ch81-ch100 · 097-ch97
Chapter 97: Good-Son Machine No. 1 Appears
The phone rang before six and jolted me upright.
It's Kasumi-san. Gotta answer fast.
'Good morning, Haruki-san. I'm sorry to call so early.'
"Morning, Kasumi-san. ...You sound a little off? Are you okay?"
What is it? She's not her usual energetic self.
'...I'm fine. Hearing your voice just now cheered me up. There's a meeting being held first thing this morning, so I'm already on my way out.'
A meeting, huh...
Some urgent agenda item at the Chiba branch?
The explosion sound on Floor 1, maybe?
...If so, no wonder Kasumi-san sounds down.
"I'm heading to the branch too, then."
'No. You haven't been to school in a whole week, Haruki-san. Please go to school properly today. I won't be returning your license until you bring your mother grades she can be satisfied with at end-of-term exams, understand?'
I've been out of school since last Wednesday, so yesterday, Tuesday, made it exactly a week.
But good grades on tests? Since when did that come up?
"You can keep holding my license, Kasumi-san. Honestly, I'd be fine if you kept it forever?"
'Mou, I will get angry? Promise me you'll go to school properly today.'
There's really no energy behind it.
Normally she'd be telling me off right now.
But it wouldn't be right to pile more worries on her either.
"Okay. I promise I'll go to school properly. But when school's out, I'm coming to see you."
'Yes. That's a promise too, then. I'll be waiting...'
Click.
Waiting for me, she says.
Somehow, I'm the one who got cheered up.
(It's not even six, but might as well get up.)
When I came down to the living room, something was moving.
You would be...
'Vmmm, swish-swish. Vmmm, swish-swish.'
The super-high-end robot vacuum—Good-Son Machine No. 1.
When did it get out of the box?
"Oh my? Haruki, I was just about to wake you. Your father says he's off to Aomori already. We're seeing him to the station, so make sure you actually go to school."
"Haruki, this thing is amazingly quiet. I looked it up, and it's the top-of-the-line model—are you sure that's all right? Tell Kasumi-san thank you from me, it was a really wonderful gift."
Oh. So he's already leaving...
"It cleans the house in your father's place—what a wonderful thing. It's quiet around the house, too. Just like your father."
"Now, now, hon. I'm quiet at the office too."
"Ah-hah-hah-hah!"
Just go already.
Saying something about buying souvenirs, the two of them headed out posthaste, leaving me and No. 1 behind.
"...Guess I'll go to school too."
'Vmmm, swish-swish. Vmmm, swish-swish.'
Thanks to No. 1, I can be a good son without lifting a finger.
I'll be sure to thank Kasumi-san properly...
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"Harukiii! You're alive!"
First day back at school in a week.
Soushi greets me at the gate.
"I had a rotten time of it thanks to you, you know."
This guy coming to the dungeon caused a huge ruckus.
"That's what you get for not telling your parents. When I told mine I was becoming an adventurer, I got 'sounds great' back before I'd finished the sentence."
Maybe so for Soushi, who never planned on college to begin with—but I'd told my parents I was going to university...
Huh? But they never told me to quit, did they.
Just not to do anything dangerous...
And Dad had Kasumi on the brain more than any adventurer talk, so maybe adventurers are more accepted out in the world than I thought?
"Did you catch the news this morning, hm? Something quite serious has happened."
Oh, it's Ota—the resident dungeon otaku.
Something serious?
"Hm? Don't tell me Max lost his match on Sunday? I couldn't watch..."
There was supposed to be an American dungeon martial arts title match.
I was in the dungeon, so I missed it...
"No, he won by KO like always? Had his opponent stuck to the top of the cage..."
"Right, right—【Berserker】 is the strongest, after all... hold. Nay, that is not it! The HQ dungeon has been closed, I say!"
"HQ? Why?"
Did the HQ have a loud-bang incident too?
Is Mia-san okay?
"What ho? With the HQ dungeon closed, has even the illustrious Mr. Kasugano deigned to come to school at last?"
"Uh, I've been diving in the Chiba Dungeon, though?"
"Chiba, you say? What business in Chiba, I ask?"
"Hold up, hold up—more importantly, why's the HQ dungeon closed?"
Soushi cuts in between me and Ota.
"Precisely, I say! A great incident! Nine—NINE—bodies were found, so it's said. And it seems it was no monster's doing, but the work of a human hand. It's huge news. The net's in an uproar too, I tell you."
Nine? A serial murder case? I haven't watched the news in a while...
Ah, so that's why Kasumi-san has meetings first thing in the morning.
Maybe that's why she sounded so down, too...
Kasumi-san is terribly kind, after all...
HQ closed, huh... Is Chiba going to be closed too?
"So did they catch the culprit?"
"This part is net intel, mind, but it seems two parties—ten people in all—took on the dungeon, and one more person hasn't been found. The dungeon's shut down while they search for that one... Online, that missing woman is being treated as the culprit, I say."
"So the culprit's at HQ, then... Chiba should be fine."
That's how the morning went...
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At lunch break, coming back from our usual ramen shop with Soushi, Ota comes hurrying up, all in a fluster.
"It is grave, I say! They know who did in the nine adventurers! And the culprit has fled into the Chiba Dungeon—the Chiba Dungeon is closed now too, I say!"
"Huh?"
I hurriedly call Kasumi-san... No answer.
Don't tell me she's inside the dungeon?
She might have just switched her phone off for work, but...
Should I go to the Chiba Dungeon?
But I promised I'd go to school properly...
What do I do?