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Chapter 147: Who For Art These Leopard-Print Panties
“I’m sorry. These were something I somehow happened to receive, so please find it in your heart to forgive me”
I’d thought up plenty of excuses, but in the end, decided to honestly apologize. I mean, Mei-chan just wasn’t like Souma Sakura or the totem-pole trio who I could play word games on. I trusted her beyond anything, so I didn’t want to lie.
“No need to apologize, Kotarou-kun. I really wouldn’t mind it no matter how you got this”
“Thank you, Mei-chan”
No, really, I’m infinitely grateful she could accept my honest feelings.
“That aside, whose are they?”
TCHH! And here I thought the difficult conversation was over!
Wh-what now? If I confessed honestly, I kind of have the feeling that I’d be putting Randou-san’s life in grave danger. Like, Mei-chan’s serious face super scary. That, ladies and gents, was her berserker face.
I didn’t want to lie to her, but that being said, giving her the whole and complete truth wouldn’t be beneficial for either of us, is the sort of convenient excuse I was considering.
Like, oi oi oi, what am I supposed to do here
 I could choose my right to keep silent, but there was a limit to that too. I wanted to be honest to Mei-chan, as much as I could. But can I really just tell her basically everything? About how Randou-san’s leopard-print panties were simply marvelous, that I used them every night, and couldn’t bear to live without this wonderful, 5 star treasure anymore! Could I actually tell her that?
No way in hell, it’s basically a masochistic form of sexual harrassment. I wouldn’t be surprised if she just silently brought down the halberd on me after that.
“
”
At this point, though I didn’t know if it was cold sweat or nervous sweat, my face was nonetheless dripping in some kind of bad sweat as I stayed silent.
“I bet, these belong to Randou-san”
!? I, think I managed to avoid showing turbulence on my face after she made that pin point guess. I don’t think I’ve ever been this close to certain death!
“I, I won’t fall for leading questions”
“Randou-san is the only girl in our class who’d wear panties this size”
Sh-shitshit, she’d deciphered it by size!
Randou-san was known as the girl with the biggest tits in class, but it wasn’t just her chest that was on the up end. Her ass too was large.
It should be mentioned that of the girls in class 2-7, whether it be the hotties group including Souma Sakura, or the average to bleh like Nishiyama-san, they were all of normal size and build. The only one you could say was clearly plus sized would be Mei-chan.
And if you discounted Mei-chan, who was an exception in quite a few ways, the girl who could boast supremacy in the hip department would be Randou-san. Bust, hip, she truly had the combo spice to KO anyone.
“She isn’t as big as me, but she’s pretty big. I can’t imagine other girls having this sort of imported lingerie”
Wait, this was imported lingerie!?
“And this is pretty famous brand too. It’s very much like Randou-san”
These leopard-print panties, their value rating was off the charts!?
It was a shocking truth, a guy like me would’ve likely never found out. The next time I use these, I’ll be sure to appreciate their splendor to the fullest
 There wasn’t going to be a next time, was there

“OH, oh, I, see, that’s great”
At this stage, I had no hope of covering for Randou-san, and just kept nodding my head like a bobble-head. I’m so sorry Randou-san, I had no idea about the intricacies of high school girl panty culture, and their owner was easily unveiled by Mei-chan.
Well, I was regretful, but that didn’t mean I wanted to learn more about panties now.
“Um, Kotarou-kun, don’t tell me
 You’re the type that prefers a girl’s underwear more than her body?”
“No ma’am, I am 100% more into the body”
I can’t lie to Mei-chan. Yup, truth it is.
“I see”
“That’s right, believe me, I did no such thing as forcing Randou-san to hand over her panties you see. This is what happened, when I got separated from them, Rem was about to go after me, when she’d apparently given this as a parting gift, and well, yeah, Randou-san’s the type who’d pull this sort of dirty prank right?”
“I see, that’s good”
Good? Really? Hey Mei-chan, are you really thinking that? Is this sort of explanation, that sounds more like an excuse than anything, really ok with you? That kinda makes me worried.
But it was a fact that I hadn’t told one lie there. Honestly speaking, I had no idea what Randou-san had in mind when she entrusted Rem with her panties. If I had to guess, she was used to hanging around guys, and thought that someone like me, who positively oozed his virgin status, would be happy being given such an article.
“Alright, so, can I have them?”
“Eh?”
“Well you see, having just one pair is a bit
”
Mei-chan said, a slight shyness to her tone. Seeing that started making me embarrassed too.
“Also, I think this size will fit me pretty well as I am now”
“Oh, of course! Please, go ahead and use it Mei-chan!”
This was the crucial bit! I gave in to her suggestion as fast as I could.
“Thanks, Kotarou-kun”
“No no, you should thank Randou-san if anyone”
Today was a sad day. I had lost my important partner for the night, oh sweet leopard-print panties.
And yet, these foreign luxury panties had now found another master to call their own, it was a happy day too.
Mei-chan in leopard-print. Mm, not bad at all. Normal girls our age simply wouldn’t fill out underwear of this size, but her, she could wear it snug and tight.
“
 Haah, glad that didn’t turn into a mess”
I was genuinely anxious whether Mei-chan would lose all faith in me after that one. I may have been her life savior, but even I couldn’t be surprised if she simply left after thinking I was literally stealing underwear in a harsh dungeon survival situation.
It was an insignificant argument that made me feel numb inside, but we’d resolved it. I felt like I had escaped another face off with death, and gotten stronger as a result. I didn’t want to try this again.
With the incident of Mei-chan discovering the leopard-print panties over with, we did in fact leave that fairy square. We encountered some skeleton troopers, been a long time since I’d seen those guys, and quickly took care of them. I used the bones as parts for remaking Rem. Rem came back, expectedly, in a black skeleton form.
For the time, I handed over her equipment, the sword and spear, as is.
“Welcome back, Rem”
“GAGA!”
“Hey there, Rem-chan. Thanks so much for protecting Kotarou-kun all this time
 You did a great job”
“GAGAGA!”
Rem looked satisfied having her skull patted by Mei-chan. I guess, in some ways, these two have been long battle buddies. Rem should also be happy being reunited with Mei-chan.
And now, with the old team back together, Mei-chan, Rem and I continued on our path. From here on, we were following the compass, and going towards the boss room so we could teleport out.
The current zone we were in was all stone, the kind of place where skeletons spawned a lot. I’d made it through some weird places like the jungle and cloud zones, so this kind of normal place sort of gave me peace of mind.
But relaxing was sin. This place was similar to the earlier parts of the dungeon, but it was in fact much deeper here. There might be various unknown traps, or simply super strong monst––
“Ah, found the boss room”
We’d made it to the boss room unbelievably easily. Well, I guess there were times like this too.
The room had double doors like the ones we saw back at vs Orthus, and from a quick peek, it looked like a large, plain hall inside.
I couldn’t see the boss itself, must be deep inside.
“Ok, let’s go”
We’ll be entering head on this time. I’ll keep an eye on the door, so we can run if it looks too dangerous.
I had Rem stand in front of me with my wariness on max. While Mei-chan, she just fearlessly walked in.
“GOHRRRRR
”
From deep within the dimly lit hall, I could hear the rumbling growl of a beast. The boss was here.
“Kotarou-kun, stand back alright”
“I’m here at the door. If there’s a problem, we can run”
Mei-chan gestured ‘got it’ behind her, and took a fighting stance.
“That’s
 A Goliath!”
It had a muscle-bound gorilla-like body, a brutal expression on its face and horns sticking out of its head. I’d seen one of these before, so this was without a doubt, a goliath.
Tendou-kun had insta-killed this thing, but Higuchi tried to avoid fighting it. It was an easy to understand boss monster that relied on its massive strength.
“Careful Mei-chan, this guy’s pretty strong and also moves fast!”
The goliath had started moving before I’d finished yelling that. It was as big as that gogma, at a soaring 3 meter height, but it had the speed and reflexes to move fast and silently despite its size.
The monster was coming straight at Mei-chan who was standing closest, bearing it’s sharp fangs. It was so fast, I couldn’t find the time to send in Blackhair Bind.
Damn, it was coming to an all out melee. I had my doubts whether Mei-chan could actually best a strength focused monster head on

“HMPH!!”
Mei-chan hmphed in a not quite so girl-like, but heroic nonetheless, hmph, blowing away all my fears. Right after that, a loud, dull clashing sound echoed everywhere.
When I was thinking, ‘what the’, I could see Mei-chan holding her Dark Tower Shield in front of her, and the goliath, sloppily collapsed belly up on the floor.
“ –– Break ”
Then, raising her Night Halberd of Dark Iron, she dealt the finishing blow to the dazed goliath in one merciless swing.
With a ting of metal hitting metal, the goliath was split completely in two, from head to crotch.
“Fuuh, that wasn’t so bad”
Mei-chan smiled as she observed her work. Mmm, this over powered berserker. I’m in love even more. I don’t think I can live without Mei-chan anymore.
“That was awesome Mei-chan. You’re so strong now”
“Not really. The battle arts did most of the job”
“But, you could beat it without using them right?”
“Sure”
Her smile was too much.
Still, now I’d actually seen how strong Mei-chan had gotten. At the point where we got separated, I think she was still strong enough to take on a goliath, but it’d be a tough battle.
Her high base strength and speed, plus the newly acquired battle arts, plus a few high quality, upgraded weapons, and most importantly, all of the battle experience she’s been gathering
 She’d, grown so much. And she was still growing, even now.
“Yeah, Mei-chan, you’re soo dependable~”
“I’m glad I am too, Kotarou-kun”
‘Ufufu’, ‘Ahaha’, we chatted and laughed, while in the mean time, Rem went and picked up the core.
“And look at that, I got my hands on some fine parts here”
The goliath had not only a powerful body, but also, hard and tough natural armor all over. If I used it as parts for Rem, she’d get a lot stronger just like that.
So, without further ado.
With skeleton Rem placed at the center, I rolled the bisected goliath onto the Hexagonal Eye, and also added my last mandragora.
“Rise from chaos, bind in foul blood, stand on stained earth— Vile Mud Doll”
Oof, using the goliath whole was really draining the mana out of me. But I was all rested up, and hadn’t fought once so far, so mana stores should be full. I won’t run out from this much.
Almost, almost, there

“GU, GO, GAGARHHAA!!”
With a roar from Rem, black smoke plumed out from the ritualistic hexagon.
“Haaah
 It’s, done”
The dark gas dissipated, and out came something large and human shaped.
Yup, pretty big
 She was, really big!?
“Wah~, Rem-chan, you got taller”
“GAR, GURH, GORGARRR”
The new Rem was tall enough to easily surpass me, closer in height to Mei-chan. She was definitely taller than 170 centimeters.
But that wasn’t even the surprising bit.
“Ooh, you’ve got muscles”
Rem, who’d had been a skeleton by default all this time, now had something akin to muscles on her. But these muscles were not the squishy type you’d find in anatomical models, but a metallic gray that when touched
 Were quite hard. It felt not at all like living, breathing flesh, but like cold steel. Thin strings of metal had been bundled up in place of muscle fibres.
As for how these metallic strands were functioning as muscles
 Perhaps the contraction and relaxation was all being managed by mana? I didn’t quite get it.
Rem’s steel flesh covered practically all of her body, being especially dense on the arms and legs. Her silhouette looked currently far closer to human than skeleton.
As far as vestigial elements go, she still had a skull as a head, but that now had two horns growing out same as the goliath.
The current Rem, with her full body steel skin, a skull head with horns like an oni, and with the much taller height, actually looked scary. In all honesty, I think she’s the strongest one yet. Also, she looked more or less like a cyborg, which was super cool I might add. I wonder, was Rem not actually aiming for golem but robot?
“Rem, you look great
 I’m proud of you”
“GURRR, GAGAGA!”
The fact that she now had a shinier new body shouldn’t fully be attributed to the goliath parts. Just like Mei-chan, Rem had also grown a lot.
It’s nice, looking at them grow up right in front of your eyes.
From here on, we could hunt as many goliath tier monsters as we want thanks to Mei-chan. And with stronger parts, I could always further improve Rem.
“Alright, time to go”
“Sure”
I got into the teleport circle holding the core when, Mei-chan suddenly attacked, no, hugged me from behind.
“Eh, wha-what is it?”
“Like this, you’ll be safe in case anything happens”
Ahh, I get it. Starting with the thing with Asuna, I had a tendency to incur massive problems right after beating a boss. Like meeting Higuchi first thing after a transfer, like getting kidnapped by an arachnee, like Souma Yuuto suddenly popping in
 I needed to be extremely careful about the time right after a big fight.
I couldn’t let my guard down just because there wasn’t anyone else here now. There was no telling when and where a new enemy might pop out from.
“Thanks. I feel much safer”
“Mm, I won’t let you go”
Really, thanks so much, for the soft fun-bags all around the back of my head. I, can’t I just stay like this
 I thought, tasting a little bit of heaven, as the familiar light whisked us away.
We arrived at the fairy square safely and without incident. The fact that there being no one from class waiting took a load off my shoulders might mean that I was getting pretty anthrophobic these days. Well, considering all my experiences, I suppose I’d have to.
Those experiences tought me that rather than finding reliable friends in arms, I was more likely to chance upon useless burdens, and people who want to straight up kill me.
I trusted Mei-chan above anything, she was my only true ally. And I pretty much didn’t feel like I’d find someone as trustworthy. I didn’t at all feel like we’d get a third member. The level of trust I had with her was, practically speaking, miraculous.
Mei-chan had a gentle and trusting heart, and on top of that, I’d saved her life, helped her in becoming able to fight, and survived a ton of ordeals together. And making through all that and more together, we’d developed a powerful bond. To look at it another way, if any of that mindset and experience was at all lacking, we wouldn’t be trusting each other very deeply.
In contrast, losing that trust, getting disillusioned, being reluctant to cooperate and finally, hating each other, all of those could come exceptionally fast. Just one mistake could send all the trust down the drain.
If girls find out your masturbating habits you’re suddenly a prisoner on death row, if multiple girls like the same guy, they start burning with jealousy, sabotaging each other and what not. People generally tend to focus on the negatives. Doubting was much easier to do than having some trust.
Anxiety, fear, jealousy. It could be said that mankind had survived since ancient times only because they possess these cowardly instincts.
Whatever, what mattered now was that there weren’t any others from class here.
And if there were, whether they turn out to be friends or foe, I wanted to be prepared for anything. If they became enemies along the way, we just needed to be stronger. On the flipside, if they wanted to join as allies, I’d need certain chains to compel them against betrayal.
Those Chains as they were, would of course depend on the person. But with my Witch’s Cauldron, I could make good food and hot baths, plus, I could provide decent spiderweave bedding too. Those little things together would make for a hard to ignore modicum of luxury in their daily lives. And I already had proof of their effect. They were so good that even that lazy ass Reina had to think hard before wanting to let go. Us kids from well off households would loathe to live without them.
And let’s not forget, I now had Mei-chan to employ the fear factor. I don’t think it’d work for people on Tendou-kun’s level, but if it’s someone only as strong as Higuchi, we could easily handle them. Yup, violence was the best assurance after all.
Ok, it’s fine and all preparing for people, but right now we needed to focus on the dungeon. We should first check out what’s going on in this new zone.
That last boss battle was a piece of cake, so we only took a short break before heading out.
“Woah, this is some place”
“Wah, it’s, like a town? I think I’ve seen a movie like this”
“Like, one of those where human civilization had fallen, and they were fighting zombies and stuff?”
“Yeah yeah, just like that”
Basically, we were looking at a post-apocalyptic cityscape.
The ceiling was way up there, and the city itself looked to be quite large. It was like one of those space colonies you see in mecha anime, or actually, it wasn’t in space but underground, so I guess geofront was a better descriptor.
Most of the architecture on this place were stone constructs, not unlike the stuff you’d see in medieval Europe. But then, there were also these tall, box shaped buildings that reminded me of office buildings or apartment complexes back in modern Japan.
At a glance, I could see high rise buildings taller than 20 floors, while 10 story buildings were the median. Magnitude-wise the fallen city wasn’t so different from back home.
I didn’t know how advanced of a civilization the Astria kingdom was, as they were the only ‘people’ we knew of in this world. What I did realize was that the people who built this city must have had tech rivaling that of 21st century Earth. No, we didn’t have huge geofronts like this either, so they’d be ranked higher. Well, having a dungeon on this massive scale already spoke for itself.
Alright, so this underground dungeon city, that obviously once had people living in it, now looked completely deserted.
Buildings were crumbling, roads unmaintained, it also lacked any light of the sun, with vegetation, like the stuff I’d seen in the jungle zone, overgrown all over. The city looked as if it was transitioning from a state where the people had gone extinct to one where it was once again being swallowed up by mother nature.
At this point, I had no doubt that this zone too was teeming with dungeon monsters.
Still, having this sort of vast uninhabited city laid out in front of you really pulls on that adventuring spirit. It got me excited.
So without a moment’s delay, let’s find out just what lay waiting for us inside.