I had just requested a Magic Stone appraisal at the Guild. And I was staring straight at Yayoi-san’s chest.
”Kondou, your eyes are scary. It’s embarrassing when you stare that hard…”
She crossed her arms to hide her chest and looked up at me with a scolding glance. This was bad! That move was inviting me! I’m a fourteen-year-old virgin – I’m doomed!!
A few months after I started diving into the Dungeon, Yayoi-san was moved to the Hachioji Branch. Back then, she’d been cold and distant, just going through the motions. Dead fish eyes, totally hard to approach. But lately, she’s started to seem more human. When I got injured in the Dungeon, she must’ve gone through something rough. Or maybe she got a boyfriend and that’s why she’s brighter now… If she has a boyfriend, I will not forgive him!!
”Yayoi-san, what a feast for the eyes. Thank you kindly. I’ll be saving that for later.”
In moments like this, the rule is simple: no excuses. Just be honest.
Yayoi-san’s face turned bright red as she said, “Are you stupid?! Getting worked up over an auntie like me! I’m nothing special…”
I couldn’t catch the last part, but it sounded like she was actually kind of embarrassed. Man, she’s way too cute.
After the appraisal was done, I took my bike back to the orphanage – an hour-long ride. The bike was something I’d found at a nearby garbage collection point, fixed up, and made rideable. It’s my only mode of transport, which means I can’t go on long trips anywhere except the Hachioji Dungeon.
I got back to the orphanage after 9:00 p.m. Between leaving the Dungeon, selling the drop items, showering, and getting home, it’s always around this time. Lights-out is at 9:00 p.m., so I eat dinner in the cafeteria by backup lighting. I’ve been doing the same routine for two years now, but sometimes it feels so empty… Like, what am I even doing with my life?
From the cafeteria, I headed to my room on the second floor. Mine’s the one at the very end of the hall. But as I passed the room before mine – a senior’s room – I heard a sound that was, well… suggestive.
”Ah… ah, more… there, there, right there…”
The room next to mine belongs to a senior who’s a year older. Even in the orphanage, a pecking order has formed. If siblings are admitted together, the younger one starts using the older sibling’s authority to bully kids their own age. Then their hangers-on get braver and start picking on anyone without backing. The result is groups, and anyone who doesn’t join one becomes a target.
I’m a loner. I don’t belong to any group. Between school and the Dungeon, I don’t have the time or energy to deal with other people. Maybe that’s why I don’t get bullied either. Yeah. Loner life’s the best. I’m the type who can make it on his own, you know. For some reason, I suddenly felt like crying.
Even among the Awakened, the same patterns play out. Once the government figured out that Magic Stones generate energy, they made it required for Awakened to submit a weekly quota. But not all Awakened are suited for combat – some can’t even enter the Dungeon. Those people put in requests with Explorers who can. Strictly speaking, Magic Stone trading is supposed to be a Guild exclusive right, but the government knows not every Awakened can fight in the Dungeon. Since the stones end up collected through the Guild anyway, they ignore the other way.
And in places like this orphanage, it’s common for girls who can’t meet their Magic Stone quota to offer their bodies to stronger Awakened in exchange for stones. The staff are aware of it. They don’t say anything. As long as they at least use birth control, it seems fine.
”Garden of Loving Grace.” Yeah, that’s a name for it.
By the way, boys have to leave the orphanage at fifteen when they graduate middle school, and girls at eighteen when they graduate high school. I’ll be free in a year and eight months. But I’ll need to save up until then.
Summary:
Kondou finishes his Guild business while ogling Yayoi-san’s chest, triggering a playful exchange that reveals her increasingly warm demeanor toward him. He bikes an hour back to the orphanage, arriving after lights-out to eat alone in the dark cafeteria. Passing by his senior’s room on the way upstairs, he overhears sounds of intimacy, which leads him to reflect on the orphanage’s ingrained caste system and his status as a loner who avoids the bullying and exploitation that pervades the facility.
Trivia:
- Kondou has been diving into the Dungeon for several months.
- Yayoi-san transferred to the Hachioji Branch after Kondou started dungeon diving.
- The protagonist repaired a discarded bicycle from a garbage collection point and uses it as his only transportation.
- Kondou’s routine of dungeon, appraisal, shower, and return consistently puts him back at the orphanage after 9:00 p.m.
- Lights-out at the orphanage is strictly at 9:00 p.m.
- The orphanage has a functioning caste system based on sibling power dynamics.
- Kondou is a loner who belongs to no faction and remains untouched by the bullying.
- The government mandates a weekly Magic Stone quota for all Awakened.
- Girls who cannot meet their quota often trade sexual favors with stronger Awakened for Magic Stones.
- The orphanage staff are aware of this arrangement but choose to look the other way.
- Boys are required to leave the facility at fifteen; girls at eighteen.
- Kondou has one year and eight months remaining before he must leave.
- “Eiai-en” translates literally to “Garden of Loving Grace,” a name Kondou finds bitterly ironic given the facility’s realities.