Batori and Saran were… surprisingly?
I was starting to think they had more in common than I’d expected.
There were personality-related similarities, like how both of them were homebodies and didn’t interact with people much, but…
“Now that I think about it, this is my first time having a meal with you, Miss Batori.”
“Y-You’re right…!”
“And it’s also the first time I found out your taste runs toward meat.”
“Heh, hehe…”
As it happened, Batori’s food preference was also meat.
When I heard that she loved all kinds of meat—pork, beef, chicken, duck, and so on—it was only natural that I connected her with Saran.
After all, Saran happened to really, really like meat too.
Of course, in Saran’s case, there was also a slight big-eater trait attached to it.
Anyway, because of that, the place we arrived at for dinner was none other than a barbecue restaurant.
It was the sort of place that felt much more suited to three men coming together than three women, but it seemed like it would satisfy both of their tastes perfectly.
So we came to an all-you-can-eat pork place.
If it was unlimited refills for 15,000 won per person… I figured Saran’s appetite alone would probably get our money’s worth.
“Hehe…”
“Hmm.”
Saran and Batori stared at the grill as it grew hotter and hotter.
Beside it, a ridiculous number of different pork cuts had already been prepared, and of all that, what I’d end up eating was probably… only a tiny portion.
To begin with, I wasn’t the type to come to a barbecue place and eat only meat…
“Hehe…”
“Hmm.”
The two of them would take care of it somehow.
To be honest, what mattered to me right now wasn’t simply the taste of the food.
If we started by eating together like this, and met privately more often from here on out…
In Saran’s case, it would be nice if she had more people she could discuss work with, even if it wasn’t necessarily me.
And in Batori’s case, I thought it would be good if she became even a little less afraid of people.
It was still a bit unfortunate that, for now, this kind of gathering could only happen if I was there, but nothing could be perfect from the start.
I was merely acting as a stepping stone so the two of them could become closer.
“The grill is ready.”
“Shall we start cooking?”
“Yeah, put the meat on right away.”
“Yes~”
Saran, who could sense heat, had been staring at the grill nonstop, and once she gave the okay sign, I started placing the meat on it.
Using an ability like heat detection… just to tell when a grill was hot enough was kind of absurd, but—
—Sssssss…!!!
“Oh.”
The moment the meat went on and that delicious sound rang out, thoughts like that had no choice but to disappear.
Somehow, I’d ended up holding the tongs, so it was a little burdensome, but…
Meat tasted good even if you grilled it roughly.
And once it was cooked enough and I cut it with scissors, they’d eat it however they liked after that.
“Th-Thank you for the meal…!”
“I’ll eat well.”
“I’ll eat well too.”
First of all, I was a little exhausted from working all day.
So I decided to fill my stomach first, then bring up some light topics afterward and get the two of them talking so they could become closer.
—Sssssss…
“Hehe…”
Looks delicious.
.
.
.
“Should we drink?”
“I live close by, so I’m fine, but what about you, Miss Saran and Miss Batori? Miss Saran, you brought your own car, so… a designated driver? Miss Batori, a taxi?”
Just as the mood was slowly rising while we ate meat, Saran brought it up.
Alcohol.
Pork called for soju.
Even if this wasn’t some company dinner, when you were enthusiastically grilling and eating pork belly, soju had to appear.
That was common sense. That was the basics.
Since the barbecue restaurant was right in front of the Association, I could just walk back, but… it might be a little different for the other two.
“I walked today.”
“M-Me too…!”
“…Will you be able to get back after drinking?”
“Yeah.”
“Of course…!”
“Uh… then should we order just two bottles for now? I don’t know exactly how much everyone can drink, but…”
Three people could definitely clear two bottles.
Just thinking back to the day I lightly drank with Saran last time—yeah.
Two bottles were something Saran and I could finish off by ourselves, and since Batori was here too, I judged there wouldn’t be any problem.
And…
“Well, if you get too drunk, I can just move you to my place.”
“……Really?”
“R-Really?”
“Yes. It’s only a little over five minutes from here anyway.”
Of course, since I was so weak, actually moving them all the way to my place might not be that easy.
But at least I wouldn’t abandon them on the street.
And so we ordered two bottles of soju and resumed our meal.
The main topic was, for the time being, heroes and the Association.
Basically, all three people sitting there belonged to the Hero Association; two were active heroes, and the remaining one was an employee of the Association.
It was only natural that we’d end up talking about related matters.
“By the way, Miss Saran, I’ve been curious for a while. If you were included in the hero rankings, about where do you think you’d land?”
As that conversation flowed along, I asked something I was curious about.
Rankings—among heroes, they were treated as a kind of metric, and on the other hand, it was true that looks or flashiness could inflate them a little.
But there was no more widely accepted standard than this, and since it was decided every time by the Association’s Personnel Bureau, I had no choice but to ask using that as a basis.
Especially since Saran wasn’t counted or listed due to special reasons.
“B-rank.”
“B-rank is pretty high, isn’t it? There are around fifteen A-ranks… and a little under a hundred B-ranks.”
The hero rankings were structured like a pyramid.
There was the very top… S-rank, but they hardly ever operated, so I ignored them.
A-rank, B-rank, C-rank, D-rank, E-rank.
Basically, the difference between each of the five ranks was almost fourfold.
Considering that… B-rank could be considered a truly considerable level, but since she was practically a secret agent to begin with, maybe it was only natural for her to be that strong?
“W-Waaah…”
“That’s amazing…”
“Y-Yes…!”
Even Batori, who had been munching on meat beside us, was impressed by Saran’s answer.
It was definitely enough to warrant that.
Until now, I’d vaguely guessed that Saran was a strong hero, but I hadn’t been able to tell exactly how strong she was.
But when she said she was B-rank herself, I began to get a rough sense of it.
“I’m sure if you had debuted as an ordinary hero, Miss Saran, you would’ve been incredibly popular.”
That thought naturally came to mind, so I told her.
“Why?”
“Because you’re really strong, cool, and pretty.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. From the first time I saw you, I thought you were incredibly pretty.”
“…I see.”
Saran answered my words bluntly and downed her drink alone.
Did she not like hearing that?
But if Saran had been an ordinary hero, I honestly felt like posts about her would have gone up on the forums every single time.
There were plenty of people with peculiar tastes who wanted to be stepped on by a cool, powerful older woman like Saran.
Even that A-rank gumiho Awakener was like that.
Wouldn’t Saran be the same?
“…Handler! What about me? My f-first impression…”
“Miss Batori, you were cute, right? It was fun how you flinched the moment I entered the café room for the first time.”
“Ugh, w-was I?”
Batori felt pretty when she grew taller, but… when she was small, she had an overwhelmingly cute impression after all.
So I simply answered like that.
Afterward, many different topics came and went.
Since we were drinking and enjoying delicious meat, there wasn’t a single moment for the atmosphere to grow quiet.
At some point, both Saran and Batori kept speaking to me first and asking me all kinds of questions, so I ended up doing nothing but answering over and over.
“Eee… eegh…!”
“Ah…”
And as a result—
Batori got drunk.
At some point, she had started drinking more and more, and once she was drunk, she planted her head on the table by herself and acted as if she were having a strength contest with the table through her horns.
“…I’m not drunk.”
“Haha…”
“I’m not drunk.”
And Saran…
From a certain point on, she just kept repeating that she wasn’t drunk.
The number of bottles on the table was… five in total.
I had to assume I’d drunk one of them, and the remaining two each were drunk by Batori and Saran.
Of course, I had stopped because I felt things wouldn’t be very good if I drank any more, but somehow, both of them kept drinking, and this was the result.
The two of them were drunk. First, I paid the bill, and after that…
“Um, Miss Saran? You’re not drunk, right?”
“I’m not drunk.”
“…Then could you help me move Miss Batori?”
“Eegh… eeeeegh…!”
“Yeah.”
…I asked the relatively fine Saran for help.
At the very least, she wasn’t headbutting a table fixed to the floor.
Her eyes looked a little unfocused and dazed, but…
At least she didn’t seem completely drunk like Batori, to the point that she couldn’t get a grip at all.
She could actually support herself, and she even nodded and answered me, so I was truly relieved.
And so… somehow, really, in our own way, we managed to bring Batori all the way to my home together.
Along the way, Batori did make sudden moves like headbutting a utility pole, and in order to calm her down, Saran extracted a little poison from her fangs, and during the process of applying it to Batori’s skin, she failed to control the amount, but…!
“Phew…”
“She’s drunk.”
“Ugh, mee… eee…”
“…Looks like it.”
I succeeded in bringing Saran and Batori to my place.
I had done it.
“Haa…”
…Because we failed to properly control the paralyzing poison meant to calm Batori down, Batori was still on the floor, barely letting out some incomprehensible sounds, and Saran kept insisting that she wasn’t drunk.
Still, we were home now.
All I had to do was roughly lay the two of them on the bed and put them to sleep.
I was worried the bed was too small, but… Batori and I were both ridiculously small.
If I shoved Saran to one side, put myself in the middle, and placed Batori on the other side, it would somehow work out. Thinking that, first… first of all…
“…I should brush my teeth and rest for a bit…”
I wanted to rest for just three minutes.
Seriously, please.
I had definitely gotten off work, and today wasn’t even a company dinner.
So why on earth was I this exhausted…?
Thinking about having to go to work tomorrow made me start to feel just a little, really just a little, sad.