Chapter 24: Alice, I Have a Strange Feeling

Well then, we'll wrap up today's lesson here. Does anyone have any questions before we finish?

-Flash!

...Please organize your questions on paper and hand them to Miss Sapphire. Alice will organize them and explain everything before the next class begins. Oh, and letters expressing your love for Alice are welcome, too. Then I'll see you all next time~.

[Stellar Shift]

"Alice..!"

And that was how the first day's filming came to a rough close.

Unless I was actually going to teach my juniors something properly, all I'd done was play games as an icebreaker, get to know them, answer their questions, and establish a direction for how to conduct future lessons. There wasn't much else to say.

If anything, there was so little content that I wondered whether they could even use it for a broadcast.

"Thank you for your hard work, Miss Alice. I take it you've had experience with programs like this? To be honest, we'd considered adding a host to ensure things went smoothly, but Miss Emerald told us to leave everything to you, so we did. You did even better than we'd expected. I could believe you were a professional broadcaster."

"Alice is perfect, after all."

"Miss Sapphire and Miss Mia seem busy collecting the questions inside... We should get started on the editing, too. We've already picked out the key points, so we might even be able to air it before the next shoot."

"Oh my, isn't that a little fast?"

"Unlike programs that move from place to place, this one takes place in a single classroom. With our producers' skills, it's more than possible. And isn't it more fun to see how viewers react before moving on to the next shoot?"

"If that's what you prefer, Producer, Alice is fine with it. Alice has no reason to refuse the chance to see the reactions of the people who love Alice sooner."

From the beginning, Emerald's programs had never been intended to make a profit by drawing in viewers like variety shows or dramas. The purpose was the program's very creation.

If ordinary people watched and the ratings went up? Of course, there was nothing bad about that, but it wasn't the original goal.

The goal was to gather magical girls through the program, make it easier to support them because they'd come together of their own accord, improve ordinary people's image of magical girls through the broadcast, and instill pride and motivation in magical girls. Profitability had never been the point.

Still, it seemed that those programs featuring only magical girls got pretty decent ratings, since not only magical-girl fans but ordinary people as well enjoyed watching pretty and cute women come out and do worthwhile things.

It was something I'd already heard from Emerald. In particular, the purpose of this program was to deliver 'Alice's' lessons to magical girls, and they'd even planned to provide separate videos to the magical girls who needed them, independently of the broadcast.

That woman had remained the same, then and now, in her single-minded goal of supporting magical girls.

Indeed, even the mascots acknowledged that Emerald's work was helping magical girls.

-Whoosh...

"Senior... What are we supposed to do if you leave us behind..."

-Plop

"Here's the list. If you'd like, I can organize it and send it to you later."

"Please do, Miss Sapphire."

"Understood. The other magical girls have left through another door... I suppose that wraps up today's filming."

"I heard they've already gotten close to one another and are going out to eat together. It's our first, landmark shoot... Would you and the others like to take this opportunity to have a meal and get to know our production staff as well?"

"I will follow Miss Alice's decision."

"Uh... I... have to go now... S-Senior, are you perhaps going...?"

"Alice has some important business to attend to as well. I'm sorry, but I'll have to decline your invitation to join you afterward."

"Phew..."

Sapphire was truly dedicated to her job. She said she'd go if I went and wouldn't go if I didn't...

Mia seemed worried that she had something she really needed to do, but that I might say I was going.

"It can't be helped, then. We'll get started on the editing right away. We don't have all that much time."

"I'll look forward to a great video."

"Just leave it to us. We'll give it our all, determined to put Miss Alice on the real-time search rankings."

...That much really wasn't necessary!

"Please don't overdo it. Alice is already perfectly happy with just the people who love Alice."

"How can someone in your position be so humble as well...! I stake my title as a producer on making that happen...!"

...That's the state she was in. When dealing with people as Alice, I often encountered this state: they only heard whatever they wanted to hear, no matter what I said.

There was no point in saying anything else in this state. It would only make my mouth hurt.

"Well then, Alice will be heading home now. I'll see you at the next shoot~."

Well, at most, it was a program where magical girls came out and laughed and chatted, while ordinary people heard talk about magic power and the structure of magic that they couldn't understand.

Even magical girls might watch it regularly, but how many ordinary people would understand what they were hearing? How popular could a program like that possibly become?

Other celebrities and magical girls wouldn't just sit still, either. I heard a new drama had begun airing recently. I hadn't paid enough attention to know the details, but I understood that its airtime overlapped with this program's.

At best, magical girls and fans who were somewhat interested in magical girls would watch it regularly. It would get middling ratings, then eventually be forgotten by everyone.

"Miss Alice will be returning alone... Miss Mia, where do you live? If you don't have a good way to get home, I can drive you there."

"...You have a car?"

"A manager should, of course."

"P-Please... These days, even transportation costs have gotten so expensive..."

"Miss Alice, you may ask for a ride as well if you wish. If you're uncomfortable revealing your residence, I can drop you off nearby instead."

"Ms. Starlight doesn't much like Alice cheating on her. Thank you, but I'll pass."

"Understood. Please get home safely, Miss Alice."

-Fwoosh!

* * *

-Creak...

"I'm home."

-Patter-patter

"You're home?!"

When I returned home after finishing work, my only family member, my older sister by two years, Yoo Cheong-ah, came running over as if she'd been waiting for me, her eyes sparkling.

"How was it? I heard the gist of it, but seeing it in person must be different, right? Huh? How was it? Did you get a little closer to Alice? Did she mention me? I went to a lot of trouble for her, you know. She'll be grateful, right? Huh?"

"...Let's go inside and talk, Sis. I just got off work."

"I only got off work a little while ago, too! My eyes hurt so much from looking at paperwork all day!"

"All right. Come inside for now."

My sister, a magical girl known throughout the world as Emerald, was the owner of a thriving company, but whenever I saw her at home, I found myself wondering whether this person could really be that same woman.

She must have used up so much energy outside that she ran completely empty at home, lying on her bed or the sofa without moving an inch. Even as her younger sister, I genuinely couldn't understand how someone like her had built the number-one company in the magical-girl industry.

"Hurry, hurry. Tell me what happened with Alice. Do you know how difficult it is to get in touch with her? The odds of her appearing are incredibly low. You have to catch her while you've got her trail, or you'll regret it later!"

"Sis. People aren't X-kémon."

"I'm speaking metaphorically! You don't know her! She's incredibly fierce! If she decides not to show herself, she could go a whole year without appearing even once, you know? Maybe because teleportation is her specialty, but she's incredibly fast when deploying and returning, too. While the other magical girls are receiving the report and preparing to leave, she's already finished handling the situation and gone home!"

"Why are you so hopelessly obsessed with Alice?"

I knew my sister had been a little obsessed with Alice, the magical girl, for a long time.

Even before becoming a magical girl, my sister had been unable to resist anything cute or pretty, so of course she couldn't resist magical girls, either.

But when it came to Alice, the atmosphere was a little different.

With other magical girls, it was more like, 'She's cute. I want to look after her.' But with Alice, it felt closer to, 'I have to hug her at least once, and I'll have her someday.' It was something like possessiveness, or the desire to claim her.

"She's cute!"

"There are plenty of cute magical girls besides Alice."

"She's different from those magical girls! Alice is like a super-rare monster, I tell you! I've been trying to hug her for ten years, and I haven't succeeded even once! Me! Me, the third-ranked S-rank! No one can make me bow except Aia and Cariel, and even when I beg her to let me hug her just once, she runs away wagging her tail! Do you know what it feels like to become Alice chasing a rabbit?"

"I admit she's cute, but... I don't know if she's that cute."

"You! Take it back!!! Even if you're my only little sister, I can't forgive you for insulting my Alice!!"

"You're so loud! Let go, it hurts! I bought pudding, so just eat it!"

"Wow, pudding."

People say there are no siblings who truly get along, but I still thought my sister was a pretty remarkable person, all things considered.

Being ranked third among magical girls was impressive, and although her motives were somewhat impure, it was also impressive that she'd started a business for magical girls and succeeded so spectacularly.

But if she had one flaw... it was that whenever Alice was involved, my remarkable sister's eyes glazed over and she could no longer make sound judgments.

This program was no exception.

A nationally broadcast TV program wasn't child's play. Unless you were a seasoned entertainer, could you really leave everything to a magical girl? Even if she had ten years of experience, Alice was a magical girl famous for rarely appearing on TV, yet my sister had handed the whole thing over to her and planned to air it after only a little editing?

I was doing it because my sister had asked me to, but honestly, I was skeptical about its chances of succeeding.

It would be lucky if it merely recouped the filming costs.

'Alice... I need to find out exactly what kind of woman she is.'

If my sister's only weakness was her fantasy about Alice, then it was my job as her little sister to shatter that fantasy.

Sapphire's persona was that of a cool, capable magical girl who did her assigned job properly and no more, never crossing boundaries.

My sister must have considered that when she assigned me as Alice's manager, saying I'd be a good match for her.

It was a good thing.

If I stayed by that magical girl's side as her manager, even someone with such a firmly established persona would eventually let a weakness show. I just had to exploit that opening and bring back a clue that would shatter my sister's fantasy about Alice.

Who knew? Behind that innocent face, perhaps she went home, said things like, 'Ah, f***, life's f***ing awful,' and even put a cigarette in her mouth.

Even without such an extreme example, a small clue would be enough to shatter my sister's fantasy about Alice.

But first...

[These are the list of questions from the students I mentioned. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to open the fan letters, so I left them untouched.]

[Good work. Give me the fan letters later. You worked hard helping with the shoot. Love you ( ᐢ. ̫ .ᐢ ♡).]

"Ahem."

"Ah! You exchanged texts or emails with Alice, right? Bring them here! I'm going to look too!"

"They're for work! Don't look at them without permission!"

"...Is there any more pudding?"

"Open the lower compartment of the second drawer from the top of the second refrigerator."

"I ate that earlier."

"Then move the mayonnaise in the side door of the third refrigerator and look behind it."

"Yes! Thanks! That's my sister!"

Anyway, I'd be keeping a close eye on Alice from then on.

And to lay the groundwork and carry out my role as manager, I started searching the internet for photos and videos of Alice.

Gathering information on the enemy was the foundation of any battle, after all.