189 金額の妥当性
アキラが病室で目を覚ました。ベッドの上で身を起こし、室内を軽く見渡して状況を理解すると、軽く
「またか」
『またよ』
アルファがベッドに腰掛けて
『おはようアキラ。良く眠れたかしら?』
『ああ。......しかし何だな。これで病院送りは2度目か。死なずに済んで良かったと喜ぶべきか、またこんな目に遭ったことを嘆くべきか、判断に迷うな』
『あら、そこは迷う必要なんか全くないわ。喜ぶべきよ』
『一応聞くけど、理由は?』
『アキラが助かったことを喜ばない理由はないわ。私にもアキラにもね。アキラが死なずに済んで本当に良かったわ』
んでいた。それを見たアキラにほんの僅かな照れが浮かぶ。だがそれも続く言葉を聞くまでだった。アルファが冗談交じりの態度で続ける。
『それに、程度の差はあってもアキラがあんな目に遭うのはしょっちゅうでしょう? 今更一々嘆く必要はないと思うわよ?』
『......まあ、な。......それで納得する自分にちょっと腹が立つ』
くするとキバヤシが部屋に入ってきた。
「アキラ。やっと起きたか。体調はどうだ」
「大丈夫だ」
「本当か? 手足に違和感とかないか? ちゃんと起きて指まで動かして確認しておけ」
アキラは少し不思議に思いながらも一応確認してみた。特に問題があるようには思えなかった。
「大丈夫だ。何で念押しするんだ? 支払能力が不明だったから、最低限の安い治療しかしていないとか、そんな理由か?」
「逆だ。お前は生存最優先の応急処置を施された状態で仮設基地に運ばれてきたんだが、凄く
「......治療費って、幾らなんだ?」
「その辺も含めてお前にいろいろ話がある。あの後の経緯とか、依頼の報酬の交渉とか、いろいろ盛り沢山で長くなるから飯でも食いながら話そう。......安心しろ。あれだけ成果を稼いだんだ。治療費で赤字なんてことにはならねえよ」
アキラは部屋に用意されていた服に着替えると、キバヤシと一緒に病院を出て、用意されていた送迎車に乗ってクガマビルまで案内された。
キバヤシが1階のレストランに向かおうとするアキラを呼び止める。
「アキラ。そっちじゃねえぞ」
「違うのか? じゃあ何でここに案内したんだ? 先に何か手続きでもするのか?」
「違う。上だ」
く察するとキバヤシの期待通りに表情を驚きで大きく変えた。
クガマビル上階の高級レストランはアキラの食に対する価値観を書き換えた店だ。アキラはそこに3度目の来店を果たした。
案内された席に座り、喜びながらも戸惑い落ち着かない様子を見せているアキラに、キバヤシが上機嫌に少し芝居がかった様子で軽い拍手を送る。
「まずはおめでとう。お前は都市の交渉相手として、この店の食事代が俺達の経費で落ちるほどのハンターに成ったわけだ。初めて会った時はうだつが上がらない連中に交じって巡回依頼のトラックの荷台に座っていたってのに、この短期間でとんでもない成り上がりっぷりだな。大したものだ。その成り上がりを実現させたお前の無理
「えっ? あ、ああ」
アキラの様子は高級店に気後れしている小物そのものだ。だが間違いなくこの店に通されるだけの実力者だ。キバヤシはその食い違いを面白く思って機嫌良く笑っていた。
「お前もそろそろこの手の店に慣れておいた方が良いぞ? 俺はお前を気に入っているからいろいろ考慮してやるが、そうではない連中はその不慣れや戸惑いや畏縮に付け込んでくるからな。荒事は得意だが交渉事は不得意。そういうハンターを慣れない高級店に
き寄せて、場に飲まれている間に遅効性の猛毒たっぷりの交渉内容を飲ませるんだ。お前も気を付けろよ?」
「止めてくれ。どうせ病院送り前提の依頼を持ちかけるんだろう?」
「いやいや、それだけに報酬も高額で、成功すれば
できるという自身の実力を自慢げに笑って続けようとするキバヤシに、アキラは心底嫌そうな顔を返した。そしてそれで大分調子を取り戻すと、話を打ち切るようにメニューを開いた。それを見てキバヤシも楽しげに笑ってメニューを開いた。
注文を済ませて料理が運ばれてくるまでの間に、アキラはキバヤシから自分が気絶した後の話を聞いていた。
されてよほどの事態がなければ命は保証される治療と維持を受けていた。ネリアがアキラをヤナギサワの配下の人員に近い扱いを受けられるように少し手を回したのだ。
クガマヤマ都市の周辺では都市の防衛隊やハンター達が大型モンスターの群れとの激戦を続けていた。群れの規模は前回の大襲撃よりかなり小規模だが、群れの個体の全てが大型モンスターだったのに加えて飛行型まで混じっており、個体ごとの戦力の質は前回を大幅に上回っていた。そこらのハンターでは太刀打ちできず、いるだけ邪魔な状況であり、高ランクのハンターが高額の報酬を前提に半ば強制的に駆り出されていた。
都市側が都市防衛の切り札の使用すら検討に入れ始めた頃、突然群れの統率が崩れ始めた。愚直に都市を目指していたモンスター達が行動を一変させたのだ。とにかく近くの敵を襲い始める個体もいれば、進路を変えて荒野へ消えていく個体もいた。そして大半は撤退するようにクズスハラ街遺跡へ戻っていった。
「そうそう。覚えておけ」
注文した料理が運ばれてくる。アキラはまた無難な選択を、お勧めコースを勧められるままに注文していた。それらの料理が目の前に置かれると、少し仏頂面だったアキラの表情が途端に笑顔に変わる。その料理を口に運ぶと、舌から伝わる耐え
「1発500万オーラムだ」
「ランク50になれば、1発500オーラムで買える」
東部において銃弾の価格は統治側の都合、つまり統治企業側の経済的利点を基に決められている。都市のスラム街などに大量の銃弾が出回っているのも、それだけ安価な価格設定で流れているのも、企業側の利益を期待した管理の一環だ。
スラム街に銃弾を安価で流す理由にはいろいろある。スラム街の住人に時折荒野から襲ってくるモンスターを排除してもらう。都市を守る肉壁となってもらう。そしてモンスターとの戦闘に慣れてもらい、いずれはハンターとして遺跡に向かうように仕向ける。ある程度実戦を積んだ戦闘要員を安価で提供してもらう。そういう理由も含まれている。
そして安価で流される弾薬には基本的な共通点がある。それは都市の防衛隊など、統治側、治安維持側の部隊にはまるで効果がないことだ。クガマヤマ都市の防衛隊の装備も、
当然だが統企連の方針に刃向かうようなハンターは低ランクのままだ。ハンターオフィスがハンターを管理する手段でもある。ハンターランクを上げてほしければ、強力な銃弾を安価で提供してほしければ、統企連に逆らうな。東部のハンター達に暗にそう告げているのだ。
なおハンターランク調整依頼中にシズカの店で購入した弾薬類の購入時にも、この割引が前倒しで適用されていた。アキラがそれに気付かなかったのは、支払いは自分ではないと開き直って早い段階で購入代金の確認を止めてしまったからだ。
倫理的に問題のある人物に渡ってしまった場合、都市の防衛隊員を殺せる可能性がある程度存在する手段。その管理方法と、都市の職員が殺害された場合に発生する損害と、統治側がハンター側からの価格設定に対する文句を黙殺できる程度のハンターランクを考慮した結果、あの時の自分には
「ハンターランクの話はこれぐらいにしておこう。お前のハンターランクを具体的にどこまで上げるかは、他の報酬の内容と一緒に調整して決めるからな。で、それを具体的に決める前に、依頼の報酬とは別の案件がある。お前にまた戦歴の買取り......、のようなものが来ている」
「いや、そこまで大げさなものじゃない。お前は依頼の最終日に黒い人型兵器と組んでいただろう? その間の戦歴の修正、いやその戦闘に対する補足とか偏りとか、評価基準の指針とか、そういうのを調整したいって内容だ」
キバヤシが情報端末を取り出してアキラに見えるように詳細を表示する。そこには契約内容を記した細かい文字が、中身を読み飛ばせと言わんばかりの長文で続いていた。
「いや、別に売るのは構わないんだけど、この10億オーラムってのがちょっと......」
「なんだ、足りないのか?」
「違う。大金過ぎて妥当な金額なのか全く分からない。それがちょっと......」
の前提知識すらアキラには大幅に欠けている。アキラはその手の話への興味も含めて、返答を迷わなかった。
飽くまでも個人的な推測であり、この話を何らかの根拠にされても困る。キバヤシがそう前置きした上で詳細を話していく。
「恐らく、あの人型兵器はどっかのメーカーの新型機で、この戦歴買取も含めてプロモーションの一環なんだろうな」
ある人型兵器の製造企業が新型機の実戦データ収集とプロモーションを兼ねて、管理の不手際を装って機体を都市の下位区画に流した。その機体はスラム街の抗争に使用され、無数の人型兵器が投入された戦場で他の機体を相手に無双と呼ぶに
だがそこで計画に狂いが生じた。新型機がその場に居合わせたハンターに倒されてしまったのだ。慌てて新型機を回収し、その無様な結果の原因を流れた先で行われた整備不良の所為にして、機体をいろいろ換装した上で別の場所で改めてその性能を示すように手配した。
新型機は新たな戦場で無数の大型モンスター達を撃破して、
め息を吐いた。どこかの誰かの都合で、どこかの誰かが面倒事を被った。ただそれだけの話だ。
キバヤシは約束通り戦歴の売却に同意したアキラから、合意の処理を少し遅らせて、役得と言わんばかりにその戦歴の話を聞いていた。合意後はお互いにそれを話題に出せないからだ。
アキラは同意はしたものの、10億オーラムはやはり少し高いと思っていた。しかし戦闘の様子を聞いて爆笑しているキバヤシの様子に、半分はそれだけの価値はあったのだろうと考え直し、残り半分はどうでも良くなって、それ以上気にするのを止めた。
「ところで、何でその機体の援護に残ったんだ? いや、
それらの混ざった曖昧なものが、分別の悪さが、気性が、アキラを殺しかけも、生き残らせもした。そして本人にも自覚できないその狂った行動基準が、アルファの誘導からアキラを微妙にずらし続けていた。
キバヤシが爆笑から回復して、報酬内容の本格的な交渉、
Ch 189
Akira woke up inside a hospital room. He pushed his body up from the bed and looked around, once he understood what had happened, he sighed.
"Again, huh?"
"Yep, again."
Alpha was sitting on the bed beside Akira and smiled at him.
"Morning, Akira. Did you get a good sleep?"
"Yeah... But well, this makes it the second time, huh? I don't know whether I should be happy that I survived or I should be sad for getting hospitalized again."
"There's no reason for you to be sad, so just be honest and be happy about it."
"Let me confirm it, why can you be so sure?"
"There's no reason to not be happy since you survived, that is true for both me and you. I'm really glad that you survived that fight."
Alpha smiled gently. Akira who saw that blushed a bit. But that was only until he heard her next words as she half-jokingly said.
"Moreover, this isn't your first time having to face something like that, right? It would be a waste of time to question that now, wouldn't it?"
"...Well, you have a point there... And I really hate the fact that I have to accept it."
Not too long after that, Kibayashi entered the room.
"Akira, you're finally awake, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine."
"Really? Do you feel anything strange around your arms or legs? Can you move your fingers?"
Akira thought that it was weird for Kibayashi to say that, but he still tried to move his fingers to confirm it, and as expected, he did not feel anything wrong.
"Still nothing, why did you say that? Don't tell me that you gave me the bare minimum treatment since you didn't know whether I can pay or not, right?"
"It's the opposite. You were strapped into an emergency life-support system when I arrived in the forward base. You were in pretty bad shape. Especially your limbs, they were close to being turned into minced meat, you know. Though in the end, we used those super expensive regeneration treatments to get them back, they were basically grown and then sewn to your body. So it won't be strange if you feel something wrong with them. But you seem to be alright. So yeah, the treatment cost is going to be crazy high."
"...So, how much is it?"
"About that, you see. We need to have a talk. It will be a long one since I need to let you know what had happened and we need to discuss the reward for your request too, so let's talk while having a meal... Don't worry, you did very well back there, the treatment cost won't surpass your reward money."
Akira changed to the clothes available in the room and left the room with Kibayashi. They hopped on a vehicle that came to pick them up and returned back to the Kugama building.
As Akira was about to head to a restaurant on the first floor, Kibayashi stopped him.
"Akira, not that one."
"No? Then why did you bring me here? Do we have to do some administrative stuff first?"
"Nope, we're going up."
Kibayashi pointed up with a smile filled with excitement. Akira found it weird, but the moment he understood what Kibayashi was signalling, his expression changed.
The restaurants on the upper floors of the Kugama building were so great that they changed Akira's views on food, and this would be the third time he went to that building for a meal.
Akira sat on the seat that he was guided to. He was jovial and excited but at the same time a bit confused while he sat there, Kibayashi ignored it and extended a handshake with a big smile on his face.
"First of all, let me congratulate you. You have become a great Hunter, great enough even for the City Management to treat you to a meal in this restaurant. The first time I saw you, you were stuck with the other Hunters who could not manage to raise their ranks in that truck, and now look at you, you've gone up the ranks so quickly in such a short time. It's really impressive. As someone who has kept his eyes on you through all of those crazy things that you did, I can't help but give myself a pat on the back for spotting your potential."
"Eh? Ah, yeah, sure."
Akira was behaving like a small fry who had never visited such a high-class restaurant. But he had the achievements sufficient for the restaurant to let him in. Kibayashi found that discrepancy very interesting as he laughed hard.
"You should get yourself used to this kind of restaurant soon, you know? I like you, so I can tolerate how you are acting, but more often than not, others would take advantage of it. Those types of people often invite well-established Hunters, who can't handle negotiation, into this kind of high-class restaurant and use that opening to poison them. So you should be careful, okay?"
"In that case, I can bring you requests that would allow you to use a high-class restaurant as the negotiation site. Though it would be nothing but high-level and dangerous requests, since it's you we're talking here, so I'm sure you'll do just fine."
"No thanks. I bet it's something that would send me to hospital again."
"You don't understand. If it's a request dangerous enough to get you hospitalized again, you'll get a huge reward if you can finish it..."
As Kibayashi boasted about himself on how he would be able to bring such high-level requests to Akira, Akira only listened to him with a seriously annoyed face. Once they calmed down at some point, Akira opened the menu as if to cut short that subject there. Kibayashi who saw that only smiled amusedly and opened the menu too.
Once they had placed their orders and were waiting for the food, Kibayashi started explaining to Akira what had happened after he fainted.
Among all the other severely wounded Hunters that were not treated seriously, Akira received better treatment which guaranteed his survivability. Nelia did something to make sure that Akira would be treated as if he was working under Yanagisawa.
The battle between monster swarms and the city's defence squad was still ongoing around Kugamayama city after Akira fainted. Although the size of the swarm was smaller than before, there were huge monsters and even flying monsters mixed in that swarm, thus they were relatively more dangerous than before. Average Hunters could not handle them and they would only slow other Hunters down as such only high ranking Hunters were offered high rewards and sent to repel that swarm.
When the City Management was considering sending out its trump card, the swarm suddenly broke down. Monsters that were originally heading straight to the city suddenly changed their directions. As some of them started rampaging, destroying anything around them, some of them retreated and vanished into the wasteland. While more than half of the swarm returned back to the ruin.
"Yup, you better do it."
The ordered meal finally arrived at the table. Akira did not know which one to pick, so he had ended up ordering the recommended menu. When that meal arrived in front of him, it changed Akira's solemn expression to a smile. And when he scooped that up to his mouth, he could not fight back the taste that spread around his tongue and his smile widened.
"5 million Aurum per bullet."
"If you get Hunter Rank 50, you can buy it for 500 Aurum per bullet."
The price of ammo in the eastern district was decided solely by the government, so it's based on how much profit the Corporate Government could earn. The reason why people could easily buy ammo in the slum city and why that ammo was sold at such a cheap price was all because they were designed to maintain profit for the Corporate Government.
There were many reasons as to why cheap bullets were sold in slum city. That way people in the slum city would be able to fight back the monsters coming from the wasteland, thus protecting the inner part of the city. And after they got used to fighting monsters, they would eventually become Hunters whom the City Management could hire as cheap soldiers. Of course, there were many reasons other than this.
There was one thing common among all the cheap ammunition sold in the slum city, none of them worked against the forcefield armour of the city's defence squad. Even a barrage from those bullets would not leave a scratch against their forcefield armour. That way, the city's defence squad could easily destroy the slum city and its people without any resistance.
Of course, those Hunters who tend to go against the City Management would be stuck in the low rank which also served as a way for the Hunter Office to control the Hunters. It was their way to tell the Hunters not to go against the City Management if they wanted to get a higher rank and cheap bullets.
Back then, when Akira placed his order for anti-forcefield bullets via Shizuka's shop, of course, this discount was already applied to that order. The reason why he did not notice it was simply because he was not the one paying so he did not bother to check the total price.
After considering the danger of these bullets when they fall to the wrong hands, and the problem that it might cause for both the City Management and the Hunter Office if one of those Hunters used that bullet to kill a city guard, they decided to sell anti-forcefield armour for 5 million Aurum per bullet. Akira understood that reasoning but he still felt conflicted about it. Although he could follow the logic, that did not mean he could accept it, and it was obvious from his face.
"That should be enough explanation for now, your other rewards depend on how far you are going to boost your Hunter Rank after all. So, before you make your decision, I have another thing that I need to talk about with you. It's about buying your track record again... Or at least something similar to that subject came to me."
"Not that far, you worked with a black powered suit on your last day, right? It's a small adjustment just for that day. Basically, we need to discuss how you are going to let me change it and how much money you want for it."
Kibayashi pulled out his information terminal and showed the detailed document to Akira. By the end of that long character-dense document, there was a contract page.
"That's not the problem, the problem is the 1 billion Aurum."
"Is it not enough?"
"No, it's too big that I don't understand why it's worth that much. So I just can't help but get suspicious..."
Unfortunately, Akira did not have enough knowledge to understand Kibayashi's reasoning. But he was genuinely interested in that subject, so he replied back without showing any hesitation.
Kibayashi made sure to let Akira know that in the end, it was nothing more than a personal guess. So it was not like it could be used as concrete proof.
"That black powered suit might be a new model and someone is trying to use the last battle to promote it."
Kibayashi's guess was that a certain weapon manufacturer released one of its new models into slum city in order to collect combat data disguising it as an accident. The unit then showed notable results performing against other powered suits in the midst of the battle in which multiple powered suits were involved.
But there was an accident in that plan. A certain Hunter actually defeated that black powered suit. So the manufacturer immediately retrieved it back and before any bad rumour went out in public, they changed and renewed the unit and sent it out again for the original reason.
This time the plan went well, the black powered suit was able to kill many humongous monsters and demonstrated its capability. Moreover, it then encountered a powerful monster strong enough to change the contour of the ruin and defeated that monster. This achievement would be the perfect material to promote that new unit.
Kibayashi threw a smile that was hiding something. Akira sighed. All in all, someone did something and he was roped into trouble because of that.
Akira quickly agreed to the contract, but Kibayashi delayed the signing of the contract to hear from Akira the details of that battle. After all, he would not be able to ask Akira about that battle after the contract was signed.
Although Akira signed the contract, he still thought that 1 billion Aurum was a little bit too much. But after seeing Kibayashi laughing his heart out after listening to the story, Akira started to half-believe that it might indeed be worth that much, as the other half of him honestly did not care about it anymore and stopped thinking about it.
"By the way, why did you stay behind to help that powered suit? I can understand that you missed your chance after you lost your decoy, but I don't think that's enough as an excuse, you know?"
That vague amalgamation of feelings that Akira could not understand almost got him killed as well as allowed him to survive. But this abnormal way of thinking that he himself did not fully understand shifted his action further and further away from Alpha's guidance.
Kibayashi finally calmed down from laughing hard and started discussing the rest of the reward. It took some time until they reached a deal that both parties agreed on.
Rebuild World (WN)
リビルドワールド
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/rebuild-world/
Action Adventure Drama Harem Mecha Mystery Sci-fi Seinen
Abandoned Children Adapted to Manga Adventurers Alternate World Anti-social Protagonist Apocalypse Artificial Intelligence Beautiful Female Lead Cautious Protagonist Child Protagonist Dense Protagonist Determined Protagonist Distrustful Protagonist Futuristic Setting Gangs Gunfighters Harsh Training Lack of Common Sense Male Protagonist Manipulative Characters Monsters Near-Death Experience Older Love Interests Poor Protagonist Poor to Rich Ruthless Protagonist Shota Sudden Strength Gain Survival Twisted Personality Unlucky Protagonist Weak to Strong
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n9736dt/
非公開