21-40 · 026
Chapter 25: New Residence
Somewhere in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The real estate management division inside the Guild Headquarters building.
Seated on the sofa in the reception room, Rin and I faced a middle-aged guild executive with a stout build. His gaze was clearly appraising, filled with suspicion.
“Um, I hate to say this, but the ‘Special Class A Underground Shelter’ managed by our guild has an asking price of no less than ten billion yen. Soma-sama, I see you’re an F-Rank explorer, if you’ll forgive my frankness… if this is just a lark, I’d ask you to leave.”
His manner was insolence wrapped in courtesy. It couldn’t be helped. I was still wearing my drab hoodie, and Rin beside me had originally been a modest liaison for a C-Rank party. For two such youngsters to say they’d come to buy a ten-billion-yen property, it was natural to think they weren’t serious.
But Rin never lost her composed smile. She took a document from her bag and slid it across the table.
“We’re not asking for any troublesome loan screening. We’d like to take delivery today, in cash. If we pay immediately, could you offer a discount?”
“Ha, cash? Ridiculous. Such a large sum… we’re busy people.”
Snorting, he picked up the document—a ‘Certificate of Balance’ issued by a bank—and then his hand froze. His eyes flew wide in disbelief, darting between the paper and our faces several times.
“Fi-fi-fifty… billion!?”
A waterfall of cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Fifty billion yen. It was a sum that even a consortium of mid-tier guilds couldn’t match—a national-scale private asset.
“I-I am terribly sorry!! I’ll have the contract prepared immediately! As for a discount, I’ll speak with the Guild Master and offer our utmost sincerity…!”
The executive practically tumbled out of his chair, bowed to a ninety-degree angle, and dashed out of the room.
The violence of overwhelming capital. It was the moment when social standing was completely overturned by a single piece of paper. Suppressing the urge to grin, we waited for the guild’s tour.
◇
“Huge…! What is this place, it’s like a soccer stadium!?”
That evening.
We completed the formalities and stepped into our newly purchased office—the former shelter—dozens of meters underground. Behind the partition coated with thick lead and magic-absorbing alloy stretched an inorganic but immensely vast space. The ceiling was high; there were private generators, a massive air-conditioning system, and even a water purification facility tapping into an underground aquifer. It was exactly the kind of secret base you see in movies.
“With this, we don’t have to worry about the floor collapsing even if we line up hundreds of huge artifacts. Besides, we’ve inherited the guild’s direct-control security system as is, so hacking or physical intrusion is absolutely impossible. You should thank me for the negotiation.”
Rin’s heels clicked satisfyingly as she surveyed the floor.
“Now, then, let’s move in.”
I stood in the center of the vast floor and channeled magic power into the ‘Ring of Subspace’ on my left hand.
“—Deploy.”
Shoop! With a sharp sound cutting through the air, the subspace gate opened. The luxury sofa, large monitors, masses of unrepaired junk, a full set of household goods, and above all, the enormous stone pillar of the ‘Divine Stele of Universal Transfer’ that I’d stored from the tower apartment were all neatly arranged in one corner of the vast underground space.
“…As always, that’s an absurd sight. Moving companies would cry and file complaints.”
In an instant, the barren concrete space was transformed into our comfortable new ‘base.’ With this much room, I could wield the high-pressure washer without worrying about anyone, and I didn’t have to care about the pungent smell of Sanpol.
“Phew… Finally, we can relax. Antique Eye, Inc.’s new office is officially complete. Oh, I already contacted the real estate agency about the previous tower apartment and canceled the lease effective immediately.”
“Wow, that’s quick. Did we have to pay a penalty?”
“Of course it’s written off as an expense, so no damage. You didn’t have any attachment to it, right?”
Rin sank deep into a newly purchased premium office chair and let out a sigh of relief. We raised the canned coffee we’d just bought at a nearby convenience store and made a small toast.
“Still, I feel like everything’s moving too smoothly. It’s almost scary.”
As I relaxed a little and turned on the monitor installed against the wall, a news channel appeared.
“—Next, the news. Currently, reports of unexplained phenomena are coming in from Shinjuku Dungeon.”
The anchor’s solemn voice and the screen showing the ominous dungeon gate drew our eyes naturally to the monitor.
“Ferocious monsters that should only inhabit the deep layers below the 50th floor are being sighted one after another near the middle and upper layers. The Dungeon Guild is issuing a strong warning to explorers, while also reinforcing defense units and urgently investigating the cause and implementing countermeasures—”
“Deep-layer monsters are moving up…?”
I frowned. The rumor Rin had mentioned earlier about “strange happenings in the middle layer” was now being reported as full-fledged national news. At the edge of the screen, explorers were being carried away on stretchers.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Rin muttered, clutching her canned coffee tightly. I felt the same. A disruption in the dungeon’s ecosystem was evidence of some fatal abnormality. It was like rats fleeing before an earthquake. If the deep-layer monsters were running from something…
That—
An uneasy feeling flickered at the edge of my mind.
“Could it be…?”
I muttered to myself, shaking my head lightly, telling myself it was my imagination. But the uneasy feeling clung stubbornly to the back of my mind.