“Cheers!”
With Midori’s loud voice, the glasses clinked together, and we took a sip of beer.
Well, it was a company gathering after all.
After a toast, it was only polite to drink a little.
Honestly, since I didn’t have a problem with drinking, it was no big deal.
“Cough! It’s delicious!”
“Drink slowly. If Midori gets drunk again, it’ll be a bigger hassle than last time…”
“I know! I’m not a light drinker like the Commander!”
That’s true.
Midori did drink just fine last time.
But if the Commander got drunk again, it would really be annoying, so I had warned him a lot before coming today.
Still, it was worrisome that drinks sometimes made people drink more than they wanted.
“Commander, the chicken is delicious. You should try it.”
“If it tastes good, then it’s a relief. I was a bit worried since it’s my first time at this place.”
“Here, aaah~?”
“Looks like you’re enjoying it.”
“Haha… Yes, enjoy your meal. You’ve been busy with operations lately, right?”
I took a sip of beer while watching the Commander happily receive chicken from the maid.
The operation ended successfully, but every operation was tiring.
Plus, the stress built up because you had to pay a lot of attention.
Honestly, one operation a month would be just right.
Of course, since it was still early days, we had done about five operations over several months to pull in funds.
Later on, though, I thought once a month would be enough.
“Lindera?”
“Yes?”
Lost in my thoughts, the Commander suddenly spoke to me.
Wasn’t he talking to the maid?
“How about having some chicken while you drink? Even if you like alcohol, if you eat like that, you’ll just feel sick.”
“Ah… Thank you.”
“You worked hard in this operation too. Just relax and have fun today.”
The Commander suddenly peeled off a piece of chicken and handed it to me as he said that.
I really thought he was talking to the maid, but suddenly he was giving it to me.
I was just thinking about the operation, and then he just handed it over!
“You also worked hard, Commander.”
“What do you mean? I just talked to the agents.”
“……”
“Maybe you should deny it a bit here.”
“I’m sorry.”
There really wasn’t any big problem, and since we wrapped up the operation cleanly, I had nothing to say.
After all, we just worked hard to catch Contaminated Entities and locate and blow up the Core.
This operation was truly easy and straightforward.
It was so simple that I had no other thoughts about it.
“By the way! Is it okay if I call a friend over?”
“Suddenly?”
“Uh… They said their work ended too. Is that not okay?”
“Well, do as you wish. It might be more inconvenient for them than for us.”
“Eh! It’s fine! Probably?”
What is this?
Suddenly, Midori’s friend was coming over.
I was really surprised at how sudden it was.
Of course, since it was just a small drinking party among the people in the office, it wasn’t a big problem.
It was just one more person joining us.
“But is that friend… a woman?”
“Yeah, right? She was the one I went to the rock concert with last time!”
“Ah… Are you talking about that vacation?”
“Yes! Yes!”
A woman.
This shouldn’t be a problem… Yeah, it shouldn’t.
If she’s Midori’s friend, she must be loud and friendly, but it shouldn’t be a big deal.
So far, the Commander hasn’t caused any issues related to women.
*
“Hello…!”
“…….”
“…….”
“Long time no see~! Nana~”
“It’s been a really long time…! Have you been well?”
What on earth.
The thoughts of me and the Commander could only be the same in this situation.
To be this far off from my expectations was kind of ridiculous.
I wasn’t usually one to have such poor judgment.
“…Commander.”
“What?”
“I don’t think I’ve misunderstood anything strange…”
“I understand. I felt the same way…”
Nana was too… refined to be called Midori’s friend.
She looked like one of those pure and delicate beauties you find in colleges or schools.
Midori wasn’t a bad person, but since Nana was so far from my image of her friend, I was honestly a bit surprised.
“I’ve been really busy lately, so it was unavoidable~?”
“It can’t be helped. But isn’t it better than when you just played games at home?”
“Hehe… That’s true!”
I had no choice but to recognize their friendship as I watched Midori talk with her for a bit.
I was just surprised because their images were so different.
“Nice to meet you! Um… Nana, right?”
“Call me however you feel comfortable!”
“I’m Lindera, a colleague of Midori’s. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Ah! I’ve heard a lot about you…! You’re really beautiful!”
I didn’t know when such compliments were made, but at least I was glad there was no gossip behind my back.
Being called beautiful was a compliment after all.
Plus, knowing I was actually beautiful made it easy to move on.
After all, Midori’s friend standing in front of me was beautiful too.
“This is the Commander. He can’t drink at all, so please don’t make him drink too much.”
“Ah…!”
“The Commander really can’t drink!”
“…It’s not that bad…”
“That’s right.”
Where does he think he can lie?
The Commander already couldn’t drink at all, so if a girl he just met forced him to drink, it would genuinely be a problem.
That’s why I had warned him about that.
“This is Dolores. She recently started working in our office.”
“Hello.”
“Ah… Hello! Dolores, you’re really beautiful too!”
“…Nana! Let’s sit down and eat quickly, okay?”
“Shall we?”
Anyway, now with four people, we started the gathering again.
I was surprised that Midori’s friend was unexpectedly pure and delicate, but I could see how that was possible.
I mean, Midori wasn’t a bad person at all, she was quite nice.
And looking closely, Nana also seemed like a good person.
*
“Nana~ Midori is really working me hard lately…”
“Really? But you said recently that work is more fun than you expected?”
“That’s true but… it’s not the work that’s fun; it’s the office that’s fun…”
Midori was drunk.
To summarize, that would be it.
“Wow, really? But since this operation is over, you can rest for a while, right?”
“Yes, indeed. For a while, there won’t be any operations, so Midori won’t have much to do.”
Well… it was definitely true she had a lot of work.
They were on logistics, and since this time it was emphasized, Midori would inevitably be more tired than usual.
But I didn’t expect her to get drunk and cuddle up to her friend like a baby.
In the end, that just proved how close Midori and Nana were, so I was looking at it positively.
After all, having one really good friend in life was needed.
Well, for me now, making one was kind of difficult.
“Hehe, Midori. Aren’t you on vacation starting tomorrow?”
“Uh? That’s right! Starting tomorrow I’ll be on vacation… hehehe… that’s nice…”
“You’ll finally be able to relax at home for a bit, right?”
“Uh…”
Drunk Midori was a bit cute.
She was bright and cute even normally, but there was something different about her when she was drunk.
As I was watching the drunk Midori curled up in Nana’s lap, I felt someone looking at me.
“…?”
Turning slightly, I saw Nana suddenly staring at me.
Why was she looking at me all of a sudden?
We did exchange a few words today, but there shouldn’t be any reason for her to be staring.
I genuinely didn’t understand why.
“Why are you looking at me…?”
“Huh? Oh. Uhm… I was just watching because Midori was talking a lot about you. I was just… really just looking.”
“Midori talked about me that much? I’m not sure why…”
“Haha… I’m just new here, so she talks about work a lot.”
“Is that so?”
Well, that could happen.
It wasn’t a problem to talk about work with friends; it was understandable.
“Ugh…”
“You should stop drinking now, Commander.”
“I’m not drunk…”
“If you drink just one more glass, you’ll really regret it.”
“Got it…”
I took away the glass from the continually drooping Commander.
In the moment I got distracted, he took a sip and was about to get drunk again.
Really… how could I not worry about the Commander?
Honestly, a street cat wandering around outside might have more sense than him.
Of course, he wasn’t a street cat and was harder to compare, though.
“Huuh…”
“Sigh…”
“Pfft…”
Nana suddenly burst out laughing.
I thought that a truly pure and delicate girl’s smile was pretty.
I felt like I could never look that cute when I smiled.
“Why are you laughing?”
“I just thought you looked good based on what Midori said. You seem to be doing well.”
“Is that so? Well… I’m not doing particularly well.”
“Haha, you look good. Really.”
What could be so good about me?
It was just a bothersome situation, but she seemed to see it positively, which was a bit baffling.
Why was I drinking so much when I couldn’t even handle it?
She was really a person who couldn’t be overlooked.
Honestly, maybe I should tie him down in situations with drinks around, just to be safe?
“…….”
After a moment of thought, I decided against that… because I thought the girls around would do something strange to the tied-up Commander.
No matter what, binding someone like that wasn’t really right.
“Going home might be a bit troublesome…”
“I’m not going home! I’m going to sleep at Nana’s place!”
“Sigh… I can go back on my own…”
“I’m sleepy…”
“……..”
What was great was that I hadn’t drunk at all.
And Midori’s friend Nana would be taking care of her.
What was not so great was that we had one drunk person, not just one, but two.
“Sigh…”
He was such a hassle sometimes.
If I wasn’t around, I was really worried about what kind of trouble he would get into.
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