As that question brushed through Mary’s mind.
In the black space, a spaceship of monsters was floating in Earth’s orbit.
In the spacious room that served as the monsters’ accommodation, sleepless days continued.
Clang, clang, the irregular noise of metal clashing echoed.
That sound was enough to scrape the nerves of the monsters, regardless of their species, and ultimately led to complaints erupting from one monster.
“Graaah! I can’t take it anymore!”
“Whoa, that startled me.”
Some monsters familiar with the sound were instead taken aback by the sudden scream, and the monster that screamed appealed to those around.
“Seriously, can you all handle this noise?!”
The source of the noise hitting the spaceship was space debris.
Fragments caused by small satellites launched from Earth exploding or tools dropped by workers while working in space or the separation of multi-stage rockets.
They were still lingering near Earth, banging against the area around the monsters’ cabins, which was as wide as the size of the spaceship.
The monster that screamed in frustration was a relatively new recruit who had come to this spaceship recently.
“I was like that at first too.”
“Eventually, you get used to it.”
The responses from the other monsters were quite different from the new recruit’s desperate scream.
Monsters who had been lingering near Earth for anywhere from a few years to over ten years were rather indifferent, saying that they were just going through what they had to experience.
Besides, the interior of the spaceship was currently busy, so there wasn’t much time to listen to the new recruit’s complaints.
In the empty universe, what reason did they have to be busy except for planning to defeat the magical girl?
Unfortunately, there was a reason.
It had to do with the monsters packing their belongings, just by looking at the cabin.
“Being suddenly assigned to a different spaceship, I wonder if that’s alright?”
“There are rumors that we’re being replaced due to poor performance…”
Worries and murmurs stemming from the monsters’ vague speculations.
The spaceship currently in Earth’s orbit was, after withdrawal, to assign the lesser number of personnel to another spaceship and merge the monsters.
To prepare for that, the monsters were packing their belongings and luggage.
While the monsters were busy preparing for relocation, Medik Tenkl was focusing all his attention on hosting someone who had come to the spaceship.
A monster with impressive sharp teeth and rugged skin without any gap in its long mouth.
Its name, as called in his spaceship, was Ebl Croaker.
A position one rank higher than the higher-ranking officials, the captain.
Unlike the other Earth-affiliated spaceship where various high-ranking officials managed their respective areas, his spaceship communicated strictly around him.
No matter how one looked at it, he was one rank above Medik Tenkl.
Medik Tenkl was sharing opinions about Earth while guiding him around the spaceship, providing general information.
“…This is the focused treatment room for the monsters who were defeated by that magical girl.”
“Eek, b-b-light!”
The top priority that Medik Tenkl wanted to inform him about was Magical Girl Sun.
It was something he had made sure to let him know even before he arrived at the spaceship, and it was a major caution.
Ebl Croaker glanced at the monsters in the treatment room with contempt, not even flinching at Medik Tenkl’s primary warning.
“Hmph! If their mental strength is this weak, they shouldn’t even be sent to the battlefield.”
“Yeah, I agree.”
Medik Tenkl was bending over backwards in front of him.
However, he was desperately suppressing the resentment he felt toward the incompetent high-ranking officials in his mind.
The so-called ‘high-positioned head’ did not consider the situation on the ground at all.
The moment Tenkl realized this was before countless requests sent for a truce with Sun were rejected.
How much time had it taken just to make a truce request to Magical Girl Sun?
He had to compile the specific benefits that the monsters would gain if they didn’t fight her into statistics and submit them, and only after presenting the numbers was the approval granted.
“Managing a bunch of headaches like this, you’ve really kept the spaceship running well, huh?”
“Ha, ha, ha, thank you for acknowledging that.”
Medik Tenkl masked his displeasure as best as he could at Ebl Croaker’s innocent-sounding praise, laughing briefly while swallowing the rising anger.
Regardless, from today onward, the high-ranking officials of this spaceship would be stepping away from Earth.
The consistent losses from repeated defeats were one reason, but the decisive factor was the ‘Black Nightmare’ incident.
It was pointed out that the high-ranking officials were largely at fault for causing various device malfunctions aboard the spaceship and creating a gap in the quota.
The officials, who were busy cleaning up behind the spaceship, had to step away from Earth, helplessly as the procedures that had started being processed on paper were expedited.
For the time being, they were getting ready to hand over as much information about Earth to the next person in charge.
Under Medik Tenkl’s lead, the internal guidance of the spaceship continued.
The most important place to guide was, of course, the transmission room.
There, the Black Zone and the powerful Magical Girl Sun.
And in the Black Zone was 6.06 Setre.
He had pledged that no monsters would be sent there for a period equivalent to about 400 days in human time, conveying this to his successor in charge of Earth, Ebl Croaker.
“Ha, is there really a need for that? A mere truce agreement with a family that hasn’t lived for even a few decades?”
Ebl Croaker’s whining-like muttering sent a chill down Medik Tenkl’s spine.
It felt like the same sensation when a copy of her appeared right in front of him.
Hearing the mumblings, it seemed Ebl Croaker was not taking Medik Tenkl’s advice seriously at all.
Medik Tenkl thought that even a stupid monster would show some sign of attentiveness if he talked to him like this…but he silently glared at him from behind with a cold expression.
When there’s a foolish commander, the soldiers suffer.
It was rather shameless for them to think of what had recently caused the incident of Sun’s copies…Medik Tenkl could only pity the other monsters heading towards him.
Even though they spoke the same language, if they failed to communicate, they had to make sure the message was conveyed properly.
“However, you shouldn’t underestimate it too much.”
His empty advice, born from a lamentable but faithful conviction, echoed around Ebl Croaker’s ears.
“Right, right, I understand.”
‘His expression shows that he absolutely hasn’t understood anything.’
At this point, Medik Tenkl completely gave up on persuading him.
In many ways, it was almost like being demoted, but regarding the high-ranking officials who had handled Earth, they were given a chance to take a short vacation from their mother planets considering the struggles they went through due to poor performance.
As he leisurely gazed at the dark sky, reminiscent of the ink from his mother planet, he didn’t mind stepping down from the position of the Earth representative…
‘Hope he gets screwed over.’
He poured out a short curse toward his successor, Ebl Croaker.
In Earth terms, that’s what you might call a curse.
During his brief rest, he hurled curses along with resentment and directed his favorite salty drink towards his mouth.
Did that curse manage to reach the entire spaceship?
Ebl Croaker was truly making the worst choice possible.
“Ha, the Black Zone? A truce? What kind of absurd nonsense….”
Ebl Croaker, a species with a biological characteristic that meant their brains were not very large.
The only thing he knew how to do was fight, and how he could sit at the captain’s seat with composure was simple.
Familial connections.
As if proving his incompetence himself, he arbitrarily adjusted the color of the Black Zone without consulting anyone.
Though his brain was small, he retained some short-term memories, remembering that the area that was black.
With a reckless degree of self-confidence and the desire to meet someone so important, he was ready to pour energy into the transmission room to celebrate the first day of his assignment to Earth.
After all, if he died, he would be returned to the recovery device.
His satisfied laugh echoed in the captain’s room.
“Khahaha! Get ready, Earthlings!”
He had nothing to worry about, just as clear as his small brain and head.
No, in fact, there might have been a little something to worry about.
Ebl Croaker did not know, but that day was a major national holiday.
It was the beginning of Seol, the Korean New Year.
A few days later, on Earth.
As the national holiday approached, three people were preparing to head out in a car to the magical girl festival gathering.
“Huh?”
The sudden sound of Gomtaengi’s surprised exclamation broke the joyful holiday atmosphere.
A voice typically filled with genuine surprise, as if it rarely happened.
With the situation of spontaneously floating in the air, I tilted my head and asked Gomtaengi.
“What’s up, why?”
“A monster has appeared!”
“What? Are you kidding?”
Just as we were about to leave in Jiun’s car, the strange nonsense that came in made me throw out a suspicion about it being a lie.
But then, the long mascot floating around cleared my faint suspicion.
“It’s true, I can feel it too.”
The sea serpent’s assurance bolstered the credibility.
Followed by the alarm sound ringing in.
This was not just a joke to make the atmosphere more exciting; it was really confirming that a monster had appeared.
“What’s going on? Didn’t they say there was still a year left?”
“I’m not sure…Ah, crap.”
I turned off the lights and stepped back outside from the entrance, taking off my shoes again as I went back inside to retrieve a mask that I hadn’t worn for years, buried deep in the closet.
Perhaps because it hadn’t been used or washed for ages, the position of the eyes and mouth didn’t quite fit.
The musty smell from being untouched for so long had also seeped into the mask.
“Shiyeon, just wait at home for a bit.”
“I wanna go too!”
As I was preparing to leave calmly alone, Shiyeon insisted that she would go as well.
Was her resolve to capture a monster reaffirmed?
There was no reason to stop her from following through with her growth.
I held Shiyeon’s hand and went outside, finding a suitably empty and secluded alley.
“Sun.”
“Mun Power, Transform!”
Reciting our transformation spells, we took off into the cloud-covered sky.
I didn’t know why a monster had come a whole year early, but it was just the right timing to teach Shiyeon the basic essentials needed as a magical girl.
Of course, that was based on my own standards.
