“Yeah, plants are unbeatable here. And thanks to some kind of magic called like alphytemy or something, biotechnology is bizarrely advanced. They use grass for everything from daily necessities to energy. There might be an opening in engineering, but because they’re so behind they’ve kind of come up with their own hacks, so it’s hard to know where to start. On the whole, it’s pretty tricky.” Chiba clicked his tongue and grumbled, “We got sent all the way to this other world; I wish the people here were the kind of idiots who would be more easily amazed.”
Honestly, I was stunned to learn that Chiba, who was so cocky about his cheat abilities, had been considering all different angles.
He was using his head more than me. I was astounded.
“No matter what business you get into, there’s a guild system, so there’s no such thing as industrial secrets. All you can really do is find a trade that works for you and learn it. That’s how the labor market functions in this world. I have cheat skills, so I can just keep being an adventurer and conquer the world. You’re only doing this job because you don’t have a skill, right, Haru? If you want to quit, your only real option is to rely on someone...”
Chiba was staring at my boobs and seemed to want to say something else, but I ignored him and went to take my shower.
What the fuck.
Who gives a shit about skills or being unbeatable?
Stupid.
＊
“Ohhh-kay! Here we go! Baa-ba-ba-baa-baa! Fibo, wiper, bye-bye—Shequraso and Haru! Whooo! Fuwafuwa, hoo-hoooo!”
I performed with all my might on stage next to Shequraso, the main singer, and we got the usual result of the front row getting bizarrely excited and the back row doing its best to ignore us.
I still wonder if I should really be doing this job, but I have the feeling anyone who can’t do what they’re doing with all their might will fail no matter what they do.
Just kidding! I’m not thinking about anything so serious as that.
“Haru, your boyfriend’s here!”
“Coming!”
Sumo came again that day for Talking Time with me.
He’s as much of a virgin as ever, because he only ever pays the 10 rubers for chatting, but for whatever reason there is a very high probability someone else will ask for me while I’m talking with him.
Apparently if I’m sitting at the window table with a chubby guy, I appear tiny and cute. If there weren’t a one-session limit on Talking Time, I would want to keep a fat guy across from me forever.
I say “chatting,” but really it’s just me talking and Sumo bashfully looking down with a smile on his face. If I so much as give him a peek at my cleavage or touch his arm, he gets so embarrassed he shrinks, and I feel kind of bad for him.
Despite that, he wants to make me happy and always brings me meat or some other present.
I guess it’s like... Ahh, love. He seems so happy I get jealous.
Before, if a guy on the level of No woman will ever date you! liked me, I would just turn it into a joke and laugh, but now, watching Sumo, instead I start to think, Don’t give up!
When I think that that’s how desperate I am, or like, that’s how far I’ve fallen, it stings, but well, good things are good. I would never go out with Chiba or Sumo, but you gotta fall in love while you’re young.
Of course, the longer I do this job, the less likely it seems like I’ll experience real love.
Ahhh, you sure age fast in this line of work.
“Haru, someone’s calling fo—”
“Righty-ho!”
Partway through our chat (mainly me complaining), another man asked for me. Sumo is a brilliant lure.
“What do you wanna do? If you offer 75 rubers, I’ll refuse him. Do you want to fight for me?”
“Uh...nah...”
His wallet definitely had a hundred or two to spare, but Sumo clenched his hand around it and hesitated.
Clamming up in this situation is what keeps a virgin a virgin.
“Come again, okay?”
I pat his head and went over to the guy who asked for me.
If Sumo ever buys me, I’ll give him a little extra service, I decided.
“You’re even more beautiful than I thought you would be. You’re glorious in the moonlight.”
The young, cute buyer whistled at me with a nihilistic smile.
He was a bard, and he started by having me get naked and stand by the window while he looked me up and down and plucked his guitar-like instrument.
Lots of people come to this city to earn money in monster-related ways, so there are lots of sadistic, or conversely, kind of masochistic, guys, but different strokes for different folks, I guess.
“Miss Shequraso’s voice is sublime, of course, but your performance this evening was so novel. Full of passion, and so creative. Indeed, you were just like Muselusso ♪” (I asked around later, and apparently that’s the goddess of music.)
I wanted to be like, Are you seriously singing? But I held back and bowed instead. “Thanks.”
“Oh, stay bent like that. Like that, and now lift only your face. Put your hands on your knees. Yeah, like that. Good. That’s a supremely inventive pose. Yesss.”
The bard guy kept making me strike poses and picking his guitar thing.
With his long hair, big hat, and pointed boots, he looked like some kind of producer. He gave me detailed instructions and got hard in his pants.
Ah, so he’s that kind of perv. The business corner of my mind understood.
“That’s so good. Yes, just like that. Look at me with those icy eyes. Yes, that’s so good. You’re amazingly similar to Muselusso!”
He started rubbing his instrument on his crotch and leaned forward. I changed my pose as he asked.
“More! I need a more imaginative pose!”