“I’m fucked!”
The Carp fan had his Carp head in his hands.
I was next to him in a dream. Any time I thought about the crazy sex I had with the silver-haired man, I got a dopey grin on my face.
Of course, it was only crazy for me. Tee-hee.
“Haru, are you listening?”
“Nope!”
“This concerns the fate of the entire world!”
Chiba looked kinda ill and had more pimples than usual.
Even though in my head I was thinking, Shaddup, child, I decided to lend him an ear. And I mean, he was paying me to talk to him.
“What’s wrong? More pennant race troubles?”
“I have never once talked to you about baseball! No, it’s this stupid world!” Chiba jabbed his finger onto the table and said, getting upset, “There’s a fucking level cap! That bastard god never explained that!”
“A cap? What’s that?”
“A limit. Like how in some games you can only get to level 99. In this world, the cap is different for everyone. Mine is 91, and I can’t get any higher. But to get to the more advanced B-Rank fights in the arena, I need level 100!”
“What happened to cheating? Your cheat abilities.”
“Like, I said, I maxed out—too low. I mean, I’m still immune to attack magic and status effects, but if the gap in levels is too big, I won’t be able to do anything. I don’t have any arcane moves or specials, either!”
So basically, he thought he could get infinitely more powerful, but there’s a limit. And on an individual basis. Ohh? Is that so? But seriously? Is that what he’s sulking about? He was talking about how he would be the strongest man in the world, but mentally, he’s still that weirdo high-schooler.
“That’s okay. It’s when people come to know themselves that they attain true strength. Heh-heh.”
“What’s so funny, Haru? At this rate I’ll end up as ‘that guy who was kinda strong.’ And I can’t protect you if I don’t get stronger!”
“Have you ever once showed up when I was in trouble?”
I’ve been in quite a few tough situations, and I don’t recall this guy ever being there.
For real. He took the title of most useless guy in the world a long time ago.
“If you can’t get stronger by fighting, what about lifting weights?”
“Agh, Haru, you just don’t get it. Sure, if I train my stats will go up a tad. But that takes time, and it’s a lot of work!”
“Uh, sure, but that’s normal.”
“Yeah, normal! That’s why I hate it! You know I hate stuff like intensive training and putting in effort, Haru.”
I didn’t, but I do now. You’re the worst.
“Ahhh, dammit. I wanted to defeat the demon lord! If you could just take this level cap taken, I could kill him!” he whined loudly up at the sky, as if he was talking to God.
You’re one to talk, considering you had no intention of laying a finger on the demon lord. That’s so incredibly Chiba. Sigh.
“Well, hang in there, Tochigi.”
“It’s ‘Chiba!’”
“The ‘tons ’o fun peninsula’?”
“That’s the tagline for Chiba Prefecture!”
“Oh, but time’s up. Now we say bye-bye.”
“What, already? I mean, you’re not going to console me?”
“You have Kiyori.”
“Oh, her... I don’t really get it, but lately she must be busy at the hospital or something. She hasn’t been coming around.”
So she’s initiating the dumping process?
Well, this is Kiyori, so maybe she’s actually busy, but if she’s trying to put some space between her and Chiba, it’s a good thing. She’s a serious girl. If she hangs out with Chiba, she’ll just go bad.
“Look, I’ll pay 80 rubers. Let’s go upstairs.”
He arrogantly stacked some coins on the table, but when I measured them with my eyes by height, I smirked.
“It’s not enough!”
“Huh?”
“Hoo-hoo. You can’t think of me as the girl you used to know forever! Starting yesterday I cost 100!”
“What? Are you serious? That’s a rip-off.”
“I’m not ripping anybody off!”
Fucking rude fucking otaku. I finally made it to three figures! The big time!
And this month I’ll definitely rank in at number five. I’ll be one of the five goddesses.
I’m almost caught up to Shequraso at number three. The sales race is heating up!
My job is way more important to me right now than the demon lord or Chiba’s cheating. I even want the shop to do well.
I feel like I’ve started to understand what it means to feel responsible lately.
“So as one of the poster girls for the shop, I need to keep exploring new territory! Stop whining and go brush up your character with some of the older girls. The experience points you need in life aren’t just from battles! Lupe, hit this guy with some in-depth lecture time!”
“Huh? Haru—”
He’s a pain in the ass, but there are still some kind-hearted girls who care about him. Apparently he reminds them of their little brothers. I shoved Chiba off on Lupe and went to work the floor.
“Please listen to my troubles, Miss Lupeeee!”
“Sure, I’ll listen.”
Plus I’ve been feeling lately like they’re a better match.
＊
“Comfort visit?”
Lupe and I frowned at the unfamiliar term.
“Yeah. You go to the barracks and sing, drink with the soldiers. I guess it’s to cheer up the guys at the front who can’t go out for fun. Mr. Bisque asked if I would go,” Shequraso said happily, playing with her bangs.
“Apparently lots of the soldiers can play instruments, so I guess they sometimes want to hear a girl sing. But if it goes well, maybe it’ll lead to more work. I can’t do much else, but I’m pretty confident in my singing.”
“Did Madam okay it?”
“Yeah, she said to do my best. And the army will pay me and the shop. My take alone is 2,400 for two nights!”
“Wow, Shequraso. You’re like a real singer.”
“Heh-heh. It’s just my boyfriend pulling strings.”
“Sure, your boyfriend...”
“...And so”—she twirled her bangs even more and lowered her voice—“Mr. Bisque says he wants to introduce me to the hectosquad commander.”
“Huh? To that scary guy?”
Personally, that’s the kind of fellow I definitely don’t want to be introduced to.
And last time Mr. Bisque even avoided her...
But Lupe looked surprised. “Could that mean...”
Lupe’s face was red, but Shequraso’s was even redder.
Huh? Is that what this is about?
Is that what getting introduced to someone’s boss means?
“...you’re getting married?”
“N-No, he hasn’t said anything like that officially! Just that he’d take the opportunity to introduce me!”
“Eek! Congrats!”
“Nice! That’s great, Shequraso!”
“W-Wait, you guys! I don’t know for sure yet!”
That’s what she said, but she looked pretty damn happy. Even though just the other day she was all sad-faced and depressed.
Good for her.
“Then let’s have that hot pot party as a big welcome back!”
“Oh, let me pay. I’ll buy all the things you guys want to eat!”
“Sweet!”
Okay. While Shequraso is off making her dreams come true, I have to hold down the shop.
＊
I was getting all fired up like that when...
“Miss Haru...” Kiyori showed up with a dreary face.
“Whoa, stop it, you’re bringing me down. What’s with that face?”
“Sorry... It’s the face I make when I’m not sure what to do...”
“No, you said something like that before, but I didn’t get the feeling your face was going to jinx me.”
She seemed more cheerless every time I saw her. And isn’t she a Sister? Starting out pure just makes you more likely to get cursed...
I had her sit down on the bench and got her a warm drink. Maybe that calmed her down, because she seemed to be regaining her spunk.
“I guess I just feel so powerless...”
Apparently Chiba was depressed. She’d been busy, so she couldn’t see him as much, and his house was getting messy. But he wouldn’t tell her what he was upset about. When she encouraged him, he just said, “You don’t understand my feelings.”
“I feel so pathetic...”
Her shoulders slumped, and she sighed.
She’s just so serious.
There’s no need to ask a dude about worries he won’t even tell you if you’re his girlfriend. You can’t spoil men like that for no reason.
“So, I don’t know if I should say this or not, but honestly, doesn’t Chiba make you kinda mad? Isn’t it a pain watching over a guy like that so seriously? Maybe he seemed cool in the arena, but how has it been actually going out with him?”
“...”
“I can tell from listening to you that you’re doing your best. But Chiba won’t even take you into the forest, right? And then he’s always giving you obnoxious orders to do this or that, right? Kiyori, at times like that, you should get mad, not sad. He only throws his weight around because you don’t talk back to him.”
He’s the kind of guy who will dent if you jab him. With this sort of obedient, blind-follower girl, he could turn into a DV perp or a stalker, ugh.
But instead Kiyori got even more depressed.
“...So it’s my fault, huh?”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying you don’t have to put up with his shit.”
Gah, this is such a pain in the ass.
“Chiba’s upset because he found out his stupid success story was a lie. Of course no one else would understand. Even Lupe at the shop, who is a great listener, says he makes no sense. But he’s not saying anything complicated—he’s just throwing a fit because he hates hard work.”
Trying to explain cheating and skills to someone from this world seemed pointless. It would be impossible if they had never played a mobile game, and even I barely understood it all. In that sense, it is kind of sad that I’m the only one Chiba can talk to.
But that doesn’t mean he can be a heinous prick and take it out on his girlfriend.
“Why don’t you try breaking up with him? It might make him think. And your goal is to go out beyond the front, right? I’m sure there are other nice adventurer guys. Yeah, I think that would be much easier, and you’ll get better cost-performance than if you stick with a wishy-washy guy like Chiba. Kiyori, you’re cute, so that’s what I think you should do. Follow your dreams and get the guy!”
Of course, all the strong guys are older, but still.
Some of them are mature and cool!
“...I just can’t think that way,” Kiyori murmured. At some point she had raised her head and was looking at me with these eyes that just—I don’t even know. “I get the feeling you and Mr. Chiba really are different from the rest of us. The way you think, the way you talk—there are some things only the two of you understand. Like the term ‘cost-performance,’ you don’t hear that around here. It feels like you two share a world we know nothing about.”