The Strongest, but the Genre Is Magical Girl

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Time passed, and it was 1 AM. Normally, I wouldn’t feel sleepy, but at this hour, I would be making an effort to close my eyes and fall asleep.

However, in Korea, it was still around 9 PM, an active time when students on vacation wouldn’t be sleeping; I was captivated by chatting with Siyeon and moving my fingers.

[Is everything done? Maybe I can go back early?]

[Really? You’re already done?]

[Yep, it just turned out that way.]

I was sending messages with sleepy eyes. My body, already adjusted to the time difference, was slowly trying to close my eyelids while telling myself to hurry up and sleep.

Well, since I was done with work, I could hope for an early return.

Unable to even press the power button on my smartphone, I gradually succumbed to sleep with my eyes starting to close.

‘…Huh?’

I thought I had just closed my eyes for a moment, but my consciousness was suddenly cut off.

I had fallen asleep in the same position I was in, with my phone loosely gripped in my hand.

I didn’t know how many hours I had been asleep, but the smartphone was still brightly lit.

Since there was no limit set for the screen to turn off and I had dozed off briefly last night.

I didn’t even connect the charger, and the battery had run out.

Tap, tap, I poked the screen with my finger, but the smartphone showed no response.

‘Huh?’

Tap, tap, my light gestures turned frantic with confusion.

It was difficult to hold the phone with my small hands, so I was muttering the transformation undo spell at the same time….

“Ah!”

A short scream escaped my lips.

As I released my transformation, thud, my head bumped against the wall.

Sucking in a breath of air, I squinted one eye shut.

I removed one of the hands holding my smartphone and rubbed my head.

As I released the transformation, I sensed the heat still emanating from my fingertips, which had been numb.

‘Ouch!’

The warmth felt from the fingers that were touching the back of the smartphone.

Startled, I quickly pulled my fingers back, and the smartphone stuck to the soft bed.

Oh, right, when transformed, dousing it with hot water didn’t bother me at all?

I gingerly lifted the smartphone, which was exuding a heat that felt lucky not to have burst, with my thumb and index finger, pressing the power button firmly on the side.

Five seconds later, the smartphone, which had stopped working from severe overheating, was forcibly shut down.

I looked outside the window while granting my smartphone some well-deserved rest after the ordeal it went through last night.

Thanks to the still pitch-black sky, it was impossible to guess the time by brightness alone.

I wasn’t exactly wearing a watch, and until my smartphone regained consciousness, the current time was lost in a mystery.

Thus, I began to scan the room, turning my attention to the clock I hadn’t been worried about.

The eyes that swept the corners of the room found the clock.

“6:49….”

Reading the time written there made me realize, through numbers rather than my body, that morning had come.

I wasn’t particularly hungry since I had just woken up, but it was soon time for breakfast.

Most of the remaining schedule was free time, but still, I had to observe the meal times.

If I pushed it aside saying, ‘I’m not that hungry,’ during the designated meal time, and later became hungry while sitting in my room munching on cup noodles, it would be a pitiful sight.

After washing myself like it was part of my routine, I joined Interpreter Uncle, who was waiting outside, and we trudged to the restaurant.

There, I could see magical girls and interpreters from various countries each having their meals on schedule.

The first person to greet me in that restaurant, who I could at least say I was relatively close with, was Ms. Tiara from America.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, did you sleep well?”

Receiving the morning greeting of whether I slept well, I reciprocated out of courtesy.

Some menu items changed occasionally, but the meals were basically buffet-style at all times—breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

One could say, isn’t this a bit too luxurious for a trip?

‘Was this travel course about 40 million won?’

Thinking again about the price, it made sense that it would be luxurious.

That was the amount that came up when I simply combined the keywords icebreaker and Arctic in a search.

Unless one had money spilling over, even with a resolute heart, it wouldn’t be easy to make such a payment.

To be frank, it was a travel course that couldn’t be comprehended through the foolish spending habits of the commoners who care about cost-effectiveness.

How could I understand the wealthy who get itchy when not spending money?

“By the way, you didn’t transform, did you?”

Setting my plate down at the arranged table and pulling out the chair to sit, a curious remark came from beside me.

“Huh?”

I, too, let out a voice filled with confusion, realizing something was off as I touched my own body.

“Oh.”

A sigh of realization.

I was significantly taller than when transformed.

The heat of the fork and spoon setting gleamed, having just been disinfected in the dishwasher and set up on the table.

Realizing everything was wrong, at last, I muttered the transformation spell.

“Sun.”

With a peculiar sensation of my body shrinking, my eye level gradually began to align with Ms. Tiara.

Seeing me transform late, she tilted her head in question.

“Did you forget?”

“Yeah.”

I cheerfully agreed with that question as I grabbed the fork, which felt a bit larger than my hand, and poked it into the chicken.

I, Kim Mari. I’m not a man who coolly admits mistakes… oh wait, I’m a woman.

With a pure and plain taste, I tasted the fried food without a drop of sauce.
Crisp sounds echoed from my mouth to my ears.

It wasn’t the kind of taste that melted my heart like something just fried, but it was delicious enough.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were buffet-style.

So there was no need to forcefully stuff more than what I usually eat, and after having about one or two bowls, I neatly set my utensils down.

“Wow, this is delicious!”

…Of course, this was only referring to me.

In this place where magical girls were lined up, and it was natural for the mascot to be here, there was no reason to hide the Gomteng.

That guy, whether he had a starving beggar inside his belly, was already finishing his third bowl of food at the same spot.

Surprisingly, he was going through prepared white rice, cutlet named pork cutlet, and all sorts of food whose names I didn’t even know.

“Next time, please get that for me!”

“Sure, sure.”

For him, who had physical limitations in filling his plate, I occasionally stepped in to help.

After that, truly laid-back schedule awaited us.

Drifting at sea like a jellyfish floating or simply going along with the flow, I meditated without thought.

With the monster hunts and subjugations all finished at my pace, unexpected luxurious sightseeing for the magical girls began.

Taking life shots on the deck, playing all day in the indoor pool surrounded by ocean and ice….

Taking photos of the icebreaker cutting through the ice, which could be broken through directly, or reading books in the library I usually didn’t visit.

The world of humans isn’t much different. Anyway, since we came to travel, we felt unified in squeezing every drop of joy out of various facilities.

Since we came to travel, all that was left were photos.
While giving my smartphone, which was enjoying a sweet rest in the room, another job, I pulled out the charger and pressed the power button firmly.

The screen that had been completely still before shutting off now flickered with anxiety, but….

Fortunately, my smartphone turned on normally.

“Phew.”

A short sigh mixed with relief.

Now, it almost felt like it was okay to turn it on since the smartphone had cooled down completely.

Waiting for the smartphone to boot up completely, I thought of the conversation that had abruptly cut off last night and briefly waited before opening the messenger app.

The 1:1 chatroom with Siyeon, where I had been chatting.

There lay the ongoing conversation with Siyeon that I hadn’t been able to reply to during my sleep.

[When do you think you’ll come back?]

[Huh?]

[Are you asleep?]

[Emoticon]

[???]

[Please respond]

[Please do it]

The numbers disappeared straightforwardly, and Siyeon seemed perplexed as no reply came.

Korean time was still early morning, but I quickly typed to ease her anxiety when she woke up.

[Sorry]

[I fell asleep with my phone on.]

Sending a series of late replies, I stuffed the phone into my pocket and began to wander through the icebreaker, taking pictures with Interpreter Uncle.

After all, this guy was like my dedicated guide, sticking beside me unless I entered my room.

Also, it seemed like as time passed, the Interpreter Uncle had gradually become comfortable with me and shared hidden stories he hadn’t mentioned until now.

“They said to keep your eyes peeled and stick close so I wouldn’t know what kind of trouble you’d cause.”

“Do I give off the image of someone who causes trouble?”

Having become slightly closer to the Interpreter Uncle, I tossed out a question to gauge the general public’s perspective.

“Well, if you only look at the external image of someone named Sun….”

He began answering without a hitch, smoothly delivering his response.

Perhaps because he was a person who learned various languages, he mixed in elevated vocabulary while belittling me with his words.

He tried to phrase it gently despite rubbing it in, but if translated crudely, it could be interpreted as ‘Your image is quite messed up.’

I bristled at the fading end of Uncle’s remark and shot back with a joke.

“Hey, old man, keep talking.”

“…It’s a joke.”