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“I think I have to quit…” Nina sighed heavily on a chair in the break room.
She worked several part-time jobs to help with her and Aida’s finances, and this restaurant was one of them. Working as a waitress didn’t pay that great, but her boss understood when she had to take a day off on short notice when Aida’s health took a turn for the worse and even let her take home any ingredients left over that they couldn’t use—and for that, she was grateful.
Her work hours were reduced now that she was going to the academy, but she still kept up with this job as much as possible. That was how attached she was to it, but her coworkers had been acting strange lately.
Put simply, they kept coming after her. It was particularly obvious with the men.
Before, she was the girl who worked hard for her ill mother. Now, she was suddenly being treated as a young woman.
Nina never expected the buff to be active outside the academy, nowhere near the villainess. She started to get the impression that the effect was getting more powerful based on the students’ behavior at the academy, which proved it wasn’t a figment of her imagination.
Her own feelings toward her coworkers grew more distant as she realized the people she saw as kind older brothers or cute younger brothers were trying to close the distance between them and her.
The older girls in her neighborhood sometimes complained about how much they hated it when they could see what the guy really wanted, and Nina was finally starting to understand what they meant. It was even worse and more powerful in her case since a god was forcing their desires to the forefront.
After the academy and now this, Nina started to think she could never trust anyone of a male persuasion.
She sighed again, and her fellow waitress chuckled. “Hang in there. You can’t blame them; you have gotten way cuter lately.”
That’s the issue: she hadn’t gotten cuter. She just got a heroine boost.
Since everyone in this setting was supposed to like her whether they wanted to or not, it had nothing to do with her appearance or personality. In the beginning, when the students at the academy saw her, they would say they wanted to help her clean, but now…some of them wished they were her rag. That was even more absurd than the person who wished they could be reincarnated as a banister. Less human, too.
Nina made the mistake of telling them that a rag was thrown away when she was done using it. That only ramped up the depravity, and people desired to be used and tossed aside by her. After that, she had no choice but to give up.
She was at a complete loss as to where this buff was headed and could only assume that everyone involved with this setup, including the god, was a pervert.
It made sense that the boost would be active at the academy since she needed it to set up her downfall, but she wished she could turn it off anywhere else. It started to cause problems in her daily life and even started to wear her down.
“…Maybe I should ask Ed for help,” she mused out loud. The source of her problems derived from the power of a god, so the god should be able to do something about it. She really wanted to beg them just to do something.
“Huh? Is he your boyfriend?” asked her coworker. Her face suddenly lit up, and her eyes sparkled.
Why did girls like talking about that sort of thing so much? Nina was so busy with work and had zero experience with that aspect. She wasn’t all that interested either.
“No, he’s a cat. A pure white cat,” explained Nina.
“Oh, it’s just more of your crazy cat talk.” The waitress’s shoulders slumped in disappointment that she guessed wrong, and then she poured herself a glass of water from the pitcher and drank it down. “Now that I think about it, you mention the whole ‘Burying your face in a cat’s belly’ thing, right? That seemed to weird the guys out at first. But, now that you’re so cute, they’re talking ’bout how that is adorable too. Boys are simple creatures.”
Of course, Nina had her thoughts about this sudden change in the boys’ attitudes, but there was something else the waitress said that caught Nina’s attention. “Is it…weird to bury your face in a cat’s belly?”
“I’m not sure I’d call it weird, but…it’s the sort of thing that only someone obsessed with cats would ever think of doing.”
“I guess,” muttered Nina in utter shock.
Nina was, obviously, a cat lover, and so was her mother, Aida. She’d taught Nina that doting on cats was a fundamental aspect of human life, and Nina never questioned that. It would explain why Ed was always so flustered and needed advance warning.
“I have to apologize to Ed,” she stated.
“The cat? If a cat doesn’t like something, won’t they scratch you and run away? I think you’re fine.”
“Maybe…”
That was definitely true of regular cats, but Ed was sent by a god and had some odd human-like characteristics. There was a chance he was simply putting up with Nina’s tyrannical behavior. Maybe it was only Nina who enjoyed it when she petted his fuzzy fur, while he found it torturous.
Nina couldn’t help feeling sorry when she thought of it that way. She picked up her bag and stood. “I’m finished working today, so I’m gonna head home. See you!”
“Later! I cannot wait to see you again.”
“Huh…?”
They were only saying bye, but the way the other girl said it seemed a bit weird. She didn’t think much about it and left the break room with a confused look.
The heroine influence might be working on girls too. Its power level was much better than what was at work on the boys, but it still made her feel a bit awkward.
“I just wish it worked on cats…”
Nina sighed and hurried back home.