[Reberu] ga Arunara Agerudesho? Mobukyara ni Tensei Shita Ore wa Gēmu Chishiki o Ikashi, Hitasura Reberu o Age Tsudzukeru - CH 129

[Joseph Asanaga]

Cordelia-san said she had intended to tell us about the hidden door from the beginning, so I was let off only with a little scolding.

This leniency and kindness may be what makes a saintess a saintess. I once again made up my mind to teach a lesson to the priests who forced her to solve their trivial problems. I’ll forever be on the side of those who are kind to me without expecting anything in return.

“About the academy dungeon, yes? There should be some records about the remodeling work inside the dungeon here in this forbidden book section. In order to remodel some floors into artificial safe zones, many numbers of people had to come in and go out, so I think that they may have made some kind of passages… so as to be able to directly get to the remodeling location without the need to do regular exploration from outside.”

“So there are paths leading straight inside.”

When I consulted with the now woken up Saintess Cordelia-san, she told me that the materials I was looking for were stored here somewhere.

Now that I think about it, diving all the way from the entrance (1st floor) to the 30th floor to remodel it should take a lot of time. To say nothing of repeatedly making a round trip from the entrance to the lowest floor; that’s simply troublesome.

Hence, it wouldn’t be strange if they had created passages to be used as shortcuts, and neither would it be strange if there was an emergency exit.

Or rather, the secret paths I usually use are some of them, aren’t they?

Back in the game, they were introduced as nothing but secret paths or secret passages, so I was like, “That’s just the way it is”, but the more I listened to Cordelia-san, the more I became convinced of her reasoning. I never thought I’d touch their origin in this place.

If so, those materials may contain information about secret paths that I’ve yet to know. I’m fired up all of a sudden.

Under the instruction of Cordelia-san who still can’t get up just yet, I search the bookshelves for the materials.

The reason why the materials related to the remodeling are in the forbidden book section is that just by reading it, you can figure out that the dungeons are actually monsters.

The adventurer academy has a long history, its establishment dates back to about 300 years ago.

Of course, during that time, various things happened such as the dismantling of the old school buildings and drastic reforms due to scandals, so the current academy is almost completely different from the one at the time of its establishment, but the academy dungeon still continues to be used throughout the 300 years.

Hence, the materials which contain information about the remodeling done in the academy dungeon—which is way before the adventurer academy was established—are also fairly old.

“…No way.”

Among the materials I found, there’s a drawing showing the entire structure of the academy dungeon, and in it, there are passages that matched the secret paths I usually use.

I thought I’d find what I was looking for, but sadly, that expectation gets shattered by ‘a large stain of black paint that covers over a part of the drawing”.

The drawn secret paths are numbered, and in a document attached to it, there’s a list of people who used them and which floor they were working on.

Some of the numbers written in the drawing aren’t visible seemingly having been erased, and the passages to which those numbers are assigned are covered over by black paint.

I didn’t know the location of those passages, which leads me to think that they may be passages that didn’t exist back in the game.

All the passages I already knew got blocked, so there’s a possibility that the same happened to these unknown passages, but I can’t help but hope ‘what if they don’t?’.

The specific location of the dungeon’s core part—which also exists in the Netherworld Tower—in the undersurface floor and the route leading to it is still clear on the drawing, so it seems that the blackened parts aren’t important parts of the dungeon.

I have no idea why they’re blackened, but I discover an unpleasant name among the people who used the passages.

“Passage 8, ‘Joseph Asanaga and work puppets’, eh.”

This guy’s probably the pinnacle of puppeteers, and I’m sure he’s the mastermind behind the attack on the saintess this time. He’s the figure behind Asanaga Ayako from the Black Sword and the real executive of the organization.

He’s the second-longest living person after the 350 years old Last Boss, and he’s invented a technique known as ‘Demonic Art’ that is equivalent to a forbidden technique in other games. By using it, he continually transcribes his ‘soul’ from a puppet to another puppet, becoming someone who’s virtually freed from the concept of life.

And on top of all that, because of his terribly nasty backstory, he has a lot of moves that can disable you from attacking, earning him the nickname ‘Disgusting Dude’ among the players.

The guy has many terrible, I mean terrible, life stories, but the story leading up to the creation of his daughter, Asanaga Ayako, is the most terrible one.

In the storyline showing the relationship between Joseph and Ayako, it’s explained that ‘Ayako is a masterpiece created by Joseph that has her own personality, and he loves her like she’s his own daughter’. But that’s only a small part of the story. If I have to list the main points of the whole story:

・Joseph created Ayako based on the delusion that ‘if he married his first love and had a child with her, how would that child turn out?’

・That first love of his was born and raised in the village as him, and the only time they ever spoke to each other was when she praised the puppet show he performed as a kid. Joseph merely continued to watch her from afar thereafter.

・ As soon as his first love got married and moved to the royal capital, Joseph also headed to the royal capital and began to live in a place where he could always see his first love’s house.

・ He stalked his first love time and again without the other party realizing it, and after he ascertained with his own eyes his first love died happily surrounded by her grown-up children due to illness, he secretly dug up her grave—which was located at the public cemetery—and took away her ‘left ring finger’. Since he covered up his tracks solidly, no one discovered the fact that the grave had been vandalized.

・ After moving his soul to a puppet with ‘Demonic Art’, he buried his body right next to the grave where his first love lay in rest, along with his first love’s ring finger that he had stolen.

His deeds make you unintentionally say, “Uwaa”. The guy’s simply messed up from the very start.

He has other unpleasant episodes and behaviors, but it’s troublesome to explain them, so I’ll end it here.

Though I must say, even I feel sympathy for Asanaga Ayako for being trapped by such a guy.

The reason why he joined the Black Sword is to become a demon-kin using a monster named ‘Parasite Ghost’, all so that he can always stay on Ayako’s side.

In the game, he parasitized Ayako’s soul with his power as a demon-kin and kept doting and loving her except during an emergency. But that’s not the end of it. By staying on Ayako’s side, he was actually making a backup of her memory and personality so that in case something went wrong, he could just abandon her and make a new Asanaga Ayako.

Well, he would never throw Ayako away as long as he wasn’t absolutely driven to a corner, but conversely, he would unhesitantly take the option of cutting her off if the need arose. That’s why the players called him and Babi ‘The Worst Father Pair, The Violent Babi and The Unscrupulous Joseph’. Though he’s deemed as the lesser evil because Ayako’s not connected by blood with him.

In any case, it doesn’t matter to me why this guy was involved in the remodeling project of the academy dungeon; it’s just another piece of this world’s history. But the problem is whether he has information about these black-paint-covered parts and whether I can get it from him.

Considering that he’s the mastermind behind the attack, we have problems such as ‘can we even come into contact with Joseph who is a puppeteer?’ and ‘if we can, can we have a conversation and exchange with him?’.

“Hmm. Well, simply thinking about won’t solve anything. Let’s escape first.”

“…Escape? You have a plan, Tōru?”

As I’m thinking of procrastinating and shelving the problems to the back of my mind—as I usually do when I encounter a difficult problem—Ethel asks me, having caught the word ‘escape’ I muttered with her long ears.

Well, I’m mostly done perusing the books here. For now, it may be better to hold a discussion to confirm whether the escape method I’ve come up with is feasible and decide the course of action we will take after we manage to escape.

“It depends. Hence, let’s sort out the situation we’re currently in, then I’ll share what I have in mind.”

Iris looks shocked, “S-Sakurai-san is trying to communicate properly…! Sob, you’ve grown up…!”

“He’s just proposing to sort out the current situation and share information, why’re you so moved???” Ethel asks with a quizzical expression on her face.

“I mean, given Sakurai-san’s daily behavior…”

“Ahh… fair enough. You’ve been through a lot, Iris.”

Looks like I’m a super-problem child is a common understanding between the two, though I’ll ignore it for now.

But let me make one thing clear, I’m just an extremely ordinary person (mob) whose one and only purpose in life is to raise his level.

I just abandon the unnecessary ethics, shame, etc. for leveling, lower the priority of anything other than leveling, and am slightly falling behind in terms of people skills. It’s a mystery to me as to why lots of people around me see me as if I’m strange.

“The point is, don’t forget that at the core I’m a virtuous, sensible, and honest person who always keeps his promise!”

“Sakurai-san. All I heard was the self-introduction of a problem child who prioritized his own purpose and had no care about anything else.”

“Eh…?”

“Tōru. You’re such a lunatic that you’re so puzzled hearing that and can’t even defend yourself, so give up.”

“Um, Sakurai-sama, could it be that the Sword Saint taught you that you only need your sword to live in this world… or something…?”

Uncle is a hedonist of sorts, so I doubt he ever thought of such a thing.

For some reason, I feel like even Cordelia-san is beginning to think that I’m strange… but I swallow my words and proceed with the discussion.