Transform as a Magical Girl: I Finally Became a Magical Girl, But I’m Stuck in an R-Rated Fantasy World Where Tentacles Won’t Stop Attacking Me - Chapter 19 - 3. Forest and Flower Fairy

1. 1. 1. Forest and Flower Fairy

Magical girl Heesu was in the forest.

……It might sound somewhat romantic when put that way, but to be precise, she was mountain climbing. She wore bright pink hiking clothes that stood out garishly even from a distance, thick hiking boots of the same color on her feet, and even held silver gleaming trekking poles in her hands.

Though her outfit made her look like a proper professional mountaineer, anyone could see that Heesu was currently a hiking beginner. With each step she took on the slope, rough breathing escaped from Heesu’s mouth in gasps, and the trekking poles touching the ground trembled weakly. Her legs wobbled so much that just maintaining her balance while walking was difficult, and sweat poured down like rain. She really felt like she was going to die from exhaustion.

Eventually, Heesu let out a scream and collapsed heavily onto the ground.

“I-I can’t go any further…….”

“You have weak stamina, Miss Heesu.”

As Izzen looked down at Heesu with a calm expression and spoke, Heesu glared at him resentfully. Even though Izzen had climbed the same path as Heesu, he wasn’t even out of breath and was perfectly fine. His practiced posture and skilled form were no less than that of a professional mountaineer somewhere.

Izzen was also wearing hiking clothes different from usual. They were fluorescent blue hiking clothes that stood out as garishly as what Heesu wore. If he was going to be different from usual anyway, it would have been nice if he had shown his hair a bit, but unfortunately he was wearing a wide-brimmed hiking hat pulled down low, so the top of his head was invisible just like always. That made him even more annoying.

“Where on earth did you get these clothes?”

Heesu grumbled and asked. The two of them now, dressed in the stereotypical hiking outfits of middle-aged men and women, looked exactly like a middle-aged couple enjoying mountain climbing at first glance.

When Izzen first brought this outfit, Heesu had tried to refuse wearing it. But after being scared by the mention that she had to go mountain climbing, she hurriedly put it on. She felt like hiking would go at least a little better if she wore these clothes. It was a futile hope, like grasping at a rotten rope, but that was all Heesu had to rely on. But seeing how exhausting it was like this, she keenly realized that a rotten rope was just a rotten rope.

“I looked it up on the internet and this was the average Korean mountain climbing outfit…… isn’t it?”

“Well, it’s average in some sense.”

Heesu let out a sigh with her head hanging low. Clothes aside, the brutal reality that she still had to climb much further pressed down on her body frighteningly and tightened around her throat.

“I really can’t go any further…… Please save me…….”

“Miss Heesu. We’ve only been climbing for an hour.”

“You’re telling me it took a whole hour just to climb up here……?”

With her face buried between her knees, Heesu whimpered.

Unlike when she was a magical girl, the original Heesu had hopelessly terrible stamina. She was at the level where she would collapse just from taking a neighborhood walk, let alone mountain climbing. Since her daily routine was always being cooped up in her room watching magical girl shows, she hardly even took those walks. Going to the convenience store to buy triangular rice balls and cup noodles as food supplies was the maximum exercise Heesu did.

For such a Heesu, mountain climbing was absolutely an atrociously evil thing that should never be done. Why on earth would you climb a mountain that you’d have to struggle to come back down after struggling to go up?

The reason such a Heesu was now mountain climbing was because of Izzen’s words that they had received a report that there was a demon in this forest.

‘Recently, several people who collapsed on that mountain have been found. They all had no external injuries but fainted and couldn’t wake up for several days, and even after waking up, they couldn’t remember what happened at the time. There’s probably a high possibility that a specific demon is living there.’

“Uwaaah!!”

Remembering those words, Heesu clutched her head in agony.

Since there were people who had been harmed, she couldn’t ignore it due to her sense of mission as a magical girl, and she truly had the will to resolve this matter as high as Mount Tai, she really sincerely did…… but right now, she hated mountain climbing so much that she absolutely couldn’t stand it.

Suffering in agony, Heesu eventually burst out in indignation.

“Why the hell is that damn demon holed up in the mountains!!”

“It’s the demon’s freedom to be anywhere.”

“What kind of magical girl hikes mountains?! Why do I have to suffer like this……!”

“Other countries aside, mountains make up more than seventy percent of Korea’s land area. As long as you’re active as a magical girl in Korea, mountain climbing will be an absolutely necessary task.”

Heesu raised her head sharply and glared fiercely at Izzen. Everything he said was correct, but his constant retorts made him very annoying.

“Izzen. You’re not popular with women, are you?”

“……What kind of nonsensical talk is that.”

Izzen asked back as if absurd. Not wanting to complain anymore, Heesu scrunched up her face and turned her head away.

‘That heartless science major type of guy.’

Heesu swallowed curses that wouldn’t be understood even if spoken aloud. Actually, she had never met a science major, but she felt that if she actually met one, they would be exactly like this.

Indeed, it was Hell Joseon. In this land, even magical girls had extreme jobs. (t/n: ‘Hell Joseon’ a Korean slang for harsh living conditions in Korea.)

Somehow feeling pitiful, Heesu hung her head again. If she could, she wanted to become a faithful wife stone waiting for her husband’s return.

“Should I just transform into a magical girl and climb up?”

“If you’re confident you can handle it, do so. I won’t stop you.”

As Izzen replied that way, a middle-aged couple wearing clothes in colors as flashy as theirs passed behind him. The two people stopped a little higher than them, then stood side by side and extended a selfie stick forward. Heesu watched with a sad expression as the middle-aged couple smiled brightly at the phone attached to the top of the selfie stick and took photos enthusiastically.

It was an era when even middle-aged couples of that age used smartphones freely and enjoyed taking pictures. If she went mountain climbing in that cute, flashy, and sexy outfit, photos would be taken immediately. And those photos would end up circulating on the internet with titles like “Mountain-Disoriented Cosplay Girl” or something. No matter how she thought about it, that wasn’t something a magical girl with proper common sense and concepts should do.

‘Damn Hell Joseon!! Crazy extreme job!!’

Heesu burst out in indignation again and got angry. Then she weakly raised her head and looked at the sky. Unlike the city, the mountain not blocked by buildings looked endlessly high and vast. Under that sky, she was too small and shabby an existence. Suddenly, her life so far felt meaningless and even her identity as a magical girl seemed futile. She didn’t want to think about anything anymore.

‘I have no thoughts. Because I don’t have any thoughts……’

Izzen looked down at Heesu, who was spacing out like that, with a pathetic expression. Then he eventually sighed as if giving up.

“It can’t be helped. Let’s rest for a bit while eating lunch.”

“There’s lunch?”

“Yes. When I said we were going mountain climbing, Violen packed it.”

Come to think of it, unlike Heesu who wasn’t carrying anything, Izzen had a backpack on his back. The lunch seemed to be in there. Judging by the shape of the backpack, it looked quite heavy.

“Good! Let’s go!”

At the word “lunch,” Heesu’s motivation, which had run away far off, returned instantly and she jumped up. Looking around, she saw a large, flat rock placed somewhat away from the hiking trail. It was surrounded by lush trees and seemed like a perfect place to avoid the sunlight.

“That place looks good!”

Heesu pointed to that spot with her finger and began walking forward energetically, taking the lead. Watching her back, Izzen sighed again and soon followed after her.