Chapter 53 - Now, Look at This- (5)

I'd heard the "Gyaa~ Gyaa~" and made up my mind to work as a Ghostbuster.

I told Si-on my conditions for the request while still inside the locker.

"I have two conditions. First, you protect my life as per the contract.

Second, I'll handle the game strategy my way. How's that sound?"

The first was important enough to reconfirm. The second was the main point.

Si-on was still wondering what the "Gyaa... Gyaa..." had been about, but when it came to business, she checked the conditions.

"...Does your approach include any plan to use other people's lives to gather strategy information on the aberrations?"

I looked down at Si-on as she looked up at me.

Blunt and direct. But it was better to hash out these uncomfortable points with each other beforehand.

"Of course not. You hired me to eliminate aberrations and rescue people, and I'll do my best to save them.

...Of course, if someone goes and gets themselves killed by doing something suicidal on their own, that's out of my hands."

Midway through talking, the locker was uncomfortable, so I shifted my posture. And slipped.

Thud-.

My hand ended up pressing against the locker wall right next to Si-on's face.

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

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

...Somehow it had turned into one of those wall-pinning poses with our bodies pressed close. Our legs tangled together.

Anyway, I went with the mood.

Instead of avoiding Si-on's calm eyes, the ones that were always watching me, I met them head-on. I told her again, clearly.

"If you protect me as per the terms of the request, I'll save all twenty-five, you included. I'm not lying."

I meant it. I was the most important person in my world.

And if Si-on would protect my precious life,

I could save other people's lives along the way, no problem.

...And it was nothing major, but.

Being this close to Si-on's face, I noticed something.

I gazed at her calm, pretty face and those cold eyes.

More precisely, I gazed into her eyes.

I'd thought they were just cold, dark eyes. But how should I put it? There was a sparkle. A certain straightforwardness to them.

'...What am I even saying.'

I couldn't believe the impression I'd just had, but that was how I felt.

Yeah, I think I somewhat understood why I was wary of Si-on.

It obviously wasn't because of her eyes.

Part of it was that she suspected me of being the owner of the grimoire <De Vermis Mysteriis>, but....

Si-on was fundamentally a different kind of person from me.

Unlike me, a criminal wizard, she was a good person.

Inside the locker, at close range, calm eyes that were strangely similar yet different met.

Si-on spoke in a calm but soft voice.

"Understood. Thank you for answering. I'll follow your approach, Yo-han-ssi."

Good. Deal struck.

"Well, it sounds like it's quiet outside now. Shall we go out and talk details?"

Si-on listened for a moment and said,

"Yes, let's. It seems they've left completely."

And so Si-on and I stepped outside.

"Yo-han-ssi."

Si-on asked the question that had been nagging at her.

"That... Gyaa... Gyaa... was that some kind of test, or some sort of ritual?"

"No, it was nothing. You just seemed too tense, so I was trying to help you relax."

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

Realizing she'd been teased, Si-on's eyes narrowed and her lips pressed tightly together.

The tips of her ears turned red.

***

Chirp~ Chir-chirp~! Chirp chirp!

I slowly opened my eyes to the sound effect of sparrows chirping outside the window.

First, as a matter of courtesy, I said it once.

"...An unfamiliar ceiling."

I got out of bed, did some light stretching, and looked around the room again.

An ordinary room with a bed, a desk, and a bookshelf.

According to the address on the student ID, this was a two-story house, and per the game's settings, this was my room.

When I went downstairs to make breakfast, an unexpected sight greeted me.

"Ah, you're up."

...Si-on was in the kitchen, preparing breakfast.

Right, the game's setting had us living together as cousins.

"There's a stamina stat. It seems like your action points drop if you don't eat or rest.

I checked inside the refrigerator. The food all appeared to be ordinary."

I looked at the food set on the table.

Toasted bread, fried eggs, sausages, and salad.

Simple enough, not bad for breakfast.

"Yo-han-ssi, what do you put on your salad?"

"Doesn't matter. If I had to say, I don't put dressing on salad."

I picked up a cherry tomato and ate it.

Si-on nodded.

"I see. Tomorrow I'll cut back on the cabbage and add more tomatoes."

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

...That was so unexpected it felt awkward.

Still, I was grateful she'd made breakfast, and there was no reason not to eat.

"Thanks, I'll dig in."

After finishing the meal,

Si-on placed a stack of documents on the table along with tea.

"As you instructed, Yo-han-ssi, all the other players have been sent to their respective homes at the addresses on their student IDs.

And this is a compiled strategy guide of information the Special Ops agents gathered from their attempts to clear the heroines."

I read through the documents Si-on had organized.

First, excluding the Student Council President Gremory, there were a total of five Crazy Psycho Heroines. What they had in common was absurd physical abilities and the fact that they couldn't be killed.

Even if their bones were broken or their bodies damaged, they recovered almost instantly.

Several Special Ops agents had grouped together and tried to subdue a Crazy Psycho Heroine by cutting off her head.

That, too, had apparently failed.

Si-on explained the heroines from beside me.

"First, Moemi Momo and Sado Satsuki. Both are heroines Yo-han-ssi saw yesterday, and both physically threaten the players.

In Momo's case, she primarily appears on the morning commute to school, around corners, on staircases, and similar places to ambush players. Apparently you have to survive her ambushes first before you can even begin her route.

In Satsuki's case, her setting is that she's the descendant of a warrior clan. The thing to watch out for is that if you accidentally step on her shadow, she'll slash you with her sword for stepping on a warrior's shadow, and whenever she gets a new sword, she'll cut a player to test it out."

Overwhelmed by the avalanche of information, I set the stack of documents back on the table and spoke.

"Stop. I don't need or want information on generic mass-produced Crazy Psycho Heroines."

There was no need to read or hear any more.

"A game should fundamentally be made with at least some desire for the person playing it to have fun."

My eyes narrowed.

"But all I can feel from this Trash Game is pure malice, designed to screw people over.

Well, if this were an actual game, I'd have fun in my own way by retrying over and over, but it's not even a real game."

I had no hobby of playing the clown on a board someone had laid out with malicious intent.

"I have zero intention of clearing this the honest way."

"Then how?"

"I told you, I'm doing it my way."

That's right. My way.

The wizard's way.

***

I wasn't going to a school full of aberrations pretending to be human.

Peep! Peep! Peeep!

Si-on blinked and said,

"Yo-han-ssi, what is this place?"

"A part-time job sexing chicks."

I put on a work uniform, waded into the flock of chicks, picked one up in my hand, and said,

"Info window."

[Female]

Normally this was a part-time job that required a professional certification, but with the info window, telling males from females was easy.

Female, female, male, female, male, female, male.

I sorted the chicks by sex like I was playing a minigame, finished the job, and checked the money that had come into the menu screen.

Whether the Trash Game wanted more freedom or was just imitating reality, I didn't know, but

there were quite a lot of part-time job activities, and the in-menu shop sold a variety of real-world items.

I immediately purchased regular clothes and a white trench coat.

I took off the goddamn [Harem Academy] uniform and threw on the trench coat.

"Let's go. Next is the flower shop job. We'll pick up Hyssop and Aloe there.

If we're going to make Holy Water, magic incense, and a robe by Wednesday, we don't have time to waste."

Si-on realized Yo-han's strategy.

He was planning to remake magical items and use magic.

No, it was obvious when she thought about it.

She looked at Yo-han in his white trench coat.

"...Understood."

After all, Yo-han was a wizard. There was no reason for him to insist on conventional methods.

"However, according to the heroine intel, your current path may overlap with the track team heroine's route. Let's change our travel path."

She immediately adjusted to support Yo-han's approach.

***

Si-on swallowed her tension and opened the door to the empty classroom where Yo-han was.

"Yo-han-ssi, I've brought Moemi Momo."

"Haaah~! Sending your little sister to lure me to a shady place like this! You're the worst! If you try anything perverted, I'll kill..."

The pink twin-tailed beauty Momo charged inside without hesitation, ready to kill the player.

"...Huh?"

Blackout curtains covering the windows. Candles illuminating the dark classroom.

She saw Yo-han standing on a Magic Circle, wearing a white coat.

I looked at the pink twin-tailed Crazy Psycho Heroine.

No need for clumsy conversation.

"Now, take a look at this."

I immediately pulled out a circular metal Pentacle cut from a copper plate.

[Fifth Pentacle of Venus]

Its magical effect was to make anyone who looked upon it fall in love.

"O king upon a camel, O adorned woman, O naked beauty, O she-goat, camel, and dove."

I began chanting the incantation at once.

"Spirits of Venus, answer my call."

Yes, without a grimoire, this was undeniably a dangerous situation.

But just because I didn't have a grimoire

didn't mean I was helpless. That would make me a grimoire stand, not a wizard. (TL: (Grimoire stand: a wizard who is useless without their grimoire))

And I was no grimoire stand.

I was the owner of a grimoire. A wizard.

I was only a pushover when my magic wasn't prepared.

Once my magic was ready, the average aberration was no longer a match.

Yo-han's shadow flickered in the candlelight, growing larger, swallowing the space whole.

And then...

Crackle- Crackle-!

From the body of the pink twin-tailed Crazy Psycho Heroine Momo came a sound like something malfunctioning.

Pop! Pop! Ka-pop!

"Ngh... Nngh! I'm, I'm falling in love...!"

Her affection gauge maxed out at the same instant heart-shaped effects burst from her.

Route cleared.

At the sight, Si-on cautiously asked,

"...Does this have the same effect on people?"

"You think? Of course not."

This was a special case. After all, magic wasn't that convenient.

"No matter how messed up the game is, it's still a game. As long as she's a heroine, the outcome of being cleared by the protagonist is predetermined.

All I did was use magic to skip the process and reach that result. If you used it on an actual person, it'd just make you seem slightly more appealing at best. And even that wouldn't work if they already disliked you."

Si-on looked at the dangerous aberration that had killed Special Ops agents, now drooling and...

"Nngh... Red bean paste... ■☐♥☆##@!"

...glitching out, and couldn't figure out what expression to make.