Chapter 26: Monsters, Magic, and Mundane Moments: A Day in the Life of a Magical Girl

After leaving a few sharp words to the mascot, I let out a short sigh and came down from the rooftop, opening the door to my house.

The inside was dark, with the lights off. The teddy bear that flew gently to the entrance delivered the latest news about Siyeon.

“Siyeon has cried herself to sleep.”

“Good. That’s right.”

“It seems she has accepted that Sun is strange.”

After I praised him for the first time in a while, the teddy bear added an unnecessary comment. His tone, which seemed to have swallowed a lot of rudeness, made me want to hit him.

“Don’t you hear people saying you deserve a beating around here?”

“Sometimes…”

The bear lowered its head, looking guilty as it confirmed with a nod.

“I thought you’d know better, you little brat.”

I asked the question out of curiosity, and the bear, sensing the danger, gave in.

“Anyway, what did you two talk about?”

Now that getting hit has become part of daily life, he flew back, seemingly unfazed, and asked.

When I glanced at the sea serpent, he was flinching, keeping his distance.

I had only hit him a few times, yet he reacted like that.

There wasn’t really anything to hide, so I briefly summarized the conversation we had on the rooftop.

“I just told her not to act like she can handle the monsters on her own when they show up. Why?”

“Oh, no. I was just wondering if you beat her up like me.”

Seeing my comrade mascot utterly frightened made me chuckle.

He scratched the back of his head with his soft, plushy hands, as if he had nothing to worry about.

“Don’t worry. That’s just for you and the monsters.”

“That sounds like something to worry about.”

The teddy bear slumped down, despairing. I turned my back on him and noticed the shopping bag I had carelessly thrown on the floor when I got back from the market.

I took the canned ham straight to the kitchen and carefully placed the eggs, wrapped in cardboard, one by one into the egg holder in the fridge.

As for the quail eggs, I left them in the packaging, tucking them away in the spacious fridge alongside the sausage pack.

I made sure not to forget the flakes to sprinkle on rice and placed them directly on top of the canned ham.

I opened the bottom shelf of the fridge to store the cherry tomatoes and shine muscats.

‘I’m getting more and more accustomed to housework.’

Even though I rarely used the fridge, I could now tell at a glance where everything went without even looking at the packaging.

After that, there was nothing to do in the dark room, so I started gathering our bags, emptying out their contents.

Pencil case, a notice from school whose date I couldn’t remember, notebooks, clear files.

These were all items I would just put back in after going on a picnic, so I collected them and stored them in the empty drawer.

I also folded up the clothes hanging on the drying rack, stacking them neatly.

Since the clothes didn’t take up much space yet, a lot fit into one section.

The wardrobe had four sections, arranged from spring to summer, fall, and winter.

The way the space was efficiently utilized was oddly satisfying.

Is this what a housewife’s joy feels like?

‘Huh?’

The sound of a box rustling outside the door as it’s being placed down.

Before long, a delivery confirmation text comes in, notifying me that some of the items I ordered yesterday have arrived.

I thought there was nothing to do, but in the blink of an eye, something new had appeared.

The package contained shampoo, body wash, a lunch box, and fabric softener.

After taking out the contents of the box and putting them in their rightful places, I finally felt a sense of freedom as I climbed the stairs to my bed.

Checking my smartphone, I saw it was 4:23 PM.

It was too late to be called lunch, and too early for dinner, an ambiguous time.

I even realized, belatedly, that I hadn’t eaten lunch because of the monster incident.

With that late realization came the familiar growling hunger in my stomach.

“Ugh…”

I sat crossed-legged at the low table, shaking my right leg up and down, letting out a groan.

‘Siyeon hasn’t eaten either.’

With that thought, I looked towards the bed.

Siyeon was motionless under the blanket, all puffed up.

Thinking of Siyeon, who had fallen asleep after a bout of sniffling, I wanted to order something she likes.

But since eating the same food all the time gets boring, it was hard to think of something refreshing to order.

Reluctantly, I decided to hold off on eating a bit longer.

‘She’ll probably wake up around dinner time.’

Every time I heard a rustling from the bed, I turned my gaze toward it.

Realizing it was just Siyeon’s simple tossing and turning, I kept checking my phone throughout the evening.

Time was approaching six o’clock.

A small growl came from my stomach.

In an attempt to forget my hunger, I lay on the couch, looking at my smartphone.

The battery was at 43%. I plugged in the charger and held my phone with both hands as I visited the Magical Girl Gallery.

I skipped over the posts that could harm my mental state and clicked on the concept posts tab.

[What the hell is this? (62)]

[The more I think about it, the sadder the werewolf monster becomes ←← (152)]

[Why aren’t we allowed to carry firearms when monsters are showing up???? (57)]

[Magical girls are so lucky… (89)]

I clicked on each post that caught my eye, checking what kind of nonsense was being exchanged.

The first post was a random one saying magical girls are lucky.

Upon clicking it, I was greeted with certification marks stuck to the items.

[Even if overseas purchases are blocked, they can just fly over and bring them back…]

Seeing the brainless content of the post, I frowned slightly.

I’d rather buy it domestically, even if I had to pay a lot, than fly over to get it myself.

I also looked at the comments on the post.

[Who’s going to stop the monsters while you’re flying over?]

[Idiot, thumbs down.ᄏᄏ]

[Monsters are even on the community?ᄏᄏ]

[Even this guy says ‘same vote’.]

[It turns out that even canceling this is fake news.]

[By the way, they’re looking for volunteer students to attach this certification mark tooᄉᄇᄏᄏ]

[Please, magical girls, just send one beam to the Blue House.]

‘The reactions are hot.’

The posts I began to read to forget my hunger turned out to be quite entertaining, so I headed to the next concept post.

It seemed to discuss firearms as a means to combat monsters, referencing recent foreign cases that have sparked heated discussion.

Just in time, the post had a link to a foreign news article attached.

[Seeing this makes me wonder if in the U.S., citizens cooperate to deal with monsters. Shouldn’t we be a bit more like advanced countries in this regard?]

[Counterargument: Monster]

The gaze heading straight for the comments.

I was curious about the reactions.

[So why is this a fabrication?]

[It’s bullshit; there are probably more people getting shot than getting killed by monsters.]

[Idiot]

[That’s true.]

[Is reality an FPS?]

[Then you can’t watch magical girls; why allow that? I really don’t know.]

[This is it.]

[Are you a genius?]

[It’s because of guys like this that it won’t happen.]

[Really, guys like this need to have a monster appear in their homes.]

While I was scrolling through the comments in the gallery, I heard a rustling sound, like fabric brushing against itself.

It was Siyeon, brushing her messy hair and waking up.

I turned off the gallery I had been waiting for and walked over to the bed, holding my hungry stomach.

“Are you awake?”

“Uh-huh…?”

Hearing the whiny response, I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

It was ten minutes past six.

Since I hadn’t eaten lunch, it was no surprise that I was getting hungry.

“We should eat dinner. Is there anything you want?”

“…Jajangmyeon.”

“Jajangmyeon? Sounds good.”

I was so hungry that I really didn’t care what it was.

If I had answered ‘anything’ at that moment, I might have gone crazy.

Quickly, I pressed the home button on my smartphone, swiped up on the background to find the delivery app, and searched for a Chinese restaurant.

I wanted something that would arrive quickly.

I hurriedly added one large portion of jajangmyeon and a small portion of sweet and sour pork to the cart.

Even so, it came to just over 20,000 won, and I lamented the prices as I quickly completed the payment.

‘I’m so hungry…….’

After enduring two hours of painful hunger, I collapsed onto the living room floor.

Since it would take quite a while for the delivery to arrive, I decided to check out the articles I had been reading.

[What kind of nonsense is this? (84)]

One of the posts I had seen earlier refreshed the page and more comments piled up.

The content was a link to one of the recent articles.

I clicked the casually written link and followed it, and it turned out to be a story from our area.

[Exclusive] [‘Fast and Accurate’ Monster Extermination: Why Did XX Take 27 Minutes Until Normalization?]

The region XX, where the magical girls Sun & Moon, famous for their ‘fast and accurate’ monster extermination, took 27 minutes to deal with a monster, causing controversy.

Usually, it would take 5 minutes, at most 10 minutes, to handle monsters, but this time, it took a whopping 27 minutes.

Citizens complained, “We moved to this area, paying a high price because the monster extermination was fast, but now we can’t let our kids go outside because it’s scary.”

[Member Na from XX Party fiercely criticized, stating, “Hiding the magical girls only makes them lazy.”]

[This is reporter Shin Hye-sun from XX Daily.]

“Then why don’t they pick up a gun and fight?”

Scoffing at the usual nonsense, I repeatedly pressed the back button to check the comments.

The reactions, as expected, were explosive.

[“It might take a while, but who cares?”]

[“Talking out of their ass, seriously.”]

[“If they keep spewing such nonsense, won’t there be a bill to throw them in front of a monster?”]

[“Look at this pseudo-state.”]

[“Laziness is what you guys are doing, you bastards.”]

[“Damn, the taxes are going to waste.”]

[“Whether it takes 5 minutes or 27 minutes, damn, we really need to unleash the monsters in the Blue House. Can it be handled within 10 hours? Without magical girls?”]

[“When will the magical girls in Seoul ever go on strike?”]

The atmosphere was so heated that it seemed like the magical girls themselves were angrier than I was while reading the article.

I just brushed it off, thinking they were saying the usual nonsense again.

[A rider has completed the pickup at the store.]

‘Looks like they’re coming soon.’

Imagining the jajangmyeon and sweet and sour pork that would soon arrive at my house, I propped myself up from the couch.

Isn’t it strange how, in front of something delicious, all the accumulated hatred and resentment can temporarily melt away?