Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka Gaiden – Sword Oratoria - Volume 5 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 1/3 PURE PASSION 

“What?! Y-you want me to go on a date…I-I-I mean sightseeing with that boy in Rivira?!” 
It was “morning” on the eighteenth floor. 
Loki Familia’s camp had grown decidedly more cramped after the arrival of Hestia and the rest of her rescue party the night prior. In the midst of the increased bustle, Aiz had just informed Lefiya of the day’s plans, which had prompted the elf’s somewhat intense outburst. 
The group had already finished eating their breakfast. 
As it was Bell’s and the others’ first times on the eighteenth floor, and they planned on leaving together with Loki Familia anyway, it seemed they were to take advantage of the time they had and do a bit of sightseeing. Aiz was accompanying him as a guide, along with Tiona and Tione, both of whom had free time to spare. 
Hearing all of this now with the group of “tourists” standing in front of her, Lefiya found herself completely disoriented. 
“Yeah! You wanna come, too? It’ll be more fun if we go together!” Tiona suggested with a smile. 
“But I…I…I couldn’t possibly leave my nursing duties…!!” Lefiya replied, her voice strained. 
While Aiz and the others might have been familia elites, Lefiya herself was just a mid-level member. It was her responsibility as one of the lower ranks to ensure all miscellaneous tasks around the campsite were attended to. 
While it was true that after the plethora of food prepared yesterday, there wasn’t as much to do today, this didn’t mean she could just abandon the tasks she’d been assigned, and this morning she’d been assigned a three-hour nursing shift to help take care of the wounded. 
“Stop bugging her, will you? Look, you’re making her uncomfortable,” Tione berated her sister. 
“N-no, it’s…I mean…I don’t mind…!” 
She wanted to go. 
She wanted to go with her. 
She wanted to keep an eye on the shameless, insolent boy who’d somehow gotten Aiz to lead him around the city, and she wanted to put a stop to his nefarious plans. She was also hoping to spend time with Aiz and the others, too, of course. 
She opened her mouth once. Twice. 
“Erm…sorry, Lefiya…?” Aiz finally piped up, an apologetic look on her face. 
No doubt, the golden-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman felt guilty for leaving Lefiya and the others behind to do all the work. Lefiya herself felt no resentment at this. In fact, she would be the one feeling guilty if the familia elites were forced to participate in such menial tasks. Their fatigue couldn’t be compared to that of the lower-level members, what with the horrific battle they’d waged in the Dungeon’s depths, and she hoped only that they’d spend time resting and recovering. 
Which was why she didn’t care that they were leaving. Not at all. She didn’t care…in the slightest…that they were leaving. 
Her insides churned. 
As she watched them walk away, smiling with Hestia and the rest of her party, Lefiya groaned inwardly. 
“I’ll…I’ll come join you! As soon as I’ve finished my work!” Raising her shapely eyebrows, she darted forward to grab Aiz’s hand. 
“Hm…? Ah, okay.” Aiz simply cocked her head to the side in confusion at the elf’s sense of duty. “Don’t push yourself, okay?” she added before walking over to join Bell and the others. 
“Be back soooooon!” Tiona called out with a wave of her hand, and then the group was on their way to the town of Rivira, leaving Lefiya and their other companions behind. 
“Rakuta! Do we need water?! The healers aren’t calling, are they?! It’s time to bathe everyone!” 
“I-i-it’s fine, Lefiya! Everything’s…already taken care of. You don’t need to shout like that…” 
Lefiya got straight to work caring for their poison-afflicted companions, flinging herself into her duties with every ounce of will she could muster, like an elf possessed. Her companions, however, were sleeping peacefully in their tents, and the hume bunny who was her nursing partner started turning pale as she desperately tried to quiet the boisterous elf. 
I have to finish as fast as I can to join up with Aiz and the others…! Or, at least, that had been her plan, but her actions so far seemed to be having the opposite effect. Her intensity was only exhausting her already exhausted companions all the more. 
She could already hear Riveria scolding her in her mind as she continued her mad rush. “What were you thinking putting your companions through even more suffering?!” 
“It seems all I’ve done is be scolded lately…” Lefiya moaned to herself, eyes filled with tears of anguish as she busied herself washing the bodies of the sick with the water she’d drawn from the stream. 
Dipping her cloth into the helmet filled with cool, fresh water, she gently wrung out the excess moisture before placing it atop the forehead of her bedridden companion. 
Even as she thought back to her own failures, however…she found that every single one of them could be attributed to that white-haired human boy. And the thought made her gleaming eyes fill with tears. 
I know I shouldn’t think so ill of him, but…! 
She couldn’t help it. 
He was constantly poking his nose into Aiz’s business. 
It didn’t matter how thickheaded he was. And Aiz’s interest in the boy? 
Did it come from actual affection for him or his surprising rate of growth? Lefiya didn’t know for sure, but what she did know was that the power-craving Sword Princess she knew had changed and would continue to change the longer she chased after that rabbit. 
And from Lefiya’s perspective, the perspective of a girl who’d long adored Aiz from afar, this was not okay. 
Just being near him was enough to make her see red. 
Just as she’d first dubbed him her rival back during their special training sessions with Aiz. 
But should I really be fighting with him over something like this…? No, but he’s the one from a different familia here! He should be showing a little restraint! A little modesty…! she grumbled to herself, lips pouting and hands shaking. Every thought led her straight back to pure frustration toward that boy. 
At any rate, she had work to do! Work she needed to complete if she had any hopes of joining Aiz and the others in whatever they happened to be doing with Bell and his goddess. 
And so Lefiya threw herself into her duties, caring for her afflicted companions, wiping down their sweat-soaked bodies, and occasionally making the trip to the small stream for water when her supplies ran low. 
“Lefiya! Shift change. We’ll take over from here.” 
“Ah, right!” 
She’d been so focused, time had seemed to pass in an instant, and already Alicia and the rest of the second shift had arrived. 
As soon as she was outside the tent, Lefiya felt her heart soar, and she turned to rush off after Aiz and the others. 
However, the moment she pointed herself in the direction of Rivira’s lake to the west… 
“Lefiya. You have a visitor.” 
“Hm?” 
A voice called out to her, stopping her in the middle of her trek across camp. 
It was Cruz Bussell, a chienthrope and one of the lower-level members who had accompanied them to the fifty-ninth floor, the same as Raul and the others. A man of few words, he simply pointed toward the camp’s southern border. 
“An elf girl. Seems she’s here to see you,” he continued. “She’s from a different familia, so she’s waiting just outside camp.” 
“Thank you,” she responded in blank puzzlement before wandering over to take a look for herself. 
An elven visitor…? Who in the world could it be? 
Her head cocked to the side, she jogged toward the edge of camp to where, true to Cruz’s words, an elf with long obsidian hair stood waiting in her pure-white battle clothes. 
Lefiya’s blue eyes met the visitor’s red ones, and her heart jumped in surprise. 
“Miss Filvis!” 
Her jog changed to a run as she dashed forward, all smiles. 
Filvis Challia. 
A second-tier adventurer and member of Dionysus Familia. She was the captain of her familia, and she and Lefiya had first become acquainted during the events in the pantry on the twenty-fourth floor, and they’d had somewhat occasional contact since. 
“You are all right…It’s been a while.” The other elf’s lips formed a smile of her own. She looked relieved to see Lefiya in one piece. 
Lefiya came to a stop in front of her, looking up just slightly to meet the taller elf’s eyes. 
“Why are you here?” 
“There were rumors from someone in Rivira who’d returned to the surface to replenish their supplies. They said Loki Familia had returned from their expedition and had set up camp in the forest on the eighteenth floor,” Filvis explained. 
It would seem their return was already a hot topic up on the surface. 
“I wanted to know how you were, so I requested some time off from Lord Dionysus,” she continued, her crimson eyes fixed on Lefiya’s face. “You’ve…lost weight.” 
“I-I have?! Was I really that large before?” Lefiya exclaimed, somewhat shocked given how she’d specifically been trying to avoid sweets during the days leading up to the expedition. 
“That’s not what I meant,” Filvis retorted with a wry smile. 
Not only had their resources been limited over the course of the expedition, but also the harsh conditions of the Dungeon itself were enough to chip away at anyone’s constitution over time. Lefiya and the others had foregone everything except the utmost of necessities—their finely honed swords, for instance, or their staves carved from the wood of the fairy forest’s most sacred tree. 
“You look almost…gallant. No, perhaps that’s the wrong word.” Filvis’s eyes narrowed. Lefiya was taken aback by the implication that the expedition had changed her in some way. “Lefiya, I’m…glad you made it out alive. Seeing you again here makes me truly happy.” 
The words coupled with Filvis’s soft gaze were enough to make Lefiya’s cheeks flush pink. 
Filvis, too, upon realizing what she had just said, gave a tiny start and turned her gaze away. She coughed. “Anyway, you’re alive. That’s what matters.” She corrected herself a moment too late as a blush clearly appeared on her snow-white cheeks. 
Lefiya smiled. 
She was overjoyed at the emotions playing out on the other elf’s countenance. To be able to talk like this again, face-to-face, filled her chest with warmth. 
It was a reunion half a month in the making. 
“Did, erm…anything happen while we were gone? Perhaps regarding the remnants of the Evils…?” 
“Nothing. Or at least not that we could see. If anything, Hermes Familia’s unwarranted intervention caused the biggest stir. I wanted to get word to you as soon as possible…” Filvis couldn’t keep the scowl from her face. 
Lefiya responded with a curious look of her own, but Filvis simply continued with a question. 
“…How did the expedition go?” 
“We had no losses. While it was, indeed, extraordinarily demanding, we also…learned quite a bit,” Lefiya explained, standing up straight. “We attained a great many things, both tangible and immaterial.” She continued her explanation, her eyes never leaving Filvis’s and her voice filled with complicated emotion. “—I wanted to thank you, Miss Filvis. I was able to use the magic you taught me to protect Miss Aiz and the others.” 
It had been toward the end of the battle on the fifty-ninth floor. 
Lefiya had used her Summon Burst, conjuring Filvis’s spell of protection, Dio Grail, to block the corrupted spirit’s magic attack. 
The divine, immaculate light had protected her party from almost certain death. 
“If it weren’t for your magic, neither I nor the others would be standing here before you today,” Lefiya continued, her eyes flooding with tears of gratitude. 
Filvis froze, eyes wide. 
“It…I…My magic really…saved you?” she asked before slowly looking down at her right hand. 
Her crimson eyes trembled, as though overcome with emotion. 
Lefiya could guess what was going on in her mind—that she hadn’t been able to save her own companions, her fellow familia members during the Twenty-Seventh-Floor Nightmare. 
Their lives had slipped through her fingers despite her magic. 
The same magic had succeeded, now, in saving those Lefiya held dear. 
If Lefiya’s guess was correct, what must be going through the other elf’s mind? 
Lefiya couldn’t even begin to imagine. 
All she could do was stand there, watching over Filvis in silence, as the dark-haired elf stared at her hand. 
“—Lefiya.” 
It was then that the sound of her own name stole her attention. 
It was a voice from behind her. 
“L-Lady Riveria! Why are…?” 
“I heard from Cruz that you had an elven visitor,” Riveria explained as she approached them, jade-colored hair dancing with each step. 
The two elves watched in shock as she came to a stop in front of them. 
“I thought it might be you. This young elf…she is the one who taught you that spell, yes?” 
“Sh-she is, yes. This is Miss Filvis Challia of Dionysus Familia,” Lefiya responded. 
At Lefiya’s confirmation, Riveria nodded before examining the dark-haired elf. 
Filvis, on the other hand, could only stand there in a stupor. The introduction of her queen was just too much for her. 
“It was your magic that helped us turn the tide of our battle. Filvis Challia, my elven sister, I owe you the utmost gratitude. Thank you,” the high elf said quietly. A smile rose to her enchanting features, which outrivaled those of all other elves. 
Every muscle in Filvis’s body froze. 
“Lady…Riveria…” she murmured, voice cracking. But even as her body trembled, she wasn’t about to allow herself to be done in by her awe. She quickly stepped away, putting distance between herself and the high-elf queen. “It brings me great honor to stand here before you today…” she said, averting her eyes. “…You’ll have to excuse me.” And then she turned on her heels and walked away. 
“M-Miss Filvis?” Lefiya called after her in confusion, but the other elf didn’t respond, simply leaving the camp in silence. 
Riveria, too, could only look on incredulously as her fellow elf vacated the premises. 
Something had been off about her—that much Lefiya could tell—and she quickly directed a look of confusion at Riveria. 
“Don’t mind me. Go after her.” 
“R-right! Excuse me!” Lefiya shouted behind her as she took off. 
She made a beeline for Filvis. 
Toward that wordless elf making her way quickly away from camp and out of the forest. Already, those flowing black locks, reminiscent of a shrine maiden’s, were receding farther and farther from view. 
“Miss Filvis, please wait! What’s wrong?” Lefiya shouted as she raced through the trees, quickly catching up with the other elf. 
Filvis didn’t stop, pressing forward as she gave a stony response. “…Lady Riveria is a high elf.” 
“And what does that have to do with anything? There’s no cause for concern!” 
Riveria Ljos Alf was the strongest mage in Orario, and her name and history were well known throughout not only the city but the rest of the world, as well. There wasn’t an elf in the whole world who didn’t know who she was, and for a race as mindful of one another as the elves, this demanded a high degree of reverence and respect. 
Lefiya could only look at Filvis in abject confusion. 
“Lady Riveria treats us as equals. She’s never cared for those who stand on ceremony!” 
There’s no need to treat her with such reverence, she tried to continue, but Filvis cut in before she could finish. 
“I am unclean.” 
“!!” 
She spat the words like a curse. 
“She cannot be close to someone like me. What would I even say to her as I am now? So exposed as I am to ridicule? No, I…couldn’t do it. I couldn’t take it. I would end up sullying her, as well,” she said, interrupting Lefiya with her own self-directed scorn. 
Her normally beautiful features were contorted in bitter mortification. 
“And if there was anyone in this world not to be sullied, it is her.” Her heart, stained with the sins of her past, was stirring within her. 
She wasn’t going to stop, obstinately placing one foot in front of the other. 
Lefiya watched her in silence. 
The girl was both beautiful and ugly. She’d watched her companions die until she was the only one left alive, and the sin of that crime still tormented her to this day. Her elven pride only made it all the more overpowering—a stain she’d never be able to wipe away. 
More than anything else, she feared sullying Riveria with that same sin. 
Lefiya followed along behind her hate-filled fellow elf until, all of a sudden, she knew what she had to do. 
Her eyes flashed just as they had once before, her arm extended just as it had once before, and her hand gripped the other girl’s wrist just as it had once before. 
“Miss Filvis!” 
“!” 
Filvis came to a stop. 
Lefiya’s shout hit her and her aura of desolation, like a slap to the face. 
“Someone as dirty as you seem to think you are would not have been able to teach me that spell!” 
“Gngh…” 
“It was your magic. Your magic, Miss Filvis, that saved me. That saved Lady Riveria!” 
Filvis was silent for a moment, her eyes wide with shock, and then she winced. She tried to shake off Lefiya’s grip on her wrist, but the other girl refused to let go. 
Flustered as she was, her arm had lost its strength. 
“Don’t misunderstand me, Lefiya! It’s…!” 
“I am not misunderstanding you! There’s not even anything to misunderstand!” 
“And where exactly is this confidence coming from, hm? There’s absolutely no basis for it!” 
“But there is, Miss Filvis! There is! Even Loki herself said it. You may be cold and calculating on the outside, but on the inside, you have so much heart. So much, Miss Filvis!” 
“What are you even talking about?!” Filvis shot back, her anger rising. As if a joke from Loki of all people could possibly reveal any truth about her! 
This girl has no evidence! No justification! she thought to herself, face red with indignation. She tried to turn away, but Lefiya wouldn’t have it. 
“And…and what about me? You won’t allow yourself to be near Lady Riveria, but I’m okay?!” Lefiya snapped back. “What exactly am I to you, Miss Filvis?!” 
“I-I never said anything like that!” 
Filvis had turned her head away when she realized she wasn’t getting anywhere, but at Lefiya’s question, she whirled back around to face her. 
Her eyes met Lefiya’s, though the other elf had shrunk away a little in shame. 
Filvis was quiet for a moment, face still flushed as Lefiya’s azure eyes stared through her, then she dropped her gaze awkwardly. 
“I-I’m going back.” 
“No.” 
“I’ll do what I want!” 
“I won’t allow it!” 
“Let go of me!” 
“I will not!” 
They struggled, their heavy breaths loud against the quiet of the surrounding trees. The forest leaves sheltered them from the sounds of the outside world. 
At long length, Filvis shook her head as if admitting defeat. 
“Are you this high-handed with the other members of your familia…?” 
Lefiya stared at her blankly for a moment. Then… 
It was her turn to look away awkwardly, at anything but Filvis. 
“I, erm…n-not really? I would never be able to…to behave like this with Miss Aiz and the others. Just…just you.” 
“Just me?! Why?!” Filvis screamed, face pointed toward the sky. 
The tension was starting to become uncomfortable. But even as Lefiya averted her eyes, she refused to release Filvis’s wrist. 
Filvis cursed under her breath…but even the curse itself came out strained, the words directed to somewhere down by her feet. 
“Ever since I met you…I’ve felt more and more strange,” she muttered, sounding altogether very lost, her face still a brilliant shade of pink. 
Lefiya stilled, her own face heating up. She smiled. 
Perhaps the other elf would never be able to forgive herself. 
And as one who didn’t even fully understand how she felt, perhaps Lefiya would never be able to do anything to assuage her pain. 
But the way Filvis was changing was quite possibly one of the sweetest, most noble things she’d ever seen. 
“…Why are you smiling?” 
“Hee-hee-hee…” 
Even under Filvis’s vindictive glare, Lefiya couldn’t keep the smile off her face. 
Filvis closed her eyes, blocking out the brilliant grin of her companion as she turned away. A light pink touched her long ears. 
The dappled light filtering in from the trees overhead painted their clasped hands. 
It wasn’t long after that Lefiya realized something. 
She’d become so engrossed in her back-and-forth with Filvis that she’d completely forgotten about joining up with Aiz and the others in Rivira. 
Before she knew it, the group had already returned to camp. 
“Nooooooooooooooo?!!” 
 
“Hey, hey! Let’s all go take a bath together!” 
Tiona was the first to speak up upon their return. 
“Again? How many times do we need to go before you’ll settle down?” 
“Aw, c’mooooooon! It’s not like we’re doin’ anything else! And the water is just sooooooo niiiiiiiiice!” 
“Noon” had arrived at the camp. 
Aiz, Bell, and the others had just returned from their sightseeing jaunt to Rivira. 
And Tiona’s suggestion had come as soon as the girls had all gathered back together. 
When the Amazonian girl declared that she liked the eighteenth floor, what she was really declaring was her love for the Under Resort’s pool. Her love of bathing wasn’t something restricted to the Dungeon, either. Even back in the manor, she was known for her tendency to suddenly rise to her feet and declare she was “going to the bath for a bit!” So it was no surprise that this carefree inclination carried over to the middle levels of the Dungeon, as well. The frequency of her “bath-time announcements” was enough to give the third-tiers and below especially painful headaches. 
“You just want a glimpse of Lady Hestia’s rack, is that it? Is all that boobage too much for you?” Tione teased, voice laced with suspicion. 
“I-I do not! As if!!” 
At the mention of her name, however, Hestia and the rest of her party glanced up. 
“Is something wrong, Lady Hestia?” Mikoto asked, turning toward the goddess. 
“Hmmm…it’s just…now that they mention it, it would be really nice to get clean. What about you guys, hm? Should we join them?” 
“If we can, I suppose I’d be up for it…What about you, Lady Chigusa?” 
“M-me…? I…All right,” the prum responded meekly as the rest of the familia offered their opinions. 
The two Takemikazuchi Familia women in the rescue party, both of Far Eastern descent, gave reserved yet distinct nods. 
“…Lord Hermes?” Asfi turned around to ask her patron deity, her snow-white cape fluttering. 
“Hm? Ah, no worries. Feel free to take a break from your guard duties if you’d like,” Hermes responded languidly, temporarily freeing his usual escort from her responsibilities. 
“You too, Aiz!” Tiona called out, latching herself onto Aiz’s back. 
“Okay…” 
“Go invite Leene and the others. We can take shifts,” Tione said, and the bathing party expanded quite rapidly. 
Soon, every one of the familia’s female members was being invited. 
“Are you coming, Lefiya?” Aiz asked the young elf. 
“…” 
“Lefiya?” 
“………” 
Lefiya, however, didn’t respond. In fact, she didn’t move a muscle and simply stood there, still as a tree, staring blankly off into space. 
She had gotten so excited about meeting Filvis again that she hadn’t been able to join the group for their sightseeing trip in Rivira, and it had left her in a sort of stupor. To think that she’d forget her one true goal! It was an inconceivable defeat. 
To make matters worse, the reason for her lapse in memory, Filvis, had already left in a huff after Lefiya had cornered her, the tips of her ears still bright red. 
As Aiz looked upon the living elf statue, she was quite perplexed. 
“Snap out of it, Lefiya! Bath time! Let’s go!” Tiona flung herself at the stupefied elf, the impact breaking her out of her trance. 
“Huh?!” Lefiya shook her head back and forth in an attempt to ascertain the situation. “B-bath time? Ah, I’ll go, I’ll go! I shall join you! I won’t lose to that human this time!” she asserted, still not fully recovered. 
“Erm…okay?” was all Aiz could say, even more startled at Lefiya’s seemingly irrelevant statement. 
“Then let’s go! Let’s go!” Tiona cried out, still attached to Lefiya’s side, and then they were off. 
There were twenty of them including Hestia and her group. The lower-level members stuck out like sore thumbs, and Tsubaki was nowhere to be seen, currently off wandering about who knew where. Tiona took the lead, guiding the girls so triumphantly that even Hestia’s group, who’d yet to even break a sweat since they’d entered the Dungeon, found their excitement building. 
The large party made its way along. 
Until, after a short while, the scene in front of them expanded to reveal a breathtaking waterfall. 
“Heeeeeeeere we are!” Tiona splayed her arms out in a show of grand exaltation. 
“Oooooooh!” the awed group chorused. 
Clear blue water cascaded down the some ten-meder height of the waterfall. The faint spray dancing along the pool’s surface was both cool and refreshing. It was surrounded on all sides by the dim glitter of crystal, the view overhead a vast, dome-like canvas of leaves and branches. 
It was the same fountain pool Aiz and the others had enjoyed only two days prior. 
“While I knew there were pools in this forest…I hadn’t known about this one,” Asfi murmured as she admired the scenery. Though she’d been to the eighteenth floor many a time, this was the first time she’d been to this pool. 
“Tiona was the one who found it…” Aiz explained with a little smile. “…She discovered this hidden treasure during one of her strolls.” 
Despite this particular pool being a bit of a trek from the campsite, visiting it whenever they had time had become a sort of Loki Familia custom. 
“Shall we take turns, then?” Tione suggested. “…Lady Hestia, if you and your party would like to go first…” 
“No, no, you guys should feel free to go first! We’re fine going second.” 
“Just leave guard duty to us!” 
“Really? All right, then…” 
When Tione looked around at her own familia, ignoring the first-timers for now, the lower-level girls gave up their places for their senior sisters. She responded with a smile as the young demi-humans chorused, “We’ll keep watch, too!” 
While the eighteenth floor may have been a safety point, that didn’t stop monsters from other floors from making their way to this forest in search of food. It would be senseless to bathe without someone keeping watch—that rule applied no matter which floor of the Dungeon they happened to be on. 
And that didn’t even go into the many men lurking about the forest, as well. 
“I’ll go ahead and get in, then, Lefiya.” 
“Be my guest, Miss Aiz!” 
And so Lefiya found herself once again on guard duty. 
There were eight who made their way into the pool first, including Aiz, Tiona, and Tione, as well as Hestia and Asfi of the rescue party. 
There was no hesitation among them, all of the girls laughing and talking as they began removing their clothes in preparation for the bath. 
The new girls, led by the imperious Mikoto Yamato of the Far East—the up-and-coming Takemikazuchi Familia rookie known even among the other adventurers—boasted gorgeous bodies with supple arms and legs and smooth, perky curvatures that could rival the Loki Familia members’. 
“—Hmph! I think we can all agree that I’m the winner here!” Hestia proclaimed triumphantly—at Aiz, for some reason—as she made a grand show of removing her own garments. 
Even Aiz was taken aback at the twin mountains tumbling out of the goddess’s restraints, but it was Tiona who suffered the biggest emotional hit, bringing an arm up to cover her own flat chest with a strangled cry of defeat. 
Tione, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered in the least. “Take a look,” she said. 
Once the group finished relieving themselves of their clothes, they headed immediately for the pool. 
“Yaaaaaahooooooo!” 
“What have I told you about diving in like that, Tiona?!” 
“Oh! This really is something!” 
“The water is absolutely beautiful…even the streams of our home in the East weren’t this clear.” 
“It really feels wonderful…” 
“You know, you’re actually quite elegant, Miss Asfi. I never noticed it before.” 
“Are you saying I’m not normally, Lilliluka Erde…?” 
“N-no, uh…just that…you know, you’re always giving one hundred percent to your work!” 
Voices rose from all over the pool as the group enjoyed themselves, some of the women diving straight into the water while others simply poured it over their skin, savoring the refreshing purity. 
Even Aiz and her companions, already used to this bathing experience, were drawn in by the excited antics of Hestia and the other newcomers. Tiona’s splashing led to a contest among the girls, and soon their high-pitched squeals filled the air like those of water nymphs. 
Wet hair clung to their necks and shoulders as rivulets of water traced the curves of their bare skin, more lustrous and refreshing than alluring. 
They’re all so beautiful…well, of course Miss Aiz is, but even the others, too…Lefiya thought to herself with a sigh as she scanned the group from her spot outside the pool. Their naked bodies seemed so stunning in the water. And from the murmurings of the other lower-level girls dotting the perimeter, she wasn’t alone in her thoughts. 
At least Loki isn’t here. She found herself silently thanking the sky. 
The lecherous goddess would, no doubt, be foaming at the mouth already at the sight of all these naked women. 
And what a sight it was, if it was enough to mesmerize even the decidedly female Lefiya. 
The men would be thinking the same thing… 
After all, if even Lefiya was thinking it, surely the men would be. 
While their job as guards was mostly to keep an eye out for monsters…they also had a duty to bestow divine judgment unto any and all degenerate Peeping Toms who might try catching a glimpse of female skin. Lefiya’s staff was ready to create hellfire at a moment’s notice. 
That being said, Aki and the other girls were still back at camp to keep an eye on Loki Familia’s men. Any libidinous intentions they had were sure to be stymied then and there. Plus, the perimeter they’d made to guard the pool was impenetrable. Anyone who tried to sneak in would be spotted immediately. 
A little smile rose to Lefiya’s lips. She was entranced as she watched Aiz push a lock of golden hair behind her ear, but even still, she never let her guard down, eyes and ears keen as she monitored the environs. 
It was simply unthinkable anyone would try to sneak past them to get a glimpse of the pool. In broad daylight? With such tight security, no one would— 
“—EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!” 
There was one. 

All of a sudden, something came plummeting down from the sky with a high-pitched shriek. 
It fell right smack in the center of the pool in which Aiz and the others were currently bathing. 
“—Huh?!” 
The kersplash! was accompanied by a giant spray of water. 
The screams were quick to follow, and Hestia and the other girls scrambled back in terror. 
A hoarse cry of surprise escaped Lefiya’s lips, same as the other guards as the commotion rapidly built. 
It was unthinkable! Some pig had actually been lurking about in the dense thicket of trees above their heads. 
A dishonorable voyeur of a man—who’d just launched a full-scale attack on the maidens’ bath!! 
For an instant, time seemed to stand still, then Lefiya jerked forward. 
Her face paled instantly. The degenerate who had come tumbling into her field of vision, who was currently stumbling and crawling toward the shoals, was none other than that white-haired boy. 
“Huh? Little Argonaut? You wanna take a bath, too?” 
“Amazing. Nothing fazes you, does it?” 
Tiona and Tione stood chatting cheerily over the boy, not bothering to hide anything and showing no signs of embarrassment. 
“Wha…? Wha-wha-wha…?!” 
“H-huhhhhh…?!” 
The same was not true of the two Far Eastern girls, who quickly plunged into the water, faces red as they let out simultaneous screams. 
“It couldn’t be…Lord Hermes?” Asfi mused in disbelief as she scrutinized the rustling dome of leaves overhead. 
“What the hell are you doing, Bell…?” Hestia questioned, her breasts floating atop the water’s surface. 
“M-Mister Bell! How did you get here?!” the prum girl next to her squeaked. 
And then— 
“…Oh.” 
His gaze met Aiz’s. The swordswoman currently was standing in the middle of the pool with her back to the cascading waterfall. 
Her reaction was immediate, cheeks a brilliant red as she hurriedly used both hands to cover herself. 
A single drop of water worked its way teasingly down from her long golden hair, across her pearly skin, tracing the nape of her neck before sliding down her slender waist. 
Bell’s face grew so hot it was as though a fever had taken hold of his body. 
Lefiya’s face, too, turned a deep scarlet. 
He’d seen her. 
He’d seen the naked body of her golden-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman. 
He’d witnessed every inch of that gorgeous body, so beautiful it outrivaled even the gods’, a body that belonged to her most cherished, most adored, most revered woman in the whole wide world. 
—It wasn’t possible. 
Bell and Lefiya. 
The former of whom was currently dying of embarrassment, the latter of whom was currently bubbling over with rage. 
Both of them lost it at the exact same moment. 
“You—bastaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard!!” 
“I’m—sorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!” 
The screams erupted from their lungs simultaneously. 
Then Lefiya was off, her feet pounding the ground and accelerating toward him at an impossible speed. 
At the same time, Bell flung himself out of the pool with the ferocity of a river breaking through a dam. 
The other guards were quick to follow, shaking off their stupor and galloping toward the white-haired boy from all sides. 
But Bell was faster. 
Lefiya shot through the air, her fingers outstretched, but they fell mere celches short of the boy’s backside as the rabbit narrowly escaped the rapidly tightening circle of girls. 
In the blink of an eye, he was gone. 
“?Gggnnhh!!” 
A strangled noise of unadulterated fury squeezed out of Lefiya’s lungs as she gave chase. Aiz and the others still in the pool were able to do nothing but stand there in shock. 
Both hunter and hunted were equal shades of scarlet. 
But try as she might, she couldn’t seem to gain on him. He was too fast. The rabbitlike speed granted by his sheer terror was enough to surpass even their difference in level. 
The intensity of his humiliation had triggered a limit off. Of all the…! 
Ever so surely, the zooming boy grew smaller and smaller in her sights. 
“—Unleashed beam of light, limbs of the holy tree. You are the master archer. Loose your arrows, fairy archers. Pierce, arrow of accuracy!!” It was the fastest she’d ever cast a spell in her entire life. 
“Lefiya, no! What the hell are you thinking—?!” 
“You’re gonna kill him!!” 
“He’ll burn right up!!” 
The other guards shouted as they began to catch up with her. 
The magic she was currently weaving was easily at a Level 5 with the pure, unadulterated rage built up behind it, and what was worse, it was a homing spell. It would kill him instantly. 
The demi-human girls tried desperately to save the Level-2 white rabbit from a swift and certain death. They clung to her waist, her shoulders, her back in an attempt to restrain her, just in time for her to watch the boy disappear completely into the trees in front of her. 
“WUUUUAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGHHH?!!” 
The roar that ripped its way out of her lungs echoed throughout the entire forest. 
 
“That damn brat saw Miss Aiz and the others in the bath!” 
“I’m gonna kill him, I’m gonna kill him, I’m gonna kill hiiiiim!!” 
News of Bell’s peeping incident spread across the camp like wildfire. 
The men and women of Loki Familia instantly took up arms, glaring at him with bloodred rage. They had a new monster to kill. Even those still bedridden from poison rose to their feet like bloodthirsty zombies, driven by their unbridled fury. 
The camp was roaring with battle cries as the adventurers readied themselves for war. 
“What the hell?…Somethin’ happen while I was away?” Tsubaki mused, having just returned from hunting. Even she was thrown for a loop by the murderous aura occupying the camp. 
“I’d quite like to know myself…” Riveria closed her eyes, massaging her temple. 
“Night” had fallen on the Dungeon. 
Even as the light of the crystals faded and a curtain of darkness blanketed the campsite, its inhabitants were wide awake, fueled by their thirst for blood. The sight of all those ferocious visages in the flickering light of the magic-stone lanterns was enough to make Hestia and the other visitors gulp in fear. 
“Bell’s really done it this time…” 
“He is a man, after all…” 
Welf and Tsubaki murmured quietly among themselves once they’d gotten wind of what had happened. 
“What the hell were you thinking, Hermes? Egging Bell on like that?!” 
“C-calm down, Hestia. My pride as a god wouldn’t allow me to lead Bell down any path aside from that of righteousness…” 
Meanwhile, Hermes was currently being restrained in another corner of the camp. 
Asfi had sensed right away that it was him lurking up in the trees with Bell, and she’d gone after him at once, leaving him no time to escape. Her ogre-like interrogation powers—the same that had earned her the alias Perseus—quickly drew out the unsavory scheme of her patron deity. Bell, himself, had attempted to thwart it, but it had ultimately led to the boy’s participation and untimely fall into the pool itself. 
“Don’t imply Bell actually wanted to go along with your sick plan!” Hestia shot back, her twin pigtails flying as she delivered a sharp smack! to Hermes’s oh-so-innocently smiling face. “I just knew something felt off about this whole thing…!” she continued, positively bristling. She hadn’t been able to wrap her head around how on earth her weak-willed follower could have performed such an audacious act, but it all made sense now. 
“Any last words, Hermes?” 
“—To peep is to love, Hestia!” 
“Oh, go rot in hell!” 
“GrrrrrrruuuuuAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGHHH!!” 
Asfi’s punishment fell swift and sure. The honor of her familia was at stake. 
Hestia and the rest of Loki Familia could only shudder in horror as the woman inflicted a terrifying beating, her face red with shame and anger. 
“So it was nothing but gods stirring up trouble after all.” 
“Really? Then Little Argonaut wasn’t actually coming to hang out with us?” 
“So…where did he go?” Aiz mused, turning her gaze away from Tione, Tiona, and the currently tortured Hermes to survey the campsite. 
Bell had yet to return from his run out of the forest, his location currently unknown. 
No one at the camp had seen him since he’d left. 
As late as it was now, Aiz couldn’t help but worry…though that thought was forgotten for a moment when a figure suddenly appeared from the direction of the seventeenth-floor passageway. 
“Yeesh! The hell is all this racket?!” 
“Hm? Oh! Bete!” 
The werewolf scowled as he took in the sight of his strangely murderous familia members and the suffering screams of one unlucky god. A backpack stuffed full of vials hung from his right shoulder. 
He’d just returned from the surface with all the antivenin he could find. 
“Geez, you’re late! We’ve been wastin’ away here!” 
“I’d like to see you make the trip, huh, you damn ingrate!” 
“Captaaaaaaaain! Bete’s back!” 
“Oh, uh…welcome back…” 
Almost instantly, the pestilential atmosphere of the camp turned to flurried confusion as everyone rushed to heal the afflicted. 
Vials of antivenin passed from hand to hand before being rushed to tents to be administered to their bedridden companions. The moment the rather vile-smelling purplish liquid touched their tongues, their panting gasps and raspy breaths stilled, eliciting cries of joy from the too few overworked healers. Everyone in the camp began clasping their hands in relief at the improved condition of their peers. 
“Thank god! Everyone’s gonna be all right!…Guess ol’ Grumpy Wolf really can pull through every now and then.” 
“Heh. Well, at any rate, we can rest easy for now.” 
Tiona and Tione exchanged smiles as they watched their female companions grin in their sleep in blessed relief from the pain. Even Hestia and the rest of her party lent a hand to hasten the healing efforts. 
“Good work from you, Bete. You really saved us.” 
“Yer clothes are an unsightly mess. Ye gods, lad! Did ye not stop for even a moment’s rest?” 
Riveria and Gareth both chuckled as they turned their attention toward the werewolf, who simply growled in return. “Aw, can it, you old fogies. Finn, I’m hittin’ the sack!” 
Bete didn’t even throw them a second glance as he stormed into one of the tents. 
“No worries. Get some rest…and thank you, Bete.” Finn folded his arms, offering a mixture of sympathy and appreciation as he watched Bete collapse onto one of the beds. 
The stifling cloud of gloom that had been permeating the entirety of Loki Familia’s camp since they’d arrived finally began to dissipate. 
“…Hey, um, Lefiya?” 
“…” 
Despite the sudden excitement overtaking the campsite, Lefiya didn’t seem to have noticed, simply tending to the sick in silence by herself in one of the tents. 
Aiz called out to her as she passed by with another handful of antivenin but received no response. The group of hume-bunny girls Lefiya was currently administering the medication to shuddered. 
Why does this feel…familiar…? Aiz thought to herself, cold sweat dribbling down her temple as she felt the dark miasma surrounding the elven maiden. 
There was something foreboding about this. Like the calm before the storm. 
…He still hasn’t come back. 
They’d already finished administering the rest of the antivenin, and a sense of peace had befallen the campsite. 
Aiz let her gaze travel toward the darkened ceiling, which was hidden behind a shroud of leaves and branches. 
This time belonged to the monsters of the forest. The darker it became, the harder it was to see and the greater the danger. A danger was all the more real for a lone upper-class adventurer who’d only just reached Level 2. Perhaps he was already lost, roaming the forest aimlessly in search of a way out. 
Aiz knew sending out a search party now was both reckless and pointless. The forest was too vast and the boy far too small…and yet. As suppertime approached, she couldn’t help but worry that she should be out there searching for him. 
“Thank you so much, Miss Lyu!” 
“No worries. I’ll take my leave now.” 
—It was then that it happened. 
The moment Aiz turned in the direction of the waterfall pool, Bell and another adventurer appeared from among the trees. 
It was someone Aiz was sure she’d seen before…someone from the rescue party, wearing a mask. 
At dinner the night before, yes. Aiz was sure she’d seen them talking to Bell. They’d come together with Hestia and the others, an enigma enshrouded in that hood and long cape they never seemed to remove. Even now, their face was concealed. The slim frame adorned in shorts and long boots beneath lightweight battle clothes, however, appeared decidedly female. 
Identity aside, it would seem as if this girl had located the wandering Bell and brought him home. 
After exchanging what appeared to be a few words with the boy, she returned silently to the forest. 
Aiz let out a sigh of relief. 
No sooner had the breath passed her lips, however, than the bedraggled Bell started his way toward her with a sigh of his own, gaze rising to meet hers…and their eyes locked. 
“Ah.” 
“Oh.” 
They verbalized in unison. 
Twin blushes rose to their faces, almost as though they were looking in a mirror. 
The scene from only a few hours earlier replayed in both their minds. The thought of him seeing her naked was enough to make Aiz’s cheeks radiate heat; meanwhile, the thought of seeing Aiz naked was enough to make Bell’s face glow red up to his ears. 
“…I, uh…erm…” 
She squirmed, rubbing her hands together as her eyes dropped to her feet. 
This loss of composure wasn’t like her. She was so flustered, she couldn’t even look Bell in the face. She’d never felt like this before. Not only her cheeks but her whole body burned, every celch of her skin turning a fierce, fiery scarlet. 
The boy was the same. 
Even more rattled than Aiz, he was sweating enough to form a salty lake beneath his feet, until suddenly—he threw himself forward onto the ground, lying prostrate. 
“I’m…I’m so sorrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!” he screamed. 
It was a shameless apology from every ounce of his being. 
Aiz was stunned into silence. Quickly she attempted to put a stop to the full-bodied apology. The boy’s head was already bleeding from having hit the ground a little too hard. 
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” he continued somewhat deliriously as Aiz pulled him up and onto his feet with a wobble. Red still stained his cheeks, and he lowered his head so that his white bangs hid his eyes. 
The sight of his continued shame was enough to bring the flush back to her own cheeks. 
“It’s…it’s fine…really…okay?” she assured him, voice sisterly. 
“O-okay…” Bell croaked, his head drooping. 
And so they stood there, blushing violently, facing each other but unable to even glance up. 
Time passed slowly after that. 
Bell made his rounds, apologizing to each and every one of the girls who’d been present in the bathing pool. One by one. With the utmost civility. And fervently. 
He spent so long on his knees, it was a surprise he didn’t dig himself a hole, and at the sight of him throwing himself on the ground again and again in Far Eastern prostration, none of the girls could stay mad at him for long. When they additionally took into account the extenuating circumstances involving a certain god who’d instigated the entire affair, there was no way they could punish him beyond a harshly worded warning. 
Tiona and the others weren’t bothered in the least by what had happened, and they simply brushed it off with a laugh. Asfi, on the other hand, actually turned Bell’s apology around, apologizing to him instead. His patron deity, Hestia, toed the border between lunacy and acumen as she gave him one of her thorough sermons, while Hermes, worn to the bone and wheezing softly, simply frightened Bell away with a hoarse hiss. 
While the coed “Sword Princess Protection Unit” still had one last riot left in them, Aiz managed to quell it without incident. Even Finn and the other familia leaders could only chuckle in amusement as Bell came to them in heartfelt apology for the trouble he’d caused. 
“Hah…” Bell let out what was easily his hundredth sigh as his tour of apologies finally came to an end. 
His features were an amalgam of humiliation, guilt, and fatigue. He’d traversed almost the entirety of the campsite, dashing here and there with his portable magic-stone lantern, while the rest of the group readied themselves for dinner. He had nothing equipped save a weapon for his own protection. 
Still battling the sense of immorality plaguing his mind, he’d finally nabbed a chance to catch his breath, when— 
“?” 
—the most ominous of presences appeared behind him. 
Heart clenching like a vise, he gave a sudden gasp, a wheezy, high-pitched flutelike sound escaping his lips. 
He turned around with an almost audible creak, sweat pouring from him, to find his forest fairy standing before him with both hands clenched murderously around her staff. 
A pernicious cloud of inky black miasma rested on her shoulders, her face pointed downward in foreboding silence. 
Bell couldn’t move. 
He’d looked death in the eyes twice already. Once when he’d taken on that minotaur, and again when Goliath had chased him on the seventeenth floor. But neither of those two fiends even came close to eliciting the deep-rooted, carnal fear running through him right now. 
His rubellite eyes could almost see a terrifying dragon of magic rearing its head from behind the girl’s back. 
Her eyes rose. 
“Unforgivable…unforgivable…unforgivable…” 
Her normally azure eyes glowed with a surreal, ominous intensity. 
Again and again, she continued her mantra, almost like a broken doll, looking very much like some kind of demonic entity. 
He’d dirtied her. He’d sullied the immaculate body of her beloved, and the flames of antipathy were already gathering around her like a firestorm. 
The staff gripped tightly in her hands let out a shrill, creaking groan. 
Time stood still. 
Then she seemed to sink—before jerking forward, kicking off the ground with every ounce of mind and spirit she had, and launching toward him at the speed of sound. 
“Don’t yoooooooooou mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove!!” 
“AIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!” 
Their grand game had begun anew. 
Once more they were in heated chase, the white rabbit wailing in fear as his bloodthirsty fairy assailant ran him down. 
The former boasted the leveled-up move speed of a Level 2, but the latter currently possessed the transcendent move speed of a mage driven mad by pure, unadulterated rage. 
Her speed was winning, and in the blink of an eye, both pursuer and pursued were free of the camp, disappearing into the forest beyond. 
“Hm? Where’s Lefiya?” 
“Can’t find her anywhere!” 
Tione and Tiona mused from the center of the campsite as they scanned the perimeter in search of the junior elf. 
“…?” Aiz, too, let her eyes wander the camp. Dinner was about to begin, and Lefiya was nowhere to be seen. 
Now that she was thinking about it, the boy was missing, too… 
Cocking her head to the side, she couldn’t help but wonder where the two had gotten off to. 
 
The forest on the eighteenth floor was enormously vast. 
The swath of skyscraping trees spanned the floor from east to west, making up a full fifth of the Under Resort’s total area, and its greenery ran flush with both the sweeping grasslands at the floor’s center and the enclosing walls on its every side. While a variety of fruits and vegetables grew within its verdure, foodstuffs weren’t its only boon—blue crystals, too, sprang forth from its soil, from giant, swordlike formations to the smallest of tiny stones. 
Perhaps its most unique trait, however, was its ability to transform into a forest of pure magic as soon as night fell upon the Dungeon. 
Supplied with the whimsical light they’d built up during the “daylight” hours, the crystals glowed softly with a kind of subtle elegance, bathing the forest in a hue of blue and giving birth to an eerie, bewitching ambience. While there were, of course, the monsters to worry about, armed with their superior night vision, there were also a surprising number of trip-ups scattered throughout the forest floor, liable to lead to a world of pain for anyone lacking caution. To make matters worse, the number of upper-class adventurers who’d entered the woods and never returned was frighteningly significant, and the fact that their remains had never been found was enough to suggest that some kind of ferocious monster was lurking deep within the trees…at least, that was the story floating around Rivira. 
At any rate, the forest at night was very much a dangerous place. Even those acquainted with its byways and thruways could easily lose their bearings at a moment’s notice. 
The reason for all this buildup was, of course, to provide transition, because, as one might expect in such a forest— 
“…W-we’re lost again.” 
“Y-you say that like it’s my fault!” 
—Bell and Lefiya were completely and hopelessly lost. 
Their game of cat and mouse had ended right smack in the middle of the dark woods, neither one of them realizing just how far they’d come until they had no idea where they were. 
Bell’s head hung particularly low, as this was the second time today he’d found himself lost among these trees. 
Lefiya, however, just continued her red-faced tirade, taking umbrage at everything coming from Bell’s mouth. 
The two novice adventurers could only pant heavily, wiping the continuous sweat from their brows as they stood beneath the lofty branches. 
Lefiya had finally caught up to Bell only a few minutes prior. Just when she’d been about to strike down the frightened rabbit with her staff, she’d broken free of her trance long enough to realize nothing around her looked familiar. 
The silence was deafening. The road back was unclear. And the deep, dark, spine-tingling forest all around them quickly brought reality down on them hard as they stood there in their cold sweats, silently wondering what it was they should do. 
Running about recklessly would get them nowhere fast, which meant staying put was their best option for now. 
“R-really, it’s your fault, you know? You shouldn’t have run away! And especially not this deep within the forest!” 
“A-and end up dead…?! No, thank you!” 
“Just what do you take me for?! I would never kill you! I only wanted to…beat you within an inch of your life, that’s all!” 
“Oh, because that’s so much better!” 
Almost as soon as they were able to breathe normally again, the squabbling started. 
Bell’s portable magic-stone lantern wobbled back and forth in time with his words. 
“Well, you’re the one who had to go and force Miss Aiz to give you special training! The impudence! You do realize you’re of different familias, yes? And not even ones with amiable relations! You don’t find that the least bit strange?!” 
“Uhhh…” 
“Miss Aiz is a first-tier adventurer! The Sword Princess! The ever-so-powerful, ever-so-beautiful, ever-so-lovely Sword Princess! She is not someone from whom lower-class nobodies can receive training! Do you not have even the slightest shred of common sense within that head of yours?!” 
Before she knew it, Lefiya was rattling off everything she’d been keeping bottled up for so long. Face flushed, she closed in on the boy, leaving him cowering in fear and lost for a counterargument. 
“Not only did you have the gall to monopolize Miss Aiz for a whole day—a whole day!—you then proceeded to come down here and have her waiting on you hand and foot…! I’m…I’m so jealous! No, I’m appalled!!” 
“Guhhhh…?!” 
She couldn’t stop it now. Her insides were bubbling like a witch’s cauldron, hotter and higher and more and more furious as everything came tumbling out. It was one thing after the other after another as she laid bare his every sin, from his time spent training with Aiz atop the wall before the expedition all the way until today, with her own personal grudge rearing its head from time to time. 
Bell could do nothing but bend farther and farther backward beneath the onslaught. 
“And then…as if that weren’t enough! You…you saw her naked body…!!” 
“I-I-I-I-I-I-I’m sorryyyyyyy!!” 
“You did, didn’t you?! 
“Huh?!” 
“You saw it, didn’t you?!” 
“Saw what?!” 
“Do you really want to make me say it?!” 
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorrrrryyyyyyyyyyy!!” 
Lefiya felt tears sting the corners of her eyes at the boy’s implied confession. 
“Don’t you feel shame as a human being? You’re the worst! The absolute worst! The most vile, degenerate human being in all of existence!!” she screamed, eyes clenched shut. 
It was a brilliant, scathing finishing blow, and Bell’s body curled in on itself with an audible “Gnnghh!” 
He took a few teetering steps backward…then let his head fall with a dramatic, soundless slump. 
The girl’s mighty tempest had finally passed. 
“Haah…haah…” Only her ragged breathing could be heard within the dim quietude of the forest, the exertion forcing her shoulders up and down with each breath. 
Still, the boy said nothing. He had no rebuttal. No excuse. His white hair hung down over his eyes like the ears of a dejected rabbit. 
As the magic-stone lantern in his hand continued to exude its light, Lefiya turned her eyes away. 
This was the first time since she’d met him that she’d been able to speak her mind. 
She’d let everything out, all of it, and as she stood there in awkward silence now, she couldn’t help but think that she’d gone too far. 
Just as she began to feel truly guilty at her one-sided verbal bludgeoning of the boy…Gurgle. 
Bell’s stomach rumbled. 
“…” 
“…” 
Though his face was still pointed downward, the tips of his ears turned visibly red. 
Timidly and ever so slowly, he began to raise his head. The moment his gaze met Lefiya’s, however, it snapped back down. 
“That was, uh…well…Don’t, uh…” 
“…Are you…hungry?” 
“I, erm…no? I-I mean, well…y-yes…” he squeaked, his voice growing smaller and smaller. 
They’d begun their wild chase right before dinnertime. It was likely he hadn’t eaten any lunch, either, running around all day as he had within the forest. 
Lefiya sighed. 
Their war would have to wait. 
A quick survey of their surroundings yielded nothing in terms of readily available fruit. Her thoughts went, instead, to her person, and she scrounged around in her battle clothes…only to discover something located neatly in her breast pocket. 
The crystal drops Aiz had given her two days prior. 
Hnngh… 
Her eyebrows furrowed as she eyed the two tiny teardrop shapes in the palm of her hand. 
They’d been her badge of honor, so to speak, for saving her beloved, and as they sat there, glittering and sparkling in their bluish-white auras…she let out a sigh. 
Taking one of the droplets between her fingers, she handed it to Bell. 
“Here.” 
“Huh…?” 
“You are hungry, are you not? While it may not be incredibly filling…it should help ease the cravings,” she explained, looking everywhere but at him. 
Bell seemed stunned. 
Finally, though looking somewhat lost and altogether apologetic…he took the offered crystal drop. 
“But…but this…” 
“Just take it! It’s fine!” 
“O-okay!” 
Even Bell could feel the shame in Lefiya’s words. 
Lefiya, at the same time, did her best to mask the flush rising to her cheeks by raising her voice. 
“Though before you eat it, know that the value of this crystal drop is unprecedented, and you must fully savor its exquisite flavor! It could easily go for thirty thousand valis on the surface!” 
“Th-thirty thousand valis for this tiny thing…?!” Bell gave a shocked shudder. It was even more expensive than the equipment on his back. 
“Well, that’s for an entire bottle of them…but still!” Lefiya added, a droplet of sweat working its way down her temple. She watched in awkward apprehension as he brought the tiny drop nervously to his lips, and then she followed suit. 
Once the deed had been done, they took a seat somewhat unconsciously at the base of a nearby tree to get some rest. 
The forest was as dark as ever around them. 
The Dungeon’s ceiling was all but invisible beyond the mesh-like canopy of branches and leaves above their heads. It was cold, too, no doubt a result of the faux night that had settled over the entire floor. There in the faint blue glow of the crystals adorning the tree trunk’s base, the two sat side by side, Bell’s magic-stone lantern placed between them and illuminating their profiles. 
They said nothing, their backs to the tree as they stared into the darkness around them. 
It was oppressing—this aura of awkward discomfort hanging over the two as they rolled the hard candy around in their mouths. 
The strange feeling of distance between them said much about the relationship they’d formed. 
“—Ooooaaaaaahhhhh.” 
“—!” 
A roar cut its way through the quiet. 
The pair’s shoulders twitched. 
As if on cue, they looked to each other in horror. 
Just the two of us, this deep in the forest…! This is no time for us to let our guards down! Lefiya thought to herself, admittedly too late. 
It was dangerous in this forest at night. It was most assuredly not a place they could pleasantly pass the time until morning, at least not with just the two of them. 
The last of the crystal drop dissolving in her mouth, Lefiya rose to her feet. 
“We…we need to return to camp…somehow. It’s too dangerous for us to remain here.” 
“R-right…” Bell nodded as he hurriedly followed her lead. 
Lefiya quickly glanced in his direction before once again surveying their surroundings. 
To the left, to the right, behind, in front, and even overhead, the trees grew thick. She couldn’t make out even the slightest glimmer of light from the magic-stone lanterns undoubtedly shining brightly in Rivira or Loki Familia’s camp. 
If I were to use my magic, Miss Aiz and the others would surely notice…wouldn’t they? 
Yes, a brilliant flash of light, like a firework straight overhead—the ever reliable first-tiers would definitely see it, and so long as they stayed where they were, help would be there shortly. 
And yet…what kind of impression would that make? 
Running off completely of her own volition, then summoning her companions to come rescue her? The shame! Lefiya had at least some self-respect. 
As reluctant as she was to admit it, the fault here was entirely her own. 
She had to get them out of this and safely back to camp herself. 
I simply need to pull myself together…she thought to herself, sneaking a glance at the boy next to her, who was currently using his magic-stone lantern to scan the perimeter. 
He was a Level 2, a third-tier adventurer. 
She was one level higher at Level 3, a highly ranked mage and a second-tier adventurer. 
When it came to both Status and experience, she had the upper hand. 
“Can I perhaps…ask you something? Just how old are you?” 
“Huh? I’m, uh…fourteen.” 
As expected, he was younger than her, as well. That would make her his senior. 
Which made it all the more essential that she come up with something to get them out of this mess—a thought that made her focus sharpen. 
“Don’t go to pieces now, all right?! Just follow my lead and don’t do anything stupid!” Lefiya was remarkably leader-like as she raised her index finger in strict instruction, her other hand still tightly gripping her staff. 
“R-roger!!” Bell replied between fervent nods of his head. 
Lefiya was, after all, a member of Loki Familia. 
She couldn’t allow herself to appear feckless or cowardly in front of someone from a different familia. 
Pushing down the insecure little girl who so often reared her head in front of Aiz and the others, she assumed a bearing worthy of the reputation and prestige of the largest familia in all of Orario. 
She wouldn’t reveal the fear and anxiety fluttering in her heart. As determined fortitude flowed through her veins, she led Bell away from the tree and into the night. 
Just stay calm, keep your wits about you, never let your guard down… 
She took the magic-stone lantern from Bell, using it to illuminate the forest in front of her as she walked. Bell himself, she ordered to keep watch behind them. 
For so long she’d been protected by, saved by Aiz and the others. 
Now it was her turn. She could handle this. She had a duty. 
Even if it was nothing more than a charade, Lefiya’s countenance was one of a true second-tier adventurer. There was no doubt that she’d grown beyond the small, scared child always hiding behind Aiz and the others. 
This was a role she’d never had a chance to fulfill, what with the entire legion of distinguished elites among Loki Familia’s ranks. The scared, anxious lower-level adventurer glancing to and fro behind her was her responsibility as she led him single-handedly through the forest. 
She used blue crystals to denote their path, breaking off tiny pieces and scattering the glittering shards behind them as they walked. She marked their passage on the trees with a large X, being sure to carve it deep enough that the self-restorative wood wouldn’t immediately fill the gouge back up. 
And there were other times, too, that she caught wind of monsters nearby, and she and Bell would quickly snuff out the light before hiding themselves in the brush. They let monster after monster pass by them, not wanting to throw themselves into battle unless absolutely necessary. 
“Erm…Miss Viridis?” the timid voice called from behind her. 
“…It’s Lefiya.” 
“Huh?” 
“You may simply call me Lefiya. I’m not partial to non-elves using my tribe’s name. But back to the matter at hand, do you need something?” she responded curtly, eyes trained straight forward. 
“The members of Loki Familia…they can really do anything, can’t they?” Bell asked, undaunted, as he followed behind her unfaltering forward march. 
“…? What do you mean?” 
“Erm, it’s just…you’re a mage, right, Miss Lefiya? And yet you’re still so…so…I don’t know, driven. Like, even right now, just charging through the forest like some kind of explorer…It’s impressive. Makes me think that Loki Familia can do just about anything.” 
“D-d-driven…?!” Lefiya’s cheeks flushed without warning at the boy’s unadulterated praise. “F-flattery won’t do you any good, you know?! We should keep all conversation to a minimum!” Lefiya whirled around in anger. 
“I-I’m sorry!!” Bell immediately shrank backward. 
“Really now!” she huffed, eyebrows bristling. She did not appreciate this surprise attack on her mental state. 
Turning away from the boy and his look of apology, she took off at a brisk walk. 
“…Miss Lefiya?” 
“What is it now?” Her voice had an edge to it. 
But the boy’s reply was soft. “I guess…if you weren’t able to do anything, you wouldn’t be any help to Mister Finn and…Miss Aiz and the others…right?” 
The second the words left his mouth… 
Lefiya’s feet came to an abrupt stop. 
But only momentarily. She forced her legs to restart, attempting a slow, careful response as she pushed forward. 
“This is true. If you weren’t, then…then you would never be able to catch up to them.” 
Silence settled over the pair. 
The gentle rustling of the grasses beneath their feet provided the only accompaniment to their footsteps. 
For the first time, they’d reached a sort of mutual understanding. Without even realizing it, both of them existed on the same plane, their hearts beating for the same cause. 
And so they continued like that for a short while. 
Until what appeared in front of them was a tree so tall they had to strain their necks just to see it in its entirety. 
Lefiya took a moment to survey their surroundings before beginning her investigation of the tree. 
Even among the many large trees of the forest, this tree in particular was monstrously wide and skyscrapingly tall. 
Perhaps this tree…Yes… 
Lefiya hadn’t just been arbitrarily wandering through the forest. 
She’d been searching for a tree just like this one, tall and towering over the rest, from which she’d be able to ascertain their location. 
Using the giant tree at the forest’s center, a tree visible even from the passageway leading to the next floor, one could quickly position themselves within the vast forest, making it easier to locate a way out. 
“I’m going to climb this tree and scout the perimeter. You stay here.” 
“Ah…okay. Roger that.” 
Lefiya prepped herself with a mental hurrah, then positioned herself next to the tree, fully prepared to climb the mighty giant…until she took another glance at Bell. 
She instantly scowled, holding down the hem of her skirt as a flush rose to her face. 
“You are not to look upward, do you understand me?!” 
“Huh? I, uh…” 
“Should you even think about it, you’ll wish you’d never been born! Am I clear?!” Her voice rose to a threatening hiss. 
“C-c-crystal!!” Bell asserted without hesitation. 
Still battling the red tinge on her cheeks, Lefiya leaped from the ground with an almost audible bound, flying up into the tree and making her way toward its crown, leaving the boy behind to stand watch. 
Again and again she jumped, positioning her feet on the tree’s many branches. 
Bell, still down on the ground with his magic-stone lantern, gave the elf a good, long period of time before he hesitantly raised his eyes skyward. Thankfully, Lefiya had already disappeared from view. 
“She really can do anything…” he murmured in awe at the second-tier adventurer’s hands-free ability to scale the tree using nothing but jumps. 
Meanwhile, Lefiya, oblivious to the goings-on down below, leaped her way onto a particularly large branch not far from the top of the tree. 
From here, it was just as she’d predicted—above the dome of green leaves, she could look out across the entirety of the floor. 
She turned her gaze to the left, locating the mighty tree at the forest’s center. Between her and the tree towered a giant crystal, emitting its faint blue light. It would seem they were in the eastern part of the floor—close to the easternmost tip, even. 
She studied the view carefully, memorizing the lay of the land— 
—when suddenly… 
“Huh—?” 
…her eyes dropped to the forest below. 
Hastily, she hid herself within the branches’ shadows. 
Using the enhanced vision made possible by her Status, she trained her azure eyes on the forest floor, where she caught sight of a group of dubious figures enshrouded in long, concealing robes. 
Their inky black garments melted into the surrounding shadow, completely masking their faces and identities. And, as if their robes weren’t enough, each one also donned a dark hood and forehead protector, ensconcing them all the more. 
Their attire was a dead giveaway—identical to the dark robes of the crew they’d battled down in the twenty-fourth-floor pantry. There was no doubt about it. These were surely associates of the Evils’ Remnants. 
Lefiya sucked in her breath in disbelief. 
There were two of them on their way somewhere. Their destination couldn’t be far. 
She made a note to herself of the direction in which they were heading, then quickly bounded back down the tree. 
Carving her way through the latticework of leaves, she gave one final leap before landing with a thud in front of the expectant boy. 
Bell’s eyes dilated in surprise at her sudden appearance. 
“Put out the light!” she quickly hissed. 
“Huh?” 
“The light! Put it out!” 
“R-right!” 
In a flurry, he did as he was told. 
Their one source of light gone, the world turned black around them. Now, at least, they wouldn’t be seen by the hooded duo. 
Leaving Bell to his confusion, Lefiya attempted to make sense of the situation, her mind racing. 
Those two must be associates of the Evils…but what are they doing here? On this floor? 
Could they be plotting something on the eighteenth floor? Were they going to do what they’d done on the twenty-fourth floor by setting loose those giant flowers and turning the pantry into a plant? 
What should she do? 
Return to the campsite and inform Finn and the others? 
But what if they were unable to find them again? It was already a miracle as it was that she’d caught sight of them in this vast forest. 
And if she tailed them, she just might be able to get more information on the series of events that had been besieging them since the Monsterphilia… 
What do I do…? 
Again and again, she weighed her options. 
All the while, Bell continued to watch her in silence as a grim determination colored her features, and her brows furrowed. 
As the seconds ticked away urgently in her mind, she finally realized what she had to do. 
I need to follow them… 
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if ever she’d seen one. 
To be able to put a stop to their no doubt dastardly plans before the situation got out of control? 
And besides, she was simply going to trail them a while—determine what it was they were doing, where they were going. That was all she needed. A simple mission, overall. 
Once finished, she’d report back to Finn and the others with anything useful. 
These encouraging thoughts pushing her forward, she made up her mind. 
The only problem now is… 
Lefiya raised her gaze. 
Her eyes landed squarely on Bell, still sitting beside her in acute bewilderment. 
She certainly couldn’t leave him here all by himself. 
Even if she told him exactly how to get back to camp (which she’d ascertained from her earlier treetop ascent), and even if he was able to follow that path all the way there, he’d have a hell of a time at his measly Level 2. And to make matters worse, he had no armor equipped—only his salamander-wool linens—and nothing but a single onyx knife for protection. 
Telling him to simply sit tight and wait for her return was also out of the question. 
As she sat there staring at him, and as he sat there doe-eyed and mystified, she quickly realized she had no choice. 
“I…apologize, but…could you perhaps come with me for a moment?” she said before rising to her feet and vacating the premises. 
Then, following the path she’d memorized from her bird’s-eye view, she hurried in the direction the two Evils associates had been heading. She moved quickly, maneuvering past tree after tree, all the while attempting to mask her footsteps and stifle her pounding heart and labored breaths. Bell followed behind her in equally fervent pursuit. Though she’d quickly explained the situation, he was still far from completely understanding. 
The trees and brush ran thick, making it hard for Lefiya to see where she was going, but her vigorous efforts paid off in the end, and before long, her destination came into view. 
She slammed to a halt, gesturing for Bell to stop, too, then hid herself in the shadows. 
I found them…! 
Holding her breath, she curled her fingers tightly around the length of her staff. 
They were right there, not more than fifty meders away—the two figures she’d seen from high up in the trees. 
She took a moment to check that they were alone. Then, still keeping her eyes keen for signs of company, she began to follow them. 
Bell stiffened next to her, not having had much choice in joining this game of cat and mouse. 
“Wh-who are those people?” 
“…An enemy organization. To put it simply.” 
“An enemy of Loki Familia…?” he whispered, attempting to hide himself in the dense, low-hanging foliage. Clearly, the idea of the strongest familia in Orario having any enemies, let alone the two robed figures in front of them, came as startling news. 
“Look, don’t ask so many questions!” she hissed back, anger evident despite her hushed tone. 
“S-sorry, I won’t!” Bell immediately squeaked. 
Lefiya continued her careful, focused pursuit. 
The two figures were also monitoring their surroundings, making steady progress despite their lack of light. And Lefiya stuck to them like glue, keeping just enough distance to ensure they wouldn’t be spotted but not so much as to lose them among the dark trees. It continued like this for a short while until they finally arrived at a certain deep corner of the forest. 
They were close to the Dungeon wall. 
She could tell, peeking between the branches, that they’d reached the end of the line, meaning they were at the very farthest edge of the eighteenth floor’s eastern side. 
The forest had grown considerably sparser. Everything merged into one main path, trees and shrubberies all but gone, and even the branches and leaves overhead had thinned, leaving no room for voyeurs or assailants to hide themselves. 
Scattered here and there about the open field were blue crystal pillars, all at least two meders in size. It almost looked like the ruins of a stone circle left over from the Ancient Times. The “Crystal Grove,” perhaps? 
As Lefiya watched, the hooded figures cut through the middle of the grove, directly for the Dungeon wall. 
“There’s no going back now…” Lefiya muttered to herself in encouragement. She knew they must be near her targets’ goal. 
Despite the butterflies dancing in her stomach, she eyed Bell meaningfully to signal their continued pursuit. Bell, despite his misgivings, nodded in response. 
Leaping free of their cover, they dashed straight forward through the Crystal Grove. 
They skirted from one crystal to the next, noiselessly darting in and out between the pillars. 
The whole time, she kept her eyes fixated squarely on the two figures in front of her. 
It was almost as if they were being led, weaving as they were, back and forth, back and forth, when suddenly— 
Crack! 
The ground opened up of its own accord in front of them. 
“?” 
It happened the moment her foot touched down in a round clearing devoid of pillars. The mighty crack echoed around her as the earth plunged downward, creating a giant hole. Almost as though it had been waiting for her arrival. 
“Huh…?!” 
All of a sudden, she was floating. The floor disappeared beneath her. And her breath quickly got itself caught in her throat. 
For a brief moment, she could feel the boy’s dumbfounded presence behind her. 
It took a split second for gravity to take hold. 
“—Uuuaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!” 
And then they plummeted, their screams of terror layering atop one another. 
Grass, dirt, and leaves plunged with them. Lefiya’s gaze rose skyward as she fell just in time to see the “lid” of the hole close up behind them with another rumble. 
Cut off from the forest landscape and night Dungeon air above them, the ground rose up to meet them. 
“—Unnnngh!!” 
Somehow or other, both of them managed to land on their feet, the impact sending up a giant splash of something all around them. 
The entire bottom of the hole was steeped in a light-purplish liquid. 
Now that there were two additional bodies in it, the stagnant pool quickly rose from shin height to waist height with an unsettling sqwoosh. 
““Ack!!”” 
It was hot. Like boiling oil. Their battle clothes sizzled against their skin. 
No, not sizzled. Melted. 
Their faces paled as they looked in horror at the bubbling, smoking liquid all around them. 
“This is…” Bell’s voice trembled. 
“…Acid?!” Lefiya finished his thought with a scream that echoed off the walls of the hole. 
While the acid wasn’t strong enough to disintegrate flesh and bone instantly, the tangible feeling of the substance eating away at their skin was enough to invoke a very real sense of panic in the two adventurers. The magic-stone lantern, having fallen from Bell’s hand, was now ever so slowly sinking into the liquid with a bubbling hiss, still shining its light even as the acid broke it down piece by piece. 
They frantically scanned their surroundings, faces tight. 
They were at the bottom of a long, deep hole. 
It boasted a diameter of some seven meders and a height of at least ten. 
As for the walls of the hole, they were reddish in hue and had a repulsive fleshlike texture with no sign of anything they could use as footholds or handholds. 
In fact, it almost felt as if they were inside a living being, like the stomach of some treacherous beast. No matter what it was, however, the cylindrical structure they currently occupied was clearly a pitfall. 
The walls of flesh gave off a faint light, coloring everything in a dim red phosphorescence, and the air felt humid and hot and carried a strange odor, quickly drawing sweat from their pores. 
“Ugh…b-bones?!” Bell yelped as he let his eyes scan the perimeter. 
Lefiya spun around to see for herself, only to bring her hand to her mouth in disgust. 
A decomposed carcass lay sunken in the acid next to them, no doubt the remains of some poor soul who’d fallen into the pit prior. 
Its skin, flesh, and organs had all been dissolved, leaving behind nothing but its bones. Next to it was a collection of armor, no doubt worn by the adventurer while still living. Looking away from their skeletal companion, they saw weapons of all kinds, swords and staves alike, either sticking up out of the ground or half-submerged in the boiling acid. 
“Th-that’s an adventurer…! Th-then all of these, too…?!” 
Now that they were looking, they saw bones everywhere. Gleaming white bones. More than they could count. Belonging to who knew how many souls. It was clear that all of them had once been adventurers. 
There were cracks and chips in some of the bones and skulls, as though something or other had bashed them in. There were even a few items of seemingly monster origin floating about—drops, perhaps. 
Was this some sort of undocumented Dungeon gimmick? Here? In the safety point? Involving monsters, no less? 
Lefiya’s eyes watered at the rancid odor of melting flesh, confusion overtaking her thoughts…until Bell’s trembling voice broke her from her trance. 
“Miss Lefiya…look up,” he whispered, features all but devoid of color. 
“Huh?” She turned her gaze skyward. 
Something was slowly peeling itself away from the fleshy walls of the hole, lifting its upper body…and enveloping them in its massive shadow. 
“?” 
Suddenly, the true origin of the “lid” became clear. 
As Lefiya and Bell looked up in terror, the monster hanging upside down from the top of the hole peered at them from its humanoid torso. 
It was the only exception to the solid red of the hole, its skin a sickly shade of yellowish green. Its chest and abdomen, too, were colored in vibrant, venomous hues. 
Instead of arms, it boasted two long, fat tentacles—feelers of sorts that dangled downward like quivering snakes. Its long lower half writhed and squirmed, attached to the wall like some kind of parasitic worm. 
Its head consisted of nothing but a colossal eye and a strange crown-like organ floating around it. The eye itself was connected directly to its neck with the crown encircling it like the mane of a lion. 
It was disgusting to look at, its coloring far different from that of the countless other monsters they’d fought. 
“A…a new species…?” Bell’s words quivered, the fear and dread palpable in his voice. 
“It’s one of those…brightly colored ones…!!” Lefiya exclaimed next to him as everything suddenly fell into place. 
This “pitfall” they’d plunged into was none other than one of those monsters, the same as the carnivorous flowers and their roots—a brethren of the creatures born of the corrupted spirit—and its body was the pitfall itself! 
If she had to guess, those Evils associates had planted it here as a security measure in order to keep whatever was past the Crystal Grove, some all-important secret of theirs, away from prying eyes. It was a “trap monster” whose sole purpose was to eliminate any and all witnesses to their evil plan. 
No doubt, the other adventurers who’d fallen prey to this “Guardian of the Forest” had either been trailing the Evils, similar to Lefiya and Bell, or had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Completely ignorant, they’d been gobbled up by this repugnant creature, and their carcasses had been left to rot at the bottom of this pit. 
“?” 
The creature’s great eye spun around and around before centering itself on Lefiya and Bell. 
Its next move was immediate. Both its feelers shot from its body straight toward the two adventurers. 
““Gngh!!”” 
They leaped from their spots simultaneously. 
The giant whips collided with the ground immediately behind them, straight into the middle of the acidic pool. 
A massive wave of acid erupted upon the impact as the pit shuddered around them. 
“Miss Lefiya!!” 
“I am fine! Look after yourself!” Lefiya shouted back, one arm up to shield her eyes from the spraying acid. 
They were soaked now, steam rising from their hair and clothes, but they’d somehow managed to avoid the attack. Still, it wasn’t over yet, and the whips were quick to begin their second wave. 
“Hngh!!” 
Once again, the earth shook around them. The shock was enough to send the bones flying into the air with hollow clatters. 
Though Lefiya just barely managed to evade the incoming attack, and the resulting rush of air and stone-rattling tremor were enough to make her blood run cold. 
The sheer brute strength of this thing could give the monsters in the Dungeon’s depths a run for their money. Even if the adventurers put all their efforts into defending themselves, their complete pulverization was only a matter of time. The elastic-like flexibility of the two tentacles didn’t help matters, either—as long as they were stuck inside this hole, they were vulnerable. And the fact that the attacks were coming from straight overhead made defending against them a struggle, to say the least. 
If this thing is here…it means…! 
Lefiya’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the trap monster above her, whose upper half alone was easily twice her size. 
For the Evils to leave this kind of extraordinary creature here as a sentry meant that whatever it was they were hiding had to be of great importance. 
She had to escape and let Finn and the others know. 
I have to make it out of here alive…No! I have to kill this thing! 
It was do or die now. There was no way she’d be able to escape without taking the body of that thing head-on. Or if there was, at least, she had no idea what it might be. 
If they wanted to get out of here fast, their only choice was to destroy that creature’s main body, as that was what was currently blocking their only way out. 
Lefiya’s fingers tightened around the grip of her magic staff, Forest’s Teardrop. 
“?!!” 
It was coming. 
Its great eye goggled and whirled in ceaseless orbit, omniscient in its surveillance as it launched its two feelers at the adventurers. 
Once again, it was aiming to kill. 
“Hgh…gggnnnnn!!” 
Bell was floundering, racing about wildly in his attempt to escape the oncoming attack. 
He’d never seen this kind of monster before. The Guild hadn’t even confirmed it. How was he supposed to defend himself against a monster he hadn’t even known existed? Leaping about blindly, he narrowly avoided one attack after another, looking more and more like a rabbit in panic mode. 
His sensational rate of growth aside, Bell Cranell hadn’t actually seen many battles. 
In fact, that same growth rate in some ways was actually an impediment—his lack of real combat experience exposing just how fragile he really was. 
And somehow, as Lefiya watched him, giant beads of sweat leaking down his face, a sense of tranquility passed over her. 
—The fact that this was an enemy she’d never faced before calmed her all the more. 
She let the teachings of her mentors in Loki Familia, of Riveria, of Aiz, wash through her. 
She knew what she was supposed to do upon first contact with a monster, to analyze and deal with it. She might not have the same level of perception as her first-tier adventurer peers, but it was more than nothing, and as the situation accelerated around her, she focused everything she had on understanding the creature in front of her. 
Dodging attack after attack, girding herself against the pulsating shudders echoing around her, she studied the main body of the beast, focusing her elven eyes, which had originally made the elves “Archers of the Forest.” 
It was then, while scrutinizing the creature’s great revolving eye, that she saw it. 
“Watch where that thing is looking!” 
“Huh?!” 
“Its eye!! It turns in the direction it’s about to attack!” 
Bell’s own eyes widened in startled realization as he immediately looked skyward. 
That revolting eye was pointed directly at him. Studying the giant, naked orb, he was able to leap nimbly out of the way just in time as the massive tentacles slammed down beneath him. 
They hit the exact spot he’d been occupying mere seconds earlier. 
“I…I did it!” Bell exclaimed in jubilation after his magic-like prognosis left him unscathed. 
“Those tentacles are its only weapon! Don’t take your eyes off it!” Lefiya followed up before using the same method of foresight to sidestep another incoming tentacle. 
“R-roger!” 
The trap monster’s appendages may have boasted incredible power and speed, but if that was the only trick it had up its sleeve, it made for an almost monotonous back and forth. So long as they could continue reading the creature’s incoming attacks, they would at least be able to avoid any direct hits. 
No longer cornered and fighting for their lives, they might actually have a chance to break the deadlock. 
Now to figure out how to attack that thing. If Miss Aiz was here, she’d simply jump off the wall to attack it directly…Lefiya thought to herself, picturing the scene in her head. 
Yes, she’d jump from wall to wall, ascending the hole like a lightning bolt in reverse, then kerslash!! It would be over. 
Lefiya quickly shook herself from her thoughts. 
If either of them was to try such a tactic, they’d surely be bludgeoned by one of those whips the moment they got close. Stupid, stupid! She mentally scolded herself. She had to change her way of thinking. 
“I’m going to look for an opening and hit it with a spell! You focus all your efforts on attacking that wall!” she finally yelled, knowing the boy didn’t have any long-range weapons of his own. 
“Understood!” 
The two of them sped off in opposite directions. 
Unsheathing his onyx dagger, Bell launched himself immediately at the wall, dodging incoming whips as he unleashed slash after slash upon its fleshy pink surface. Heroic blue flashes cut through the air as he sliced at the enemy’s insides. 
—He really was fast. 
Even as she focused on dodging attacks, Lefiya couldn’t help the twinge of astonishment tugging at her. 
As much as she hated it, his agility was top-notch—a fact she knew well thanks to their multiple games of tag. Even now, the way he was weaving in and out of the monster’s attacks while unleashing furious slashes looked like a high-speed hit-and-run. 
Despite only just leveling up, he was already fast enough that he’d been able to dodge the incoming tentacles’ attacks even before Lefiya had given him the advice about following the enemy’s gaze. 
Thinking back now, Lefiya realized Aiz herself had praised the boy’s ability to flee from danger back when she’d still been training him before the expedition. 
Guilt began to whittle away at Lefiya’s conscience—it was her fault Bell had gotten mixed up in this, after all—but in the end, all she could do was believe in the boy and focus on the battle at hand. 
If I had to hazard a guess, this thing is just like those man-eating flowers… 
The monster’s outward appearance was actually quite similar to the femanoid creatures formed when that crystal-orb fetus parasitized other monsters. Perhaps this was another member of that thing’s advanced army, just like the flowers? 
Both the femanoids they’d battled on the fiftieth and eighteenth floors were massive, on par with floor bosses, and their power had been well over that of a Level 5. This trap monster couldn’t be far behind in either aspect. 
Its colossal size alone, which placed it in the “superlarge monster” category, gave it the potential of at least a Level 4. 
!! 
The tentacles were coming at them more aggressively now, the thing no doubt angered that it couldn’t catch its prey. 
They swung downward, destroyed everything, then lunged forward. The relentless storm of elephantine whips was becoming harder and harder for Lefiya and Bell to dodge. The swords, axes, and shields that had been stuck in the ground at their feet were tossed about with a wild vengeance, almost as though giving life to the lingering regrets of their owners. Though the acid had already completely dissolved much of the weaponry, the upper-tier arms of silver and mythril still retained their original forms. 
Lefiya dodged these additional incoming projectiles before grimacing in pain—her shoes had practically melted away at this point, steam rising up from her feet as the acid ate away at her skin. Knowing that a part of her was slowly and surely disappearing entirely was enough to make her insides scream. 
Their one consolation was that this acid took considerable time to do its dirty work. 
Its strength was nothing compared to the corrosive acid the caterpillar monsters secreted. 
Whether its giant structure was at fault or not, the creature had two primary features—its main body and the hole itself—that seemed to have different functions: predation and pursuit. As Lefiya took all this into account, her past experiences facing off against enhanced species such as creatures and demi-spirits weighing in on her diagnosis, she couldn’t help but think that the creature itself wasn’t fully developed. 
“Gngh…!” 
At the same time, Bell’s flurry of countless attacks at the thing’s inner walls didn’t seem to be getting him anywhere. 
His beloved onyx knife itself was doing fine, neither melting nor clouding at the repeated slashes of the acid-secreting flesh, and the cuts it left were many and deep. 
But the walls were too thick. 
If they weren’t even able to make a solid dent in the surrounding walls, it certainly wasn’t going to have any effect on the thing above them. 
The thing had yet to show any signs of pain or annoyance at the scratches Bell was making on its pink inner walls. 
It’s not even flinching…! Lefiya thought to herself as she bit down hard on her lip. 
While she hadn’t been expecting anything revolutionary, if the boy’s attacks could have slowed the creature even a little, she might have been able to find an opening to unleash one of her spells. It appeared, however, that things weren’t going to be that easy. 
This hole really was not only a luring trap but an ensnaring prison, too. 
Their only choice, then, was to attack it directly—the magic stone hidden somewhere within its chest. 
But the problem with that is… 
…whether or not she could dodge the incoming tentacles long enough to pull off a spell. 
Even if she used Concurrent Casting, the bit of focus she had to devote to the chant itself severely lowered her reaction and response time, to the point where no amount of reading into the enemy’s movements was going to stop her from being sliced to pieces by those whips. 
The closed-in space with limited room to escape didn’t help matters any, either. 
And that wasn’t even getting into the fact that nine times out of ten, these vibrantly colored monsters tended to respond to magic. The instant she started casting her spell, the incoming attacks that had been, until now, divided evenly between Bell and her would all be focused straight on her. 
While she would have liked to coordinate something together with Bell, she wasn’t about to hold her breath with such a hastily formed dyad as theirs. And even she wasn’t about to do something as cruel as force a Level-2 third-tier to act as a wall for her against this kind of enemy. 
No, she’d simply have to do it on her own. 
Bracing herself, she began preparing for her chant. 
“?” 
It was then that it happened. 
The relentless wave of attacks coming at them simply—paused. 
Lefiya and Bell both stopped short, looking up at the motionless creature with identical expressions of incredulity. 
Its giant eye was still rolling about, back and forth between the two of them. 
Upside down and hanging from the ceiling, it gazed upon its nimble prey. 
Then. 
The crown-like organ around its head began to glow a brilliant blue. 
“Huh—?!” Bell’s confusion escaped his lips as Lefiya found herself unable to move. 
Something bad was about to happen. Something very bad. But this realization came too late. 
From the glowing blue crown encircling its eye came a devastating wave of high-frequency sound. 
“Huuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh ? !!” 
The noise was deafening, splitting their eardrums, and all Lefiya and Bell could do was scream as their eyes nearly popped free of their sockets. 
““?Gnh!!”” 
It was a monster cry, similar to those of bad bats and sirens and capable of restricting adventurers’ movements. 
Only this cry was incredible, stronger and fiercer than the cry of any ordinary monster. 
The shriek had enough destructive force to rob even upper-class adventurers of consciousness, rendering Lefiya and Bell incapable of movement in less than an instant. 
They fell to their knees with sloshy thuds, the otherworldly cry robbing them of all balance. 
!! 
The creature didn’t miss its chance. 
Its two tentacles, primed and ready, went screeching toward its prey. 
“?” 
Their target: Bell. 
The world hazy around them, Lefiya’s breath stopped in her throat as Bell froze before the imminent attack. 
A Level 2 up against what could easily be considered a Level 4. 
A direct hit meant certain death. 
A one-hit kill. 
Lefiya screamed. 
“Run!!” 
And Bell did, his body ready to put his emergency evasive maneuvers to the test. But it was too late. 
The two tentacles streaked toward him, slicing through the air in an instant, and as the boy kicked off the ground, his foot came in contact with one of the armaments that had been sticking out of the acid, sending it flying. 
—A shield! 
A parting gift from one of the adventurers consumed by the creature, the large silver shield somersaulted through the air, Lefiya’s eyes widening as its path sent it directly in front of the oncoming tentacles. 
A second later… 
…an earth-shattering noise shook the world around them, almost like an explosion going off, and Bell’s body was launched away like a bullet. 
“Gaggghh!” 
He zoomed through the air. 
The phenomenal impact of the tentacles with the shield sent him careering into the walls of flesh. 
The collision reopened the wound on his head in a spray of red-hot blood. His body peeled away from the wall, plunging into the pool of acid with a splash. 
He stayed there, motionless, white steam rising from his frame as the acid ate away at his skin. 
…… 
The deafening cry coming from the trap monster’s crown fizzled into nothingness. 
Then, one of its tentacles extended like a long spear, shooting straight toward the boy to land the final blow. 
However— 
“?Unleashed beam of light, limbs of the holy tree!!” 
—Lefiya was ready. 
In an attempt to thwart the attack, she wove her spell. 
The magic circle formed beneath her feet, proudly announcing her presence, golden light rising from the acid’s surface with a rippling shudder. 
The reaction was immediate. The tentacle shooting toward Bell veered sharply in its trajectory. 
Rolling its entire body over, the trap monster changed its target. This time, it was pointed straight at Lefiya. 
“You are the master archer!” 
!! 
Lefiya took off at a dash, her voice soaring as she fled the rampaging set of tentacles. 
It was the most desperate Concurrent Casting she’d ever performed—controlling her web of magic as she flew through the confined space of the hole, all the while continuing her song. 
“Loose your arrows, fairy archers—!” 
The whips rushed at her, cutting through the air, the rushes of wind in their wake slashing at her battle clothes. Even as her feet moved at a frenzied clip, she never took her eyes away from the creature’s single eye. She used everything Filvis had taught her—to throw aside her defenses, to continue even as her body was battered—simply dodging everything she could as she read into the enemy’s movements and continued her chant. 
Her insides were boiling hot as if to fuel her mad rush, sweat pouring down her forehead and all across her skin. 
! 
As she clutched her staff, as she wove her spell, as she dodged attack after attack by naught but a hair’s breadth, the trap monster moved its head. 
Then that same light, that terrifying blue light, erupted from its crown. 
“Huuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggghhhhh ? !!” 
“Gnngh—pierce, arrow of accuracy!!” 
Lefiya raised her voice, face distorting as she competed with the incoming wave of high-frequency sound. 
Just as she completed the spell, however, the tentacle she thought she’d evaded changed its course, curling like a snake and latching onto her left wrist. 
“Oh n—!!” 
Suddenly she was up in the air, hanging by her left arm, before getting forcefully bashed against the wall. 
“Guuuuhhh!!” 
The air was knocked out of her. 
Chant interrupted, the magic circle disappeared from beneath her feet. 
The trap monster’s other tentacle was quick to descend, mercilessly shrieking toward her as she continued to hang helplessly in the air. 
Ah— 
The color drained from her face at the sight of the cyclops’s whip filling her vision. 
In that moment, her mind flashed back to a gold and silver gleam—her golden-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman, when Aiz had rescued her from those carnivorous flowers. 
But in the next moment… 
“—Yooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuu bastaaaaaaaaaaaard!!” 
…a white shadow raced toward her… 
“Huh?!” 
…before slamming itself into the tentacle on its collision course with Lefiya’s body. 
The white shadow—Bell—swung the great ax in his hands with every drop of strength he had left in him and brought it down on the massive whip. 
The blade struck with a jarring jolt. 
! 
Impact sending it off course, the rushing tentacle missed Lefiya’s body by a mere celch’s width. 
Lefiya held her breath, shocked by the fact that she was still alive, as she felt the shock waves from the point-blank attack. Bell touched ground for only a moment before leaping back up with his ax flying. 
He sank the blade into the thick tentacle curled around Lefiya’s wrist, blood gushing from the wound as he severed it whole. 
“…Y-you…” 
Free from the creature’s grasp and having fallen to the pit’s floor, Lefiya looked up at the boy standing before her. 
His back was to her, as though he was placing himself between the enemy and her. 
A thin white mist rose from his body as the acid continued to eat at his skin, the large mythril ax, a nameless weapon of dwarven use, clenched tightly in his hands. 
Blood from the wound on his head stained his back and shoulders, but even still, his eyes never left the creature staring down at them from above. 
!! 
A creature that appeared very angry now, its one eye bloodshot and glowering as its severed tentacle squirmed like a decapitated snake. 
The glow returned to its crown. This time it was going in for the kill. 
NOT good! Lefiya’s heart screamed at her as the monster howled anew. 
Bell, however, wasn’t about to let it happen. Raising his right arm— 
“Firebolt!!” 
—he fired his own blast. 
Scarlet tendrils of lightning—no, of fire—shot forth from his hand. 
For just a moment, time seemed to stop. As Lefiya watched, the blinding-fast bolt of sparkling flames shot toward the creature, shattering its crown of light before it even had a chance to unleash its cry. 
“?Gngh?!” 
Again and again the fiery tendrils hit, nine in total. 
Every single one of them was a direct hit, completely disintegrating the trap monster’s crown. 
The crown exploded in a flurry of sparks, abruptly halting its high-pitched scream. 
He…he didn’t even have to chant?! 
Lefiya couldn’t believe her eyes. She’d never seen such a thing, never even heard of such a thing. 
A chant-less, instant spell. 
And not only that, but he could fire them one after another. 
 Is this some kind of joke?! she almost found herself screaming, in complete disbelief as a mage. 
“Miss Lefiya! Your spell!!” Bell howled in between haggard breaths. 
Lefiya shook herself from her daze, head snapping up to see that vibrantly colored creature right above her, flames raking its body in a fiery inferno. 
Its crown continued to blaze, but even through its anguished cries, its one great eye was still pointed at Lefiya and Bell. It was enraged. 
Bell readied himself as the trap monster’s fury swelled in tangible waves around them. 
His own magic might not have been powerful enough to defeat that thing, but he was going to protect Lefiya and give her all the time it took for her to pull off her own spell. That much was clear from his stance. 
Even if his fingers were crushed beneath their shield, even if his body was rent limb from limb, he was going to keep swinging that ax, and he was going to protect her. 
“I…I hate you…” 
It happened without warning. 
The words simply fell from her mouth. 
How could he be so cool? 
How could he cheat with magic like that? 
How could he monopolize Aiz, have her waiting on him, completely ignorant of his own place?! 
And yet. 
“And yet…I believe in you.” 
He was an adventurer. 
And she—she was a mage. 
She had faith in those rubellite eyes gazing at her from over his shoulder. 
“—I’m ready.” 
Raising her staff, Forest’s Teardrop, she called forth a giant magic circle beneath her feet. 
“?Gnnh!!” 
The trap monster responded immediately and started moving toward Lefiya, drawn in by the colossal source of magic. 
Their last stand had begun. 
The boy with his ax and the girl with her song. 
“Unleashed beam of light, limbs of the holy tree.” 
The moment Lefiya took off running, chant on her lips, the two tentacles gave chase. 
Bell, however, quickly closed in on the elephantine whips, reading the enemy’s movements and leaping forward to bash them from the side as they came in for their attack. 
He gave it everything he had, gritting his teeth as he chopped away, feet never faltering. 
“You are the master archer.” 
The trap monster had made one grave mistake. 
No, perhaps mistake wasn’t the proper word, for it had only allowed an innate weakness to be exposed. 
Its tendency to react immediately to any and all magic no matter the circumstances. 
Had the creature thought to focus its efforts on Bell, currently barely hanging on for dear life, rather than Lefiya and her chanting, the battle would have been over before it started. And once her human shield, Bell, was gone, Lefiya would be quick to follow. 
By acting as a decoy as she cast her spell, however, she allowed Bell plenty of time to execute his skills in complete safety. 
It was the same defensive method the Sword Princess had hammered into her—that she should deflect the enemy’s attacks to the side. 
Though Bell couldn’t hope to take that creature head-on, what with their difference in potential, he could sneak in some attacks so long as Lefiya distracted its tentacles. Again and again he gave chase, using his lightning-fast feet and mighty ax to forcibly direct the tentacles’ path away from the mage. 
It was a feat made possible only by both his evasive skills and Lefiya’s Concurrent Casting. 
There in that hole in the earth, the labors and toils of those two adventurers both trained by the same girl came together and bore fruit. 
“Loose your arrows, fairy archers—!” 
The words came between the relentless attacks. 
As she neared the end of her chant, her magic power rising sharply, the trap monster increased its efforts, throwing everything it had at the mage to stop her song. 
But Bell held it back, ax flying as he kept the two flailing tentacles in check. 
“Gnnngh!” 
He launched himself at the swinging tendril. Though his attack came from the side, the shock was still enough to send his body flying, mythril ax drawing an arc across the air as it sailed away. 
Still, however, he had managed to protect her. 
The strike that had previously been heading straight toward Lefiya instead grazed her long golden hair, colliding with the fleshy wall behind her. 
As the world shook with a ferocious tremor around her, Lefiya’s voice rose to meet the cacophony head-on. 
“—Pierce, arrow of accuracy!” 
The chant was complete. 
In the center of that great hole, directly below the trap monster, Lefiya thrust her staff to the sky. 
And in that moment, the red world around them shone a brilliant, vivid gold. 
She cried out the name of the spell, magic circle overtaking the entirety of the hole. 
“Arcs Ray!!” 
There was a burst of light. 
Then the gleaming flash shot straight upward at a blinding speed. 
The trap monster attempted to flee, withdrawing its tentacles and wedging itself into the passage above, but it was no use. 
Its fate was sealed. 
The phenomenal Mind built up within that single blast tore through its tentacles before landing a direct hit on the creature’s main body. 
“?Gguuwwwwaahhh!!” 
Its lower half, partially assimilated into the wall itself, writhed and squirmed like a snake as the blinding flash propelled its body upward. 
Then, it collided with the lid of the hole, still closed tight above them, with an absolutely deafening crash. 
The pillar of light, however, was brought to a screeching halt. 
“It stopped the attack?!” 
The creature’s upper half remained with the stubs of its arms outstretched. The hole’s red lid was worn down from the incoming magic light but still very much intact. That thing had absorbed the brunt of the attack, keeping it from bursting through the top of the pitfall. 
Lefiya was shocked at what she was seeing. 
A strangely colored monster above their heads and its two-part body, each with its own separate function. 
An “adventurer’s prison” keeping them trapped. 
The lengths it took to keep their sole way out from being opened. 
And the specialized magic resistance it took to do so— 
Her thoughts ran wild at the attributes the creature must have possessed—attributes that made it every bit the “trap monster” it was. 
But Lefiya didn’t care. Lefiya didn’t care one single bit, her eyes flashing with a determined gleam. 
It was a competition between monster and magic—erupting with light. 
The creature’s greenish-yellow skin curled and burned as it absorbed the incoming magic, its scream of anguish swallowed up by the roar of her light blast. The magic stone at the tip of her Forest’s Teardrop glowed with a brilliant pale blue, infusing her spell with more and more of her Mind. 
As Lefiya increased her output, injecting everything she had into that beam of energy, the giant charred eye of the beast turned toward her in incensed fury. 
Not more than an instant later, the entire hole roared. 
“Wha—?!” 
The walls of flesh began to swell. 
Like tumors, almost, one after another, giant lumps began to billow out from the pink surface with a ghastly bubbling hiss, closing in on Lefiya from all four sides. They pushed the pool of acid with them, the liquid forming a wave that yanked and swirled at her feet. 
—It aims to crush us?! 
Knowing its own demise was only a matter of time, it had decided to take them down with it—by setting loose its own body. 
It would destroy itself, and the hole around them, crushing them in the process. 
Lefiya’s body grew hot. Blazingly hot. All the magic power she’d accumulated inside her in her attempt to blast the creature (and the lid) out of the way was now, all of a sudden, getting forced back onto her as the thing overhead let out a crazed roar of cataclysmic obliteration. 
The walls quickly swallowed up the carcasses of the other adventurers around them. 
Lefiya’s features contorted into something unrecognizable. 
When suddenly… 
Ching ching. 
“—Huh?” 
…an entirely out-of-place chime tickled her eardrums. 
Unable to resist, she turned around, only to see the boy, wounds and all, rising to his feet. 
His right hand glowed with a pale-white light, building and building as he summoned the particles to him. 
“…Gngh!” 
He was limping toward her, dragging his battered body as he waded through the pool of acid, already up to his knees. 
He didn’t stop until he was right next to her. Lefiya was still directing her magic skyward even through her shock, and then he extended his hand, glowing white ball joining her staff, still raised high. 
“I’ll…join you…!” He gritted his teeth, left hand coming up to support his wrist. 
His cannon was primed and ready, and Lefiya’s eyes widened before she turned her gaze upward. 
Together with the boy, she directed a glare of death at the enemy overhead—We’re not going down here!—before calling forth her magic power with everything she had. 
Her light gleamed brighter. 
Before being joined by the pure-white brilliance of the boy’s collected particles. 
A bell chimed. 
Then, twenty seconds later, he pulled the trigger. 
“Firebolt!!” 
The brilliant white light burst from his hand. 
“?” 
The massive, crackling fire tore through the white particles. 
Above them, the trap monster’s body went white, bathed in the radiance of this second attack. 
And this time, as the two gleams overlapped, as the fiery lightning tore into the creature’s body, the imprisoning lid of the hole overhead shattered. 
The trap monster dissolved into the blinding flash, leaving no trace behind. 
“Gnh!!” 
As the monster’s agonizing death cry melded noiselessly into the din, the pillar of lightning shot all the way up toward the sky. 
It blasted through the crust of the earth, through the roof of trees, filling Lefiya’s eyes with the breathtaking view of the crystalline night sky overhead. The path had been opened. 
At the same time, the sheet of rock that made up the Dungeon’s floor convulsed with a mighty jolt as it began to collapse without the monster that had been parasitizing it. 

Lefiya picked up the spent boy’s body from the ground, bent her knees as far as they would bend, then leaped out of the hole. 
Her Level-3 leg strength propelling her up the great height, she sprang off the falling rocks to send her the rest of the way, escaping back into the Under Resort above. 
 
“What the hell was that—?!” 
“Is that magic?!” 
The two Amazons shouted as all of Loki Familia sprang to its feet. 
The sudden beacon of light that shot out of the forest quickly drew the attention of everyone on the eighteenth floor. 
The single column of radiant light was visible from the great tree in the center of the plains, from Rivira on its island in the lake, and even from Loki Familia’s camp. 
The group was just finishing up their dinner when the spectacle unfolded, Tiona’s and Tione’s shouts leading them to leap into the trees for a better view. 
As the brilliant white flash of entangled beams struck the crystal-coated ceiling, the resulting explosion sent the monsters below it into a frenzy. The cacophonous array of frightened squawks echoed all throughout the eighteenth floor. 
“It came from the forest…to the east? What’s over there?” Tione murmured beneath her breath. 
“You don’t think it could be Lefiya…do you?” Tiona posed as her eyes scanned the scene from above. She saw Finn and the other elites emerge from their tent, eyes narrowing at the giant column of light; she saw Loki Familia’s lower-level members bustling and clamoring; and she even saw Hestia and the others in her group, dumbfounded as to what was going on, but nowhere in all that commotion did she see Lefiya. 
And certainly, that kind of magic power did seem compatible with the elven mage. 
In fact, she was the first person who came to mind, especially given how they hadn’t seen her since she’d run off chasing that white-haired boy not too long ago. 
“Ngh!” 
All these thoughts flying around her mind, Aiz suddenly took off, dashing from the camp without warning. 
“Huh? Aiz!!” 
But Tiona’s voice fell on deaf ears. The swordswoman was already well out of sight. 
The pillar of light had faded. In its place, giant chunks of crystal fell from the ceiling like glimmering blue rain. 
It was toward the source of that crystal rain that Aiz ran—her sword at the ready. 
 
Smoke billowed upward in great, heavy clouds. 
Deep within that mighty forest, it looked almost as though lightning had struck. 
Many of the crystal pillars that had made up the stone circle were cracked or toppled to the side, evidence of the terrific shock that had shaken the earth around them. Directly above the scene, hidden by the forest’s mesh of trees and branches, a giant round hole had formed in the ceiling, one crystalline chunk after another dropping to the ground below and shattering like glass. 
“Haah…haah…Hey, are you all right?!” 
“…Y-yeah…” 
They were pressed shoulder to shoulder, breath haggard as the blue-crystal snow fell down around them. 
Having barely escaped with their lives, they were now kneeling down in the grass a short distance from the collapsed hole. Though both appeared considerably worse for wear, the boy’s body was more visibly fatigued than Lefiya’s, the mage still having some fight left in her despite her ragged breathing. 
That final attack had seemingly consumed the last of Bell’s strength, and his wounds were many—the reopened gash on the back of his head, as well as the burns all over his skin from its exposure to the acid. In fact, the only part of him not charred was his salamander-wool linens, still remarkably unscathed. 
Lefiya had left her pouch of potions back at camp—an apparent lapse of judgment on her part—so she had no choice but to simply hoist the boy up by his shoulder and attempt to drag him away. 
“What’s going on here?!” 
It was then that the voice called out from behind her. 
She turned around with a start, only to see a pair of men racing out of the forest toward her from the direction of the Dungeon’s easternmost wall. They wore large robes, head protectors adorning their foreheads, and hoods covering the better part of their faces. It was the very same Evils associates Lefiya and Bell had been trailing before they’d gotten into this mess. 
As they caught sight of Lefiya and Bell in the middle of the crumbling Crystal Grove, their surprise was evident. 
“Thousand Elf? Then you’re…Loki Familia?!” 
“You defeated Venenthes?!” 
It didn’t take more than a single look for them to ascertain the situation—that the two adventurers had followed them, fallen into their trap, and then taken down the trap monster waiting for them inside. 
Their surprise turned quickly to irritation, scowls tangible even from within their heavy robes. 
“Damn you…! Quickly! Release the violas!” the more emphatic of the two shouted, and his partner dived into the nearby brush. 
The situation could not have gotten any worse. Someone somewhere was laughing at them. Even Bell had tensed next to her. The dire turn their escape had taken was obvious. 
As if on cue, one greenish tentacle after another began poking itself out of the surrounding greenery, crawling toward them fast. 
“Hngh…?!” 
Lefiya heard the metallic sound of first one cage, then another, then another being opened, and soon, she and Bell were completely surrounded. Their faces paled at the circle of carnivorous flowers caging them in. 
There were so many of them. Ten, at least. 
They lifted their great crooked necks, tentacles writhing and squirming like snakes and effectively cutting off their every escape route. 
“This is where you die, adventurer scum!” shouted the robed figures as they quickly vacated the premises to keep from getting caught up in the mix. The moment they left, the violas opened their buds in sync, revealing their vibrantly colored petals and ghastly jaws. 
Heaping gobs of saliva dripped from their fangs onto the scattered bits of crystal littering the grass below. 
“Gnngh…?!” 
Lefiya was already well past spent from their earlier fight against the trap monster, and she still had Bell to worry about. The boy was scarcely able to move next to her. 
The situation was truly dire, to the point where her own life was starting to flash before her eyes. 
If she could just get Bell away from here. Somehow. She was the one who’d gotten him mixed up in this, after all. 
She made the decision right then and there that she wasn’t going to go down quietly. 
As the ring of man-eating flowers slowly closed in on her, liable to pounce at a moment’s notice, she tightened her grip on her beloved staff, still holding Bell aloft to her side. 
“—Uuuuuuoooooooooooowwwwwwaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!” 
One of the flowers roared, preparing to launch itself upon them. 
Until a sudden whirling storm howled its way onto the battlefield. 
“Gwwuooogh?!” 
“—What?!” 
The flower was cut off mid-leap, quickly mowed down by the gale and flying sideways into the surrounding flowers. 
One thunderous boom after another shook the environs. Lefiya and Bell could only look on in stupefied wonder, still primed and ready for their own attacks, as this new assailant landed on the ground in front of them. 
—Miss Aiz? 
But no, the figure that appeared before them was not Lefiya’s beloved swordswoman—but a long-caped figure, fabric rustling in the storm’s wake. 
“I thought I heard something…Are these the new species?” 
The figure wore lightweight battle clothes, a long wooden sword readied in their right hand. 
Their face was completely obscured within the deep recesses of their hood. 
As this lone adventurer stood with their back to them, protecting them from the bright green threat, Lefiya’s pupils dilated in surprise. 
Lefiya was sure she’d seen this person before. Last night. Among those in the rescue party— 
“—The masked…adventurer?” 
Her lips parted with the words just as Bell, next to her, spoke up with a raspy voice. 
“Miss Lyu…” 
Their reinforcement, who’d dashed in gallantly to save them, now stood facing the swarm of carnivorous flowers head-on, an impenetrable fortress. 
She flourished her wooden sword, the same one that had sent the mighty creatures flying only moments earlier, with a warrior’s will. 
“Don’t move, elf. Stay there with Mister Cranell.” The voice that called out to her was authoritative, awe-inspiring, and Lefiya quickly nodded. 
“O-okay!” 
No sooner had the words left her lips than the wind picked up with a sudden whoosh. 
The figure was gone in an instant, kicking off the ground with an audible slash that cut through the grass—the flower that had been in front of her bucked. 
With that single wooden sword, she sent the colossal beast flying, the same as she had earlier. Lefiya didn’t even have time to act surprised. The masked adventurer drew a giant circle with her sword that uprooted every single one of the flowers in her immediate surroundings. The resulting crystal-clear sheeeen rang in her ears. 
The throng of abominable flowers that had been pressing in on Lefiya and Bell from all sides was launched away in one fell swoop. 
So…so fast!! 
Lefiya found herself rooted to the spot as she watched the figure dance like a hurricane. Even Lefiya’s Level-3 vision wasn’t enough to keep up with her. The flowers, too, were at a loss, squealing in agony as the figure slipped deftly through the swarm of countless flying tentacles and landed another direct hit. They crashed into the crystal pillars still scattered about the area, their large bodies taking beating after beating against the hard rock. 
It was so fast. So intense. Both Lefiya and Bell found themselves at a loss for words. 
“This…this is…” 
As did the two Evils associates. 
Watching the battle play out from their spot a short distance away, they could only bite their tongues in astonishment at the unprecedented one-sided battle taking place before them. 
“…These things.” 
Again and again the masked adventurer slammed the flowers with everything she had, but no matter how many times they flew backward, they’d just give angered roars and pick themselves up, charging at her for another round. 
Even through the minimal contact her sword made with their skin, she could tell it was tough—infuriatingly so. And no matter how much power she put behind her attacks, she couldn’t seem to make a mark in that thick layer of skin. A look of admiration crossed her face. 
Lefiya was quick to notice. “S-simply hitting those things won’t do anything! You have to cut them!” she shouted, offering the only advice she could give. And then, fascinated by the adventurer’s sheer speed and intensity, reminiscent of the Sword Princess, as well as the elven ears beneath her rescuer’s hood, she tossed out one more suggestion. “Magic works, too!” 
The effects were immediate. 
The adventurer pulled out a small tachi, using it to cut through the flowers’ tentacles, then narrowed her clear blue eyes—beginning her chant. 
“—Distant sky above the forest. Limitless stars set into an eternal night.” 
She was Concurrent Casting. 
Lefiya’s eyes widened as wide as they would go. 
The high-level magic power quickly drew the attention of all ten violas. They came at her all at once in a storm of roars and tentacles. But she parried every one of them, cutting them down, flinging them back, continuing her mad dash, never once letting her sonorous voice falter as it continued its song. 
“Listen to my feeble voice and grant the protection of starlight. Bestow the light of mercy upon those who have abandoned you.” 
Attack, move, evade, chant. Together with her defensive maneuvers, which made for five different actions, each of them carried out with the utmost of celerity. Which was the most impressive part of all—that despite the chant, her astounding speed never slowed in the slightest. 
The shock Lefiya felt was immeasurable. 
The first person she could think of who even came close to this level of skill as a magic swordswoman was Filvis. But even Filvis’s spells were short, not more than a single phrase, and quite unlike the long chant this girl was performing now. Even despite the lack of a magic circle, Lefiya could tell she was planning something big—a high-powered blast that would take everything out. 
There was a difference when it came to Concurrent Casters and magic swordsmen. 
Mostly in the form of the level of magic they could produce, something that mostly came down to the presence of a magic circle. 
Concurrent Casters lived in the advanced or mid-guard, and their magic was their sole weapon. Magic swordsmen, on the other hand, were fighters specialized in magic to the point where they could take on a number of mages’ abilities and command the front lines single-handedly. Mages like Lefiya and Riveria both belonged to the former group—back-line mages who’d learned the art of Concurrent Casting, making them mobile fortresses. 
All of this meant that, strictly speaking, the adventurer in front of her now was not a magic swordswoman. 
In fact, she was another entity entirely, different from those like Lefiya who lived on the back lines—an elven warrior. 
Then…then that would make her even stronger than Miss Filvis. Th-than Lady Riveria even…!! 
The precision of the masked adventurer’s Concurrent Casting was far more exact, far speedier, and far less risky than that of a pure back-line mage such as Riveria. 
And yet, no. It was simply that this elf was more used to this sort of chanting. 
There was no telling how many times she’d practiced. 
While on the front line with no one to protect her, her song the only path to victory, she flourished her sword as she sang her omnipotent melody. 
“Come, wind of winds, wandering traveler of the ages.” 
While so much of this elf reminded Lefiya of Aiz, there was still one outstanding difference between them. 
The difference of sheer magic firepower, the ability to annihilate all enemies in a single instant, rather than simply taking them on one by one in hand-to-hand combat. 
The scale of the magic she was casting now, the length of the chant she rattled off like nothing, was entirely unsuited for use in the advanced guard and could easily rival the magic of any upper-class mage. 
It was almost as though someone had taken Lefiya and Aiz and merged them together to make a mobile fortress specialized in pure speed. 
“Across the skies, through the fields, faster than any, farther than all.” 
Lefiya found herself at a complete and total loss for words. Truly, even a first-tier adventurer would find themselves taken aback by the Concurrent Casting taking place here. The elven warrior was single-handedly gathering the entire swarm of enemies together in front of her as if it was nothing. 
In fact, even Bell was beyond impressed, not a single hitch in her song as her dance of storms continued. 
“Light of stardust, tear my enemies asunder!” 
And like that, the spell was complete. 
With those final words, the masked adventurer jumped backward, putting distance between the flowers and herself. 
Pointing her wooden sword at the giant swarm, she began summoning hundreds of thousands of massive light particles, all of them surrounding her, all of them heeding her call. 
“Luminous Wind!!” 
The stardust erupted in a brilliant green storm. 
It was an image not unlike one of Lefiya’s own spells, Fusillade Fallarica—a mass collection of particles all launched at once, incinerating everything along their wide path. 
The teeming throng of man-eating flowers still coming at the girl was quick to get swallowed up by the burst of light. 
“?Guuuwaaaah?!” 
One explosion. Then another. Then ten, twenty, thirty, too many to count. 
It was a direct hit. The searing volley carved into their bodies and detonated with a brilliant flash and an explosion of petals and tentacles. Not even their vibrantly colored magic stones survived the blast, shattering instantly and turning the monsters’ flesh to ash. 
The horrific ground-shaking eruption, the mountain of piled-up corpses, the gallons of smoke rising from the ashes—Lefiya and Bell had to hold on to each other for support as their faces twitched in horror. 
“…Perhaps that was a bit too much,” the girl responsible for the carnage murmured almost ironically as she scanned the surrounding trees. 

Her sky-blue eyes narrowed in on where the two hidden Evils associates were frantically attempting to make their escape. 
It would seem they were all out of tricks. The battle, then, had come to an end. 
Cape still fluttering, the girl sheathed her small wooden sword and tachi. 
Then, her long boots whistling through the grass, she made her way straight toward Lefiya and Bell. 
“Ah! Th-thank you so much for saving us…I, uh…You are…?” 
“Later. You both need medical assistance first.” The girl responded to her kin’s openmouthed stupor after only a quick glance at both of their conditions. While Bell obviously needed help, Lefiya, too, sported a number of nasty-looking cuts and bruises. 
The adventurer immediately went to work healing them both. 
She sat Bell down first. The boy didn’t fight it, letting himself drop to the grass, though keeping his mouth strangely quiet, almost as though unsure whether or not he should say the girl’s name out loud with Lefiya present. 
“I, erm…” 
“You shouldn’t move, Mister Cranell,” the girl advised, getting down on one knee before raising her right hand toward the boy’s face. 
“Distant song above the forest. Nostalgic melody of life.” 
It was a different chant this time. 
“Impart your healing upon those who seek your grace.” 
Identical looks of disbelief crossed Lefiya’s and Bell’s faces. 
“Noah Heal.” 
A healing spell, just as they’d expected. 
Soft, mottled light, almost like the sun through the trees, washed over Bell’s body, closing up the deep wound on his head, as well as the cuts littering his face. 
The warm light radiating from her palm healed his every scratch, his every bruise, his every acid burn, one after another. 
“You…you can use healing magic, too…?” Bell asked, still in awe. 
“Yes. Though its use is limited, as it cannot rival potions in its potency,” she explained. 
It was true—the Mind she was consuming now, as well as its effect, was considerably less than the attack magic she’d cast earlier, and nowhere near that of a healer’s. 
Lefiya, herself, couldn’t help but feel a bit insecure, both as an adventurer and as a fellow magic-wielding elf. This jack-of-all-trades put her and her single-minded attack magic to shame. Even still, once the girl was finished with Bell, Lefiya didn’t hesitate to allow the same to be done to her. 
Soon, both adventurers were free from injury, and their melted, charred skin was as good as new. 
Once he’d been given a bit of magic potion to complete the treatment, Bell got to his feet with a wobble, still slightly light-headed. 
Lefiya, too, followed suit, fully prepared to ask the adventurer all the questions she’d wanted to earlier. However— 
“—Well then, Mister Cranell…While I don’t know exactly what happened here, I can’t say that I’m not disappointed.” The elf shot him a look of reproach. 
“Oh…” Bell mumbled, wincing at the stern glare directed at him from under the other girl’s hood. 
“If memory serves me correctly, I delivered you safely back to camp not more than a few hours ago, yes? When you were running around lost in the forest.” 
“I…I’m sorry…!!” 
“I had hoped you would have learned how dangerous the forest is at night,” she continued, lecturing him now on the perils of wandering around the forest alone. Bell, in turn, let his head hang with a shrug, looking very much like a young boy being scolded by an older neighborhood kid. 
A single glance was all it took to understand their relationship. 
“W-wait! Please!” 
But then. 
Lefiya quickly interjected. 
“It’s my fault. Everything…everything is my fault! I was the one who…who dragged him into this mess!” 
“…” 
“He’s done nothing wrong, so…so please, my sister. Don’t misunderstand,” she continued, looking straight past Bell in his surprise to meet the gaze of her kin. And then, despite considerable hesitation, despite her struggle to say it: “…He. He saved me,” she finished, the words ringing clear and true. 
It went without saying that she was at fault for involving him in her investigation of the two Evils associates, and if it hadn’t been for Bell, she wasn’t even sure she’d have escaped from that trap monster with her life. 
As much as she didn’t want to admit it, he’d saved her…and she was thankful for his protection. 
Holding back her urge to grit her teeth, she admitted her own fault—and appealed on his behalf. 
It was quiet for a moment as the masked adventurer simply listened in silence. 
Then a small “Heh” sounded beneath the other adventurer’s hood, and Lefiya could imagine her smile. 
“You don’t know how happy it makes me to meet another elf like you,” she responded, voice filled with delight. The ability to lay down one’s pride and admit one’s own faults was something decidedly un-elven, after all. 
Lefiya felt her cheeks grow warm at the sincere praise. 
After a moment, the other girl turned toward Bell, lightly nodding. 
“I apologize, then, Mister Cranell, for it appears I spoke too soon.” 
“N-no, it’s, uh…I-I mean, it’s still partly my fault…” Bell brought a hand to the back of his head sheepishly at the adventurer’s apology. 
Lefiya, on the other hand, while relieved that the misunderstanding had been cleared up…couldn’t help but notice that the other girl’s voice, the way she held herself…it all looked very familiar. In fact, she could have sworn she’d seen someone with that same exact disposition and build at a certain bar back in Orario—a thought that wouldn’t seem to let her go, almost like a small bone that had gotten itself lodged in her throat and refused to go down. 
Just as it was really starting to drive her crazy, she heard a sudden swish of branches from behind her—and a certain golden-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman dropped down from the trees above. 
“Lefiya!” 
“Miss Aiz?!” Lefiya whirled around in surprise at the other girl’s entrance. 
Aiz’s gaze softened with relief at seeing both Lefiya and Bell unharmed, her eyes flicking immediately toward the masked adventurer. 
“Sword Princess…” the girl murmured, hiding her face within her deep hood. 
Kicking up and off the grass, she dropped back a few paces as Lefiya and Bell both gave a start. 
“I assume you’ll be fine now. I’ve other things to attend to, so I’ll take my leave here. If you’ll excuse me,” she finished, before disappearing in the opposite direction from which Aiz was approaching. 
Lefiya, Bell, and Aiz all watched in silence as she vanished into the forest. 
“Are you two…all right? Something…happened, didn’t it?” Aiz finally asked, concern tinting her voice as she surveyed the two in front of her. 
“Indeed,” Lefiya started, fully prepared to explain the eye-opening experience, when suddenly— 
“Riveria! Over here!” 
“Little Argonaut’s here, too!” 
—two Amazonian voices called out as Tione and Tiona dropped onto the ground nearby, the same as Aiz had done moments earlier. The three elites now gathered, Lefiya began to relay everything that had happened, as well as her conjectures—though only after they were out of Bell’s earshot, of course. 
By the time Riveria showed up, she’d already finished her story, Aiz, Tiona, and Tione all sporting curious expressions as they mulled over the situation in their minds. 
“…Thanks for filling us in. Riveria and the rest of us will stay here and investigate a bit. Aiz, you take these two back to camp for now.” 
“But…but Miss Tione, I—?!” Lefiya started, feeling very much as though she, having witnessed everything directly, should be part of the investigation. 
Tione, however, stopped her short. “You’re to do as you’re told, Lefiya. Besides, you’re the only one capable of explaining the situation to everyone back at camp. Right, Riveria?” 
“Quite right. Depending on how things play out, Finn may need to rally the rest of the party. The faster we can fill him in, the better,” Riveria concurred, making her way toward the group with long silver staff in hand. 
“Oh…” Lefiya let her voice fall, knowing she’d been soundly beaten. 
Tiona beamed at the elf, her own Urga primed and ready in her arms. “You guys look beat! Get some rest, yeah? No need to push yourselves!” And then, “Little Argonaut especially.” 
Surprised, Lefiya turned around to see Bell standing a short distance away. While his wounds had been fully healed, he looked, indeed, just as tired as Tiona had suggested. The final blow, so to speak, that neither healing magic nor potions could mend, was the fatigue left over from battle—a fatigue now peeking through the strong front he was attempting to maintain. 
To up and leave him now, after being the one to get him into this mess, would simply be cruel—not from a perspective of reasonableness but simply from her as an elf. 
A feeling of awkwardness creeping up under her collar, she obediently nodded. “…All right.” 
“Take care of them, Aiz,” Riveria said as she handed Aiz her portable magic-stone lantern. 
“Of course.” 
Then, Tiona and the others throwing them a wave, they said their short good-byes and began the trek back to camp. 
“…You’re sure you’re all right?” Aiz asked once the three had made it a short way into the dark woods, worry coloring her voice. 
“Ah-ha-ha…I-I’m fine! Really. Already got healed and everything, yeah?” Bell forced a laugh, his energy nothing but a facade as he let his gaze wander down by his feet. 
“But your shoes, they’re…awful…” Aiz shone the lantern in the direction of said boots, so ragged at this point that they scarcely resembled foot attire. 
In fact, both Lefiya’s and Bell’s battle clothes were littered with rips and holes where the acid had melted them away, but their shoes were, by far, the worst victims, having been submerged so long in the acid. Until the masked adventurer’s ministrations, the skin beneath them, too, had been equally as torn up, but now they simply looked as though a great many moths had eaten away at them. 
“I have a set of greaves back at camp…” Bell murmured. 
Lefiya shot him a sidelong glance before asserting herself none too subtly. “I’ll give you a new pair of boots once we get back. If I’m unable to find any, I’ll buy you some from Rivira.” 
“R-really? I-I mean…are you sure?” 
“Of course I am,” she replied equally as bluntly as he whirled around to look at her. “Don’t…don’t misunderstand me. I simply…feel as though I need to make up for involving you in this entire affair. That’s it!” She hissed the last part through gritted teeth. 
Bell blinked once, twice, then gave her a somewhat awkward, somewhat sheepish grin. 
Lefiya, in turn, jerked her head away with a harrumph, attempting to disguise her own embarrassment. 
“…” 
Aiz stared at them in silence, jaw slack. 
“You two…are getting along now?” 
“What?!” Lefiya practically screamed, whirling around. “Y-you have it all wrong, Miss Aiz! Truly! T-to think something like that would ever happen in the history of the entire world would…would…!” 
“Ha-ha-ha…” Bell laughed, a smile rising to his face. 
“Yooooooooooooooou! Stop that right now! Tell her! Tell Miss Aiz that she is utterly incorrect in her assumption!!” 
“Yep, you’re getting along now…” 
“No, it’s—Miss Aiz! Listen to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!” 
But Lefiya could only wail in vain as Bell feigned laughter at her beloved swordswoman’s entirely off-base observation, the swordswoman herself nodding in her own self-directed affirmation. 
Far up above them, the crystalline night sky glittered as it watched over their return.