High School Hack and Slash

Girls’ Dormitory

Dusk came early at Toyoashihara Academy.

From the grounds of the academy, which was surrounded by mountains, the sky was still tinged madder red even after the evening sun had set.

「Alright, something like this, I guess?」

In the student cafeteria, which was illuminated by retro-style Western lamps, besides Touma and the others, there were also the figures of other students who had come to have dinner.

The door leading to the terrace was closed, and more than half of the tables, which were full during lunch time, were partitioned off.

Even the kitchen counters, which boasted a wide variety, were closed, especially the ones for the kinds of light meals, but the staple meal and dessert corners were open for business.

Hearing that even alcoholic kinds, which weren’t listed on the menu, were available should you wish to order some, Touma was exasperated.

The table near the divider, with no other students around, was filled with hors d’oeuvre dinner dishes that each of them had ordered separately.

「Now then, to celebrate the commemoration of our first returning alive from the dungeon.」

「Cheers!」

Mai festively raised her glass, but then promptly laid her hand on the cakes that were piled up on a large platter right after.

「The sweets here are awfully yummy. Patissier-san, super good job.」

「Going for the dessert right off the bat, huh.」

「Tsk tsk, tsk, sweets and desserts are two different things~. By the way, this one is for the dessert.」

Tossing a cutely decorated mini choux into her mouth, Mai showed colorful pastries that were served in another platter that was of the same size.

「Just how many are you going to eat? Even I feel like getting heartburn just from looking at it….」

Seiichi was by no means not fond of sweet stuff, but even the amount of used fresh cream alone seemed to be enough to fill a rice bowl.

「True enough, the food in this academy cafeteria is delicious.」

Reaching out his chopstick toward the roast beef that was piled up like a mountain on the plate, Touma dipped it in the gravy sauce, which was imbued with a generous amount of pepper, and stuffed it into his mouth.

The roast beef did look really delicious with its bright red meat, but Seiichi had the urge to tell him to eat some vegetables too.

「Touma-san is, a carnivorous man, after all.」

Shizuka, who had a moderately warm bowl in her hand, was sucking on her spoon with a happy face.

The way she arranged a line of chawanmushi in front of her was no different than Touma and Mai.

「What a self-paced bunch you are, really.」

Seiichi smiled wryly, leaning his elbow on the table.

Mai responded to Seiichi, who was picking up fried potatoes.

「I mean, we did obtain great income and all. So it’s the so-called reward for yourself?」

As a result of having the goblin crystals appraised at the purchasing department, they had earned 200,000 sen, a large income for freshmen.

By the way, the crystal of level 1 normal goblin that popped up on the first stratum was worth one hundred sen.

The assessment standard for monster crystals was level x rarity correction x 100 (sen).

Rarity correction played a big role in the assessment value, but the encounter rate of rare monsters was not kind enough to let you find them at will.

「There seemed to be one rare individual among them, after all. I bet it’s that big guy with the club, maybe.」

「… The one that got chopped off, huh.」

「Well, almost all of them were beaten down by Touma, though.」

As he continued to stuff his cheeks with meat, Touma did a poker-faced thumbs-up.

「Preys are meant to be shared.」

「Geez, Touma-kun, you’re so generous! If we can always earn this much, we’ll be able to eat whatever we want every day.」

「What, happiness.」

「Won’t you get tired of it if you eat piles of cake every day? Rather, you’ll get fat.」

「I have a constitution of not getting fat, so it’s not a problem.」

Shizuka reacted with a twitch to Seiichi’s words, before then reacting once again by staring at Mai’s with envious gaze.

Truthfully speaking, for students who had sen to spare as they advanced through academic year and progressed through their dungeon conquest, investing it in improving their standard of living, such as being gourmands, was pretty typical.

The menu that cost over 10,000 sen per dish was exactly designed toward such high-level students.

However, as it had been set for such commodities that cost a large amount of sen to be designed toward students with surplus sen, they were not proportional to their respective real money prices.

It was also a status-like hierarchy element that differentiated the dungeon group from the enjoy group.

」If you stand out too flashily, people will have curious eyes on you, so be careful.」

Jealousy and resentment, in order words envy, could be said to be a nature that stemmed from human’s instinct.

Especially in Japan, there was a deep-rooted bad habit of knocking down the sticking out stakes before anything else.

「I’ll leave such a matter to you, Seiichi. Just transfer an amount that I can spend to my card, okay.」

「… Have you never thought that I may pocket them myself?」

Putting her spoon that was filled to the brim with cream into her mouth, Mai smiled ear to ear.

「I don’t mind, you know?」

「Damn it, acting so carefreely」

Shizuka stared at the frolicking figures of Seiichi and Mai, who were performing a forehead flick, with envious eyes.

The sen earned during this dungeon dive was divided equally into four.

「For a while, we have to take arranging our equipment as our top priority, after all. So I don’t think we’ll have much to spare.」

「In that case, our only option is to attack the dungeon like there’s no tomorrow.」

「Our top priority is to raise our level and build up our abilities, after all. That way we’ll be able to shut the surrounding people, but….」

Casually scanning their surroundings, he confirmed that no one was paying attention to them.

「Be sure not to tell anyone what I’m about to tell you, no matter what, okay?」

「Err, act? … is not what you mean, but for real, isn’t it?」

Noticing the serious expression in Seiichi’s face, Mai straightened her body up.

「Yeah.」

「I understand.」

Confirming that Touma and Shizuka had also nodded their heads, Seiichi lowered his voice.

「Absolutely don’t die. At the very least, be sure to act with avoiding total annihilation in mind. Do you know what I mean?」

「Umm, that crystal-looking something, we received from Touma-kun. Could it be, those were dropped, by us?」

The essence crystals of the three secured by Touma during their first dungeon dive.

「You should perish the thought of dungeon diving with parties other than us. Those guys don’t have it in them anymore.」

Mai’s body shivered at the words of Seiichi, who had rid himself of expressions.

She felt chills as though she had just heard something she should never hear.

「I think things you can do nothing about even if you know about it is as expected something you’d be better off not knowing. Are you okay with that, Touma?」

「Yeah.」

「I bet you’re already fully aware that this academy is not normal, am I right? If it’s now, escaping from the academy is by no means impossible….」

「No way, I don’t want to do such a thing!」

Placing her hands on the table and halfway raising to her feet, Mai’s face changed in color.

If she had other options, she wouldn’t have come to this place in the first place.

Shizuka also nodded in agreement with Mai.

「In that case, we’re on the same boat. Let’s build up our strength first. Everything is started from there.」

◇ ◇ ◇

「First of all, be careful when you’re having a secret talk even in the dorm. Having wiretaps installed there isn’t at all unusual, after all.」

Upon hearing such a warning from Seiichi, Mai and Shizuka are surprised, but talk about late news.

Looks like it will be better to keep the fact that Seiichi is a Youtuber a secret from Mai.

After concluding our celebration party at the student cafeteria, we dispersed and headed back to our respective rooms at once, but for some reason, we found ourselves face to face again.

Or rather, we are in the girls’ dormitory.

To be precise, we’d intruded upon Shizuka and Mai’s room.

The thrill of stepping into the forbidden garden is unbearable.

Well, structural-wise there isn’t much difference between Hakutsuru-sou and Kurou-sou.

It’s just that the interior has more of a girlish touch to it, and is shrouded in distinctive girl scents.

We passed by several female boarding students on our way to this room, but for some reason I received gazes as if I were some sorts of jerk from what seemed like upperclassmen, and gazes filled with fear from what seemed like freshmen.

I believe none of them were my classmates, but just how far my infamy has spread I wonder.