ch201-ch220 · 215-ch215

Chapter 215: The Magic Parfait Operation Fails

"Well then, please take good care today..."

"Yes. You too, Kasumi-san..."

Tuesday morning, I enter the dungeon, seen off by Kasumi-san.

"Watanabe-san seemed down, didn't she."

Today I'm with Shiraishi-san, who has the day off from the Association.

"Do you know what happened?"

Her voice was low on energy already on last night's phone call.

"You heard the chairman came yesterday, right? She got called in then, and—ohh, that's why. I only just heard myself, but... ah, I wasn't supposed to say that."

Apparently some new Association undertaking is starting, and Kasumi-san got depressed hearing about it.

It's a secret from adventurers until next week, and I was told she can't tell me until then either.

I thought Shiraishi-san might tell me, though.

"No good...?"

I'd love to cheer her up somehow, but Kasumi-san apparently has work at headquarters, and said she'd be leaving the Chiba branch right away.

She told me the gist of that, with the details blurred out.

Apparently she'll be taking on Triple-Rank promotion requests together with headquarters staff.

They'll be starting within the week, and today is the kickoff meeting.

If it's only up to Floor 30, Kasumi-san won't be outdone.

She said the headquarters staffer is a veteran who's handled any number of Triple promotion requests.

Still, worried is worried.

"You'll find out next week, so be patient till then. Come on, Haru-kun, you cheer up too! If you make that face, Watanabe-san will only feel worse! Smile, smile~ Now, is Sou-chan here yet? I can't waaait~"

This one, on the other hand, is in mighty fine spirits.

At some point her name for me had drifted from 'little boy' to 'Haru-kun,' but Kasumi-san's reaction was muted.

This one plots and schemes in her own way too, so she may have done it deliberately to cheer Kasumi-san up—but it seems to have had no effect.

Today we execute the Magic Parfait Operation and raise Shiraishi-san's level.

First, once Soushi arrives, the three of them are going shopping for seasonal fruit.

Apparently the ultimate parfait changes with the seasons.

Meanwhile, I'll gather Sand Golems on Floor 34.

Once the parfait is finished and she starts eating, the leveling begins.

The day before yesterday, while Soushi was hard at work with 【Cooking】, we leveled up—and Aikawa ended up at 22 while Soushi stayed at 20.

That drew complaints, naturally, so today we wait until Soushi is free.

And we'll have Shiraishi-san eat her parfait as slowly as possible.

"Mornin'. Soushi isn't with you? Mia-san too, huh"

"Nacchan, mornin'~ Sou-chan and Mia-chan aren't here yet. So, about the shop we're going to today..."

Aikawa, already ready to head out, opened up Mia-san's shop for us.

Mia-san is stopping by her old HQ shop on the way, so she won't be here for a while yet.

She and Kasumi-san will just miss each other.

"Then I'll get ready and head into the dungeon... Knowing Soushi, he might be late. I think you'd be better off waiting outside and calling him."

The dungeon has no signal to the outside, so not being able to reach Aikawa normally is a bit of a problem, I think.

In an emergency, we can ask the staff on the surface to pass a message, though.

But making her come all this way just because Soushi is late is a bit...

By the way, even a cable run through a 'Dungeon Gate' gets sliced clean through after an hour.

Leave anything only partway through a 'Gate'—not fully passed—for a set time, and it gets cut in two.

"Because it's dangerous, please never play around at the floor gates"—that's how Hayashi-san put it in our first lecture.

It was phrased like telling children not to play in elevators—but honestly, adventurers are basically children anyway.

I hear some adventurer actually brought something hard along and played at cutting it...

"Are you in a bad mood or something? Did Shiraishi-san do something?"

"Well, you see, Watanabe-san was feeling down. Adorable, isn't it?"

Ignoring that.

I'll get my armor on and head for the deeper floors, quick.

︙

︙

"What the heck are you doing with that? ...Whoa, this side's something too. Don't tell me you were waiting for me?"

I'd spent about two hours gathering Sand Golems on Floor 34 when Mia-san's face poked out of the 'Left Hand Gate.'

"Ah, Mia-san, thanks for your hard work. It's not that I was waiting—it's just that sending golems to an empty Floor 1 would be pretty bad, so I figured I'd just gather them here."

"True, nobody's here. Where are the others? ...Wait, what's THIS? Why'd you stop halfway?"

"Soushi and the others went shopping. That is a cutting experiment."

"Wh—hey! Don't do dangerous stuff!"

Mia-san, who'd only poked her face through, hurries her whole body through to Floor 34.

At my feet is a Sand Golem with half its body jammed into the 'Left Hand Gate.'

Dangerous? Not really, or so it should be.

The hour counts separately for each thing inserted: put the first thing halfway in, put another thing in ten minutes later, and fifty minutes after that, the only thing that gets cut is the first one.

In other words, as long as Mia-san doesn't stay in that position for an hour, she's safe.

"Please don't come over here without your armor on. Come to think of it, that one had been sitting there for over an hour. I forgot about it."

Mia-san is in her regular clothes.

If you're going to stick your face out of a 'Gate,' at least wear a helmet, please.

As for the Sand Golem at my feet—I remembered the story about phone cables getting cut, so I was testing whether the same happens with my 【Gate】.

For the record, my 【Gate】 can't be dismissed while something is inside it—so what happens now...

"Don't forget, ah... Whoa, only half of it's left. And the cut surface is silky smooth. Huh."

Seems it worked.

"It really does. But could this be used for anything?"

"You're the one experimenting, why're you asking me... Left sitting like that for a whole hour, right? Can't see it working on monsters... Hmm. No idea, even thinking about it. Anyway, I'll get changed and move these golems over to the shop, so put up the 'Gate home.'"

"Yes. 【Gate】."

I summon the 'Left Hand Gate.'

Ah—!

As Mia-san stepped into the 'Left Hand Gate' to head home, her remaining foot shot straight up.

On the far side of the 'Left Hand Gate'—at the shop—there's the remaining half of the golem, so it seems she tripped over it and fell.

...I'll pretend I didn't see that.

She's Level 31; a little fall won't hurt her...

"Haruki! What'd you do that for! Everyone laughed at me!"

Only her face came back.

Bad timing, too—they'd apparently just gotten back.

"Pfft. No, I didn't do anything. Pfft."

I can't exactly say "your face is bright red"—but the laughter leaks out.

...I got chewed out big time.

"Oh my? Feeling a bit better?"

"Yes, thanks to Mia-san. Pfft."

Sure enough, all three of them were back.

"Honestly, Haru-kun, you mustn't laugh. Pfft. Wow, so Mia-san makes that kind of shriek too, huh."

"Natsukii—!"

It's true that the gloom that wouldn't lift—not even while hunting golems out of mild spite—eased up thanks to Mia-san.

"Okay, okay, that's enough, that's enough. Sou-chan, I know it's sudden, but I want my parfait! Let's start with melon."

"Ah, I'm gonna go put half the ice cream in the fridge—"

Ah, she bailed.

I should change the subject too.

"We could use a fridge over here too."

"There's one at the old shop, but it's still sitting there just as it was... The eviction isn't going smoothly. Even when we empty it, stuff gets put right back in."

Eviction? What's that about?

"Big sis will buy you a brand-new commercial one!"

"What would a weapon shop need with a commercial fridge!"

That day, Shiraishi-san reached Level 22, Soushi 24, and Aikawa 25.

The deeper the floors, the more EXP you rake in, as expected.

Incidentally, Shiraishi-san finished her parfait in no time, so it ended up being "leveling after the parfait"—meaning the Magic Parfait Operation was a failure.