Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 4 (22 page)

“No, no. Lilly is just happy to be of service to Mr. Bell and Lady Hestia.”

T-taking care of…?

I break out in a cold sweat as I watch the goddess nod with a happy smile on her face and Lilly respectfully bow a few times. It almost feels like they’re bound by some kind of contract that I don’t know about…

“…Nahza. Why did you do this?! Answer me!”

Lord Miach’s voice thunders.

The moment he releases his hold on Nahza, she turns her back on him.

The half of her hair that isn’t tied back floats on air as her head flicks around to look at the wall.

“Our
Familia
’s bank account—it’s always moments away from collapse…And the clueless rabbit was a sitting duck.”

My eyes go wide at the same time as Lord Miach’s. What did she mean by rabbit and duck…?

She doesn’t look or sound any different than usual, monotone voice with droopy eyes, but…her bushy tail is shuddering beneath her skirt.

“You fool! What happens when you rob people blind?! This world moves on honesty and trust, especially the business world. You’ve risked the trust of a valued customer for spare change?!

“How foolish can you be?!” he continues with a glare strong enough to make the bravest of people crumble to their knees.

Nahza casually looks over her shoulder, clicks her tongue, and stares down Lord Miach’s gaze with her own.

So she
can
show emotion.

“How can you say that, Lord Miach, when you give out free potions to anyone and everyone? That’s why we never have any money. And on top of that, girl after girl is drawn to you like a moth to the flame and you give them the wrong idea…If I had a val for every time I’ve covered for you…!”

“What…what are you talking about?! I don’t draw in anyone, nor do I try to deceive anyone!”

Lord Miach seems to have been caught off guard by Nahza’s retort. The goddess’s and Lilly’s gazes have gone cold.

I’m sure Lord Miach has stolen many hearts with that smile and the way he carries himself like royalty…but I guess he doesn’t realize it, otherwise he wouldn’t be so confused right now.

“I have wronged Bell…but at this rate, it will be impossible to pay back the loan and it’ll only get worse…!”

Eh? That gets my attention.

I take a look around to see if other people heard that, too. The goddess has a very serious look on her face.

Loan…?

Lord Miach is looking more and more uncomfortable by the moment. Between him and the painful look on Nahza’s face, I get the feeling something suspicious is going on. Something that Lord Miach doesn’t want to talk about…

In that moment—

“FU-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA, I’m coming in!!”

The room shakes with a roar of laughter, and again as the door gets kicked off its hinges.

“?!”

“You got my money for this month, Mii-ahh-chhh?”

A middle-age god with graying hair and a beard appears in the doorway.

I can tell he’s quite a bit older than the gods and goddesses I know, but he still has that perfectly chiseled face they all share…But at the
same time, his aura is completely different. All that handsomeness is wasted on him.

His cheeks peel back in a sickening grin as he looks around the room like he owns the place. He’s wearing an extravagant gold robe with intricate embroidery. Did he choose his wardrobe today just to rub it in Lord Miach’s face…?

“Dian…!”

“I dragged myself all the way out here ’cause you never showed up. Be grateful, you ruined beggar, bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

…I think I have a pretty good idea what this god is like.

“I see your shop is just as dusty as always! Gotta make this a quick visit, being here too long’s gonna make me sick. Oh, I see misery loves company! Hosting some more beggars so you won’t get lonely?”

Nahza’s eyes are burning like this god is her father’s sworn enemy. Lord Miach turns to face the intruder with a very sour look on his face. “Huh?” Lady Hestia’s voice rings out as if trying to get out of the way of an explosion of sparks.

“He’s Lord Dian Cecht.”

“Lilly…”

“He’s the head of a
Familia
that is well respected by adventurers and makes healing items and medicine. Since Lord Miach sells healing potions…they’re business rivals.”

I nod as Lilly whispers information into my ear. That explains Lord Miach’s and Nahza’s reactions, as well as Lord Dian Cecht’s taunting tone. There’s got to be a deep connection between these two, and it’s not a friendly one.

“Well, Miach, where’s my money?”

“Well, it’s…!”

“Fu-fu-fu, do you have it or do you not have it? Gu-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!”

—
chit chit chit
. I can hear Lord Miach’s and Nahza’s teeth rattling from over here.

“I’ve given you extension after extension out of the goodness of my heart, but I’ve had it with your unpredictability. If you don’t have
this month’s payment by tomorrow, I’ll run you out of this place and sell your home to cover your debt! You might as well kiss this place good-bye!”

Lord Dian Cecht laughs so hard that spit flies everywhere.

“FU-HA-HA-HA-HA!! We’re leaving, Amid!”

“Yes, sir.”

A little girl standing behind Lord Dian Cecht moves out of the way as her god heads for the door. She must’ve been standing behind him the whole time.

The girl is rather short and looks more like a doll than a person. Amid bows to us as her god walks briskly through the broken door, she turns and rushes to keep up with him.

The storm having blown through, the five of us sit in silence.

“Dian Cecht and I have never seen eye to eye, even in Tenkai……”

Lord Miach begins to tell his life story bit by bit.

After what just happened, I couldn’t exactly just go home and pretend everything’s okay. So we stuck around to find out about what’s been going on inside
Miach Familia
.

“Once we came down to this world, we butted heads at every turn. Our rivalry extended to the children we took under our wing when we got into the same business…”

“I broke that cycle to pieces.”

Nahza jumps into Lord Miach’s story when his words begin trailing off.

“I used to be an adventurer.”

“Eh…”

“I used to crawl the Dungeon like you do, Bell, saving up money…But one day, I screwed everything up. Got thoroughly wrecked by a monster, and it
ate my right arm
.”

She tells me before I could even ask.

Nahza looks down at her strangely uneven-sleeved shirt and starts rolling up the wrist-length right sleeve.

All the breath in my body leaves me a moment later.

“A silver arm…?!”

“Lord Miach got it for me after I lost my real one…it’s from that
Dian Cecht Familia
. He practically begged them.”

I can hear the shock in Lilly’s voice.

Just as she said, Nahza’s right arm is completely made of a silver metal.

It’s as smooth and shiny as a freshly polished sword. While looking almost exactly like a human arm, it’s easy to see the gems embedded in the joints of the appendage.

Once she takes off her glove, I can see that her right hand is constructed with exactly the same silver metal.

“
Dian Cecht Familia
makes medicines and other things. Besides selling potions, they also take custom orders from adventurers and make special items to suit. This airgetlám, or ‘silver arm,’ is one of them.”

Click click
. Nahza extends and flexes her arm, showing us how it works.

“Lord Miach took out a loan so he could buy this arm for me. The other members of our
Familia
turned their back on Lord Miach when they found out…and left, everyone.”

…She says that
Miach Familia
used to be in the middle of the pack in terms of rank. At that time, it was strong enough to compete with
Dian Cecht Familia
on the open market selling potions.

Then after Nahza’s accident, everything fell to pieces almost overnight.

“All that stayed with Lord Miach was a useless former adventurer and a colossal loan,” she says with fire still burning in her eyes.

“The way I am now, fighting monsters is impossible. I was able to change jobs and become a chemist only because my former compatriots taught me the tricks of the trade…But I can’t make enough money to make a dent in the loan. I’m utterly useless.”

“Nahza.”

“I’m the reason we have to pay anything to that abomination. It’s all my fault—me!”

“Nahza, that’s enough. Stop there.”

Nahza looks like she wants to say something more on the subject,
but Lord Miach convinces her to close her mouth with his quiet voice.

A heavy silence descends over all of us.

I can’t find any words. Nahza used to be an adventurer, her arm is fake, and everything else is too much to handle at once. Lady Hestia must not have heard that Lord Miach had been demoted as well. She’s just sitting there, arms folded across her chest and her eyes closed. Meanwhile, Lilly’s calmly looking at Nahza.

Nahza may have scammed me out of some money recently…but if I were in her shoes, I might have done exactly the same thing.

I would’ve done anything to try to support the one god who didn’t abandon me, the one who always extended a helping hand when I needed it most.

That has to be the most difficult thing in the world.

So hard that I’d want to scream out every day.

“…Well, then, what are you going to do? We know what happened, but right now we need to focus on what’s in front of you. Dian’s threatening to sell your home, isn’t he?”

The goddess broke the silence and asks if there’s any way they could have the money ready by the end of tomorrow.

Lord Miach scrunches up his face and looks toward Nahza from the corner of his eye.

She meets his gaze for a moment and slowly nods.

“There is one way…”

Nahza’s voice is so soft, it’s like it could be snuffed out at any moment.

“But with just me…and Lord Miach, it’s impossible…”

The last of the evening light comes through the window glass, making the room glow red.

We’re a good distance away from Main Street, but I can still hear the din of many voices and footsteps mixing together on the stone road.

Nahza’s body droops as she avoids eye contact. I wonder if she feels like she doesn’t have the right to look us in the face. The very words “help us” must feel so far away after everything she’s put us through.

The silence is making me uneasy. I glance at everyone around the table in turn before looking at the goddess as if she’s our last hope.

She looks back at me with a mysterious blue warmth in her eyes. She tilts her head to the side as if to say,
Well?

In other words, she’s asking me to decide what to do about this. At least that’s the sense I’m getting from her.

Her eyes, it’s like she’s looking at her own son…So many emotions are welling up inside me, but I take a deep breath and go for it.

My mind scrambles to find the right words. Now all I have to do is speak loudly enough to break through this dark silence.

“Ah, ahhh…Lilly. Back to what you were talking about before, couldn’t we take up another quest? The last one wasn’t enough…and I still have a lot to learn.”

My acting skills need a lot of work. At the very least, the topic will change one way or another.

Lilly’s eyes pop open. Then she must’ve realized what I was trying to do because she grimaces for a moment and hides a chuckle. She jumps into my “act” a moment later.

“Lilly agrees, Mr. Bell. But where in the world is there a client willing to bestow a quest onto hardworking people such as ourselves?”

Lord Miach and Nahza look on in surprise as Lilly takes my side with an almost giddy smile on her face.

Lady Hestia’s lips perk up in a grin. She turns her head to face Lord Miach.

“So how about it, Miach? Do you have any work for these two? Think of it as helping them out. Their energy has to go somewhere. They’ll do anything if you ask, including helping you pay back that loan.”

“Hestia, are you really…No, my apologies. You have my gratitude.”

Nahza looks at me with embarrassment—or is that shame?—from beside Lord Miach as he thanks us over and over.

“Bell, are you sure…? After all I’ve…”

“…It’s thanks to you, Nahza, that Lilly and I are still alive today.”

It was the day that I was surrounded by a horde of killer ants.

No matter what the actual price was, the fact that she talked me
into purchasing a magic potion was the deciding factor in a desperate battle.

But above all, I can’t just abandon someone who helped me in the past.

I relax the muscles in my brow and smile at her. Her eyes open in disbelief for a moment before she hides her face.

“I’m sorry…Thank you.”

Her last words barely louder than a whisper, she jerks her head down in what is an unmistakable bow.