Shota is surrounded by monsters!

"Yeah. That's how I lived for the first thirty years. I'd wake up, eat, and then go back to sleep."

Shota didn't pay attention to the word "pig" that Senjougahara used, and said, "I'll come to the human world to play after I get tired of it."

"How leisurely you are. Are all the yokai in the world as unambitious as you, Kousaka-kun?"

"That's not quite right. There are many monsters lurking in the human world, and quite a few of them are just hunting humans. So be careful when you walk at night in the future."

Shota "kindly" reminded the other person.

"I think it's Kousaka-kun who should be worried. With your naive way of thinking, you think that if a human is holding food in front of you, you'll get captured, locked up in a zoo, and turned into an exhibit?"

"Every word you said was barbed." Shota sat up and said, "I did help you out, after all. At least be a little nicer, right?"

"Oh? So Kousaka-kun likes the timid maid type of girl? What a pity." Senjougahara put her hands behind her back and said, "Or perhaps a gentle older sister type? So Kousaka-kun is the kind of youkai who unexpectedly craves love. Is that why you chose to enter human society?"

"As for helping me... I seem to remember a certain monster telling me to forget all of this."

"Think what you want."

Unable to argue with his opponent, Shota could only resort to his shamelessness once again – "Think what you want."

"Hey, Kousaka-kun."

"Is there something wrong now?"

"What is your relationship with her?"

The "she" in question refers to Mashiro, who is currently fast asleep. She is resting her head on Shota's lap, sleeping soundly as if no one else is around.

"Looking at it now, they must be family."

Shota smiled as he looked at Mashiro's sleeping face. This little guy must be the person who has been with him the longest in this world, right?

"Are slimes and gluttons the same species?"

"It's just like the feeling of family."

"is it?"

Senjougahara glanced at Mashiro, who was completely unprepared, or rather, didn't even know how to be on guard, then looked away and remained silent.

"Sigh... By the way, from now on, you can start making some ordinary friends, right?"

"Kousaka-kun, happiness slips away every time you sigh."

Can happiness be eaten?

Shota muttered something, then asked, "To be honest, you should probably make some normal friends. Hanging out with yokai makes it easy to get caught up in all sorts of dangerous things... I'm not kidding, maybe one day I'll be caught by an exorcist and have to run away for my life."

“I don’t intend to turn back,” Senjougahara Hitagi replied, “because I chose that way of life myself.”

"...You're surprisingly strong." Shota remarked, then added, "The crab was delicious, thank you."

"You're welcome."

"It must be expensive, right? It must be very expensive to buy this kind of crab this season, right? There's no need to spend money in a place like this. For me, one crab or ten crabs are the same. I can only taste them."

"It is indeed quite expensive. However, I seem to have had unexpected luck today. I found a wallet and a key on the roadside, but after waiting for the owner for a while, I couldn't find anyone. I was going to hand it in to the police station, but then I found that there were no identification documents inside. Who on earth was so brainless as to leave it behind?" Senjougahara paused here, took out a key and a wallet and put them on Shota's table, saying, "It seems to match the keyhole of Kousaka-kun's house."

"..."

Shota remained silent for a few seconds.

I brought my wallet with me when I went out today.

I think I ripped my clothes today.

It seems like they didn't pick up the wallet after the clothes were blown up.

The money in the wallet seemed to represent all of my assets.

Hiss—Shota gasped.

"Just kidding. I paid for the crabs myself."

"What? Don't make jokes like that anymore, it'll scare the gluttonous beast to death." Shota breathed a sigh of relief, waved his hand, and took the wallet...

Senjougahara Hitagi rested her chin on her hand, looking at Shota's frozen expression, and said, "However, by the time I got there, the money in my wallet had already been taken."

"Hey, the great Senjougahara-kun, we're friends, right?"

"right."

"Well... it's okay for friends to lend each other money, right?"

"What a pity. All the money I saved up went to buying crabs." Senjougahara Hitagi said with a strange smile, "Even if I were to work to earn money, it wouldn't seem like I could get it today, would it?"

"..."

Not long after, Hitagi Senjougahara took her leave. Having just regained her weight, she needed to inform her father, and there were things at the hospital that needed to be "settled"—that was her exact words. She seemed to be taking a leave of absence from school soon to cut things off.

Although she didn't find the girl to her liking, she was still happy that someone was willing to be her friend.

However, after Hitagi Senjougahara left, a very serious problem was brought up by Shota again.

There's no money left at home.

"money?"

Mashiro, who had been shaken awake by Shota, shook her head and took out a few coins from her pocket, some 100 yen and some 500 yen.

"One thousand four hundred yen?"

Shota counted the stash of money Mashiro had taken from his wallet that day, sighed, and said, "Ugh, I still haven't paid off the 100,000 yen loan from the Nura Clan. What am I going to do? I was planning to make some kirigaku to sell, but now I don't even have the capital left."

"Um……"

Mashiro seemed to know how terrible it was to be broke, and nodded somewhat dejectedly.

Is starting with part-time work the only option? Shota thought about it for a long time but couldn't find any work he could do. Construction work might be a good idea, but there are practically no construction sites that offer night shifts these days. And he has to go to school during the day… As for ordinary restaurants, Shota couldn't guarantee he wouldn't do something stupid if he stayed there too long…

"Mashiro, do you have any good ideas?"

"Hmm... selling oneself?"

"Smack." Shota tapped Mashiro on the head and said, "Where did you learn such a bad idea?"

Mashiro pouted and said what she really meant: "The circus."

"Oh, so this is selling oneself into servitude."

Shota clapped his hands and said, "That's a great idea."

"If I turned into a cat, I could earn money by jumping through hoops of fire."

Mashiro nodded, agreeing with Shota's opinion.

"Let's not delay, let's go perform on the street." Shota took out a piece of white paper, wrote the words "can perform on the street" on it, and then transformed into a mini Taotie, hanging the paper around his neck.

Shota waved a paw and made a cute gesture.

“……………………”

"Snapped."

Shota slapped the card away, his tiny body trembling as he covered his head with his paws and muttered, "Hmm, have I really lost all my morals to this extent, meow?"

After licking Mashiro for thirty years, plus licking Senjougahara once, Shota felt that he had completely lost all sense of shame.

After rolling around on the floor a few times, it got up again and said to Mashiro, who had been watching it the whole time, "No, no, let's try another way, meow."

Mashiro shook her head.

"Oh! I have a way, meow, Shiro, let's find someone to take care of us."

Shota gripped the pen with both claws and wrote "Seeking a sugar daddy" on the back of the paper before hanging it around his neck again.

"Ah, if only some rich young lady were willing to take me in..."

Shota had only spoken halfway when he slapped the playing cards away and lay on the floor looking utterly desperate.

He rolled over, lay flat on the tatami mat, and said:

"What should I do, meow?"

Shota sighed. Before leaving, Senjougahara had given him a suggestion: he could open a small agency to handle all sorts of paranormal cases and make money. But the real problem was that going into that line of work would be stealing the jobs of exorcists and slapping the Nura Clan in the face.

Even if it weren't for filling his stomach, Shota would still have to find a way to earn money to cover his daily expenses.

"Actually... being an exorcist isn't a bad profession. You can earn money and still have enough to eat..."

"Danger."

"Hmm, that's dangerous. It's not suited to a gluttonous temperament. It'd be better to have a job where you can just sit there and get paid, meow."

Licking his paws, Shota rolled three more times before getting up on all fours and saying, "I'd better go get a job, meow. I'll do a part-time job for one night to earn some money. Otherwise, I won't be able to make it through this week."

"Don't don't."

Mashiro shook her head; she didn't want to be separated from Shota for too long.

"It's just for one night. Let's go earn some money to tide us over. Otherwise, Zhenbai won't have any juice to drink."

"Well."

"Be a good girl at home."

On this day, the strongest bricklayer in history and the most shameless glutton in history were born at the same time.

Image: "Shameless Shota Meow", Location: "Images/161748-81700.jpg"

Chapter Fourteen. The Eating Contest

Image: "Kagura Yomi", Location: "Images/162656-15706.jpg"

Image: "Kagura Yomi", Location: "Images/162703-92029.jpg"

"Eating Contest..."

It was Saturday, and thanks to the wages he'd earned from two days of bricklaying, the family's money would be enough to tide them over for a while. So Shota finished his part-time job and, together with Mashiro, went out to look for business opportunities.

"Does it start at noon?"

Shota swallowed hard as he looked at the banner hanging on a makeshift stage. The phrase "winner will receive 100,000 yen" particularly excited him.

You have 30 minutes to eat as much as you want, and one of the foods is sushi. The person who eats the most will receive an extra reward of 100,000 yen.

"Gudu."