The C-Class Town of Seeds

For the two weeks leading up to the application deadline, we drilled mock battles within the team relentlessly.

Everyone got the hang of the new techniques they'd learned, and their combat skills had clearly improved across the board. We were fully prepared.

"… All right, let's go. Ah, but what happens if Nezu isn't in this town?"

"In that case we can apply through the system, so it's not a problem. Just submitting the application is enough to lock the conditions in. For twenty-four hours after we apply, our location becomes visible to Nezu. Since the place he agreed to meet is this town of Seeds, as long as we stay here, we're fine. If Nezu doesn't come to this town and fight us, that counts as forfeiture on his end and a forced loss. We get the reward we applied for."

Yuria filled me in.

"Got it. The reward, huh…"

We were required to wager Setsuna, but we hadn't actually wagered anything in return.

In other words, we were free to set whatever conditions we wanted.

Harada-san and the others were beautiful, and ordinarily, if I could have had sex with them, I'd have wanted to.

But right then, I'd have been way happier having my current companions go down on me.

… Well, it wasn't like I absolutely wanted to add them to the group.

I'd gotten greedy. Back in Japan, a beauty on Harada-san's level would never have given me the time of day.

Still, our roster was already full at eight, so I couldn't have taken them as my own anyway.

"… But Nezu has been doing horrible things to Harada-san and the others, like assaulting them. Isn't there some way we can save them?"

"… You're right. Among the Masters in this world, Nezu is on the very nasty end. If we strip them away from Nezu, statistically the next Master they end up with is fairly likely to be a more decent person."

"I see. Is there any way besides taking them as our own Garumon to free them from their previous Master?"

"There is. The conditions are free, right? Then set the most extreme condition possible. Make him wager his entire fortune. That way, after he sells off all of his Garumon, we take all the money and leave him penniless… Of course, our side would have to wager our entire fortune too…"

"That's fine. After all, we won't lose."

I showed her my confidence.

"… You sure? No, I acknowledge your talent, and I do think you can win. But aren't you taking Nezu too lightly? Maybe it'd be better to think about minimizing the risk in case you do lose…"

"No, I'm not taking him lightly. The instant he saw Setsuna, he saw through to her value and tried to acquire her on the spot, even paying 400,000. That was the optimal move. The decisiveness to make and execute that judgment in an instant is nothing to scoff at. But it's precisely because Nezu is that formidable an opponent that I want to face him seriously. I want to push myself as hard as I can. Win, and gain everything; lose, and die. I think you can only grow by overcoming that kind of pressure… If I don't push myself like that, I won't get any stronger."

"… Got it. Let's go with that."

In the end, Yuria accepted my resolve.

Harada-san and the others, who I'd heard were in tatters. Even if I couldn't directly save them, at the very least I wanted to give them another chance.

Well, it might've just been self-satisfaction.

… But that was how it was. I wasn't a god or anything.

I was someone standing on a stage thin as paper, where one loss would cost me everything.

They weren't really people who mattered to me, so this was all I could do.

Harada-san and the others get another chance. I get a fair amount of money. Nezu goes bankrupt.

There was nothing bad about it; that was exactly why it counted as self-satisfaction.

We held off on applying through the system for the time being.

Those guys would know our location and chase us down, with twenty-four hours to take their shot whenever they wanted. I'd rather have avoided that situation if I could.

It was disadvantageous, and frankly disgusting.

If possible, I wanted to find him and apply on our terms. That way the match would start within one minute.

We started walking around the town of Seeds.

We had the whole day to spare. If we couldn't find Nezu, we'd give up and apply through the system.

Walking around Seeds afresh, it really didn't look like a town with good public order.

… Compared to the towns we'd seen up till then, it felt more decadent somehow.

There seemed to be tens of thousands of townspeople, but C-Class Masters were supposed to number only five hundred.

And yet, we kept spotting C-Class Masters at a rate that didn't add up. In short, they stood out.

For starters, they walked around with their Garumon in tow.

The Garumon they brought along looked like lineups out of a beauty pageant or a talent agency audition.

… And most of them were strolling around in Lewd Garbs that left their breasts fully exposed.

There were even cases of fellatio and paizuri being performed right out in the open.

The hangers-on around them were lavishing them with praise.

"Wuh, ohhh…"

"Aah, Goshujin-samaaa…!"

Slap, slap, slap…!

What was more, there were even men having sex right out in the open, as if showing off their slaves.

The C-Class Masters were doing whatever they pleased.

When I'd heard Nezu had suddenly started having sex in town, I'd wondered just how unhinged he was, but the town itself was the unhinged part…

"… Hmm. The morals in this town really are pretty rough…"

"You're right, even by these standards. As a former discipline committee member, maybe I should give them a warning."

That came from Maika. As Noda's slave her sense of ethics had gotten warped, and maybe it was starting to come back a bit.

It was a small thing, but it made me happy.

"Yuria, why were you living in a town like this…"

I griped to Yuria, who'd been stationed here, about its bad public order.

"The system told me I was the mage of the town of Seeds, so while I was an NPC, there was nothing I could do… Well, now that I've become a PC, the next mage is already being dispatched, so from here on I'm free to move between towns."

It seemed Yuria definitely hadn't been in that town because she liked it.

"… I get that this world has loose morals, but still, sex on the side of the road? Seriously?"

I asked Lyuka and Yuria.

"It's a kind of intimidation display common among hot-blooded Masters. A high-level Master also has high sexual ability. On top of that, it shows off how beautiful and how strong a Garumon they have enslaved. By doing this, they advertise their strength to everyone around them. There are even cases of Masters newly arrived in town doing it as a sort of greeting… However, C-Class towns other than Seeds aren't anywhere near this disorderly. The general sentiment is more like, 'It's natural for Masters to have sex with their own Garumon, but at least do it somewhere out of sight.' Seeds has the image of a lawless town where ruffians fight each other, so even sex on the side of the road is tolerated… Well, slaves being made to walk around town in Lewd Garbs is something done everywhere."

"Ah, so this world does at least have the ethics to consider sex on the side of the road a breach of manners."

In all honesty, I wasn't even slightly happy to be shown another guy's dick.

But there did seem to be a fair number of spectators. It must've been a good show for them.

I checked the man's system display.

"The one giving the blowjob would be Yuena, I guess…"

I judged that based on her not having cat ears or dog ears.

So at C-Class, Garumon at LV50 with starting values in the 3000s started showing up commonly, huh.

Incidentally, with Yuria absorbed into our group, my own rank had moved up to C-Class 144.

To climb into the top 64 of C-Class, taking Nezu's rank 12 was a necessary step.

"In this world, when Garumon see their Master have sex, they think it's cool, right? Do you get that feeling even watching other Masters at it?"

I asked in a general way, mostly out of curiosity.

"It's not zero, I'd say. Of course, there's a world of difference compared to watching you do it, Naoto-kun, but I can sort of tell he's making it look cool."

Haru answered me.

"But we love you, Naoto-kun, so… that kind of question is hard to answer."

Haru gave a wry smile. It had felt like he was reining me in as my best friend.

"Ah, sorry. I'm not trying to be mean about it. I don't really think it looks cool. I was just kind of checking, like seeing whether a celebrity the world calls cool would actually look cool to me. Even if you said he was cool, I wouldn't get jealous about it."

"… A woman on my or Maika's level could date a celebrity easily. Being your slave is a whole lot better than dating some celebrity, but…"

Kanan got that far and then bashfully shut her mouth.

"… A-Anyway, I'm not your slave! You're my slave!"

Hmm, I really thought she should've given up the tsundere act already.

Even the day before, with that mouth of hers, she'd done so much…

Just as I was thinking that warmly, I shot a sharp glare at one fixed point.

"…! E-Eh, w-what…?"

Thinking I was angry at her, Kanan shrank back.

"No, no, that's not it, our objective!"

I took Kanan's hand and gave chase to that guy.

"… I'm not going to get angry with you, Kanan."

"… E-Eeh…"

Squeeze. Kanan squeezed my hand back… Cute.

But the way she'd flinched a moment ago was a tiny bit cute too, I had to admit.

So I could understand, just a little, the urge to delight in bullying a girl.

But the way she looked now, relieved, was cuter. So I'd rather have been kind to girls.

A nasty type who bullied girls and a kind type who wanted to protect girls. I'd liked to think I was the latter, but maybe the difference was just a matter of fetish.

If so, did I really have the right to condemn Nezu?

… But that guy had spat insults at Haru, calling him gross and so on.

That alone was more than enough to deserve a thousand deaths.

"Nezu!"

I called out to him. He'd noticed too. It was a somewhat open area.

… True to its nickname as the Battle Town, Seeds had battlegrounds scattered all over.

This was one of them. We could fight to our hearts' content there.

"You… Naoto? Kiki! Come to think of it, Yamagata sent me a message about you!"

For a moment, Nezu's mouse-like face cracked into a passably good-humored smile, but…

"… You, of all people, have Kanan-sama as a slave? Don't fuck with me! Don't fuck with me! Don't fuck with meeee!"

He immediately twisted his face and started cursing.

"To be Kanan-sama's master! For us slaves, there's no situation more drool-worthy than that! And yet, scum like you! Trash! Useless! Don't fuck with me!"

Nezu's mood had been at maximum bitterness from the very moment we met.

He hadn't had a single millimeter of interest in catching up with an old acquaintance.

… Well, neither had I, so it was mutual.

"… Rat."

Kanan spoke to him.

"Kiki! Kanan-sama! It is I, Rat, chuu!"

Nezu reflexively dropped to one knee, falling back on his old attitude.

"… If even a shred of loyalty to me remains, would you be willing to talk?"

Kanan asked.

It was probably the bare minimum of consideration a former master owed a former slave.

"Talk! Talk! Yes, yes, let us talk! Kanan-sama is… a virgin, right? You're a virgin, right?! You've kept your hymen properly intact for me to break, right?! What did that shit-bastard Naoto make you do?! Did he make you touch his shrimp dick?! Did he make you suck it?! How much did he make you service him with those tits?! Mmmm… kiki-kii! Unforgivable! What's he done to my Kanan-sama! That shit-bastard!"

… Even with Kanan, his courteous demeanor hadn't lasted a full minute.

Frightened by his madness, Kanan took a step back.

"… This style of breakdown is the same one-note thing as Ichinose's… You don't have to be that scared."

"W-What do you mean… we girls just go flinch when men yell at us loudly!"

Kanan made excuses. What a cute excuse.

I gave Kanan a pat-pat-there-there.

Well, this guy wasn't really losing it. He'd just stopped putting on a front in front of Kanan.

His madness was the genuine article. Toward me and Haru, his attitude actually hadn't changed much from before.

"Could you stop scaring my cute Kanan any further? Your voice is unnaturally high-pitched and it's ringing in my head."

"… C-Cute…! G-Geez, what are you saying! At a time like this! It's making me grin…"

Squeeze. Kanan clung to my back.

"H-Huuh…?"

Nezu gaped, dumbfounded.

"Kanan only spoke to garbage like you out of consideration as your former master. If you have no intention of having a real conversation, I'm not letting you talk to her any further."

"… Haaah?! W-What is that… what is that?! What are you…"

What was with this guy? His eyes were bloodshot, and his head looked like the veins were about to pop.

Pomp pomp pomp!

Nezu pulled out six Garumon all at once.

I knew Harada-san by face, and once they were pointed out, Iijima-san and Yoshioka-san did look familiar too.

Their faces had no spirit and the light in their eyes was clouded, so they'd transformed enough that I wouldn't have recognized them without being told.

Their clothes were unusually tattered. Torn up to the point that their breasts and crotches were fully exposed: they were Lewd Garbs.

It's actually weird for clothes to be tattered.

In this world, a Garumon's body is protected by HP and doesn't get hurt, but if the clothes they wear aren't protected, every single attack that takes off HP also tatters the clothes.

So normally clothes are set up to fall within HP-protected range too.

That way, the clothes are immortal just like the Garumon. Unless HP hits zero and the wearer is wiped out, they'll never deteriorate.

That was why Kanan had been able to keep wearing the school uniform she came here in.

Yuria, of course, had deliberately set Haru's clothes to tear during the earlier battle. That kind of thing was also possible in the system settings.

In other words, those clothes were slave outfits intentionally designed from the start to come apart.

There are Masters who dress their slaves up, and there are Masters who want their slaves to wear shabby clothes.

The other three were probably Garumon he'd picked up locally. Beautiful, but not extraordinarily so. They were probably SR-class Garumon.

"… Hey, you all! I'm your boyfriend! Act like you're my girlfriends!"

Nezu commanded.

… But none of them moved.

"Boyfriend…?"

"… Meaning…?"

"… Pardon?"

The local Garumon seemed not to have known the word "boyfriend" itself. Maybe it was outside the system's translation function.

"I love Masayuki-sama. I love him. I want to have sex."

"I love you, Masayuki-sama, please have sex with me. My omanko, my ass, please use them however you wish."

"Please make Masayuki-sama my boyfriend. As your boyfriend, please have sex with me."

The three former-Japanese ones, who should've known the word "boyfriend," only said things like that with hollow expressions. What did "boyfriend" even mean to them now, I wondered.

… Honestly, it had been painful to watch.

"H-How did you order them?! What did you command to make them this way?! Tell me, tell me!"

Nezu demanded of me, looking even more frantic than before.

… I didn't owe him any explanation, but…

"… As pathetic as he is, he's still my former slave. Would you mind if I told him?"

Kanan asked me with a sigh.

"… Got it. Sure."

When I gave permission, Kanan stepped forward.

"… I'll tell you. Naoto… has not given me a single command, not one!"

She declared.

"… Huh?"

Nezu froze with his stupid face hanging open.

"… Well, except during training. Naoto in training mode… is a demon."

That part was pitched only for me to hear.

"Nya… Goshujin-sama is kind and I love him, but… in training, he's scary, nyaaa～"

"Naoto's tone stays calm, but he comes at you with logic and presses you in this nagging way of 'why did you make this mistake?', and it's brutal…"

Yuria had chimed in too.

"Even when I cried and apologized that it was impossible, he'd say, 'Maika, I don't want you to apologize. I just want you to keep trying until you can do it'…"

Maika too.

"Aah… that line, 'You see, "I can't do it" just means you haven't done it until you can,' is a trauma for me too…"

Lyuka had piled on too.

"… How much easier it is when he gives lewd commands instead…"

"Shh! If you say something like that to training-mode Naoto, it's 'looks like you've still got slack in you,' and he'll extend the session…!"

Kanan's careless remark seemed to have flipped everyone's trauma switch.

A full-blown gripe fest about me had kicked off. Apparently the past two weeks of training life had been unpopular with the group.

"Setsuna really did handle it. She didn't whine even once."

"Onii-chan's been training me in all kinds of things from way back, so I'm used to it…"

"… But the smile he shows us when we manage to do it well makes up for it all in the end."

When Leone covered for me, everyone nodded in agreement.

"… Well, in the end, we really did learn it… Even though it absolutely wasn't material you'd master in two weeks…"

"If we work hard and follow Naoto-kun's instructions, we won't go wrong; that's the conviction we came away with… In other words, there's no room to push back, but…"

"W-We'll keep working hard from here on too!"

Haru had wrapped it up.

"Yeah, well, I'll keep going hard on you all from here on, too."

When I said that, everyone's smiles had gotten a bit stiff.

"… No way, no way, no way… no waaaaay!"

At that moment, Nezu rebooted.

"… This world… is my world! I escaped from that piece-of-shit former world where everyone scorned and made a fool of me, and arrived in the true world where I, the great me, shine! Even Okudera and Fujii, who looked like they shone brighter than me in the previous world, got beaten down by me, pissed themselves, handed over their women, and ran off! I am the strongest! I'll stand at the apex of this world! … And it's only natural for me, the great me, to obtain the greatest woman! Kanan is miiine!!"

"In our previous world, you kicked me, scorned me endlessly, made nasty comments, put me through plenty. Well, fine, whatever. It's in the past… But what I won't forgive is that you scorned my Haru. You deserve a thousand deaths… We wager each other's entire fortune. Go to ruin."

"… Entire fortune?! Kikiki! Perfect! Now that I think about it, you were trash and garbage even as a slave; the only thing you were ever good for was being the great me's stress-relief punching bag! The one thing I'll praise you for is handing Kanan over to me!"

"And the only thing I'll praise you for is the money you'll be handing over."

A battle wagering each other's entire fortune. Nezu had accepted easily.

We'd had enough of this war of words. At last, the battle was about to begin.