The Strongest, but the Genre Is Magical Girl

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At that time, Siyeon was filling her stomach with a lunchbox in Incheon.

Another day of idleness in the Arctic was about to begin.

Stuck and unable to leave, Mari tried to engage with the polar bears, visited the swimming pool, took photos here and there, and even went to the sauna and massage parlors.

Still, there are limits to how much fun a person can have.

“I’m so bored.”

After enjoying every ounce of available content, a dreadful boredom set in.

Food, games, sleep, poop, food, games, sleep, poop—a truly endless cycle of idleness.

The feeling of travel is nice for a day or two, but as it drags on for days, the thought of just wanting to go home takes over.

At least when I was hunting monsters, I felt a sense of accomplishment as it was a break after labor…

Someone might say I’m just being spoiled, but now that minuscule sense of achievement was gone, leaving me feeling utterly hollow.

Who would have thought I’d end up feeling empty during such a luxurious trip?

‘What am I even doing?’

Having gone through all the smartphone games I could possibly think of.

I just lay on the bed, gnawing at the slowly passing time as if it were an eternity.

If only I could see a fellow countryman every now and then, that would be different…

‘How would we even communicate?’

It’s hard to even share that the weather is nice without an interpreter.

Even if I met a familiar face, we’d probably just wave and pass by each other.

Gazing out the window to enjoy the scenery, all I saw was a line of white ice and vibrant blue sea.

If only some sluggish Arctic creatures would appear, I could exclaim ‘Oh!’, but it felt like nothing had changed outside but the position of the ice since yesterday.

Isn’t it said that if a person is trapped in a white room for too long, they’ll go insane?

Staring blankly at the blue sea, I began to understand the mindset of someone trapped.

After staring for a while, I shook my head.

If I kept looking at the sea, I might really go crazy.

“What should we do today?”

“Yeah.”

Three words came out flatly, as if I didn’t know.

After a brief movement of my lips, I turned my gaze away from the window and flopped back onto the bed.

Aside from drinking at the bar, there was truly nothing else to do on the ship anymore.

I had reached the strange conclusion that maybe it was time to just sleep the boredom away.

If my sleep pattern gets messed up, that’d be a problem when I go back.

While I was debating whether to sleep or not…

A soft knock came from the door.

‘Who could it be?’

Not many people come to visit.

Even as I thought that, my feet had already moved toward the door, my voice ready to find out who it was.

“Who is it—”

“Oh, Interpreter Uncle.”

Opening the locked door revealed a familiar face on the other side.

It was the Interpreter Uncle who was staying in the next room.

I wondered if he had some business, so looking up at him, he started talking as if he had been waiting for the door to open.

“It’s not anything special, but I wanted to see how you’re doing since we’re about to reach the North Pole.”

“The North Pole? Ah.”

That reminded me of the ship’s original destination.

Officially, we were here to hunt monsters, but in reality, this was just a trip where they inserted magical girls into the existing icebreaker cruise routes.

Still, since we had made it to the destination, it felt a little wasteful to just sit around.

“Let’s go take a look, then.”

90 degrees north, the top of the Earth.

If you strip away the sentiment, it’s just a patch of ice, but because of the symbolism, I made up my mind to go out.

Why, if you go to a city on the equator, don’t you pour water down the drain just to see if it creates a whirlpool?

…Though I don’t know since I’ve never been.

“Then I’ll get ready first, just call me when you’re all set.”

“Sure.”

After hearing my eager response, the uncle closed the door with a reminder to prepare.

A slight change in the dreary cycle of boredom in the Arctic.

I expressed a bit of cheerfulness and returned to my room.

In truth, the preparation was nothing much.

“Sun.”

As that word left my mouth, the ceiling rose, and my gaze lowered.

Chanting the transformation incantation would make my clothes and appearance change instantly, as if predetermined by someone.

What a convenient setting, this transformation thing.

Moments later, the various country announcements began to echo throughout the ship.

Language after language—English, Chinese, Japanese—along with some unfamiliar tongues that made me wonder if they were primitive languages…

As the broadcast commenced, another knock came, and I headed outside following the Interpreter Uncle.

The chill that had cleaned vanished as soon as I transformed.

It looked like other magical girls were in the same boat; they were stepping on the crunchy ice wearing fluttery dresses.

The contrast with the uncle, who was equipped with goggles, thick padding, and crampons, was stark.

Amidst such extreme and bizarre outfits.

Among those who looked like magical girls, one was fully draped in black cloth from head to waist…

‘Huh?’

It shouldn’t be cold, so what was that outfit about?

As I paused, puzzled, I felt the eyes of the Interpreter Uncle beside me.

With one step forward, he moved his mouth out of sight behind the neck warmer.

“It’s a hijab, a garment worn by women in Islamic cultures.”

“Oh…”

Upon hearing the explanation, I let out a sigh of understanding, as if to say, ‘Oh, that’s what it is?’

I thought she had come out wrapped in some thin summer blanket, but it was the hijab I had only heard about.

Who would have thought I’d see that outfit in the Arctic?

The visual was incredibly awkward.

Is it just me, or does the image of a guy with a bazooka crying “Allah” in the desert come to mind?

“STOP! STOP!”

While we were walking, a thickly dressed man ahead suddenly shouted in a booming English accent.

He was holding a strange device I had never seen in my life.

He was murmuring to gather people around, and the number 90 clearly displayed on the device.

Ah, is that some kind of latitude measuring device?

While he was showing the device or compass here and there, an atmosphere of “This is fun!” filled the air…

‘So, what now?’

I could just look at the compass needle and see that it’s just a magnet; I didn’t get why seeing the number 90 would be so fascinating.

Am I overthinking this? But seriously, what now?

Should I just fly back to the icebreaker?

Just then…

“Attention-!”

A fluent, familiar English accent breezed through the crisp air.

The voice belonged to Tiara, who was walking ahead.

Attention?

A series of long English sentences followed.

It felt like listening to a listening comprehension section of a mock exam and my brain went blank.

Next to me, the Interpreter Uncle stood silently listening to the English phrases.

I couldn’t see his expression hidden beneath the goggles and neck warmer, but somehow it felt like he was nodding with a blank face.

What’s going on? Is it something serious?

After the long-winded sentences ended, the interpreters from each country began explaining something to the respective magical girls in their native languages.

The atmosphere turned serious, causing me to feel a bit flustered as I turned to the Interpreter Uncle and asked.

“What… what did they say?”

I could barely understand the words ‘Magical Girl’ and ‘World’, which were simple to catch.

Only picking up broad and large words made me think it was something serious, so I gulped and awaited the answer.

And then, the moment I got the reply….

“Uh, they want to hold an arm wrestling tournament among the magical girls?”

“Eh?”

The brief tension I felt seemed so foolish as I heard a light-hearted suggestion that felt like a school break-time joke.

What in the world does that even mean?

Turns out, Tiara was proposing to hold an “unofficial magical girl arm wrestling world championship.”

She thought of something that could be played “fairly” without using their staves or special abilities.

It was a pastime tossed to idle magical girls overflowing with energy.

The game suggested for laughs had people leaping in desperate joy.

The plate they were leaning their elbows on was supported by the scrap metal lying around the icebreaker, with snow piled up to make a temporary table.

It’s a topic that often becomes a buzz on the internet.

‘In a global sense, among magical girls, who’s the strongest?’

Even the magical girls, the very subjects of this conversation, are curious about it.

So, what happened?

“Winner-!”

What’s the point in saying it? It was obvious that I dominated in each match, wrapping it up in under two seconds and snatching the glory.

There were no prizes or rewards since it was unofficial, but simply passing the time was enough.

After concluding the unofficial arm wrestling world championship at the cheerful North Pole, we returned to the icebreaker.

And then came the second unofficial match.

This time, it was ‘truly fair’ arm wrestling without transformations.

So, what happened?

Of course, I got eliminated in the first round, completely crushed.

The age and weight classes just didn’t match…

The opponents were tough, too. What about a female bodybuilder?

‘Who meets the champion in the first round?’