ch61-ch80 · 086-inter16

Interlude: Sai and Hexaria's Driving School

The Japan Exorcist Alliance is an organization formed under the direction of the Japanese government after Shinjuku Tower appeared, meant to exterminate the evil spirits and demons that began to appear.

In other words, it was still a young organization, and among its members there were many who weren't exorcists by origin.

The most common were religious figures — Shinto priests and Buddhist monks — but of course there were others too, from all kinds of backgrounds, and some even held day jobs alongside their Alliance work.

In a line of work where someone who used to be an ordinary company employee — a regular salaryman — could become an exorcist if their talent was recognized, the way people balanced their jobs was truly a mixed bag, one might say.

"I never expected to be the one singled out..."

The man grumbling to himself was Irijima, a general member of the Japan Exorcist Alliance.

One day, a serious consultation came in from the Ichijō family, who served as coordinators for the Alliance.

"I hear you used to work as a driving instructor. I'm sorry to ask, but could you teach Sai-kun and Hexaria-san how to drive?"

That consultation had come a few days ago, if he remembered correctly.

The "Great Mage" Hexaria.

The foremost authority on magic and magical power in this world — not just in Japan — and a woman from another world.

A High Elf, a fantasy race, and literally untouchable. Anyone who recklessly approached her without permission had been beaten back one after another.

There were probably enough terrifying anecdotes about her to fill a whole book.

She was that kind of formidable woman.

She had a certain relationship with the Exorcist Alliance, was the wife of the middle-aged adventurer Sai — who had trained the two exorcists (Ichijō Hiyori and Kuri Mio) who fought like incarnations of demons in last year's Shinjuku Demon Frontline — and rumor had it she'd even gone to Kakuriyo in March.

To Irijima, a general member of the Exorcist Alliance, she was someone he thought he'd never have the chance to meet in person — a being from a different plane entirely.

And yet, that being was now standing right in front of him.

Beside the "Great Mage" Hexaria was her husband, Sai.

"Please take care of us."

"We're counting on you."

"I- It's my pleasure. I'll be in your care from today onward."

He was so terrified he could barely see straight.

(I'll remember this, Ichijō-san...!!)

If it was about fighting low-rank demons and evil spirits, he'd do it anytime.

But teaching a stunningly beautiful princess (albeit an untouchable one) how to drive was a whole different story.

A frog frozen before a snake... no, the snake wasn't even glaring at him, and it shouldn't be doing anything to him — yet just being there exuded pressure.

What kind of nonsense was it where just existing in the same space made you feel such an overwhelming 'pressure'?

He knew precisely because he had some combat ability as an exorcist.

Powerful people — there was something like... existence force, if you could call it that — they emitted it powerfully. You mustn't approach them carelessly.

That was obvious even to an idiot.

And he didn't want to follow in the footsteps of Sakuraba of the "Mana Eye," who had made an idiot of himself.

In other words, as long as he didn't do anything stupid, there'd be no problem.

He understood that.

And yet. Even knowing that, it was still terrifying.

For the foreseeable future, he'd be in charge of teaching this woman how to drive.

In other words, he'd have to endure this 'pressure' while sitting next to her.

...Irijima the 'Coward's' poor heart was in pain.

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Regarding the choice of driving school, they'd originally planned to pick one recommended by Sai's father and brother-in-law (his sister's husband). But it was a different story once Hexaria was attending too. After consulting with Ichijō Hayato, they selected and arranged for a school accustomed to teaching celebrities and VIPs, one with minimal risk of various complications.

In this world, there were people who wanted to "get close to Hexaria," "beg her for teachings," "worship her" — and also those who wanted to "make her mine," "push her away," or "have her go back (to the other world)."

They couldn't naively assume that just because something was a certain way, it was safe.

Under various arrangements, the driving school that took in Sai and Hexaria reportedly decided to receive the High Elf under strict security measures — but that turned out to be unnecessary worry.

Hexaria had used perception-blocking magic to "prevent anyone from recognizing her" in order to avoid disruption at the site. During lessons, things went quite smoothly.

...Hayato and the others were probably thinking, "If she was going to do something like that, we wish she'd told us first."

During the classroom lectures, Sai and Hexaria sat side by side taking the course (and thanks to the perception-blocking, no one could tell who Hexaria was). Interestingly, it was Sai who ended up drawing more attention than Hexaria.

Whisper whisper... "Isn't that the guy? The adventurer who's tight with the High Elf..."

Whisper whisper... "Ohh, man, I wanna be an adventurer too. Think it's okay to talk to him?"

Whisper whisper... "Nah, he's got some woman who looks like his girlfriend, better not."

That kind of whispering was constantly directed at him.

Sai, being a man who lived his daily life with his five senses enhanced for training, could hear all those whispers.

Mutter mutter... "Getting this kind of attention — I'm not a celebrity or anything, it's kind of embarrassing..."

"Stand tall, you fool."

Having lived thirty years in the other world surrounded by amazing people, at his core Sai was still a small-town Japanese man born and raised in Japan. Being treated like some kind of celebrity or influencer clearly bothered him.

...He seemed to have forgotten that he'd been putting his face out there in instructional streams, and that he was a man with influence over Earth's adventurers — in other words, that he'd become an influencer himself.

Incidentally, Hexaria was watching him with exasperation, thinking (What is it with this man, acting like such a small-town commoner when he's in Japan...?)

Now then.

When it came to the driving school's written test, trick questions were famous for a reason, weren't they.

They said the tests had gotten a lot easier compared to decades ago, but the nasty questions were apparently still alive and well.

'At night, a crosswalk appeared ahead. Seeing no pedestrians, the driver proceeded through without slowing down.'

'To pass a vehicle, the driver unavoidably crossed the yellow center line.'

That sort of thing — questions written out that way.

These were the kind of questions that made many young people go, "What the hell is this garbage writing?!" But when it came to how the two veteran adventurers tackled them...

"Hmm, a kind of riddle. No, just a trick question..."

"These kinds of things aren't really tricks — the right answer is to go along with the question writer's intent. Oh, I remember making problems like this..."

"Now that you mention it, you did make these kinds of tests for the rookie adventurers."

"Yeah. Like, 'You found a profitable herb-gathering area, so you picked as many as you could to maximize earnings.' That kind of thing."

"That's not a yes-or-no question, you idiot..."

"Yeah. The right answer is, 'Since some herb species negatively affect their surroundings, you must always check the species, confirm the surrounding vegetation, and report to the Guild.'"

"Isn't that worse than the driving school's written test...?"

Among adventurers in the other world, there were a certain number who had never attended school, or who weren't accustomed to reporting, contacting, and consulting.

That was why, when he was an instructor, he'd taught all kinds of questions and trick problems. The example above was one where they'd make you answer after a long series of yes-or-no questions.

If you carelessly answered yes or no out of habit, you'd be wrong.

In monster combat and dungeon exploration, while there were certainly some standardized patterns, 'unexpected situations' could always occur.

To keep adventurers thinking constantly, he'd set those kinds of problems. But as Hexaria had pointed out, they were "nasty" — and the rookie adventurers didn't think much of them either. Still, dulling one's thinking led directly to casualties, so he couldn't afford to cut corners. That was his own explanation.

In any case, Sai answered as someone who'd made problems like this himself, and Hexaria answered with her natural intelligence.

As for the practical driving — both of them picked it up with surprising smoothness. They were learning on a manual transmission, but their precise movements, accelerator and clutch control, everything was exactly as taught.

This was partly because, as veteran adventurers, they were intimately familiar with the finer points of physical control... but it was also thanks to the driving instructor dispatched by the Exorcist Alliance, who (though Sai and Hexaria didn't know it) had taught them thoroughly and carefully while his stomach ached from nervous tension.

That said, there was one problem.

In a training car, normally it was one-on-one instruction. When either Sai or Hexaria was in the driver's seat, the instructor would be in the passenger seat.

But when Hexaria was driving, the instructor desperately begged Sai to sit in the back seat too. The instructor was apparently too nervous around Hexaria, so Sai reluctantly agreed to sit in the back.

This instructor would be teaching them for a while yet.

So Sai figured he could at least accommodate him that much.

Praying that the man's sanity wouldn't be ground down to nothing, Sai offered a silent prayer in his heart.

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Thank you for reading.