chapter02 · 052-ep46
Episode 46: The Monday After Golden Week
The Monday after Golden Week.
The thigh soreness had mostly faded. The stairs down no longer took five minutes. More like one.
"Big bro, no fawn today!"
"You think it heals in a day? It still hurts a little."
"Baby calf, maybe?"
"What's a baby calf supposed to mean?"
"A slightly more grown-up fawn!"
"A fawn doesn't grow into a calf."
"Ahahaha!"
Laughing, Seina got her shoes half on — then suddenly turned back.
"Oh, right — big bro, aren't you streaming?!"
"Streaming?"
"Dungeon Strolls. You haven't done a single one since the Chikusa stream, have you? The comments are buried in 'When's the next?' and 'No Golden Week stream?'!"
"Ah..."
I'd completely forgotten.
Over two weeks since that stream where I shouted two lines at Chikusa. In that time, clip after clip had gone up on Tritter — but every one of them was someone else's footage. The main channel itself had been frozen since that day.
"Not right now, is the thing."
"Why?"
"There's a lot I can't show."
Summoning. The King.
The soldier, the Shadow Servant, Hati — none of them can appear on stream. Transform into the King, and the black cloak's identity is blown. The way I dive now was, almost in its entirety, unfit for streaming.
"...Hmmm?"
Seina tilted her head, not really following.
"Whatever. I'm the one who named it, so keep it going, okay?!"
"I know. Eventually."
"Your 'eventually' cannot be trusted!"
"This time I mean it."
"It's a promise! I'm off!"
This time, Seina really did dash off to morning practice.
Streaming, huh.
Weapons alone, I could show. Diving with a different weapon every day would probably be fun to watch.
After the tests, I'll think about it.
In the living room, big sis was drinking barley tea.
"Big sis."
"Mm."
"That Akazu thing — could you sell it for me after all?"
She set down her glass.
"Fine."
"But then it won't count toward my taxes, right?"
"It won't."
"Right."
I knew that.
Sell it through the Guild, and half the sale becomes my tax payment, stacking toward the rank-up requirement. Sell it through big sis, and it's her tax payment. Not one yen toward my C-rank.
Even so — far better that than a Guild record reading "the day the black cloak of Seto appeared, a D-rank cashed in an Akazu Floor 50 magic core."
"Then — please."
"Mm."
Big sis took one more sip of barley tea, then added a single line.
"The money's Saku's."
"Eh? You sure?"
"Saku killed it."
That was all. She stood.
Passing behind me, she gave my head one light pop.
"Heh. Thanks, big sis."
The instant I walked into the classroom, Matoba raised his phone high.
"'Combine — Torrent of Azure Lightning!'"
"That's your morning opener?"
"Ahahaha!"
About half the class was looking over, laughing.
I knew. Over Golden Week, my videos had hit the trends again and again. Me getting carried away with the dual blades; me shouting technique names with a staff. Safe to assume every single classmate had seen both.
"Ichinose, what'd you even DO over Golden Week? You trended twice!"
"Dungeons. Pretty much daily."
"We KNOW!"
"'#DualWieldingIsRomance' — that was your actual energy?!"
"It was my actual energy. Problem?"
"Ahahaha!"
In the next seat over, Yano propped her chin on her hand, grinning.
"Ichinose-kun, you had fun over Golden Week, didn't you."
"An unbelievable amount."
"It's written all over your face."
I got told that again.
"Also, so—"
Yano dropped her voice a little.
"You really dived with Tono Akari and Kisaragi Akane?"
"Really. They were both ridiculously strong."
"LUCKY!"
Yano collapsed onto her desk.
"Two Stellarion members AND a dungeon — what even is that?! I wanted to see!"
"You did see it. In the videos."
"LIVE! I wanted it LIVE!"
From the seat behind, Kuzumi murmured:
"...Looked fun. The staff one."
"It was fun. It was also mortifying."
"...Both, obviously."
"BOTH!"
Kuzumi said nothing more, just lifted one corner of his mouth, slightly.
In homeroom, our teacher handed out a sheet.
"Here's the midterm scope. Tests run the week after next, Monday through Friday. Two subjects a day, done by lunch. Make sure you look it over."
The class groaned as one.
I looked down at the printout.
Math: the start of quadratics through graph translations. English: textbook Lessons 1 through 3. Modern lit: two critical essays and one novel.
Almost everything I'd reviewed on Golden Week's last day was in there.
Thank goodness. Big sis's "study day" was right.
But not everything. The modern-lit novel I hadn't reread my notes on yet, and English Lesson 3 was the part where class had nearly left me behind too.
In the printout's margin, I wrote myself notes.
- Modern lit: reread notes on the novel
- English: Lesson 3 grammar, one more pass
- Math: extra problems on translations
When I finished writing, a thought struck me.
Tests start the week after next.
Which means: this weekend, and next weekend.
Which means: I can dive.
This weekend, Toda Floor 150; next weekend, studying.
No, wait — next weekend too, mornings only—
"Ichinose-kun."
From beside me, Yano's voice.
"You were thinking about dungeons just now, weren't you."
"I was not."
"You were. Your face was grinning!"
"I was confirming the test scope."
"Nobody grins at a test scope!"
She wasn't wrong.
Periods one through four, I clung to every class for dear life.
I was scared Golden Week had worn away even a little of it.
Rushing to copy the formulas the math teacher wrote. Squeezing his spoken asides into the margins. Marking red "?" wherever I didn't follow — to ask about later, or compare with the textbook at home.
English was the continuation of Lesson 3. Sure enough, around the relative pronouns, class started to pull away from me again.
Tonight, I review that. Absolutely.
One more "?" joined my notes.
Lunch break.
Bread from the school store, then up to the third floor where the second-years' classrooms are.
One purpose.
Thanking Akane-senpai.
On Golden Week Day Six, kicking through the air all day, when I fell in to my waist, a thought had drifted by: thank goodness I brought spare socks, exactly like Akane-senpai said.
Without that, I'd probably have spent the ride home freezing in soaked socks.
Outside Class 2-3, I took a deep breath.
A first-year showing up at a second-year classroom — this is surprisingly nerve-racking.
Through the doorway, I peeked in.
At the window seats, Tono-senpai and Akane-senpai sat eating their lunches side by side.
Tono-senpai noticed first.
"...Oh — Ichinose-kun."
At her voice, every second-year in the room turned at once.
"Huh? Dungeon Strolls?"
"It's really him."
"Here to see Akari-chan and them?"
The murmur spread and spread.
Akane-senpai's chopsticks stopped.
Her face went red in real time.
"...Wh-why are you HERE?!"
"I came to say thank you."
"Thank you?!"
"Yes. For the socks."
The classroom went dead silent.
Then the murmur doubled.
"Socks?"
"Akane-chan?"
"She gave him socks?"
"Wait, what? What kind of relationship is that?"
Akane-senpai, still clutching her bento lid, trembled.
"C-come with me. NOW."
She seized my arm and hauled me out into the hallway.
Down the hallway's end, to the stair landing.
Tono-senpai had followed, bento still in hand.
"You — do NOT say 'for the socks' in the middle of a classroom!"
"Sorry. But they really saved me."
"...Saved you?"
"Yester— I mean, on Golden Week Day Six, I was diving all day and fell in to my waist. I'd brought spare socks exactly like Akane-senpai told me, and changing into them for the ride home felt incredible. So — thank you very much."
I bowed.
For a while, no reply.
When I raised my head, Akane-senpai was facing away.
Red to the ears.
"...I-It's not like—"
"Sorry?"
"It's not like I said it for YOUR sake. It's party management. MANAGEMENT."
"Yes. Thank you for the management."
Akane-senpai's mouth worked open and shut, then went silent.
"...All day — how far did you go?"
"Floor 125. Heh."
"A hund—?!"
Akane-senpai whipped around.
"125?! In one day? You started Golden Week at Floor 50!"
"Yes. I tried extremely hard."
"What is WRONG with you!"
I got scolded.
Mid-scolding, Akane-senpai's eyes dropped to my legs.
"...And your legs?"
"Eh?"
"Muscle soreness! Dive all day, of course you get it. Did you stretch?"
"Yesterday I couldn't move..."
"You stretch ESPECIALLY when you can't move. That's exactly when you do it. Tonight when you get home — front and back of the thighs, properly. Then massage them in the bath. Extra fluids, too—"
Having fired all that off in one breath, Akane-senpai snapped her mouth shut.
Tono-senpai, bento in hand, was shaking with laughter.
"...Akane."
"Wh-what?"
"Fussing over someone again."
"I am NOT!"
"You were."
"It's MANAGEMENT! Party management!"
"We're not in a party right now, you know?"
"...Sh-shut UP!"
Face burning red, Akane-senpai fled up the stairs.
Even though the second-year rooms are one floor below.
Tono-senpai and I exchanged a look.
She laughed, softly.
"...Thanks for coming. Akane, under all that — she's probably happy."
"Is she?"
"Mm. She's not used to being thanked. Always fussing over everyone else — she's never once thought about how it feels to be fussed over."
Tono-senpai looked up the stairs Akane-senpai had fled.
"...Let's dive together again."
"Yes! Absolutely!"
"Though it'd be nice if Akane could just be honest from the start, for once."
"That is, I'm fairly sure, impossible."
"Right?"
Tono-senpai laughed out loud, a little.
Just then, from the top of the stairs, Akane-senpai's voice rained down.
"I CAN HEAR YOU!!"
After school, home, at my desk.
First, killing off today's "?"s in my notes, one by one.
Math resolved itself against the textbook examples. For the English relative pronouns, I dug out the grammar reference and copied three example sentences. Still a bit shaky, so tomorrow I'll go ask the teacher.
About an hour and a half in, I hit a stopping point.
After a stretch, I opened the Guild card's screen.
The cash-in history — and then, a number I had never once properly looked at.
Cumulative taxes paid: 7,284,000 yen
"7.28 million, huh."
Most of it was the Goblin Emperor's magic core. That alone was five million. The remaining two million and change — Chikusa, Shiroyama, and Golden Week's Toda.
The C-rank requirement: ten million.
About 2.7 million to go.
Tax is half the sale price, so in gross sales, around 5.4 million.
"That's far off."
My honest reaction.
Day Six's run, Floors 75 to 125, had earned about three million gross — about 1.5 million in taxes. Even if Floors 126 to 150 paid the same, it would still fall a little short.
The floor requirement, I can probably clear this weekend.
But the tax total will take a little more.
"Well. Whatever."
I murmured it and closed the screen.
No point rushing. One floor at a time, steady. Dungeons, studying — same thing.
Besides, if getting to C-rank means more trips to Toda, that's fun in its own right.
No — maybe I just want to keep going because it's fun.
Either way, fine.
I reopened my notes and turned to the modern-lit novel.
Five days to the weekend.
First, the "?"s right in front of me.
At night, after my bath, I stretched the fronts and backs of my thighs. Properly.
Exactly like Akane-senpai said.
If I go back to the second-years' room tomorrow and report "I stretched!", she'll probably flee up those stairs again.
It made me want to go report it. Just a little.