Living in a Class-Based World - Chapter 23: Dream Seducers

Ayaka, Yuuta’s case worker, visited him on the day of his final ranking examination of junior high school.

“Congratulations on reaching Rank E.”

“Thank you!”

Ayaka informed Yuuta about his rank-up the second she stepped through the door. Although it was called an examination, it didn’t mean that the men had tests performed on them on that appointed day. Their rank was already set by that time, so it was more like the occasion for a recap of their activities over the past year.

Yuuta was overjoyed as him having reached E-Rank allowed him to take a breath of relief.

“Well, in reality it had been decided from the very start that you would go up to E-Rank.”

“Eh?”

“Forgive me, but I wasn’t perfectly honest with you.”

“Eeehh?”

“It couldn’t be helped as it was for the sake of testing you. Please excuse me for this audacity. And I must admit it was a wonderful Underground Service.”

“What do you mean?”

Ayaka never stopped smiling while explaining things to Yuuta.

“The state of Nihon had already decided that your rank would rise, Yuuta-sama. They were only debating whether to raise your rank to E or D.”

“And in the end I got an E-Rank, you say?”

“If you had accepted the Sperm Donation Service back then, you would be a D-Rank now. As a matter of fact, it was my task to persuade you into accepting the Sperm Donation Service.”

“You didn’t do anything like that.”

Yuuta understood that Ayaka had started to give him 「Spoilers」.

It looks like I’ll finally be able to hear about all the things I want to know.

“Yes. The organization prefers your male rank to remain low, Yuuta-sama.”

“The organization?”

“I’m not talking about the Male Supervision Section to which I belong. Of course it is true that I’m a member of the Second Male Supervision Section, but I belong to yet another organization. An organization called 「Dream Seducers」.”

“Huh!? Dream Seducers?”

“They are said to be imaginary demons appearing in myths and folklore of the Old World. Yuuta-sama…you know about them, don’t you?”

“…What do you mean?”

“I believe that you might be aware of that term as someone possessing memories of the Old World.”

Hearing those words finally coming out of Ayaka’s mouth, Yuuta’s mind calmed down.

“As expected, Ayaka-san…you were Yuuta-kun’s collaborator, huh?”

“Yuuta-kun?”

“Oh, I’m referring to the previous me――the self inhabiting this body before the personality transplantation――as Yuuta-kun.”

“…Yuuta-sama, you are a man…of the Old World?”

“That’s right. Ayaka, you and your people implanted my personality into this body, didn’t you?”

“Yes…indeed.”

As he had thought, Ayaka was Yuuta-kun’s collaborator, but at the same time he felt that somehow something seemed off with Ayaka.

While being slightly bewildered, Ayaka continued with her explanation, “…Our organization set up the network of Underground Services. And just as I already informed you before, the objective of Dream Seducers lies in saving the common women who lost all hope.”

“I see.”

“Most of the men, who became members of Dream Seducers, range from twenty to forty years in age. A man’s Sperm Rank starts to decline after an age of 28. We invited men who were unable to form friendly relationships with women of high families or would find it hard to form such relationships in the future.”

“So you were targeting men who would be worrying about their retirement, huh?”

“You aren’t wrong about that. We brought this offer up with men who would cooperate and agree with our organization’s objective. But, all of them are men who have been labeled as 「Leftovers」. As there are few men to begin with, we don’t have the luxury to be too picky when selecting from the pool of those men.”

“You mean to say they were men who weren’t very desirable for the common women who lost all hope?”

“Yes. As such, the organization considered securing 「Leftovers」 from among the young men and raising them in a way beneficial to the organization’s objective.”

“Was Yuuta-kun a member of Dream Seducers?”

“No, he was not. I did not talk about the organization with Yuuta-sama as he was a junior high student. You are aware that I wasn’t Yuuta-sama’s first case worker, right?”

“Yes. If I remember correctly, the previous one was called…”

Yuuta-kun’s first case worker. The face of a very gentle-looking woman immediately surfaces in my mind…I think she’s called..

“Uuuhh!”

“Y-Yuuta-sama!?!”

A headache suddenly assailed Yuuta.

“Yuuta-sama!? I’ll call an ambulance at once!”

“I-It’s fine. I’m alright.”

“B-But…”

Yuuta breathed out, “…I-I’m okay now. I got a headache all of a sudden, but it went away just as quickly.”

“No, you need an immediate examination at a hospital. We can continue our conversation on another day.”

“That won’t do. Listening to your story is more important for me right now. I’m okay. Honestly. After we finish our meeting, I’ll go and get myself examined today or tomorrow.”

“…Very well. Please tell me at once if you should feel the slightest pain. I will take you to a hospital right away then.”

“Okay.”

The abrupt pain was a momentary happening and had disappeared just as suddenly.

“Umm, Yuuta-kun’s first case worker was Tomoe-san, right?”

“That is correct. Tomoe-san of the First Male Supervision Section. I was assigned as your case worker a little while after that incident. From the perspective of our organization, you perfectly met our conditions once you started to reject doing any Service Activity. Judging that the state would not treat you preferentially for an indefinite amount of time if they saw that you weren’t recovering at all, I raised my voice, offering to become your case worker.”

“Why didn’t you invite Yuuta-kun to be a member of the organization right away?”

“Back then, you were secluding yourself as you were deeply troubled over the incident during your first Service. Moreover, you were still a first-year at junior high. As such I decided that it would be difficult to get your understanding, even if I did explain the objective of our organization. In the first place, our organization’s policy only allows us to invite E-Rank men at the point of them becoming first-years at high school. It follows the thinking that the men will more likely lend an ear to our offers when they don’t surpass E-Rank at the time of graduating junior high.”

“Does that make me an exception then?”

“Indeed. Yuuta-sama, you possess the memories of an Old World dweller. However, we didn’t know what sort of man you would become after the personality transplantation either.”

“And that’s why you limited yourself to monitoring the situation?”

“Yes. We closely watched what sort of man you are and what actions you would take after waking up. Starting from the conclusion: our organization Dream Seducers has judged you to be an ideal man for us.”

“An ideal man for your organization? What sort of man is that?”

“To summarize it, a gentle man.”

“A gentle man?”

“Yes. Yuuta-sama, you interacted gently with common women. I do not claim to understand the values of a man coming from the Old World, but as far as I can tell from what I observed, you are a man who kindly interacts with women while also taking their feelings into account. Even if they might be of common descent.”

“Hmm, sure, you might have a point there.”

Yuuta became slightly embarrassed when being praised as gentle. He personally thought that his own gentleness wasn’t anything as noble as Ayaka made it out to be.

“My organization decided to invite you into its ranks before your high school enrollment. Before the high class women at the top of the state learn about your kindness. And thus we decided to have you accept an Underground Service request as a final test. I lied to you about it being for the sake of reaching E-Rank because we wanted to make sure of your real character.”

Ayaka was confident that Yuuta would be an ideal man for the organization, but in the unlikely event of the Underground Service’s result being bad, she wouldn’t have opened up to him to this degree and instead simply told him that he’d become E-Rank thanks to her mediation.

Moreover, had Yuuta opted to take the Sperm Donation Service, she would have insisted on him accepting the special Service request (Underground Service) on top of that by promising that she’d do her utmost to somehow have him reach D-Rank. She fully planned to turn this into a good outcome for the organization, no matter what Yuuta chose.

“You’re basically saying I passed your test.”

“Passing the test is too weak a wording to express it. Your Underground Service with Tsubaki-san was truly wonderful. Everyone watching the video rubbed their eyes, wondering whether such a perfect, caring man truly existed in reality.”

“Ah, as I thought, you filmed the whole thing, huh? Well, I’d expected you to watch from somewhere anyway.”

“Please do not worry. Only a part of the organization’s top brass watched the video. Therefore, it is impossible for it to leak to the outside world.”

“Okay, I’d prefer you handle the material very discreetly.”

“And after watching the video, our organization’s boss decided that I should talk to you about the personality transplantation. For the sake of clearly grasping your current state.”

“Oh, so you do have a boss, eh?”

“Yes. She is a common woman who is currently holding a fairly high position within the country’s administration. I cannot tell you her name, however. By the way, even within the organization, the only ones aware about a personality from the Old World having been implanted into your body are the boss, me, and a select few. Therefore, we would prefer it if you could keep this fact a secret going forward.”

“That’s no problem since I didn’t plan to spread it anyway.”

“We understand that Dream Seducers’ objective appeals to you as very attractive, and we would love for it to be just like that. But, how is it in reality?”

“Well, seeing how you’ve been laying everything on the table thus far, I don’t really plan to hide things from you. For me personally, performing Underground Services is like paradise. Ayaka-san, you might comprehend it to some extent as well, but men of the Old World like me like doing perverted stuff with women. It’s not a mindset where we won’t have any sex without getting some sort of compensation for it.”

“A world with the number of men and women being almost equal… It was difficult for a single man to have sex with many women, I guess?”

“Yes. Men chose their women, but women likewise chose their men. Well, there existed a plethora of other reasons as well, though. Monogamy was the norm and the circumstances differed too drastically from this world for polygamy to become the standard.

“Allow me to ask bluntly, Yuuta-sama, you believe it is nice to be able to have sex with many common women, even without receiving any collateral for it, right?”

“I do. However, even if I were told to have sex with several women in one night, my body wouldn’t hold up.”

“That is only natural. But, I am glad to hear this…With this, I will be able to keep talking with you as fellow members of the same organization.”

“Yes, I’m happy as well. I heard about the things I wanted to know and I also understood all sorts of things.”

Ayaka held out her hand to Yuuta, “Please allow me to inquire formally, would you be so kind as to become a member of our organization Dream Seducers? Please spread your kindness to the common women who lost all hope that allows them to keep living in this world, Yuuta-sama.”

Yuuta took her hand, “The pleasure is on my side. I am looking forward to working with you.”

“Thank you so much! If you work for us as a dream seducer, Yuuta-sama, our organization will also pool its resources to be of benefit to you!”

“I will do my very best to live up to your expectations! It might be a bit sudden, but there is something I would like you, as my colleague, to tell me.”

“What might that be?”

“Umm, what happened to the Yuuta-kun from before my personality transplantation?”

Yuuta was curious about the fate of Yuuta-kun who had left him a letter behind for when he would wake up in this new world. He thought that it’d be great for Yuuta-kun to happily live somewhere.

“The man you call Yuuta-kun…should still be inside you, Yuuta-sama.”

“Eh?”

“I was worried about this myself as well. We did implant another personality into you, but the personalities of the former Yuuta-kun and your current self should have fused by now. But, talking to you now, you regard yourself as a man of the Old World while identifying the previous Yuuta-kun as a different person, right?”

“Y-Yes. That’s right. We were united?”

“Correct. Yuuta-sama, your genetic information was chosen from among the men of the Old World for its compatibility ratio of 99% with Yuuta-kun. We only performed the personality implantation because of that high compatibility between you two.”

“Did Yuuta-kun know about this?”

“Yes. I never told him about the organization behind me, but I explained everything about the personality transplantation. I did phrase things in a leading manner, but the personality transplantation surgery was ultimately carried out after getting Yuuta-kun’s consent.”

Yuuta thought he had taken over the knowledge and memories from Yuuta-kun, but now he knew that Yuuta-kun was still residing inside him.

You’re in there, aren’t you…Yuuta-kun? No, I’m actually Yuuta-kun, am I not? But, I feel like something is wrong about that…gh!

“Guuh!”

“Yuuta-sama!?”

“This headache…come to think of it, earlier it also…this headache accompanied me trying to recall things about Yuuta-kun. A little while ago, I got a headache when I thought about Tomoe-san.”

“Are you alright? As I thought, we should get you to a hospital.”

“No, let’s not do that. These headaches…they’re no regular headaches.”

“There also exist hospitals run by members of Dream Seducers.”

“Oh, I see. I guess it won’t pose any problem to go there…right. I’ll go and consult them.”

“I think that would be for the best. By the way, what did you try to recall just now?”

“Yuuta-kun’s…first Service.”

“The one with the incident?”

“Yes. I tried to remember the first Service which became the trigger for Yuuta-kun becoming a shut-in. Somehow I do feel like I know what happened, but when I tried to recall the details, I was assaulted by a headache…as if being forbidden to remember it, I couldn’t find out anything.”

“…As I thought, Yuuta-kun indeed resides inside you, Yuuta-sama.”

“You’re right. A compatibility rate of 99% means that 1% isn’t accounted for.”

For a while after this, Yuuta continued to talk with Ayaka about the personality transplantation. In the end, Yuuta only learned about Yuuta-kun still being inside him. Thus he decided to keep thinking about this matter at a later date, and instead focus on a discussion about his actions in the near future.

“How about you try attending your junior high school once before your graduation ceremony on March, the 31st? It has been announced today that you have become an E-Rank, Yuuta-sama. I believe the reaction of the female students towards you will be different now.”

“But, men finishing junior high as E-Ranks are being described as losers and dunces, aren’t they?”

“Yes. Men who enter high school while still E-Rank are referred to as such. They’re men who meet the organization’s criteria as far as we’re concerned.”

“So would anyone come to my classroom if I attended?”

“I cannot tell you, but it looks like your Game Stream Service was quite popular. I hear some women evaluated you very highly for it, even among high families. I don’t think you will lose anything going there, and it’s also preferable for you to attend school, when considering your future activities, Yuuta-sama. After all, it is also related to the creation of a class for high school.”

“I see… I suppose I will head over to class on the next School Day.”

“I think that is a wise decision.”

His next objective was decided to be school attendance.

“We would be delighted if you could accept Underground Service requests as time permits. We do not have anything like a quote, so feel free to do it whenever you feel like it, Yuuta-sama.”

“Alright.”

“Also, there are two more matters I would like to bring to your attention. First, about the male students belonging to the same organization.”

“Oh, there are other boys?”

“There is one male student who is one school year above you. He is called Keita-sama and will become a second-year at high school starting in April.”

“Does Keita-senpai know about me?”

“We plan to avail an opportunity for you two to meet once after you enter high school. However, Keita-sama hasn’t been informed about you thus far.”

“Okay, I leave it in your capable hands then.”

Yuuta was happy about the prospect of having someone he could call a kindred spirit.

“The second matter hasn’t been set in stone yet, but it will very likely come to pass. I will stop being your case worker, Yuuta-sama.”

“Huh? Why?”

Hearing Ayaka mentioning that she’d stop being his case worker, he reflexively knitted his eyebrows as he had finally managed to obtain someone with whom he could talk openly as a comrade.

“I have heard that Tomoe-san, your initial case worker, filed a request to be reinstated as your case worker. She is a high woman belonging to the First Male Supervision Section.”

“You’re saying she wishes to be in charge of me again since I’ve recovered enough to rise to E-Rank?”

“Tomoe-san was truly devastated when you became a shut-in. She apparently forgot to remind you…err, Yuuta-kun that it was common practice for a man to accept the request of a high woman for his first Service Activity. Because of that, Yuuta-kun chose a common woman as his first Service partner, leading to that incident occurring. As soon as she heard about you regaining your footing and contributing to society by performing Services, she wished to become your case worker again. I think that’s only natural.”

The Tomoe-san inside Yuuta-kun’s memories… It’s okay. This time I can recall her without suffering any headaches. She seems like a kind, older sister. Yuuta-kun doesn’t harbor any ill will towards her either. Rather, his emotions in regards to her are…regret? Repentance? I wonder what to call it?

“Also, there’s another reason for this. It stems from me having the Sperm Donation request declined by you.”

“Eh?”

“In the eyes of the state, I, as a common woman of the Second Male Supervision Section, was apparently assessed to be incompetent. Well, it’s not like I really care either way. Even if you had become a D-Rank after accepting the Sperm Donation Service request, they would have very likely tried to remove me from my position as your case worker, claiming that an excellent man like you should be handled by someone from the First Male Supervision Section.”

“I understand.”

“Since I was able to win you as a member of our organization during my term as your case worker, it is no problem whatsoever, even if they switch me out at this point.”

“It’s because we can always stay in touch through the underground tablet, right?”

“Yes. Please make sure that the underground tablet won’t be discovered in case Tomoe-san takes over from me.”

“Roger.”

“I expect that I will be summoned by my superior tomorrow or on a later date in order to be informed about the reassignment. However, the change of case workers will actually take place after April, I suspect. So I think I will be able to meet you again as your case worker during March.”

“I might encounter various matters requiring consultation once I have attended school, so please assist me during that time.”

“Of course, do not be shy and contact me at any time you wish.”

This was how Yuuta became a member of the organization Dream Seducers. Yuuta, who was still an unknown even within the organization at that time, would soon exhibit his abilities to the fullest after obtaining Ayaka’s cooperation.

…