Chapter 48 At That Time, the Teachers
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
……Test Dungeon, 2nd Floor. Teacher Party. Baseball Club Coach, Sayama Taku……
”They’re out! I’ll take the first one!” Oida-sensei shouted.
Walking at the head of the group, Oida-sensei gave the cry just as two Horn Rabbits lunged from small holes in the walls, flanking him. Oida-sensei remained composed, reading the monsters’ movements. He stepped back twice and caught the beasts one after another with his heavy shield.
Taking the opening, Ueno-sensei-the track and field coach everyone knew was a lolicon-and Miyata-sensei from the math department stepped in. They drove their spears into the immobilized Horn Rabbits. As they moved, I caught a glimpse of dandruff fluttering off Miyata-sensei’s head.
But the Horn Rabbits weren’t finished yet.
”Sayama-kun, they’re coming from behind!”
”Got it!” I replied.
A fresh pair of Horn Rabbits lunged from the rear. This wasn’t our first encounter; as long as we saw them coming, they were easy enough to handle.
I moved in coordination with Hasebe-san, the soccer club’s resident playboy. His spear and my sword lashed out from the flank, cutting them down. Ever since I reached F-rank, I’ve been able to cleave them in two with a single swing. Combat has become significantly easier.
”Oh my. No turn for me again? I went through all the trouble of learning magic, but there’s no point using it on mere Horn Rabbits,” Kume-sensei said.
As we finished off the monsters and began gathering the Magic Stones, Kume-sensei, the English teacher, stood by with a thin smirk, shrugging his shoulders. He had that same shifty look as always. More than that, he was the only one who looked clean.
I was genuinely envious that he was the only one who managed to snag a shower room as a reward for his Magic Stone redemptions. I won’t say he stole a march on us; it was a special reward for the first ten people, so there’s no use crying over spilled milk. If I had a grievance, it was that I should have cashed mine in before him.
However, I did have reservations about the fact that the group had bought magic specifically for Kume-sensei.
It wasn’t that I wanted to use magic myself. Using magic in your thirties feels a bit embarrassing, though my daughter would probably love it. The real issue was the source of the funds: he bought that magic with stones collected from the Students. To be precise, it was a mix of our party’s savings and the stones taken from the kids, but it was embezzlement nonetheless.
What’s more, they only told me about the purchase this morning. A classic “after-the-fact” report.
I had protested to Oida-sensei. I told him it was wrong to use stones-collected under the guise of buying food for the students who couldn’t fight-to bolster our own combat power.
He countered by saying we had to save not just the shut-ins, but the girls as well. To do that, he argued, we needed to be stronger to push further into the dungeon. I wanted to call it out as total sophistry, but I looked at the faces of the other teachers and coaches and kept my mouth shut.
Everyone else looked convinced.
In that moment, it clicked. Everyone except me probably knew they were going to buy that magic book with the students’ stones. They likely figured I’d oppose it, so they left me out of the loop until it was a deal.
But don’t they realize what will happen if the students find out? They probably think they can use their “teacher authority” to bully them into silence even if they get caught.
Even though this isn’t the academy anymore… the only reason the Students follow orders right now is because they still perceive themselves as “students.” In an extreme environment like this, how long will they keep listening to what the teachers say?
I can’t shake this anxiety.
Ever since the day we found out that Sanada-san, the guard, had taken the female students under his protection, everyone seems to be panicking.
Sanada-san is strong. You can tell just by looking at him. He has that facial scar that was clearly made by a blade, and a body built for violence. Even when facing down that group of thugs the parents brought in, he didn’t flinch. But the most terrifying thing is his eyes. I can’t even look him in the face-those dark, sharp eyes look like they wouldn’t feel a thing if he killed a man.
He’s not normal. He’s already pushed further ahead than anyone else, all on his own. You can’t compare us to him.
Yet, Oida-sensei and the others treat him like an enemy. They’re acting tough now, but I saw them shaking when he just put his hand on his machete. It’s idiocy to pick a fight with a man like that in a place with no police. I just hope they don’t drag me into it.
Still, I didn’t expect Hasebe-san or Ueno-san to go along with the embezzlement. I wasn’t particularly close to them, but we were fellow coaches. We had a professional bond.
Did they get bought off? It’s possible. Hasebe-san mentioned there was a woman at the academy he was “targeting,” though he wouldn’t say who.
Ueno-san was constantly talking about being worried for the girls in the track and field club. It’s common knowledge that he’s a total creep for high school girls; he only ever focuses on the female members. There were always rumors that he used his “connections” in the athletic world to sleep with students. The boys on the track team absolutely loathe him for it.
The total number of stones collected from Sanada-san and the combat-capable Students is nearing 50,000 DP. Oida-sensei never told me how much they’re actually giving to the non-combatants, but if they can afford a magic book, it’s easy to guess they’re only handing out the bare minimum needed to keep the kids alive.
If they keep shaking down the Students without getting caught, they can keep boosting our power. Maybe that really would help us save the girls faster. I suspect the two coaches were bought off with promises that their “desires” would be accommodated once we reached them.
The reason they didn’t approach me is likely because, unlike the others, I’m not an “OB” of this academy. The alumni here have an incredibly strong “old boys’ club” mentality because of all the famous graduates. As an outsider, I’m not part of the circle. Plus, I have a reputation for being inflexible.
I want to bail on this risky party and group up with the baseball students, but I can’t afford to burn bridges if we actually make it out of here alive.
I barely made it into the pros as a pitcher after college, but injuries kept me off the main roster. I was cut before I turned thirty. Knowing nothing but baseball, I was terrified of how I’d support my family. An alumnus on the team reached out and got me this job as a full-time coach.
The pay and benefits at this academy are excellent. I had a rough start with the manager, but by our third year, I led them to Koshien, which smoothed things over. But… if the Succubus Queen is telling the truth, that manager is probably dead.
It’s heartbreaking, but for my family’s sake, I have to get back. And for their sake, I can’t lose this job. If I piss off the teachers here, there’s no telling what lies they’ll tell once we’re back in the real world.
With so many senior faculty members dead, Oida-sensei and his group are going to be the ones with all the power. If they return the Students safely, their positions will be untouchable. The Chairperson is a good person, but if the teachers report that I was a “selfish adult” who refused to help the students, I’m finished.
Cooperating with the teachers to protect the students-that’s the “adult” thing to do. Embezzling stones is wrong, but I’ll make up for it by pushing forward and giving the Students maps and boss info. I’ll make them forgive me with that.
That’s what I kept telling myself.
But in less than ten days, I would come to regret it. I would realize that my logic was fundamentally flawed. I had seen the truth, but I chose to look away and hide in a fantasy.
And I would learn, through my own flesh and blood, that this Test Dungeon was not a place for such delusions.
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Summary:
The chapter follows Sayama and the teacher party as they navigate the second floor of the dungeon. While combat against Horn Rabbits is routine, the internal tension rises as Sayama discovers the teachers are embezzling student-collected Magic Stones for their own upgrades. The group is increasingly paranoid and hostile toward the guard, Sanada, who has successfully protected the female students.
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Character Insight:
Sayama is revealed as a man paralyzed by his own need for stability and fear of losing his ‘middle-class’ life. Despite recognizing the corruption and danger within his group, he chooses complicity to protect his future employment, setting up a tragic realization of his own ‘softness’ in a death dungeon.
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Behind the Scenes:
The use of sports coaches as secondary characters highlights the often-insular hierarchy of Japanese school athletics, where alumni networks (OBs) dictate power more than official titles.
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TL Notes:
Notes:
• Sayama Taku – Baseball club coach in his thirties, former professional pitcher with a history of injuries. Pragmatic and anxious about his family and career stability.
• Oida – A PE teacher with a large build and a plain, non-intimidating face. He was formerly an Olympic developmental athlete for Judo. He uses a greatsword in the dungeon and wears tattered jerseys.
• Miyata – Mathematics teacher who uses a spear. Described as having noticeable dandruff.
• Ueno – Track and field coach with a reputation for targeting female students. Uses a spear in combat. Lolicon.
• Hasebe – Soccer club coach described as a playboy. Uses a spear.
• Kume – An English teacher, suspicious of Sanada. Slicked-back hair, wears a shady expression.
• Succubus Queen – The sovereign of the Succubus race and servant to the Demon God Zazard. She possesses a voice described as蛊惑的 (alluring/bewitching) and maintains a stance of absolute superiority over humanity.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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