Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 5 (18 page)

So this is
Takemikazuchi Familia
’s ultimate technique: the dogeza bow…!

“…All the apologies in the world won’t be enough for Lilly to forgive you. We almost died.”

“Yeah, this isn’t about to go away with a few words.”

Lilly and Welf, however, aren’t fazed by the full-body bow. They stand tall and speak with a serious edge to their voices. It’s a little intimidating, to tell the truth.

Ouka and Chigusa stand behind their straitlaced ally Mikoto, not sure what to do. The girl on the floor raises her head to meet Lilly’s eyes. She keeps eye contact as she raises her body into a kneeling position.

“Um, you see, really…We are very sorry…”

“Your anger is justified. You are free to berate us to your heart’s content.”

The shy Chigusa stuttered as she spoke, her eyes hidden by her bangs. Mikoto, on the other hand, spoke clearly and with great remorse.

Passing off monsters to other adventurers in the Dungeon is normal. So much so, in fact, that many adventurers consider it a necessary tactic for survival. No one expects it to happen to them…but as
long as there is no malice to it, all adventurers are expected to accept that they could be on the receiving end of a pass parade at some point. At least that’s what I’ve heard.

However, in our case, coming so close to the line between life and death because of their stunt has left a sour taste in my friends’ mouths. Even the goddess crosses her arms and lets out a long “Hmmmm” as the drama unfolds before her.

“I was the one who gave the order. Even now, I believe it was the correct choice.”

Said Ouka as his towering frame steps in front of Mikoto.

I gaze in awe at him for a moment. He doesn’t shake or quiver at all, a mountain in the middle of the tent.

More than likely…Ouka had carefully considered and weighed all the options. He chose the lives of his friends over the lives of complete strangers.

He was prepared to face this kind of outcome the moment he gave the order, all for the sake of his allies.

I don’t know if it’s right or wrong…but he made the decision for the sake of his party.

“…You’ve got some nerve saying that to our faces, big guy.”

Welf steps in front of Ouka and squares his shoulders. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the look in his eyes might kill a weaker man.

It feels like a ticking time bomb in here. Everyone’s glaring at one another, sizing them up for a fight. But I’m kind of caught in a no-man’s-land, looking back and forth at everyone.

Something bad is going to happen…
I have to find a way to defuse the situation, fast—

“Hello again, everybody. We’re back.
Loki Familia
was very understanding of our situation.”

So that’s where Lord Hermes and Asfi disappeared to. They were getting permission to stay at the camp from Mr. Finn and the other leaders.

“My, my…What’s going on in here, Hestia?”

“Oh, you know. This and that.”

My goddess’s summary is a little bit too brief, but Hermes seems to be satisfied with it and puts on a smile larger than I thought possible.

“No need to think so hard about this! Look at it this way: Mikoto here owes you a big favor. At the same time, you want a chance to atone—am I right?”

“Of course we do…”

“Think about it, Lilly. Should the time come, you can have them bend over backward to help you out of a sticky situation. Doesn’t that sound good?”

“…If the time comes.”

Lord Hermes moves away from Lilly and Mikoto’s staring contest and turns his attention to Welf and Ouka.

“Welf. Sure, this group in front of you got you into one heck of a mess, but they came down here because they wanted to help you. My presence had nothing to do with it.”

…A heavy silence falls.

“…I’ll play nice. But don’t think you’ve been forgiven.”

“Yes…That’s fine.”

Ouka doesn’t look particularly happy, either. Welf steps away and returns to my side.

All of a sudden, the gathering storm clouds have vanished. It might not be anything special for a deity like Lord Hermes…but seeing him effortlessly clear the air like that, I can’t help but be impressed.

“Now then, what are the plans from here on out?”

Lord Hermes smiles again and opens his arms as if nothing were wrong in the first place. The rest of us just had all of the anger sucked out of our bodies in one fell swoop; we weren’t going to say no.

Lord Hermes gestured toward Asfi. The girl looks a little perplexed but comes forward anyway.

“First of all, concerning our return to the surface…We will leave this floor once
Loki Familia
slays the Goliath. It’s in our best interest to avoid danger.”

All of us nod in agreement.

“
Loki Familia
will move out two days from now at the earliest.”

“Which means we have a whole day to kill…Since we’re already down here, why don’t we do a little sightseeing on the eighteenth floor?”

Looks like everyone likes Lord Hermes’s suggestion.

This may be a safe point in the Dungeon where no monsters are born, but it’s still the Dungeon. We decide to stick together as a group. Considering that Aiz had promised to take me to the town tomorrow, we agree that that’s where we would go.

Our planning session ends rather quickly. Now all that’s left is to get some sleep.

“Oh, that’s right. Welf.”

“What is it, Lady Hestia?”

The ladies had claimed the right to sleep inside the tent, so the men were on their way outside to keep watch and find a comfortable place to lie down when Welf was pulled aside.

The goddess also calls over Chigusa and receives a long, weapon-like thing wrapped in white cloth from her.

“This is something Hephaistos was holding on to. She also had this to say. Let me see…‘Stop compromising allies for your pride’…or something like that.”

“…”

Welf falls silent as he takes the weapon from the goddess and quietly walks outside.

“Welf?”

“…It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it,” he responds to me, but he never takes his eyes off the cloth-covered thing in his hands.

“Night” on the eighteenth floor has ended. It’s “morning” now.

Loki Familia
was nice enough to give us some food for breakfast. Aiz leads us toward the town, just as she promised she would. Miss Tiona and Miss Tione must’ve had some free time as well because they’re coming with us.

…Lyu’s not here.

I wonder why. We talked briefly yesterday, but she never came to
the tent. Lord Hermes did say that she had something she needed to take care of and not to worry, but it feels strange. I follow Aiz out of the camp with Lyu on my mind.

The town has a lake view…or rather it was built on the main island in the middle of the lake. We move out of the forest covering the southern part of the eighteenth floor toward the lake in the west.

“Um, Goddess…”

“Hm? What is it, Bell?”

“Something about you seems different since you got here yesterday…”

Aiz and the others have gone ahead. The goddess is right next to me, so I ask her a question.

It had been bugging me for a while, but now is the first chance I had to ask. “Ahh,” she responds and grins back at me. “All gods and goddesses have a special aura. I’m concealing mine right now—so nothing knows that I’m here.”

Aura…The way for the people of Gekai to know that the person standing in front of them is a deity. It’s almost like a glow. At some point I’d heard that when a god uses their divine power, Arcanum, their aura goes into overdrive and other deities know about it. Basically, everyone would know that they had violated their own rules, and they would be exiled back to Tenkai—.

“Generally speaking, gods and goddesses aren’t allowed in the Dungeon.”

“Can I ask why?”

“Because it would be bad if
they
found out.”

Who are they?
I tilt my head in confusion. But I have a feeling that I shouldn’t press her for an answer, so I let it drop.

“I know we’re headed to that massive lump of an island…but how do we get across the lake?”

“There’s a really big tree lying on its side that makes a bridge between the two. Look, see?” Miss Tiona answers Welf’s question without hesitation. I look to where she’s pointing…and sure enough, there’s a tree big enough to see from this far away on top of the water, connecting the island to the rest of the Dungeon floor.

The immense rocky island seems to grow by the second as we get
closer. The tree bridge has been stripped of all leaves and branches and is basically just a giant log. I follow the girls onto it, looking at all the footprints on its surface. It’s not at all flat and there’s no railing whatsoever; I really have to focus to stay upright. It’s not just me, either—I catch the goddess just as she was about to fall off the tree.

“Morning” is not quite as bright as the “afternoon” in the Dungeon, but the light coming from the faintly glowing crystals on the ceiling is warm. There’s enough light for me to see my reflection on the surface of the water beneath me.

“If there’s a town down here, wouldn’t you guys have been better off staying there instead of the woods…?”

“They’d rob us blind, so no.”

Miss Tione immediately put my question to rest. That begs a new question on what she meant by that, but I keep my mouth shut as we reach the island.

The road leading to the town is a steep one. The island looks like a mountain from far away, but from here it looks more like a cliff. Small plants and crystals jut out from the cracks in the stone wall. We climb high enough to get an incredible view of the entire floor.

“Yeah. Now that’s what I call beautiful.”

“
Huff
,
huff
…ha, wow. This is amazing.”

Lord Hermes seems perfectly fine, while my goddess is gasping for breath, but both of them have the same reaction to the scenery. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of us are absolutely astounded. We can see everything from here.

There are no walls or rooms on the eighteenth floor, it’s just a fat cylinder with a domed top. The crystals cover every inch of the ceiling and spread all the way to the other side of the floor.

The tunnel to the seventeenth floor is on the southern edge of the forest.
Loki Familia
’s camp is in that area. The forest itself extends far into the east and has many rivers and springs throughout the greenery. The trees thin out considerably in the north. I don’t know if it’s because the rest of the land is an open plain, but the dark shadows roaming around really stand out. There’s nothing else they could be but monsters.

“Monsters come to this floor, just like us…”

“It would be appropriate to say that this is their haven, not ours.”

Aiz and Asfi explain that the monsters come here looking for all of the abundant fruit and fresh water.

The colossal tree I saw before stands in the center of it all. It’s the only place higher up than the island in the western lake that we’re standing on.

That’s the true identity of the eighteenth floor, a wilderness deep underground.

“Lilly’s never been far away from Orario but…this is very pretty.”

“No, you can travel far and wide and never find a view that will rival this one.”

“…Reminds me of the mountains in our beloved homeland in the East.”

“Yes…”

First Lilly and Mikoto, then Ouka and Chigusa. It’s impossible not to be moved by the natural beauty surrounding us. I’m doing my best to engrave this view into my memory.

We leave the cliff overlooking the eighteenth floor and follow what’s left of the path to the top of the island.

“Whaa…!!”

An arch-shaped gate decorated with flags at the end of two rows of wooden pillars greets our eyes.

H
ELLO
F
RIENDS,
W
ELCOME TO
R
IVIRA!
is written in the common language of Koine across the top of the gate.

“Better not let that fool you. They’re just warming you up, making you feel good before coming for your wallet.”

That’s the second time Tione has warned me to be careful here. In any case, we pass through the gate.

The town is on the very top of the island, mixed in with beautiful white and blue crystals and the natural scenery.

The “buildings” are nothing more than shacks made out of scraps of wood and large tents with signs on them. A few of them are built into large cracks in the walls of stone and tunnel entrances. The town’s hotel is like that, too. Since the town is built halfway into the cliff next to a relatively flat area, many stairs are necessary to help
people go from shop to shop. No matter where you go around town, the pristine lake below and the amazing backdrop of the eighteenth floor are always in view.

The rest-stop town surrounded by rock and crystals…Rivira.

“This town is run by adventurers, of course. There are no bothersome rules or regulations here, so everyone is able to do business as they please.”

The goddess, Lilly, Welf, and I look around the town and listen to Asfi’s explanation.

She says that this town in the middle of the Dungeon was once controlled by the Guild as a frontline base of sorts. Adventurers themselves took over the place after the Guild gave up trying to maintain it. The reason that this spot was chosen out of everywhere else on the eighteenth floor was because the lake and rocky cliffs provided protection.