Promotion to S-Class

"… Naoto-sama. It seems the S-Class swap match is on its final bout now…

"Once it's over, they'd like to hold the awards ceremony."

When I left the bedroom after thoroughly enjoying Ursula, Colette told me this.

"Huh, that's all the time…? Ah."

I'd had plenty of sex with Ursula, but not much time had passed.

It was the effect of bedroom-time, a service granted only to high-rank Masters in this world.

During sex in the bedroom, the flow of time slowed. At S-Class, that flow was 1/8.

Even after 8 full hours of sex, only 1 hour passed outside.

By this means, a day could be more than 24 hours.

No wonder I was making it in time for the S-Class swap match.

I made full use of it daily, yet kept forgetting about it. Well, for the past 16 years it had been an impossible phenomenon, so…

"Mm… well, things have calmed down. Let's head out for now."

There were still tons of things I wanted to do, but no need to rush further.

"Mm. Let us go. Time to introduce me as thy Garumon to all."

Ursula said happily.

Aaah, how cute.

That now, like this, hugging tight and kiss-kissing, no one would scold me for irreverence. She was mine.

"Mm, Naoto… at this rate, only kissing, we will not be able to leave."

Ursula chided me happily.

So with that, we returned to the venue via Lyuka's teleport.

At the venue, it was right in the middle of the Aldis vs. Eclair match.

Mare, Lasha, and Feria were apparently fighting all-out on defense, opposed by Himuro-san, Hizaki-san, and Vyletta.

Looking at the HP gauges, Himuro-san's side seemed to be at a disadvantage. Well, given the 2nd party was beating the 1st, that was natural.

"Gh… this…! Just fall already."

Lasha's technique. It looked like nothing but sparkling light. Information shielding kept me from telling what kind of technique it was.

… But with combat experience, you sort of know. That was probably Divine Art - Black Lotus.

When you could tell like that, the technique sometimes appeared visually too, bypassing information shielding, like a sub-audio commentary.

"Gh… Nami-chan… what should we do?"

"Pull yourself together. We'll finish this with just us.

"Sure, if our stats drop any further, it'll be tough.

"But, if it's us…"

"… Nami, Kanna. Since you held out long enough to make them waste skill counts… that's plenty.

"Time to step down."

At that moment, Eclair, Sario, and Presea stood and stepped up to the stage.

"Member change."

"Now then, finally, S-Class No. 17 Eclair Feradria-senshu has taken the stage.

"… Silvana-san, how was Aldis-senshu's performance up to now?"

"Well, better than expected. The countermeasures against Eclair's party were thoroughly prepared.

"Normally, one wouldn't expect the 1st party to lose.

"… But Nami and Kanna surpassed even that.

"Of course, the consecutive battle in a worn-down state from there looks tough…

"Either way, it was a heated fight, which was great.

"To be honest, the matches besides the first were all yawn-inducing affairs…

"Well, that one match was eye-opening in a different way. Uegh…"

"Let's hurry and forget. Now, the beautiful Eclair-senshu finally takes the stage as a Garumon!"

So it was Eclair, Sario, and Presea.

Presea's class was Guardian Divine Beast. A defender, no doubt. Sario was support / sub-attacker?

Eclair was clearly an attacker.

… The classes of competing members were announced.

"Oh, Eclair and Vyletta's class names are kind of cool."

"Empress is one of the classes passed down generation after generation among the ultimate classes, like Seraph.

"It's an ultimate class, but think of it as one tier above Thunder God.

"It's a class just shy of Goddess, and just as many Seraphs become Goddesses, many Empresses have reached Goddess too.

"Empress itself is also a distinctive, strong class, like Seraph.

"A characteristic feature of Empress is that she can grant the title 'Empress Knight' to a single knight.

"The Empress Knight is also an extremely powerful class."

Lyuka explained.

I couldn't tell what buffs Eclair's team put up, but I could tell each of the three put up something the moment they appeared.

Lasha-san's face showed worry.

"Lasha, calm down. Stick with the countermeasures.

"… Let's go."

Aldis settled Lasha down, and battle resumed.

But…

"Coming through."

The attack Eclair fired. Some kind of light… no, lightning that actually looked like lightning.

A thunderbolt released from her hand, and in a single strike it burned through the already HP-drained Mare.

"… Coming through."

Zan!

Next… Sario's sword.

Fast. With lightning-like movements, in an instant he cut Feria down.

Come to think of it, the Phantom Dragon had probably already fallen.

With the ice-element Himuro-san present, taking it down wouldn't be hard.

"… Gh! This…! Divine Art - Black Lotus!"

Lasha's skill. What were the countermeasures, I wonder.

Going by the impact when Mare fell, maybe they'd secured thunder-nullification equipment?

And yet Eclair had felled Mare in one strike… a skill like nullify-the-nullification?

No point speculating. Anyway, Eclair had overwhelming attack power, and half-baked defense wouldn't work.

With Lasha down to one ally, there was likely nothing more she could do.

Black Lotus didn't seem to have taken effect properly either. Their debuff countermeasures were perfect.

Presea was solidly protecting the two of them.

"… I salute your bravery in challenging again.

"In that case, let me dispatch you with my strongest ultimate technique.

"Divine Art - Thunderclap Keraunos!"

Gogogogo…!

Dark clouds filled the entire battlefield.

And then…

Zugagagagagagaga…!

Massive lightning flooded the entire battlefield! Eh, isn't lightning supposed to be more like streaks!?

It was so thick that it was less line and more sheet, raining down everywhere!

Too tremendous for information shielding to suppress.

Or perhaps…

She'd noticed I was watching and put on a deliberate display?

… As if to say: this is the woman, Empress Eclair Feradria, that you're trying to challenge.

She looked at me and smiled.

"… Decision! Incredible, overwhelming! Eclair Feradria-senshu, by an even more overwhelming margin than last year's Sario-senshu, defeats Aldis-senshu!"

"… Yes, she's gotten stronger. Aldis prepared anti-Eclair countermeasures thoroughly and went in with full preparation to reclaim his spot, but she surpassed him in everything.

"… With this strength, she could have easily beaten the 16th-ranked Julian, but she didn't enter last year's ranking matches, did she."

"That's right. Going by Sario-senshu's comment that 'a higher position would suit Eclair-sama,' challenging the upper ranks would have been fine this year too… But this year's the S-Class Tournament. If she's intending to climb all at once regardless, perhaps she decided there was no need to challenge."

"… Or, perhaps, the reason she didn't raise her rank this year was that there was a rival she had to wait for."

Silvana commented, glancing at me.

"Now then, with that, all S-Class swap matches have concluded.

"This year, the sole person promoted to S-Class is Akai Naoto! Congratulations!

"Now we'll proceed with Akai Naoto's awards ceremony and victory interview."

"Haa… that's why I told you it was fine to sleep through anything past the first bout…

"Well, just seeing the first bout was worthwhile. A very interesting match. The Garumon were cute and the fight was interesting, lovely.

"… If only I hadn't seen the thing after…"

"Let's forget the thing. Now, the awards ceremony.

"Akai Naoto-senshu, please come to the stage."

… I was being called.

I went up to the stage where Anneroese-san and Silvana-san were waiting, bringing Ursula and Kanan with me.

"… Ah, Yuria, want to come too?"

"Forget it! Hurry up and go."

Yuria didn't seem to want to face Silvana-san.

… Up close, the two were even more… beautiful. Cute, sweet-smelling…

Mesmerizingly beautiful.

Despite having just done so much with Ursula, I started rising again.

"Mm-hm, young one. Lively, that's good.

"Hello again. I'm Silvana. Do you know who I am?"

"Ah, yes. I had a history lecture from my comrade…

"Hello, nice to meet you. Yuria and Patty are always taking great care of me."

"Mm-hm. I was curious what kind of man would be approved by those girls, but Almaria's and Pamela's impressions of you weren't bad either, so I was reassured. To my pleasant surprise, you're even better than expected — a relief.

"Please continue to take good care of Yuria and Patty."

Silvana-san greeted me properly, like a father.

Huh, she wasn't just off-the-wall — she had manners too.

I bowed my head.

"I'm Anneroese. I've been hearing about you for some time from Almaria and Pamela.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Anneroese-san greeted me even more properly and politely.

"Yes, the pleasure's mine."

"… Fufufu, isn't she a fine woman～. Wanna do her? Wanna?"

Silvana teasingly cut in.

Wh, what was the right answer here?

"Of course."

After a moment's hesitation, I answered honestly.

"Honesty — well done. That said, I can't just say 'go ahead'! She's mine!"

Silvana replied.

"… So, if I meet the conditions, it'd be okay?"

"… Fufu."

Silvana laughed at my line.

"You're amusing! I like you! Mm-hm."

She threw her arm around my shoulder.

Her big breasts pressed against me! Soft! She smelled amazing and my head spun.

I was getting rock-hard.

"Well, I'll think about the conditions… but right now you're far from qualified.

"I'm what you'd call a hidden boss.

"… To fight a hidden boss, you'd better at least be able to challenge the regular boss!"

"… Makes sense."

That was completely fair.

I'd cleared a retro shooter in my dad's collection up to the hidden boss, then triumphantly took on the latest arcade game, only to be unable to scratch even the first stage of its two-stage hidden boss. That bitter memory flashed across my chest.

Clear at least the first stage before you come — of course.

"The ones you could call regular bosses right now are Satoru, Aqueria, Sairas, and Leonhardt.

"Those four are in a class of their own.

"If you can reach there, I'll consider it.

"Well, anyway, I'm looking forward to this year's S-Class Tournament too.

"… You've got a pre-tournament skirmish first, right?"

She glanced over at Eclair.

"Read the Communications. Reido Academy's transferred class is finally going to have its showdown! Really excited to see who wins!

"I'm looking forward to it～. I'll be coming to watch again."

"Yes, please come at that time. I'll send an invitation."

I had that exchange with Silvana.

This alone made it worth coming.

"Now then, in celebration of the birth of a new S-Class No. 24 Master… a grand round of applause.

"S-Class No. 24 Master, Akai Naoto!"

Waaaaaaaa…!

Grand applause, cheers, confetti raining down…

Aah… that's right. I… I'd become an S-Class Master.

That joy welled up in my chest, fresh and warm.

"… From here on, you've got a celebration party with a ton of A-Class NPCs waiting for you.

"Well, if it's too much trouble, you can blow off all of it.

"It's fine, it's fine. A-Class NPCs are just S-Class washouts, so they're in no position to act high-and-mighty toward an S-Class Master."

Silvana-san gave a fairly proper piece of advice.

"… Thank you. The way you're teaching me feels like Yuria…"

"Ahaha! Do I? Like Yuria. Fufu."

Silvana laughed.

She looked pleased.

"Anything you'd like me to pass on to Yuria or Patty?"

"Nope. If I've got business, I'll say it myself. They're usually idle and floating around anyway.

"Well, if I feel like it, I'll drop by.

"I'll be keeping an eye on your future activities. Keep entertaining me."

Tsun — she poked my cheek.

"Yes, you're welcome to."

… Silvana-san was a truly charming person.

A friendly, good person, contrary to her mystical look.

My status updated like that. And then…

Demon Lord Ursula Belzebute has joined.

Divine Knight Libera has joined.

Senko Mikoto has joined.

Seraph Raphaela Cellas has joined.

Dragon King Saria Naga has joined.

Alchemist Kongouin Mira has joined.

The system messages flowed at long last.

22 out of 24 had suddenly become comrades like this!

Sub-Master 2 had Ursula slotting in. Well, no issue there.

I wanted to keep Ursula active as Sub-Master from here on out too.

Status details would be presented in the status list later.

What I first noticed was that the S-Class addition had been added to everyone's value.

"Um…"

It varied by person. There were 5 tiers: +100, +200, +300, +400, +500.

Like that.

"Hmm…"

What was this difference? Well, I could sort of guess.

Pretty simply, even among Legendary and Top-Tier classes, the rarest got +500, rare classes got +400, common classes got +300 — that kind of feel. But by that logic, Yuria was odd.

Yuria's Great Mage shouldn't be rare for a Top-Tier class. Cellas, Saria, and Luna being +400 was also surprising.

Did the system see some particular talent or aptitude in them?

Hmm, this kind of disparity was a bit…

"Well, even if I don't quite get it, if you're low you just aim higher, right?

"In the end, value goes up to 10,000, right? So if I just push everyone to 10,000, the differences won't matter."

I concluded.

"This is the S-Class addition… I don't really understand. That Suzanne and Ursula come out on top isn't surprising, but…"

Well, I'd take my time figuring out what the S-Class addition really meant.

All right then, I'd made S-Class! First, organize what to do next.

I needed to take care of the things I had to do, and the things I wanted to do, one by one.

For now, I roughly listed them out.

• Settle things with Eclair

• Preparation and training for the S-Class Tournament

• Enter the S-Class Tournament

• There should be various S-Class jobs.

  Starting with confirming what kind of things to do.

• I want to meet the other S-Class Masters. Especially Shaina and Aqueria.

• With Leonhardt I have all sorts of history too, so I should at least greet him…

• If I can meet someone close to the system's core, I want to grill them about what this world is.

• Victory party!

• Want to flirt with Yumi.

• Want to flirt with Ursula.

• Want to have sex with Suzanne. Flirt with her.

• Farida's training and development

• Want to talk a lot with Seika

• Want to check on Ruria. Time to reveal my identity too.

  Eventually want to take her in as a knight.

• Just want to have sex with everyone

• Want to push Top-Tier-class members hard toward Ultimate class

• Want to make Ursula a Demon God

• Want to make Suzanne, Luna, and Cellas Goddesses

• Want to make Saria a Dragon God

• Want to develop other Ultimate-class members into Legendary classes

• Want to keep up normal development — learning skills, leveling

• Want to put more effort into Spirit Garb crafting

• Irana's item hunting

• Kishilia's magical-beast hunting

• Griera's Demon God subjugation

• Resolve Lyuka's grudge in the Faerie territory

• Want to scout Silvana's daughter

"Hmm…"

A full plate. As far as development, it might not be a one-year level of work.

… Well, no need to rush. Things I couldn't do, I'd just do at my own pace.

I'd be living here for good, so there was all of next year and the year after.

Of course, if possible, I'd love to set a great record of 23 consecutive wins at the next S-Class Tournament! Was that possible?

For that too, first I'd start with a proper discussion.

… But beyond that, the task I'd been thinking about for a while — maybe I should start putting it into action soon.

That was: improving the status of Garumon in this world.

Among the students who'd transferred to this world with me, there had to be some having a rough time.

There were just too many Garumon being mistreated as slaves…

Leaving them alone hurt my heart, and I'd long thought it wasn't right.

When I'd just been an individual without power, there was nothing I could do.

I couldn't possibly take in everyone and save them all — the numbers weren't feasible.

There were limits to what I, alone, could do.

But I was now S-Class… one of this world's power-holders.

If I could just instruct everyone, "Treat your own Garumon well!"

Even just that might make a big difference.

I wasn't an inexhaustible bleeding-heart. I couldn't extend help beyond my capabilities.

But not extending the help I could give would weigh on my conscience.

S-Class came with honor, they said. With power. Well then, I couldn't stay silent.

… Garumon's happiness.

I wanted to make this another theme to work on.

Aah, dreams expanding.

Maybe a candidate elected to office felt like this.

But they were probably blocked by 500 grizzled-old politicians and could hardly carry out any free reform.

In this world, though, there were only 24. Compared to Japan, what a low difficulty level.

I was going to live in this world for good, so I wanted to make this world a better one.

I wouldn't forget that ideal.

I made up my mind.

In any case, the immediate goal was challenging Eclair.

I'd push forward, aiming for that.