CH 91

High School Girl Warrior

Chapter 91 – Doing what we can, one step at a time

… Save Point.

… Special Sword Skill X.

… Demon Lord.

… Hero.

I took a deep breath… That was a lot of information, and it was starting to overwhelm me.

Oh, and we were still floating, even if we weren’t talking anymore.

I guess Momoka is waiting for me to finish parsing through the information?

Then let’s see…

The hostile life forms are being manipulated by a player that has a unique job, the Demon Lord.

So, to make the world become peaceful again, the Demon Lord has to be killed.

However, the Demon Lord has the Immortality skill, which is paired together with the Hero’s Immortality. As long as one of them is alive, the other will keep on getting resurrected.

So, we have no choice but to kill both the Hero and the Demon Lord.

I sighed after a while of thinking about that, “… If this is what needs to be done to save everyone… Then I guess we have no choice but to kill them.” I told Momoka.

It was the conclusion I reached after thinking hard about all the information she shared with me.

“So, where are the Hero and the Demon Lord then?” I asked.

“That is…” Momoka heaved a sigh, “Under investigation.”

“You don’t know? Even as someone who has reincarnated?” I asked.

“Yeah… As I told you before, the situation here and in my previous life have some differences, so I can’t say for sure what has and hasn’t changed from what I remember.” Momoka explained.

Well, this much is understandable. Just she coming here at this time has already changed the environment of Miyabigaoka quite a bit, after all.

“What I do know though, is that by the time Phase 3 starts, an announcement with the whereabouts of the Demon Lord will be released, and a Hero will be chosen amongst the Players with Good Karma.” Momoka told me.

I see…

Wait, chosen amongst the players with Good Karma? “Doesn’t that put Iroha in danger?” I asked.

“Yes, she’ll need to do some evil deeds in the future, in order to avoid the risk of becoming the Hero. Something like robbing a bank or setting buildings on fire should do it.” Momoka replied.

“Mmmm…” I groaned as I thought about all this.

This is really a lot… Way too much information.

But there is still one fundamental question that needs answering… “So, why is this happening? Why are there zombies, a Demon Lord, a Hero, Levels and all that? How did all this happen?”

Momoka looked downwards as she heard my question, “Sorry, but that is something that we just couldn’t figure out.”

“So even in the future, the mastermind was still unknown?” I asked.

“That was something people debated a lot in my previous life… Personally speaking though, I think this is all a whim of God.” Momoka replied.

“Mmm…” I muttered as I thought.

If that’s really what it is, then it’s quite the frustrating situation, isn’t it? We’re just being forced to dance on the palm of ‘God’…

“So… We’ve talked about a lot of things… Do you believe me?” Momoka asked me.

“… I’m not sure. There is a chance you’re making all this up.” I told her honestly.

After all, it would be dangerous to take all her words for granted.

Surprisingly though, my words seemed to make Momoka happy, “Yes! That’s just what I expected! You’re definitely the Teacher I know of!”

I see…?

It really is weird to meet up with someone who knew me in a previous life…

“Oh, one last question.” I suddenly remembered something that I wanted to ask her.

“What is it?” She asked back.

“You’re… You’re a real girl, right?” I asked.

“Of course. My mental age may not match my appearance, but I’m a proper woman. Why?” Momoka replied.

“Ah, don’t worry about that.” I told her.

I was a bit relieved at this answer.

She was using masculine pronouns, and when remembering the whole thing with Tsuzuri, and the existence of the Magical Cat Staff… I just wanted to be sure of it at this point. *

***

After that, we softly landed on the ground.

“Umumu!” Iroha made a weird sound with a bright red face, “What’s going on!? Come on! Explain it to me!”

“Momoka is a reincarnator, and it seems like there are some people we need to defeat in order to save the world.” I explained to Iroha in very simple terms.

“I see! I get it now!

“Yeah, like… A reincarnator and… Mmm… Mmm…?

“Well, it’s all good then!” Iroha exclaimed.

I appreciate the adaptability of the youth.

“So, what do we do now?” I asked Momoka.

“First, we gather allies.” Momoka replied.

“Allies?” I asked.

“If we’re gonna act while preparing for the future, then we should start meeting up with strong players now.” Momoka told me.

I sighed as I felt a bit of a weight in my stomach… I really don’t like chatting with people I don’t know…

“At the same time, we will also do some leveling. From my experience, the higher one’s level is, the higher the chances of negotiations with other players going well.” Momoka told me.

Oh, is that so…?

“In that case… What do we need to do to make your efficient leveling work out?” I asked her.

Do we need to start hunting for metal slimes or something?

Momoka smiled, “Not too far from here… The place we need to go to is Ikebukuro.”

“Ikebukuro?” I asked.

“You probably don’t know about it yet, Teacher, but there is a special location in Ikebukuro, a Dungeon.

“In it, we can keep on killing all Monsters that are created there and level quickly.” Momoka explained.

Oh? “That’s a… Fairly straight-forward approach.” I muttered.

It was honestly a bit disappointing. I thought there was some secret leveling trick that she knew of.

“Well, there is no better way than to attack monsters directly.” Momoka smiled, as if she could read my mind, “However, with the current levels of Teacher and Iroha, it will be hard to kill the enemies in the Dungeon, so before that, we need to do some preparations.”

At this moment, Momoka’s eyes glowed blue… She is probably using Skill Appraisal.

“… Alright. You do have the Enslave skill. Did you kill the Slave Master, perchance?” Momoka asked me.

“Huh? No, I didn’t kill him. I just subordinated him.” I replied.

“Oh, I see.” Momoka said.

Right now, her expression was a bit strange. As if some complicated thoughts and feelings were running through her head.

“Would it be better to have killed him?” I asked.

“Oh no, definitely not. Between killing and subordinating, the latter is overwhelmingly better.” Momoka replied.

Mmmm… I wonder if something might have happened with Tsuzuri in Momoka’s past?

That’s a bit worrisome…

“Anyways, the important thing is that, with the Enslave skill, you can increase the number of Slaves in Miyabigaoka and help everyone here out.

“Also, deeds done by a Slave will automatically give experience points to their master, so that will be quite helpful.” Momoka told us.

Oh, is that so? Tsuzuri hadn’t explained this much to me, so this is the first I heard of that.

“Of course, it’s up to you, Teacher, to decide who you want to strengthen by using Enslave, but please choose your companions carefully.

“Whoever is chosen must be prepared for it, as it’s gonna be a life-threatening job.” Momoka said next.

As I heard that, I started thinking about everyone in Miyabigaoka High School.

There are certainly people that I can think of that I’d like to give the bonuses of Slave Reinforcement to, but…

This skill has the disadvantage of forcing them to always obey me no matter what.

“Well… For now, let’s get started. We’ll do what we can, one step at a time.” I decided.

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* Translator’s Note: Japanese has three different words that are commonly used that mean “I”. “Watashi”, “Boku” and “Ore”. “Watashi” is more formal and a bit feminine. “Boku” is a bit more informal and a bit masculine. “Ore” is very informal (even a bit rude, at times) and very masculine. Momoka refers to herself using “Boku”, hence why the MC said that Momoka’s pronouns were masculine… Though it’s not like it’s unheard of for women to use “Boku” or anything, it’s just a pronoun that is more often used by men than by women… In any case, a character’s way of saying “I” is something that is almost always lost in translation, hence why this Translator’s Note exists.