CH 100

[Awakening Event (Farce)]

After passing through the secret path leading to the academy dungeon and running through the hidden passage further inside, Amanai finally reached the 30th floor.

A woodland with trees lined up at regular intervals.

Looking up, one could see a gray ceiling like a cloudy sky through the gaps between the overgrown leaves.

Even though it was underground, the space was lighted, albeit dimly.

Because he usually challenged the dungeon with a sufficient safety margin in mind, the deepest floor Amanai had been to was the 24thfloor. This was the first time he had ever stepped into the 30thfloor.

He refastened the straps of his gauntlets and armour.

As vexing as it was, they were equipment he borrowed from Sakurai; the silver Western gauntlet was called ‘Paladin Gauntlet’ and the ocher Japanese armour was called ‘Chthonic Armour’. Sakurai obtained them in the Netherworld.

Although they had no special effects, they barely within the upper limit of the quality (rarity) of the armour that could be set with the skill ‘God’s Sacred Raiment’ that Amanai had learned, and two was the highest number of equipment he could pair up with his skill at present.

He swung his fist and kicked several times on the spot to check his condition.

The sound of them cutting through the wind was quiet and sharp, just as usual. After testing the moves that had permeated his body, Amanai exhaled once so as to adjust his breathing and started walking.

“——Sakurai.” (Amanai)

He proceeded by relying on the faintly audible sounds of something cutting the wind. At that place, as he had expected, there was Sakurai, who was practice-swinging while making a loud noise as if to advertise his presence.

Hearing Amanai’s muttering, Sakurai stopped his practice-swinging and turned his gaze.

“Hm? Oh, you came. It’s still 2 pm, though; you’re a bit early. Well, it’s fine, I guess. Oh yeah, have you had lunch yet?” (Sakurai)

“Sakurai!” (Amanai)

Sakurai’s joyful smile rubbed Amanai up the wrong way; he bellowed at him.

After all, the kidnapped Akano was entwined with the threads stretched around in the shape of a spider web and hung between the trees right beside Sakurai.

Being shown the sight of her powerlessly hanged unconscious while Sakurai, the perpetrator, laughing happily, there was no way he wouldn’t get angry.

The reason why he still hadn’t rushed out was because he wanted to ask Sakurai about his purpose.

“Answer me, Sakurai! What is your purpose, why are you doing this!” (Amanai)

True, he wanted to avoid the worst possible situation that he had assumed, but he also wanted to firm his resolve by hearing it directly from Sakurai’s mouth.

“I just wanted to change my cooperator.” (Sakurai)

“…Is it the Black Sword?” (Amanai)

“You’ve guessed that much, huh. That’s right, I’ve decided to cooperate with the Black Sword.” (Sakurai)

“Do you know what position you will be in if you cooperate with them!? They are terrorists! You can’t go back once you join hands with them!!” (Amanai)

“I’m not going to cooperate with them that closely. This time our interests happened to coincide, so we kinda made a deal. I wanted their organizational capability to get the Fool’s Necklace, and they… or more like, the reincarnated person on their side was interested in the material I could prepare to strengthen their organization. I don’t know how the future is going to be, but I figured I’d try to make a small deal with them to feel them out.” (Sakurai)

If the material he could prepare was referring to Akano Reika that he had kidnapped, wasn’t the deal close to human trafficking? Which part of it was small?

Amanai looked for an opening while supressing his seething fury.

By calling him over here and showing him the hostage, that was Akano, he must have some sort of aim… there was that ‘it’s your last chance’ thing, too.

And considering Sakurai’s lack of ethics, there was a possibility that he would hurt her to get him agree to his demand.

Even if he rushed out right now, Sakurai would be able to reach Akano sooner than he could do anything.

The fact that Sakurai showed him Akano Reika, showed that he wasn’t only using her as a bargaining chip for the Black Sword but also him.

And even if she was a bargaining chip, that did not guarantee her personal safety.

With that in mind, Amanai had to be cautious, and had no choice but to prolong the conversation in order to find a chance to rescue her and to come up with a way to do so.

“As I thought, there’s a reincarnated person in the Black Sword, huh.” (Amanai)

“I met him by chance after the race, y’see, and I heard many things from him. He possessed an original character rather than reincarnating into one, and the guy he replaced was Nanashino Katsumi. Though unlike you, he doesn’t seem to have a shred of intention of imitating the original character and does whatever he pleases.” (Sakurai)

“Do you an idea of what his purpose is?” (Amanai)

“Who cares about that. The important thing is that I find Nanashino is more worthy of cooperating with than you.” (Sakurai)

Sakurai’s atmosphere changed.

There was sharpness in his gaze, and his voice became a level deeper.

Just because those changes, Amanai’s leg moved back slightly as if he was under pressure.

“I’ve given you various help, and yet, you still had so much trouble defeating Baldasare. Even though you won, it was a disgraceful one, I’d say.” (Sakurai)

“…That’s—” (Amanai)

Sakurai sighed purposefully.

His disappointment gave rise to unpleasant sweat on Amanai’s back.

While he thought that the flow of the conversation was bad, he couldn’t find any way to change its direction.

“Even I’d like to refrain from using illegal means or working with illegal organizations, if at all possible. But you showed me the pathetic sight of you not being able to even argue back against Baldasare… I don’t think you can defeat Julia as you are right now.” (Sakurai)

“And so you’re going to cooperate with the Black Sword and that Nanashino Katsumi!? If you’re dissatisfied with my strength, don’t we just have to come up with some ways or means to do something about it! We have knowledge of the original game; I’m sure we’ll find a good way!” (Amanai)

“Nothing will work because you’re like that!!” (Sakurai)

At Amanai’s words, Sakurai bellowed and hit a nearby tree in anger.

The dull hitting sound was transmitted to Amanai’s ears, reducing his momentum. The initiative of the conversation was still in Sakurai’s hands.

“You asked me if I’m dissatisfied with your strength!? Do you still not understand that your body is that of ‘Amanai Hayato (protagonist)’! Don’t you remember that originally, the trigger condition of Julia’s event is for you to exceed level 60!” (Sakurai)

Julia’s event was designed so that it wouldn’t trigger unless your level was above level 60, which was Julia’s level when she joined your party, to begin with.

This was the result of the creators evaluated that the players couldn’t complete it without appropriate strength; that evaluation criteria were needed to get through the event.

In other words, it indicated that if you hadn’t made it to, at the very least, level 60, there was a possibility that ‘you couldn’t even beat the students of the military academy who challenged you during the event’.

“To begin with, if you’re just fundamentally lacking in strength, there’s no way you, a level 35, would be unharmed fighting against Baldasare. With your physique and skills, you beat an opponent who was twice as strong as you, y’know! Do you still not get it yet? The problem is not your strength, but your character!!” (Sakurai)

At those words, Amanai made a confused look like he couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

Amanai thought that Baldasare was weaker than the in original game because the battle occurred earlier than it should be, and that was why he could beat him even though he was still level 35.

However, that thought was wrong.

Baldasare’s strength was no different from the original game.

Sakurai intuitively perceived that from his many battles with powerful enemies and the experience he cultivated as the disciple of the Sword Saint.

However, Sakurai, whose communication ability was at rock bottom, couldn’t possibly verbalize it in a way that others understood, and as a result, his meaning ended up being conveyed to Amanai in an unconvincing manner.

Coupled with Amanai’s hardcore-level of low self-evaluation, which was one of his problematic points, Amanai could not take Sakurai’s words at face-value.

Sakurai sighed looking at such Amanai.

Rather than from being amazed, it came from resigning himself to the fact that the man in front of him responded as planned, and ended up forcing him to move as planned.

(Can’t be helped, this isn’t directly related to levelling, but this is for the sake of my future self. A person of lofty virtue such as me is not good at playing the villain, but I’d do what I gotta do.)

While saying so to himself, the extremely selfish guy who had begun to lose tension quietly prepared himself.

“I know it’s a bit unreasonable of me to suddenly turn my back on you and join hands with the Black Sword.” (Sakurai)

Saying that, Sakurai slowly took out an iron stake that could be held with one hand from his breast pocket so as to show it off.

In the dim space surrounded by trees, it wore an eerie dark green glow.

Amanai, judging that it was a weapon with some special effects, reflexively held up his fists.

Because he held up his fists reflexively, he gave Sakurai that one moment opening.

“So, as I wrote in the letter, I will give you your last chance.” (Sakurai)

That moment that Amanai missed resulted in a violence that trampled on his assumption of the situation.

Amanai hadn’t expected the violence since Sakurai asserted that ‘Akano Reika was a bargaining chip’.

Amanai had never thought that Sakurai would do something such as killing ‘the bargaining chip (Akano Reika)’ without even demanding anything from him.

Everything was too late when he started running.

Sakurai stabbed the iron stake deep into Akano’s shoulder in that one moment he gave.

“You bastaaaaaaaaaard!!” (Amanai)

“Ogh!?” (Sakurai)

Amanai closed the distance in an instant by kicking off the ground with explosive momentum and threw a roundhouse kick at Sakurai standing next to Akano.

Hit directly, Sakurai was rolled on the ground a few meters. Meanwhile, Amanai tore off the stretched around threads and secured Akano.

Crimson blood overflows from the wound caused by the iron stake, which was pulled out when Sakurai was kicked.

Amanai held Akano and sprinkled a potion he had on hand over the wound. Then, the wound closed like the time was rewound.

“Uh, guh! Gaah!!” (Reika)

“Reika! Hey, Reika!? Why, even though the wound is already closed!?” (Amanai)

Akano continued to groan in pain even though the wound had closed, and twisted her body over and over again in Amanai’s arms.

The healing potion was definitely effective. But her pain had not gone away.

Since she seemed to be receiving continuous damage, he suspected that she was in ‘Poisoned’ state, so he gave her detoxifying potion, yet her condition remained unimproved.

However, the fact that no change occurred gave an idea to Amanai.

“Don’t tell me, ‘Cursed’!?” (Amanai)

“That hurts. Congrats, you’re correct. You realized it faster than I had expected.” (Sakurai)

When he turned around in response to that voice, he found Sakurai, downing a potion while still holding the iron stake in his hand.

He smiled as he spun the iron stake in his hand, as if to taunt him.

“I’m sure there was only one item that gives ‘Cursed’ state in the original game… but it didn’t look like that.” (Amanai)

“That’s because it was wrapped in rags in the original game. Of course, you wouldn’t recognize it.” (Sakurai)

The thing that Sakurai stabbed into Akano was a consumable item called the ‘Shaman’s Cursed Iron Stake’.

In the original game, it looked like a rod-shaped item wrapped in layers of rags with Sanskrit characters written on them; its name was the only thing that revealed that the content was an iron stake.

That was why, seeing the iron stake before him, Amanai didn’t realize that it was ‘Shaman’s Cursed Iron Stake’.

“Unlike in the game, you can get rid of the rags that seems to be sealing it, y’know. Although this world is similar to the original game, it is a true, real world. So…” (Sakurai)

“Agh, guh! Uhh!” (Reika)

“Reika!” (Amanai)

At the agonized voice coming from his arms, Amanai opened his eyes wide and screamed.

The abnormal status ‘Cursed’ could not be broken without a specific item or the ‘sacred magic’ skill Ethel used.

Neither were unavailable to the current Amanai. Sakurai had confirmed that when he lent his equipment to Amanai.

“‘Cursed’ doesn’t wear off naturally and deals a certain amount of damage every turn. One turn seems to be 10 seconds in this world, so… well, I don’t know the exact time, but she probably won’t last long.” (Sakurai)

“You, how could you… how could you do something like this!!” (Amanai)

“And of course, I have an item to break the curse. Now, you know what you should do, right?” (Sakurai)

After throwing away the iron stake, Sakurai took out a talisman-shaped item and showed it off, before putting it back into his pocket.

Seeing that, Amanai slowly laid Akano at the root of a nearby tree.

He took off his coat, folded it like pillow, put it under her head and stood up, glaring at Sakurai.

“Hand me that item, Sakurai.” (Amanai)

“Take it if you can, Protagonist.” (Sakurai)

In front of Amanai, who had an unprecedently sharp look, Sakurai picked up a sword hidden behind a tree.

Then, he made a ridiculing smile like a villain and raised his voice in amused tone.

“Come at me with all you got! Otherwise, your girl will completely turn into my experience points!!” (Sakurai)

“Sakurai!” (Amanai)

A sword and a fist faced off.

Sakurai Toru (Mob) VS Amanai Hayato (Protagonist).

Battle started.