Bronnie, Dirtstone, Nelson, Trion, and Kristi.
Thus, a 2nd squad was formed with these five.
Honestly, there were characters I didn’t know, but I thought I’d done a pretty good job based on actual data.
I was in a bit of a rush to deal with the remnants anyway.
“Commander, everyone has arrived.”
Anyway, I gathered the five of them roughly in front of the training ground.
No matter how much we had to execute purification operations, we had to get in sync before we started working.
The commander turned around, reacting to my answer as he glanced at the training area.
As he spun, his coat fluttered slightly… Was it just me, or did he look unnecessarily cool doing that?
“Since I informed you beforehand, you all know this, but you are now part of our fleet’s 2nd squad.”
“Whoa…”
“How could you include a lady in the 2nd squad?”
“Although it’s called the 2nd squad, it’s no different from the 1st. Actual deployments always consider the ones in better condition.”
“Hmm! Then for someone like me, who always wakes up early, it’s no problem at all!”
— I’m an agent, so I’ll follow the commander’s orders.
The reactions weren’t bad.
At least, it didn’t seem like there was any dislike in the air.
Besides, Trion, who had been a bit quiet, was happily holding a bottle and smiling…?
“?”
Alcohol?
No, sleep…
“Ha…”
I gave up.
Well, it wasn’t a serious issue, and it was just a little alcohol.
I should probably understand this part… I guess.
As it stood, Dirtstone was awkwardly wearing protective gear alone, and Bronnie was holding a game console.
Honestly, I wanted to scold them, but it wasn’t really my place to do so.
That was something the commander should handle.
Since he wasn’t doing it, I figured I’d just stay quiet.
“The operation you will be deployed for first is to clear the nearby mountains, taking care of the cleanup afterward. It’s exterminating contaminated entities and retrieving any leftover Critium.”
Thus, the commander continued speaking.
He outlined the operation’s details for cleanup and the training for today.
It was straightforward enough for everyone to grasp.
As I led the 2nd squad into the training grounds, I wrapped up my explanations.
“What do you think?”
“It’s definitely more colorful than the 1st squad.”
“Is that alright?”
“I think it’s certainly not bad. After all, as long as the agents are serious in battle, that’s what matters.”
Well, I thought that too.
If we just did a good job at work, the behavior when we weren’t working wouldn’t be a huge issue.
Of course… it would be nice to show good behavior when we weren’t working too.
“For now, let’s leave the training to them, and we can…”
“Excuse me? Aren’t you going to watch the training? You did that for the 1st squad, didn’t you?”
Unlike before, the commander didn’t want to observe the training this time.
He used to, so why not now?
“Isn’t the training going to be recorded anyway? We can just take a look at that later.”
“If that’s the case, what do you plan on doing?”
“I’ve been working pretty hard since the day before yesterday. I thought I’d take a little break.”
“…Huh?”
I was a bit shocked by the sudden declaration of the commander taking a break.
It wasn’t planned at all, and if we weren’t watching the training, I was supposed to spend the remaining afternoon working.
That was the original schedule, and Midori was probably hard at work in the office right now.
Of course… she might also be secretly using her phone.
“You’ve been working over the weekend, haven’t you? Although you forgot on Monday.”
“That was just because I had time left. There’s no need to force myself to rest during my spare time…”
“Because that’s the spare time, I’m saying this. There’s no need to use every second of free time to work.”
“That’s….”
“Just come with me.”
“…”
I wasn’t quite sure, but I had to follow.
After all, it wouldn’t do to ignore my superior calling for me.
Honestly, I had no idea why he was doing this all of a sudden.
There was no real need to rest right now; it would have been enough to finish today’s work after a little while.
*
Thus, following the commander, we arrived at… that café we came to on the weekend.
Honestly, I didn’t know why we were here.
Sure, he said he wanted to rest, but what was the purpose of coming here?
There had to be plenty of other places to relax.
“Why are we here?”
“You like coffee, don’t you? Since we’re here for a moment of rest, just sit back and relax.”
“….”
That wasn’t wrong, but I never thought he’d know that.
Technically, I liked caffeine more than I liked coffee.
“Feel free to order whatever you’d like. I’ll pay with my card.”
“…Sure.”
First things first, I decided to order.
Easter looked a bit startled at our sudden appearance in the café, and she had every right to be.
I mean, I thought it was strange coming here out of the blue.
I wouldn’t normally be here at this time; it was work time.
Of course… I was just going to order coffee first.
“There really wasn’t any need for you to give me a break, though…”
“It’s fine. I said I wanted to take a break. After all, didn’t you finish your work yesterday?”
“…Yeah.”
“Then there’s no need to rush or work too hard.”
I had nothing to say.
Even if I wanted to argue, I couldn’t under these circumstances.
If I knew this would happen, I should have handled the next day’s work during my spare time instead of doing today’s work.
Really.
“By the way, why do you work so hard?”
“Huh?”
“I heard you finished a surprisingly large amount of work on Saturday. Do you really want to work through the weekend?”
“That’s not it.”
I didn’t particularly love work.
I mean, is there anyone who genuinely enjoys work?
Even though I ended up working a lot at the café on Saturday, I didn’t like it.
It was just that I had nothing else to do.
I had nothing to do on the weekend, and I couldn’t think of anything either.
“Sometimes I feel… you’re a really boring person.”
“…Is that so?”
“It’s not to criticize you, but that’s how I feel.”
Hmm.
That was true.
I had to admit that I wasn’t the most exciting person around.
I had no special hobbies, and I wasn’t particularly fun to talk to.
Most of the time, I just spent my time on my phone or gaming.
“…”
“Hmm… Do you spend your weekends doing absolutely nothing?”
“That’s right.”
“If you have nothing to do on the weekends, hang out with me. It’s good to concentrate on work, but isn’t it strange for a subordinate to spend 5 or 6 hours in a café without moving an inch?”
“……”
“Oh, and just to let you know, that was an order.”
Ah, damn.
I think I just got entangled in something annoying.
Truly…
“Do you dislike that?”
“…No.”
“It’s clear as day that you do.”
“….”
If you knew that, then why ask me?
Today, that annoyingly handsome face was more irritating than usual.
Did he talk to women like this all the time?
Of course, I wouldn’t fall for him, but I had a feeling I could understand how he usually interacted with women.
He probably chatted with Agni like this and slowly charmed her, right?
Come to think of it, the probability of an agent who rarely interacted with the commander suddenly inviting him to dinner was almost zero!
This damn world where looks matter.
Sure, Lindera was very pretty, but being a man made it all the more glaring.
Especially with the handsome commander right in front of me.
“Commander.”
“What is it?”
“…Is it alright if I ask why you’re acting like this all of a sudden?”
I couldn’t just be a passive participant in this.
I didn’t like being swept along like this, and the fact that he was a man made it even worse.
“Just.”
“?”
“I just want to build ‘friendship’ with my subordinate.”
The commander said this with a sly smile as he looked at me.
His annoyingly good looks made it less pleasing.
Was he really planning to tie me down?
If it wasn’t for that, there was no real reason to behave this way, and I couldn’t follow his logic.
If it wasn’t for that, I honestly found it incomprehensible.
“Ha…”
“Don’t worry. I really just want to help my subordinate who is spending a boring weekend.”
Despite meeting him for about two weeks, I initially thought he was just quiet by nature.
Besides, since he had been sleeping from evening to morning, I thought he was the more introverted type.
But today, I realized that the commander might actually be more unpredictable.
“…….”
“At least it’s not like that time when you suddenly entered my bed.”
“Choke!?”
I nearly spewed my coffee when he brought that up out of nowhere!
He suddenly recalled something I had almost forgotten while working!
“….”
“…Wow. I didn’t expect you to be so flustered.”
“…….”
“I can see your strange thoughts just by looking at your face. I promise I won’t do anything weird. Stop looking so uneasy.”
“…Understood.”
I was very uneasy.
For now, I took another sip of coffee.
I fixed my expression again and took another sip of coffee.
It was awkward to say anything, and to be honest, it was super embarrassing to bring up that story again!
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