Re:Trys board member, Gouyoku Hoshio, was silent with a tense look on his face.
The situation was not favorable.
The members hired from the Gyokuryu Society were annihilated. They were demanding penalty fees, and the Labyrinth Agency’s audit was imminent.
That alone would be manageable, but the problem was the trouble caused by the guys he hired the other day.
They directly pulled the trigger on a Labyrinth Agency employee… Of course, the connection between the Gyokuryu Society and Gouyoku was kept secret, but if, by any chance, the other side’s treasurer were to spill the beans, Gouyoku would be ruined.
He wasn’t naive enough to optimistically think that such a future could never happen.
He also understood that the cause of the failure lay with him.
One reason was that he had too much faith in Kazamidori’s words.
Kazamidori had contacted him, saying that he had been tailing Kageichi and that he had gone to gather materials in the “Labyrinth Crystal Cave” alone, but in reality, it was a large-scale quest involving the Labyrinth Agency.
The second reason was that he had left the details of the operation entirely to the Gyokuryu Society.
To put it bluntly, even without Kazamidori’s report, if he had checked the situation, he would have realized that a large-scale quest by the Labyrinth Agency was underway.
And yet, they talked about being fair and square, firing rifles…!
Damn it, those idiots who can’t even assess the situation, he thought irritably, but that was his responsibility too.
It wouldn’t improve the situation to pathetically blame it on them.
“…”
He knew the optimal solution.
A runner.
The streaming business was declining, and the Gyokuryu Society was just a rabble.
He had already transferred his assets, and he knew that all he had to do was escape with his own body. He knew it, but—
“Damn it… I know it in my head, but…!”
He didn’t like it.
A deep-seated, seething anger bound him to his chair.
If the opponent was a creature like the mafia or a nation, something an individual couldn’t fight against, he could understand.
He could accept it if he tucked his tail between his legs and ran away.
But.
The opponent who had outsmarted him this time was just a Cleaner.
To be outsmarted by such an unremarkable old man and be driven into a corner—that fact relentlessly bound Gouyoku’s body like a curse.
“That’s why human emotions are like this… including myself…!”
Gouyoku’s father was a washed-up, bottom-of-the-barrel Salaryman.
He was always fawning over his superiors, never trying to improve his own skills, and was even ridiculed by his juniors, bowing his head obsequiously every day.
Yet, at home, he acted high and mighty, and more than anything—the better Gouyoku did, the more he would berate him in a self-deprecating way.
“Don’t be the best.”
“Don’t beat others. If you become better than others, you’ll become someone who oppresses them. So you mustn’t win.”
“Aim to be ordinary.”
“Become a kind man with nothing special about him”—Gouyoku, who had been told this over and over again, left home and sought money and power.
To break away from the ordinary, run-of-the-mill Salaryman image.
…That’s why.
To tuck his tail between his legs and run away in front of such an ordinary-looking man—!
“He’s not just an ordinary former Salaryman. I know that. Fighting him is meaningless and worthless, something only an idiot would do. But, but—”
Gouyoku, who was born to oppress others.
He couldn’t escape the fact that he was losing to someone who was pretending to be ordinary, even though he knew it was a distortion of his perception.
Physical wounds can be healed over time.
Money, even if lost, can be earned again.
But the heart is different.
The trauma carried in the heart torments oneself throughout life, and one is haunted by regrets, wondering if they should have done things differently at that time.
Is there any value in such a life?
No.
Even if he couldn’t kill him, he had to inflict some kind of wound on that man, satisfy his own heart, and then escape.
At the very least, he had to retaliate to the point where he could think of it as a draw, or he wouldn’t be satisfied…!
“But there’s no way… What is he…?”
However, the fact that he had brushed aside the three men guaranteed by the Gyokuryu Society could not be ignored.
He was definitely not an ordinary B-rank Hunter.
If anything, he was comparable to an A-rank or even an S-rank…
“No, targeting him directly is too risky. What are his weaknesses…?”
His family. Or relatives.
Even friends would do. If there was just one thing—
“Um, President. It looks like you have a visitor…”
“Kazamidori—!”
“Whoa, what’s wrong, President, all of a sudden?”
“How dare you show your face here, you fool! You’ve ruined everything because of you!”
“I mean, where the hell have you been wandering off to until now!?”
“W-wait, President, I really worked hard! I mean, my job was to tail him, wasn’t it!”
“If you had been watching properly, you would have known that there was a large-scale quest by the Labyrinth Agency!”
“T-that’s not fair! I only watched up to the front of the Dungeon…”
“Ugh… Certainly, I didn’t tell him to monitor inside the Dungeon.”
“Or rather, if he had followed him inside the Dungeon, he would have definitely been discovered, and Kageichi would have been on guard.”
“More importantly, President, I’m really broke right now, so I’m sorry, but it would be helpful if you could give me a little more leeway.”
“You’re fired!”
“Ehhh!? That’s a problem, seriously. I have nowhere else to go, and I might even be wanted by the Labyrinth Agency… right? Right?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, I’ll never need a useless person like you again.”
“Please, somehow, please, President! I’ll follow you for life!”
Kazamidori prostrated himself, rubbing his forehead against the floor.
Gouyoku’s fist, stained with anger, stopped.
Kazamidori was an idiot. As you can see, he was a complete idiot.
But he was the only one who would bow his head to Gouyoku like this.
In essence, he was like a cute dog, and Gouyoku had hired him knowing that.
…Well, surely.
Surely! He wouldn’t do anything more idiotic than this, and even if he did, it wouldn’t cause much harm!!!
“Tch… So? Who’s the guest? Don’t tell me it’s a new streamer applicant now.”
If there was such a person, they would be an idiot who couldn’t read the times.
…Was there some other motive?
“Alright,” Gouyoku said, and the person Kazamidori brought in was… a scrawny High School Girl.
With plain bobbed hair that was hardly suitable for streaming.
A girl who seemed to carry gloominess on her shoulders, with nothing but negative images at first glance, but her eyes, as she stared at Gouyoku, held a murky, dim heat, and she was gnawing on her fingernails as she glared at him.
She was disqualified as a streamer, but—
“Good eyes, they’re stagnant,” Gouyoku thought, making sure not to lose his advantage as he sat heavily,
“Kazamidori, contact the Gyokuryu Society members again.”
“Y-yes! …Eh? No, President, you’re still planning to…”
“What do you plan to do if our company goes bankrupt? You have debts, don’t you? We’re the only ones who can take care of you!”
“Y-yes!”
After kicking the idiot away, he said again.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, young lady. …You’re not just hoping to become a streamer, are you? Let’s hear what you have to say—”
“I heard that you’re doing some Illegal Activity here.”
The JK overturned the bag she was carrying under her arm.
Three million yen fell out.
“Hoh,” Gouyoku narrowed his eyes.
It was a lot of money for a high school student, but it was small change for him. …But her spirit was interesting.
“What do you want, young la—”
“Kiraboshi Yoshiko.”
The hand on the chair twitched.
“I want you to do something about that woman.”
“…What do you mean by ‘something’?”
“Anything.”
The girl bit her lip and squeezed out a voice of resentment from the depths of hell.
“It’s like a curse,” Gouyoku observed.
She had a twisted obsession that was unimaginable for a girl her age, and she was rolling around a large sum of money in the office without any certainty—a naive young girl.
This money was probably stolen from her parents. He didn’t care where it came from.
…Even so, was she the disciple?
He had been so focused on directly harming the Suit Man that he hadn’t paid attention to her.
The Salaryman was impossible, but what about her?
“…What is your relationship with this woman named Kiraboshi, young lady?”
“Classmate.”
—She’s useful.
Even Kageichi wouldn’t be with his companion twenty-four hours a day.
And if he used her—or her friends—he could indirectly drag only Kiraboshi into the Dungeon and take her hostage…
“What’s your name?” he prompted, and the girl introduced herself with a chilling smile.
“Kamase Imoutoya. …Please torment that woman thoroughly.”
Her low voice, which sent a chill down his spine, resonated comfortably in Gouyoku’s chest.
“It’s a good idea to leave a mark before closing the office,” Gouyoku thought with a servile smile as he invited the scrawny High School Girl to the sofa and began to listen to the details.