While we were riding a Fenrir searching for a wild boar, we ended up finding a beautiful girl too.

And she looked like she was being attacked by the boar.

We didn’t hesitate—we charged in to save her.

More precisely, Mashiro the Fenrir was the one charging.

“Knock it down! Mashiro!”

At the command of his master—Shouko, the blonde gyaru tamer—Mashiro answered with a fierce roar and slammed into the boar from the side.

You know those scenes in Western movies where a fleeing criminal gets clipped by a truck and goes flying?

It was exactly like that.

A heavy thud and a jolt like a car coming to a sudden stop.

And ahead of us, the boar was launched into the air, then smashed into a tree.

It fell, and stopped moving.

“O-one hit...”

—So that’s what a Fenrir can do. He can just run a boar over and kill it...

“W-what...!? A wolf monster...!?”

Like she couldn’t see us, the girl stayed panicked and pointed her branch at Mashiro.

No—if she was a mage, I should call it a staff.

“Wait, Class Rep...! It’s me! Kuno!”

When I shouted from Mashiro’s back, the girl—Shijo Minori—froze dead still.

Then over the next few seconds, her gaze lifted and finally caught us.

“...K-Kuno...?”

Shijo was the class rep of Class 2-A, and she sat to my right.

Which meant she could always hear my conversations with Chiyu and Shouko, too.

After hearing our ability talk, Shijo probably thought on her own about what kind of ability she’d bring if it were her.

“I’m here too, Minorin.” “It’s a shock, right? I get it, Shijo.” “The ride is amazing.”

Shouko, Shion, and Chiyu spoke up to Shijo.

...No, Chiyu’s was just a review.

We had Mashiro crouch down, and we got off onto the ground.

“It’s okay now, Class Rep. That boar’s already been taken care of by this guy.”

“His name’s Mashiro! Remember it, Minorin!”

While petting Mashiro like crazy and praising him, Shouko added that.

“...D-does that mean... this is the result of the summoning ability Kanna mentioned?”

So Shijo really had been listening to our conversation back in that dream. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

“Yeah. That’s right.”

“S-so... I’m... saved...?”

“Yeah. You don’t have to run anymore.”

“Fgh...”

The serious, dignified Shijo—who never showed an opening—

Maybe from relief, she scrunched up her face and started crying.

I pulled out the handkerchief Shouko had returned to me yesterday and hurriedly offered it to Shijo.

Of course, I’d taken it out of Inventory, so it was clean again.

Shijo accepted it with a quiet “Thank you,” but instead of wiping her eyes, she stepped closer to me.

Then she rested her head on my shoulder.

“S-Shijo—”

“Sorry. Just for a little.”

“Y-yeah.”

I’d been able to transfer together with Chiyu from the start, and Shouko and Shion came to me as a pair.

But if you had to spend a deserted-island night alone—

The emotion of reuniting with a classmate would hit a lot harder.

After waving my hand awkwardly in midair, unsure what to do, I gently patted Shijo’s back.

With Shouko, I could do it smoothly because we were close enough to call each other friends, but with Shijo, we’d only talked a little at school and never even traded contact info, so the distance was tricky.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, Minorin. Being alone in the forest is seriously lonely and brutal.”

Shouko empathized hard.

“So-kun and Shouko and Chiyu are all really kind and dependable, so it’ll be okay now, Shijo.”

Shion said it in a soothing tone.

“Black-haired ponytail, serious, big-boobed class rep... another harem member got added.”

Chiyu—yeah, you’re really operating at normal capacity.

In a situation like this, it was oddly reassuring.

Before long, maybe she’d calmed down, because Shijo pulled away from me.

After wiping around her eyes with the handkerchief, she bowed her head to me.

“Sorry for showing you something so embarrassing.”

“I-it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“No, it isn’t. I... I got relieved because I got to see you, Kuno-kun, and I ended up doing something improper... I must have made you uncomfortable, right?”

“No, not at all. If anything, I kind of got my heart racing.”

Shijo looked so apologetic that I tried to make it sound like a joke, just to tell her I wasn’t bothered.

But she turned bright red, trembled all over, and shouted:

“H-heart racing...! I- I mean, even if it was my fault, y-you can’t be thinking lewd things...!”

Lewd.

Was she aware that in trying so hard not to use “dirty” words, she’d actually made it more erotic?

...Or maybe the problem was the male side—things sound lewd to us no matter what.

If the class rep said it, even if she called a man’s thing a ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) “male organ” or a “penis,” we’d still react.

The tragic nature of men...

Shijo seemed to realize herself and lowered her voice, took a deep breath, then cleared her throat.

“Ahem. I’m sorry—I lost my composure. Once again, Kuno-kun, Iyama-san, Kanna-san, Yomi-umi-san, and Mashiro-san. Thank you very much for saving me.”

Shijo bowed politely.

“You’re welcome! In times like this, we help each other!”

“Hehe. I didn’t do anything. By the way... Shijo, are you alone?”

Shouko answered with a grin, and Shion slipped in a casual probe.

“Yes, I’m alone. Though... the classmates I’ve run into aren’t only you.”

“Oh? Really?”

“I... I won’t name them, but yesterday, I ran into two boys in the forest. They told me we should travel together, but... their eyes were... scary.”

She tried to leave, but they followed her around for a while.

And when they tried to touch her, she fired a warning shot with her magic.

It sounded like they didn’t have any real way to fight back, and they ran off together.

“Ugh, that type? They exist, right—guys who forget you’re a human being and look at you like they only think about sex.”

Shouko spat it out like it disgusted her.

Shion and Chiyu nodded in agreement and looked at Shijo with concern.

“Ugh...”

It felt like knives were stabbing straight into my heart.

“H-huh? No, no, Sousuke’s not like that!”

Noticing me taking damage, Shouko panicked and denied it.

“I-is that so...?”

I mean, I absolutely remember being conscious of boobs and panties a lot.

“Hehe. I think Sousuke is different too. You know—Sousuke’s is more like it’s unconscious, or ‘reflexive,’ right? And you look away, and if you think you made someone uncomfortable, you apologize.”

“Yeah. What we’re talking about is a look that’s consciously sexual. They don’t think about whether the other person hates it, and it’s not rare for them to make a face like they’re licking their lips.”

“Yeah, that! Like, sure, having thoughts is whatever, but even when you tell them to stop, they just grin like idiots, and they’re totally fine with it—seriously pisses me off!”

People say it all the time, but even if someone wears flashy clothes, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s an appeal to the opposite sex.

You have the right to dress how you like, and staring with vulgar eyes at that is rude.

At the very least, I want to have enough self-control to hold back if the other person hates it.

“...You three really are close with Kuno-kun, aren’t you.”

Shijo smiled warmly.

“But, Kuno-kun? I don’t think it’s desirable to be giving out improper looks so often that all three of them notice.”

“Yes...”

“I’m okay with it if it’s So-kun.”

“I think Sousuke is a gentleman, and he’s taken really good care of me since we got here, so I think I’m okay too.”

“Ugh... I-I guess me too, if it’s just a little...”

The three of them defended me, but Shijo’s face twitched at those answers.

“Kuno-kun... what on earth did you do in a single night...?”

Shijo’s ears were bright red, but nothing like what she was imagining happened.

...Except, well, the progress with Chiyu.

“For now, let’s collect the boar and go back to base. Shijo—if you don’t mind, do you want to come with us? I want to hear what happened, and we can feed you too.”

If Shijo didn’t want to travel with me, that was her choice.

I could even share supplies if needed.

Like Shouko said, there’s the spirit of helping each other—and I also just... like Shijo enough to want to.

In a school environment, a serious kid who tries to make everyone follow rules tends to get resented.

Even so, Shijo always tried to be correct, and she worked hard.

We were only neighbors by seat, but I didn’t dislike that Shijo.

“...Th-then... please. I said something strange earlier, but... I do trust you too, Kuno-kun.”

Had anything happened that would make me worthy of trust?

Well, asking would be tactless.

I went over to the boar and stored it in Inventory.

While Shijo stared in shock at seeing Inventory for the first time, I walked over to Mashiro.

“Mashirooo—can you carry five people? Huh? You’d carry Minorin even if you died? Hahaha, you’re so pervy!”

After that, riding Mashiro as he showed his fighting spirit, we headed back to base.