Chapter 95: Your jokes don’t count as jokes

"It’s not a crime or anything, so late at night there are quite a few people here who want to do it outside, and people who come to peek at that."

Hearing Monica’s talk, Kazui remembered the Sexual Appraisal result.

(Come to think of it, among this one’s sexual preferences there was something like a mild interest in peeking.)

Suspicion toward Monica welled up in his mind.

"Don’t tell me you... came here to peek?"

Asked by Kazui, Monica answered back in a strong tone.

"As if!"

Then she put strong force into the hand grabbing Kazui’s arm.

"I just often come here to sober up after drinking on Tax Street!"

"I know! It was obviously a joke!"

Because of Sexual Appraisal he knew Monica had a mild peeking hobby, so his words had not been a joke.

But his arm hurt, so for now he answered that way.

"Your jokes don’t count as jokes."

Loosening the force in her arm, Monica continued with an exasperated face.

"Earlier too, you said all kinds of stupid jokes at Church House!"

"That was because I had alcohol in me! I thought I said cruel things and was going to apologize!"

"Liar! You were trying to run!"

"I thought apologizing... and making it up to you would be better after the heat cooled."

Feeling awkward, Kazui made an excuse.

He felt guilty toward Monica, so he could not talk back as aggressively as usual.

"Yuri warned me too, but I have a bad drinking habit. When I drink my mouth gets insanely worse..."

With a serious face, he continued.

"Things I’d normally think but decide would be bad to say, and not say, I can’t hold back when I’m drunk and they come out!"

"...In other words, the kinds of things you said at Church House were things you thought. You just hadn’t said them until now."

Glaring at Kazui with half-lidded eyes, Monica declared.

(Crap! I shouldn’t have been honest here!)

Kazui noticed his failure and regretted it badly.

(I should have lied here, like things I wasn’t even thinking come out of my mouth!)

Because of guilt he had ended up telling Monica honestly about his drinking habit.

But in this situation he thought it would have been better to dodge with a lie than to be honest.

"In other words, about me... that I’m a virgin at my age, that I’m frustrated and hunting for men but nobody will take me..."

Glaring at Kazui, Monica continued.

"Things like ’I can do you’ and ’leaving personality aside, your looks are good, so I don’t mind taking you on’... those were things you really thought?"

"No, um... that’s, well... a figure of speech, or something..."

While flustered, he desperately tried to think of words of excuse.

But no good excuse words rose in his head.

Toward that Kazui, with a slightly embarrassed face, Monica declared,

"...If you really thought that, then I’ll have you take me on."

Hearing the words Monica said, Kazui could not help doubting his own ears.

Thinking he might have misheard, he checked with Monica.

"Um... what did you just say?"

Asked, Monica answered as if it were hard to say.

"I said I’ll have you take me on."

"That... ’take you on,’ maybe means?"

He understood what Monica was trying to say, but it was far too hard to believe, so he was trying to confirm.

"The person I lose my virginity to. That’s what you said."

"...Does that mean you really are a virgin?"

"Yeah. At my age it’s not that rare."

Monica admitted she was a virgin.

"It’s just that the number of people around me with experience increased, so I might be a little... late, and I was only a bit hung up on it."

Monica murmuring that bashfully looked a little cute to Kazui.

"But how did you know I was a virgin?"

"Just intuition. I’ve always been good at guessing that kind of thing."

Hearing Kazui’s reply, Monica answered with an exasperated face.

"You’re sharp about unpleasant things."

He could not talk about Sexual Appraisal so easily, so Kazui lied.

He had already almost completely sobered up, so he was not in a state where the words he thought came straight out of his mouth.

"Well, anyway... that’s how it is, so I’ll have you take me on."

As if saying she would not allow him to refuse, Monica declared it to Kazui with a stronger tone.

"You were going to make it up to me, right?"

"That’s, well..."

"Then if you take me on, I’ll treat that as the apology and let it go."

Looking embarrassed, Monica added.

"To be honest, I wanted to... try experiencing it soon."

Confirming he had not misheard, Kazui went blank.

(No matter how you look at it, this is way too convenient for me.)

Eyes wide, looking up at Monica, he muttered in his heart.

He thought about how he should take Monica’s far too unexpected statement.

(Her personality is way too harsh and her chest is poor, but getting a virginity from Monica, who’s beautiful in her own way, as an apology? I really can’t believe it!)

It seemed to him there was no way Monica, who should have disliked him and been angry, would say that kind of thing.

Just as he had muttered in his heart earlier, Monica’s words seemed far too convenient for him.

That was why he doubted Monica’s statement.

"...Are you making fun of me?"

Using only his right hand to play with his wavy hair, Kazui asked Monica.

His left hand was being held by Monica, so it was not free.

"I’m not making fun of you. Why do you think that?"

"No, because... it’s way too convenient for me! Getting a virginity is normally something a guy is grateful for... happy about!"

As if it were obvious, he continued.

"And yet getting your virginity, when you’ve got personality problems but you’re beautiful in your own way, is an apology... of course I’d think you’re making fun of me!"

In his heart he added,

(And I can even copy a skill.)

He could not talk about Replication’s activation condition so easily, so he did not say it out loud.

"Personality problems... you..."

Monica declared it as if exasperated, but her expression had loosened.

Being told she was beautiful in her own way, and that getting her virginity was something to be happy about, made her happy.

"Well, anyway... I’m not making fun of you, so relax."

Scratching her head with her right hand, Monica added.

"Like I said earlier, I just wanted to try experiencing it soon, and at that kind of timing you said you’d take me on, so I just thought it was convenient."

"...But is someone like me really all right?"

Basically Kazui thought of himself as the unpopular type, and he also thought Monica disliked him.

That was why he wondered whether someone like him was all right as a first partner.

"It’s fine."

Blushing and letting her gaze wander, Monica continued.

"You’re cocky for someone younger and you’ve got personality problems, but I don’t hate your looks."

Seeing that expression on Monica and hearing those words, Yuri’s words came back to Kazui.