I Became the Lieutenant Character in a Cute Girl Game

Chapter 5

"My name is Agni. You're the rumored commander? I'll be working here from now on, so I hope you won't make things boring."

"Haha. Nice to meet you. Thank you for applying to join us."

In the office, the commander was talking to Agni, a striking red-haired woman with a sharp appearance.

While it was the first time seeing her in person, it wasn’t the first time I had seen her.

After all, I had seen her plenty in the game.

Agni had a moderately tall height for a woman, but the enormous sword she carried, larger than her own body, added to her imposing figure.

She was a familiar sight, both from the game and from various online communities.

Her horns and cool demeanor made her even more striking.

Of course, the fact that her illustration in the game was exceptionally beautiful probably helped too.

Though not a major character in the story, her unique appearance and strong performance—especially for a character released early—made her quite popular.

"So, what am I supposed to do in Babel 07?"

"There's nothing set for now. I haven’t been here for a full week yet, so I’d appreciate it if you could wait a little longer."

"Hmm. Fine. But I’d like to start working as soon as possible. I hate wasting time."

"Understood."

Fortunately, the commander seemed to handle conversations with the agents without much difficulty.

In fact, he was much better at it than I had expected.

When he talked to me, he was blunt and curt, but with others, he managed conversations quite well.

Was it because he often spoke with women?

With his good looks, that might have been the case.

When I was a man, I had a pretty average appearance, so maybe it was natural to feel a bit of envy.

Probably.

"Oh, by the way, can I get ice cream here?"

"Ice cream is available at the agent shop or the agent dining hall."

"Ah, really? Thanks."

With that, Agni strapped her large, flame-wreathed sword to her waist and left the office.

But wasn’t she supposed to finish unpacking before coming over...?

Anyway, that was the last of the 5-star characters to meet.

After meeting so many agents over the past few days, I was exhausted.

Thankfully, it seemed like I would finally get a bit of a break.

"Whew... Finally, I can rest a bit."

"Commander, are you alright?"

"Ah, I’m fine. It’s just... meeting so many agents over the past few days has been a bit draining."

"Well, you did meet around 30 agents, so it’s only natural."

Honestly, I wasn’t that tired.

I had gotten used to handling documents, and I was always used to caffeine.

And since I had assigned Midori to help in the office before we got too busy, things were much more manageable.

She talked a lot, but she did her work well enough.

"Whew... At least, from now on, I won’t have to talk to agents one-on-one as much."

"Though you’ll still have to handle quite a bit of paperwork."

"Sigh..."

Watching the commander interact with the agents over the past few days, I realized something.

This guy was more of an introvert than I had thought.

Despite his appearance, which seemed like he’d be a smooth talker with women, he was surprisingly reserved.

He seemed to find conversations a bit tiring.

Not to the point of being bad at his job, but still.

Of course, meeting 6 or 7 agents a day for pseudo-interviews could wear anyone out, but even so...

If he had been a truly extroverted person, he might have engaged in more conversations and gotten to know the agents better. But he wasn’t like that at all.

"U-Uhm... Lindera?"

"Yes?"

"Can I, uh, go to the bathroom real quick?!"

"You may. But why the sudden request?"

"Well, the last agent we met made it really hard to excuse myself to the bathroom!"

Suddenly, Midori stood up from her seat and spoke to me.

It was true—getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of an interview would’ve been a bit awkward.

"Go ahead. You’re keeping up with your work, aren’t you?"

"Then I’ll be right back!"

Midori dashed out of the office, her signature gray hair fluttering behind her.

If she needed the bathroom that badly, she could have just gone.

We were a bit formal with her, but not to the extent of denying such basic needs.

"Let’s take a short break as well. We’ve been working non-stop since morning."

"Then, shall I make some coffee? How do you take it?"

"Add some sugar, please."

"Understood."

The commander leaned back in his chair, and I stood up.

With a coffee pot already in the office, making coffee was no trouble.

It wasn’t like we were grinding fresh beans—just instant coffee mix.

Honestly, I preferred freshly brewed coffee since it was stronger, but both types served the same purpose: keeping us awake.

"Here you go."

"Thank you."

"You’re welcome."

One thing I learned was that the commander had quite the sweet tooth.

He even added sugar to his already sweet instant coffee mix.

He often bought bread and other snacks from the shop as well.

Not that it was particularly important or that I was very interested, but as his assistant, I naturally picked up on these details.

"Now... We should be able to start sending agents out on external missions more easily."

"Yes, indeed. We can conduct external explorations and even provide logistical support."

"Really, when I first arrived, there were so few deployable agents that..."

"You won’t have to worry about that anymore."

"Yeah, really... Thank goodness."

I pulled my chair closer to the commander's desk to continue the conversation.

My computer was a bit far from his desk, making casual chats a bit awkward.

"With about 70 agents now on our ship, we should see an increase in Crittanium collection from external operations, and our headquarters should increase their support as well."

"Yeah, that’s a relief."

Crittanium was an extremely important resource in Catharsis.

In the lore, it was a highly potent material that polluted the environment and could even alter humans—worse than radiation.

But despite its dangers, its performance was so good that it was widely used.

It served as an energy source and was also utilized in weapons.

Of course, it had to be refined first.

And to collect Crittanium, agents who had been modified to withstand its contamination were essential.

Ordinary people couldn’t survive in Crittanium-contaminated zones.

"Once we notify headquarters that we're ready, we’ll likely be sent to large contamination zones to collect Crittanium, while we handle purification in nearby areas."

"The new agent, Agni, should be quite helpful with that."

"Yes. Her specialty is combat, so she’ll be a valuable asset."

"I think it was the right decision to let you handle this recruitment. If I had done it, I might have missed such a good candidate."

"Haha."

Honestly, I did think I had done a pretty good job.

Out of about 50 applicants, I had managed to pick one 5-star character.

If this were a gacha game, it might’ve even been considered a lucky pull.

With a maximum of 90 agents allowed on the ship, pulling 50 applicants and choosing from them made me feel luckier than I ever was in the actual game.

But seriously... What exactly had the commander been doing before this? Every agent who came aboard mentioned hearing "rumors" about him.

"Hmm."

"What's on your mind?"

"Ah, it's nothing."

I didn't know what was going on, but it didn't seem important enough to bring up in conversation.

Besides, as long as they came to our side, all I needed to say was "Thank you" and move on.

"By the way, Lindera, the agents keep mentioning rumors they've heard before coming here. Do you have any idea what they're talking about?"

"...I have no idea."

Just as I was wondering about it, the commander brought it up.

The problem was... I genuinely didn’t know.

"That's troubling. It feels strange not knowing what kind of rumors are spreading. I’m worried it might affect the atmosphere on the ship."

"Nyaa~ I'm back!"

"Ah, Midori. Come over and grab a coffee before it gets cold."

"Really!? Yahoo~!"

I understood what the commander was saying.

But it was also important to offer coffee to Midori, who had just returned from the bathroom, before it went cold.

After all, he was a guy—I didn’t need to go out of my way to be overly nice.

Just... maintaining a professional, workplace-appropriate demeanor was enough.

"So, what were you two talking about? You weren’t whispering secrets behind my back, were you?"

"Not at all. We were just discussing a bit of a mystery we've been dealing with lately."

"A mystery? Are we having steamed eggs for lunch or something?"

"..."

"..."

"N-Never mind! I get what you meant! It was just a joke!"

Good. If she really hadn't understood, I might have had to reconsider keeping her in the office.

Even with the influx of new agents, replacing someone who had adapted to office work wasn’t an easy decision.

Besides, we couldn’t allocate too many agents to office tasks.

"If it’s just a joke... that’s a relief."

"Exactly."

"Hey, just because I look at my phone during work doesn’t mean you need to treat me like a slacker!"

"Haha."

"Ugh!"

Well, at least she wasn’t a bad agent.

Her sociability was better than most, and her work was solid.

"So, what exactly is bothering you? Do you feel uncomfortable or something?"

"Not like that. It’s just... haven’t we been getting a lot of new agents lately?"

"Yeah?"

"But every time someone new arrives, they keep mentioning hearing some kind of rumor, calling me the 'rumored commander.' It’s been a bit unsettling."

The commander spoke with a genuinely serious expression.

Since he had only been here a short time and was putting his all into getting the ship and the district in order, it was understandable.

Despite being a bit introverted, he was genuinely dedicated to his work.

I had to admit, I respected that.

Anyone who put in effort deserved respect.

"Ah... um... that...?"

"?"

"Do you know something?"

Midori's reaction was suspicious enough to make us both raise our eyebrows.

She definitely looked like she knew something.

It might not be certain, but there was a high chance she did.

"Uh? Well... kind of?"

"Could you tell us?"

The commander even grabbed Midori's hand with a serious look on his face.

And... just like in every anime-style game...

"H-Huh?"

Midori blushed and looked surprised.

Yeah, this was definitely your typical anime-style game.

The kind where the super handsome player just had to do anything, and the cute girls would overreact.

In a situation where the player's face wasn't visible, this sort of reaction would seem absurd.

But the commander's face... Well, he was undeniably good-looking.

Annoyingly so.

"Um... well... there's this, uh, bulletin board that agents use..."

"...?"

"And, well... on that board, they’ve been talking about the new commander assigned to Babel 07..."

The new commander of Babel 07.

That was the guy still holding Midori's hand.

I was aware of the bulletin board's existence, but I hadn’t had time to check it recently.

I’d been too busy to bother, and there hadn’t been any pressing need.

But what kind of rumors could be spreading about the commander there?

Could it be something dangerous?

It seemed unlikely, but if there were malicious rumors about him, it would definitely require action.

"And... uh... the posts keep saying... that the new commander is... really handsome..."

"..."

"..."

What.