ch21-ch40 · 040-ch39

Chapter 39

Toru didn't remember off the top of his head how long it had been since he'd last shaken hands with a woman, but Kujo Reiko's grip as she squeezed back was much stronger than he'd expected, and he thought her hand was surprisingly rough for a beautiful young lady of high birth.

It was a well-worn hand—one that had been, quite literally, roughly handled over and over again.

Like the dwarven smith. Like the old carpenter who lived next door to his childhood home back when his parents were still alive. A hand worn down by what needed to be done, adapted to what needed to be done.

The contrast between her smile—like a child inviting a friend to play on a Sunday morning—and her hand, like proof of dedication, was so mismatched that he found himself oddly convinced that this was simply who Kujo Reiko was.

The handshake finished, Toru looked at their own images reflected on his mobile device, where the stream was still running, and at the countless comments being typed and flowing across it. He gave a light shrug.

"Ah... this is for the stream viewers, but... I think I get why you guys like this 'young lady.'"

The words slipped out before he could stop them.

Tia, sitting beside him, looked like a dog that had been hit by a bean gun.

"Toru-bro... broke character!?" "Worksite-bro who gave even Anthem members the cold shoulder!" "You get it, Toru-bro! The appeal of Ojou!" "Ojou wins all!" "Tia-tan's cute too" "Uoooooh! Ojou is the strongest! Ojou is the strongest!"

"Oh my... oh my my my! Oh-ho-ho-ho! I've earned favor with Toru-bro-sama! Goodness! I'm quite flattered! But I am Kujo Reiko—a woman who turns even this moment into a business opportunity! Joichiro, that thing!"

After showing a flustered, blushing smile while quite literally red in the face, Kujo Reiko clapped her hands and called for her butler, who had been sticking to his cameraman duties.

This was the first time in his life Toru had actually seen someone say "that thing," so he was genuinely impressed, but the butler deftly cleared the table and produced various items from his breast pocket like magic, lining them up on the table, so Toru no longer knew what exactly he was supposed to be impressed by.

"There it is, the butler's quick work!" "Skill!" "Toru-bro's blank face lmao" "Blank-faced Tia-chan is cute too"

"Ta-da, if you will! These products are dungeon gear made by NINELINE, a company under the Kujo zaibatsu!"

"...Dungeon gear? NINELINE... the cookie people?"

"Yes, indeed. NINELINE develops and sells various labyrinth-related products. For example, these laid out on the table! Boom!"

Laid out on a deliberately placed white cloth were... leather combat boots, probably? Not the kind with an aggressive high-gloss shine, but matte black—a tasteful choice.

"Toru-bro-sama doesn't seem to have much practical combat experience yet, so allow me to offer some advice as your senior explorer. Rule one of dungeon exploration: 'First, get your footwear in order!'"

"Oh, that's really good advice. I second that."

Tia smiled and showed her agreement. Kujo Reiko maintained her smug face, while Joichiro had somehow produced a spare camera and was filming the boots—he was shooting footage for a picture-in-picture display, Toru understood after glancing at the stream screen.

"Uh... mind if I ask for an explanation? I'm a novice."

Toru thought for a moment, then tried asking the butler.

"Explorers move with incredible speed and force, so if you wear regular shoes, they'll fall apart in no time. Everyone figures this out around the time they go from D-rank to C-rank, but if your boots break while you're mid-exploration in a labyrinth, it's a real pain."

"Ah... right, that makes sense. Thanks."

"Not at all. Thank you."

"Toru-bro-sama! Why didn't you ask me for the explanation!?"

"Hit the right answer on the first try lmao" "I mean, it's not that Ojou's bad at explaining" "She's actually surprisingly logical y'know" "She just likes labyrinth-related stuff a little too much" "That was close, Toru-bro. You almost got dragged into a fifteen-minute lecture on boots."

"...Comments say I would've been dragged into a fifteen-minute lecture on boots."

"I can go for twenty minutes, you know!"

"Ahaha! She's a fun one, Toru. I like Kujo Reiko too."

"Oh, you get it? Our Ojou's cute, isn't she."

"Gosh! Gosh! Tia-sama, Joichiro! Please stop teasing me! But I'll accept the goodwill. And now for the next promotion!"

Carried by momentum, she voiced her own sound effect—"boom!"—and drew attention to the product that Joichiro had, once again, produced on the table like magic.

"This is... a tight-fitting undershirt."

"Category-wise, it's what you'd call an inner shirt. It's blade-resistant, abrasion-resistant, and heat-resistant. I mean, a direct hit from magic would be bad, but if you're moving at high speed, trip, and roll on the ground, you'll come out of it unscathed. Wearing it with the leggings set is even better."

"Huh..."

"Th-Th-This product! It's made by processing a rare-drop magic hide from lizard-type monsters, a common labyrinth monster, into something like glass fiber and blending it with chemical fibers! You could call it the developer's keen eye for noticing that magic hide drops would be in oversupply! Nowadays, it's relatively affordable and helps protect explorers! That's what it is! If you will!"

"Ahaha! Ahahaha!"

"Desperately pushing her product lmao" "Tia-tan's cracking up, so cute" "Toru-bro's got a fed-up face"

◇◇◇

As it turned out, the dungeon gear introduced in this manner was knowledge from an entirely unknown world for Toru, and it was quite interesting.

Boots, innerwear, highly durable clothing that looked like regular clothes—Anthem's members apparently used these too. Of course, wearing actual armor made from labyrinth products was objectively more sturdy, but being hard to move in and heavy was enough to put people off, apparently.

"When you reach higher ranks, the quality of the magical defense you envelop yourself in becomes more important than the equipment itself, so I dare say one could consider armor of anything but very high rank to be for appearance's sake, for the most part."

"Yeah, well. Getting past someone's magical defense is a real watershed moment. Armor that improves magical defense quality, or stuff with special effects, those are useful. Otherwise it's basically insurance. It'd be a problem if your clothes ripped just from running."

"Speaking of dungeon streams, well... various kinds of... sensitive situations can end up captured on video. So I'd like to actively promote items that maintain certain boundaries."

"Ojou loves dungeon streaming too, after all" "She just loves labyrinth exploration in the first place" "As expected of the second-youngest A-rank explorer" "She's a bit of a crazy girl sometimes, but that's why we love Ojou"

Looking at the flowing comments, it might have been natural since it was her stream, but there were many favorable comments toward Kujo Reiko. She might be what they called a "lovable character."

"Incidentally, among rare boss drops and treasure chest drops, there are genuinely practical pieces of equipment as well, so if you see an explorer wearing something eccentric, you can assume they're equipped with that kind of rare gear."

"Ojou goes into labyrinths in a dress and boots tho lol"

"Toru-bro, Ojou's dress and boots are custom-made, y'know"

"Not rare drops, of course"

"............"

He thought, then why would you deliberately wear a dress into a labyrinth, but decided the question would probably be futile and chose silence.

Of course, Kujo Reiko paid no mind to Toru's inner thoughts, tilting her head leisurely.

"By the way, Toru-bro-sama, are you interested in labyrinth exploration streaming? I've already subscribed to your channel. Oh, Joichiro. Would you link Toru-bro-sama's stream channel?"

"Got it. Are you not really into streaming, bro?"

The nickname had been whittled down to just "bro," which almost made him wry-smile, but come to think of it, "Toru-bro-sama" was already weird from the start.

Speaking of which, Toru happened to think—he didn't like being called "sama" by Kagurazaka Chizuru, but for some reason, he didn't mind it as much from Kujo Reiko.

Anyway, by "Toru's channel," Kujo Reiko was probably referring to the recording channel he used for his cleaner work. If he were going to do labyrinth exploration streaming, it would be a hassle to make a new one, so he could just reuse the same channel.

"I'm pretty into it, actually. I like reading comments. I'm looking at them right now, you know?"

Tia smiled, ehehe.

Needless to say, the comments exploded. Toru felt like he'd already gotten quite used to it, but the person sitting in front of him was a slightly innocent-looking blonde beauty. Kujo Reiko, sitting opposite, was also beautiful, but the quality was different.

"Well... if she says she wants to do it, I don't mind carrying a camera and wandering around labyrinths. It's just that getting the streaming equipment together seems like a pain..."

"Yes! This is exactly what they mean by 'prepared for such an eventuality'!"

Another "boom!" sound effect from Kujo Reiko, and Joichiro set a state-of-the-art camera on the table to match.

"I, Kujo Reiko, am not only a great senior but also a clever zaibatsu daughter! Toru-bro-sama, how about letting me—this venerable me—invest in you, including the products I've introduced today and a full set of streaming equipment? How about it?!"

"She said it twice, Toru."

"She said it twice..."

"There are times when you say it twice."

Kujo Reiko struck a pose with both arms spread wide, but Toru, Tia, and for some reason the butler Joichiro ended up staring at the young lady holding the pose for a while.

"lmao" "How many more seconds can Ojou hold that pose?" "Toru-bro's surprisingly game too" "Joichiro's grinning like crazy lmao" "This is so Ojou" "Uoooooh! Ojou is the strongest! Ojou is the strongest!"

◇◇◇

And so, Toru decided to accept an investment in dungeon items worth a total of eleven million yen (fractions rounded down).