We successfully extracted our front teeth, each with its own pain.
While waiting for the bleeding to stop, with gauze stuffed in our mouths and some minor bloodshed…
I was comforting Shiyeon, who was shedding a few tears, feeling the distinctive alcohol smell of the gauze in my mouth.
“Ugh, I-uh.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine.”
Both Shiyeon and I were slightly slurring our words.
In comparison to Shiyeon, who lost her front teeth in an instant, I had undergone two attempts.
The pain that struck me in succession still lingered in my mind, clearly making me want to scream.
‘I want to cry more.’
While comforting Shiyeon, the lingering sorrow didn’t seem to leave me.
Of course, I felt the pain more intensely than Shiyeon did.
Gently rubbing the area above my tightly closed lips, I massaged around the gums where the gauze was stuffed.
I wondered if the bleeding had stopped well, so I opened my mouth and removed the gauze with my hand.
Afterwards, even when I touched the area where my front teeth used to be with my tongue, I couldn’t taste the salty metallic flavor of blood at all.
So it has finally stopped, I thought, and told Shiyeon to open her mouth next.
Without front teeth, I could only barely make the ‘s’ sound by touching my tongue to my canines.
“Shiyeon, ah—”
“Ah—”
The gauze, slightly tainted with blood, filled the spot where my front teeth used to be.
I carefully removed that gauze and checked to see if more blood was leaking out.
Similarly, the bleeding had stopped early.
My fingertips, holding the two pieces of gauze, headed towards the medical waste bin nearby.
Fortunately, the dental fee for extracting baby teeth wasn’t exorbitant.
Considering that you could just pull them out at home with thread and alcohol-soaked cotton, it’d be rather unconscionable to charge a fortune.
This wasn’t even the extraction of wisdom teeth, after all.
‘Ha, wisdom teeth…’
Thinking about teeth, I began to worry about the distant future.
Would they grow sideways like last time and make me suffer?
Worrying about a time that still seemed far away, I gently caressed the canine area of my jaw.
Please let it be that in this lifetime, my wisdom teeth don’t end up becoming legendary artifacts in that gallery.
As the day that seemed to be ending smoothly came to a close, I returned home and took off my shoes at the entrance.
“Welcome home.”
Now, the two mascots were lying around without anything to do.
They were like cockroaches, devouring leftover delivery food, but…
Even so, knowing there was someone to greet me when I got home cheered up the loneliness of living just with two children.
“Yeah, I’m home.”
“Uh, why does your voice sound like that?”
“I got my teeth pulled.”
After immediately tossing my socks into the laundry basket, I answered Gomtaengi’s question with a slurred ‘s’ sound and headed towards the second-floor bed.
Since my front teeth were now gone, I had to be careful about what I could eat for a while.
I had to exclude chewy noodles that required biting through, let alone tough meats.
“Humans must be uncomfortable.”
“Are you making fun of me? Dying and being hyper?”
Perhaps feeling bored with life, Gomtaengi climbed up to the bed on the second floor and mocked me, saying humans must be uncomfortable.
With a tone reminiscent of some lifeform in a cartoon or game looking down on ordinary humans, I narrowed my eyes at him.
But he seemed to have no intention of doing so at all, appearing flustered as he disclosed his thoughts.
“No, why do you interpret everything like that! It’s just that it’s terribly inefficient, isn’t it?”
“Then are you such an efficient being that you’re just here acting as a mascot?”
“Ugh… you hit the sore spot. But still…”
Gomtaengi seemed unwilling to let it go, slightly adding more comments after that sharp observation.
“I think it’s inefficient that humans only get two sets of teeth in their lifetime…”
“Dammit to hell.”
“Uwaaah!”
As I could no longer hold back and tried to get up, Gomtaengi quickly screamed as if he had already been hit and fled from the second-floor bed.
It seemed he had become skilled enough to know when to hit and run, skillfully timing his taunts.
It was as if those additional remarks ignited a fire inside me.
If I fail to live out my days, most of the reasons will likely lead back to that guy.
“Heh.”
‘Oh great, hell.’
I wondered if there would be any problems with my appearance after transforming.
…But as I tried to speak the transformation phrase, it didn’t even come out as a clear ‘s’ sound.
In the end, I had to press my tongue against my canines and barely chant the transformation spell.
“Sun.”
With the transformation spell spoken, the emptiness that had lingered in my mouth seemed to vanish like a lie.
I clinked my teeth together, trying to find the gap that had just been there, but only after bringing my finger to my new front teeth did I notice that it had indeed been filled.
“Wow, that’s amazing.”
I directly confirmed the mystery between a magical girl and a human, expressing my admiration.
The appearance after transformation resembled that of a game avatar.
Indeed, given that adult women become children when transformed, losing a tooth or two should naturally be covered.
However, if this is possible, why can’t it remove the fishy smell that clings during battle?
‘Hmmm…’
When I brought my finger to my jaw to ponder that subject, I couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer.
It’s a contradiction and a mystery, but such is the incompetence of this wretched world.
Even the act of transforming, where one’s body ages down and their hair and eye colors change in a second, involves an unexplained high-tech mystery.
And how could I dare expect it to de-scent as well?
“Release.”
As soon as I reverted back to my original form, I immediately felt the emptiness of my front teeth.
I poked my tongue around my mouth, tapping the emerging permanent teeth.
I wondered when they would grow, and before long…
Suddenly, I heard the sound of water pouring outside, reminiscent of rain.
Looking back, today’s weather had been far from sunny.
I got down from the second-floor bed and pulled back the curtains that had blocked the outside, revealing a sky with countless streams of rain falling, devoid of sunlight.
‘Is it the rainy season?’
I don’t usually keep up with weather forecasts, so I grabbed my smartphone to check the recent weather.
Searching for this year’s date along with the keyword ‘rainy season.’
The news report from an hour ago, easily viewable on my smartphone instead of through TV.
“It was a day when the heat subsided with the rain that just started falling. Though this rain will clear by tomorrow, it is anticipated that the full-scale rainy season will kick off from this Wednesday, starting with Jeju Island. Reporter Lee Seol-ah brings you the latest.”
As expected, it was announced that rain was expected nationwide from today onwards.
The screen switched to show footage of rain falling in Jeju Island.
During the rainy season, coming back from monster slaying with a soaked body is unpleasant, but this year I was comforted by the thought that there would be no such incidents.
Just one unpleasant thing.
‘Clothes will… have to be dried indoors for a while.’
While watching the video and randomly pressing the back button, closing all the subsequent pages…
By the time I thought everything should be closed, I paused at the screen displaying the news articles.
[At the press conference, ‘Pad Reap’ Magical Girl Sun, is this really okay?]
[Monsters were impossible to communicate with? The remaining questions.]
[Monster expert Professor Hong, ‘It’s only natural’ regarding Sun’s press conference.]
[Magical Girl Sun, what is her estimated age?]
[When asked polite questions by reporters, Magical Girl Sun bluntly replied ‘I don’t know.’]
‘Polite, my ass.’
Everything else seemed to be typical, but I couldn’t overlook the title that stood out.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue, seeing the reporters who only wrote in their favor.
No wonder there’s no progress. What does ‘I don’t know’ even mean? They just make things up.
Escaping from the rotten news filled with lies and incitement, where deception is part of daily life, I headed to the gallery that contained the honest opinions of the public.
In fact, it was difficult to consider this place ‘ordinary’ public as well…
[Sun <<< Honestly, if it feels refreshing, I totally support it LOL (189)]
At least there were people who supported me.
[Why are they getting mad when it’s just true? (78)]
[Reporters << All those kids who self-taught proper manners (98)]
[They get stirred up and spew fake news like it’s nothing LOL (112)]
Anyway, I accepted that people supported me, but I didn’t stop there and headed to the monster gallery, which was presumed to have gone downhill.
[Oh for heaven’s sake, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it (53)]
[Don’t lie, you can communicate with monsters, you idiot (37)]
[Are you out of your mind? Are you out of your mind? Are you out of your mind? Are you out of your mind? (72)]
[Shut the hell up, you filthy convict (47)]
[I had a dream. (31)]
Compared to the magical girl gallery, which was busy cursing the reporters with laughter, the monster gallery was filled with an opposing atmosphere engulfed in madness.
[On a deep summer night, a crying monster awakened from its sleep.]
[A magical girl, seeing that sight, questioned the monster curiously.]
[Did you have a scary dream?]
[No.]
[Did you have a sad dream?]
[No. I had a sweet dream where the monster gallery got recognized.]
[Then why do you cry so sadly?]
[The monster gently wiped its flowing tears and said softly.]
[Because that dream… cannot come true.]
[Huh, damn. If it’s a sad monster, give it a recommendation…]
Because of the words I uttered at the press conference, the monster gallery was in an uproar.
No matter how I looked at it, everyone seemed a bit off their rocker.
“Oh my, everyone’s really fired up…”
