CH 198.1

Chapter 198.1: Clandestine Meeting Room

Well then, we began the exploration and raising everyone’s level starting today. The third day after the start of cohabitation in the school tower was the first step toward the subjugation of Yamata no Orochi. Well, everything starts with trial and error, after all.

Good grief, when people gathered, troublesome matters tend to increase… But humans are the kind of beings that show their greatest potential when acting in a group. The only way to defeat the raid boss, Yamata no Orochi was by combining the power of our vocation. To achieve that, some major adjustments and fine-tuning were needed, right?

「Could it be that Yamata no Orochi is born because of a bug in the difficulty adjustment system?」

Okay, that’s it. Let’s set that matter aside for now.

My top priority was to find the best plan to subjugate Yamata no Orochi.

「Buuut, the problem is… I can’t think of any effective plan.」

Honestly speaking, as of now, I couldn’t get the picture of us defeating that giant, kaijuu-class boss. Even if our three most powerful vanguard learnt the strongest martial arts and advanced spells, I didn’t think it would be enough to defeat that kaijuu.

According to my latest observation, there were two great factors that made it impossible for us to subjugate that kaijuu.

First, the head which we should suppress to prevent it from using indiscriminate breath attacks.

Second, how to reach that guy’s core located deep in the rocky mountain.

「Those several heads, even half of them is enough to drive us into the corner, Randou-san’s tunnel doesn’t seem to work on it either…」

Uhm, we should go with blitzkrieg.

「Anyhow, let’s focus on upgrading our equipment for now.」

In regard to that matter, the current equipment-in-charge, Takanashi Kotori who was responsible to upgrade the equipment of 18 people, could need some time to finish her job.

「It’s still not too late to do trial and error against Yamata no Orochi to find the best plan to defeat it after everyone has raised their level, upgraded their equipment to a new and more powerful one, and mastered their skills.」

Moreover, I might be able to upgrade Rem too from the leftover monster materials.

「Let’s give my homemade, original ointment to everyone――」

Suddenly, I had a flash of inspiration.

Thanks to the size of this fairy plaza being much bigger than usual, there was more raw ingredients for my reliable and trustworthy 『Ointment A』. On top of that, we had enough people to make a request to gather the materials in the dungeon I needed.

And there was 『Sage』 with her advanced alchemy.

「Doesn’t that mean we can make our own potion?」

Under normal circumstances, Ointment A was already a reliable healing agent. With a bit of improvement, even if we couldn’t reproduce the potion, we might be able to create something similar to that.

Not to mention that we only had two healers in our group, namely Souma Sakura and Himeno Airi. Since Himeno-san’s ability as a healer was very weak, we needed an external means to heal our wounds.

On the other hand, Sakura’s healing spell was growing properly and far more powerful but… Her personality was unreliable. Meaning, she might not even heal you even if you need a healing spell, besides, she already had a criminal record.

Under the assumption that there’s no healer from the very beginning, I should at least prepare a potion-type ointment.

Now that I think about it again, the degree of priority of this matter rivaled even the plan to upgrade our equipment.

「Hey, Kotori-san, how many days of all-nighters can you pull off?」

「PIIII!?」

Ah, she fled!

The heck, I was just asking, there was no need to run away in tears like that right?

「Kotori-sa~n, you won’t finish today’s work quota if you flee~」

Since we still had some free time until the return of the exploration teams, whose job was looking for the required monster material, the matter of Kotori-san making the quilt, I wanted to resolve the problem about the item we used for daily life as soon as possible. Things were going to get really busy once we entered the weapon upgrade phase, after all. Just be prepared for all-nighters once we entered that phase.

「Well then, now I’m finally alone with Mei-chan.」

Today, Class Rep had also gone out since she belonged to the exploration team. Tendou-kun, along with Randou-san, went to Yamata no Orochi’s nest. The only ones left in this school tower were me, Mei-chan, and Kotori-san. Since Kotori-san had already started working on the first floor, she wouldn’t move until lunch.

「Fufufu, it’s been a while since it has been just the two of us.」

I felt my rising heartbeat just by imagining Mei-chan’s reassuring smile. I mean, it felt like a clandestine meeting.

「Well, someone might be nearby~」

That reminds me that ever since we arrived at this area, my eloquence had been going on full throttle to establish my position, there was no moment of respite until now. The matter of Class Rep aside, did she actually resent me for becoming the source of hatred for Souma-kun?

「With this, we can at least speak frankly.」

The site of our clandestine meeting was a room on the fifth floor of this school tower.

The first floor of the school tower in which the teleportation magic circle was located had already become a workshop and armory.

The second floor was the fairy plaza. It was also the place where everyone gathered to have a meal together.

The third and fourth floors were private rooms. The third floor was allocated to the boys, while the girls used the 4th floor.

The design of the rooms was almost identical. The only difference was shape and size. Though there was a jail-like stone room without any window at all, the inside was already a mess since I used that room to keep small articles that I made or monster materials.

「I’m really happy to be able to talk in private like this.」

「Me too, Mei-chan.」

Currently, the only one I could really trust was Mei-chan. On the other hand, I was prepared to die in the most upright manner if she betrayed me. In short, I was similar to Brutus… Oh screw that man, he was a back-stabbing bästard.

[TL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Junius_Brutus ]

「The present situation aside, I don’t sense any kind of sinister plot.」

「Does that mean we’re going to defeat Yamata no Orochi along with everyone?」

「We have no choice, that’s the only way to get out of this area after all. What do you think about the current situation, Mei-chan?」

「I also think we have to defeat that guy, but that doesn’t equal trusting everyone.」

From the way she spoke, it meant that she included her own friend, Himeno-san, in the suspect list. Mei-chan had become really clever after her transformation. Well, considering the shits we went through until this point, I guess it was only natural for our personality to become rather distorted too.

「And it isn’t just us, I guess it’s the same for everyone.」

Even the reckless Totem Pole Trio chose to follow us since it was more profitable for the current condition. Well, at least everyone in my faction felt the same.

「It will be for the better if everyone believes in you, Kotaro-kun.」

「Maan, you’re overestimating me~…」

Surely, we would become more united and stronger than before if everyone followed me just like Mei-chan, but there was a huge pitfall in that kind of situation— namely the success or failure of the plan had become completely dependent on me. In the case that they believed in my plan and executed it flawlessly, the pressure that I would face when such a plan failed would be just… Well the downside aside, it didn’t seem to be a bad situation since it meant that there were no unstable factors such as Souma sibling.

「Anyhow, I want to gain confidence bit by bit until we find the best plan to subjugate Yamata no Orochi. That’s why Mei-chan, I need you to get along with everyone rather than raising your vigilance against them.」

「Including Souma-kun?」

「Yeah, he’s the first target.」

Souma Yuuto resented me who murdered his childhood friend Reina. But his hatred didn’t extend to Mei-chan who trusted me the most.

The foremost reason was simple— she wasn’t involved in Reina’s murder, and from Mei-chan’s account during her time at the hero party, Souma-kun was the one who truly worried about Mei-chan’s condition. Not to mention he had a debt of gratitude during the battle against gogma.

From Souma-kun’s perspective, Mei-chan might be someone with whom he wanted to get along with. Frankly speaking, it felt like advanced psychology to make her betray me later on, right?

「But won’t that make kid chirp non-stop if I get along with Souma-kun?」

「That will be for the best. Since they have no choice but to obey you.」

Though most men wouldn’t take women’s words lying down… Souma Yuuto had a gift of sharp intuition. If someone was jealous of Mei-chan who wanted to get along with Souma-kun, the latter would definitely notice the malice in the former’s remark and behaviour.

And the proof of that was his act of entrusting the 『Droplet of Life』 to Mei-chan, ignoring his little sister, Sakura’s opposition. Meaning that Souma-kun wasn’t a yes-man who would do the bidding of women or Sakura.

Though he had a strong sense of justice, tenacity, and willpower to carry it on befitting his vocation as the 『Hero』, Souma-kun didn’t get swayed by fake and baseless rumors— he simply wanted to get along with Mei-chan.

「I see, that’s really the case. I have to get along with Souma-kun, but I will kill him when push comes to shove.」

「It will be for the best if everything ends peacefully, but I want you to subdue him when push comes to shove.」

When I met him again right after I murdered Reina, Souma-kun himself didn’t resent Mei-chan, thus she became my greatest shield back then.

I mean, had I used Yamada and the Totem Pole Trio as my shield in that situation, they would be cut down for sure. That’s why Mei-chan became a huge deterrent at that time. Naturally, her strength as 『Berserker』 was part of that equilibrium.

「But I don’t think I can get along with him.」

「No need to get along with him for real, just enough to have a normal conversation.」