So You Want to Be a Magical Girl? - Chapter 8

I tried to process the situation.

“Uh… You’re Sariel’s second personality?”

Saliel snorted. “And why can’t I be the primary one?”

Whose primary personality appeared only at specific times?

Wisely, I chose not to argue. He did not look like a man who listened to reason.

“Are you insulting me in your head?” Saliel narrowed his eyes.

I widened mine innocently. “How could you think that of me? Am I that sort of person?”

I absolutely was.

“Did I neglect to mention”—Saliel leisurely tore away the last length of chain—“that Sariel and I share most of our memories? You needn’t pretend in front of me.”

Then he personally demonstrated what not pretending looked like.

The thorny chains collapsed into scrap in his hands. Saliel waved, kneading moonlight into new ropes. While I stared in wonder, he used them to bind me from head to toe.

Me: “Huh?”

He nodded, satisfied by my immobility.

“Sariel has given me an excellent idea. The place where he imprisons me is remote enough that no one ever visits. Once I hide you there, you will belong to me.”

I calmly identified the flaw. “Sariel will rescue me when he wakes. Kidnapping me is pointless.”

“You trust him that much?” Saliel looked as though he had heard a magnificent joke. “Do you imagine he has never wanted to lock you away and keep you for himself?”

“Sariel would never do that.”

“You’re wrong.” Saliel seized me, his blood-red eyes boring into mine. “It isn’t that he lacks the desire. He lacks the courage. Heaven’s rules bind him. He is a pathetic coward.

“I am different. I live only for myself.”

He lifted me into his arms and spread all six wings. Black feathers drifted around us.

“Once we are together, you may continue playing your little friendship game, or you may reveal your true desires. Do as you please.”

He spoke viciously and behaved like a bandit, yet a thin fall of ashen snow lay over the red depths of his eyes—lifeless, desolate, and utterly without hope.

“If you’re willing to be that coward’s friend… then try liking me too.”

I trusted Sariel’s character.

So even with my “kidnapping” imminent, I was not particularly frightened.

But just as Saliel prepared to carry me away, purple light erupted from the courtyard.

A magic formation appeared beneath him. With my current education, I could only tell that it involved a soul-binding spell.

The formation was complicated enough to make my head spin at a glance. Saliel, however, was one of the seven primordial seraphim. It dazed him for only an instant.

That was enough.

An entire basin of holy water crashed over his head. It carried so many sleep spells that I yawned merely from smelling it.

Saliel failed to dodge and took the full deluge.

Holy water and sleep magic proved an excellent combination. No matter how he resisted, he collapsed, furious and unwilling.

After a moment of silence, I crouched and helped him up.

I also gently pried loose the luminous rope he still clutched in a death grip despite being unconscious.

Avila emerged from the shadows carrying an enormous jar of holy water.

“Are you hurt?”

She stood two meters away. Her normally cool voice had been deliberately softened to soothe me.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll take you back to your room—”

The moment she stepped forward, her expression changed. One hand flew over her nose and mouth.

Oh, right. Apparently she disliked some smell on me.

I still wondered what she smelled, but thanking my rescuer was more important.

Before I could speak, another voice drowned me out.

“That’s it? How boring.”

Siren leaned against the second-floor balcony rail. There was no telling how long he had been watching.

“Tsk. Saliel was right. Sariel is hopelessly dull. He knew he would lose control, so he prepared holy water and a bodyguard in advance?”

When he saw me looking, Siren feigned sudden realization.

“Oh, you still don’t know what is wrong with Sariel, do you? Since he refuses to explain, I’ll be kind enough to do it for him.”