Living with a Magical Girl, but a Monster Executive

Apparently, "a beautiful girl being isolated" was rather unusual.

But this world was not exactly short on beautiful girls. In a world full of handsome men and pretty women, looks did not stand out all that much.

If Yaochuan Guang's looks scored a 97, then the other girls were around 91... beautiful girls, but not exceptionally rare.

Yaochuan Guang's blonde hair was not anything special either.

Although Minato Namikaze was called a blondie, he really did have blonde hair... Worth mentioning, people in this world had all sorts of bizarre hair colors.

Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, black, white—every color existed, and none of them looked out of place.

All one could say was that this was a world very suited to the existence of magical girls.

Cong Yu rested his chin on his hand. Bored out of his mind, he simply started playing on his phone... Earlier, someone had shouted, "Everyone likes Cong Yu," but that was obviously a joke.

Even from the shallowest perspective, there were one or two couples in the class. It was not as though they liked Cong Yu too, right?

"Cong Yu-chan... Why is that pink-haired teacher so tiny?"

Yaochuan Guang turned to ask Cong Yu. She looked extremely curious. "How old is she? She's so cute."

If she heard you call her "cute," the homeroom teacher would run away in sorrow, then drink herself senseless to soothe her wounded heart.

"She's actually in her thirties. She's a tragic, legally loli homeroom teacher who has never found a boyfriend because of her size and has no hope of promotion for the rest of her life."

Cong Yu gave his ruthless review without holding back at all.

Meanwhile, Minato Namikaze smiled and sighed. "If the homeroom teacher knew you said that about her, she would definitely get heartbroken and drink herself unconscious in her office."

Yaochuan Guang looked at Minato Namikaze, guessing that he might be Cong Yu's friend. "Was she affected by a monster's magic, so her body couldn't grow?"

Such cases were not particularly rare in society.

"Yeah. She didn't become a magical girl, but the one thing she had in common with magical girls was a body whose age had been fixed... So tragic, so tragic."

A female classmate said this as she curiously looked at Yaochuan Guang and Cong Yu. "Did you two know each other from the start?"

After all, based on what she knew of Cong Yu, if someone he did not know tried talking to him, the only result would be getting treated with his cold stare.

Even people he knew sometimes got treated with a cold stare.

Cong Yu had no intention of explaining. He merely took a quiet sip of the drink Minato Namikaze had given him.

Female classmate: There it is! Cong Yu's signature cold stare! So cool!

As the classmates looked over curiously and occasionally exclaimed things like [Huh? You know Cong Yu?] and [Are you distant relatives?],

"Mm-hm, Cong Yu-chan and I know each other."

Yaochuan Guang answered like that. Then, amid cries of [Cong Yu-chan?] and [Pfft—Cong Yu-chan], she smiled innocently. "We live together—"

"..."

"Pfft!!! Cough, cough, cough..."

The drink in Cong Yu's mouth sprayed out. Fortunately, he had not sprayed anyone... It was true, but was she not being a little too honest?

"Huh? What's going on?"

"Never thought I'd see the day a stone bloomed! Cong Yu-chan—"

"Never thought it was like that?"

"Waaah, no wonder Cong Yu ignored my pursuit."

"..." He was dead.

The light died in Cong Yu's eyes. Facing the classmates crowding around him, he gave a very simple response. "It's more like a shared rental arrangement."

However, no one cared, and hardly anyone believed Cong Yu's "excuse." Instead, they all eagerly awaited Yaochuan Guang's "official statement."

Then, Yaochuan Guang began explaining. She omitted the magical girl parts and added some more reasonable explanations.

Most of it was true. She was not really making things up.

But clearly, Yaochuan Guang had successfully ended her isolated phase. During the conversation, she also began handing out the snacks in her bag.

It had to be said, Yaochuan Guang's method really worked.

Almost immediately, Yaochuan Guang, the kind-hearted beautiful girl, left an impression on everyone in the class.

And the topics she discussed with the others had already become the sort of things friends would talk about.

"Wow! Guang is such a cool name when you say it! Yaochuan has such an amazing name!"

"Whoa! Did Yaochuan make these snacks herself? Huh, that's amazing! I know absolutely nothing about cooking!"

"..." Maybe it was because of the region, but the high school girls here really loved making a fuss whenever they spoke. Their mouths were full of exclamations like [Wow!] and [Huh?!].

In two out of every three sentences, one could hear "sugoi." It was hard to say whether that kind of praise culture was good or bad.

Cong Yu was not sure, but he very obviously sighed at that moment, lamenting that he had become Yaochuan Guang's stepping stone.

Yes, he had figured it out.

Talking to him and acting close to him had been Yaochuan Guang's little scheme... And the effect really was quite good.

Right then, she was using Cong Yu as a topic of conversation.

"Earlier, I went to a café with Cong Yu, but Cong Yu-chan hadn't brought any money at all. So I treated him to some cookies, and he said... 'I will remember your kindness, at least until tonight.'"

As Yaochuan Guang spoke, the surrounding classmates all burst into laughter... Some began teasing Cong Yu out loud.

But Cong Yu did not care much. After all, he really had accepted quite a lot of kindness from Yaochuan Guang. He even reflected on himself a little at that moment.

From the beginning, he had not planned to help Yaochuan Guang fit into the group. But in truth, it would only have taken a few words from him.

Perhaps that had been a little unfair...

Thinking that, Cong Yu felt somewhat guilty, but he quickly realized that he was still too kind—

"Let me tell you all, don't let Cong Yu fool you... He's actually just introverted. He wraps his real self in a cold shell, but deep down... he's a tsundere with a gentle heart who needs friends!"

Yaochuan Guang declared solemnly.

The surrounding classmates all looked at Cong Yu as if they were meeting him for the first time...

They truly had not expected Cong Yu to have that kind of personality.

Even Minato Namikaze wore a gentle smile as he patted Cong Yu's shoulder, signaling that he would always be Cong Yu's friend.

No more guilt!

I'm not guilty anymore, hmph hmph mmm ahhh!

Monster King Cong Yu

"There are traces of... strange monster magic."

Inside a research institution that looked very serious, a researcher in a white lab coat studied the data on the screen.

Several chunks of shattered stone were displayed on the enormous screen.

These were materials sent from an abandoned factory in Wind City to the Magical Girl Association-affiliated Research Center in Central City.

As for the earlier Grass Flower Bank incident, on the surface it had merely been collusion between a derelict manager and the Monster Group.

But because higher-ups had specifically demanded that the matter be followed up on, a dedicated team had gone to Wind City to search for clues.

They then discovered that the Ant Monster had vanished into thin air...

Or rather, it had been silenced.

That proved that what lay behind this was not simple.

"Strange monster magic whose origin cannot be identified... It's very faint, but thanks to new technology, it can indeed be detected. Unfortunately, it can only be detected."

The researcher spoke regretfully as she looked through pages of useless charts and data. "Other than knowing that a second monster appeared and killed the Ant Monster, we can't confirm anything."

In response to her words, the other researchers began quietly chatting—

"Did you see it yesterday? Magical Girl Connect: Re updated."

"Whoa! For real?"

"What? Didn't I hear it got canceled by the publisher?"

"I heard Teacher CY went to play mahjong, then only remembered to update after losing all their money. But the new plot actually advanced the main storyline."

"..."

But to that researcher's surprise, everyone's attention did not seem to be on the monster's abnormal magical energy.

Instead, they appeared to be discussing the update of some novel or manga.

She immediately had something to say about that—with these vermin around, how was she supposed to conduct proper research?

They felt like a bunch of slackers collecting a salary without doing any work!

Fine, none of you are working, right? Then I won't work either.

With that thought in mind, she quietly listened as these people discussed matters related to Magical Girl Link: Re.

"Huh? Did the new Seven Crowns appear?"

"So cute!"

"Um... Is it really okay to read manga during work hours?"

"Not okay at all! Don't spoil it for me! I want to go home and read it slowly by myself!"

"..." After a moment of silence, everyone noticed their team leader's stare. They coughed lightly and returned to their workstations.

But very quickly, after analyzing the data provided by the precision instruments, everyone spread their hands and said they could not do it.

"Team leader... You're making this too difficult for us."

"How could we possibly figure anything out just by looking at vague magical energy values?"

"There are too few samples..."

In response to their complaints, the team leader shook her head speechlessly. So they had not been listening to her earlier at all? Had she not already said there was no way to begin?

"I know. That's why I said the information has already been uploaded to the Association. We can just let them provide an explanation."

As the team leader spoke, her phone suddenly rang... She glanced at it and answered the call.

Someone beside her glanced over and saw that it was from Association headquarters.

"Sorry, I need to take a call from the Association."

Saying that, the team leader left the laboratory. Then, listening to the voice on the other end, she asked, "Although we haven't found anything, what do you mean by 'stop following up and act as if it never happened'?"

In response to the team leader's question, the young girl's voice on the other end quickly gave a specific explanation. [It means exactly what it says. Don't continue investigating the identity of the monster who left that aura behind.]

"..." Those words alone made the research team leader imagine ten thousand words' worth of dark backstory. It felt as if some grand conspiracy lay behind it all.

In an instant, her desire to investigate exploded, and she resolved to get to the bottom of it.

But the other side had clearly anticipated that.

[There's no shady deal. It's just that the owner of that aura has quite the background... and we can't determine that person's attitude toward this matter.]

[We had originally intended to unfreeze Grass Flower Bank's accounts, but we'll put that matter aside for now and see whether there are any further reactions.]

The girl's response only made the team leader more curious. She pushed up her glasses. "What kind of background?"

"..."

[Classified.]

The other party answered bluntly, but after hesitating for a moment, she added, [I can tell you, but make sure you keep it confidential... Otherwise, you'll be going to Magical Girl Court. This is no joke.]

"Gulp—"

As the research team leader swallowed, the girl's voice began revealing the details. [Do you know about the fall of Far North City?]

All of Japan was made up of numerous cities. The surviving cities were named with formats such as X City or XX City, like Wind City, Earth City, Spring City, and Tea City.

But Central City—or rather, Central City—seemed somewhat strange, did it not?

That was its former name. Just like North Capital, formerly Far North City, it had never changed its name from the beginning.

Central City had not been renamed because no better name could be found.