Chapter 24: 7 Girls and 1 Guy. Obviously Someone’s Going to Be Left Out

Gamma is smart. She really is smart, but she also possesses an enormous weakness.

Her nickname is Gamma the Weakest.

Indeed. Within the Seven Shadows, despite her seniority, her battle strength is at the very bottom. Oh, and Seven Shadows refers to the first 7 who joined Shadow Garden. It sounds cool, so that’s why I named them so.

Among them, Gamma is the only one who possesses a fatal lack of hand-eye coordination and battle sense.

If it is said that Delta is the one with the highest sense, then Gamma is the one with the lowest. But in my personal opinion, these two are the same. If I say this out loud, Delta would be super happy, and Gamma would give me a very wronged look, but these two are undoubtedly the same.

While teaching Gamma and Delta the sword, I learned two things.

One: Regardless of how high someone’s sense is, if they are an idiot, then saying anything would be a mere waste of time.

Two: Regardless of how smart someone is, if they have no sense, then saying anything would be a mere waste of time.

So that’s why I ended up telling the two of them the same thing.

“Just pump yourself up with magic and cut your opponent.”

I ask no more of them. It is the dope up, rely-purely-on-stats fighting style that I detest the most.

Exactly. My conviction had met sound defeat the moment I met these two. Even now, whenever I think of that day, I get a headache. No, that’s enough. Let’s wipe it from my memories.

I shake my head.

“It has been a long while, my lord.”

Gamma walks towards me in an elegant model’s walk.

Swinging her hips seductively, with her high heels clacking with a crisp sound with every step.

But.

“Pegyah!”

She trips over literally empty air.

“T-, these heels are pretty high, aren’t they?”

Then she blames it on the heels.

The moment she gets up while rubbing her nose, a nearby lady rushes right in with a ‘shubababa’ and changes her shoes into low-heeled pumps in the blink of an eye.

“W-, well then, my lord.”

So says Gamma as if nothing had happened.

That’s fine with me. After seeing a lady’s embarrassment, there are really only two choices: to pretend like you didn’t see it, or to tease her about it. And I belong to the former faction.

However, even so, there are things that need to be said.

“You have a nosebleed.”

In a blink, another lady rushes in with ‘shubababa’ and wipes her nose.

“P-, please take your seat.”

Seeing the blushing Gamma, I had a thought.

It’s as if she’d never grown up.

Allowing myself to be led by Gamma, I end up sitting in the large chair.

The view from here…… is great.

This is really great.

Large, spacious hall, with the madder red sunlight shining through the skylight, and the rows of kneeling beauties on either side of the red carpet.

It’s as if I’ve become the king of the world of shadows.

What a truly wonderful job Gamma has done, preparing such an expensive set.

I am deeply touched, my very heart quivering with delight. Thus I cross my legs, prop my chin with my right hand, and raise my left hand. Then I gather violet-colored magic into my left hand, and release it into the air.

“Receive your reward……”

The magic explodes into a rain of light.

When the rain touches the kneeling women, their bodies flash violet for a brief moment.

Well, to be honest, the effects of this light is merely something like alleviating fatigue, improving magic flow, healing very minor injuries, things to that level only.

“This day shall be my lifelong treasure.”

So says Gamma in a quivering voice while kneeling beside me.

Nice acting.

But thing is, Gamma is not the only one quivering. The beauties kneeling on either side of the carpet are all quivering, with some even shedding tears. The lady who guided me here is also sniffling.

It seems that Gamma also has quite the talent as a director.

“Well done, Gamma. So, now I have a few questions regarding this trading firm.”

Seriously, this company. Chocolate, and all those products I saw while passing through the sales floor, and even this building’s design. None of it is stuff from this world.

“Please ask me whatever you wish.”

“Could it be that the products of Mitsugoshi Co are the things I talked about previously?”

Ever since long ago, for some reason Gamma has been extremely curious in regards to my knowledge. Every time after getting beaten up by Delta, she would come to me with a half crying face to badger me to tell her more. During those moments, I would just tell her about random things in Japan in a dramatic manner and wrap it all up as ‘Wisdom of the Shadows.’

“Yes, my lord. Despite my meager means, I have attempted to realize a fraction of the heavenly knowledge that my lord had bestowed upon me.”

“I, I see.”

I mean, all I told you was merely on the level of ‘there’s something sweet called chocolate that’s made of bitter beans and a ton of sugar hardened together.’ How on earth did you reproduce it from that? Is this intelligence? Is it that I merely lack the intelligence to do so?!

But well, fine. Let’s just let that go.

In all worlds, there are geniuses, and there are idiots. That’s all there is to that.

But there is something that I really must ask.

“Do Alpha and the others know about this company?”

“Yes, of course.”

Which means, this is that.

The pattern where I’m the only one to be left out.

I get it, I really do. I’m the only guy, so it’s probably hard to include me in their girl circle.

“A-, and are you profiting quite a bit?”

“Currently we are setting up branches in the main cities in this and the surrounding countries. The expansion is going smoothly. But of course, the more important point is how deep we can plant our roots through the company.”

Nobody needs that forced tie-in to the shadow world.

In other words.

The girls left me out, used my ideas, and are raking it in.

If they had given me even a tiny cut, I wouldn’t have had to crawl on the ground picking up gold coins, nor would I have had to pretend to be a dog and chase after gold coins.

But it’s fine, they did prepare such a large-scaled set for me. Let’s be satisfied with this.

But.

Just a little bit?

“Umm, I’m just asking, but could I borrow a few gold coins?”

I’ll eventually return them. Maybe.

“Yes my lord, at once.”

After giving me an immediate reply, Gamma signals the lady who had guided me in.

In a short while, a cart laden with gold coins is pushed in.

A whole mountain of it.

There is more than I’ve seen in my entire life, just glittering away on that cart.

This is easily more than a hundred billion Zeny.

“This…… is a bit……”

Even I’m not shameless enough to borrow this much without paying it back.

“!? Is it too little? I’ll immediately have them bring more……”

“No, it’s fine.”

I interrupt Gamma and reach towards the gold coins.

With an exaggerated motion, I stab my left arm into the pile of coins.

The coins clink noisily.

The point here is to gather all their attention on my left hand.

I concentrate with every last one of my nerves.

And then.

“Hmph.”

I grab about 15 coins with my left hand, then make a show of putting it into my left pocket.

That is 1.5 million Zeny.

The moment they had all focused on my left hand, I had exercised the very limit of my right hand’s hand speed to also grab some coins and pocket them without anyone noticing.

Alpha and Delta would be one thing. There’s no way Gamma would have caught that.

“A-, are you fine with only that little? You can actually take it all……”

So says Gamma, but I am secretly laughing at her.

She thinks that I’ve only borrowed 1.5 million Zeny.

But actually, I’ve gotten twice that amount: 3 million Zeny!

“This is fine. It’s sufficient.”

So I say while pushing down the laughter that’s threatening to bubble up.

“Yes my lord. Then we shall put these back away.”

Gamma claps, and several ladies come over to take away the cart.

Then Gamma kneels before me.

“We are fully aware of the reason for our lord’s visit today. Undoubtedly it is in regards to that issue.”

“Mmm.”

I nod sagely. What does she mean by ‘that issue’?

“We are truly sorry. Currently we are continuing our investigation, but still have yet to identify the offending party. Please give us a bit more time. That fool who wears black and call himself Shadow Garden while indiscriminately cutting the citizens of the royal capital – I, Gamma, swear to bring him down without fail.”

“Fumu……”

This is literally the first time I’m hearing about this.