Chapter 78 - Extra Guests (1/2)

Translator: Athena13

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

The rain continued, it was not getting worse, but it was not letting up either.

Akira regularly went outside the room and checked the surroundings. He was checking the situation around the mansion while keeping close distance to the main room so he could quickly return back to where Sheryl was in case he spotted anything. His information-gathering device was also working just fine as long as it was indoor. Up until now, he had not met any monsters looking for a shelter from the rain yet.

Akira then thought.

“I hope that this situation would continue.”

Alpha smiled bitterly.

“When you say it like that, it sounds as if you’re rising your death flag, you know.”

“Nothing will happen. This is easy, we just need to wait for the rain to stop before going back home.”

“That in itself also did not sound good.”

“Okay okay, I just need to shut up, right?”

In contrast to Alpha who was smiling teasingly there, Akira pouted.

After Akira went back and forth from the main room several times, he spotted Sheryl looking displeased.

It was rather obvious that Sheryl was in a bad mood, but the moment she noticed Akira, she immediately welcomed him with a smile. Maybe because she could not fully hide the displeasure inside her, her smile somehow looked slightly awkward.

As Akira was about to sit next to Sheryl, he asked Erio who was standing near him.

“Did something happen?”

Erio glanced at Sheryl. Sheryl looked back at Erio while smiling. But her eyes were telling Erio not to say anything unnecessary.

Erio did something that angered Sheryl a few days ago, so he couldn’t afford to make it worse. While on the other hand, he also could not afford to worsen Akira’s mood either.

Akira was a dangerous person who would kill without any hesitation. There was even an occasion when he dragged the corpse of the person that he killed to the base of the gang that person was affiliated with. But Akira was harmless as long as he was not hostile. Unless the children of Sheryl’s gang told themselves that, they would need extra courage to even talk with Akira. That was the Akira that Erio knew. Although it should be fine for now since Sheryl was basically having him under control, Akira was still a dangerous person.

Erio carefully answered Akira’s question as not to worsen both his and Sheryl’s mood.

“There was a little dispute, but it’s already over.”

“I see.”

Akira only said that before he sat next to Sheryl.

Erio was relieved that he was at least able to avoid worsening Akira’s mood. He then glanced at Sheryl, who was still smiling at him.

It was not like Sheryl was obviously glaring at him. So Erio thought that she was not angry and it should be fine, or at least, that was what Erio prayed.

Since Sheryl’s heart leaned on Akira and as he was now back beside her, she returned to her normal self. Akira, who saw that change, thought that it was not something bad. So he just decided to stop thinking about it.

As Akira was taking a rest there before the next patrol, Sebla approached him. Sheryl’s mood quickly turned sour again.

Sebla then said to Akira.

“I have something I want to talk with you…”

“No, you don’t, now get back to your place.”

Sheryl interjected and glared at Sebla.

“I’m talking with Akira here.”

“I’m the boss of the gang and I’m telling you to get back to your place.”

“You’re just a proxy in the end, aren’t you? No matter how you look at it, the real boss here is Akira.”

Sheryl and Sebla were glaring at each other.

There were some children in Sheryl’s gang who thought that Sheryl was just a proxy for Akira. Most of the members who joined recently had a strong impression about it. While the senior members of the gang were much more afraid of Akira than Sheryl that they chose to carefully observe the situation as it developed. Thus prolonging the misunderstanding about Sheryl’s actual position in the gang.

So in short, they thought that if they could appeal to Akira, then they could ignore Sheryl’s opinion. Although that was true, there was no mistaking it that it was a bad choice of action.

Akira was basically just helping Sheryl as an individual. He was not helping Sheryl’s gang in particular. As such, if anyone from Sheryl’s gang came directly to Akira to appeal to him, Akira would flatly reject them.

Akira sighed and said.

“So, what is it?”

Since it seemed that Akira was willing to hear what he had to say, Sebla snickered mockingly at Sheryl. Sheryl glared at Sebla even more as she stepped back, it was because Akira was saying that he was willing to listen to Sebla.

Sebla then continued.

“Well, since the rain is not letting up at all, I just thought that it might be a good idea to search the mansion while waiting for the rain to stop.”

Akira was just silently looking at Sebla, waiting for him to continue. While on the other hand, Sebla was waiting for Akira’s reply. So they were just looking at each other silently. Sebla’s smile vanished, and right when he started looking confused, Akira opened his mouth.

“…So then?”

“Like I said, it’s a good idea to search for relics in this mansion.”

Akira sounded exasperated as he said to Sebla.

“No. I’m in the middle of a job and that is to make sure of Sheryl’s and the other children’s safety. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed it.”

Sebla then annoyedly replied to Akira.

“So you’re basically our bodyguard, right?”

“That’s not right. When I say other children, it means the children who view Sheryl as the head of the gang. So it doesn’t include the children who won’t listen to her.”

Sebla’s face twitched, Akira was basically saying that he wouldn’t protect him. So Sebla quickly changed to provocation.

“What? Are you scared or something? Or like, you have no confidence at all?”

“Yeah yeah, I’m scared and I don’t trust my own skill.”

Akira just flatly took in Sebla’s provocation as if it was nothing. Sebla was taken aback. Sheryl, who was also listening at that exchange, was surprised. Akira then continued.

“The monsters are scary, that’s exactly why they’re called ‘monsters’. You don’t even know that? And also, I have priority on who I’m going to protect. First of all, I need to make sure of Sheryl’s safety before protecting the people who are with her. But even after I can be sure that Sheryl and her gang is safe, I have no plans to worry about the safety of the people who try to pick a fight against the monsters on their own volition.”

Not only was Akira mocking Sebla’s futile action, he was also saying that he put Sebla’s safety as his last priority. As Sebla obviously winced back, Sheryl was smiling happily since Akira said that he would prioritize her safety.

Akira looked annoyed as he continued.

“If you want to go search the mansion, you can just go ahead and do that. I won’t stop you. My job is to protect Sheryl and her gang. So stopping you from killing yourself is not included in my job description. So yeah, you can go ahead and do whatever you want.”

After he heard Akira’s straight answer, Sebla gave up trying to have Akira protect him while he searched the mansion. But he still wanted to go search the mansion.

Since they arrived at the mansion, Sebla kept thinking that he might be able to find some expensive relics inside such a luxurious looking mansion. And if he did find some and sold them in secret, he would be able to buy some powerful weapon and live a better life working as a Hunter.

As there was someone who had realized all of Sebla’s crazy dream right in front of him, he was caught in an even crazier dream.

Sebla went silent and thought. He then lowered his request and pointed at Akira’s AAH a.s.sault rifle.

“…T-then, at least lend me that gun.”

Sebla himself had no plan to search the mansion unarmed. So putting it in another way, he would search the mansion if he could get himself a rifle. As far as he could recognize, other than Akira’s equipment, he did not think there was that much difference between him and Akira.

Akira looked obviously exasperated as he said to Sebla.

“What the heck are you saying now? There’s no way I would lend you my rifle.”

“But it’s not like you’re using it right now.”

“Are you for real? Do you really think that is enough of a reason to lend you my rifle? Are you sure you’re okay in the head?”

There was no reason for Akira to lend Sebla his rifle. In his mind, lending his rifle to Sebla was equal to losing his rifle for nothing. Not to mention, Sebla might point that rifle at him, which was basically worse than simply losing his rifle.

When Akira got his calm back, he started to doubt Sebla’s sanity.

“Listen here, you’re basically still barely included as one of the people that I have to protect, that is if you don’t do anything crazy. If you keep bugging me like this, I’ll have no other choice but to think of you as an obstruction to my job and remove you from my escort target. If you understand, then get lost. You’re bothering me.”

After Akira gave him a strong rejection, he looked away from Sebla as if he had lost interest in him.

Sebla looked frustrated and stood staring at Akira for some time before he returned to the opposite side of the room. He then sat down leaning his back against the wall, bent his head down, and started mumbling.

Sheryl appeared happy. She was smiling in delight as she was so thankful that Akira took her side. She looked at Sebla, who was walking away, as she felt a sense of victory.

The rain was still pouring down.

As Akira was patrolling the area, Alpha suddenly moved in front of him and pointed her finger outside the window.

“Akira, over there.”

Akira peeked outside the mansion. Thanks to the vision enhancement from Alpha, his vision zoomed into the direction where Alpha was pointing her finger. She was pointing at a vehicle that was heading in his direction.

“The other Hunters, huh? I just hope they won’t cause any trouble but…”

Akira felt that his hope would get betrayed and his bad premonition would happen, that was why he stopped there. He then headed back to the room to inform Sheryl and her gang about the Hunters.

***

Not too long after Akira and Sheryl’s gang took shelter from the rain in that mansion, another vehicle was also heading to Higaraka Residence Ruin. It was a closed-roof car that was designed to explore the wasteland, a big symbol of the rental company that owned that vehicle was painted on the side of that vehicle.

There were 3 Hunters in that vehicle. Guyver and Colbert were sitting on the backseats while Dale was driving the vehicle.

Guyver said to Dale.

“Say, isn’t it better if we just head straight to Kugamayama city?”

“Didn’t I tell you before that we can’t do that in the middle of this rain?”

“It would be fine. We’ve put some distance between us and that ruin, I’m sure that dangerous-looking monster must have lost us by now.”

“We might still meet it again on our way back, you know. Not to mention that this car is a rental car, so its auto-drive function might get activated when it receives damage. When that happens, it’ll return back to the city on autopilot and I won’t be able to control it. What would you do about it if that happens? In the worst-case scenario, this vehicle might even bring that monster back to the city with it and I’m sure the city defense squad would blow that monster together with us the moment they spot it.”

“You’re just overthinking it.”

When Guyver brushed Dale’s worry as him overthinking it and laughed at him, Dale quickly turned at him with an annoyed face.

Then Colbert joined their conversation as he asked Dale.

“So, why Higaraka Residence Ruin?”

“You remember that big mansion inside the ruin, right? I’m thinking of taking shelter there.”

“It’s not like we have to go to that particular mansion, right? If you just want to take shelter while waiting for the rain to stop, we can just pick a random building around this area.”

“We don’t know how long this rain will stay. So if it’s possible, I want to take a good rest in a big room rather than in a cramped s.p.a.ce like inside this vehicle.”

“Good grief!”

When he heard that snide remark from Colbert, Dale held himself back while telling that this would be the last time he went out to the wasteland together with both of them.

[That d.a.m.n mediator!! Picking these dumb guys for me!! I’ll definitely file a complaint later!!]

Deep inside his heart, Dale kept cursing the mediator who introduced Guyver and Colbert to him.