arc4 · 075-ch75

Episode 75: Interlude - Sugō Jozenji

My little brother might be weird.

Sugō Jozenji looked up at the sky without thinking.

"Hey! You look away, you die! Eyes front!"

His younger brother Suzuka scolded Sugō.

(I know. I know that, big brother. Looking around in a dungeon gets you killed, that's obvious.)

When he looked back, three Drunken Sheep were closing in, and a little distance away, a Clay Pot Turtle was generating a water ball.

What big brother wanted to say was, I looked up at the sky without thinking at this stupid younger brother who prepared a situation where you'd die if you looked away.

"I'll do thiiiiis!!!"

Sugō, having experienced many times being grabbed by the scruff of his neck and thrown in front of monsters when he tried to run away, transformed his grudge against Suzuka into power and courage and charged at the approaching monsters.

How did it come to this? The incident started with his own struggles with grades.

Every single day, he studied so hard his head felt like it would break, and pushed himself to the limit on exam prep without even a memory of resting even during summer vacation. Since he attended a school called a college-preparatory high school, everyone around him was in the same boat, so he didn't have complaints about that.

Summer is called the crucial period for entrance exams, and during summer vacation he pushed himself and ran through it. That led to confidence, and he even held the faint hope that he might be able to get into his first-choice university.

But the results were cruel. In the mock exam results conducted at the end of summer vacation, his judgment for his first-choice university was C. He had dropped from his previous B judgment.

This result brought shock to Sugō. He felt that all his hard work over summer vacation had been completely denied. At school, he only heard stories of people raising their first-choice schools or getting recommendations and doing well, and at cram school, the pep talk that once summer ends, entrance exams will be here in no time pushed Sugō into a corner.

That anxiety turned into irritation, and he ended up taking it out on Suzuka.

My little brother had changed. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say he changed after he started going to dungeons.

Until now, he was similar to Sugō, and even adults around them often said the brothers looked alike. But that changed greatly after he started going to dungeons.

His appearance had become handsome enough to make you doubt they were related by blood. He'd finally gotten used to it, but at first, he even felt flustered dealing with his own brother. And it wasn't just his appearance that changed—perhaps because he gained confidence in dungeons, his way of thinking was more mature than mine.

With such refined appearance, surely his dungeon activities were going well. Even at Explorer High School, which is said to have generous support, there are students who die every year, yet Suzuka is exploring dungeons on his own.

On one hand, a genius. On the other, a C judgment for his first-choice school. Every time he saw Suzuka, he felt like he was being forced to face reality, and while he knew Suzuka wasn't at fault, he still treated him harshly.

Then instead of getting angry, he received the crazy proposal to level up in dungeons. He judged it was worth considering and accepted the offer, but he recognized once again that his little brother had changed.

However, recently even that evaluation had started to change.

My little brother isn't just weird.

My little brother is insane.

He brought his older brother to a dungeon, who has no martial arts experience and is out of shape from exam prep, then declared he'd fight monsters alone. He seriously worried about Suzuka's head.

He knew what training facilities were like, so he thought it would be similar content. Training facilities are expensive despite only giving minimal stats. Even so, the benefits were significant, but when he saw Suzuka's face, he felt he wanted to raise his stats even a little.

That's why he even hoped that perhaps Suzuka would take aggro from monsters and let him attack from behind, or if he lent him amazing items, maybe even Sugō could fight, since his dungeon exploration seemed to be going well.

But when he actually tried it, he was just handed some buff equipment and a sword, and told to fight alone. It was a good thing he was a man who could work hard for the sake of women he hadn't even met yet, but if he'd been less lucky, his leveling might have ended right there.

Being whipped by Suzuka, who was a sadist beyond spartan, Sugō obtained excellent stats. He took the risk of dedicating weekends, the most precious time for an exam candidate, to dungeon exploration, but the benefits were visibly apparent.

His memory improved, and his understanding of study material increased dramatically. Formulas that hadn't stuck in his head before and slipped away were now firmly lodged in his brain and flowed out smoothly. Sugō was experiencing returns worth the risk.

And his appearance changed greatly too. Sugō felt giddy about himself becoming more handsome every time he went to the dungeon, but his feet fighting monsters didn't get lighter... or rather, they didn't.

"Come oooon!! This isn't a monster you fight alone, is it!! It's 1 against 4!! No matter how you think about it, this is wrong!! What if big brother gets hurt!!"

"It's fine, it's fine. Actually, you can brag about it. If you tell war stories like that, pretty women won't leave you alone."

"...Well, that might be true."

"If you get through this, you can show off to the wimps in the explorer circle who are scared of monsters and leave them in the dust."

"That sounds nice! If I show off my magnificent sword skills, I might even get a harem party!!"

I hear there are things called explorer circles in college. Practicing now might not be bad.

Plus, Suzuka is here now. When all's said and done, if it's a pinch, he'll help. Though he does cull the monsters when there's too many, but his movements are so fast it's gross.

"Hey Suzuka. I'm level 8 now, isn't this enough?"

"No, not yet. Since we decided to start and raise you to level 10, we'll raise you to level 10."

He feels it might already be enough for exams, but once Suzuka decides something, he doesn't change it easily. He's been stubborn since long ago, and that hasn't changed. If he's going to help me level up, I'll gratefully accept it.

"What is it, Suzuka. Do you want to raise big brother's level that much?"

"Yeah. With poor levels, you might fail the exams, you know."

"Hey! Saying such unlucky things to an exam candidate!"

"That's true. Sorry, sorry."

He wrapped up the exploration and returned to the surface while trading banter, then headed to the buyback center to sell loot as usual. Suzuka buys the meat, so he sells everything else. It only comes to a few thousand yen, but for a high school student, a few thousand yen is a lot.

His academic ability improved, his appearance became handsome, and he even gets money. ...Maybe I should become an explorer too?

"Jozenji-san!"

Just as Sugō was seriously worrying about his future, someone called his name. When he turned around, there were men he didn't know. They seemed about his age, but Sugō had no acquaintances with them.

Who are they? Could it be a pickup attempt!? Did he become so handsome that even men started hitting on him!??

The man who probably called out to him was the one in the middle. A rugged man with a burly build who looked like he belonged to the rugby club. His appearance was also refined. That meant he was excellent as an explorer. If he got pinned down by a man like that, Sugō, a mere level 8, would be helpless and it would develop into a rosy scenario.

This is bad. He had to refuse early. Otherwise, his chastity was in trouble!!

"I'm stra---"

"Huh, Ryonan-san. It's been since the cultural festival."

Just as Sugō was about to refuse the pickup guy, Suzuka responded.

"Hm? Did you say something, Sugō?"

"No, nothing. Someone you know, Suzuka?"

"Yeah. This is my brother Sugō. And this is everyone from Parks, who attend Explorer High School. Oh, everyone's third years. Same age as us."

Even though they say they're the same age, their confident demeanor with refined appearances didn't look like the same age at all. He thought they were college students.

The Parks members were obviously a gathering of powerful explorers. For explorers, you can tell strength to some extent from appearance, and all the members had refined appearances, and with their coordinated armor, they had the air of professional explorers.

What shocked Sugō was that these powerful Parks members were swarming around Suzuka as if he were a star, showing reverence. Suzuka spoke casually, while Parks, who seemed clearly superior, spoke in polite language. The sense of mismatch was undeniable.

"Are you exploring with Jozenji-san?"

Kamiyuzuki, a Parks member, spoke to the blank-faced Sugō.

"Eh, no, that's not it. He's helping me raise my stats for exam prep."

"Eh! One-on-one with Jozenji-san!? I'm so jealous!"

This was a line he'd been told at school and cram school too. Even among family, many explorers don't imitate training facilities. Besides, it's rare to have a professional explorer in the family, and if you request a guild, it requires more expensive rewards than training facilities.

So he understood his friends being jealous. But he couldn't understand why Kamiyuzuki, also an explorer, was happy. From the perspective of the excellent explorer before his eyes, did it mean Suzuka was amazing?

"Do you go to dungeons with Suzuka sometimes? He only told me he explores alone, acting tough."

So Sugō decided to ask there.

Suzuka should have gone to dungeons at first with his friend Yasu, but Yasu wasn't going to dungeons due to exam prep. So, the question arose—who is Suzuka partying with now?

He tried asking after the Suzuka-style boot camp started, but the only answer he got back was 'alone'.

He didn't feel like he was hanging out with weird people, so he didn't think there was a need to hide it, but he wouldn't tell him. He wondered if it was related to women, but he didn't look like he was dating, and he didn't seem to be calling late at night either, so he didn't really understand.

"No way! We're not good enough for him. As far as I know, Jozenji-san explores alone."

"Eh, really? No, more importantly, what do you mean by 'not good enough'? Could it be that Suzuka is exploring dungeons deeper?"

Even when he asked where he explored, he only told him 'Floor 1'. He used to be so honest... no, back then he was cheeky too. Maybe he hasn't changed that much.

"I don't know how deep he's exploring, but Jozenji-san is overwhelmingly stronger than us. Even if all six of us challenged him, we couldn't win."

"Eh?"

Kamiyuzuki stated something incomprehensible, looking completely serious.

"Congratulations too, Kamiyuzuki-san~. That's amazing, getting a job at a semi-first rank explorer guild."

"Thank you very much! Right now I'm working hard aiming for existence evolution!"

"I get it! Existence evolution is exciting, isn't it! Oh, sorry for leaving you hanging, Sugō. Well, we should get going. If anything comes up, feel free to reach out."

Before Sugō could throw his questions at Kamiyuzuki, Suzuka cut it short.

Because of that, his questions remained unresolved and lingered.

"An explorer who can get a job at a semi-first rank explorer guild, and even in a group they can't win?"

He thought he was strong. Going to a dungeon where anything can happen and it's all self-responsibility as if going for a walk, he thought his head was weird.

But he never imagined he was that strong.

His younger brother, whose appearance had only changed in a cute way—how strong was he overall? Sugō couldn't even imagine.

That night. After dinner, Sugō was called by his parents.

"I feel bad interrupting you when you were studying. We wanted to ask about Suzuka."

"Your level grinding with Suzuka seems to be going smoothly, but isn't it dangerous?"

It is dangerous. He's a sadist. I've almost died many times. Or so Sugō wanted to say, but he didn't. His parents would worry, and they'd try to stop Suzuka.

"Well, okay-ish. Since Suzuka has potions, it's fine even if he gets hurt."

"Is that so. Well, Sugō has become quite a man too. Your stats are probably growing smoothly. Just, getting injured and not being able to take the exams would be putting the cart before the horse, so don't overdo it."

I get it. I've told Suzuka that many times too. But he doesn't listen. If he says things like "I don't know what the point of coming to the dungeon is if your stats are low with that logic," then brings dangerous monsters. Maybe it's better to have him get scolded by our parents for once.

"So, how is Suzuka actually? Isn't it dangerous to stay overnight in dungeons?"

Originally, Suzuka helping Sugō with his level grinding was never because he was a devoted younger brother—it was for the purpose of staying overnight and exploring dungeons.

At first, he thought maybe he was exploring such deep areas that he needed to stay overnight, but after hearing today's talk, he was convinced that might really be the case. So Sugō pushes Suzuka forward.

"Suzuka is incredibly strong. To the point that he could probably become a first-rank explorer. So I think it's fine to let him stay overnight in dungeons. If he continues dungeon exploration, sooner or later he'll have to stay overnight anyway."

Big brother is rooting for you. So please, I'm begging you. Next time, make him fight a little weaker monsters.

The following week. Sugō's wish didn't reach Suzuka at all, and Suzuka, with a smile, brought along a monster train on par with what's considered absolutely taboo for explorers, and Sugō was made to fight alone against over 10 monsters.