I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 13 Read online

  “Kyah! I-It’s getting my clothes too!”

  “Iris!”

  I rushed over to try and help, but there wasn’t really anything I could do. It was four of us against a single slime—and the slime was winning. Seriously, what on earth is going on?!

  “My, my... Rekka’s party has survived Demon Kings and dragons only to get wiped out by a lone slime?”

  Wow, thanks, R! Great time to be joking around!

  As frustrated as I was, just then...

  “Make way!”

  First someone called out to us. And then came the hammer.

  WHAM!

  The slime was obliterated with one overhead swing. The feelers attacking Iris and Rosalind suddenly liquefied, oozing to the ground. I still hardly had any idea what was happening, but it seemed the danger had passed. As for the person who’d saved us...

  “Hey, are you guys all right?” she asked, resting her massive hammer against her shoulder.

  By the look of the armor she was wearing, I would have said she was definitely a knight.

  ▽

  Said knight introduced herself to us as Yorun.

  “It’s dangerous to be walking around out here without any gear equipped. Shall I escort you to the village?”

  After what we’d just been through, we happily agreed, and she kindly led us to the nearby Kinawa Village.

  “The locals call this place the Furthest Reaches.”

  “Sounds like your typical starting village...”

  “Huh? Well, it’s a rather quaint town.” Confusion overtook Yorun’s expression for a moment, but she quickly returned to smiling. “What an eventful day, though. It’s rare to have so many visitors in these parts.”

  “Have there been that many? Did someone else come by here?”

  “That’s right. Before you guys, there were two girls.”

  Two girls? Could it be...?

  “Where are they now?”

  “I took them to the inn.”

  I immediately asked Yorun to take us there as well.

  “Hey, problem child. That was fast.”

  It didn’t take long to find President Momone. Of course, Tokiwa was there too. She was lounging on a bed in the room where they were staying, but she immediately leaped up and...

  Stomp, stomp, stomp... Crash!

  “Waaah!”

  “WH-WHAAAAAT?!”

  “How’s it going, Rekka?”

  My shouting was almost completely drowned out by the other girls screaming. Tokiwa alone remained calm as she clung to me, asking trivial questions.

  ▽

  After inviting us to come and find her at her room at the inn if we needed any help, Yorun wandered off. Once she left, the rest of us piled into the room President Momone and Tokiwa were renting to regroup and catch up with each other.

  “How did you get the money for a room at the inn, Prez?” I asked.

  “I had it with me when I got here. See?” President Momone said, tossing a small pouch my way.

  I looked inside to find several coins of a currency I’d never seen before.

  “Midori has one just like it. Don’t you guys?”

  “Huh?”

  At her behest, I checked my pockets and found an identical pouch with more coins inside it.

  “But I didn’t bring this with me...”

  As we were all pondering over the mysterious pouches, Iris suddenly raised her hand.

  “Ooh, I know! Isn’t this a starting item or something? You know, like the stuff you automatically have at the beginning of a game? This money must be part of it, too.”

  “You mean this was, like, a scripted thing?”

  I guess that wasn’t impossible to believe. We were literally inside of a video game, after all. Actually, speaking of the game aspect of things...

  “Come to think of it, were you two attacked by monsters in the forest?”

  The four of us had struggled so much against a single slime that we might’ve been in deep trouble if Yorun hadn’t shown up. Tokiwa couldn’t fight, so how had President Momone gotten them both here safely on her own?

  “We were attacked, but we ran.”

  “Huh? You ran?”

  “Of course we did. We had no reason to fight. Did you think you needed to defeat it or something?”

  “Erm...”

  When she put it that way, I didn’t have much to say for myself. The other girls all looked away, too.

  “Grrr...”

  Rosalind was especially frustrated, as she’d technically been the one to initiate the fight by attacking the slime first. But, really, we’d all been a little too confident in our abilities and had ended up letting our guards down. Lesson learned, I guess.

  “Well, whatever. As long as you’re safe, everything’s fine. But if you actually engaged the monster, surely you were able to learn a thing or two about it, weren’t you?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “So speak up. That’s the kind of information that could be critical to surviving in this world.”

  “Wow, it’s rare for there to be a heroine you can’t stand up to, Rekka.”

  Put a sock in it, R!

  At President Momone’s request, I recounted our battle with the slime... The only hitch was that it was a secret that Iris was an alien and Rosalind was a vampire, so I made it sound like I was the one doing the fighting.

  “...And so it seemed like our attacks had no effect on it at all.”

  Once I finished relaying the modified story, President Momone had only one thing to say: “Isn’t that because you’re just too weak, problem child?”

  “Actually, no... That’s not the case here. I promise.”

  I didn’t really have a leg to stand on since I’d said I was the one doing the fighting. But even though I couldn’t tell President Momone, I was quite sure Iris and Rosalind weren’t hurting for power.

  “...”

  “Hm? What’s that, Midori...? It has something to do with game cliches?”

  “Game cliches?”

  Tokiwa’s voice was too quiet to hear, but thankfully President Momone interpreted for us. This way, I didn’t have to be hugged. Well, leaving that aside...

  “Wait, cliches...” I suddenly recalled Yorun’s words earlier. “She said it was dangerous to be wandering around without any gear equipped. Don’t tell me...”

  “What is it, problem child?”

  “If this is a game world that plays by game rules, then of course we’re completely powerless without any gear.”

  “That’s what we just established,” President Momone said, looking exasperated at hearing me state RPG basics like I’d discovered penicillin.

  “Whaaat?” asked Iris. “But aren’t there classes like martial artist and whatnot? Don’t they typically fight barehanded?”

  “A profession like that might not exist in this game. Besides, they normally fight with knuckledusters for weapons, don’t they?” I answered to the best of my ability.

  “What, really? Then I should’ve just used my laser gun.”

  It seemed Iris had interpreted what I’d said as “any gear at all would have defeated it.” She put her arm behind her like she was reaching for something, and then...

  “It’s gone!”

  “Huh? What is?”

  “My laser gun! No, my whole bag!”

  “What?!”

  Iris’s bag was an incredibly advanced—and incredibly useful—piece of technology. Despite its physical size, it could hold anything inside of it. Without that, we’d likely have a much harder time in this world.

  “Did you drop it somewhere?”

  “I don’t know... I would have noticed right away if I’d dropped it, but I swear I brought it with me...” Iris replied with a troubled expression.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll search for it,” said Satsuki as she got up and left the room.

  By “search for it,” she meant she was going to find somewhere private to use her Omniscient Magic.

  �
��Hm? Where’s Otomo going?” President Momone asked, cocking her head to the side.

  The same as she didn’t know Iris was an alien or Rosalind was a vampire, she didn’t know Satsuki was a mage.

  “S-Satsuki’s, uh, good at finding things. She’ll be back soon.”

  “You don’t say...”

  I managed to dodge the question for now, and about ten minutes later... Satsuki returned looking even more troubled than Iris when she couldn’t find her bag.

  “Rekka, come with me for a minute.”

  “Sure.”

  I followed Satsuki out of the room, and we moved a little down the hall.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I can’t use it.”

  “Huh?”

  “I can’t use the Magic of Omniscience.”

  ▽

  I went back and grabbed Iris and Rosalind, and I took the four of us elsewhere so we could try and figure out what was going on with everybody.

  “So on top of the Magic of Omniscience, Satsuki can’t use any magic at all... We straight-up don’t have any of Iris’s alien tech... And all of Rosalind’s vampire abilities are unusable, huh?”

  “What’s the meaning of this?” Rosalind muttered, tapping her foot against the floor in frustration.

  “This might be part of the game too.”

  “What do you mean, Rekka?”

  “You can’t just start a game with high-powered gear and abilities. That would be broken. That’s why we’ve been reduced to starter equipment, and why we don’t have access to any of our special powers.”

  That was my theory, but I checked with President Momone to be sure. As it turned out, she couldn’t use her demon eye here either, though it wasn’t really like that would make much of a difference in this world.

  “What do we do now?”

  “That’s a good question...”

  We all regrouped and put our heads together. Based on what President Momone had already gathered from Yorun, we knew there was a Demon King that had invaded this world. It felt pretty safe to assume the goal of the game was defeating him, but we were more interested in getting out of the game than beating it.

  “I guess if we don’t know what else to do, then we might as well go after the Demon King...” I murmured, feeling pretty disheartened.

  While I had defeated several Demon Kings before, I’d only ever done so with the help of the heroines. And right now, they were just as powerless as I was.

  Even if Harissa or Tsumiki happened to notice we were gone and found the game still running in the light literature club room, there wouldn’t be a point in them trying to come help us. They’d have their abilities sealed just like we did, and any helpful items they tried to bring with them would be lost in transition. Honestly, considering the potential danger we were in, I was hoping they didn’t realize we were missing.

  But just as everything seemed to be coming apart at the seams, President Momone slapped her knees and heaved a great sigh as she pulled herself together.

  “Well, there’s no point in thinking about it anymore. Let’s call it a night.”

  “Yeah, that might be for the best.”

  At this rate, we were just spinning our wheels. Like she suggested, we’d probably all be better off getting a good night’s rest and clearing our heads.

  “In that case, I’ll go get a room.”

  “Nonsense. You can stay here with us, problem child.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Think about our resources. We have a limited amount of money, and we don’t know how long we’ll be stuck here. If what you said is true, we’ll also need to purchase equipment. We should be as frugal as possible. Fortunately, this room has three large beds. All six of us can stay here as long as we pair off.”

  She was right. Three beds would sleep all six of us.

  “But...”

  “Don’t worry. Unlike the vice president and the disciplinary committee, I’m open-minded when it comes to relations between students. As long as both parties are consenting, you can do as you please.”

  How could President Momone be so reliable, yet still manage to say the weirdest stuff at the worst times?!

  I mean, I understood what she was saying about being frugal. It was a good idea to limit our expenses as much as possible. But...

  “Me! I’ll sleep with Rekka!”

  “No, I will!”

  “Fools! It should be me!”

  What on earth was I supposed to do? Iris, Satsuki, and Rosalind were violently squabbling over the sleeping arrangements.

  “You will all obey my will!”

  Rosalind went off the deep end and tried to use her charm to force the other two girls into listening to her, but...

  “Ngah! I forgot I can’t use my powers right now!”

  She could only clutch her head in agony as Iris hit her dead in the face with a pillow she threw.

  “I have the advantage in pure strength!” she announced triumphantly before a pillow came flying at her too.

  “Oh, yeah?! Even I stand a chance in this world now that the playing field’s been leveled!” shouted Satsuki, Iris’s assailant.

  “Hey! Now you’ve done it, Satsuki!”

  “You’re the one who started this! I won’t forgive you, little girl!”

  “Bring it!”

  And so the bickering escalated into full-blown fight. It seemed like their physical strength and other stats had been appropriately reduced to that of level-one characters, so the three of them were actually pretty evenly matched. But the fact they could deal even the slightest damage to each other with pillows was a bit troubling. Did that mean friendly fire was turned on in this world? I found myself praying that wouldn’t be an issue down the line...

  “HAAH!”

  “ARGH!”

  “RAAH!”

  But for now, I had to focus on doing something about the pandemonium going on right in front of me. With a sigh, I tried to intervene before President Momone scolded us all.

  ▽

  Unsurprisingly, my intervention failed. The three girls kept at it until they’d knocked each other out, leaving Satsuki, Iris, and Rosalind all conveniently sleeping soundly on one bed. President Momone and Tokiwa took the second bed, and I guiltily took the third all for myself.

  “I see you’re still a coward, Rekka.”

  “Shut up. Let me sleep.”

  R must have been bored without her portable TV and DVD player, and she took to talking to me instead. I felt sorry for her, so I decided to chat with her for a while until I actually felt sleepy. Of course, I made sure to whisper so the girls wouldn’t hear me.

  “I know you’ve been to other worlds and even back in time with us, but I didn’t really expect you to be able to follow me into a video game too, R.”

  “I’ve told you before I’m incredibly advanced.”

  “Yeah, yeah...”

  I brushed her off and felt a big yawn coming. I guess that was as good a sign as any I should call it a night.

  “Hm?”

  Just as I was about to tell R good night, a shadow appeared next to my bed.

  “Gwuh!”

  It collapsed right on top of me, flopping over my stomach. And when it did, I realized it was Tokiwa.

  “T-Tokiwa, please wake up!”

  “Mm... bathroom... mrgh, mmph...”

  This wasn’t good. She was completely out of it.

  Squeeeze!

  “Hey, please don’t hug me!”

  I didn’t know if it was out of habit or what, but Tokiwa clambered her way up my body to bring her lips to my ear. She was right on top of me though, so I felt every bit of it...

  “Wow, Midori’s really all over you right now.”

  No, it wasn’t like that...! Even if it did feel like it...

  Regardless of R’s commentary, I found myself in my most compromising predicament yet. I don’t know who would have been able to keep their cool with a beautiful upperclassman climbing into bed wit
h them.

  “Oh, Rekka...”

  “What’s going on over there?”

  “Yeah, tell us, Rekka.”

  Like I said, no one could keep their cool right now...

  “Um... I can explain.”

  In response to my desperate plea, I took three flying pillows to the face. For the first time today, I found myself glad that we were in a game. If that damage had been calculated with their real-world stats, those three pillows would’ve spelled a game over for me.

  ▽

  At last, morning came.

  “Tell me... Why are there five people sleeping in one bed, problem child?”

  “I wish I knew...”

  I’d passed out at some point, so I wasn’t sure myself. When I came to, Satsuki, Iris, and Rosalind were all dead asleep... And they were all clinging to me. It was sweltering.

  “I said I was open-minded, but I can’t say I’m thrilled about this fivesome of yours,” said President Momone, folding her arms and sighing.

  “Please don’t call it a fivesome.”

  Despite weak objections on my end, she helped me tear Satsuki and the others off of me one by one. When we were all done...

  “I see we still get hungry in the game world,” said President Momone.

  “Well, there are games with bars or gauges for hunger.”

  And so we all went down to the first floor of the inn to grab some breakfast.

  “Now that we know we need to eat as well, we’ll have to find some way to put food on the table,” said President Momone while minding the sleepy Tokiwa.

  It was true we probably needed to come up with a way to make money. At this rate, we were all going to use up our starting money in no time.

  “Morning! Did you guys sleep well?” a new voice to the conversation suddenly called out to us.

  I turned to see Yorun, the knight who saved us in the forest yesterday, standing there with a plate of breakfast herself.

  “Er... Honestly, it was only so-so.”

  “Really? I think the beds here are pretty soft. Anyway, mind if I sit here?” Yorun asked before taking an open seat at our table.

  I got a glimpse of it from yesterday’s events, but she really did have an easygoing personality. She had no trouble fitting in with all of us.

  “So, uh, Rekka, was it? You gotta be more careful. We don’t want any repeats of yesterday. It’s pretty dangerous outside the village, so don’t go taking girls out there, okay?”