Living with Magical Girls, but I'm a Monster Executive

Cong Yu, completely unaware that anything was wrong, turned off his phone screen and closed his eyes again... I'll sleep for another hour.

But less than three minutes after Cong Yu closed his eyes—

"Ring-ring-ring!!!"

"..."

"Ugh..."

Sighing, Cong Yu answered the call, only to hear a young woman's voice from the other end. "Moses?"

Hm, why was it a woman?

Cong Yu remembered clearly that his editor was a man.

"You have the wrong number."

After saying that simply, Cong Yu hung up again and closed his eyes once more... but by now, all sleepiness had vanished.

"Ring-ring-ring!!!!"

As the phone rang again, Cong Yu glanced at it. It was "Editor" again. He sighed and answered.

"Moses, may I ask if this is Teacher CY?"

The woman said this, and although Cong Yu really wanted to say "no," he decided not to talk nonsense in order to avoid misunderstandings. "Yes, it is."

Upon hearing Cong Yu's reply, the voice on the other end visibly relaxed.

She had heard from her colleagues that Teacher CY was extremely difficult to deal with, and she had wondered what kind of strange person he was.

Yet the moment she called today, he gave her a harsh welcome.

He had hung up on her twice in a row.

"I'm an editor from CaoHua Publishing House. The editor previously assigned to coordinate with you, Teacher CY, has resigned. I'll be taking over responsibility for your manga now."

The woman continued, then added, "I heard he resigned because the manga artists under him were always late with their manuscripts, leading the publishing house to consider him incompetent. Do you have any idea about that, Teacher?"

As she said this, Cong Yu recalled the editor who was always chasing him for manuscripts and sighed emotionally. "Ah, editors really have it hard. Manga artists these days really don't know how to sympathize with an editor's difficulties."

"..." The other side gave no response, apparently stunned by Cong Yu's shamelessness and skill at playing dumb.

"So, Teacher CY, your manuscript... no, your manuscript from last month—are you still not planning to release it?"

The female editor's tone was full of exasperation. "Not only is it difficult for us to proceed with the physical book work, but readers on our official website are also full of complaints while waiting for your digital release."

That was true. Cong Yu's currently serialized Magical Girl Connect: Re had a huge number of readers demanding updates, and they were even threatening to mail him blades.

The comments were filled with wails like [One update a month was already bad enough, how can you go on hiatus too?!] and [I wait for updates every day, but there's never an update every day?!]

In his old world, Cong Yu naturally would not have worried in the slightest. But in this world... people who said they would mail blades really would do it.

So Cong Yu decided to worry while continuing his hiatus, committed to being completely unfazed.

"Well... um, I'm gathering material right now."

As Cong Yu said this, he recalled his previous progress and said, "As for my current situation, I'm about halfway done."

A skeptical sound immediately came from the other end. "Oh? Specifically? More than ten pages, or just a few?"

A standard chapter was twenty-four pages, so half would be twelve pages.

But Cong Yu had said "about," which made her suspicious. Could it be seven or eight pages that he was calling half?

However, she never expected Cong Yu's answer to be—"No, you misunderstood. I meant half of one page."

In other words, half a page.

"..."

"You... I..."

From her voice, it sounded as though she was on the verge of a cerebral hemorrhage. "May I ask, Teacher CY, how exactly did you manage to draw only half a page in two months?"

It had not even been two months yet, had it? It had only been a month and a half.

Thinking that, Cong Yu put on a helpless sigh in response to her question. "I've been busy moving recently. Sorry."

At that, the editor remembered.

A Magical Girl Office had indeed contacted them before to discuss Teacher CY's housing and endorsement promotion contract.

Since they had been given a cut, the matter remained quite memorable.

It seemed Teacher CY was not simply slacking off after all; he had understandable circumstances.

(Cong Yu: Yes, yes, that must be it.)

"All right, then, Teacher, please make sure to finish your manuscript before the end of this month... otherwise, we won't be able to continue our follow-up work."

In response to her advice, Cong Yu hesitated for a moment before saying awkwardly, "Haha, actually, I'm living with magical girls now, you know? It's because of this housing arrangement."

Come on, although he might be able to finish in half a month, that would be way too exhausting... and school would start by then. Naturally, he should take the opportunity to rest.

"The magical girls pester me every day, so I can't work in peace. Editor, please understand. I'll definitely submit it before the end of the month after next."

The editor, who did not know much about magical girl housing, immediately took Cong Yu's assurance as a delaying tactic.

Though that was indeed the truth.

"Teacher CY, you don't sound very old, so don't try to deceive an adult like me... and don't fantasize about living with magical girls either."

The editor earnestly tried to persuade him, then gave Cong Yu an ultimatum. "By the end of this month, okay?"

"Otherwise, I'll be questioned by my superiors too, just like Mr. Fujitani who resigned before me. I have children and elderly family members to support at home! Please, Teacher CY! I'm begging you!"

"Beep beep beep..."

"..." Cong Yu: "..."

Although Cong Yu also liked saying things like [Can you really bear to watch me XXX?] in daily conversation—

This new female editor seemed to be quite skilled at emotional blackmail too.

After hesitating for a while, Cong Yu opened his computer and looked at the "small half-page" of manuscript he had completed... yes, a small half-page.

Well, he had drawn half a page, but only colored a tiny bit of it. So claiming that he had drawn half a page was not exactly a lie.

"Hmm, should I make this chapter black and white? No, maybe I should just... release the line art?"

As he questioned himself, it was as though two little figures flew out above Cong Yu's head, one an Angel and the other a demon.

The Angel said: Just release the line art.

The demon said: Sigh, leave it until next month.

"..." Weren't both of those just ways of brushing it off?!

Cong Yu dismissed the two thoughts in his heart, then took a deep breath and looked at the screen. "Gah, it's just a manga!"

"I can slap it together in a single day!"

School Start Power (Tragic)

[Good Morning! Good morning! This is Wind City Radio Station, and this is your neighbor, Sugisaki Hideo, continuing to bring you a refreshing morning greeting.]

[Next is music time...]

[---]

[Was that song just now cheerful and sunny enough? Today is the first day of school, so I hope students can face campus life with energy!]

[According to reliable sources, magical girl Blue Sky☆ started out active in Central City, but...]

[Next is yesterday's...]

[Click—]

"..." Cong Yu listlessly turned off the radio and ate the egg burger on the table for breakfast... yesterday, he had rushed to finish the manuscript at the absolute limit.

A long time ago, after the editor issued her ultimatum, Cong Yu had indeed buckled down and made quite a bit of progress.

But afterward, he went back into slacking mode.

It could only be said that this was very realistic.

Whenever Yaochuan Guang received a notification to go out and eliminate monsters, Cong Yu and Lantian Zhu stayed home and slacked off.

Cong Yu slacked off at his manga job, while Lantian Zhu slacked off at her magical girl job, though there was a difference.

The reason Lantian Zhu did not go out was that her contract was still with the office in Central City. Every deployment required the Wind City Magical Girl Agency to pay a large fee to her original office.

Cong Yu was simply lazy.

It was not until yesterday that he uploaded the manuscript at an utterly terrifying speed just before the deadline, causing a huge uproar.

Amid cheers of [Teacher CY updated!] in countless manga discussion groups, the number of simultaneous readers for his manga nearly broke a record.

Of course, there were also plenty of resentful insults that followed.

But Cong Yu had never cared about haters, nor did he care much about fans... manga was just a means of making a living. He had always thought that way.

Maybe that was a common problem among manga artists?

If it were novelists, they would definitely love novels and care very, very much about their fans.

There was no doubt about that.

"..."

"Hmm-hmm-hmm, hmm-hmm-hmm—"

Watching Yaochuan Guang softly hum a song as she packed her backpack, Cong Yu stared with sleepy dead-fish eyes, completely unable to understand why this girl was happy about going to school.

Was there something wrong with her head? Who liked going to school?

Sighing like that, Cong Yu, who had not slept at all because he had rushed his manuscript last night, was almost about to fall asleep on his plate.

"Cong Yu! Once you're done eating, let's go to school together!"

Yaochuan Guang smiled and made a "yeah" gesture, saying happily, "We live very close to school, so we can just walk there!"

What else? Was she planning to wear roller skates, jump over rooftops, or fly there?

Cong Yu sighed, then looked at Yaochuan Guang's bulging backpack and noticed something was off. "Wait, what are you carrying in your bag on your first day of school?"

She had never even been to school before, and she had not received any textbooks.

In response to Cong Yu's question, Yaochuan Guang opened her bag and proudly introduced its contents. "These are snacks for my classmates, this is a greeting gift for the teachers... I'm a transfer student, so I need to find a way to fit in."

"These are napkins, these are tissues, this is medicine for external injuries, this is oral medicine for colds and fevers, and this is the office's stomach illness form... I'll give it to the school administration later, so I can leave school at any time to fight monsters."

Wasn't that a little too thorough? And she had even prepared all the gifts for building relationships...

"You might become president someday."

Cong Yu gave that simple assessment, then carried his empty bag and headed straight out the door to go to school.

There was no homework or textbooks in his bag... the textbooks were at school, while no holiday homework had been assigned at all.

Wind City High School's school culture was cheerful enough to be called carefree even in Japan, where happy education was widespread.

Yaochuan Guang froze for a moment, quickly zipped up her bag, and hurried after him. "Cong Yu! Wait for me!"

After running a few steps, she turned back toward Lantian Zhu, who was still eating slowly. "Little Lan, I'm leaving!"

In response, Lantian Zhu swallowed a mouthful of breakfast and casually replied, "Take care. Have a safe trip."

Then, watching Yaochuan Guang run off in a rush, Lantian Zhu could not help but laugh... because that exchange was too strange.

It was as if they were not coworkers, but a real family.

"Cong Yu! Why are you walking so fast?"

Yaochuan Guang caught up with him in a few steps and walked beside him. "Sigh, school's starting. How awful... what about you, Cong Yu?"

Cong Yu glanced at her.

She did not look like she hated it at all.

"I don't like school... because I have to get up early."