Dungeon Gacha Life Chapter 38

 Chapter 38: The Black-Robed Sorcerer Takes Social Media by Storm

The night of the day that I put down the Stampede. I found myself at an izakaya somewhere in Hachioji.

A bit pricier than usual but supposedly it is a hidden gem where you could enjoy drinks and food in a relaxed private room. That's what the internet had said, anyway. This was my first time actually coming here.

The moment we sat down, Lapis flitted around the room, eyeing everything with obvious curiosity.

"This is a lot calmer than the places we usually go to, huh~"

"Well, sure, compared to a family restaurant."

"I love family restaurants, though!"

I know. You're a sucker for those cat-shaped serving robots.

She'd whine to go back and see one on a regular basis, just to visit them. Thanks to that, we'd become regulars enough to show up about once a week.

It's a pricier place than it looks so showing her the robots even once was probably a mistake on my part. Not that it stings my wallet much, given what I've been pulling in lately.

"It's already a huge mess out there."

While waiting for my dinner guest to arrive, I pulled up social media on my phone. The whole screen was, unsurprisingly, blanketed in nothing but the Aihara Stampede.

Right alongside the "Mysterious Black-Robed Sorcerer" trending tag, footage of countless fireballs raining down from the sky kept playing.

"You really went all out, huh."

Lapis peered at the phone with her voice edged with something like exasperation.

"Never really got the chance to use magic before. Figured I'd make the most of it and, well, this is the result."

"It looks like the end of the world out there..."

It's actually the opposite though. The Stampede's safely contained, after all.

The screen kept playing scene after scene of monsters bursting into flame right in front of the camera. Some Explorer who'd been there must have filmed it and uploaded the footage. It had the kind of raw punch you'd expect from a fantasy movie.

A different video showed the black-robed sorcerer himself, weaving through the sky and unloading fireballs by the dozen. The picture quality was grainy, a phone camera at that distance, after all but it made unmistakably clear who was behind all of it.

Social media was in an uproar, "Who is that?!" and "That's gotta be a fake video" flying around everywhere. At the same time, people were already breaking down his combat abilities and theorizing about his identity.

"Is the black-robed sorcerer's true identity an S-Rank Explorer?!"

"Has Japan finally produced its own S-Rank?!"

Words like that were flying back and forth everywhere. Probably because famous Explorers, one after another, were weighing in with their own takes on that magical barrage.

"That volume and power of magic isn't normal, I couldn't do it. How is he pinpointing that many monsters at once? And a mage who can fly, on top of it? I've never seen or heard of anything like that. Whatever that is, it's firmly in a category beyond human."

Those were the words of an A-Rank Explorer known for powerful magic Skills of his own. That comment only threw more fuel on the social media fire.

* * *

"Well, guess this is what happens when you go that hard."

I muttered it like it had nothing to do with me, scrolling through my phone.

The fact that I, the actual person at the center of all this chaos, could sit here so relaxed was proof the alibi work had paid off.

Afterward, I'd stashed the Suspicious Person Starter Kit back in my Item Box in some out-of-sight alley, changed back into my usual solo swordsman look with a perfectly innocent expression and pulled back to the cordon.

The area around the cordon was thick with a mix of tension and confusion.

Well, no wonder. The police and Self-Defense Force personnel on the scene had all watched that overwhelming rain of fire pour down from the sky too.

By the time I got back, an unbelievable first report that "the Stampede appears to be almost entirely over" had already gone out over the radio and it looked like everyone was still doubting their own ears.

An officer ran me through a quick fact-check and I was cleared to go almost immediately. For what it's worth, I later found footage of that exact moment posted online.

"There's some Explorer here with what looks like a fairy???"

"Dude looked so done with life when the camera turned on him lol"

"That's the Hachioji C-Rank guy, kinda known in certain circles"

A few of the comments were clearly from people who actually knew who I was. Also, anyone who's fine getting filmed without permission is the weird one, not me.

"So this guy was on-site too huh"

"Wait is THIS the black-robed sorcerer"

"Where'd the fairy go tho"

"Maybe he's a magical girl whose mascot turns into her outfit?"

"The magic is way too violent for that. Also he's not a girl"

A few comments were clearly angling to link me and the black-robed sorcerer together but for the most part it seemed to be getting waved off as a joke.

Sooner or later, footage of me actually swinging a sword at that site would surface too. Once it did, it should get absorbed as just one more piece of the whole spectacle.

Yes. "For now", at least.

* * *

To begin with, I never thought I could keep my identity completely hidden through all of this. No matter how solid an alibi I built, a secret is a secret and it will come out eventually.

Individuals and the media, with their limited investigative reach, obviously wouldn't be able to pin me down. Online footage and eyewitness accounts alone wouldn't be enough to figure out who the black-robed sorcerer actually was.

The best they could manage was spreading bogus rumors for clicks or stirring the pot with inflammatory takes. And sure enough, that's exactly what was happening right now, in droves.

The real problem was what came after that. How the government or some organization, would move.

There was no way the government would just leave something with that kind of overwhelming power alone.

Sooner or later, they'd stitch together footage from security cameras across the city and end up right back at me, the one who'd entered the site through proper channels. Even if no one caught me actually changing clothes, I'd still been acting suspicious enough.

Run the footage through any kind of video analysis and it'd be obvious in no time that our height and build matched up. More than enough to put me under suspicion.

Of course, however deep they dug into my usual activity records, all they'd turn up was "a somewhat above-average solo Explorer."

Logically, that ruthless black-robed sorcerer and some run-of-the-mill C-Rank swordsman didn't add up to the same person.

Even so, there was a real chance my cover Unique Skill, Support Fairy, would draw suspicion and get me hounded with questions all the same.

And if that led to my identity coming out completely and turning into a full-blown social circus, that was my worst-case scenario.

What I wanted to avoid was becoming public entertainment, chewed up without a shred of consideration. Bottom line: the general public finding out who the black-robed sorcerer really was.

If that happened, I could already picture the future, being celebrated as a hero one moment, feared as a monster the next, then conveniently worn down under the weight of public opinion. A suffocating existence, used as an outlet for other people's selfish frustrations or buried under expectations no one could actually live up to.

As someone who loves his comfortable, "white" life, that's the one situation I refuse to fall into, no matter what.

Which is exactly why I'm getting ahead of it.

If staying hidden from an organization's full investigative reach is impossible anyway, then I might as well jump in first, on my own terms. And the opening move for that, was getting someone to bridge me to the right negotiating table.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Suzukaze-kun."

As if perfectly timed to my train of thought, the sliding door of the private room slid open. Standing there was Shimotsuki-san, out of her Guild uniform and in plain clothes.