Chapter 199: T-1 Day
Link: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7583de/
Author: Hirukuma
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou
The Generals of the Netherworld are as follows:
Left Arm General | Right Arm General
Pinky General | Ring General | Middle General | Index General | Thumb General
It had been five days since we were brought to the enemy base.
Pitee was having breakfast with her back pressed snugly against my body.
“Breakfast is… delicious today… too… Hakkon…”
It was a little late, but I think she used to call me Mister Hakkon before. I can’t remember when she changed this term of address.
While I was glad that she sounded a lot more cheerful than before, a sense of unease was still welling up inside of me!
Also, for some reason, I kept thinking of Ramis’s face. Her angry face!
Had Pitee’s affection been completely transferred over to me?! Come to think of it, I remember watching a TV program about counselling brainwashed people. The counsellor mentioned something about how it was taboo to make them think that the person counselling them was someone more charming and capable than the brainwasher.
If that’s the case, the dependency would only be transferred from one person to another!
“The weather is… pretty nice today… yeah…?”
Call me spineless if you must, but in this circumstance, I cannot afford to push Pitee away. Things could get really complicated later, but her compliance would make getting out of this place easier.
It’s not like I’m pushing off problems like a politician or something.
Yeah.
Anyway.
Breakfast ended in a seemingly peaceful atmosphere. Then, the usual intruders arrived.
“Hakkon, we’re here for food!”
“Same!”
“It would be wonderful if I could purchase some as well.”
“Hey, sorry for the hard time, eh?”
The troublesome family came in to make their purchase. I deliberately ignored Leader Keryoil when he eyed Pitee and me.
Technically, we were supposed to be in a hostile relationship. However, this family came rolling in every morning for their breakfast as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
I played the recording I had made of Leader Keryoil’s son for his party to watch. At first, I was very guarded, worried that our interaction might be recorded by some kind of Magic Tool or spells. However, Leader Keryoil’s <Shattering Eye> was able to disable any form of surveillance.
Apparently, I had been placed under surveillance on the first day and the day I arrived. However, I think they decided to stop watching a Magic Tool and a timid lady not long after.
“So, tomorrow, eh? You’re all set?”
“Welcome”
I replied to Leader Keryoil’s question in my own subtle way.
“So, there will be a dining event on the rooftop, eh, White?”
“A nice party between Hakkon, Pitee, Sulrim and our elder brother.”
The Red and White twins’ openly jealous demeanour relieved the tension a little, but my mind was still buzzing with tomorrow’s plans.
At the request of the imprisoned son, a barbecue party had been arranged on the rooftop starting tomorrow afternoon. The participants would be just three people and one machine.
As for how this was allowed… [1]
“Elder Sis, I would like to eat under the open sky… um, since I can’t go outside, I guess I can’t even go to the rooftop…”
The combined attack of coyly tilted head and large dewy eyes soon collapsed Sulrim’s defences. Sulrim must be even more far gone than I thought.
At first, I was reluctant to let Pitee join, but later agreed when she convinced me that she could move me easily with her <Weight Manipulation> gift.
The operation date was set for tomorrow. If we miss this, there is no telling [1] when we would ever get the opportunity again.
Leader Keryoil agreed to cooperate and promised to keep people away from the rooftop area.
“Speaking of which, the Middle Finger General is said to be nearby. We overheard his subordinates talking about it, but we haven’t seen him. Apologies,” said Vice-Leader Felmina.
“Those people are a gloomy bunch. If we try talking to them, they’d either ignore us or run away immediately,” said White.
“There are some female servants, too, but none of them ever accept invitations to dates. What a boring bunch,” said Red.
“Hahh… just where did I go wrong with these two…”
As the family bickered with each other, I organised the information I had gathered thus far.
The most pertinent detail is that the Index Finger General Sulrim and the Middle Finger General are somewhere inside this fortress. However, no one knows where the Middle Finger guy is. I even tried asking [1] Keryoil’s eldest son, but even he did not know.
Secondly, we are definitely on the Rocky Dog Mountain Floor. [2] From what glimpses I caught through the windows and the location of the huge dog mountain, we’re on an island behind the dog. [1] In short, this location is hidden from the active area in front of the dog mountain. With how vast the sea is, it is almost impossible for our companions to find us.
Therefore, we can only proactively break out of this place ourselves.
Ramis and the rest must be really worried. I can only hope that this decision of mine is not something reckless. [1] I really don’t want to cause trouble for Hyurumi and the others. I recently realised that I tended to be kind of reckless when alone.
I must return safely to their side and ease their minds as soon as possible. I really wanted to see everyone again…
I checked the floor plans in my recordings again. If I were an ordinary person, there’s a chance I could make a break for it, steal a ship and sail away immediately.
However, the chances of getting caught are pretty high. Those people might not even bother capturing me and sink the ship with me on it. Not to mention, neither Pitee nor I have any nautical experience so that’s one plan scrapped almost immediately.
I knew about Pitee’s lack of sailing skills because I had already discussed the plan with her. Right now, all that was left was to go through with it, but even now I was still pondering over the details and wondering if I was being overly reckless.
“Hakkon… it will be fine… I’m sure…”
My feelings must have revealed itself through the flickering lights again. Pitee already learned to recognise this as a symptom of my anxiety and was quick to encourage me. Personally, I have plenty of ways to adapt of things do not go according to plan, but she can’t. So, surely she must be so much more anxious than I am.
“Thank you”
She beamed.
Seeing her like this, she looked like an ordinary attractive woman. Such a shame. If she had been a little more expressive in her daily life, she would not have chosen to cling to that scumbag of a man.
“Ugh, this just makes me want to see what happens around Hakkon even more. Man, I just want to leave that Ruler of the Netherworld and travel with Hakkon instead,” [2] said Leader Keryoil.
“Same, Old Man.”
“Hoho, there’s a great battle on the horizon!”
“Please don’t say such things, boys. However, do record your reunion with Ramis, Hakkon,” [2] said Felmina with an odd smile on her face.
[1] In fact, the whole family was sporting expectant grins on their faces…I looked at Pitee, but she was looking back at me with an equally confused expression.
Once we have successfully escaped, I need to have a proper conversation with her. I don’t want to become that kind of comedic-style protagonist who suddenly became hard of hearing whenever important romantic bits were brought up.
Why is it that I, a vending machine, have to worry about such things?
Anyway, let’s focus on tomorrow for now. I can perfectly see Ramis glaring at me with her puffed-up cheeks, but let’s ignore that first.
“Shall we carry on?”
Just as the chatter was getting lively, it was time to go to Sulrim’s place.
As the twins were wheeling me out of the room, Pitee’s wavering voice called out from behind us.
“Take care… I’ll be waiting at home…”
For a moment, the image of greetings between a pair of newlyweds floated in my mind, but Ramis’s menacing smiling face crowded out that image. She even has veins popping out on her forehead…
Well, I’m just a humble vending machine, so such thoughts are unnecessary for me.
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After I was done with my routine, I was returned to the room where Pitee was waiting.
She had her dinner and, after that, I filled a large bucket with hot spring water. The bucket was prepared by Vice-Leader Felmina. Pitee wet a clean towel and started wiping down her body. Naturally, I kept my eyes averted throughout this process. It was the gentlemanly thing to do.
‘Averted’, because as a working vending machine in a public bath, it is my duty to keep an eye on things for business purposes. Yes, it’s not like I was purposefully trying to see any naked women…
“Hakkon… Don’t look…”
“Ye-es”
If my tone sounded oddly disappointed, it had to have been an illusion.
After drying herself off with a pure white towel, she curled up inside her shield and fell asleep.
She had been sleeping in an oversized T-shirt provided by me for some time now, her day clothes folded up and placed next to me.
I transformed into a <Coin-Operated Fully Automatic Washer/Dryer Machine> and skilfully manipulated her clothes into the machine through the use of four plastic bottles.
Then, I proceeded to wash, rinse, spin and dry the clothes while being as quiet as possible. Once everything was done, I tossed the clothes into a prepared basket, thus completing the laundering process.
However, that was not the end of my day.
I still have to prepare for tomorrow’s barbecue.
Since Sulrim has excellent freezing abilities thanks to being a Snow Spirit, I left that part of the barbecue to her.
My job is to prepare the vegetables. I transformed into a <Vege Vending Machine> and set out a variety of vegetables on a concrete platform. Yes, the same platform was created through <Concrete Slab for Vending Machine Installation> that [3] I had used to create that pool at Labyrinth Floor.
This will be my cutting board. Naturally, it had been thoroughly cleaned and sanitised, so there’s no need to worry about hygiene.
Until now, I had given up on cutting vegetables since I don’t have any knives in my inventory. However, I found an unexpected loophole. Once I realised this loophole, I was amazed by the fact that I had not noticed it before.
After setting out the vegetables, I switched form into a <High-Pressure Washer> and, using a very narrow nozzle, I turned water into a cutting device that could slice through the vegetables in one go.
Hence, the concrete cutting board.
I could hold down the vegetables with <Telekinesis> since it’s part of my commodity, and water cut the vegetables as I pleased. The pressure of the water cutter was so strong that I left several marks on the concrete.
Hmm, I’ll have to work on controlling the power of the water cutter. Once the vegetables were all cut, I would vanish the water (also my commodity) away to prevent the floor from flooding.
It took me a few tries, but I eventually managed to get the optimal strength to cut vegetables without damaging the concrete, and things went quite smoothly after that. I placed the vegetables into a cloth bag and set the bag into a basket provided by Leader Keryoil’s party.
Needless to say, the tote bag is one of over 20 different types and designs I have in my inventory.
I separated the vegetables according to different types into different tote bags. The number of vegetables I had was limited to onions, bell peppers, carrots, sweet potatoes and cabbage. Still, the quantity more than made up for it.
To preserve the freshness of the vegetables, I decided to place the items inside my coin lockers. Having the vegetables in tote bags really helped out. By the way, I should also say that items stored inside these coin lockers do not deteriorate while I am in different forms.
I once tried keeping a tub of ice-cream in the locker and, half a day later, it hardly melted at all.
Thus, I spent the night preparing all kinds of vegetables until dawn came around the corner.
[Gumihou: Oooh, Pitee…]
[1] Adjusted details [2] Dialogue tags [3] Add details
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