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

Although everyone except Cong Yu had a little dust on them...

Why were they being taught ballroom dancing by Cong Yu?!

The scene before them was completely different from the image of everyone beating each other up that they had imagined. It could even be called harmonious.

It was even a little... gay.

"Keep your steps light. Don't use too much force. One da-da, two da-da. Very good. Ah, nom nom nom—"

Cong Yu held a lunchbox in his hand, eating his lunch while teaching Miyami Xiaozhi and the others how to dance.

The three who had arrived, including Red, were all somewhat bewildered.

It could even be said that... their worldview had taken a hit.

Red thought that this art style was all wrong... Given Cong Yu's usual ways, shouldn't this place have been some kind of Ten Thousand Snake Hell, or covered in scarlet?

Why was the scene so peaceful?

"Oh, you're here?"

Cong Yu spoke as he greeted everyone with a smile, waving his hand. "Sorry for making you worry about me, Minato Namikaze... Actually, they don't mean any harm."

Amid their doubtful looks, Cong Yu made things up as casually as ever. "Actually, they came to ask me about some problems, and now we're taking a break and learning how to dance... right?"

At Cong Yu's words, Miyami Xiaozhi and the others nodded in agreement—

"Exactly—"

"Ninety, yeah."

"Old matters, yeah!"

"Saving the world, yeah."

"..." Miyami Kaori looked skeptically at the clearly missing teeth in her brother's mouth, then kicked him irritably. "Really? Then what happened to your teeth? Don't tell me you got counter-killed by Cong Yu?"

"..." Miyami Xiaozhi first covered his mouth awkwardly, then laughed, trying to muddle through it. "Hahaha, how could that be... This is..."

But for the moment, he could not think of a good excuse.

In this regard, they still needed Cong Yu, the one best at talking nonsense, to make something up. "He hit the railing, and all the textbooks got thrown downstairs."

It was a clever explanation. It even explained why they had suddenly started dancing—because they had no books left. Perfectly logical!

But Minato Namikaze, who knew Cong Yu's personality well, realized that Cong Yu had not suffered any losses even as he breathed a sigh of relief. "Then where are the books downstairs?"

Faced with Minato Namikaze's smiling follow-up question, Cong Yu curled his lips...

"They were carried off by stray dogs."

That was what Cong Yu said.

Everyone felt that was a little too outrageous. He could have said someone picked them up—it would have been more believable.

"What dogs? How come I never knew there were stray dogs at school?"

Cong Yu said, "It's like this. Last year, I gave a stray dog a lesson, but it couldn't take it and ran away... I guess today it reflected on itself and came back to find textbooks to study the basics on its own. Then it picked up the books we dropped."

Red: "..."

Red felt that she was already very good at saying outrageous things with a straight face, but after hearing Cong Yu's absurd remarks today...

In that regard, she was willing to call Cong Yu the strongest!

Yaochuan Guang, the Eunuch Messenger

"First, I would like to thank all the magical girls from outside Wind City for traveling such a great distance to Wind City to attend this meeting held by the agency."

"I would also like to thank all the leaders from headquarters..."

"Last year, the Wind City Magical Girl Agency's revenue growth rate exceeded 14%. I believe..."

"..." She fell asleep.

Yaochuan Guang was about to fall asleep... no, she had actually already fallen asleep.

She really had dozed off for three or four minutes just now... Though she had known that meetings held by the agency would not contain anything worthwhile.

She had never expected them to be this devoid of substance.

Maybe it had something to do with people from the Magical Girl Association headquarters coming to visit today. There was far more empty rhetoric than usual.

Before, Yaochuan Guang would at most sleep for five minutes every ten minutes.

Today, she wished she could sleep ten minutes every five minutes.

"..." Out of sheer boredom, Yaochuan Guang barely managed to perk herself up, looking at the

magical girls present, those who handled commissions full-time, as well as some magical girl trainees.

How should she put it? Quite a few of them were doing worse than she was...

Although Yaochuan Guang was only a city-idol-level magical girl whom few people recognized once she left the city, she was still one of Wind City's most recognizable faces.

At a meeting held in Wind City, she was definitely doing quite well for herself.

However, whether they were her seniors or juniors, whether they were doing better or worse than her... everyone looked drowsy at the moment.

Blue Sky, who sat beside her, was diligently taking notes. As expected of Little Lan, wasn't she?

Thinking that, Yaochuan Guang glanced at the paper and pen in Blue Sky's hands.

Then she saw several simple doodles of little animals... chickens, ducks, birds, and the like, all vividly sketched on the page.

Alright, the truth was that Blue Sky was just scribbling randomly too.

Yaochuan Guang felt some of her sleepiness fade, and she raised her head again to look at the agency president giving the speech.

"Our year-on-year growth rate..."

"Compared to other agencies..."

"I can confidently say that, compared to Wind City's..."

"..." Damn it, she was getting sleepy again.

Feeling drowsy once more, Yaochuan Guang hurriedly locked down her mind to keep the lullaby curling around her ears from entering her head.

But soon, the topic reached a rather critical point—

"In order to prevent magical girls' styles from becoming too homogeneous and to address the lack of distinctive publicity, the agency will abolish the Publicity Department from now on."

At the president's words, the magical girls below all realized something and began quietly discussing it among themselves.

"As expected, the Wind City Agency is abolishing it too."

Blue Sky spoke softly. Her expression remained calm and showed no obvious change, but her brows furrowed slightly.

Yaochuan Guang: "???"

However, Yaochuan Guang's persona was that of an idiot, and today she was unconsciously maintaining that persona as well.

"What does that mean?"

In response to Yaochuan Guang's quiet question, Blue Sky answered simply, "It means that the agency won't be calling us to film videos or do interviews anymore."

At the same time, the president on the stage continued, "Though I'm sorry to say this, we must admit that other agencies have all chosen this approach, based on considerations shared by both them and the magical girls."

"From newly recruited magical girls to magical girl trainees, publicity from now on can be handled however you wish. Thank you, everyone..."

"If there is anything you do not understand afterward, you may ask your respective managers. Alright... the meeting is adjourned."

"..." Yaochuan Guang still did not really understand. She was not very good at reading scripts or filming videos anyway, so wasn't this a good thing?

There would be fewer troublesome matters afterward.

Thinking that, Yaochuan Guang looked at the other magical girls, who were discussing things intensely... But judging from their expressions, that did not seem to be the case.

"Yaochuan, Blue Sky... The meeting's over? I'll take you back."

A man in a black suit and dark sunglasses said this as he entered the meeting room. As their manager, he gestured and asked, "Just asking, but can you two film videos?"

Yaochuan Guang stood up alongside Blue Sky and asked in confusion, "Do we have to promote ourselves?"

She thought it would be fine not to film videos or do publicity.

"For now, perhaps. Your reputation in Wind City is good, so interviews will seek you out on their own, and broadcasts will give you special coverage."

The man in the black suit spoke as he led them toward the parking lot, shaking his head helplessly. "But do you remember when you had no reputation at all?"

Now that he mentioned it, that was indeed true. She had needed to record so many videos every day, and sometimes she had spent an entire day reciting lines before a whole pile of cameras.

Later, she had only managed to stand out from among a group of magical girl trainees thanks to some pretty good luck.

"Though Blue Sky can gain some of your popularity by partnering with you, that popularity alone is not enough... At the very least, you need to bring her in to record an introductory video, right?"

The man in the black suit gestured in the air with his fingers. "Something like, 'Hello, everyone. Starting today, I'll be joining Metube.'"

Metube was currently the most popular video website. Many independent magical girls supported themselves through the income they earned from it.

Yaochuan Guang had an account too, though the agency managed it.

"Still, this change to the publicity plan is not entirely bad. The next contract should explain this as well."

Worried that the two would have too many objections, the man in the black suit comforted them. "From now on, your accounts will be handed over to you completely, and the agency will no longer take a cut of the earnings."

That did sound pretty good...

"This is not good news for new magical girls."

Blue Sky spoke, clearly understanding the issue. "In that case, magical girls who have just officially debuted will also need to figure out how to run their accounts."

After thinking for a moment, Yaochuan Guang understood too. "So we have to post videos every so often to promote ourselves?"

The man in the black suit nodded.

This made Yaochuan Guang, leaning against the back seat, let out a wail. "Ehh... I have no idea how to do that! Little Lan, save me!"

Blue Sky: "..."

But Blue Sky could only respond by shaking her head.

"I'm not good at it either."

Blue Sky said this, then added flatly, "I might know a little, but I'm not good at it."

In truth, the two of them were in the same situation as most magical girls...

Perhaps they were even doing relatively well, because there were many more magical girls who had not realized that they were actually not good at video production.

Originally dissatisfied with the agency's industrialized video style, they enthusiastically promoted themselves and thought this was a good chance to rise to prominence.

The result was easy enough to imagine...

Yaochuan Guang and Blue Sky were already doing quite well simply because they had a clear understanding of themselves from the start.

"Gah! Cong Yu-chan, save me!"

Yaochuan Guang quickly typed out a message on her phone and sent it to Cong Yu, who was probably still at school—

[Yaochuan Guang: Are you there? Are you there?]

[Yaochuan Guang: Cong Yu-chan, do you know how to film videos?]

After a while, her messages showed as read.

[Cong Yu: I know a little. What's wrong?]

"..." Looking at Cong Yu's reply, Yaochuan Guang nodded confidently. "Great! Cong Yu-chan said he can help us handle account operations."

At her confident assurance, the man in the black suit and Blue Sky both looked sideways at her.

The two were somewhat doubtful of what she had said... Not because they doubted Cong Yu, but because they doubted Yaochuan Guang, the eunuch messenger.

Were you forging the imperial decree?

Answering Like This

"So that's it. The Publicity Department was abolished?"

Cong Yu repeated Yaochuan Guang's words as he tossed a pitch-black hairpin up and down in his hand. "Wind City couldn't escape it either..."

Yaochuan Guang, who had changed into an apron and was preparing to cook, looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Cong Yu glanced at her, thinking that Yaochuan Guang was really slow. "Some agencies in Central City were the first places to carry out agency 'Contractualization.'"