Magical Girl? I Got Scammed into It!

After everyone had fallen asleep, Ling Ye, beside Ando Meiko, shuddered slightly before imperceptibly turning onto her side to face Meiko.

Her nose twitched faintly as she inhaled the subtle scent of a young girl drifting from Meiko.

"It smells so good." Though she was clearly a girl in the prime of her youth, for some reason, her voice carried a hint of desolation.

Volume Two: The Vanished Everyday Life: Chapter 23: Vitality Depletion State

Modern people were always different from those of the past. Aside from people like Kajieliena, who had developed a biological clock through childhood training, the rest would sleep until they woke naturally whenever there was no alarm.

Naturally, there were no alarms in this remote mountain forest. However, at around eight in the morning, a scream suddenly rang out through the woods, startling nearly everyone attending this study camp awake.

As the piercing scream echoing through the forest reached the camp of Meiko's group of six, Rei was the first to spring out of bed.

She turned to look at Kajieliena, who had already stood up and was staring toward the source of the sound. Frowning, Rei asked flatly, "What happened?"

"I don't know." After hesitating for a moment, Kajieliena still shook her head. "Should we go take a look?"

"Don't they have any public decency? Who the hell screams like that first thing in the morning?"

"That voice... did something happen?"

"Mmm... I slept so well."

As the five of them got up one after another, everyone except Ling Ye muttered some kind of line through their sleepy haze.

But once they noticed the seriousness on Rei's face, they quickly came to their senses and hurriedly shook off the remnants of sleep.

"What's wrong? Did someone get hurt?"

"Since everyone's awake, let's go take a look."

After reaching an agreement, the six hurriedly got dressed and headed toward the source of the scream.

By the time they arrived at a large student campsite closest to the mountain school, quite a crowd had already gathered there.

Peering through the gaps between people, Meiko could vaguely make out a girl lying on the ground in the center of the crowd.

[Master, there seems to be a problem over there.]

Ruby's voice startled Meiko. She immediately squeezed into the crowd and barely managed to find a spot where she could observe what was happening inside.

Just as she had seen earlier, a girl lay quietly on the ground with her eyes closed. Other than her pale face, there were no visible wounds on her body.

Yet the strange smile at the corner of the girl's mouth sent a chill through Meiko's heart, raising goosebumps all over her skin.

"Her breathing is still steady, and there are no obvious wounds. She probably just fainted from malnutrition."

"Make way, students. Don't block the path." The teacher leading the group picked up the girl as soon as he finished examining her and jogged all the way toward the mountain school.

"What? So it was just malnutrition."

"Thinking about it, though, we've only got wild vegetables and no meat. Even with a bag of rice, it's barely enough to fill us up. This school's wilderness survival program with its point system is ridiculous. Who knows what that old principal is thinking?"

"Exactly. My father has some influence in politics. Once I get back, I'm definitely filing a complaint against this school."

With nothing to do this early in the morning, the students naturally started chattering away now that they had something to gossip about. Still, hardly anyone took it seriously; everyone treated it as no big deal.

While everyone else headed toward the mountain school to wash up for the morning, only Meiko's group of six remained standing where they were.

"Um... let's go too. Otherwise, the line will get too long, and if we miss the time limit, we won't be able to wash up."

"Okay." After responding, they followed Yuna and started moving as well.

However, Rei and Kajieliena exchanged an unusual glance. As though they understood what the other meant, they nodded at the same time in confirmation.

[Master, that girl wasn't suffering from ordinary malnutrition.]

[Do you know what happened to her?]

[I do, but I'm not certain. If my guess is correct...]

On the way back to school, Meiko did not discuss the girl's situation with Yuna, Rei, and the others. Instead, she quietly walked at the back, listening to Ruby's explanation in her mind.

After becoming an Ether Body, a magical girl's dantian would naturally form a space for storing magic power. Once the magic power inside was consumed, the Ether Body would instinctively absorb the faint magic power from the outside world, filter it, and replenish that space.

However, if the magic power stored inside was completely exhausted, then to keep fighting or cast magic, she would have to draw Source Aether from the Ether Body and convert it into usable magic power.

Fighting by burning Source Aether was essentially using HP as MP.

Therefore, in a sense, Source Aether was equivalent to a magical girl's life.

Ordinary people had neither Aether nor magic power in their bodies, but they still possessed life. And just as magical girls could burn Source Aether, this world did indeed have methods of converting human life into magic power.

Therefore, the girl's so-called malnutrition was not ordinary malnutrition at all. It was a Vitality Depletion State caused by having her magic power absorbed.

[Fortunately, not much magic power was absorbed from this girl. With some rest and more food, she should be able to replenish the life force she lost after some time.]

After Ruby explained it like that, Meiko realized that this truly was a blessing amid misfortune.

If the mysterious person hiding in the dark had drained even a little more from her, the girl would have been bedridden for months at best, and at worst, she could have lost years off her life or died on the spot.

Unlike the other students, who paid it no mind, Meiko, caught in the middle of it all, felt her nerves tighten and became alert.

"Meiko, you noticed it too, didn't you?" Sensing the sudden change in Meiko's demeanor, Kajieliena leaned slightly closer and whispered softly in a voice only the two of them could hear.

Meiko nodded faintly, but she had not noticed any signs that magic power had been used nearby.

Besides, even if she had noticed something, it probably would not have helped much. There were ten whole classes of students participating in this study camp at the mountain school.

Before the mysterious person exposed herself, trying to find someone with such abilities among several hundred people would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"Don't be too tense. Relax. Otherwise, not only will we fail to find her, but if she notices our presence, she might become wary."

"Got it." Meiko responded and inconspicuously raised her chin.

She would not say anything about being careful. Kajieliena was far stronger than she was; rather than telling Kajieliena to be cautious, Meiko herself was the one who needed to be more careful.

She had thought this was just an ordinary wilderness survival activity. She had never expected something like this to happen.

It seemed that this short five-day study camp was going to feel quite long.

Volume Two: The Vanished Everyday Life: Chapter 24: Searching for Clues

Naturally, ordinary students felt nothing about the incident and continued passing the somewhat boring study camp with laughter and conversation.

In contrast, Meiko and the others were much more subdued after returning to camp.

After quietly giving Meiko some instructions, Kajieliena headed alone into the dense forest to search for clues related to what had happened the previous night.

Clearly, she was quite interested in things beyond her control.

Although Chihaya Yuna still carelessly tried to find topics to pass the time, Meiko and Nakajima Rei, who remained on alert, were not in the mood.

Of the four, Baigui Lingye was naturally not someone anyone would chat with either, so with no other choice, Yuna could only tease the nervous Asakusa Megumi, who sat stiffly nearby.

Meiko plucked off a leaf and put it in her mouth, her large eyes constantly sweeping across every direction in the forest. Anyone could see the unhidden tension in her.

"What's wrong, Meiko? Are you still worried about what happened this morning? It'll be fine. That student was only a little malnourished. We have meat and vegetables, so I doubt it'll happen to us."

Forcing a slightly strained smile, Meiko nodded at Yuna. "You're right."

[Perhaps Master could try entering the Void World to search. You might find some clues.]

Hearing Ruby's words in her mind, Meiko nearly forgot about that possibility.

If the culprit was also a magical girl or a witch, then to avoid leaving any traces and being discovered by anyone, she could only flee into the Void World after absorbing magic power.

[I'll try it if I get the chance.]

After thinking for a moment, Meiko asked in her mind.

[But is it possible that person has already run away?]

[Not very likely. Judging from that girl's condition, that person clearly had no intention of killing her. Based on that, the amount of magic power she absorbed must have been negligible.]

[So that person will come back to keep absorbing magic power?]

[That's right. And while absorbing a small amount of magic power will not have much effect on humans, it will inevitably weaken their resistance and trigger all kinds of illnesses.]

[If that's the case, I can't let her get what she wants.]

If this continued over the next few days, it would probably cause a stir at the school, perhaps even throughout the entire city. That would have a significant effect on Meiko's peaceful everyday life.

For the sake of her peaceful daily life, she decided not to merely remain on guard, but to actively search for clues left behind by the culprit.

With that thought, Meiko jumped down from the rock she was sitting on and walked toward the student campsite.

"Meiko, where are you going?"

"I'm going to take a walk nearby. I'll see if I can gather some wild vegetables or pick up some firewood while I'm at it."

"Huh? How about I come with you?"

"No need. If you come too, Hui will really be bored to death."

"True. For Hui's sake, I'll stay behind, then." With that, Yuna stopped trying to stop her and watched Meiko leave together with Rei and Hui.

Rei watched Meiko's back gradually disappear into the dense forest and slowly sighed.

She knew what Meiko intended to do. Although she wanted to follow her, Yuna, Hui, and Ling Ye were three ordinary people who still needed her protection.

Moreover, Meiko had not seen through her true identity. If she exposed it, she feared it would draw Meiko's resentment, perhaps even disgust.

Ever since first meeting Meiko, Rei had vaguely felt that Meiko had been expressing affection for her at every moment. She even had the sense that, somewhere in her subconscious, Meiko had clumsily yet deeply confessed to her several times.

That vague and intangible feeling had drawn her in. After she cast an enchantment spell on her familiar Steel Ball, lured Meiko into touching Steel Ball's body, and learned from that that she was a magical girl...

She had fallen in love with Meiko.

If that Magic Mark had been planted perfectly, then the one always at Meiko's side would have been her, not the witch Orbital.

Not only had Kajieliena ambushed her while she was doing something important, but she had also shamelessly transferred into Meiko's class, sat beside her, and accompanied her in physical training.

All of that should have been hers to enjoy.

Therefore, her feelings toward Kajieliena were not merely resentment over the ambush. There was also anger over having her ritual interrupted and jealousy over having the one she loved stolen away.

But now that the witch Iris had come looking for her as well, no matter how displeased she was with Kajieliena, she could not become too hostile toward her in this situation.

Otherwise, if Kajieliena joined in when she was already struggling against Iris alone, she would be captured by them without any chance to resist.

That was absolutely unacceptable to her.

As Kajieliena's former colleague, Rei understood her character very well. As long as no one attacked her recklessly, she would only act according to her own interests.

Therefore, the urgent matter was to focus on Iris and find a way to send her back, or simply beat the witch until she could no longer move.

But given her current strength, that possibility was far too slim.

"Ugh." Thinking of this, Rei could not help letting out another long sigh. The complicated emotions contained within it made Yuna and Hui look at her curiously.

"This is the place." Arriving where the girl had collapsed, Meiko carefully examined the surroundings.

This spot was one of the few empty spaces surrounded by seven or eight tents more than ten meters away.

If anyone had passed through here, they should have been noticed immediately, let alone if someone had dragged the girl out of a tent.

The trampled grass nearby showed that the girl had walked here alone. Perhaps she had gone out at night to use the restroom or something and had the misfortune of falling victim to the culprit.

Other than that, there were no traces or clues around at all. It was as though the girl had walked here alone and suddenly collapsed from feeling unwell, which made no sense.

[Ruby, can you sense any magic power fluctuations around here? Even the faintest trace is fine.]

[I'll try now. Please wait a moment, Master.]

After a moment of silence, Ruby's voice rang out in her mind again.

[Master, there are no lingering magic power fluctuations around here.]

After investigating the tents surrounding the area, Meiko still refused to give up and walked around several more times before finally shaking her head and muttering, "Wandering around here won't solve anything. It looks like I'll have to enter the Void World and take a look."

Volume Two: The Vanished Everyday Life: Chapter 25: Red Light Band

[Master, there's no need to be too anxious. If that mysterious person has concealed every trace, it will be difficult for us to find her as well.]

[What do you mean?]

[Let's wait a little longer. If the mysterious person still refuses to stop absorbing magic power from ordinary people, we'll go directly into the Void World and act.]

Meiko nodded lightly and did not continue searching.

She also thought Ruby's suggestion was feasible. Compared to searching around like a headless fly and only alerting the enemy, when the enemy was hidden and they were exposed, the best method was undoubtedly to wait for the prey to come to them.