“Oh, oh, waaah…”
“Hehe, what do you think? Looks like it’ll be fun, right?”
“Yes, it looks super, super… fun…!”
The moment we entered the comic café, Batori’s eyes went incredibly wide, her reaction full of delight.
Fortunately, it was a time when there weren’t many people, so as soon as we stepped inside, there were countless bookshelves like in a library, packed with far more books than that—hundreds, thousands of them.
For someone like her, who seemed to be here for the first time, wouldn’t it have to be unbelievably enjoyable?
Probably… with Batori’s personality, I couldn’t imagine her coming to a place like this on her own, and of her own accord at that.
“First, shall we decide on the room we’ll use? We could sit at a table like that, but… taking a whole room is much more comfortable than a table.”
“Yes, y-yes…!”
“Hehe.”
Batori’s reaction was cute enough to make me laugh without realizing it.
If she weren’t an eoduksini but had a tail like a puppy or a wolf, she probably would’ve been wagging it like crazy, all papapap, in anticipation.
Anyway, after wandering around the comic café with her for a while, the place we chose was a small room located in the very corner.
For the two of us, both quite small in build, it was large enough to feel rather spacious.
Of course… separate from that, the room itself was simply on the small side.
The floor was made of a soft, fluffy mat, with a few blankets and pillows—a little room where you could sit comfortably, roll around, and enjoy books.
It didn’t seem like a place where you could spend time doing anything particularly active inside.
“Waaah… Handler, this place is super, super big… The floor is all soft and fluffy too…”
“It is, isn’t it? It seems comfortable for reading books.”
“Heh…”
The sight of her pressing and touching the floor over and over while reacting like that was truly cute.
Anyone who saw such an adorable little dokkaebi would have no choice but to cherish her, so I couldn’t understand why she was this shy, timid, and lacking in confidence.
Of course… there could be many reasons.
A person’s personality was something formed and changed by all sorts of reasons and events, after all.
“First, shall we go take a look at the books?”
“Yes, y-yes…!”
“Still, this is a place for reading books, so let’s keep our voices a little lower. All right?”
“Yes, yeees…!”
…I wasn’t sure what had changed, though?
At any rate, I took her and began heading outside.
Truthfully, I didn’t know much about comics, but the real charm of places like this was picking out anything that looked interesting and enjoying it.
There were so many books, so there was no need to insist on reading just one, right?
“Hehe…”
I laughed without realizing it.
I didn’t really know any comics well, but I was looking forward to it anyway.
On top of that, Batori, who was looking at the countless books packed into the shelves beside me, seemed incredibly excited as well, so we decided to pick out books separately for now.
And so, we split up for a bit and chose our books.
“Miss Batori, what did you bring?”
“Ah, um… a romance comic that’s really popular these days…? Something like that… Um, I heard a new volume came out this time, so, so, um… hehe…”
“Hmm…”
I had no idea what it was.
Well, to begin with, I didn’t read many comics, and I was busy working… and busy searching for pictures of cute, pretty, fluffy, or sleek beastman heroes.
I’d never had much interest in comics and other subcultures in the first place.
“Wow, it looks really interesting. Since we have a place like this set up too, it seems like it’ll be nice to spend time comfortably while reading.”
“Hehe… right…? I’m really looking forward to it too…! The floor here is really soft, so I like it… and the blanket is warm too, so I think it’ll be good for reading!”
But there was no need to go out of my way to ruin the mood and her smile, was there?
So I answered appropriately and began lying down beside her as well.
What I had chosen was… just a comic book I genuinely knew nothing about.
To be honest, I had simply pulled out the first volume of some kind of comic I had never even heard of until now.
The reason itself was nothing special.
It was because I didn’t know anything anyway…
“Hehe…”
Well, Batori was in such a good mood that the corners of her mouth hadn’t gone down at all for a while now.
And I had become able to slack off on the clock very comfortably!
Even if I fell asleep like this, it wouldn’t be falling asleep while reading comics, but practically no different from falling asleep during work hours behind the team leader’s back, so if anything, it was a gain.
“H-Handler? Why are you looking at me like that…? Is there something on my head?”
“Ah. I was just looking because your horns are fascinating.”
On top of that, I could conveniently admire her horns too, you know?
“Uh…”
“Would it be all right if I gently touched them while reading?”
So today too, this time too, I asked once because I was bored.
They really were horns that made me want to touch them every time I saw them.
Their uniquely smooth texture was truly fascinating… and recently, in the process of meeting Saran, the lingering regret of not being able to touch her tongue made me keep looking at horns instead.
If I were being honest, I wanted to touch Saran’s tongue directly.
I seriously wanted to touch that snake tongue—not as thick as an ordinary person’s, but not so insanely thin like a real snake’s that she couldn’t pronounce anything properly.
“……”
“Is it not okay?”
At any rate, for that reason, I tried saying something like that to Batori.
Truthfully, even if she didn’t give me permission, it wouldn’t particularly be a problem for reading books… I was just bored?
Because I wanted to touch them?
There wasn’t any especially grand reason.
Well… I had always been like this in the first place.
“U-um, that, uuh…”
Unlike me, she looked incredibly conflicted.
She lowered her eyes completely, her cheeks faintly turning red as she wore a worried expression.
Somehow, it was cute.
So tiny-cute.
It had been quite a long time since I’d seen an adult woman much smaller than me, but because she was a girl with dokkaebi horns, she felt even cuter.
On top of that, her hair was both white and black… and her eyes were red, so when I thought of it as the reaction of a girl who felt quite mystical, there was no way she wouldn’t seem even cuter.
“I-it’s okay…!”
“Oh.”
“If it’s you, Handler… um, please be gentle…?”
“Ooh…”
She was seriously freaking cute.
Also, I was honestly rather surprised that she gave permission more easily than I expected this time too.
After all, when I touched them last time, they had definitely seemed like quite sensitive organs, so I was a little surprised that she gave permission so easily this time as well.
It was to the point where I seriously wondered if the direction of the hypnosis I had put on her last time had been wrong.
Last time, it had merely been something like telling her not to easily believe the words of people she had just met, people she wasn’t familiar with… but should I change the type of hypnosis a little and tell her not to trust people too much at all…?
“……”
“Hyaaah?!”
“Ah, I’ll touch them gently.”
“Yes, y-yes…”
Of course, I was still going to touch them.
.
.
.
And so, we began reading for now.
I enjoyed my book while stroking Batori’s horn as she lay next to me and read.
Of course, the comic itself wasn’t all that interesting, but it was at least enough to pass the time as entertainment, the sort of comic suited to spending time without thinking about anything.
Even so, the reason I could keep reading it was because it was a book I was reading while slacking off on the clock.
Even that trivial fact made it feel fun.
“Heh.”
On top of that, Batori’s horn beside me had such a good texture, and the distinctive… flower-like scent I could sense right next to me was quite to my liking as well.
“Huuuu…”
“She fell asleep.”
At some point, Batori had fallen asleep.
The book she was reading definitely seemed to have been interesting, but she had been looking pretty drowsy from midway through.
“…Pfft.”
Actually, at first, I had been lying down while reading comics too, but since the posture hurt my back if I kept it up, I simply leaned against the wall and began reading.
Then, she slowly began bobbing her head, and her eyes gradually started closing… so when I just let her rest her head on my shoulder, now she had simply fallen comfortably asleep like this.
“…”
Originally, I had only planned to chat and slack off a bit.
But with the situation turning out like this…
I started thinking a little.
I had hypnotized her last time, but looking at her, it didn’t seem nearly sufficient no matter how I saw it.
I was sure I had given her hypnosis that would make her not care too much about people’s gazes, raise her self-esteem, and keep her from being deceived by people too easily.
But it seemed that hypnosis wasn’t as effective as I had thought.
“Hmm.”
At last, the small eoduksini had closed her eyes while leaning comfortably on my shoulder.
Whispering quietly wouldn’t be a problem at all even in a comic café, so I decided to put her under a slightly stronger hypnosis.
I gently snapped my fingers.
“Miss Batori, slowly… slowly.”
She wasn’t just in a comfortable state, but a completely relaxed one.
Since she had truly fallen deeply asleep, putting her under hypnosis, and then gradually dropping her into her inner consciousness afterward, was incredibly easy.
“Miss Batori, when you’ve seen people’s gazes recently, how have you felt?”
“Scared…”
“Even so, can you endure it? When only a small number of people are looking at you.”
“U-um, it’s scary, but… I’m okay…”
“Hmm… Then if about ten passersby were to look at you, Miss Batori, would it be very scary?”
“Yes…”
The dokkaebi girl was asleep, but she answered my voice one by one.
It seemed… she really was so shy and had such low self-esteem beyond my imagination that I couldn’t help worrying.
Truly… really……
“…Miss Batori. You will slowly become used to people’s gazes. Though right now, even just three or four people make you shrink back and feel afraid, you’ll slowly get better.”
“Yes…”
“The reason people keep looking at you recently, Miss Batori, is because you’re doing well.”
I was at the point where I desperately wished she would get a little better.
Though she was a cute, pretty girl whose horns were pleasant to touch… looking at her up close, she was a bit pitiful.
I couldn’t help saying that.
“And also, Miss Batori, if someone passing by were to suddenly speak to you, would you easily believe what that person said?”
“Nooo…?”
“……Huh.”
What was this?
For that, hadn’t she believed me far too easily…?
I had definitely asked Batori’s inner self, so the answer should have been close to the clear truth.
Then why was it turning out like this…?
When I touched her horns just a little while ago, and even after that, whenever I asked for or talked about something, she kept showing signs of accepting and believing me far too easily.
So much so that I was genuinely getting worried…
For now, I didn’t continue with any related hypnosis after that, but that answer alone was more than enough to fluster me.