In the end, the final battle that night was a disaster.
Every move I made backfired. The mountain infantry, the mainstay card of my glorious Ji-Wall City-State Federation, never got to show its true worth at all. It had been a long time since I’d spent a day losing that badly. I got crushed even by Joe the <Salt>, whose only talent was drawing good cards, and Ishinoo, that foul-minded bastard who lived to bait people into traps, laughed at me.
By the end of it, I had managed to put myself roughly a hundred thousand yen in debt.
“Looking at the total score, I win,” Ishinoo said with a smile after taking the last game.
He had racked up the most victories. The allied forces of me and Joe the <Salt> had their advance blocked by a cowardly trap, then got their supply lines cut and suffered a defeat only a step removed from starvation. Whenever Ishinoo entered the field, the war turned gruesome. Thank God he hadn’t been born a medieval noble.
“Having driven out the barbarians, I imagine my Southern Empire will prosper for the next thousand years or so. Well? Another round?”
“Don’t get cocky.”
I glared at Ishinoo with the scariest face I could manage. Not that it had much dignity under the circumstances.
“One more. This battle showed me the weakness in my infantry.”
“Yashiro, you say that every damn time,” Joe said. “Well, whatever. So?”
The matches had more or less wound down, and Joe the <Salt> was drinking beer on inertia as he brought it up.
“What happened to you? What about <Amber Briar>?”
“Who knows.”
The truth was, I didn’t.
Shirogamine had produced handcuffs and restraints from God knew where and efficiently taken <Amber Briar> into custody. Apparently she meant to hand him over to the Academy. Neutralize without killing. That was probably the method they encouraged at school. Let them do whatever the hell they wanted.
“More importantly, I had a hell of a time. My left shoulder bone cracked, and I’m pretty sure my right arm was broken.”
I had to use another dose of <E3> for treatment and pain relief. Its regeneration-boosting effect healed most of the damage, but that was the worst part of all. <E3> expenses were no joke, and if I kept working like this, I’d end up addicted to <E3> in no time.
If I had to be addicted to something, beer was still better.
So I took another long pull from my mug.
“I’m completely in the red.”
Originally, I’d taken the job with the bounty on Demon King Lord <Amber Briar>’s head in mind. I had figured that if Yukine Indo butchered enough servants in flashy fashion, I could get close to Lord <Amber Briar> with almost no one watching and assassinate him. Thanks to that unexpected mess, the whole plan went to hell.
As for the twenty million yen I’d tried to shake out of Shirogamine, collecting it would probably be impossible. If that girl Sera really was King Arthur’s daughter, I couldn’t have her tattling to her father. I was a Hero with shady shit piled up everywhere behind me. My license would be revoked in no time, and I’d be thrown in prison with one flick of his finger.
Joe the <Salt> clapped a hand on my deeply depressed shoulder.
“Just check into a hospital, Yashiro. I heard if you heal with drugs, your bones set weird. You know, Marta was saying this one guy pushed it too hard, and his half-healed rib went into his heart—”
“Shut up.”
I cut off Joe the <Salt>’s bullshit. He just wanted me to go to the hospital because he had bet on me ending up there. Not even if it killed me was I letting him have what he wanted.
“But seriously, Yashiro, that part’s bothering me. That <Amber Briar> bastard grew an arm?”
“More or less.”
“You sure that ain’t bullshit?”
“How many times do I have to say it? Believe me or don’t. I don’t care.”
Joe the <Salt> probably thought it was one of those ghost stories you ran into in the Hero business. The Demon King you killed came back to haunt you. Too many drugs turned your body to stone. That kind of garbage. At the very least, none of us had ever heard of a severed arm sprouting back like a monster.
As expected, Ishinoo was the one who bit on that kind of story. The bastard had a taste for the grotesque and a bad habit of sticking his nose into anything strange.
“I think I’ll look into it a little.”
Maybe Ishinoo had some idea what it was.
“You said <Amber Briar> was acting strange from the start, right?”
“Who knows. Maybe he was high as a kite on drugs.”
“No, I think there’s something there.”
“That doesn’t sound like it’ll make money. Drop it.”
I grimaced. I had a bad feeling about it.
“We’ll see. Anyway, what are you going to do, Mr. Yashiro?”
Ishinoo shuffled his cards with practiced ease, watching me with a faint smile. I couldn’t sense any purpose in it except the joy of making fun of another human being.
“Are you taking disciples? I mean those girls. They’re cute, aren’t they?”
“They’re a pain in the ass.”
I spat the words out.
“There’s something fishy about it. If they go to the Academy, normally they’d learn from their teachers.”
“If it were me, I’d take them on for a hundred thousand per person per month. Sounds fun.”
“Do what you want, you sick pervert sadist.”
“So what, then, Yashiro?”
Joe the <Salt> drained his beer, hesitated for a moment, then lit a cigarette. Maybe he had been trying to quit again. He’d never manage it as long as he lived.
“You turned down the whole master thing?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s what I’ve been saying. Joe really doesn’t listen to a damn word people say.”
“Can’t you open your mouth without insulting somebody? I’ll kill you. Then what the hell is that? You didn’t call them?”
I turned around immediately. Apparently my bones still hadn’t healed all the way, because a sharp pain shot through my left shoulder. This might call for one more dose of <E3>.
Then I spotted three girls standing at the entrance to the bar.
Aside from Aki Shirogamine, all of them looked vaguely uncomfortable.
“Sorry,” said Ed Silas, who had been quietly cleaning behind the counter and spoke before anyone else. “We’re about to close up. Even if you’re Heroes, we’re closed for the day.”
“Yes!”
Shirogamine’s answer was far too obedient.
“We will leave at once! We came tonight to express our thanks and introduce ourselves properly!”
“I don’t need thanks that are just words.”
I made a circle with my fingers.
“Did you get the twenty million ready?”
“No! However, for now, this is this month’s tuition, Master!”
Shirogamine held out an envelope that wasn’t particularly thick.
That was a line I couldn’t let pass. I stared in blank disbelief. It was immediately obvious that she meant to steamroll this whole thing through before I could stop her. You are reading on novelping dot com, the official source.
There was only one thing to say.
“Go home.”
“It’s all right. All of us are fully prepared to receive your strict guidance starting tomorrow.”
“Looking forward to it, Instructor.”
Then, for whatever reason, Yukine Indo suddenly bowed her head. Quite deeply, too. Her upturned eyes, however, were greedily and challengingly bright.
“Instructor Yashiro. I’m sorry. You are very strong.”
“I am strong. That’s why, if you don’t go home, I’ll beat you down.”
“Does that mean I should fight you, Instructor? If I do, will I become stronger?”
Yukine Indo asked with a completely serious face. Her hand answered for her, drifting toward the belt at her waist. Her fingers touched the hilt of a knife.
I had no choice but to fall silent.
I see. In this case, even solving the problem with violence would be difficult.
As I sank into thought, Sera suddenly spoke up.
“Yeah. Wait a second. So, uh.”
Of the three of them, she was the only one who looked genuinely confused. She raked a hand through her golden hair and dipped her head by the smallest possible amount.
“First, thanks.”
She said it like she held a grudge against me for it.
“You saved me, right? Me, and Aki, and Yukine too. Probably. And—sorry to spring this on you, but we’ve got circumstances. Our backs are against the wall.”
“Well, well.”
Against my better judgment, I was a little moved.
“You can actually communicate a little. Contrary to appearances.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? You making fun of me?”
“No. These two are kind of insane, right?”
Sera said nothing in answer to my question.
I took that as agreement.
But before I could continue, she held out one hand as if asking for a handshake.
“Dad said,” Sera told me.
She sounded displeased, but her eyes were serious.
“He told me to learn properly from you. Uh, Yashiro the <Reaper>—Mr. Yashiro. I don’t really get it, but if Aki thought you were the one to ask, then… she’s probably serious, right?”
I fell silent again.
There was nothing else I could do.
Joe the <Salt> and Ishinoo exchanged glances and let out muffled laughter. Ed Silas silently poured himself a beer. I remember the quiet sound of the ventilation fan turning overhead.
It was three days later that Ishinoo disappeared.