Chapter 202

The Mysterious Sisters

The two part timers are mysterious.

After the interview, I understood that after I looked into them.

"The elder sister, her daily DP income... is 0...!?"

That fact was like a thunderclap.

Daily DP income is something like a measure of strength, but even the average C-Rank would be around 50-70 DP. In particular, if they know skills, it'll tend to be higher.

And that's why her 0 DP is something I've only seen for people who are connected to dungeons like me, Rokuko, and Haku-san or people who have no combat ability at all, like how Meat was when I first picked her up.

However, I'm thinking that it might be something like the effect of a concealment skill that I don't know about.

The younger sister, Nayuta, is 85 DP a day... Around the same level as Gozoh. She said she was an alchemist, so she probably knows various skills. By the way, Ichika jumped from around 60 DP to 75 DP when she learned those skills.

"Wow, I didn't notice at all. As expected of Kehma, you focus on different things~"

"Don't look away from stuff like this, oi."

"B-but there's no need to look at individual DP though right?"

"It's a good way to measure an intruder's strength, see?"

"Uuu, I got it! I'll pay attention next time."

Even so... the younger sister has a DP? Hmmm.

I don't understand why the other one's giving 0 DP, but vigilance towards them is essential. Particularly towards the elder sister.

"Hey, Kehma. Maybe you could find something out if you transform into Setsuna?"

"... Hoh. Let's give it a shot then, [Super Transformation]."

The best way to learn about your opponent is to become them. Thus, I used [Super Transformation] to become the elder sister of the two part timers—Setsuna.

Oh, her chest is heavy. Profoundly so.

And there's always this sense of incongruity in my lower half when I transform into a woman... but it doesn't feel like that this time... nn?

...

It's there!? No, what? It's there!!

U-uh? The heck? What's going on? A cross dresser? No, these breasts are real...

...

...!?

When I checked it out, there are both a man's thing and a woman's thing.

What?

What's going on? No, right...

A hermaphrodite?

Even her sex is half and half. I'm kind of wanting to believe this is just a flaw from [Super Transformation]... However, it's probably better to think of this as reality and really real after taking a close look at the person herself and using [Super Transformation].

"Perhaps... are hermaphrodites common in this world?"

"No, umm... I wonder? It's probably unusual?"

The men and women I've met so far are definitely either one or the other, but I've never gone so far as to verify what's between their legs. Rather, I would've thought that Setsuna was also a woman if I hadn't checked like this. Even in her bloomers, there wasn't a bulge.

You wouldn't normally check, right?

... Rokuko is definitely a woman. The only one I know that for certain is just Rokuko...!?

"It's alright, Meat, Ichika, Rei, and the others don't have anything growing there."

"A-ah. Thanks?"

"Umm, you're welcome?"

I ended up hearing information that I both did and didn't want to hear.

For now, let's summarize what I know about Setsuna.

- Appears to understand Japanese

- 0 DP per day. Is she someone related to a dungeon, or does she have an unknown skill?

- Is a hermaphrodite.

That is all.

And now their identities are becoming even more mysterious.

I don't even know if they're truly sisters. Rather, it's fine if they're sisters...? Well, it's alright. Even those Uzoh Muzoh brothers are brothers despite not being related by blood. The elder sister's a hermaphrodite, but it's probably still alright?

Still though, what's their goal here? Even after transforming, I still have no clue.

I gave the transformation a shot after Rokuko recommended it, but it only changes my form into them. It doesn't give me their memories... I don't know if it would after raising its level though.

What should I do now?

... Let's wait and see for now.

Yep, the usual Japanese way of maintaining the status quo. Put off troubling problems. If the problem resolves itself in time, it's best to not meddle with it.

What? The problem might get worse, you say? Do your best, future me.

"... Hmm, well. Just watch them for now. They may take advantage of the interview and make a move."

"Kay~. I'm the one who hired them, so I'll take responsibility!"

I don't know how she planned on taking responsibility, but for now, I decided to go to sleep after cancelling the transformation.

I returned to my room, laid down, and invoked Sleepsword Siesta!

... I fell asleep within ten seconds.

*

I was concerned about it, so I decided to visit the mysterious sisters directly. Together with Meat as my bodyguard. Nayuta, the younger sister, was sitting at the reception desk right then. As for the problem elder sister—ah, according to the map, looks like she's sleeping in her room.

When I went to Nayuta, she bowed and greeted me... Looks like she was reading a book. She's working, but she was using it to pass the time since there weren't any guests.

"Yo, how's it going?"

"Nothing noteworthy. Good as usual."

"Oh? What were you reading?"

"A collection of upper class magic formations. See?"

With that, Nayuta opened up the book and showed me.

A collection of magic formations was like how a book of poems would have a collection of poems inside it. There was just a single magic formation on the two-page spread... Time... stop... subspace, huh. Hmm. Its effect looks similar to [Storage]'s. About half of it's missing though.

"Hmm. There's no commentary or notes on it?"

"... Oh? Village Chief-san, are you interested in magic formations?"

"No, Nerune loves stuff like this though. She'd be happy if she could read it."

"Ah, I already lent Nerune-san the elementary and middle class ones I had on me." [1]

In that case, I'm thankful. The range of our strategies is expanding more and more.

By the way, elementary class magic formations appear to be simple to analyze, with the middle class ones having commentary on their uses for when they're invoked. For the upper class magic formations, it just has what was discovered written without what they do.

"What does this magic formation do?"

"I'm not sure, but I can guess from looking at the magic characters... this is [Time], this is [Advance], this is [Separate]... so I believe it is for a doppelganger or something."

"Hmm? ... Really now?"

The characters that Nayuta pointed out were respectively [Time], [Stop], and [Subspace]. She was wrong about them, but there's no reason for me to point it out.

"However, there are times when the characters written down are nonsensical in order to keep the effects secret. This character here, the one that looks like [Advance], it might actually mean the opposite because of the piece that is missing. The part that distinguishes between the two is missing, so I can't tell."

Ah, so it's something like that...? Translation Function-san, you even supplement the missing pieces? You are amazing.

"That so? Sounds difficult."

"That's how it goes. To continue, there are hints to conjecture at what the missing pieces in this magic formation are on other pages, so if you apply enough of them, it can explain more parts and—"

She let me go thirty minutes later.

That was a long talk. Moreover, she lent me an introductory primer on alchemy, but yeah... to actually read it and become an alchemist and shave away my sleeping time even more? Don't wanna.

Nayuta is an unexpectedly aggressive narrator. The meaning of her name appears to be [A Super Large Unit of Time] and that's definitely reflected in how long she talks. [2]

... Setsuna's appears to mean [A Very Short Unit of Time], does that mean she talks fast?

With that, I came across Setsuna, who should've been asleep in her room, in the hallway.

"Ah, Village Chief-san? Morning~. It's the afternoon though~"

"Ah, morning. It's not a problem if you just woke up."

She was walking down the hallway in her gym clothes. Her thighs are tempting in various ways. My eyes kept trying to look at her crotch, but I managed to avoid it somehow. It'd be bad if she caught me looking...

"That's right! Hey Village Chief-san, are you free? We haven't had a mock fight yet. You're the last one."

"Why? —wait, the last one?"

"I've been asking adventurers that are C-Rank and up in the village for mock fights. I've won all of them too. I asked Gozoh-san too, but Village Chief-san and the others are only C-Rank at this dungeon right? Want to fight?"

"Why not have one with Me—... with Kuro? You did it the other day right?"

"I'm fine with having another go since she's strong, but I already fought Kuro-senpai. I want to complete this place!"

Right, so rather than being a quick talker, she's quick to use her fists?

I glanced at Meat. Looks like she lost, but she also looks motivated.

... I also kind of want to try something out.

What to do?

Footnotes:

I'm not sure why, but the author here uses 'elementary class' rather than 'bottom class' or 'low class'—the only two ranks below middle class—as he described back in Chapter 6. Return

It's not stated whether or not Nayuta herself said the meaning of her name or if Keima is inferring it through Japanese, so I worded it like this. Note that her name means 'Ridiculously Large Unit' in Japanese, like 10^60.