ch41-ch60 · 050-ch43

Chapter 43

A third-year high school classroom in Tokyo.

It was already the end of February, and the only remaining event was the graduation ceremony in early March.

It was a period of free attendance and self-study, but Ichijō Hiyori and Kuri Mio were coming to school.

Both of them had already secured university admission through recommendations, but the universities they were set to enter had sent pre-enrollment assignments, and they'd decided to work through them at school.

Incidentally, the two of them were still continuously hunting demons.

Surely they were allowed to enjoy their limited youthful time at least a little, right?

It was hard to deny that mindset was part of why they were here.

As the two of them were wrestling with those assignments, their phones buzzed simultaneously with notification vibrations.

The notification was from the adventurer streaming site, "Tower Tube."

The message read: "Yamana Saito has begun his conquest of Shinjuku Tower."

Tower Tube had a feature to register and follow adventurers.

A function that let viewers instantly check on the activities of adventurers they were interested in.

"Oh crap. Sensei's starting his conquest."

"The viewer count seems higher than usual."

Sai had been pulling in a lot of viewers lately, but today wasn't even double the usual — it was something else entirely. Even though it was a weekday afternoon, tens of thousands of people were already watching Sai's stream in real time.

"Mio-chan! That's Hexaria!"

"Hexaria wears armor, doesn't she."

The classroom stirred as some students overheard Hiyori and Mio.

"Hiyo-chan, isn't Hexaria the High Elf—"

"Hey, check this out. Tower Tube!"

Students who were supposed to be doing independent study pulled out their phones and started watching Tower Tube.

Even classmates who normally didn't watch Tower Tube took out their phones to see the "High Elf adventurer" in action.

Before long, the stream featuring Sai and Hexaria appeared on Tower Tube's top page recommendations.

The number showing concurrent viewers climbed like a fish leaping upstream.

Now.

There was a proper reason (?) why Sai's stream concurrent viewership had gone up.

An adventurer's camera is generally attached somewhere on the head.

Even viewers who had initially been watching Hexaria's stream started watching Sai's stream instead, since he was climbing alongside her.

Sai was constantly positioned behind Hexaria.

Without fighting, he moved in a way that always kept Hexaria somewhere in his frame.

As a result, Sai's stream viewership went up.

Because that way, you could see the High Elf's figure!

...A mercenary reason.

Unaware of such viewer sentiments, the two of them moved like a gust of wind.

Sai and Hexaria quickly climbed through floors 2 and 3 in no time.

The viewers were astonished by their speed.

'The path ahead — lots of people on the right.'

'Then we'll go from the left.'

'It's a detour, but that's probably better... and—'

Sai scouted, picked up drops like magic stones, and Hexaria trampled the monsters. Their coordination was astonishing — for Hiyori and Mio, their movements were a learning experience.

But at this moment, Hiyori felt a slight sense of dissonance.

"Something about it... isn't it weird? Even though it's Sensei and Hexaria, they're barely talking. They're only saying things necessary for the conquest, right?"

She hadn't known Hexaria for long, but she had the impression that Sai and Hexaria would chat a lot more.

It wasn't possible they were too pressured to talk.

"Maybe they're deliberately keeping conversation to a minimum because they know they're being watched on stream?"

"Huh, but if that's the case... does Sensei not know about the mute function...?"

"...There's a possibility he doesn't know."

"Let's check with him later..."

Their teacher, when it came to things like being an adventurer and related matters, was truly admirable. But maybe because he was from another world, he was sometimes a bit hopeless when it came to IT things (like handling apps) and aesthetic sense.

If they were only talking about what was necessary for conquering Shinjuku Tower, then it was probably fine not to contact him in a hurry — but she'd gently tell him later.

That's what Hiyori thought.

While Hiyori and Mio were having those thoughts, Sai and Hexaria's onslaught continued.

'One monster ahead. Raging Bull.'

A troublesome monster that appeared on floor 3.

'Tyrant Bull.'

The troublesome monster was already in combat stance and charging at them.

But Hexaria didn't flinch.

She flicked her finger, and something hexagonal appeared — separating the Raging Bull's head from its body.

Most of the people watching the stream had no idea what Hexaria had just done.

Probably only Hiyori and Mio understood.

It was Hexa Shield.

She had used Hexa Shield not as a shield, but as a blade.

"So that's another way to use Hexa Shield..."

Mio was once again amazed by the versatility of the magic she'd been taught.

And so, Sai and Hexaria continued their onslaught — it could hardly be called a battle — and arrived at floor 5 two hours later.

There were rules for entering the Floor Boss chamber.

Hexaria listened as Sai explained them.

'I can feel the will of this tower's designer.'

That was her impression.

The Floor Boss of floor 5 was a giant-type Skeleton Knight.

Here too, Sai provided no assistance — Hexaria defeated it alone.

Holy-attribute magic bullets were fired.

No, not bullets. Beams of light, like a ray gun, mercilessly destroyed the Skeleton Knight.

The whole classroom erupted in excitement over Hexaria's fighting.

"Hey, Mio-chan! What was that magic just now!?"

A female classmate asked Mio.

"It looked like a kamehameha, but it was a continuous barrage of holy-attribute magic bullets... or rather, a beam...? Normally, doing something like that would instantly drain your magic power, but..."

"As expected of Hexaria. She's incredible..."

"Indeed. It seems there's a lot we can learn from Hexaria."

Hiyori was simply astonished by Hexaria's invincibility.

She brushed everything aside as if there were no obstacles at all.

The difference in strength was just too vast.

Hiyori stared at her phone, completely absorbed.

Seeing this, one of their classmates suddenly muttered.

"Hey, Hiyorin and Mio-chan... you two seem oddly familiar with Hexaria...?"

Hearing the classmate's mutter, Hiyori and Mio both went "ah."

Other than Sai, Hiyori and Mio were pretty much the only ones who talked to Hexaria regularly.

That was a really careless slip.

◇

Around the time Hiyori and Mio were thinking up excuses for their classmates.

Shinjuku Tower, floor 25. Safe point.

The members of the top adventurer party "Wakou" were watching Sai's stream.

Having fought and trained continuously on floor 25 for days, the adventurers noticed Sai's stream had started and took their first break in hours.

"Tch. So this is why Sai kept turning down our recruitment."

He'd been invited countless times, only to be bluntly rejected every time.

And now, that middle-aged adventurer had formed a two-person party with a High Elf and was charging through Shinjuku Tower at a breakneck pace.

The speed was so incredible it was enough to shake the top team's confidence.

"That's amazing speed. Can you pull that off?"

They were dashing through the dungeon at an astonishing pace.

Choosing the shortest routes, weaving left and right.

If that was all, it might still be okay.

Before monsters even appeared, Sai was calling out the number of monsters and the enemy's name.

Hexaria would say "mm" and deal with them using unknown magic.

Then she'd pick up the magic stones and drops, and start running at top speed again.

Even after years as an adventurer, they couldn't pull off a feat like this.

"No way, no way. I've been doing the magic control training Sai taught us, but doing it makes me realize even more how impossible it is. At minimum, I'd need at least another year of training. No way, no way."

"Hmph. Just as I expected — a sly old fox. 'I'm too old to keep up with you young folks,' my ass."

The apparent leader of the group sighed.

"Speaking of which, did you hear? Hexaria is giving a lecture on magical power."

"Yeah, we've put in participation requests from our side too."

"The lecture's still being coordinated with the Magic Countermeasures Division... Kaga's people. It'll happen once that's cleared up."

The details of Hexaria's lecture had been communicated to various countries, research institutes, and universities.

There was apparently quite a dispute about how it should be conducted.

The other world's cutting-edge technology, "magitech," was said to have the power to shed light on magical power — an existence still unexplained by Earth's scientific capabilities — and unravel it.

"Honestly... An otherworldly High Elf. And her husband..."

"Husband... wait, are you saying that old man is married to Hexaria!?"

"Didn't you read the report, you idiot!?"

A certain report had reached them.

A report from the government about the otherworldly being, Hexaria.

Apparently, one member of the party hadn't read it.

The adventurer party "Wakou."

Also known as the Self-Defense Force Shinjuku Tower Special Conquest Team, Squad 7.

The Self-Defense Force had determined that their existing combat methods were insufficient to conquer Shinjuku Tower.

Specialists organized to deal with the unknown threat of the dungeon.

Even they were now focused intently on Sai and Hexaria's conquest.

After this, Sai and Hexaria also defeated the floor 10 Floor Boss, Raging Gorilla, reached floor 11, and ended their conquest for the day.

The result of just one day. Just a few hours.

It was the fastest conquest speed in the history of adventurers operating in Shinjuku Tower.

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Thank you for reading.