CH 68

10th day of my game life. 

It has been a while since I have woken up after a good night of sleep. 

I worried about where to sleep yesterday, but I decided on bringing a bed with the big adventurer bag to the red room, and Ringo and I slept on it. 

Courage was required to sleep in the red room, so I tried having Ringo scribble on the walls, and it surprisingly worked greatly (in an avant-garde art meaning).

Well, no matter how the walls are, it will be the same once you close your eyes -is the kind of truth I reached to, and I quickly fell asleep. 

The red room is apparently a stress theme trap room. A theme park mouse appeared at midnight and persistently whispered to me: “Do you like *****?”, but I was sleepy, so I ignored it and it went away. 

That said, even if we managed like that with the room, who knows what will happen if we leave the bear plushie be, so I formed up a plan. 

It would be scary to have it suddenly appear when I take my eyes off it, so I decided to hug it in my sleep. 

Keep your allies close and your enemies closer. 

I feel like that’s not exactly right, but the bear feels nice to hug. 

That said, waking up refreshed wasn’t only because I slept plenty enough. 

Yesterday was a day with a lot of progress.

I managed to clear a lot of quests, and some of them, I cleared them even better than when it was a game. 

I finished the [Blue Bird of Michael] without having the Blue Bird die; in the [Throb! Serial Murders of a Whole Bunch of Nobles], I solved the case without having anyone aside from the father die. 

I would say this is a result that surpasses that of having finished the quest. 

I always end up perceiving this world the same as the game, but this is both the game and real life. 

The people living in this world are not a mass of data but humans in flesh and blood. 

If I managed to save those people with my game knowledge, that’s a happy conclusion.

I use the flow of the events to my advantage, interfere at different parts than that of the game, and bring out results that are far better than that of the original event. 

It also served to fuel my confidence that this policy of mine is correct. 

It was also a day with a lot of results when it came to strengthening our fighting power. 

I increased the weapon and elemental proficiency on every front once I returned home, but I also obtained quite a variety of good things from the quests. 

Especially the murder case reward. The rewards you get depend on what stage you stop the murders of Greg. 

In order to begin your search, you have to wait until Richard has died, and you have to do complicated steps in order to gather the evidence and keywords to accuse Greg as the culprit, but there’s no such limitations in this world.

We managed to save Richard who couldn’t be saved in the game, so the reward got ranked up too. 

Within those, there was the Unbending Fortitude Necklace that greatly increases the Max HP and Stamina, which was an unexpected reward. 

I equipped it at once, and I feel like I got somewhat stronger with that. 

Let’s just say it is as expected from the quest of a noble. 

While I was playing around with the necklace self-satisfied, Ringo spoke to me. 

“…Souma…in a good mood?” (Ringo)

“Hm? Aah, yeah, I might be. Or more like, I am impressed you could tell.” (Souma)

Did it show that much in my face? 

I rubbed my face reflexively…

“…Because your split hairs are up.” (Ringo)

“That’s simply bed hair!” (Souma)

Don’t add any weird traits to my hair. 

Being pointed out, I brushed my hair instead of my face this time around. 

I at least fixed myself up at the body mirror, but my reflection in the mirror began to make poses different from mine, so I immediately left. 

“But well, it is true that I am in a good mood. I got something nice yesterday after all. See this, for example.” (Souma)

I showed her the magic book that I got as a reward from the Blue Bird of Michael.

“…This?” (Ringo)

“Yeah, a magic book I have been aiming for this whole time. It is called Last Heal. Its casting time is awfully long, but it is super valuable.” (Souma)

By the way, the sub-heading of the magic book is The Last Prayer of the Sacred Bird. 

Considering the contents of the quest, that just feels evil, but it is fine since he didn’t die. 

“…Super?” (Ringo)

“Yeah, when you use it, the visual effect of a big blue bird will show up, and all the people in a radius of 3 meters will be healed in every aspect and be buffed.” (Souma)

By the way, this spell cannot be obtained anywhere aside from this quest, so you could call it a unique spell.

A quest where you can’t obtain a rare spell unless you kill a character. Let’s just say the wickedness of the developers is on a whole other level. 

“Well, in the 30 seconds that all those effects show up, you can’t use skills and spells, so you could say that not being able to move is a small disadvantage.” (Souma)

“…Small?” (Ringo)

Despite Ringo looking spaced-out, her retorts are unexpectedly sharp. 

“N-No, it is not like having long effects is full of disadvantages, you know? See, even the strongest skill of the Otachi has a really long casting time within the weapon skills, but depending on how you use it, it can be useful, I guess…” (Souma)

It is a spell that will be helping us out from here on.

I tried to defend Last Heal, but I feel like no amount of excuses will work on the clear eyes of Ringo. 

I gave up on a lot of things and diverted the topic. 

“…Uhm, anyways, I was thinking about telling everyone that we will be moving.” (Souma)

“Telling?” (Ringo)

I nodded at Ringo who seemed to have taken an interest in what I said. 

“Yeah, I have a few acquaintances here in this city, but they all probably don’t know where we live yet. That’s why I was thinking about telling them.” (Souma)

Honestly speaking, I moved a lot yesterday. 

It should be fine for me to coop up in my house for a while and take my stance in this city. 

No, this is not really because Ringo was cold, so my motivation to move lowered. 

It is difficult to attack an impenetrable castle. 

At those times, you should lower down, and wait for the other side to invite you. 

I give up hurrying a solution and decide to just wait patiently.

It seems like Ringo had no objections to that either. 

“…I’ll go too.” (Ringo)

She shows motivation despite being expressionless.

Well, having motivation is good. 

“Then, let’s go to the Bounty Hunter Guild first.” (Souma)

And so, I decided to go do my greetings one day late after moving.

The innkeeper and his daughter Alice-san where we stayed before, the staff of the Bounty Hunting Guild and Poison-tan, the clerk of the Item Shop and the Michael-kun family we got along with before, and also Kenny and Annie siblings from the Guidepost for the Lost; I decide to tell them all that I have moved to a house. 

I thought it would be hard to explain to them where we are, but there was no need for that. 

It seems like the mansion we live in didn’t have a buyer for a long time. The mysterious Nekomimi  Mansion is apparently famous in this city. 

The origin of that name? 

I didn’t notice either, but there’s an orca-like ornament at the top of the mansion, and when you look at it from afar, it looks like cat ears. 

Those developers…just how much do they love cat ears? 

“…Done?” (Ringo)

After we parted ways with Kenny and the others, Ringo said that to me. 

“No, not yet.” (Souma)

There’s still the biggest one left.

“Rejoice, Ringo.

You will be able to eat what you like the most.” (Souma)

“Two apples, Oba-chan!” (Souma)

And so, the place we went to was obviously the greengrocer. 

“You really come here often…”

The Oba-chan seemed to be baffled by me. 

But when it comes to information, it really gotta be here.

“Did you come here to ask about rumors of the princess again?” 

Oba-chan says this with a wry smile, and I respond with a wry smile of my own. 

“It is not like it is always for that. I just came here to tell you that we moved to a new place.” (Souma)

We told her that we were now living in the cat-ear mansion, and Oba-chan immediately understood. 

It seems like the cat-ear mansion really is pretty famous. 

“But you two, huh…” 

“B-By the way, any new rumors?” (Souma)

With the information network of Oba-chan, she might already know that that house costs 2 million E.

I asked about any recent rumors in a way because I wanted to divert the topic. 

We are talking about this old lady that likes gossiping. 

Even if she knows that I am diverting the topic here, I know that she will ride along with it. 

“Right. Since you are an adventurer, you probably would be interested in the mace-wielding mauling girl that has suddenly begun shining recently, but when speaking about rumors of today, it would be that one.” 

“Aah, that one, huh.” (Souma)

When I directed my gaze ‘there’, Oba-chan nodded. 

“Judging from your reaction, you also know.” 

“Yes, or more like, I might know more than your average person in regards to this.” (Souma)

I was already told a whole ton about this rumor by the other people when we were doing our moving greetings, so I think I am the one who knows the most about it already in this city. 

“It is about the mysterious writings at the plaza, right?” (Souma)

“Right right, that one!” 

Knew it. She must have wanted to talk about it. 

Oba-chan lowered her voice as she told me the details.

“Judging from all the information, it was apparently done last night. It doesn’t seem to be dangerous though.” 

“Eh, really?” (Souma)

“That’s according to the Knight Order’s investigation. It is not like it has magic casted on it, and they don’t know what effect it has; they can’t move it, but they can break it. 

Even if it is a summoning circle, they have broken most of them already, so there’s no danger. 

And so, it seems like the Knight Order planned on wrapping this up as a prankster that simply wanted to stand out.” 

“…Judging from your way of speaking, that’s not the case, right?” (Souma)

From here on comes the information I wanted to hear about. 

I tilted my body forward and Oba-chan grinned. 

“Yeah, the one who showed up there was the all-so-interesting princess of yours. It seems like she really didn’t like that the front of her house was invaded. It seems like she was really riled up, saying that she wanted the culprit hauled to her place.” 

“…I see.” (Souma)

I held back my excited heart and chimed in. 

“In the first place, the one who said those were writings was the princess. In my eyes, it only looked like they left behind weird stuff on the ground. It seems like they looked like symbols or letters from a high place.” 

“I see. It is a kernel in gaming. And so, any clues as to who is the culprit?” (Souma)

Oba-chan frowned at that question. 

“I wonder. By deciphering the writings, it is apparently someone named Mikami. But by the time I saw it, they already dealt with more than half of them, so I don’t know how they reached that conclusion…” 

“Ah, actually, I transcribed the writings there.” (Souma)

Saying this, I bring out a paper from my pouch. 

“Really?! I would definitely like you to show me that!” 

“That’s okay. Uhm, judging from the angle of the room of the princess…it would be like this.” (Souma)

Saying this, I faced the paper towards the Oba-chan. 

Oba-chan groaned after seeing it. 

“I see. This certainly does make the culprit someone named Mikami! You really helped out here! I have to tell my gossip friends at once!” 

“No no, don’t mind it. I want this culprit to be caught at once too after all.” (Souma)

I waved my hand as I said this and her expression darkened. 

“Really. I hope the Knight Order catches them…” 

“It is okay. Placing so many of those at once, there should surely be traces. Even if they did it at night, there should be witnesses. I am sure the culprit will be caught soon.” (Souma)

I gave my farewells there and told Ringo, who was eating apples with both hands, that we will be leaving now. 

In the middle of that, at my back…

“That said, why were there all those skulls at the plaza…?” 

I heard the voice of Oba-chan, and it soon disappeared in the congested streets. 

“Now then, let’s go back home.” (Souma)

I said this to Ringo as I once again looked at the paper I showed Oba-chan.

This is obvious, but no matter how many times I see it, it is not like the writing is going to change. 

In the paper I have in my hand….

“Only you would read this as ‘Sanjou’**, Maki.” (Souma) <Meaning Arrived>

Were the words ‘I have arrived’ (オレ三上) that were written at the plaza last night. <This is a really hard to explain one. It is a pun with Mikami (三上) and Sanjou. The 三 of Mikami being 3 (San) and 上 being Up (Jou). Sanjou translates to arrived. オレ三上 = Ore Mikami (Ore Sanjou) would then translate into I have arrived.)