Mob
Kousei No Ore Demo Boukensha Ni Nareba Riajuu Ni Naremasuka: Chapter #31
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 31: Goodbye East-West Duo
"Hoaaa~~hm!"
I was fighting
sleepiness as I walked to school in the morning.
The bright sunshine
of spring warmed my body and pulled me to the perfect body temperature for
sleep.
I felt a desire to
skip class and just drift off to sleep somewhere.
At this point, the
question that crossed my mind is, "What's the use of going to
school?"
The school was a
place to learn. In practical terms, it was a place to acquire an academic
background and find a job.
Whether you are going
to college or working right out of high school, you need to graduate from high
school one way or the other.
But I already know
what I'm going to do. I am an adventurer. An adventurer does not need an
academic background. This could be proven by the fact that I have already
earned more than 10 million yen while I was still in high school.
In other words, in
terms of income, I don't even need to finish high school. In fact, I could make
more money if I became a full-time worker right now.
Thinking this way, I
found it even more bothersome to endure the drowsiness and head to school.
Well, I'm still going
to school, even though I say so.
I'm sure I'll be
laughed at on the Internet when I debut as a professional adventurer without
having a high school diploma, and my parents will never allow me to do so.
The school was not
just a place to learn academics either.
And most
importantly.......
I spotted a familiar
figure ahead of me and started jogging lightly.
I cheerfully call out
to her from behind,
"Good morning, Ushikura-san."
"Oh, good morning, Maro-kun."
She turned around and
gave me a warm smile. I also smiled a big smile.
'...And
most importantly, Ushikura-san is here at the school. That alone makes it worth
the trip.'
Winter is over. After
spring break, I entered the second grade, and due to a class change, I was back
to being a mob again.
Or not.
I had naturally found
myself in the top caste group.
I guess being an
adventurer who appeared on TV was a big deal.
Moreover, in the same
class as me were Ushikura-san and Shinomiya-san, and I couldn't help but feel
that this was fate.
Last year, I joined
the top caste group at the end of the year, so I sometimes felt a little
uncomfortable, but it was different from this time onward.
This time, I will be
in the same camp as Ushikura-san from the beginning of the new school year.
The atmosphere was very
different between being in the same group from the beginning and being in the
same group later on.
For example, there
were a lot of unfamiliar faces, so we, as people who had known each other for a
while, started talking more naturally than we did last year.
......Unfortunately,
I ended up in a different class from the East-West duo, but apart from that, I
had a good start in my new class.
'I'm
going to keep this up and gradually get closer to Ushikura-san.......!'
I was secretly
determined.
"Is something happening today?"
"The teacher yesterday said there will be a physical
fitness test."
"Oh, yeah, that's right."
I walked with
Usikura-san, conversing casually with her.
A year ago, how could
I have imagined that I would be able to exchange friendly greetings with her on
my way to school like this?
Up until recently, I
had only been able to look at her from a distance. If I had not become an
adventurer, it would probably still be the same now and even a year from now.
I think you could say
that I'm steadily pushing forward on the road to be a normie.
......Though there is
still not the slightest sign that I will ever have a girlfriend.
When I entered the
classroom with Ushikura-san while chatting, the majority of the other students
were already present.
...At this time of
the year, when relationships are being reset to a certain extent, even the
little time before morning homeroom is important. Those who are neglectful of
this will be in a very tight spot.
This is because this
period will determine the future of the students, regardless of class caste,
whether or not they will be able to enjoy the rest of the year.
For instance, the guy
who is sleeping face down on the desk over there ...... will have a rough year
if he keeps this up.
I looked around the
classroom, inwardly noting the classmates I had never spoken to.
It had been a week
since the class change. It seemed that several groups had already formed in the
class.
The group with the
loudest voices was probably groups of athletic club members.
They often had to
raise their voices during practice, which was easy to recognize since their
voices were quite loud.
These groups were
basically divided into male and female groups, but there were frequent
interactions between them, which was one of their characteristics.
Therefore, are they actually closer to be the normies
group rather than the top caste group? I
had this suspicion.
They were also the
groups that basically occupied the side of the window.
Next was the group of
more mature boys and girls. This group consisted of cultural clubs and
herbivore members of the go-home club.
Their looks were
sometimes mixed with upper and lower grades, but they were basically made up of
many ordinary faces.
For some reason, this
group was characterized by the fact that the men and women don't really try to
mix with each other. However, it does not mean that they do not get along well
with each other, and in fact, it was obvious that they were interested in the
opposite sex.
Perhaps they don't
feel comfortable with the athletic types, but they occupy the opposite side of
the wall from them.
In the corner of the
classroom was a group of otaku. It was a sad group that consisted only of men.
Female otaku may be
present in the class, but they usually mingle with the more mature group, not
the otaku group. Only the male otaku form their own little group, a clique to
which they were being excluded.
They reside in the
corner of the classroom because their seats were already taken by the others
and they had no choice but to go there.
Unfortunately, they
belong to the lower caste group. I sometimes joined them during recess.
Although others looked down on them, they were all people with good hearts.
There were also others,
scattered throughout the classrooms, who were not hanging out with anyone, but
I won't explain much about them this time. They were the lone warriors who
chose to be alone in the midst of the crowd.
Finally, in the
center of the classroom, chatting and laughing in a mixed male-female
configuration, was the top caste group as well as their cronies, and the
so-called hot bunch.
The top caste members
were those with outstandingly good faces and those with one-of-a-kind talents.
I am also included in this group.
The current members
are Shinomiya-san, the magazine model, her childhood friend and best friend
Ushikura-san, myself, an active adventurer, Shindo, the ace of the tennis club,
and Ono, the comedian.
Yes, that Ono guy is
also in the same class. I wondered why I am in the same class with this guy
while both the East and West duo are in different class. ......Well, I don't
give a damn about this guy right now.
The hot bunch was a
group of fashion-conscious and trendy people. On the other hand, it was also
the ones who did not have enough good-looking faces or excellent taste to make
it to the very top of the class.
The hot bunch group
was a bit complicated. There were two groups: one group that followed around
the top caste members, and the other group that wanted to replace them.
The former mainly
included Shinomiya-san's and Shinto's friends, while the latter was a mixed
group of men and women led by magazine model Kaori Ichijo and the charming and
good-looking Shishido.
...... As you can see
from all this, Ichijo-san and Shishido-san's group was also a group that had
the potential to be at the top caste. In fact, in the first year, they were the
top of the caste.
However, in the new
class, Shinomiya-san and Shindo-san, who can be said to be superior, existed in
the same class.
As a result, they
became the hot bunch...... or rather, the number two caste group.
Naturally, they view
the top caste group as the enemy. Especially, Ichijo thought so toward
Shinomiya-san and Shishido toward Shindo.
On the other hand,
both Shinomiya-san and Shindo do not care about that at all. Shinomiya-san
regarded the other as a complete lower rank, and Shindo, who had always been a
natural, was not even aware of the hostility.
......The class caste
remained to be complicated and bizarre even today.
In the first year, I
wanted to be in the top caste, but when I actually belonged to the top caste,
the feeling of 'this is not right' was getting worse day by day.
To be honest, I don't
care about the class caste anymore. I don't want to be looked down upon, but I
have no desire to keep this position at all costs. My current goal was not to
be in the top of the class caste, but to be a normie and to move forward as an
adventurer, even if only a little.
That said, I can't
neglect my interactions in class just because I'm not interested.
There were... plenty
of seeds of jealousy and envy that were smoldering around the place. If I sit
idly in my current position, the only thing that awaits me is a downfall.
Even I, who can
always stand on my own if the need arises, am no exemption to this.
This was a learning
experience.
This was a place to
learn how to avoid being ostracized for when I eventually leave this community
and move to another. ...... That is what school and school caste is all about.
After taking a quick
look around the classroom and confirming that the balance of power in the class
had not changed, Ushikura-san and I headed for the center of the classroom.
"Oh, Shishou! Good
morning!
The first to greet me
was Ono, a man with a fake Kansai dialect.
Since the first year,
he had been calling me 'Shishou, Shishou, Shishou', and as a result, it had
become an established thing that I was his Shishou/Teacher.
It was to the point
that no matter how much I tried to deny it, it would never be corrected.
"Good morning. Although I'm not your Shishou.”
But in the meantime,
I'll deny it. Even if it's too late, if I don't deny it, it will be an
acknowledgment.
Ono smirked at my bad
attempt and said,
"Oh, no, you don't have to be so humble, since you
also helped me get promoted to a two-star rating."
"U......."
I choked at the
words, feeling that he had hit a sore spot.
The truth is, despite
everything, I had helped this fake Kansai dialect guy a little bit.
For instance, I sold
some D and E rank cards that I didn't need at a discount compared to the market
price to him, and I taught him some useful equipment for the E rank
dungeon......
Perhaps it was thanks
to that, but this guy had also become a two-star adventurer during this spring
break.
"I don't know much about adventurers, but is it
really that difficult to become a two-star?"
The person who asked
this question was Koichi Shindo, who had joined the same group as me in the
second year.
He was a tall,
refreshingly good-looking guy with a sweet smile, a perfect man with a good
personality, and the ace of the tennis club.
He was exactly the
kind of guy that people envisioned when they thought of the 'ideal normie'.
"That's right! You can become 1-star if you pay
money, but to become a 2-star, you have to take an exam, so it's completely
different."
Ono took the
opportunity to latch on to Shinto's words. He began to talk fluently about how
difficult it was to become a two-star.
"First of all, once you get the second star, the
dungeon you get into will be full of traps. These traps are all so terrible
that I would have died many times if I didn't have the card barrier and body
armor. ..... I remember my Shishou once said that he got an arrow stuck in his
chest from a bowgun."
"Hmm? Ah......"
When I nodded my
head, the surrounding classmates let out a murmur of "Oh!" and
"Yikes!"
"The depth of the dungeons is also different from
the days when I was a one-star adventurer.
Unlike the F-rank
dungeons, which could be conquered in a day, the E-rank dungeons require an
overnight stay, which puts a heavy physical burden on the adventurer. The
E-rank dungeon I entered took me three days to complete.
And it wasn't a
one-shot job; it took me three tries to finally clear the dungeon. If it
weren't for spring break, I honestly couldn't have done it."
"Whoa, it takes that long?"
"And it is not the usual camping, because the
dungeons are where the monsters appear, right? Haa--
I'll never be able to do that."
Ono, who was pleased
with the reaction of our classmates, continued,
"That's not the end of it. The level of the monsters
increases dramatically after you enter the E rank dungeon. The monsters along
the way can be dealt with a single D-rank card, but the bosses are also D-rank
and have advantages from the dungeon. There is no chance of winning one-on-one.
In other words, you need at least two, preferably four D-rank cards.
I managed to clear the
dungeon with three D-rank cards. If I had even one less card, I probably would
have lost one card."
"Lost? ...... D-rank cards cost about a million yen
each, right? Waa, That's
tough."
"Oh yeah, I heard on TV that the pass rate of 2-star
certification is 50%. What's more, half of them end up giving up on becoming a
two-star."
"Hmm, being an adventurer does offer great rewards,
but the risks are so high~"
Afterwards, Ono
talked about how grueling the two-star promotion examination was, expressing his
real feelings.
Gradually, the way
our classmates looked at Ono began to change.
Until then, the
classmates who had only recently switched classes and did not know Ono well,
had the impression that Ono was someone whom they did not understand why he was
at the top of the class caste.
To be frank, the
classmates' assessment of Ono was that he was a slick, thick-skinned guy who
had joined the group because of his connections with Shinomiya-san and the rest
of us....... There was an air in the class that they were all vying for his
position with an eagle eye.
Ono knew this, and he
also expected this to happen when he switched classes.
Therefore, Ono even
got down on his knees to me during spring break in order to become a two-star
adventurer.
At that time, I
was...... seriously taken aback.
It was the first time
in my life that I'd ever had someone get down on their knees for real. The
impact was so great that...... it was almost a threat.
However, I could feel
Ono's seriousness, and I decided to help him out.
And he passed the
two-star exam with flying colors.
As far as I know, it
was definitely Ono who was more serious about the class caste than anyone else.
"Marocchi is very caring. Why don't you just leave
that guy alone?"
As I was looking at
Ono surrounded by our classmates, Shinomiya-san whispered like that to me.
"Well, I also received a lot of benefits from
it."
The cards I sold to
Ono were priced at 20% off the list price.
It was a win-win
deal: he could buy the cards for a lower price than he could at the guild, and
I could sell them for many times more than I could sell them to the guild.
Furthermore, I had a
contract with Ono that from now on he would have priority to buy cards from me
and not from the guild.
In addition, the transaction was not in cash, but in
magic stones obtained in the dungeons.
Cash transactions
would inevitably involve tax charges, but with magic stones, the tax would not
be tied to the transaction.
An adventurer's taxes
only arise when the yield is converted into cash.
And when I sell the
magic stone while buying a card at the same time, I can get a tax deduction.
This was a little
known tax-saving technique among adventurers.
At that moment, my
eyes suddenly met Ono's. He grinned.
"You see~, the difference of just one star brings a
whole new world to adventurers. The risks and rewards are so different just by
going from one star to two. If it's like this after I become a two-star, I
wonder what an unbelievable world a three-star would face?"
Under Ono's cue, I felt my classmates' gazes on me
changed from ‘I don't really understand, but you're a great guy who's been on
TV’, to genuine respect.
I guess this was his
way of returning the favor. With this, I should be able to keep my current
position for a year without having to be conscious of the caste structure. It
was a message from Ono that I can focus on being an adventurer without being
distracted by troublesome things like class caste.
Well, I guess there
is a motive of strengthening his own backing behind that.
'This
guy is totally.......'
While I was laughing
at Ono's shrewdness, the door to the classroom opened with a loud and forceful
bang.
The whole class was
looking there, wondering if the homeroom teacher had already arrived--but the
one standing there was not the teacher, but a beautiful girl with bright red
hair.
She was petite and
slender, but her body was well developed, with fair skin and jewel-like blue
eyes, which were unlike Japanese people. Combined with her attractive
appearance, she was exactly the kind of half-Japanese beauty that people
admire.
‘……Huh? I think I've seen that face
somewhere...’
The red-haired girl
looked around the class, but when her eyes met mine, her face lit up.
"Senpai! It's
been a while! Yaa~h, I've been
looking for you, you know."
She came straight at
me, and I couldn't hide my shock.
'W-
why is this girl here ......?'
"Do you remember me? I'm
Anna Jushichiya."
"Ah, ah ...... it's been a while."
I had not actually
seen her since the tournament, but I certainly remembered her since she would
occasionally drop me a Line message as if it was on a whim.
But .......
"W- what are you doing here?"
"Fufu, don't you recognize this uniform?"
Saying that, Anna
twirled around. She looked at me with a smug look on her face.
"Did you... enroll here? What? Why?"
"Of course it's because Senpai is here!"
""Oh?!""
Anna's words caused a
stir in the class. Everyone's eyes were wide and glowing.
Suddenly, a beautiful
half-Japanese girl came into the upperclassmen's classroom and said, "I
came to this school because of you." The impact was enough.
I was beyond shocked
and even felt dizzy.
‘No,
wait a minute, I've got to get my thoughts in order .......Eh? Could it be? It's like that?’
Just when my
adolescent mind was about to run wild, Anna smiled broadly and said,
"Senpai, let's make an adventurer club
together!"
[Tips] Paying with Magic Stones
A tax-saving
technique used when trading cards between adventurers. The purchase of cards by
adventurers is counted as an expense, but only items purchased at authorized
card stores such as guilds or official online auctions are recognized as such.
As a result, even if you purchase the cards at a lower price than the market
price, it may end up costing you more in terms of taxes.
In order to avoid
this problem, the 'magic stone payment' was devised, in which transactions are
made with magic stones instead of cash.
Although this method
prevents taxation, it also increases the likelihood of various problems, such
as the theft of cards or the mixing of counterfeit magic stones.
It is advisable to
use this method only for transactions with acquaintances you can trust.
***
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