Living with Magical Girls, but I'm a Monster Executive — Chapter 4

Though it was all incredibly baffling, Cong Yu, a former Monster executive, would be moving into the apartment where the magical girls lived starting today.

Looking neither calm nor entirely distressed, Cong Yu rested his chin on his hand in the black luxury sedan and watched the scenery flash past outside.

"Let me introduce myself again. I'm Shining☆Chan, an official magical girl from the Wind City Magical Girl Agency. My full name is Yaochuan Guang."

Cong Yu had no desire whatsoever to respond to the magical girl beside him, Yaochuan Guang.

After quite a while, Cong Yu finally glanced at Yaochuan Guang, who was still holding the pose and looking rather awkward. "Got it, Shining☆Chan."

"Hey, now that you know my real name, don't call me by my work name, okay? It's really embarrassing—"

Cong Yu repeated expressionlessly, "Got it, Shining☆Chan."

"..." He was definitely doing it on purpose. This guy was definitely doing it on purpose.

Yaochuan Guang felt exhausted already. She simply could not imagine what things would be like after Cong Yu moved into her apartment.

After Little Lan joined forces with him, what kind of pranks would she end up suffering through?

Noticing Yaochuan Guang's gloomy expression, the corner of Cong Yu's mouth lifted slightly. "I understand, Yaochuan Guang... I'll remember it."

"..." He was calling her by her full name? Was he really this serious in everyday life?

With that conclusion in mind, Yaochuan Guang hesitantly said, "Or you could just call me... Guang-chan?"

Cong Yu saw no need to respond to that topic, so he decisively kept quiet.

He truly did not want to have anything to do with magical girls.

At that moment, the man in the black suit driving in front noticed the frozen atmosphere and took the initiative to speak. "Mr. Cong Yu, our people will negotiate with the landlord of your former residence, including matters concerning the deposit and breach-of-contract penalties."

"I've also arranged for a moving company to bring your furniture and luggage over to the Shelter. You can decide where to put them. How does that sound?"

Those were very favorable terms. Though Cong Yu found the generosity somewhat strange, he had no intention of questioning it.

Then he thought of something and was about to speak...

"Haa... hoo..."

Steady breathing came from beside him.

"..."

"Haa hoo..."

Cong Yu: "??

?"

He turned to look at Yaochuan Guang beside him... and immediately saw the girl tipping in his direction.

"Hm?"

With that instinctive sound of confusion, Cong Yu watched helplessly as she leaned against his shoulder... her golden hair instantly spilling across it.

"May I ask why she..."

Cong Yu started to ask something, but after thinking it over, he sighed and said, "I have a few questions regarding your agency."

The man in the black suit glanced at the back through the rearview mirror upon hearing Cong Yu's words. "Yaochuan may be too tired... Thank you for your understanding."

That was a completely irrelevant response, clearly a polite way of saying, "I don't wish to answer your question."

But that did not stop Cong Yu, with Yaochuan Guang leaning on him and the scent of her hair filling the air, from asking, "Regarding how magical girls are paid... Shining☆Chan should be fairly popular, so why did she say she had no money?"

Cong Yu thought that, at least in Wind City, the magical girl Shining☆Chan was quite popular. Her merchandise should have sold well in theory.

And the funds received for commissions to eliminate Monsters should not have been small either, right?

In theory, a magical girl of her level should have been able to pay for repairs to his house without even blinking.

"That's nothing we can't discuss..."

The man in the black suit could answer that easily enough. "This is no longer the era when magical girls received a twenty-five percent share..."

"Nowadays, when manufacturers sell magical girl merchandise, we can only take ten percent. Each magical girl receives only five percent."

"Not just our agency—agencies across all of Japan have begun accepting this arrangement... Though the original fifty percent was indeed too high."

"But the current arrangement is truly difficult to accept. Every agency has been working to change it, but the results have been poor."

"Because magical girls can no longer really be called scarce."

In other words, both magical girls and agencies were losing out?

"Also, many people buy merchandise and figures simply because they like a particular magical girl's image. They don't care whether what they buy is bootleg or official, so... bootlegs are everywhere."

As the man in the black suit said this, he seemed rather emotional as well. "Besides, magical girl manga, anime, character designs, and stories are so well made these days. They've probably taken away some of the real girls' popularity too, right?"

Hm? If he put it that way...

"Wait, is this topic somehow turning into an attack on me?"

The man in the black suit, who had not received the rebuke he had expected from Cong Yu's complaint, gave him a strange look before slowly finding a parking spot.

"We're here... Yaochuan, please wake up!"

At the black-suited man's call, Yaochuan Guang groggily opened her eyes. Only after lifting her head did she realize she had fallen asleep.

And she had fallen asleep leaning against Cong Yu's shoulder...

"Oh no, oh no, oh no! Sorry, sorry, sorry! He's definitely going to scold me now. He'll say something like, 'A magical girl actually fell asleep lying on an ordinary citizen like me. You're so heavy that my shoulder blade might break. Half-disabled, I can only lie in a hospital bed and spend the rest of my life filled with disappointment and regret toward magical girls.'"

Yaochuan Guang's tongue seemed especially nimble at that moment.

"..."

"Pfft—cough... Sorry."

Cong Yu could not hold it in anymore. He turned away, trying not to laugh. "Hahaha... cough, cough. Though that does sound like something I'd say."

As he spoke, Cong Yu brushed away the strands of hair clinging to his shoulder from static electricity and patted Yaochuan Guang's shoulder. "You should get to bed earlier at night."

"Don't act like an office drone who's struggled for over thirty years, gets scolded by their boss every day, has no hope of promotion, and can only survive by working overtime."

Yaochuan Guang: "..."

Though he was technically showing concern for her, she was not happy about it at all.

After saying that, Cong Yu watched the black-suited man open the door and simply got out, leaving the sighing Yaochuan Guang to follow him.

Then Cong Yu immediately could not keep it together again.

Before him stood a grand mansion that certainly looked impressive in both appearance and size from the outside, surrounded by rows of similar mansions.

The landscaping was excellent too, and he could see the residential area's sports facilities and gardens... it had everything.

But! But!!!

A huge pile of his furniture and luggage had been placed in front of the mansion's entrance, forming a small slope... which would not have been a problem by itself.

But sitting atop that pile were a package and several notebooks!

That package was the one the Mosquito Monster had left at his home, while the notebooks were densely packed with information on the Monsters from the Monster organization Cong Yu had once belonged to!

Everything was recorded in full, including things like "prototype," "weakness," and "name"!

And most critically of all!

A blue-haired girl with an expressionless face was currently standing in front of his luggage, casually flipping through one of his notebooks.

"Ah..."

Upon seeing Cong Yu, Yaochuan Guang, and the black-suited man get out of the car, the blue-haired

girl calmly looked at him. "You're that manga artist, right? I heard about you."

Then, amid Cong Yu's silence, the blue-haired girl waved the notebook in her hand. "These Monster records seem quite detailed. Could it be that you..."

Damn it. He had always kept these materials well sealed away.

Moving company! Weren't you people being a little too conscientious?!

Cong Yu narrowed his eyes and began judging whether killing all three people here at once would draw the attention of the other magical girls nearby.

Unfortunately, the answer was yes.

"Could it be that you're one of those lore nerds?"

"..." Cong Yu said, "Huh?"

Chapter 6: Pay It Back After Death

When it came to "lore nerds," people naturally thought of novelists or manga artists researching all kinds of details to make creation easier.

But over time, the term had developed other meanings as well...

For example, viewers who excessively pursued logical consistency in a setting.

Sometimes, it was not exactly a neutral term.

"I guess I'm a lore nerd..."

As Cong Yu said that, he considered that being seen as a lore nerd was better than being suspected of "colluding with Monsters." After all, he had temporarily turned over a new leaf.

"Most of them are Monsters that exist in reality. I record their data, draw inspiration from it, and improve my own manga."

As he spoke, Cong Yu lied without changing expression, gently pulling the notebook from the blue-haired girl's hand.

This blue-haired girl probably had not read the later pages yet...

The later contents might include information about Monsters who had not even begun their activities yet... If she saw those, he would truly be unable to explain himself.

"Mm, I can tell. Your records and analysis of Monster information seem even more detailed than those of magical girls and agencies. Manga artists these days really have it tough."

The blue-haired girl responded flatly, then introduced herself with the same expressionless face. "I'm Lantian Zhu. You can call me Little Zhu."

It seemed that she did not particularly object to a man moving into the residence.

But was it really okay to call her by name directly?

"Understood, Lantian Zhu... I'm Cong Yu."

Lantian Zhu seemed to have no objection to Cong Yu's form of address. She simply said, "Mm," and returned to the house.

"Ah, that's just how Little Lan is. Please don't mind her."

Yaochuan Guang explained as she gestured animatedly, trying to make it clear that Lantian Zhu meant no harm. Cong Yu could tell that much himself.

"Mm."

So after giving another "Mm," Cong Yu signaled to the people who had been waiting nearby to carry most of the luggage into the house.

There was naturally no need to move the furniture inside.

Cong Yu was not someone particularly sentimental about old things.

Yaochuan Guang: "..."

Damn it, why did it feel like they could get along so well? Why did it feel like she was the only weird one here...

"Don't think too much about it, Yaochuan."

As the man in the black suit spoke, he tapped away at his phone. "You're not strange. You're a completely normal magical girl. Mr. Cong Yu and Blue Sky are the strange ones... so don't take it to heart."

Even if he said that...

Just as Yaochuan Guang opened her mouth to say something, the man in the black suit waved his phone. "Well, I have new work too. I wish you all a pleasant stay together."

Then the black-suited man got into the black luxury sedan and immediately started the car, leaving Yaochuan Guang with nothing but exhaust dust.

There was something very worth paying attention to... namely, "motive."

This place, which he did not know was called the "Shelter" or the "refuge," undoubtedly had only one male resident at the moment: himself.

His house had been blown up, he had entered this residential district, and he was now living under the same roof as two magical girls.

The process seemed natural and traceable, but...

If one looked directly at the beginning and the end, the abruptness was obvious—a former Monster executive living with magical girls.

Though it was not as if he did not want to live in free housing.