CHAPTER 5
BRIDE OF THE WATER CAPITAL
“Mr. Bell, Mr. Bell?!”
Lilly’s cries were swept away by the flowing water.
She was surrounded by the spider’s web of streams in the room full of crystal clusters. Facing the place where Bell had disappeared into the water, she called his name again and again.
“Master Bell has been pulled under by the monster…” Haruhime said, standing in a daze beside Lilly.
“We have to save him right away! The water is flowing so quickly, he’ll be carried out of the room before we know it!”
Lilly threw off the Goliath Robe and backpack as she spoke, exposing her thin body dressed in shorts and a small coat of Undine cloth. She was about to dive into the water after him.
“It’s useless, Lilliluka!” Daphne shouted. Laying Luvis, whom she had been supporting, on the ground, she grabbed Lilly’s wrist and pulled her back.
An instant later, the fangs of a raider fish skimmed past the tip of Lilly’s nose. Lilly stood dazed as blood trickled down her cheek where the fang had grazed it.
“What the hell are you doing? If you or I jump into that stream, a monster will kill us! Did you forget how dangerous that water is?!”
“B-but…but Mr. Bell!!”
Lilly was more upset than she had ever been before. Daphne was staring at Lilly, her mouth shut tight, when Aisha, Welf, and Ouka returned with the three elven adventurers. Although the blue crabs had slowed them in helping Bell, they had succeeded in slaughtering all the monsters on land.
“Miss Aisha! Mr. Bell has—!”
“I know; I saw.”
Aisha handed the injured elves over to the flustered Cassandra, then glanced toward Mikoto. In addition to Yatano Black Crow that allowed her to perceive enemies, the girl had a similar skill called Yatano White Crow that let her see allies with the same Falna as her. She shook her head, a pained expression on her face.
“Sir Bell’s signal has left the room…”
“That…”
The remaining color drained from Lilly’s face as she realized that Bell had been swept away along with the enhanced species. Welf and Ouka, who were out of breath, stared in the same direction as her. Aisha sighed.
“Okay, you guys. We’re not going to save Bell Cranell.”
“Wha—?!”
“We’ll never catch up if we chase after him, since he’s been swept up by such a fast current. Plus, how quickly can we move if we’re carrying these injured elves?”
“M-Miss Aisha! Wait a second!”
“Relax, shrimp. What are we gonna do if our party’s brain—you—falls apart?”
Lilly had been about to lash out at Aisha, but a long, thin finger poked her in the forehead. She bent backward as tears pooled in her eyes, staring in confusion at Aisha.
“Bell Cranell can handle this floor on his own.”
“…!”
“That kid’s status is weird. He’s already above average for a Level Four, and in terms of speed and agility, he’s practically at the very top. I don’t know how much potential he had already saved up, of course.”
In other words, Bell was way above the minimum level required for the twenty-fifth floor. Aisha snorted before continuing in a disgruntled tone.
“Bell Cranell is stronger than I am. Not that I want to put that to the test.”
“Miss Aisha…”
“Even if he’s drawn into an underwater battle, I’m sure he’ll stubbornly find some way to survive. Just pray for him to get back onto the shore through his own strength. There’s no way he’ll die on land.”
Hearing this vote of confidence from the second-tier adventurer, Lilly let her frenzied emotions finally settle down. Aisha looked at her face, which was starting to take on its typical expression as the analyst of the party, and finished her argument.
“If you’re gonna worry about anyone, it should be us. Am I wrong?”
Lilly waited for a moment, then slowly nodded. The prum squeezed her childlike hands into fists.
“…Miss Aisha is right. Let’s stop thinking about Bell.”
“Lady Lilly!”
“Hey now, Li’l E!”
“Just calm down,” she said, taking a deep breath as if she was talking more to herself than to Haruhime and Welf.
“We have to put the safety of the party first. If we don’t save ourselves, we’ll only be more of a burden on him.”
“Li’l E, you—”
“Bell will be okay. Let’s have faith in him.”
It was clear that she, together with the renart, cared more for the boy than anyone else in the party. But she did not put those feelings into words. Instead, she pushed her personal emotions aside and donned the mask of a commander.
“The situation has changed. Lilly proposes that we escape from this floor.”
“…!”
Not only Welf but Aisha, too, looked surprised at Lilly’s sudden leap to a decision.
“Now that Mr. Bell is gone, it will be hard to fend off attacks from ordinary monsters while protecting the injured at the same time. The burden on Miss Aisha will be too heavy.”
Now there were five wounded. If each was carried by one member of the party, that left only three members who could fight properly. As Lilly laid out her logical argument, she glanced at the elven adventurers whom Cassandra was already tending to.
“But Lady Lilly, wouldn’t it be wrong to abandon Sir Bell on this floor and escape…?” Mikoto asked.
“I’m not saying escape to the surface, just to the cliff by the passage leading to the twenty-fourth floor.”
“What do you mean?” Ouka pressed. Lilly responded in an even voice.
“Back in that spot with the good views, there aren’t any streams, and aside from the flying monsters, we won’t be attacked. The cliff trail is the only one, so it will be easy to protect ourselves…That enhanced species won’t be able to take us by surprise. I say we set up an emergency camp out there.”
As long as they kept an eye out for monsters descending from the twenty-fourth floor, they should be okay.
“Miss Aisha, you go up to Rivira by yourself and get help. Lilly and the others will…get a level boost from Miss Haruhime and defend the exit of the connecting passage. We will protect the injured,” she continued, lowering her voice after a pause so Luvis and the other elves wouldn’t hear her talking about Haruhime’s ability.
“So you’re suggesting we use that cliff as an improvised fort,” Welf said.
“It’s true that carrying this many wounded up to the eighteenth floor will be difficult,” Daphne added. “If we just have to get to the entrance to the twenty-fifth floor, though, I think we can make it, and given the terrain, we may be able to hold out until help comes. If we can do that, a party descending from the middle levels just might help us.”
Both she and Welf looked satisfied by Lilly’s explanation. The prum continued.
“Plus, now that Mr. Bell has been separated from Lilly, he is likely to end up coming out at that big cavern. That’s what happens when you get separated in the Water Capital, right…isn’t that what Miss Eina said? If we’re camped out on the cliff by the connecting passageway, we should be able to spot him.”
Having finished her explanation, Lilly drew a breath. Ouka alone still looked skeptical.
“…I understand making the cliff our base. But what are we gonna do if that enhanced species attacks us? It might not be able to surprise us, but with Antianeira gone, we’ll have a helluva time fighting it off.”
“That’s precisely my plan. The road out there doesn’t branch off at any point and has nowhere to escape. By luring it there…Mikoto can use her Futsu no Mitama gravity-controlling magic to crumble the entire cliff path and send it crashing way down to the ground below where it’ll be buried by the rubble,” Lilly said, a cold expression on her face.
Ouka was at a loss for words. He coughed loudly.
Daphne, too, gaped at Lilly. In this do-or-die situation, the prum had found a way to pay the monster back for its earlier clever use of the terrain.
I may have taught her how to lead…but this girl is way smarter than me!
Daphne, who had instructed the prum girl step-by-step, was in awe. Once, she had witnessed a full-scale battle by Loki Familia. Finn’s cool and controlled face as he directed his troops against Goliath, the floor boss of the seventeenth floor, rose before her mind’s eye, and she couldn’t help layering it on top of the face of the supporter who stood before her now, supposedly weaker than Daphne herself.
“The question is whether Chigusa and the other wounded can hold out that long,” Lilly continued. “And of course, this all assumes that if the enhanced species attacks us on the way through the labyrinth, we’ll be able to fight it off…So, what do you think?”
She looked up at Aisha. Only at the end of the explanation had she allowed some of her uncertainty to show.
The battle-hardened Amazon grinned.
“I like it. Let’s go with that plan.”
Her words were the signal for the group to start moving, and Welf and the others quickly responded. Lilly put back on the pack and Goliath Robe she’d thrown off and set to work on other preparations.
“I knew we’d be able to rely on you, Lady Lilly. Mr. Bell said so, too,” said Haruhime, who was helping her.
“Huh?”
“He said he always relied on Miss Lilly…He told me that when I was cleaning the house once.”
Lilly widened her eyes and flushed to hear this new information.
“Compared to you, I’m always getting flustered and not helping anyone…” Haruhime sighed.
“Wh-what are you talking about?! Your strength is exactly what we need in emergencies!”
As if to hide her embarrassment, she gave the dejected renart’s tail a sharp slap.
“Ouch!” the fox girl yelped.
“Stop playing around and hurry up!” Aisha scolded.
Just before Lilly followed Welf and the others out of the room, she glanced back.
“…”
Maybe Bell had already defeated the enhanced species and was trying at this very moment to meet back up with them…No, she had to get that wishful thinking out of her head. As long as the parasitic vines growing from Chigusa and the others hadn’t vanished, the monster was alive. For the sake of her companions, Lilly had to leave.
“Mr. Bell…I’m sorry.”
With no one looking, the prum turned toward the water that had swept Bell away and allowed the face of a weak young girl to reveal itself for an instant. Then, mopping the corners of her eyes, she turned and left the room.
The sound of the waterfall thunders on endlessly.
I can tell because of the vibrations that reach me. Although the bottom of the pool is cold and dark, my entire body is hot like I’m on fire. I make a burbling sound as I sink. When I stop moving, I shake off the hand of the cold water that is trying to drag me over the edge of death and push myself upward with a single thrust.
A fountain of bubbles shatters the water’s light-speckled surface.
“Cough! Gasp!”
As my face breaks through the water, I am racked by coughs. My throat convulses as I spit up the huge volume of water I swallowed. The constant powerful roaring and showers of water are incredibly irritating. But that very irritation is proof that I, Bell Cranell, am alive.
I’m in the center of the huge pool at the base of the Great Falls, and I just narrowly escaped death.
“Aaah, ooooh, errrgh…!!”
An idiotic, agonized groan escapes the gap between my teeth. I obey the pulsating voice of my instincts and flail my arms like a drowning child, heading for the shore of the pool as I splash the water around noisily. The second my struggling feet touch ground, I kick off forcefully and push the upper half of my body out of the water. I walk forward, almost tripping facedown into the water, until I reach the shallows where it’s around my shins.
“Aaaaaahhh…!”
I fall forward onto my arms and start crawling. My whole body hurts so much I feel like my blood vessels have exploded. The world looks red. I don’t even want to imagine what condition I’m in. I’ve probably fractured multiple bones. To escape this intense pain that’s making every nerve in my body scream out, I reach for the high potion I stuffed into my reinforced leg holsters and use it. I do that again and again, with who knows how many vials.
After I’ve poured solutions over my head and drunk them down until all my potions are gone…I finally raise my head and look up at the Great Falls.
…So that’s where I fell from.
The immense waterfall pours its emerald-blue water straight down. When we first arrived at this floor, the magnificent flow of water appeared so beautiful to me I couldn’t take my eyes off it, but now that it’s less than fifty meders away, it looks like some horrendous monster. More than anything, the immensity of it is frightening. I can’t help shivering at the sensation that nature is an enemy staring down on my insignificant self.
I think I fell from somewhere near the middle of the falls. Given that I was carried over the edge by a stream running through the multilayered labyrinth inside the cliff, that would make sense. If I’d fallen from the very top of the falls up by the roof of this floor…even my Level-4 body would probably have been smashed to pieces.
A shiver runs down my neck as I stand up and look around.
The plunge pool is as big as a lake. It fills about half the huge cavern, and the deep-blue color of the area directly under the falls hints at its depth. Water droplets dance ceaselessly at the base, sending up a white mist. The roar of the falls is so powerful I’m worried my eardrums will burst. About a hundred meders south of the plunge pool is the top of another waterfall leading to the twenty-sixth floor. If I was to fall over that one, there’s no way I’d survive again.
When I turn my back on the plunge pool—or rather, lake—I’m confronted by a magical landscape. There are crystal shores that look like rocky flats, and crystal valleys, and crystal cliffs. All are made from the same blue crystal. The only plant in sight is an ajura shedding its bluish white petals. As I stare at the tree, which I’ve seen once before in the red-light district, I forget the passage of time.
…Get ahold of yourself! This is no time to daydream. You have to meet up with the others!
I clear my head and check my gear. The Divine Knife and Hakugen are safe in the scabbards where I hurriedly thrust them. Aside from a few antidotes, my items are gone. But my armor just has a few scratches on it, and I’ve got plenty of mental energy left.
Right now, I’m on the eastern side of the cavern. If I head southeast along the shore, I’ll reach the connecting passageway to the twenty-sixth floor, and if I go the opposite direction along the northeast side that I’m facing now, I’ll reach a cave leading to the labyrinth inside the cliff.
The enhanced species disappeared down a tributary.
It probably assumes I drowned in the Great Falls and is going after Lilly and the rest of the party. I have to hurry.
I hope they’re okay…
The shallows where I’m standing now have so many crystal clusters jutting from them they look like reefs. Far above my head I see some dots, probably harpies and sirens. They don’t seem to have noticed me yet. In order to avoid unnecessary fights, I turn toward the cave to the northeast, beyond the ajura. Just then, I hear something.
“—”
It’s a whizzing sound, like something cutting through the wind.
I jump reflexively to the side. You could say it’s my adventurer’s intuition that tells me to move away in time.
The next instant, something rips my shoulder and I fall into the shallow water.
“Huh…?!”
The water assaults my face as blood flowing from my shoulder dirties the emerald-blue surface. I look up toward the Great Falls towering behind me. Countless scarlet lines are slanting through the misty air.
“Crap…iguaçu…!” I mutter, irritated.
The swallow monsters appear in the Water Capital that extends from the twenty-fifth to the twenty-seventh floor. They live in the cliff behind the Great Falls, and adventurers call them “invisible monsters.”
The reason for their nickname is the incredible speed they possess.
Whenever someone shows up near the falls, they zoom out fast enough to break through that violent cascade of water and bombard them. They look exactly like bullets fired into the air. Some adventurers have even conferred the name “Flash” on them. They’re the most feared monsters on this floor—and the fastest ones in the lower levels!
“—!!”
“Eh?!”
I don’t even have time to curse my own carelessness for standing around near the plunge pool before another scarlet flash streaks toward me. Even with my enhanced dynamic visual acuity from leveling up, I can’t fully make it out. It tears into my cheek, and the wind pressure around it knocks me off balance.
Then another one shoots down.
This one heads for the center of my torso, but even as I stand there wide-eyed, I thrust up one arm to block the devilish missile with the back of my hand, which is sheathed in its dir-adamantite guard.
“Oof!”
There’s a tremendous dull thud and a shock like I’ve been hit with a huge hammer. I fall back clumsily onto my butt in the shallow water.
When I look at the hand that blocked the attack…I see that the corpse of a swallow is smeared onto it. The wet scarlet feathers are falling off, and its magic stone is visible beneath the pink flesh. My eyes meet a bloody eyeball that’s popped out of its socket, and I wince.
This is the fate of an iguaçu that fails in its attack.
The instant they collide with a shield or another hard object, their own speed becomes their curse and crushes their body to death.
The sight of this vain and weird manner of dying creeps me out. As I’m thinking about it, I hear that sound again. Whiz, whiz.
A frightening chorus of bodies cutting through the wind.
“…Crap.”
I look up, and a hope-shattering scene meets my eyes.
An unbelievable number of those scarlet lines are slanting through the air.
I’m not talking about one or two. Even just counting the trajectories I’m able to see at one glance, there are at least twenty of them. Yes indeed, a countless number of iguaçu are flying around up there.
Could this be an irregular event in the Dungeon—a mass outbreak of monsters? And just my luck, an outbreak of iguaçu?
A chill runs down my spine. I stare as one of the scarlet lines flashes toward me, and I leap away to avoid it.
“Whoa!”
“—!!”
The iguaçu have begun their bombardment.
Dozens of attacks rain down around me. The monsters streak past at top speed half a step in front of me, grazing my arms and legs before exploding into the water’s surface like miniature geysers.
It’s no use—all I can see are lines!
I run through the shallow water and dive with all my strength behind a crystal cluster protruding from its surface.
“…?!”
Bambambambambam!!
Right away, I hear the sound of crystal busting apart. I stand there gaping at the tsunami of crystal fragments flying into the air and the powerful vibrations, which I can feel because my back is pressed against the cluster.
It’s unbelievable—this thick, rock-hard crystal cluster is being chipped away before my eyes!
Some of the monstrous swallows die as they crash into the surface, but still they’re trying to demolish the obstacle that stands between them and their prey. As they inflict this rain of rapid-fire projectiles on me, the sound of their bodies cutting through the air drowns out their menacing cries.
Second by second, the cluster nears total destruction. My heart pounds low and distant.
A drop of sweat falls from my forehead.
They’re betting their lives on inflicting a single deadly blow. That’s got to be powerful. All the upper-class adventurers say that if you encounter an iguaçu, you should drop anything you’re holding and run. It’s reasonable to think they could open a hole straight through you with their bodies. My enemies are pure hunters willing to offer up their own fleeting lives to murder the invader.
I guess this is part two of my baptism in the lower levels, right after the underwater battle.
The Dungeon has no mercy for adventurers who lose their footing.
What do I do what do I do what do I do?
The crystal cluster where I’m taking shelter is too far from the cave leading inside the cliff. If I try to escape that way, I’ll be stung by the equivalent of a hornet’s nest along the way. If I swim toward the plunge pool and hide underwater, water-dwelling monsters will kill me. Retreat is impossible. All I can do is ride out this assault using some kind of big, hard protective gear. But I don’t have a shield or heavy armor. I might as well be naked. There’s no way I can withstand the attack. I’m defenseless.
—I hate this. I won’t accept it. I can’t go out like this.
I will not die here. This fate of utter destruction can eat a pile of crap. Damn, I’m developing a dirty mouth. Whatever, who cares. Not me. Not if I can get out of here alive.
My friends are out there. My promise to help the Xenos is out there.
The rival I want to beat and the idol I want to match are out there.
I haven’t done anything yet!
A second after that thought passes through my head, the last of the crystal posts in the cluster crashes into the water.
“…!”
I dive underwater to evade the charging iguaçu.
Amid the splashes, I roll over and quickly stand up again.
Half the flock of iguaçu has been killed, and the rest are whizzing through the air as they rally their forces again. As I survey the countless slanting scarlet lines…I make up my mind.
I reach my right hand toward my hip and draw a knife. Holding it backhand as I crouch slightly, I prepare myself to face the flock of monsters.
—I’m going to cut them all down.
Since I can’t escape and I can’t defend myself, I’ve decided to intercept them head-on. My senior adventurers just might faint if they could see me now.
It’s not that I’ve gone crazy or gotten desperate.
I just had a thought.
If she was here—if the Sword Princess Aiz Wallenstein was here—this is probably what she would do.
And if she could get through it…then I’ll prove I can, too.
“—Game on!”
I’ve chosen Hakugen as my weapon. Even among daggers, this unicorn-horn knife is incomparably light, and it handles incredibly. It’s the right knife to take down those ultra-speedy monsters.
I don’t need any other weapons. I’m going to focus all my energy into the single blade in my right hand. If I wait till I see them, I’ll be too late. I have to feel—the flow of the wind and their drive to kill. I have to predict their trajectories.
“…”
White spray flies from the waterfall as the sound of the pounding water tangles with the whizzing of monsters cutting through air.
After a moment, color drains from the world and everything becomes quiet. Even my own heartbeat and the ripples at my feet disappear. This mentality of extreme concentration is leading me somewhere.
My lips suck in a small breath and exhale it.
The next instant.
All at once, the scarlet lines up above turn toward me.
“—Yarrr!”
I focus all my energy into a single thrust, and then slash the glittering white blade at the speeding bullet that’s leading the flock toward me.
It doesn’t make a sound. Not a scream, not a death cry. The body of the iguaçu simply splits in two and falls into the water behind me.
That’s the signal for the head-to-head contest to begin.
“—!!”
A swirl of flashing wings rushes toward me.
I intercept them all, Hakugen gripped tightly in my hand. As soon as my right arm swings down, I bring it slicing up again. An instant later, the next bullet barrels toward me and I bend my head aside to dodge it. At the same time, I slice through three suicide bombers with a single swing of my blade. Thirty-seven times, I intercept the head-on, high-speed attacks. The first wave of murderous swallows swoops low over the water’s surface and then soars upward before launching a second attack from all directions.
I wield my knife at the flashes of light that rain down from the dome like shooting stars until they become a blur of speed and force.
“—!!”
The sharp beak of an iguaçu grazes me just above my armor. Sparks fly from my dir-adamantite shoulder guard, and my Undine cloth undershirt tears as a spray of blood spurts upward. The wound rips wider as I cut the enemy’s wing.
Once again, I’m dripping sweat. My whole body is hot. My head feels about ready to burn off. All four limbs are screaming at me as if to ask, Wasn’t there another way? My heart argues back. The Firebolt couldn’t destroy a flock of birds because it targets only one point, not a wide area. In exchange for killing a couple of birds, my body would be pierced with dozens of holes. This really is the only way.
My speed, which has garnered so much praise, is my only advantage.
But my enemies are staking their lives on this fight, too—
Each flash of light is a life put on the line. A deathblow dealt at high speed. The reason the impact is so strong is that they’re turning their very lives into attacks. They think nothing of the consequences but simply fly forward with the goal of piercing their enemy.
That’s why I, too, have to keep on swinging my arm without pausing to think.
—This is a contest of endurance!!
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!”
I give myself over entirely to my adventurer’s instinct as I draw arc after glittering white arc around me.
The speed of my knife accelerates.
At the same time, my ability to accurately perceive the enemy improves.
It’s like my intuition had been off, but now that I’ve been driven into a tight spot, my physical and mental selves are melding together—
More, more, more!
I think back to the continuous slashing attack that I experienced at the hands of my idol that night in the labyrinth town.
As I remember the fierce and beautiful Sword Princess, I weave the song of my blade, pushing it as fast as it can go.
Just at that moment—
“—!!”
I slice through the last bird drilling down on me from straight above.
The glittering white blade efficiently cuts out its magic stone, and instantly the iguaçu’s body turns to ash and scatters in the wind.
I stop, still poised with my knife at the end of its trajectory. A spray of water falls like a gentle rain on my flushed cheeks.
My extreme level of concentration eases, and the sound of the Great Falls fills my ears. I relax my stance and look around.
Hundreds of drop items—the severed feathers of the iguaçu—are floating in the shallow water around me.
“…I…did it…”
I made it through a mass outbreak of iguaçu.
I wipe the trails of blood off my cheeks and arms and lower the hand that still holds Hakugen. My body feels sluggish.
I was forced to make a stand, and there’s no question that I’ve used up quite a bit of time and energy in the process.
But I’ve started to understand some things…
Taking drastic measures is different from being reckless.
Still, there will come a time when I have to take a risk—in other words, when I have to adventure.
It may be a year from now, or a day from now, or maybe a couple of seconds from now. I have no idea. I’ve got to prepare for that time, in all sorts of ways.
I always have to reach for my personal best. I have to prepare myself, physically and mentally.
That’s definitely what first-tier adventurers do. It’s the only way to avoid having regrets.
Now that I’ve undergone this Dungeon baptism, I feel like I’ve grown as an adventurer.
I slip my new weapon, Hakugen, into its sheath.
Just then, I hear a sound that catches me by surprise.
A sound that’s totally out of place in the tense atmosphere of the Dungeon—the sound of clapping.
“Huh?” I sputter idiotically.
There’s no way a monster can be applauding an adventurer. Ordinarily I’d assume it was another adventurer. But there’s no sign of anyone else near the plunge pool.
As my mind searches for another answer, I slowly look over my shoulder and see—
“—”
The top of the enormous waterfall leading to the twenty-sixth floor.
And there on a crystal strand, back to the magnificent scenery, is a fishtail covered with translucent green scales. In contrast to this lower body the same shade as the emerald-blue Great Falls is a faint indigo-blue human upper body.
She has smooth, clear skin; a pair of bare, well-shaped breasts; long hair the same color as her lower body; and in place of ears, two cute fins. Her eyes are resplendent jade.
I gasp at the sight of this beautiful “girl” as she shakes the shells and pearls decorating her hair.
“A mermaid…” I mumble.
I can’t take my eyes off this creature who is endowed with such un-monster-like beauty.
As if to praise my display of martial skills against the iguaçu, or perhaps out of pure admiration, she smiles and innocently claps her hands.
“Oh brave warrior, oh strong hero, oh covetous, cruel champion. Prove your desire for the queen’s girdle.”
A song was being woven.
The sonorous chant threaded its way among the ferocious howls of a monster. Aisha dodged her enemies’ claws and fangs, casting her spell even as she assaulted them with her podao and long legs.
It was a Concurrent Chant.
“My famished blade is Hippolyta!”
A moment later, the Amazon—who had been chanting at the same time as she attacked and evaded multiple monsters—finished her spell and unleashed her magic.
“Hell Kaios!”
Her podao, which she had thrown onto the ground, threw off a huge cutting wave like the fin on a shark’s back that shredded through every monster in the party’s path. It sliced through not only a number of tough blue crabs but also the devil mosquitoes hovering in the air and even a large-class aqua serpent.
“Damn! It even works in the water!”
“Bell Cranell is something, but Antianeira can hold her own…”
Welf, who was guarding the party, and Ouka, who was carrying one of the wounded, stared fearfully at the spectacle. The Hell Kaios had moved off land to cut through the water, laying bare the streambed as it blew away every obstacle in their path.
As water flowed back into the streambed with a rush, Aisha—who had been fighting the monsters single-handedly—swung her podao onto her shoulder and looked back toward Welf.
“Okay, let’s get going while the path is still clear. If they surround us, even I won’t be able to protect you guys completely.”
“Fine words from someone who just wiped out a whole pack of monsters by herself…” Daphne muttered at the outstanding second-tier adventurer. She was carrying Luvis over her shoulder.
For now, the party had left defense to Aisha while the others carried the wounded elven adventurers. As they began to once again move through the labyrinth, Lilly rustled around for a Dual Potion and handed it to the sweaty Amazon.
“Miss Aisha, are you all right?”
She paused to reach her hands out to a small cascading waterfall and noisily gulp down some Dungeon water.
“Want me to be strong and say I’m just fine? Seriously, though, the reason I can keep going like this is because I have support from your insane magic swords,” she answered, wiping her mouth.
Ouka, Mikoto, Daphne, and even the weak Haruhime were carrying the Modi Familia adventurers. Cassandra had Chigusa on her back, which meant that five members of the party were unable to fight. No matter how hard Aisha fought for them, it was an extremely risky breakdown in terms of proceeding through the lower levels.
To make up for the imbalance, Welf and Lilly were playing exquisite backup with their dagger-style Crozzo Magic Swords. Their high-speed, high-power attacks had taken down quite a few monsters that Aisha was unable to reach, and thanks to their combined efforts, the party had thus far been able to proceed without great danger.
“I wish we could have used Malboro…” Lilly said.
“Didn’t we just hear that water-dwelling monsters aren’t very sensitive to smells from land? The enhanced species doesn’t seem to be able to smell, either. Anyway, if we let out that god-awful smell right now, it just might finish off these wounded elves!”
Welf was half-joking as he responded to Lilly’s comment about the Malboro stink bags, which kept monsters away by releasing a hideous smell. However, his words did little to lighten the feeling of tense urgency consuming the party as they continued through the blue crystal labyrinth.
Just then, Aisha, who was leading the party, started in surprise.
“Miss Aisha?”
“Is it a monster?”
“No, those footsteps sound like—adventurers.”
Aisha’s words startled Lilly and Welf. As she had predicted, no sooner did they round a corner with a cave entrance in it than they bumped into a group of adventurers.
“Dormul, is it you…?”
“Luvis, Luvis!! Ye are alive!!”
The elf raised his head from Daphne’s shoulder. The dwarf shouting his name had eyes as narrow as threads, a big nose, and at around 170 celches was quite tall for his race. His head and body were covered in brown heavy armor, and both hands gripped battle hammers.
Lilly and the others guessed right away that these must be the Magni Familia adventurers Luvis had spoken about.
“Mr.…Dormul, is it? We are of Hestia Familia, and we are on an expedition,” the prum announced.
“Oh-ho, the kin of Rabbit Foot! So that enhanced species attacked you, too…?”
One look at the ivy-tangled Chigusa was enough to tell Dormul what had happened.
His party consisted of four members, all of them hearty Level-3 dwarves dressed in tough full-plate armor. But the battered state of that armor spoke to how worn down the party had become.
Without exception, each member was parasitized by a vine.
“You guys can move? Even with those plants on you…?” Ouka asked in amazement. The dwarf laughed off his comment.
“Yo-ho-ho! We are dwarves! Far stronger than those weakly elves!” he said in his thick accent.
It was clear from the black circles under his eyes, however, that his words were mere bluster. Most likely, he was pushing himself through a forced march for the sake of his party.
“Yes, you damned dwarves are far better than us burdensome elves…” Luvis said with a self-mocking laugh. But the dwarf lost his taste for banter when faced with his limp former rival.
“Eh, Luvis…what good will that kind of talk do…?” he said, exhaustion spreading over his face as he looked at the haggard elf he would normally relish quarreling with.
“Dormul…did you find the party our quest was searching for?”
“…Aye, we found them. Their corpses, that is…They were at a safety point below this level.”
Luvis raised his delicate eyebrows, and Dormul nodded gravely.
“A safety point?” Lilly said, parroting the unexpected words.
“Aye. They were hidden where no one would find them. They had bite marks all over them, and their corpses were shriveled and dry. Those vines were wrapped around them, and flowered at that…”
“S-so that means…?”
“Aye. The enhanced species was lying in wait at the safety point, and it killed the adventurers.”
Shock shot through Lilly and the others.
Monsters couldn’t spawn in safety points. The enhanced species had launched its surprise attack knowing full well that adventurers at a safety point would have their guard down. It had waited for its prey to make themselves vulnerable.
“I thought I was beyond surprise…but that monster knows a damn lot of things it shouldn’t,” Aisha said. Her irritation and disgust expressed the feelings of the whole party.
A monster that had learned the habits of adventurers. It was unheard of.
“That rumor about it being even worse than The Bloodstained Troll may not be far from the truth,” the Amazon added.
“Do you have any more information? Anything you can tell us about the enhanced species’ habitat or its weak points…?”
“Nay. It attacked us as we were hurrying back to Rivira, I’m sorry to say…We beat it, we slashed it, but it seemed to feel nothing. Even our trustworthy thunderbolt magic swords didn’t do much…”
“So, as we suspected, the only thing that clearly works is Mr. Bell’s Firebolt…” Lilly said.
“Which means its weak point must be fire…Li’l E, would you take out the red magic sword? I’ll use that one,” Welf responded.
He had been carrying a thunderbolt-type dagger, but now he took the longer blade that Lilly withdrew from the backpack and stuck it into the sword belt slung crosswise over his back.
“What does yer party plan to do now? Given our condition, we beg that ye let us join with ye…”
“Not a problem. It is the rule of adventurers to help one another in times of trouble. Lilly and her companions will make our way to the connecting passageway on this floor and establish a base there,” the prum said, acceding to Dormul’s plea before quickly explaining their plan. The dwarf agreed, then glanced at Daphne, who was still holding Luvis. She jumped as he boldly walked toward her.
“Give him to me! I’ll take that weak piece of baggage!”
“Dormul, you—”
“Don’t get me wrong! I’m ashamed to say we can’t fight much, and we’ve used up all our items and magic swords! But…we can still do the work of a supporter!”
He snatched Luvis forcefully from Daphne and threw him over his broad shoulders. The other dwarves did the same, taking the wounded elves from Mikoto, Haruhime, and Ouka. Luvis looked at them in surprise, but Dormul cut him off by spitting on the ground, as if to say, Don’t you dare thank me for this.
Meanwhile, Lilly and the others were marveling at the toughness of the dwarf race. No one could be counted on more than a dwarf at a difficult time like this. That was one reason adventurers often recruited them as heavy fighters.
“Th-thank you very much! I don’t know how to express our gratitude…” said Cassandra.
“You’ve really saved us, thanks!” added Daphne.
“I-it’s nothing! Brute labor is the work of dwarves! This is no job for d-d-d-d-dainty little ladies!”
The stammering dwarf turned away, flushed to his ears, as he answered the two beautiful girls—Cassandra with her droopy eyes that aroused the desire to protect and Daphne with her wide-open, slanted pair. They were so attractive they had even invited flirtation from Apollo. The reactions of the other aged dwarves weren’t much different.
Even Lilly, who was practically allergic to adventurers, giggled at their behavior.
“I’m glad they’re such pleasant fellows,” she said.
“Okay, guys, if everything’s been sorted out, let’s get going,” Aisha said.
The group obeyed. Although their numbers had swelled with the addition of the dwarf supporters, they moved more lightly now. Ouka and the others were able to resume their fighting roles.
“By the way, what happened to Bell Cranell? Uh, ye—lovely renart?”
The nervous Dormul directed his question toward Haruhime, who was even more beautiful than Daphne or Cassandra.
“…Um, Master Bell is…”
Behind them, Lilly grasped the belt of her backpack tightly in both hands as she listened to their conversation.
The sound of clapping is still ringing through the cavern, mingled with the crashing of the waterfall.
Like a child, the mermaid looks into my dazzled face with her sparkling jade eyes.
Judging from her appearance, she would be a little older than me in human years—probably around Aiz’s age. Her under-pearl hair ornaments look perfect on this girl from the water’s edge.
A monster that claps for humans…I know of only one type of monster that displays such a friendly attitude.
“Are you…?”
I manage to form a few words despite my dazed state. She tilts her head adorably, opens her eyes wide, and brings her hand to her mouth as if to say, I really shouldn’t…
No way, this can’t be what I’m thinking—
Just as an image of Wiene’s face flashes across my mind, something interrupts my thoughts.
“AAAAAAA!”
“?!”
The sounds of wings beating air and high-pitched cries are coming from high above. I look up and see a flock of harpies and sirens. The monsters soaring through the upper realm of the cavern have noticed me, and their eyes glitter exactly like hawks peering down on their prey. Of course—there’s no way they could have failed to notice the racket I made fighting the iguaçu…!
“!”
I grind my teeth. The “girl” shudders in surprise and quickly dives into the water. To tell the truth, it’s agonizing to see her go, but I have to get her out of my mind for the time being. I’m facing a fight with these winged monsters even though I’m still totally exhausted from the iguaçu.
“SHAAAAAAAA!”
“—AAH!!”
Both the harpy and the siren have the faces of women and the bodies of birds. One has dark-red plumage, while the other’s feathers are a glaring shade of yellow. Both are uglier than old crones, their faces engraved with deep wrinkles. Now and then, a whiff of their body odor reaches my nose. It smells like excrement and is totally out of place in this Water Capital. Looking at them, I realize how far Rei and Fia have deviated from the norms of their race.
While both types of monster are bird-human hybrids, harpies have greater flying abilities, while sirens are able to emit irregular sound waves as they fly. In other words, one can attack from close range and the other from a distance. As I move to intercept a harpy that swoops toward me with her hooked claws prepared for attack, I keep half my attention on the sirens hovering high above my head and releasing sound waves.
“Yah!”
“EEE?!”
I dodge the hooked claws and slash the Divine Knife toward the harpy. As a fountain of blood and feathers spurts from her severed neck, the other harpies dive toward me. I use Hakugen to deal with them.
I think back to my battle with the harpies in the Beor Mountain Range, where I got lost with the goddess and Aiz. These individuals are far swifter than those who live on land, but at least I know how they fight. That gives me a huge advantage. Even if I’m exhausted from fighting the iguaçu, opponents of this caliber aren’t going to take me down. I can feel the new level of toughness that my Level-4 status has brought. I drive my left foot into the last of the harpies, crushing her jaw.
“—AAA!!”
Leaping back, I barely avoid the sound wave a siren releases an instant later. Water splashes up where the sound wave makes contact with the shallows, and a crystal cluster nearby blossoms with cracks before crumbling into the water. She may not be as strong as Rei, but her power still poses a threat.
The four sirens appear hesitant to engage me in close combat, and none shows signs of descending from high above.
In that case…
“Firebolt!”
“?!”
I extend my right arm, steady it with my left, and exercise my magic without restraint.
The only thing I’ve got plenty of right now is mental strength. As I repeatedly fire at and miss the four sirens flying freely through the air, I take full advantage of the characteristics of my Swift-Strike Magic.
I shoot rapid-fire and at random.
Time and again, high-powered electrical fire pierces the air. The sirens swerve desperately to avoid the shots, unable to return my attack with their sound waves. They’re showing more and more signs of exhaustion. Without pause, I aim for them. One by one, the bolts of fire pierce the sirens, and their corpses tumble into the center of the plunge pool.
“Whew…”
I lower my right arm.
I’ve taken out all my enemies…but as I feared, “she” still hasn’t reappeared. If I had the chance, there’s a lot I would have liked to ask her.
I look around the now-quiet landscape…and hear something splash.
I shiver. Has the mermaid returned? Relaxing my defensive pose, I turn around.
“—OO-LA-LA.”
The creatures perched on a clump of crystals near the shore are definitely mermaids but…not that mermaid!
These are the real thing!
There are two of them on the reef. Their hair is the drab green of a withered plant, and their bodies are half-fish, half-human. Mermaids are among the rare monsters of this floor. While they are more attractive than harpies, there is something distinctly creepy about the pure-white eyes and bluish-white skin that seems to have no blood running beneath it.
They take advantage of my momentary lapse in wariness to smile at me and then open their mouths.
“LAAA—…”
A strange, ruinous song designed to seduce unfortunate travelers floats toward me.
This is not good!!
Outwitted, I realize too late they’ve beaten me to the punch. Still, I press my hands to my ears.
Mermaids have almost no ability to engage in direct battle; their single atrocious weapon is the charm they inflict through their songs. These charms are uniquely nasty, even when compared to the limited number of other “irregular ailments” out there. The illness they inflict has its roots in the mind, and it cannot be healed with items or blocked with abilities. In other words, it’s a psychological attack.
Adventurers seduced by these songs at times are lured into the water, and at other times they become deranged and fight with their own companions. The only preventative measures are to block one’s ears or resist the mermaids’ ruinous songs with unyielding mental strength.
I’ve made the mistake of listening to quite a lot of the mermaids’ song. I clench my teeth and wait, but—
“…Huh?”
—nothing strange happens.
I’m not drawn to them. I don’t stumble toward the water. My heart doesn’t flutter. They’re still singing their song of ruin as I remove my hands from my ears and look down at them. I rack my brain for an explanation. The mermaids on the reef are also clearly shaken by the fact that their charm is not working on me.
“Uh…Firebolt?”
“EAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
At a loss for what else to do, I thrust out my right hand and release a bolt of electric fire. The mermaids take a direct hit, let out a scream, and flee into the water.
“What in the world just happened…?”
As far as I know, I don’t have any pricey accessories or items on me that would render their charms ineffective…
But then again, I did argue with Ishtar, the goddess of beauty, whose seductiveness is said to far outstrip the charm of a monster…so maybe I built up my resistance without knowing it?
Sweating, I rub my fingers over my back, which seems to have been growing gradually hotter over the past few minutes.
“…You’re okay?”
I jump at the sound of a beautiful, bell-clear voice.
When I turn my head, I see that she has popped up beside a crystal bank that looks like a rock. She sounds as if she’s worried about me. Her voice is timid, and she’s hiding her upper body, while her lower body is still underwater.
I freeze for a minute, then slowly walk toward her so as not to startle her. Maybe she’s not very cautious, or maybe she’s extremely curious. The expression on her face is either uneasiness because I’ve neither tried to attack nor harmed her—a talking monster—or deep interest in me.
She definitely was speaking in our language a second ago.
Yup, I’m sure now—
I get down on one knee in front of where she is hiding in the shadow of the crystals.
“Are you…a Xenos?!”
At the word Xenos, her jade eyes widen. The next instant, she hurls herself from behind the crystal and flings both arms around my neck.
“Ack!”
I reflexively try to lean back as her round, bare breasts leap into full view, but her arms prevent me from moving. Like an idiot, I turn red. The mermaid brings her nose to the base of my neck and sniffs.
“You smell like Rei…”
Hearing Rei’s name brings me back to my senses. So she knows Rei, a Xenos and a siren.
“Um, do you know any of the other Xenos? Like Lido or Gros…?”
“Yes! Lido is cute…and Gros is shy. Right?”
I peel her thin shoulders away from my neck. She tilts her head and smiles.
Cute…shy…those words don’t match up with the lizardman and the gargoyle I know…but this girl’s behavior is unmistakable. She’s a Xenos. You could call it pure luck that I met up with her here.
I somehow get her to remove her arms from around my neck, and she peers at me from close range. I can’t decide what to ask her first. Finally, I open my mouth.
“Uh, my name is Bell. What’s yours?”
That’s what I’d do with a human. She shakes her emerald-blue hair and tilts her head again with a confused expression.
“…?”
I point to myself and repeat my name.
“Bell, Bell, Bell.”
After I’ve done this a few times, she smiles beautifully and claps.
“Bell!”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I’m Mari!”
She’s both learned my name and shared her own.
So I’ve met a mermaid named Mari.
It’s hard to tell for sure yet, but compared to Wiene and Rei, her communication ability seems slightly weak. Her words strike me as immature or clumsy…
As I’m thinking about what to ask her next, she slowly, quietly puts her pointer finger in her mouth.
Then she bites it, and as blood oozes from the top, she sticks it under my nose.
“Bell.”
“Y-yes?”
“Eat it!”
What…?
I stand there gaping, my mind frozen. She sticks her finger into my mouth. Wait a second!!
“Lick it!”
What?!
“Suck it!”
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!
My face is instantly on fire. Her finger draws a circle, invading the inside of my mouth. Oh crap—?! Stop wriggling it around in my mouth!! Now it’s tangled up with my tongue…!!
I turn bright red and erupt with sweat. I can’t breathe correctly. I grab her right hand and try to pull it out, but she won’t let me. Instead she turns her finger into a hook and digs it into my gums. Ouch ouch ouch!
“Hurry up—!!”
She’s got her whole upper body glued to me now. My body is as stiff as a stone. She may be a monster, but she’s also a beautiful girl, and she’s pressing herself onto me. Tears are welling up in my eyes, but I obey her order.
I lick her finger and suck in, drinking down the saliva that’s pooled in my mouth.
She doesn’t act like my tongue licking her finger tickles. She just smiles happily. When I figure I’ve done enough and try to pull away, she cries out, “More!”
My face is impossibly hot. Smoke is pouring from my ears. Almost literally. The truth is, this might be the most embarrassed I’ve ever felt. If not the most, it’s at least among the top three. It ranks right up there with seeing Aiz and the other Loki Familia women bathing and having Haruhime fall on top of me in the red-light district.
For some reason, the memory of my grandfather’s refreshing laugh as he stuck up his pointer finger passes through my mind.
If someone saw us now, they’d think we were doing something crazier than if we were lovers…!
More people appear in my mind’s eye. There are Lilly and the goddess, arms crossed forbiddingly. There is Aiz, staring fixedly at me. And there is Eina, smiling with her mouth but not her eyes.
As my body starts to shake violently and inexplicably…I finally notice something.
“Fwha, fwhat?” I say, finger still in my mouth. I look down at my arms and body. The sluggish feeling is gone, and the energy I lost in my fight with the iguaçu seems to be back…
No way…I’m fully recovered?
My astonishment must be obvious. There’s no doubt about it. I’m completely back to normal.
Mari narrows her eyes and finally pulls her finger from my mouth. That’s when I realize what happened. Her blood healed my body.
“Oh right, mermaid lifeblood…”
It’s a drop item produced by the rare species. Classified as a recovery-type item, mermaid blood is rumored to restore energy, heal wounds, and even reverse the effects of poison. There’s no need to process it in any way. It’s as exceedingly rare as unicorn horns…
I see now. She was worried about my injuries and wanted to heal me.
“Um…thank you very much.”
I bow my head in appreciation, and the Xenos mermaid smiles brightly back at me. Then she stares down at her sticky, saliva-covered finger. The moment I see her do that, I grab her wrist by force.
Using the bottom of the Undine cloth I’m wearing, I vigorously wipe her finger. Mari gives me a blank look, and I turn red. I’m trying to eradicate all trace of my saliva. To finish off my work, I plunge her entire hand into the water.
Even though I’ve regained my strength, I’m panting loudly, and my shoulders are heaving like I’m going to run out of energy again.
“Let’s go…there?”
“Huh…?”
“I…don’t like here.”
Mari taps my shoulder, and I look up at her. She seems worried.
I follow her gaze. Far above us, I can make out some shapes that are likely harpies and sirens, perhaps newly spawned from the Dungeon. Then I remember…monsters hunt the Xenos, too.
Mari is right. Visibility is good in this large cavern, and monsters can easily target us. Adventurers who emerge onto the cliff when they arrive on this floor could even spot us. I agree with the mermaid’s decision to move.
“Uh, over there? In the labyrinth…?”
“Yes!”
She points to a cave on the northeast side of the cavern. At first I’m skeptical that a half-fish, half-human will be able to walk overland to get there, but I manage to decipher her gestures and figure out that there’s a hole at the bottom of the plunge pool that’s connected to the waterways inside the labyrinth. Monsters that are swept over the Great Falls use this hole to get back inside.
Mari dives under, and I step out of the shallow water. Gazing up at the ajura tree, I head back inside the crystal labyrinth for a second time.
“But…how are we going to meet up? I have no idea where the plunge pool connects to the streams…”
As this basic problem with our plan dawns on me, I stand bewildered at a fork in the path, which is already becoming complicated.
Damn. We really should have figured this out ahead of time…
I’m standing there worrying when I hear a song.
“LAA…”
The voice singing it is smooth and clear. This wordless string of la-la-las doesn’t seem to be a monster’s chant intended to lead humans astray. Instead, the gentle, sweet melody reminds me of an approaching wave or the ocean on a moonlit night.
“A song that echoes through the labyrinth…”
I let the song guide me forward, my soul trembling at its beauty.
After I’ve proceeded forward for a while without encountering any monsters, I arrive at a small room. A mermaid is sitting on the boundary of water and land, singing. The sight of her illuminated by the moonlight-like glow of the crystals, eyes closed as she smiles and croons to herself, is so beautiful and mysterious that it captivates me.
“Bell. ? ”
The mermaid notices me and waves. I return to my senses and hurry over to her.
The water in this room is not a stream but instead a spring. Mari is sitting on a rocklike crystal at its edge. As I approach this girl surrounded by crystal the bluish shade of ice…I turn red all over again.
“…?”
“Oh, nothing, it’s just…”
I mumble incoherently as I stare at her defenseless upper body. Especially at her chest.
Even putting aside what happened out in the plunge pool, which wasn’t what it seemed anyway, I can’t help looking no matter how hard I try. The locks of hair that hang down on both sides just barely hide her breasts, but still…
After I’ve glanced at her chest a bunch of times and turned bright red, she claps as if she’s understood.
“Wait!”
Smiling, she dives into the spring, and I wait for around a minute. When she bursts through the water’s surface again, her long emerald-blue hair is pulled behind her head, and I hurriedly throw my arm over my face to avoid seeing too much. Then I notice she’s covered her chest with something.
“Sh-shell underwear…?”
“Just like Bell and his friends!”
While underwater, she’s donned a…um…b-bikini made of shells and string. The blue shells are plastered to the indigo-blue mounds on her chest.
By “just like Bell and his friends,” she must mean the fact that she’s wearing clothes. It’s true that Amazons wear something similar…Aside from the pearl and shell decorations in her hair, she seems interested in the clothing of adventurers. Maybe she’s copied us.
I smile wryly as she stretches out her arms and poses as if to ask my opinion. She’s acting like a little girl, but I can’t help finding it endearing.
Still…her face is so gorgeous it’s like an eye magnet, and she likes to play dress-up. Could she really have hidden her true identity from other adventurers up till now…?
Maybe because she’s noticed my gaze (or maybe not), she smiles and starts to fuss with her hair. She pulls the damp locks in front of her face as if to say, I always do it like this. The green hair sticks to her face, hiding most of it, including her eyes. Even though she’s smiling, I have to agree…if she did this, no one would guess a thing. Actually, she looks fairly scary.
Maybe this is what the goddess meant when she talked about “horror.”
She definitely doesn’t match up with the Xenos I’ve met in the past…For one, she clapped at me and talked to me in a worried voice. She’s innocent, and her words and actions are immature. She’s full of curiosity, too. But judging from the fact that she knows Lido and the other Xenos, she probably isn’t newly spawned from the Dungeon.
Since meeting her, I’ve felt that she’s somehow different from Rei or Wiene. Now I’m sure she is.
How can I put it? She’s less like a Xenos and more like…a spirit, which I’ve heard have less developed senses of self.
“Uh, so, Miss Mari…”
“Miss Mari? I am Mari.”
“No, miss is a word we attach to names. It’s like a part of human culture…”
“I am Mari.”
“…Mari.”
I can’t help giving in to her naive behavior as she brings her face close to mine. My face has been bright red this whole time as I watch her frolicking around happily.
“…So, uh, Mari? Are Lido or any of the other Xenos on this floor?” I ask, having decided to try to make contact with Wiene.
“Lido and the other ones went up,” she says, looking toward the crystal ceiling.
Up? Does she mean up to the middle levels? Or…up to the surface?
Despite my uncertainty, I don’t pursue the question further. All I know is that I won’t be able to call on Lido and the others for help.
“They always do it.”
“Huh?”
“I can’t fly like Rei or walk like Lido.”
“…”
“So they always leave me here.”
Mari pouts as she haltingly strings together her clumsy words. It’s the particular complaint of a mermaid, who is unable to move around on land. Guessing from her words, she might not have met Wiene yet.
As I stand here thinking, Mari slaps her tail on the ground loudly, presses both hands on the crystal rock, and pulls herself up onto it.
“Bell, let’s talk!”
She’s pestering me as if she’s excited that someone who’s not one of her brethren has accepted her. Her cheeks are flushed and she’s smiling, overjoyed at her first visitor. She’s really just like a spirit.
If the situation was different, I’d be happy to chat with her endlessly, but…
“Mari, listen to me. I want to go back to my friends.”
“…?”
“Will you take me to some places where people might be?”
I look into her eyes as I ask this favor. I’ll never manage to find my party by wandering randomly around the Dungeon. Plus, without a map, it will be hard to find my way back to the room where I was pulled underwater. I desperately want Mari—who I assume knows her way around this floor—to help me.
She lowers her eyebrows sadly and shakes her head.
“You can’t go.”
“Huh…?”
“There is a scary thing in here now.”
I stand there frozen and unbelieving.
“Mari, do you know about the enhanced species? Uh, the one that’s green, and big, and has yellow eyes…?”
“…Yes.”
She nods as I list all its characteristics to make sure we’re talking about the same monster. Mari knows about the moss huge!
“The very scary thing…the one that ate a lot of Bell’s friends…”
“…! I want to do something about that monster! Do you know where it is?”
“No. You can’t. Bell, don’t go.”
“Mari…!”
She just keeps shaking her head as I plead with her. And that’s not all. When I ignore her warning, she tries to hold me back so I can’t leave. She’s gripping my Undine cloth sleeve tightly in her delicate fingers.
“It will eat Bell and me…It’s scary. Everyone is afraid of it…!”
I bite my lip as she lets out a heartrending cry and throws her arms around me.
Drops of water pattered onto the ground from his soaking wet body.
At the same time, he crashed his feet violently down, sending fissures through the crystal ground. He was moving through part of the labyrinth with evident irritation.
He stroked the surface of his body with his fat fingers. Much of his moss had been burned off, and the pain was tormenting him. The pain came from the fire that the human boy with white hair had thrown at him. He, the hunter, had been outwitted by a rabbit and seriously wounded. His body, just now emerged from the stream, trembled with anger.
But that was in the past.
The white-haired boy had fallen over the waterfall. He knew about that. When humans fell over the waterfall, they did not survive. The boy was probably smashed to pieces, his brain spattered across the water. When he thought about that, he felt a little relieved. He wouldn’t have to suffer through that strange, dangerous fire again.
But he needed to be cautious. He realized that. After he walked down the path for a little while, he broke another crystal column and slid into one of the nests he had built inside the labyrinth.
Stinking lumps that had once been humans were scattered on the ground. They were his emergency rations. He pushed them around violently and pulled off the things attached to their bodies. He had been interested for a while now in the gear they wore. He’d seen it protect other humans from the fiery breath of monsters. With his clumsy fat fingers, he attached the cloth to his own body, covering it with the moss that was rapidly growing back, forcefully burying it under his skin. Then, to fill his stomach before he set to work, he ate every last corpse he had set aside as emergency rations. It was almost time to attack the gang of humans.
The seeds told him that the humans had clustered together and were moving in a group. If they had been by themselves, it would have been easy to kick them about, but such a large group was risky. Regardless of the seeds he had planted, he was still outnumbered. The brown female whose presence was as strong as the white-haired boy’s was still in good condition. Last time, they had noticed his trap just before he snapped it shut. He would have to use a more foolproof method this time so they couldn’t escape.
—Yes, that’s it! I’ll use that one I haven’t used recently.
He had been standing still and silent as he thought, but now he began to move.
He did not take any weapons from his mother, the Dungeon. He emerged from the nest and began walking through the crystal cave, his ominous shadow swaying on the walls.
And then, he mercilessly pursued the group of adventurers.
“…?”
Aisha was the first to notice the change.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” asked Welf, who had been peering around warily, as he looked up toward the Amazon at the front of the party.
“…It’s strange how noisy the Dungeon is.”
Aisha tucked her hair behind her ears and listened more closely. The party was in the northwestern section of the floor, in one of the higher portions of the indigo crystal labyrinth in the cliff’s interior. The Level-4 adventurer was sensitively gathering information from the vibrations that reached the wide main route via the many tunnels that crossed it.
“You don’t think it’s a stream trap, do you?”
“No, it’s not that. This is…”
If you sense a change, escape. Even if you don’t know exactly what it is, get away from it. That was an ironclad rule among adventurers.
Aisha drew her eyebrows together as her intuition throbbed. She was about to issue instructions to the group when Mikoto shouted out.
“—! Monsters are coming!”
Just as her detection skill had swiftly warned her, a large number of monsters appeared in the passage in front of them.
“A pack of monsters…! At a time like this!” Ouka shouted.
“I have no choice; I’m gonna use the magic sword!” Welf, who was standing next to him, answered. He leaped forward, gripping the hilt of the crimson sword. Moving up next to Aisha, he prepared to draw it from the belt on his back.
“—”
Ignoring their actions, Mikoto once again reacted to something. Her beautiful face froze.
“Mikoto?” Lilly asked suspiciously.
“…They’re coming from behind, too—”
Hearing this response, Lilly stiffened. She glanced behind her. A pack of monsters as numerous as the one in front was pressing toward them, their roars and countless footsteps thundering down the passage.
“What the…?!”
“W-wait a second! They’re coming from the right and left, too!!”
“And from a diagonal!”
Daphne’s and Haruhime’s screams echoed the sound of their enemy’s advance, which was like a nightmare roaring with laughter. Welf, who had been on the verge of drawing his magic sword, was in shock. Both he and the gaping Ouka stood frozen, looking back. The elves and dwarves tormented by parasitic vines went pale, too.
“Shit! What the fuck is happening?!” Aisha cursed as masses of monsters invaded the main route from every direction. Then, as she scanned their surroundings, podao at the ready, she saw it.
“Crap—”
It was far down the passageway.
Way beyond the pack of approaching monsters, the hideous dark-green giant was slowly emerging from a tunnel.
Its hands were stained red. Not with the blood of adventurers but with the blood of monsters.
The awful truth dawned on Aisha. The screams of the monsters rushing toward them were not threats. They were screams of terror. Some of them even had parasitic vines growing from them. They were racing into the main route as if they were being herded from the other passages.
“…You’re fucking kidding me.”
Aisha’s eyes met the yellow eyes of the moss huge. As the monster’s emotionless gaze pierced the Amazon, she shouted a jeer.
“What kind of monster does a pass parade?!”
The Dungeon is thundering.
That sound is either many monsters roaring at once or monsters marching.
The vibrations barely—but unmistakably—reach the room Mari and I are in. We look up at the ceiling in surprise.
Fragments of crystal fall like a dusting of light onto the spring, sending out small ripples.
“…Mari, listen to me.”
I put my hands on the fragile shoulders of the mermaid, who is hugging my chest, and gently peel her away. She looks up at me with an anxious expression.
“I will kill them. Definitely.”
Her eyes widen.
As if I am reasoning with a child or imploring a spirit, I beg the monster girl.
“I promise I won’t let them scare you, Mari. I’ll kill all the scary things. So…please take me there.”
My little speech sets my teeth on edge. The ordinary me would probably be blushing and unable to say words like that. Now, though, I’m able to speak them easily.
I speak them in order to save my companions and soothe these trembling little shoulders.
I gaze into the wavering jade eyes.
“…Will you…protect me?”
The mermaid speaks slowly, her head tilted.
“Yes, I will protect you.”
“Will you…help me?”
“—Yes! I’ll help you!”
I make a promise to Wiene’s kin, just like I did with Wiene herself.
She looks at me as I nod enthusiastically, then suddenly she smiles.
“Okay! I’ll show you! I’ll take you there!”
She looks up at the ceiling, still smiling brightly. Then she shuts her eyes, puts her hands to her chest, and begins to sing.
“LAAA…”
“?!”
I slap my hands onto my ears despite myself.
She is singing the type of discordant notes that can harm human ears. And she is belting them out so loudly I’m sure they’ll echo through every corner of the Dungeon.
The song is different from the strange sound waves of a siren, or from the ruinous melody of a mermaid, or from the beautiful melody she sang earlier to guide me to her.
As I look at her in surprise, monsters’ howls begin to echo toward us from deep in the labyrinth, one after the next.
“She’s…”
“—I found them!”
She stops singing and opens her eyes.
“They say your friends are over there.”
As she smiles at me, I guess what’s just happened, and astonishment washes over me.
—She’s just charmed the monsters?!
I can’t believe it. But it’s the only explanation.
Her song was not meant to seduce adventurers. It was a ballad to seduce monsters.
“The ones who are more obedient told me.”
In other words, she’s charmed monsters with lower ability than herself.
She dives into the spring and swims underwater in a gentle arc, popping up again in the center. Her hair and skin glistening, she looks at me and smiles.
“…”
Behind her is a stream that connects the spring to the waterways outside the room. A path follows along beside it.
There’s no need for words. I nod at her and start running. She flips over, and together we fly out of the room.
“Let’s go!”
To find my friends, I race across the crystal labyrinth as the mermaid cuts through the water beside me.
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