“I’ll be providing the materials, of course. So, won’t you please…build me the chubby Golem of my dreams?? I beg of you!!”
“…just so we’re all on the same page, Reinforce—my Golem—was made using materials like a Fire Drake’s Reverse Scale, which as you might guess is pretty much impossible to get normally. What I’m saying is, don’t expect any Golems that can fight as well as she can…”
“I don’t care about combat performance! All I care about is its sexiness!!!”
“O-okay”
This was probably the most pressure I felt from him. His eyes were incredibly intimidating. To say his eyes were bloodshot was an understatement. It felt similar to the desperation present in the face of a shonen manga protagonist when he would yell ‘live!’ to a heroine on the verge of dying.
Honestly, I still found it hard to believe that a guy good-looking enough to be the protagonist would order an extra-thicc spicy Golem. …for whatever reason, it felt repulsive to think of him as a protagonist.
“Erm…let me check with the person who will be making the Golem. Layla.”
“Here!”
I asked Layla to materialize and turned to her. I had shared my memory with her, so she should know what we were talking about.
“How fast you can gather and hand over the materials will be a factor, but the production itself should take about a month.”
“Just tell me the materials you’ll need. I’ll ready them as quickly as possible. And don’t worry, money is of no concern…!”
I would like to say a line like that someday. ‘Sky is the limit’, something like that. I was rich for a high school boy, but another way of saying that was I was rich only compared to most high school boys.
“It was so worth it to take on all those commissions from the government…!”
The government probably didn’t imagine that all those funds would be used for the materials of his spicy Golem.
“Understood. I’ll be providing the details of materials required later.”
“Alright. For my part, I’ll begin making the armor for—was it Reinforce?—right away. It’ll be finished in no time!”
“T-thank you…”
His eyes were so scary. I had no idea what he would have done had I refused his offer.
At any rate, I was glad that my Silver Apple’s existence wasn’t discovered or figured out. I felt bad for pushing extra work on Layla, but I was also happy that we were able to save up. Moreover, this would likely guarantee a trade of sorts on the maintenance of our respective items.
Commissioning an Awakened One who had the relevant Superpowers to make items filled with magic power wasn’t solely dependent on whether you have enough money for their services. I wasn’t quite fond of it, but the most important thing in society was connections. After all, demand for people with the desired Superpowers were quite high in modern day society. Some countries would even go so far as to imprison Awakened Ones just to secure their services.
As for Layla, the reason we weren’t offering her services to the public to generate money was that it was just troublesome. Making and selling magic potions and the like required troublesome qualifications and troublesome tests. And apparently making combat Golems also had its own share of problems, something related to the making of weapons and such. Above all though, making products en masse would require a large number of deliveries of the necessary materials to be made to our home. That would definitely expose that I was indeed an Awakened One to our neighborhood.
In any case, I was glad this negotiation went well. If ever I were to encounter a dragon or a Minotaur again, I shouldn’t have as much of a problem fighting them as before.
…but isn’t it best if I were to never encounter them ever again!?
“Kyotaro”
“Hmm?”
At that moment, Uoyama-kun, who has remained silent so far, began to speak.
What, why do you look so serious?
“If it means I can order a Golem for myself on a loan, I’ll gladly prostrate myself”
“Hey, calm yourself”
Like, seriously, calm down!
I caught him by the shoulder as he tried to kneel down on the ground. He tried to persist in kneeling down, exerting more strength than I expected from someone with his stats.
“Is kneeling down not enough? How about lying down, Tibetan-Buddhist style? If possible, I’d like selling my organs off be the last option for me.”
“Wait, what’s made you like this?”
“Mechanical tentacles greatly interests me too.”
“Oh, I see”
Geez, you’re so scary, man.
“Well…Layla?”
“Hmm…it’s in our best interest to obtain Reinforce’s armor as early as possible, so I’m of the opinion that we should prioritize fulfilling Aihara-sama’s request. Uoyama-sama’s request must be put on hold at least until then.”
Layla replied so, a troubled smile on her face.
By the sound of it, it looked like she was willing to take it on.
I felt quite guilty on how much work I was putting on her. There was enough on her plate that it could flat line an ordinary person’s SAN points.
“That’s fine. I just want to be squished-squished by some mecha tentacles…!!!”
“Squished-squished, huh?”
“Moreover, if you’re also going to provide the materials, then I believe it would cost this much…”
As Layla continued, she began writing on a paper she borrowed from Michiru-san. When I stood up and took a peek at what she wrote, my face instantly twitched. It was a sum that wasn’t much different from what Aihara-kun quoted for the armor earlier. But then again, given that our deal was the armor in exchange for the Golem, this much of a price was pretty natural.
“T-think this over, Uoyama-kun. A high-schooler…no, even most adults wouldn’t agree to a price like this on the spot! This a life-altering price, one way or the other!”
“But you were willing to pay a similar price for the armor, weren’t you?”
“Because my life actually hinges on the armor! But you, you’re going to do it just for lewd purposes! The Golem won’t even have anywhere near Reinforce’s strength in battle, you know!”
Don’t talk like tanks and love dolls are the same thing!!
“Naive…you’re so naive, Kyotaro”
Uoyama-kun adjusted his glasses, and then, with a very serious expression on his face, looked straight at me.
“Lewd…is life, don’t you think?”
“Are you the kind of idiot to let your lower body to ruin your life?”
Is this how he truly is?
“Don’t think with just your lower body! Pleasure is necessary in life and all that, but pleasure shouldn’t be limited to lewd stuff! Expand your horizons, Uoyama-kun!”
“““Huh?”””
Why are all of you looking at me?
“…to think even ‘that Kyotaro’ would say so. Alright, I get it. I’ll give it proper thought once I get home.”
“Yeah, please do so. This isn’t something you should decide on that easily.”
He seemed to have understood my point. I had no idea what he meant by ‘that Kyotaro’ though. Surely, it wasn’t that he thought I had nothing but lewd thoughts all the time, right? Or that I was the kind of guy who thought lewd stuff was the spice of life, right?
“Now that I think about it, are you alright Kumai-kun? You’re not going to place an order too?”
At Aihara-kun’s question, I turned toward Kumai-kun. With his personality, I expected him to act like Uoyama-kun and place an order for a Golem of his own.
“W-what!? You’ve grown older…!?”
Before I knew, Kumai-kun’s already old-looking face had grown to look much older. He was biting his lower lip and had his brows in a grand wrinkle, resulting in his 40-year-old-looking face to age up to look like he was in his 60s.
“What’s the matter, old gorilla!? What happened!?”
“Wait, is it a lifespan thing? Don’t they say gorillas only live up to 35-40 years!?”
“Try gorilla speak! Hoo, hooo! HoooooOOoo!!”
“Shut up and eat this!”
“““He’s alive!?”””
He punched us all in the belly. It hurt.
It left four-eyes and the handsome-yet-disappointing guy rolling on the ground, with me being the only one left standing. I decided to pose a question to Kumai-kun.
“Uhoo. Uhooo, hoooo”
“You want another?”
“Wait, wait, wait. It was just a joke”
I raised both my hands forward and asked him to calm down.
Calm down, Calm yourself down. I’m sure you’re a gorilla of renown, but why do you rampage so?
“So, why did you make an awful face like that?”
“I was just listening to my reason, instincts, and my muscles.”
“That settles it, let’s get your head checked out. I’ll go with you to the hospital.”
Geez, he developed some serious mental illness. Would I have to use my Silver Apple to cure him…?
“To get straight to the point, I have no need for a spicy Golem.”
“O-oh”
“Muscles that are manufactured…are muscles that are just for show. I mean, they look nice, but they just aren’t what my ideal is. So, sorry, but I don’t think you can make my ideals materialize in reality.”
“I mean, I can care less what your ideals are, dude.”
What’s with those eyes filled with pity and guilt? Man, those make me so angry.
“Muscles that are just for show? Do you even understand what you’re saying, Kumai Nobuo…!?”
Aihara-kun was leaning on Michiru-san’s shoulder when he suddenly and unsteadily stood up.
“I’m saying this with good intentions, but the path you’re on is a thorny one. Simply going forward can hurt you. There’s also a good chance you’ll fall midway. And yet, for all that, there’s no telling what you’ll find at the end of your journey. It’s that kind of path.”
Huh? Wait, is this actually some kind of serious conversation?
“If it was before the Return of the Age of Myths, your wishes might have come true. However, with the appearance of Awakened Ones—which include you, might I add—there is no longer a possibility.”
Aihara-kun, whose fetish was in direct contradiction with Kumai-kun’s, usually looked at the other with disgust and disdain. However, this time, his eyes were of sadness.
“Only an Awakened One could possibly rival a fellow Awakened One in physical strength. However, for Awakened Ones, the muscles that can be seen is not representative of their actual strength. But you know this already, don’t you?”
Well, what Aihara-kun said was true. Of those in here, the most brawny-looking among us was Kumai-kun, but in a contest of strength, I would likely be the one to come out on top. Also, the lean but still muscular Aihara-kun was probably on par with Kumai-kun. Meanwhile, the lanky four-eyes with a tentacle fetish, despite appearances, could probably demonstrate power at the level of a heavy-weight champ, to say the least.
And then, there were people like Hanazono-san who was extraordinary even among Awakened Ones. She was tall, yes, but her arms definitely didn’t look to be of a warrior’s. Nevertheless, she had enough arm strength to pulverize a flame dragon in a single blow.
“You say you hate muscles that are just for show, but where in the world would you find muscles that fit your ideals? The apparent and actual muscle strength are now independent of each other…”
Aihara-kun had pity written all over his face when Kumai-kun struck his pectoral muscles with his hand and stared right back at the former.
“I, I know people will keep on improving their muscles even in the world we live in now. So, I won’t lose hope. As long as I don’t give up, the muscles will come!”
“…then, your path is no longer of thorns, but of carnage. It is the path of Asura. You might overexert yourself and die in the midst of despair.”
“I’m ready even for that.”
Ooh, this snack looks delicious.
“…haa. Very well. Do as you like”
“I will. That was the plan from the start, anyway.”
“I’m looking forward to it, you know. I’m interested to see how an idiot who stubbornly clings to those relic of an age long gone would meet his end.”
“Sure, but be careful not to drown in the sea of muscles before then.”
While looking at the two who looked like rivals in some kind of battle manga, I poked with my toe the tentacle fetishist who was still on the ground and holding his belly from Kumai-kun’s punch earlier.
Is this thing still alive?
* * *
“Come to think of it, how is school for you guys?”
“What are you, our father?”
“The kind of dad that doesn’t know how to relate with his son at that.”
“Papa, give me a very lewd tentacle familiar.”
“If it’s a lewd game you want, you can totally play Plump paradise.”
“Screw that noise”
Aihara-kun suddenly asked us about school while we were all playing a competitive game on the monitor in the office space.
As an aside, the game was called Super Matsuo Racing 7 DX. It was set in Kyoto during the Heian period (years 794-1185 AD). The titular Matsuo was an alcohol and gambling addicted ox cart driver who, in his desire to get rich quick, races with Raikou’s Four Heavenly Kings and Shuten-Douji. It was a game that was full of things that I could poke fun at, but for some reason, it was a very popular series. Its popularity actually made me a bit worried about the future of Japan. Moreover, how was this game ok but games that featured dungeons were not!?
“Ahh, hey. Don’t throw your cow dung at me!”
“Shut up. First place is mine!”
“Somebody throw an octopus at me please. I’m being hit.”
“Do you even understand the objective of the game…?”
As I watched the cow dung Kumai-kun threw make a direct hit on Aihara-kun’s ox cart, I was busy making my own ox cart scrape bump against the houses along the race course. Why would I do that? Because this was the first time I ever played this game. I wasn’t really good in party games like this…
“So, how is your school life? If anyone’s bullying any of you, my group can probably do something about it”
“I don’t need your charity!”
“I don’t think we’re being bullied, not really anyway. For better or for worse, people think of us as a harmless trio, I feel like.”
“I see. That’s good then…and, what do you guys feel about continuing your studies? Like uni or something.”
“Seriously, are you trying to be our dad?”
“Can you at least stop throwing cow dung all over while talking all friendly…?”
There was a stunning amount of poop on the screen. To the point that it was no longer the city of Kyoto but rather the city of poop.
In this game, items that could be used to slow down enemy players were obtainable through item baskets scattered along the course. The item that a player would get was randomly decided, but was it truly random? There was just far too much poop on the screen to believe that.
“Frankly, don’t adventurers earn more money than someone in a regular job?”
“I would say yeah”
“Can’t deny it either”
“Right?”
An ordinary office worker earned about a couple hundred thousand yen per month. But what about a million or so yen through legitimate means? It was probably impossible. Even if it was, inflation might affect the country in a disastrous way.
“I occasionally talk with members of Awakened Ones communities from outside our school, you know, and it seems more than half of the student Awakened Ones are thinking of making a living off of being an adventurer. Most of them think that having a normal job would just be silly.”
“There are communities like that?”
“Yup. The Society of the Sage aside, there are groups that, while not having much influence, offer a proper way to associate with other Awakened Ones.”
“Ohh”
“Anyway, as some time passes, it becomes and more more likely than not that we’ll see a decrease in the prices of Item Drops. But there is also the possibility that when that time comes, our society might have a demand for Awakened Ones aside from monster-fighting stuff. Maybe it won’t be as high as it is now, but we can still earn money that is greater than working a regular job.”
“…on that note, what about you, Aihara-kun? What are your plans for that kind of thing?”
As I waited for my toppled-over ox cart to be ready through the help of the game’s townspeople, I took a glance at Aihara-kun. His eyes were on the screen. He also had a blank expression on his face as he used the controller, so it was rather hard to read his thoughts or emotions.
“…I heard they’re making schools exclusively for Awakened Ones. So, my plan is to attend that kind of university. I’ll probably make a living as a blacksmith while I make connections there. For one reason or another, I believe demand for a blacksmithing Superpower will remain high.”
“Ohh, they’re making universities for Awakened Ones too? I thought it would only be high schools.”
“If I recall correctly, it’d be from junior high to university. I heard elementary schools were still under consideration, so they’re not making any of those yet. The Board of Education disagrees with it, apparently.”
Frankly, I was of the opinion that if schools for Awakened Ones were going to be a thing, there should be ones for the elementary and junior high school levels as well.
Awakened Ones exhibited different levels of power depending on our age. Someone old would see a decrease in their stats over time, while a kid would see a rise as they grow up. In general, an Awakened One’s golden days were between 12 and 60 years of age. It seemed like Awakened Ones followed nearly the same pattern of growth as the normal person, but some things were different enough.
Moreover, although a child Awakened One might have less physical strength than their full potential, they were still stronger than a non-Awakened adult. So, letting Awakened kids mingle with non-Awakened kids, well…
Images of things I didn’t want to imagine flashed in through my mind. In all likelihood, those things, those accidents have already happened; they just weren’t reported as much.
“So, what about you guys? Just so you know, some acquaintances of mine have decided to drop out of school already in favor of going full-time as adventurers”
“Hmm, I want to study muscles, so I’m planning on attending a PE-oriented school.”
“A marine-oriented school for me. Those are where many tentacled-creatures can be found, after all…!”
“Huh, you guys have already thought that far…?”
We were only in the first year of high school at the moment. Even when some was talking about college courses or employment paths, it honestly didn’t feel like it had anything to do with me.
“And you, Kyotaro? With your abilities, even if you quit school now, you’ll be in quite the demand, won’t you?”
“Hmm…nah, I think I’d rather go to school and then advance to university, like normal. Beyond that…I’ll think about it after I enter university, I guess.”
“…You say ‘like normal’, so are you going to keep the fact you’re an Awakened One a secret?”
“I haven’t thought that far yet…maybe I’ll go to one of those universities for Awakened Ones, I dunno.”
Aihara-kun glanced at me with a bit of a surprised look on his face, but I just lightly shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t have even a clear vision of what I want for myself, so what other answer could I give?
“Look, Awakened Ones and dungeons suddenly appeared, and the whole world doesn’t quite know how to handle them, right? So, I feel that if I make a decision right away, I’ll just come to regret it later, whatever that decision might be. Something like that, at least.”
Like, who knows, maybe as soon as tomorrow, the army or something might be able to develop a super weapon that could pulverize monsters. On the other hand, maybe society would come to be entirely reliant on Awakened Ones for the dungeons and the monsters.
Or maybe, as the group called the Society of the Sage proclaimed, society would be headed by Awakened Ones. Alternatively, maybe we would be suppressed and even oppressed by non-Awakened Ones, which could result in a war between the two sides.
These were only possibilities, but it just went to show that even if you had an eye out on the future, there was no telling how it would actually unfold.
“So, for now, I’m planning on going to a regular school and get a regular educational background.”
I knew it was a rather vague statement, but again, in this world that has Returned to the Age of Myths, no one could tell what was going to happen next.
Fortunately, I had many options. I could afford to take my time to think things through and still be able to do something no matter what might happen.
“…you didn’t seem like it, but I guess you’ve thought it through too, huh.”
“Excuse you? What?”
“Sorry, I was surprised too.”
“Me too.”
“Then prepare for some divine fists, you perverts”
Unlike them who had a clear vision of what they wanted to do, I was being ‘greedy’.
I had sexual desires, materialistic desires, need for approval, and many other things. I wasn’t virtuous enough that having just some of those desires be fulfilled was enough. I wanted it all.
I was an ordinary yet foolish person, after all. So, in response to a such a vague future, I could only provide a vague answer. And you know what? That was just fine. We were still in the first year of high school, you know?
“Ahh, I got an ox-headed monster. Throw, throw, throw”
““You little…!!””
Uoyama-kun drew the ‘item that blows up the one in first place and those around them’ from one of the item baskets along the course. He used it right away and blew up Kumai-kun and Aihara-kun who were both competing neck to neck for the top spot, resulting in a victory for Four-eyes of the Tentacle Clan.
What about me? I was in dead last, of course. What, got a problem with that? I was a complete beginner in this game, might I remind you.
Taroppe-sensei(author)’s Q&A corner
Thank you for reading!
Also, please consider leaving some of your thoughts, a review, and bookmark the title over at the narou site (https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7336ie/)
Your support is appreciated and I hope you continue doing so.
Q: Why does Japan not make many combat Golem?
A: Unless a Golem was a high-end unit or unless some of its combat capabilities were compromised, it would have myriad of issues such as: ‘it can’t act outside of a base’, ‘it can obey nothing but the simplest of commands’, or ‘it has difficulty discerning friend from foe’, just to name a few. Reinforce, even without considering the Silver Apple features, is an incredibly high-end unit.
There’s another reason, actually…
Japan:
“We’ll give you a salary higher than the average JSDF officer!!”
Foreign nations:
“Shut up, Japan! And you, let’s go!!” *proceeds to drop gold bars on table*
Golem maker:
“I guess I’m getting adopted by Mr. Foreign Nation!!”
While this was happening pretty much everywhere…
UK:
“Oh my, that’s a right mess, isn’t it? Oh, us? We’ve got contracts within the EU for their services, so there’s no worry of them being poached from us!”
TL note: the gorilla of renown bit is a reference to the opening of the Princess Mononoke.
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