ch221-ch240 · 230-ch230
Chapter 230: The Dream Where I'm the Only One Missing
Kasumi-san is in the kitchen.
This is my house.
Ah, and my mother is there too.
She says something to Kasumi-san and takes something out of the new fridge.
The two of them appear to be cooking together.
I can't wait to see what they make.
The cooking is finished, and the two of them take their seats.
They eat, chatting away happily.
And I am nowhere in the picture......
The food was only ever made for two......
Why?
I am......
"...-uki. Haruki. Hey."
"Ga—Anego...-san?"
Anego-san's face is right in front of me.
Right—the dungeon. I came on the newbie's promotion request.
Why is Anego-san in our tent?
"Keep your voice down? You'll wake Soushi."
Keep it down...? Don't tell me this is a night crawl?
Wh-where's the 'Lilliputian Spear'......
"Pye."
"Time for shift change. I'll go wake Fuyutsuki, so you get ready."
"Ah—yes."
Right. Obviously.
It's 3 AM.
From now until six, it's my watch.
"Sleeepy, ssu—"
The newbie emerges from the girls' tent, rubbing her eyes.
From 9 PM to 3 she should have rested, but couldn't sleep, I suppose?
An unfamiliar shift time can do that to you.
(Ready over here—your turn, please.)
I give the signal to the party next door, and they make the handover.
If every party changed shifts simultaneously, there'd be a gap, and the noise would wake half the campsite, after all.
The party next door is the Triple-Rank party belonging to the frilly-skirt woman who called out to Anego-san.
"I had a nasty dream, ssu. Usually I dream of becoming a 【Sword Saint】 and a national idol—this was the worst, ssu."
"Same here. So you really don't forget the dreams you have here......"
【Presence Detection】 shows no orc reactions.
Only the presences of adventurers inside the tents.
Looking at it this way, adventurers skew purple, don't they?
The newbie is purple too.
Association staff and the Floor 1 shopkeepers ran mostly light blue, so I assumed light blue was the most common color—but maybe not, after all?
From the neighboring party, a fresh pair emerges: one purple, one light blue.
Light blue would be the frilly-skirt woman......
"I dreamed of the Chiba branch, ssu. The same daily routine as always, no customers just like always, everyone looking bored...... But I wasn't there, ssu."
The newbie, sitting down beside me, starts telling me about her dream.
I had almost exactly the same one.
"You don't want to go to Aomori?"
"Of course not, ssu. It's only been about four months, ssu, but I'd only just gotten close with everyone, ssu. The people at Chiba are all good people, ssu. And yet......"
Hayashi-san had made it sound like she hated the countryside, but that doesn't seem to be it.
The newbie has lowered her face.
Is she crying?
This is awkward.
I have to say something......
What can I say?
Common ground...... the 【Charge Spearman】 thing?
No, switching topics that abruptly is......
Something within the flow of the conversation, something I can actually say......
"Are you close with Kasumi-san as well?"
"...Very much so, ssu. She's my direct supervisor, and always kind, ssu. She takes scoldings from the branch manager in my place, ssu, and shields me, ssu. But ever since a strange person showed up, she's been off, ssu. Spaced out even at work, ssu—and if I try talking to that person, she gets angry at me, ssu."
A strange person? What on earth kind of person is that?
Ah—an orc's come.
I start to stand, but the neighboring party gestures me back down with their hands.
The frilly-skirt woman is going, it seems.
Still no weapon in hand, as ever.
(Some bare-handed fighting job, like a 【Monk】?)
Just as I think that, she plunges a hand into her skirt and pulls something out.
She takes a stance at range and swings—and the orc's head, neck and all, is simply gone.
That was... a whip?
What terrifying power.
As expected of a Triple-Rank party.
But what job uses a whip, I wonder?
The frilly-skirt woman tucks the whip back into her skirt, then produces a large knife this time.
Apparently for extracting the magic stone.
No—wait, wouldn't it be better to hang a whip and a knife on your belt?
The visual of her reaching into her own skirt is pretty dire, honestly.
"Watanabe-san always took such good care of me, ssu. I'd wanted to repay her someday, ssu, but even if I could come back to Chiba, by then Watanabe-san won't be here anymore, ssu...... Please, make Watanabe-san happy, ssu...... Hnn..."
Ah—there go the tears again......
What do I do......
From the two in the neighboring party comes instruction—gesture, no, full-body language: DO something.
Body language really does get through, huh.