When the plane arrived at the airport, a car from Yuma-san's company was already there. I got in the car and drove to the hotel, where I changed into formal wear and went to the amusement center that Yuma-san ran.
"Wow…"
There was a super huge space there. There were glittering neon signs, huge fountains, and a gorgeous atmosphere. As I was stunned by the sight, Miu-san and the others who had also changed into dresses arrived.
"Now, let me show you the inside. We've reserved the place for today…"
"I see. Thanks for that."
Hideyuki-san nodded lightly at Yuma-san's words… A huge facility like this was rented out for a day! Normally, there would be a lot of customers… It's really outrageous that they would rent it out just for us. The scale was so different.
Inside the facility, there was a casino game space that I've only seen in movies and manga. Well, apparently, it's a coin-operated game.
I wore a proper suit, but I couldn't help but feel out of place. Rather, I'm glad I brought my suit… and that I prepared it just in case.
When I was thinking about that, Yuma-san called out to me.
"Right, Yuuya-kun."
"Yes?"
"I'd like you to play with me first… Do you have any money with you?"
"It's, well…"
"That's good. The games we have here are coin-operated games, so you'll need to convert your money into coins first."
Well, that's true. But how many coins do I need to have?
"Um, would one million yen be enough?"
"…..Huh?"
I pulled out a wad of cash from my item box as if I were pulling it out of my pocket.
"T-that money is…"
"I'm sorry, I have cash…"
But if I can use the money, that's just fine.
If possible, it would be better to return the large amount of money that I obtained from defeating monsters in the other world to the Earth. I've never had the opportunity to spend a lot of money before, so it would be great if I could use this opportunity.
As I was thinking about this, I noticed that everyone was staring at me.
"H-huh? Is it not enough? Then…"
Since Yuma-san and the others didn't react well, I put down two, three, four, and five wads of cash for the time being, and…
"W-wait a minute!"
"Huh?"
"The first million yen will be enough!"
Apparently, the first million yen was enough, and I retrieved the additional money.
"So, which game do you want to play?"
"Let's see… then the slots over there? Please."
I don't know much about slots, but I imagine they are common in Japanese arcades. Therefore, I'm sure I can do it.
When I was thinking about it, Yuma-san smiled at me.
"Slots, huh? That's good, isn't it? …It's easy to operate over here, so it's a big help."
"Eh?"
"It's nothing. It's easy to do. You just insert the coins and press the button. First, you have to exchange the money for coins."
As he said that, I exchanged my one million yen for the coins Yuma-san had brought with him.
I sat down without being prompted, and while Miu-san and Hideyuki-san watched, I put in the coins, but…
"…Um, where should I press?"
"Pfft… you really don't know anything about this thing, do you…?"
Then, Yuma-san laughed at me. No, that is how it is with beginners…
I pressed the button he told me to press, and the machine began to rotate. I didn't know what to do to win, so I pressed the three buttons at the right time, and the slot machine stopped.
At that moment, the word "Jackpot" appeared on the screen with a flashy sound and effect.
"Jack… pot?"
"Wha?"
"No way!"
"Hou…"
I don't know what's going on, but it seems I've won.
"I-impossible! I'm sure I gave them the proper instructions. Why…?"
Yuma-san was muttering something in a somewhat troubled manner, so I couldn't ask him what a jackpot was. However, a lot of coins came out of the machine, so I guessed I had won.
I continued to play and saw the word "Jackpot" again.
Again, a lot of coins were coming out of the machine. I pressed the button again and again, but each time the results were the same – jackpot.
"Yuuya-san, you're amazing!"
"Maybe he's just a guy with a little more luck than we thought…"
Miu-san and Hideyuki-san are standing behind me admiringly.
"Um, is this machine broken? I've only been getting the same results since a while ago…"
I was grateful that I was apparently winning, but as I continued to win so much, I began to worry that something was wrong with the machine at this place.
"T-that's right; it might be so…"
Yuma-san said with a somewhat tense look on his face.
I don't know if the machine was really malfunctioning or not… but even if it wasn't, I guess my luck stats just worked well…
"Damn it! What the hell is going on? Did you maintain it properly?"
"O-of course!"
"Then how come he's always winning?"
…Is it really okay? While watching Yuma-san arguing with the clerk about something, I could not help but feel that way.
"….."
Miu-san was listening to the conversation between the clerk and Yuma-san with a somewhat suspicious look on her face. I wondered what was going on.
Then Yuma-san, who had been talking with the clerk, recommended that I play the next game.
"W-well then, how about roulette next?"
"Roulette, huh?"
"Yes! It's a traditional game, too. As expected, I don't like it when people stick to just one game. You can also play games that you can't normally experience with the coins here."
"That's…"
As for me, I think I've also had enough, but it can't be helped.
"Okay. Well, I'd like to try out some of the other games, so can you tell me the rules as we go?"
So, I was taught the roulette rules for a while, but then Yuma-san came up with a suggestion.
"That's right! It's a rare experience. Why don't you try something that you don't usually do?"
"Something I don't normally do?"
"Yes! If you're a man, why don't you try putting all your coins on a single number?"
"Eh?"
Putting all my coins on a single number means… I only have one chance to win?
As I was confused by the risky suggestion, Miu-san, who was standing beside me and could not stand by watching and opened her mouth.
"Yuma-san, that would be──."
"Can you keep quiet for a moment? I'm having a conversation with Yuuya-kun right now."
Yuma-san interrupted her words without looking at Miu-san, and smiled.
"How about it? Yuuya-kun. It's not like anyone can keep playing with you. I'd like you to show me how extraordinary you are."
It's not like this roulette game is going to show you how extraordinary I am, but… it's hard to refuse. I'm sure Yuma-san has no intention of letting me refuse.
Well, in any case, it's a chance for me to return the money to Earth, so I'll accept it…
"…Very well."
"Yuuya-san!"
Miu-san shouted in surprise, while Yuma-san deepened his smile.
"I see! I was hoping you would say that! So, what do you want to do? What number do you want to put it on?"
"…Then black number six."
The reason I chose that number was because I suddenly thought of Kuro in my mind. "Kuro" and "Roku."
[T/n: Kuro means Black, and Roku means six in Japanese.]
In other words, I didn't think too much about it. I think it's a matter of luck, just like slots, so there's no point in thinking too much about it. Even if it may not be true, I felt that way as an amateur.
"I see, the black six…"
Yuma-san, who had a meaningful expression on his face, let the dealer start the roulette.
"Fuh… It's almost impossible to guess with only one number… Moreover, if I instruct the dealer to block it, he will certainly lose… This is what happens when you embarrass me."
Yuma-san was staring at the roulette wheel with a smile on his face while muttering to himself.
But──.
"Oh, I won."
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaattttt!?"
What a surprise, the result of the roulette was black six.
No, no… I didn't think that the 100 points that I gave to my luck status when I leveled up by defeating the Kaiser Ogre and the others would have this much of an effect.
"I-impossible! There's no chance for him to win! Why?"
"Yuma-san?"
"Yuma-kun, what's wrong?"
"Huh? N-next! There's still another game!"
Yuma-san said angrily, and I decided to experience all the games…
"Um…"
"Amazing…"
"N-no way… There's been a mistake…"
"….."
Wow, I've won every game I've played. For example, if I played poker, I would get a royal straight flush on my first hand. If I played blackjack, I would get a blackjack over and over again.
"B-boss? What should I do?"
"A-all right! The next one is…!"
"Oh, I won again."
"W-whaaaaaaaaattt?"
I felt Yuma-san and the clerk talking behind my back, but I continued to play the game, but I still ended up winning all of them.
"What the hell is going on? You guys! Are you following my instructions properly?"
"O-of course!"
Yuma-san was getting rougher and rougher as he kicked things nearby.
As I continued winning, Yuma-san's tone of voice became rougher and rougher, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
"Impossible, impossible, impossible!"
Yuma-san was already mumbling something, and I wondered where his initial composure had disappeared to. I'm really sorry…
Anyway, I won and won again, and as a result, the number of coins I had was outrageous. There's a big pile of coins behind me.
"Yuuya-san, you're too good!"
"U-um… you seem to have some kind of special power… perhaps I should reevaluate a bit."
Miu-san was greatly pleased whenever I won. I'm glad that I was able to show my good side as a boyfriend because Hideyuki-san was also surprised and impressed by my great victory.
Then Yuma-san shouted, seemingly at the end of his patience.
"I-it's cheating! You must be cheating!"
"Eeehh?"
E-even if you say it's cheating… No, my luck stats are more than just cheating…
It's not something that was visible, and there was no way to confirm this. Even I, who actually benefited from it, couldn't say anything about luck because it's invisible to the eye.
As Yuma-san glared at me, Miu-san finally opened her mouth.
"You're the one who's cheating, aren't you? I know you've been doing something dirty behind our backs!"
"W-what did you say…!"
"I have a recording of the conversation between you and the staff here!"
"Guh!"
Surprisingly, Miu-san was doing that while I was playing the game.
I had the feeling that Yuma-san often talked with the clerk in the back, but I was too focused on the game to grasp the content. If what Miu-san says is true, then the recorded content is probably a way to manipulate the outcome of the games…
Hideyuki-san, who was watching them arguing, called out to Yuma-san with a somewhat confused look.
"Yu-Yuma-kun? Is it true? I don't believe you would do such a thing──."
"──Shut up."
"Eh? Buh!?"
"Father!?"
Suddenly, Yuma-san punched Hideyuki-san, who called out to him!
"W-what are you doing?"
When I hurriedly tried to help Hideyuki-san stand up, a group of men dressed in black showed up around us, with the appearance of those who specialize in violent activities.
"This is…"
"Yu-Yuuya-san…"
For the sake of Miu-san, who has an anxious expression, I quickly stood in front of her to distance her from the men, and Yuma-san let out a big sigh.
"Haaahhh. Everything, everything is ruined, isn't it… Hah?"
"Yuma-san?"
"Don't you dare to call me casually like that, you little brat?"
Yuma-san glared at me with a murderous glare.
I, Miu-san, and most especially Hideyuki-san, who was at the feet of Yuma-san looking up at him dumbfounded, could not hide our surprise at the sudden change in his atmosphere.
Ignoring our gazes, Yuma-san continued languidly.
"I was so close to getting the Mido Group peacefully…"
The one who was most surprised by what Yuma-san said was Hideyuki-san, who was pushing for the marriage proposal.
"W-what? What is this all about, Yuma-kun──."
"You still don't get it, do you? I was only thinking of marrying your daughter and using her to take over the Mido Group!"
"Wha…"
Hideyuki-san is in a state of shock at Yuma-san's words.
"W-what do you…"
"Hey, hey, can't you see that after all this? Did you really not see that? I'm not just making money by doing things properly, you know. Look, that's the proof…!"
As Yuma-san spread out his hands, the men in black clothes surrounding us… pulled out a gun from their pockets! S-seriously?
"As you can see, I'm from the underground world, you know? I'm earning a lot of money from these kinds of cheating entertainment facilities as well as others."
Yuma-san made a wicked smile as he said this.
"So, I thought of expanding from overseas to Japan, but… these days, Japan has become a troublesome place for people from the underground business like us to operate. So, I decided to use the Mido Group, which has a lot of power in Japan and use them as a cover to move freely in Japan. But that bastard blew the whole plan out of the water."
"No way…"
Hideyuki-san was stunned, apparently not expecting that the person he had been pushing for a marriage with Miu-san out of concern for her future was a person from the underground business world.
Miu-san trembled in fear as a gun was pointed at her head.
"Yu-Yuuya-san…"
"Miu-san. Please rest assured. I will definitely protect you."
"Eh?"
Miu-san asked back in a daze. As if to reassure her, I turned back to Miu-san and smiled.
"Because I'm your boyfriend, right?"
"Eh?"
Miu-san's face flushed red at my words. Thank goodness, she seemed to have calmed down.
Then, seemingly unhappy with our exchange, Yuma-san shouted.
"Damn it! Enough, get rid of that little brat first!"
"Yuuya-san!"
As soon as Yuma-san gave the order, one of the men dressed in black shot a gun at me.
I was trying to be strong in front of Miu-san, but of course, I've never dealt with a gun before or even seen one. I've fought many battles against monsters in the other world, but I don't know if my powers would really work against a gun.
I had been thinking about how to fight against a gun…
"H-huh?"
The moment a bullet was fired from the gun, the speed of the surroundings suddenly slowed down. And the bullet that flew towards me was clearly visible as if in slow motion.
So I grabbed Miu-san in my arms and pulled her close to me, avoiding the bullet. Then, the speed of the surroundings returned to normal, and the bullet passed through the position where Miu-san and I were just now and made a hole in the wall behind us.
"Wha!? You avoided the bullet?"
Yuma-san was surprised, as he didn't think that the bullet would miss the target. When I thought about it, once a bullet was fired from the gun, as long as there were no interference from the outside, the direction it traveled could be easily predicted.
It's easier to deal with a bullet since it wouldn't suddenly change direction like Yuti's arrow or split into countless branches like the spear of the "Spear Saint."
In addition, the speed of the bullet was surprisingly slow… which I did not realize until I was actually shot at. I know this was abnormal, but I didn't expect the power I acquired in the other world to be so great.
Nevertheless, for this occasion, I am very grateful. I didn't want the experience of being shot at if possible, but that's what happened. I mean, if the bullet was this slow, I don't think I'd even get a scratch if I actually got hit by the bullet… I'm too scared to try such an experiment though.
──I didn't know about it until now, but the training with Yuti, Master Usagi, and Iris-san, as well as the fighting with the monsters in the Great Devil's Nest, were all done at a speed that exceeded the speed of sound. I'm not aware of this, and I was also so busy keeping up with the daily training that I don't really care if I'm really going faster than the speed of sound now. Even so, I still couldn't keep up with the speed of Master Usagi or Iris-san unless I used the power of the [Magic Attire] or Evil. I have to work harder…
More importantly, I slowly lowered Miu-san, who was frozen in my arms with a red face, to the ground and looked over at the men dressed in black.
"For the time being, I'm going to neutralize them."
"Huh!? Y-you, guys! Just shoot all of them!"
Then the men dressed in black all fired their guns at once. But I caught the bullets that were about to hit us with my bare hands and dealt with them.
Then, I scattered the bullets I had just caught on the floor around my feet.
When Yuma-san saw this, he opened his mouth so wide that I thought his jaw would come off. It was the same for the men dressed in black, who were all looking at me in amazement.
Yeah, I'm really far from human, aren't I? Even so, I still can't catch up with Master Usagi and the others, so the world is a big place.
"Well then… it's my turn now, right?"
"Hyiii!?"
As I sneaked into the bosom of one of the men dressed in black, I used a technique that I had learned from my previous fight with the Fist Saint.
"[Tearing Sky Pierce]!"
This technique was a profound technique that unleashed an impact from a very close distance, and if used normally, the men dressed in black would be unable to withstand it. So, I withheld my strength and unleashed the technique with the image of letting the impact penetrate through.
This technique of "penetrating the impact" was actually something that I had been aware of when using the Spear Saint technique during my training with Master Usagi and Iris-san.
As the name implied, the technique of the Spear Saint used a spear, so basically, everything was based on the premise of "piercing." I was able to make use of that technique in this battle.
"Kahahh──."
The man dressed in black, who had been hit by my attack, was knocked unconscious by the blow and collapsed.
"Okay, that went well…!"
In the same way, I stunned the men dressed in black one after another. Then, at last, Yuma-san was the only one left.
Yuma-san looked at me as I slowly approached him and shook his head.
"…A-avoiding and catching bullets, I don't understand it at all… what are you… what are yoouuuuuuuuuu!"
"──You're not worthy of Miu-san."
After saying that, I activate [Tearing Sky Pierce] on Yuma-san. Yuma-san then collapsed and fainted.
＊＊＊
After that, Yuma-san was caught by the local police.
Incidentally, the police told me that the number of coins I had acquired in the game had swelled to the point where I could exchange them for about 500 million yen. M-my stats luck was really outrageous…
At the airport on the way back to Japan, I ended up sitting in on the discussion between Miu-san and Hideyuki-san.
"Miu…"
"….."
Miu-san didn't respond to Hideyuki-san's voice. From what I could see, their impressions of each other were completely reversed from when I first met them.
Then Hideyuki-san made a very pathetic and confused expression.
"I-I was…"
"──Up until now, father has denied me of everything, of anything."
"Uh…"
"I want you to tell me what I should do from now on, and I want to hear it from father's mouth."
Because of what has happened up until now, Miu-san's words must have resonated strongly in Hideyuki-san's heart. I couldn't interfere in any way in this matter. After all, it was a family matter. It would be strange for me, an outsider, to interfere.
In response to Miu-san's words, Hideyuki-san tried to say something but eventually dropped his voice.
"…I'm sorry. I thought I knew everything, but I actually didn't know a thing."
"….."
"I thought that if you married him, your future… and the future of the Mido Group… would be safe. But I was wrong about everything. I'm sorry that I didn't see through his true nature, and I'm sorry that I didn't consider your feelings… I'm sorry for everything."
"….."
Hideyuki-san lowered his head sincerely. Seeing that, Miu-san quietly opened her mouth.
"…I understand that father was making the decisions for my sake. Even if it is for the Mido Group, I think it is true that father wanted to do so to help me as much as possible."
"….."
"But I like what I do now. I love it. I decide what makes me happy…! That's what I wanted to tell you, father.
"…I see."
Hideyuki-san nodded slightly and unexpectedly turned his head towards me.
"Yuuya-kun."
"Y-yes."
"…I've said a lot of horrible things to you. I'm really… sorry."
"N-no, that's…"
Hideyuki-san suddenly bowed to me, and I was at a loss for words. I was just fulfilling my role as Miu-san's boyfriend.
"Please take care of Miu."
"…..Huh?"
"Fa-father?"
I was stunned by Hideyuki-san's words. Then Miu-san became flustered, her face turning red.
"What are you panicking about? You and Yuuya-kun are dating, aren't you? You can get married anytime you want."
"W-well, that's not the case… no, if that happens…"
Hideyuki-san laughed amusingly at Miu-san, who tried to say something back. When I saw Hideyuki-san, I realized that Miu-san was also being teased, and for the first time, I smiled with Hideyuki-san.
I'm glad. There may still be some awkwardness, but I hope the two of them can get along from now on.
At any rate, I guess my mission is complete, huh? I hope I was able to play the role of a boyfriend without causing any embarrassment for Miu-san…
Then Hideyuki-san turned to face me again and winked.
"Whenever you decide to get married, let me know. I'll spare no effort to help you."
"Father!"
…T-this means that I've done well as a boyfriend, right?
In the end, I finally relaxed my shoulders.
＊＊＊
(──I had no idea it was on such a remote planet…)
While Yuuya was getting into trouble overseas, Earth was being observed from a planet in the distant universe.
A girl was staring at the holographic image of the Earth.
She was humanoid like the people on Earth, but her hair and other body parts emit phosphorescence.
The girl muttered.
(Once more, let's bring that blueprint to our planet──.)
──The wish of the girl on a certain planet in the distant universe… Yuuya still has no way of knowing it…