Server Name: Mu Green.
Starting Location: Tokonatsu City, Mega-Float III.
Log-in credentials accepted.
Welcome to Money (Game) Master, Kaname Suou.
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Kaname Suou lay on some tatami mats, arms and legs splayed, like a bloated corpse.
He was beyond saving.
“My Lord?”
“…”
“My Lord, I don’t mind letting you rest in my lap, but I must say it’s rather bold of you to be lying facedown rather than faceup.”
The boy did not respond.
In contrast to her harsh words, Tselika gazed down at him gently and stroked her slender fingers through his hair. As a succubus, or “one who lies beneath,” perhaps it was in her nature to comfort her master without offering any real solutions.
A lantern cast warm light across the walls, creating a sweet mood, and by the shuttered window was a beautiful arrangement of tropical flowers.
Moments later, the dark elf Magistellus Cindy entered the room, her body trembling.
“I—I never expected to see Kaname Suou reduced to such a state! He was always a perfect specimen of humanity! Ooh, I wish that was my lap he was in, crying and sucking his thumb!!”
“Wipe the steam off your glasses,” demanded Tselika.
Cindy did as she was told. Incidentally, removing her spectacles transformed her into neither a bleary-eyed bat nor the world’s most beautiful woman.
This dark-haired, dark-skinned girl, wearing a white leotard like a figure skater, was once the partner of Kaname’s sister, Ayame Suou. However, circumstances had left her without a mistress at the moment.
The girl with skin like cocoa powder replaced her glasses and wrapped her arms around her own body.
“After Ayame became the Admin Without Sin, I was left all alone. Then, just as I was at my most impatient, I was kidnapped by that brute, Bloody Dancer… Ugh. We dark elves are truly at the mercy of fate and our own sex drives. Only Kaname can slice off these fiery chains of mine now! Come! Come! Set my lusty and sexually frustrated heart free!!”
“Oh, My Lord doesn’t really respond to that sort of thing. If he did, he’d be all over me, I can tell you that much.”
“What are you talking about, Tselika? It doesn’t matter whether he responds or not; forcing him to go along with it is the best part!”
“…You’re a sexual deviant. I just haven’t figured out which kind yet. Maybe all of them at once.”
“Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee. I may have been captured by Bloody Dancer for a time, but playing the part of the broken, castaway machine, powerless to disobey, and seeing his reaction was simply delightful. It seemed to really get to him.”
Kaname, apparently fed up, lifted himself off Tselika’s thighs. Escapism was good in moderation, but he needed to get back to work soon.
“Tselika. I need Short Spear and a mid-ranged scope, as well as five magazines. Extended, if you please.”
“They’re on the tray, My Lord… Perhaps if you weren’t so taken by my thighs, you would have noticed sooner.”
Kaname took his equipment in hand for the first time in a good long while and hooked it onto his belt before striding past Cindy and leaving. The room he had been occupying was neither a courtesan’s chamber nor a brothel, and when he stepped outside, the sultry night mood was wiped away in a flash as he was struck with bright tropical sunlight—nearly blinding him.
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He was aboard a private yacht on the ocean. Only the interior was decorated in Japanese style.
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The yacht was fitted with beautiful triangular sails, as well as a motor engine for when the wind died down, and was large enough to contain a complete living space.
Across the roiling waves was the rusted iron of an industrial mega-float and the district known as the Red Territory. Kaname peered at it through his weapon’s scope, locating the multicolored jumble of shipping containers that made up the yard.
Of course, had Ramjet and the other slumlords still been around, Kaname would have had to be a lot more careful. Apparently, they’d had possession of a large quantity of high-speed motorboats. The sea route to and from the float would probably have been littered with mines and the coast lined with machine guns, just like real pirates would do.
Tselika came up from below deck, muttering under her breath.
“Ayame always was promiscuous, throwing her money around on all these boats and planes.”
“Oh, no,” retorted Cindy. “Quite the contrary. You see, while she liked to keep a variety of vehicles, such as hang gliders and hovercrafts, she always stayed faithful to her favorite car. She lovingly restored it when it was destined for the scrap heap, even going so far as to handcraft a new throttle valve that was out of production.”
“My Lord.”
“…What are you trying to imply, Tselika? That I should take a page out of my sister’s book? You don’t like me going anywhere near the car anyway; you always say you’ve tuned it to perfection and I’m only going to ruin it.”
Kaname never took his eye from the scope as he joined the two Magistelli’s casual chat. They had each been taking turns monitoring the shipping yard, but so far, they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Takamasa’s container—the one housing the laser weapon #flash.err.
…It wasn’t my intention, but it’s a lot easier to keep an eye on the yard, now that the power balance of the Red Territory is in flux. Perhaps Takamasa’s being more secretive as a result?
“Wait,” he said suddenly.
“There it is. The laser container,” said Cindy.
Sure enough, a tilt-rotor aircraft soon descended into the yard, a shipping container suspended by wires underneath it. Kaname could tell it housed the Legacy by the small dome-shaped lens resembling a security camera positioned on the container’s surface.
“What now, My Lord?” asked Tselika. “If we can plant a tracking device on it, the rest will be child’s play.”
“No,” replied Kaname. “We’ll never beat Takamasa in a battle of gadgets. He’ll only find some way to use it against us.”
“Kaname, does that mean…?” asked Cindy.
“Yeah. We’ll take a more primitive approach. That’s his blind spot.”
…It was just like the old days of Called Game again. In fact, if anything, they would have to be just as careful with this approach, as it was precisely what Takamasa would be expecting.
Just locating the laser weapon wasn’t enough by itself. To find out where Takamasa was hiding, Kaname and his friends needed to keep track of the Legacy as it was moved from container to container, and then follow the new package back to Criminal AO’s base.
Kaname didn’t know what Takamasa was planning, but he couldn’t let him carry it out. He was currently cutting down Dealers seemingly at random, sorting the wheat from the chaff in order to narrow down the potential identities of the remaining Zodiac Children. If he succeeded and managed to proceed to the final stages of his plan, the lives of Magistelli like Tselika and Cindy would be in grave danger.
Kaname could not sit by and watch that happen, not even if the one doing it was his old friend. He had to defeat Criminal AO with his own hands.
Even if he would be making Midori cry again.
“…”
“Whatever is the matter, My Lord?”
“I hate how I keep trying to show off.”
The two Magistelli looked confused. At that moment, Kaname received a call on his smartphone. It was from the Treasure Hermit Crabs. Specifically, it was Frey(a)’s slime-girl Magistellus, Brunhild.
“Mr. Suou,” she said. “The preparations are complete.”
“…No mischief this time, right?”
“I’m pleased to report that Mr. Frey(a) is feeling deeply apologetic for his recent actions. If anything goes wrong, I shall commit seppuku.”
Somehow, the idea of a slime-girl committing seppuku didn’t sound all that serious. Kaname sighed. He was going to have to decide whether or not to trust her by himself.
“Fine. Are you ready to go right now?”
“I am ready when you are. Simply say the word.”
Kaname ended the call and turned to Tselika, whose soft cheeks were puffed out in indignation.
“I see you’re having another suspicious conversation without me, My Lord…”
“I didn’t know you were the kind who liked to turn on parental controls,” Kaname replied. “Well, in any case, I don’t think Takamasa’s container will be moving for a little while yet. He still has to complete the transfer. Cindy, I’m going to step away for a bit. Can I count on you to keep an eye on things around here?”
“You can indeed,” the Magistellus replied. “So long as the reward is better than the punishment, that is.”
“…Please don’t mess things up for me on purpose, Cindy.”
“Oh, when you look at me with those cold, dark eyes, my knees grow weak!”
Whether it happened sooner or later, a showdown with Takamasa was inevitable. This time, however, Kaname was wise to his own shortcomings, and he knew just the Dealer to contact in order to make up the shortfall.
There was only one person who could do it, and her face was burned into Kaname’s mind.
“It’s time to pay her another visit—that fortress of skills, Mother Loose.”