Ch.46Ten Years Have Passed (2)

“Made it just in time!”

“The class is already over, miss.”

“R-really?!”

After finishing her hero activities in G City where a monster had appeared, Hoshino somehow managed to return to the university in the neighboring H City.

However, by the time she arrived after crossing one district, the sun was already high in the sky.

“I ended up missing most of my classes again today…”

“But thanks to you, miss, Hero City is more peaceful.”

“Yeah… that’s true… but I still feel disappointed.”

“About university life?”

“No…”

Janghun-i, who even as an adult was nothing more than an ordinary human.

I wish I had more time to spend with you, who could never help with hero work.

That’s what Hoshino wanted to say.

But while she might mentally scream “SEX!” a hundred times, when it came to the real thing, she was the type to shrink back.

Just facing his maturely grown face made her heart flutter so much that averting her gaze had become second nature.

Just like now.

“Y-yeah. I think so. I want to… enjoy university life more.”

“Hmm… should we ask Lady Makoto for advice? Maybe arrange for you to get some vacation time somehow.”

“?! N-no! Mom… I’m not a child anymore, I can’t keep relying on her.”

And so, Hoshino left the university again today without attending many classes.

The only one who could comfort her was always Janghun-i, who was her friend, butler, and servant all in one.

“…Would you like a drink?”

“You bet!”

Even though she can’t handle alcohol well…

The type who would carelessly strip down to her underwear after just one bottle of soju!

Yet she loved drinking so much. For reference, in the original work, the depressed Hoshino was a teetotaler who stayed away from alcohol.

So the sense of dissonance was definitely not just my imagination.

Gulp, gulp!

“Ahh! I’ll pay today too. Janghun-i, you just drink!”

“But I should pay sometimes too…”

“Hey! The moment you take out your wallet, I’ll wreck this bar. Just stay put, got it?”

“Yes…”

By the time the sun had completely set and evening came.

Miss Hoshino always accompanied me to the bars near the university dorm where I lived alone.

For reference, since the miss slept at her family home, when she drank with me like this, in the worst cases, she would often end up completely drunk and just collapse on the street.

I felt so sorry about it that I wanted to at least pay for the drinks.

But she wouldn’t even allow that, saying it would be embarrassing for a woman to be treated by a man, and half-jokingly(?) drawing her monster-slaying sword, telling me to stay put.

“Miss… you shouldn’t drink too much, for tomorrow’s hangover.”

“Oh, don’t worry~. Despite appearances, I’ve always woken up fine in the morning, right?”

“…That’s true.”

The funny thing was that despite being weak with alcohol, she never had hangovers.

Anyway, we entered a pub near the university and clinked our beer glasses in a toast.

“Cheers! Is this the 39th time I’m drinking with Janghun-i?”

“You’ve… been counting that precisely?”

“Of course! It’s already been half a year since we became adults! When two young adults of the opposite sex get together, drinking is the obvious thing to do! Right?”

“I… guess so?”

To be more precise, what comes after drinking would be the more obvious thing to do… but I’ll stay quiet for now.

Come to think of it, it feels like it’s been quite a while since I’ve shared drinks with the miss, perhaps because the prologue just started this morning.

I realized that ten years have already passed.

“Janghun-ah. By the way, do you know?”

“Know what, miss?”

“Today, I met that horned-mask monster who supposedly terrorized our Hero Association ten years ago.”

“Pfft?!”

It was after we had about three glasses of draft beer.

The slightly tipsy Miss Hoshino was talking about me from today.

More precisely, she was clenching her fist in frustration about my monster form that fled as soon as we met.

“No, we’re acquaintances! I’ve met him before!”

“R-really…?”

“Yeah! He saved my mom… and even patted my head…”

Ah, she’s talking about that time.

The incident from ten years ago when the Sword Monster was resurrected and tried to exterminate the Okami clan.

If I had left things alone then, a depressed Hoshino identical to the original work would have been born.

But since I didn’t particularly like depressing works, I, in my monster form, twisted the original plot and saved D City that was supposed to be destroyed.

She was so young back then.

Yet Miss Hoshino still remembered that day as if it happened yesterday.

“Damn, did he run away because I’m a hero?”

“Well… I suppose so? Rumors say he’s a monster with some intelligence.”

“Argh…! That makes me even more frustrated! Why did he run away as soon as he saw me!”

“……”

I mean, it’s not like we could have a conversation in incomprehensible monster language.

Besides, it was none other than Miss Hoshino.

She’s been with me for almost ten years, so even if I changed my appearance through monsterization, would she really not recognize me until the end?

It’s best to nip potential problems in the bud, as they say.

Just like this morning.

“I’m considered one of the faster heroes, you know? But I couldn’t catch up to that guy at all…”

“Ha, haha… well, he’s known to be a dangerous monster, after all.”

“Ugh! I’m telling you, he’s not dangerous!”

After inadvertently killing a three-headed monster, I ran away like crazy.

Fast enough to break through the military cordon set up to contain a Level 2 monster.

Thanks to that, I was able to return to the university by morning and avoid any academic issues.

Meanwhile, our miss was now looking dejected as she chugged her beer, feeling wronged.

“Ugh… I just wanted to meet him properly one more time…”

“Miss…”

“I just felt like I wanted to spend more time with him… and after finally reuniting after 10 years, how could we part like that?”

Even if you say that, I can’t grant this request.

I clinked our beer glasses again and was about to escort the now nearly collapsing miss home.

“Oh, by the way, today…”

“Yes?”

“Usually when I’m on hero duty, I often collaborate with soldiers.”

“I know.”

If “heroes” were the ones who exterminated monsters in Hero City, then “soldiers” were the ones who protected citizens with far greater numbers.

Two fields that seemed similar yet were completely different.

In society, there was also a bit of a stigma that it was a place for “those who couldn’t become heroes.”

As a veteran of <Monster Front>… no, before that, as a man born in a country with mandatory military service, I could confidently say:

It was thanks to them that Hero City still thrived.

“They don’t have any special abilities, but they always risk their lives for us. They’re truly admirable people.”

“Exactly! They’re all such wonderful people!”

She was nodding in agreement and tilting her beer glass, but then:

“No, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about!”

Like a woman who suddenly remembered a story to tell during drinks, Miss Hoshino mentioned some soldier she briefly met this morning.

“You know, I saw a really capable new recruit this morning.”

“A capable… new recruit?”

“Yeah. He was an ordinary soldier but… he was very knowledgeable about monsters? Anyway, he was a really smart soldier.”

“!!”

An ordinary infantry soldier, who was just an extra A in the prologue scene, had made such an impression on Miss Hoshino, who was an SSR gacha character in the game.

So if I had to guess who it might be, there was only one person:

The “protagonist” of this <Monster Front> world.

“What did that soldier look like?”

“Huh?”

“His features, I mean!”

“Fea…tures?”

“Yes! Hair color, eye color! Or at least, could you tell me his voice tone?!”

I thought I had missed my chance when I left the prologue scene, but…

As expected, miss!

You always lighten my burden in ways I don’t even realize.

Anyway, given the nature of transmigration stories, the protagonist must survive until the end of the work.

So in order to “protect” him if necessary, I asked Miss Hoshino about the protagonist whose face I didn’t even know.

But then.

“…Why should I?”

“……Excuse me?”

Is she really drunk?

Her eyes were half-closed, her face was as red as a tomato, and her body was swaying back and forth.

But the expression visible through all that was, how should I put it…

It was as if she was facing a “monster,” with an inexplicable chill to it.

“Why should I tell you what he looks like?”

“What? Oh, I was just curious, that’s all.”

“Are you interested in him?”

“W-what?!”

Well… of course I’m interested?

He’s the protagonist of this world.

But something about the atmosphere made me feel like if I nodded in agreement, I’d be saying goodbye to my life that very day.

Though that couldn’t possibly be the case.

Well, it never hurts to be cautious.

“No way~ I was just curious, that’s all, miss.”

I was trying to laugh it off and…

Whoosh.

“Huh?”

Move past this situation, but?

Lick.

“Ah, miss?!”

Miss Hoshino had somehow moved from directly in front of me to right beside me.

Maybe it’s because she’s in human form.

I couldn’t follow her movement at all with my eyes.

So while I was startled, the miss suddenly started licking my ear.

And then she said:

“This taste! It’s the taste of [lying].”

“!!”

Suddenly acting like she was an Italian zipper mafia or something.

Her eyes had transformed into slitted beast-like pupils, staring at me intensely.

“Tell me the truth.”

“Y-yes?”

“Why are you suddenly asking about that?”