ch1-ch20 · 023-ch20

Chapter 20

About two months had passed since Sai began training Hiyori and Mio.

The season had already turned to December, and Sai was experiencing a Japanese winter for the first time in a long while.

As for what Sai had been up to lately — a few times a week, he'd been training Hiyori and Mio.

Mock battles, how to use magic, how to fight. Mostly basic things, but they were the most important parts for girls who kept fighting.

There was no shortcut to getting stronger overnight.

For these two months, Hiyori and Mio hadn't gone to Shinjuku Tower and had continued training instead.

Even at school, and even when they were alone, they seemed to be doing the exercises Sai had taught them. Both of them had made considerable progress in magical control.

"I still can't make the Hexa Shield, but look at this."

What Hiyori showed him was a holy-attribute magic bullet she'd generated while talking.

Without any particular effort, she casually produced a magic bullet and held it suspended in midair.

"You can already do that?"

"Heheh~ Pretty impressive, right?"

Hiyori grinned smugly.

Hiyori was a genius.

"As for me, it's this."

With that, Mio transferred an unaspected magic bullet from her right hand to her left.

It was just that — a simple thing — but it was the first step toward manipulating magic bullets outside the body.

"I still can't heavily curve their trajectory or do much manipulation yet..."

"Being able to do that much in two months is already impressive."

When Sai had learned what they were doing now, it had taken him much longer.

It was a testament to both their hard work and their talent.

"It was worth the effort."

Mio smiled.

"Seeing you two so motivated is great. Alright, let's go to Shinjuku Tower today."

They headed to Shinjuku Tower, changed in the dressing rooms, and the three of them gathered.

"Hey, Sai-san's here."

"Aren't those girls Hiyori and Mio? The high school ones."

"That old man... is he going in with them?"

"No way, Sai-san's a solo player."

They could hear adventurers around them murmuring.

"Sensei, I'm hearing some weird comments..."

Hiyori whispered to Sai.

"Ah, well, that's..."

Sai himself seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Could it be because of that? You know — soloing the Floor Boss on floor fifteen?"

Mio tried to figure out why they were being whispered about.

"Sai-san. Isn't that kind of a problem, honestly?"

The ones who called out to them were, coincidentally, also a trio.

Soma, Gakuto, and Tetta.

"That stream last time was awesome!"

"Long time no see."

They were the three who'd been in the adventurer license training course with Sai — the ones he'd saved.

Over these two months.

Sai had been clearing Shinjuku Tower. Solo.

Normally, challenging a dungeon solo was a dangerous act. Both in Japan and in the other world, there were warnings saying "it's dangerous, please stop." But Sai kept adventuring solo. And on top of that, he was climbing floors at a speed some called the fastest ever.

When he was in Shinjuku Tower, he also streamed.

Hiyori and Mio had been checking Sai's streams as instructional material.

And of course, it wasn't just Hiyori and Mio — plenty of other people were watching too.

By now, Sai's streams averaged over a million views.

Sai started getting attention when he dealt with the floor 10 boss — three Raging Gorillas — in a one-versus-three situation.

One against three. And he'd taken them down while giving a lecture on how to handle being outnumbered against superior opponents.

By the way, the title of that stream was "Sai's Raging Gorilla Extermination ~ If It Can't Hit You, No Problem ~" The titles were still pretty lame.

Titles aside, adventurers who'd just reached intermediate level and were stuck around floor 10 started saying that thanks to Sai's video, they could finally beat them. But at that point, it was still only a subset of viewers saying "maybe he's actually amazing."

However, two weeks ago — he'd soloed the floor 15 Floor Boss, the vicious Mage Chimera.

A Mage Chimera was a fearsome monster — a base of lion, mixed with wyvern, goat-type demon species, and a tail of venomous snake.

It could deploy up to four spells simultaneously, its front paws could fatally wound an adventurer with a single swipe, and its wyvern scales couldn't be cut no matter how hard you struck with a cheap sword.

That was how it was described — a Floor Boss that took a full six-person party going all-out to barely defeat.

And he'd taken it down solo.

Even among the top-rankers who'd reached floor 25, how many adventurers could accomplish this feat?

And on top of that, this middle-aged adventurer was still D-Rank.

Normally, clearing past floor 15 would let you advance to C-Rank, but because his magic stone deliveries hadn't met the quota, he remained D-Rank.

Maybe because of his D-Rank status, adventurers referred to him by his nickname "Sai," his real name "Yamana," or just "old man" or "ossan."

He'd become an adventurer who was respected but also teased (lovingly?).

"...So yeah, with the Mage Chimera, he didn't give commentary during the fight, but everyone was like 'this is insane.'"

"Oh, is that so?"

Tetta, the chatty one, was explaining what Sai had accomplished.

Mio nodded as if she already knew, and was surprised by Hiyori's reaction.

"Hiyori, you didn't know?"

"Well~ I do watch Sensei's streams, but he keeps comments off, and I had no idea it was such a big deal..."

The government-provided streaming site for adventurers, "Tower Tube," wasn't originally for entertainment — it was for crime prevention and survival confirmation. By default, you needed to apply to enable comments.

Hiyori and Mio had been asked by classmates and juniors to enable comments, so they had. Soma and his group had also applied together with their university club members.

Sai's stance was basically "people who want to watch will watch, and if they have questions, they can DM me," so he hadn't applied for comment access.

"So, old man. These girls — aren't they Hiyori-chan and Mio-chan, the high school adventurers? What's your relationship with them?"

The two-girl high school adventurer team. Ichijō Hiyori and Kuri Mio.

Though still minors, they were adventurers who'd reached floor 8 while in high school — a pair of beautiful girls. In certain circles, they'd become something of idols. Objects of veneration.

"Don't tell me Yamana-san..."

Gakuto gasped dramatically. Aha — so it's that kind of situation, is it?

He looked like he wanted to say exactly that.

"...Heheh~ We're Sensei's students~"

Hiyori wrapped her arm around Sai's in a cutesy way.

"He's our teacher."

Mio pinched Sai's sleeve gently.

"Hey hey, teacher?! You're doing private lessons, Sai-san?!"

Soma leaned in eagerly.

"Yeah. They asked me to."

Sai answered casually.

"What, I want private lessons too!"

"We've been stuck on floor four..."

Soma and his group had been badly injured by the Raging Bull before, and it had been a rough experience.

Thanks to the intermediate recovery potion Sai had prepared, things didn't turn out worse, but ever since then, they'd been cautious with every single action. They were steadily getting stronger, but they couldn't deny feeling stuck.

Right now, they'd hit their limit and couldn't seem to push to the next floor.

How to handle monsters, how to handle traps, the endurance to keep pushing forward — they were lacking in all these areas.

Hiyori and Mio — who'd reached floor 8 as high schoolers — were special cases.

Normally, that wasn't possible.

Many young people hit a wall by floor 5, and if they reached floor 10 in their lifetime, that was considered plenty... That was the situation.

Adventurers got stronger every year, but even so, no one had reached the top floor, and Shinjuku Tower still hadn't produced a single complete conqueror.

"Sure. Just the basics, though."

"Sensei, are you sure?"

Mio asked, a little surprised.

Sai's power was something he'd honed in the other world.

There were many techniques he couldn't teach — the Hexa Shield being one of them.

It might cause problems for Sai, who wanted to avoid commotion.

"I'll just teach them how to train their magical power and how to fight."

"Ah, I see..."

Indeed, the training Mio had worked hardest on these past two months didn't conflict with the secrets of the other world. She was also trying to manifest the Hexa Shield, but her output and control were still rough — she couldn't create it properly.

Putting Mio aside — if he didn't teach the Hexa Shield spell, it probably wouldn't cause much of a stir.

Mio looked relieved.

"You big brothers are gonna get wrecked by Sensei..."

Hiyori muttered quietly.

Tetta caught the words with sharp ears and pressed Sai.

"Old man... what did you do to these girls...?"

The older university students making suspicious faces seemed to amuse Hiyori — she found it hilarious and piled on.

"Ohohoho... the first time was such a shock..."

"Ah, yeah. At first it felt a little strange. But after a while, it started getting fun. And it feels kind of good when you do it right."

Mio, being earnest, answered honestly about her impressions of the magical control training.

Hiyori burst out laughing at Mio's comment.

Mio tilted her head, not understanding why she was being laughed at.

"Hey, Sai-san... Don't tell me you...!"

Taking advantage of having disciples — what had he done to those innocent high school girls?

Soma's expression said it all.

And then Gakuto realized something.

"Yamana-san... is it going to happen to us too...?"

Those poisonous fangs (?) — even reaching university men?

Soma and his group were all good-looking and pretty popular.

They attracted all kinds of people.

So they realized.

The possibility of being into both...!

"It's not what you're thinking!"

Sai's shout echoed through the Shinjuku Tower Adventurer's Guild — the victim of a completely false accusation.

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Thank you for reading.