The Strongest, but the Genre Is Magical Girl

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Not long after that, a middle school girl returned to her country from the frozen lands of the Arctic.

Still, having adapted quite a bit to the cold up north, Korea should be tolerable, right?

…But her thoughts crumbled the moment she stepped out of the airport.

“Ugh, it’s just as cold…”

She muttered to herself while rubbing her palms against the sleeves of her padded jacket.

Thinking back, life in the Arctic had a temperature adjustment due to her transformation powers.

Ultimately, if you take away the transformation form, it was equally cold on either side.

A place where she didn’t want to spend a second longer outside.

Even just breathing made white vapor escape from her nose.

After walking for a while out of the airport, she finally emerged to a place where taxis were picking up passengers, standing idly as she waited for a taxi to arrive from a distance on the street, quite far away from the traffic light.

Using a call taxi app would get her one quickly, but for some reason, she hadn’t used it much…

The essence was, she hadn’t even bothered to install it out of laziness.

Installing it just for today felt quite off.

After shaking her legs and waiting for about ten minutes, she noticed a taxi with “Empty” written on the roof waiting at the signal.

Wobbling a bit, she waved her hand to let the taxi driver see her, and the taxi stopped right in front of her.

She opened the back door, hopped in, closed the door, and casually provided her destination without waiting for any formal greetings.

“Hello, please take me to Bichsaem Apartment in XX-dong.”

“Sure!”

Compared to her tiring journey in a foreign land filled with various languages, the taxi driver uncle’s warm response brought her a sense of relief.

“Uuuuh…”

Leaning back against the soft gray leather seat of the taxi, a yawn escaped her lips.

Against her will, the yawn slipped out, and she covered her mouth with the hand holding her smartphone.

Up until the airport, she hadn’t felt that she’d returned to Korea, but the comforting familiarity of the seat and the absence of a language barrier brought a late sense of relief.

As she yawned broadly and closed her eyes, the taxi driver casually asked from the front seat.

“Wow, you seem really sleepy, student?”

“Yeah…”

“Did you go on a trip somewhere?”

A veteran taxi driver who casually chatted while driving.

With her heavy backpack and worn-out expression, along with the yawns, she must have looked like one coming back from a trip, and sensing this, the taxi driver asked with a hint of surprise in his voice.

“Russia, huh?! Alone?”

Not the typical travel destinations like Japan or Vietnam, but Russia.

The taxi driver seemed quite stunned by the unexpected destination, his voice slightly high-pitched while he kept his eyes on the road.

It seemed like they were chatting face-to-face even though they weren’t looking at each other.

Feeling a strange pressure of maturity emanating from him, she couldn’t bring herself to admit she traveled solo and said a half-hearted lie instead.

“Um, with a friend…”

“Oh wow, that’s impressive… you’re in middle school?”

“I’m going to be a high school student soon.”

“Going on trips with friends? That’s great! My daughter has never even been far from home or school.”

Listening to the taxi driver talk about his family while her gaze was fixed on the meter.

4900, 5000, 5100… Even though it felt like they hadn’t traveled more than 50 meters, the taxi fare kept ticking up 100 won each time, making her a bit anxious.

These days, compared to food prices, it was still a bearable amount, but it was absolutely normal to be drawn to it.

Just ten years ago, there were also taxis with really quick meters, but it seemed hard to find those recently.

Watching her legs fidgeting while in a daze during the taxi ride used to be somewhat entertaining.

The unfamiliar scenery from the airport back home.

As the familiar buildings began to come into view, a thought crossed her mind: ‘I’m finally back.’

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“Thank you!”

After shifting her heavy bag back and opening the taxi door, she stood on the street, waiting for the crosswalk signal.

Looking down at her smartphone screen, she typed a message saying she was home before hitting the side button and tucking it into her pocket.

The winter wind made her hesitant to stick her hand out for even a moment.

Wearing the bright red polar expedition jacket with the big polar bear emblazoned on the back, she waited for the signal.

Since it was a ‘red’ jacket received from the ‘north,’ the combination felt a bit suspicious.

As the traffic light turned green, she crossed the street and entered the apartment complex.

After passing through the familiar lobby, she called the elevator, which stopped on the 10th floor.

Pressing the slightly protruding button for the 4th floor, she stepped into the familiar hallway.

Standing in front of the most comfortable-looking front door in the world, she punched in the four-digit passcode that felt unforgettable even after living abroad for years.

Pulling open the heavy iron door welcomed a light sound of her footsteps echoing inside.

“Are you back?!”

“Uh, I’m back…”

As soon as she entered the house, Siyeon, who’d been waiting, greeted her.

The chilling cold feeling of winter that lingered just moments ago faded away into warmth from the boiler.

Instead of putting away her bag, she first pulled down the zipper of her jacket, letting it slip off like shedding skin before casually dropping it to the floor.

The strength seemed to drain out of her body all at once.

The fatigue from the trip she had almost forgotten rushed back all at once.

Without so much as a thought to organize her bag or jacket, she threw herself onto the living room sofa.

Closing her eyes, just as she was about to rest for a moment.

“Did you have fun?”

Siyeon’s excited voice came from the direction of the sofa’s armrest.

Raising her head slightly, like a caterpillar crawling, she rested her chin on the armrest and responded.

“Um… it was alright after taking down the monsters?”

In reality, it was about the second or third day.

The schedule was pretty tight leading up to catching the monsters hiding in the Arctic.

Eat, wash, rest, search for monsters.

Eat, have an hour of free time, then search for monsters again.

Determined to find every monster in the Arctic, the common schedule left little room for fun in the trip’s initial stages.

However, thanks to her performance that wrapped up the monster search and stronghold clearing in just one day, the journey transformed into one where they finally felt some enjoyment.

The magical girls, who had an amazing time, definitely needed to bow three times in gratitude towards Korea.

Dropping the topic of travel, she turned to Siyeon and asked in a relaxed voice.

“Did you eat well while I was gone?”

“Yeah!”

Siyeon vigorously nodded in response, signaling she had indeed eaten well while she was alone during the 16-day journey away.

No matter how much side dish was prepared, it wouldn’t last longer than a week or ten days.

Worried it might not be enough, it seemed like Siyeon managed to pull through independently.

Yet, it was hard to believe she had actively cooked something…

“After the side dishes ran out, I found it a hassle to cook, so I pretty much ordered takeout.”

While pondering this, Siyeon’s mascot, the sea snake, quietly spilled the facts with a low voice.

Of course, there must have been help from someone outside.

Siyeon glared at the sea snake like she was betrayed when the truth came out without being asked.

“Hey! Why would you say that?!”

“Hey, if that’s how you managed to eat, then that’s good…”

Chuckling as she observed the bickering between the mascot and Siyeon, curiosity about what she had been eating sparked again, prompting her to ask.

“What did you order?”

“Um, lunch boxes…”

Since it seemed that she hadn’t cooked for herself, Siyeon appeared embarrassed as she hesitated to respond.

After a bit of stammering, the name of the menu that finally slipped out was ‘lunch box.’

Worried that she might have just rotated between chickens, pizzas, and jjajangmyeon every day, she noted that such a menu was relatively close to what she usually ate.

However, when Siyeon’s voice trailed off, she couldn’t help but wonder if that was really the end of it and pressed further.

“Lunch boxes sound good. What else?”

“…”

‘Huh?’

When she asked for ‘what else,’ Siyeon went silent instead.

What’s with this eerie silence?

Thinking something was off, she tilted her head while resting it against the sofa armrest…

Instead of Siyeon, the sea snake began to explain.

“Well, after the side dishes ran out, she conquered the whole menu from one lunch box place.”

“What?!”

Taken aback, she shot up from the sofa.

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The point when the side dishes ran out was about seven days after she left for the trip.

The notion that she survived three meals a day on just lunch boxes since then woke her up completely from her drowsiness.

“Wanna come see?”

“N-no way!”

Ignoring Siyeon’s scream of protest, she followed the sea snake to the recycling bin on the veranda.

There lay black plastic lunch boxes and clear plastic lids.

And a graveyard of round, cylindrical paper lunch boxes was sprawled out.

Just glancing, she could count more than ten remnants of lunch boxes.

It was commendable that she didn’t merely survive on floury foods like chicken, pizza, or burgers for a week.

Still, depending on delivery for all three meals was a bit…

“Hey Siyeon, this is kinda bad…”

“Uuh…”

According to Siyeon, it had turned out that she ended up ordering different lunch boxes because she was curious about each flavor.

Thus concluded the final defense of the defendant.