123 – I Clearly Went All-In on Reckless Gambits, Didn't I? #3
“Hatsan, what are you doing?”
The elf witch Elfridi. She’d come to the CSO’s office to call out her husband.
“I packed a lunch. Wanna eat together? It’s not like I packed it specially for you or anything. I just made too much and had some left over.”
Twitch twitch. Her long elf ears bobbed up and down. Her face flushed bright red.
“I’m just saying! Are you gonna eat it or not?!”
“……”
But her husband, Prince Zagreus, was too absorbed in something to hear her. He’d just turned his chair toward the window, staring out.
“Hey! You ignoring me? Let’s eat lunch together!”
Pop! Growing impatient, Elfridi marched over to her husband Zagreus and grabbed his shoulders.
Creak. The chair facing the window swiveled around, revealing Prince Zagreus’s face—snoring away peacefully, Zzz.
He looked deep in sleep.
“Huh? Ridiculous. It’s not even bedtime—why’s he sleeping already…”
The elf witch found it odd. Then she spotted a scroll clutched in her husband’s hand.
That’s when it clicked.
“That’s an experience scroll.”
Experience scroll. Like how modern folks snap photos to capture a fleeting scene, this magic tool let you jot down any “event” on paper to store it. The special twist? A third party could relive that stored “event” as a vivid dream.
“It was a hit as a VR gadget back in the day. I thought they’d all been discontinued and wiped out, but looks like one survived. So what’s Hatsan watching?”
The elf witch slyly plucked the scroll from her husband’s hand and unrolled it. Inside, it read—
“Stage wedding. Three women enter carrying sub-characters. The audience applauds and blesses the new brides? What the—this is our wedding record. When’d he make this?”
The lunch was cooling. But Elfridi decided to let her husband be for now. Everyone needed a little dream time amid the rat race.
“Still, what an amazing item. Reliving the actual moment as a dream? Where’d they even make these? They were super trendy once—wonder why they vanished…”
Of course, the reason was obvious. These experience scrolls were ridiculously unstable. She’d heard the Safety Management Team had recalled and scrapped them all.
Apparently, one slipped through.
Wriggle wriggle. Just then, Prince Zagreus shuddered.
Having a good dream, maybe?
“Past me! Run! If you wanna annul the marriage, now’s your only shot!”
“You bastard!”
# # #
Working at Soul Society toughens even the biggest coward. You see so many shocks that nothing fazes you anymore.
I was living proof.
The scenery suddenly warping when I touched a scroll? Reacting to every little thing like that would give you stress-induced baldness.
“I am the tutorial fairy…! Call me Deputy Melinoë, nya…!”
But this scene was pretty shocking.
A Deputy Melinoë who looked exactly like Melinoë herself? What the hell was going on?
Time to grease the wheels of my frozen logic with some recollection.
I went to the Entertainment Dept looking for the old office. Ran into Eurydol there, found Orpheus’s peak, and as thanks, got handed this scroll—
Ah! Now I got it.
Put simply, I was “experiencing” the event scripted on the scroll like a play. Diving right into the scene like a dream or illusion.
That explained everything.
“Where the hell is this place?!”
“Send us home!”
The people around wailed. Then the self-proclaimed tutorial fairy, Deputy Melinoë, spoke up.
“This is the afterlife…! You cannot return, nya…!”
“N-No way!”
“I didn’t even get to say goodbye…”
Sad souls. Is this what it feels like when you die and end up in the afterlife? Given my situation, I could kinda relate.
“But I shall grant you a chance to return, nya…!”
What?! Sending them back to Earth?
No way. This couldn’t be real. I’d kill to get back to the surface, but even living me couldn’t—and now dead folks were getting sent back?
What a bombshell!
As I reeled, Deputy Melinoë explained.
“Our underworld suffers a real estate shortage thanks to all the new surface souls pouring in, nya…! Space is shrinking fast, nya…!”
Soul Society real estate crunch? Wild.
I never heard about that during my tenure.
The Elysium New City apartments were brand new back then.
Built to fix the housing shortage, huh. That’s when it hit me—this was a scene from the past.
Back when our now-executive Deputy Melinoë was just a deputy.
Lucky break? Maybe I could snag a hint here on how to earn her ire.
“Now, let the games begin, nya…! Games include Red Light Green Light… tug-of-war… kick-the-can… jump rope… and more, nya…!”
“Games?”
“Did that weirdo just say games?”
“If I survive this, I’m making it into a drama!”
“Top performers in these games return to the surface, nya…! Eurydol Deputy, explain the details, nya…!”
“Ugh, what a pain. Never thought we’d actually hold this freakish game tournament. The underworld’s really hit rock bottom.”
“No grumbling, nya…! Also, there’s an intruder mixed in… Eurydol Deputy, eject the intruder at once, nya…! Right there, nya…!”
Deputy Melinoë pointed straight at me.
As I jolted in shock, Eurydol tilted her head.
“Intruder? Where? I don’t see anything.”
“Invisible, nya…? No choice…! The excellent and perfect goddess Deputy Melinoë steps up herself…! Illegal intruder, begone, nya…!”
Crash! Her red eyes blazed fiercely. A sound like shattering glass rang out, and everything exploded in a shatter.
When I came to, I was back in the dusty Entertainment Dept office.
“How was it?”
Eurydol—the current one—asked.
“Super weird tool.”
“Princess Melinoë made them with her powers. But they got recalled and scrapped after some incident. Guess this one got missed.”
Recalled and scrapped. Key phrases—I filed them away.
Just in case, I pocketed the scroll. Might be poison for Melinoë yet.
“So, was it real? Did the Entertainment Dept really summon dead folks for games and revive the winners?”
“Maybe? It’s old news—fuzzy. But yeah, sounds familiar. The underworld was chaos back then; nothing seemed weird.”
“Real estate shortage?”
“Probably.”
Greek myth era population? Roughly 100 million. Modern world? 8 billion.
Could an underworld system built for 100 million handle 8 billion?
Nope.
Hence the need for business renewal.
Gathering the dead for bizarre games, reviving winners to send back—that was probably a trial policy.
Didn’t pan out, obviously. That’s why the Entertainment Dept became a ghost department.
Zagreus winning the succession and pushing reforms? Makes sense.
But I’d gathered proof linking the “ghost department” to Melinoë.
This scroll was ironclad evidence.
Checkmate.
I didn’t win the freak games, but I was heading to the surface—Jo Iseo!
# # #
“Joey, if it’s a private chat, we could’ve done it after hours. I get you adore me, but popping in during work hours is a problem.”
NEO—Deputy Melinoë’s office. She sat at her desk, fidgeting her fingers.
“If it’s about Hedone, I haven’t met her yet. I’m swamped. Meeting a subsidiary deputy isn’t fitting for a exec like me—”
“Princess, I’m here as Audit Team Chief Joey today.”
I’d steeled myself to create real trouble for Melinoë.
Sensing my seriousness, she straightened up, narrowing her eyes.
“Not good news, then.”
“For you, probably not.”
“If you’re picking a fight, I won’t dodge. Even if it’s you, Joey. Think you can handle me?”
“Of course!”
“Then spill.”
“Internal audit uncovered a ghost department sucking up annual budgets with zero activity. The Entertainment Dept.”
“Entertainment Dept? What a bizarre name. Who’d name something so absurd? Not me. Probably some idiot nymph.”
Melinoë tilted her head, acting like it was news to her.
Playing innocent?
Maybe. Flutter.
I slid over the redacted files and magic scroll.
“Proof linking the Entertainment Dept to you. ‘Deputy Melinoë.’ See?”
“Deputy Melinoë? Laughable. I was never a deputy.”
“No, you were. This scroll’s the smoking gun.”
“…An experience scroll. I heard Safety Management seized them all.”
Melinoë lifted the scroll. Tension built—what next?
Sniff. Chomp chomp.
She sniffed it, then devoured it whole!
I was floored.
Why eat it?!
Evidence destruction? Right in front of me?!
Then things got weirder.
Shimmer shimmer. Melinoë glowed like she was evolving. The light faded; she nodded.
“Recovered about 2% of my lost miracle shares. Ancient history—I forgot, but yeah, I was a deputy once.”
“So…?”
“Looking back, Entertainment Dept is a brilliant, upbeat name. Only a perfect goddess like me could name a department that. Thanks, Joey.”
“Me?”
“I was short a trump card against Zagreus. Perfect timing—this gift. Entertainment Dept, huh? Forgot about it.”
Wait…! The vibe was off!
A ghost department weakness turning into an anti-Zagreus weapon?
“If you’d offered help outright, I’d refuse. In the CEO race, you never know what’ll be twisted against you—gotta be cautious.”
Whoosh! Melinoë stood.
“Besides, Audit Chief and NEO exec—we can’t publicly team up. So you pretended to threaten me while handing over the perfect intel.”
Groan! That’s how she read it?!
I bowed my head.
“Not at all.”
“Anyone else, I might buy it. But I know you best, Joey. Your lies are powerless before my perfect ears.”
Wrong. She wasn’t hearing a word.
“Zagreus won’t go down easy. Delaying just gives him prep time. Speed is key now. Convening the shareholders’ meeting immediately! All thanks to you, Joey!”