₍⑅ᐢ. ̬.ᐢ₎♡]
[Yes, nice to meet you, Miss Alice. I'm the manager assigned to you. My magical-girl name is Sapphire, and my real name is Yoo Siyeon. Please call me whatever you're comfortable with.]
[Then I'll call you Miss Sapphire! ₍ᐢ.ˬ.ᐡ₎ .ᐟ If you need to contact Alice, please text this number, and if you have any materials to send, please email them! Alice may not be able to answer calls because she's busy, so please text whenever possible! Alice will check them whenever she has time, too!]
[Understood. I'll send the materials you need to review to the email address you provided. Please reply after reviewing them.]
[₍⑅ᐢ. ̬.ᐢ₎♡Yes!]
-Rustle
After waking up, I washed myself while still in a daze and exchanged messages with my manager.
The phone and email I used while active as Alice were separate from my personal ones, so this level of contact wasn't a problem.
It wasn't a number I gave out widely in the first place, so no one would know it unless they were connected to Alice in a professional capacity.
"So... I wonder what she sent."
-Rattle
When I looked over the materials the manager had emailed me, they were neatly organized and presented, as if Emerald hadn't recommended her without reason.
'...She's pretty good.'
My first impression was quite positive.
We hadn't actually met in person, but she had a knack for organizing the materials, giving me exactly what I needed without anything unnecessary. Even when texting, she got straight to the point without wasting time on strange topics and ended the conversation quickly.
There were quite a few people who, in the name of social niceties, would prolong conversations with things like, 'Have you eaten?' or, 'The weather is really nice today.' From my perspective, though, I had to respond because I was Alice, so the conversation would unnecessarily go in circles and become extremely unpleasant.
Emerald had said she'd assigned someone who knew Alice well enough not to be fooled by the persona, wouldn't cross unnecessary boundaries, and could separate business from personal matters... Seeing it firsthand, running a business really wasn't something just anyone could do.
She probably knew because she'd been observing me for so long that she understood Alice was a persona, that I was extremely wary of revealing my real personality, and that I disliked getting unnecessarily entangled with other people.
'Actually, women like that are the sort you shouldn't get close to.'
"Sigh."
I had no choice if I wanted to make a living.
It wasn't for nothing that people around here said that any magical girl who wanted to appear on television and make a living ultimately had to go through Emerald's sphere of influence.
Emerald's control over the market was that impressive.
In fact, it was fair to say that most magical girls were dependent on Emerald's company.
That was why she held the position of third in the S-rank, one place above Alice, despite rarely going into battle.
I wasn't particularly jealous.
From the beginning, I was someone who actually hoped Alice would be at the very bottom of the S-rank—or, if things went well, fall below it.
Did having a high rank feed me? No, it didn't.
Emerald's magical-girl support fund did pay stipends according to rank, but I couldn't receive them because I couldn't prove that I was Alice.
At one point, Emerald had even snapped, 'Why aren't you taking your support money?! Are you rich or something?!'
The support money that had accumulated over the years for Alice, the fourth-ranked S-rank magical girl, must have amounted to quite a sum... but there was no way for me to collect it.
Wouldn't it be extremely suspicious to go to Emerald after refusing it all this time and say, 'Here I am, Alice is right in front of you, so hurry up and give me the support money'?
I had already been living as though Alice simply had no support money.
Which was why, now that I needed quick cash, I was appearing on a television program I had desperately wanted to avoid, in the role of a teacher who taught magical girls.
Teaching itself didn't seem like it would be difficult.
I might not be the real Alice, but the know-how I'd built up over eight years of activity was genuine.
Compared to the other first-generation magical girls, who each had a screw loose and were too busy to get involved in things like this... Alice was at least a kind, gentle, and even powerful magical girl on the surface, making her the perfect choice for a teacher... probably.
'...Even taking that into account, they may have gone a little overboard with the applications...'
I'd thought I'd only have to teach around three to five people...
[I narrowed it down to twenty in the end. We received far more applications than that, but if I accepted them all, you'd make a fuss, so I narrowed it down as much as possible to magical girls with a firm desire to study who seemed likely to make real progress if given this opportunity. Take a look. Oh, if you run away now, you'll owe a penalty, okay?]
'This damned woman...'
Even my escape route had been blocked in advance.
That woman was far too perceptive. Even if she didn't know my exact circumstances, there was a high chance she at least knew that Alice wasn't exactly well-off financially.
Emerald frequently offered Alice unusually favorable conditions because she liked Alice and because Alice's career deserved that level of treatment, but there was probably another motive as well.
There was a faint sense of an ulterior motive: make Alice financially dependent on Emerald so she could finally pat her head...
After all, it was difficult to casually judge rich people—or the mental states of magical girls.
From Emerald's perspective, she was an S-rank third-place magical girl who also ran a successful company, so her generous support of magical girls was probably genuinely because she liked them. But Alice didn't accept the support money, and whenever Emerald tried to grow closer, Alice put up an impenetrable wall after a certain point.
If I had to compare it to something, it was like a heroine in a game where you capture the characters: beautifully designed, but impossible to conquer because the developer never added her route. It probably felt something like that.
There was no way for me to know what she actually thought, and even if she really saw me that way, I had no intention of letting myself be conquered.
If I were conquered, I'd get the bad ending. No way I'd let that happen.
-Click
'I see quite a few familiar names.'
I generally couldn't remember the names of my juniors, but I did remember the two who had been in the final match of the last tournament.
Black Rose and Verta.
They were pretty crazy, as one would expect from magical girls... They'd said they were Alice fans, and now they'd followed her into the next project.
How much were they trying to suck Alice dry, down to the marrow? I could pass on my know-how, but actually absorbing it required them to experience combat themselves and spend time honing it before they could truly master it.
[Got it. Then Alice will arrive at the designated location on time, so I'll see you there that day, Miss Sapphire. ᘏ⑅ᘏ]
[Yes, understood. If there's anything you're curious about or anything I should pay attention to during filming, please let me know in advance so I can take care of it.]
[Nothing for now, but I'll let you know if anything comes up later.]
[Would chocolate milk be all right for the drinks during filming? I'll have it prepared with extra sugar as well.]
[Plain chocolate milk is fine, too. ₍ᐢ. .⑅ᐢ₎↝]
Were they trying to kill me with diabetes?
If I were only having one cup, I could put up with the insane act of putting three sugar cubes in a cup of cocoa to match Alice's persona, but I couldn't drink that sugar water throughout the entire filming period.
I didn't dislike sweet things. I just enjoyed them about as much as an average person.
I didn't enjoy them enough to drink a liquid that made my blood vessels scream just by hearing about it.
The real Alice did, though.
As for chocolate milk... I might like one or two glasses, but drinking it throughout the day would be a bit much. Still, it was a compromise I could make for Alice's persona.
I'd just committed the bizarre act of putting three sugar cubes in cocoa in front of Emerald, so it would be strange to ask for bottled water after the manager had prepared that for me.
[Yes, then I'll see you on the day of filming. If anything comes up, please feel free to contact me.]
[ᘏ⑅ᘏ]
After finishing our messages, I began memorizing the script she'd sent me.
Since the show was basically structured as lessons where Alice taught magical-girl students, there would be a lot of ad-libbing, but as it was still a television program, there was a script to some extent.
They'd also said there wouldn't be just one teacher, Alice, but several of them.
But Alice was famous for rarely showing her face and was now going to teach other magical girls, so I could guess why everyone was making such a fuss.
...There was no way this washed-up magical girl was actually that popular.
* * *
[Title: What the fuck are you assholes doing.]
[Author: ㅇㅇ]
(A photo of Alice flashing a V sign)
"Post it."
Upvotes: 654(85) Downvotes: 13
ㅇㅇ: This is fucking staged, you lunatic.
ㄴㅇㅇ: Now, now, anonymous users are people too.
ㅇㅇ: The gallery's gone fucking nuts again.
ㅇㅇ(222.155): But she is insanely pretty, though, yeah...
ㄴㅇㅇ: Is that Alice?
ㄴㄴㅇㅇ: Don't drag the magical-girl gallery into Her Highness's business.
[Title: (Breaking News) Crying in real time after getting rejected from the Magical Girl Academy application lol]
[Author: ㅇㅇ]
Apparently they didn't even put their own name on the application lol.
ㅇㅇ: You've got the brains to be a magical girl forever.
ㄴㅇㅇ: What the fuck did you just say?
[Title: Those of you asking who Alice is, pay attention]
[Author: Rabbit Lover]
(Alice Leviathan fan edit.gif)
This is what she's like.
ㅇㅇ(412.214): Whoa, what is this?
ㅇㅇ: ?
ㅇㅇ(122.101): But where do you even find videos like this?
ㄴRabbit Lover: I downloaded everything before it was taken down and triple-backed it up.
ㄴㄴ: ㅇㅇ(122.101): Isn't this fucking criminal behavior?
ㄴㄴㄴRabbit Lover: Hey, it's just being a fan.
Gem Enthusiast: Emerald beneath Alice (This comment was deleted by the post author.)