Chapter 7: Sun and Moon’s Bittersweet Reality

Capitalism.

Even in the world of magical girls, it’s no exception.

The ordinary citizens, to the point where they feel like NPCs you’ve never met, are so poorly designed, yet the financial situation of the starring magical girls is carefully attended to.

Maybe an elementary schooler, burning with a sense of justice and passion, might be able to risk everything.

But for those in middle school or high school, reality inevitably creeps up close.

College entrance exams, jobs—those anxiety-inducing realities only fade momentarily because of one thing:

Money, money.

Only money.

“Haha! You’re not wrong.”

The owner of the Star Café, who had been quietly listening, laughed heartily from the counter.

Soon after, a plate of honey bread and a cup of hot chocolate—freshly made and still steaming—were placed in front of me, looking delicious.

“Sun and Moon, still no coffee?”

The conversation topic among the girls, exposed to this harsh environment: asking an elementary schooler if they’ve ever tried coffee.

‘It’s not that they can’t…’

But thinking about the caffeine, it’s not really something to drink casually at this age.

Building up caffeine tolerance already? No, thank you.

Siyeon, who had heard the question, responded boldly with a straightforward answer.

“It’s bitter, so I don’t like it!”

That pure and simple answer, perfectly fitting the atmosphere, could only come from Siyeon in this place.

Since I was also included in the question, I gave my honest thoughts.

“If I build up a tolerance to caffeine now, I won’t be able to handle it later.”

“Ah, that’s true… Wait, how do you know that so well?”

“Haha.”

I deflected the minor teasing with a dry laugh.

Taking a big sip of the sweet hot chocolate, I followed up with the honey bread, whose extreme sweetness would blanket the lingering moisture in my mouth.

I sliced a piece with my fork and brought it to my mouth.

The artificially strong sweetness filled my mouth with happiness.

“Ugh…”

A short groan came from beside me, along with a clumsy attempt at cutting the bread.

Siyeon, clearly struggling with the fork and knife, looked pitiful.

I cut another piece and placed it on her small plate.

Like a baby bird receiving food, she immediately placed the piece in her mouth, then sipped a bit of hot chocolate.

“You’re acting just like Sun.”

The others smiled warmly at the sight.

Even though it’s just a small act of helping with clumsiness, this kind of thing gets exaggerated praise.

At this age, even small acts of kindness seem to be highly valued for some reason.

‘So much for just enjoying a snack.’

I exhaled softly through my nose, a breath instead of a sigh.

The conversation continued, making its rounds, before Orion suddenly murmured:

“Speaking of which, I heard the monster appearance rate has been low in Sun and Moon’s area lately?”

The flow of the conversation shifted abruptly, and suddenly it was directed toward us.

Monster appearance rates.

This is the kind of topic that people in our line of work can never really ignore.

It seemed like the topic was on everyone’s mind, as the other magical girls turned their attention to me and spoke up.

“Oh, right! I wanted to ask about that too!”

“If the alarm goes off while you’re in the middle of an exam, it’s game over.”

“And what about when it goes off at night…?”

“It went off right before an interview I had… It was awful…”

This was a topic that magical girls, regardless of age, could all relate to. Reducing the number of monsters that appear at night was a shared goal. They all wanted to go about their daily lives with as little interruption as possible. Their desire to reduce the frequency of monster appearances was strong.

They were constantly plagued by sleep deprivation and the ever-present tension of not knowing when the alarm might sound. That’s why they were so curious about how the number of monsters was kept to at most two a day.

Of course, only a demonstration would provide any concrete answers.

Eyes turned to me, curious about what I would say, especially since I tended to speak quite eloquently for my age.

“Well, it’s really not that big of a deal.”

“What is it? What is it?”

“You know how in your areas, monsters you’ve defeated tend to reappear?”

“Uh… yeah, usually.”

Stella’s casual response revealed the cause of the problem itself: the reappearance rate of previously seen monsters.

In this less-than-perfect world, monsters never truly die. They just disappear in a puff of magical dust and return somewhere else. In these child-friendly scenarios, with no gory bloodshed, the monsters never meet a complete end. Whether they were driven off in a tough battle or instantly destroyed by some mysterious pink beam from a staff, it only served to fuel their desire to come back for more.

If the battle was tough, the monsters would think, “Ah, I can take this one.” If they were defeated quickly, they’d think, “What just happened?” and return for more since they hadn’t even felt pain.

The key is to inflict thorough pain, terror, and helplessness so they wouldn’t even think of coming back.

The senior magical girls were staring at me intently, eager to hear the secret. No need to glare like that—I was about to spill the details.

“In our town, that doesn’t happen. Monsters don’t come back.”

“What?! Really?! How do you manage that?”

“Well…”

Just as I was about to explain how we dealt with the monsters—

“Ahh!”

A shrill, unpleasant alarm filled the café. With a short scream, I clamped my hands over my ears, and the owner hurriedly turned the alarm off. It hadn’t been that long since the alarms had stopped going off in the apartments, and now I had to hear this awful sound again. It was like a sudden wake-up call in the middle of the day. It felt like someone had poured cold water over my head, instantly putting me in a foul mood.

The others seemed no different, letting out deep sighs as they begrudgingly packed their things.

“Ugh… Guess we have to go. Deactivate the transformation.”

“Alright, see you at the site… Deactivate transformation!”

We undid the transformations we’d only put on for appearances, quickly stepping out of the café and onto the street. Like seasoned veterans, we seamlessly blended in with the crowd, pretending to evacuate with practiced ease. Following the others, I quickly slipped into a less populated alley between buildings, merging into the chaos of people fleeing from the monster.

There’s no time to focus on the narrow alleyways between the buildings.

With a transformation chant uttered in the alleyway, accompanied by an adult’s relaxed smile, it reached us as well.

“Let’s see how our little ones are doing. You go on ahead.”

“Moon Power! Transform!”

“Sun.”

Soaring into the sky, Siyeon and I took off.

The magical girl, Crystal, who told us to go ahead.

“Why did you tell us to go first?”

“Ah, well…”

As she flew up late and joined us, I asked why she didn’t go ahead as she said she would.

Scratching her cheek, she shyly and hesitantly spoke the reason.

“It’s really embarrassing to shout that in my mid-twenties….”

“Oh.”

“Why! It’s so cool! Saying, ‘Magical Crystal Power-!’ like that!”

“Kuuugh…!”

Siyeon teased, playfully repeating the line that Crystal had tried so hard to hide.

Crystal clutched her transformed, now smaller chest in agony.

This felt like an innocent, yet piercing stab.

“I even made my transformation line after watching that!”

“Th-thanks…”

Though she said thank you to the innocence, her face looked as though she was about to cough up blood.

Siyeon was even adding salt to the wound with her enthusiastic comments.

It seemed like the mental damage was significant.

She probably wouldn’t be able to sleep without tossing and turning in her blankets tonight.

Anyway, Crystal, who pretended to escape but was actually quite adept, led the way as we, having transformed first, arrived at the monster appearance site before anyone else.

“Krahaha! You’re all so scared, running away! Where are the magical girls?”

‘That voice sounds familiar.’

As soon as we arrived, the voice of the monster sounded familiar.

I barely had time to think, “What was it again?” before the truth hit me.

‘Well, well.’

It was one of the recent tri-force black bean monsters, specifically the bipedal wolf beast.

As more magical girls began to gather,

“Aw, I’m 5th.”

It seemed like the arrival had turned into some sort of race, with some participants lamenting their rankings.

Perhaps emboldened by having nearly ten magical girls surrounding him, the wolf beast became even more boastful and howled loudly.

“Ha! You couldn’t handle me alone, so you all came in a group!”

“Sun, Moon, mind if we watch how you take down this monster?”

Of course, the magical girls themselves weren’t particularly interested.

After all, they only showed up because a monster appeared.

Everyone knew it wasn’t an impressive enough foe for all of us to attack together.

“Yes.”

“Sure! We’ll do our best!”

“Hehe, let’s see what our little ones are capable of.”

Scratching the back of my head, I approached the wolf monster, who was so high on adrenaline that he didn’t even notice us closing in.

His bright orange hair fluttered against his shoulders since he wasn’t wearing his mask.

“That’s enough!”

“Come at me, you brats! Krahaha!”

His memory must’ve been poor because, even seeing Siyeon, he couldn’t remember who I was standing next to her.

As he struck a fighting pose, basking in his excitement, I scratched the back of my head and muttered loud enough for him to hear.

“Hah… you really have the worst luck, don’t you?”

In that mutter was genuine pity.

I mean, seriously, of all places, why did he have to choose the location where the magical girls were having a gathering for his second attack?

“…?! That voice…!”

Hearing my voice again, he widened his eyes and pointed his trembling claw-tipped finger at me.

That trembling claw was proof enough of how terrified he was.

“Hey, sis, have you been waiting long?”

“Why are you here…! This place is supposed to be—!”

“Hah, how did things end up like this?”

Even while he kept his promise, the unfortunate creature found himself in this situation.

But things had taken a turn, and that was just too bad.

“You’ve got no one but your own rotten luck to blame, pal…”

I tapped the magic staff in my hand like a switch and took a step closer to him.

With each step closer, his pitiful retreating backward became more noticeable.

Seeing as he had avoided our area and attacked elsewhere, I almost felt proud of his efforts.

Today, let’s end it quickly, for his sake.