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High School Hack and Slash Chapter 6 Part 1

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Pasifista

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Purchasing Department

　Since the beginning of the new academic year, the first week has ended without incident.

　Why bother stating the obvious? Such a thought does cross my mind, but in fact I also have a feeling that it can’t be said to be completely uneventful.

　While Shizuka is staring fixedly at me, I’m in a wonder about how she’s connected to the link of this so-called Shizuka crystal.

　I’m unable to understand it even after I get it explained to me, but it seems to be a one-way flow from me to Shizuka.

　Shizuka says that’s fine, it’s fine this way, but I wind up using it in a not so fine manner.

　Specifically speaking, in the erotic direction.

　Unlike me, she must have had a considerably tumultuous start to her school life.

　She’s a good girl who not only has gotten completely accustomed to Kurou-sou ,a boys’ dormitory, but has even opened up to and helped out the aunty who comes to the dining hall to cook meals.

　Rather, switching places, Seiichi sneaks into the girls’ dormitory every night, while Shizuka stays over here every night.

　It’s different from the image of a boy’s dormitory that I imagined.

　In the beginning, when I woke up in the morning, there would be a huge pile of senpai sirs on Seiichi’s bed, but perhaps due to them not getting comfortable sleep there, they stopped coming.

　They apparently fell unconscious the moment they went into the item box and their memory of what happened before and after that became hazy, but for some reason they seemed to have learned that there is『something dangerous』.

　Right now, I’m blatantly being treated with caution and avoidance.

　Or rather, they even seem to be afraid of me, even though it’s just a misunderstanding.

　Due to that, I’m glad that Shizuka is now able to live in Kurou-sou safely, but I’m a little lonely.

　I have a yearning for more of a group life, though.

「You have so many likes and dislikes, Shizuka.」

　After the mysterious lecture of Introduction to The Labyrinths pertaining to how to safely use the dungeon facility is over, now is lunchtime.

　On the way to the student cafeteria along with Seiichi and the others, I try voicing out the matter I had accidentally noticed this morning.

　We’ve had breakfast together for a while now, so I more or less know her preference.

「Natto is… not a food.」

　Shizuka is averting her gaze, but she murmurs as such with distant eyes.

　That remark is the problem.

「Natto is, rotten soybeans.」

「That recognition is correct, but like… a little not on point.」

　If you have natto, you can enjoy a bowl of rice, though.

　I would also like to recommend a collaboration with eggs.

　I have a feeling that she probably doesn’t like it without even having tried it.

　I would like to try challenging a new door on how to make use of Shizuka crystal here.

「If you ask me, to lick your feet, I will.」

「The bar for fermented food is too high.」

　Just how much does she not want to have it in her mouth, I wonder?

　To think she’d find licking someone’s feet better than eating natto.

　And then I can hear whispering voices from my surroundings.

　The ones walking down the hallway, whose path is arranged in order, leading to the student cafeteria are first-year students, there are also the figures of our classmates among them.

　Talk about poor taste, so pitiable, what a brute, and so on, I’m totally feeling like a supreme villain here.

　Even in class, I seem to have the image of a domestic violence bastard who abuses Shizuka, and the sense of distance between me and my surroundings is continuously expanding, as if I’m being isolated.

　Thanks to that, even when I try calling out to my classmates other than Seiichi and the others, they’d either run away or perhaps cry, further raising my notoriety level.

　With this, I don’t even have the option of choosing my party for the special dungeon training that is starting this week.

　I want Shizuka to explain to them that it is just a misunderstanding, but she merely shows me a pleasant smile and tilts her head.

　As expected, I can’t use the link of Shizuka crystal properly at the moment.

　Above the bed, though, it’s pretty responsive and has a good signal transmission.

「… It’s that, huh. You’ll stop at nothing, won’t you, Shizuka?」

　Mai, who is pouring sauce on the daily lunch B set meal: crab cream croquette, turns toward Shizuka with parched eyes akin to that of Tibetan fox’s.

　The daily lunch of the student cafeteria is always arranged in three types of: A, B, and C set meals.

　The student cafeteria does have the common image of being fast, cheap, and plentiful, but the quality of the meals and other dishes served there is by no means low.

　The variety of menu available is also numerous, so it has an image closer to that of a family restaurant.

　After all, since there’s no other option than a small coffee shop and restaurant outside the school, we will have no choice but to use the student cafeteria during our five years here.

　A good meal becomes the energy for the day and relieves stress.

「What may you be talking about?」

「Yikes, scary!」

　Mai cowers at Shizuka’s smile, who is holding chawanmushi in her hands.

　The A set meal is based on Japanese food.

　The B set meal is mainly of Western-style food, while the C set meal has the tendency of being deep-fried type or Chinese food with plentiful volume.

　Seiichi’s and my lunch plate is gallantly ridden by the C set meal of miso katsu with a free large serving heap of bowl of rice.

　Seiichi is probably also lacking in calories, or perhaps protein.

「So, what to do this afternoon? We’re going to the purchasing department as planned, right?」

「Well, we can’t really plunge into the dungeon naked, after all. It’s just, I bet it’s going to be crowded.」

　Seiichi, heartily stuffing his cheeks with katsu, reaches out his hand toward the bowl of rice.

　This miso sauce is quite the delicacy, I wish they could make it a permanent menu entry.

「The dungeon is finally open, after all. With this we can say goodbye to our morning classes forever.」

「No, no, no, the period past afternoon is treated as special training, you see. So if you skip classes, you might easily leap into expulsion, you know?」

　Seiichi replies to Mai’s useless person remark with a merciless retort.

　But in fact, Midori-sensei did once say that there’s an achievement assignment levied on the special dungeon training, and in case the assignment is not achieved by the time of mid-term and final exams, the possibility of us getting expelled from the academy is by no means zero.

　It seems that every year there are students who are stuck with make-up classes.

　On the contrary, that means as long as you can achieve your assignment, you are free to use the afternoon period on your own discretion.

　I guess this is aligned to the academy’s policy of respecting the independence of students.

　Come to think of it, the atmosphere in the student cafeteria also seems somewhat lax.

　The entrance to the dungeon, Rashōmon, is certainly a huge facility, but if the whole student bodies that numbered no less than a thousand were to gather there at once, of course it would be crowded.

　On weekdays, the closing of gate time is set at 5:00 p.m., but the time for us to head there is up to our own discretion.

　I guess it is only natural to avoid the crowded time.

　Well, before that, though, we freshman groups have things that have to be done first.

「Now then, let’s get going. To get our gear arranged.」

 

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　Toyoashihara Academy’s purchasing department was crowded with mostly the swarm of first-year students.

　The entire two-story building was used as the purchasing department, and it was stocked with the general tools necessary for academy life.

　In addition to a complete set of stationery for classwork, there were also daily necessities that were essentials for dormitory life.

　From garments such as clothing and underwear to food stuffs such as snacks and so on, the array of products was somewhat similar to the one in a supermarket.

　The place where those common items were displayed was on the second floor, while the ones lining up on the display case on the first floor was an array of products that could never be found at any other schools.

「Wow, if there were an adventurer’s guild, don’t you think this must be how it would look like?」

　Mai, who seemed to be getting excited, picked up a Japanese sword that was casually arranged on the shelf.

「It’s pretty heavy. In anime, they wielded it like it was nothing, though.」

　It was a lump of iron, so that was only natural.

　Next to the Japanese sword section was a line of Western swords settling in their scabbards, and beyond that were spears, poleaxes, halberds and other long objects.

　Touma was holding a shield shaped like a baseball home base that was hanging on the wall, and the mannequin doll Shizuka was facing was dressed in body armor that looked like something a special police officer would wear.

　At a glance it might seem like a museum, but these array of products were all domestic items that were meant to be used.

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