kscans

Chapter 67 - Satou's Pillow Lv70

"That's brainwashing."

"It's not brainwashing."

The moment I returned to the chairman's office after finishing the class, this is what I got.

"No matter how you look at it, that's malicious brainwashing."

"It's scarier than a bad MLM scheme."

What rude guys... Why are they dissing me? If anything, this should be the moment where they praise my skills.

"I just saved the Mutual Aid Society some trouble."

The chairman had said to follow up after breaking them down completely. But I'm a salesman. A pretty capable one at that. So I went above and beyond what the client requested. Lucky for them, it saves them the trouble of providing care.

"No, that was scary in its own way..."

"Well, I get what you mean. We've got two idiots right here who screwed up because they got fired up in weird ways."

Passion gone wrong is troublesome.

"It's not like I'm gonna finish everything in one session. Today's lesson was more like planting seeds."

In future lessons, I plan to gradually instill the idea that being in the supernatural world isn't necessarily something to be proud of. That living a normal life and dying of old age naturally is also wonderful.

"I'll prune the flowers that bloom nicely. Just watch."

"If that's what you had in mind..."

"Well then, I should get going now, right? I'm going drinking with these two."

"Yes. Thank you for today."

"Sure thing."

I left the Mutual Aid Society facility with the two of them.

"Where should we go?"

"Hmm, anywhere's fine with me. I don't have any particular preferences."

"Me neither, I don't really have any requests. If Satou-kun picks the place, it probably won't be a miss."

"Geez... can't you teenagers assert yourselves at all?"

But whatever.

"If you don't have any requests, I'll go with what I want, okay?"

"Go ahead, go ahead."

"Then, drinking at home! I wanna go to Suzuki's place!"

"Huh? My house?"

Did you forget, Suzuki? You're the one who made me this way.

"I mean, my taste buds have completely become obsessed with oyakodon."

"Huh? Oyakodon?"

"Yeah. Before you came, I was chatting with Suzuki, and apparently she was teaching students how to make delicious oyakodon today."

Let me be honest. Even while I was instructing those brats, my head was full of thoughts about oyakodon. No way. I can't sleep tonight unless I eat oyakodon.

"Are you planning to steal precious sleep time from a working man?"

"What kind of novel threat is that? Besides, even if you stole it, it wouldn't hurt me at all."

"Don't you have a heart?"

"I mean, you'd be totally fine not sleeping for like a year."

"No way! Oyakodon! I wanna eat oyakodon!"

My trump card. Throwing a tantrum on the spot!

"T-This guy...! The kids I take care of at home have better manners than this!"

"How unsightly... Fine, fine, I get it. But if that's the case..."

"Yeah. I'll pay for everything. Go ahead and buy expensive stuff... no, buy it."

I can't bring out the potential of high-quality ingredients, but Suzuki is different. If a professional cooks it, the full potential can be realized.

"But drinking at home again, huh."

"Again?"

"Yeah, we drank at this guy's apartment the other day."

"...At Satou-kun's place?"

"Yeah. The snacks were just store-bought stuff though. But this time looks promising."

"..."

"Speaking of which, Takahashi. My pillow still smells because you threw up in your sleep."

"Buy a new one. You've got money to burn, right?"

"Idiot, don't you know the value of a well-used pillow?"

That pillow is one I've trained up to about level 70. If I buy a new one, I'd have to start the training process all over again.

"It's a smelly pillow reeking of old man smell anyway. It would've gone bad sooner or later. Time to replace it."

"T-This guy...!"

She doesn't feel bad about it at all!

"...Change of plans."

"Huh?"

"Let's go to Satou-kun's place after all."

"Huh? My place only has the bare minimum cooking equipment. Your place would be..."

"Now that I think about it, my house isn't clean enough to invite people over. My place can be another time."

"Are we the type to care about that stuff?"

"Listen, I became a woman, you know? Some things have changed."

I can't argue with that.

"While we're at it, let's upgrade Satou-kun's cooking equipment too."

"I won't use it anyway."

"I'll use it. Since we've gone back to our old relationship, I'll probably be coming over often, so I'll at least make meals for you."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, you'll be able to use a professional's skills regularly for free, so that kind of initial investment is cheap, right?"

"Alright! Got it, if that's the case, I have no objections!"

I'm gonna spend money like crazy.

"Heck, you can do a major renovation of the kitchen itself. Um, I've always wanted to see someone butcher a huge tiger pufferfish."

"This guy's really trying to spend big... but you're renting, right? You can't do major renovations like that."

"Oh right."

Then maybe buying a house on this occasion wouldn't be bad either? I've been living in the current apartment ever since I became independent, but I just chose it randomly. This is a good opportunity, so maybe I should build the perfect place just for me, by me, and for me?

"Don't try to buy a house on a whim."

"I don't have anywhere to spend my money. It's not a bad deal for you either, right?"

After all, you'd get to build a kitchen however you like with someone else's money. Nothing's more fun than living it up with other people's money. Don't remind me of my younger days... whenever I had subjugation or capture requests involving humans, I always extorted money from them... hehe, good memories.

"Ah, that would certainly feel good."

"...Hey, if you've settled on something, let's get going. I'm hungry."

"Oh, right. Well, we can think seriously about the house thing another time. Takahashi, you think of some requests too."

"...Me too?"

"Yeah. It's obvious it'll become a hangout spot like when I lived at my parents' house, so I'll at least listen to your requests."

"Heh, is that so."

"..."

"Alright, let's go!"

We bought various things at a large shopping center and went to my place. Once we got home, Suzuki immediately started preparing to cook. Meanwhile, Takahashi and I decided to wait like dogs.

"Would've been nice if Chika-san could come too."

It's a good opportunity to eat delicious professional cooking for free.

"...Saionji-san, huh."

"...Is she feeling awkward about all the stuff she said to us?"

"Yeah."

"Saionji-san is strangely serious about weird things. Sure, she really let us have it..."

"We were clearly in the wrong."

Well yeah. You guys were trying to kidnap her and use her as a sacrifice, so you're unquestionably the perpetrators.

"She was starting to long for life in the surface world because of Satou-kun's influence."

"But then we were trying to trample on that, both for her and others, so of course she'd be angry."

"It wouldn't be strange if we were condemned right now."

"Well, you know, I've already forgiven... or rather, moved past the two ringleaders."

Since Takahashi and Suzuki were former friends, there's probably less resentment.

"...Yanagi, huh."

"...Onisaki, huh."

"Huh? What?"

"No... that Yanagi... you know?"

"That Onisaki... right?"

"What, are you guys still worried about that?"

"Of course we are."

Don't say it in unison. It's startling.

"A comrade who once chased dreams with us became homeless."

"A comrade who once chased dreams with us became a drag queen."

"How are we supposed to react..."

"How am I supposed to react..."

Sorry to the two hanging their heads, but...

"That's hilarious."