Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 17 - Chapter 4.1

  REWARD

“Yaichi, what was it you told me? That even if beating Awaji was impossible, you might get strong enough that you wouldn’t lose? Was that it?”

“Yes.”

“And to do that, you needed a secret weapon, I believe that’s what you called it?”

“I did.”

“I was far too busy with my Conferring Ceremonies and Awaji’s debut to ask for specific details about this weapon and left it in the hands of my most trusted subordinate. All I did was confirm your match records on Awaji’s log because I trusted you.”

“Thank you.”

“And I was satisfied, very satisfied. Here was Yaichi Kuzuryu, living up to his reputation by stoically continuing to play Shogi even after losing in a few short moves for the first week. It made me so proud to see my Master steadily expand the matches bit by bit. To be frank, I fell for you all over again… which is why I wanted to come see you, to surprise you. You know, do one of those guess who? pranks when you finish a match. That’s what I had in mind. But I found a low-down no-good traitor instead———”

Jangle.

There’s a long, silver thing in Ai’s left hand. Like an accessory …… but ten times thicker. It’s a chain, the kind that would be used as a leash for a doberman.

Except it’s Akira Ikeda in the spiked collar at the other end. She’s crawling on the floor like a dog ……

I’m already pale as a ghost, and my voice cracks trying to say her name.

“Akir———”

“My apologies, Kuzuryu-sensei ……”

This stunningly beautiful young woman is obviously in the middle of being punished. Still on all fours, tears and drool flow down her chin as she offers an explanation.

“I’m truly sorry ………… But, as you can see ………… I absolutely love the taste of my lady’s lash ……♡”

Oh yeah …… That’s right.

Her quirks ……

“A little reward was all it took to make Akira confess. I know you’ve been playing against a CG model of Ginko Sora in virtual reality all this time. Yes, I’m the one who left everything to her, but I just cannot stand knowing you two planned this behind my back.”

“Wh-What else was I supposed to do?! There’s no other way to keep playing against software!”

“Do you want to see Ginko Sora that badly?”

“………… Of course, I do.”

I know how Ai Yashajin feels about me, so saying what I’m about to tell her makes me feel really guilty.

“She’s …… my girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend, huh? It’s just teenage hormones making your head spin, if you ask me.”

I really wanted to counter that with something like, “What about you then? Is that why you’re head over heels for me?” But I couldn’t muster the guts.

Basically, Ai Yashajin is furious.

“The human mind is complex, but the way it’s built is so easy to hack. Do you know how much money it takes to run a supercomputer? Your yearly income vanishes with every hour. And this …… was your secret weapon?! It’s basically just a game that spits out smut whenever a puzzle gets solved!”

“……”

“Awaji. Delete this disturbing creation immediately. Never display it again!”

On the orders of its true Master, the model of a majestically beautiful, mature Big Sis is forever destroyed.

“Ahhh ………… It’s gone …………”

“Don’t make that pathetic face over computer graphics.”

It was worth a lot more to me than that.

Rather than CG, it was the only thing I had to remind myself that Big Sis is still alive.

“Moving on!”

Ai kicks Akira out of frustration. Akira moans with glee.

“The real reason I’m here is to give you your reward.”

“Re …… ward?”

“You finished sorting the match records like I asked, remember? Awaji’s debut went extraordinarily well, and your work deserves to be rewarded.”

Oh, that.

Around my twentieth day playing against Awaji, I finally had enough mental leeway to choose one hundred match records and add some analysis to the important ones.

It went pretty smoothly because there wasn’t much choice in what could be released in the first place. Ai must have gone ahead and made those records public at some point.

Being cut off from the outside world has really thrown off my perception of time. I’m not even sure what day of what month it is right now and, after a while, I stopped caring about things outside this room to the extent that I might’ve missed Placement Matches. They started recently, right? I don’t have a clue.

Just …… I have a pretty good idea what’ll happen once those match records are out there for people to see.

There’ll be a huge divide.

Some people will panic, others won’t care whatsoever.

That’s the tipping point that determines which groups live on and which groups crumble.

“About this reward, though.”

I say while plucking stubble out of my unshaven chin.

“Honestly, I thought getting to use Awaji was a reward on its own. It costs hundreds of millions of yen to run, right? There’s not much else I could ask for ……”

“You were just using it to gawk at a CG Ginko Sora.”

Sorry about that ……

“…………”

Ai starts pacing around the room. Every step she takes pulls on Akira’s chain, and she whines with glee each time.

“It’s settled,” says Ai after a long, contemplative sigh. “If you want to see her that much, I’ll take you to her. The real one.”

Huh?