Mob
Kousei No Ore Demo Boukensha Ni Nareba Riajuu Ni Naremasuka: Chapter #50
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 50:
Allies, Neutrals, and Enemies
School
after the match.
I was
walking on the way to school, yawning.
The battle
with Sunahara-san was quite a fierce one, and even after resting all day
yesterday, I still felt rather tired.
As I was
walking at a sluggish pace.......
"Hey,
Shishou. Good morning."
"Oh~,
Ono. Good morning."
Ono tapped
me on the shoulder from behind and we exchanged greetings.
"I saw
that MonColo. It was interesting. ...How did you get that kunoichi?"
"That's
a secret."
"What,
so stingy! Well...... whatever. So, are you making any progress with the
investigation?"
"No....."
When I
shook my head, Ono nodded and started rummaging through his bag.
“Just in
case, I also investigated the incidents.”
Ono handed
me a stack of documents in a clear file.
The dozens
of loose-leaf sheets were filled with information such as names, ages, brief
biographies, and social media posts of those who had gone missing in the
dungeons.
"This is
......."
"Along
with the list of missing people search quests, I looked through social media
and other sites to find out about anybody I could find who said they knew someone
who hadn't come back from F-rank dungeons. Not all of the missing people were
put on quests. And the total number of supposed victims in this case, as far as
I could tell, exceeded...... one hundred."
"One
hundred......"
I cannot
help but gasp. The number of quests submitted in Tokyo was about a dozen or so,
and including those that were not requested or were retracted, I had thought
that the number did not exceed 30 people.
But this
number.......
"Could
it be... that there are victims all over the country...... not just in
Tokyo?"
"Yeah,
so it seems. It was over a year ago that the first victims started appearing.
Initially, it was not clear whether it was crimes or accidents, but the number
of victims increased drastically about three months ago. Most of them are
concentrated in the Kanto area.
From around
this time, it seems that there was a subtle rumor among adventurers who began
to question the number of quests being sent out. By the way, the number of
quests issued was about 30% of the total number of victims. Well, quests aren't
free...... and from adventurers' standpoint, there is a strong element of
volunteerism, so there is no guarantee that they will be accepted."
Does this
mean that there were more victims who were not made public than we thought...?
But the
fact that the death count reached three digits and there was still no
information about the culprit made the case more of a bizarre phenomenon than a
crime.
The fact
that the scale covered the whole country would suggest that this was most
likely the work of a very large organization.
However, if
no tail of any kind had been grabbed in spite of this......, it would be more
appropriate to think of it as a new kind of Irregular encounter.
Is what we're
chasing... really human...?
"And......
here."
Ono flipped
through the clear file and opened a page with sticky notes.
There was
information on several adventurers. What made them different from the previous
victims was their careers. They were all three-star adventurers.
"Due to
the large number of victims, I thought that maybe there were victims not only
in the F-rank dungeon, but also in other dungeon ranks, so I looked into it. I
found no victims in the E-rank dungeons, but a few in the D-rank
dungeons."
......In
the D-rank dungeons, unlike the previous dungeons, the number of accidents goes
up at once. In some cases, they may even die before they have time to send a
distress signal.
Therefore,
at first glance, it was difficult to tell whether it was an accident or a
victim of this case.
However.......
“Disappearance
in a D-rank dungeon is not at all unusual. But, if the adventurers lost all
their cards and magic items, and their machinery gets destroyed, then the story
changes... right?"
"Yeah."
Cards that
are registered to a master cease to exist when the master dies.
Therefore,
at first glance you would think that it is not unnatural for a deceased master
to not have a single card... but actually it was not.
This was
because adventurers rarely register ownership of all the cards they obtained in
their path.
To register
ownership of cards and magic items, they need their blood. The blood required
may only be a drop or so, but few would be willing to poke themselves with a
needle for a card they plan to part with soon, no matter how cheap a potion to
heal them might be.
As a
result, dead adventurers often have completely unused cards with no registered
ownership in their pockets.
This
particularly applied if the death occurred in a situation so stressful that a
distress signal could not be sent.
In addition
to that, if the machinery or mechanical equipments had been destroyed in
addition to no magic items, this was already a definite case.
By the way,
when I asked Ono how he was able to find out information that ordinary people
could not like the missing cards and magic items, he explained that the source
of the information was apparently a post on a social media account by the
bereaved family, who claimed: "My dead son had no cards or magic items at
all. The adventurer who found the body must have stolen them."
The
belongings of a three-star adventurer can be quite a family legacy. If there
were no such items at all, the family would certainly have doubts, and they
would suspect the finder and other adventurers. In some cases, this could lead
to a trial, and if that were to happen, official records would most likely to
remain.
I see now...
I couldn't
help but be impressed that there was a way to do this kind of investigation.
However......
"So there
really are victims even in D-rank dungeons......"
"After
all, there were victims in the D-rank labyrinth as well. ......"
This made
it clear that there were other 'exceptions' who were attacked besides me.
What I am
curious about ...... is whether these victims also had special cards like
Renge.
Oribe
deduced that the reason I was attacked was for 'something' that only I had. I
thought of Renge.
However,
since there were other victims, it was not really Renge that the Hound Master
was after in the first place, or maybe there were other cards that were special
like Renge.
Since I
can't think of any reason other than Renge for me to be attacked, the reason
would seem to be the latter. ...... So what kind of card would it be and how
did the Hound Master know that someone held it?
The mystery
only deepened.
"......
Just in case, I also got the statistics on the age and gender of the victims,
which may or may be meaningless. The most common age group was men in their
20s, but ...... this is a common age group among adventurers, so it doesn't
tell us much. More than 80% of the victims are newcomers, so it seems clear
that they are targeting newcomers. Most of the victims other than newcomers
belong to adventurer’s circles, and it seems like they happened to be targeted
while diving solo. Maybe it was when they had gotten used to the dungeon and
decided to dive in alone."
"......Adventurer’s
circle?"
I was
intrigued by the mention of the term, and flipped through the clear file.
......
Indeed, apart from the newcomers who have just registered, the only ones who
had been attacked were those who were part of adventurer’s circles.
But this is
strange. If the victims other than the newcomers happened to be diving solo and
were unfortunately targeted, it would be strange if there were no one else
except the adventurer's circle in the pool of the targeted group.
In other
words, the culprit mainly target those who belong to adventurers' circles in
addition to the newcomers.
Why is that?
A flash of
chills ran down my spine.
---- because
it's easier to get a hold of their solo diving schedule.
The culprit
is somehow finding out when the newcomers in the adventurer's circle will be
out of the senior's supervision......!
"Ono,......
there's one thing I want you to look into."
"What?"
"Can you
find out if the adventurer's circles of these victims had any connections with
the Star Mother Association?"
Ono grinned
at my question.
"That's...
an important point, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
"Okay! Leave it to me. It may take some time,
but I'll look into it."
How
reliable. It was said that Ono knew all of our classmates' social media
accounts, and was even feared as a cyber-stalker behind the scenes. But once you
have him on your side, he is so dependable......
I was
really glad to have this guy on my side.
As I
approached the classroom while talking with Ono, I gradually felt something
strange.
I was
gradually feeling a sense of discomfort.
Unless I'm being
overly self-conscious...... I felt that the students passing by were looking in
our direction.
Ever since
I appeared in MonColo, I've become a bit of a celebrity within the school.
Therefore,
it was not unusual for people to stare at me, but I felt that their stares
today were slightly different from the usual ones.
"......The
atmosphere is a little strange."
Ono
whispered to me, thinking the same thing as I did.
At that
very moment, I bumped into a girl coming out of the women's restroom.
A beautiful
girl with a short blonde hair cut, tanned skin, a lot of makeup, and several
piercings in one ear.
She is
Kaori Ichijo, the number two girl in our class.
When our
eyes met, Ichijo-san smiled and spoke to us,
"Yo~,
Kitagawa, Ono. Good morning."
"Ah, ah,
good morning."
I returned
the greeting, thinking, 'It's unusual for someone from the Shishido group to
greet me.......'
"......
Good morning. What is this, how unusual for your side to greet us."
Ono
probably felt the same way, as he replied with a somewhat harsh tone.
"...Nothing?
Even I say hello when we meet face to face, right? In fact, you are the one who
usually avoid that, right?...Rather than that,"
After
Ichijo-san brushed Ono lightly, she turned around and smiled at me cheerfully,
"I saw
MonColo. It's the first time I've seen Kitagawa fight, and you're really
strong. Not bad."
"Huh?
Ah, ah, thank you."
"So, do
you want to go out sometime? Of
course, just the two of us."
"Eh,
what?"
While I was
puzzled by the sudden invitation, Ichijo-san took a step forward and closed the
distance between us.
She leaned
forward slightly and looked up at me...
"Hm?
What do you say......?"
Right, she
asked me in a whisper.
"Uh......."
The soft smell
of perfume tickled my nose, and my eyes couldn't help but be glued to her
chest, which was boldly opened as if to reveal her deep cleavage.
Well,
Ichijo-san's breasts are not as big as Ushikura-san's, but they are still big.
.....Her thighs are also very full, and she have the kind of body that men
like. ......W, wait, wait, wait, wait!
I came to
my senses. My crisis sensors were warning me that this was clearly a trap of
some kind.
Why would
she, who had been in a loose antagonistic relationship with us at the top of
the caste group, suddenly invite me out to hang out with her?
Moreover,
there had been no interaction between Ichijo-san and me up to this point. At
best, we had only exchanged greetings when there was eye contact. Something was
definitely unnatural.
"Um...it's
kind of sudden."
"Is it? Well, that may be so. But I've always
thought Kitagawa is kind of nice."
"Shishou
is rich after all,"
Ono said
this playfully, but his eyes were not smiling.
"It's
none of your business, Ono, so can't you just stay out of it? …So, what do you
think?”
"Ah...sorry,
I'm a little preoccupied right now."
I bowed my
head.
The reason
may be that I am wary of Ichijo-san, but it was not a lie to say that I am
busy.
I couldn't
afford to go out with girls right now.
"Haa~...I
see. Well, can't be helped."
Upon
hearing my refusal, Ichijo-san grumbled with a sigh.
Seeing her
who seemed to be really disappointed was unexpected, and I felt a slight sense
of guilt.
"You
know..."
“Let me just
say this.”
I was about
to say something when Ichijo-san interrupted me,
"Truthfully,
I don't really care about school caste. That idiot Shishido is a monkey, so it
seems he can't stand it unless he's at the top of the mountain, but I guess
it's fine as long as I have a good time. Actually, I also don't have as bad a
relationship with Shinomiya as people may think. When we meet on the set, we
sometimes talk normally. It's more like our friends are incompatible with each
other, or something like that."
"........................"
Ono and I
looked at each other in surprise at the sudden confession.
"Well,
that's my stance. Just understand that. Aah~, I'm sleepy ....... I'm going to
the infirmary, so tell the teacher when she comes."
After
saying that, Ichijo-san left.
"What in
the world was that about ......?"
"Dunno......?"
We entered
the classroom, still tilting our heads at Ichijo-san's words.
*Fwip*, all
of my classmates' eyes were on me at once.
This in
itself was the same as usual, but the problem was the type of gazes.
Half of the
gazes were curious, about 30% were concerned, and the last 20% were
sneering...... and downright mocking.
Unlike in
the hallway, I could clearly discern the stares, perhaps because I was familiar
with them.
The
concerned looks were from those who were close to the top caste group and the
sneering looks were from those who were close to Shishido and his group.
I frowned
at the unusual atmosphere of the class, but at any rate, I headed toward the
center of the classroom, exchanging greetings as usual.
It seemed
that the only people present were the half of the group: Shindo, and the
others. There was no sign of Shinomiya-san or Ushikura-san.
"Morning."
"Good morning."
"Good
morning, Ono, Kitagawa. Sorry to start the morning like this.... but it appears
that there's something not good going on."
When we
greeted him, Shindo said so with a worried look on his face and a hushed voice.
"...Did
something happen? The atmosphere in the class is strange."
"Yeah,
but it's not Ono, it's ....."
I was the
one Shindo looked at.
"...Did
I do something wrong?"
"No,
it's not that you did something, it's just that ......strange rumors have
started circulating rapidly since the day before yesterday."
Just as
Shindo scratched his cheek awkwardly, a voice suddenly interrupted the
conversation,
"Yo,
Kitagawa!"
The voice
was full of confidence.
When I turned
my head towards the voice, I saw the face I expected.
"Shishido..."
His long
hair was slicked back, and his eyes were constantly glaring at someone. 190
centimeters tall, with muscular arms peeking out from a shirt rolled up to the
elbows as well as calluses on his knuckles...
Shishido
had a somewhat devious smile on his tough face.
"--You
really lost that Zashikiwarashi~?"
He asked.
***
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