The well-Balanced Yamamoto-san Gets Caught up in a Death Game

Chapter 49

Yamamoto Rinka, twenty-three years old.

She’s a high-flying businesswoman working for a major trading company, if I remember correctly.

Four years younger than me, unlike her shut-in sister who dropped out after middle school, she’s the de facto ace of the Yamamoto family, walking the elite path smoothly.

Me? I’m like someone who’s received a notice of dismissal from the Yamamoto family. A rather uncomfortable existence.

Actually, Aika-chan has always been mature for her age. When I was completely ignored in middle school and became a shut-in, she was the super elementary schooler who comforted me despite being so young…

I can’t hold my head high in front of Aika-chan!

I even feel a bit intimidated by her!

But, even though she’s playing LIA just like me, I wonder why Aika-chan hasn’t changed her face at all? Thanks to that, I recognized her immediately…

Maybe she didn’t change it so I could find her more easily?

No way. Impossible.

But it makes me happy that she’s worried about me and searching for me like this.

Big sis is happy to know Aika-chan is safe too~!

While lost in these thoughts, I eavesdrop on Aika-chan and her companions’ conversation. Yes.

“Speaking of which, what about that Yamamoto, the EOD killer? The name’s spot on, isn’t it?”

“I don’t think it’s her because she’s not the type to move so actively… But you’re right. If the EOD killer Yamamoto is my sister…”

As she drinks her second bowl of poison soup with tea, Aika-chan thinks for a moment and then—

“Serious lecture”

“Hm?”

…Hm?

“I’ll lecture her seriously until she cries. Ah, miss, can I have another?”

“Y-Yes… r-right away…”

My falsetto voice trembled involuntarily!

I mean, Aika-chan is completely angry!

“A serious lecture…”

“I mean, suddenly starting a death game run by dangerous management, and then challenging an unknown monster solo… Think about how worried we are! It’s not okay just because you managed to defeat it! I’m going to lecture you for real!”

“H-Here… y-you go…”

“Hey, Aika, don’t get too angry. Look, you’re scaring the shop assistant.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m not angry at you, okay? I’m just angry at my irresponsible sister who’s gone who-knows-where, so don’t worry about it.”

I am that irresponsible sister…!

Oh no.

This is bad.

There’s no way I can reveal my identity like this!

Sorry, Aika-chan.

Your big sister is going to remain missing for a while longer…

“Ah, I really did get [Poison Resistance]”

“Oh, good timing. Arata and the others seem to have finished their preliminaries, so let’s meet up with them.”

“Hmm? Did they win?”

Is he looking at a message or something? Yuu-kun’s gaze wanders.

“They say they survived the first round of preliminaries. The second round will take a while, so they want to meet up with us.”

“That’s fine. But you promised you’d drink too after I did, remember?”

“Huh? Well, that’s… Hahaha…”

“Just think of it as being tricked and try drinking it. It’s incredibly delicious.”

“But it’s poison, you know…?”

It seems Yuu-kun wants to avoid the poison soup by making some excuse.

You don’t need to do that, it’s genuinely delicious.

“Ah, miss, can we get this to go?”

“Yes, you can~”

“H-Hey, wait!?”

And so, whether it’s a case of ‘if I’m going down, I’m taking you with me’ or ‘the more the merrier’, Aika-chan buys enough poison soup for the whole party to take back.

Yeah, I feel like Yuu-kun’s expression was twitching, but well, I think there’s no need to worry because it’s delicious.

Still…

“I wonder if they know each other in real life? Like college club mates? They seemed to be having fun. Well, I guess I’m glad they look fine.”

I stare at Aika-chan’s back as she leaves, indulging in my own fantasies behind my veil.

■□■

“Mungaga-san, shall we close up shop~?”

“Yeah, it’s about time… Gotta know when to fold ’em, can’t mess up the timin’…”

What’s that about folding?

Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.

Anyway, before I knew it, it’s already evening.

Mungaga-san and I close up shop and go to return the stall to the Commerce Guild.

The old man’s stall next door seems to be just getting started, with suspicious-looking men coming and going.

It seemed rude to interrupt with a greeting, so I just gave a light wave.

Now, about today’s sales, well, I guess this is what you’d expect for the first day?

There was a bulk purchase by an acquaintance, but after that we didn’t sell anything at all, so we’re counting on tomorrow.

“It’s over! We’re finished!”

But when we got back to the Seaweed Drift Inn, one person started to despair.

Come on, if you react so dramatically from the first day, your body won’t last the remaining days.

“It’s okay, Mungaga-san. We’ll sell more tomorrow than we did today.”

“How can you be so carefree!? Today’s sales were terrible, weren’t they!?”

“Were they? We made 5100 reward stones in one day…”

When I said that, Mungaga-san’s lamentations stopped. It’s more than a month’s rent for five people, after all. Of course his complaints would stop.

“Our shares are half and half, so here’s 2510 reward stones for you.”

“W-What? Two months’ rent for just one day’s work!? What’s happening to this world!?”

I don’t know.

Also, I think the rent at the Seaweed Drift Inn is too cheap.

“It’s terrifying… the effect of the Grand Martial Festival…”

Well, Mungaga-san’s complaints seem to have stopped, so I guess it’s fine?

He might be even more surprised tomorrow.

“Alright, tonight we feast!”

“Huh?”

“I’ll show you my true skills!”

The fired-up Mungaga-san couldn’t be stopped by anyone…

My [Status Ailment Resistance] rose to level 9…

Of course, all my skill levels also went up to 9…

*Sigh*…

■□■

“Ugh, I’m dying…”

I lie down on the inn’s bed.

I was fed something delicious to the point of death, and had an experience to the point of death…

You probably don’t understand what I’m saying, but I don’t understand what was done to me either.

Anyway, my chest is full of various feelings.

Of course, not in the sense of heartburn.

“Come to think of it, I wonder how Tatsu-san and Bre-kun’s matches went.”

With the Aika-chan incident and all, I turned off the float screen midway.

Because of that, I don’t really know how the match results turned out.

So, I check the names on the participant list.

If they survived, their names are colored yellow, and if they lost, their names are gray.

And if their match hasn’t happened yet, it’s still white, so you can see the results at a glance.

“Oh, the Tatsu-Lili combo made it through. Well done~”

It seems the Tatsu-Lili combo won on the first day.

As for the Bre-Misa combo, their match is tomorrow or later.

For now, I send congratulatory messages to Tatsu-san and Lili-chan, and while looking at the Grand Martial Festival announcement email, I found what seems to be an official site (?) with videos of the preliminaries.

So, as I quickly skimmed through the site…

“Ah, this is Lili-chan.”

I saw a thumbnail that was clearly a robot, so I stopped scrolling and it was indeed Lili-chan.

I wonder if I can see how the preliminaries went by watching this?

“Let’s see, the video title is, Demon Lord’s Descent… —Demon Lord’s Descent!?”

It’s been given quite a violent title…

With a bit of trepidation, I press the play button.

Ah, it’s started.

Oh, there’s no NPC commentary.

Just the preliminary footage playing impassively.

“Oh, everyone has quite an atmosphere.”

The tag team names are called out, and participants climb onto the stage one after another.

As expected, there seem to be many people with experience, as their equipment doesn’t look like that of beginners.

Maybe it’s equipment made from materials earned by farming area bosses.

Among them, Lili-chan and her partner’s names are finally called, and they climb onto the stage, but there’s an immediate stir.

“What’s that equipment…?”

“A robot…?”

“Is it just for show? Or…”

“No, isn’t it a bit small? Is there a woman inside?”

Some of the participants’ voices can be heard from the footage.

Well, I can understand why they’d react like that.

Lili-chan… or rather, Cog-2’s appearance has changed to be quite intimidating or out of place.

The all-black body hasn’t changed, but to achieve high mobility, a large cape-like thing is mounted on the back, and to increase intuition accuracy, quite spiky sensor equipment is attached all over the body.

It’s finished with a look that wouldn’t be out of place if you said it was an enemy rival machine appearing in the last quarter of an anime series.

So, it has a sense of discomfort or an extraordinary sense of intimidation that stands out.

After that, more and more participants climb onto the stage, but none left as much of an impact as Lili-chan.

Or rather, it’s amusing how Tatsu-san, who should be next to her, has naturally entered a stealth state. Dangerous, I might start laughing at the wrong moment.

“Oh, is it about to start?”

The influx of people on stage has stopped, so it should be soon, right?

Eventually, when the tension on stage reaches its peak, people start moving all at once.

Some participants slash at those nearby, some retreat while casting magic, and some try to hide inconspicuously.

Amidst all this, the action taken by the Tatsu-Lili combo is a bit different from the others.

As soon as it starts, Tatsu-san fires [Fire Strike] upwards while ascending into the air.

Following him, Lili-chan also ignites her propulsion device and leaps into the air at once.

Cog-2 isn’t designed for aerial combat, but it can float in the air for short periods. They probably took advantage of that to jump into the air together, but…

“Ah”

Tatsu-san’s [Fire Strike] burst in mid-air.

That’s probably the limit of how high they can go.

It seems Tatsu-san fired [Fire Strike] to gauge that height limit.

The two stop their movement just at the limit point in the air.

Huh, what are they going to do?

As I was wondering, both hands of Cog-2, piloted by Lili-chan, start glowing red.

Yeah, I remember we added a function to fire magic power as light bullets in the center of the palms…

“Wow, Lili-chan is spray-firing from the air~”

Light bullets rain down indiscriminately on the participants on the stage. It doesn’t matter who’s fighting who or who’s hiding in a corner. The light bullets falling from above carpet bomb the stage.

In no time, the stage is enveloped in dust, but Lili-chan doesn’t stop firing light bullets.

“Come to think of it, wasn’t Lili-chan’s unique skill [Certain Hit]…?”

[Certain Hit] is a skill that applies a correction to ranged attacks, and no matter how off-target the attack might be, a powerful homing function works to ensure it always hits the opponent.

So in Lili-chan’s case, just randomly spray-firing from above ensures that her attacks will definitely hit all the participants on the stage.

Moreover, Cog-2 has been modified to increase magical attack, so participants who haven’t raised their magical defense probably melted within seconds of the start.

Eventually, as the propulsion device’s hovering time runs out, Lili-chan and Tatsu-san slowly descend to the ground, but…

When the smoke clears, no one is left on the half-destroyed stage.

“Well, this certainly is the Demon Lord’s descent.”

I couldn’t help but agree with that title.