Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 213

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TL: ALT

Chapter 213 – Cold House

After listening to my story, Haitani-san put her hand to her chin and thought for a while, then said

“This is an interesting story,” she murmured.

I’m in the guild room of the Paladin Knights at the headquarters of the Shinjuku Explorers Association.

On a Sunday, the guild room is just me, Serika, and Haitani-san.

Yesterday, I went to see Yamato and asked him about the things that were bothering me.

I told them the gist of it yesterday, but today, I went back to the guild room and talked to them directly.

The TV in the guild room is showing a special on the simultaneous election of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors, but it’s muted, so I can’t hear what they’re saying.

“I have never heard the term ‘Cold House’ before. But it’s true that Seiji Tozaki also runs a social welfare organization. For a while, the Tozaki Parenting School was criticized for its forced execution of reclusive youths. The other is the ‘House of Zacchaeus,’ which takes in children who have no relatives. It’s possible that this story is related to one or both of them.”

“The forced execution of the reclusive youth is like this. They drag the reclusive person out of his room by force, lock him up somewhere, and abuse him under the pretext of ‘re-educating their minds’…”

For me, this is a story that I can’t help but feel is happening to someone else.

I’m really glad my parents aren’t the type to fall for it.

“What about the other house?”

“It’s Zacchaeus. He appears in the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament. He was originally a ruthless tax collector, but he met Jesus Christ and was converted, and he gave half of his wealth to the poor.”

“…Is that guy like that?”

“I don’t think so. But it’s not a very profitable business. I thought it was a tax reduction scheme, but if they’re using it to recruit and train promising young people, then I can understand it.”

Haitani-san nodded with a pensive expression.

Serika, who had been listening to Haitani-san and me, said,

“Is it true that Kandori, Zatsudo and Junko Tozaki were in that ‘Cold House’?”

“At least that is what Kandori told Yamato. On top of that, she apparently suggested that Yamato go to the Cold House. At the Cold House, they select some of the children who have been taken in and train them as Tozaki’s ‘children’―apparently, the system is set up so that they can eventually be promoted to become executives of the Rakans or close aides of Tozaki.”

“If that’s all it is, I guess you could say it’s a charity project…”

“It seems that some of the children have gone on to work in various fields while hiding the fact that they came from Cold House. Kandori herself hid her background and went on to have a career as a scientist, so it has a certain credibility. Besides…”

I frown and hesitate.

“I understand. It’s a very delicate matter. To say that Seiji Tozaki only took in children who had committed crimes or were suspected of doing so…”

I nod at Haitani-san’s words.

“Of course, children who commit crimes have the same rights as other children. While the public’s attention is naturally focused on helping the victims of crime, the rehabilitation of the perpetrators is also something that society as a whole needs to consider.”

The public’s view of minors who commit serious crimes is cold.

It’s easy to say that because they’re still minors, there’s room for rehabilitation, but it’s hard to feel sympathy for boys and girls who commit brutal, serious crimes that are hard to hear about in a calm way.

Nevertheless, support is needed for those who have been released from juvenile detention centers and are now back in society.

If they don’t get the right kind of support, they may repeat their delinquent or criminal behavior.

There was also talk of the weakness of the system in promoting the social reintegration of people released from prison, not just juveniles.

“Supporting offenders is a difficult issue that is also likely to provoke an emotional backlash from the public. If it were a story about a famous businessman who had succeeded in solving such a social problem, there would be no problem…”

“From what Yamato heard from Kandori, it seems that Cold House is like a prison. And the selection process there is not based on whether or not the person can be rehabilitated from their crime and adapt to society. Rather, it seems that the standard for selection is based on ‘strength of character,’ which will never fit into society.”

When I said this, Serika asked me,

“Strength of character… does that mean someone like Tozaki-san―Junko Tozaki-san?”

“Yes. It seems that the personality of Junko Tozaki, who has no qualms about oppressing and exploiting others, was highly rated by Cold House. Kandori and Zatsudo also have strong personalities, don’t they?”

This means that the Cold House collects people with strong personalities and then selects the strongest among them.

It’s like “poisoning the body”―stuffing a lot of insects into a jar and using the ones that survive as ingredients for magic.

“That Yamato-kun was also a target for recruitment, right? Was his personality the deciding factor?”

“According to Kandori, Yamato was ‘chosen as a model for the gods’…”

That seems to be all he heard, but it doesn’t make any sense at all.

“Not ‘chosen by the gods’, but ‘chosen as a model for the gods’―that’s what Yamato Sakurai said, right?”

“Yes, I think that’s exactly what he said.”

I don’t understand the meaning at all.

I don’t know where or what the meaning is, so I tried to remember it exactly so that I could ask the two of them about it today.

When Serika heard that, she made a difficult expression and said,

“If you mean ‘personality’… I think I have an idea.”

She said that.

“An idea?”

“Yes, but I think you’ve already thought of it. When you think of stories involving ‘personality’ in the world of explorers, the first thing that comes to mind is the unique skills.”

When she said that, something suddenly clicked.

“I see! So you’re saying that unique skills reflect the personality of their wielder, right?”

For better or worse, the unique skills reflect the personality of the person who possesses them.

That’s why Serika got the Holy Knight’s Oath, and that’s why Haitani-san got Lightweight Comparison.

Of course, it’s also why I got the Escape skill.

…Well, regardless of whether my personality is strong or not.

“Junko Tozaki, Kiriko Kandori, Jin Zatsudo… they are all leading explorers in Japan with powerful unique abilities. But it is also true that they all have too many problems.”

Haitani-san summarizes.

“So does that mean that Tozaki’s goal is to secure explorers with unique skills?”

“I’m not sure about that. To be honest, we know almost nothing about the conditions for the manifestation of unique skills. Even if we admit that Tozaki’s goal is to secure or train explorers with unique skills, or to make them his pawns, there are still some major contradictions.”

“What do you mean by ‘contradiction’?”

“It’s a question of the chronological order of events. Tozaki captures criminals and young people who are suspected of being criminals, but at this point, it’s not as if he knows what their unique skills are, is it?”

“I see. There’s no guarantee that all minors can acquire unique skills. They may not even have become explorers yet.”

Haitani-san nods in agreement with Serika’s point.

In fact, I’ve heard that the probability of acquiring a unique skill when gaining a status is less than one in ten.

So, is it likely that juvenile delinquents have an especially high chance of developing a unique skill?

…No, it’s not likely either.

Even in my limited experience, none of the university students who were illegal explorers that I caught in the local water park dungeon had any unique skills.

The Men’s Association explorers I saw in the Umihotaru dungeon the other day didn’t have any unique skills either.

Or rather, as a matter of fact,

“…Seiji Tozaki took in Junko Tozaki before the dungeon appeared, right?”

The person who bullied Sayuki to death at my high school, Junko Tozaki (formerly known as Junko Himuro), was no longer able to attend her high school and transferred to a high school in the city.

It must have been around that time that she became Seiji Tozaki’s adopted daughter.

After that, a lot of things happened, and I became a shut-in.

The exact time when the dungeon appeared is unknown, but it can be said that it was definitely after the time when I became a shut-in.

The fact that no one knows the exact time when the dungeon appeared is strange, but the fact that no one thinks it strange that no one knows is even stranger.

What’s more, when I point this out, people think I’m the weird one.

To use an expression I use in my heart, it’s “this crazy modern age.”

Aside from that, considering the chronology of the events I experienced, there is no doubt that Junko Tozaki became Seiji Tozaki’s adopted daughter before the dungeon appeared.

“You’re very knowledgeable. As Kurashiki-san pointed out, Junko Tozaki became Seiji Tozaki’s adopted daughter before the dungeon appeared. If the Cold House existed at that time, then its purpose could not have been to protect the holders of unique skills.”

Haitani-san said,

I won’t tell you that I was surprised by the first “You’re very knowledgeable.”

“So the fact that the children, Tozaki’s pawns, had unique skills was probably not the goal, but a result. Tozaki recruited children with criminal records based on their ‘strength of character’ and ‘trained’ them in the Cold House. The purpose of this ‘training’ was not to create powerful explorers with unique skills, but to train people with such special abilities that they could live by trampling on others with their strong personalities, even though they had personalities that didn’t consider other people to be people.”

“In other words, they were trying to cultivate beings that were like the alter egos of Seiji Tozaki?”

“Probably. And as a byproduct of that ‘cultivation,’ many of them came to possess powerful unique skills.”

“Hmm…”

Is it wrong to say that a horse came out of a pumpkin?

Tozaki ended up with children with powerful, unique skills as an unexpected byproduct.

“Still, it seems a little too good to be true. I mean, it’s like… Seiji Tozaki’s criteria for selecting talents overlaps with the criteria for the Voice of Heaven to give unique skills to the explorers.”

“That’s true. At least in terms of evaluating people from a negative perspective, Seiji Tozaki’s scouting was ultimately very accurate.”

“That’s creepy… Is that what you call a black company president’s sense of smell?”

Seiji Tozaki appears on the TV that was left on.

The eye of the typhoon of this simultaneous election for the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors is undoubtedly Seiji Tozaki.

“We have taken all necessary measures. It’s hopeless for Seiji Tozaki to win his constituency. There’s a good chance that he’ll be elected in the proportional block according to the party list, but candidates who lose in the constituency and are returned in the proportional block tend to have less influence within the party. It can be said that it’s almost impossible for him to be appointed in the next cabinet reshuffle.”

As Haitani-san said.

In a TV news report, Genron.net is severely criticized by intellectuals.

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