Akatsuki Translations

“Evie, we’re handling Red Goblins without much trouble now,” I said.

“At level 10, they’re just small fry. I guess higher-level people probably see us the same way,” Evie replied.

“Even at level 100, that’s still ten times our level. I wonder if it’s the same feeling we have when we look at people who aren’t explorers at all?” Misuzu mused.

It’s a frightening thought. Now that we’ve reached level 10, I understand why the Self-Defense Forces were utterly defeated by explorers. Even at our current level, I feel like we could overwhelm a tank.

Imagine someone at level 100, 200, or even over 500. I sympathize with the SDF soldiers who were told to fight against such opponents. They probably couldn’t even perceive the explorers before they were upon them.

“The whole world has gone crazy,” Misuzu muttered, casually shooting an arrow at an acacia tree. The arrow flew straight without arcing, piercing through the tree and leaving a hole.

“Really. I wonder why dungeons don’t allow armies or police inside,” Misuzu continued.

We discussed how only unrestrained individuals can enter dungeons, leading to a rapid decline in public safety worldwide. Even Japan can no longer be called a safe country.

For police and military to benefit from dungeons, they must defeat monsters that overflow during dungeon collapses to level up. Some tried to quit officially, level up, then rejoin, but dungeon regulations quickly prevented this.

Now, police and military can only recruit high-level dropouts at great expense, becoming their strongest forces. But these dropouts likely lack a strong sense of maintaining public order, leaving no official organization to keep order among explorers.

“I wonder if there’s a reason? Or maybe it’s just trying to plunge the world into chaos,” Misuzu suggested, sounding like she’d pulled the idea from an anime.

“I feel like that’s not quite right,” I said.

“You think so? To me, it seems like they’re just reacting haphazardly, immediately imposing dungeon regulations whenever a loophole is found,” Evie chimed in.

Nothing had happened between Evie and me last night. This morning, she acted as usual. I had thought Evie would easily accept a harem situation, but now she seemed to be the one pondering it most.

The human heart is unpredictable. Why didn’t I realize it wouldn’t be so simple? Of course, accepting a harem isn’t easy, even for someone like Evie who’s always been chosen. Now she’s in a situation where she needs Misuzu’s permission to be with me.

“That’s true. But after being in the dungeon for so long, I feel like there’s some unified intention behind it all,” I said.

As we talked, we remained tense, aware of the impending battle with the Goblin Army. Evie rode Rai, with the young girl behind her, both staying alert. Misuzu and I walked side by side, with Misuzu casting detection magic.

“Anyway, since both Misuzu and Evie have become so beautiful, we might need to use the ring of transformation constantly when we reach higher floors like the 11th, where we’ll see more explorers,” I suggested.

“I wonder if our stats will be okay with Sapphire-grade equipment,” Misuzu worried.

We had initially avoided constant transformation due to this concern.

“Did Nagumo say anything about it?” Evie asked.

“When I asked, he said he didn’t know,” I replied.

Nagumo-san’s charm value was once 80, causing him considerable trouble. But in his time, there weren’t many people stronger than him, so the extreme level differences we face didn’t exist.

“He also said, ‘The situation is too different now to be useful as a reference,’” I added.

“Well, that makes sense,” Evie agreed.

“I guess we’ll have to try transforming with the rings and raising just one level to see,” I suggested.

“The one who needs to transform most is you, Yuuta,” Misuzu pointed out.

“I’m a man,” I protested.

“Hah, you say that after telling your own face ‘I like you.’ I wonder when you’ll say that to me?” Evie teased.

“…”

I felt like I could say it to Misuzu with the same momentum I had with Imari. I could even say it to Evie.

“Yuuta, gender doesn’t matter for explorers. Half of the 12 Heroes are women, right? In fact, as women level up, they find fewer men willing to be with them and become starved for male attention. If a man as beautiful as you wanders around, it’s like saying, ‘Please eat me, ladies,’” Evie explained.

“You’re exaggerating,” I said, but remembered Kagura-san and the others. Sakaki-san had cruelly described them as “lonely old maids with no men to keep them company.”

We discussed how high-level, beautiful women often struggle to find partners, leading some to seek companionship in dungeon pets.

“Then Yuuta, why don’t you try entering the dungeon shop during the day with that face?” Evie challenged.

“…I’ll pass,” I declined, not wanting to risk being kept by women for life.

Suddenly, we heard a faint, broken message.

“Kya. Suddenl–….. Whe—…… wo-….. run—“

“Both of you, zebras,” Misuzu said abruptly.

“!?”

We were startled. “Both of you, zebras” was our predetermined code phrase meaning, “Detection magic has picked up humans. Evie, immediately dismiss Rai and Lean, and all three of us transform into zebras.”

We didn’t confirm with Misuzu. If humans were here, they were likely over level 100 and could approach at unimaginable speeds. Although we thought we wouldn’t need to be too cautious on this floor, we had prepared for the most dangerous scenario.

I quickly took out the ring of transformation from my magic bag and changed into a zebra, checking if the others had managed to transform in time. Evie was slightly delayed by dismissing her summons, but they both managed to complete the transformation.

As some time passed, I began to hear voices too.

“Professor, there’s no need to rush so much~”

The voice didn’t seem to have noticed us, which was initially a relief. The ring of transformation was a Sapphire-grade item lent by Nagumo-san. Unless we were seen before transforming, no explorer should be able to see through our disguise. However…

“Buhihin (Three zebras suddenly clustered together. Isn’t that unnatural?)”

I tried to speak, but what came out was a horse’s neigh.

We had researched zebra behavior online. While zebras often move in herds, they don’t always do so, and some act alone. Apparently, you can see zebras exhibiting various behaviors in the savanna.

Still, we were tense, knowing that explorers above level 100 should have very sharp senses. We started moving to avoid appearing unnatural. Walking on four legs was incredibly difficult and I almost tripped several times. Two zebras, either Misuzu or Evie, followed behind me.

“You guys are so carefree,” the voice said. “What if you had kids? Don’t you want to be there for the birth?”

“Not really,” someone replied.

“Sigh, this is why ordinary people are so disappointing,” the first voice continued.

“I’d rather stay ordinary than have the mindset to recruit people at university to give birth to goblin babies,” another person retorted.

“Why not? Humans giving birth to a completely different species – if I were a woman, I’d be thrilled to do it,” the first voice insisted.

“Ugh,” someone groaned.

This conversation. Explorers who might be wandering around the Stone Area. I thought it might be that explorer we both wanted and didn’t want to meet.

“…”

I wanted to see what they looked like and confirm it properly. However, I had strictly told the other two not to look directly at them.

“…”

“Professor, is something wrong?” one of the voices asked.

“…”

“Professor?”

“Ah, why did the country bother creating something as useless as the D-ranks?” the professor suddenly said. “Because of that, there are hardly any happy girls being kept in goblin villages.”

I was pretty sure now. Based on that conversation, this person was undoubtedly quite unhinged. We absolutely couldn’t let someone like this discover us with Misuzu and Evie present.

“What’s with that all of a sudden?” someone replied. “Well, your logic is incomprehensible, but politicians need to show the public they’re doing something, right? Otherwise, they’ll lose the elections.”

“Even though it’s doubtful they’ll reach graduation level 30?” the professor countered. “I predict 25 will be the limit.”

“25… That’s borderline,” another voice commented.

“For us, 25 or 1 is the same, isn’t it?” someone else added.

“The Demon-Eyed said this,” one of them began. “Next year, when the new graduates from a D-rank come to the dungeon all excited, he’ll tell them…”

“‘Congratulations on your grand detour. Let me teach you. This is what a dungeon is really like,’ right?” another finished.

“Professor, did you know that?”

“It’s something that kid would say. I can pretty much imagine it,” the professor replied.

“I was surprised when I heard the graduation level was 100,” one of them admitted.

“It’s like they’re planning to kill 90% of the students,” another added. “Don’t you think so too, Professor?”

“That’s right,” the professor agreed. “D-rank focused too much on ensuring safety. If they had intended to kill at least half, it might have functioned a bit more properly as a dungeon high school. Why do people always try to make everything average?”

“Maybe because it feels safer that way?” someone suggested. “I feel much more at ease when I’m with everyone else.”

“You’re just pitiful,” the professor scoffed.

Misuzu and Evie. Despite our talk about being careful not to look in their direction unnaturally, they were now staring that way in shock. I couldn’t blame them. Even if they hadn’t attended a D-rank themselves, nowadays everyone has an acquaintance or two who did.

It’s hard to remain composed when you hear that those people are just wasting their time. But why were they having this conversation now?

“Well, anyway, I hope next year comes quickly,” the professor continued. “Then I won’t have to go through all this trouble.”

And then I too couldn’t help but glance briefly at that person.

He didn’t look like an explorer. His spine was curved, giving him a hunched posture. His face looked unhealthy and pale. Maybe in his 40s? His eyes were sunken with severe dark circles.

Probably the exact opposite of explorers whose appearances improve. Someone whose looks didn’t improve at all. The type commonly said to be hated by the dungeon.

“Oh, how rare. It’s a woman,” the professor suddenly said.

“A woman!?” the others exclaimed.

“Where?”

“Is she cute!?”

It was a group of four men, with three of them being young. While the three young ones were properly equipped and seemed to have improved appearances, only the man called “Professor” was wearing a white coat, which looked oddly out of place.

“You guys are really stupid,” the professor said. “Well, it’s too late now. My only misfortune is that idiots like you three decided to follow me.”

“That’s harsh,” the three chorused.

“What should we do? They don’t seem to be very high level. At this rate, they might die right away,” the professor mused.

And then he was looking directly at us.

Ah, this is the worst.

We had been completely led into this. When did he notice? Just like I’d seen on TV. Yonezaki looked in our direction with an unhealthy smile on his face.

“Professor, what are you saying about zebras?” one of the young men asked.

“Have you become so obsessed with animals that you’re now lusting after zebras?” another chimed in.

The professor replied, “You guys go on ahead. I have some business with those kids. I’ll catch up with you later after I talk to them.”

“Huh? Are you going to experiment on zebras too?” one of them questioned.

“I think we’ve done enough,” another commented.

The young men quickly disappeared, leaving only the man in the white coat behind. Despite his curved spine, he walked towards us with surprising agility and stood in front of the three of us.

“Good day. Or should I say good morning? It’s 4 AM now. I wonder why young people like you are in a place like this at this hour? Has D-rank started extracurricular activities?” the professor inquired.

We’ve been found out. No doubt about it. Our movements as zebras must have been unnatural. While others might not have noticed, it was obvious to Yonezaki, who’s also a zoologist.

And he confirmed it. Whether we could understand their conversation. How did he know we were young? Why did he say we were women? Ah, more importantly, I needed to think about what to do next.

“No response, huh?” the professor continued. “How long are you going to stay on all fours? Or is that your hobby? If you’re planning to do mating experiments in zebra form, I’d love to observe.”

“…How did you know?” I finally asked.

As a last attempt at resistance, I transformed into an quite ugly man, even worse-looking than my original self. Misuzu and Evie had transformed into their usual disguise of a couple in their 40s.

“I said ‘young people,’ didn’t I? Are you hard of hearing?” the professor pointed out.

“…”

I had heard that, so I didn’t try to disguise my age. I had taken the form of a 15-year-old boy. But the other two had used their familiar disguises. I could sense Misuzu and Evie’s unease. The best option would have been to maintain our young age but take on different female appearances.

Surely he couldn’t see through that. But I couldn’t think of a way for all three of us to coordinate our appearances. Any signal I tried to send would likely be noticed. If we changed again and he saw through it, we might really anger this man.

“We’re not hard of hearing,” I said.

I reverted to my true form. Misuzu and Evie seemed shocked when I revealed my true appearance, but they followed suit.

“Oh, this is honestly surprising,” the professor remarked. “You’re quite a good-looking trio. Especially you… ah, pardon me. You’re a boy, aren’t you?”

“Y-yes,” I stammered.

“How honest of you. It’s been a while since I’ve seen people on this floor in Kofu. The last time it was two 18-year-old girls. They were very nice girls. Now they’re living with goblins on the third floor.”

“Um, are you planning to take us to a goblin village?” I asked nervously.

That’s the last thing we want. If it came to that, I might be okay, but Misuzu and Evie would choose death right here. I knew they had discussed this. I saw them secretly grip their daggers.

“Make absolutely sure you don’t fail to die,” was the advice given to women who were about to be taken away by goblins. If you fail to die, you’ll be kept alive eternally in a situation worse than death.

“Why would I have to do something like that?” the professor responded. “Do you think I would go against the laws of nature like that?”

“Laws of nature?” I echoed, confused.

What is this person trying to say?

“Oh, I see!” the professor suddenly exclaimed. “Could it be that you like goblins!? I understand that feeling! Goblins are great, aren’t they!?”

“No, that’s not-” I tried to interject, but he continued his excited rant.

“They’re so well-evolved as living beings! They can impregnate anyone – lions, rhinos, giraffes, humans, anyone! Moreover, they can impregnate the offspring of those species, and even their own descendants! Mysteriously, when it’s another species, the offspring is always female! But with their own kind, it’s always male! What a mystical creature! Yet it’s so hard to find girls who like goblins, and the other day, even though someone finally gave birth to a goblin, they killed the child! What terrible parents! Don’t you think so!?”

“N-no, I don’t…” I answered.

I had to deny it. I felt that if I agreed, Misuzu and Evie would be thrown into a goblin village.

“So you’re just an ordinary person too…” the professor sighed. “Why are there so few people in this world who can understand the greatness of goblins?”

I thought it was probably just him, rather than there being few people.

“Well…” I hesitated.

“But I do think monsters are mysterious,” I murmured.

I didn’t feel like completely denying it. Monsters with biologies impossible for humans – I did find that mysterious.

“Oh? In what way?” the professor asked, his tone seeming to test me.

It was the way smart people often speak. My dad sometimes talks like this too, but his tone usually has a hint of inferiority complex. This man, however, seemed purely curious.

“Well, like why killing goblins increases our level, or why goblins charge at opponents they clearly can’t defeat. What their purpose in life is, where they come from, or if they’re just spontaneously generated here…” I explained.

“You find that mysterious?” he asked.

“Y-yes,” I replied.

“Hmm… Is there anything else you find mysterious? Anything related to the dungeon is fine.”

“Oh, and I feel like there’s a unified will in the dungeon. I wonder why this will doesn’t allow police or military into the dungeon.”

“Hmm, your way of perceiving the dungeon is similar to mine,” the professor noted.

Being told I was similar to this person was quite disconcerting. But I was relieved that his interest seemed piqued. The most important thing now was to avoid being disliked by him.

“You’re Yonezaki-san, right?” I asked.

“Correct. Well, I do appear on TV. But more importantly, would you like to know the answer to your earlier question?”

“You know the reason?”

Yonezaki seemed about to explain about the dungeon, yet not. A face I’d seen on TV before. Yonezaki always looked somewhat bored.

“Yes, I do. The reason is simple. The dungeon doesn’t let police or military in because what the dungeon wants and what the police and military want are incompatible,” he explained.

“You mean maintaining public order is troublesome for the dungeon?” I asked.

“That’s right. Inside the dungeon, at least. They’re free to do as they please outside. That’s why the military and police can level up outside.”

“So the dungeon really does have intentions,” I said, embarrassingly pleased to hear this opinion.

“Of course. If something capable of creating all this had no intentions, that would be unnatural. By the way, can you guess the intention of the first floor?”

No doubt about it. Yonezaki was testing me again. If I answered this correctly, would he give me some kind of reward? I found myself somewhat intrigued by the idea.

“Can I think about it for a moment?” I asked.

“Sure, go ahead. But I’m a bit busy as I have to attend a birth soon. Still, I’d like to chat with you a bit more. Do you have an explorer’s smartphone?”

“Y-yes, I do,” I replied.

“W-wait a minute, Yuuta!” Misuzu suddenly called out.

Ignoring her, I took out my smartphone from my magic bag. For some reason, I was drawn to this person.

“Yuuta. This person could do anything to us. If he changes his mind even a little, who knows what he might do,” Evie warned.

“Haha, I’m offended. To think you believe I would do something so stupid,” the professor chuckled.

“But there are two women. You said they’re in a goblin village,” Misuzu pointed out.

“They are. Of their own free will. Is there a problem?”

From a normal perspective, there were plenty of problems, but in this person’s mind, it seemed perfectly fine. Yet, I could somewhat understand his feelings.

“If you don’t want to end up like that, you should make sure it doesn’t happen. Right?” I suggested.

“Yes, yes, exactly,” he agreed.

I prepared my smartphone for exchanging contact information. Once he was ready too, we did the wireless transfer. After the exchange, the name displayed was:

【Yonezaki Hideki】

“Yuuta Rokujou, huh. What are you going to do now?” he asked.

“The Goblin Army,” I replied.

“Ah, I see. If you don’t die, let’s meet again. Oh, and about two kilometers from here – I sent you some map data along with my contact info earlier. There’s a marked location where two girls are. They’ve been living with goblins for about half a year. I’m sure you understand, but don’t interfere, okay?”

“…I understand. They’re there because they want to be,” I said.

I checked the map app just in case. If we hadn’t met Yonezaki here, we would have definitely encountered that village. And if we had managed to defeat the Goblin Army, we probably would have ended up ‘rescuing’ those women.

“As long as you understand. The other day, this idiot explorer named Kunimaru came at me with some weird grudge. Saying things like ‘It’s against ethics!’ and ‘Do you have a human heart?’ He was truly incomprehensible. I had to go through the trouble of taking care of him. I hope you won’t cause me such trouble,” Yonezaki said.

I couldn’t respond to those words and just remained silent. Surely, the two 18-year-old women must have lost to the Goblin Army. And then they were captured. Yet Yonezaki says they chose this of their own will.

Kunimaru-san, as a normal person, couldn’t agree with such an opinion. So he tried to help them and was defeated instead. That’s what I could immediately guess. I wondered what I, as a normal person, should do in this situation.