Commander, a Hug?
"Aahh, I'm so tired..."
After work.
It had only been three days, but the room already felt like home. I came back and, same as always, threw myself onto the plush bed.
Man. Cranking my brain usage to the max for the first time in a while had really taken it out of me. I'd been running on nothing — no caffeine, no sugar — and now my head was faintly buzzing. Nobody had told me to do it, of course, but it had been pretty brutal.
And I was still a long way from gathering intel to the level I wanted, so I'd be living like this for a while. Not like I could devour two years of news from across the entire Continent in half a day. Nothing I could do about it.
Objectively, my reading speed and the judgments I made afterward were pretty fast... but the sheer volume was just absolute. Maybe I should ask Rielly to brew me some coffee starting tomorrow.
...Hmm.
"Rielly... our Rielly..."
...She'll come in tomorrow, right?
Rielly had seemed embarrassed by her own behavior, too. Well — she'd been clinging to me for a solid ten minutes, so that tracked. The second she came to her senses, she smashed out of there like she was going to take the door off its hinges.
It had been almost quitting time anyway, so I didn't say anything, but I had no idea whether she'd put in a substitute tomorrow or not. The fact that she still asked me for leave in the middle of all that was pretty professional, I'll give her that... but what was I supposed to do about that bright-red face?
Well, it was different from what I'd seen in the game, and that made it cute. Gap moe is always the correct answer...!
I hadn't gathered much, but I'd have to call it a day and content myself with the good show I'd gotten.
"...Should I wash up."
It was still a long way until bedtime, but I had nothing to do until then, so I got up. The whole pattern of collapsing from exhaustion, then slowly getting up, washing, and sleeping was getting old, too. Back when I was working a regular job, I used to get things done even during catnaps. Since coming here, I hadn't managed to have any fun after work at all.
I'd more or less adapted to the job... so maybe I should start thinking about how to spend my downtime. Whether I had the stamina for it was another question.
Lost in idle thoughts, I undid the buttons of my uniform one by one. Tap. Tap.
Whew. That was better. The uniform looked great, but wearing it was surprisingly stifling. I hadn't felt that way on the first day, though, which was a bit strange.
...Had I put it on wrong? I'd thought I'd worn it properly. It was just clothes. Wasn't throwing them on well enough...?
I resolved to pay more attention to getting dressed next time, then tossed the uniform onto the bed. And around the time I was halfway through unbuttoning the snow-white dress shirt underneath—
Whiiirrr—
"...Huh?"
A strange sound reached my ears. No matter how I looked around, I was alone in the room — which only made the sound more unsettling. How to put it... it was like the sound of a camera lens turning on its own...?
...A camera, yeah right.
I snorted a laugh and shook off the creeping goosebumps. Just my imagination. Security here was airtight. Even those lunatics outside that the original Commander had thoroughly crushed wouldn't dare try to break in. Was there really anyone who could punch through this?
...And if they went through all that trouble just to install a camera in my room, well, that would be impressive in its own right. I'd give them that.
Still...
...It's just my imagination.
What could possibly happen? I shook my head, finished stripping off the rest of my clothes, and walked unhurriedly toward the bathroom.
...I should have realized then that it wasn't my imagination.
Over the course of a week as Commander, I'd learned a few things.
First.
The personnel currently recruited into Firma had followed Firma's own storyline — not the gacha I'd pulled.
...I'd more or less expected that.
It was obvious, in a way. Say the story required you to go through the process of a certain operative settling into Firma — it wouldn't make sense if you already had that operative. That was fine as a game system. Reality didn't cut any slack.
...Good thing I'd played the game diligently. If I'd skipped the story because it was a hassle, I didn't even want to imagine what would've happened. That would mean I'd have to go out there myself, on my own two feet, and suffer through all that just to recruit them...?
Second.
After reviewing two years of continental affairs alongside my work... things looked remarkably peaceful. Aside from minor disputes, there had been no friction between factions, and even those had all been resolved in the most humanitarian fashion. Internally, no noise had emerged either. Everyone was faithfully managing their own territories.
...Suspiciously so.
...There's no way this is right...?
On the surface they played at being respectable powers, but inside they were all the type who'd kill for a single bean from someone else's bowl. You couldn't let your guard down even in a normal society — how much worse in a world where the old nations had already collapsed once?
The one mediating those beasts with every honeyed word and the logic of force had been none other than this place, Firma.
And while the Commander — their de facto leader — was absent, nothing happened? For two whole years?
In a case like this, it was usually one of two things. Either they were treading carefully because they'd been burned by Firma once, even without the Commander... or...
...They're preparing something.
Something smelled rotten. I'd slogged through the story and seen every last filthy inner working of theirs. You'd have to be an idiot not to know. I didn't know what they were up to yet, but I'd find out soon enough.
I should start picking out who to send.
We couldn't respond immediately, though — our own foundations weren't fully solidified yet. We needed a little time. If it were up to me, I'd line them all up and personally beat the stuffing out of them... but this side's top authority had vanished, paralyzing operations once already. Nothing to be done about it.
Shortening that recovery time was my job. More hard work ahead.
And...
"Rielly... I can't breathe..."
"Just a little longer..."
"You said that last time too?!"
...The distance between me and Rielly had... narrowed considerably.
...A bit too much.
If you asked me when it had started... well. Probably the day after I'd comforted Rielly — the second time she'd cried in front of me?
Contrary to my worry that she might send a substitute after the previous day's incident, Rielly had shown up for work just fine. She'd faithfully assisted with the work, without any of that day-two business of... pulling me onto her lap and wrapping me in a hug.
...At the time, she'd said the original Commander had always been like that when working. Had that been a lie? She hadn't so much as twitched an eyebrow. Well — whether she'd held back because of the precedent with Lucy, or whether she'd simply been embarrassed, I wasn't sure...
Anyway, it was a relief. If I'd taken another shock like that, there was no telling what might have happened.
"Commander, may I ask one favor?"
"Out of nowhere? What is it?"
"Um... this may seem sudden, but..."
Those had been the days.
"Could you... hold me?"
...I, too, had once known such times.
Ugh...
This was already the third time today. Whenever there was no one around and things seemed a little quiet, Rielly would immediately ask for a hug.
...Well. It wasn't like I disliked it. A gorgeous, well-figured older woman wrapping me in her arms — if you thought about it that way. Right, I didn't dislike it. But if I just cheerfully said yes, I had a feeling I'd become some kind of dangerous person. I might even get hauled before the Disciplinary Committee for sexual harassment...
Squeeze—
...Of course, I didn't actually have the right to refuse, so all I could do was endure it from my end. What was I supposed to do when she hugged me before I'd even given permission? Once I was already being held, escaping with this frail, purely human body was impossible.
I didn't really have a reason to stop it, or the heart to, but...
At this rate... I'm going to melt...
The problem was that while it was less intense than being held on a lap with a hand on my stomach... the stimulation was by no means weak. No — in some ways it was worse. Back then it had been a back hug, so we hadn't been face to face. Now she was holding me from the front, openly...
And while I wasn't short, Rielly stood a good half-head taller, so there was a height difference on top of everything...
Which meant...
Her chest was... pressing against my face...!
"Mmph...!"
I desperately tried to lift my head, but the hand pressing down on the back of my skull made it a wasted effort every time. I tapped Rielly's shoulder to signal I wanted to be let go, but that only made her hold me tighter.
Then why even call it a request...?!
This is... no matter how you look at it...!
This isn't a request at all...!
I'd figured that after creating one mortifying incident in front of her superior, she'd be awkwardly shrinking away nine times out of ten. So why had she gotten this bold...?!
Look, I'd been a guy too, so honestly it felt good — but this was a position where I wasn't supposed to enjoy it. I was the Commander, okay? I was the superior of every operative here? If I wasn't careful... I'd get dragged off to disciplinary training for sexual harassment...!
"I'll stay like this just a little longer. I ask that you understand."
"Mmph..."
...And so Rielly's "just a little longer" lasted all the way until quitting time.