Days passed in Earth’s time after the Medic Tentacle’s empty mutterings.
On a ship far away from Earth.
There existed a ship where ‘noble’ monsters resided, as you would term it on Earth.
They had no combat prowess but were merely lucky.
Or adept at sowing discord, leading to their high-ranking positions among the monsters.
They proposed strategies based on numbers and desk theories rather than practical solutions.
To their subordinates, they tossed out light ideas of “How about this?”—a genuine threat to the monsters who were responsible for battle.
“Wait, why is this Earth ship piling up so many expenses?”
Compared to other ships, the Earth’s performance stood out in a negative light.
147 claims for post-traumatic psychological treatment.
Developing costs for dignified death that high-ranking individuals simply couldn’t comprehend.
While there were no issues in paperwork, some monsters on that ship didn’t like the money slipping away like they were bleeding from a burst side.
“Looks like someone’s feigning injury here, not gonna happen.”
So they neatly cut down those expenses.
The monster responsible for that reduction was promoted.
Oblivious to the anguish of the working monsters.
News of the cost-cutting swiftly and lethally reached the recovery room, eventually making its way to Medic Tentacle.
Naturally, Medic Tentacle was bewildered, as expenses that had been coming in suddenly dried up.
“What? Cost reduction? Why?”
“We don’t know either.”
“Oh no, what should we do…?”
Confronted unexpectedly with cost issues, Medic Tentacle pressed its tentacle clusters to its face in frustration.
On top of his growing headache from figuring out how to handle Sun, he was plagued further by the question from a subordinate.
“What do we do? Should we stop operating the treatment room?”
“And then let those things loose on the ship?”
With a puffing sound, the door to the intensive care room opened.
To prevent any negative impact on the monsters temporarily in recovery, that door only opened when those inside were not yet present.
“Light, light! Kreeheeek-!!”
“Th-that mask… heehee.”
“Ooh, fear the name of the one who brings us doom…”
“Sun, Sun, Suuun.”
Amidst the blanket of darkness devoid of even a single ray of light, they strove to provide the most stable environment possible.
Different monsters exhibited various symptoms, all controlled solely by the fear of just one.
In that sense, a monster with a beast-like face closely resembling an intact human form, even after meeting her twice, was a peculiar case.
And the fish monster, Kyupirett, who had sustained no injuries in their first encounter and even held a conversation, became Medic Tentacle’s focal point of study.
Facing a sudden cost issue with a small clue.
It was the catalyst that led Medic Tentacle to make a huge decision.
“I’m going to the Black Area.”
“…Excuse me?”
Stunned into speechlessness, the monsters in the recovery room couldn’t help but alternate gazes between their boss, Medic Tentacle.
Did they think it didn’t matter since he was a monster destined to fail anyway?
One of his subordinates unexpectedly raised a hand and asked.
“Do you want to give up everything?”
Was he perhaps pioneering the genre of suffering because life felt mundane?
With that laden question, Medic Tentacle shook his head.
With a solemn expression prepared for death, he spoke.
“No, I intend to have a conversation. Accurately, it would be better to say I’ll negotiate.”
“Do you think she’ll agree to talk?”
The puzzled question from the recovery room’s monster.
It was a valid inquiry.
How dare a human, or rather because she was human.
Given that she could view monsters like them as beings of another species, she might become infinitely cruel.
“It’s still just speculation… but while wearing the mask of a monster, she’s also human. If our interests align, she will surely listen!”
However, in response to that valid question, Medic Tentacle confidently cited human nature as an example.
Even as he replied, uncertainty lingered, and he lowered his head slightly to mutter under his breath.
“…Maybe.”
In line with that uncertain confidence, Medic Tentacle held up a device allocated only to high-ranking monsters.
The small ship transmission device solidified the aspirations of all monsters heading to the Black Area.
Like any other ship apparatus, it was a relic of lost technology.
Its manufacturing methods had vanished, leaving it as a precious relic among those that remained.
By pulling that out, he was truly determined to travel to the surface, not as a joke.
“…You can do it!”
At Medic Tentacle’s firm promise, the monsters in the recovery room clenched their fists with a mix of worry and anticipation in support of him.
After all, if his conversation succeeded in any way, it would reduce the burden on them.
However, instead of departing immediately, Medic Tentacle seized a nearby white metal plate and began to jot something down with ink-like substance on his tentacle.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m writing in Earth’s language. I’d hate to die before I even negotiate, right?”
While Medic Tentacle was busy drafting his pitch,
At an elementary school on Earth, freshly out of the opening ceremony.
After submitting promised homework during break, Sun adjusted her seat to fit the ceremony.
Having grown used to a disrupted routine within the school.
The moment she relinquished her desire for sleep, it happened.
She was assigned to the very last seat.
“Damn it.”
Unable to contain her internal curses, she grimaced at the situation she had long wished for finally arriving.
Even now, even if she wanted to sleep, her body betrayed her by refusing to feel drowsy at school.
From then on, the class periods right after the start of school felt almost nonexistent.
“Haam.”
Not feeling sleepy but a yawn escaped nonetheless.
At that moment, she sensed something wriggling in her pocket.
It was a signal from Gomteng that needed no words.
Raising her hand, she fidgeted, a look of urgency on her face, and said,
“Teacher, I need to go to the bathroom…”
“Go quickly.”
That strategy until elementary school was fairly effective.
Around middle school, or rather, even before hitting the higher grades, getting a “Hold it in” response would pose troubles.
It wouldn’t do to always make excuses for bathroom breaks; she’d soon have to think of new ones.
Climbing the stairs to the fourth-grade girls’ restroom.
Once reaching a higher grade, going during class would be nearly impossible.
The first or second graders often had other kids from different classes around, making transformation disruptive.
Hence she’d go through the inconvenience of climbing all the way up here.
After checking the hallway and ensuring no one occupied the stalls, she finally mouthed her transformation spell.
“Sun.”
A window far too high and narrow for the children, spread across in width.
Pushing through, she received guidance from Gomteng in the sky.
“That way, that way!”
“Huh?”
Having already been abandoned by everyone, in the middle of a major road far away from school.
After the blaring alarm rang to a stop, a monster was in front, holding what looked like a metal plate over its head with both hands.
The plate was adorned with haphazardly scribbled English and Korean, likely written in a style that Siyeon could manage better than whatever this was.
[i want 대화 원해요.]
“…What the hell is that idiot?”
Ideally, monsters would be dismissed without qualms.
On a summer day when staying outside for long wasn’t preferred, and during class no less.
Under normal circumstances, she would’ve quickly dealt with it and returned, but standing before this unfamiliar pattern, she decided to respond first.
Whatever attacks might come, her transformed physique was akin to possessing invincibility, so she thought to stand before it and have a chat.
“What are you?”
“Ooh, thank you for agreeing to converse.”
The octopus monster, bringing that metal plate closer to its chest, displayed a bright smile, visibly expressing gratitude.
“Are you, by chance, the magical girl Sun?”
The first thing the polite monster asked was if she was indeed Sun.
It didn’t feel good knowing a monster she had never seen before knew her.
Unloading half-hearted sarcasm, striking her shoulder with an unheated wand, she questioned back.
“So, what’s this all about?”
“Discussion…? No, that’s not the point. Rather, I have beneficial information that could help both of us.”
The monster, naming itself Medic Tentacle, identified as a mid-level official.
It was proposing negotiations limited to magical girl Sun, implying significant losses arising from her existence.
Regarding their living space, i.e., the monsters’ perspective as the Black Area.
They pleaded that for a while, no monsters would be sent here under any circumstances, insisting she should not leave this area.
Now kneeling before her like a punished student, Medic Tentacle.
“So, for how long?”
“20 Setras… which means, according to Earth’s standards, the day-night cycle will change 1,320 times.”
“Oh ho.”
Though uncertain what exactly a Setra was, 1,320 days roughly conveyed no monster would show up in their neck of the woods for a few years.
Since they had no burdens on their side, there was no reason to decline.
“Er, what about…?”
Medic Tentacle seemed to be pushing his luck, nervously rubbing its own tentacles together.
“Very satisfactory, let’s go with that.”
Nodding and happily accepting, she offered her wand forward.
“Uh… then why are you aiming that at me?”
“Huh? Don’t I need to swiftly kill you to be able to leave?”
Seeing her casually mention death made Medic Tentacle panic and wave its arms—no wait, its tentacles?
It shook them fiercely in denial, indicating strong disapproval.
When it pulled something out of its humanoid clothing resembling a person, it declared it was all good and adamantly refused to die.
“No, no, no! I can go back by myself, really!”
Medic Tentacle pressed that device, and like a hologram, it scattered with rays streaming up into the sky.
Days passed when monsters appeared but chose not to banish her.
An effectively recognized means of monster removal acknowledged by a monster higher-up.
Indeed, she hadn’t been wrong.
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