トガミが全体に手で停止の指示を出す。
「レイナ。拡張現実側で何か表示されているか?」
「関係者以外立入禁止......かな? その先は今まで拡張現実で見えていた看板とかが見当たらないわ。多分一般客用の受信設定だと見えないのよ」
「従業員用の設定を探れないか?」
「やっても良いけど、多分無理。できたとしても
「......業務用の保管室とかがあるのならこの先だろう。目的地に近付いていると思う。行こう」
アキラ達が警戒を高めながら奥へ進んでいく。時間経過による劣化など全く感じさせない通路の光景は、ある意味で見慣れた遺跡の姿だ。
これが遺跡の清掃機能や修復機能によるものならば、警備装置なども他の機能も正しく稼働している可能性がある。その手の警備機械は大抵自然繁殖したモンスターより強力で厄介だ。旧世界の感覚では穏便な捕縛行動であっても、強化服を着用したハンターでさえ致命傷を負う場合は多いのだ。
アキラ達が慎重に通路を進んでいくと、通路の先に見える部屋の出入口付近で別のハンターを発見した。相手もアキラ達に気付くと強い警戒を示した。
「そこで止まれ! それ以上近付いた場合、交戦の意思があると
トガミが戦意はないことを示しながら答える。
「俺達はドランカム所属のハンターだ! ここには遺跡探索の途中で偶然来ただけだ!」
ハンターが警戒を少し緩めた様子で仲間と連絡を取り始める。すると部屋から別のハンターが状況の確認に現れた。このハンター達を率いているクロサワだ。
クロサワはトガミを見ると軽い驚きを見せる。
「ドランカムのハンターで偶然来たと言っている。どうする? 追い払うか?」
める必要はない。余計なことをしないように俺が話を付けておく。......偶然来たってのは、半分嘘だろうしな」
「つまり、あいつらもか。分かった。任せる」
「ああ」
クロサワはシカラベから酒の席でトガミの話を聞いていた。若手嫌いのシカラベにしては結構楽しげに語っていたので印象に残っていたのだ。
妙な所で会った。そう思いながら、クロサワはアキラ達を部屋に招き入れた。
部屋の中、出入口の近くでクロサワとアキラ達が向かい合う。
「何だと?」
不満げなだけだったトガミの顔が消極的であれ敵対の意思を含んだものに変わる。トガミも自分達のリーダーとして簡単に引くわけにはいかないのだ。クロサワに向ける視線を
だがそれでもクロサワは平然と余裕を保っている。
「お前達も旧世界製の自動人形を探しに来たんだろう? その情報源が俺達と同じかどうかは知らないが、同じなら残念だったな。その保管所は俺達が確保済みだ。この部屋の奥だよ」
「ええっ!?」
トガミの不満や敵意などはその説明で吹き飛んだ。レイナも驚きの表情を浮かべている。
「ああ。奥の小部屋に保管ケースに入った自動人形が4体残っていた。中身をケース越しに軽く見て確認しただけだが、保存状態も良さそうだった。情報を手に入れたものの正直眉唾物だと思っていたんだが、大当たりだったってわけだ」
「よ、4体も......」
レイナが再び
クロサワはそこまで軽い笑顔で話した後、視線を鋭くしてトガミに向ける。
「......それを分かった上で近くをうろちょろするのなら、意図的に俺達の邪魔をしているってことだ。こっちもいろいろ邪推した上で、相応の対応をすることになるんだがな」
クロサワの少々脅しを込めた威圧に、トガミとレイナが
元々争うつもりなどない上に、ドランカムの方針まで持ち出されては、トガミも穏便に引き下がるしかなかった。
「良いだろう。ただし10分だ。ここを休憩場所にされても困るからな。まあ、その間に俺に聞きたいことでもあったら聞いてくれ。答えられることなら答えてやる」
クロサワはそう言い残してアキラ達から離れていった。
まったものを吐き出すように大きな
め息を吐いた。この後の行動方針を決めるためにもう
貴重な時間を5分ほど消費した辺りで、レイナが顔に出た落胆を振り払うように顔を軽く振る。そして気を取り直したように表情を意図的に少し引き締める。
トガミは意外に早く回復したと思って少し驚きながらも、それを顔に出さないように注意した。
「そうだな。自動人形を諦めて通常の遺跡探索に切り替える。情報源の場所がここではない、
トガミはチームのやる気が減退している状態で遺跡探索を続行するのは危険だと考えて、その意気を確かめる意図を兼ねて皆にそう尋ねた。
シオリが流れの誘導を兼ねて先んじて答える。
「では、私は撤退に票を入れさせていただきます。予想外の事態に対し臨機応変に対応するのは大切ですが、限度があります。また、下手な未練は意識の散漫を招き、意欲の低下にも
シオリが少し険しい視線をカナエに送り、カナエは多数決には乗ったと視線に乗せて返した。
「俺はどれでもいい。俺の棄権で票が同数に割れるのなら、トガミの票に追加してくれ。一応基本的にリーダーの指示に従うって約束で同行しているからな」
「......私もアキラと同じで。今日はトガミがリーダー。任せるわ」
アキラは部外者感覚の消極性で、レイナは自分では決めきれないある種の甘えで判断をトガミに投げた。
トガミが悩む。アキラとレイナの判断により、多数決というある種の逃げ、誤った選択を選んだ場合の責任の分散は封じられた。リーダーとして制限時間までに決めなければならない。決断までの残り時間は僅かだ。
同じ部屋にいる他のハンター達の何人かが、軽く驚きながら興味深そうな視線をアキラ達に向けていた。
「......メイドだ。メイドがいるぞ。あいつらドランカムのハンターなんだろ? ドランカムが所属ハンターの
にメイドを雇ったって
「仮に本物のメイドだったとして、遺跡の中でまでメイド服を着ると思うか? 着ないだろう。いや、俺も本物のメイドなんてよく知らないから断言はできないけどさ」
「そう言われれば。確かにそうだな」
「防壁内の要人警護にも対応する戦闘訓練を積んだメイドを派遣する企業があるらしい。雰囲気に関しては、そこから流れた装備を使っているとか、そこで働いていた経歴があるとか、いろいろ考えられる。だが装備を流用しているにしろ、辞めた後にハンターに成ったにしろ、俺はそれは本物とは違うと思うな」
話を聞いていた男が少し
「......お前、よく知らないって言いながら結構詳しいな?」
「いや、まあ、良いじゃないか。ああ、そうそう、ドランカムと言えば、最近そこのガキ達がクズスハラ街遺跡で随分と活躍しているって話が......」
渦巻く感情がロディンの欲を刺激する。ロディンはその欲を抑えきれず、少し深刻な表情でクロサワに欲の解決手段を頼みに行った。
クロサワはロディンの頼みをあっさり取り下げた。
「......俺達が自動人形を見付けたことをあいつらに教えたのはお前じゃないか」
ロディンは他にもいろいろ言ってみたが、クロサワはその全てに的確に反論した。
そして雇われの隊長として部隊を指揮していると、どうしても指揮に従わない人間とハンター稼業をする機会も増えてくる。クロサワはロディンの態度から今回も同様だと判断して、その場合の対処に切り替えた。
「まあ、俺も雇われの隊長だ。俺の指揮に従えないって言うのなら好きにしてくれ。ただし、それで何かあっても俺の指揮の外で発生したことだ。それで死傷者が出たとしても、その分の報酬減額は受け入れない。それを含めて、他のやつに話を通しておいてくれ」
クロサワが話は終わったと言わんばかりにロディンから視線を外すと、ロディンは険しい表情で戻っていった。
俺を雇った連中でも、欲を出して俺の指示に逆らおうとする。遺物の魔力ってのはいつだって人を惑わす。俺も気を付けないとな)
クロサワが軽く笑う。そして気を切り替えると、頭の中で作戦をロディンの未帰還を前提にして修正し始めた。
アキラ達は遺跡の中を出口に向けて進んでいた。ただし一直線に撤退ではなく、途中で遺物収集の寄り道を挟んでいた。多少成果を稼ぎながら緩やかに余裕を持って撤退するというトガミの決定に従った行動だ。
植物が生い茂る場所まで戻った後は、行きと同じくレイナが遺跡内の拡張現実の情報を見て進路を決めていた。一面緑で覆われている遺跡内で、遺物が有りそうな小部屋などを目視で探すのは難しい。そこはレイナが頼りだった。
出口までの道順を大きく外れずに、遺物の有りそうな場所を探しながら、ゆっくりとした足取りで進んでいた。そしてレイナが大分山勘混じりに選んだ部屋で、アキラ達はシオリとカナエに警戒と索敵を任せると、手分けして遺物を探し始めた。
アキラは植物に覆われた棚を発見した。強化服の身体能力で
『何だこれ? アルファ。これが何か分かるか?』
『それは旧世界製の衣類よ』
『服? えっ? これが?』
レイナがアキラから受け取った筒状の遺物をよく見てみる。するとその表情を僅かに固くして、頬を僅かに赤く染めた。
「きゅ、旧世界製の服とか......だと思うわ。た、多分だけど、圧縮された状態で中に入っているのよ」
「か、拡張現実で内容物が表示されているのよ。アキラには見えないけど、私には見えるの」
「へー。どんな服なんだ?」
「そ、そうそう。そうよ」
「そうすると、高く売れそうだな。持って帰ろう」
アキラが遺物をリュックサックに詰め始めると、トガミもやって来る。
「旧世界製の衣類を見付けた」
「......これがか?」
「ああ。レイナが拡張現実で表示された内容物を見て判別した。......あれ、でも全部そうなのか?」
アキラが手に取っていた遺物をレイナに差し出した。トガミも同じようにレイナに差し出す。
レイナはそれを受け取ると、中身を確認して、気恥ずかしさを
「......違うものも混ざっているわ」
「そうか。何だったんだ?」
「......アクセサリーとか、器具とか、
アキラがレイナの表情を不思議に思い、自分なりに推察する。
「その表情だと、あんまり高く売れそうにないものも混ざっていたか? じゃあ全部一度レイナに渡すから、安そうなものは省いてくれ」
レイナがどこか開き直ったような態度で一緒に遺物を詰め始める。その様子を見てアキラ達は不思議そうにしていた。
レイナはアキラ達と異なり遺物の中身を視認できている。そこにはレイナには少々刺激的なものも混ざっていた。
(私はハンターでしょう? 見付けた遺物の中身を売値以外で
それをアキラ達に伝えても、邪推される要素が消えるわけではない。それぐらいのことはレイナにも分かっていた。
レイナは頑張って平静を装いながら作業を続けた。幸運にも内心の動揺に気付いた者はいなかった。
Togami signalled the whole party to stop.
"Reina, did you get any readings?"
"It says... Unauthorized personnel are not allowed to go through here? I don't see any more augmented reality sign boards past this place. It might be adjusted so that normal people can't see them."
"Can you check using the staff setting?"
"I can try, but it might be pointless. Even if I can, it might take too much time."
"...If there's a warehouse only for staff, it should be somewhere ahead. I think we're closer to our target now, let's go."
They went into that hallway carefully. Walking through it threw off their sense of time, but for them, it was a common thing inside a ruin.
If this place was kept clean because of the cleaning drones, then it would not be strange for them to encounter security drones too. Those kinds of drones were harder to defeat than common monsters. Getting hypnotized by that ambience of the old-world tended to be fatal even for Hunters with augmented suits.
As they moved carefully deeper into the hallway, they spotted another Hunter standing guard near the entrance of a room. That Hunter also noticed Togami's party and immediately shouted at them.
"Stop there! If you get any closer, we'll see that as an act of hostility!! Where are you from? If you're from the Yuzumo Industry, show your ID!!"
Togami showed that he had no wish to fight as he answered.
"We're Hunters from Drankam!! We're here looking for relics and got here by pure chance!!"
The Hunter lowered his guard for a bit and contacted his other Hunter friends. Not too long after that, another Hunter came out from the room to confirm what was going on. That Hunter was the leader of the team, Kurosawa.
Kurosawa saw Togami and raised his eyebrows.
"He said that they are Hunters from Drankam. What should we do? Should we send them back?"
"No need to do that. There's no need to pick a fight with Drankam. I'll talk with them myself to warn them not to do anything suspicious... After all, I bet half of it is a lie when he said that they got here by chance."
"So basically they too, huh. I'll leave them to you then."
"Yeah."
Kurosawa already knew about Togami from Shikarabe when they went to drink together. He remembered that conversation well since it was rare for Shikarabe, who hated young Hunters, to highly praise Togami.
He thought that it was weird to meet him here. But nonetheless, he invited Togami and his party in.
Kurosawa listened to what Togami had to say not too far from the entrance of that room.
"Really?"
Togami's expression that only showed reluctance and slight irritation immediately showed hostility. As the leader of the team, it was not like Togami could just accept that demand. His gaze toward Kurosawa turned sharp.
But even so, Kurosawa stayed calm.
"You're here looking for the old-world automaton, right? Although I don't know if the source of your information is the same as ours, if it was, then you're out of luck. We have secured the warehouse first, it's just up ahead."
"Eeeh!?"
Togami's face turned completely flabbergasted. Reina was the same too.
"Yeah, the small room ahead houses cases of 4 old-world automata. Although we only checked them by looking through the case, it seems that they're in pretty good shape too. I thought that rumour was not that credible, but it turned out that we hit the jackpot."
"F-four of them..."
Reina once again hung her head down, and this time, it was deeper than last. Kurosawa smiled bitterly, he understood how that felt.
Kurosawa had a light smile when he was talking up until now, but then his gaze suddenly turned sharp.
"...But if you insist on staying around after this, we'll see that as an act of hostility. So we will handle that situation accordingly."
Togami and Reina were hanging their heads low, but with that light intimidation from Kurosawa, they immediately frowned and flinched back. Shiori and Kanae slightly shifted their stances to protect Reina. As for Akira, he did not show any reaction to that at all.
Now that Kurosawa said that he had no wish to fight them and he even brought up Drankam too, Togami had no other choice but to comply.
"Very well. But 10 minutes. That's all the time you have. It would be troublesome if you use this place as a resting place after all. Meanwhile, feel free to come to me if you have anything you want to ask. I'll answer your questions if it's something that I can answer."
Kurosawa then left Togami's party alone.
Togami heaved a huge sigh as if to expel everything inside his heart. Although he said that he wanted to stay in that room for a bit longer to talk with his party about what to do next, to be honest, he just wanted to get some time to gather his motivation again. Others understood that, so they were just standing there in silence.
"...Well, I was already prepared for something like this to happen, let's just move on. Togami, what's the plan now?"
When they had spent 5 minutes of their precious 10 minutes, Reina shook her head as if to shake off the disappointment on her face. She then pulled herself together and gathered her resolve.
Togami was a bit surprised to see that Reina recovered sooner than he had expected but he was being careful not to show that on his face.
"Hmmm, let's forget about the automaton and look for common relics instead. Or we can pin our hope on finding other old-world automata in here by searching other buildings too. Or, if it isn't worth looking for common relics here, we can just head back home. Basically, these are the options available to us. So, we either continue the exploration or stop here. To be honest, I'm not sure myself. So, what do you guys think?"
Togami thought that it would be dangerous to continue the exploration when everyone was in such a bad mood, that was why he asked for others' opinions there.
Shiori took the initiative and answered first.
"Very well, I put one vote to return back. It's important to be able to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, but you should know when to give up as well. We should not explore when our minds are focused on something else, and that is also true we get too greedy. In order to get readjust our equipment, I believe that it would be better to return back."
Shiori sent an intense glare at Kanae, but Kanae looked back, as though saying 'well, you did turn it to a discussion that has to be voted on'.
"Either way is fine for me. If there's a stalemate, I put a vote on the same one as Togami, he's the leader at the moment after all and I did promise him that I'll follow him for now."
"...I agree with Akira too. You're the leader today, so it's up to you."
Akira thought that he was an outsider in this case, that was why he let Togami decide. But for Reina, she was taking advantage of Togami since she could not decide.
Togami hummed, with Akira and Reina leaving it to him, he could not share the responsibility in case he made a wrong decision there. As the leader of the team, he had to make a decision before he ran out of time, and he did not have much time left.
Some of the Hunters in that room looked a bit surprised at Togami's party.
"...A maid? There are maids here. Those guys are Hunters from Drankam, right? So that rumour about the gang paying maids for the Hunters is true, huh?"
"Hmmm, but they do have an aura of being real maids though? Although... only one of them does."
"Even if they're real maids, do you really think that they will come to ruin with maid uniforms? Of course not. Well, it's not like I know a real maid though, so I can't really say that for sure."
"Now that you mention it, that's kinda true."
"I heard that there are companies offering combat-trained maids as bodyguards for the people in the inner walls, you know. So they might have something to do with that type of corporation. They might even have originally come from there. Either they only get their equipment from those kinds of corporations, or they are originally from there and retired to be Hunters, either way, I don't think they are real maids."
The Hunter who was listening to his friend talking rather fervently about that subject found it to be unexpected.
"...You know quite a lot for someone who said that he doesn't know about this kind of stuff."
"Well, it's fine, isn't it? By the way, talking about Drankam, I heard the young Hunters from that gang did pretty well in the Kuzusuhara ruin recently.."
As he was no longer able to hold back his feelings, he went to Kurosawa to find a way to satisfy his desire.
But Kurosawa quickly shot down his plea.
"...But like, weren't you the one who told them that we did find the old-world automata here?"
Rodin did try to wiggle his way but all of his ideas were rejected by Kurosawa.
And since he was often paid to lead other teams, he often had to deal with Hunters who would not listen to him. Kurosawa thought that was the case with Rodin too, so he dealt with him accordingly.
"Well, I'm just a temporary commander paid to lead the team. If you say that you won't listen to me, you can go ahead and do anything you want. But, if anything bad happens, I won't take any responsibility. That is even if you get yourself or someone else killed because of your action, so I won't accept any pay cuts if that happens. Tell others too if anyone has the same opinion as you."
Kurosawa immediately shifted his focus somewhere else after he said that. Rodin, who was left behind, made a grim face. Kurosawa then thought.
[...Even those who paid me a ton to lead them would sometimes decide not to listen to me... Relics always tempt people, I need to be careful myself.]
Kurosawa lightly chuckled and shook that thought from his mind as he started thinking about what to do, assuming that Rodin would not survive.
Togami's party decided to leave the ruin. But it would not be in a straight path, instead, they would visit some buildings to search for relics on their way out of the ruin. As the leader of the team, Togami decided to take their time leaving the ruin while salvaging some relics on their way out.
As they returned back to the plant-covered part of the ruin, they once again followed Reina's device to decide which way to go. After all, it would be difficult to find relics in a place where everything was covered by greenery, that was why they decided to rely on Reina.
They took their time checking places that might have some relics left while making sure not to veer off too far from the route to the exit. In the middle of that, Reina picked a room mostly based on her guess. They left the guard duty to Shiori and Kanae as they started looking for relics in that room.
Inside that room, Akira spotted a shelf covered in plants. He used the power of his augmented suit to tear the plants and opened the shelf. He found that it was filled with tube-like objects. He grabbed one and took a closer look, it seemed that the tube-like object had something solid inside its semi-transparent body. But Akira still could not identify what that tube object was.
"What is this? Alpha, do you know what this is?"
"That's an old-world clothing article."
"So it's a dress? This thing?"
Reina caught the tube-like object and took a closer look at it. The moment she realized what that was, she flinched a bit and her face turned slightly red.
"I-I think it's some kind of old-world clothing... J-Just maybe though. Something is inside in a pressurized state."
"W-well, I can see that information from the old-world augmented reality view. Although you can't see it, I can see it."
"Ohhhh, what kind of cloth is this?"
"Y-yes."
"In that case, they might fetch us some money. I'll bring them back to the city."
Akira started stuffing his rucksack with the relics that he just found. Togami who noticed that approached him.
"Some old-world clothing articles."
"...This thing here?"
"Yeah, Reina said so based on the information from the augmented reality... Wait, but that doesn't mean all of these tubes are old-world clothes, huh?"
Akira then extended the relic in his hand toward Reina, Togami followed suit.
Reina took the relics and checked the inside, her face then stiffened and slightly blushed as she said.
"...Some of them are not."
"Is that so? What are the other things mixed here?"
"...Accessories, toy, or some kind of tool."
Akira found Reina's expression rather strange. So he made his own guess.
"Judging from your expression, it doesn't seem to be that valuable, huh? Well, in that case, can you check all of them and separate the cheap relics?"
Reina suddenly started helping Akira and Togami gather the relics as if she just had a change of mind. Of course, Akira did not just ignore that.
Unlike Akira and Togami, Reina was able to identify the content of the relics they were gathering there, and she did not expect to encounter some of them in such a place...
[Alright. Now, I'm also a Hunter, right? I'm not in a position to be nitpicky about the relics that I find. If I start doing that, I won't be able to stay as a Hunter. Yes, that's right, that's the right attitude for a Hunter... I should be happy that we found some expensive-looking relics!!]
Even if Reina told Akira and Togami this, it would not clear their suspicion. She at least knew that much.
Reina gave her best to keep her calm as she continued stuffing the relics. Fortunately, no one noticed her acting rather awkwardly there.
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/
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