The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

"Manga!"

Claire exclaimed ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) with sparkling eyes as she stepped into the bookstore.

Of course she did. It was a manga specialty bookstore.

Compared to the old bookstores that used to be in this area, the scale had shrunk, but it was still impressive enough to be called a “specialty store.”

Claire and Alice could both read Hangul now.

Well, it’s not like they had mastered it completely.

Even though they picked it up way faster than most learners, when it comes to language, no matter how much time you spend, there’s always something new to learn.

Still, they had no major issues reading.

Being able to read meant they could cheat a little.

If there was a word they didn’t know just by looking at it, they could sound it out aloud—and when they heard it, it would automatically be translated in their ears.

...It was a weird sensation in a lot of ways.

Speaking a completely different language, but when you listened carefully, you could hear it translated.

And if you really focused, you could tell that it was a different language.

And the reverse was true, too: if I spoke the Azerna language, it would sound like Korean to me.

Of course, some pronunciations didn’t match exactly when just reading it out, but as long as it was within a reasonable range, it was fine.

Thanks to that, Claire had come to love manga.

It was easy to read.

She had probably already read through almost all the manga in my room.

Now that I thought about it, it had been a long time since I last bought any new manga.

By this world’s timeline, about a year had passed, but for me personally, it felt like several years.

"If there are any follow-up volumes to the series we have at home, I’ll buy them."

"Really?"

"Yes. Pick out whatever you want."

Claire's eyes sparkled as she immediately dashed into the shelves.

"Isn’t it bad to spoil her like that?" Alice said, a little worried.

"Claire knows the difference," I replied.

She might act like a thoughtless child sometimes, but in truth, she was quite mature.

She always kept her promises and didn’t make selfish mistakes.

Claire was basically the very embodiment of a "good kid."

"...Really?"

Alice still tilted her head dubiously, but whatever.

...Even if she didn’t listen to Alice, she would listen to me.

Though when I thought about it again, that belief did waver slightly, but for now, I decided to trust her.

Even if she accidentally picked up one or two unfamiliar books, it wasn’t like it would break the bank.

"And the thing we should be more worried about right now is—"

As I trailed off and looked around, Alice nodded slightly.

"People keep sneaking glances at us. Same as this morning."

"Exactly."

The places we had visited before were just normal parks or tourist spots.

People who saw us would probably just think we were foreigners or foreigners who dyed their hair, not cosplayers.

Unless they happened to be huge fans of the game we came from, they wouldn’t connect the dots.

But here...

This was a store selling manga and light novels—places full of subculture enthusiasts.

The chances of being recognized were way higher.

"Um..."

And sure enough, someone approached us.

He looked like a fairly normal guy, except for the glasses.

Maybe just barely out of high school.

He was a little too skinny, but otherwise, he didn’t really stand out.

"Excuse me, are you cosplaying—"

"No."

I cut him off instantly.

He was holding his smartphone with both hands—the classic pose of someone about to ask, Can I take a picture?

"Ah—y-yes, sorry!"

The guy flinched and quickly turned away at my firm rejection.

He rejoined a group of friends who were waiting nearby, and they immediately started snickering among themselves.

It seemed like they were teasing him.

"That was a little harsh," Alice said with a wry smile.

Yeah, maybe I had been a little too cold—

but still—

"If I don’t firmly shut it down, more people will keep trying.

He’s definitely not the only one here who recognizes us."

"True."

Alice didn’t seem angry about it.

Since she had experience playing and streaming games, she understood that there would be people who recognized us.

"Unnie."

While I was standing there with Alice, Claire came back over.

"I looked around. I tried to find books related to us, but... I don’t think they have any."

"Well, we’re famous, but not to the point of having major buying power."

Just enough popularity for the main game to get imported.

As for manga or artbooks, people mostly ordered them directly from Japan and translated them themselves.

We hadn’t gotten big enough for those products to get officially translated and sold here yet.

"But why are you carrying the books in two bundles?"

Claire hadn’t picked out that many books.

Just seven volumes in total.

Five were held in her right hand, and the other two in her left.

It looked like she was just carrying them with both hands, but if she wanted, she could have easily carried them together in one hand.

"These are the follow-ups to the ones you have."

She pointed to the books in her right hand.

"And these are ones that caught my interest. I’ll buy these myself."

"..."

I glanced at Alice.

She just shrugged but seemed to agree with me.

She could have easily mixed them all together and hoped I would pay for them, but she hadn’t.

"You're such a good kid," I thought again.

"I’ll pay for all of them."

"Huh? Are you sure?"

"I’m going to read them too anyway."

"But, still, it’s—"

"I’m not going broke from buying two extra books."

I said, taking the books gently from Claire’s hands.

*

"So, what did you think of that place?"

We left the building, carrying our books in a bag, and strolled around a little.

Since we were already near Hongdae, I figured we might as well look around.

It had been a while since I’d been here, too.

"It was pretty fun.

Being able to enjoy your hobbies freely is a good thing.

It’s actually kind of amazing that there are places devoted to just one thing like that.

You wouldn’t find a ‘hobby goods’ store like that easily in Azerna."

Well, unless it was a place exclusively for nobles.

And those places always felt too stiff and formal anyway.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

Alice tilted her head, like she thought my constant questions were weird.

I decided to just give up on trying to explain.

Even if she was a princess, there was still a part of me that thought, Should a princess really be buying a bishoujo figure...?

But no matter how much I worried, there was no way to explain it logically.

That world didn’t have hobbies like this yet, after all.

Might as well just let it go.

It would take at least fifty more years for a market like this to even begin forming over there.

Just as I decided to mentally give up on today’s mission—

"Oh!"

Claire suddenly shouted and jogged ahead.

Not surprising.

I had predicted this exactly.

It was still autumn here.

Warm during the day, slightly chilly at night—perfect early autumn weather.

The sky was clear and blue, and it was a great day to be out.

Sure, there were street performances even in summer, but still.

Alice and I followed behind Claire, keeping a bit of distance.

"What’s over there?"

"Street performance."

There was a big crowd gathered around.

Honestly, I wasn’t a huge fan of standing around outside watching these things.

But I could understand why people liked them.

You didn’t have to go to a festival—you could feel the festive atmosphere right there.

And sometimes actual idols performed, too.

Still, standing outside for ages didn’t suit me.

"So there’s a place like this."

Claire said, her eyes sparkling.

...Was she thinking about going up and singing?

The guy singing was strumming an acoustic guitar and singing a famous, slightly old song.

We arrived just as the song was wrapping up.

When he finished, the crowd clapped.

"Thank you!"

The man said, smiling and glancing around—

And, of course, locked eyes directly with us.

...Probably because Claire was clapping way too enthusiastically.

And, of course, we stood out ridiculously much.

I thought, There's no way he'd actually talk to us, but—

"Hey, you with the blue hair!"

"Yes?"

Ah.

So he was going to talk to us.

"Are you a foreigner?"

Claire turned toward me.

She didn’t look panicked at all.

If anything, she looked thrilled.

I shrugged and nodded.

"Will it be okay?"

Alice asked, sounding worried.

"It’s fine," I said, nodding lightly.

Claire’s voice, Alice’s voice, and mine all matched the voices in the game perfectly.

Besides, Azerna Chronicles merch even had character songs.

In games like that, unless a character is specifically written as tone-deaf, they’re always good singers.

Naturally, Claire had a character album, too.

"I’m Korean!" Claire declared.

She was already holding the microphone.

There was a ripple of surprised reactions from the crowd.

"And them too?"

"Yep!"

Claire nodded cheerfully.

I could feel all the gazes being aimed at us, but I forced myself to ignore it.

"Well then, since you're already up here, would you like to sing a song?"

"Can I?"

"Of course."

Claire’s bright smile drew a few chuckles from the crowd.

"Can I just sing something I know?"

"Of course. I’ll try to follow along on the guitar."

At the man’s words, Claire nodded.

Then she glanced at us once, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

And—

"Are you sure about this?"

"...Yeah, seems like it."

Of course, Claire wasn’t about to sing a Korean pop song.

It was, surprisingly—jazz.

...I still had no idea how jazz existed in Azerna even though there was no "America" there, but whatever.

It was a recognized genre there.

The cheerful, lively rhythm suited Claire perfectly.

As Claire sang, people clapped along to the beat, and the man’s guitar chords matched her smoothly.

Even Alice and I, without realizing it, found ourselves tapping our feet in time with the music.