Extra Episode — Wataru the Hero and His Goren Experience

Wataru the Hero was, as his name implied, a Hero summoned from another world. While in the process of being summoned, a god asked him to destroy dungeons. But he was summoned into the Laverio Empire, where he was firmly taught that dungeons must not be destroyed. Two conflicting viewpoints. Should he believe the god or the people?

To be honest, Wataru didn’t worry about that too much. Reason being, the god wanted him to destroy the dungeons because they blocked the natural flow of mana by storing it for themselves. But the Empire taught him that dungeons freely released the mana in the form of monsters and items, which meant there was no need to destroy dungeons with enough people exploring them. It would actually hurt people’s quality of life to do so. With that in mind, he could understand both why the god wanted dungeons gone and why it was fine to leave some alone.

So basically, Wataru viewed dungeons as factories. If left on their own they would destroy the environment, but if properly managed they were essential to a high quality of life. One could say that Wataru had gotten very lucky here. If he had just started destroying dungeons without being taught not to by his summoners, he would have been executed by Haku Laverio—the founder of the Empire—the second she got her hands on him.

Anyway, one thing led to another and Wataru began regularly patrolling the Empire’s roads and dungeons to thin out monsters while keeping order. It was hard work that demanded he kill an extremely high number of monsters, and he would have been doomed if not for his hero powers, but he needed the one hundred gold coins a month. After all, he had a gambling debt of two thousand three hundred golds. But just so we’re clear, he wasn’t a gambling addict. He ended up with that debt after messing up only once.

“Alright! Goren, here I come!” He had to pay back his debt one hundred gold coins at a time, once a month. He was essentially losing his pay from Haku the moment he got it. Most people would get depressed and feel like they were working for nothing, but Wataru was excited. Truth be told, visiting Goren town once a month was one of the few things Wataru really looked forward to.

He entered the town, thinking briefly about how much it had developed since he first stepped foot into it, and headed straight for the inn. The inn was owned by the very man who had stomped all over Wataru’s Hero cheat skill {Ultra Good Fortune} and pushed him into debt hell. Looking back, that was a valuable experience where he learned that Hero cheat skills weren’t invincible. Tragic at the moment, but nostalgic now.

As an aside, the Dancing Doll Inn was also where Wataru’s crush worked.

“Hmmm? Oooh, helloooo.”

“Good to see you, Neruneh!” Every time Wataru came to visit, Neruneh was conveniently sitting behind the receptionist desk. The timing was always so convenient that he actually asked once if they watched the road for his arrival. Turns out, they actually did have her go out and sit behind the desk when he arrived. She didn’t seem too enthusiastic about it herself, but she did it anyway.

“This time you’re staying at the grand suite, riiiight?”

“No, sorry. I’d like a normal room.”

“.........” Neruneh fell silent with a lazy smile still on her face. Her silence carried a heavy weight. If viewed with enough bias, it might look like she was gazing upon him with a lovestruck heart. But otherwise, it was pretty clear she was telling him to spend more money.

“E-Er.”

“You’re staying at the grand suite, riiiight?”

“I-I’d like a normal room!”

Neruneh repeated her question, and Wataru repeated his answer. By the way, Wataru hadn’t stayed at the grand suite a single time since falling into debt. And just for reference, in any other town, the inn receptionists would cry out, “Kyaaah! We would never make you stay in a normal room, Wataru the Hero! Please, come to our best room!” without fail. That was just a fact, too. Not him deluding himself. Wataru was exceedingly popular throughout the Empire for his dedicated service toward maintaining peace and stability within the Empire, even if it was just a job he was being paid for.

“...How many daaays?”

“Just one.”

“You sure that’s enooough?” To be honest, he wanted to stay there thirty days a month. If only he wasn’t so busy. B-But! If he worked extra hard, he should be able to free up an extra day or two!

“...Two days.”

“One mooore.”

“Th-Three days!”

“Thanks for your busineeess.” Once again, he threw work onto his future self so he could stay for three days. Not even a Hero could always win out against temptation. Wataru shook his head and smiled at himself.

Incidentally, no other inn would push for him to stay multiple days against his will. If he said he was staying for one day, they left it at that. In situations where he had to extend the stay to two days, only in Goren would he be pressured into adding on an extra day.

Neruneh said, “Three nights,” to the register-esque magic tool in front of her, and the price appeared on top.

“One silver and fifty coppers, pleaaase.”

“Here you are.” Wataru took out a silver and five large coppers from a leather bag and handed them over. Neruneh took the coins and put them into holes opened in the magic tool, causing a room key to drop down onto a plate.

“Here you gooo.”

“Thanks, Neruneh.” She handed him the key. Their fingers briefly touched. They then casually pulled their hands back. This interaction was very precious to Wataru, but it was hard to deny that overall he got treated pretty poorly.

By the way, in other inns the receptionists would cry, “Kyaaah! The Hero touched me!” in excitement.

“Oh, and your food?” Normally inns would need to mention that food didn’t come with the rooms before charging, but she hadn’t bothered since she knew that Wataru was a regular. She most certainly hadn’t just forgotten about it.

“Uhhhh, a D-Rank meal please.”

“An S-Rank meal for an S-Rank hero, riiiight?”

“...O-One C-Rank, please!”

“Thank yooou.”

By the way, in other inns (you get the point by now).

Now, it was fair to say that the inn was being outright inconsiderate to Wataru, but he actually liked that. Reason being, Wataru had been a normal Japanese person before being summoned. He just never felt right about the people in this world treating him as someone special. Not four years ago, and not now.

But this inn was different. Wataru wasn’t hiding that he was a Hero. It was just that they absolutely didn’t care. That apathy was important for him maintaining peace in his heart.

Here, he didn’t need to hide himself. Here, he could be himself, the way he used to be. Wataru had gained special powers as a Hero and learned how to kill his fellow man, but here he had nothing to fear, nothing to worry about.

Most of Goren treated him the same way, maybe due to the influence of the town chief—the person who had saddled Wataru with his debt in the first place. He was a proud Hero beloved by all throughout the Empire, but in this town he was just treated as an especially strong adventurer. Their compassion warmed his heart.

“Oh, Wataru. That time of the month already?” Keima, the town chief, just happened to walk by. He scratched his black hair with a sleepy look in his eyes, looking ready to go straight back to sleep. Naturally, normal town chiefs would be throwing their arms in the air and celebrating the presence of a Hero in their town.

...In this world, black hair was exceedingly rare, with only Heroes and their descendants having it in most cases. Keima himself was claiming to be descended from Heroes, but Wataru thought for sure he was lying. That was how odd being apathetic towards Heroes was in this world.

“Hey, Keima. Here’s this month’s.”

“Mmm.” Wataru handed him a bag of one hundred golds. That was out of the ordinary too. We’ve been talking about huge numbers of golds here, but when converted (roughly of course) to Japanese yen, a single gold was worth about a million yen. One hundred coins would naturally be a hundred million.

At times like this, Wataru couldn’t help but think about games where gold was the base form of currency. A green herb being sold for seven million yen would be a bit much.

“By the way, Keima, do you remember how many times I’ve paid?”

“Huh...? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your own debt, Wataru.” Keima played it cool, but he was clearly avoiding eye contact. A friend of Wataru’s (who he met in this town) warned him about this, but to think Keima really would forget about it.

“Hahaha, nah, I’m pretty sure I’ve paid fifteen times now.”

“Nah nah nah, it couldn’t be more than seven times.”

“Why don’t you two compromise and say it’s been nine tiiimes?” interjected Neruneh, offering one of the worst compromises in history.

Hold on, I’m pretty sure I started paying last year, and... Actually, never mind.

Wataru decided not to push the point. Accepting nine times meant he got an excuse to come here fourteen more times. Though to be honest, he would come regardless. Kind of funny how one hundred gold coins, a sum more than large enough for a normal citizen to support themselves for a lifetime, was small change to Keima and Wataru.

“That’s fourteen hundred golds left for you, then. Try and remember that, ’cause you forgetting just means more money for me.”

“Right. You try to remember it too, Keima.”

“I never forgot it. Hahaha.”

“I don’t know about that,” smiled Wataru.

By the way, Heroes were widely regarded as the strongest beings in a country, a firm cornerstone of any military might, but Wataru had never beaten Keima. The first time was with gambling. He lost and ended up with a debt of two thousand three hundred golds. He challenged Keima at various points after that and lost each time. He tried negotiating, arguing, and even challenging him to a mock fight, which was his specialty, but lost each time. His negotiations were dodged, his arguments countered, and honestly the fight was just a mess.

The fact he lost in a mock fight despite it being his specialty was just laughable. But to be fair, Wataru had given himself a handicap and been tricked by a one-time thing, so he would probably win if he challenged Keima to another one. Or maybe he would just flat-out lose again. At the very least, Keima wouldn’t accept a challenge he wasn’t sure he could win. He actually hated to lose, deep down.

That said, taunting him like, “What, afraid to lose?” would just net a reply like, “Consider this my loss then, it’s not a big deal to me.” Being treated like a kid was some harsh psychological damage. It didn’t feel particularly heroic.

...Also, if you try to challenge Keima with conditions if he loses, he’ll just turn you down. Trying to push any responsibility on him never ended well. So much so he would be more likely to help if you just asked him normally.

Anyway, this went on for a bit, but the conclusion is that being a Hero wasn’t a big deal in Goren. That’s why he liked it, and why he fell in love with Neruneh while he was here. Not because he was a huge masochist and his heart throbbed whenever Neruneh was mean to him.

“By the way, Neruneh, want to grab some food later?”

“Suuuure. What tiiime?”

“Tonight!” She knew how to balance her carrot and stick, too.

And so, that night, Wataru and Neruneh sat at opposite sides of the table for dinner. (They were eating C-Rank lunches. Neruneh could eat for free there, but Wataru went ahead and paid for her food anyway).

“By the way, Neruneh, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while.”

“Yeees?”

“How did you end up working at this inn? Feel free not to tell me if you don’t want to talk about it.”

“Aaaah, how I ended up working heeere?” Neruneh fell silent for a bit, then smiled. Wataru smiled back.

“So, liiike.”

Oh, she’s gonna answer, thought Wataru.

“Before I knew it, I was in this town, and they hired meee.”

“.........”

“.........”

“Wha? Is that it?”

“That’s iiit.”

For some reason, the conversation wasn’t really going anywhere. But Neruneh looked cute when she smiled, so that was fine with Wataru.

“Why did you come to this town?”

“Aaah. Why did I come to this tooown...?” Neruneh fell silent again, then smiled. Wataru smiled back in turn.

“Wataru, you know fireball magiiic...?”

“Oh, uh. Yeah.” It was standard practice for her to rapidly change the subject when she couldn’t answer a question.

“Isn’t it prettyyy? It’s like, when you think of magic you kinda think of fireballs, riiight?”

“Yeah, you could pretty much say that fireballs are the most magic of all magic spells.”

“Finally someone understaaands!” Neruneh gave a happy smile.

By the way, to summarize, the rest of their conversation went deep into subjects the common man wouldn’t be able to understand: the dissection of modern-era magic circles, observations on manipulating natural phenomenon, the beauty of mana mixing with the atmosphere, the golden ratio of fundamental mana expenditure, and so on. They both participated with the words rolling off their tongues, though Neruneh maintained her relaxed drawl. Even Wataru could barely keep up despite having received a high quality education in a developed country, Japan. He asked when there was something he didn’t understand, and she would always answer. Not that he necessarily understood all her answers.

“You really are a man of culture, Wataruuu. It’s fun talking to yooou.”

“Haha, I feel like I understand fireballs even more than I used to. Looks like I can bet on it getting stronger again.”

“Heheh, you’re talking about the relation between mental calculations and the physical phenomenon’s area of effect, riiight? I knew you would be up to date on that reseaaarch. So, my thoughts on it are liiike...”

Actually, he wasn’t thinking about it like that at all. He just felt like his magic got stronger whenever he learned to understand it better. But it was too late for him to correct her. In the end, he listened to Neruneh’s machine gun drawl until his soup went cold.

Though, of course, Wataru didn’t dislike seeing Neruneh talk with a smile. He loved it, so eating together was a satisfying win-win for them both.

“...You know so much about everything, Neruneh. Especially magic.”

“I have a good teacheeer.”

As an aside, she kept the identity of her teacher top secret, no matter how many times he asked. Though through the process of elimination he could guess it was Keima. There was nobody else in this town skilled enough in magic to teach her.

“But he always falls asleep in the middle of our talks, sooo...”

Yeah, it’s gotta be Keima... but actually, I guess she talks for so long that anyone would fall asleep?

The next morning. Wataru woke up like normal. Neruneh wasn’t sleeping beside him or anything. But thanks to her pressure, he had earned three nights and four days of rest. As Wataru was thinking about what to do, he heard the sound of wood hitting hard wood.

Oh, that’s right, he thought while opening a window. It sounded like it was coming from behind the inn, and he knew what that meant. Niku Kuroinu and Ichika were having a training duel.

Wataru changed his clothes and joined them. It was a duel between a literal child and an adult, but bizarrely enough, it was clear the child was dominating the fight. Or it would be bizarre, if this wasn’t Goren.

“Heya. Mind if I join in?”

“Mmm. That’s fine.”

“Geh, ugh, then let me reeest...” Ichika slid onto the ground. They had no doubt been fighting rigorously since morning. Niku had far more stamina than could be explained by her youth.

“I was just thinking it would be nice to have a training partner I didn’t need to hold back against.” Naturally, only a child from this town would say something like that to a Hero. A little girl, too.

“Wait, you were holding back against Ichika?”

“More or less.”

Wataru readied his wooden sword. He would use the opportunity to give her experience against Empire style swordplay. Some forms involved using a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, but today he was going with dual wielding. In contrast, Niku was holding a wooden knife in each hand, assassin style.

Okay, how to start this? The second Wataru started planning, Niku suddenly disappeared. She was coming from below—no, that was a feint for a right attack. Wataru slid to the left and guarded his right, whereupon his blade was hit with so much force it actually screeched like metal.

“Hm. You blocked it.”

“I am a Hero, y’know. I’d lose a lot of face if I lost to a kid.” This time, Wataru swung his sword down hard. A two handed blow from above. Naturally, she could dodge it. It was fast enough that a normal soldier would be cut in half before he could move, but Niku saw it coming and dodged with plenty of time to spare.

“You can go faster.”

“Oh, really? Let’s see.” This time, he did an upward vertical slash, about fifty percent faster than before. She dodged it, but got a little nick.

“How about now?”

“.........” Niku fell silent. Wataru knew that she was a girl of few words, and that she went completely silent when she was serious. Her expression hadn’t changed at all, but she approved of his faster speed.

“I’ll speed up a little as we go.”

“Okay.” Wataru swung his sword, Niku dodged, countered, got blocked, and so on. It was entirely like a practice match, because it was.

“Hyah!”

“Ngh, ah!” Niku’s knife broke in half.

“...I lost.”

“Whew... That was some good exercise. Like, really. Really really.” Ultimately, there weren’t many people in the Empire who could get Wataru the Hero out of breath in a mock battle. Probably a hundred at best. Of course, that hundred included the best of the best, practical superhumans such as the imperial guildmaster Misha and the commander in chief of the knight platoons, Sally. Keima was an exception, so he didn’t count. He would always win before Wataru got the chance to get out of breath.

“Okay, once more.” Niku took out a new wooden knife. She had a lot in reserve since they broke easily. But just how many was she hiding...?

“Sure, but how are you feeling? You don’t need to rest?”

“I’ve already recovered.”

She might as well be a Hero, thought Wataru. If not for the dog ears that proved she was born here, Wataru definitely would have concluded that she was a summoned Hero.

“...Do you get blisters on your hands?”

“It seems that I don’t ever get blisters.” There really was something weird about this town.

Wataru trained for hours, sweating buckets from all the exercise. He then headed for this town’s... or rather, the inn’s most famous spot. The onsen. It was polite to wear robes and such there. But naturally, men and women had separate baths. Though, the onsen inn made by a Hero in Wakoku was a mixed bath. No robes there, either.

Wataru liked Goren’s onsen since it wasn’t a sulfur spring and thus didn’t smell bad. But someone else was already there.

“Oh, Gozou.”

“That you, Wataru? Didn’t know ye were here.” There were plates floating in the water with food and tiny wine bottles on them. They belonged to the very dedicated dwarf Gozou. He was close friends with Wataru.

“Drinking at noon, I see. I’m jealous.”

“Oh, ye want some too?”

“Absolutely.”

Gozou poured him a glass. Wataru lifted up the cup and drank it down. It was a spicy wine with a sharp flavor. The heat of alcohol stuck in his nose while the scent of fruit pierced it.

“Nmm, that’s some good stuff. And Gozou, it feels pretty fancy drinking like this.”

“Right, right? I friggin’ love drinkin’ here.”

“But I gotta ask, what’s with the tiny wine bottles? Don’t you usually chug from big ones?”

“Ah, ’bout that. Keima learned about me going on a drunk rampage here, y’see, so he banned me from drinkin’ too much in the onsen. This is what I’m stuck with.”

I see. Wataru could easily imagine what Gozou had done while drunk here.

“This stuff’s all from the dungeon, ye know, but it’s pretty friggin’ good.”

“It sure is. I think it’s a good match for the onsen.” Really, wine and grub was essential to have a true onsen experience. Keima had good taste.

“I’m a man of big beer mugs and fried food, but sippin’ wine in the onsen ain’t too bad either. Really, I don’t get why he ain’t drinking here himself.”

“Haha, that’s Keima for you.”

“Here, Wataru, have another glass.”

“Oh, thank you.” Incidentally, Wataru was often given wine and beer in other cities. Rumors that Wataru the Hero loved beer spread from Goren after he started drinking there, which led to people treating him at bars wherever he went. So when it came to beer, at least, this town was like the other towns. He often listened to the complaints of his fellow drunks. Though said drunks would snap out of their stupor the second they realized who Wataru was. That didn’t happen in Goren.

“Oh, outta wine. Which means I’m outta here. Yer gonna come to the bar tonight, yeah?”

“Yup. See you then.” Gozou got out of the onsen after drinking the last of the wine. Wataru got out too, feeling pleasantly drunk.

“...Aaaah.”

“Ah!”

There he stumbled upon Neruneh. She might have been disappointed in him for being the kind of failure that drank at noon.

“You’re kind of a failure, huuuuh?”

“Ngh!” She was. And she said it straight to his face. That was a little depressing.

“I-It’s fine, I’m basically on vacation while I’m here!”

“So in other words, you’re always on vacation when you’re in Goreeen?”

“Yep! I may seem a little slack since I’m on vacation, but I’m usually a hard worker!”

“Do you know what that meaaans? Since I live in this town, whenever I see you, you’re alwaaays being slaaack.”

“Ngh!” Neruneh slammed him twice. She must have been working, since she passed right by him with her lazy smile. Wataru, having experienced some emotional damage, decided to cheer up by going to the church.

The Beddhist church was the only church in town, and it was pretty high level. It had fancy stained glass windows and a large fan-esque magic tool attached to the ceiling, which kept the room at a comfortable temperature and humidity. There were even bookshelves that any believer could read from freely.

Not to mention, the books had a vinyl coating of some sort that stopped them from getting dirty. The coating had probably been applied with magic. That meant it was fine to fall asleep and drool on them, but that was probably just a cover. The true intent was no doubt to let villagers touch the expensive books without feeling hesitant about getting them dirty. It was probably going a bit overboard to cover all the books with such precise coating, but thanks to that, people were actually reading them.

...That would never happen in a normal town. Massive air conditioning magic tools weren’t normal either, but well, this church was the headquarters of Beddhism.

Oh? There was an avian girl. It was rare to see an avian girl with her wings out. Most hid them in their clothes to mingle with humans, but... Suddenly, Wataru realized something. Goren was a town that had just recently been built. Children themselves were rare to see here.

And beside her was Niku, who looked relaxed despite having trained to a sweaty mess with a Hero throughout the morning. They both had peaceful expressions (well, okay, Niku was expressionless) while talking to each other. Judging by her clothes, the avian girl was probably a noble.

Wataru called out to them.

“Heeey, Kuro.”

“Hm.” Niku glanced at Wataru.

“Oh my. Who might this be, Kuro?” The avian inquired about Wataru with a posh manner of speech. She definitely was a noble.

“Just a Hero.”

“A Hero...” In other towns, nobody would say, “Just a Hero,” when (you get the point).

“Ah, wait, is this Wataru the Hero?!”

“...Yes?”

“Why the questioning tone, Kuro?” asked Wataru.

“Wha, I?! Kuro, are you perhaps friends with Wataru the Hero?”

Yes, this is it! This is how most kids react! thought Wataru. The avian must have only arrived here recently.

“We’ve met before.”

“Come on, can’t you be a little more positive?! We were just dueling each other, remember?”

“...He’s a nice training dummy?”

“I would like to remain human, thank you. I mean, I was thinking of us as good friends, so I dunno. Are you keeping your distance since all that stuff happened in the past...?”

“Ah! He’s Master’s servant.”

“Why did you say that full of confidence, like you were proud of it?! I don’t remember becoming anyone’s servant!”

“You two really are friends...!”

“Yeah, friends enough to joke around like this.”

The avian girl’s eyes shone as she called them friends, and Wataru looked at Niku for backup. But she just tilted her head a bit.

“Erm, I am Kuro’s... Nn, nnn, fiancée! Maiodore Tsia!”

“It’s nice to meet you. Wait, what? Tsia? Fiancée?!” The name Tsia meant that she was connected to the Archduke of Tsia. But what was all that about being Niku’s fiancée? Isn’t she a girl? Aren’t they both girls...? Questions raged in Wataru’s head.

“Yes. I am the Archduke of Tsia’s daughter. It is nice to meet you, Wataru.”

“...Are you a boy?”

“No. I am a girl.”

“...Kuro?”

“I’m also a girl.”

Wataru was at a loss. Even putting aside that one of them was a slave and the other was the Archduke’s daughter, he couldn’t understand how two girls could be engaged. Wataru was a very normal Japanese person who had sadly never been exposed to progressive ideas.

“Is one of you lying?!”

“There exists a drug that mixes one’s sex, sir Hero. Though it requires a permit to use.”

Everything clicked for Wataru. Of course, a sex-mixing drug. That would make everything work.

“In any case, Wataru, I must ask. Did you come to town to visit Kuro?”

“Huh? No, I just like this town. Especially the inn.” Naturally, Wataru couldn’t tell a kid that he was here to pay back a crushing debt in piecemeal.

“Ah! Of course. I suppose you are staying in the grand suite, then?”

“Er, no, I-I’m staying in a normal room!”

“But why?! I cannot imagine one such as yourself staying in a normal room, Wataru... In fact, the inn should really insist that you stay in the suite.”

“Mai. This is what Master wants.”

“Aaah... I suppose there’s nothing that can be done, then.” Her opinion dramatically changed the moment Keima got involved. That made Wataru wonder just what this kid felt about Keima. But at the same time, well, he could hardly blame someone for trusting in Keima’s decision.

“You said that you were dueling Kuro this morning. As a Hero, you must be very strong. How strong does Kuro seem from your perspective?”

“Hm? Uhhh, right. I’d say only about a hundred people in the Empire are stronger than her, at best.”

“...Is that not fairly strong?”

“Well, she’s strong enough to get a hit on me if I let my guard down, so yeah.”

“That’s my Kuro for you...!” Wataru could tell that Mai really did have feelings for Niku. “By the way, what about Keima?”

“...I’ve never been able to beat Keima.”

“I can’t say I am surprised.” In many ways, beating a Hero was an almost unbelievable feat, but she didn’t seem too surprised.

“Uhhh, Maiodore? What’s your history with Keima, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh? Well, you see, my father gave Keima a quest to judge his strength, and...” According to Maiodore, the Archduke gave Keima a quest to investigate a criminal organization that was spreading through the slums. The quest was to see how much information he could get in a month, but Keima had made every higher up in the entire organization turn themselves in within a week. Unbelievable.

“...I could probably destroy the organization in a week, but... They turned themselves in?”

“It seems they all begged to be thrown in jail as soon as possible, having turned over a new leaf in life.”

“What the heck did Keima do...?” He glanced at Niku, who had accompanied him on his quest, but she immediately looked away.

“Ah! Niku, Mai!” There appeared a pink-haired little nun. One who just called Niku by her first name.

“Michiru.”

“Good day, Michiru. Please remember that her name is Kuro. Ku. Ro.”

“Oh, right. Sorry, Kuro.”

“Nn.”

Children were rare in Goren, and here was a third one. Wataru had met this loli before. They came to know each other on a prior visit.

“Oh, Wataru! Hi!”

“Heya, Michiru. You seem to be doing well.”

“You are friends with Wataru too, Michiru?”

“Pretty much! The air around Wataru tastes really good. I think it means he’s that thing Leona was talking about, a uuum, cherry boy?” She liked Wataru for some odd reason. He didn’t know what she meant by cherry boy, but his air tasting like cherries couldn’t be a bad thing. Better than smelling or tasting bad.

“By the way, Niku, I—”

“Kuro! It is Kuro! Goodness, Michiru, how many times will you make this mistake?”

“I meaaan, Niku is just so much easier to say! Riiight?”

“Nn.”

Given what the name meant, Wataru agreed with Maiodore. Michiru should probably stop saying it. But he didn’t know how to teach the innocent children what the word meant. And thus...

“W-Well, I’ve gotta get going.”

“Okay! See you later, Wataru!”

“Bye.”

“Have a good day, Wataru.”

Wataru fled from the three lolis. He hadn’t lost to them. It was just a tactical retreat.

That night he went to the bar with Gozou as promised, and then day came once again.

“Okaaay. Let’s hope I can find something good today.” Wataru spent his second day exploring the town’s dungeon, known as the [Cave of Greed]. It would be fair to say that exploring this dungeon was one of Wataru’s main hobbies. Most of it was basically busywork, but that was because Keima had already dominated most of the dungeon. He was probably defeating the Dungeon Boss regularly at this point. He had told the Guild that he had put a tamed Jelly with a sign in front of the Core room to tell people to go back. That honestly impressed Wataru, since normal signs would be absorbed by the dungeon if left on their own.

Anyway, he went further and further into the dungeon. He killed an Iron Golem for fun on the way there and gave the corpse to the lucky beastkin brother and sister who had been passing by, then went further inside. He climbed down the spiral staircase and finally arrived at the storeroom area where Magic Blades could be found. Word was that Keima had advanced even further inside, but Wataru didn’t feel the need to do so.

“...Alright, here we go!” He steeled his resolve and entered a small room. Inside were Magic Blades, which to Wataru were just another means of earning money. He had taken Magic Blades from the same room on his last trip, but they had naturally been replaced. Wataru danced on the inside.

The money earned from Magic Blades was small change to Wataru, but since most of his money went straight to Keima, any source of income was appreciated. He needed it to buy rice for himself and magic scrolls to gift to Neruneh.

“These are gonna earn me at least one, no, two golds! Alright, I can live like a king for a bit...!” He gathered the Magic Blades while calculating their worth in his head. Some rooms were adorned with simple iron swords, but that was fine—they just hadn’t turned into Magic Blades yet. He felt like a fisherman throwing young fish back into the pond.

Sometimes, there would be chests with items connected to Japan inside. A water bottle with soy sauce inside, for instance. The dungeon was definitely connected to Japan somehow.

Wataru found ten Magic Blades after looping around the rooms. They would instantly earn him ten golds if sold to the Guild. In other words, he would earn a tenth of his monthly debt, which sounded low on paper but was actually the equivalent of ten million yen. The price would just up to two, maybe three golds a piece if he sold them at an auction, too.

Pleased, Wataru went further into the area.

“Hm? Oh, Wataru. Fancy meeting you here.” He stumbled across Keima on the way.

“Keima...? I can’t believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you down this deep... Are you the real thing?” One could hardly blame Wataru for getting suspicious of Keima, who was very under-equipped for someone exploring the dungeon this deep.

“Seriously? I’m just on my way back from feeding the monster I tamed.”

“The monster you ta— Oh!” Suddenly, Wataru remembered about the Jelly that Keima tamed to hold the sign. “Does that mean you were all the way down the dungeon?”

“Yup. What, are you interested? I’ll take you there for a gold.”

“You’re charging money...?”

“I’d be guiding you through areas only I know about, y’know? Two golds would be a better price, to be honest.”

“You’re raising the price?!”

“I’m just following what the market says.” If market price meant doubling it in an instant, it was hardly a good market. Wataru sighed.

“Uhhh, could I pay you with Magic Blades? I just found a lot of them.”

“...Sure. Five of them.”

“Five?! When each one could be worth three golds?!” Wataru couldn’t help but raise his voice at the blatant extortion. But that just made Keima sigh and shake his head.

“You know I left those Magic Blades behind so other adventurers could get them, right? I hope you didn’t just prance in here with your Hero powers and take them all. How many did you get? Lemme hear it. What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you took all ten of them.”

“Ah...” Finally, Wataru understood. Keima was well aware of the Magic Blades here. Of course he was. He had made it to the bottom of the dungeon. And he went there on his own like he was taking a casual walk through areas that other adventurers struggled to get through at all. There was no way he didn’t have a complete grasp on all the treasure rooms in the storeroom area. He would never just miss that the rooms had Magic Blades worth a lot of money. He’d only leave them behind if he wanted to on purpose.

In other words, Keima was telling him not to steal the rewards he left for other adventurers.

“Finally understand? Good. You can take the other five back.” He spoke as if he knew that Wataru had taken all the Magic Blades.

“Er, actually, I’ll just leave them all!”

“Don’t be stupid. Who’s gonna want to challenge this dungeon if not even a Hero can bring back Magic Blades? That’s why I’m letting you take five. Not to mention it’d be pretty rough on you to come here for money and leave empty handed. Don’t be shy.”

“...Okay.” Wataru decided to leave half the Magic Blades behind each time he came here. Once again, he had lost to Keima.

Wataru followed after Keima, who was casually advancing through the dungeon as if he didn’t have to worry about traps at all. He would sometimes pause to let Golems pass, and sometimes point at Wataru’s feet and warn him about a trap. They ultimately reached the Boss Room of the dungeon without having to fight a single time.

“...Keima, how did you do that?! Can you see everything in the dungeon or something?!”

“I mean, who wants to fight random mobs? I’ve spent enough time down here I know how to avoid them. This dungeon is like my own little playhouse.” Keima spoke with such casual confidence that Wataru was at a loss for words. “I’ve gotta wipe out the boss on a regular basis, but yeah. Oh, and don’t worry. I just beat him, nothing’s gonna pop out.”

“I see... What kind of boss is it?”

“Didn’t I tell the Guild about it? The boss is a Dragon-type Golem. A Dragon Golem, if you will.”

“A-A Dragon-type...?” And Keima was regularly beating it like it was nothing at all. He definitely was hiding some kind of Hero power.

“What, it’s not that hard of a fight. For me, anyway. I’m kinda the perfect person for beating it without much trouble. Can’t tell you how, though.”

“I see...” Wataru didn’t even feel like asking for more details. They passed through the Boss Room and arrived at the sign in question. A jiggly yellow Jelly in the hall was holding a sign that said, “Beyond this point is the Core Room. Proceeding is prohibited by Laverio law. Signed, Town Chief Keima.” Or maybe it would be better to say that the sign was just stabbed into it...

“See? This is the Jelly I tamed.”

“I’m impressed you thought to do that.”

“I thought they would make good pillows.” What an awful reason. “By the way, the Jelly died after I sweat on it while sleeping. Got all dried up.” Wataru couldn’t believe he actually did it. “Oh, want to look inside?”

“Huh?”

“Inside the Core Room. The signs says you can’t go inside, but doesn’t that just make you curious? We’ve come all this way, so I figure I might as well let you take a peek.”

Wataru actually was curious, so he decided to look into the Core room with Keima. In the end, it was just a normal room with a Core plopped in the middle. Keima asked if he was satisfied, and he nodded.

By the way, despite taking the time to replace five of the Magic Blades, they didn’t encounter a single monster fight on the way back out of the dungeon.

Wataru spent his third and final night in the inn. His little vacation was over. That depressed him a little.

“Alriiight, time to work hard for a month!” Wataru pumped himself up and decided to leave early. He got out of bed, got dressed, got his equipment together, and left his room. He passed by early bird adventurers and nodded at them. Until, finally...

“Oooh, leaving earlyyy?”

“Ahaha, I can’t put off work for too long.”

Neruneh was sitting behind the receptionist desk. She smiled at him.

“Come again, okaaay?”

“Yep. For sure.” Wataru resolved to return to Goren next month yet again. With that month’s one hundred gold in tow.

...But first came making up for his past self’s decision to stay for three days instead of one. Wataru left Goren quickly with his head held high.