Chapter 5: Ryo and School and After School

Totsuka Ryo’s facial muscles generally do not do much work.

It is not that they do absolutely nothing, but among his classmates, he is recognized as a guy whose expression barely changes.

He is seen as someone who looks spaced out and hard to read, yet he maintains decent grades in both academics and athletics.

During lunch breaks and after school, he is often together with the handsome guy from the next class, Mogamo Kaoru.

The two are childhood friends, and it seems natural for them to be together, but—

“So, are those two dating?”
“No, Totsuka is a guy, right?”
“With that face and voice, there’s no way he’s a guy, get real already.”
“With a face and voice that cute, there’s no way he’s a girl, get real already.”
“In the first place, Totsuka’s gender is ‘Totsuka,’ get real already!”
“I want Totsuka-kun to be a boy and to be dating Mogamo-kun.”
“If Totsuka’s gender were just Totsuka, there’d be no conflict.”
“No, there definitely would be.”

—And so on, people around them said whatever they liked.

And, as expected, the one who did not care, or rather did not even notice, was Totsuka Ryo himself.

The one who noticed but pretended not to and acted as usual was Mogamo Kaoru.

The two were opposites in many ways, but they shared the stance that as long as it did not cause them trouble, anything was fine.

On one such day after school, the two of them were walking together toward the station.

Ryo had received a message from Otsuno Dia the previous night.

The content was, “How about some chicken dishes after school?”

After replying enthusiastically and telling Kaoru about what had happened in the dungeon, Kaoru had inexplicably clutched his head for a moment.

After that, he said he would come along after school as well.

At that point, Ryo neither agreed nor disagreed, but Kaoru seemed intent on coming regardless.

So—Ryo looked up at Kaoru’s face as they walked side by side and asked with genuine curiosity.

“Why are you coming too, Kaoru?”

“Because of who you helped.
She’s a pretty well-known streamer, and if you mess up how you handle things, annoying people will start crawling out endlessly.”

“Can’t you just ignore that kind of thing?”

At Ryo’s tilted-head response, Kaoru once again made a face like he wanted to clutch his head.

Ryo seemed unaware because he had no interest and kept no antenna up, but the fact that the person he helped was Otsuno Dia made Kaoru uneasy.

After all, she had many male fans.

Ryo would not understand what that meant, which was why it was no exaggeration to say Kaoru was coming along for that reason.

Even if few people could tell Ryo’s gender at first glance, there were surely people who would go out of control even with just the suspicion that he might be male.

“If you mess this up, are you okay with annoying people endlessly getting in the way of you buying fried chicken or fried chicken?”

“Absolutely not.
No, no, no.
Absolutely not.”

“That’s why I want to make sure we’re on the same page when talking to them.”

Kaoru was not particularly worried about Otsuno Dia herself.

However, even if it was for a rescue, the idea of a man appearing on a female streamer’s live broadcast made him uneasy.

That said, she belonged to Rubellite Studio, a mid-tier agency with no bad reputation.

He doubted they or the agency would act in ways that caused trouble for Ryo, but better safe than sorry.

“That’s why I’m saying I’ll come with you.”

Above all, fan rampages were something that happened outside the control of both the streamer and the agency.

Kaoru thought being cautious was better than not, but Ryo naturally did not understand any of that.

Even so, from Kaoru’s attitude, Ryo seemed to sense something in his own way.

“Is that a problem?”

“Please come.
I’m bad at that kind of thing.”

“Right?”

Having obtained Ryo’s consent, Kaoru internally wore a dark grin as he confidently anticipated meeting Otsuno Dia.

“Oh, right.
Just in case, send them a message on Linker.
Something like… is it okay if I bring a friend who can help with administrative communication?”

“Got it.”

Ryo sent the message as instructed.

A reply came back immediately.

“It says it’s fine.
It even says it’d be helpful to have someone like that.”

“Yeah, figures.”

It was unclear how they perceived Ryo inside the dungeon.

But considering Ryo’s personality and attitude, they might have thought he seemed a bit difficult to deal with.

If so, just knowing someone capable of handling administrative communication was coming would be reassuring.

Kaoru kept those thoughts to himself and hoped Ryo would just remain as laid-back as usual.

“By the way, Ryo, do you have any interest in making money?”

“I do earn a bit of pocket money from dungeon exploring.”

“I know, but that’s not what I mean.”

At Ryo’s casual reply, Kaoru gave a wry smile.

“When minors try to cash in materials or drops from dungeons, they get heavily reduced, right?”

“That’s true… but no matter what I bring back, I get enough to buy BanBan Chicken from Bandit Mart on the way home, so I figured that was fine.”

“That’s basically saying it’s just enough to buy convenience store hot food, though.”

When underage explorers tried to cash in items obtained in dungeons, the amount was reduced to half or less of what an adult would receive for the same items.

This was not a matter of being taken advantage of or unfair treatment, but a rule under Japan’s Minor Explorer Protection Act.

In short, if it were too easy to earn money, minors lacking judgment might attempt reckless exploration beyond their abilities and lose their lives.

As a result, the higher the rarity of materials or items brought back by minors, the more heavily they were reduced under this rule.

Ryo did not seem to care, but student explorers with skills recognized by adults often strongly opposed this rule.

“Aren’t you interested in expensive fried chicken from high-end restaurants?”

“If you’re asking whether I am or not, of course I am.”

“Hmph!”

Ryo leaned forward with a sharp snort.

“Then why don’t you try to earn a bit more?”

Asked that, Ryo made a rare troubled face and thought it over.

After a moment, he slowly spoke his answer.

“Hmm… it’s not that I wouldn’t.
But I’m satisfied with the chicken that’s within reach, so…”

“You really have no ambition.”

“Do I?”

“You do.”

Fried chicken.

Even lumped together like that, there were surely expensive varieties and rare ones.

From Kaoru’s perspective, it seemed like Ryo could move to pursue those.

But perhaps Ryo had some unspoken rule of his own that kept him from doing so.

Or—what Kaoru thought was most likely—Ryo’s personality simply made him uninterested in things that lay beyond his understanding, even if they were his favorite food.

“Well, I won’t force you.
If I teamed up with you, we could probably make a ridiculous amount of money…”

“Sorry about that?”

“It’s fine.
It’s not your fault.
And dragging along someone who isn’t into it would just lead to everyone’s ruin anyway.
That wouldn’t be fun for me either.”

“I wouldn’t like that either.”

“Right?”

And with that, the two arrived at the station and began looking for the train that would take them to the nearest station of the place Otsuno Dia had specified.