RL Chapter 53

Chapter 53 – Drinking Party

Resonance 7, Part 3

Novel Title: 共鳴劣情 オメガバース (Resonance Lust: Omegaverse)

Author：岩本薫 (Iwamoto Kaoru)

Illustrator: 蓮川愛 (Hasukawa Ai)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists: 本浄天音 (Honjou Amane) & 苅谷煌騎 (Kariya Kouki) / 首藤煌騎 (Shutou Kouki)

*Please read at knoxt.space, the original site of translation. TQ*

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After parting ways with Kourogi, Amane returned home and made some adjustments to his ear cuff. He had fitted it with a super-small camera. This button-sized camera, nicknamed the ‘spy camera’, was something he’d bought online a while ago. He thought it might come in handy someday. That day had finally come.

After testing it several times, he adjusted the camera’s focus. Upon reviewing the test footage, the image quality was slightly grainy, but still usable as evidence. Separately, he placed a small wireless voice recorder in his shirt pocket. The recorder had a large storage capacity, able to record for up to 60 hours. He had used it before and confirmed it had no initial defects.

As he finished preparing, the promised time was approaching.

Just before heading out, Amane unplugged his phone from the charger and noticed several missed calls. His call log was filled with Kouki’s name and number, and there were two messages left in his voicemail.

The first was from 19:00.

“Hello? It’s Kariya. I’ve just finished the work with our supervisor. Where are you? Please call me back.”

The second was forty minutes later.

“It’s Kariya. I’ll be following up on Seo-san’s paperwork for now. It will probably take about two hours.”

(Helping Seo? How kind of him.)

“I’ll contact you as soon as I’m done. So please don’t do anything dangerous on your own until I meet up with you. And when you hear this message, please get back to me.“

As soon as he finished listening to the message, Amane deleted the recording. Of course, he had no intention of returning the call.

“…A detective not taking risks—what’s the point?”

It wasn’t just Squad Supervisor Kuroki, the entire team had become overly reliant on Kouki. With his all-around competence, many people probably forgot he was still a rookie.

Unlike the other members of the team, Amane couldn’t simply accept Kouki’s support. Kouki’s behaviour gave off a sense that he was trying to protect Amane.

To be thought of as needing protection just because he was an Omega was the ultimate insult to him.

“I don’t need you to protect me. I can do this on my own…”

Muttering in a low voice, almost like casting a spell on himself, Amane slipped his phone into the pocket of his jacket and left the house.

Amane arrived at the designated spot ten minutes before the agreed time of 10 o’clock. It was a multi-use commercial facility in the busy downtown area of High Midtown.

The building was a twelve-story circular structure designed by a famous architect. According to the floor guide, the basement levels B2 and B1 and the first six floors were occupied by clothing stores and restaurants. Basement level B3 was parking. The seventh and eighth floors housed a cinema, the ninth and tenth floors were for a game centre, and on the eleventh floor, there were esthetic salons and massage parlours. The top floor boasted three restaurants.

Following Kourogi’s prior instructions, Amane took a special elevator that led directly to the top floor, tucked away in an inconspicuous location, rather than using the public ones. The control panel inside the cage had buttons labelled ‘Open’ and ‘Close’, and only two floor buttons: ‘12’ and ‘1’. At the bottom was a horizontal slit. Amane inserted the card Kourogi had given him into the slit and pressed the ‘12’ button. The elevator only stopped at the top floor and didn’t move without the card. This meant that only a select, chosen few could proceed beyond this point. It was for this reason that Aya, who had been looking for her baby’s father, couldn’t even make it to the party venue. As Kourogi had mentioned, this was a ‘secret, members-only club, not even listed on the floor guide’.

While the elevator ascended, Amane touched his shirt pocket, turning on his voice recorder. Thinking Kouki might call, he also adjusted his phone’s settings, turning off both the ringer and notification sounds.

(Alright, I’m ready.)

When the elevator reached the twelfth floor, the doors slid open silently.

“…”

It was pitch black. For a moment, he thought the power had gone out. But as his eyes adjusted, he noticed small, flickering candle flames here and there. Still, it wasn’t bright enough to provide proper illumination, making it hard to take a step forward.

“Welcome.”

A voice suddenly called out, causing Amane’s shoulders to twitch. Looking in the direction of the voice, he saw a man standing with a lantern in his hand. He was wearing an all-black suit, with a short beard and his long hair braided into nearly twenty cornrows. He was large and solidly built, likely acting as both the front desk attendant and a bodyguard.

“Is this your first time visiting? May I have your name?”

“Amane.”

“Who referred you?”

“Kourogi-san.”

“May I have your card, please?”

The man carefully inspected the card Amane handed over under the lantern’s light. “Confirmed. I will now guide you to the VIP lounge,” he said, walking ahead. On the back of his jacket, a skull symbol drawn with fluorescent paint became visible. Amane followed the symbol and the light from the lantern.

They navigated through a narrow, winding hallway until they reached an iron door, which the man opened.

The first thing that caught Amane’s attention was a semicircular stage. On it, under purple lighting, a naked woman was hanging from the ceiling, tied up by a bald man in a workman’s uniform. A video of the scene on stage was being projected onto a large screen behind them.

(An SM show?)

The tables of various sizes and shapes were arranged in a fan formation around the stage, where guests were drinking while watching the performance. The crowd was diverse in age and gender. But everyone wore masks decorated with lace or feathers to hide their faces.

Some guests had gotten so excited that they were tangled together in the couple seats. To engage in such acts under the watchful eyes of others—these people clearly weren’t normal. Perhaps they weren’t just under the influence of alcohol, but drugs as well.

Bunny girls and bunny boys, both wearing eye masks, roamed between the various tables. Customers who called them over stuffed wads of cash into the cleavage of the women or the thong-like underwear of the men. A bunny girl who received a tip would kneel in front of the customer, burying her face in their crotch. It seemed like the system allowed for sexual services on the spot if you paid enough.

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*Translator’s Note: I don’t like where this is going. -K

Next update: 2025.02.23

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