Chapter 35: Germination
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Sendai City.
Together with Satoha I was walking through the outskirts, a place lacking any facilities to go out for some fun. Almost no one ever visited this place except the locals, so it might be rare for two people like us to be here. We sure gathered some dubious looks as we prepared to go back home.
By now two weeks have already passed since my first C-Class dungeon run. Ever since then, I continued to clear dungeons daily without a care about their rank. I realized it after having done so many runs, but rare items are quite hard to come by. I cleared dungeons with Satoha and I also cleared dungeons myself, allowing me to enter reward rooms many times over, but it yielded me zilch.
No, to be fair, I actually got one rare item, but…it’s nothing I can use, or rather, how to describe it best…thinking of that, which I’ve been secretly stowing away in my smartphone, I stole a glance at Satoha’s face from the side. I wonder why it’d be fine to give it to her.
My body trembled from the wintry coldness, which was still biting, as we walked along a road in the residential area.
“Today…is especially cold, isn’t it?”
Satoha cast a fleeting glance in my direction while drinking some tea out of a plastic bottle.
“Hiro, earlier I bought hot tea at the vending machine. Do you want to drink it?”
“Yeah, that’d be great, Satoha…”
She passed me the tea while keeping the cover. I could immediately tell from just holding it that it was still hot. I slowly drank the 200 ml of tea, warming myself up. Then I passed the bottle back to Satoha and thanked her.
“…It’s fine. No worries.”
For a while we walked next to each other before eventually reaching the bus stop bound for the train station. It’d take quite some time for the next bus to arrive. Thus we sat down on the bench inside the small waiting cabin. Just being protected from the wind was already a very welcome luxury.
“Hiro, you’ve become truly strong, haven’t you…?” Satoha commented while thinking back on the last two weeks.
While listening to her, I opened Dungeon Seekers and checked my stats anew.
Player: Kurase Hirotatsu
Level: 71
Acquired Skills: ☆『Indomitable Heroic Figure』, 『Understanding of Hand-to-Hand Combat』, 『Intuition』, 『Barrier Coating』, 『Magic Sword Style: Four』, 『Flying Banner of Revolt』, 『Galloping Rider』, 『Long-Cherished Desire of a Samurai』, 『Progress of Castle-Taking』
Titles: 『Warrior』, 『Hidden Blade User』, 『A Match for a Thousand』, 『Witty Castle Taker』, 『DS: Ranker』
Thanks to having cleared several C-Class dungeons, my level went up significantly. I used most of my skill points on “developing” a skill called 『Magic Sword Style』 by combining 『Magic Swordsmanship』 and 『Mana Manipulation』. I’m going to retain the remaining 100 points in preparation for the time when an evolution skill becomes available again.
My level stopped rising quickly. But, in exchange I was able to steadily gain strength that doesn’t rely on my level.
“Hey…Satoha. Does it look like we can soon challenge a B-Class?”
I asked her with my hands stuck inside the pockets of my jacket.
B-Class dungeon――a place even someone as powerful as Satoha doesn’t want to raid by herself. We set the clearing of a B-Class dungeon as our goal before the game is officially released.
I spent those last two weeks observing her rules――though I ended up having to treat her to sweets while getting a death stare when I exceeded the number of D-Class dungeon runs just once. I built my strength and even if something unforeseen happened, having a formidable support with me was a big relief. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it power-leveling as you’d do in games, but I think it’s something close to that.
I seriously believe that I’m about the only person who can dive into vortexes while being guided so efficiently.
As I spent more and more time with her, I got increasingly astonished by Satoha’s intelligence and the height of her combat strength. She calmly observed my movements on the battlefield and coached me by politely spelling out what she felt about it. Her knowledge when it came to battle was extremely deep.
She was sitting on the bench while brooding. Her tilting her head, however, looked somewhat cute.
“As for the preparations, I don’t need to go to school anymore, so we can go ahead with it at once.”
“Ah, if I remember correctly, your school has its graduation ceremony on the day after tomorrow, right? Then I must take that day off, I guess.”
Moving her black pupils upward, she recalled my schedule. But, I denied her words, shaking my head.
“No, don’t mind that. Satoha, let’s raid the dungeon in the morning of my graduation day.”
“Eh…? Why? I was sure you would want to go there.”
She looked back at me, pulling a mystified expression. Her eyes were wide open, making it clear that she was surprised.
But, how should I explain the reason to her? What should I do to get her to understand?
“…It’s okay to skip the graduation ceremony.”
I don’t want to see my classmates and their parents.
…Satoha is an extremely serious person and so she always kept her promises with me. Whenever we arranged for a meeting, she would always arrive on time and if I contacted her, she would answer within minutes. A girl like that is likely going to admonish me to go to my graduation ceremony.
But, I really don’t wanna go there.
Thinking that, I reflexively lowered my head and closed my eyes. The vicinity was filled with the wind howling as it swept across the area around us. The bus waiting room’s walls protected us from this wind which seemed cold enough to freeze you to death if you went outside.
Without responding, she stared at me. What felt like an eternity of silence passed between us.
Suddenly Satoha pulled her hand out of her pocket, touched my right cheek as if to gently stroke it, and turned my face her way. I didn’t know whether it was because of the warmth of her fingers or my surprise, but my distorted face relaxed a bit and I realized that I had been clenching my teeth unconsciously.
“…Hiro, you’re making a fairly terrible face. Did something bad happen?”
What’s the point in me pointing my animosity at her? But those words…sounded as if spiteful.
“If you ask me like that, yeah.”
Having scrutinized me, she now put both her hands into her pockets and hung her head with her eyes closed.
“…I see. As a matter of fact, I never went to school. I can only imagine what it’s like, so I was certain that a graduation ceremony would be an emotional and moving event.
Hearing her words, I had my breath taken away.
She never went to school? She didn’t receive, no, couldn’t receive compulsory education…?
“…Even if I don’t attend it, I can just get my graduation certificate afterwards. You don’t really have to attend that event no matter what.”
Satoha opened her eyes and said, while forcing a bright voice, “Is that so? Okay, then let us go out together on that day. What do you want to do, Hiro?”
“Let’s see…”
She gently looked at me while smiling. For the sake of respecting Satoha’s wish to keep getting breaks during the last two weeks, we went to all sorts of places besides dungeons.We went out to cloth stores, bookstores, eating sweets once again…the days with her, who each time reacted as if it was her first time to see things, was very fulfilling.
I feel like Satoha’s expressions have increased to an extent as it’d have been unimaginable when I met her for the first time. It goes against logic, but without asking for her reasons, I simply felt deeply grateful towards her for approving of me.
I’m pretty sure it’s not that she wants to go somewhere or wants to do something.
“I think it’d be great to do the usual with you, Satoha.”
Her expression as she heard those words and cast her face down was hidden from me by her side hair. Surrendering ourselves to this comfortable silence, we went back home and bid farewell.
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