Her look of bewilderment never left her face as she took me to the maid I had abused so I could apologize. Then, after lunch, I decided to go to the dungeon to burn off some calories.
But as I was heading out…
“Hey, why are you following me?”
“……”
For some reason, the maid had joined the party. The white-haired maid didn’t respond to my questions, and she didn’t even tell me her name as she played with her nails like she was bored. It appeared that her affinity for men who get between yuri was past zero and into the negative. I felt the same way, to be honest.
Setting aside the maid situation for now, I called up to the forefront of my brain what I remembered of my knowledge of the original game that I’d burned into my soul.
The Dungeon.
A naturally occurring anomaly that connected this world with another… It was a place where violent monsters appeared en masse, and only destroying one of its cores would seal that dungeon entrance permanently.
Magic was the only means of attack effective against the monsters of the dungeon.
For that reason, the game’s characters attended a magic academy so they could repel the monsters overflowing from the dungeon.
Their battle wouldn’t be over until they learned how to use the magic devices and crushed the dungeon cores that existed throughout the world!
…Or so I remember the game instructions saying. However you played it, the girls generally forgot all about the dungeon in the end and lived happily ever after.
A specialized agency manages the dungeon, and the entrances are sealed with barriers. Unauthorized entry is forbidden and requires a permit, which I, as the Sanjo family heir, was easily granted.
But I learned a frightening truth in the process.
It appeared that my score at the moment…was zero.
In the ESCO world, everything is evaluated—from your behavior, performance, and contributions to society to the way you fold your bedding. The government gives you a score based on these evaluations, which determines your rank.
Your score determines everything in this world.
Family status, how you’re treated at school, the advantages you have when looking for a job, the quality of the drinks you’re served, and the number of side dishes you get at dinner.
Even monetary dealings are held with these scores at the epicenter. You can use your score to pay for something in place of money.
Scores are also linked with magic devices.
Say you wanted to buy a soda from a vending machine. The machine automatically reads your device and decides what you can get (with a score of zero, all I can buy is a flat cola).
In the city of Tokyo, where I live, you can only shop with your score at most convenience stores and vending machines. With my score of zero, I have to go all the way to a convenience store near the train station that accepts cash to procure goods.
But even with my bottom-tier score, I could easily obtain a dungeon entry permit, probably because the old ladies of the Sanjo family arranged it.
They were probably hoping that I’d get myself killed in the dungeon or something.
And now for the obvious question. Why is my score zero?
Fortunately, the answer is just as obvious.
I’m a guy in a yuri-verse, and the entire world hates me. In MMO terms, I’m constantly walking around in tank stance. I might as well write punching bag for my first, second, and third choices on my career-preference questionnaire.
But anyway, I, newly reincarnated as Hiiro Sanjo, am destined to die a gruesome death during my school life—in the main game, that is.
I think that at the very least, I’ll have to become powerful enough to resist at least the assassins the Sanjo family hires before I meet my fate of destruction.
To achieve that, I must learn and strengthen my abilities in magic.
I need consoles to do that, and I also need to develop various abilities to boost those values. That’s the very reason why I’ve come to the dungeon where I can obtain consoles and hope to grow my skills.
Dungeons in the world of ESCO extremely diverse.
There are orthodox types like caves, sky castles, and world trees, as well as those connected to everyday life, like deserted department stores, demolished buildings, and mansions with many traps set up.
The dungeon I arrived at was styled after an abandoned train station—pretty suitable for beginners. It was a shallow dungeon with five underground levels, and the monsters that appeared there were all weaklings that I didn’t know how to defeat.
I bent down and stared at my magic device.
Masamune Kuki… It’s a true-to-life sword and a mighty sharp one considered to be a national treasure.
In the ESCO world, it’s a device pre-loaded with three consoles and passive skills that boost strength and agility.
It’s fairly easy to use since the internal wires connect, resulting in a chain reaction regardless of which console you have slotted.
In the main game, if you choose the option Take even if it means killing Hiiro when you first meet him, the protagonist will obtain the sword. The moment that choice is made, Hiiro spontaneously explodes for some reason. Make one choice, and he dies—the developer’s murderous intent is something else.
I fit Masamune Kuki with the consoles Attribute: Light and Generation: Ball conductors and pulled the trigger.
Instantly—the consoles and the wire connected.
A pale blue light ran through the sheath, and the magic was activated.
A ball of light appeared before my eyes.
“Whoa!”
Cool!
I’m a gamer to my core, and seeing real magic get activated set my heart ablaze.
“……”
But I could still feel the maid’s stare burning a hole in the side of my head. Maybe I’ll set a trap for her.
“Okay then. Maybe I’ll move the ball of light now!” I said in a loud voice and opened my hand, revealing my palm.
“Huuuh? Something’s wrong with this.”
The maid twitched in reaction.
“Why isn’t it moving? Is this thing defective?”
The maid glanced in my direction, her body trembling anxiously.
Hee-hee… You want to show me, don’t you…? I can tell. Human beings love to feel superior to others!
“I—I suppose it can’t be helped.”
With a smug look on her face, the maid came trotting up to me, perhaps giving up after my playing dumb.
She took the bait! I got her!
Silently reeling her in, I turned my head about ninety degrees and went on the offensive.
“I don’t get it! I don’t get it at all! Not a thing! Is this like knowing nothing except the fact of my ignorance?! Oh no. I think I’m growing a brain cell!”
“It looks like I have no choice. Get on all fours and bow until your head is kissing the floor, and I’ll teach y—”
“Gimme that.”
Suddenly, another girl appeared from the side and grabbed the magic device from my hand. She began fiddling with it, clearly engrossed in the gadget.
“……”
Who the heck was she?!
She had blond hair as smooth as silk and distinctive pointy ears.
She had a slender figure characteristic of elves, wore colorful earrings, and had a bow strapped to her person.
Her blue eyes shined as beautifully as the moon, and they were sure to bewitch anyone who beheld them.
Her outfit was very revealing, typical to elven culture, and of course, I knew exactly who this beautiful girl was.
“Okay, perfect. Here you go. Be sure to slot an operation console, or else you won’t be able to shoot.”
She was one of the strongest elf princesses, first in line to kill Hiiro, and one of the game’s four romanceable heroines.
“Is this your first time in the dungeon?”
Lapis Clouet la Lumet.
“You should go home before you get killed.”
Instead of catching a maid, I reeled in a way bigger fish.
Astonished by her sudden arrival, I opened my eyes wide.
Lapis is a princess from the land of the elves. Since the Dungeon of the World Tree that the main characters visit at the end of the game is part of her country, we can’t gain entry unless she’s present in the party.
Naturally, she’s rich beyond measure, and the Sanjo family couldn’t hope to compete.
And she’s as strong as she is wealthy. It’s probably no exaggeration to say that she’s the strongest when it comes to long-distance combat.
The magic device she used, called Iliovasilema, was an overpowered bow. If you were some distance away from her, she’d kill you first before you could ever hope to close the gap. Besides, depending on the combination of consoles, it can also be used at medium range, so the only way to win was to challenge her at close range.
I fought her on an Evil Route playthrough, and to tell you the truth, she’s even stronger than the game’s final boss.
Among all in-game enemies, there was likely no greater threat to the pestilent Hiiro’s life.
I don’t know how many times Hiiro has died on her route. She was thorough, killing him over and over when a certain witch revived him using necromancy.
One wrong move with her, and she’ll treat you as being out of the game and kill you without a second thought. The most laughable cause of death for Hiiro in the game came after he ate the ice cream she’d been saving for herself…but that didn’t seem as funny at the moment. Nope, not in the slightest.
“Hmm? What is it?”
Her golden hair fell to her waist.
The girl’s long hair cascaded down and around her back and shined even in the dimly lit, abandoned train station.
She was so beautiful that she could only be a game character. She gazed at me, brushing back her hair with her fingers.
“A guy, huh?”
She put a hand over her mouth and laughed.
“I saved him on reflex, but I guess I didn’t have to do that since he’s a guy.”