Chapter 26: CH 25

Chapter 25 – The Power of Mankind

I was going to be under the care of the Fukuzawa family for a while, but I was still cautious about my transformed appearance. I was paying attention to the duration and would take another [Shapeshifting Medicine] to maintain my appearance again so that I wouldn’t be exposed, so there was no problem at the moment.

I set my sleeping hours to five and a half hours, so I would take the medicine before going to bed and then use an alarm to wake up before the duration ran out. Worried that even that wasn’t enough, I preemptively gave Sol the role of coming to my room to wake me up.

“Hey Torimoto-san, you said you were going out today, but where are you going?” (Kanna)

Currently, I was seated at the table with the Fukuzawa family, having breakfast. Yesterday, I had told Jouichirou in advance that I would be going out today. Kanna must have heard.

“Being cooped up in the house too long has made my body feel dull. I figured I’d go for a walk and take a look around the city.” (Torimoto)

I had been staying here for three days, and I felt that it was about time to start looking for my next business partner. Staying here was surprisingly comfortable, and I had almost no expenses, so before I knew it, three days had passed.

“That sounds nice. Would it be okay if I came with you?” (Kanna)

“Come on Kanna, don’t trouble Torimoto-kun. Besides, it’s dangerous out there,” Jouichirou chided. He had finally regained his daughter’s smile, so he surely didn’t want to risk losing that to the monsters out there.

“But I can finally walk on my own two feet now. I want to go out for a walk.” (Kanna)

That’s what children do, I guess. Well, maybe it’s human nature.

At first, just being able to walk might have been enough for her, but now that she had made a full recovery, her desires would probably only continue to grow. Even though Jouichirou understood that such a thing was inevitable, he would still feel uneasy about letting his daughter out of the house.

However, he was probably conflicted, wanting to grant his daughter’s wishes. Jouichirou pondered for a while over what to do.

“Dear, you still haven’t told the other children yet, have you? That Kanna had been cured. If you want, why don’t you take Kanna to see them?” (Minako)

“…You’re right. It would have been nice if we could use the phone at times like this. I think it might be good to go see them.” (Jouichirou)

The children that Minako and Jouichirou were referring to seemed to be their eldest son and daughter. Speaking of which, neither of them lived in this house. Both of them were already independent and had their own families.

“How about you, Torimoto-kun? Would you like to come, too?” (Jouichirou)

“I understand. I will be in your care then.” (Torimoto)

“Yay! My first trip out in a long time!” (Kanna)

When she was still in a wheelchair, she seemed more like a graceful, demure young miss, but… No, I guess this was the real Kanna. A cheerful, bright, and friendly character.

“But dear, please be careful on the road. I’ve heard recently that monsters have begun appearing again.” (Minako)

“Yeah, I know. It’ll be fine. I’ll definitely protect Kanna.” (Jouichirou)

Well, I would be nearby. They were my precious customers that I had gone through so much trouble for. I didn’t want to lose them if possible. As long as it was a problem I could handle, I planned to deal with it.

It was decided that we would leave the house in 30 minutes, so I went back to the guest room.

“Master, what should Sol do?” (Sol)

“You’ll come along with us. Stay by Kanna’s side. If monsters attack, step in if I’m not able to deal with all of them in time. But try not to breathe fire if possible.” (Torimoto)

“Roger that!” (Sol)

Sol gave me a clean, adorable salute, causing a grin to break out on my face. Naturally, there was no such thing as a fire-breathing owl, so it would frankly be a pain to try and explain something like that to them. I wouldn’t be able to do anything except insist on it being a family secret or something like that.

Well, if it gets to that point, I’ll just go with that. Not like I have any other way to explain it.

As Minako had said earlier, it was certainly true that the cases of buildings being dungeonized were increasing at a dramatic rate.

For now, I was having Sol patrol around the area every day. As a result, I knew for certain that the number of dungeonized buildings was increasing. Perhaps even this house would become dungeonized before long. Before that happened, I had to take countermeasures as soon as possible.

Sol couldn’t clear a dungeon all by herself. I was praying that I would be around when the house became dungeonized. I didn’t understand the rules that caused dungeonization, and it wasn’t like me to overthink it and get nervous. If it happened, then it happened, and I could only deal with it when the situation actually came around.

I put on my backpack, put Sol on my shoulder, then left the room. Since we were going out, we would naturally take Jouichirou’s car.

Our group consisted of me, Jouichirou, Kanna, and the chauffeur. It wasn’t a limousine, but according to Jouichirou, it was a foreign imported car worth around ¥10,000,000. It was a pretty good ride, and the seats were comfortable.

Next to me, Kanna was sitting with Sol in her lap as she gazed out the window with sparkling eyes. It had probably been a long time since she had gone out like this.

“Come to think of it, there’s a question that I wanted to ask you, Torimoto-kun. Is that alright?” Jouichirou, who was sitting in the passenger seat, asked. After I replied with, ‘go ahead’, I was met with a rather interesting question.

“What are your thoughts on the reasons for the world’s transformation?” (Jouichirou)

I thought he was going to ask me about my family and my travels, but I turned out to be wrong.

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“Hmm. Perhaps God is trying to replace the rulers of the Earth.” (Torimoto)

“Hoh, that’s an interesting opinion. Well, it could be the truth.” (Jouichirou)

“What do you mean, Papa?” (Kanna)

Kanna also seemed to be interested in the topic.

“Kanna, us humans… as a species, are known as Homo sapiens. But Homo sapiens also once had to overthrow their predecessors, which is why the world is how it is today.” (Jouichirou)

“Is that so?” (Kanna)

“Yeah. It’s called survival of the fittest. The weak are weeded out, and the strong survive. Not long ago, the strong ones who dominated the Earth… were us Homo sapiens.” (Jouichirou)

“Err… In other words, does that mean it’s our turn to be overthrown?” (Kanna)

“If what Torimoto-kun said is true, then yes.” (Jouichirou)

“…I don’t like that.” (Kanna)

Kanna looked noticeably depressed when she said that. Her reactions were always so honest.

“Kanna-chan, in the end it can’t be looked at so one-sidedly.” (Torimoto)

“You don’t know? It’s something that God gave to man, and it’s stronger than any weapon. It’s related to what you’re doing right now.” (Torimoto)

“Eh?” (Kanna)

“It’s intelligence.” (Torimoto)

“Intelligence?” (Kanna)

“In other words, the power of thought. Human beings have the power to think and create various things based on those thoughts. The same was true of the missiles you mentioned earlier, Kanna-chan.” (Torimoto)

“The power of thought…” (Kanna)

“Humans won’t perish so easily. Those several tens of thousands of years that humans were rulers of the Earth for weren’t for nothing. I’m sure that we as humans will eventually fight back.” (Torimoto)

“…I see. I hope so.” (Kanna)

…Well, I was just speaking of probabilities as well. If dozens of dragons were to actually appear and start attacking the cities, there was nothing we could do about it. It wouldn’t just be dragons as our opponents. There would be other monsters that could easily rival humans. And in truth, there were still goblins, which could also easily kill humans.

And now, the speed and scale of the dungeonization was rapidly increasing all over Earth. There were signs that an apocalypse was inching closer and closer.

And along with it, conflicts among humans were sure to intensify. The turbulent era had already arrived. In the midst of this age, the strong would begin to eliminate the weak.

Monsters weren’t the only enemies. There were sure to be enemies appearing within our own kind. If it came to the point where people could only trust each other in small communities such as families, it would spell the end of mankind.

That was why I didn’t trust in people anymore, and I only judged people based on whether they could be useful or not. In the end, I was only trying to protect my own life. I would take action to enjoy my freedom to the fullest. To that end, the members of the Fukuzawa family were nothing but fodder to be used by me.

I wondered what my father would think if he saw how cold I’d become. It was obvious. He would give me a punch and tell me not to give up on humanity.

But sorry Dad, I… don’t think there’s a future for mankind anymore. That’s why, I’m fine with always being alone.

“….Torimoto-san?” (Kanna)

“Huh? Uhh… did you say something?” (Torimoto)

“Ah, sorry. You just looked sad, Torimoto-san.” (Kanna)

I looked sad…? Me?

“…That’s not true. I was up late last night because I had something on my mind. I didn’t sleep that well.” (Torimoto)

“Really? That’s fine then.” (Kanna)

Exactly. There was no way I could be sad. That emotion didn’t exist inside of me anymore. You could only be sad if you expected something from someone and then they ended up betraying you.

In that case, it’s better not to expect anything in the first place. There was no need for trust. It was more than enough if the extent of human relationships was limited to mutual gains.

Thus, with the way that I was now, there was no way I could feel sad.

After that, I passed the time with Kanna, chatting about nothing in particular.

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