Throne Of Cards

Your Name

His first friendly interaction in this world.

About thirty minutes after he offered to help her in that heartwarming exchange,

"―What exactly is this?"

Their investigation had led nowhere.

The girl's eyes were cold as she asked this, her dissatisfied gaze directed at Mohan who had just discovered something. Namely―

"That cold gaze is actually kind of exciting... Wait. No, it can't be. I, I... Was an M all along...?"

[A/N: M = Masochist]

"I don't know about this 'em' or whatever, but it's clear to me that you're talking complete nonsense."

Making no effort to hide her exasperation, she crossed her arms and sighed.

Her criticism was scathing, but it was probably appropriate considering what Mohan had managed to accomplish over these past thirty minutes.

Mohan himself had offered to help her search for her missing item, but there were a number of problems that made their search extremely difficult.

To begin with, he had no idea where he was.

As far that was concerned, it couldn't really be helped considering he was just summoned from another world, but it was a major hurdle considering the girl was also unfamiliar with the area.

They had both assumed the other person knew the way, and ended up wasting almost ten minutes wandering around the back alleys. A funny story to tell at this point, but they couldn't really laugh at it.

Secondly, he couldn't read their language.

He didn't realize this at first, but considering they were even written on signs and the like, unless mystic runes had become all the rage around here, they were probably this world's alphabet. As a result he couldn't differentiate shops by their signs, and he couldn't rely on signposts to navigate either.

"Even if that were the case, this explosion in difficulty is absurd..."

Far from the kind of story where the hero comes in with unbeatable cheats, it was more like he didn't even have the minimum level of preparation. He prayed that he hadn't ended up in a dark souls-esque world And most importantly, the crucial problem that had earned the girl's ire―

"You've just been hiding behind me this entire time, you haven't been helpful in the slightest."

"I mean, it's kinda scary talking to people you've just met..."

"You're not some kid..."

Her well shaped eyebrows scowled as though she was having a headache, and she spoke in a rather pitying voice.

Just as Mohan feared, the hurdle of obtaining information from strangers proved to be too much for him. His communication ability had dropped precipitously over the past year. He merely clung to her silently, like a shy boy following his mother.

He certainly wanted to say something in response to her disappointment, but his cowardliness ran deep and the words wouldn't come out. Thus, the cat on her shoulder who had been silent thus far started waving its tail and,

"Relax.... At least he has no ill intent."

"That's even worse. It'd be easier to believe he's sabotaging me, honestly. To be so utterly useless with good intentions, it's honestly harder to deal with than enmity."

"Sure is enlightening, huh?"

The cat's uncaring attitude made the girl sigh. She then looked at the street yet again and continued, "But even so,"