ch301-ch320 · 303-ch303

Chapter 303: New Dungeon Appearance Flag 【Hashimoto Masaki】 Part 3

SIDE: Hashimoto Masaki (Chairman of the Adventurer's Association)

"Ah, Miyuki-kun. I will be attending the mixer as well, so together we shall......"

Miyuki-kun left the chairman's office without so much as a reply.

She seemed lost in gloomy thought.

Should I have asked where she was going, and why?

I shall try asking at the mixer......

In any case, at the mixer I must protect her from the pack of men who flock to Miyuki-kun.

Best to finish my work quickly and prepare.

"Send in the next one."

Now, who is next......

'Yamada-saaan, please come innn!'

Yamada?

'F-forgive the intrusion. Kuwashima-san—please keep it secret!'

The one who entered was the employee I had planted in the Chiba branch.

A woman with a pale face and long black hair.

I went to the trouble of sending her in directly from a regional branch, with information exchanged only by data, and told her not to come here—did I not?

"Are you acquainted with Kuwashima-kun?"

I raise the subject of Miyuki-kun, but Yamada only starts talking with an embarrassed look.

Yamada has never been stationed at headquarters, has she?

"Ah, yes. This was before Kuwashima-san became the 【Saint】—she came to the Tottori branch, where I was stationed, to level up. I got to accompany her then, but once she hit Level 30 and returned to headquarters, that was the end of it. I lost touch with her, and I worried something had happened to her on Floor 30, but a while later I saw on TV that she had become the 【Saint】, and I was relieved."

The Tottori branch's dungeon is the one with plant monsters, I believe......

I'm told that those born with the 【Healer】 job, like Miyuki-kun, are all gentle souls.

Even taking a monster's life pains them, apparently.

Perhaps because of that, leveling is a struggle for them, and upper recovery-job holders can be counted on one hand.

And so, it seems, there was once a leveling run at the Tottori Dungeon on the condition of no humanoid or beast-type monsters.

"I hear even against plants, recovery jobs feel a strong aversion?"

"That's right. In the end, three remained. I thought Kuwashima-san would drop out first, but she held on all the way to Level 30. To think that girl, who leveled up crying every single day, would become the 【Saint】...... No—perhaps it is precisely because she is like that that she could become 'the Holy Maiden.'"

So Miyuki-kun earned the 【Saint】 job at the end of efforts that made her cough blood......

I see, I see. A good story.

"Oh dear, I've drifted off topic. Let us get to the point. Why have you come today?"

"Umm, yes. The truth is...... it seems my being a spy has been discovered. So I was wondering whether I might be taken off this assignment...... If at all possible, could you send me back to Tottori? I want to be healed there."

"What? Discovered? I see...... Hm? 'Healed,' you say?"

She has bungled it, apparently.

So that is why she came here today......

"I cannot continue this work any longer. I'm terrified! That woman means to kill me!"

"Now, now—who is this woman? Watanabe Kasumi? In the first place, why were you discovered? How do you even know you were? If all you did was probe your surroundings, there should be no evidence of your connection to us, should there?"

Suddenly the talk turns dangerous.

Probing around a bit turns into talk of killing or not killing?

I don't follow.

Did she uncover some vital secret?

"I can sense 'killing intent'...... When I use the 【Presence Detection】 skill, I can tell where my opponent will launch an attack, and how aggressive a feeling they harbor."

"Oh? Impressive. Knowing where an attack will come—isn't that an effective skill in combat against people?"

Yamada is a top-notch operative holding an upper scout-class job, after all.

"Yes. Even against combat jobs, I'm confident of not losing in a one-on-one. But that woman—Watanabe—is abnormal. Killing intent with genuine intent to kill comes flying at me in countless threads...... She means to tear me limb from limb! It is the first time I have ever received such bloodlust from a person, and......"

Yamada begins trembling all over.

This one is done for......

"Understood. Calm yourself. Watanabe Kasumi is not here. I approve the transfer. The paperwork will take time, but from tomorrow you will be officially on sick leave, and you need not go to Chiba."

"Thank you, thank you."

Perhaps from relief, tears spill from Yamada's eyes.

It is that bad, is it?

"Hm. Do submit your reports properly. Speaking of which—how goes the business with that fiancé? Haruki Kasugano, was it. Have you learned anything?"

Haruki Kasugano.

The name of the until-now mysterious fiancé, reported recently by Miyuki-kun's guards as well.

He is apparently an active high schooler, of all things.

A high schooler as a lover—even the other staff must be keeping their mouths shut about it.

"Umm. That too came up, yes. This won't go in the report—it is my own guess...... but Watanabe may have been the target of a honey trap."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! A honey trap? From where?"

The East? The West?

That would be bad.

No—toward what end?

"The Self-Defense Forces. The more I dig, the stranger it becomes. Nothing in writing remains, but it is the Chiba branch manager who is hiding him. By the branch manager's orders, all information near Haruki Kasugano is forbidden to be spoken of. His business is handled exclusively by Watanabe, and what he actually does in the dungeon is beyond even my ability to investigate."

"The SDF, you say? Evidence? Is there no record of orders?"

"I only had it passed to me verbally by other staff. At first I thought it was to hide the scandal of a high schooler lover, but even the information I can see is plainly wrong. He made Single in one week, then Double in another week. A high schooler, mind you? And no other adventurer ranked up alongside him."

"There is nothing odd about doing it alone. If anything, that would be evidence someone helped him rank up."

If he were a rich man's son, that would be a familiar story—but as far as I have looked into Haruki Kasugano's family circumstances, they seem like a typical middle-class household.

The only unusual thing is that his father is away on a solo work assignment.

But even that could be a fabrication......

No—should I simply conclude that Watanabe Kasumi raised her own rank?

"There is one piece of evidence pointing to the SDF. The guarantor of the warehouse Haruki Kasugano rents was the branch manager. It had already been rented by the time he made Double, so given the paperwork, before that. I don't imagine, ordinarily, that anyone would stand guarantor for an adventurer who appeared out of nowhere."

I clutch my head.

I did look into the Chiba branch manager as well—he has no family relation to Haruki Kasugano.

Why did he seal everyone's lips......

Why did he stand guarantor......

"I don't understand......"

"I'm told Watanabe Kasumi first met Haruki Kasugano at the start of this June, when he came to register his license."

"Huh? Wait—the Umemoto incident was in June as well, was it not? And by that point he was already talking about having a fiancée?"

"Huh? Well, even now it's odd, isn't it? An engagement with a high schooler after four months or so is beyond the pale. I can only conclude some scheme was at work. They have even greeted each other's parents, I hear."

An engagement means as much, I suppose—but did Haruki's parents accept a woman ten years his senior?

A sham family, after all?

"No, wait. Aren't you a little too well informed? How did you look all this up?"

My head cannot keep up—I have said nothing but 'wait' for some time now.

"I asked him directly."

That's it! That's why you were discovered, that's it! If you try to dig that deep, of course you'll be suspected!

"No, he volunteered it himself......"

This one is a pro, too.

She must have orchestrated it with her artful tongue.

"He talked about his hidden fiancée, and later grew suspicious of you, no doubt...... Well, what is exposed cannot be un-exposed now. So—did you make contact with Haruki Kasugano himself?"

What manner of man wins over Watanabe in under a month and carries it all the way to engagement......

"Clearly an operative. I was scoping out the warehouse, and before I knew it he was standing behind me......"

"What? Didn't you just say you can sense killing intent? Even setting that aside—can anyone take an upper scout-class from behind?"

"That's just it—I sense no killing intent from him at all. Or even presence, for that matter...... He is definitely scout-class. And when I thought he was closing in on me, he comes at me with kind words—offering to show me the way, to carry my luggage. All I can say is: a terrifying man."

"And he clearly knows you were scoping the warehouse."

Is this one really a pro?

"Yes, I believe I was the one who got caught. I got worked up trying to outmaneuver him, and that was my mistake."

She's hopeless.

But it is also true that I have no better asset than Yamada.

"Cannot get near the warehouse, huh. More suspicious by the minute."

Surely they are not doing this and that in the warehouse?

Just as Yamada says—is it really a honey trap?

I cannot fathom the SDF's purpose in doing such a thing......

The point of the investigation, to begin with, was how Watanabe Kasumi made Triple-Rank.

If the SDF arranged that themselves, so be it.

Knowing she is the 【Spear King】, did they assign a high schooler to poach her?

She said she would resign to become a homemaker—but in truth, joining the SDF......

Would the SDF really go that far?

"Chairman, it's an emergency!"

The secretary throws open the door and rushes in.

"Knock, at the very least!"

"I'm sorry. It's an urgent matter......"

"What is it?"

"The Aomori branch has called to say the dungeon has suspended operations......"

Aomori?

What has happened?

︙

︙

In the end, the Aomori branch kept me from the mixer yesterday.

Miyuki-kun may have felt lonely without me.

The wall of the Aomori Dungeon......

"Chairman, it's an emergency!"

"Knock, at the very least!"

Didn't the same thing happen yesterday?

"I'm sorry. It's an urgent matter......"

"Again? Which dungeon this time?"

"No, it's...... today's issue."

What the secretary holds out is the weekly magazine.

She opens it to the page her finger was keeping and sets it on my desk.

"What's this? 'Sword Saint-chan' Joins the Self-Defense Forces...... is it? Wha—?"

The Self-Defense Forces......

Quietly dropping a new work.

'I'll Do It, I'll Make You Do It, I Won't Let You Do It.'

Thank you for reading.