DAY 18 NIGHT- LADY FINGER BOUDOIR INTERLUDE: GIRLS’ SUITE

WE GOT FIVE four-person suites and one single room. That last one

was for Haruka-kun.

We saved some money by booking rooms of four, but the main

reason was safety. Once we were more familiar with this town, rooms of

two would be fine. Everyone made it their goal to learn Presence Detection

and Enemy Tracking. Right now only about half of us knew one of those

skills, and only four of us knew both.

Honestly, we were doing great! We only started training in earnest

one week ago. When we started, even the people who knew those skills

didn't know how to use them, but now we could stand guard in shifts.

Haruka-kun, on the other hand, casually picked up skills left and

right. He showed more enthusiasm when he first caught a fish. Anyone who

sounded so bored while talking about learning how to magically fly was

definitely not normal. Everyone else had to work so hard just to learn a few

measly skills.

We only needed to spend half a day splitting up and gathering gossip.

People readily opened up to us since we were normal-looking girls who

knew how to talk to them.

Haruka-kun, in comparison, terrified everyone in the guildhall with a

few words and practically had to be put in solitary confinement. I guess he

spent so much time developing his destructive talents that he never learned

any social skills. I had to smooth things over myself. Afterwards, he was

given special permission to exchange his spellstones, but he ended up

causing a desperate panic at the trade-in counter. He caused trouble

everywhere he went, but he was totally oblivious to it. In any case, we got

all the information we needed from asking around. There was good and bad

news.

The good news was that this town was relatively safe. Apparently,

Oda-kun and his friends had something to do with that. They visited town

every once in a while. No one wanted to cause any trouble with them

around.

That meant that they either traveled between Omui and other towns

or had a campsite nearby. Shimazaki-san should finally be able to find them

soon. I could hardly believe how much Shimazaki-san and her friends had

changed.

From talking to them I knew that this was who they really were, deep

down.

Their lives couldn't have been easy. They used to be so aggressive,

exclusionary, and conceited, but that was all a defense mechanism for how

scared and unsure they really were. But no one would help them if they

acted like that in this world. Even so, they hid any signs of weakness.

Then they found themselves alone in a monster-ridden forest and

were attacked by those delinquents. We had kept them at arm's length,

showing them no trust or kindness. We treated them like outcasts.

They really thought they were going to die. In that moment of

despair, they must have realized how awful they had been. They wanted to

apologize to Oda-kun before they died. They needed to make amends.

At first, we didn't believe them. How could we?

Nonetheless, they apologized to us and vanished into the forest in

search of Oda-kun and his friends.

The five of them were level one, having never fought a single

monster, but they still went off into the woods. We weren't going to help

them. Our hearts had closed off to them.

Honestly, we should've died in those woods, too. We should have

been annihilated by all those monsters. That was the only future left for us.

Yet, we were saved. Our attitude was totally wrong.

Facing certain doom, with hearts full of despair, we had all given up.

Then a ray of hope penetrated our gloom in the form of Haruka-kun just

being himself.

Of course, I was overjoyed that we triumphed against death and

kicked despair to the curb. We thought that all other alternatives were

impossible. No one wanted to die, but we had given up on life. Haruka-kun

showed us that things didn't have to be that way. He did it in an easy,

carefree manner, like life was fun.

He taught us that giving up hope was just an excuse. Because of him,

our despair faded away completely.

Soon, we were all smiles again. We felt like we could imagine a

tomorrow. Life became joyful.

Haruka-kun slayed our doubts.

If I could live forever…even if I could, I wouldn't want to do it

without him. We didn't have him before, and it was a complete disaster. At

last, I felt untroubled.

But I hadn't even gotten to the bad news. For Haruka-kun, it was

worse than anything we could've imagined.