CH 4

It was already getting late in the night, so after taking a bath to freshen up, I sat on my pipe bed and dried my hair with a hairdryer, and without any particular purpose in mind, I turned on the TV and watched the program on the screen.

As is common for late-night shows, what was being broadcasted was a ghost story-telling program.

This type of program has been around for a long time. Period dramas and other programs are broadcast only on dedicated channels these days, but they are still broadcast on OTA TV, so there must be specific listeners.

Well, as expected, them being broadcasted often means they’re also running out of ideas, as all of them are just things I heard somewhere. For example, in “The Latest Urban Legends,” there is an incident in which <a young girl who was holding a kitchen knife and muttering bitter complaints in a taxi vanished like smoke as soon as she reached her destination>, or <a statue of Ninomiya Kinjiro wandering around in the middle of the night>. Not only are these rehash stories, but if this were a tea ceremony, it would be no different from drinking insipid hot water.

……Not like I care, but is there a sumo wrestler stomping his feet in the middle of the night? I heard heavy footsteps going back and forth in front of my apartment, and it was getting quite annoying. However, my common sense tells me that there’s no way a sumo wrestler would just be nearby, so this must be proof of the effort of a sumo-class plump woman who was doing her diet exercises away from public eyes.

As evidence of this, the other occupants of the apartment seem to be watching with bated breath, and since we can’t really complain about someone trying to exert an effort nor continue peeking in on her, we should just open-mindedly approve her actions within our hearts.

In the meantime, my hair got dried, so I put the hair dryer back in the bathroom.

In addition, as I was brushing my teeth before going to bed, I suddenly saw a drop of what looked like water dripping from the ceiling and streaming down in front of me.

[———-Arya?]

When I looked up out of curiosity, I saw what looked like a thin blotch suspended on the ceiling.

As I pondered if that had always been there, I remembered.

Come to think of it, when I washed my face in the morning, I looked up and saw a filthy talisman that read “Evil ・Expel” or something like that, and feeling bothered about it, I climbed up on the stepladder I bought during the day and removed it.

Perhaps, have I done something I shouldn’t have……?

A shiver runs down my spine, horrified at my carelessness.

At the same time, the area around the blotch made an unnatural creak.

[Whoa~~. It’s a rattling house with roof leaks typical of old houses. That leak was repaired with that sticker huh…… And I took it off without permission so…… Uwaahh, this sucks. Now There goes my deposit money.]

With the toothbrush still in my mouth, I can’t help but groan to myself, hand on my head.

For a moment, I thought I saw the shocked face of a young woman soaking wet in the corner of the square mirror, but I lightly ignored it and continued to brush my teeth in despair, petrified that I had blown the deposit money I was supposed to get back when I moved out.

A woman hatefully looking at me in the mirror on her face (in various variations) continued to flicker away from my line of sight, but I think it is mostly an illusion created by my head, which has been tortured by financial problems.

And the proof is that by the time I get myself together and finish brushing my teeth, all I see in the mirror is my gloomy face.

Disheartened by the deposit money and restoration costs, but at the same time, a subtle sense of accomplishment, as if I had achieved something, I turned off the TV and lights and laid down on my bed.

————-Good night, me.

When I closed my eyes, I could hear the sobbing woman’s voice in the next room, which I always hear when I close my eyes, with unpleasant clarity.

It was as if someone was crying on their pillow, but I wouldn’t be able to live in the city if I worry about every single sound in my life in an apartment…… or so my father had told me, and anticipating this happening, I groped around and put on the earplugs I had bought earlier, so my sleep would be completely undisturbed.

“————-Eh? No, wait……”

I thought I heard the panicking voice of a woman just as I was about to put on my earplugs, but I have always been as good a sleeper even back when I was in grade school, possessing a perfect score of zero absences. Not needing to count sheep, I fell asleep this time before long.

◇

Morning.

As usual, I woke up before the roosters crowed (though they don’t seem to have any of them roosters here in the city), but instead of roosters, I saw a young woman, translucent and soaked all over, crying shakily next to my pillow.

[————-Fumu.]

Three days of living here in the city made me this stressed huh. No, perhaps, did the libido of this inexperienced adolescent boy go out of control and I’m now having these hallucinations early in the morning?

If that’s the case, this is bad.

I need to expand my friendships as much as possible once college starts.

I should be able to make up for it now that I’ve somehow managed to keep my sanity. The biggest problem is that the only person I’ve had a decent conversation with since I came to the city is Mary-san————

That’s when it occurred to me.

Objectively speaking, am I really sane at the moment!?

At least, compared to Mary-san, I think I have more decency, common sense, and ethics, but in the first place, I guess it’s wrong to use her as a point of reference.

Comparing myself to a serial killer, isn’t it like saying that burglary is within the bounds of common sense?

No, wait, in the first place, what is common sense? Of all the people I’ve met since I came to the city, I’d say the one with the most common sense is…… errr…… I guess that would just be Caretaker-san. As for the rest……

I tried to count my acquaintances on my fingers, but I ended up being stuck just after I raised a finger.

“Eh!? W- What is this…… What’s happening, he just woke up and suddenly started counting something, before suddenly rolling around on the floor……!?”

As I involuntarily writhed in agony, my hallucination and its auditory hallucinations distanced herself from me, seemingly frightened.

And then, showing itself at the right moment, the trumpet-like ringtone of my phone screeched out.

Rolling my way along the floor, I went to my phone and picked it up.

“Hello, it’s Mary-san….. (omnom)…… Hmm! Gehok, gehok…… (gulp)…… I’m now…… (crunch)”

[Don’t call me while I’m eating! Either eat or talk!!!]

“(munch, crunch…… Sluuuurrp~~~!)”

This d*mned brat chose to focus on eating.

“(Gulp gulp)——– Pfuaaahhh! This juice doesn’t taste good! Quickly go buy me a different one! Also, get me some more yakisoba bread!”

As Mary-san shouted angrily, a boyish voice, his voice still changing from puberty, leaked out, “Yes, I’m sorry, Anego!” and I could hear what sounded like said boy running off to do the errand Mary-san gave to him.

No, what the heck are you even doing over there, Mary-san? No, what and why are you in that situation you are in now?

When I voiced out that question……

“Hello, it’s Mary-san. By their lead, I’m in the Adventurers’ town……”

[Adventurers ……? The Adventurers who came to subjugate the group of bandits and rescued you huh.]

“Hello, it’s Mary-san. Yes. I was given a ride on the Adventurers’ carriage and after a night passed, we arrived in <Strong NEET Town>, where all the Adventurers around here hang out……”

It’s a town with a name that instantly makes me understand the public’s perception of Adventurers in that world.

“Hello, it’s Mary-san. Treated as a pitiful beautiful girl who has no relatives, Mary-san is now under the care of the Adventurers……”

[Houu.]

Well, that certainly is a reasonable personal story. She grasped the Adventurers’ sympathy by acting as an orphan with no family huh.

“Especially when I said “Mary-san just remembered, but I’m on my way to kill the Demon King”, my immediate goal, everyone was surprisingly kind, saying things like, “I’ll introduce you to a good hospital when we get to town,” and “Since you’re a good girl, why don’t we drink a potion that will clear your head”……”

[The meaning of that pitiful is quite pressing, don’t you think!?]

“Also, the Adventurers follow a meritocracy doctrine. Having defeated the bandit leader and the Goblin King, a young adventurer who adores Mary-san took the initiative in taking care of me. Leading such a young man by the nose, what a sinful woman, Mary-san is……”

[Ahh~~……]

Somehow, I feel like because she was a practitioner of knives, the one with the lowest position among the Adventurers drew the short end of the stick and was forced to feed and raise Mary-san to prevent her from getting into a bad mood…… I mean, not only is the guy being forced to take care of her, he was also being extorted by said person. How pitiful.

“And so, I had him run to the nearest convenience store for a light snack before breakfast just now, but he sure is useless……”

You’re eating a light meal before breakfast, lots of carbs x carbs x fat = yakisoba bread’s destructive calories.

“Their drinks and ice cream are especially bad. There’s cucumber-flavored soda, and if it’s not that, it would either be shiso, red bean or salted watermelon-flavored. Their sodas make me think people here are crazy. Then, there’s their corn potage-flavored ice cream, stew-flavored, spaghetti-flavored, melon bread-flavored, etc. This world is just so crazy that I can’t keep up……!”

Even though her sense of taste made her think the other world’s seasonal flavors were thought up by crazy people, knowing the cruelty of the real world that Mary-san doesn’t know about, I involuntarily looked away from my phone gently.

And then, the semi-transparent woman in my hallucinations, who had been complaining just out of sight, went back to acting like she was crying.

Geez, this hallucination is annoying……

I don’t know if she’s my hallucination or my delusion, but I can’t physiologically accept this attention-seeking woman. Even if she’s just my delusion (I still can’t get rid of the possibility that Mary-san could just be my hallucination or someone out there’s pranking me), Mary-san, who has a smooth brain and is easy to manage, is ten thousand times better than her.

“Hello, it’s Mary-san. That being the case, if I ordered pizza or sushi over there, they would probably have delivered it here within 30 minutes……”

[Even if it’s P*zza-la or G*nza, there’s no way they’d have the technology to cross over different dimensions!]

There wouldn’t be one, right? I guess so…….

“Mhmm…… Then, what about W*tami Takushoku……? If it’s that company and their President, it wouldn’t have been unnatural for them to make a deal with the devil……”

I felt somewhat better when I realized that we were arguing in our usual tone about something irrelevant.

[(Haaahhh~~)…… I feel most calming now that I’m talking to Mary-san (It’s okay to reflexively speak my mind after all).]

When I honestly spoke out my thoughts, I felt Mary-san gasp on the other end of the phone.

[H- Hello, it’s Mary-san. S- Suddenly acting affectionate won’t increase Mary-san’s Affection Meter! Mary-san isn’t such a cheap woman so———- For now, let’s get married in a chapel with a view of the sea……!”

Doesn’t that sound more like your Affection Meters have suddenly surpassed the maximum!?

……Well, I’m feeling more like a male who has been spotted by a female praying mantis, so her telling me all that doesn’t make me happy about it. Even so, she’s too easy. As I had thought, she really must be another one of my delusions!?

[————How much libido have I gathered!?]

“Wha———— Hello, it’s Mary-san. What’s the matter……?”

Perhaps sensing something unusual from my unintentional scream, Mary-san asked on the other end of the call.

I don’t really have anything to hide, so I told her about the unusual changes that happened since last night———– It seems like the stress of living in the city has been causing me to keep seeing hallucinations of a woman I don’t even know.

[Well, no matter how you think about it, this is definitely a hallucination. Even though I say she’s my hallucination, she’s totally not in my strike zone. I mean, for something that should have been my hallucination, she should have a little more————]

In at least a little bit of revenge, I repeatedly called out the “hallucination” part as I wanted whatever that woman was to hear it, to which the hallucination woman responded……

“I’m not a hallucination…… Uuuuuu……”

Perhaps no longer confident in her own existence, her body started blinking in and out like a fading fluorescent light and she sorrowfully cried.

If I continue at this rate, I may be able to overcome this delusion on my own.

As I secretly found hope, for some reason, I heard a grumpy Mary’s reply through my phone.

“Hello, it’s Mary-san. Could it be an Evil Spirit or an Earthbound Spirit that possessed you……?”

[Evil Spirit, Earthbound Spirit……?]

I couldn’t help parroting the words Mary-san said out loud.

Immediately after, the soaking wet woman regained her vividness and nodded her head with tremendous vigor.

Slamming my phone on the bed, I was dumbfounded.

What the heck is this!? The idea was so original I didn’t even think of that possibility!

—————However, just as I was thinking about that, seeing the woman nodding her head in agreement, looking so elated, I kinda don’t want to admit that that was the case.

[……No, such psychic phenomena can’t possibly exist in reality. Especially so early in the morning.]

“Hello, it’s Mary-san. I don’t care about that, so just pass the phone to her already! While these eyes of mine are black, I will not let other Evil Spirit disregard my presence here. I’ll make sure to discipline her……!”

Mary-san seemed to be annoyed, but I felt like passing the phone was indirectly acknowledging the existence of that hallucination, something that makes me feel like I’m compromising, which was annoying in its own way.

[Ahh, guess I’ll go prepare my breakfast. I might carelessly leave my phone on speaker while I’m doing that, but that’s something I won’t notice.]

Deliberately speaking to myself, I stood up and went to the kitchen.

“Hello, it’s Mary-san.  You there! I don’t know wherever you d*mned thieving cat came from, but trying to catch other people’s prey without permission, you’re just a lowly spirit with no manners! You there, answer me……!!”

Mary’s chagrined cry rang out from the distance.

In response to her words……

“I’ve always been in this room, so if asked who it is that got to him first———–“

“I’m not afraid of you either———–“

It seems that some kind of hallucination voiced out her protest, but of course, being a man of common sense, those are things I didn’t hear.

[……Since the rice is already cooked, I guess I’ll fry up some sunny-side-up eggs. I guess I’ll try making miso soup while I’m at it.]

Checking the rest of the ingredients I brought from my parents’ house, I thought about the breakfast menu.

I did learn how to cook for myself, but I’m still at a stage where some of my meals are made through trial-and-error, so cooking takes me some time.

“Hello, it’s Mary-san. Alright, this calls for war……!!”

By the time I’ve finished my preparations here, the argument over there will hopefully be over by then…… though that doesn’t seem to be possible.

Feeling resigned, I started boiling water.