Free Missing Children by JIN Page A

mule.
    Although, considering the amount of movement that this guy had pulled off yesterday and something like this was probably nothing to him, I couldn’t help but feel a little bad.
    “Um, well, here……”
    Konoha took out a drink from the bag and held it out to me.
    “You didn’t look like you were feeling too well earlier, so I was wondering if you were okay.”
    I was slow to react, due to his sudden kindness, but realizing that this was Konoha’s way of showing goodwill, I gladly accepted it from him.
    “Hey, thanks. Feel free to have something to drink, too.”
    After I said this, Kido pointed at me and added, “If you drink too much, you’ll wind up like him, so be careful.”
    “Aaaaahh! Give me a break! I told you, I’m sensitive about that!”
    “Oh, are you? Sorry, my bad.”
    Kido said nonchalantly and patted my shoulder.
    What terrible treatment. NEETs were fragile creatures, so their health declines at the slightest things. Couldn’t she treat me a little more gently?
    Just as we started making a bunch of noise like this, the front door of Mary’s house suddenly opened.
    “I-I’m sorry if took so long. You can come in now!”
    Mary had only stuck her face out the door, and with a clink of the key that she always wore about her neck as a pendant, she ducked inside again.
    “Alright, let’s get going.”
    Saying this, I stood up, along with Kido, and stretched once.
    “It’ll be nice if we can find something new.”
    The objective this time was to find out about the mystery of eye abilities, as well as Mary’s family. We’d also mentioned how it’d be ideal if we could find some information about the “other world,” as well.
    At the very least, if we could learn more about Mary’s family, it would shed some light on things.
    “I wonder if we’ll be able to find out where Hiyori is.”
    The moment I placed my hand on the door to enter the house, Konoha murmured this quietly beside me.
    “Hm~ We don’t have enough information about that, so it’s hard to say…… We’ll keep an eye out for some kind of hint, at least. Well, let’s just try looking first.”
    Saying this, I patted Konoha on the back, and he nodded in response.
    “Pardon the intrusion~ …… Oh, woah……”
    When I finally opened the front door, the inside was like a life-sized dollhouse.
    The room was surrounded by bookshelves filled with old books.
    “This is a really nice room.”
    I said as I looked around, and whether because she was happy or embarrassed, Mary stared bashfully at the floor.
    “Grandfather made this house. That’s what Mother told me.”
    “Your grandpa, all by himself!? There’s no way. Right, Kido?”
    I looked over at Kido, who had come in after me, but Kido was looking around the room with an amazed expression, as if she had never seen anything like it before.
    “…… Didn’t you say you came here before?”
    “No, I didn’t actually come in last time! Anyway, this is a really nice room, Mary…… I’m jealous ……”
    After Kido had reacted in the best way possible, Mary replied shyly with “Ehehe, thank you.”
    She then went to sit in a chair by the window, and said, “It’s sure been a while…” while staring outside.
    “Shintaro, I honestly want to live here.”
    Kido turned towards me and declared this matter-of-factly.
    “W-won’t it be kind of tough living here?”
    As I said this, Kido started muttering things like, “Yeah, but……” and “What about food……”
    On the other hand, Konoha had a serious face on, and seemed to be searching for something in particular from the bookshelf.
    It looked that this guy was actually taking this seriously, unlike our leader.
    As I watched him, Konoha unexpectedly reached his hand out towards one of the books. Had he discovered something?
    Suddenly, Konoha turned towards Mary and called out to her.
    “C-can I take a look at this book?”
    “Huh? Sure, I don’t mind.”
    “Thank you!”
    As soon as he said