One Drink Per Person
We climbed up from the underground bunker. It was nothing like the noisy, frantic descent—everyone had been making a huge fuss on the way down. Now they trudged up the stairs at a slow, heavy pace, looking a little gloomy at the thought of going back to work. I was the only one who didn't particularly care.
"Team Leader, once we get up there, I'm just gonna head straight home. You've got to get right back to work anyway, right?"
"Yeah..."
"And I'll come hang out again on boring days like today."
"Mm. Don't overdo it, though. If you're handling three people, you'll have to meet them every single day, right? Even working from home, it sounds like you'll be pretty busy. Take care of yourself."
"Yes, yes. Unlike you, Team Leader, I'm super young, so I'll be fine. Thanks for worrying."
"...Isn't that a little much, considering I was just worrying about you?"
"Pfft..."
Anyway, that was that. The Team Leader headed back up to the office, and I made my way toward the first-floor lobby.
When I'd shown up earlier in a lighthearted mood, the lobby had been an ordinary, clean, stylish space. Now, thanks to the villains who'd come and gone, it was a mess in more ways than one. Facilities staff sighed at the wreckage. Regular employees talked about heading outside to grab coffee.
I watched it all as I finally checked my phone, which had been buzzing away for some time, and started working through the flood of texts from the heroes I was assigned to, answering them one by one...
"M-Miss Counselor...! Are you okay? You're not, um, hurt anywhere, right...?"
"You okay?"
"......"
"Ahaha..."
Inside a little cafe near the Hero Association building, three people arrived at my table in an instant. Every last one of them was someone I knew. ...Except one of them had changed her usual snow-white hair to black.
"...I'm fine. Why don't you order a drink first and then sit down?"
We had to follow the one-drink-per-person rule, after all.
I told the three of them as much, and since even they had no way around the one-drink-per-person policy, they had no choice but to head for the counter. That settled them down a little—at least compared to how frantically they'd been worrying about me the moment they walked in. They each grabbed a drink and sat down.
Nobody sat on either side of me. They all lined up in a single row across the table, which somehow made me feel like I'd done something wrong.
"...Hehe."
Not that I had, of course. It just felt that way, with three of them staring at me.
"Alright, as you can see, I don't have a single scratch on me. For one thing, running to the bunker the second the emergency alarm goes off is in the Association staff manual. And for another, our Team Leader is a former hero. There was never really anywhere I could've gotten hurt."
"Why did you check your texts so late...?"
"You get to the underground bunker by stairs, and every Association employee came down those stairs. We had to take the stairs back up too, and wouldn't it have been dangerous to be on my phone then?"
"Ah..."
That was my explanation and answer to Batori's question. But wait... didn't you ignore my texts too, because you were coming here?
"Counselor. Why were you at the Association today? And why didn't you tell me?"
"Uh... I just got bored and came to hang out? Spending all my time at home isn't that fun... and I happened to have some free time? Plus, even if I didn't tell you I was at the Association, you were already heading this way on a dispatch, so..."
"...Hmph."
Next was my explanation and answer to Baek Eun-hwa, who had used illusion magic to hide her ears and tail, turn her hair black, and even change her clothes into an ordinary dress. Honestly, she was already dispatched to the Association, so there wasn't really a reason to tell her, was there? It might've just made her worry for nothing... Besides, an A-Class hero was responding. Any problem would obviously get cleaned up just fine, so I'd barely had any reason to worry in the first place.
"Who's this?"
"Ah."
...And Saran's question, the last of the three, put me in a seriously awkward spot. She pointed at the black-haired, blue-eyed beauty sitting next to her—asking about Baek Eun-hwa, who was disguised with illusion magic.
How was I supposed to explain this? Was it even okay to explain...?
If it had been some other hero, it probably wouldn't have mattered. But this wasn't just anyone—there were all kinds of restrictions on revealing the identity of the A-Class hero Baekyeou. On top of that, Baek Eun-hwa had even changed her appearance with illusion magic. If I just blurted it out... there was no way that would be okay.
"......"
"......"
I looked over at Baek Eun-hwa. The problem was, Baek Eun-hwa herself was looking back at me like she was just as stuck.
Hey, you're the one who came looking for me on your own. No... I mean, I was at the cafe, sure, but I even told you that you didn't have to come find me, and you showed up anyway...! Why would you do that...
Stuck in this thoroughly awkward situation, I had no choice but to rack my brains for an answer to Saran's question. And what I came up with was...
"...Is it okay if I tell them?"
"We'll have to tell them eventually anyway."
A frontal assault, basically. Coming up with any other approach felt difficult, annoying, and like it would just make things even bigger later, so I simply asked Baek Eun-hwa. And Baek Eun-hwa accepted it, looking like she had no other choice.
...Somehow, I'd ended up having all three of the heroes I was assigned to meet at once. It was a pretty awkward situation, sure. But it wasn't like I was scared or anything. The other two, not counting Baek Eun-hwa, already met regularly for mentoring anyway.
"...Alright, everyone introduce yourselves. This is the A-Class hero Baekyeou. The one in the middle is the hero Saran. And on the end is the D-Class hero, Miss Batori."
"......"
"......"
"......"
I just told them about each other. And what came out of it was nothing. Just silence settling over our table.
When the reaction was this bad... I was the one who felt the most awkward. They could've just said hello, shaken hands a little, given a small nod and started talking... so why were they all just staring at each other, reading the room? Saran and Batori had already met before, after all. If those two just said hello to Baek Eun-hwa first—to the A-Class Baekyeou—she'd probably accept it naturally. Baekyeou was an A-Class hero, and famous in all kinds of ways. If she just spoke to the two of them casually, they'd probably respond naturally too.
"......"
Why was there nothing but silence?
...Ah. These girls had no social skills, did they...?
Baek Eun-hwa aside, Saran and Batori... honestly, you could never say their friendliness or social skills were high. And Baek Eun-hwa had just had her identity revealed, so she couldn't exactly act too casually...
"...All three of you are heroes I'm assigned to. This is the first time all three of you have been together like this, so I feel a little awkward too. Hehe."
In the end, I had no choice but to lead the conversation. I took a sip of coffee and tried to think of how to keep things going. Well, nothing particularly brilliant came to mind, but I at least didn't like this silence dragging on.
"In the media and when she's on duty, she has white hair, but when she's out and about normally, she disguises herself like this. She really is the A-Class hero Baekyeou."
"I-I-I see... Ah, r-right, yep..."
"...You don't have to be so nervous, Miss Batori. She's a perfectly nice person."
"Y-Yes ma'am...!"
Apparently Batori was just like that because of the pressure of actually meeting an A-Class hero in person. Meeting an A-Class hero privately like this really was a rare thing. And in Baekyeou's case, she was far more active than the other A-Class heroes and worked incredibly hard, so her popularity sat overwhelmingly at the top even among A-Class heroes. That was probably making it even worse.
"...Miss Eun-hwa, why don't you say something too?"
"What am I supposed to talk about?"
"Hmm... an introduction?"
"You already did all of that."
"Aha."
Right. Just as Baek Eun-hwa said, I'd already finished introducing everyone to each other. And since I'd just said everything myself, it was probably pretty hard for anyone to be the first to speak up. I'd even already explained Baek Eun-hwa's current appearance, so of course there was even less to talk about. They really had nothing to say, huh.
"Heheh."
"...Haa."
"It's not like I planned for all of us to gather like this in the first place. I got bored, came to hang out at the office this morning, and was killing time chatting with the Team Leader. How was I supposed to know a villain would suddenly show up at the Association building? Honestly, I feel pretty wronged here."
"So... you're really not hurt anywhere?"
"No, like I said just a minute ago, I'm really not. Oh, right."
...Because they kept bringing up how worried they were about me. And the three sitting in front of me were the kind heroes who'd even dispatched all the way to the Hero Association for this.
"What kind of villains attacked the Association this time? We had to evacuate so suddenly that I still haven't gotten any real information. I could probably just search the news... but I happen to have heroes sitting right in front of me."
I steered the conversation toward a topic that was the most familiar and ordinary for the four of us, and we started talking in earnest. Three heroes, and one person who worked in the hero industry. So rather than forcing some random conversation, just one familiar topic was enough.
"...It was already over by the time I got there."
"It was a group of five villains. Subduing them wasn't hard."
"They all had their faces covered with masks and seemed to be demanding something from the Association. They were probably former hero hopefuls, or new heroes who'd washed out."
The three of them answered normally enough. To be more precise, it wasn't that they'd gotten comfortable talking to each other. They were just talking comfortably to me. But at least they were speaking more normally than a moment ago.
This was fine, right? Yeah... probably.