CH 78

And then, Asahi added this at the end. 

“The trial will end on the sunset of the 3rd day. However, you don’t have to wait that long. If you wipe us all out, that can also be considered as a clear. If you kill all the ones that can fight, you clear the trial.” (Asahi)

Asahi grinned at that. ‘What happened to the heart of justice?!’, is what I wanted to retort with, but the actual problem is that that’s impossible. 

Or more like, nothing good comes from doing that. 

Nekomimi Neko not only has individual affection meters, but influential powers also have affection meters. 

It is technically masked data, so it is not clearly stated in numbers. For example; if you are harassing the people of the city the whole time, you wouldn’t be able to buy anything; if you cooperate often with the Knight Order, you would get along with the gatekeepers of the castle; if you do bandit extermination often, you would get thrown rocks at the slums as they say ‘revenge for my dad!’.

No, now that I think about it, the last one isn’t exactly in that category, but it is basically that. 

Within those, the thing that those influential powers despise the most is ‘killing a member of the same organization’, but the ones of the Hisame Dojo are different. 

The Hisame Dojo is the only influence where, even if you kill people of the organization, their affection meter doesn’t change at all. 

This is a chain event and it is impossible to escape from the Hisame household in the middle of the event, in the game. 

Also, because there’s no save point in the Hisame house, you must finish it in one go. 

This event lasts 3 days in game time. 

It may be possible to omit the parts between the events in the game, but it is a painful event where you get exposed to life threatening danger for at least several hours. 

It is a long event like that, so even I had moments where my concentration was cut off, or I accidentally killed a disciple. 

At those times, I obviously thought I messed up and was prepared to reset it, but there was unexpectedly no change in the people of the Hisame family. 

Them saying they won’t begrudge a person that has been killed in battle was true. 

Of course, even if there’s no hate, it still leaves a bad aftertaste, but that happened after I overcame a whole lot of long long chain events properly. 

I thought it would be a waste to reset here, so I continued on without resetting. 

The result of doing it over and over again for several dozens of times. 

I managed to smoothly finish the events after that, and I finally cleared the Hisame House Visit Event in that round. 

If only that was the end of it… It is in places like that where Nekomimi Neko would set their traps. 

Having finished the event of the Hisame House, my first thought was to save, so I headed to the closest city which was the capital, and ran to the east. 

And then, when I approached the capital’s monolith, I noticed that the state of the citizens was different from usual. 

Getting a bad feeling from this, I decided to not save for now and went to speak to the people of the city. 

This is after I cleared the game, so my affection with the people of the city was decently high. 

I had hoped that they would tell me if something strange was happening, but…

“You murderer!” 

The moment I approached, the people began to throw rocks at me. 

I was surprised by this. 

When I hurriedly tried to ask what was happening from someone else…

“Don’t step into our city!” 

That person also threw a rock at me. 

I was dumbfounded by the suddenness of this, and someone must have reported me, guards came in droves.

“You criminal!” 

“Doing something like that to the greatly venerable Hisame family… Unforgivable!” 

“Don’t let the murderer into the city!” 

I was baffled by the sudden criminal labeling, but I finally understood with this. 

The influence affection doesn’t really mean that the only targets of the change are the members of that organization. It also affects other organizations that are linked to it. 

For example; if you steal in Lamurick, not only Lamurick, you will also be hated by the people of the capital a little bit. On the other hand, if you exterminate bandits, you will be hated by the bandits, but you will be liked by the people of the city. 

Meaning that, the affection meter of the Hisame Dojo didn’t go down after killing one of their disciples, but the affection of other influences dropped sharply. 

Knowing the setting that the Hisame Dojo has fostered many famous adventurers and knights, I can understand that clearly now. 

The dojo people that have a militaristic spirit won’t hold a grudge against me for killing disciples, but the people of the city who hear about it and the knights connected to it would get angered and go ‘Killing a person from the Hisame Dojo. What an unbelievable guy!’.

No, even if they are not directly involved, killing someone from the well liked dojo would of course be hated. 

It at the very least showed properly in the numbers. 

Seeing the people that were reacting even more than when killing someone directly related to them, I stared at the sky. 

If you are going to apply those kinds of small details, then I would like you to also include things like ‘it was self-defense’ or ‘I defeated the Demon Lord and saved the world, you know?’, but my protests were powerless in the face of the game system. 

I went to the monolith while looking at the guards coming in droves, and tearfully chose to Load the data. 

By the way, I needed 10 more retries in order to clear it without killing any disciples. 

Well, it was still salvageable because I noticed right before saving, but I learned on the net that if I had saved just like that, tragedy would have ensued. 

I read the play diary of a player that killed Asahi in order to overcome the last trial of the Hisame House and ended up saving just like that. It was quite the cruel read. 

First off, not only the capital, but even the people in all the cities were now hostile towards you. You can’t use stores, and most events are now unavailable. 

He didn’t falter even with all the bashing and rock throwing of the people, and he went back to his lodging where his companions were in. But even his comrades that passed thick and thin together were also hostile. 

That would break your heart. 

The only ally he had left within all that was the actual daughter of Asahi who the player had killed. 

Even when Mitsuki was shaken by the death of her father…

“I have already decided to walk the same path as you.” (Mitsuki)

She would say that cool line and accompany you. 

That player choke in tears of gratitude as he walked the path of carnage together with Mitsuki, but I have no intention at all of choosing that path. 

That’s why my absolute condition here is ‘definitely not kill the people of the dojo’. 

On the other hand, if I manage to overcome the trial of the Hisame family without killing anyone in the dojo, the affection of many influences will increase greatly. 

By the time you clear the game, most of the affection from the influences in the city will be maxed, so it doesn’t really matter much, but for me who has only been here 10 days since the game began, this is a big pro. 

There will sometimes be items that were not sold before if you have higher affection, and the events that happen will increase. 

Well, most of the increased events are messed up, so I don’t really know if to call it a positive though. But if I don’t think of it as a reward, there’s no way I would be able to do a death event like this. 

From what I see, there’s only 3 things you can obtain from this event. 

You can make Mitsuki your companion, get a lot of affection from many influences, and…

“Can I ask something, Souma-kun?” (Asahi)

At that moment, Asahi spoke to me with a gentle tone unlike the pressuring one from just a moment ago. 

This is the ‘outward face’ of this person.

“What is it?” (Souma)

I know what he is going to be saying here, but I ask back just for the sake of it. 

That’s right. If it is going exactly as the game, the event that will happen next is…

“The welcoming party will begin soon. Can you please go to the room of Mitsuki and the other one and call them over?” (Asahi)

(Good grief. Can’t be helped.) (Souma)

I skip over the pitfall (that looks like a wooden plank floor, but flips around when you step on it, and there will of course be a whole ton of bamboo spears at the bottom), cut down the piano wire that is placed right in neck distance tied up between two pillars, and advance through the hallway with a merry mood.

This event of calling Mitsuki is actually running parallel with the Hisame family trial and the Mitsuki romcom event. 

I have already talked a lot about it, but it is the ‘when I went to the room, Mitsuki in her underwear was there’. 

(I actually wanted to avoid this though~. But if I don’t do it, who knows what would happen with the progress of the event? Guess I have no choice~.) (Souma)

I head to the room of Mitsuki with no choice while feeling internally ashamed.

But…

(…Crap.) (Souma)

I ignored Asahi’s explanation about the directions since I thought there’s no way I would mistake the way, but it has been long since I haven’t done this event, and it wasn’t exactly life threatening, so I don’t remember it that clearly. 

I don’t remember what room was Mitsuki’s. 

(If I remember correctly, it was 2 or 3 rooms deeper from the piano string…) (Souma)

I do have a rough idea, but there’s a lot of rooms that are really similar to each other. 

There’s no way there would be nameplates, so I have no way of identifying it. 

(…Oh well.) (Souma)

It is not like there’s any life threatening events here anyways. 

I mistook some even in the game, and they were all empty rooms, so I can just open them up. 

(First would be…here.) (Souma)

I grab the sliding door two rooms ahead of the piano string…and open it in one breath. 

“…Ue?!” (Souma)

A silly voice came out from me. 

If I had to put it in words, it would be that this room was a jackpot. 

There’s a half-naked woman in front of me. 

She really must have been in the middle of changing, she isn’t wearing anything on her upper-half, and she is looking at me with wide opened eyes as if surprised. 

“R-Ringo…” (Souma)

It was my traveling companion, Ringo.

But me opening the room of Ringo is in a sense the correct one. 

Ringo feels no embarrassment in having her naked body be seen. 

If this had been any other woman, she would scream and that would be terrible. 

That’s what I thought, but…

“Eh?” (Souma)

Ringo crossed both arms on her body as if covering herself from my gaze, and looked back while curling up. 

And then…

“…Souma…pervert.” (Ringo)

It is when she said those words that I finally noticed that I had been staring intently at the body of Ringo and grew confused. 

“No, uhm, this isn’t what you think.” (Souma)

Or more like, I suddenly ended up getting embarrassed from her getting embarrassed.

It was only now that my brain began replaying the incredible sight of Ringo, and the pounding in my heart grew more intense. 

Anyways, this is bad. 

I first lowered my head deeply. 

“U-Uhm, sorry for staring! I seriously do think I am in the bad here, but I simply came here to call everyone to the welcome party! You could say this was 100% an accident!” (Souma)

“…Accident?” (Ringo)

I feel like the tone of Ringo grew softer. 

I don’t want to be called a sexual deviant ever again. 

I desperately tried to explain myself. 

“T-That’s right! An accident! I thought this room was Mitsuki’s in the first place, so that just now was not on purpose at all!” (Souma)

“…”

“Eeh, it wasn’t on purpose, so…so…ah, right right. Do you know which one is Mitsuki’s room?” (Souma)

“…”

“Uhm, Ringo?” (Souma)

Even though she seemed to have softened a bit at first, Ringo suddenly stopped saying anything around the middle. 

I feel like I messed up here. 

I watch over the silent Ringo with unease. 

I can’t tell what face Ringo is making since she is facing back and looking down. 

“…Next door.” (Ringo)

After a while, Ringo finally spoke. 

She is probably referring to Mitsuki’s room here. 

“I-I see. Thanks, Ringo.” (Souma)

I give my thanks and leave the room. 

The moment I closed the door…

“…Dummy.” (Ringo)

I heard that low whisper. 

Why?

“Ringo…” (Souma)

Those words gouged at my heart deeper than anything I have heard before. 

…Anyways.

I have the duty to finish the Hisame family event. 

My life is at stake here. 

I don’t want to, but I have to do this! 

With this resolve in my heart, I stand one room deeper from Ringo’s room. 

“Coming in!” (Souma)

I shout this loudly as I open up the sliding door.

“Eh?” (Souma)

What was there was an unexpected sight. 

This isn’t on the level of being in the middle of changing. 

What was there was my traveling companion…in its birthday suit, without a single cloth on its body. 

It eventually noticed my gaze, crossed both arms as if covering its body, curling up and facing backwards…

“No, you weren’t wearing clothes from the very beginning.” (Souma)

When I retorted with a cold voice, it grinned as if happy from the bottom of its heart. 

It really is one talented bear. 

By the way, Mitsuki’s room was one room before that of Ringo, and Mitsuki had already finished changing by that time. 

…Damn it!