Saturday. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was now a familiar place, but the same cafe in front of the station was my destination for today.
“Heya, Kyotaro-kun”
“Hello, Togo-san”
Sitting in one of the inner seats, Togo-san smiled and waved at me. In response, I did a small bow and walked up to him.
“Sorry I’ve made you wait again.”
“Not at all. I just got here myself.”
Right when I got in front of Togo-san’s table, the manager brought along the menu.
“Ahh, I’ll be having orange juice.”
“Then, may I have some coffee, manager?”
“But of course.”
As I watched the manager head toward the counter to prepare what we ordered, I realized that there seemed to be few customers here today again.
…shouldn’t a cafe in front of a station be popular? Is this place alright?
“Alright, first of all, I’m glad you made it out of that safely. And sorry, if it were not for my request, you might not have gotten caught up in all of that.”
“N-no! I don’t at all think it was your fault, Togo-san!”
No matter how I look at it, it didn’t seem right to blame that ordeal on Togo-san. It was just a matter of luck, really.
“…it seems my apology had the opposite effect and troubled you. Sorry for that at least.”
“Don’t worry about it…”
“Very well, let me express my thanks instead. As a public servant, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your rescue work.”
Togo-san stood up from his seat, straightened his back, and then deeply bowed.
Surprised by it, I did nothing but stare dumbfounded at Togo-san’s head for a few seconds. When realization dawned on me, I hurriedly stood up.
“Thank you, Kyotaro-kun. Because of your efforts, thousand of lives have been saved. As a person serving the nation, it shames me you had to fight when it should be you civilians who are to be protected. Even so, I want to thank you for doing so.”
“P-please raise your head, Togo-san! I’ve done nothing for you to…”
I said so with some stutters.
Togo-san meanwhile slowly raised his head and then flashed me somewhat of a wry smile.
“No, Kyotaro-kun, it is only proper that you are thanked. You should take pride on what you’ve done, each and every single one.”
“…then, thank you, I guess”
“Haha, what are you thanking me for?”
With strained laughter, he sat back down.
“My impression of you is that you’re the kind of kid who doesn’t want to stand out too much, so I decided not to tell the people you saved about you. Because of that, I don’t think there will be anyone else coming to give their thanks directly to you anytime soon.”
“S-so that’s how it was? Thank you for your consideration.”
“If you want though, I can spread your achievements to the public. But…”
“No, there’s no need. I think that’ll be just…troublesome, I guess.”
Firstly, I didn’t want my classmates to find out that I was an Awakened One. Plus, the mass media scared me because they were likely to write mostly half-truths about me.
…most of all though, I have my Silver Apple to consider. Attracting attention just didn’t seem to work in my favor.
“Besides, at the end of it all, I was just another person who got saved…”
Five days had passed since incident and I was only starting to think about what could have happened if Hanazono Karen didn’t show up to save me. Yukine would surely have died, for one. There was a good chance I would have died too, probably.
Saving others and surviving, I could see now that those were nothing but the hubris of a brat. I wasn’t one of the strong, but rather one of the foolish.
“I can confidently say that isn’t true.”
I stared down at the orange juice that had just been brought to me while Togo-san said so with a somewhat sharp tone.
“I don’t really know what happened to you, but to my understanding, if you didn’t act back then…if you didn’t fight for the civilians, I’m sure so many more of them would have lost their lives.”
“Togo-san…”
“Whether you take pride in yourself or not, I will still applaud you for your actions.”
With unwavering eyes, he looked straight at me. And when I got dumbfounded by it, Togo-san adjusted his glasses. Meanwhile, all I could do to recover was shyly scratch the back of my head.
“What, don’t tell me the words of this old guy made you happy. That can’t be, right?”
“Actually, yeah…thank you.”
“Hey, hey, what did I say earlier? What are you thanking me for?”
He shrugged his shoulders and laughed. Caught up in it, I too let out some laughter.
I see…so what I did, it wasn’t wrong, huh.
Many of my actions that day could certainly be improved upon, but I believed I didn’t feel any regret over them. But the truth of the matter was that there was some tightness in my chest whenever I thought of that day.
But through my conversation with this man, I felt that tightness loosen. We weren’t able to accomplish anything perfectly, but we did save lives. On top of that, I, Layla, and Yukine all survived because of our actions.
We won. We won against the dungeon.
“Although, as an adult, I am also expected to say ‘take care of yourself more’, I suppose. You should take pride on your actions, but young people putting themselves in harm’s way isn’t something for us to be delighted about, let alone encourage.”
“Ahahaha…I’ll bear that in mind.”
Even if he didn’t tell me that, I had no intention of challenging a Fire Drake with just the 3 of us ever again. If I were in a similar situation again, I would do my best to get away first.
I was happy to get the confirmation that what we did was in the right and all that, but doing it all over again was a different conversation.
Basically, I wasn’t going to surrender the option of prioritizing myself. I didn’t want to, if I could help it.
“But speaking of giving thanks, I have to thank Hanazono-san again.”
I recalled the laughter, shadiness, and perversion of that so-called holy knight.
To be frank, she was a person who was difficult to feel gratitude for, but the fact of the matter was I did feel grateful toward her.
“Oh yeah, I did hear she saved you from a tight spot there.”
“Yeah. She still spoke and acted so suspiciously, but I do think she’s ultimately a good person.”
“Is that so…”
As though he was conflicted about something, Togo-san cast down his eyes as he gently stirred his coffee with a spoon. But then again, because she was such a degenerate, it was no wonder public servants like him had a thought or two about her.
“Come to think of it, are you in good terms with her? There aren’t too many eyewitnesses report about it, but the few we had mostly say that Miss Hanazono headed straight in your direction…”
“Ahh…well, she keeps calling me a comrade or something”
“Comrade?”
“Other than that, she also calls me her favorite steed and Silver Lily.”
“Steed?”
Ahh, man, what should I do? Togo-san looks like that space cat meme. So confused by it all. I understand far too well why he’s like that though. I mean, I’m confused too, even now.
“I-is that so? …then, I guess the two of you like the same things, huh. That, err, love between women, I mean”
“No, I think that’s going too far.”
Sure, I sometimes watched some yuri anime and even thought they were magnificent, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a yuri addict or something. Maybe I could say I was a casual fan or whatever is the level before that.
“I don’t really understand why she calls me those terms, but she does so all by herself, without any consent or listening to my complaints. So, even though I’m grateful that she saved me this time, I still think of her as ‘that weird person’.”
“I, I think I understand.”
Woah, never seen Togo-san’s face twitch that much before. Didn’t think he can pull a face like that, honestly.
“Then, I’m guessing you didn’t exchange contact info with her, did you? You see, an acquaintance of mine—a cop—has been meaning to ask her something about this incident, but she can’t be reached, apparently.”
“Oh, really? Well, sorry, but I don’t have her contact details. Every time we meet, she just shows up out of nowhere.”
It wasn’t nice of me to say it, but I deeply doubted if she even knew of the concept of setting appointments.
I really was grateful of her, I must insist. She saved my life, after all. But that was another matter. The fact that she was a person with a few screws lose couldn’t be denied, regardless of the favor I owed her.
Nevertheless. While Togo-san said the police just wanted to ask about the circumstances back then, it sounded like the police was still after her.
…if she gets arrested, I planned to do my best to come to her defense.
Ahh, but speaking of cops.
“Sorry I can’t be of help, Togo-san. Actually though, there’s something I want to consult with you.”
“What is it? As long as it’s within my powers, feel free to ask.”
“Oh, no, it’s not a big deal or anything”
“Come now, I did say I was grateful to you, didn’t I?”
Togo-san said so as he shrugged his shoulders. After hesitating a bit, I decided to continue the conversation.
There was a chance that this issue could affect my life. If I could get the government to take it seriously, I was all for it.
“I actually only heard this from an acquaintance in school, but…”
I told Togo-san about the rumor I heard from Aihara-kun. I retold it as close to how I heard it as I could, minus of course all the talk about fetishes. There were limits to how faithful a story could be retold, after all.
* * *
“I see…in your school, huh…”
After listening to me, Togo-san had a serious expression on his face as he sipped his coffee.
“Thank you for bringing it up to me. Please pass my thanks to your friend as well.”
“Oh no, we’re not friends”
“…I see, it would seem your relationship is a bit more complicated than I thought.”
Togo-san looked surprised at first but quickly shrugged his shoulders.
But it wasn’t like that. If I ever thought of him as a friend, even for just a moment, I had a feeling I would soon see another thin, lewd book—a doujin—tucked inside my bag again. My intuition was ringing so loudly at the thought.
“Those kind of things have been causing problems for us too. We have had cases where people were using illegally-acquired magical potions instead of narcotics or cases where thieves used rings that contained a spell for binding people.”
After Aihara-kun talked to us, I did a bit of searching around online. What Togo-san said had reminded of those things.
Apparently, many items of magical nature had been used in crimes around the center of the Kanto region. There seemed to be much talk about the dangers of Awakened Ones as well as the regulations of the dungeon Item Drops.
“We will look into it. That being said, sorry, but don’t expect results any time soon. And if you ever find magic power flowing where it shouldn’t, contact me. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
“Understood. I’ll be in your care when the time comes.”
Obviously, I couldn’t just ask him to peek at the entire student body’s online records, much less monitor them. I suppose this proves that no matter how amazing Togo-san was, simply consulting with him wouldn’t mean everything would all of a sudden be resolved.
Still, informing a personnel of the prefecture about this issue before it got out of hand should make a great deal of difference. And that personnel was Togo-san who worked in the Dungeon Countermeasure Division which dealt directly with Awakened Ones and Magic Tools.
I still had no clue on who would make Magic Tools that hid dungeon gates or what their schemes for these things were, but we should now be able to deal with it. At the very least, when something does happen, I should have no problem broaching the issue with Togo-san.
“For now, I’ll pass along what you told me to the police. Everyone’s busy at the moment, so I don’t know how many people they can spare for the investigation, but yeah…”’
“I’ll also make it a habit to pay better attention to my surroundings whenever I go out.”
“Thanks. Please do so, but if there’s anyone who looks dangerous, make sure not to approach them, alright? I know you’re brave and all, but the fact is you’re still a minor and a student.”
“Ah, no, I’m not brave or anything.”
“…Kyotaro-kun…if something does happen, please don’t forget about the courage to withdraw.”
“Okay?”
I mean, I’m pretty much ready to run anytime.
I replied with a tilt of the head, and Togo-san smiled faintly, as though he was having the odd trouble of finding the right words.
“Right, well, how do I put it…? I would rather you not torment yourself with thoughts like ‘I have to do this’. We adults might not be as dependable as we want to be, but do please leave the dangerous people to us. Please, don’t forget about that.”
As Togo-san said so, he picked up the bill and stood up.
“I’m off to tell my acquaintance in the police about this. Thank you for making time for me on your day off.”
“No, I think I should be the one thanking you.”
After bowing lightly and then motioning with his hand for me to stay seated, Togo-san headed to the counter to pay the bill. I thought I should focus on finishing the rest of my juice so I could head out myself, but then the manager of the place brought over a parfait on a tray.
“Courtesy of Togo-sama.”
“Huh?”
“He has already paid for it, so enjoy it at your leisure.”
Ever the dandy person, the manager said so with a wink. And without skipping a beat, he laid down the extra-large parfait before me.
…could it be that Togo-san thinks of me as a sweet tooth? Can’t be, right? I mean, I’m glad for the gesture and I do think this is delicious, but…ahh, whatever.
“Itadakimasu”
As someone generally regarded to have the palate of a child, I must say that the parfait looked quite exquisite.
* * *
That evening. While playing a rather popular social media game, I unintentionally stared at the TV.
<<To even hope of standing a chance dungeon overflow incidents at the same level as those we have been seeing recently, we need the help of more Awakened Ones. And if we are to join hands and live together with the Awakened Ones—who are fighting against monsters up to this moment—we mustn’t forget that they are humans like us.>>
With his ever-shady smile, Minister Arikawa said so and more on TV. He was in a discussion over the upcoming budget for the Adventurer System.
<<In response to Minister Arikawa’s speech, Diet members of the opposition raised criticisms on how little regard he shows on the matter of supporting the citizens in both recovering from their injuries and rebuilding their properties.>>
<<In the end, Minister Arikawa’s thoughts on the matter are just too simplistic, aren’t they? Aren’t the adventurers receiving more than enough support through the remuneration programs in place? If anything, I think we should reconsider just how vast the range of use an adventurer license has. Like the part that gave them exemption regarding the Firearms and Swords Control Act, as well as the part about the sale of Magic Tools.>>
A commentator, who looked to be a university professor, creased his brows as he watched the recording of Minister Arikawa’s speech.
<<Furthermore, there have been rumors of the JSDF developing some kind of new weapon. Even if those weapons were to be used solely against monsters, wouldn’t it still be in violation of our Constitution?>>
<<The country needs to prioritize the lives of its citizens above all else. Unless we support the rebuilding process and support those who evacuated, Japan doesn’t have a future.>>
<<It’s no surprise that the free trading of Item Drops have caused the level of public safety to drop. Not to mention, the slowdown on the dungeon culling efforts by public institutions—>>
…it wasn’t like I didn’t get what these people were saying. But even so, I wished they didn’t disregard us adventurers like that. How many people did these experts think would willingly explore dungeons if those adventurers were told that fighting monsters would only earn them the minimum they need to get by?
Like, if it was the previous Adventurer System, I doubted I would explore dungeons once a week like I was doing now. I would likely only thin out the Salamander dungeon near my home maybe once or twice a month. I would probably still be an adventurer, but only for the sake of my father’s employment.
But I get that adventurers weren’t the only ones who needed to be pleased. And there just weren’t enough money, goods, people, and whatever else to go around. Honestly, in this world where fantasy has become reality, was it so much to ask for a Magic, Wish-granting Mallet (Uchide no kozuchi) to be real too?
As I thought of such things, the guys on TV suddenly changed topic.
<<Today, we’ll be taking a visit to a temple that has been real popular lately for its Awakening training! That’s not all, the Society of the Sage has also kindly provided us with a mage to guide—>>
I could tell without looking at a mirror that I was grimacing. I decided to distance myself from the TV.
The world truly was incomprehensible. One moment, people were criticizing Awakened Ones, but in the next, they would discuss the Society of the Sage’s methods on how to become an Awakened One.
“Kyotaro, get the plates for me”
“Okay”
While replying to my Mom, I placed my phone down at a desk.
It wasn’t like I could do much about these things right now, anyway. After meeting up with Togo-san, I got permission from the doctor I was seeing to resume my activities as an adventurer, so I should focus on that instead of worrying about things outside of my control.
And so, tomorrow, I would be going to another dungeon!
Taroppe-sensei(author)’s Q&A corner
Thank you for reading!
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When it was mentioned in the comment section, I suddenly thought of how a genderbent Togo-san would be
a beautiful career woman who looks great in glasses and a suit.
Looks slender, but likely has an amazing body underneath.
Would occasionally look all sad. And when by herself, she would smoke and remember a deceased friend of hers as she gripped a lighter in her hand.
An elite Public Safety personnel with a false name and job.
…I might have gone overboard in characterizing her.
At any rate, I definitely won’t be turning Togo-san into a female. I think Togo-san stands out as a character precisely because he’s a man. But more than that, my reason for keeping him as a man is that I don’t want to trouble myself in making him a heroine candidate.
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