Akatsuki Translations

After completing the quest, we continued leveling up without going outside, and once we finished leveling, we immediately started exploring the dungeon stairs. When Evie showed me Rai, she threatened me multiple times, saying,

“Just to be clear, don’t lay a hand on Rai. If you do, you’ll have to face Lean as well.” -Evie

I wondered what she was so worried about. I’m not that fickle or a cheater. I fell in love with Imari, Misuzu, and Evie all at the same time. If you call that careless, it certainly is careless. It’s thoroughly careless without a moment’s hesitation.

However, that’s all because beautiful girls kept telling me they loved me day after day. Being told that so much, I just came to a weird conclusion after coming full circle. Of course, I don’t have the courage to do anything to Lean. So I kept saying “It’s fine.” And then,

“I want to ride Rai. Every day if possible.” -Yuuta

“Hey, Yuuta, were you listening to what I just said?” -Evie

“No, it’s not cheating. I just said I want to ride Rai, that’s all. I just want to ride a lion and run around the savanna.” -Yuuta

“You really just want to ride?” -Evie

“That’s right. What else would I do?” -Yuuta

“Well, I guess that’s okay, but not every day. We have exploring to do, you know.” -Evie

“R-Right, that’s true.” -Yuuta

“Anyway, I’ll let you ride just once. But absolutely no funny business, got it?” -Evie

Evie kept stressing that to me over and over. I think she has some misconceptions about my character. I just normally thought I wanted to ride a lion and run around the savanna. Why do I have to be regarded with such suspicion for that?

Feeling somewhat unconvinced, I mounted Rai.

And honestly, it was the best. Feeling at one with the wind was the best. I really want to ride Rai more. But judging from how things went, it doesn’t seem like I can ask too frequently. It’s a shame, since we’re properly exploring the stairs together with Rai.

“Yuuta, it’s about time,” Rai said, stopping for a moment and returning to human form, looking down at me. She was a tall, pure white woman with lion ears on her head, possessing a wild beauty.

“Time sure flies by quickly, doesn’t it?” I said.

“I wish we could stay like this.”  -Rai

“I want to spend more time together with Rai too.” -Yuuta

“I’m glad to hear that, but I wish you’d say it with a different meaning.” -Rai

“…Sorry. I phrased that weirdly.” -Yuuta

“It’s fine. Right now, I’m happy enough with that. Shall we go to where Master is?” -Rai

It was decided that we would only do this for an hour. While Rai and I went for a long ride, Evie stayed with Misuzu in case of any danger. Lean was with them too, but leaving those two alone for too long made her anxious.

Rai returned to beast form and I mounted her back.

Rai slowly accelerated at first, then gradually sped up. The grasslands, acacia trees, and the animals of the savanna. Rai ran, leaving everything behind. It was my first time riding a living creature, but thanks to my exponentially increased physical abilities and Rai running while taking care as much as possible for my sake, there were no issues.

Evie and the others, who were continuing to explore the stairs, were about 30 km ahead. For Rai, it would take about 10 minutes. Regrettably, my long ride with Rai was coming to an end with that. A herd of hippos were bathing at a watering hole. Rai detoured around the herd, and the watering hole drew near before our eyes.

Rai contracted her body and leaped over the roughly 10 meter wide watering hole in one breath.

“Gao?” -Rai

Rai said something and I turned my attention there. I saw a group of goblin riders.

“Gao gao?” -Rai

It seemed she couldn’t speak while in white lion form, so she asked in a growling voice. I understood she was asking if we should annihilate them. I gently stroked Rai’s back. Just from that, she seemed to understand what I wanted to do, and Rai’s body turned to face the horde of goblin riders.

“GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”  -Rai

Rai roared majestically. The roar resounded throughout the savanna grasslands. The herbivores fled in fear.

“Gyagyaa!”

The goblin rider on lookout naturally noticed us.

A horde of 20 riders. If we had approached them like this before, we would have had a terrible experience. But now that I was level 7, and after completing the quest with an S rating, my physical abilities had improved to an incomparable degree compared to before.

Rai approached the horde of goblin riders, kicking up a tremendous cloud of dust. They must have judged us as a threat. All 20 riders simultaneously fired arrows. If they had done this to us back when we were still level 3, I definitely would have died in one shot.

But now it was different.

After all, Rai had also become level 7. In the first place, there was no way the goblin riders’ arrows would pierce Rai at this distance.

Rai ran to the right to avoid the arrows. They must have been leading their shots to predict Rai’s movements, but we left even that behind. The arrows pierced the ground one after another where Rai had run,

“Gao!”  -Rai

I understood she was telling me “Don’t fall off.” I firmly fixed myself to Rai’s body with both legs so I wouldn’t be shaken off. I also gripped the reins tightly.

Rai weaved through the barrage of falling arrows and entered a trajectory heading straight for the goblin riders. I drew my Flaming Sword Mikamaru. The distance to the goblin riders closed at a speed that would be absolutely impossible for me alone. I chanted a skill.

“【Acceleration】” -Yuuta

For just 10 seconds, my agility increased to a frightening degree. An acceleration so fast that my own perception couldn’t keep up. I slashed through 3 riders as we passed each other, severing the heads of the goblins and lions together. The heads of the goblins and lions danced in the air, scattering fresh blood.

The cross-sections were slightly charred, making them bleed less. That was the effect of Mikamaru. Little by little, Mikamaru was starting to respond to me as well.

“Gao” -Rai

She was telling me “Here they come”. The leader Red Goblin slashed at me from the front. But the effect of 【Acceleration】 hadn’t worn off yet. My blade reached the Red Goblin’s neck without hesitation. It was like watching it in slow motion.

I concentrated to the limit and could see everything clearly.

At the last moment, the Red Goblin caught the flaming blade with his sword, but I still slashed through. I cut off the blade of the Red Goblin’s sword along with it. The blade and the Red Goblin’s head rolled on the ground. With the Red Goblin, who could put up some resistance, dead, it turned into a one-sided massacre from there.

Every time we passed through, the number of goblin riders decreased, and before I knew it, the enemy had laid out corpses all over the savanna.

“Gao gao” -Rai

“Ah, gacha coins.” -Yuuta

Over the past 2 weeks, I had found 9 coins myself. I found 8 of them, and the remaining 1 was just found by Rai. Gacha coins are extremely hard to find. The savanna grass reaches up to the waist, and if you want to find them, you have to check quite thoroughly.

But I’m not good at that. Yet, everyone else finds gacha coins often. Misuzu even said she had 30 coins as of last night. Does Misuzu have a gacha coin radar attached to her or something?

*Ring ring

Ring ring*

My smartphone rang. The call was from Misuzu. I was about to head back now, so I wondered what the call was about. Just in case, I had told the two of them,

“Don’t fight over me, please.” -Yuuta

Even I thought, what is this guy saying? I said those words and went out for a long ride with Rai. I looked at my watch and an hour and a half had passed. I was having so much fun riding Rai that I had gone 30 minutes over our agreed time. My heart was pounding.

Just then,

“Yuuta. We found the stairs!” -Misuzu

Good news came from Misuzu. I was happy too. At the same time, I was relieved it wasn’t a call to come because they couldn’t settle a fight. I asked Rai and we regrouped with the two of them as quickly as possible. The three of us rejoiced together.

It seemed Misuzu was the one who found it. When Misuzu reached level 7, she gained a scouting skill. She found it using that.

“For now, let’s have lunch.” -Yuuta

With this, the exploration of the 2nd floor was over. We took a break. We decided to have lunch in between. We each ate our usual meals.

“Pork cutlet bowl” “Ramen” “Meat” “Give me meat, raw” “I want cake”

We ate while saying such things. During the meal, Misuzu also seemed envious of me and said she wanted to ride Rai. Evie gave the okay, and Rai started running with Misuzu on her back without protest.

Left alone with Evie,

“Rai is really great, isn’t she?” -Yuuta

“Don’t praise only Rai so much, you’ll make Lean feel sad.” -Evie

“It’s okay. I’m the older sister. Older sister, generous to younger sister.” -Lean

“Haha, Lean is smart too. I wonder if Evie will keep getting smarter and smarter familiars like this from now on.” -Yuuta

I was really envious of that. I could imagine how cool Evie would look commanding 12 familiars like 【Kain】. As I was imagining it, for some reason Lean climbed up my back and hung from my neck. So I gave her a piggyback ride.

“H-Hey. Yuuta.” -Rai

“Yeah?” -Yuuta

“Um, I know I said that before, but can we still meet after we get out of the dungeon?” -Rai

Evie asked.

“What do you mean? Aren’t we going to meet normally?” -Yuuta

“Well, you know, I said we shouldn’t meet, right?” -Rai

“Ah, yeah.” -Yuuta

Come to think of it, there was talk about not meeting up after getting out of the dungeon because of the thing with Imari. We entered the dungeon again on February 2nd, and today it was February 18th. If we didn’t come out at least once, Imari would worry, and Misuzu’s family would worry too.

So we had decided to come out for a bit. And just like before, we would take a 3-day break and then enter the dungeon again.

“During that break, Evie is asking to meet at least once. That’s what you mean, right?” -Yuuta

“Uh, yeah, is that no good?” -Rai

“We can meet. I was planning to make time for Evie properly on the 2nd day after getting out of the dungeon.” -Yuuta

I replied like that.

“Thank goodness. I thought you might not want to meet outside because I said too much.” -Rai

Having relationships with multiple women. If I kept doing this, I wouldn’t be able to say anything about my dad who abandoned us. Even so, I choose that path.

“Why don’t you come home? You’re a lawyer, dad. Don’t neglect your parental duties.” -Yuuta

“Shut up. I’m properly sending you money. You should be able to manage with that.” -Yuuta’s Father

“That’s not what I’m talking about.” -Yuuta

“A failure of a student like you will never understand my feelings.”  -Yuuta’s Father

That’s what my dad said to me when I called him. I thought I was saying the right thing. But I couldn’t say anything back to those words. Even now, I don’t understand the meaning of what my dad said back then.

But at the very least, I thought I had to avoid making Evie, Misuzu, and Imari, who I wanted to have, unhappy.

“I really intend to think about Evie properly. It depends on the plans after getting out of the dungeon, but I think we can meet, so I’ll properly contact you. Um… I want you to wait for me.” -Yuuta

“Yeah… I understand. I don’t mind being after Misuzu and Imari, and don’t push yourself. I’ll be a good girl and wait.” -Rai

Being told that makes me feel guilty. Is the person who can’t abandon anyone in the end the worst? In that sense, was my dad who abandoned me not the worst? No, he’s still the worst after all.

That’s why I need to show my sincerity in my own way so that I don’t become the worst. I knew that much. Imari will be coming soon too. I wanted to figure things out before then.

As I was thinking about that, Misuzu came back. When Misuzu returned, we started preparing to go back.

We decided to descend the stairs to the 3rd floor the next time we enter. It’s rare, but sometimes a time-limited quest suddenly triggers the moment you enter that floor.

So they say you shouldn’t readily set foot in it unless you intend to explore that floor as is. Besides, there are a large number of gacha coins. Misuzu is fidgeting. Evie started praying for something too. Having finished exploring the 2nd floor, it was gacha time.