Chapter 40: The Beast of Thunder and the Dreaming Girl 1
◆
I have a dream.
Someone is holding my hand in the dream.
A woman is smiling and saying “I’m sorry.”
A man is glaring and saying “You have no right to resent us.”
It was snowing heavily. I
t was so, so cold. From that day on, I was always alone.
◆
In the dungeon city Sakura flower, at the 336th dungeon [Eternal Darkness], the third midpoint,
Jupiter awoke past 8pm. For a while,
the silver-haired girl blankly looked around with hollow eyes, but soon her face paled and her body trembled.
“Alright, let’s get this party started.”
Hey, the star of the show is finally awake. Everyone from Yalda, give her a warm welcome!”
My cheerful command immediately reached the jelly-like aliens.
[Welcome! We’ll welcome you!]
[I don’t really get it, but congratulations Jupiter!]
[I shall play a celebratory tune, so it is written.]
The purple jelly-like aliens swarmed noisily around Jupiter’s bed, jumping excitedly.
When surrounded by this carefree bunch, even you couldn’t stay gloomy.
“Kyoichiro, what is this?”
“It’s a celebration. I asked everyone from Yalda to treat today’s MVP.”
“No, I-!”
“Stop! If you want to talk, fill your belly first. You’re seriously lacking meat and sugar right now!”
With a snap of his fingers, jelly aliens holding skewers all tried feeding Jupiter at once.
“No, stop! Okay, I’ll eat, I’ll eat…just let me eat at my own pace…!”
[We’ll welcome you!]
Yoishoi! Yoishoi!
The silver-haired girl was playfully surrounded by the countless mascot-like creatures.
It was the true hospitality of the welcoming her.
“How heartwarming.”
“Yeah, heartwarming.”
We watched Jupiter’s situation from a bit away, thoroughly enjoying the scene.
◆
“What is…the meaning of this…?”
After the meal, the first words out of Jupiter’s mouth contained a tone of protest.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve caused you all such tremendous trouble. So why?”
“Hmm.”
I deliberately tilt my head as I exchange glances with Haruka next to me.
“Trouble? What are you talking about?”
“I don’t recall any…Kyoichiro, do you know something?”
“Nah, of course not.”
It was obviously an act,
but half of it was genuine.
To prove that, I added:
“Ah, could it be you’re worried about that Lightning Geezer, Jupiter? Yeah, him… since he didn’t leave much of an impact, I totally forgot about him until now.”
“What are you…saying…”
Jupiter’s crimson eyes widened hugely.
Well, of course.
The embodiment of calamity that had continued casting dark shadows over her life was just casually brushed aside
–she probably never dreamed of that happening. Unlike when she first woke up, it’s clear she’s becoming flustered in a different way.
“[Keraunos] obviously attacked you all…”
“Attacked? Hey now, that’s gotta be a joke, right? As you can see, Haruka and I are unharmed. If he can’t even damage rookies, your Lightning Dad must be pretty tame.”
“…Ah.”
After comparing our bodies illuminated by the campfire, she finally seemed to understand the situation.
That’s right, we weren’t injured.
Even after being exposed to black lightning, a dual thunder and miasma attribute that normally wouldn’t leave you unscathed, we’re perfectly fine.
This means…
“You really made it through unharmed…?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“It was so exciting!”
It really wasn’t exciting at all for me, but I’ll nod along to match the mood of our Haruka.
That made Jupiter glare at me a bit, but it’s a small price to pay. I’ll graciously accept it.
“But it’s a fact that I caused you and Kyoichiro extra trouble…”
“Well if I had properly blocked that birdbrain’s fireball, this never would have happened. So it’s my responsibility too.”
“Instead of just tearing it apart, I should have pulverized it completely. Sorry about that, Jupi-chan.”
The two of us bow our heads.
That’s right, the incident on the 15th floor wasn’t just Jupiter’s fault.
While knowing the circumstances, we let the attack through to her
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
–that was our mistake too.
So we’ll share the blunder between the three of us. There’s no room for playing the victim here.
“Nobody got hurt, and the screw-up was all our faults.”
“So Jupi-chan doesn’t need to shoulder it alone.”
Jupiter’s mouth opens slightly, as if dumbfounded.
“Why would you…go this far for someone like me…”
“Not ‘someone like you’. You’re our proud artillery.”
“Thanks to you, we were saved so much in today’s battle. So now it’s our turn to save you, Jupi-chan.”
Slowly, Haruka’s soft palm gently strokes Jupiter’s head.
“I…don’t know this…”
The girl’s throat trembles as she squeezes out the words.
“Everyone…is scared of me. Everyone keeps me away…”
“We’ll be together.”
“My power hurts others, so I’m the bad one…”
“There’s no one here hurt by your power right now. So you’re not bad – no, you were never bad to begin with.”
Sold by your parents, forced to have an unwanted power, but you had to rely on that power just to survive. E
ven after going through such painful hardship, you’ve endured until now. Who would call you the villain for that?
“I always…dream… An unknown man and woman leading me, walking through the snow… At the end, someone from the facility always appears, and then…”
“It must have been so hard, so painful…”
“I was always alone…”
Haruka’s arms tightly embrace the frail girl’s body.
“You’re not alone anymore, Jupi-chan. We’ll always be by your side! Let’s go on lots of adventures, play a lot? Lots and lots and…”
Haruka’s back trembled slightly. Ah geez…
This girl is too kind for her own good.
Thanks to her, even my eyes are getting…Dammit!
“That’s it, this story ends here. You’ll continue to be our party’s artillery from now on. I’m sure you’ll perform brilliantly in the next battle as well!”
My voice was quite nasally,
but it seemed to get the point across as Jupiter gave a brief nod.
“Alright, with that the debriefing is over. Let’s start planning for the next battle!”
“The next battle…? Is it about conquering the 20th floor…?”
“No, no.”
I waved my hand broadly in the darkness to make myself more visible.
“We’ll take a break from the 20th floor conquest. There’s an enemy that absolutely needs to be taken down, so we’ll prioritize defeating them.”
“An enemy? Who…?”
My fierce expression met Jupiter’s expressionless crimson eyes.
“It’s a monster you’re quite familiar with. Your overly protective ‘father’ who’s become a complete nuisance.”
“…………!”
Seems you figured it out.
Of course you would, when there’s only one common enemy for us at this time and place.
“It’s [Keraunos]. Let’s thoroughly put that lightning-father who’s gone berserk in his place, shall we?”
◆
In fact, subjugating [Keraunos] was one of the events I had anticipated when deciding to accept Jupiter.
Subjugation is a sort of drastic treatment where you defeat a contracted spirit to renegotiate the contract terms.
Put bluntly, it’s an ungentlemanly act of beating up someone who has mistakenly come to think highly of themselves and forcibly taming them.
It’s not a method to be praised, but well, the opponent this time is who they are.
Without an ounce of restraint, I’ll make them submit.
After all, a monster that indiscriminately causes destruction in response to the delicate feelings of a 12-year-old girl is nothing but a nuisance.
Especially if it gets [Manifestation] during the battle with the final boss of [Eternal Darkness], that would be a real problem.
To eliminate any lingering concerns, confronting [Keraunos] was an unavoidable obstacle.
The issue was the timing.
The plan was to conquer the 20th floor, increase party members with healing skills, and then challenge it. But now, there’s no choice but to do it.
I can’t let Jupiter suffer any more.
You piece of garbage, how dare you rampage like that until now.
A painfully misguided ‘father’ like you is going to become a troublesome crazy fan in the future, aren’t you, you asshole!
A crazy fan! The worst combination of fanatical follower and anti-fan! Good otaku kids must never become a crazy fan, it’s a promise with the tutorial big brother ☆
…Apologies, I’ve veered off course.
Redirecting, redirecting.
In any case, that lightning-father absolutely must be made to suffer—-this is an absolute necessity.
However, he is a corrupted divine might after all.
Just in terms of output, he’s on par with the next tier up.
Moreover, the [Keraunos] we faced on the 15th floor likely wasn’t at full power.
The version that appeared in the game had an overall more ominous aura when at full strength.
In our current state, where we can barely fend off a non-full-power opponent, there’s no way we can make that lightning-father understand.
So naturally, the way things are now won’t do.
Thorough preparation is necessary for the [Keraunos] subjugation.
The essential elements I can think of off the top of my head are about three…no, four.
Equipment, skills, strategy, and—-.
◆ Shimizu Residence – Tokonoma
“Kyou-kun, please explain it to me again.”
The next day, when we returned home with Jupiter, we were greeted by an unusually stern-looking big sister, or rather, an interrogation – I mean, a reward.
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!
Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated.
Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.
Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.
Donation for faster release is always welcome
Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.
