My usual weekday afternoon routine after school was to visit the other world and go on adventures. I’d go see beautiful sights, eat good food, and delve into the dungeon to grind some levels. My leveling had plateaued lately, so I needed to figure out some way to make more progress; though, I hadn’t put anything into action yet. Thinking I could figure it out some other time, I decided to relax and hang out in the main hall. Carbuncle hopped onto my backpack as I walked by the reception area, then I headed toward the back of the Divers Guild.
There was already a pretty sizable gathering at the guild dining hall. I noticed people suffering in agony as they tried the new menu item, wallowing in regret for ordering one of the three disgusting dishes. Others were being treated as traitors for bringing in food they’d bought from the food stalls outside.
“It’s chaos as usual in here,” I said.
“Mew.”
Carbuncle must’ve been used to these sights by now too. It usually roamed around the reception area when it wasn’t at my place, so it could see the happenings of the entire main hall from a distance. Together, we stared in resignation at the struggles between the Divers’ palates and the dining hall food, which happened pretty much every day.
“Oh, it’s Kudo,” said a voice out of nowhere.
“Huh? I recognize that voice.”
I turned toward the familiar husky voice, and there stood a monster—yes, a monster. It was a few centimeters taller than I was, and its entire body was covered in fluffy, soft white fur with black spotted patterns on it like a snow leopard.
“Hmm?” I said, squinting my eyes.
This monster definitely didn’t look like it’d be bipedal, yet here it was standing on two feet. This world was full of things that made me wonder if something was wrong with my eyes.
“Wait a sec,” I said, realizing it was just someone wearing a pelt.
They were visible from the nose down, and they were clearly human, not a monster. They were carrying a giant pair of scissors on their back that was clearly meant to be a weapon, so they were definitely a Diver. Besides, I’d turned around because I’d heard a familiar voice, so I should’ve worked backward from there to figure out what was going on.
“Is that you, Linte?” I asked.
“Who else would I be?” asked Linte. “I didn’t expect you to look at me like that. Most people would’ve been insulted, you know?”
“I mean, but look at what you’re wearing,” I said.
How was I supposed to know? She was basically wearing a set of onesie-like fur pajamas. I could only see her from the nose down, making it nearly impossible for me to figure out who it’d been. It was as ruthlessly difficult as the mosaic guessing game in Super Wagyan Land on kamisama mode. I still had terrible memories of mosaic images of the lion with a blue mane, the green bear, the scorpion with player-two colors, and the mysterious empty can.
“We only met a few days ago and you already forgot me? That’s pretty mean. Are you devoting any of your brain capacity to interpersonal relationships?” she asked.
“If I’d forgotten you, I wouldn’t have known your name,” I said. “I’m actually pretty good at remembering people, you know.”
A certain Ricky might have something to say about that, but I usually remembered everyone I met. Linte was one of the more eccentric ones, so forgetting her would be hard even if I tried.
“Well, I guess it’s hard to tell with what I’m wearing,” she admitted.
“This one’s different from what you were wearing before,” I said.
“Yeah, because the one I was wearing when you forcefully undressed me got dirty.”
“Bwah?! Don’t say it like that! We’re in the dining hall! What if someone hears you?!” I said in a panic.
“What? I’m just saying what happened. I tried to resist, but you bound me by force with magic and touched my body,” she said and acted like she was breaking down in tears even though she’d been completely fine a second ago.
“Ah! Ahhh! Linte?!”
She continued pretending to cry, glancing at me occasionally to see my reaction. To an onlooker, she must’ve looked like a girl whose chastity had been violated by force—not that I’d seen one myself. The Divers around us seemed to have overheard our conversation, and I started to hear grumblings all around us.
“I-It isn’t true! She’s framing me! I’m innocent! I had to do it so I could use healing magic on her!” I said in full-blown panic mode, going around and explaining to the surrounding people.
The worst part about it was that Linte hadn’t lied, but she’d deliberately used misleading phrasing. I was this close to being socially murdered. I wished she wouldn’t try to take me out like an assassin out of nowhere because people die very easily.
Everyone ended up accepting my explanation surprisingly easily, so I was able to go back to my seat without further issues.
Linte, however, wanted to keep that topic going. “You know, you could’ve offered to heal me just so you could undress and touch me.”
“Can we please just talk about something else?” I asked.
“You’re right, that’s enough joking around for now.”
I gave her a resentful glare, but she just stuck her tongue out and made a silly face, completely unfazed. I clearly didn’t have what it took to penetrate her defenses. She was hard to deal with in a different way than Sensei.
Linte took a seat next to me and brought out a small pot, the kind that Adorners often carried around with them.
“Oh, right, we were talking about my pelt. This one’s one of my favorites,” she said. “I’m wearing this one because I got blood on the black one I was wearing before.”
“You must have a lot of pelts,” I said.
“Yeah, I like to collect high-quality monster pelts.”
“As a hobby?” I asked.
“Yeah, pretty much everyone belonging to my race does. We all keep hides that we like and process them to suit our own styles.”
The distinctive pelts Adorners wore were apparently handmade. Though, they must’ve all been handmade if you consider the level of sewing technology in this world, so that shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
“I noticed other Adorners I see at the guild wear waist wraps and scarves,” I said.
“The culture is probably different depending on the clan. Mine traditionally wears a lot of headwear. You’ve seen people wearing processed head pelts, right?” said Linte.
“I have,” I replied. “What other kinds of pelts do you own, by the way?”
“Well, I have a Sky Shark one, which I worked on, and one from a Saurusman, which you don’t really see around here.”
“A shark and a dinosaur?”