Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 46

Sloth

Inside the store where Akito worked part-time.

The time had already passed 9:15 PM. It was now 9:25.

Originally his shift should have been over and he would have changed  clothes and on his way home, but the two university students who should  have come for the next shift hadn’t arrived.

Akito kept glancing at the clock while muttering inside his heart.

(This is troubling.)

He didn’t know whether this was good luck or bad luck.

The full-time employee who was here today was the man called Kurita.

He was talking with Yakumo who was in charge of the cash register. There were several customers inside the store.

「It’s amazing you know? I’m a guild master inside Pandora. Do you get it? Being guild master is amazing you know?」

Kurita was boasting. In contrast Yakumo was looking uninterested.

「Is that so? And, how amazing is it actually?」

Kurita looked happy that Yakumo was asking him to explain. He started talking a lot.

「A guild master is naturally in charge of a lot of people. There are  nearly thirty people in my place. It’s a fairly big guild. Yakumo-chan,  I’ll show you around if you’re also playing. I’m actually quite famous  in the game.」

A customer approached to pay so Yakumo took care of it.

Kurita was making a disgruntled expression at the customer. Akito thought that was a mistaken behavior for a full-time employee.

The customers inside the store finished their business and left. Then  the late university students entered inside the store without looking  guilty at all.

「Sorry we’re late. Eh? So it’s just Kurita today.」

Kurita’s name got called without any honorific. He yelled angrily at the university student.

「How dare you call your superior without honorific! Listen you two, if you two are coming late then you should act more――」

One of the university students yawned and approached Akito.

「That guy is annoying. Hey, is there anything that we gotta have to take care later?」

Akito spoke while looking troubled.

「There are several items that aren’t delivered even though we didn’t misplace the order.」

Recently there were small misses that just kept happening.

The number of the items didn’t match the data in computer. The items that were delivered weren’t the ones that were ordered.

It was simply horrible but, apparently that kind of thing was happening everywhere recently.

「That’s not really a problem. Now then, I’ll go change first.」

The two university students headed to the back of the store. Kurita chased after them while complaining.

「I’m still not done talking here!」

Meanwhile Akito and Yakumo looked after the customer that entered the  store. They were feeling exasperated even while feeling discomfort with  the recent happenings.

Yakumo looked toward the back of the store.

「Before they were still just barely in time, and yet they’re getting  especially horrible recently. Besides, there are also a lot of misses  going on lately.」

Akito was also concerned.

「Their atmosphere is also strange. They were strict before, and yet you can say that they’re more carefree now.」

Yakumo sighed.

「The works of the other part-timers are also strange. It’s strange. I wish Yukine-chan can come back.」

Akito also felt the same.

The time that the clock showed had already gone passed 21:30.

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The next day.

At school there was selection for becoming executive committee of the school festival.

Two students from each class would be selected but, that role ended up falling on Akito.

「Why me?」

In the classroom after school.

He was together with Maya who had also become a member of the  committee. They were sorting the documents about their class’s plan.

「Don’t complain. Come on, we’re going to open a café, so there are a lot of things that we have to do. We’ll confirm them.」

Various things needed to be checked if they were going to cook for the café.

How much expense would be needed, how much profit they could expect.

They would also need to make plan for the preparations.

「Err, the ones who are good with cooking in our class……are Riku and me I guess?」

Akito checked the talents of the students that had been quantified in  the tablet. It was unexpectedly Akito and Riku who had high number in  cooking talent.

「Will you do it too president?」

But, it was Maya whose number was exceptionally high.

「I can’t. Akiyama-kun is also no good. Let’s make Aoba-kun and  several others to be in charge of the cooking. We need to have them get  checked in the hospital and decide the menu.」

Akito looked at the tablet.

(Our talents in number format huh.)

It was like looking at game status.

However reality was harsh.

It had been confirmed that people’s talents would lower as they got older, but the opposite never happened.

Even when he looked at the data that was prepared for the school  festival, the difference between his number and Maya’s was clear to see.

(The difference in talent, it’s brutal.)

Maya operated her tablet to write her documents while sending mails to each student about their role based on their talents.

Some classmates replied right away, while some didn’t reply right away.

「This girl will be in charge of serving the customers……and for the support」

Maya was deciding things skillfully while also deciding the plan for the school festival.

Akito spoke up what was in his mind.

「President. What if we try letting everyone do what they want to do? We don’t need to decide it solely by talent.」

However the reply that Maya gave was the obvious answer.

「Do you think it’s alright to do this with the students’ playful mood  just so we can have fun? Just so you know this is a school event and a  part of education for the students. It’s fine to enjoy it but it’s not a  game.」

Akito smiled bitterly.

「I guess you’re right. Sorry.」

(As I thought it’s pointless. Even though Riku told me that he wanted to try serving guests rather than cooking.)

Maya looked like she wanted to say something, but she looked down  with an apologetic face and returned to finishing her documents.

「……Let’s make the decision for some of these today. We don’t have  much time, so I want to make the people in charge of cooking to discuss  about the menu starting tomorrow.」

Akito did his work mainly as Maya’s support.

◇

Capital of Temperance.

Alfie slammed her tankard on the table inside a bar.

「Even I……even I didn’t want to say it that strongly. But, I had to  say it because of my position, besides I’m put under scrutiny in that  position.」

Alfie kept complaining endlessly. Mariela drank her drink from her tankard while watching such Alfie as snack replacement.

「It feels like you’re in the middle management position huh.」

Mariela said. Ponsuke nodded to that.

「You have it hard huh, Alfie. I too am getting busy recently.」

Mariela seemed to feel the same. She leaned forward to bring her face closer to Ponsuke.

Her large breasts changed shape from being pressed on the table.

「It’s also getting busier at my place recently. The people for the  next shift just won’t come on time, and they also made a lot of miss.  Even my superior is an unpleasant guy.」

It seemed that superior was a player in Pandora and claimed to be a famous player.

Ponsuke thought.

(There are similar people everywhere huh. But, when talking about Pandora’s famous player……)

The famous players that came up in Ponsuke’s mind were the monsters whose player skill was already at inhuman level.

Other than them it would be the malicious players, like holy knight Rubin who was famous for causing troubles for others.

Alfie grabbed Ponsuke’s arm and shook him.

「Listen to what I’m saying here. Even I don’t want to speak that harshly, and yet it feels like I’m the bad person!」

Ponsuke felt troubled that he had to listen to RL story like this, even so he sincerely gave counsel to Alfie.

「Well, how about you speak frankly to that person about your circumstance too?」

Alfie said 「I’ll do that」 before she finally settled down.

(This must be that, she actually already knew what should be done  even before asking for advice, but she simply wanted to complain to  someone else.)

Mariela held out a yakitori to Ponsuke.

Ponsuke accepted it and pulled all the meat pieces from the skewer in  one go into his mouth. Then Mariela reached out to her tankard.

「Rather than that, we’re going to the orc village tomorrow right? I  think we’ve finished preparing but, are we really going to take them  with us too?」

By them she was referring to the orc group.

「It’ll be easier to clear the quest together. Though this time we’re  only going to offer the fire dragon’s horn in a destroyed village, so it  won’t be anything hard.」

Alfie placed her chin on the table while opening a screen and browsed about the orc village.

「As expected from the elf world, the setting here is that the orc  village has been destroyed. Even so, this elf race, they are really ugly  at the inside even though they look so nice at the outside.」

By ugly she meant about how they hunted down the dark elves, destroying the orc village. They were really warlike.

Ponsuke who had the image that elf was more intellectual and mystical  kept getting surprised by the elves in the Capital of Temperance.

Mariela was chuckling.

「It’s fine isn’t it? It’s just the setting here. More importantly, I  want to take the quest to become high elf after we’re finished with this  orc related event.」

Ponsuke and Alfie nodded at Mariela’s suggestion.

「That’s alright. But, that event will take a lot of time to do right?」

「I’ll count on you when it’s the time for me too. Even so, I heard  that the event quest to evolve into superior race is difficult but,  what’s the difference from normal quest?」

Ponsuke thought for a bit before he answered Alfie’s question.

「There are various things, like perhaps it’s going to be hard to  acquire the required item. And apparently you won’t be able to evolve  into superior race if you don’t acquire the required job or skill.」

Mariela apparently had investigated those requirements. She spoke to Alfie proudly.

「I’ve obtained the required jobs and skills, so I only need to get  the item. You’ll have it hard if you don’t check out various things  first before accepting the event to become the superior race you know?」

Alfie seemed to think that she was being made fun of and got into a glaring match with Mariela.

Ponsuke stopped them while praying that they would be able to finish the event without problem.

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Ponsuke’s group had prepared a horse carriage that they would use to  head toward their destination from the Capital of Temperance.

They would be accompanied by the orc party as well as Nanako and Sierra.

They rendezvoused at the plaza of the Capital of Temperance. There the orc group was surrounding an NPC.

「Come at me!」

The leader Prey was lying spread-eagled in front of the famous NPC Clara.

Both Nanako and Sierra were trying to stop them, but the orcs wouldn’t stop.

「Don’t come……DON’T COMEEEEEEE!」

Clara who always looked down on other race and acted confidently  looked like she wanted to cry while hitting Prey on the stomach with all  her strength.

Prey rolled on the ground from the attack. He showed a smile at the end while enduring the pain.

「What a merciless attack. She’s a great talent that rivaled the priest at the Capital of Hope.」

The orcs were rejoicing. They stepped up in front of Clara one after another.

「My name is Dume! Please take care of me!」

Dume lied spread-eagled on the ground. He intended to take Clara’s attack with his whole body.

Clara was on the verge of tears while she kept stomping on Dume over and over.

She stomped and kicked, mercilessly, repeatedly.

「You, youuu! You lowly monster!」

The famous NPC was acting violently just like usual, but her face was  red and she was attacking while crying. She looked like she was being  extremely cornered.

Dume stood up. Clara screamed 「Hih」 pathetically and leaped back.

Dume gave Clara a thumb up and thanked her.

「Thank you. Those merciless kicks……I’m satisfied now.」

They rejoiced after getting punched. They said thank you after getting kicked.

The NPC Clara finally burst into tears from getting surrounded by this deviant group.

「Please forgive me! I won’t attack you anymore, so please don’t show yourself to me anymore!」

The orcs were thrown into confusion from those words.

「W-why!?」

「Please. I’m begging you, keep staying as you are right now!」

「I always look forward to this every time I login. For god’s sake don’t stop!」

Clara who was wielding violence was the one who broke down. Even the  other players at the surrounding were astonished while watching the  happening from a bit of distance.

Ponsuke didn’t want to get involved with them if possible. They were just watching from a bit far away.

Mariela opened her mouth.

「……I don’t want to be thought as their acquaintance.」

But they couldn’t possibly run away with Nanako and Sierra asking them for help, so they approached to mediate.

Ponsuke thought.

(Why do I have to mediate between NPC and player?)

Clara was crying while clinging on Ponsuke’s leg. Tears were trickling from her eyes like rivers.

The rumor that the perverted orc group had broken an NPC’s heart  spread through the Capital of Temperance but……the video of Clara  clinging on Ponsuke’s leg also got circulated along with the rumor.  Ponsuke could never imagine that such thing would happen at this point  of time.

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The group departed from the Capital of Temperance after breaking an NPC’s heart.

The inside of the carriage widened when everyone got in. There the orcs were made to seiza in front of Mariela and Alfie.

All of them looked happy.

(There’s no saving these guys anymore.)

Ponsuke gave up on rehabilitating the orcs and opened a screen inside the carriage. He started browsing for various information.

Type of monster that would appear or drop item that could be obtained.

Nanako and Sierra were peering on that screen from Ponsuke’s sides.

Nanako’s tail was swaying around while leaning on Ponsuke’s arm and peering on the screen.

「I never fought this monster before.」

Ponsuke explained to her in detail.

「This monster mainly use brute force and is really tough. It’s better to defeat it with magic I think.」

Sierra peered on the screen. Because of that she was placing her hands on Ponsuke’s leg.

「I’ve seen this monster before, but I think it had different color before?」

Ponsuke had huge body. The small child could get on his lap.

「If they have different color than their element or attack type will  also be different, so it’s better if you investigate beforehand. This  monster’s attack power is quite high.」

Sierra frowned.

「That’s troubling. I’m really weak against physical attack after all.」

Nanako looked at Sierra with a troubled face.

「Your level finally has also just reached 60 after all.」

Apparently the party that Sierra came together with from the Capital  of Hope had left her behind because of her half-fairy avatar that was  treated as a joke race and moved to other party.

「I’m confident with my magic though. I had also increased the level  of my close quarter jobs just in case. At least I won’t die from one hit  now.」

Ponsuke thought.

(Sierra-chan has it hard too.)

「Well, we have a lot of tanks this time so you can just fire magic  from the center without worry. Just use the others as shield.」

Ponsuke thought the orc group would be happy to receive that  treatment, but as expected Sierra find it bad to do something like that.

「No but, even if I’m told it’s okay to use them as shield, it’s just a bad manner to do that.」

Ponsuke wished that everyone could be like this girl.

Nanako seemed to be concerned about something and asked Ponsuke.

「Come to think of it, I heard that this is an orc event but, what kind of effect it will have?」

Ponsuke began with 「I also don’t know but」 before saying.

「I think it’s a sure thing that it will make me stronger.」

He answered like that.

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