Chapter 11: They are off in the head. Those that did the same are also off in the head. (5)
「Your level is high and you have a lot of skill points accumulated. If you activate cheat skills you should be strong enough. And there are 5 of you. You should be able to beat both monsters and perverted boys. You might be able to hunt even the geeks?」
「Why would we hunt them if we want to apologize and thank them!!」
「Eeh, out of impulse?」
「「「…………」」」
The silent stares hurt.
And behind them, the members that the president brought were having some kind of discussion.
「Now, now, calm down. Haruka-kun is like that, so I think he has no intention to do anything weird to Shimazaki-san and the others. Right?」
Vice President B seems to be speaking in my support, as expected, she is a nice person. I wouldn't mind even giving her the first place in the nice people ranking. But I won't be tricked by that B in the name! Her chest armor far surpasses that of the class president! She is an amazing person hailed as a god by the devotees of the chest armor faction. She is nodding to her own argument. And they are swaying along. Oooh, what a frightening child!![1. TL Note: Glass Kamen reference. Usually is said with this expression. /uploads/images/%img%/%book%]
「Has no intention, huh. It's more like he has no something else. For Shimazaki-san, a popular amateur model appearing in fashion magazines, to be getting such a treatment……」
Vice President A, what is your deal, first you are pressing if I have any weird ideas, and when it turns out what I don't, that doesn't satisfy you as well? Is there no right answer here? What are you, a professional problem seeker? I don't need you picking holes in my words!! I'm all for picking holes myself though. If you know what I mean.
「Treatment, huh. You know, to me it sounds like Haruka-kun treats classmates no different from monsters?」
Looks like Vice President C has some problems. Even though she is so small. Vice President C has no chances of getting treated like a monster. She is obviously a small animal. And her chest armor is also sma…… WHOA, she gave me an amazing glare! Could it be that as a small animal she has skills for a heightened sense of danger?
「I was in the same class with him for 11 years in a row, since the first grade, wait a moment…… I don't think he ever called me anything other than…… Class President?!」
I wonder what they are talking about? For some reason, the president is in orz[2. TL Note: a fatigued or despaired emoticon, which represents a stick figure kneeling or bowing with the "o" being the head, the "r" being the arms and part of the body, and the "z" being part of the body and the legs.] pose? Is she tired after all? She must've had it tough.
・ ・ ・
I'm bored, the girls-only gathering is still continuing. Girls do talk a lot after all. With 20 of them, even deciding what to have for lunch would take a week. Some might starve to death by then.
「It's getting dark already, so I guess I will leave it to the young folk and will excuse myse……」 「Since we are classmates, you are just as young as we are!」 「……True.」
Looks like I still can't go home. Since I have nothing better to do, I'll try to snipe nearby kobolds and gobs. When I made a quick check a short while ago, the Lv went up. The detection distance increased to 20-30 meters, but I have no means to attack them. Since I might get scolded again, I secretly used wind magic to make an Air Bullet, but it disappeared midway, not providing the desired result. The Air Cutter has no reach at all, turning into a simple gust of wind when it gets past 5 meters. With Lv up the distance increased, but it's still not enough.
Can I use earth magic to affect a distant location? I reach with my hand to the ground, and right below a goblin…… Earth Needle! Nice. It went well, it got skewered. But during this, I can't move as well. It would be impossible to use in combat. I have to focus on both the spell and the detection and the effectiveness in terms of mana also drops unexpectedly hard with the distance. But I'm so bored?
「President, the night is about to fall, so can I go home already?」
I ask, raising my hand.
「It's exactly because we have nowhere to go that we are discussing it right now…… Speaking of which, just where are you trying to return to?」
Ah, the president's base was in ruins. A number of tents were intact, but the perverted boys must be lurking nearby. But what can a discussion on it solve?
「Eh? To my home?」
「Why do you have a home in another world? Were you born in this world?!」
「Eh, I had nothing else to do so I made one?」
Girls-only talk, once again.
・ ・ ・
「By the way, how many can fit in there?」
「Who knows? I'm living alone, so only the geeks came there?」
Is this some kind of home survey? What if I answer it? Will the president try to press me into buying a mansion or something? Another world has its own dangers as well.
「Ehm, look, a tent, for example, if you really cram it, 1 person can fit in a half mat space. With 3 people per 2 mats, there would be some room, and with 1 person per mat it would be spacious.」
「Hmm, I wonder?」
I was alone all this time, so I never tried to pack my cave that hard. The area that currently has no furniture? About 40 mats I guess? [3. TL Note: 68 m2]
「Ehm, in the worst case, if we sit holding out knees, 5-6 people could fit on one mat?」
Six people per mat? Simple math.
「With 6 people per mat it should be 240 people? With 5 people, about 200? If I put away the furniture it should be a bit more, about 300 I guess? It leaves only the kitchen, bath, toilet…… And also a half-finished storeroom, soo……」
「200…… 240 people…… In what kind of a palace are you living all by yourself! Why do you have 40 mats alone! Even having separate rooms for the kitchen, bath, and toilet? Just what were you doing in this world?!」
「What do you mean what? Living? I just kept adding a touch here and there and it just turned out like this?」
「Why are you having a life of comfort and abundance in another world? And we are in survival mode? Why with a touch here and there you end up with a palace?」
Looks like the president and others are unsatisfied with the housing situation in another world. Yeah, good grief, this other world is so insensitive.
「Haruka-kun, please.」
「「「「Please.」」」」
Whooa, what's going on? The president and everyone else bowed their heads all at once. N-no way, do they want me to publish a list of other world housings? But I'm not that familiar with the real estate market here as well……
「With the incident with Oda-kun and others in mind we really shouldn't be asking this…… But please, just for today, let us stay at your place?」
HAaAAAH? High school girls are going to stay in a room of a high school boy who is living alone?! Good grief, young girls those days, how can they speak of the lewd immoral house stay with all possible kinds of perversions included……
「Of course we will do anything from night watch to food procurement. We will also do the cooking, cleaning, and fire watch. We absolutely won't allow a repetition of what happened with Oda-kun and the others! ……I know it's hard to believe our words…… But, at least for today, please.」
Ah, that's what they meant. Losing the base and tents they now have nowhere to return or even to sleep tonight. Just that.
It's just that, huh, but they still couldn't bring themselves to say this.
There is the matter with the geeks. The geeks built the base, made the defensive fence, erected tents, arranged bonfires, and then were made to collect provisions, prepare food, clean, guard, stand on night watch, do all of the protection. Making the geeks do all of that, they just lived there. Protected by them. They managed to survive thanks to that, but they forced the geeks out.
Actually, the geeks just ran away. However, it's no different from being forced out.
So now, they couldn't ask me to provide my house to them. They had no right to say that, and they had no credibility to their words, they shouldn't ask for that. So this time, they thought that they have to solve it on their own.
「I think, after hearing the story of Oda-kun and his group you must be furious. Yes, that's to be expected……So, us……asking for such a thing now……It's only natural that you would be angry……You are angry, right? ……But……」 「President?」 「……Yes?」
It's only natural. If a group of high school girls was thrown into the middle of a forest and told to live on their own there, it's obviously impossible. Even if this wasn't another world.
Even more so in another world, surrounded by monsters and unfamiliar food. Of course, it's impossible. It's way too impossible.
Yet they have to do it, they can't rely on others, they have to do something on their own, The reason being, they already pushed everything onto the geeks once. And everything fell apart. They couldn't do a thing…… So this time, huh……
「No way?」
For a moment, she shuddered…… Then, looked downward…… And tried to force a smile. A sad, forced smile, impossible to even look at.
「Y-yes. R-right. Yes, sorry. Sorry for asking such a strange thing…… You made it all by yourself after all. Sorry, forget it.」
「As I said, no way? There is no way you can do everything on your own? There is no way you manage by yourselves in an unknown world? There is no way you can survive in the middle of a forest with just a bunch of high schoolers. Being able to manage everything on your own is way stranger here, why would you even try to do that? That's just impossible, okay? Impossible.」
「But, we have to! We have to become able to get through on our own! Oda-kun and the others could…… Even you could, so we also……Have to be able to do it on our own…… We must!」
「As I said, no way you can do that.」
「That's not true! We can!……Because, we must!! We……This, for sure……「Not Possi-Ble!」!」
「It's obviously impossible? In which world can you find high school students that can survive in the forest on their own? Even if such exist, you won't really call them ordinary? It's fine not being able to do what you can't. It's impossible because you are trying to do even what you can't do. Am I angry about what happened with the geeks? I am. That includes being mad at the geeks, that tried to do everything, even what they can't, and it includes you, president since you can't save everyone, yet still tried. And I'm also angry at the idiots that didn't do even what they can. Going right past amazement into anger. It's obvious that you can't do what you can't!」
The president cried. No matter what kind of responsibility was pushed onto her, what kind of impossible task, even if she herself knew that it’s impossible, the president never gave up, yet now, she cried. She is crying really hard…… What do I do?
・ ・ ・
We walk with the president and me leading the way. Apparently, it's a countermeasure for possible attacks? There is nothing around anymore though.
「Haruka-kun, Why are all of the monsters around skewered?」
「That's, well, I was bored?」