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She wears a black jumper skirt with gold embroidery, a white shirt with a large black ribbon around the neck, and six gold crosses on her chest, arranged like buttons. The black over-knee socks are decorated with white lace and ribbons at the cuffs, and at the end of them are so-called Lolita shoes with thick black soles.
The girl, her long platinum blonde hair curled at the ends, walked with her eyes fixed on the spines of the hardcover books laid out on the bookshelf.
「I knew it, I only had the general history book.」
The girl who muttered that quietly was named Press.
She was Press, the Magical Girl Of Pressure.
Press flipped through the ancient and modern history books, occasionally picking up a title that caught her attention, flipping through them easily and returning them to the bookshelf.
Suddenly, a light appears at the edge of the Press’ vision, indicating the appearance of a transfer magic circle.
Shifting her gaze from the bookshelf to the magic circle, Press hesitated for a moment whether to leave or not, and then chose to stay.
The place where Press is now is the library of the Magical World, but usually there are so few visitors that it is deserted.
The library does not have any special books, nor does it have a particularly large collection, so there is little point in going out of your way to use this facility as a Magical Girl.
A few Magical Girls who prefer quietness may use the library, but Press remembers most of its users, and none of them are so tactless as to come to the library in transition.
After considering the fact that a magic circle had appeared all the way near her, Press thought that perhaps someone she knew had metastasized to her.
Press briefly looked around and saw that some Magical Girls were looking slightly annoyed by the light of the magic circle. When Press put her palms together and bowed her head to these Magical Girls, probably meaning that she knew them, she narrowed her eyes as if to say that she had no choice, and then returned her gaze to her book.
Gradually the light subsided, and what appeared was the silhouette of a pumpkin.
「Yo, Press! What are you doing here–ran?」
「This is the place to be silent, so could you please be quiet?」
While whispering a warning to Jack, who raised his voice as usual, Press moves in the direction of fewer people.
Jack, who understood Press’s intention, followed silently and opened his mouth when there were fewer people around.
「It’s unusual for you to be here–ran. What kind of wind brought you here–ran?」
「No, no, no, but first, what are you doing here, Jack? What do you want from me?」
「Nothing sort of important–ran. Tyrant Sylph kicked me out, so I’ll be accompanying Press for a while–ran. Press is the second newest in Sakira Town–ran.」
「Haha, you’ve got a funny sense of humor.」
Press pulls a face with a dry laugh.
Despite her words, she understands that Jack’s statement is no joke.
「I’m not joking–ran. So, why are you at the library–ran?」
「Haah～ Well, I guess I’ll just have to live with the fact that I’m here. Also, I don’t think it’s good to judge people by their appearances. I may look like this, but I’m a good student and a regular reader.」
Press herself knows that her appearance gives the impression that she was unserious, or perhaps she deliberately babbles in protest.
「Sorry about that–ran. But when I used to support you, I didn’t see you studying or reading much–ran.」
「I just couldn’t afford it back then.」
「Appearances can be deceiving–ran. So, what were you looking into–ran?」
「…, since you’re going to all the trouble of looking it up here, there’s only one answer, right?」
After a moment of silence, Press answers with a chuckle.
「I was wondering if there are any books on magic. If I know something about the history, theory, etc., it will help me to know how to use magic, right? My skills have been at a standstill lately, and I’m looking for an opportunity. I’m looking for something like that.」
「Magic is best used sensibly–ran. Thinking theoretically is counterproductive–ran.」
「Jack-chin doesn’t understand. Even in sports, if you just do things by feel, you will get stuck at some point. That no matter what kind of genius you are, if you don’t learn to reason, you’ll never get to the top.」
「As I said before, modern science and magic are completely different–ran. You don’t need to worry about theory–ran.」
「If I try it and it doesn’t work, I can be convinced, but I can’t give up until I try it myself.」
「Either way, there are no books on magic–ran. Grimoires and magical tools are basically in each Magical Girl’s treasury–ran. Even I couldn’t see them even if I wanted to–ran.」
「That’s the point.」
Jack is relentless in recommending the use of her senses, but Press has no intention of giving up on it. But even so, she can’t find the key documents.
The current situation is just like using magic only with the senses, it is almost impossible to find a logic from this situation by oneself.
Press believes that it is impossible for the creator or inventor of this magical power to have left no documentation of any kind, but it is the same as not being able to find an object.
「This library, it’s really just a library.」
Press has already visited the library several times and looked around every corner of the building. Sometimes she had talked to a fairy who is a librarian, but no information about magic has come up.
Not only libraries, but most of the facilities available to the average Magical Girl are no different from those available in reality.
Press felt that this was because information about magic was kept secret except on a superficial level.
「Oh, right! Jack-chin, don’t you have some kind of a connection to the Department of Magical Arts? They’d know something.」
「I can’t–ran. I’m at the end of the line, too–ran. I don’t have any contacts in the Department of Magic–ran.」
「Tch～ It didn’t work～」
Press had no choice but to discontinue information gathering on magic for once.
She don’t know if there really are no materials in this library or if Jack has no connection to the Bureau of Magic, but either way, she decided that it would be difficult to make progress with Jack by her side.
Jack asked what the research was before Press said anything.
It is possible that what she does at the library is not necessarily research, and that she may have simply come to look for a novel to pass the time. Nevertheless, the fact that he asked that means that he already had some idea of how Press was going to work.
Press inwardly clucked her tongue, wondering if she had been premature in confirming to the fairies, even if only in a roundabout way.
（There’s no way those people would leave something as interesting as magical girls alone. But the fact that they don’t mess with us means that the perception blockage is leaking to them… There is no doubt that sublime is involved, but there is no information at all. It’s obviously regulated, isn’t it? It could be bad if they find out in earnest that I’m snooping around. I guess that means they don’t want to tell the magical girls what’s going on behind the scenes.）
「I guess I’ll just drop by the arcade and go home today.」
「Don’t you have to study–ran?」
「I’m tired of making money off the backs of my bones. I can’t do it without stress relief.」
「Play games in moderation–ran. Your parents will worry if you’re too late–ran.」
「Ah, shut up, shut up. This is why I hate it when Jack-chin is around.」
Press left the library, mumbling and complaining.
Press notices the presence of the librarian elf silently watching her back, but she maintained a nonchalant attitude as if she has nothing to be ashamed of.
Even if somewhat suspicious, at this point, Press is acting without going beyond the scope of a Magical Girl with an interest in how magic works. Perhaps fortunately, the probing glances did not follow her out of the library.