Chapter 11
.
Choice 1.
Despite having just been kicked out, I press Neria's doorbell.
It took about two seconds to discard this option.
It was such a stupid thing that even if I had been completely drunk at the time, seeing this option would have sobered me up instantly.
Then, Choice 2.
Even now that I've been kicked out, I apologize to Neria and ask for forgiveness.
It took about ten seconds to discard this option.
They say the sooner you apologize, the better, but that only applies when you take the situation into account.
Recalling Neria's cautious attitude on the first day, if I did that in front of her house, I'd only leave an even worse impression.
I decided it would be better to put off apologizing until later.
And so, already, Choice 3.
A tactical retreat.
"Gngh…, you've already made some progress?"
The fourteenth floor of Seoul City Hall.
After returning to the Apprentice Witch Rehabilitation Support Department office, I explained everything that had happened to the team leader, who was stretching luxuriously.
For the record, the team leader had been taking a long nap until just now.
The sleep mask still winking from their bangs was proof.
"I see…. So you did touch her breasts. Hmm."
"But perhaps my attitude was a little off, because I've been kicked out now."
"You're not hurt anywhere, right?"
"Ah, yes. I'm fine. She only told me to leave."
"Then that's fine. It was obviously WWE."
"Um…. Then I suppose that's a relief."
"It was bearable while you were doing it, but once it was over and she had calmed down a little, she got embarrassed and kicked you out with an 'Eek!' She's totally a high-school girl. A high-school girl."
"……."
"Ah, you're thinking something rude right now, aren't you?"
"…No, ma'am."
"Pfft. As if you weren't…."
I didn't bother asking whether the witches' world also had an educational system of elementary, middle, and high schools.
It had seemed a little odd at first, but I thought the team leader had chosen words I could easily relate to, in their own way.
Or maybe there really was such a thing as a witch school.
…In any case, it wasn't information I needed to find out right now, so I kept quiet.
"Anyway, Dowon, I didn't expect you to start groping her breasts already. You're doing even better than I expected. To be honest, the people I recruited before you achieved so little that I was beginning to wonder if I'd lost my eye for talent."
"Th-thank you. I'll work hard."
Still, one ought to bend one's back flexibly before praise from one's superior.
When I bowed deeply enough to show the crown of my head, the team leader gave a delighted giggle, apparently pleased.
Then they pulled their chair a little closer toward me and added,
"I guess choosing someone who treated his girlfriends well and got along with them really was the right answer, rather than just some male slut~ Besides, Dowon, you're incredibly young."
No matter how deeply they'd investigated me, they were mentioning information that definitely wasn't included in something as basic as my personal details.
I merely bent my waist with an obliging little sway.
"I hope you have even better news next time. Fighting!"
"…I'll do my best."
What did my personal information matter, anyway?
Mm-hmm.
*****
The next day.
As usual, I went to Neria's house.
I felt awkward going empty-handed, so I bought a fruit basket, a popular get-well gift.
Since I'd even heard she lived on frozen fried rice every day, I figured it had probably been quite a while since she'd eaten fruit.
Even when I was just getting by with quick meals, fruit had always been the last thing on my mind.
Hoping I wouldn't be turned away at the door, I pressed the doorbell.
"Neria-nim. Are you inside?"
- …I am, so just press the doorbell. Don't call out my name in the hallway, too.
Fortunately, Neria didn't seem like the sort to stay angry for long just because she'd gotten angry once.
Faint signs of movement crept closer beyond the firmly closed door.
…Up to this point, yes, it was a scene I'd been seeing as part of my daily routine these past few days.
The problem came next.
"……."
"……."
Before describing Neria's appearance when she cracked open the front door and showed her face,
the current date was the end of October.
If you looked at people walking around outside, most were wearing things like cardigans, thin coats, field jackets, and, occasionally, the mysterious short-sleeved villain outfit.
It was a season of wide temperature swings between day and night, and people's tolerance for cold varied widely.
It could therefore be called weather in which one could see a similarly wide variety of outfits.
But.
"…What are you doing? Aren't you coming in?"
The girl who, until yesterday, had worn nothing but a T-shirt and jersey,
was suddenly wearing a thick padded parka inside her home.
She had even pulled its hood far down over her head.
Wasn't the meaning of that just a little too obvious?
"…Excuse me."
"……."
But if I said something like, "Are you really that cold?" or "I guess you're more sensitive to the cold than I thought," water would immediately start pouring down over my head.
Since I had no desire to get drenched in the chilly late-autumn weather, I repeated the many things I'd said to Neria yesterday as I closed the front door.
Needless to say, the inside of the house wasn't particularly cold.
"……."
"……."
Anyway, it was good that I had somehow made it inside the house. It was good, but.
Apart from that, Neria had become considerably less talkative overnight.
When we met in the morning like this, I remembered our conversations usually began with, "Hey, male prostitute—" and continued with this and that.
Last time, she'd definitely used me as a bread shuttle, ordering me to buy triangle kimbap and sandwiches at the convenience store.
Today, however, we could do no more than sit in mutual silence, without even that.
"……."
"……."
…I understood that it couldn't be helped, considering there had been an unpleasant incident yesterday.
Still, it was troublesome for there to be this much silence.
Watching her reaction, I finally opened my mouth.
"Ah, I bought some fruit on the way here."
"……Fruit?"
"Do you like fruit?"
"…I eat apples."
Fortunately, the basket contained a few apples.
She didn't seem interested in the rest, but I supposed I should be grateful I'd at least gotten one apple past her.
Right after taking off my shoes and stepping inside, I naturally passed the prison room and asked,
"There are apples, as it happens. Shall I peel one for you right away?"
"……Not right now…. It's almost time to eat…."
It was ten in the morning.
It was a little early if one had an ordinary lunchtime in mind, but there was nothing strange about calling it brunch.
"Then I'll peel one in advance so the Witch can eat it after her meal……?"
Therefore, while I was about to peel even a cute rabbit-shaped apple to mend my relationship with Neria,
the girl walking beside me tapped my arm lightly, so I turned to look at her.
"…Nam Dowon, there's something else you need to do first."
"Pardon? Something else?"
"Um…, …the fried rice last time."
"……."
"…There were ingredients left in the refrigerator."
*****
Today, especially, there are a lot of things I swallow silently and leave unsaid.
The line taking center stage this time was, "Didn't you order no fewer than eight sets of frozen fried rice right in front of me just to kill time?"
Since I had tactfully refrained from checking the freezer, I put even more effort into making the fried rice than last time, and just as the meal was coming to a smooth end,
"…Here."
Still dressed for the dead of winter, Neria handed me a mysterious sheet of paper, a grain of rice stuck to the corner of her mouth.
"What is this?"
"…Could you read it with your own eyes before asking right away?"
"…I'm sorry."
I haven't played a dating sim, but I wondered if this was what it felt like to choose the wrong option.
Like watching your score drop by one point in real time.
The paper from Neria that I read then had the following written on it.
[ Compliment Coupon ]
●○○○○
○○○○○
It wasn't really enough to call it a story.
All she'd done was handwrite "Compliment Coupon" on a neatly cut, palm-sized sheet of A4 paper. (As an aside, her handwriting was quite beautiful.)
Beneath that, she'd drawn ten circles, with the first one already filled in pale blue.
It was simple, but I could more or less tell what it meant.
"When I do something worthy of praise, Neria-nim, you color in one of these for me?"
"Yeah. More precisely, I should say I color one in with a felt-tip pen."
"Then once all ten of these spaces are filled…."
The only thing between us that could be called a reward was precisely that, wasn't it?
But since I'd crossed the line a little yesterday, hadn't it created an awkward atmosphere between us?
Would that be all right?
Just as I had that thought, Neria answered.
"……I'll let you do something lewd. The thing this perverted civil servant likes best."
"Lewd…."
"But only about as much as we did yesterday. Sex is absolutely forbidden."
"…Ah."
…Still dressed exactly as I'd seen her a moment ago, in that midwinter outfit.
With her hood pulled all the way over her head.
"Sex is absolutely forbidden…."
"W-why? What? I'm sure I told you. I'll never let you ejaculate inside me."
"Even so, I'm officially part of the 'Apprentice Witch Rehabilitation Support Department.' I'd appreciate it if you'd consider sex positively, at least…."
"No, I'm absolutely never going to do it. I made this Compliment Coupon to work you like a slave, you know?"
"……."
"I saw yesterday that you really like my bo…, ahem, my b-breasts, don't you? So if I put that up as the reward, I can make you work like a slave, right? Right?"
I was wrong.
Even if Neria hadn't gone to the trouble of making a Compliment Coupon, I was already in a position where she'd work me to the bone as if she had me on a leash.
And even if she offered no reward at all, I wouldn't have been able to complain to her directly; I would've only cursed her behind her back.
Like rolling in a gacha game with no ceiling while chasing a probability expressed in decimal places.
So, in that sense, this coupon amounted to the introduction of a pity system.
A pity system with no downside at all, only benefits.
In that sense, honestly.
The Compliment Coupon was a rather stupid reward if it was supposedly made to work me like a slave.
"Since I made fried rice, one point for now. Do that ten times, and you'll get one day of breast touching. Even an orangutan could understand that much, right?"
"…Understood, for now."
"Good. Phew……, …Then could you peel some apples for me now?"
"Sure, I guess…. Then that's two points now…."
"No? Apples are simple, so that's 0.5 points."
"…Pardon?"
"Whether it's one point, five points, or 0.5 points, isn't it up to me whether I award the points in the first place?"
"……."
…No, wait.
Maybe the stupid one
was me…?