episode_0021

Beautiful.

The long skirt that perfectly embodied the word ‘innocent’ made me understand why men were so captivated by it in an instant.

As I cautiously stepped out of the dressing room, Lager couldn’t help but admire me.

“Oh, you’re receiving much better than I expected?”

“…Do they suit me?”

“They not only suit you, they look absolutely beautiful.”

Lager’s awkward demeanor as he showered me with compliments was quite amusing.

Normally, this would be the perfect timing to tease him relentlessly.

So, deliberately changing the subject, this time I picked out Lager’s clothes.

“Hey, stop flattering me and pick out your clothes. You said you’d buy them for me, right?”

“I will. You’re going to buy mine too, right?”

“Of course. You know I hate owing people.”

“Alright then.”

Nodding his head, Lager picked out a t-shirt and hummed a tune. He seemed quite happy.

Is he happy because he bought new clothes? Or is it because he finally came out of the academy for a change of scenery?

Or maybe…

What could it be?

“Hey, I’ll go with this.”

The shirt Lager chose after browsing through various options was a simple white hoodie. It looked a bit casual, but it had a design that would go well with a formal jacket, so I nodded in approval.

“Alright, then.”

“I don’t think I need to try it on. You’re just going to wear that, right?”

“Yeah… Oh, could you please remove the tag at the back?”

As the clerk hurried to the counter, Lager followed with two sets of clothes in hand. Why rush when we’re going to pay anyway?

Wait, why two sets of clothes?

I glanced at the counter, and as expected, Lager had chosen two hoodies of the same design but different sizes!

This is completely… an unmistakable couple outfit!

“Hey!”

I punched Lager in the chest with a playful expression as he returned with the clothes and scissors.

“Who said we’re wearing couple outfits? I told you not to treat me like a girl. Do you want to die? Huh?!”

Looking bewildered, Lager defended himself while patting his chest.

“Hey, it’s just a friendship outfit! Girls often do this with each other!”

“Anyway, it’s still treating me like a girl. Do you really want to tame me as a woman? Judging by your actions, it seems like you want to be physically dominated. Should I cut it off? Should I pluck it out? This guy is really…”

“Hey, just listen to me for a moment!”

Lager interrupted me with a loud voice. The clerk cautiously approached and asked, “Sir, I’m sorry, but how would you like to settle the rest of the payment…?”

Given that our conversation didn’t seem quite normal, the clerk must have been confused as well. I switched my phone to payment mode and extended it towards the clerk, apologizing profusely. I’m sorry, I apologize.

And now, it’s time to face Lager again.

“Alright, spill it.”

“Think about it. Regardless of your will, your body is that of a woman. Moreover, a beautiful one. Do you agree?”

“…I agree.”

Judging by the fact that the word ‘beautiful’ still didn’t sit well with me, it seems like my identity is still intact.

“And even though I have this body, my heart is that of a woman.”

“I don’t know. From what you’re doing, it seems like you’ve already fallen into a masculine trap.”

“What a terrible thing to say!”

With a suspicious look in his eyes, Lager continued to defend himself as if feeling wronged.

“Anyway, I thought it would be nice if you had something comfortable instead of a shirt, so I bought it. And since we were buying one, I thought it would be nice if we matched a bit. Regardless of gender, we’re close, right?”

“Do you think a hoodie would go well with a dress? And on top of that, the material is like this, falling apart.”

“I, I guess….”

“Never mind. I didn’t buy it to annoy you, you know.”

Having already gone through the trouble of refunding everything after the purchase, I decided to end the argument here.

If you don’t want to wear it, then don’t.

“I’ll wear it well. Give it to me.”

“No, I’ll do it for you.”

“Whatever.”

I didn’t refuse Lager’s offer to help. It’s nice to have someone who can make things easier for me.

Lager changed into a hoodie in the dressing room and came out. With his tall stature and broad shoulders, even a plain white shirt suited him well.

“Hey, how does it look?”

“…It’s fine.”

I didn’t want to admit it for some reason.

He’s much taller and more well-built than I was when I was a man.

It feels like losing.

“You’re being really blunt. Just say it’s cool with one cool word.”

“It’s not cool, how can I say it’s cool? Just be satisfied with ‘it’s okay’.”

“Ugh.”

I pretended not to look at Lager, who was pouting, and left the store first. Lager quickly followed, saying, “Hey!”

“But what do we do here now?”

When I asked Lager, who was hastily following me, he shrugged and replied.

“There’s nothing special here. Let’s just walk around and see if there’s anything interesting. Then we’ll hit the next city at the right time. That’s it.”

“What if we encounter monsters again?”

“Then we run away. Let’s stick to our original plan.”

“Hmm….”

Even though many people would die in the process. But I understood why they were adopting this policy, as losing personnel on guard duty would be a bigger loss for the Academy.

Why did Lena rush so much on the first day? I finally understood now.

Most of the border patrols who first noticed the abnormal signs just reported them and did nothing. It’s unknown how many people will die in the meantime.

Even if they’re just extras. Even if they’re not really living beings but existences lumped together in a sentence or a word in a novel.

To let them die like that.

I couldn’t understand it.

While lost in thought for a moment, Lager was communicating with the command center and on the phone. There were no special reports. We gained another hour.

“Shall we grab something to eat?”

I realized that lunchtime had long passed. Just hearing the word “food” made me start feeling hungry.

“Sure. What should we eat?”

“Hmm… wait a moment.”

Lager looked around for a moment and pointed to a small vintage-style shop at the corner of the alley.

“Let’s go there.”

Following Lager’s lead, we arrived at the shop that looked like it mainly dealt with antiques.

It was a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) restaurant.

*

Even though lunchtime had passed, the tonkatsu restaurant was still crowded with customers. It must be a really good restaurant. I started to feel better.

“Please give us one spicy tonkatsu and one cheese tonkatsu.”

The waiter who took Lager’s order went to get the menu. Soon, two bowls of soup arrived with kimchi.

“Oh.”

“In Western-style tonkatsu restaurants, they serve soup before the meal.”

“The tonkatsu restaurants I’ve been to never served soup.”

“That’s because they’re Japanese-style. Generally, tonkatsu can be divided into Western-style and Japanese-style. Western-style is….”

I only half-listened because I was extremely hungry.

By the time I finished the soup, Lager’s chatter had ended.

“So, this place is a Western-style restaurant.”

Now that the main point of the conversation had come up, I could pretend to listen attentively while focusing on finishing my meal.

“So in Japanese-style, soup comes before the meal.”

“…What have you been listening to all this time?”

Wasn’t I?

I pulled out my tablet with a bored expression. Drawing this and that while waiting was a way to kill time.

Of course, it wasn’t a completely meaningless act. Since the tools I drew could be used in daily life or in battle, I enjoyed drawing various things in my spare time.

As I was pondering what to draw next, my eyes fell on a fork and knife.

“Close-range weapons might come in handy sometimes.”

I took out a pen with the intention of designing them stylishly and started drawing.

Ping.

For the first time, a notification appeared on my tablet.

I thought it might be a video notification like YouTube, but I had never installed or used such apps in this world.

Curious, I quickly checked the contents.

“Check your current score!”

An alert window that seemed like something from a game was displayed on the tablet.

When I clicked on it, the screen in front of me showed:

[Ultimate Goal: Fallen Amethyst]

[Current Score: 3 points]

“Keep up the good work!”

…What is this?

It wasn’t showing my stats, but rather scoring the process of becoming a woman. What on earth is this for…

The answer was surprisingly close by.

“Work hard towards your ultimate goal!”

“If you reach 10,000 points,”

“You can immediately return to your original world.”