Chapter 214: Requirements for Negotiation (1/2)

There were a lot of Hunters killing time inside the cafeteria of the forward base. They were put on standby in case of an emergency. They were basically made of two kinds of Hunters, one was those who applied to join the expedition but got rejected for some reason, so now they were waiting there in case anyone requested reinforcement. While the other half was the people who were deliberately left there as a reserve in case of an emergency. The former paid to be there, while the latter were paid to be there, both of them waited there, preparing for any emergencies.

Sara and Elena were among the latter Hunters. Both of them received an invitation to participate in the expedition from Inabe’s proxy. Then during negotiations, they learned that Akira was also planning to participate in the expedition as well, so they decided to join. But in the end, they were somehow assigned as reserves.

Inabe was hoping that Akira would return back from the expedition with a lot of old-world terminals, but if Elena and Sara were with him, there was a chance that Akira would decide to hold back. That was why Inabe arranged it so that Sara and Elena were assigned to the reserve team.

In the middle of their idle talk, Sara suddenly asked.

“Say, Elena, are you really okay staying only as a reserve?”

Elena tilted her head.

“Hm? Do you want to join the expedition instead? If you really want to go no matter what, I can try to negotiate with them again.”

“Hmmm, it is at least better than just sitting here, waiting for something that we don’t even know will happen or not. But it’s not like it is a must. It’s just that, although it’s great that we’re getting paid just to sit and wait, I know that you don’t really like this either, right Elena?”

Elena made a conflicted smile after her best friend pointed it out.

“…This might sound a bit ridiculous. I feel that should something happen while we participate in the expedition, Akira would try his best to look for us. He would prioritize us instead of himself. But if we don’t participate, he would have peace of mind and could just immediately withdraw.”

Sara gave out a similar wry smile.

“You have a point. It might sound ridiculous, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Elena and Sara believed that Akira currently liked them. But there was that one time when Akira almost completely cut off relations with them. So if they were asked if they had regained their original trust just like back then when they explored the Mihazono ruin together, they could not give a definitive yes.

But even so, he was still willing to go to dinner together with them, so it could be said that their relationship had mended although it was only a little. Elena tried to voice that out as if she wished for it or maybe even to hang on to it. To which, Sara also reacted with an agreement.

That was when a notice reached their information terminal. Elena checked the content of the notice and frowned.

“…Well, it seems that something has happened.”

“I wonder if Akira has some kind of weird bad luck that indiscriminately gets everyone around him involved in it. I do feel bad for saying this, but I somehow saw this coming.”

“And he survived everything up till now, no wonder he’s that strong.”

Elena and Sara exchanged wry smiles, then immediately turned solemn and prepared to move out. The content of the notice included, ‘HQ has lost contact with the Hunters sent to the deeper part of the ruin. We request for an urgent dispatch of Hunters to check up on them’.

Hunters who were posted to the border, which denoted the inner part of the ruin, were assigned to stop anyone who tried to enter the area. Only those under Inabe’s jurisdiction with permission were allowed to enter.

However, their actual job was not to stop intruders by force. They were equipped with powerful information-gathering devices and were tasked to watch their surroundings. If they spotted anyone suspicious, they were instructed to warn that person and to contact HQ. Of course, they could also get rid of that intruder on their own if they could. After all, it was expected that those who tried to enter the inner part of the ruin would be fully armed. The requester did not have enough spare resources to pay the guards who could always deal with that kind of intruder.

Togami and Reina had accepted that job. Since the area that they were assigned to was vast, there was basically no one else in the area.

Although it was only a guard job, it was their first Hunter job after a while. That was why Reina was extremely pumped for this request, but since nothing was happening, she started to feel bored.

“Although we did get back to taking Hunter job, this is rather boring.”

“We’re on guard duty, so having nothing in particular happening is good news.”

“That’s true, but still… By the way, do you want to try looking for relics around here? We’re still inside the assigned area even if we look around, so we can look out for intruders while searching for relics, right?”

“Just don’t get too carried away, alright?”

Togami was basically saying that he did not mind Reina going, but he himself would stay. Reina understood that and pouted. She did not say anything back and chose to stay.

Togami found that a bit unexpected. But that was all, he did not pursue the subject any further. But Kanae was forcing her hand over her mouth, holding herself back from laughing. Seeing that, Togami started to frown. Reina, who noticed that, jabbed at her.

“What?”

“Nope, it’s nothing. I just thought that it was funny how Milady came up with a suggestion and did not go even after Togami gave his permission. Having an ulterior motive is not a bad thing at all.”

“I see.”

Reina gave a rather forceful smile and cut the conversation short. She finally realized that sometimes, showing a reaction was not a good thing.

Although Togami had a lot of thoughts running at the back of his mind after seeing Reina’s reaction, he believed that it was only him reading too much. He reminded himself that Reina was only trying to take this request seriously since she was the one who decided to do it in the first place. Therefore, he shelved any other miscellaneous thoughts away.

Shiori made a guess as to what they were talking about and interjected.

“Milady, although Togami-sama gave his permission, we basically got ourselves this request by butting into Togami-sama’s request. Thus it would be unwise to neglect our main duty.”

“I-I know. That’s why I’m not going, can’t you see?”

“Milady, it’s better to think things through first before saying anything.”

“Yeah yeah, I know, I will be careful.”

Togami thought that his guess was correct, Reina started to fluster, Kanae noticed a few other things and just smiled bitterly, while Shiori was standing there with a neutral face, playing dumb.

Feeling awkwardness wafting in the air, Reina decided to bring up a change in subject.

“By the way, when we talk about Kuzusuhara ruin, there’s an urban legend. The beguiling ghost. There are a lot of rumours floating around related to it, but I’ve been thinking that it might be one of those holograms that we saw in the Lida commercial district ruin. Something like that might be a guide that would answer honestly when asked for directions. Though, since the ruin is already filled with monsters, the Hunters who followed its direction would get killed instead. What do you think, Togami?”

“Well, that does sound plausible. Or maybe the ghost deliberately sent them to somewhere dangerous after concluding that they were suspicious individuals. Or maybe, since the holographic image doesn’t have the ability to transmit information in the form of voices, they just decided to follow a holographic image, and then they found themselves in the middle of an old-world security facility before they realized it… Reina, with that equipment you used, you can see augmented reality better than others, right? Be careful not to simply follow any augmented reality holographic image if you come across one, alright?”

“Don’t worry, I know just how dangerous this area is. But still, if I ever meet that old-world beguiling ghost, I feel like I have many questions for that ghost.”

“I can understand what you mean. It might be interesting to hear some stories about the old-world.”

“Right? To Hunters like us, that topic is what we are most curious about.”

As Reina was having a good time chatting with Togami, Shiori suddenly interjected with a serious voice.

“Milady.”

“I know, I won’t just go following that ghost if I see it.”

“That’s not it…”

Shiori hung her sentence there and seemed hesitant. Reina found it weird, but she then noticed that Kanae was smiling amusedly on the side.

“Kanae, what is it now?”

“It’s not really something big, but, let’s see… Well, Milady has been working hard lately, so I guess it’s a good idea to give a hint from time to time, hoping that Milady would be able to become an independent Hunter one day.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Milady, think carefully whether it’s a good idea to ask why Ane-san cut herself off right there. If Milady doesn’t ask Ane-san, I’m sure Ane-san would just come up with something random to hide it.”

Reina seemed a bit confused and turned toward Shiori.

“…Shiori, are you hiding something?”

“Milady, there is too much sensitive information in the world that are difficult to handle. The main problem would be whether Milady has the ability to properly deal with it. Information management is also an important skill for a Hunter. Milady, do you have the resolve to know information that might kill you? Moreover, having the resolve alone is hardly enough. After all, it is still not okay to let someone jump to his death just because he has made that resolve. It is also important to know the limitation, to keep oneself from learning about forbidden knowledge. It’s just as people say, ‘curiosity killed the cat’. There are many who ended up on the fugitive list simply because they somehow inadvertently learned some forbidden secret of the Corporate Government.”

Kanae said with a smile. She still had her eyes on the surroundings while exerting a level of intimidation. Reina flinched back and got even more confused.

“Well then, Milady, which one is the right choice? Is it to ask? Or not to ask? This is a test of Milady’s skill as a Hunter, you know!! So go ahead and use all this free time to think about it.”

Reina looked at Kanae and Shiori in turns. Shiori let out a huge sigh and frowned.

“Kanae, what are you trying to do?”

“I’m just giving advice to Milady about information management in place of the overprotective Ane-san.”

“That’s my job.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Which one is your job? The one about teaching Milady how to handle information, or the one about managing information in place of Milady? Either way, it would all be in vain if Ane-san dies though.”

“Don’t just kill me off like that.”

“In that case, it’s okay for me to destroy that will which Ane-san wrote in case Ane-san dies, right?”

Shiori raised her eyebrows in reaction to Kanae, who said something like that in a slightly serious manner. Meanwhile, for Reina, it came as a huge surprise.

“S-Shiori, what is this will are you talking about…”

“Ah, Milady, about that…”

As Shiori was flusteredly looking for an excuse, Kanae suddenly gave a warning with a serious look.

“Milady, both Ane-san and I already did all the preparations in case we get killed anytime. That aforementioned will is just one of our preparations. If Milady gets surprised by small things like that, it means that Milady has a long way to go. Just how many times does Milady think we almost got killed this year?”

Reina could not hide her surprise. One of the reasons was that Kanae did not say that in her usual half-joking manner. But after that, Kanae immediately returned back to her usual self.

“Well, it seems that is indeed the case here. No wonder why Ane-san can’t help but get overprotective. After all, there’s no guarantee how far Togami would volunteer to babysit you. But well, being needy from time to time might be a love strategy to get Togami, but he will hate you if you do it too much you know, Milady?”

Even before Reina could react to that, Togami choked and coughed. Reina then flusteredly denied that.

“W-what are you even talking about, Kanae!?”

“Oh? so Milady is doing that without even being conscious about it, huh? Just my opinion here. Though it was not on purpose, I think inviting such a misunderstanding is cruel, you know?”

Since Kanae returned to her usual self trying to poke fun at the whole team, the awkward tense mood from just before was completely dispelled. But Shiori did not proceed to scold Kanae since she understood what Kanae was trying to say.

Kanae was being considerate to Reina, which was actually rare for her. Her opinion of Reina was nothing more than a naive rich lady. However, she significantly softened her stance after seeing how hard Reina had been trying. The reason why she said so was because she cared, otherwise, she would refrain from saying anything and would only do the bare minimum required for her job. She was being considerate in a different manner compared to Shiori.

If Shiori and Kanae died, then Reina would only follow afterwards. Unless she learned how to deal with such a situation herself, Reina’s future was not that bright. Although she did not wish to deny Shiori’s devotion, if that devotion became the reason she died, then making sure Reina learns how to handle the situation herself after that was a part of that devotion, or at least, that was what Kanae thought.

Shiori understood that as well, but at the moment, she could just handle everything herself. Therefore, it gave her a hard time on what to do. If she had the resolve to live beside Reina forever, then Kanae would not say anything about her being too overprotective. She also understood that Kanae was basically indirectly asking her ‘are you sure you are alright with dying?’ If that was the case, Shiori needed to put in more preparations to make sure that everything would be fine after she died, what she was doing right now was just a half-baked resolution. Nonetheless, it was a completely different matter on whether she could pull it off. The more willing she was to throw away her own life for Reina, the harder it was to make that decision.

After Kanae dispelled that awkward mood, Reina thought hard about information management that Kanae mentioned. Once she made up her mind, she then went to Shiori.

“Shiori, can you tell me what you wanted to say back then? But I won’t force you if you don’t want to. If you didn’t tell me because you think I don’t have the ability to deal with it, I have no wish to force you to tell me”

Shiori looked slightly surprised, she smiled gently at Reina and said.

“…Very well, Milady, I assume you have prepared yourself.”

“Yes.”

Togami, who was listening next to them, could feel that it was a conversation that should only be between them, so he felt a strange sensation of alienation as he spoke up.

“I don’t know what you guys are going to talk about, but don’t forget that there’s a single outsider here, okay? If it’s something that I shouldn’t hear, I can leave now…”

“I don’t mind if Togami-sama wants to listen as well, but it would bring the same danger that made me hesitate to tell Milady in the first place. If Togami-sama wants to listen in even after knowing that, then you may feel free to do so.”

“I see, well, I don’t see any reason why not, so I guess I will listen too.”

Shiori lightly nodded, her expression then turned serious.

“Now then, it is about the urban legend of Kuzusuhara ruin, the beguiling ghost. There’s a good chance that the real story about that ghost has been replaced by something those in Kugamayama city came up with.”

Reina seemed a bit disappointed as she tilted her head.

“Shiori, sorry, I don’t see any reason why you would hesitate telling me that.”

“There’s a problem with the original story. The story about the beguiling ghost was originally a series of multiple stories about it. It is a collection  of stories about multiple ghosts luring Hunters into the ruin. The original story has it that these ghosts are the area managers of the different areas inside the ruin.”

Originally, the Kugamayama city was an frontier base made by Sakashita Heavy Industry to explore Kuzusuhara ruin. Since it was big enough to be promoted into one of the five great corporations, it sent fully armed Hunters equipped well enough to be in the front line to hunt for relics inside Kuzusuhara ruin. But in the end, most of them did not return back alive, And that was the beginning of the beguiling ghost series.

Then one day, Sakashita Heavy Industry suddenly stopped sending Hunters to the ruin. After losing the monetary aid it once had, the frontier base that had already grown big enough to be a city, was not able to send anymore large-scale expeditions into the ruin. From that point on, the corporation was then relegated into a smaller-sized company, placed as the governor of the city and it no longer had the resources and the influence that it once had.

No one knew for sure why it stopped exploring the ruin, there were only various rumours regarding that matter. Some said that they found another ruin with more prospective relics. Some said that it was the result of an in-fighting within the corporation. Some of the rumours even made more extreme and ridiculous guesses.

The single most popular rumour among the Hunters was connected to the beguiling ghost. It was rumored that the corporation made a deal with an area manager to stop their expedition, or that they were threatened to stop, or that it had made a secret deal to only search the outskirts of the ruin.

Reina listened closely with immense interest to that story, but she still did not see any danger in knowing any of this so far.