Chapter 56 – Going to Work (5)

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After Grape asked me out for a drink, he only asked me to go to the bar I was going to take him to, and I followed him quietly without saying anything, and I took Grape to a cocktail bar where people don’t go often.
It was a store that I looked into in advance while thinking of hypnotizing Grape.
I liked the location not too far from the office, the dark interior, the moderate price range, and the fact that it was written that the music was loud enough to be a little loud in a review article more than anything else.

The evaluation of the taste of the cocktail wasn’t that great, but the important thing to me was not how good the alcohol tasted, but whether the place was secretly hypnotic.
From the moment you enter, you can feel all the staff and customers glancing at Grape, probably because of Grape’s body and face that will attract everyone’s attention.
Grape arrived at the bar and sat down under his dim lighting, biting his lower lip for no reason and sharpening his eyes.
I took a seat opposite Grape and swallowed.

Unfortunately, when I sat down, the store had a slightly different structure from what I saw in the reviews.
The music is loud so you don’t have to worry about the content of the conversation, but overall it’s dark, but the spacing between the seats isn’t too far, and the lights illuminating the tables are pretty bright.
It is an interior that seems to have tried to create an atmosphere where only the two of you can see in a dark room.

I was thinking of subtly hypnotizing it so that it wouldn’t be obvious in the store, but this seems a bit difficult.
Grape will get drunk if he drinks too, so I should hypnotize him after getting him moderately drunk.
Or not… I think it would be nice to bet when you finish drinking and leave the store.
Anyway, since I came here for a drink, I can say that I achieved half of my goal.

First… It was nice to come to the grape and cocktail bar, but the question was, why did he suddenly ask me to come back after he refused?
It’s hard to think why there was a sudden change of heart.
Have you ever wondered if a woman wants to drink when her menstruation gets worse?
I don’t know because I’m not a woman.

“Uh… First of all, what shall we do?”
“… De, ah… Why?”
“Yes?”

Grape’s voice can’t be heard because the music is playing loudly in the bar.
Grape, the magical girl, seems to be listening to me clearly, but I hear her music mixed with Grape’s voice.
Grape was taken aback when she put her hand over her ear to indicate that she couldn’t hear, and put her face out. She hesitated, then carefully brought her face close to her ear and continued what she was about to say. .

“Go, suddenly… But, why… Alcohol… Did you ask for a drink?”
“Didn’t you tell me earlier? She wants to ask something because she’s curious… Why did the team leader suddenly ask to go again?”
“… There are things I want to talk about, and things I want to ask… I think there is.”
“What is it?”
“First of all, alcohol… Order it.”

Grape, she said, suddenly looked around her, like someone who had belatedly realized where she had come from.
She didn’t think it was necessary to speak in her ear, so Grape pulled her chair a little closer and sat down, and she gestured for me to sit close.
Their legs are entangled under the table, but in a surprise they are untied.

A little weird music is playing in the bar, and the dim lighting makes Grape look more sexy and sexy than usual.
Somehow, it seems like I’m getting more and more shy, so my saliva swallows involuntarily.
She felt a giddy, chilling feeling in her lower body from the leg that had just brushed her.

“This is the first time I’ve been to that cocktail bar… The manager recommends it.”
“First time here… Any recommendations?”
“Yes, since I asked you to come, I will pay for the money and drink whatever you give me.”
“… Are you drinking it all?”

Grape gulps, picks up the menu, and continues to alternate between me and the menu.
She glanced and looked, then called the bell for the waiter and started ordering a cocktail.
Anyway, I plan to make up for the money by collecting hair when I go to see Rapid.
I didn’t have much balance, but there’s no reason to save it.

When the clerk arrived, Grape skillfully pointed his finger at the menu and ordered, and the clerk blankly looked at Grape’s face and chest before coming to his senses and asking for the menu to be called again.
After a while, the cocktails were made and the staff put one glass on each table and started explaining briefly about the drink by pointing to the glass with his hand.

“This cocktail is Manhattan, this is Long Island Iced Tea, alcohol…”
“It’s okay if you don’t explain, I’ll take care of it.”
“Yes, then please order again.”

What came to me was a drink called Long Island Iced Tea, and what was placed in front of the grapes was a cocktail called Manhattan.
It was my first time drinking a cocktail, so I took a small sip, and slowly put the glass down, surprised by the sweet, juice-like taste.

“It’s delicious… ?”
“Mr. Anger drinks lattes because coffee is bitter, and he can’t drink coffee without sugar. Do you like sweet things?”

I nodded silently and emptied my glass little by little.
Much tastier than expected.
The reason why it is more expensive than other alcohol is that it is sweet even though it is alcohol, so it is sweet enough to make you want to taste it.
Grape watched me drink quietly, took a bite of the cherry on top of the glass, chewed it lightly, and emptied half of the glass at once.

“Ha…”

Grape put down his glass with a sigh, probably because his throat was dry, and looked into my eyes.
I was quietly watching Grape, and suddenly came to the cocktail bar and brought up the story first to ease the awkward atmosphere.

“It’s very glancing around.”
“Yes?”
“Well, because the manager is pretty… I can see it too. Even the staff stared at me earlier and left.”

Then Grape looked around in a little surprise, then suddenly looked at me with a puzzled expression and said,

“… Does Mr. Anger tell everyone he’s pretty?”
“No? He says he’s only pretty with pretty people?”
“… Is it so? Like who?”
“Hmm…”

While drinking quietly, thinking about who I could call pretty, I spread my hands and folded them one by one as I talked.

“Rapid, Grape, Ash, Esther, Lily…”
“Yes?”
“Rosé, Arna, Sienna, Louis… Rusty…”
“No, wait… Wait.”

I folded my fingers one by one, saying the names of all the magical girls I knew.
Then Grape suddenly held out his palm, stopped him, and said with a look of bewilderment.

“Excuse me… Actually know everything… Have you ever seen one? Are they just magical girls?”
“Not all… ?”

I actually saw Rapid, and luckily I saw Esther and Ash in real life, and Rosé, Arna, Sienna, and Louie had sex.
Rusty is the missing number 7 magical girl, although she wasn’t particularly fond of it, she thinks she has a distinctive and pretty face as much as her decadent and sadistic appearance.
I see Grape every day… She is so pretty that you would think she is pretty even if you look at her every day.

“Ha… Please only talk to people you have actually met. Originally, everyone who sees you says you’re pretty if you’re pretty, right?”

I thought as I sucked on the straw of my cocktail as Grape spoke with his hand on his head.
I told Rapid that I was pretty only in my heart, and Grape was the only one who often said that she was pretty in reality.
To be honest, in my eyes, I’m already used to the looks of magical girls, so ordinary girls only look like their faces are distorted.
I don’t know when it became like this, but it really made me look like an awkward person, so I wasn’t very interested unless it was a magical girl.

“Is there only the manager?”
“… Yes?”
“Only the team leader said it was pretty.”

No matter how much I think about it, I can only think of Grape recently who said I was pretty.
I sucked on the straw and said, filling my mouth with sweet alcohol.
Then, for some reason, Grape covered his face with both hands, rubbed it like he was washing his face, then grabbed the glass and drank it in one go, emptying it.

“Haaa… I really don’t know… Confused…”
“… Why are you like that?”

Grape, who emptied his glass in an instant, showing how much he liked cocktails, rang the bell calling the staff and ordered the staff to come running right away and order a new drink.
Then, sitting with his legs crossed, he stared at me, then his eyes grew sharper and he glared at me nervously.

“… Anger, have you ever been in a relationship?”

… This is a very painful question.
This is also a question the manager has asked me several times.
I replied with a little disappointment at Grape’s position as a team leader to ask painful questions to his subordinates.

“… I don’t have one.”
“… Really? Not even one?”
“Does this look like a girlfriend?”
“Ugh…”

When I confidently slapped my face with the palm of my hand, Grape couldn’t bear to deny it and closed his eyes tightly with a pained sound.
I don’t have anything to affirm so strongly, but I was a little hurt.

“Others, speaking of looks, but… Mr. Anger, why are you getting sick these days? As for the face…”
“You mean it’s getting ugly?”
“No, not that… Haaa… Hey, when I first saw it, I had a more normal body and less dark circles, didn’t I?”

To say so persistently that I’m getting ugly…
I answered in a sad voice, wondering if I had done something wrong.

“At that time, I hadn’t given up on the National Guard yet, so I was doing some exercise.”
“A defense? Uh… ? Anger, did you try to join the National Guard? When… ?”
“I have been trying to get in for a long time. After coming out of an engineering school, I fell for programming, I prepared for the National Defense Corps signalman and became a trainee, and then I was dropped during training…”

Currently, it is difficult to enter the National Guard as a trainee, and it is even more difficult to complete the course after entering.
After the training period, those with excellent grades become soldiers and support magical girls.
Among them, the communication soldier is located in Area 0, where Ash and Rapid are located, and communicates with each magical girl.
I prepared hard, but I got a job without being able to join the army because I was eliminated with a terrible score in the battle test against the demon dog.

“Trainee… I did not know. It’s the first time I’ve heard of such a thing…”
“It’s something the people in the company don’t even know. Please don’t talk or talk about it.”

If the manager finds out, he will definitely bother the trainee to go back to prepare if this is going to happen even if there is a little problem while working.

“I see… No one knows… So you’ve never met a real woman before?”
“… I’m not really interested in women in the first place.”

From the moment I saw Rapid’s video, all ordinary women in my eyes looked like misformed creatures.
At the very least, she doesn’t get excited when she sees anyone other than the same magical girl.

“… Why does someone who says he’s not interested in women keep telling me that I’m pretty?”
“Isn’t it pretty? Like a magical girl, she has a great body.”
“Ah… Are you saying you’re pretty because you’re a magical girl?”
“I thought she was pretty ever since I didn’t know she was a magical girl. But in the end, that might be true, because the person she thought was pretty was a magical girl.”
“Aaaaa…”

Grape put his hand to his forehead again and lowered his head with a groan.
After a while, the staff brought a new cocktail, and Grape gulped it down and ordered another cocktail.

“Hey, this… Please make this original.”
“The alcohol level must be a bit high… ?”
“Please just do it.”