Chapter 4 — Sleep, until your life is over ? Episode 4–6 — Of Sleep ①

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by Kaiesv

There was a sumptuous hall made of gleaming gold and brightly colored red and blue ore, with pillars made of marble-white stone erected against the walls. The chandeliers, richly adorned with precious metals, cast a dazzling light and brightly illuminate the space, which is somehow even divine. Looking at the ceiling and walls with the help of light, she will see a variety of creatures, including beasts that are unfamiliar to her on earth, animals that Japanese people are familiar with such as dogs and cats, and even humans, all of which are depicted as sleeping peacefully and snuggled up together.

At the far end of the hall, which is as large as a school gymnasium, a red banner-like curtain has been opened, and on an inorganic, martial throne sits a certain young girl, her legs crossed and her hands clapping slowly in an arrogant manner. The movement was terribly slow and barely audible, but apparently it was clapping.

「It’s not uncommon for some to drown in happy dreams and never wake up again, fufu, but yours is not something I didn’t expect. Magical Girl Elephant, just to be recognized by me.」

At first glance, Elephant recognized this place as the throne room. This is not only because of the design of the hall and the presence of what appeared to be a throne, but also because of that familiar girl looking down at her from on high, the girl with the familiar voice, with the tilted crown on her head.

「Why would you do such a terrible thing, Miss Stranger from somewhere?」

The simple attire, consisting only of pure white cloth joined together, would be convincing if it were said that curtains were wrapped around the body. Her long emerald-green hair is carelessly stretched, and her hair is bouncy in places. She has sleepy eyes, a sweet, childish voice, and the loveliest face of anyone she’d ever seen.

「Tyrant Sylph. Don’t you think?」

「No. You’re not Sylph-chan.」

In response to the girl’s, much like Tyrant Sylph, Elephant made no pretense of being bothered by the girl’s words, but assured her.

There is no concrete evidence of anything. There is no conclusive evidence. But Elephant knows. The girl in front of her is not the one she loves.

「Fufu, it’s true that we share the same roots, but he and I are different people. Or should I call us different? That said, I didn’t expect it to be this easy to tell me apart, but I knew you were special.」

The girl looks up at Elephant, who looks up at her with a leering gaze, and the girl happily chuckles as she answers, but nearly half of what she says is beyond Elephant’s comprehension. The only thing that’s certain is that the girl is not Sylph, then there’s no need to be reserved.

「I hope you’re not going to shrug it off. Why did you give me that dream?」

Unusually for Elephant, she asks again in a piercing tone of voice, not even hiding her irritation.

Until a few minutes ago, Elephant had been dreaming.

In that dream, herself and Sylph were dating each other in mutual love, they met up, complimented each other on their outfits, taught Sylph, who was new to festivals, various games and delicious food, made her adorably jealous, and finally kissed romantically against a beautiful fireworks backdrop. As if Sylph had never fallen in love with anyone else, as if to show that if everything had gone the way Elephant wanted, a future like that would have been waiting for her.

But dreams do wake up. No matter how happy and hopeful our dreams may be, one day she must face reality. Then how could she be so cruel as to make her dream of a future like that, a future she can no longer have? How sad she was when she realized that the world was a dream, that Sylph was a dream, that they had kissed, but that they could never get to that end. How hopeless she felt. And how much determination it took for her to shake off that happy dream and stomp out of the dream world.

She didn’t want to have a bubble dream. She was desperate to give up, to support Sylph’s love, to get her feelings in order, but after seeing something like that, she doesn’t want to give up. It makes her want to hold on to that future.

「Why, it’s out of the kindness of my heart. My root seems to like you and well, I can ignore such things, I just thought I might be able to serve you for a bit. I don’t usually do this because it’s very tiring, but it’s special, you know?」

「Kindness of your heart..? Are you saying it’s your kindness to show me.. a dream that will no longer come true? Don’t screw with me!!」

Even though she was more good natured than normal people, Elephant was also an adolescent girl. She can get angry, she can be in a bad mood. But that doesn’t mean that she would ever show it in an overt manner, much less yell at them, but Elephant was not going to stand for this and yelled angrily.

「Sylph-chan likes Saki-chan, you know..? Finally, Sylph-chan liked not only me, but others as well. Saki-chan seems to like Sylph-chan a lot, too, and I’m sure they will get along and be happy.. So there’s no way I could, you know, get in between the two of them and interfere..」

Because she love Sylph, because she wants her to be happy, she couldn’t make the decision that she would let that love be turned against her, that she would take that love away from her. That’s why, she wasn’t supposed to give up, but she was going to.

「You are mistaken about one thing.」

「Mistaken?」

「Yes, it’s not a could-have-been, it’s a still possible future. Your love is not over yet.」

Even Elephant knows that. Even though Sylph has found someone she likes, she can continue to try to make her fall in love with her without giving up. As a result, there is no possibility of tying up with Sylph.

Elephant thinks it’s extremely likely that Sylph is in love with Saki in the first place, but at the same time it is unlikely that Sylph will tell Saki about her situation. Elephant was able to learn Sylph’s secret partly because of Elephant’s personality and pushiness, but more importantly because of her timing. Even if Saki had exactly the same personality as Elephant, and even if Sylph likes Saki, the chances of getting to the truth about Sylph are not that great. And it’s unthinkable that Sylph would go out with someone who doesn’t know that, without saying anything. There is no way that Sylph, who is unable to even be friends with a Magical Girl without feeling guilty for keeping a secret, can be so dexterous.

Considering the circumstances and backward-looking nature of Sylph, it’s not difficult to take advantage of a weakened Sylph who is saddened by her own feelings. It’s a bit of a detour, but eventually Sylph can fall in love with her. At least there is that possibility.

But Magical Girl Elephant isn’t the kind of person Chisaki Kisayama would consider good enough.

If she were the kind of person who would be okay with it, she wouldn’t have been troubled like this from the beginning.

「Wait a minute. How do you know that? What the hell are you..」

Immediately after the destruction of the dream world, Elephant was furious, having determined that it was this hall that had fallen, and that it was the work of a girl resembling Sylph in front of her, who was sitting on a throne in a meaningful way. Since the girl doesn’t deny it either, it must indeed be the girl in front of her who was showing Elephant the dream.

But why does she know about Elephant’s love life in the first place? How can she say that it’s not an impossible future, but a possible future? Why is it able to freely show her the dream she wants? Who is this girl? Elephant, who had regained some composure after her emotional outburst, now came to her senses.

「Who I am is not important, but if you want to know, I will answer. But then again, not many of the wonders of this world are known to you, are they? Magical Girls and, Diests. If they were to subdivide, would fairies be the same? Don’t you think there is only one such thing that fits among them?」

「Magical Girl..」

To the best of Elephant’s knowledge, he cannot think of anything else that might correspond to her true identity.

But Elephant is in Okinawa on a school trip. And there is no Magical Girl who doesn’t know about the beings who protect this land.

A Magical Girl who sleeps 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, whatever the time.

The world’s strongest warrior who destroys all classes of Diests in an instant

The one and only invincible guardian who has never caused any damage to reality,

「It is both correct and incorrect. Nice to meet you, Magical Girl Elephant, or Chisaki Kisayama. If I may call myself according to your style, my name in this world is——」

After a long and roundabout way of putting it, the girl breaks off her words as if she is trying to be cute, and then happily announces,

「Number 1 in the pecking order, you could guess that I’m?Lazy Lady.」

She is the highest power of the Witch Party and the top of all Magical Girls.