Mob
Kousei No Ore Demo Boukensha Ni Nareba Riajuu Ni Naremasuka: Chapter #72
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 72: The
One Whose Face and Name You Can't Remember Among the Four Heavenly Kings of
Students
Summer vacation, the fourth
day. The whole house was in a flurry of activity from the morning.
"Mom~, where is the trip toothbrush set for
Ai~?"
"We don't have time, so just go buy your toothbrush
set over there!"
"Aika, where is my electric shaver?"
"I don't know! You
always shave with a razor! Why
don't you do the same this time? I
mean, I told you guys to be ready by yesterday!"
Cries of "I need
this" and "I need that" echoed all over the place, and my
mother's angry voice could be heard all the way upstairs.
"This is kinda amazing... is this what your family
always does when you go on vacation?"
Renge, who was
listening to the commotion while reading manga, asked me such a question.
I answered as I
stuffed a change of clothes into my travel bag.
"No, we usually prepare for it ahead of time, so
it's not this bad. This time, my schedule suddenly became free, so this trip
was planned at the last minute."
It is customary for
the Kitagawa family to travel an average of two to three times during summer
vacation every year.
The trips were
usually planned and prepared more than a month before the summer vacation, so
the process usually went smoothly, but this time the situation was a little
different.
Because this trip was
decided at the last moment: just the other day.
This summer, the
Kitagawa family had only one trip planned for the latter half of the summer
vacation, due to the tight schedule of the Adventurers' Club's training camp.
The family had agreed
that it was unavoidable to only do one trip this year, but in fact, my mother
had been feeling lonely inside, and as soon as she learned that Anna's make-up
class had left an opening in my schedule, she quickly set up another trip.
Coincidentally, this
year happened to be the year of the Tokyo Olympics, and since the government
shifted the holidays for the Olympics, we have a four-day holiday weekend
starting today.
Since both Ai and I
had plans on Saturday and Sunday, the only chance we had to go on a family
vacation was on Thursday and Friday, when my Dad was also off from work.
"Utamaro~, it's almost time to leave! Are you
ready!?"
"I'm almost done!"
"Not only for you, but you have to arrange for
Renge-chan too, understand?"
"I know that. Renge's bag is already done
first."
I said that and threw
the bag to her.
Renge who received it
was not dressed in her usual kimono, but in a more modern fashion, wearing a
T-shirt for girls and a mini skirt with jeans.
This time, Renge also
participated in the trip in a physical form.
At first I said,
"Why not just go while invisible?" But
all my family members were against this idea.
So she had to borrow
some of Ai's clothes.
"Okay, let's go!"
"Ah, wait, wait!"
I stopped Renge from
leaving the room after she had received her bag, and I placed a hat with a brim
on her head. The brim of the hat hid her inhuman beauty, making her look like a
child anywhere.
Renge's face is
widely known to the public through MonColo and other media.
Although she will not
be noticed so much because of the common stereotype that cards cannot be
summoned outside the dungeon, together with the fact that she is with me, it is
not necessarily impossible for those who are perceptive not to notice her.
Therefore, this hat
was essential, although it is a small trick.
By the way, when
others ask me about my relationship with Renge, I am supposed to explain that
she is a friend of Ai. Well, I probably won't be asked that question, but just
in case.
After closing all the
doors in the house and locking the front door, I headed for the car.
When I opened the
door of the white sedan, a sauna-like heat hit my face.
My mom, who climbed
into the backseat, said with a frown on her face,
"It's so hot~! Turn on the air conditioner right
now."
"I turned it on."
The air conditioner
started up with a loud "Gooooooooooo!", but the temperature inside
the car, heated by the summer sun, did not go down so easily.
While everyone was
frowning at the heat, my Dad suddenly noticed that I, sitting in the passenger
seat, was not even breaking a sweat.
"Oh? Utamaro,
you look strangely cool... Do you have a magic item or something?"
So sharp. With a
grin, I took out the Air Conditioner Pendant I had tucked away in my chest.
"Yep. This Air Conditioner Pendant keeps the air
temperature at the perfect degree."
"That's not fair, Onii-chan! Lend it to Ai
too!"
"I have another one, so I'll lend you that
one."
When I handed an Air
Conditioner Pendant to Ai in the back seat, my mom looked at it and said with
admiration,
"Ara, that's a lovely pendant. How much did it
cost?"
"Hmm....., It's about a million or so if you buy it,
I think?"
"A million or so?!"
The car was filled
with shocked voices.
"Ha~ No matter how much you need it as an
adventurer, I can't believe you would buy such a thing for a million."
"Ah, no... I got this from the Guild's pack."
"Ho... Guild packs included that kind of thing? So,
that means you won over a million for a million, so you're actually making a
profit."
"...Yeah."
There was a slight
pause, but my mom didn't miss it.
Her eyes shone
sharply as she interrogated me,
"Maro, how many packs did you buy?"
"Uh......!"
As I was stammering,
my mom pointed at Renge,
"You know the time limit is until your mom asks
Renge-chan."
I don't want her to
ask Renge! I answered hurriedly,
"It's... uh, --ty."
"What did you just say? Again, louder and clearer."
"I bought forty!"
""Forty...?!""
After the whole
family was at a loss for words, my Dad eventually let out a loud sigh.
"Haa~, forty million yen, huh...... how many times
my annual income is that,......? I'm
starting to look like a fool for working so hard."
"You know... even though it's money you earned
yourself, you should spend it more carefully."
In fact, the amount I
spent was ten times that, but I didn't want that to be known at all costs, so I
kept quiet, thinking that silence was golden.
While my parents let
out an exasperated sigh, only Ai let out an excited voice.
"Forty million~! That's
amazing! I wonder how many years of
Ai's allowance Ai that is. I'm going to marry an adventurer like my brother in
the future!"
"No, don't marry an adventurer."
"That's right, Ai, you don't have to marry for the
rest of your life. Just live at home forever."
My Dad's foolish
comment was ignored, and the conversation between mother and child proceeded.
"Huh? Why~?"
"No matter how much money they have, they shouldn't
have a job where death could come at any moment. Fortunately, Maro has
Renge-chan with him, but other adventurers can die at any time. Stability is
important in a family. Adventurers are enough as playmates."
"Puu~. It can't be helped. I'll have to beg
Onii-chan for the things I want. As for a husband, I'll look for someone who is
rich, does whatever Ai says, and doesn't cheat on me, even if he's not as
brilliant as my Dad."
My Dad had a
complicated look on his face, as if he was sad to be treated like a cash cow
and happy to be told she would marry someone like her father.
"The order should be adjusted. The first is that he
listens to everything you say, the second is that he can't cheat on you, and
the third is that he has money. If you get this order wrong, you will be miserable."
"Huh? What's the difference?"
I was curious, too,
so I listened.
Then the answer came
from an unexpected corner,
"The first one is an important requirement for a
lover, right? If this condition is not fulfilled, then marriage will not be possible
with a type like Mama-san or Ai. The second is the requirement of being a
husband. If a man is unfaithful, even if he builds a family, it will not last.
The third is the requirement as a father. No matter how much love you have, it
is difficult to raise a child without money."
"Renge-chan, you are correct!"
Hoo, I see... I was
impressed. Next to me, my Dad was also making a face like that.
"Hmm. What about Onii-chan, then?"
"About Maro..."
My mom put her hand
on her cheek in distress.
"The first and second requirements were all there
until he became an adventurer, but since he started having money, the second
requirement seems to be a bit of a problem."
“Hey,
hey, hey!”
I was outraged at
this assessment from my own parent.
"That's a slander! I
haven't even had a girlfriend yet!"
Even if I wanted to
cheat on my lover, I would not be able to do so! ......It
makes me sad to say it myself!
"Hm~m. Well then, let's ask Renge-chan, who is
always with you. Honestly, what do you think?"
"Ahh, he's no good, this guy. He's completely
fickle. I'm sure it'll be different when he has kids, but until then, he's the
type that gets pretty unsteady."
"Oii!!"
You thought of me like that?!
"Maro, you can't do that. A man should love only one
woman like I do."
My Dad said with a
stern look on his face...
"What are you talking about, it's totally in the
blood of the Kitagawa family. You didn't cheat on me because you simply didn't
have any other partner. You're the type of person who, like Maro, thinks that
if a woman comes to you, then you'll eat her up, even though you know you
shouldn't."
"Dad, that's the worst......"
"I-I have an objection! It's a false accusation! I'm
different from Maro!"
"I'm not like that too!"
The women dismiss the
men's ugly struggle with a resounding,
"Look, Ai, it proves that blood is thick in the
veins, doesn't it?"
"A frog's offspring is a frog. If the child is a
frog, it means the parents are frogs too."
"Renge-chan, that would mean I'm a frog too... Well,
that's okay. More importantly, why did Mom marry Dad? If it was at Dad's level, there must be others, right?"
It was my Dad, not my
mom, who answered that question,
"Fufufufu... That's right, Ai. It's because your
father risked his life to protect your mother."
"Eh~!? What is that!"
Ai's eyes lit up at
the prospect of what was going to be a somewhat romantic story.
"Well, to put it simply, it's called the suspension
bridge effect. When your mom was still a young high school girl, the first Angolmore
happened, and your Dad and I overcame that crisis. I was young at the time, so
I felt that your Dad, who was 10 years older than me, was very
dependable."
When I was a kid, I
heard how my parents got to know each other. My Dad was a college student and
worked as a private tutor for my mom when she was in elementary school.
Although my Dad quit
being a private tutor around the time he graduated from university, the two had
known each other for a long time.
Then, when my mom became
a high school student and a respectable young lady, the first Angolmore
happened.
Humanity, which at
the time had assumed that monsters would not come out of the dungeons, was
completely thrown into a panic by the hordes of monsters that suddenly overflowed
the dungeons.
Although the dungeons
were not completely without cover because simple bases had been built around
the dungeons by the Self-Defense Forces, the SDF was initially unable to
properly deal with the monster hordes, and many of the monsters got away.
In Tokyo, where the
number of dungeons was particularly high, the streets were filled with dead
bodies of people, infrastructure was completely destroyed, money was turned
into pieces of paper, and stores were mobbed.
To put the situation
at that time in a nutshell, it was the end of the world.
In the midst of all
this, my Dad happened to be reunited with my mom, a former student of his, and
he told me that he had protected her from the people whose morals had fallen to
the lowest level, and from the thugs whose survival instincts had turned their
sexual desires to the maximum.
The reason why my Dad,
who had never been in a fight before, was able to protect my mom was, of
course, due to the cards.
It was during the
First Angolmore that the card's effects were discovered, and my Dad was one of
'those fortunate enough to have cards and figured out how to use them on their
own by chance.' - what were called 'Summoners' at the time.
By the way, by some
coincidence, the card that my Dad had was apparently a Zashiki-warashi card.
At the end of the
chaos, the monster card was Lost in the end, protecting my Dad and the others,
and that might be the reason why my Dad and mom were strangely fond of Renge.
"Amazing! I didn't know Dad used to be so cool! He's
a total hero! He's like the main character in a movie!"
When Ai heard this
story for the first time, she reacted in the same way I had when I first heard
it in the past.
And my parents'
reaction was also the same as back then, a wry smile with a mixture of pain and
suffering.
"Nn, I guess I wasn't that great of a hero. ...... I
couldn't even protect Hualian-chan."
"Hualian-chan... was it the name of Dad's
Zashiki-warashi......?"
My Dad shook his head
at Ai's question as he glanced at Renge.
"No, Dad didn't even know about the naming system
back then. If I had known, I would have definitely named her .....Hualian-chan
was an elementary school girl that I had met during that time. ...She was a
cheerful and optimistic girl at all times, which encouraged us a lot."
"I see……"
The atmosphere became
somewhat somber, and silence fell inside the car.
...Hualian1, huh?
It had been so many
years since I had heard the story of how my father and mother got
together that I almost forget it, but maybe the reason I had named
this Zashiki-warashi as Renge was because the story had remained in a corner of
my mind....
"We've finally arrived~"
Having been shown to my
room at the Japanese traditional inn (ryokan), I laid down on the tatami mats,
which smelled good and had the distinctive smell of a traditional inn, and
stretched out.
Seeing me, my mom,
who was arranging the luggage, looked at me with dismay,
"You're so lazy.... We were just in the car a few
minutes ago."
"On the contrary, it makes me tired. Lately, I feel
less tired when I'm moving my body."
"Oh my~, you're talking like a member of an athletic
club. Well, I guess that means you have become healthier than you used to
be."
"He~y, Onii-chan, let's go sightseeing, okay?
Sightseeing!"
Ai, who was scurrying
around the room like a small animal with Renge, came to me and pulled my arm.
"Eeh~, let's take a rest..."
No, we're staying here for two days and one night, you
know? Tomorrow is the only day we
can properly sightsee, and we only have three hours left until dinner, so we
need to move quickly! Right, Renge-chan?"
"Right, right. Come on, I'll put some rest magic on
you."
"I don't have a choice, do I~"
I got up slowly and
my Dad, who had been changing the TV channel at random, turned around and said,
"Don't go too far. You don't know the area well.
Renge-chan, please watch over my kids so they don't get lost, okay?"
"Aiyo, leave it to me."
"......, Why didn't you ask me, the eldest?"
I left the room
grumbling.
The ryokan where we
were staying was built beside a clear stream, and as we walked out the front
door, we saw a large, elegant red-lacquered bridge. As we crossed it and went
down the slope, we soon arrived at a tourist district lined with souvenir
shops.
The district was
crowded with people who, like us, had decided to take advantage of the four-day
weekend to travel instead of watching the Olympics.
"Ah, Utamaro. There's a footbath. Let's take a break
there!"
While we were
browsing around the souvenir shops and buying souvenirs for Ai's friends, Renge
pointed to the end of the street and said that.
True, I saw a
footbath next to a teahouse where tourists were relaxing with dango2 and tea in
their hands.
I immediately sensed
her intention and looked at her with a stern look,
"You just want to eat dumplings, don't you?"
"Hehe, you caught me."
Renge stuck out her
tongue and laughed. Then, as a matter of course, Ai took her side.
"Ai wants to take a footbath too," she said.
"...Well, so do I."
So the three of us
bought a set of dangos and stepped into the footbath.
"Fuu~, it feels pretty good even if it's only for
the feet."
“The feet get stuffy in the summer, too.”
While we were talking
like that, a young man sitting next to us suddenly looked at us and shouted
loudly,
"Ah! You! Utamaro
Kitagawa!"
Who is this guy, calling someone out of the blue ......?
I looked at him with
a confused look.
“Ah,
you don’t remember me, do you? It’s me, Yujin Sato!”
............? Who?
A large, stern-looking
young man whose body was built like a fighter.
...... No, seriously,
I don't recognize him.
Is this a new scam?
"You still can't remember me even though I told you
my name?! I'm Yujin Sato, best
4 in the Students Tournament!"
"...... Oh! Ooh! It's been a while."
I finally remembered
who he was and bowed my head in a hurry.
Come to think of it,
he was there! That friend! Teacher and Anna's characters were so strong that I had
completely forgotten about him.
Seeing me like that, Yujin-san
hung his head.
"I'm plain compared to you three anyway. Even on the
Internet, I'm called 'the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings of Students, the
one whose face and name you can't remember'."
Th, they say that?
But in a sense, I guess people remember me as someone who didn't let the
leader's sword slip through his fingers.
Normally, something
like the top four in a student tournament would be forgotten within a week of
broadcasting.
"I mean, why are you guys leaving me out? Isn't that harsh? No,
I get it. I'm two years older
than you guys, I've already graduated high school, and I'm not very skilled.
But why don't you just invite me too? I've
been promoted to a three-star rating, in case you were wondering. I'm working hard, too, you know? I was asked by a girl I don't know in college,
"Sato-san, you were in the top four in the Student Tournament, right? That means, after all, you helped to capture the Hound
Master with Tsubasa-sama, didn't you? That's
great, I respect you!" Do
you know how I felt when she said that with her sparkling eyes? So when I answered, "No, I wasn't invited,"
.....that air when she was like, "Oh......!" I seriously can't stand it! After
the tournament, all four of us exchanged contact information, but I'm the only
one who hasn't heard from anyone! You
and Kannazuki respond to me when I contact you, but that Jushichiya don't even
read my messages! You
three have been in touch with each other, right? Do
you know how hurt I was when I found out? It's
not good to be like that! It's
almost bullying! Please,
just invite me too!"
"I- I'm sorry."
I could only bow my
head to Yujin-san, who was complaining to me with a bitter look in his eyes.
"Uh, well, I didn't know that Sato-senpai wanted to
be a part of the Hound Master thing so much......."
Then, immediately, Yujin-san
lowered his tone,
"Oh no, it's not like that. I probably would have
turned it down even if you had asked me. Isn't it scary to be involved with a
serial killer?"
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
I unintentionally
forgot to be respectful and burst forward.
Do you want to be involved or not?
"I probably would have said no even if you had asked
me, but I wanted you to ask me as one of the best four friends. Do you
understand this delicate feeling?"
"No, it's a pain in the ass!"
You sound just like our Suzuka. When it's a cute girl
like her, it becomes acceptable, but when it's a guy like you, it's just a pain
in the ass!
"By the way, I've been wondering since a while ago,
is that girl your little sister?"
"Oh, yes, she's my little sister and that one is her
friend."
"Hmmm."
Yujin-san seriously
looked at Ai's pretty face and Renge, who had put her hat back on tightly.
"...... I see, Kitagawa has a complicated family
environment, too."
"She's not my step-little sister! She's my real sister!"
That's too rude! ...People
who have seen me and Ai usually think so, though!
“Speaking
of which, will Kitagawa participate in that?”
"What is it suddenly...... what is 'that'?"
This person's topic changes so often it's tiring,...... I
thought to myself as I tilted my head to the side, and he tilted his head as
well.
"Huh? Could it be, you don't know? The only thing that adventurers like us talk about this
time of year is 'that'."
"Is it MonColo or something?"
"Hmmm, you seriously don't know about it? You have
not heard anything about it from Kannadzuki or Jushichiya?"
"So what is it?"
When I asked this
with some irritation, he grinned.
“Hoho,
do you want to know?”
"......Yes."
Then Yujin-san's face
lit up, like 'Wow!'.
"But noooo! You've
been excluding me from the group, and only at a time like this do you need me
to tell you what you wanted to know!"
So, so annoying......
As my orbicularis
oculus3 twitched, Yujin-san suddenly began to fidget.......
"But, if you invite me properly from now on, I can
tell you....?"
"Then, no thanks."
"Why not?!"
No, this short exchange had already put you on the list
of people I don't really want to get involved with, and.......
I'm already tired of being pestered by Suzuka.
"Even if you regret it later, it will be too
late!"
Yujin-san threw a
final remark and ran off.
Watching his back, Ai
muttered a few words,
".....There are a lot of strange people among
Onii-chan's friends."
I tried to deny it,
but I couldn't because I could see the faces of the East-West duo and the
Adventurer's Club.
Seeing me like that,
the strangest of them all, the Zashiki-warashi, laughed out loud.
[Tips] Summoners
Those who happened to
be in possession of cards at the time of the First Angolmore and found out how
to use them as they were being attacked by monsters.
They were called Card
Users, Summoners, and Contractors.
It is no exaggeration
to say that their existence created the adventurer society of today.
Most Summoners worked
to protect people from being attacked by monsters, but there were a few who
mistakenly believed themselves to be the chosen ones and were eager to build
their own forces, and a few who wielded their power by following their own
desires.
***
Notes:
1 It’s mandarin. 花 (huā=flower; blossom; fancy pattern; florid) + 莲 (lián=lotus)↩
2 Dango is a Japanese dumpling made from rice flour mixed with uruchi rice flour and glutinous rice flour. ↩
3 The orbicularis oculi is a muscle in the face that closes the eyelids. ↩
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