Chapter 76:
Misunderstanding
It was fantastic. [One night, two days! Exciting♡ The guy is only here~♡ An Izu beach trip!] was truly a memorable and thrilling journey in my history. Two days have passed since that beach trip, but for some reason, Seira-san and I are still living together, and Seira-san shows no sign of returning home. Considering the stalker problem hasn't been resolved, it's natural. However, Serai-san's clothes are hanging in my closet, and her cosmetics are on the table. It seems like Seira-san is using the money she saved on meals with me to buy new clothes and gradually taking over my room.
We're sharing meals and invading the room. If I were still alone, it would have been welcome. Even if Serai-san doesn't do anything for me, being with a cute girl has always been a dream. But now I have Ruka, a cute girlfriend, and Serai-san is Ruu's friend. Seira-san might be getting a little too confident, taking advantage of the fact that I can never make a move.
However, as someone with basic communication issues, I couldn't effectively communicate to Serai-san to not spread her belongings around the room or to keep her clothes organized. Somehow, I didn't want to be seen as the guy who worries about these small things. Hmm, the sad vanity of a man. But just thinking about such things made me realize that I'm a person who has a small ego, and I felt a little down.
And I also struggled with conflicting emotions.
I feel a bit regretful about the current situation and try to control it through meditation, but the sexual desire doesn't simply disappear. I worry that if things continue like this, it might build up uncontrollably, and I'll have an outburst at some point.
Once again, I finished my classes at the massage school and went to pick up Serai-san, who was working part-time.
"I might have arrived a bit too early, huh? It's still quite a while."
I parked my motorcycle in a spot that wouldn't cause any trouble and checked the time; it was 5:30 PM. Seira's shift wouldn't end for another 30 minutes. I briefly considered going into a nearby store to kill time, but lately, I'd been getting parking tickets for my bike. It wouldn't be wise to stray too far from it.
"Come to think of it, Serai-san mentioned that she feels like people stare at her even during her shift. Maybe I should go check on her."
The sidewalk in front of the Dungeon Shop Parade was wide, with evenly spaced trees and greenery along the roadside. I walked beneath those trees to get a closer look at how Serai-san was doing. I could see inside quite clearly thanks to the shop's large windows.
Today, Serai-san was wearing the staff's red polo shirt and seemed to be working energetically. As customers left, she would bow to them, following their gaze to the automatic doors. That's when she noticed me standing outside and greeted me with her usual smile, waving her hand.
Her charm hadn't changed; she was as cute and "formidable" as ever.
I could tell from the eye contact with Seira and her words, [I'll be just a bit longer, so please wait], that she wanted me to wait for her. I responded with a small wave and, [It's okay], before heading back to my motorcycle. However, when I reached my bike, I was inexplicably surrounded by several men.
The men had various clothing styles, with no uniformity among them. While most of them seemed to be young, there were a few who appeared to be approaching middle age. The only thing that seemed common among them was their hostile demeanor towards me and the fact that, under normal circumstances, they should have been working at this hour. My apologies. I guess that's 2 things in common.
"What's going on, guys?"
I asked with a slightly teasing tone, trying to provoke a bit of laughter from the men who had surrounded me. I could sense anger in their expressions, but at the same time, there was a hint of fear and caution directed towards me. It was evident they had encircled me out of intimidation, most likely due to my muscular appearance.
"You… What on earth did you do to that girl!?"
"That girl…?"
One of the men opened his mouth in response, and I tilted my head. What do you mean by "that girl"? Are you talking about the cute, big-breasted parasitic college student who's attached to me for some reason?
"We know you've been doing terrible things to the receptionist girl!"
Another man among the group chimed in, blaming me. But wait a minute. What's this "receptionist girl" they're talking about?
"Hey, you guys."
"W-What!?"
"I'll answer your questions, but first, explain who you are and where you come from."
The men exchanged glances and lightly argued for a moment before finally introducing themselves.
"We're the members of the thread dedicated to admiring the Guild's receptionist girl!"
"I see. So, you're saying you admire the part-time girl working at the Dungeon Shop Parade as if she were a fantasy Guild receptionist?"
"Yeah, that's right!"
What's going on? These guys seem similar to how I used to be.
"Allow me to introduce myself as well. I'm the coach who's training the girl you call the Guild's Receptionist to fight in the dungeon."
"You're lying! You must be manipulating her weakness, doing something perverted, right?"
"That's right! Set her free! She's a human being!"
Hey, it seems there are some Oshitakas among these guys. If I were to say something, it would be like [Don't trample on her human rights!]. Should I say [Shut up, kid!]? Besides, lately, it's me whose private space has been invaded by her.
"Master~! Sorry for keeping you waiting~!♪"
But just then, Serai-san, who had finished her shift, appeared. With a carefree demeanor, she waved her hands vigorously, her chest bouncing as she approached, seemingly oblivious to the suspicious men surrounding me.
But that's when the incident occurred.
Hey, for some reason, a passerby walking at a distance slipped and fell on a banana peel that was lying there, causing a grand tumble and sending the canned coffee he was holding soaring high into the sky. Then, the canned coffee, unfortunate enough to be hit by a crow that happened to be flying by, struck the crow directly. The crow was outraged because it suddenly got attacked by a human, became indignant, and cawked while mistakenly attacking a balding barcode-headed man. The crow attacked the barcode-headed man. He became disoriented and shoved Serai-san, who was trying to run past him.
"Serai-san"
Serai-san, thrown off balance by the mysterious chain of events, almost stumbled but managed to avoid falling due to the leg strength she gained from leveling up in the dungeon. However, she ended up jumping too high and was flying towards me at a height where she seemed like she might collide with a tree branch.
Well, for someone like me who had 20 times the ordinary human visual acuity, it's harder to miss catching Serai-san than failing to do so. Behold, I'll gracefully catch her like carrying a princess.
"(Pon!) There you go, good job."
"Huh?… Ehehe, I'm back (giggle). Wait, though? These people. Aren't they the ones who always stare at me weirdly? What's going on, Master?"
"Hmm… well, let's have them explain themselves properly."
Setting Serai-san down gently, I looked at the so-called "Guild's Receptionist Admiration Thread" members.
"S-So… Receptionist-chan has been taken away, both body and soul, by a guy like this. (Gulp.)"
"No! Not yet! That's the perfect opportunity! Receptionist-chan is still here! We should expose this guy's heinous deeds and rescue Receptionist-chan now!"
"Yeah!"
"Wait, hold on a second. What do you mean by ‘my heinous deeds'??"
I questioned the excited men as I let Seki-san down.
"Well… we have evidence. Look at this, and don't make a fuss!"
With that, one of the men showed us a video on his communication device.
"Oh… that's me! This is terrible! They were secretly filming me!"
"Well, well. It's understandable to be upset, but let's deal with this later."
The played video showed Serai-san standing at the counter while working her part-time job.
"Hey… what's going on in this video?"
"Wait! Just wait! Ugh, look, I'll fast-forward a bit, there! Watch this!"
Yeah. The screen still showed Serai-san, but there was something strange happening. She started to tremble, and she began to blush and lower her head gradually… Wait, isn't this…?
Yeah, I got it. I understood what these guys were trying to say.
That kind of video where a girl is trained with adult toys. The behavior of Serai-san in the video looked exactly like that. These guys had misunderstood Serai-san's self-improvement training, which she did secretly during her part-time job, as something erotic.
"Kuuuu…"
Serai-san seemed to have understood it, as she blushed even more.
"Oh… you guys. This is a training exercise where I hold my breath on tiptoes. It's not what you guys were imagining. If you don't believe me, try it yourselves."
"T-That's just ridiculous!"
"No, you guys are the ridiculous ones. Besides, if I were doing the things you guys imagined during work, I would have been fired immediately."
"Ugh…! Ugh…!"
The "Guild's Receptionist Admiration Thread" members hung their heads, feeling crushed. In their way, they seemed to have just wanted to protect Serai-san.
However, even so, the reason why Serai-san had been stared at with lewd eyes turned out to be because of her breath-holding tiptoe training.
"Uuuu~!! (Blush, blush, blush.)"
With tears in her eyes, Serai-san got angry and started hitting me. Wait, is she thinking it's my fault for teaching her to hold her breath? Well, that's not it at all.