Chapter 66 - Important Day, Checkpoint Day (1/2)

After finis.h.i.+ng his bath, Akira returned to Sheryl’s room. On his way there, the other boys in the gang were looking enviously at him. They knew that he shared the bath together with Sheryl. The girls in the gang could not blame the boys since they also knew that many boys fantasized about being with Sheryl. But it was obvious that Sheryl was only into Akira.

Akira was a Hunter who could pay 10,000,000 Aurum like it was nothing. If Sheryl was not the boss of the gang, the other girls in the gang would have tried to seduce him.

But doing something like that would be an obvious declaration of war against Sheryl. The reason why Sheryl could maintain her position as the boss was because of Akira’s influence. Thus trying to seduce him also meant trying to wrest the boss position from Sheryl. Because of that, no one dared to even attempt to do that.

After returning back to Sheryl’s room, Akira started to feel sleepy. He said to Sheryl while fighting against his sleepiness.

“…Sheryl, I’m going to sleep now. So, can I borrow your sofa?”

Sheryl replied happily.

“You can use my bed, it’s bigger than the sofa”

“…Really? Thanks.”

Once he got Sheryl’s permission, Akira put his luggage on the floor near the bed and was about to get on the bed. Although from the way Sheryl said it, she hinted that she would also sleep on the same bed, he did not notice that at all. She then carefully picked her words as she said.

“Is it okay if I ask you to take off your clothes? It would be a lot of work to clean the bed if it gets dirty.”

“…Okay.”

Akira was half-asleep as he removed his clothes and put them on his luggage. After leaving only the underwear on his body, Akira got on to the bed. His eyelids were already too heavy, thus he planned to just go ahead and sleep.

Although she looked rather disappointed, Sheryl still smiled and said to Akira.

“Good night and sleep well.”

“…G’night.”

Akira sounded drowsy when he replied, he then quickly fell asleep.

Even after Akira fell asleep, Sheryl still stayed awake to work on her job as the boss of the gang. She checked the progress of the work she distributed among the members of the gang, checked their results, and planned for the next job distribution. If there was any trouble with the work done by her underlings, she would try to formulate a solution, readjust the whole work schedule of the gang, and resolve any fights between the members of the gang. Although it would be unreasonable to simply compare her workload with the other members, it could be said that Sheryl was working the hardest in the gang.

After finis.h.i.+ng, Sheryl returned to her private room and locked the door. She undressed down to her undies and crawled onto the same bed as Akira, she then slowly hugged him.

As Akira was already asleep on the bed for quite some time, his body warmth was spread throughout the bed. Both Akira and Sheryl were in their underwear. As she felt Akira’s warmth on her body, Sheryl revealed a satisfied smile.

Sheryl closed her eyes while still hugging Akira as she looked back at everything that happened that day.

[…Although a lot of things happened today, it was still an amazing day. I’ll do my best so that Akira will not abandon me…]

As she was thinking about the future, Sheryl was slowly consumed by her sleepiness. She eventually drifted to sleep with a big smile on her face.

The next day, Akira woke up and noticed that Sheryl was still clinging on him. She had a peaceful and blissful look on her sleeping face.

Akira, who was still lying on that bed, suddenly heard Alpha’s voice.

“Good morning, Akira. Did you sleep well?”

“… Morning… Ah, right, I slept in Sheryl’s place last night, huh.”

Akira pulled himself away from Sheryl, stepped down from the bed, and put his clothes on. He then looked at Sheryl who was still sleeping on the bed.

After he got a good night’s sleep, Akira regained his calm. He remembered what happened yesterday as he was looking at Sheryl, who was still wearing nothing but her undies.

“She was clinging on to me yesterday without any good reason. She also took a bath together with me, and until just a moment ago, she was sleeping with me only in her undies. What exactly does she think of me? Does she think that I definitely won’t attack her or something?”

Even when his mind was in good condition, Akira still came up with the wrong conclusion. So Alpha exasperatedly said to him.

“What are you talking about? She’s tempting you to a.s.sault her, you know. She did say to you that you can do anything to her, remember?”

“Is that so? But still, is there any particular reason why she would do something like this?”

“She might be thinking that her current situation can quickly change for the better if you do something to her. As a matter of fact, I’m quite sure that’s what she’s thinking.”

Akira made a conflicted face as he stared at Sheryl.

“Is that so? I guess it’s true if you say so.”

“Well, I don’t really mind if you want to get involved with her as long as you don’t forget your contract with me. But if you really do, just make sure to be careful.”

“It’s about exploring the particular ruin that you want me to go to, right? Don’t worry. If you abandon me, I’m sure I’ll immediately die in no time eaten by one of those monsters. I won’t do anything that might endanger my life. So you don’t need to worry about that.”

Akira stated that clearly, the only reason why he was still alive was all thanks to Alpha’s support. He understood that one fact very well.

“That’s good to hear. But still, although there’s a beautiful girl of the same age as you sleeping only in her undies in front of you, you don’t seem to be bothered at all. Are you really not interested?”

“Well, what can I say… Since I have this girl, who always follows me around while being naked, I guess I grew up some resistance against it.”

Akira lightly laughed when he said that and Alpha smiled invincibly. Right at the next moment, he had a bad feeling, and his feeling was accurate.

Alpha’s dress suddenly vanished, leaving her beautiful body in full view. She was showing off her virtual body that was produced through an extremely advanced calculation without even a shred of embarra.s.sment. She even adjusted her appearance to suit Akira’s taste, which she gathered from all of her observations of him, but her base body shape was also so beautiful that it would charm most of the members of the opposite gender.

Then, to put the cherry on the top, Alpha was looking at Akira with a flirtatious gaze and a charming smile.

He blushed a little and quickly turned his face away. Alpha giggled as she saw his vexed expression.

“Oh, I thought you said you’d grown some resistance against this, right?”

Akira still blushed as he complained.

“Just shut up. It depends on the timing and the girl, you know. Just get your dress back on already.”

Alpha returned her dress back. When she did that, Akira kept telling himself that he did not regret it.

“If you want to see it again, feel free to tell me anytime.”

Alpha teasingly whispered that to Akira.

As she was continuously observing him, she could tell that it was not like he had no s.e.xual drive or interest in the opposite s.e.x.

There was no denying the fact that Sheryl was a beautiful girl. The only reason why his reaction was so dull even when she clung on him, got on the same bath with him, and slept beside him defencelessly while being only in her undies, was simply because Akira did not think of her in that way at all.

In principle, Akira categorized the people that he met into one of two groups, either they were enemies or not enemies. He showed no gender bias when it came to this matter. But he did react differently towards a very small number of people, who were not included in either of those two groups, namely, people he thought as his allies.

This very small number of people included s.h.i.+zuka, who worried for him without any ulterior motives, Sara and Elena, who saved his life, and Alpha, who was supporting him. As far as Alpha knew, Akira only regarded these 4 people as his allies.

This could be seen from how Akira reacted when Sara was only wearing a light dress when he was in their house, or when Elena came up in front of him with a s.e.xy augmented suit that p.r.o.nounced her body line, or when Alpha reconstructed the image of Elena’s and Sara’s naked body in front of him. And finally, he also reacted the same way when Alpha was showing her naked body just a moment ago.

If for some reason, Sheryl’s position s.h.i.+fted to this group, there was a good chance that Akira would be seduced by her in no time. Alpha thought so as she decided that she should investigate that possibility further.

But looking at how he reacted just now, Alpha knew that there was no need to worry about it.

As long as nothing big happened, it was very unlikely for Sheryl’s position to be changed from Akira’s ‘not enemy’ group. No matter what Sheryl would do, as long as he only thought of maintaining their relations.h.i.+p, it was unlikely for him to change how he treated Sheryl.

Not too long after that, Sheryl also woke up. She was still half-asleep as she probed for Akira with her hands. Sadly enough, her hands only wandered around the empty bedsheet around her, she looked disappointed when she realized Akira had already woken up.

Sheryl slowly got to her senses. When she was finally fully awake, she could see Akira already prepared to go out.

Akira was sitting on the sofa while operating his information terminal, he was looking through the emails that reached him by his Hunter Code. One of the emails was from Kibayas.h.i.+, it contained the information about the property agency that Akira had asked.

Akira noticed Sheryl who just woke up.

“Ah, you’ve woken up, huh. Morning.”

“Good morning… Are you going out already? You can at least eat some breakfast here, you know?”

“It’s fine, I’ll just grab something outside.”

If Akira ate something there, it would reduce the portion for the rest of the gang’s members. After all, he knew perfectly well how precious food was in the slum city.

“I understand, please allow me to at least see you off.”

Akira smiled bitterly and asked.

“…You sure you want to see me off dressed like this?”

When Akira pointed it out, Sheryl realized that she was wearing nothing but her undies. She then quickly grabbed her dress and put it on in panic.

Akira left Sheryl’s base and headed to the real estate agent’s office introduced by Kibayas.h.i.+.

In the middle of his way there, Alpha asked him.

“Akira, what kind of house do you want? I’m sure the staff would ask you this question, so it’s a good idea to think about it now.”

“Let’s see. First of all, I want a big bath. I’m also planning to buy a vehicle, so I want a big garage too. And also maybe a big room to store my equipment, ammo and my reserves. Then maybe a warehouse and a bedroom too.”

“Then the next problem will be the rent. I’m sure Kibayas.h.i.+ has told that real estate agency about you, so it would be troublesome if they recommend you an expensive estate thinking that you still have that 100,000,000 Aurum.”

“Well, that’s true… I already spent 90,000,000 Aurum yesterday… My money sense is completely broken, isn’t it? I wonder where that small boy, who got all fl.u.s.tered by 200,000 Aurum, is now.”

“It’s not like you wasted that money on unnecessary things, just think about it as proof of your growth.”

When he heard Alpha’s words, his expression turned bewildered as he mumbled.

“…Growth, huh? To be honest, I’m not sure if I’ve really grown stronger. Since, until now, I only got myself better equipment and I’m still fully relying on you. I don’t feel like I’m getting stronger myself though.”

Akira himself did not think that he had grown stronger. After all, he still had problems in all his fights and he was only able to barely survive till now because of Alpha’s support.

Alpha smiled at Akira to rea.s.sure him.

“Don’t worry. You’ve become stronger. But I think it’s okay to think like that too. It’s better to underestimate your ability rather than to overestimate it. After all, it’s not like you would be able to breeze through your fights against the monsters just because you got a little bit stronger. If Hunters could easily kill them, they would not be called monsters after all. Not to mention, facing danger is your occupational hazard too, so let’s not get too reckless and stay careful. If you’re worried about it, you can put more effort into your training and you can also rely more on me.”

Akira smiled, he was rather relieved after Alpha said that to him.

“…Is that so? Well, I suppose you’re right. I’ll be counting on you.”

Akira collected himself as he stepped forward.

Eventually, he arrived at the real estate agency that Kibayas.h.i.+ introduced. After he showed his Hunter ID at the reception counter and mentioned Kibayas.h.i.+’s name. One of the staff quickly came to serve him.

That staff was surprised when he saw Akira. It was because not only was Akira a small boy, he also did not seem like a Hunter who could receive a recommendation from the Kugamayama City Management. But that staff quickly showed Akira a friendly smile before Akira could notice his surprise.

Akira told that staff what kind of house he was looking for. After that, they finished their small consultation and went to check the prospective houses.