Chapter 90: I was thinking maybe you came to a pub alone during Honey Hour on purpose to hunt for men

Then there had been a period when people from underground groups started using the leather combat clothes adventurers no longer used.

That group had been called Oban Braytions, so the fashion of wearing leather combat clothes also came to be called Oban Braytions before long.

The group called Oban Braytions itself had faded with the times.

But Oban Braytions as a fashion still remained now as a wild-tasting style.

The one wrapped in sharp leather fashion in the Oban Braytions style was a tall, boyish woman.

She had a face that looked harsh, and like the fashion it was sharp... or rather prickly. She was a pale woman with striking sky-blue short hair and eyes.

Looking up at the face of the woman on his left, Kazui said her name.

"If it isn’t Monica."

The one who had sat in the seat on Kazui’s left was Monica.

"Why are you here?"

"That’s my line!"

Asked by Kazui, Monica declared it in a thorny tone, then returned the question.

"You... why is a brat like you here? This isn’t a shop kids come to!"

"I got hungry, so I came to eat."

He could not talk about his real purpose, so he gave a false reason.

"Besides, adventurers are treated as adults, so we can go in and out of taverns freely. You’ve got no grounds to complain."

On this point Kazui was in the right, so Monica found it hard to talk back.

"...Honestly, you’re a really cocky one for someone younger."

Sounding displeased, she spat the words.

"And why sit next to me? Sit somewhere else. The food’s going to taste bad."

"This was the only seat open, so I didn’t have a choice! I don’t want to eat and drink next to someone like you either, Kazu!"

Told that by Monica, Kazui looked around the shop.

Before he knew it, all the counter seats and most of the table seats were filled.

(I didn’t notice the customers had increased this much. Is it because Honey Hour is getting close?)

While wondering, he casually checked the backs of the left hands of the increased female customers in the shop.

But there was only one woman in the shop with an Orb embedded.

(The customers increased, but the only adventurer woman is Monica.)

The one woman with an Orb embedded was Monica.

(Come to think of it, this one... has all kinds of unarmed combat skills, since she’s a martial artist.)

Kazui noticed that Monica matched the conditions of the woman he was looking for, a female martial artist who seemed to have all kinds of unarmed combat skills.

—-

(No... but I don’t want her as a partner.)

Kazui muttered in his heart.

(Of course she wouldn’t want someone like me either, so there’s no way she’d go along with it.)

"One roast beef sandwich and one stout!"

Monica placed her order with the bartender.

Unlike with Kazui, the bartender did not say anything to her about the size.

Monica had eaten the roast beef sandwich at this shop many times, so the bartender knew she could finish it.

(Still, coming alone on purpose during Honey Hour... maybe she’s actually here hunting for men.)

Looking at Monica’s profile, Kazui continued in his heart.

(If that’s the case, there might be a chance she’d go along with it... no, there isn’t.)

"What? Staring at someone’s face like that?"

Noticing his gaze, Monica asked Kazui with half-lidded eyes.

"I was thinking maybe you came to a pub alone during Honey Hour on purpose to hunt for men."

He was surprised at himself for saying exactly what he had thought.

(Eh? What? Why... am I saying something like this?)

Even with someone he disliked, Kazui’s mouth was not so bad that he would throw insults at them when it was not even a tit-for-tat exchange.

It was different when he was dealing with Yuri, who was close enough to understand it as a joke.

Still less would he be the one to say something to a woman like "I was thinking maybe you came to hunt for men," which would be sexual harassment in Japan.

Even if he thought it in his heart, he was surprised at himself for saying it when it was not even a situation for trading insults.

"You... picking a fight?"

Glaring at Kazui, Monica interrogated him in a provocative tone.

"No way. That would cause trouble for the shop."

While panicking, Kazui answered with a calm face.

"How unpleasant. A violent woman who immediately tries to solve problems with violence. That’s why you’ve got no luck with men and end up hunting for them at a tavern."

(No, seriously... what am I saying? Even if I thought this... I wouldn’t say it out loud, right?)

He tried to keep his expression calm, but inside he was surprised and panicking.

"So you are picking a fight? Even after getting beaten that badly at the gym, you still haven’t had enough?"

Glaring at Kazui with harsh eyes as if she might hit him any moment, Monica threatened him.

Then the bartender appeared and set a glass on the counter in front of Monica.

"That’s the stout. Seven hundred Dale."

After picking up the coins Monica had set on the counter, the bartender turned toward Kazui.

"Customer, you mustn’t use words like hunting for men toward a woman. Please stop picking fights while drinking and drink enjoyably in the shop."

The bartender cautioned Kazui in polite wording.

He had at least heard the exchange between Kazui and Monica, so he had noticed that Kazui was the one who started it.

"Picking fights while drinking? I haven’t been drinking though?"

He was aware he had made a rude remark, but he did not remember drinking alcohol.

That was why that question came out of his mouth.

"What are you talking about? You are drinking."

Pointing at the cider glass in front of Kazui, Monica pointed it out.

"No, this is cider."

Monica answered him back.

"That’s why it’s alcohol."

"...Eh?"

Hearing Monica’s words, for a moment Kazui had no idea what was going on.

But he immediately realized he had been mistaken.

"Cider is alcohol?"

"Of course it is. Cider is sparkling liquor made from apples."

With an exasperated face, Monica asked Kazui.

"You didn’t even know that?"

"In Japan cider just means carbonated water, so I thought for sure... I was drinking alcohol..."

In shock, Kazui muttered.

(That’s why I said things I normally wouldn’t say. When I get drunk my mouth gets even worse, or rather, what I think of just comes out.)

He learned the reason why he had blurted out to Monica something he would normally think but not say.

Not knowing cider was alcohol, he had drunk it and started getting lightly drunk, which had put him in a state where it was easy for what he thought to come straight out of his mouth.

Kazui had not known that cider in this world was alcohol.

And because he had almost no experience drinking, he had not noticed that what he drank was alcohol or that he had started getting drunk.

The smell he had failed to pick up was the smell of alcohol.

The fundamental difference from Japanese cider that he had not noticed was that cider in this world was alcohol.

After drinking the cider, unused to alcohol, Kazui had started getting drunk rapidly.

"I was thinking maybe you came to a pub alone during Honey Hour on purpose to hunt for men."

And right before saying those words, the degree of Kazui’s drunkenness had crossed a certain line.

As a result he had entered a state where it was easy for what he thought to come straight out of his mouth, and those words had come out.