Chapter 2 — Why Are You Enjoying Yourself in This World All On Your Own?
The Dark Garden was an assassin’s guild. Of course, it wasn’t an official organization, and it operated illegally. As the name suggested, they took contracts to commit murders, but not for the purpose of making money. The man who had set up the guild, Ryousuke Miyanaga, was already obscenely wealthy.
As his name suggested, he was an otherworlder who had come from Japan. Summoned by the Sages, he’d accomplished the great feats that were asked of him and had qualified to become one of the Sages’ attendants, then set off on an adventure across the world to amass his wealth.
The reason he had become an attendant wasn’t that he lacked the strength to become a full Sage. He had just thought the work of a Sage seemed boring. So he gave the title up to someone else and gained the freedom to do what he wanted instead.
He had begun to work as an assassin because he had grown tired of always being the hero. For a while, he had defended villages from bandits, rescued kidnapped girls, exterminated the water fairies who had caused a drought, and brought an end to a drawn-out war between two countries. Though he had spent so long working hard for the sake of justice all over the world, he had eventually grown bored of it. Was there any point repeating the quests he had already done? He’d begun to feel like every quest was exactly the same, only with slightly different characters and in slightly different places. He yearned for more excitement, for entertainment, and that led him to a life of crime.
It had all started with him deciding to try out something he had never done before. He began with burglary, but that got old quickly. With his abilities, it was far too easy, and there was nothing he wanted that he would have to steal anyway. He also had no trouble with women, and had no need to force himself on them, so in the end he had gone down the path of murder.
Although killing people wasn’t particularly difficult for him either, he enjoyed the show that came from the aftermath of their deaths. While they lived, people built up all sorts of connections with others. Cutting those connections by killing them gave birth to all sorts of drama. So Ryousuke decided to take on the work of an assassin.
Becoming a killer-for-hire turned out to be even more interesting. For someone to take out an assassination contract meant they were normally involved in intricate relationships where they were truly backed into a corner. Even something as simple as a family squabble was interesting to him.
As he continued his work as a mercenary, he ended up putting together a guild. Once he began taking on contracts, he became deeply connected with the criminal underworld. He would come into conflict with other groups doing similar work, wipe them out, and recruit failed gangsters, taking them under his wing and building up an organization of his own.
Ryousuke now operated a flower shop as a cover for his operation. He worked out of a two-story building, the first floor being set aside for the shop while the second floor was reserved for his living space.
One day, after finishing his work in the shop and returning to his home upstairs, he found a letter lying on the desk. A contract.
He didn’t know who had made the request, nor did he know where the letter had come from. All in all, it was an intriguing situation.
Of course, it wasn’t common knowledge that he was the leader of the assassin’s guild. The only ones who knew were a small group of guild members, and any requests he received were filtered through numerous people to keep any traces of him from surfacing.
And yet, this client had known he was the leader, and had delivered the request directly to him. He had absolutely no idea how. Apparently, there was someone out there who could outwit even a superhuman enhanced by the Sage’s Gift like himself. It was all incredibly stimulating.
The contract was for the murder of a certain Sage candidate. As an otherworlder who had recently been summoned, the boy’s connection to the people around him would be fairly thin, so killing him would likely have little impact on the world. As such, it wasn’t a terribly interesting proposition at first glance, but the strange part was the specific method of assassination being requested, which was described in precise detail.
The letter concluded with, “I’m sure being told how to do your job is a bit aggravating, but start by having one of your subordinates take it on. Then you will see what I mean.”
After reading that, he was sold. Ryousuke decided to accept the contract.
“Wow, just relax a little more, why don’t you?!”
It was evening. Having returned from the Underworld, Tomochika saw Yogiri playing on his handheld, sprawled out on his bed.
Thanks to the strength of their classmates, their task wasn’t especially difficult, but going from dark, cramped labyrinths to forests to frozen deserts to scorching hot, lava-filled regions while fighting hordes of monsters made the work in the Underworld a bit stressful. She was hoping for at least a little appreciation when she got back, but Yogiri was lazing around like always.
“Looks like he’s going all in on that Japanese himo lifestyle, huh?” Carol commented.
“If he’s being a ‘himo,’ shouldn’t he be sucking up to some girl to mooch off?” Tomochika replied.
“Oh, did you want him to mooch off you?”
“I never said it had to be me!” Tomochika responded, flustered.
“No, this is the best for Takatou,” Ryouko interrupted. “Having him do nothing is best.”
“Oh, yeah, if he wants to mooch off someone, we’ve got the perfect girl right here, don’t we?” Carol smirked. Ryouko was dead set on having Yogiri do as little as possible, so this situation was the best-case scenario for her.
“Oh, welcome back.” Putting his game down, Yogiri sat up.
“Speaking of which, where are the other himos at?”
This was the room for Group Seven, where they had collected all the useless boys from the class. There were two others in the group with Yogiri, but he was currently alone.
“Izumida and Aihara got moved to another group,” he explained.
Yuugo Izumida and Yukimasa Aihara had originally been deemed as useless as Yogiri, but they had eventually learned that Yuugo’s Cook class could produce foods that improved the abilities of those who ate them, and Yukimasa’s Reader class was useful for deciphering the magical tomes and scrolls they’d been finding in the Underworld. As such, they had been brought along to help.
“And you can’t think of anything to do here?” Tomochika asked.
“It’s not like I’m just sitting around doing nothing all day.” Yogiri didn’t seem entirely happy about their perceptions of him.
“So, you have found something to do, then?”
“For now, yeah. I’ve been thinking ahead a bit, so I’ve started training with a sword. David is helping me out.”
David was the vice-captain of the guard unit in charge of protecting the southern gate of the capital. Tomochika had thought he would be a pretty hard guy to get along with, but it seemed they were hitting it off just fine.
“Swordsmanship, huh? I don’t think it’s pointless, but...” She trailed off. She felt it was unlikely there would be much opportunity for him to put that kind of skill to use. Seeing as Yogiri had the ability to kill anyone instantly, he was basically invincible on the battlefield, to the point where it wouldn’t even be considered a fight. In short, there was no benefit to him learning to use a sword.
“I’m not planning on fighting with it or anything. I’m using it more as a way to train my concentration. Watch this.”
He pointed at a vase on a nearby table. There was a single red rose inside it. As they turned to look, one petal fell from the flower.
“What about it?”
“I was trying to practice going easy on people before, remember? I thought there wasn’t much point to it at the time, but now I think I’ll probably need to learn how if we want to get any information out of the Sage.”
Tomochika remembered their encounter in Quenza. Yogiri’s power was so strong that it had actually limited its usefulness. He had tried “going easy” on his targets once, but the results had been pretty bad. Even if only one part of the body suddenly stopped functioning, it generally led to the death of the entire body in the end. He could try to kill a part that was small enough not to matter, but it was difficult to use his power that precisely. Ever since, considering how difficult it was and of how little use it seemed to be, he had given up on the idea.
“Well, umm, I think it would actually be better if it wasn’t so convenient,” Ryouko said with a wince. She was clearly terrified of Yogiri, and she hated the idea of him using his power proactively.
“Since I have to focus on specific spots while moving around and fighting with a sword, I think it’s helping me learn to concentrate better.”
“And besides that, you’re just lazing around in your room?” Tomochika asked.
“What’s with you today? I mean, I do walk around the city sometimes too. To get food and stuff.”
“Why are you just enjoying yourself in this world all on your own?!” She was on the edge of suggesting that Yogiri wipe out the Underworld himself. But one of his rules was that he only used his ability for self-defense, and there was also a chance that Sion wouldn’t show up if he did the candidates’ job for them. To be on the safe side, it was best to do things the way the Sage wanted them to.
“Oh, did you want to go out on a date with him or something?”
“Why do you always try to turn the conversation in that direction, Carol?” It wasn’t like she had never thought about it, but Tomochika didn’t like the way Carol seemed to be trying to set them up.
“Oh, by the way,” Yogiri cut in, “it looks like I was being targeted when I went out around town.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean I felt killing intent directed at me.”
“Then why did you say it ‘looks like’ it?”
“Well, they were targeting me from pretty far away.”
“So? Was it just a random murderer or something?” If that was the case, the culprit was unlucky. They had picked the worst possible target and ended up becoming the victim themselves.
“No, it looks like they’re after me specifically. It’s happened a few days in a row now.”
“Isn’t that getting kind of serious?!”
“I guess, but it’s not like there’s any harm in it.”
“Except for, you know, all the people you’re killing!” Tomochika was concerned by how lightly Yogiri was taking the idea.
“But it doesn’t count if they’re bad people, does it?”
“True, anyone who thinks to harm Takatou deserves to die.” Carol and Ryouko didn’t seem to care either.
“Well, putting that aside for now, if they’re continuously attacking you, that means the ringleader is still out there, right?”
Yogiri generally only killed those who tried to attack him directly. As the only ones who died were the attackers themselves, the person sending the killers could simply keep sending more.
“That’s why I want to ask for some help.”
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