ch241-ch260 · 259-ch259
Chapter 259: The Berserker Rises Again
SIDE: Umemoto Atsushi (the 【Berserker】 guy)
'Uu—me—mo—to—, why'd you kill me—'
Hasegawa clings to my left hand.
Ah. This dream again......
Right. This is a dream.
Because I killed him......
'It hurts, it huuurts'
'Seriously? Why are you the only one still alive? Gross, man—'
'Come with us—come on—'
It's not just Hasegawa.
My old party members are all trying to drag me under......
I resist with everything I have......
I know it's a dream, but if they drag me under like this, I'll die—I can feel it, and the sweat won't stop.
Four of them on me at once. My strength isn't enough. What do I do......
'You'll use it again, won't you? Like you did back then?'
Hasegawa whispers, never letting go of my left hand.
No. That's not it.
But if I don't use it......
'Uu—me—mo—to—'
The nine people I killed pull me under, all at once.
No more......
"Mr. Umemoto!"
Jun!
Light breaks through......
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︙
"Mr. Umemoto! Mr. Umemoto! Are you all right?"
I wake up.
Standing there is......
"......Sorry. I'm fine now, Nurse."
A woman in a nurse's uniform......
My head clears.
This is the hospital inside the Chiba Dungeon.
Seems I dozed off again mid-treatment.
A little over a month since treatment began.
My body feels a lot better.
Before, the on-and-off pain meant I couldn't even sleep—lately I can sleep even outside the dungeon.
On treatment days I recover to almost where I was before.
"You were crying out in your sleep again. You really should take counseling too. I'll have Dr. Amamiya refer us to a good clinic, okay?"
The pretty nurse worries over me.
She's always like this.
She fusses over me to the point of being overkill.
"No, I'm fine. And today's dream was one of the milder ones, so......"
I have two dreams I see inside the dungeon.
One is the one just now—Hasegawa and the others trying to drag me somewhere.
The other is a dream about Jun and the others, my party members.
Well, my ex-party members now, I suppose......
A dream where they fall out with each other and the party falls apart.
The cause goes without saying: the crime of murder I committed.
The harassment, the whispers behind their backs.
A situation where I can't stay at the Ibaraki branch. Where would they transfer to, and what would become of me......
All I can do is watch it from a bird's-eye view.
It's a dream—but in my experience, that dream is something that actually happened.
That's the kind of thing dreams inside the dungeon are.
And this dream is many times crueler than having Hasegawa clinging to me.
Everyone who was so close, because of me......
The dungeon really is a creature of terrible personality.
"One of the milder ones!? After all that screaming?! You really should get counseling!"
"No, well, um, I don't have money...... I'm not working right now, and it'll probably be a while before anyone hires me......"
Under special measures I can still enter the dungeon for treatment, but my adventurer license stays revoked.
A condition requiring regular treatment, and a criminal record on top.
Scary, just thinking about what comes next......
"Eh? But...... why......"
"Ah, the treatment fees here are covered, don't worry. My teammates seem to have paid ahead, and the doctor gives me medicine money if I help out with tests and such."
Right now I live off a little savings and selling my blood to the hospital's owner, Dr. Amamiya, under the polite name of "clinical trials."
"Um. Haven't those teammates of yours been sending you money? It might be sitting in your account unnoticed—have you checked?"
"No. After all the trouble I caused them, I can't leech off them any further, so......"
That's a lie......
The money comes in every month.
Judging by the dream, the sender is Jun.
There'd been talk of everyone transferring to Aomori together, but she insisted on being the only one who wouldn't leave Kanto.
......And even that Jun has been out of contact since the day before the court verdict.
Has she finally given up on me?
And yet she still sends the money. Loyal, or something......
Anyway, I can't spend this money.
I have to pay back the treatment fees too.
But Jun's whereabouts are the one thing I can't find out.
Her family hasn't heard from her either.
No money to hire anyone to search, of course......
The amount deposited this month was substantial.
Surely she isn't doing anything strange to earn it?
That's the only thing I'm worried about......
"You mustn't think like that! They're your teammates—you're allowed to lean on them!"
The nurse somehow ends up scolding me......
Her chest bounces big, and I hastily look away.
Beautiful, and with a truly staggering figure.
If someone like this is kind to me, I might get the wrong idea.
"......Former, though. I can't reach any of them now."
"Ah...... former, I see. ......Understood. Then from today, I, personally, will look after your daily life, Mr. Umemoto!"
The nurse bows her head for a moment—like she's just heard something she shouldn't have—then suddenly says something absurd.
"Why does it turn into THAT!? That's weird, surely!"
"It's the neighborly bond."
Right—for treatment's sake I moved to Chiba, and by pure coincidence the nurse lives in the room next to mine.
Please stop, I really might get the wrong idea......
Even though I'm not a person who's allowed things like that......
But......
"Why would you go that far for someone like me......"
There it is. I asked......
"That's......"
Our eyes meet. Too close......
Even though I know better......
"Okay~! Time for fun dancing lessons~. ......Am I interrupting?"
"What's up? Huh? Where's Watanabe-san?"
A man and woman come in through the wide-open door, and the nurse hastily jumps back from me.
Quick—and WOW, did they bounce!
"W-Watanabe-san is with the emergency patient who came in yesterday! Dr. Amamiya is with them too! I-I-I'll go fetch them!"
"Ah, over there, huh. But aren't you supposed to stay with him?"
"It's fine, it's fine. Mr. Umemoto is a good person."
The dance teacher and the cook kid arrive just as the nurse bounces out.
The cook kid apparently holds the 【Cook】 job, and this hospital's food is UNBELIEVABLY good.
He helps out as the dance teacher's assistant, and over this past month we've gotten pretty close.
He knows about the incident, and yet he talks with me like a normal person, and brings snacks by.
He might be the person I trust most right now.
The dance teacher, too, apparently holds the rare job of 【Dancer】—Dr. Amamiya went out of her way to bring them in for my treatment.
And how does dancing treat anything? The poison I took from Hasegawa came from a skill, so no ordinary treatment can cure it.
But luckily, I have a special skill called 【Poison Resistance】.
Unfortunately, Hasegawa's skill proved stronger than my 【Poison Resistance】, and as of now I still can't neutralize the poison.
According to Dr. Amamiya, that's because my Magic is insufficient.
Which is where the dance teacher comes in.
【Dancer】 is, apparently, a buffer class—dancing with the teacher raises my Magic from the bottom up.
I was skeptical at first, but trying it, the effect was dramatic.
Since the dance teacher started coming, I've been freed from the wheelchair, and now I've more or less reclaimed daily life.
Until then my whole left half wouldn't move, and even the nurse's recovery magic wore off in about two hours—but now, with clinic visits twice a week, I can live a normal life.
"Well, well. Thanks for having me. Shall we begin for today? You there—line up as well."
The nurse, Dr. Amamiya, and Watanabe-san, armed, file in.
Watanabe-san is the benefactor who saved me when I was rampaging in Chiba, and now she keeps watch so I don't go berserk inside the hospital.
Association staff are famously overworked—she carves time out of that schedule for me, and I can't bow low enough......
"Eh, me too?"
One more young man in hospital clothes comes in, like me.
He's awfully young......
You could almost call him a boy.
The boy's head is wrapped in bandages, his right eye completely covered by them.
He must be the emergency patient they brought in yesterday—but he seems livelier than expected.
"Huh? Have we met somewhere?"
The bandages covering his face make it hard to see, but something about him seems familiar.
Where did I meet him...... can't remember.
Before I know it, I've called out to the boy lining up next to me.
"Eh? No,...... we're meeting for the first time."
The fact that Watanabe-san stands guard over him before me means he might be a criminal, same as me......
"Somewhere," maybe, means I saw his face on the news.
With spear-armed Watanabe-san here I won't be needed, but if anything happens, I have to protect these benefactors of mine.
Even if it costs me this life......