85. Dot and Dot
It was the middle of the night, 2 a.m., a time when most people in the world were asleep. For Tech, this hour was not one for sleeping but the most active time of day.
Tonight, after finishing his nighttime exercise and preparing for the second round, Tech decided to handle some trivial tasks during his break.
“Mio. Are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
“Good. Then report on that man.”
“Understood.”
Instantly responding to Tech’s call, Mio knelt in front of Tech and reported on the order she had received only a few hours earlier.
“Based on the appearance Tech-sama described, the person Tech-sama is referring to is named Takuma.”
“Takuma, huh. Then what kind of being is that person exactly?”
“I am still investigating that matter, but I have learned a few things. First, he lives in a rented inn and is an adventurer.”
“An adventurer, huh. So he must be quite a strong person?”
“No, he is a complete newcomer who became an adventurer only a few weeks ago.”
“What? Then why did the people I sent out — adventurers who had been active for over ten years — lose? How is this man able to defeat Miaraant?”
“I cannot say for certain. However, there is one most important fact about this man named Takuma.”
“What is that important fact?”
A few hours earlier, Tech had called Mio and asked her to investigate one man. When she heard the appearance he described, Mio was so surprised she almost let out a voice.
Because the man Tech spoke of was the actual Takuma, the parent of the Agemon she had been investigating.
Thanks to that, she had managed to gather a surprising amount of information in just a few hours.
“Regarding the food you mentioned the other day — such as fried potatoes — the parent of that dish is this man named Takuma.”
“What…?!”
Tech was stunned into silence by Mio’s report.
Tech was not the only one who felt a fateful connection between the dots. Mio too had begun to suspect there was something special about Takuma.
“It seems the heavens truly grant two or three gifts to those with talent…”
A being who had been promised supremacy from birth, immense power within his own imagination, and an insatiable thirst for things beyond ordinary people. Tech compared himself to Takuma — both possessed far more than the average human.
“Mio. Did you manage to steal the recipe?”
“No, it is still on our side.”
“I see. Then the plan to steal the recipe is canceled. From now on, monitor Takuma’s movements.”
“Understood.”
Mio had just received her new mission and was about to head toward the inn where Takuma likely lived, when Tech’s voice cut in before she could move.
“By the way, Mio.”
When her master called out to her, Mio remained exactly as she was and listened.
“Stand up straight right now.” “…Yes.”
Following her master’s order, Mio rose from the chair she had been sitting in.
The top of her large breasts now hovered just above Tech’s head.
“Mio. You… Why is your nipple erect…?”
What Tech’s gaze fell upon was Mio’s large breasts, and beneath the specially made suit, the erect nipples rising from them.
“…I apologize.”
“I am not asking for an apology. I am asking why your nipple is erect.”
The reason for Mio’s erect nipple was something Tech himself knew better than anyone. After all, he was the one who had designed her body to react this way.
He enjoyed watching others feel embarrassed by asking the obvious question on purpose.
“…Because I thought something might be done to me, so it became erect…”
“I see… If you expect it that much, as your master I must answer, otherwise I would be failing in my duty…”
Tech’s crotch, visible even from a distance while he sat in the chair, was clearly bulging upward from his clothes.
“Then go over there.” “…Understood.”
Following Tech’s command, he pointed to the rightmost of the restraint tables where no one was currently restrained. Mio walked toward it with her own feet.
—-
Exactly one week had passed since Takuma had participated in the Mad Banquet Fight.
Today, like every day, Takuma had no business as an adventurer and was killing time alone. He had come to Lolo’s store by himself.
“What on earth are you doing here today?”
“If you have no business, you shouldn’t be coming, right?”
“Of course. This is a shop, and you are a customer. If you’re not going to buy anything, you should just go home.”
“Is that how you treat customers?” “Anyone who doesn’t buy anything from me isn’t a customer, right?”
“You say it’s a customer and then say it’s not. Which is it…”
Takuma looked puzzled, but Lolo showed no sign of coming out from behind the counter. It was clear he was not about to throw him out.
Well, that was just Takuma’s imagination. He did not know Lolo’s true feelings, but he himself had a reason he could not leave this place.
“Roughly speaking, the reason I can’t walk outside during the daytime is partly because of you, old man.”
“What was that?”
“After winning against the incredibly strong female fighter in the Mad Banquet Fight that you told me about, every time I walk outside, I start getting stared at and glinted at by at least one person.”
“One week ago. In the Mad Banquet Fight, I defeated the number-one fighter, Miaraant. Since then, whenever I walk outside, at least one person has given me a thorough stare. At first it wasn’t a big deal, but when it became a daily occurrence and sometimes dozens of people gave me hot stares, I started getting annoyed. All of them were men. Of course they were almost certainly the ones who had been at the Mad Banquet Fight that day.
There were times when I felt my life was in danger, but according to Lena, there was hostility, but not genuine killing intent. As the days passed, I also gradually noticed a change in the quality of the stares. Now, even without asking Lena, I can roughly tell whether the stares I’m receiving are from assassins or not. Moreover, more than half of them are out of pure curiosity.
Coming to this world, I had already been subjected to painful stares, so I was starting to feel a mild depression.”
“Why did you write ‘Roo-tsu’ on the back of my business card?”
After his victory over Miaraant, Takuma remembered that the name written on the back of the business card he had given at the reception was “Roo-tsu.”
“Why? I thought it would be a place where my magic would shine. Besides, since I won, I must have earned a decent amount of loot, right?”
“That’s true — my magic was definitely used. But I almost died for a completely different reason. Besides, I haven’t had a single attack since then.”
“Not a single attack? There’s nothing left?”
“Yeah. Interestingly enough, since the day of the Mad Banquet Fight, I have not been attacked once. Lena also says she senses no danger on that side.”
“Maybe performing well in the Mad Banquet Fight was the reason?”
“That has nothing to do with it…”
Takuma was denying it, but he secretly thought that might actually be the case.
“So with the danger gone, today you can act alone, huh?”
“That’s true, but there are other reasons I’m acting alone as well.”
For the past few days, people who had watched the events of the Mad Banquet Fight had started staring at Takuma. At that time, of course, Lena had been beside him as his guard.
And in the Mad Banquet Fight, Takuma had rejected the right to freely do anything he wanted with the number-one woman. On top of that, there was the beastman little girl standing right next to him.
The answer that could be drawn from here was almost always the same one answer.
For those reasons, he had been observing for a week, but no one had made a move. From today onward, he would act alone.
Besides, he had always felt hesitant to bring Lena here. Lena herself did not mind, but for her this place was too stimulating.
Well, she was older than him, but visually — or perhaps artistically — she was on another level.
“Then how about going to a brothel?”
“…You really came out with it…”
He had expected she would eventually suggest it, but she had come up with it right away.
According to Takuma’s guess, she would have come up with it first. But there was a certain threshold to going to a brothel.
There were many reasons, but they could be divided into two main ones. One was the resolve to step into the adult world that was a brothel. The other was having far more than average wealth.
In that sense, watching the Mad Banquet Fight was about as low a barrier as renting an erotic video from a rental store and watching it.
However, a brothel was 100% the woman’s choice, and she had to perform whatever she wished. The cost would be completely different from the Mad Banquet Fight.
“You have your own preferences, so I’ll write down the name of the shop I go to most often and its approximate location. Go check it out for yourself.”
With those words, Lolo handed Takuma a memo listing three brothel names. Takuma headed to a brothel in broad daylight.
