ch141-ch160 · 147-ch147
Chapter 147: Greetings Matter
"My bad, making you put up the money. You sure about this? You already took every last yen from cashing in those hobgoblin stones from earlier."
"Well, having something made without giving anything back would feel off. We're just the ones doing the eating—don't sweat it. Besides, you felled every one of those stones yourself. That's your first earnings, right? Go treat your mother to something nice with it. The Chiba branch manager's a sucker when it comes to talk of mothers. Might just save you someday if you cause trouble."
The branch-manager special attack.
Striking at your opponent's weak point is the ultimate secret of Hiramatsu-ryu spear arts, after all.
"Why are you planning on causing trouble?! Haruki, don't tell me...!"
"There's no 'don't tell me' about it! You came to the Association raising hell about me not coming home, and the branch manager lectured me for HOURS!"
"Ahh, right, that did happen. Come to think of it, I wonder how Endo-san's doing? She was super sweet to me back then."
"Endo-san's got her eye on ME now, and it's a nightmare!"
She thinks I'm Disciple Number One of the Two-Timer, you know.
"Hold on, though—with a skill like that, how come you didn't make it home that night?"
"My MP hit zero and I had to walk all the way back from Floor 30. Brutal, man."
Though in my dream I did meet a goddess and nearly cross over into another world...
"Ahh, right, MP. Even a skill that looks invincible is hopeless if the guy using it's an idiot."
An idiot just called ME a dumbass!
So mad right now.
"Oh yeah, I remembered. I was planning to turn you into a 【Monk】."
"Hm? 【Monk】's the strongest basic job, isn't it? What's this 'turn into'? If anything, I should be thanking you, no?"
"Word is, the condition for 【Monk】 is clearing through Floor 10 bare-handed. So starting tomorrow: no weapons! I'm going to have you fight Minotaurs bare-handed FOREVER until 【Monk】 shows up. Spear and kitchen knife: confiscated."
"What kind of deal is that? Whatever—I've got the piano wire. I'll take them down in style with this."
Fine by me—go ahead and try.
And if he can actually pull that off, 【Thread User】 really will show up for him too...
"Huh? Haruki? You came to pick me up? Nobody told me that?"
It was Mia-san.
She was checking her phone for missed messages.
We were shopping in front of the station, so we'd run straight into Mia-san, who'd come by train.
"Just a coincidence. We're on our way back to the Chiba branch, though, so let's go together."
"Who's that? A friend of yours?"
Soushi reacted to Mia-san.
The two of them had never met...
"Mia-san, this is Soushi. A total rookie who just became an adventurer today. He's making dinner for us, so let's all eat together."
"Ahh, right—Kasumi mentioned it yesterday. That Haruki was forming a party with a friend. I go by Mia. Believe it or not, I'm a 【Blacksmith】. Pleasure's all mine."
She introduced herself as a 【Blacksmith】, but Mia-san is already a 【Master Artisan】—a high-rank job.
She's short and looks like a kid, but she's the manager of Mia's Weapon Shop, moving over from the headquarters dungeon to Chiba soon.
"Ore? Mia-san? Feels like I've heard that somewhere... Ah—I'm, um, Natsukawa Soushi. Pleasure to meet you!"
She's an ore-girl with her first-person pronoun, after all. It throws people off...
I was relieved Soushi didn't treat her like a kid, though.
Mia-san is small, but she's a beauty—so he gave her a proper greeting, I bet.
"Yeah, real polite. ...Huh. Haruki's got manners too, when it comes to greetings... Not falling for it."
She'd already seen right through the idiot.
Sasa-Mia—
And so the three of us headed for the Chiba branch.
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When we got back into the dungeon, Kasumi-san was in the middle of handing over to Hiramatsu-san.
Once that finished, the counter shift would change, and Kasumi-san could join us.
Hiramatsu-san looks like an unremarkable guy in his late twenties, but one step outside the dungeon he's feared by adventurers as a master of the spear.
Adventurers who give Kasumi-san trouble get dragged outside and pounded flat by Hiramatsu-san.
According to the man himself, he's only a Single-Rank adventurer, so inside the dungeon he's nothing special.
Inside the dungeon—or rather, as an Association employee—he's apparently the engineering lead, the man in charge of the machinery.
The unremarkable part is just looks; he's good at his job too, it seems.
I've only recently started learning the 'Hiramatsu-ryu Jumonji Spear Arts' this man practices.
For the record, so far he's only taught me the basics of the thrust.
"Oh, Kasugano-san! Long time no see. Rough luck on the exams, huh—do your best next time!"
The black-gyaru receptionist was there too.
Whitish-silver hair, deeply tanned skin, flashy nails—the gyaru lady.
Her uniform is heavily modified, and the skirt is really, really short...
No name tag either—I honestly never knew her name.
For the record, my exams weren't 'rough luck'—they were the same as always, thank you very much?
The night-shift counter seems to be the Hiramatsu-san and black-gyaru receptionist duo.
It's a shift handover, but no sign of the newbie.
Did she head up ahead?
"I'm Natsukawa Soushi! Looking forward to working with you!"
Soushi boomed his greeting.
Ever since the day I became an adventurer, this guy's been all ears for stories about the black-gyaru receptionist.
No, honestly, he listened intently to every single receptionist story.
"I'm Akaaane! Pleasure's all yours!"
Her name, apparently, is Akane.
"Hiramatsu, here."
Hiramatsu-san raised a hand lazily and gave his name too.
One giving only her first name and the other only his family name—is there some meaning to that...?
"A friend of Kasugano-san's, is it? Now Watanabe-san won't be alone on shift—what a relief!"
"And if Haruki tries anything dangerous, you'll stop him proper, yeah?"
"Yes! Leave it to me!"
Aside from Kasumi-san and Mia-san, my special skill 【Gate】 is a secret.
As far as everyone knows, I'm the reckless guy who pushes deeper and deeper all by himself.
Even the newbie called me a weirdo—I've got to work on that image.
And Kasumi-san's told me standing out is a no-go...
"Well then, let's get going. Kasumi-san gave me the key, so you can use my shop's kitchen."
Mia-san, who'd been talking with Kasumi-san, said this while showing us the card key.
"Eh? You already signed the lease?"
"Figured sooner was better. I've had nothing but time these last few days, so I went ahead and decided."
And that's how we ended up borrowing the kitchen of Mia-san's new shop.
My warehouse has no toilet or plumbing, so the plan was for her to contract a shop that did—and apparently it comes with a kitchen too.
Isn't it a pretty big one, at that?