Chapter 72
“…Oppa, are married women your type by any chance?”
Flora asked with an extremely cautious attitude.
Max felt a overwhelming sensation as his vision went dark. A sigh caught in his throat.
Because once a provocative image was attached to a Person, it wasn’t easy to easily shake it off with a single denial.
Even if he explained and Flora accepted it, there was a high probability it would remain as a faint impression, occasionally coming to mind.
“This is really driving me crazy.”
He felt a thirst that parched his throat.
However, Chili Oasis was a restaurant that charged for water. It was incredibly frustrating that he had to wait until the water was served.
“How that word came about is…”
As Max pondered which of the thoughts coming to mind would be best, and Flora waited for his answer, listening intently, Ellen returned with a wild dog after finishing her order.
The moment she sat down, she sensed the strained, eerie atmosphere.
“What’s this? Why’s the mood like this?”
“You know what we talked about in the car when Oppa went to make a call. I’m asking him about that.”
“Girl! Why are you asking him that!”
“You said you were dying of curiosity too…!”
Max figured it out. There had been a conversation between Flora and Ellen while he was out of the car on the phone with the Clements Family Head.
Then again, it made no sense to just brush it aside when a bizarre term like Married Woman Hunter had come up.
Max interjected into their conversation.
He also intended to mediate before Flora and Ellen’s voices got any louder.
“It’s fine. If the misunderstanding has grown this large, I should clear it up.”
“It really is a misunderstanding, right? Married Woman Hunter is just too creepy.”
Ellen went with the flow and asked candidly.
At the same time, a woman who looked like an Employee loudly chewed gum as she placed their food on the table and turned away.
“Hold on a second.”
Max checked all the utensils before quietly activating Psychokinesis. He scooped up a portion of each menu item and tossed it out the window.
The birds wandering outside flocked over. He didn’t forget to soak a specific dish with the water he had received.
“Oppa?”
“What are you doing? What a waste of food.”
“I’m checking if the food is safe. Let’s eat in a bit.”
Waiting for the reaction of the birds pecking at the food, Max began his explanation.
Naturally, he omitted the fact that it was right after his regression.
He explained how he had previously headed to the District 50 Fight Club with his entire fortune of 720,000 credits.
He had left the selection of his stage alias to an Employee there, which resulted in that name.
“Aha, so that’s why Oppa…”
Flora immediately accepted the anecdote Max told her, her expression softening.
However, Ellen seemed to find Max’s discomfort amusing, as she latched onto the topic and refused to let go.
“Oppa. There’s no smoke without fire. Doesn’t that nickname exist because there’s a reason for it?”
“…If I marry someone and have a child, my wife would be a married woman, so I guess I’d like to have my own married woman. That is, looking only at the result.”
“Understood. You’re saying married women are your type, Oppa.”
“No. Please listen to the end.”
“Ahaha!”
Ellen knew.
If Max tried to end the situation here with direct words like “I hate married women!” or “Married women aren’t my type!', he was probably reading that Ellen herself would bring up her mother, the Family Head of a Magic Noble Family, and deploy the mindless logic of “You hate my mom? She’s not your type?'
“What I mean is, I don’t blindly prefer the status of a married woman or consider it a primary condition.”
“Then what is your type of woman, Oppa?”
“Me? Hmm, I’ve been too busy making a living to think deeply about it, but…”
Max stroked his chin, lost in thought. Flora and Ellen stayed perfectly still, waiting for Max to open his mouth.
“I suppose it’d be enough if our values align and she likes me even after seeing how I usually am.”
“Huh?”
“I’m well aware that my lifestyle is a mess. It’s just a wish that she wouldn’t be disappointed by that side of me. And values are literally just values.”
“What’s that about? You’re unusual, Oppa. Do looks not matter?”
“Of course it’s nice if she’s pretty. Who would hate that? But I’m saying that’s not the most important thing.”
“I think I know what you mean, Oppa.”
“Ha! This Girl is sneakily trying to get her two cents in again.”
The birds that had pecked at the food flew off to find other prey without issue.
Only then did Max quench his thirst with water and then lament.
“Hah, having this kind of conversation with you two makes me feel weird.”
“Ahaha! Then should we talk about our types in men too?”
“No thanks. This topic ends here. That’s enough.”
Max ended the Married Woman Hunter inquiry and tasted the rice fried in chili oil.
It was dry and hard, giving it the texture of undercooked rice. The chili oil was added only enough to give it color, making it a dish with barely any flavor to speak of, but in the Lower District and the Wasteland, this was a feast.
“Hurry up and eat. It won’t taste good if it gets cold.”
“Oppa. Thanks for the food.”
“Thanks for the meal~”
At Max’s urging, the two finally started eating. With hesitant gestures, they scooped up the rice and put it in their mouths.
After they chewed a few times, their faces stiffened as if they had received a considerable Shock.
“Force yourselves to eat it.”
“Okay…”
“Wow, this taste is really something else…”
Even if the fried rice was hard to eat, the hamburger steak and Cactus Salad seemed edible enough for the two, as they slowly moved their hands to eat.
Max’s group finished their meal, ignoring the stares that were still fixed on them, albeit less so than when they had entered.
“Bye, doggy!”
Ellen politely bid farewell to the wild dog, which seemed to have made the restaurant its home and didn’t follow them outside, and was the last to get into the vehicle.
Now Flora was in the passenger seat and Ellen was in the back. The seating arrangement changed very naturally without a single word.
Inside the car, away from the gazes of others, Max checked his phone.
The data connection Flora had set up was excellent. Even though he was in the Wasteland, it was faster than the internet he used in Haze.
As the internet connected, Hoshikawa’s message arrived, but he grabbed the steering wheel first, judging that it was best to leave quickly for now.
“Great. Now that the internet is connected, the map is clear too. There’s no need to needlessly grab someone and ask.”
“Oppa. Where are we going now?”
“It’ll be night by the time we arrive at a place called the Salami Motel, so we’ll sleep there for the night. If there are no rooms, we’ll have to sleep in the car or something.”
“What if there’s only one room?”
Normally, Max might have yielded the room to his Younger Sibling, Flora, and his Intern, Ellen, and slept in the car.
However, the Family Head’s request changed Max’s actions.
“No matter how cramped it is, the three of us will manage to sleep somehow.”
“?!”
Surprisingly, the one who showed the greatest agitation at Max’s unexpected answer was Ellen.
“T-Then what about washing up!”
“We can step outside or cover our eyes. There are ways like that.”
“Oppa, you’re not having naughty thoughts, are you! Like pretending it’s a mistake and walking in while I’m showering, or pretending to sleep-talk and hugging me while we sleep!”
“Wow, Ellen, your imagination is really good. It’s an important talent for a mage.”
As Max burst into laughter, Flora in the passenger seat looked back at Ellen with a serious face.
“…You’re not actually crazy, right? I’m starting to get a little scared, so could you stop?”
“What are you saying, you idiot! Can’t you see I’m talking about something serious right now!”
Max stopped the two of them at a faster tempo than usual.
“Girls. We have customers.”
It hadn’t been long since they left Chili Oasis, yet multiple motorcycles were tailing them.
Kicking up sandstorms, they rapidly closed the distance with the truck.
Max grasped their features through the side mirror.
“It was the ones who kept eyeing them at the restaurant. I guess it really shows that we’re outsiders.”
As a result of carefully observing them at the restaurant, they must have concluded that those were easy targets to rob.
Vroooom!!!
As the distance closed further, one of them immediately aimed a gun.
He pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang! Bang!
Gunfire was aimed at the tires. Max lightly deflected it with Psychokinesis.
Unaware of the magic, they reloaded their guns. Judging by their actions alone, they were more belligerent than the guys they met at the entrance to the Wasteland.
However, their numbers were small, and their firepower wasn’t threatening.
“They thought we looked like easy pickings, huh? These bastards have no fear.”
Emotion and magic flowed into Ellen’s horns, emitting a golden glow.
Max considered handling it himself, but since he wanted to see the two’s magic, he gave them a choice.
“Ellen, can you Handle this?”
“Is that even a question! Just watch, Oppa!”
Ellen confidently curled the corners of her mouth and immediately moved her magic.
‘I don’t need Unique Magic to deal with trash like that.’
Ellen intuitively read the situation and selected magic.
Although emitting it from her fingers or horns was her specialty, it wasn’t ideal as long as she was riding in a vehicle.
Therefore
3rd-Tier Electric Shock Magic.
[Citrine Pillar] - Rumble! The atmosphere shook as lemon-colored electric shocks surged up, creating multiple pillars.
Unable to reduce their speed, the outlaws and their motorcycles that passed through the pillars turned pitch-black in an instant and rolled across the ground.
“Oh.”
Max marveled. Reaching the same tier definitely allowed him to understand a lot more.
Ellen’s magic was constructed based on intuition, but there was no instability in its system or structure. It was an amazing sense.
“Did you see that? My control is awesome, right?”
As Ellen’s chest swelled with pride, Max sincerely praised her for being amazing.
Flora in the passenger seat tapped Max.
“Oppa. I can Handle that much too…”
“I’ll ask you next time, Flora. I want to see the magic you use too.”
Max’s group headed straight for the Salami Motel as if nothing had happened.
The problem was not knowing whether the Motel would have only one room, two rooms, or none at all.