Chapter 1: Attack of Cat-eared Girl

When I entered the mysterious door that suddenly appeared in my room, I found myself in a strange city.

Unpaved streets, Western-style streets, and foreign people with distinct noses and eyes walking around. Everything I saw looked like an abandoned town in a cowboy movie, which made me feel like I had been stranded somewhere in a deserted world.

Looking back into my room, I saw a laptop on the table, followed by a refrigerator and a TV rack at the far end of the room.

When I looked at the other side of the door again, I saw a row of brick buildings, and the man who passed in front of me had a sword strapped to his waist.

I shut the door for the time being.

I locked the door with an unfamiliar-looking internal key and moved away from the door. My heart was racing with a mixture of fear and excitement.

“What the hell is going on?”

While relaxing on my bed with my phone in hand, a door that shouldn’t be there appeared between my bed and the balcony.

When I came back from the convenience store to buy lunch, the door should not have been there.

Since this is a corner room on the second floor, there should be nothing but air outside the door, so it’s strange to see a vast cityscape.

…… Could it be that I’m still asleep? I hadn’t slept since the day before yesterday because I had to attend a seminar at the university yesterday, so maybe I’m still dreaming.

I tried tapping my cheek with my palm and pinching it, but it didn’t wake me up.

So, thinking that I must be mistaken, I confronted the mysterious door that suddenly appeared again. It was an old-fashioned door with a keyhole.

Let’s check it out again, I decided.

I took off the inner lock and peeked through the gap of the door to see a vast cityscape.

I stared at the scene outside, convinced that I was looking at the right thing, I gently closed the door.

Just then, I saw something shiny fallen under my feet, and bent my knees to pick it up.

With a bang, I closed the door.

Inside the closed door, I gazed at the object in my hand.

It was a metal key.

I wondered if this key might belong to this door.

“For the time being…”

I stood up and locked the door again.

I sat down on the chair next to the table, clutching the key that had fallen out.

At times like this, one must try to think calmly.

It’s not a dream, it’s not a hallucination. Assuming it was real, what should I do next?

Going for a walk?　That would be too scary.

Talk to my parents or the manager of my apartment?　I don’t feel comfortable with that either. Or rather, what should I say?

Then, I heard a knock on the door.

The sound came from the opposite direction of the entrance, from that very door.

Once again, I heard a knocking sound.

Someone was knocking on the door from the outside.

The room was silent, and only my heartbeat was beating in a steady rhythm.

I put my keys on the table and swallowed the spit that had collected in my mouth.

“Um…”

What I heard was a cute little girl’s voice.

I exhaled quietly.

“Is anyone here?”

For a moment I wasn’t sure what to do about the call, but I decided to keep quiet and let it pass.

“Um, ……, could you, um, could you give me some food?”

It was an unexpected request.

“Um… please. I’ll do anything you want. So, just a little bit is fine. I’m begging you!”

The tone of her voice gradually rose as she became more desperate.

By the way, as a side note, the soundproofing of the walls of this apartment is hopeless.

“Um, ……, I-I’m a v-virgin! T-that’s why!”

“Wait a minute!　I’ m coming!”

I couldn’t help but reply.

I stood in front of the door, moving slowly so as not to be noticed. I took the key off the lock and opened the door.

Standing there was a girl with cat ears, dressed like a rag.

The girl squeezes the hem of her dress with both her small hands and looks straight up at me with eyes as brown as her hair. Her cat ears were twitching above her head, and her tail was swaying behind her back.

The ears and tail were so realistic that I couldn’t believe they were fake, and my eyes were glued to them.

“U-um, sir.”

“Y-yes.”

I returned to reality.

“Um, please give me something to eat ……”

“A-ah!　Food, food.”

The girl, who still has a hint of youth in her, is asking for food.

I snatched a plastic bag from the table and offered it to the girl. In the bag is a lunch that I just bought at a convenience store.

“T-thank you very much.”

The girl took the bag and bowed deeply. I could see the top of her head as she did so.

“So, um, about the payment… “

“No, You don’t need to pay.”

The girl’s eyes became round and her cat ears stuck up.

“But ……”

“No, it’s okay, I’m fine. I can buy another one.”

The girl’s eyes turned black and white, her mouth desperately trying to spin something. However, she couldn’t seem to put it into words, and she turned her head down. Her cat ears were also slouching.

She may be unscrupulous, but she looked insanely cute.

“Um, well, more importantly, would you like to come inside?”

I’ve never even had a female friend before, but the reason I was able to say such a line was probably because I felt like a superior to the girl with the cat ears, and I had an ulterior motive of wanting to talk more with such a cute girl.

Again, the girl was surprised, but nodded her head.

In my heart, I made a gutsy pose with all my might.

The girl nodded, so I welcomed her into the room and locked the door. This was the first time a woman outside of my family had ever been up in this room without thinking twice.

“Ah, yes, your shoes. ……”

The words “take off your shoes” were not necessary because the girl was barefoot. Instead, the floor she had stepped on was going to need to be wiped down later.

The girl who came up to the room seemed to be acting suspiciously. She looked curiously at everything on the table and dishes in the cupboard, as if everything she saw was new to her.

I asked her to sit down on a chair and wiped her feet with a wet towel, then offered her a drink.

“Is this unusual?”

“Um, yes. I’ve never seen anything like this before. ……”

Apparently, there are no refrigerators or microwaves in the world of the girl with cat ears.

I was becoming convinced that the world beyond the door was a different world.

The girl rounded her eyes at the wet towel offered to her, and was transfixed by the glass cup of juice.

Every reaction of the girl lifted my spirits.

“Delicious. ……”

“It’s good, isn’t it, that juice, I like it a lot.”

I drank my own glass of juice while looking sideways at the cat ears and tail that moved with the girl’s every move.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Those ears are something real, aren’t they?”

The girl gave a puzzled look.

“Yes. Um, it’s …… real… ?”

“I guess so.”

I nodded sheepishly, looking sideways at the twitching cat ears. My unstoppable mind kept repeating Viva Nekomimi.

“Um, maybe you don’t like …… subhumans?”

What is a subhuman? Is it a beastman?

“No, no, it’s very dreamlike.”

“Dream ……?”

“It’s more like a fantasy.”

“Fantasy?”

I can’t connect in conversation with her at all. But the girl with the cat ears who tilted her head was violently cute.

At that moment, the girl’s stomach rumbled loudly enough for me to hear.

The girl’s face turned red and she turned down. Ultimate cuteness.

“Ah, go ahead, please eat.”

As I said, the girl took a mixed sandwich from the bag and looked at it curiously.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a sandwich.”

“Um, what’s that transparent stuff around it?”

“Oh, let me peel it.”

Maybe there is no plastic in this girl’s world.

I peeled off the plastic and handed her the contents.

The girl examined the sandwich handed to her for a moment, and then took a bite.

The girl was surprised, then took another bite, and another bite …….

The girl began to eat as if she were in a frenzy, tears spilling from her eyes one after another.

By the way, what was I doing while the girl was eating the sandwich? I was just smiling at the girl with cat ears eating the sandwich I handed her.

“Thank you for the food …….”

The girl said happily as she quickly devoured the other pork cutlet sandwich.

“Um, I’m sorry to bother you, but my name is Miya.”

“Oh, my name is Tanaka. Nice to meet you.”

The girl with cat ears is called Miya.

“Tanaka-san. Thank you very much. I’m really hungry, but I don’t have any money, so ……”

Miya’s cheeks turned a light shade of vermilion.

“I can only pay with my body ……”

It was a very tempting offer, but it is a crime no matter how you look at it. I desperately suppressed my desire.

“No, really, I’m fine. ……”

“But my mom and dad told me to thank anyone who was nice to me. ……”

“Oh, you have parents?”

I couldn’t help but sigh.

“I have ……, but my father died and my mother disappeared.”

I asked with a light heart, but I stepped on a landmine with all my might.

“I’m sorry, that’ s a difficult question to answer.”

“No, it’s okay, but I’d like to repay you in some way.”

Miya looked straight at me.

What a wonderful girl.

I just don’t want to be a sex offender, so I can’t ask her to pay me with her body. I wondered if there could be a better way.

“Well, then, tell me about the city.”

“About the city?”

“Yeah, like the name of the city on the other side of the door.”

“Huh?　The name of the city is Freud. …… Are you not a resident of this city, Tanaka-san?”

“Oh, well, …… I recently moved to this city from far away.”

“Really?”

“Also ………”

As a thank you, I asked Miya a few questions about the world beyond the door. There were three main things that I learned from our conversation.

The first is that the world beyond the door is home to a variety of races, including dwarves, elves, dark elves, and demons, in addition to beastmen like Miya (they are called subhumans there).

Second is that magic seems to exist.

Third, there is a nobility and politics. Incidentally, Freud’s city seems to be the capital.

“But, this much is not really repaying you in any way……”

After the question, Miya blurted it out.

I was grateful enough, but Miya seemed to be unconvinced.

So I came up with a strange idea.

“So, um, Miya, would you like me to hire you?”

“Eh?”

“Well, I might need your help with something in the future, or maybe you could teach me something, so I was wondering if I could hire you in exchange for a meal ……, and you could continue to come here.”

I’ve already decided that I’m going to use the door to another world to get out of my uncertain days.

To do so, I would first hire Miya, a resident of another world. What a wonderful idea.

Miya was so surprised that she froze.

“A-are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not strong and I’m not smart, is it okay?”

“Yes.”

“……”

Tears spilled from Miya’s eyes.

She was crying inaudibly.

I had no experience with women, so there was nothing I could do but wait for her to stop crying.

“T-thank you, I’m really happy, please take care of me.” Miya said, her face covered with tears.