episode_0094

······Why did it turn out like this?

How many times in one’s life can one experience being suddenly invited into a stranger’s house for the first time?

This was a first for me in my 24 years of life, so I couldn’t help but feel lost in this unfamiliar and unconventional situation.

If I were an alpha male accustomed to social interactions, I might have been able to quickly assess the situation and respond appropriately in this sudden and bewildering situation. Unfortunately, I had never experienced love in my life, making me a lifelong bachelor.

Apart from the women I interacted with through caregiving, aside from my relatives, there were only three women I had interacted with: the three patients I had to care for and Nis, the agent from the Central Information Bureau who had assigned me as their caregiver.

Nis only exchanged a few words with me, so practically speaking, those three were the only women I had ever interacted with.

Born as an ordinary person, I awakened my status window abilities and went straight to the training camp, then graduated from the training camp and lived as a hospital janitor, buried in debt from buying useless medicines. That pretty much sums up my life.

Anyway, I couldn’t figure out how to handle this bizarre situation with flexibility and composure.

“Well, I also moved here not too long ago, like Mr. Stay. My furniture hasn’t arrived yet. So, you can just sit on the floor for now.”

“Oh, okay. Got it.”

All I could do now was obediently follow the landlord’s instructions.

Following the old saying that if you just do as you’re told, you’re halfway there, I sat awkwardly on the floor with no furniture.

But seriously, a room with absolutely nothing in it. When people move, don’t they usually bring at least some basic furniture? A young woman like her moving to the countryside without a single piece of furniture. It doesn’t seem like she came here to heal and indulge in the rural romance like me.

Seeing the completely empty room, my mind naturally began to wonder why this woman had to live in such a place.

Unless she’s on the run from someone… huh?

Suddenly, a rather interesting and plausible idea crossed my mind.

The reason why she let a man she just met like me into her house, a behavior quite out of the ordinary, could somewhat be explained by that idea.

Could it be that she’s living a life on the run from someone? Is that why she moved to the countryside without a single piece of furniture? Even though the house isn’t soundproof, you can’t hear a sound from outside… is that really the case?

The quietness of the neighboring house as if a mouse had died, the sudden invitation to her house on the first meeting, and the sight of a room with no furniture.

When I combined all these things, the idea that briefly crossed my mind had grown in size and clarity, becoming a hypothesis close to reality.

She must be living a life on the run from someone or some organization, and recently moved here seeking help from me. Living a life on the run alone must be very difficult, so she must be seeking help from me!

After reaching a conclusion, my conscience and sense of justice began to burn fiercely within me.

I couldn’t just stand by and watch someone who had gathered the courage to seek help from a stranger like me.

With that determination in mind, just as she was about to ask for help, she brought out the cake I had baked, placed it on a plate, and brought it along with tea.

“Have you been waiting long?”

“Oh, no. It’s okay.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

With a kind voice and a gentle smile, the blonde woman offered me a cup of tea on a tray.

I took the teacup and expressed my gratitude to her with a light bow before taking a sip of tea and asking her what I should know before starting our conversation.

“If you don’t mind, may I ask for your name?”

In order for two people to form a connection, there is a necessary step that must be taken: self-introduction.

Since all relationships start with knowing each other’s names, I asked the woman in front of me for her name, hoping to establish a connection with her.

“Uh… Excuse me, may I know your name?”

Just by asking for her name, she became extremely flustered and stumbled over her words, unsure of what to say.

It was as if she was afraid of what might happen if her name was revealed to others.

Feeling sorry for her, I gently took her hand, as she seemed unable to easily reveal her name to me.

!Cannot check the status window of an object beyond the user’s level.

Although an alert popped up in my mind when I held her hand, I simply ignored it, speaking to her in a warm and affectionate voice to reassure her.

“It’s okay. You can tell me. I may not be able to say it out loud, but I’m not a bad person.”

What I was doing was not something one would normally do with a stranger, and I wasn’t usually such a righteous person, but for some reason, I found myself acting this way.

There was a familiar atmosphere coming from the woman in front of me, and for some reason, I couldn’t just stand by and watch. I felt like I had to help her in some way.

Although logically speaking, my actions were quite strange, I had decided to live my life the way I wanted, so I felt no hesitation in my strange behavior.

“If you’re going through a tough time, I’ll help you. I just want to do this.”

A sudden, overwhelming confession that would make anyone feel burdened, a blatant rush.

The woman in front of me was taken aback by the typical rush of a lifelong loner who had never had a partner, her eyes widening in surprise as she gently removed the hand I had grabbed.

“Uh, then, um, could you… hug me?”

Without hesitation, she grabbed my hand as if it were a lifeline and asked to be hugged.

What is this?

Even I, who had pulled off the typical rush of a lifelong loner, was momentarily stunned by the rapid development of events.

But after the initial shock, I began to wonder how difficult her life must have been for her to ask a stranger like me for such a warm embrace. The woman in front of me began to seem more pitiful and helpless.

The atmosphere felt as if she had been abandoned by the world and left alone, a feeling that was all too familiar to me.

Starting with my life as a debt collector, the three people I was responsible for were the same.

Therefore, feeling so familiar with this atmosphere, I opened my arms to the woman who couldn’t be left alone and affectionately said, “Anytime.”

“Eek!”

With my permission, she almost instantly embraced me, burying her face in my chest and wrapping her arms tightly around my back, breathing heavily as if she would never let go.

“S-s-sob… H-huff…♥ S-sob…♥ H-huff♥”

A peculiar breathing pattern that seemed to value the air exhaled more than the air inhaled, with a frequency and length of breath that was too short compared to the inhalation.

Just a moment ago, the person who seemed so pitiful and pathetic suddenly seemed a bit, how should I put it, perverted? Anyway, that peculiar breathing method brushed against my ear with its sound, but right now, there was something else that caught my attention more than that peculiar breathing method.

“······Hm?”

What is this? Why does this feel so familiar?

I could feel a very familiar sensation from a woman I had never met before, who was pressing against me without even knowing my name.

The feeling of a plump chest pressing against my neck, the body that fit snugly in my arms, the slightly lower body temperature compared to an ordinary person······ all of it was very similar to someone I knew.

Yes······ this is definitely it.

“Mir······?”

It was similar to when I hugged Mir Ryu······.

“Y-You, you’re Mir! I’m Mir! My name is Mir!”

A very urgent voice shattered my consciousness and pierced into my ears.

“You?”

Completely caught off guard by the sudden urgent voice at an unexpected timing, I looked down towards the source of the voice and saw her face, which was clearly flustered.

“H-Hugging stops here!”

She······ no, Mir, urgently pushed herself away from my embrace and suddenly kept a safe distance from me as she continued her self-introduction.

“I’m not Mir, I’m Nier! Ah, you asked earlier, right? My name. I’m answering it now. It’s Nier!”

“Ah······ I see.”

Nier, that was the name of the woman living next door to me.