149 145 季節はすぎ、過去のことは水に流すタイミングがいずれ来る (1/2)

I'm sure you'll be happy to know that I'm not going to be the only one who's been in this situation.

The moment one of the men surrounding Kaido noticed me, his expression tightened, he bowed his head towards Kaido and hurriedly walked away like a spider spatterer.

Come to think of it, the instructors were incredibly powerful when I first met them.

It may have been business-as-usual for those beings, but at the time, my untrained danger instincts, which were not trained in peaceful Japanese society, warned me that it was dangerous to just stand there.

Is it the same as that?

”What was it with them now?

I wondered when my body had become so powerful, but I approached Kaido with a nonchalant look on my face.

However, although I was aware that I was not on good terms with the other testers except for the party members, I feel that lately I'm being viewed more as an object of fear than disgust.

If you are in the same company, you will of course have the opportunity to pass other dungeon testers and say hello, but when I joined the company, I was ignored, and now I am greeted with a small greeting so as not to make eye contact.

I was about to unintentionally go into it as if I were a back boss that shouldn't be fought, but the other party slipped away without the time to make such small talk.

Of course, acquaintances such as Kiyosumi, duo Nanase, and Kanzaki, the leader of the women's party, responded normally, but the rest of the party quickly left, just like before.

”Oh, that's right.

And if Kaido was surrounded by such members, it's curiosity that makes you curious if something was being done to him.

Then I saw Kaido's expression as if he didn't know what to say.

These are words from people who avoid me so openly.

It's probably a difficult thing to say to me.

”If it's hard to say, we don't have to say it, okay?　I was simply asking out of curiosity.

No, it's not that I don't want to say it, you know?

”Really?

Well, this is not the place to talk about it, so why don't we go for a drink anyway?

Yes.

Deciding that this is not something to talk about while standing around, we went out for a drink as planned.

Ugh, it was hot before, but it's cold at night.

Well, it's not so cold that your breath turns white, but you can't go out in short sleeves anymore.

It was the cool autumn night air that enveloped us.

The hot sunshine and warm air seemed to have gone unnoticed.

When you feel such a change of seasons, you can realize that you spend too much time in dungeons and underground facilities and live a life that makes it hard to notice the changes in the outside environment.

A peaceful Japan, a world without magic, beyond the automatic door from the company of extraterritoriality.

The feeling of weakness and coldness that such a world makes you feel is a reminder that winter is coming soon as the season enters autumn.

Fortunately, Kaido and I are wearing long sleeves, so we walked out without worrying about it, but we both felt the cold.

Kaido and I also walk along the path of people who pass us dressed in long sleeves and jackets.

There are few pubs within walking distance from the office.

Even if there are any, they are often small and not suitable for our needs.

So we naturally head to the nearest station and stretch our legs a little further.

It reminds me of going out for a drink with my seniors on a cold day like this.

”What?

You know, at my former company, we forced ourselves to work late and went out for drinks before the year-end deadline. That's what happened.

Yeah, I remember. I think it was when you handed me an extra task to finish and I wanted to punch you in the face.

That's it. But did you ever think about that?

”Oh, I'm surprised you didn't get in trouble with the police.

As a matter of fact, Kaido is not very good at keeping silent for more than five minutes.

You can choose the time and place to be silent, but when you don't have to, you can talk about it like this.

There is no subject, and there is no way I can remember the number of times I went out for drinks with Kaido.

In my previous company, I often felt stress near the limit during the busy season at the end of the year.

The recklessness of a boss you disliked who came at a time when it was more difficult to find someone who didn't have shadows under their eyes.

My last bastion of self-control, which was a last resort in the name of self-control, after my patience was long gone and my inventory was cleaned out, was to leave work for tomorrow for a change.

I can now laugh at my boss's recklessness, which is still unreasonable even when I think back on it, and my mouth relaxes at the fact that I can sort out my mind to the extent of laughing about it.

You'll be able to see that you're not the only one.　The people around me were also scared that he would explode at any moment. When he asked me to go out with him, I got a lot of sympathy from the people around me.

”So much?

I'm sure it was so bad that even people who don't want to be associated with it were scared to death. The barcode that didn't notice it is not insensitive.

I don't know why Kaido chose to tell this story, but it is easy to have a common understanding of an old story, so it is easy to spread the story.

So the story is easy to tell.

The cliché of ”I remember,” naturally led to such and such a thing.

The story goes on and on about what you should have done then and there.

At first it was a dark topic of conversation, but then the conversation shifted in a different direction as we laughed at the story of the time when a colleague was caught cheating, or the story of how he poured the squeezed water from a dustpan into the manager's tea. They were laughing and talking.

”Did that happen?

That's right!

Stupid talk between men.

I thought I didn't want to talk about my former company, but I guess I just didn't want to talk about it, and when I did, I was surprised at how easily I was able to laugh about it.

It's more comfortable, it seems.

I was able to look out, and I was aware of that.

That's why I think we can talk about this.

When I was at my old company, I would have preferred to go home instead of wasting time chatting about such things.

I would be thinking about the next day's work while I was home, while I was taking a bath, and even before going to bed.

Then Kuwata-chan, the clerk, would

”You decided to go all out with your yakuza kick at the sales guy, didn't you?　I've heard of it.

I've heard you complain to people that you canceled your date with your boyfriend because of work, and that's a bad thing to talk about. You deserve to be kicked.

Now I was able to make time for conversations like this.

I guess I am now able to have a good balance between work and private life.

Thanks to this, I was able to focus on my time outside of work.

In the midst of such conversations with Kaido, a man in a suit could be seen by the side of your eyes as he walked past you at a fast pace while making a phone call.

From the conversation I overheard as we passed each other, I guessed that he was probably a salesman from some company, and for a moment I thought that his expression was the same as mine in the past when he entered my field of vision.

You've passed each other without even looking at each other, but I wanted to look back and stopped dead in my tracks.

What's the matter, sir?

”No, it's nothing.

But I pause.

What are you going to do?

You let out a wry smile at the act you were about to perform and tell Kaido it's nothing, and start walking again.

At a crossroads in my life, I changed.

That's just fine with me.

Continuing to talk about the old days, we took the train a few stops and arrived in a larger city, where we entered a chain of pubs.

d*mn!　The liquor in the underground facility is good, but this one is also hard to beat!