The well-Balanced Yamamoto-san Gets Caught up in a Death Game - chapter 76

Chapter 76

The next day—

As we were about to leave the port town of Second to visit Shinomori…

“Hey, you two! Stop right there!”

—We were halted at the town’s exit.

That’s odd.

We’re using [Invisibility], so we shouldn’t be noticed normally.

Could it be some kind of unique skill?

Well, let’s pretend we didn’t hear them and keep going.

“God, they’re calling out to us,” Tsuna said.

“It can’t be us. Let’s go, let’s go.”

As we tried to ignore them and move on, we were surrounded.

Six people?

They all look like adventurers wearing similar equipment.

Well, when we’re so blatantly surrounded, we have no choice but to stop.

“Can’t you hear me telling you to stop?!”

“Oh, were you talking to us? We thought it was someone else.”

“Don’t play dumb!”

The one approaching us angrily is a short-haired girl. You could call her boyish to be polite, but she’s the type who’s so energetic she might be mistaken for a boy!

This girl leads the six people blocking our path.

Yeah, I think they’re in the way of pedestrians.

By the way, we’re the pedestrians.

“You were trying to sneak out of town using [Invisibility], but you can’t fool my unique skill [Judgment’s Eye] that sees through lies!”

“That’s so chuunibyou. Doesn’t it hurt? Your soul, I mean.”

“Don’t call it chuunibyou! Stop hitting me where it hurts!”

Well, if it bothers you that much, you shouldn’t have taken such a unique skill.

Come to think of it, I didn’t know [Invisibility] was classified as a lie-telling skill. That’s news to me.

“Do you dare to act so recklessly knowing we’re PROMISE, a clan under SUCCEED?! We might have to pass judgment depending on the situation!”

“Oh?”

No, don’t provoke Tuna like that! He tends to attack without warning! He’s like an untamed beast without a collar!

“…”

I feel like I’m getting a look of protest from Tsuna, but I’ll ignore it.

Can’t be helped.

I’ll step forward and explain.

“Look, we don’t know anything about PROMISE. Are you offering to lend us money or something? By the way, have clans already been implemented?”

“We’re not moneylenders! And clans will be implemented eventually, so there’s nothing wrong with using the name in advance!”

“Airu-sama, please focus on the main issue…” the bald man with line-like eyes admonished Airu.

Yeah, she’s got a name like a train station.

“Ahem! Ahem! That doesn’t matter! Have you seen a woman in silver armor?”

“I have.”

▶ Mimicking Animal has activated.

Acquired [Uh, Judgment’s Eye?].

Isn’t an eye that can only detect lies half the time kind of useless? Wouldn’t that make you more gullible? I wonder if there’s a way to turn off the auto-learning switch for [Mimicking Animal]. I should check the skill details later…

“Hmph, it’s useless to try lying! My [Judgment’s Eye] can’t be fooled! …What?”

“I told you, I’ve seen her.”

“Y-you’ve seen her… Where?!”

“Huh? On the bulletin board, of course.”

Airu thought for a moment, then her face turned bright red. It’s clear that’s not what she meant.

“That’s not what I meant!”

See? I was right.

“I’m asking if you’ve seen the woman in silver armor moving around, not just a picture on a bulletin board!”

“Oh, in that case, I have.”

“What?!”

“There are lots of girls wearing silver armor around town, you know?”

“That’s not what I mean!”

In LIA, quite a few people wear silver armor. So I’m not lying. Unique skills that detect lies are tricky, but if you just need to avoid outright lies, there are always ways to misdirect. If you’re going to do this, the correct approach would be to prepare questions in advance and confirm with yes or no answers, don’t you think?

“Enough! You two are suspicious! I’m sorry, but I’ll have to use [Appraisal] on you!”

“Uh, I refuse.”

“As I thought, you’re suspicious! Are you the named monster killer?!”

“Hmm?”

With EOD killer, Four Heavenly Kings (provisional), God, and various other titles, I can’t really be called just a named monster killer, can I?

If I had to say, I’m Yamamoto?

“I am who I am.”

“What kind of answer is that?! Of course you are!”

“Come on, Airu-chan~ Let’s just use [Appraisal] on them anyway~” one of Airu’s party members, a girl, chimed in.

Hey, we’re the ones who should be annoyed here. How come they’re the ones getting impatient?

If that’s the case, I wish they hadn’t approached us in the first place.

“You’re right, we should have done that from the start! We pass judgment on the suspicious! That’s who we are, PROMISE!”

What is this, the Shinsengumi under Chief Serizawa Kamo?

Well, if that’s how they want to play it, I guess I should make a declaration of my own.

“You know, right? Using [Appraisal] on us without permission is like peeking at our personal information. If you do something borderline criminal like that, we won’t stay quiet. The moment you [Appraise] me, I’ll [Appraise] you right back and post all your stats on the bulletin board. Are you okay with that?”

When I said that, they all burst out laughing.

Huh? Did I say something funny?

As I looked confused, Airu raised one hand and closed one eye. She had a look that said I just didn’t get it.

“You might not know this, but we’re PROMISE, you know? We’ve leveled up quite a bit in the juicy hunting grounds we share with SUCCEED. Sorry, but I don’t think your [Appraisal] is capable of revealing our stats.”

Hearing that, Tsuna and I exchanged glances.

At that moment, we were surely thinking the same thing.

What the hell is this person talking about?

I mean, it’s not good to be arrogant.

There’s a possibility that they might be higher level than us. We should be wary of that possibility.

So, I decided to use [Mana Sensing], which I acquired last night.

It’s a skill where objects without mana, like the veil on my parasol, appear dark and translucent, while beings with mana appear bright and clear.

Using this, I can see that the area next to me is glowing quite brightly.

Yeah, that brightness is Tsuna.

And when I look at the six people blocking our path…

It’s so dark!

Incredibly dark!

Or rather, maybe slightly bright? But barely above the margin of error!

Maybe they haven’t developed their magic attack, magic defense, or spirit stats?

Are they focusing on physical stats?

Or is it just that Tuna is so bright that everyone else looks dark in comparison?

No, I don’t understand why Tuna is so bright either. Isn’t Tuna supposed to specialize in physical attack? …Oh, is that not the case?

Well, anyway, I think I’ve got a good idea of their abilities now.

The difference in strength is so great that we don’t need to worry at all.

“I warned you, you know?”

“Is that supposed to be a bluff? Do you think that will make us hesitate?”

Wow. They really are frogs in a well.

But they seem determined to do this.

I guess this is like an unavoidable accident.

“[Appraisal]!”

▶ You have been [Appraised] by Tennouzu Airu.

▶ You resisted the [Appraisal].

▶ [Balance] has activated.

Returning [Appraisal].

▶ [Appraisal] successful.

Name: Tennouzu Airu

Race: Human

Gender: ♀

Age: 15

LV: 22

HP: 340/340

MP: 142/160

SP: 2

Physical Attack: 67(+29)

Magic Attack: 9

Physical Defense: 53(+32)

Magic Defense: 42(+24)

Stamina: 34

Agility: 46(+12)

Intuition: 50(+14)

Spirit: 16

Fate: 12

Unique Skill: [Judgment’s Eye]

Racial Skills: [None]

Common Skills: [Fire Magic] Lv3 / [Dark Magic] Lv3 / [Appraisal] Lv5 / [Swordsmanship] Lv5 / [Evasion] Lv4 / [Parry] Lv2 / [Storage] Lv3 / [Rough Terrain Traversal] Lv2

Wow…

She’d die if I just poked her…

But if they’re going to dish it out, they should be prepared to take it too.

I proceed to [Appraise] Airu’s companions one by one.

Yeah, they all have similar skill compositions.

I guess that’s what happens when you all take the same supposedly useful skills.

The notable thing is that they all have a good balance of front-line and back-line capabilities.

Half of the party has [Light Magic], while the other half has either [Fire Magic] and [Dark Magic], or [Fire Magic] and [Wind Magic]. The balance between healing and attack magic is good, so [Balance] might be satisfied. Probably.

They also have physical attack skills, so they seem capable of fighting in a well-rounded manner. If someone gets hurt, it looks like someone else can quickly fill in. It’s a skill composition that seems excellent for team battles.

“Impossible, the [Appraisal] was deflected…?!”

“Well then, as promised, I’ll be posting everyone’s stats, okay, Tennouzu Airu-chan?”

“!? You—”

Airu instinctively reaches for her weapon, but Tuna moves like the wind and pins her hand down.

“Stop it. Unless you want to die.”

“Wha…?!”

“If you couldn’t see that person’s movement, you really should give up. Think of having your stats exposed as a learning experience~”

“S-stop…”

“Sorry, I’ve already posted them.”

I’m quite efficient at my job, you know.

The six of them checked the bulletin board and fell into a state of pandemonium.

But wait, if they were so confident in their skill compositions that they looked down on others, shouldn’t they not be making such a fuss about having them exposed?

Ah, maybe they don’t like having their unique skills revealed?

Or is there some kind of informational loss from having their skill compositions exposed?

Well, I did warn them.

They brought this on themselves.

“You… doing something like this… You’ve picked a fight with SUCCEED!”

“Isn’t it just PROMISE going off the rails, not SUCCEED?”

Oh, brother.

Now they’re spouting losing lines like delinquents name-dropping their connections.

And of course, they bring up SUCCEED.

Axel and his group, who couldn’t even handle Iko and the others.

And you guys even lost to Axel’s group, right?

That’s not even an effective threat, you know?