The Loner Who Conquers the Other World

「Please, listen to us. Please.」

Crap! I got an abnormal status effect! Which skill did that? I’m hearing weird stuff like「Please」!

「I have no idea why you are in this world, but you are a friend of Oda and his group? We are looking for them, if you know anything, please tell us.」

She looks like the leader of the bitches, is this an illusion? Bitch among bitches, Bitch Queen. The machine for producing selfish whims, complaints, and insults. The very culprit the size of whose pride led to the class breaking up. There is no way that there is 「please」in her dictionary.

「Who are you?」

「Why! We are in the same class! How can you not know!!」

Ah, she snapped. Ehm? This way of snapping reminds me of bitch leader.

「Are you a real one?」

「What do you mean, a real one?! What are you even talking about?!」

Hm, this is the bitch leader.

「Aah, sorry, my bad. I had some auditory hallucinations sounding like 「Please」, so I thought that you were a fake bitch leader.」

「Who are you calling bitch leader! And…… It wasn’t hallucinations…… Please, if you know something, tell us.」

「Who the hell are you?!」

「I’m me! The real one!!」

「Eh? Are you really the real bitch leader?」

「Yes, I am! NO, wait, I’m not!!! I’m the real one, but I’m not bitch leader!!!!」

「? Which is it?」

「Ah, bitch leader is fine already! *pant pant pant*」

Well, I’m pretty sure she is a real one. One cannot copy her manner of using 「!」so easily.

「So, who is Oda?」

「How come you don’t know! You talked with him from time to time!!!」

「Oda? O~da? Oda and the group? Aah, you mean the geeks! Stop with those weird nicknames and just call them geeks.」

「Oda, is a name!!! *pant pant pant*」

Eh? Not Geek? A shocking truth is revealed! Well, geeks is good enough for them.

「So, why are you searching for the geeks? Going to make them run errands? Or are you hunting?」

Saying that I look the bitches in the eyes. No? Please don’t be so startled just because our eyes met. I’m hurt deep enough from the incidents with the kobolds.

Well, though I can’t help but give them a glare. After hearing such a story from the geeks. And even chasing after them now…… 「…we want to apologize……」Eh?

「No, as I said, are you going to make them your gophers after you catch them? Or you are going to hand them over to the wannabe delinquents? Or…… 「As I said, we want to apologize」……Are you for real?」

「We just want to apologize. It, it’s not like we think that they will actually forgive or help us…… We understand what we did. No, we understood it only a short time ago…… So we don’t think that they will forgive us, or that apologizing will fix anything, but, that’s the only thing we can do, so, at least…… We’d like to properly apologize to them……」

「We are already dead, a long time ago……We can’t do a thing, living in such a place is just impossible. The only reason we didn’t actually die is because they were helping us, we understand that, or rather, we realized that a short time ago……So……Just…… Before the end, we want to properly apologize……Please, if you know anything, tell us.」

「「「Please.」」」

To think they would lower their heads. Aaah, did they reform? Or maybe gave up on life? So that’s how they survived the last week…… Saved by the geeks. Abandoned by everyone, resigning themselves, the last thing that came to their mind was gratitude and apology to the geeks. Redeeming their past stupidity. This is their last will.

「I know where they went, but I don’t know where they are. And can you even catch up to them? You will have to get through the forest. Can you fight? You can’t, right?」

I don’t know if the geeks will be happy or angry to get an apology from them. Normally, it would be infuriating. But they are pretty soft. But then, they might be unable to abandon them and end up falling to ruin together. Though there is probably no reason to worry about that.

「Anyway, you can’t catch up to them or even chase after them. There is no point in following them now.」

The bitches shook, looking into the ground. They probably were going with a do-or-die spirit. Doing what they must before they die. But it’s too late.

「It’s fine, tell us anyway. We aren’t giving up, not before apologizing at least…… Even if we can’t make it there, please. Please tell us.」

This is bordering on a religious zeal. We are going to die, so before that, we want to thank those that saved us. Bullying, exploitation and abandonment weigh heavily on your conscience. Pilgrimage for the atonement of sins…… If we can’t make it, then we will perish on the way.

Being robbed of their life until now by the very god who they were supposed to rely on. Losing everything in one week, and learning of their near end after being abandoned. Looks like those few days were hard enough to change their personalities.

「I already heard from the geeks about what happened. Or rather, about what you have done. Before the geeks, did you apologize to the president already?」

「Yes. But since everyone split into different groups, the boys attacked us, making everyone scatter……The president said 「I accept it, but the ones we truly have to apologize to are Oda-kun and his group.」……The others……We just apologized to them, only Oda and his friends are left……」

Ah, so they went as far as they could. The wannabes, that were so high and mighty at school, disappeared, the geeks, that suddenly became strong upon coming to another world, also disappeared, and the leadership of the president also disappeared. As a result, with no one organizing them, no one to fend off monsters, the boys abandoned themselves to their desires, attacking the girls, and being repelled by the president’s group, went on rampage elsewhere.

The bitches ran away from the boys, were abandoned by the president, and after finally ending up with nowhere to go, realized what they had done. So as the last thing before their deaths, they decided to apologize…… And thank the geeks, the only people that helped them.

「Ehm, first of all, you are being chased. Probably one of the boys’ groups. So you won’t be able to run away, and also won’t be able to reach the geeks. Second, as I already said before, pressing forward you will end up eaten by the monsters. And of course, won’t make it to the geeks. The third and the last one, beat the monkeys in heat which the boys turned into, crush and sweep away monsters, and go to the geeks to apologize. Which do you prefer?」

「No way!「That’s just impossible……「It’s hopeless……「It’s fine already「That’s……」We just want you to tell us where they are」Please！」」」

Just a little bit, but they pissed me off, so I gave them a look.

For some reason, they fell on their backsides, and trembling, began sobbing with pale faces. Ah, I don’t care anymore.

「Regret, or reform, or atonement, or repentance, or apologies, or confession or gratitude? In the first place, I don’t know the hell with your resolution!　And I don’t care! It doesn’t matter to me if you are ill-natured bitches, reformed bitches, or revised bitches!!　Are you going to apologize to the geeks?!　Or are you going to line up excuses?! Which is it?!」

「That’s「I’m asking you which is it!!!!」……!」

Nice, this one had bitch-level 「!」. Is this the power of 「Jack of All Trades」?

Okay, I’m going to master the way of 「!」!

「Listen here! The geeks were helping you all the time, despite your bullying and insults! They saved you! They tried to teach you! How to live here! How not to die here!! Even though you ignored that! Even though you insulted them! Until the moment they became unable to stay here!! To you! The people that insulted, bullied, and made fun of them!!!!」

Nice, 「16!」. Though to claim mastery of it, I would need the level of bitch leader with 「20!」.

「Are you going to die though they saved you?! They kept helping you and you are going to die?! So what the geeks did had absolutely no meaning!! They risked their lives to help you, but all of it had absolutely no point!! So you are going to die without learning anything they tried to teach! To make you survive! So you wouldn’t die! Die, ignoring all of the geeks’ intentions!! That’s how you apologize! Without actually telling a thing and just getting all self-satisfied‼‼‼‼」

I did it, I crossed the limit! The bitch leader’s inherent skill 「20!」. I passed over that ultimate barrier! I did it, and burned out to a pure white ash[1. TL Note: Ashita no Joe reference.]…… Eh, wait, what? Did I manifest some kind of weird hot blood skill? Which reminds me, didn’t my personality change lately?

「UWAAA, we don’t want to die! There is no way we would want to die!! We wanted to survive! We want to live! But we didn’t listen to a thing, we didn’t learn anything, since we can’t, it can’t be helped! Even when they were about to die, since we are idiots, we just kept making fun of them, being unable to do a thing, unable to admit that we are scared, unable to ask for help… We never even said thank you… or sorry… even once! They saved us, of course, we want to reach them alive and give thanks!! We want to apologize to their faces! We don’t want to die! We don’t want to die like this‼‼‼‼‼」」

Kuh, what a 「!」! 「21!」you say!! So in the end my 「!」is nothing but a hastily learned skill? Jack of All Trades is still but a pale imitation, falling short of the real essence of the skill. Not something a Muppet can hope to overcome…… Eh?

For some reason, the bitches are crying? What is going on? What happened?

Uwaaa, with unkempt hair and no makeup they already looked somewhat like kids, but now their faces were all ruined from crying, with tears and snot all over their faces. Yeah, a pandemonium. The hellscape of little bitches. How did it turn into this?

When you don’t understand something, retrace the steps in the order of them happening, and it should bring an understanding of the situation and the meaning of it.

I engaged in an extreme 「!!」battle with bitch leader. Over. Q.E.D. [2. TL Note: an initialism of the Latin phrase “quod erat demonstrandum”, literally meaning “what was to be shown”.]

Hm, am I missing something? I feel like something has taken over me in the middle of it, so I don’t remember anything aside from 「!」battle.

Yeah, damn. I can’t grasp the situation. Let’s just ask them directly.

「Ehm, well, that? As they say, how did that go?」

The bitches simultaneously turned their soggy faces to me. Their eyes had a supernatural ghastliness to them. Holy crap, how scary!

「「「「「We are idiots and didn’t learn anything about survival. We can’t die like this!　We absolutely cannot die!　Please, teach us!　Please save us!　Please teach us the way, the knowledge to survive and meet Oda-kun and the others!　Please give us the power to repay for our crimes, and return the debt!　Please!」」」」」

「……Yes?!」

Crap, I replied involuntarily.