“What’s going on all of a sudden?”
A frantic voice from Ji-eun over the smartphone.
I had no idea what was happening, so I could only respond with a puzzled tone.
Her words, echoing beside me, felt like a bomb dropped into our peaceful daily life.
“The house has been auctioned off! What are we going to do?!”
“Huh?”
A rental scam.
I never thought I’d be personally affected by something I’d only heard about.
It was the start of the school term, and I thought it would be a short, uneventful day.
This damn world never lets people be at ease, not even for a moment.
Or maybe this is just my fate.
Feeling uneasy, Siyeon and I returned home, where it felt like sitting on a bed of nails.
“What happened?”
“I’m trying to find out.”
I set aside the complicated story for now and sat down at the low table, seriously checking my phone along with Ji-eun.
I’d heard bits and pieces about rental scams in the news lately, but I only knew about them vaguely.
The scammers have a variety of tricks up their sleeves, but there are two common examples.
The first is when tenants’ deposits are used for gambling, and then they go bankrupt and can’t pay taxes, leading to foreclosure.
The second is when someone borrows money to completely build a property, and when the repayment time comes, they play dead.
In either case, it’s guaranteed to be a scam, but if you had to pick which one is worse, the second case is definitely the more malicious one.
Amid the serious atmosphere, Ji-eun’s phone calls continued.
“Ah, yes… This is Ji-eun. I was hoping to check something, yes.”
Both former and current magical girls, she’s in a position to have conversations with high-ranking public officials as if they were ordinary people.
After a few exchanges, it turned out to be not too difficult to find someone’s information, even if it wasn’t through formal channels.
Ji-eun, now in her mid-twenties, isn’t a complete fool; she knows how to deal with landlords who act brazenly.
Especially those who handle large sums of money often have an escape route, leading them to be bold.
After several serious and thoughtful calls…
“They say they’re in Jeonju?”
Ji-eun finally found out where the elusive landlord was.
Checking the address on satellite view revealed it was a well-equipped single-family home.
It seemed like they had planned to skip town all along.
Even if one were to visit such shameless people, they’d likely only hear the phrase “go jump in a lake.”
Ji-eun’s calls continued several more times.
Being a former magical girl seemingly opened up more questions than I had anticipated; even a call with a bank manager felt casual as we chatted like ordinary folks.
“There should be hidden assets as well, apparently? The cash flow seems odd.”
“Oh, really?”
I formed my lips into an “o” with a short gasp of admiration.
The information Ji-eun was gathering was top-notch.
I was getting worried that there might not be any money left at all, but it seemed this jerk was determined to try and play things straight.
“What are you going to do?”
“What do you mean, I’m going to confront them.”
After getting directions from Ji-eun via the map app, I decided to leave Siyeon with her and go ‘out for a bit.’
I wasn’t actually going to go grab someone.
I just suddenly wanted to transform and fly off to Jeonju.
Knowing Ji-eun was aware of my reckless nature, she crossed her arms and asked me with concern.
“Do you really think you can get your money back? That sounds like robbery.”
“Ah… I have a plan for that part.”
After asking for a small favor, I grasped Gomteng to have a companion as I took to the skies.
Since I hadn’t transformed in a while, the winter skies felt fresh and new.
It had been quite some time since I last transformed.
Sometimes, when I struggled with cooking, I’d transform for a bit, but recently, Ji-eun had been covering for me.
The sight of my light orange hair fluttering in the wind felt quite strange.
“But, Sun, what are you going to do when you get there?”
“Huh?”
It seemed even Gomteng was questioning me, interrupting our flight through the sky.
It probably had picked up some common sense about human society from hopping around community forums; I had heard stories of firefighters breaking into burning buildings only to be sued for trespassing.
Thinking back, it sounded foolish, but those were all actual accounts.
Since I had brought Gomteng along as my companion, I decided to explain a part of my grand plan.
“Showing up during a disaster situation is now considered acceptable.”
“Oh, really?”
“And a monster appearance is officially recognized as a disaster situation.”
“…Ah!”
As I dropped a few clues, Gomteng let out a gasp of realization.
Seemingly having understood something, there were no further questions from Gomteng.
Peering down at the stunning single-family home through the overcast Jeonju sky.
Lowering my altitude until my signal reached, I opened my smartphone and called Ji-eun.
“Hey, have you arrived?”
“Yes, have you been in touch with the person in charge of Jeonju?”
My first question was about the magical girl responsible in the Jeonju area.
“Yeah, I’ve already informed Hyeji. We’ll send a false alarm so they don’t have to deploy.”
Ji-eun’s voice sounded rather calm.
A false alarm.
Even if the landlord had scammed me, if I kicked in the door and demanded my money back, that would clearly be robbery.
I didn’t want to end up branded as a criminal with a record of trespassing and special theft, so I needed a justification.
And that justification was the monster appearance alert.
Like firefighters breaking into a burning building, it would give me the green light to smash down the door of the single-family home at the center of the alert.
“Shall I call the representative right away and trigger the alert?”
“Yes, I think you should hang up and do that immediately.”
With that, the call ended, and I started stretching, twisting my neck, wrists, and ankles to limber up.
Since it had been a while since I fought a monster, I was worried about controlling my strength.
Not even a minute later, a loud alarm began to blare through the neighborhood, signaling a monster appearance in the heart of Jeonju.
As the sudden alarm rang out, the people walking the streets followed the announcement over the loudspeaker, heading in the opposite direction from the monster’s location.
Even though it was dubbed a monster sighting, it was a sound built into their everyday life.
Instead of panicking, people strolled leisurely as if to say, ‘Oh, another one?’
Alright, time to get to work.
The entrance of that single-family home elegantly awaited me below as I descended gracefully from the sky.
A quaint two-story house with a yard.
If you live off conning others, you can end up in such a nice place, I thought to myself as I took a deep breath.
“Hah….”
With that deep breath, I temporarily quelled my anger and stood in front of the house, lifting one foot and gently placing it against the lower center of the door.
If I kicked open the door and sent someone’s ribcage flying inside, I wouldn’t be collecting money; I’d have to arrange a funeral instead.
Gently applying pressure to the door, I heard the sound of metal bending and a groaning sound coming from the entrance.
The once sturdy iron door of the house crumpled like a piece of paper left under a school desk for two months.
“What the…!”
The sound of crumpling metal echoed.
Of course, the landlord, sensitive about his money, would have no choice but to rush out in shock.
The figure that appeared, screaming, was a man who looked to be in his 50s or 60s.
There didn’t seem to be anyone else in the house.
“Are you here alone, Uncle?”
“What kind of kid kicks down someone else’s door like that? I’m going to sue you!”
Clearly, the magical girl that had come knocking wasn’t what the man expected as he shouted loudly.
Scratching the back of his head with a smirk, he twirled his magic wand and said:
“Oh look, there’s an alarm for a monster here?”
Of course, there were no monsters in this house.
To be precise, there’s a record of a monster, but it isn’t real.
As he looked bewildered, observing the otherwise peaceful house except for the entrance, the man started to get angry.
“What nonsense are you talking about! Get out of my house right now!”
If he thought telling me to leave would work, he wouldn’t have come this far.
With each furious step I took, I left footprints sinking into the floor of the house.
The weight of my anger over 150 million won with each step.
It was tempting to strangle him right then and there, making his eyes bulge out, but I wanted him to know his sins, so I grabbed him by the collar and listed his charges at eye level.
“Here you are? The rental scam monster.”
“What…?”
The fury he was expressing a moment ago vanished, replaced by astonishment as he stared blankly, unable to get his words out.
He probably never imagined a magical girl was among the tenants of one of his numerous office buildings.
“I’ll bet you don’t have a single penny left to return the deposit! Go jump in a lake!”
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