“Maru, is it delicious?”
“…Mmm.”
As I was chewing on my hamburger, Nunu kept talking to me.
Seeing how she started talking the moment I took a bite, she seemed to enjoy how my pronunciation got muffled.
Her own burger was already gone, with only an empty wrapper fluttering in her hand.
I haven’t even eaten half of mine yet…
“I’m sorry about the fries. I didn’t have much money.”
“Eh, as long as we have cola, it’s fine. Besides, once we finish the request tomorrow, we’ll get the jewels soon enough, right? Don’t worry too much.”
The commander didn’t look too good.
A face filled with worries.
“Commander, why do you look so gloomy?”
“It’s just… since we’re starting the request tomorrow, I’m a bit anxious. I guess it still doesn’t feel real…”
…
Something about this is irritating. Way too irritating.
I’m here. Maru, who won the tutorial battle without a scratch, is here.
How can you be having such negative thoughts? You should be worrying about how many puddings you’ll be buying me with the jewels you’ll receive!
As I glared at the commander with that meaning in mind, he noticed my stare and gave an awkward smile.
“You’re right. With Nunu and Maru here, I was worrying for nothing. I’ll order some fries too.”
“Oh! Please include chicken nuggets as well!”
“Alright.”
After tapping a few times on his phone screen, hot, freshly-cooked fries and chicken nuggets suddenly appeared out of thin air.
Wait, was this thing location-based? This is way more convenient than I thought.
But… is there no ketchup or mustard?
“Commander, is there any sauce that comes with it?”
“Hmm, doesn’t look like it. Do you need something?”
Of course, I do.
Honestly, I could do without mustard, but ketchup is a must, right?
How am I supposed to eat fries and nuggets without any sauce?
I’ll probably choke and die at this rate.
“If it’s ketchup, I have some from last time. I heard kids like sausages as a side dish. Ahem. Anyway…”
…Well, I do like sausages, but I’m not a kid.
Of course, kids do go crazy for sausages.
But adults can like octopus-shaped sausages too! I used to love them.
With ketchup, they’re basically as addictive as soy-marinated crab. It’s the perfect food when you don’t have much appetite.
Tsk, tsk. The commander really doesn’t know anything.
Now that I keep talking about sausages, I want to eat them.
I’ll ask for stir-fried sausages and vegetables for breakfast tomorrow.
Hehe.
…Without the vegetables, of course.
“Here’s the ketchup. Since we’ll be moving a lot tomorrow, let me know if you want more food.”
“Oh! Then… can I have one more shrimp burger?”
“Huh? You already finished that big one? Impressive.”
It seems Nunu is quite the big eater.
She devoured a whole shrimp burger in an instant, and that wasn’t enough, so she ordered another one.
Then, she stuffed fries and nuggets into the burger before taking a huge bite, looking like a predator hunting its prey.
“This way, it tastes even better! Maru, wanna try?”
“I’m already full from just this one…”
I used to be able to eat two burgers without a problem, but now, even one feels like too much.
If I want to grow taller, I should eat more, but I just can’t seem to fit any more food in my stomach…
Nom nom.
I sipped my cola and took another big bite of my burger.
The fizzy soda mixed with the greasy burger to create the perfect combination.
Ahhh.
This is it.
“Our Maru even looks cute while eating.”
“Stop patting my head.”
“Good girl, good girl.”
As I quietly ate my burger, the commander came over and started patting me.
Being petted like this gives me a weird feeling.
It’s like I’m a pet being coddled.
I said, stop it.
…Wait a minute. Now that I think about it, I had something to ask the commander. I just remembered.
While chewing on my burger, I lightly tapped his hand that was patting me.
His hand was covered in thick calluses, which surprised me for a moment.
“Hmm? Maru, what’s wrong?”
As the commander looked at me, I asked the question that had been on my mind for a while.
“Umm, do we not have any weapons yet?”
Weapons.
If this were a gacha game, and if the developers were greedy for money, there’s no way they wouldn’t have an equipment system.
Surely, a company that introduced a gacha with no pity system wouldn’t miss out on adding equipment for extra profit.
I highly doubt that.
But… I haven’t seen anything. And more importantly, I’ve never seen Nunu carrying a weapon.
That’s strange. There’s no way there’s no equipment.
And I don’t think the weapons are just stored somewhere like a warehouse, since I haven’t seen any storage space for them.
There were a few safes, but they seemed more suited for storing money or jewels rather than weapons.
“Ah.”
“Huh? Commander, does Maru not have a personal weapon?”
“That can’t be. Everyone should have one…”
…I only asked out of simple curiosity.
But the reaction is kind of strange.
“Now that I think about it, Maru fought with bare hands back then… I thought you were using some kind of knuckle weapon, but I guess not.”
“That’s odd… Maru, have you seen any strange-looking objects in your room?”
“Huh? N-No?”
A strange object somewhere in the room? There’s no way I’ve seen it before.
My room is already taken over by countless boxes, so unless it’s a uniquely shaped box, how am I supposed to find another object in there?
‘Maru, the thing is…’
When I made a confused expression, Nunu sighed lightly.
“Hmm, never mind. I’ll just explain from the beginning.”
And so, it led into an explanation session.
According to Nunu, mercenaries are usually ‘connected’ to a specific object in a special way.
That object is normally kept in the mercenary’s quarters, but if someone other than the owner touches it, it immediately disappears…
…It’s not even some kind of Ego Weapon. This is such a unique concept.
“So that means I also have that exclusive… equipment or whatever?”
“Of course. At least, I’ve never seen one of them without it.”
“Then I need to hurry to my room and find it!”
“Ah, Maru! You have to finish your meal first!”
The commander handed me the burger I had left unfinished, but my gaze was already fixed on my quarters in the distance.
Because it’s an Ego Sword. My very own weapon.
A weapon full of romance!
“I’m full! I’ll just eat a few nuggets!”
I grabbed a few chicken nuggets from the table, dipped them in ketchup a few times, and popped them into my mouth.
—Nom nom.
The moist and tender meat danced in my mouth.
Hehe. It’s delicious. Nuggets are the best.
After finishing the remaining nuggets, I stuffed a handful of pudding into my pocket.
I’ll eat it before bed.
Then, with excited little steps, I ran toward my quarters.
“I’m off now!”
“Hey, Maru! Make sure to brush your teeth before bed!”
“I know!”
Dodododo—
—BANG!
When I opened my room door, what I saw was…
The mountain of boxes was completely gone.
Looks like the commander cleaned everything up. I thought I’d forget all about it after passing out from exhaustion, but surprisingly, they were thorough.
Thanks to that, I could finally see my clean, spacious, and cozy room again.
For some reason, the box I had torn apart and slept in for a night was still there. Did they not clean that up?
“Alright, let’s start searching.”
With the boxes out of the way, I had a feeling I’d be able to find my exclusive equipment quickly.
Is it here?
Or maybe over here?
Oh, so that’s where my bed was. No wonder I couldn’t find it.
Is it over there? Wait. This is just the chair that tripped me over.
Where is it?
“…There’s nothing here.”
In the end, exhausted, I sat in the middle of the room and let out a sigh.
Forget a strange object—there’s absolutely nothing here.
All that’s left in this room is the soft, cozy bed I couldn’t find yesterday, a wardrobe, a chair taller than me, and a mirror.
No way my weapon is a chair. What am I, the Chair-Man?
Well, I’m a girl, so would that make me the Chair-Girl? Anyway.
Just in case, I check under the bed. Hmm… There’s only an ant.
…Huh? An ant?
—!
“Ant, so this is where you were!”
The ant twitched its antennae and expressed its excitement through its entire body.
This ant was the first friend I made after coming here.
I don’t know how the ant feels about me, but either way, it was my first ant friend.
I was wondering where it had gone, but here it was.
It feels like it’s been a long time since I last saw it. Oh, I guess it really has been since the tutorial battle.
“Hey, do you know where my exclusive equipment is? No matter how much I search, I can’t find it.”
—!!
—!
“Oh? That means you do know?”
Hearing my words, the ant started crawling somewhere.
Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter.
After following the ant for a bit, what appeared before me was…
A wardrobe?
It was a wardrobe.
The place where I had pulled out a large white boxy T-shirt.
I doubted my exclusive equipment would really be here, but I opened the wardrobe door anyway.
“Nothing special here… Huh?”
There it was.
In the corner of the wardrobe, something was radiating an aura of “Look at me! I’m special!”
It was…
…?
A small, cute umbrella with an illustration of a fluffy, white fox on it.
Beneath where the umbrella was placed, there was also a small but easily recognizable message written.
[Fox Rain.]
[This is mine!]
The messy handwriting made it obvious who the owner was.
No doubt about it—Maru must have written this. Which means this umbrella is Maru’s exclusive equipment.
It was carefully stored away, and not a single speck of mold had grown on it, proving just how much Maru cherished it.
…Still, an umbrella as a weapon?
That’s so like Maru.