95. Animal Ears

After they ate together, the old man asked Izumi and Hiiro.

"So, who are you? You know each other?"

"Should you tell your name first before asking?" Hiiro replied.

"Tch, you sure are annoying as hell. I'm Arnold Ocean. An adventurer and a cook."

"Pffft, I thought he was going to say Arnold Schwarzenegger." Izumi chuckled. Hiiro twitched his cheek.

Hiiro was sure that Izumi was Japanese like him when he saw Izumi for the first time. But Hiiro wasn't sure when Izumi arrived in this world. He also didn't understand why Izumi suddenly appeared here.

"I'm Muir Castrea." Muir introduced herself.

Izumi looked at Muir and said, "Little girl, you weren't kidnapped by this old man, were you?"

"Hey, that's not! I picked her up during my journey." Arnold retorted.

"Hmm, interesting. Picked up, huh? Sounds like you got money on the road."

"As if!! Anyway, she's my daughter now. So who are you?"

"Why should I tell you?" Hiiro crossed his hand as if he didn't care what Arnold asked.

"Damn brat!" Arnold clenched his fist like wanna punch Hiiro right now.

"I'm Okamura Hiiro, an adventurer and avid reader."

"What the hell with the last part, isn't that just your hobby?"

"So what? Got a problem?"

"Hihihi." Muir giggled looked at Arnold and Hiiro argued.

"Oh, Muir is so cute when she laughs." Muir's face immediately turned red because Arnold said such an embarrassing word in front of Hiiro and Izumi. Arnold made a disgustingly delighted expression as well.

"Are you into a little girl?"

"He is a lolicon for sure."

Hiiro and Izumi said at the same time.

"Hey hold on! Muir already twelve years old, she could even give birth!"

"Old man, is your head okay? You should be glad there's no FBI here, or else you have done for." Izumi wondered if this pervert was allowed to roam around.

"Who is the FBI anyway?"

"It's like an elite guard to protect little girls from people like you."

"…"

"Anyway. I'm Miyamura Izumi, a novelist, and researcher."

"A novelist?"

"Researcher?"

Hiiro was surprised, if that was true, then Izumi should have a lot of works published.

"What's your pen name?" Hiiro asked curiously.

Then, Izumi took out the first volume of the Sword Art Online novel and showed it to him.

"Isn't that a novel that's currently booming because of a new concept?"

When Hiiro commented on it. Izumi became quite certain that Hiiro was a Japanese from his world.

"Are you really the author who wrote that novel?"

"That's up to you to decide whether I'm the author or not. If you want a spoiler for the next volume, I can even show you a little bit." Izumi said something that made Hiiro's eyes widened.

Hiiro 70% believed Izumi's words that he was that novel's author. If Izumi revealed spoilers for the next volume and the storyline did connect, he could have completely trusted Izumi's words.

"I will give it to you, but I need a condition! Let's talk about it later!"

Arnold and Muir couldn't grasp what Izumi and Hiiro were talking about. So they both remained silent.

"Anyway, little girl! You better hide your tail, you know!" Izumi pointed behind Muir. Muir stiffened, her tail unintentionally popped out. Even Arnold was frozen too.

Arnold warily prepared to swing his sword while glancing at Izumi and Hiiro. His right hand was ready to grip the hilt of the sword on his back.

"You won't be able to defeat me, you know."

"Who knows if I haven't tried it yet."

Izumi shook his head hearing what Arnold said, then walked toward Arnold slowly. Arnold thought that Izumi really wanted to catch Muir. So he was forced to act even though it did not guarantee his safety.

Arnold swung his sword horizontally with all his power, Izumi just dodged the sword by an inch. Suddenly his sword was imbued with a wind element and attacked Izumi. Izumi made a swift move to dodge the attacks from his back and his side. Arnold couldn't touch him at all.

"Muir, hurry up to flee!"

Seeing how pushy Arnold was, Izumi teleported using his magic and grabbed Muir. Then he disappeared and reappeared next to Hiiro.

Arnold was stiffened. He immediately begged.

"Please, don't hurt Muir! I'll do anything you want as long as you don't hurt her!"

"What the ducking hell do you think I am? How could I hurt a cute little girl with animal ears like this? Fuck off dude, I'm not that heretic!! Moreover, I'm not interested in the old man even if you do anything for me." Izumi grabbed Muir's hat, then cute wolf ears came into view. Even Hiiro's eyes stared at those.

"Look Otamegane, this is the real wolf ears! You are interested, aren't you? Don't be such Tsundere, I know you were interested since we have the same culture!"

Hiiro wanted to sheath his sword and attack him, but he knew that attempt would be futile since Izumi was too strong. He was annoyed by Izumi's antics.

At this time Izumi heard Arnold said.

"You're not going to do anything to Muir?"

"Why would I? Isn't that just a racial difference? Even in my country, a lot of girls love to wear cat ears headbands to attract men, right, Otamegane?" Hiiro had realized that Izumi was Japanese, so there was nothing to hide anymore.

Hiiro glanced at Izumi, then snorted.

"Who are you calling Otamegane?"

"Of course it's you, who else? You said you're an avid reader or maybe an acute reader. And you also use glasses."

Otamegane is taken from the word "Otaku" because he is an acute reader and "Megane" means glasses in Japanese.

Hiiro didn't know what to reply. But Izumi asked him.

"Where are you going, Otamegane?"

"None of your business."

Though he said that, he really wanted to have company on his travels. However, if Arnold didn't want to travel together, who cares. He just wanted to explore the world anyway.

"Hey, Otamegane, wait! Why are you in such a hurry? Don't you want to read my novel?" Izumi followed Hiiro but suddenly turned around by waving his hand and said. "If you're not comfortable with us humans, then we will part here. Take care!"

Izumi's words stabbed Arnold in the chest as he felt like he had made a mistake. In the end, Arnold chased after Izumi and Hiiro while apologizing for acting rude even after both of them saved Muir.

While they were resting somewhere, Izumi asked Hiiro who was reading his novel.

"Hey Otamegane, what's your plan from now on?"

"I have no obligation to tell you." Hiiro replied without looking.

"Hey, I'm just worried about you, alright. It's a good thing that you get away from human capital. What was that called? Victorias?"

After saying this, Hiiro looked at Izumi.

"How did you know?"

"That's a common cliché in novels, don't you know that? The people of this world summon heroes. But you also happen to be summoned. Good thing they didn't force you to join the heroes. And your decision to stay away from there is absolutely right."

Hiiro just didn't expect Izumi to know this much. Then he said,

"I want to live freely, who cares about nonsense like defeating a Demon Lord."

"If you want to live freely, you must at least get stronger first, or else you will be dragged into an unexpected situation."

"What do you mean?"

"Guess yourself!"

Izumi and Hiiro talked about what the two of them would plan to do in the future.

"What's your level now?" Izumi asked.

"Not telling!" Hiiro had no obligation to tell.

"Come on dude, don't always say something rude like that! This is not Japan. If you somehow pissed off someone stronger and violent, you will be done for." Izumi pat Hiiro's shoulder, telling him that it would be very dangerous if Hiiro's attitude didn't change while he was still in this world.

"I'm level 20." Hiiro replied.

"That's quite low."

"I want to see yours!"

"Me? I don't know how to check my level. Do you need to have something like an identification card?" In the Konosuba world, Izumi could see the level through the adventurer card, but he had no clue if in this world. Hiiro was surprised, Izumi was surely stronger than him, but how did he not know about that?