ch401-ch420 · 416-ch416

Chapter 416: Marriage Blues

"Good work today, Haruki-san."

Hm?

I did spear practice at the Hiramatsu family shrine, and figured the parfaits were probably sold out by now, so I stopped by the dungeon—but Kasumi-san seems low on energy?

Yesterday we had our White Day date from the afternoon on—we went to Tokyo Tower again...... Maybe she's finally tired of my one-pattern dates?

No—it has to be the return gift that flopped.

It was brand-name heart earrings, but maybe she didn't like them.

Even when I gave them to her she went 'Eh?'—and checking by her ear, sure enough, she isn't wearing them.

That was a failure......

"Has everyone gone home already?"

Poking clumsily would only stir the hornet's nest.

Recovery is beyond my power, so I'll consult Shiraishi-san or Hayashi-san.

"Yes, the 'Blue Ocean' members headed home just a little while ago. The customers left with them. The event was a roaring success. We had people trying their hand at the 'Giant's Spear,' and the 'Lilliputian Spears' sold quite well too. It reminded me all over again just how popular 'Blue Ocean' truly is. Asking Anego-san and the others to handle crowd control was absolutely the right call."

I'd asked Anego-san and the others to guard the venue on the condition that we'd treat them to parfaits after the event ended.

Blue Shadow and Summer Shadow can look after themselves, but Spring Shadow is apparently an amateur.

Having his mask pulled off would be a problem, so it's better not to leave him alone going forward either.

Though Anego-san and the others can probably see straight through Summer Shadow's contents anyway.

(What is it he does, again......?)

Summer Shadow's identity is hidden only so no one can trace things back to ME—and since Anego-san and the others, having actually seen the fake Spring Shadow, will never think it's me, this works out fine in reverse.

And as predicted, the rumor that he 'defeated Sword Saint-chan' is taking on a life of its own—I'll cook up some appropriate job and special skill for him before long.

Kasumi-san is still Association staff until the end of March, so she can't appear in videos of her own accord.

For a while, Aikawa will do the dancing—and once April comes, Kasumi-san's temporary membership will be announced.

Kasumi-san aside, the timing of Aikawa's Quadruple promotion is the problem.

It hasn't been made public, but the Association knows she's still officially Double.

A sudden jump to Quadruple, level and all, would be suspicious beyond belief.

We want to ride along with 'Blue Ocean' and promote to Triple ourselves, but they're too busy for us to build an alibi.

The new-dungeon surveys are going smoothly: in Tokyo, every new dungeon has already beaten its Floor 30 boss, and in Chiba, everything except the ant dungeon, the airport, and the rain dungeon has been surveyed and mapped.

'Blue Ocean' now has to travel the whole country surveying the 40s floors.

There are over 500 new dungeons, so all of them is impossible—but apparently each branch must conquer at least one.

The SDF will handle the rest, but with 47 branches, even two a month means over two years.

(Though 'Sword Saint-chan' says that if the dream's contents look good, she wants to head for Floor 50 right away......)

I want her to at least wait until my level hits 50, but now she's the one trying to drag ME along on leveling runs.

There may not be much time left.

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"Kasumi-san's mood? My apologies, I was so caught up in the event I wasn't watching closely."

"Did your cheating get found out? You didn't show your face yesterday or today—where WERE you?"

Ugh.

I only dropped by the dungeon briefly, so I decide to excuse myself right away today.

Soushi's MP is spent anyway, so he can't go deep.

Declining to see Kasumi-san off—she was still on duty—I head for the surface-side reception.

I meant to consult Hayashi-san, but Endo-san strikes right where it hurts.

No—I just gave return gifts to the people who gave me chocolate on Valentine's. It's not 'cheating' or anything, you know?

Today I've only seen Mimiko, too.

"I'm not really one for public appearances, so......"

In a little while, maybe I won't have to be wary of 【Healer】s anymore?

No good?

If that fake Spring Shadow gets 【Analyze・HP】'd, they'll see he's an amateur......

If there's an obviously strong person standing nearby, they might get suspicious.

"By the way, what did you give as your White Day return? If she's in a bad mood today, that's got to be the cause."

A bad mood, huh......

She seemed low-spirited to me—what's the difference?

"Ah, I'd be unsatisfied with cookies like those too, you know? Even if they're tasty, you won't fool me. Payment in magic stones, please."

THIS one's the mood about to turn bad.

If magic stones are all she wants, I have plenty, but......

"That can wait a while, I think."

"Really? It's a promise~? You're the only one I can rely on anymore, Haruki-san."

After Kasumi-san leaves the Association, Hayashi-san will be the one arranging things for us, so there's a lot I'd like to talk over.

But Endo-san's here today, so I'll pass.

"And otherwise...... marriage blues, perhaps? Come to think of it, when is the wedding looking like?"

Hm?

The wedding—whose wedding?

Shinohara-san and Bear Ossan's, maybe?

Early April, was it......

I haven't been invited, so I couldn't say.

"Hm? Have you proposed already?"

Eh? ME propose?

"Eh? You HAVEN'T!? Watanabe-san is leaving the company to get married, isn't she?"

Eh?

Well, she did say something like that, but......

"Now I see it—that's GOT to be why she's down! Yesterday she was expecting it, wasn't she?"

When we announced our graduation and university results at Kasumi-san's family home, that topic came up too—but she said 'once things settle down with university'......

Eh? I'm not mentally ready yet......