ch221-ch240 · 229-ch229

Chapter 229: Haru-kun Is Not a Toilet

"Haru-kun! Toilet!"

Haru-kun is not a toilet.

Floor 9, just short of the 'Gate to Floor 10,' when Aikawa calls out.

"We're basically at the Minotaur floor—just hold it until after, right?"

The adventurer's toilet situation works like this: you set up a foldable portable toilet, but what can't be seen from outside can't be seen from inside either—which means posting a lookout.

At Floor 10, though, once the Minotaur is down, no lookout is needed.

"I'm telling you because I CAN'T hold it! Hurry, hurry!"

You say "hurry," but I've never set one of these up either, so help me out, please.

And so, under the newbie's direction, the three of us attempt assembly.

"Not there, ssu. The top piece goes here."

"Oh, so it is. Yours was like that too, Haruki."

"What are you DOING! Hurry, hurry!"

"Let's just flip the whole thing over."

"Can't even assemble a toilet. This is why boys..."

Under the withering gaze of Anego-san, who's keeping watch around us, we somehow get it set up.

Honestly, if we'd waited until after the Minotaur, it might not have gotten done in time.

"Then we spread out and keep watch, ssu. One person stays; everyone else doesn't look toward the toilet—that's the etiquette, ssu."

If every one of us turns our back, we might not even notice a goblin popping in.

"Haru-kun, we're counting on you."

Aikawa pushes me toward the toilet.

"Huh?"

The one who said it was Anego-san.

Aikawa's request actually meant "put the 'Left Gate' inside for me," but without knowing the circumstances, of course that's how it sounds.

At Aikawa's request I'd bought a portable toilet on the large side, sized so the 'Left Gate' fits inside with room to spare.

Setting it up was no problem, but...

"Scout-types are only ever boys, ssu—can't be helped, ssu."

If you're a scout-type, you know whether a monster has spawned without turning your back, after all.

The newbie seems to have taken it the good way.

"W-well, but, even though Soushi's here too... Natsuki, you're unbelievable..."

Aikawa sprints off—she's already through to Mia-san's shop, on the far side of the 'Left Gate.'

Leaving me behind, the other members drift away from the portable toilet.

"Sorrrry for the waaait—"

I could feel Anego-san's eyes flicking over at me the whole time, but after a while Aikawa comes back.

Well then—time to take it down again, I suppose.

Come to think of it, it must be rough doing this every single time as an adventurer.

"Haru-kun! Toilet, ssu!"

Haaaah.

Haru-kun is not a toilet, you know?

What do I do?

"O-oi. Seriously?"

Anego-san came back too when she heard Aikawa's shout—but that's her reaction to the newbie's words.

"We went to the trouble of setting it up, so might as well use it, ssu."

"No, that's not the issue."

The issue is why I'M the nearest lookout.

"Your junior Nacchan is following the adventurer's way, ssu—what kind of example does the senior set by acting all embarrassed, ssu? Anego-san should've just taken this post from the start, ssu. Bringing it up NOW is a breach of manners, ssu."

The party with a single girl in it is a time-honored arrangement, and the rule is you don't touch the toilet subject in those cases—that's etiquette.

Inside the dungeon, stats erase the gap between men and women.

A world without man or woman—but observing the bare minimum of manners is the adventurer's way...

No, but still...

"No, that's—Natsuki just barged right in, so..."

"And SO, Haru-kun. Toilet, ssu."

Haru-kun is not a toilet......

The newbie briskly disappears into the toilet.

Aikawa pats me on the shoulder and walks away.

Hey!

Left behind: me and Anego-san.

"U-um, Haruki... next... me too..."

HOGEEEH—!

︙

︙

"Delicious! Soushi, you pass! Natsuki is in your hands!"

It was still before evening, but we'd reached the 'Gate to Floor 15,' so today was called there.

It's our first camp, and there's tent setup to do, after all.

First, dinner—but for a first camp, grilled orc is the adventurer's way, says Anego-san.

We moved up from Floor 14, where the campsite is, to Floor 15, for an early dinner.

"It's good, ssu. Unrealistically good, ssu, but I've got mixed feelings, ssu."

Tell me about it.

This is actually my first time eating orc, too.

I've hated them, but I've never wanted to EAT one...

"I-it's good."

Orc meat's defining trait is how little fat it carries, and what I'm eating now is the thigh cut—leaner still than most.

It should be nothing but plainly grilled meat, and yet... this umami.

Whether it's the 【Cooking】 skill or what, the juices come flooding out as if not a drop had escaped.

If this hadn't been good, I could have sworn off orc forever...

"Now THIS feels like being an adventurer. Everything before now somehow felt... off."

"Aikawa's right. This is what I became an adventurer to do, isn't it..."

Soushi and Aikawa both look over at me.

Let me take it easy, will you!

"Well, every once in a while, a slow one like this isn't bad, I suppose......"

I'd love to bring Kasumi-san here too, but the campsite has people, so that's out.

Keeping a relationship secret is hard work.

"Huh? Anego? Don't tell me even YOU'RE hunting the otherworlder?"

"Oh-h. You lot came to Chiba, huh. I see—wondered why Chiba was so crowded. It's that otherworlder hunt... You idiots, honestly."

Someone has hailed us again.

A woman walks over from a party that has come back to the front of the 'Gate to Floor 14.'

Anego-san is apparently a popular figure; adventurers who seem to be from headquarters, faces I don't recognize, keep calling out to her like this.

She is, whatever anyone says, the type who looks after people.

On the way here she was constantly calling out to the three of them with advice, too.

Me? I've been the pack mule this whole time, obviously.

"If you don't fight, you're banished!"—so this is that pattern: 'The Banished Porter Was Secretly the Holder of an Ultra-Rare Skill.'

"Don't lump me in with you. I'm just here for the company. And what's THIS, Anego? Whoa—!? No way! Anego has a man with her?"

The woman adventurer, having spotted me sitting beside Anego-san, starts saying something weird again.

Somebody said the exact same thing earlier, you know.

Just by being near Mia-san and Anego-san, I get this treatment.

Is this what adventurers are like in general, or are Mia-san and Anego-san the special ones...

"You dumbass! It's a job! A JOB! So—your side, find the otherworlder yet?"

It's not actually a job, but Anego-san forcibly changes the subject.

"We've heard the Floor 21 stories, but our party's got nothing. About all it does is pop up in my dreams now and then."

What an outfit this woman has on...

Women adventurers in skirts aren't rare, but this one's skirt is enormously puffed out.

Frilly, lace-trimmed fluff everywhere.

Can you fight in that?

No, she isn't even carrying a weapon, is she...

An otherworlder?

"Tch, dreams, huh. If only it'd stay OUT of them... Ah—these kids are camping newbies. Look after 'em during watch, will ya?"

Dreams?

"Ohh, I get it—one of those jobs. In that case I'll go round up everyone, and let's have dinner together."

The rule at the campsite is that each party posts a lookout so the rest can sleep in shifts.

Everyone guards the campsite together until 9 PM, after which three teams rotate every three hours, with each party sending at least one person for each shift.

Well, to keep it fair, every party seems to have all its members take part anyway.

"9 to midnight: Natsuki and Soushi. Midnight to 3: just me—that's fine, right? 3 to 6: Haruki and Fuyutsuki."

Anego-san volunteers to take the midnight-to-3 shift, the most brutal one, all by herself.

I thought that should fall to me, the scout-type, but the other parties have scout-types too, and they all said Triple-Rank Anego-san made more sense strength-wise, so I left it to her.

Balancing the division of forces, discussing it with the other parties like this apparently matters a lot.

Incidentally, the client should be exempt from watch duty, but the newbie is doing it anyway.

She's serious in the strangest places, isn't she.

Come to think of it, 'the Holy Maiden'—no, the 'pretty boy'—did keep proper watch too.

"When the dream talk came up earlier, you reacted strangely. Is something wrong?"

After dinner, during the all-hands watch.

I ask Anego-san, who's been sticking near me supposedly to judge my ability.

"Hm? Ah—you don't know...? Dreams you have in the dungeon—you don't forget them."

Huh. First I've heard of that.

But I do have a few that fit.

The isekai-reincarnation dream I had at this very campsite, the first time I went to Floor 30—I remember it clearly.

The Sanzu River dream from when I blacked out sparring with Kasumi-san, too...

"Now that you mention it, there was a precognitive-dreams board, wasn't there. I never looked at it, but so THAT's what it's for..."

If you remember your dreams, plenty of them will happen to coincide with reality and look precognitive.

"Precognition, hm...... Now that I think of it, the one I had before I made Triple was something like that, wasn't it? Which would make that the last dream I've ever had in the dungeon..."

Hm?

"You don't dream in the dungeon, Anego-san?"

"No—I always have the SAME dream in the dungeon, these days. Ah, drop this topic. Don't ask me another word about it. More importantly—fight! You're a Double, aren't you? Show me what you can do."

Even told that, with this many people around, the best I could do is patrol the campsite's perimeter.

Even the spot right in front of us—the newbie, who's taken a liking to Aikawa's dancing, immediately kills every orc that comes our way.

【Charge Spearman】 burns MP on weapon enhancement too, so opportunities to really cut loose against small fry are actually rare, you know.

Wait—isn't the newbie kind of strong?