Chapter 207

At the time that Shiyeon was filling her stomach with a lunch box in Incheon.

Another day of doing nothing in the Arctic was about to begin.

Mary, who couldn’t leave and was stuck, had tried catching polar bears, visiting the swimming pool, taking photos here and there, and even going to the sauna and massage rooms.

No matter how much fun one tries to have, there are limits to how much one can enjoy.

“I’m bored.”

After exhausting all possible content to enjoy, an incredible level of boredom began to creep in.

Food, games, sleep, poop, food, games, sleep, poop—a truly infinite cycle of a lazy bum.

The feeling of being on a vacation lasts a day or two, but as it stretches into days, the thought of just going home starts to overwhelm my mind.

At least when searching for monsters, there was a sense of achievement like the rest after work….

Someone might say that these are the complaints of a well-fed individual, but now, even that tiny sense of achievement was gone, leaving me feeling utterly empty.

Could I really feel emptiness on such a luxurious trip?

“What should I really do?”

Currently, I had gone through almost all the smartphone games I could play in a lifetime.

All I could do was lie lazily on the bed, gnawing at time which felt like it was flowing slowly like eternity.

It would be different if I could see people from the same country occasionally….

“What good is it if we can’t communicate?”

People who would struggle just to express how nice the weather is without a translator.

Even if I ran into someone I recognized, it would just be a matter of waving at each other as we passed by.

Even when looking out the window to enjoy the scenery, it was just an environment filled with white ice and the blue sea.

If only I could see some sluggish Arctic creatures, I might at least let out an “Oh” of appreciation, but it was just the same icy landscape as yesterday with only a different ice formation.

They say if a person is locked in a white room for too long, they go insane?

Staring blankly at the blue sea, I began to slightly understand the mindset of someone who is trapped.

After staring for a while, I shook my head.

If I kept just looking at the sea, I really felt like I would go insane.

“What are we doing today?”

“Right?”

I muttered those three words in a dull voice, unsure of how to answer the bear’s question.

After briefly moving my lips, I turned my gaze away from the window and plopped back onto the bed, facing down.

This was a situation where I had truly done everything I could do aboard except for drinking at the bar.

Should I just sleep like this? My boredom led me to reach a strange conclusion.

If my sleep pattern gets messed up, it would be problematic when I go back.

While I continued to contemplate whether to sleep or not….

Soft knocking sounds were heard, knocking on the door.

“Who could that be?”

Not many people come to visit.

Even while thinking that, my feet were already approaching the door, and I called out to see who was on the other side.

“Who is it?”

“Oh, it’s the translator uncle.”

When I opened the locked door, the face I saw was familiar.

It was the translator uncle who had been staying in the adjacent room.

Did he have something to discuss? Looking up at him blankly, he started speaking as if he had been waiting for the door to open.

“Nothing much, but we’re soon arriving at the North Pole, so I wanted to ask what we should do.”

“North Pole? Ah.”

Only then did I recall the original destination of the icebreaker ship.

In terms of diplomatic reasons, it aimed to deal with monsters, but in reality, it was more of a travel course where people were inserted as magical girls into an existing icebreaker travel route.

Still, I couldn’t just sit idly after reaching the destination—it felt somewhat wasteful.

“Let’s just go.”

At latitude 90 degrees, the top of the Earth.

If you strip away all emotion, it’s just a piece of icy land, but due to its symbolism, I answered that I would go out.

Why, when you travel to a city near the equator, don’t you pour some water down the toilet just to see if a whirlpool forms?

…Although I wouldn’t know since I haven’t been there.

“Then I will prepare first, so let me know when you’re ready.”

“Okay.”

Hearing my quick response, the uncle closed the door while leaving a message to prepare.

A slight change in my free-floating lazy Arctic life.

Feeling somewhat pleased with the change, I responded briefly and returned to the room.

In reality, there wasn’t much to prepare for.

“Sun.”

As I spoke that word, my gaze lowered from the high ceiling of the room.

Once I recite the transformation spell, my clothes and appearance change as if someone had already decided them with a poof.

It’s quite a convenient setting for the concept of transformation.

A little while later, the voice announcing the arrival of various countries echoed through the ship.

Beyond English, Chinese, Japanese, and languages I could barely guess by their pronunciation, there were languages so unfamiliar they seemed to belong to primitive tribes….

As the announcement began, I once again heard the knock and headed outside following the translator uncle.

The cold that had neatly disappeared from my body upon transformation.

It seemed that other magical girls were the same, wearing fluttering dresses and crunching on the ice.

The stark contrast to the translator uncle, who was packed with goggles, thick padding, and even crampons.

In the midst of this extreme contrast in bizarre outfits.

Among the few people who looked like magical girls, one was covered in black cloth from head to waist….

“Huh?”

It’s not cold, so what’s with that outfit?

As I paused in bewilderment, I noticed the translator uncle glancing at me with a subtle yet inquisitive look.

As he took a step forward, he moved his mouth hidden under a neck warmer.

“That’s a hijab, hijab… something that women in Islamic countries wear.”

“Ah….”

After listening to the explanation, I let out a sigh of realization, thinking, “Oh, so that’s what it is?”

I initially thought she was wearing some thin summer blanket but it turned out to be the hijab I had only heard about.

I never thought I’d see that outfit in the Arctic.

The visual was immensely awkward.

Perhaps it was because I was so accustomed to the image of someone in a desert holding a bazooka and shouting for Allah?

“STOP! STOP!”

While walking for a while, a heavily dressed man ahead shouted in a thick, unusual pronunciation.

In his hand was a strange machine I had never seen before in my life.

Muttering something to gather people, the number 90 was clearly visible on the device.

Ah, is that like a latitude measuring device or something?

While he was showing off the various measuring devices and compass, creating an atmosphere of ‘Isn’t this fun!’….

“So, what do we do now?”

I mean, I can see that the compass needle goes stupid just by putting a magnet nearby, but is seeing the number 90 on the device actually that entertaining?

Am I overthinking this? No, but seriously, what do we do now?

Just then, while I was thinking of simply flying back to the icebreaker….

“Attention-!”

A fluent and familiar English accent floated through the chilly air.

The voice belonged to Tiara, who was walking ahead in the distance.

Attention? To get our attention?

Several more long sentences in English followed.

Like a listening comprehension test from an exam, my mind went blank.

Standing next to me, the translator uncle was silently listening to the English sentences.

Though his expression was hidden by goggles and a neck warmer, somehow it felt like he was nodding along in a serious manner.

What’s going on? Is it a serious discussion?

After the lengthy English sentences wrapped up, translators from each country began explaining something to their respective magical girls in their native languages.

Feeling the somewhat serious atmosphere, I hesitantly asked the translator uncle.

“What, what are they saying?”

The words I could roughly catch were simple ones like ‘Magical Girl’ and ‘World.’

Only recognizing broad and large terms made me swallow hard, wondering if it was something serious while waiting for an answer.

And the moment I got the answer….

“Uh, they’re suggesting to have an arm wrestling tournament among magical girls?”

“Eh?”

The tension I had felt for a moment made me feel foolish as I heard a light-hearted suggestion akin to something during a school break.

What does that even mean?

It turned out that Tiara was proposing to hold an ‘Unofficial Magical Girl Arm Wrestling World Championship.’

They had concluded after considering what games could be fair without using wands or other special abilities.

Even though there wasn’t much to do, it was an entertaining idea thrown into the mix for the idle magical girls full of energy.

A group of somewhat relaxed people charging at a game suggested in jest.

A metal board for resting our elbows was provided using scrap materials from the icebreaker, and the appropriate height was attained by piling up snow to create an impromptu desk.

It’s a story that occasionally circulates the internet.

“In a global context, who is the strongest among magical girls?”

Naturally, even the magical girls, who were at the center of this topic, were curious about it.

So, how did it go?

“Winners-!”

What’s to say? Of course, I easily overpowered everyone within 2 seconds in each match and proudly seized the glory.

Even though it was unofficial and there was no prize or reward, just passing the time was enough.

After finishing the unofficial arm wrestling championship in the delightful North Pole, we returned to the icebreaker.

And the second unofficial match began.

This time, without transformation, a ‘truly fair’ arm wrestling began.

So how did it go?

Of course, I was eliminated in the first round at lightning speed, completely smashed.

In the first place, my age and weight class didn’t match….

And I had a tough opponent. What is a female bodybuilder, you ask?

“Why is she the winner when I meet her in the first round?”