Bonus Short Stories

Event Rewards

“Keimaaa. I wanna talk to you about some dungeon stuff,” Core 629 AKA Mikan said, hopping over to me while I was hanging out in his dungeon, the [Rabbit Rest Spot].

“Yeah? What’s up?” I replied.

“It’s about the event rewards!”

“Right, the stuff we give for the raids?”

I was producing the [Rabbit Rest Spot], and there were regular events where the Safe Zone would be raided by monsters. If the adventurers there could fight them all off, the rabbits would reward them with a gift as a sign of their thanks.

“Right now we’re giving them potions, but there’s just too many people! I wanna reward everyone who joins in, but... but... a potion just for participating is too expensive! I was hoping you would have some idea of what else we could give them.”

“Ahhhh.”

It was true that potions were 150 DP each. Even considering that the adventurers were earning Mikan DP just by existing, most weren’t particularly strong. Giving a potion to every single participant would put him in the red.

“But, y’know, you don’t have to give everyone stuff.”

“Awww... But there are some people who wanna fight but can’t do much, like me! I wanna give them rewards too.”

That was a kind desire, one someone probably wouldn’t have if they weren’t weak themselves, like Mikan was.

“...In that case, won’t anything do? Give ’em some acorns or something.”

“Cheapskate! Keima, you cheapskaaate!” Mikan stamped his feet.

“Hey, it’s better than nothing, isn’t it?”

“What are they gonna use acorns for?! It’s more insulting than giving them nothing!”

“Acorns not having any use is why they would be good,” I said, surprising Mikan so much he stopped stamping his feet.

“Whaddaya mean by that?”

“Think about it. Let’s say we gave them each a carrot. They could give it to the rabbits or eat it themselves.”

“Uh-huh. That’d be good.”

“But once the carrots are gone, they’re gone for good.”

“Yup. That’s what happens when you eat something.”

“What about an acorn, though?”

You couldn’t really do anything with an acorn. And since you couldn’t do anything, it stuck around with you. Though there were some people who ate them.

“You don’t need lasting gifts to remember things, but it’s definitely easier to remember something if you keep something with you.”

“That’s true...”

“They might glance at their acorn, remember this dungeon, and come back for another visit.”

“That’s true!” Mikan jumped for joy, his ears flapping.

“It could be like a good luck charm or something. Hey, maybe have the rabbits polish it with their fur before handing it over or something.”

“Oooh! That’s a good idea, I wanna polish some acorns with my ears!”

And so acorns began to be included as a lesser tier of raid rewards.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Whew. Looks like we managed to save the rabbits again.”

“Yup. But we didn’t even need to get involved.”

This was a conversation between two mages, who had stood at the ready in the back row throughout the raid, but had ultimately done nothing since the front row had managed to clear all the monsters on their own.

They watched as rabbits with baskets on their backs hopped around, giving potion rewards to the people who fought in the raid.

“Looks like the rabbits are passing out potions again.”

“So cute... Sigh, I wish we would get some presents from a rabbit too.”

That said, they had protected the rabbits, and that was good enough for them. So it was a surprise when a rabbit hopped up to them, too.

“Oh?”

“Hm?”

The rabbit dropped acorns out of its mouth onto the ground in front of them. Then it dexterously used its front paws to rub the acorns against its face, polishing them. Once it was done, it pushed the polished acorns to the two mages, as if offering them up to them.

“Er, you’re giving these to us?”

“Oh, oooh...! Acorns from a rabbit!”

The mages picked up their acorns.

“...Y’know, this is pretty nice.”

“Yeah. It’s real nice.”

They didn’t have any use in particular for the acorns, but still, they were happy to get them. They were so happy they ordered extra vegetable sticks to give the rabbits.

At the time, nobody expected that the sincerity of the acorns would make them a more popular gift than the potions. But considering the acorns were born from Mikan’s sincere goodwill, perhaps that made perfect sense.

Doggy Girl Idol

“You know, Keima, I want to raise an idol too,” Rokuko said out of nowhere after I had finished raising Ichigo into an idol and watched her perform a few live shows.

“Oh yeah? And why is that?”

“Controlling rabbits and interacting with customers is neat, but your work seems a lot more fun.”

“Ah, well, can’t really deny that.”

There were entire video games based on raising idols, after all. Entire series, even. It only made sense that it would be fun, and I could say from experience that it was a good time.

Not to mention that Rokuko raising an idol would honestly be pretty beneficial. Ichigo could form a two-person unit with the new idol, or maybe they could have epic singing battles on stage.

“Guess I’ll summon another War Rabbit for 50,000 DP. Not sure if you’ll have the time to finish raising her before the big battle, though.”

“No need for that! I’ve already scouted out a girl that’s like a big ball of idol talent,” Rokuko said with a smug smile.

“Really?! I’m impressed, Rokuko... or I would be if you talked to me before doing that.”

“Bwuhwuhwuhw?!”

I pinched and pulled Rokuko’s soft cheeks. Dang, these are squishy.

“I-I mean, you looked busy! And I was bored!”

“Too busy to talk about this for one second? I don’t think so.”

“Every time I tried mentioning it you were training Ichigo, and you told me to never interrupt when you were training her.”

...Okay, fair. I didn’t want there to be any chance of her barging in when I was transformed into Succuma.

Incidentally, being charmed boosted one’s ability to learn dances and songs. Charms are really effective for training, ’cause like, think about it. Don’t you work way harder when it’s for the sake of who you love? I could have just had Ichigo perform the dances through Golem assistance, but I didn’t want to spill the beans on Wearable Golems if I could help it.

“So, who’d you scout and where?”

“Heh, heh, heh! It’s someone you know very well, Keima... COME FORTH!” Rokuko declared, and in came Niku.

But she was wearing frilly, fancy clothing—an idol outfit Rokuko had gotten from who-knows-where.

“Master... Teehee!”

“Well, you almost smiled, at least?” I can tell she’s smiling from her ears and tails, but her face is as expressionless as ever. I guess that’s not a bad look overall.

“Niku is spry as heck, and she’s just as cute as Ichigo if you ask me. Not to mention that fighting rabbit ears with dogs ears is pretty clever, don’t you think?” Rokuko asked.

“...Putting aside whether it’s clever, Niku definitely is cute. I would expect nothing less from our poster girl.”

“Riiiight?!” Rokuko exclaimed. Niku gave a small bow.

“She’s a great dancer, too! Show him what you can do, Niku!”

“Okay.”

And so, Niku danced the idol dance I made up for Ichigo’s debut song, “A Rabbit in Love is Always Straightforward.” ...Wait, is that a Wearable Golem she has on? I don’t think so. Oh man, that’s some perfect choreography. Though it’s kind of weird to see a dog girl doing a rabbit dance.

Once she was done dancing, Niku gave another bow. “How was it...?”

“Yep, perfect. Good work. You’re something else, I’m honestly moved.”

I had to give my honest praise. It had taken Ichigo several days to learn that song and dance. Apparently Niku had memorized it by watching Ichigo perform at her first few shows. However.

“You know we can’t have Niku appear as an idol here, right? Or do you want us to leave her in the imperial capital?”

“...Ah?!”

Yep, Niku’s my dakimakura and the mascot of the Dancing Doll Inn. Her place wasn’t in the imperial capital performing as a dog girl idol. Even if we did put her on stage as an idol, all that would do is make it harder for us to travel back to Goren. We’d need to start thinking of alibis and excuses for our traveling.

“Master... Am I no good...?”

“You’re great, Niku. That song and dance was top class. Show me again sometime, okay?”

“...Okay.”

I patted Niku’s head and she wagged her tail happily.

“Okay, then I’ll do it! I’ll become an idol!”

“No, you’d be even more problematic than Niku. You’re a Dungeon Core, you need to stay back and out of sight.”

“Guh,” Rokuko groaned. “Um, in that case, well... Could I become an idol just for you...?” Rokuko looked up at me with tearful eyes. An idol just for me? That doesn’t sound so bad...

“Niku and I will sing and dance just for you. How does that sound?”

“Er, well, not bad at all, but... What’s the point?”

“I’ll take that as a yes. So, can I ask you to do something...?”

In the end, Rokuko asked me to work out an idol production schedule for her. But I managed to squeeze out of her that this was all pretext, and in reality she just wanted to see me (Succuma) perform mini-shows for her.

“Please, Keima! Show me! Charm me!”

“Hell no! Never!” This is the one thing I will never budge on. Transforming into a Succubus is real freaking embarrassing!

And well... all that being said, between you and me I was a little relieved to see that even though Rokuko was getting a lot smarter lately, she was still a bit of a doofus sometimes.

Daide Investigation Report

Wataru was visiting the country of Daide at the request of Haku. Apparently the influence of an evil god was beginning to take root in the country, and his highest priority was investigating what exactly was going on. That said, he hadn’t been given any specific task in particular to work on.

“Mmm, what should I be searching for? Hey, you. Do you have any ideas?”

“Sir! I believe that you need only investigate whatever tickles your curiosity, Sir Wataru!” the soldier accompanying him answered with a salute. He had been sent along with Wataru to assist him. What a strange, half-baked way to carry out an investigation.

“Well, alright. Guess I’ll sell the bandits we just caught.”

“Yes, sir!”

They had by coincidence encountered bandits on the way there. That would be a nice source of some pocket change.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Well, when it comes to gathering information, the first step is always to talk to a food stand owner.”

“Yes, sir! Er... Are we not going to visit the busy food stand over there, with the line?”

“What? Of course not. He’s busy handling customers, we don’t need to waste his time with irrelevant talk. That’d be rude.”

He was right. But at that moment, a woman let out a loud scream from behind the stand.

“Oh wow, so that stand sells fried potatoes, huh?” Wataru said to an unrelated stand owner.

“Yeah. And I hear Baron Choice’s own daughter runs the stand sometimes.”

The guard was confused that Wataru was casually continuing his investigation and ignoring the scream.

“A-Ahem, Sir Wataru? Aren’t you going to go help?”

“Nah, the daughter of a baron will have her own guards. I don’t want to steal their jobs.”

“I see...”

＊ ＊ ＊

Given that they were investigating a god, Wataru and the soldier went to investigate a local church.

“Oh, so this used to be a church worshiping the Light God?”

“Indeed. But the Church of Light was expelled from the country when Dragon the Hero, an agent of the Light God, killed our king. In its place spread Beddhism, a peaceful religion that worshiped no gods at all.”

“Still, to think the whole country would switch over to Beddhism. That’s pretty surprising.”

“It is a sign of the times. Everyone was so exhausted from the chaos that few protested the country-wide adoption of Beddhism... And looking back, we can rest assured that it was the best decision we could have made.”

Wataru was talking to one of the priests in the church.

“Sir Wataru, should we question the girl over there?” the soldier asked, pointing to a finely-dressed noble girl kneeling before a broken statue of the Light God and offering up a sincere prayer.

“Huh? We shouldn’t interrupt her praying. She doesn’t look like she’s a Beddhist.”

“I see...”

＊ ＊ ＊

And so, the time for their investigation came to an end.

“Man, this sure is a busy country, huh?”

“...Excuse me, Sir Wataru. If you’ll forgive me for asking, it seems that you have been keeping an unnatural distance from women throughout this journey. Is there some purpose to that?” the soldier asked.

Wataru scratched his cheek. “Ahhh... Well, you see. The truth is, Neruneh... the girl I like saw me guarding Princess Mephy recently, and she got entirely the wrong idea. I’ve been trying to avoid letting something like that happen again.”

“Ah, I see.” The soldier nodded and wrote that down just to be safe.

...........

Daide Investigation Report. Written By Reidlos.

Summary: I infiltrated the country of Daide (henceforth referred to as D) with Wataru the Hero (henceforth referred to as W) in a reconnaissance mission. During this mission we used W’s Hero Skill to aid our search. This method was devised by Baron Goren, and one goal of this mission is to see whether it is truly effective.

Results: We discovered that there certainly is a devious plot occurring within D. In particular, it appears that noble women are being targeted for something. Furthermore, this form of investigation does seem to produce results. It is worth considering using W’s skill for investigations in the future on an official basis.

Details: While traveling to D with W, we came across a carriage being attacked by bandits. The carriage belonged to Baron Flag. W got in between the carriage and the bandits, then defeated them. Baron Flag’s carriage raced off without noticing this. (During our investigation we learned that Baron Flag’s daughter was in the carriage).

W began talking to the locals for information. W avoided a popular stand and boldly spoke to the owner of a nearby stand. We learned that Baron Choice’s daughter worked the popular stand. We heard a scream from there, but W ignored it, as he thought it was a matter best left to her bodyguards.

We visited a Beddhist church. It used to worship the Light God as a part of the Church of Light, but Suzuki the Hero killing the king one year ago led to the entire country shifting to Beddhism due to its peaceful nature and peculiar lack of a god. But the church lacked a bible, and it seemed suspicious in general.

Furthermore, Baron Steel’s daughter was praying in the church as we visited, but W sought out a priest to talk to instead. According to the priest, Baron Steel’s daughter was praying to her own god, which meant she was not a Beddhist. It was possible that she belonged to the Church of Light, but I believe we should consider the possibility of her worshiping Chaos.

(Redacted)

Throughout W’s stay in D we crossed with eighty-seven noble daughters, avoiding eighty-two and coming into contact with five. But even when we came into contact with them, W avoided delving deeply into their affairs and left as soon as possible. According to W, the woman he has affection for noticed him guarding the imperial princess and misunderstood what was going on, so he has started avoiding women where he can help it to avoid a repeat incident. That said, I believe that W’s skill is also having an effect here.

...........

Haku furrowed her brows as she read the report she had been given the other day.

“...It seems very likely that Leona is involved, as expected. But why noble daughters...? What in the world is Leona planning?” Perhaps I should discuss this with Keima. The Dungeon Battle has just finished, so he should be preparing to leave now. There’s still time, Haku thought, and at that moment Rokuko opened the door to her office.

“Sister. Let’s kiss.”

“What?!”

It was so sudden and shocking that Haku accidentally ripped the report. And what followed was even more shocking, too. It was a very long time before Haku remembered the report, but well, who could blame her?

The Source of the Trends

Misha, the guildmaster of the imperial capital’s adventurer’s guild, was awake. Reason being, she had been ordered to assist Keima as much as possible by Haku, her boss and the ruler of the Laverio Empire. Misha had to wake up for work. She couldn’t sleep and do work at the same time.

Then came two more orders: Spread knowledge of the dungeon, and make the songs popular.

“Siiigh. Making the dungeon well known is one thing, but making the songs popular is ridiculous. If it were easy to make songs popular there wouldn’t be any music writers!”

Misha didn’t understand music. The best she could tell when listening to it was whether it would help her go to sleep or not, and the song Keima made was nothing but noise. It got stuck in her head and she could still hear it playing.

“Well... Meh. Guess I’ve gotta do what I can,” Misha said, holding up a pen. “Guess I’ll send out special quests to adventurers that like cute things... or I would, but that’s suspicious, so I’ll just direct some information brokers to guide the right people to the right places... Hmm, let’s assume I can hum the song to teach it to someone...”

Misha steadily wrote up the necessary documents. She was a good worker when she put the effort in—her long years of serving Haku weren’t just for show.

“Oh, right, I can just use Mephy here. No one better than the imperial princess to use for marketing... Oh, but sending her to investigate the dungeon will just show that she’s interested, not much else. I guess the imperial princess being interested in something is still a pretty big deal. Okay, I’ll direct some minstrels to go play where Mephy sneaks out of the castle to visit... Hmmm, but I don’t think humming will be enough for them to play the actual song. What a pain...”

Sending the minstrels to a public performance of a song—a live show, in other words, would require her to write up the documents for assigning guards to them. She would send some artists along as well. Merchants? Well, that could come later.

She finished the documents regarding the live show and entrusted them to her skilled vice chief. But Misha didn’t rest yet.

“Guuuh, I’m so tired, but I’ve gotta keep going. I’ll put minstrels where Mephy goes... oh, or maybe I should spread them throughout the entire imperial city? I can just pay them to advertise... Let’s see, how many silvers would it cost to play that song all day? Mmm, should I borrow lie detecting magic tools to make sure they carry out their part of the deal? I feel like that might end up costing more than what I’m paying them... Ah, but I still have to buy them. It’ll demotivate the honest ones to see the dishonest ones getting paid to not do anything.”

In any case, Misha thought of which method would cost the least. The funds for this mission were coming out of Misha’s pocket money as a punishment for various things she had done. She needed to minimize costs wherever she could.

“I guess lie detection is the best method; the one that flashes red if you lie while touching it. The magic stones will be practically free if I charge liars for the ones wasted.”

Perfect. She wrote up the documents for that too. All that was left was to direct some people to double check on the minstrels.

And so, once that was done and the plans for after the live show was made, Misha could finally take a breather.

＊ ＊ ＊

But things rarely go as planned.

“What the heeeeck?! Why are there so many minstrels?!”

On the day of the journey to the live show, there were five times as many people planning to go to the dungeon as expected.

“...It seems that rumors of the trip spread further than expected.”

Apparently the information brokers she had paid spread the rumors far more eagerly than she expected... or not. Instead, people had just spread the word themselves. Misha didn’t really get the song herself, but it touched the hearts of the minstrels. When they heard the information brokers humming they all wanted to hear the song themselves, leading to a mountain of people wanting to go.

It was only then that Misha realized how strange it was that someone like her, uninterested in music, would learn the song well enough to hum it just to convey it to information brokers.

“...O-Oh, geez. This isn’t what I expected... Ah, wait! I need to cancel the subsidies!”

It was then that Misha remembered she had cleverly spread the rumor that minstrels who played the song all day would be given a subsidy payment. She hurriedly addressed the matter with her vice chief.

“S-So, yeah! Cancel the subsidies, or at least lower them a lot!”

“...I already accounted for it in our budget, but well, it should be feasible to lower the subsidy amounts.”

She narrowly succeeded in stopping it in time.

“We cannot take back rumors that have already spread, but we can lower it down to five coppers. That will be a significant decrease from the original silvers.”

“Uh-huh, thank you thank you. Wheeew.”

Misha sighed in relief. She had nearly just broken her bank.

“Incidentally, should we still borrow the lie detecting magic tools?”

“Mmm, I dunno about using magic tools for just five coppers... I think we should just cancel.”

“Consider it done.”

And so, the minstrels were all enraptured by idol culture. Although they were a bit disappointed in how cheap the subsidies were, they did their job spreading the songs anyway. At some point dancers got involved as well, and small-scale musicals were being held on the street.

...The surprising boom of popularity would surely lead to Haku praising her and forgiving her for how she had been napping during work that one day. Surely.

Golem Band (Full Lyrics to Ichigo’s Famous Song Included)

“So yeah, we got some instruments from Haku.” She gave them to us because the musicians in her castle apparently didn’t need them. Most of them were percussion instruments. As for string instruments... there were some harp-looking things. There weren’t any wind instruments like flutes or trumpets. That was fine, since Golems would be the ones playing them, and they couldn’t use anything that required blowing. Though if I really wanted to, I could just use {Create Golem} to turn the instruments themselves into Golems.

“Keima, can they actually play the instruments?” Mikan asked.

“...They can make sounds, at least. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

In any case, I first had a Golem hit the drums. The Golem maintained a steady rhythm, hitting it regularly at the same strength in a pretty nice way.

“Oh wow, nice! It’s like bong, booong!” Mikan said.

“Lemme speed it up a bit... Okay, this should be a good base.”

I had the Golem hit it at a steady four-beat pace.

“Let me add in a Golem hitting a drum after a longer pause, a Golem clapping cymbals...”

Don, don don, ting, dong dong dong ting. Did that sound good to you? Because it sounded good to me.

“And there you have it.”

“Wooow! That’s awesome! So this is music, huh!”

“Next up I’ll add in a xylophone and a glockenspiel to make a melody.”

“Neat! You can make whole songs, Keima? That’s amazing.”

“...Well, I can read sheet music, at least.”

I had learned that back in music class at school. I had seen some sheet music in this world, and luckily we seemed to share staff notation on a do-re-mi scale. Maybe a hero spread them in this world.

And so, with my ring Succubus Kosaki’s help, I succeeded in making a charming song. I transformed into a Succubus at night and stealthily put it all together. Man, when I’m Succuma I sure end up feeling all powerful. It’s kind of impressive really. It’s so convenient I just keep on using it and using it... Sigh...

I bought some sheet music from Japan using DP, and having a bunch of examples really helped me work things out.

The lyrics went like so, by the way:

～・～・～

A Rabbit in Love is Always Straightforward.

Written by P. Succuma.

I want these feelings to reach you right right right noooow! I’m a rabbit in love!

Why are our ears so big? To hear everything you say!

Even our big big jumps are all to get to you fasteeer!

Our whole bodieees! My whole bodyyy!

Is all to make this love come true!

Moonlit nights aren’t enooough!

I’m heading right forward no matter where you gooo! I won’t hold baaack!

I want you these feelings to reach you right right right noooow! I’m a rabbit in love!

Why are we so fluffy? To warm your heart!

I wanna run run run right next to you!

I take a single step closeeer!

These feelings are maaagiiiic!

You’re not escaping meee!

Moonlit nights aren’t enooough!

I’m heading right forward no matter where you gooo! I won’t hold baaack!

I want you these feelings to reach you right right right noooow! I’m a rabbit in love!

～・～・～

...Yeah, that’s what you get when you mix late night excitement with Succubus mode. Oh man. I sure cradled my head when I woke up and looked over the lyrics. Kosaki said it was hella amazing and she could pump out two more, but I dunno. (Also, I had to do a quick pass to fix up auto-translator errors. Fantasy world language and idol music didn’t mix super well, it seemed).

“...The song’s done. All we need to do is have the Golems play music according to this sheet music.”

“Whoa! You’re amazing!”

I instructed the Golems to hit their xylophones according to the music note I was pointing at, then taught them to play the song by tracing my finger along the sheet music at a steady pace. They were like music boxes you could teach... and with that done, all I needed to do was let Golems handle the busywork of tracing a finger along the paper. This is kind of like playing a rhythm game on auto mode... Golems would definitely get a full combo if they played a rhythm game. They sure are convenient.

And so, the band of Golem musicians was completed in no time.

“By the way, Keima! What about the lyrics? Do you think Ichigo will be able to learn the lyrics right...?”

“Don’t sweat it. We’re holding some secret training sessions.” It won’t be too hard to teach her using my Succubus powers. Man... Succubi are real convenient too. Like way too convenient. It’s like I’m exploiting the power of love for commercial purposes.

“...Mikan. Don’t look into the training room when I’m training Ichigo. Rokuko and the others must never be allowed to see what’s going on.”

“Oh, you’re doing pervy things to her? Well, I’m sure she doesn’t mind if it’s you, Keima!”

“Say what? You want to get turned into a skewer, buddy?”

“I-I was just kidding! Okay! I won’t look!”

And so, my idol training plan was progressing smoothly.