Gun Princess Royale - Book 3 - Princess of the City (web version)

Chapter 5 - Part II

– II –

Trailing behind Straus, I followed her – him – whatever – out of the massive commercial and residential building via a bridgeway some five floors above street level.

Continuing southward, we crossed into an adjacent megascraper then descended via five sets of escalators to the ground floor, eventually exiting out onto a sidewalk running parallel to a six -lane street packed with morning commuter traffic.

After reluctantly asking Straus where we were going, he muttered something about a pancake shop and pointed across the street at an establishment with its name, The Hardboiled Café, written in an austere font on its storefront windows.

"Huh...?"

With a name like that I wondered what kind of café it would be on the inside. However, since it was only a stone's throw away, I knew I wouldn't have to wait long to find out.

Arriving at a set of lights, I waited to cross the busy street along with a few dozen other people. Before long the sidewalk became overly crowded and I was propelled into Straus by a businessman – a salaryman – who didn't even bother to apologize when he shoved me aside.

I snorted as I sourly thought, Girls really have it tough.

Just because they couldn't defend themselves, that wasn't a reason to walk over them. Then again, I'd recently discovered that some girls could defend themselves quite well, though two of them were Simulacra and one was a martial arts prodigy.

I found myself clenching a fist as I glared sourly at the salaryman who'd pushed me aside.

However, my sourness spiked when Straus moved to shield me from the people around me, including the aforementioned salaryman cruising for a bruising.

"What are you glaring at?" Straus whispered loudly.

"I was glaring at him, but now I'm glaring at you," I growled back.

"Care to explain why?" he asked.

"I'll explain when you explain what you're doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" he retorted.

"It looks like you're getting in my way."

"No, I'm sparing you from getting arrested for beating someone up."

"If I beat someone up it's because they had it coming."

Straus inhaled long and loudly and raised his hands in surrender. "Okay. You want to get bumped, be my guest. You want to get arrested, don't claim I didn't warn you."

I sneered up at him. "No, I'd prefer you get run over."

Straus lowered his hands. "That's a really cruel thing to say."

"It would be if you were human but you're a fake." I sighed bitterly. "These days I seem to be surrounded by fakes. Hey, even I'm a fake—oomph!"

Straus clamped a large boyish hand over my mouth, shutting me up in the blink of an eye.

Then he leaned hastily leaned down toward me, and heatedly whispered, "Could you not announce it to the world?"

It wasn't the shock of having my mouth palmed that left me speechless.

Nor was it his hand plastered over my mouth that stifled my retort in my throat.

No. It was finding myself face to face, in close proximity, with a very human looking boy that was actually a remote controlled mechanical avatar.