I Was Nearly Killed by My Fellow A-Rank Party, but Now I Fed a Nine-Tailed Fox Deep in the Dungeon. ~ “My Master, I Shall Never Leave Your Side for All Eternity,” the Legendary Monsters Said While Doting on Me. Before I Knew It, I Had Become the World’s Strongest Lord of the Demon Realm~ - Chapter 23

The Protagonists from an Outsider’s View

—In the fortress city Looseworth.

It was a pretty decent-sized nation that’d really thrived out there.

They had tons of quests you could pick up, and a bunch of top-notch adventurers hanging around.

So, naturally—

“Tired as hell… I’m dying… Work sucks balls…”

I was swamped beyond belief, and as the guild receptionist—me—I could only flop face-first onto the break room desk.

My name’s Mike.

Truth is, I’m a yokai called Nekomata who’s snuck into human society.

I grabbed the cheapest beef bowl from the attached tavern, staring at it with dead eyes.

(Yokai got totally wiped out by humans and monsters teaming up. I’m a bit on the stronger side as yokai go, so I could totally survive without blending in with humans or whatever…)

I snapped my chopsticks apart and scooped up a bite of the beef bowl, shoving it in my mouth.

(Stuff humans came up with, like this food or baths or comfy futons! Once you get a taste for crap like that, you can’t go back to being some wild yokai, right? Eh, salary’s crap though, so this is pretty much all I can afford every day.)

I just chowed down on the beef bowl like a beast.

“Lunch break’s over~”

And boom, back to the grind.

I dragged up every dead muscle in my face and forced out a smile, y’know, gotta try.

The afternoon kicked off with a whole day of nothing but standing at the counter, handling adventurers’ quest requests and all sorts of random bullshit in this total void of time.

“Hey, sis! Hook me up with an easy quest that pays big!”

“Haha, that’s kinda tough~ (Like hell anything like that exists.)”

“Yo, sis. I’m an A-rank adventurer! Let’s hang out~?”

“I’m on the clock, so… sorry~ (You’re weaker than me, so quit acting all big.)”

I brushed him off easy enough, but then this nice-looking kid came up and asked me something.

“Excuse me, mind if we eat at one of the guild tables?”

“Plenty of open spots, go for it~”

Right after I said that, the adventurer I’d just turned down started bugging me hard, trying to sweet-talk me.

“Come on, it’s fine, right~? An A-rank stud like me hitting on some basic guild receptionist~?”

“I’m just a basic guild receptionist, so head somewhere else~”

“Tch, don’t get cocky, you shitty bitch.”

With that, he grabbed my collar.

(What a pain-in-the-ass dude to get tangled with…)

If I could just go be an adventurer with how strong I am, life’d be way easier.

But adventurers get their backgrounds checked all the time, and in my case, I’d get outed as a yokai for sure.

So in the end, even with all this unfair crap, I gotta stick to being a guild receptionist…

Can’t even punch him and kick him out—gotta just suck it up—

“—Cut it out. She’s not into it.”

The one who grabbed the arm of that so-called A-rank adventurer yanking my collar? It was that nice-looking kid from before.

“Hey, who the hell are you? Wanna go?”

“If you’re down, I’ll step up. But let go of the lady first.”

The guy’s arm started creaking and cracking under the kid’s grip, and his face twisted up in pain.

“F-Fine, I’ll let it slide today!”

He spat that out and bolted from the spot like a scaredy-cat.

“Lady, you okay? No hurts?”

“Y-Yeah! Thanks so much!”

I couldn’t help but stare right into the kid’s eyes.

(Whoa, this kid’s got some insane strength that doesn’t match his looks at all… He saved me and everything, and now my heart’s kinda racing… Is this that gap moe thing!?)

“Hey! Kuon! What’s up?”

A stunning lady called out from behind the kid.

(What the— she his girlfriend or something…? —Wait, huh!?)

I straight-up couldn’t believe my eyes at the unreal beauty hollering from behind this kid.

(That’s… the Nine-Tailed Fox, isn’t it?)

No, no way, no freaking way.

One of the legendary four great yokai showing up in a place like this, hanging with some human boy? Impossible.

Plus, the Nine-Tailed Fox is supposed to be way up there, untouchable, nobody gets close…

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Tamamo. She said we can use the table.”

“Oh, sweet! Let’s dig in then! Feeling like some inari today!”

“Alright, here ya go. From this side: wasabi and plum, chestnut five-ingredient, grilled inari, and shiitake with beef inari sushi. Then miso soup and pickles on the side.”

“Every one’s killer! Kuon’s the best!”

…She’s totally all gooey over that kid.

Okay, fine, that’s probably not the real Nine-Tails lady or whatever.

Man, those dishes look crazy good though.

Kid can cook too, huh.

Off to the side, there were two more—a cool-looking woman in a yukata and a little girl.

“For Yukime, this one’s Uji matcha shaved ice.”

“What the heck is this? Looks like green moss growing on it? I said I wanted strawberry and condensed milk.”

“Come on, just try it. It’s not moss, it’s called matcha.”

“Ugh, humans and their crap—wait, it’s good!? That fancy bitter scent mixed with the sweet cream, and the red bean paste and mochi balls go perfect…”

“Nice, you like it then.”

“…Eh, it’s alright, I guess.”

With that, the cool lady crunched away at her shaved ice, shaka-shaka.

“Suzu, wanna eat with me? I packed a lunch.”

“Yay! Thanks, big bro Kuon!”

What a heartwarming scene.

Once they finished eating, the kid came right over to thank me, all proper-like.

“Thanks for letting us use the table!”

“No biggie. Actually, thanks for helping me out earlier!”

Work sucks, but…

Every now and then, you run into a kid like this who just brightens your whole mood.

Thanks, kid—you turned my day into something awesome—

“…So? What’re you doing in a spot like this? Nekomata.”

—Huh?

The lady behind the kid asked me with this big ol’ smile on her face.