Chapter 24: The Talking DX Sword! Silver Knight Version
A few days later, Kazuma was heading to school as usual. Nothing much had changed, and the Support Course classroom was its usual self. If anything, it was only that Momoko, sitting next to Kazuma, looked pale. He could guess why. For the past few days, she had likely been investigating various things about the Silver Knight’s and Kazuma’s activities and was utterly exhausted. Poor girl.
“Yo.”
“Yo. How was it, being summoned by the National Defense Force?”
“Nah, it wasn’t anything particularly serious. I was just asked a few light questions about what happened back then.”
Kazuma returned the cheerful greeting from Kosuke in kind and asked what he had discussed when summoned by the National Defense Force. The reply he received was a mundane one: that nothing particular had happened. It was terribly dull, but unlike Kazuma, they were ordinary people. That couldn’t be helped.
“Is that so… When they called me, a super sexy beauty came, but you didn’t get one, Kosuke?”
“Tell me more.”
With a sharp expression, Kosuke sat down next to Kazuma. The seat was empty as its usual occupant hadn’t arrived yet.
“Nah, sorry. I can’t talk about it, duty of confidentiality and all that.”
“Liar! I was just answering simple questions, so they didn’t say anything about confidentiality!”
“It’s different in my case. I’m special, you see.”
“That’s not fair! I wanted a super sexy beauty too!”
“Who was in charge of your interview?”
“Just a regular old guy! A kind-looking one, though!”
“Hmm. What did you talk about?”
“Like I said, nothing much. Just what I was doing at the time, if I noticed anything strange, stuff like that.”
“I see… Pretty normal.”
“What about you?!”
“I told you, it’s a secret.”
“Then at least tell me about the super sexy beauty!”
“Alright, I can do that! First off, her chest was huge!”
“Ooh!”
“It was like, BAM! WHOOSH! BAM!”
“Oooh!!!”
Next to the two boys who were getting worked up over a vulgar conversation first thing in the morning, an utterly exhausted Momoko closed her eyes and covered her ears. She was in a state of see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. She stubbornly refused to break her posture. Of course, she wasn’t using her Gift, Mind Reading, either.
However, since her seat was right next to them and the two boys were talking loudly and boisterously without any consideration for her, she could still hear the content of their conversation even with her ears covered.
“(So energetic first thing in the morning…)”
Momoko was completely drained from her intense work over the past few days and didn’t even have the energy to badmouth them. Right now, she simply envied the two for being so energetic in the morning. If possible, she even wished they could share some of that youth and vigor with her. But that was a wish that wouldn’t come true.
“(Haa… Maybe I’ll just sleep through class for the first time in a while.)”
Normally, her job was to listen to Kazuma’s inner thoughts, but he was probably just thinking about pointless things anyway, so it wasn’t worth listening to. Momoko decided that staying awake would only be painful, so she slept until morning homeroom began.
◇◇◇◇
In what felt like an instant, it was after school, and Momoko was dazed.
“(To think I’d wake up and it’d be after school…)”
She had been sleeping so soundly that no one had woken her up. Normally, someone would have, but Kazuma, who defied common sense, was there. He had used various tricks to prevent the teachers from waking Momoko. For the Hero who had saved another world, dealing with one or two teachers was no challenge at all.
“(Momoko, I protected your peaceful sleep!)”
The moment she turned on her Mind Reading, Kazuma’s voice came through. Looking beside her, she saw Kazuma flashing a refreshing smile and giving a thumbs-up.
Seeing that, Momoko understood everything. She understood why no one had reprimanded her. The man next to her had been unnecessarily considerate. Momoko wondered whether she should thank him or just punch him out.
In the end, Momoko bowed her head slightly in gratitude and briskly left.
“Was that… thanks?”
“Hey, Kazuma. Let’s head home~”
“Yeah.”
The usual group gathered, and today they decided to go straight home. To avoid getting caught up in an incident like the other day, they went straight home without any detours.
On the way, as they were盛り上がっていた (getting lively) with their usual trivial conversation, Akatsuki took out his phone as if he had just remembered something.
“Speaking of which, do you guys know about this?”
Akatsuki turned his phone screen so everyone could see it, and a certain video started playing.
『Absurd!!!』
Watching the video, Kazuma almost burst out laughing. The video playing on Akatsuki’s phone was a commercial for a toy company.
The content featured the Silver Knight swinging a sword coolly, and at the end, it advertised that the sword the Silver Knight wielded was being sold as a toy.
What’s more, amusingly enough, some of the Silver Knight’s lines from his fight with Inoue and Tamura were used verbatim. They had even gone to the trouble of making sure the voice was the same.
『For whom does one wield power? Anyone who would risk their own life to protect others, I shall pay them respect and honor them!』
『Prepare yourself.』
『You won’t escape.』
『Rest assured, I will not kill you. However, you shall receive pain commensurate with your actions!』
As the lines played one after another, Kazuma felt his face burn.
“(Nooooo! Stop iiiit!)”
This was an incredible humiliation. He hadn’t felt anything particular at the time because he was angry, but listening to it calmly now, there was nothing more embarrassing. It was bad enough to be called a dark part of his history.
“Whoa~. Amazing. It’s only been a few days since that incident, and it’s already a toy.”
“Huh~. The voice is exactly the same, or rather, it is the same. I can’t believe they recorded it on a phone.”
“I was shocked when I saw this too. Apparently, you can pre-order it, but I heard it’s already sold out.”
“…I-Is that so~.”
Kazuma wanted to get back to his room as quickly as possible and bury his face in his pillow. He had endured various tortures in the other world, but this was on a different level. Embarrassed and cringing, Kazuma was hit by an urge to scratch himself all over.
“(Aaaaaah!!!)”
In the other world, Kazuma had bards sing of his heroic deeds and epic tales, so he should have been used to it, but to tell the truth, he had absolutely no tolerance for it. He had never listened to the bards’ songs because he found them embarrassing, so he didn’t even know how they were sung.
Because of that, he’d never had an opportunity to see himself objectively like this, so his tolerance was low, and he found it incredibly embarrassing. One might think he shouldn’t have said such things in the first place, but that too was difficult.
In that world, he had been expected to play such a character, and having done so for so long, it had become ingrained in him. There was no way he could stop now.
“By the way, how much is it?”
“A whopping 2980 yen, tax included! A conscientious price, don’t you think?”
“Perfect for a kid’s toy.”
Akatsuki answered Kosuke’s question, and Taichi, hearing the price, commented that it was just right for a child’s toy. Kazuma, listening beside them, could only manage a dry laugh.
“Hahaha, yeah, I guess so~.”
Parting ways with Akatsuki and the others who were heading to their homes, Kazuma returned to the dorm with Kosuke. On the way, they talked more about the toy from earlier, but Kazuma looked embarrassed throughout the conversation. Watching him, Kosuke mistakenly assumed that Kazuma was probably planning to buy it secretly.
◇◇◇◇
Momoko was attending a regular meeting, and as usual, she was supposed to report on Kazuma’s words and actions, but this time, she had slept for more than half the day, so she had nothing to report. Therefore, she decided to lie.
“There’s nothing particular to report for today. He was his usual self.”
“I see. Unchanged today as well, huh…”
“It’s hard to say whether he’s just wholesome or more like a monkey, isn’t it~”
No one doubted Momoko’s false report. This wasn’t so much because of her usual good conduct, but rather because Kazuma’s official assessment was the incredibly unfortunate one of “a high school boy brimming with libido.” Thanks to that, Momoko was saved.
“(Just for now, I’m grateful…)”
Truth be told, Kazuma had been a parade of lewd thoughts today, perfect for mind-reading, but since Momoko didn’t know, no one was made unhappy. Today too was a peaceful day.