episode_0081

Jason Spatoy, ranked 6th in the solver rankings, expressed his intention to participate in our request.

The three people who heard the news in the office were me, Sylvia, and Lund.

Scylla was also there, but judging by the way she was yawning cutely on Lund’s back, she didn’t seem to have any intention of participating in this discussion.

“….”

“Uh, what should I do?”

As Sylvia quietly looked at me and Lund, I spoke anxiously.

“Reject with vague excuses.”

“…Is that okay?”

“What does it matter anyway? From our perspective, there is no reason to embrace him.”

“The name and color are ranked 6th, so wouldn’t it be helpful?”

The Jason I remember was a bit strange, but he wasn’t evil by nature.

There is one drawback, though…

“That may be true, but he is also a top-level problem solver. It might have something to do with that guy.”

“2nd place?”

Lund nodded and continued speaking.

“Because top-level solvers meet periodically.”

“Oh, I guess that’s true too.”

But I don’t think 6th place was close to 2nd or 3rd place.

It could have been different here, so it was right to follow Lund’s words.

However, the possibility of a reversal could not be ignored.

“But how about meeting him once?”

“Of course, isn’t it?”

But when Sylvia delved in exquisitely, I responded to her.

“Silvia, are you okay?”

“Rather, if you refuse to participate in the quest without even meeting the 6th ranked solver in person, there may be backlash. It would be better to find fault after meeting in person.”

Lund listened to Sylvia’s words and seemed to think they were plausible.

“Then who among us will we meet?”

“For now, I will leave.”

“Huh? Why?”

“There is no need to tell you that I am involved in this matter.”

As soon as she finished speaking, I looked at Sylvia.

“Yes, I think it would be better if Mr. Lund is left out this time.”

“Then it’s me and Sylvia.”

“As long as Chris is good.”

“Of course!”

“I want to do it too!”

uh?!

Scylla, who had been quiet so far, raised her front paw on Lund’s back and shouted.

“…Sila? Do you know what’s going on?”

Lund tried to dissuade Scylla, but Scylla didn’t care.

“Then, let’s first include personnel from the local public order maintenance office.”

“Silvia, what about Silas?”

“…I think it would be okay to just watch from the side.”

“That’s right!”

After receiving Sylvia’s permission, Silas jumped up on Lund’s back.

“Sila, are you that good?”

“Yes!”

***

The next day, we headed straight to Sasau, one of the districts of Devils Park.

The Blue Heart Office was planning to head to the site first and take charge of various underlying tasks.

The district where the quarry was located was Sasau. This is also the place where we were supposed to meet number 6 today.

‘Is it the Sasau Quarry in Sasau? ‘It’s easy to understand.’

Come to think of it, a sky whale crashed at Devils Park not long ago.

“Hmm.”

“Chris, why are you crying?”

“No, I just saw a sky whale crash near here the other day.”

“Did something like that happen?”

Silvia, who was busy with a lot of things to do unlike me, didn’t seem to know much.

“So you can see a dead sky whale?”

“Isn’t that so? But you might not be able to see it unless you’re near a quarry.

Apparently, Silas wanted to see the sky whale even though he was already dead.

They’re probably in the middle of dismembering the sky whale’s body right now.

Seeing how scared I was when I saw it clearly on the news screen last time… I thought it would be better to just skip it this time too.

“But it’s definitely nice to ride a speedboat.”

“Chris, Sheila. I think it would be better for both of them not to stretch too much.”

Thanks to Solas’s consideration, we were heading to Sasau on the speedboat of serotonin science.

“Isn’t Silvia in such a comfortable position?”

“Am I okay? There’s usually a lot of work to do, so if I don’t rest at times like this, when will I rest?”

Is that also true?

When I heard that, I moved to praise Sylvia’s contribution.

After changing into the form of a baby bat, it flew over Sylvia’s head and stroked her forehead.

“Our director, you’ve worked hard.”

“Still, I’m glad there is an employee who understands my hard work.”

“Barely an employee?”

“…Then your daughter?”

“No, I think the staff would be good.”

It’s okay for me to call Sylvia ‘Maman’, but it’s a bit difficult for her to think of me as her daughter.

What kind of nonsense is that?

I’m not sure, but it felt like what little masculinity I had left was violently resisting.

As we talked about various things, we were able to arrive in Sasau shortly.

The first place we headed to was the security office at Devils Park!

“Nice to meet you. This is Sylvia, head of the Blue Heart Office, whom I contacted through Jenny.”

“Oh, welcome.”

It seems that the acquaintance Sylvia was talking about was, of course, Jenny.

While I was thinking that this was a name I hadn’t heard in a long time, we headed into the office.

No sooner had we sat down than the head of the public security office opened his mouth.

“I have carefully read the messages sent by the Tetracaine Association and Serotonin Science.”

“Then we can talk quickly.”

At our request, requests related to the Sasau Quarry had already begun.

“Yes, there is no reason for us to disturb you. If you need anything other than request registration, please let me know. We will do our best to help you.”

It was the answer Sylvia wanted.

“Sila, let’s close our eyes for a moment.”

“Yes!”

It seemed like the story would probably be long.

***

Sure enough.

By the end of the story, Silas and I were able to get enough sleep.

“Haaam….”

“Chris? Now that it’s over, let’s get up.”

“Oh, really?!”

Sheila was still sleeping on my lap, so I picked her up as carefully as I could.

“Did it end well?”

“Yes, it went more smoothly than I expected.”

“So now it’s 6th place’s turn?”

“Yes, I’ll be waiting for you at a hotel nearby.”

This time, we headed by speedboat.

Fortunately, the route was automatically set up so we didn’t have to do anything more.

It was only a short time to see the scenery.

As we emerged through the door of the speedboat being opened in a flashy manner… the hotel where the 6th person was staying approached us.

“Dear Blue Heart Office. I was waiting.”

Looking at the way the security office and the hotel here treated us.

Our Blue Heart Office also seemed to be quite successful.

Well, it may actually be thanks to the halos of Lund and Solas… but where is this?

“Sila, stop sleeping and wake up.”

“Umm.”

I woke up Silas, who still couldn’t come to her senses.

The way he was waving his arms and legs was kind of cute, so should I listen to him a little more?

The hotel, which had an overall white marble feel, naturally had a force field installed on the door.

‘But the name of the hotel is kind of bad.’

White Devil Hotel.

Just because it’s a hotel in Devil’s Park, I don’t think it needs to have ‘Devil’ in its name.

Still, it’s a white devil. It was a somewhat impressive name.

“Let’s meet number 6 right away.”

“Is that so?”

I wasn’t even tired because I slept well at the public security office.

As we took the elevator and arrived at the 7th floor of the hotel, the observation lounge located between the rooms came into view.

The view overlooking the scenery near the hotel looked quite atmospheric.

“Uh, that guy.”

“I think so.”

When Sylvia and I saw a man taking up space in the observation lounge, we were sure he was in 6th place.

Although he didn’t have his trademark cowboy hat, he did have another trademark, six mechanical arms on his back.

It seemed like 6th place hadn’t even noticed the arrival of Sylvia and I yet.

‘Don’t you usually look at the elevator at least once when it arrives?’

Since there was no response from the other side, I decided to talk to them first.

“Hey, bullet wizard.”

“So are you little Jinjo?”

I felt a strong sense of déjà vu.

I’ve never been greeted with this kind of sarcastic greeting in my life, but it feels somewhat familiar.

In fact, I was nervous and ended up saying 6th place’s tinnitus, but 6th place responded by saying my tinnitus in a sensible way.

“It’s later than I expected.”

***

“I wouldn’t have been late for my appointment.”

“But I thought you would come earlier.”

Number 6 responded to Sylvia’s words by raising her index finger.

“Ah, but you’re here now. Isn’t that important?”

“That’s right.”

The 6th person responded obediently to what I said and revealed his name.

“This is Jason Spato.”

“Chris Radomir!”

Maybe it was because it wasn’t my correct real name, but the sounds in my head that I would normally hear didn’t ring.

“And my name is Silvia Radomir, head of the Blue Heart Office.”

“…Are you two in a mother-daughter relationship? Or is it that kind of concept?”

“Is that important?”

“Oh, if it’s complicated, you don’t have to answer.”

Jason took a step back, as if sensing something unsettling.

“Jason, is it okay if we continue talking here?”

“Well, it doesn’t matter.”

There were quite a few eyes to see and ears to hear, but the people around us didn’t seem to be very interested in us.

‘No matter what, I ended up in 6th place?’

Now that I see it, it seems like none of the people around me are ordinary people.

In another sense, maybe it’s not 6th place that needs to be worried, but us…?

“This time, you expressed your intention to participate in a request related to an incident that occurred at the Sasau Quarry.”

“Yeah, I don’t know about you, but it’s very important to me too.”

“…?”

When I looked like I didn’t know what was going on, Janeson showed me her terminal screen.

“What is this?’

“It’s an open gamble regarding the success or failure of this request. Do you see the amount here?”

…uh?! No, how many zeros are there?!

I don’t know if the gambling site Jason showed me was real, but the amounts were definitely unrealistic.

Thanks to this, my mouth was wide open and showed no sign of closing.

“I guess you often gamble like that, right?”

“I tend to like it.”

Jason answered Sylvia’s words and turned off the terminal screen he was showing me.

“To be honest, it hasn’t been that long since I bet on you and your office. What is it… I’ve been walking since I was at Strange Lab.”

“Ahant Aquatic Biology Research Institute?”

“Yes, there.”

I have made enough money from Eslok’s slush fund.

However, the amount shown by 6th place just now was enough to shock even me.

No, you gamble that much with me and you don’t even pay me a penny?!

“So… To summarize, are you saying that you will participate in this quest with the money that it will succeed?”

“That’s right!”

“Normally, gambling sites would not recognize such a case.”

“Don’t worry. Because the money was placed in the name of an acquaintance of mine. No problem.”

…? Is it really right to say that there is no problem?

“I’m different from the common people who just bet on games where it’s obvious they’ll win.”

“Then?”

“I am trying to achieve success myself. Before I’m a problem solver, I’m a winner.”

‘No, isn’t that just a match fixer?’

Still, I was glad that the 6th place I knew was correct.

It seems that one of the 6th place character traits, Toto-Chung or Totogi, is still there.

“So, is that why you are trying to participate in this request?”

“Okay, if this isn’t enough, there’s one more.”

“What is it?”

“My handsome sister said she was curious about you.”

“Sister?”

Ah, I felt like I had some idea of who the ‘good girl’ Jason was talking about was.

“…Maybe first place?”

“Yes! The sister wanted to come in person, but she was very busy.”

“No. 1 is interested in us?”

Sylvia also reacted as if she was surprised about that part.

“Well, who wouldn’t be interested in Jinjo suddenly appearing and fighting with the second place?”

“Hmm, hmm.”

I cleared my throat and tried to avoid Jason’s gaze.

“Okay, then how about it? If this is the reason, you can understand it, right?”

“Okay. Rather than answering right away, I think it would be better to tell you after some discussion.”

“Okay. I don’t care. Enough ‘discussion’.”

The story ended shorter than expected. Originally, I had planned to make an excuse and refuse to participate in Jason’s request… but somehow it ended up like this.

In addition, as soon as Sylvia and I got up from our seats, Jason added to us.

“If you are going to let me participate in this request, keep that in mind. Because I have no intention of sucking my fingers in a safe place. I will definitely be active on the front lines.”

“We will keep that in mind and discuss it, then let you know.”

Jason simply nodded at Sylvia’s answer.

It didn’t take long before his eyes turned from us back to the view from the 7th floor.

” Uh, are we going back already? ”

“Why? Do you want to see more?”

“Um… no. Just go!”

I patted Sheila’s head and headed to the elevator together.

“Silvia, what should we do now?”

“It would be a good idea to contact other people to come here as well.”

Blue Heart Office and Ildong Office.

And the power of the Tetracaine Association and Serotonin Science… even the general at the research institute!

It was literally putting all the power we could muster.