Mob
Kousei No Ore Demo Boukensha Ni Nareba Riajuu Ni Naremasuka: Chapter #63
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 63: The Unleashed Little Shit
"By the way, I heard there's a new student in your
grade, Senpai."
After school. While
we were chatting at the usual family restaurant, Anna suddenly said something
like that.
“It seems so.”
When I answered
randomly while picking fries, Anna tilted her head,
"Huh? You don't seem to be interested. I don't think
it's all that unusual to have a new student in middle school, but it's rare to
have a new student in high school, isn't it exciting?"
Indeed, I nodded my
head. It was true that the presence of a REAL transfer student made me excited
for a moment.
High school transfer
students are a common occurrence in manga and light novels, but they rarely
exist in real life.
Because unlike in
junior high school, where students can transfer unconditionally, in high
school, there are issues such as credits and academic ability, and so it is not
something that can be done casually.
However......
"Rumor has it that the transfer student is a quite
good-looking guy. There were even girls in my class who went out of their way
to see him."
"Ahh......, I see."
Hearing Oribe's
words, Anna looked at my face and then nodded as if she understood.
"Hey, what's with those eyes that look like they're
looking at a pupa that didn't emerge?!"
"No, I don't have such eyes, but...... Senpai has a
complex about your appearance, huh... Even though you're not particularly
ugly."
Anna looked at me with pitying eyes.
I snorted and asked a question in return,
"Then, if I ask you, would you go out with me?"
"I'm sorry."
"Don't give me an immediate answer! Too immediate!"
I wasn't serious, but
it hurts, you know!
As I was upset, Anna
said with a laugh,
"No~, I'm sorry. Actually, romance within the
Adventurers’ Club is prohibited. Lustful relationships are the cause of circle
crashes, you see."
......romance is forbidden in the club?
Oribe and I looked
at each other.
This was not mentioned when I joined the
club. It's not that I'm aiming at the girls in the club, but......
When I made eye
contact with Oribe, she nodded back. ...Okay, let's do it.
I said as I slowly
got up from my seat,
"Romance within the club is prohibited? Seriously?
Then I'll leave the Adventurers' Club."
"Huh?!!"
"I'm out too. I like Senpai."
“Hyah!?”
Oribe followed me and
was about to leave the table when Anna hurried to stop her,
"Wa, wa wa wa wa
wait! Eh, uh, joke! It's
just a joke! Come on, don't take
it seriously! Romance and
adulterous sexual relations are welcome! You
can do it all you want! ......But
then again, when did you two start......?"
I grinned at Anna,
who looked seriously flustered, and cleared the air,
"We're kidding. We were just trying to keep you in
check since you added some funny rule afterwards without our approval."
"Wh... what the~. No, I was seriously panicked. We
went through all those difficulties together, but I thought the club would be
disbanded because of something like this."
“Well, the club has not been disbanded or even created.”
Oribe's comment while
holding a straw in her mouth made Anna droop in dejection.
"In the end, they didn't even approve our club, right?"
"It can't be helped... there have been student
casualties."
“Ah~ even though the plan was to get recognition for the
establishment based on the merits of catching the culprit~.”
This guy... as expected, that's what she was planning...
“Well, if we had just solved a small case, that would
have been possible, but this time the case was too big. If they recognized us
for helping to solve it, they thought some students would copy us."
"In the first place, the truth of the.... case still
remains unclear, too."
A slightly heavy
silence fell over the room at Oribe's words.
It had been a month
since the battle with The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats.
The Hound Master had
not yet awakened.
Despite the results
of a thorough examination at the hospital showing no abnormalities in her body
or brain, she has remained in a mysterious coma.
If this was a side
effect of summoning the Irregular Encounter, there was a strong possibility
that the Hound Master would never wake up again.
In other words, the
truth about what the Hound Master was thinking and what her purpose was in
causing such a thing would never be told from her own mouth.
Nevertheless, there
were some things that became clear after she was taken into custody.
For example, her true
identity. Her real name is Nanako Yagi1, 24 years old. She is the daughter of
Inukai Ryohei, who was once sacrificed by the Star Mother Association, and a
prominent figure of an anti-dungeon extremist group. Yagi is her mother's
maiden name.
Among the evidence
discovered in her room, in addition to the cards and magic items that appeared
to have been taken from the victims, there was a scrapbook about past incidents
involving the Star Mother Association and a diary in which she had written
bitter remarks about the Star Mother Association.
According to the
diary, Yagi believed that her father had been killed by the Star Mother
Association, even though he was not an anti-dungeon member.
In reality, however,
Inukai was an ardent anti-dungeon activist, and he was close to being the
mastermind behind the attacks on the Star Mother Association.
In other words, the
image of her father as a pathetic victim that Yagi had believed in was an
illusion.
As a result, the
public's view of the case was settled as 'revenge by dungeon antis against the
Star Mother Association'.
The Star Mother
Association treatment now changed from being a suspect to being a victim who
was almost falsely accused by the dungeon antis.
The media, seemingly
forgetting that they had treated them as the culprits, began to report on the
Star Mother Association's charity activities, including a children's cafeteria
and the re-integration of homeless people into society through various
activities as adventurers, etc. Instead, they began to bash the dungeon antis,
as if to say, "We're not going to let them get away with it."
The same thing
happened on the Internet, where even the SNS accounts of celebrities who had
declared themselves as dungeon antis went up in flames across the boards.
Some commenters even
voiced that the past sacrificial murders were 'the result of an internal
conflict among dungeon-antis, and that they blamed it on the Star Mother
Association' (......?).
The Saintess of the
Star Mother Association began to attract attention from that side as well,
since she was as beautiful as a monster card, and currently she is treated as a
kind of idol on the Internet. All those times when she was considered a cult
figure were becoming a thing of the past.
However, there are still important questions remained
unanswered, such as where the Hound Master obtained the Irregular Encounter
card, how she procured the abundant financial resources including Anubis and
many C-rank cards, and most importantly, how she managed to disappear in the
dungeon. Meanwhile, the appearance of Irregular Encounter card was not even
publicized.
However, I had a
vague idea about the large number of Anubis involved.
I wouldn't actually
be sure until I tried it with the 'magic item for carding', but perhaps it
might be possible for me to do it.
"How can they treat someone as a suspect at will and
then take their side without apologizing when they find out they're not?
.....The media really is......"
"We got picked a lot, too. Why do they keep asking us
what we had for lunch and dinner......?"
"They did that to us at the tournament, too, didn't
they, Senpai ......?"
--After the incident,
everything around us became much more noisy.
A group of high
school students had actually caught the criminal who had murdered more than a
hundred people. Moreover, the high school students were a mix of the high
school boy who had discovered [spiritual recurrence] a few months earlier, the
daughter of THE Dungeon Mart, and a fellow schoolmate of the brave victim who
had left a dying message. ......It was impossible for the media not to pay
attention to them.
The TV and weekly
news reports made it sound as if we were Shishido's best friends, and that we
were taking on the Hound Master to avenge him.
And when it was
revealed that we had donated two billion of our reward money for the capture to
a support group for the bereaved families of the victims, the excitement
intensified even further.
Publishers from all
over asked us if we would write a book about this series of incidents, and even
if we would make a movie about it! Some of them were from overseas. Of course,
we turned down all of them.
By the way, it was
Anna's idea to donate all the prize money to charity.
"If one got a lot of money for something that
involved a death, it would be the cause of unwanted envy. If that is the case,
let's just donate the entire amount and buy more prestige and credibility than
the monetary value!"
That was what she
said.
The audacity to
invest two billion yen in a single transaction was indeed worthy of a daughter
of a major corporation.
In fact, information
about the capture operation was initially kept under wraps, but it soon came
under fire when it was leaked from somewhere, perhaps from another team that
was after the capture prize money, which was 10 billion. The situation almost
turned into a firestorm.
If we had not donated
the prize money as Anna said, we would have been in quite a messy situation by
now.
Since we had risked
our lives, we had the right to receive the prize money. But we had no choice
because people motivated by envy and jealousy would not be able to reason with
us.
As a result, we had
bought ourselves a reputation and credibility that would never disappear with
the two billion yen.
So, did we work for
free in the end? That's not true either.
The reason was that
the Irregular Encounter card we had acquired at that time was sold to the
government for two billion yen.
The reward for
defeating an Irregular Encounter in a C-rank dungeon is 1 billion yen, so it
was double that amount.
Anyone could have
guessed that the extra 1 billion yen was a hush-money payment for the Irregular
Encounter card.
As proof of this, the
two billion yen was treated as 'money we originally had', and was naturally
tax-free.
As for the
distribution of the two billion, Akira-san declined to receive the money
because she had not really done anything, and the remaining four of us split
the money evenly.
At first, since Anna
and Oribe had lost their C-rank cards, I suggested that we deduct that as an
expense and allocate some of the money to them, but they refused.
The reason was
simple: "It would be easier to distribute 500 million to each of us."
In actuality,
however, it was clear that they were concerned about me as I had incurred heavy
losses prior to the operation, and they wanted to make sure that my share would
be as large as possible.
On the other hand,
the amount of the operation participation fee, which was just under 100 million
yen, was to be split as initially agreed: half by my Teacher's side and half by
the Adventurers' Club.
The Adventurers' Club
was allotted a little less than 20 million yen per head.
I, however, used the
entire amount to repay my Teacher.
The rental fee for
the Carbuncle Dungeon was one million yen per person for two weeks, and I was
paying double that amount simply because my Teacher had not killed a single
Carbuncle.
He only accompanied
me so that I could enter the dungeon which I could not normally enter. It was
only natural that I should pay for the fee
"In the end, I didn't even understand the reason why
the Hound Master let the victim escape via the stairs......"
"Hmm? Wasn't
that intended to make the victim leave a dying message?"
"As I said before, that's probably half the reason.
If that is the only purpose, there are many other ways to do it. There must be
another reason why the Hound Master was so adamant about that procedure."
The other half of the purpose .....was that the true
purpose of the Hound Master? Before,
did she not achieve it yet, and therefore did not flee after the Star Mother
Association became suspicious of it?
Then, it had mostly been accomplished. Because last time,
the Hound Master said, "The objective has largely been accomplished."
"...What do you think is the reason for that,
Sayo?"
When Anna asked her
that, Oribe put her hand on her chin, thought a little, and mumbled,
".....ion."
"Eh?"
"No, it's nothing. The real reason is now in the
dark. Unless some miracle happens and the Hound Master wakes up. But..."
"But?"
"The party that has benefited the most from this
incident is the Star Mother Association. And that, I find a little
unsettling."
".........................."
We couldn't just
laugh it off as overthinking or a lame conspiracy theory.
The Hound Master hid essential information such as
funding sources and the Irregular Encounter card, but left out so much of the
connection between herself and the dungeon antis.
Those of us who had
followed her for a long time and had actual contact with her could not help but
feel a sense of discomfort.
"Okay, that's enough of the gloomy talk! It's time to talk about what we're going to do
next!"
Anna clapped her
hands and said it in a cheerful tone of voice.
"And what is that?"
"Of course it's a summer vacation expedition! We can't miss this long vacation!"
Anna stood up and
answered strongly with a fist pump.
"I had actually planned to have a three-day,
two-night training camp during the Golden Week2, but it was all taken up by the
investigation of the incident. Let's enjoy our youth like students during the
summer vacation and go to a dungeon far away where we normally can't go to for
an expedition camp!"
"Oh~!"
A training camp with cute junior girls......! It looks like a great idea!
The question was
whether students would be allowed to stay over alone. ......Well, at least my
parents would be okay with it.
In the end, I didn't
say anything to my parents about this whole situation until the very end. Of
course, when my parents found out the truth after the matter was over, they
were furious with me. They almost took away my license at one point, but I
guess my desperate resistance paid off, and eventually, my dad and mom forgave
me, saying, "Do whatever you want." (They threw the towel).
Well, a certain
someone had a big influence in convincing my parents. ......Anyway, I got a
free pass to most things related to the adventuring business.
I don't know what the
girls' parents' stance is, but the fact that they haven't had their
adventurer's license taken away after the incident at least suggests that their
stance is similar to mine.
So the camp itself
seemed to be fine, but there was one problem, or rather, a concern.
"The training camp is great, but are you sure you
can pass the periodical examinations? Our
school has supplementary lessons if you get a red mark on the test before
summer vacation, you know?"
"U............!"
I pointed this out
with a stern look, and Anna's face scrunched up and she gave a small groan.
"I- it's fine! I
have a secret plan!"
"A secret plan?"
"Yes, the name is ......[Sayo-sensei! I'm looking forward to having your assistance this time
as well!] Operation!"
So Oribe is the
secret plan... to which Oribe nodded her head confidently.
"Hmm, okay. I'll accept one million yen per subject
this time."
"Hyah...?!"
Anna's eyes were wide
open and looked utterly agape.
"Hey, that's a little too much, don't you think?! It was 10,000 yen per subject up until last year!"
"The Oribe Cram School is a conscientious tutoring
school where tuition fees fluctuate according to the income of the
customers."
"Conscientious? Where
is it?!"
"If you don't like it, it's fine. I am not troubled at all. It's just an extra income for
me."
"Ugggghh......!"
After seeing Oribe
drinking tea with a smug look on her face, Anna grunted in frustration.
"P- please take care of me...!"
Then she bowed her
head.
S, seriously? One subject is 1 million yen, you know...
I was curious, so I
asked Anna,
"Hey, is Oribe really that good at teaching?"
"No, well, she's certainly good at teaching, but
she's even better at predicting the exam. She is good at profiling the teacher
perfectly. She makes about three patterns of predictive tests for each subject
each time, and if you perfect them, you can get almost a hundred points."
"A, are you serious...?"
"If you're interested, why don't Senpai join in? I can help with the test for the second year until around
this time."
"You can even teach the second year?! Oribe is
incredible.... B- but, one subject costs a million..."
W, what should I do? I think I can get close to the
average score again this time, but I want to get a good score to improve my
parents' impression of me... but 1 million is indeed a lot of money...
When I'm having a
hard time deciding...
"...If it's Senpai, I'm willing to accept another
payment."
"Whoa, for real?! What
is it? Like a D-rank card?"
"…Sayo."
"Eh?"
When I asked back at
the muffled little voice, her cheeks blushed slightly.
"I- I'm saying, it's Sayo. Why do you call Anna by
her first name and m- me by my last?"
"Oh, ah...! I-
I'm sorry... I didn't mean anything in particular."
I lowered my head in
a flurry.
I wonder if she felt a slight sense of estrangement from
me...
Seeing me like that,
she laughed slightly,
"Then, you can call me by my name, okay?"
"Ah, ah. Okay. Sayo."
"Hum, hum... Well then, that's what the tuition fee
will be."
"Thank you!"
"...Wait a minute!"
Just as the
conversation was coming to a conclusion, Anna suddenly shouted.
"What? I
pay one million per subject, and Senpai get free tuition for calling you by
your name?! How unfair! Oh, maybe you two are brother and sister who were
separated from each other?!"
Anna inquired with
such vigor, as if she was about to pounce on her, but Oribe held up her hands
to stop her, looking annoyed.
"All right, all right. Then I'll tell you about an
alternative payment."
"Eh? Yes! What is it?"
Oribe said with a
cold smile to the delighted Anna,
"Give me the position of the club leader. That seat
is suitable for me."
"Hah?! So
you were aiming for the leader position! I
won't give it to you! The
leader's seat is mine!"
......These guys are such good friends. Ah! I just saw
her underwear!
As I watched the two
beautiful girls frolicking with each other,
"----Looks like fun. Can I join you?"
I suddenly heard an
androgynous voice, so I turned around with an "Eh?!"
"Teacher! Why
are you here?!"
There I saw my
Teacher, dressed in our high school uniform.
"Don't tell me... you are the transfer student in
Senpai's grade?"
Anna's words made Teacher grin and he sat down while
saying,
"Won't you accept me into the Adventurer's Club
too?"
--That night, I had a
strange dream.
In a dimly lit room
lit only by candlelight, a girl in a white robe was praying to some kind of
symbol.
Then a young man,
also in a white robe, entered.
When the girl stopped
praying and stood up, the young man called out to her,
"--I'm sorry to interrupt you while you're
praying."
"No, I was just about to finish."
“…For the victims this time?”
"Yes, a sacrifice is a sacrifice, even if it is for
a good cause."
"They were able to ascend from the body of a lesser
being to become a part of a greater being. Do not be too concerned."
"Thank you."
The girl's mouth
curved into a smile at the young man who spoke to her in a distressed tone.
"So, how is it? Is everything going well with the
plan?"
"Yes, thanks to the work of our comrades, sufficient
energy has been accumulated and succeeded in bringing that card into the upper
ranks of the Self-Defense Forces. Also,
it seems that we are doing a good job of influencing public opinion."
"I see. I'm glad to hear that. Although it is just
an add-on event, it's better to be successful in guiding public opinion.
......We should be thankful to the Shishidos for their help."
"Even though I manipulated his behavior a bit with
the curse card, their son did a much better job than I expected."
"Yes, their devotion should not be in vain."
"--Speaking of which, about that high school student
who caught the Goat..... what will you do about Kitagawa-kun?"
"Kitagawa? ......Ah,
the one with the 'Discarded card key'. Well, you can leave him alone."
When the girl said
that, the young man looked slightly surprised.
"Is it all right? The fact that the dungeon
disappeared means that he must have acquired a 'Genuine card key'. Besides,
isn't that Zashiki-warashi a cursed card with the ability to manipulate fate,
which is very valuable?"
"Even though it is a genuine card key, in the end,
the clearance is only at level D. If he used the discarded card key to enter
unlawfully, his memory would also be locked, so there should be no problem.
Since the Zashiki-warashi had already used it as a card key once, it is no
longer valuable as a card key. There are other ways to manipulate fate. It's
more risky to kill them, as they have the attention of the country on
them."
"I understand..."
The young man nodded.
"Indeed, the fruitfullness of the plan is nigh. We
shouldn't do anything unnecessary."
The girl twirled
around as if to dance, and smiled charmingly.
" ─ ─ The time have come. We will be freed from our
fetters, and a paradise will be built on earth. Oh, how wonderful, our Star Mother!"
"Get up!!"
--Thud!!
"Gwuh......!"
Morning. I was woken
up by a powerful blow to the abdomen.
When I opened my eyes
while groaning, I saw a girl in kimono straddling my stomach with a mischievous
smile on her face.
"Renge..."
I muttered her name.
"I told you not to wake me up this way!"
"Heh, it's your own fault for not waking up while I
was still gently waking you up in the first place."
Renge said as she
rocked her body up and down like she was riding a horse, so I gave up trying to
persuade her and lifted her up by the side and took her off the bed.
Ah, shit, I felt like I was having some kind of weird
dream, but it all flew away.
Well, it was just a dream, so whatever.
Then I looked around
the room...
"Geez, I told you to put away the manga you've read,
didn't I?"
I let out a sigh as I
looked at all the manga scattered around the room.
"I told you I'd put them away while you’re at
school."
"You say so, but it was never cleaned up when I came
home."
I involuntarily held
my forehead.
"Ha~h, you can come out of the card even outside the
dungeon now... but you only do whatever you want."
--After the battle
with The Wolf and The Seven Young Goats.
For some reason,
Renge had somehow been able to freely get in and out of the card even outside
of the dungeon.
Of course, only Renge
was able to do this. Yuki, Suzuka, and the other cards cannot do such a thing.
Why was Renge the
only one who became able to materialize even outside the dungeon?
I don't know the
reason, but it was probably because I opened that last door.
At that time, my
instincts were warning me not to open the door, and they were not wrong.
It was the last
restraint that had sealed Renge.
A firewall that
protects the user from invasion by cursed cards.
That was the true
nature of the door I had opened.
There was no longer
anything to protect me from Renge. She could easily kill me, her master, if she
wanted to, and even manipulate my consciousness.
This... was only a
guess, but 'The Wolf and The Seven Young Goats' card that the Hound Master was
holding might also be a cursed card.
The fact that she
could use those skills outside of the dungeon proved it.
Or perhaps the Hound
Master was just another victim of the card's manipulation.
Also, with the
removal of the restraints, there was a change in Renge's status.
[Race] Zashiki-warashi (Renge)
[Combat Power] 1500 (700UP! MAX!)
[Inborn Skills]
・Misfortune and luck
are like a rope
・Hide-and-seek
・Intermediate recovery
magic
[Acquired skills]
・The Abandoned One
(UNLOCK!)
・Breakthrough of
Limits (UNLOCK!)
・Eyes of the bright
star
・Spiritual recurrence
・Free-spiritedness
・Intermediate attack
magic
・Chant shortening
・Magic recovery
・Friendship linkage
・Elementary status
ailment magic
[The Abandoned One]
and [Breakthrough of Limits]. That was the newly unlocked skills of Renge.
Why does Renge also
possess [Breakthrough of Limits]?
What is the
connection between Yuki's [The True One] and Renge's [The Abandoned One]......?
Although the murder
had been settled, the mystery surrounding my cards was only getting deeper.
At that moment, Ai
opened the door and peeked in.
"Onii-chan, Renge-chan, mom wants you to eat
breakfast quickly..."
"Oh! Food!"
Renge's face lit up
at Ai's news.
By the way, everyone
in the family already knew about Renge.
Her presence was the
reason my parents allowed me to still become an adventurer.
The first time she
appeared was when my parents found out about the entire situation of the case,
and I was being beaten up and berated for real.
Just as I was about
to have my adventurer's license and cards taken away from me, Renge appeared
out of nowhere and said, "Please, wait a minute."
Naturally, my parents
and younger sister were shocked at the sudden appearance of a girl in kimono,
who was clearly not human. I was also surprised to death. Maru, seeing the
scene in the house, also jumped up and down in alarm. Renge was also surprised
to see Maru barking. Everyone was surprised.
Perhaps because of the
surprise, my parents' anger seemed to subside, and a quiet family meeting was
held with Renge newly included in the meeting.
As a result, my
adventuring career was approved on the condition that I would not dive into the
dungeon while Renka was Lost, and that I would always leave enough money with
my parents as collateral to revive her.
I do not know what my
parents found in Renge, but they thought that with her, at least my life would
be safe.
In this way, Renge
was welcomed into our home as a new member of our family.
Needless to say,
Renge is our family's biggest secret.
The only thing I was
worried about was that Ai, who was so loose-tongued, might accidentally leak it
to her friends.
"Let's hurry down, Utamaro. Breakfast today is going
to be pancakes!"
"Okay, okay!"
When I was about to
go downstairs, chuckling at Renge who was pulling on my hand with both of hers,
----*Beep, beep.*
Suddenly, my phone
started vibrating. I looked at it and saw that it seemed to be a call from
Anna.
What in the world
does she want in the morning? I
tilted my head and picked up the phone.
『Senpai! This is big!』
Anna shouted at the
top of her lungs.
"Your voice is the one that's big. What's the
matter?"
I asked, and Anna
shouted with excitement,
『——A dungeon has appeared in
our high school!』
One trouble after
another.
A noisy summer was
about to begin.
[Tips] Card Protection
Cards have multiple
layers of protection to protect the master. The reason why the monster card
basically listens to the master's commands, the reason why the card puts the
master's personal safety first, the reason why the master's psyche is not
eroded by the Link to the card, and the reason why the card cannot harm the
master... are all due to these protections.
Of these, the
protection of 'the right to command the card' is relatively loose, and
depending on the card's rebelliousness, it can be lifted - gaining a rebellious
skill such as [Closed mind]. However, the protections, such as not being able
to harm the master, are extremely strict and can never be removed by a normal
card.
However, a
'non-standard' cursed card can gradually remove these protections by distorting
itself.
The final protection
cannot be removed even by a cursed card, but with the consent of the master
themselves, it is a different story.
Once all the
restraints are removed, the card can manifest outside the dungeon, completely
free from the master's control.
What the card that
has regained its freedom will do to the master---will depend on the
relationship that has existed between the card and the master.
***
Notes:
1 Fun fact, yagi is the Japanese term for goat.↩
2 Series of four holidays closely spaced together and observed at the end of April and beginning of May in Japan. The four holidays are Shōwa Day, Constitution Day, Greenery Day, and Children's Day. ↩
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