Chapter 16: Reception room.

Translated and Edited by: ynlucca.

Common Honorifics:
-san: A polite suffix, but not excessively formal.
-kun: A common suffix among friends and younger people.
-chan: A common suffix among people you’re close with, mostly used for feminine nicknames and girls, since it’s cutesy and childlike.
-senpai: A common suffix and noun used to address or refer to one’s older or more senior colleagues in a school, workplace, dojo, or sports club.

---

The reception room they ushered me into was powerful and overwhelming, despite its simplicity. It had a table and a sofa and wasn’t very large, yet you could still see it wasn’t cheap in the slightest… And it definitely didn’t fit young people like me.

However, the section chief still urged me to sit at the far end of the table, unaware of my feelings. I’d never sat at the head before, and at this point, I was nervous enough, but she still didn’t stop with her persistence.

In order to make my wait as comfortable as possible, she brought a TV, tea, snacks, various other drinks, a number of magazines, and a laptop so I could kill the time. The chief even went as far as to hand me a menu to order delivery in case I was hungry. She also reminded me she knew I had no money, so she would shoulder everything I ended up using or getting with her own dough.

A quick glance at that menu told me I couldn’t think of eating it if I hadn’t a pretty penny. The cheapest item cost 3,000 yen, for starters. (T/N: 22 USD as of today)

I couldn’t just ask for something like that.

Despite my grievances, her hospitality continued, and while we were waiting, Akagami and Marui visited us every 20 minutes, refilling the tea and asking me if I had issues with anything. The only thing I did was fill out the entry form and give them a copy of my ID.

This premium treatment scared the ever-living sh*t out of me since I did basically nothing to get it. For a while, I was so stiff I could barely move. Yet, humans are creatures of adaptive creatures, so after about two hours, I eventually lost my nervousness and started to notice the free time in front of me.

That’s bad, I have nothing to do… Maybe I could watch some TV?

Despite these wishes, and no matter how many times they told me I could do as I wish, I just couldn’t bring myself to indulge in anything. It’s just the nature of this lowly citizen here… Besides, I was afraid I would be seen as greedy if I went ahead, so I didn’t touch anything.

“They’re making us wait too long, aren’t they? That’s enough! Let’s use this to watch some fox videos! Foxes are cute, y’know?” Tama pointed at the laptop, urging me to use it. I wouldn’t though.

Aren’t you a god? How do you even know about YouTube?

“If you’re going to use the computer, why don’t you do some research before watching a video? You know, the woman said something that bothered me. Something about Storks.”

Yes, Storks. That word was enough to make the chief go pale.

Shu was right, it would be bad if I didn’t know anything about them. I had a feeling that if I didn’t do my research now, something irreversible would happen.

“Her reaction was certainly unusual,” Tama added. “She even thought he was a member at first.”

“I’m also worried about that ‘arrested’ part. Is it such a powerful organization?”

“If you’re curious, why don’t you just gaze?”

“…”

“Say something!”

In any case, let’s check it out.

Still feeling guilty about using it, I opened the laptop. It buzzed for a while and then the login screen appeared. I entered the ID and password, which were written on a post-it note stuck to the screen, and the system booted up without a hitch. I guess my old company wasn’t the only one that put the login info on post-its…

Now thinking all companies were the same, I googled, “What are the Storks?” To my surprise, it seemed to be a fairly well-known organization since its website was at the very top.

I clicked on it, and a whole bunch of summaries and previous activities came up. I read each one by one.

Hmm…

“It’s kind of like a marriage agency,” I noted.

No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like an agency that mediates marriages. Storks, then, was an organization dedicated to the perpetuation of offspring in a world with an unbalanced male-female ratio.

Apparently, boys who reached the age of 16 are urged by the Storks to join them and are required to marry two women by the age of 20, and to marry at least ten by the age of 30.

That’s too many!

Incidentally, it is stated that the activities of the Storks have boosted the marriage rate of women from a low 8% to four times that amount today. They were also awarded for reducing the number of unmarried women and increasing the well-being of society at large.

“I wonder how they managed to raise the marriage rate so high?”

Tama, who was reading next to me, answered my question by pointing at the monitor. “Isn’t this it? ‘Male benefits are as stated: 500,000 yen per month upon joining. If the man marries two people by the age of 20, the amount will be increased to 1,000,000. Furthermore, if the man marries ten or more by the age of 30, the amount will be increased to 3,000,000’… Huh?!”

“They’re just fishing for men with money…” Shu muttered in disgust.

Just by getting married through the Storks, a man around 20 would be making over 10,000,000 yen a year… That’s a whopping six years’ worth of my old job’s salary. That’s a lot of money for someone who doesn’t work.

“But from what I see, it doesn’t seem like a weird powerful organization, just one that uses a bunch of money for marriage,” I stated.

They don’t seem particularly suspicious… So what’s up with the chief’s reaction?

“That’s right, hmm…” Shu’s eyes then took on a red glint, indicating she was using her oracle.

“Hm… That’s bad. I can’t see all details from this article alone.”

“So even Shu can’t understand some things, I see,” she stopped moving at my words, taking it as some sort of provocation.

She retorted with her beautiful pouting lips, speaking really fast: “It’s not that I can’t know! If I had my full power here, I would be able to figure it out in the blink of an eye! It would be so easy, like taking candy from a baby’s hand! Piece of cake!”

Her getting a bit pissed off was kind of cute, not gonna lie. I guess that thought was clear to see by my expression because she furrowed her brows.

“Aw! Can’t be helped, can it? I have to change your perception, Tsune-kun. Very well, I will give you a full explanation of the oracle! Hmph!”

She put her hands on her hips and puffed out her cheeks. Ay, stop acting like a child…

“While I’m explaining, could you lend me the laptop? I wanna play Solitaire,” Tama ignored her friend and tried to play on the computer.

She could do whatever she wanted, really. With that in mind, I decided to ‘offer’ her the laptop so she could touch it, and so she did.

“Ehehe, thanks! I’ll get the highest score ever!”

“Tama-san, please check the Storks before you start playing.”

“I know, I know… I’ll look into it… Damn it.”

Leaving Tama to her complaints, Shu began to explain her powers.

“Let me explain! First of all, the oracle is divided into five stages according to the strength of my vision, respectively point vision, line vision, circle vision, total vision, and absolute vision. The latter being the most powerful version of my miracle!”

Hmm, so that means she is on the former end of the spectrum? I can’t remember everything about their explanations. I’m an idiot.

“I am now using point vision. Pointillism requires less faith, but on the other hand, it has a condition that you must look at the target for it to be successful.”

The requirement is that she has to see it…

Wait, there’s something strange here. I mean, she was looking directly at that article a few moments ago. “Um, does looking at the webpage from a few moments ago count as visual contact?”

“Good question,” she started. “As you said, Tsune-kun, I certainly saw the article, but I couldn’t gaze into it. Now the question is, why is that?!”

I asked the question, yet she answered with another. I have no idea, y’know? Don’t make it a pop quiz.

“Hint! Tell me the difference between what I’ve read through the oracle and an article in the web!”

She’s even giving me hints when I struggle. Well, it seems like she’s not going to spill the beans if I don’t try, and seems to be enjoying herself quite a bit.

“Is the difference… the fact an article is already digested?”

“Ehehe, you’re basically there! Anything else you can tell me?”

“Anything else? U, um, let’s see… The articles on the web aren’t happening in real-time since they’re written about the past… or something?”

Hearing my words, Shu narrowed her eyes and smiled like a proud mother. She then praised me while moving her two index fingers, just the way preschool teachers used to do in the past.

Hey, I’m not a kid! …Though her praise still made me happy.

“In sum, there is a limit to how much I can read using the oracle when it pertains to recountings of past events. I can only gather the reasons for why such events happened, but nothing else.”

“Wow…”

“However! That’s just using the point vision. If I could reach higher levels, I could attain basically omniscience! I could read the past, the present, and even the future! That includes events no one knows happened years ago, the thoughts of others in old photographs, and any other sort of information! Amazing, right?!”]

She had a big smile on her face. In fact, her beautiful smile only made me more nervous. I then told her what came to mind.

“But you can’t use it, can you?”

“…” Her smile froze as if her playfulness from earlier was a lie all along.

As far as she’s concerned, I guess she couldn’t just use this all-seeing power. I mean, if she could she would’ve used it at the early stages of my curse’s investigation. Oh, Shu, why did you flaunt an ability you don’t even have? Of course, you’d get a retort back.

“U, um… I mean, if… if it happened in front of me, I… I can know most things…”

“Ah, yeah… That’s right… Amazing, as expected of you, Shu.”

“I can… see stuff with a great point of view… I can also understand it in my own way…”

“Y, yeah… You’re a hardworking person, aren’t you? I wouldn’t be able to do that for sure! It’s amazing.”

Don’t cry, please.

Despite my thoughts, tears rolled down her cheeks. My retort was so spontaneous it ended up surprising her and she panicked to tears. She was also weak mentally, so I’ll just try to change the subject.

“So, how much do you know when you gaze? Can you know what people are thinking or what they are hiding?”

“Hic… I, I can’t read every thought they have, but I can understand the truth behind their words. For example, if you said yesterday’s lunch was delicious yesterday, I could at least tell when, where, who, why, how, and what you ate. All the w’s.”

“C, can you really tell that much?”

“In the blink of an eye.”

“You’re kidding…”

When she explains it like that, it’s evident that power is a dangerous one. As long as she can see them, she could read their whole thought process. Actually, if she dabbled in poker, she could make a load of money.

“Right~? Do you see how great it is now~?” She put on a coy smile while there were still tear stains on her face. She really is a person whose expression changes in seconds.

“So, can’t we use a method to constantly replenish your faith as we did with Tama?”

“I can’t use the same method because it doesn’t constantly use faith, like hers, but it instead requires a lot upfront. I need to go through rehab a bit more so I can increase my upper limit to bang! —use a stronger power,” she said while wiping her wet streams of tears.

So Tama and Shu are very different in terms of how their powers work, apparently.

“Well, it’s enough to just gaze using that point vision, right? It doesn’t seem necessary to go further than that to examine the Storks, at least.”

“Hm… I’m curious about it too, though. The storks seem kind of shady to me. Hey, Tama-san, did you get anything?” She turned to Tama, shaking her. However, she was stiff as stone and glued to the computer; only her eyes moved rapidly.

“Um… I asked about the Storks on an anonymous message board and found out a few things. It seems even women can join this organization,” she answered while reading the words on the screen.

God using 4chan. Everything is possible, isn’t it?

“So this is really a marriage agency, isn’t it?” Shu noted.

“Well, yes, but unlike men, the women who wish to join must pay a hefty donation to even join. They also have to pay a salty renewal fee.”

“That’s a lot,” I said.

It’s an organization that catches men with money, so they need a whole lot of funds to maintain their activities.

“Incidentally,” Tama continued. “It seems there is no ceiling for the donations, so the more you pay, the higher you rank.”

“It’s like a game then. Are there any perks?” Shu commented.

“I’ve read that high rankers get preferential treatment and are introduced to men who are young, single, and good-looking. Well, I don’t care about that… The issue starts from here, however.”

She stopped looking at the screen and turned around. Her eyes were grim as they landed on me.

“It goes without saying, but the Storks are made for men. So it seems they are aggressively coercing them to join, and penalizing those who don’t comply in accordance with the ‘Two Duties of Men.’”

“What are they?” I asked, recalling the chief mentioning a man’s primary duties. What’s up with that?

“Huh? You don’t know about a man’s duties, Tsune-chan?”

Tama’s eyes widened in surprise, and so did Shu’s.

“It’s also known as ‘A Citizen’s Duties, Men’s ver.’”

“What’s up with that ‘Men’s ver’? I know what the three major duties of a citizen are: work, education, and taxes, right?”

“That’s the ‘Women’s ver.’… I see. So that’s why you were so obsessed with finding a job. I finally figured it out.”

Unbeknownst to me, the duties of citizens were different for men and women.

“So, what are men’s duties?”

Tama answered my question.

“One of man’s duties is education. The other is choosing between paying takes or getting married.”

No way, a choice? I’ve never heard of such a thing before. I’ve been paying taxes without knowing all this time. So even if I kept going, I wouldn’t be able to get married…

“So the country is just offering me money to get married?”

“If they don’t, the birth rate will only go down until it stops.”

W, wait a minute… I have a bad feeling about this.

“…You’re not going to tell me to join the Storks, are you?”

At these words, the two looked at me reluctantly. However, they seemed to have expected this outcome before, so Tama answered.

“Maybe… These guys will ask you to join them as soon as possible. I’ve read on the board that they’ll go all the way to a man’s house to solicit him. I don’t think they’d ever leave you alone,” she said, scratching her silver hair in displeasure.

Seeing her like that made me sick of what was to come. It was a pain in the a*s to say no…

“If you join them, your life will be secured through marriage… Even though you’re my husband, Tsune-kun…” Shu said.

“It makes me sick to my stomach! I can’t allow a random harlot to get all over my husband! I’m pissed, pissed, pissed, pissed, pissed!”

Hm? Wasn’t it a decision to join the Storks? Can’t I just choose to pay taxes instead?

“Y’know, I’ll just get a regular job and pay taxes—”

At that moment, the door was opened with a bang, and Akagami walked in.

“I’m sorry for the inconvenienceeee. I have confirmed various things, so may I explain them to youuuu?”

As she spoke, five or six women entered the room with their heads down. All were dressed in suits and held poise of capable workers.

“Yes, but that was sudden…”

“I’m sorryyyyy. I knew it’d be a nuisance, but they all insisted on coming with me to meet yooooou…” Her words startled the other women in front of me.

I couldn’t make out their expressions, but they all looked like they were about to die.

“Um… Are you all okay? You look so pale…”

“Don’t worry about it. These girls aren’t worth worrying aboooout…” She then looked at the other women as if they were heaps of trash.

Contrary to her gentle tone, her words were prickly as thorns. That confused me. Why was she so angry despite being a newcomer? Her chin was too high.

“So… who are these people?”

I don’t know what happened, but it was heartbreaking seeing grown people so dejected. I just wanted to get this over with.

“The people in front are government officials.”

I noticed the emphasis on the ‘front’. The people in the background were looking straight at me with their faces downcast. Their eyes were bloodshot, as if they’d found a new prey.

For some reason, I felt a chill run down my spine.

Her introduction continued regardless.

“The person in the back is a Storks official.”

---

T/N: Oooh, some lore! This whole organization seems too shady.
Run MC, run!

---

Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment your opinions below!

Also, if you enjoyed my translation and would like to feed my caffeine addiction, click on the button below and graciously give me my fix—I mean, a cup of coffee.