Anyway, as I wandered around, I found many places out of sight of people. Just by walking a little in the mart and entering between buildings, I came across a quiet alley where no one could see.
I checked the nearby windows, verified the way I came, and looked down the opposite street. Only after confirming that there was no one coming to this place did I mutter a short transformation spell.
“Sun.”
As I bent my legs and jumped up into the air, at that moment, the mascot that had been tightly keeping its mouth shut finally slithered out from my pocket. Since I couldn’t just fly off aimlessly without knowing the direction, I hovered in place and urged it.
“Get to work, monster navigator.”
“Um, it seems to be towards the beach?”
Today, the bear responded vaguely, even adding a strange moan. Not liking that at all, I pressed for more clarity.
“What do you mean, ‘seems to be’?”
“Uh, I’ve never been to that area before, so… a little…”
Scratching its head in confusion, it gave an absurd answer. I mean, it’s not like I traveled abroad; it’s just a three-hour drive away, and the functionality is broken? I looked at it with eyes like I was staring at garbage, pulling one side of my lip back, and said,
“You useless piece of trash…”
“Ah, I think it might be right!”
The bear, whose only function seemed to be malfunctioning. Just when I thought I should return it, its ambiguous words were further covered in vague adjectives. Still, with no other option, I decided to head towards the direction it pointed.
As I approached the vicinity and looked down at the ground, I could roughly deduce where I was based on the directions of the fleeing people. By this point, the mascot’s guidance became unnecessary.
The beach that Siyeon had been wanting to visit so badly. Although it was due to a monster, I arrived there first.
“Caw, what’s all this cluttering my way—!”
Looking down, I saw a creature that resembled a turtle with a dome-shaped shell. It was rampaging on the sandy beach, among the scattered parasols and the remnants of beachgoers that hadn’t been cleaned up yet. The monster was causing chaos on the beach, and even the parasols of the rental shop…
Moreover, the rental shop itself was being crushed, which honestly felt refreshing. I heard that humans doing this kind of thing at this time of year occupy spaces, force others to buy parasols, and even evade taxes; it was total chaos.
Anyway, since it’s a monster, it has to be defeated. As I reached into my pocket…
That’s when I felt a hollowness stemming from the absence of something that should have been there.
“Ah, I forgot my mask.”
That’s right. I left the mask, the symbol of terror, at home.
I lamented internally about how I had promised myself not to forget it, then left my empty pocket behind and slowly descended to sit on the turtle’s shell. I heard that a turtle’s shell evolved from bones, right?
“What—”
“What is it!?”
“Oh, you caught on quickly.”
Maybe because of that, the monster reacted swiftly almost immediately after I climbed on. With a short admiration, I leaped off the shell and stood before it. I mean, if someone were to climb on your bones, you’d definitely notice.
“Are you the magical girl called Venus?”
“Huh?”
I tilted my head in confusion at the unexpected question.
Ah, I’m in Sokcho.
Most monsters probably know me by my masked face rather than my real one, so it’s not surprising they mistook me for Venus.
But there was no need to correct the monster’s question, and it felt too weird to be walking around in a mask on a hot day, so I decided to just roll with it for now.
“Uh, sure, let’s go with that.”
“Ha! Just as I heard, you look weak! Your pathetic magic won’t break my defense!”
I knew there was some communication among monsters.
But it seemed like the news had reached them quite late.
The fact that I had been dispatched to Sokcho was pretty recent, so it must have been hard for this guy to know.
News about which magical girl was assigned to which area doesn’t circulate widely either.
Anyway, this turtle monster was out of luck.
“Turtle, turtle, show me your head- ♪”
Singing a spine-chilling song in my own rhythm, I twisted my magic wand to switch to flame-throwing mode, and I could hear a hiss as the air escaped.
“If you don’t show it, I’ll roast you.”
Not long after Sun started singing that eerie song, the outcome was already decided.
The monster that came to Sokcho, Kirshapure, was in despair.
Even among monsters, his strength was exceptional, but it meant nothing to Sun.
“Eh-bi—”
Without changing his expression, Sun breathed fire into Kirshapure’s mouth, as if swatting away a bug.
The shell, which was claimed to be the hardest gem on Earth, was nowhere near strong enough to withstand Sun’s power.
“I said I’d eat you, didn’t I?”
“Graaaah!”
As unbearable heat surged from the outside, the monster had no choice but to pull its head and limbs out.
Even when it spun rapidly in an attempt to shake off Sun, the sheer physical superiority of Sun left it utterly powerless.
The simple fact that Sun was holding onto it with those small hands rendered Kirshapure unable to do anything but flail around.
Tail whips, spinning with its heavy body, biting.
All those struggles were meaningless, and the monster gave in, resigned.
It was simply aware of being dragged somewhere.
Splash, moisture seeped between its cracked skin.
That chillingly damp sensation jolted Kirshapure awake.
“What.”
Its planet was a dry, waterless place.
There was no way it could swim.
For its species, the most disgraceful death was drowning.
Digging down to where water was in the underground of its planet and dying there symbolized stupidity.
Sun had no way of knowing that, but that action was about to deliver Kirshapure the greatest humiliation.
“I heard land turtles can’t swim…”
**Land Turtle?**
Though I’m not quite sure what it means, Kirshufeur’s instincts were shouting at her to beg for mercy.
Water.
She was being pulled into the water.
Not knowing what a land turtle was, she thought of the word as a lifeline that might grant her a sliver of mercy.
“Right! I’m the same! In my entire life, I’ve never…”
“Oh really? That’s quite…”
But what she thought was a lifeline turned out to be the final step towards the cliff.
In the end, Kirshufeur’s words were left unspoken, drowned out by Sun’s voice.
“What a pleasant surprise to hear that.”
Right after those words, Kirshufeur was flying in the sky.
Spinning and spinning at a speed she had never experienced before.
Realizing that the sky she had always looked up at was at the same height, Kirshufeur thought, amidst her dizzying vision, of the brightly smiling magical girl.
‘Is she a demon?’
Her huge, heavy body quickly sank into the sea.
In that moment, Kirshufeur’s breath began to be stifled as well.
“Wow, you really can’t swim.”
Recalling a photo she had seen on the internet, she remembered the sight of the giant body disappearing deep into the ocean.
It was a photo from some foreign chat app, where someone proudly boasted about returning a turtle back to the ocean because it was on land.
And a responding person informed them that it was a land turtle.
It didn’t even seem like a shallow place where a land turtle could swim, but what a pity.
That aside, a monster is still a monster.
Maybe because of its size, the bubbles rising in the ocean were also enormous.
‘When is it going to die?’
Perhaps the lungs were also oversized to match its size, as the bubbles showed no signs of stopping.
Even standing quietly on the sandy beach, the sweat poured down in the scorching weather.
“If that’s the case, I should just roast it,” she thought and called out to the bear.
“Hey, are we there yet?”
“Just a moment. It seems like it’s still…”
As the bear was about to say it was still not ready, at that moment,
“Ah.”
It seemed the monster’s signal had been cut off, as the bear let out a short exclamation.
“It’s dead.”
“Okay, retreat.”
With the bear’s confirmation of the monster’s signal loss, they kicked off the sandy beach and flew into the sky.
From up high, the ground below looked like nothing but a strange place.
They transformed back in a suitable location away from where the monster had appeared, where there were no people.
Though the villa was quite far away, the mascots could still help with directions.
The bear was rummaging in its pocket, searching for Siyeon’s mascot response.
While it was possible to look it up on the map app, they had actually forgotten the location.
“I’m back—”
Thus, guided back to the villa.
The public servant uncle was nowhere to be found, and only Siyeon was left behind.
The inside of the villa was already chilly, with the air conditioner blasting.
As soon as I entered, it felt not just cool but honestly a bit cold.
And waiting inside was…
“Mary! Uncle brought chicken gangjeong for you!”
“Oh.”
It was chicken gangjeong that looked shiny and glistening with a reddish hue.
Just as the uncles talked about in the car, there were many things to eat in Sokcho, like mulhoe (raw fish soup) and squid sundae.
But perhaps they thought that for the kids, chicken was the best.
Impressed by this excellent choice, I sat down in the chair at the table to savor the chicken gangjeong neatly packed in a paper box.
To my surprise, Siyeon had even brought a fork for me in advance.
I quickly brought a piece of the glistening chicken gangjeong, coated in what seemed like syrup, to my mouth and began to chew.
It lingered between firmness and crispiness, proving that the batter remained delicious even when cold.
And peeking out from inside was the tender meat.
“It’s delicious!”
“Yeah!”
It’s common knowledge that fried chicken is tasty.
But eating it for free made it even more delicious.
The phrase mentioned in the text, “It was a photo from some overseas chatting app, where someone proudly said they released a turtle back into the sea after finding it on land,” can be found at the very top left if you Google “land turtle release.”
The adventure continues! If you loved this chapter, [TS] Became a flower in the game is a must-read. Click here to start!
Read : [TS] Became a flower in the game
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