ch01-ch20 · 011-ch10

Chapter 10

"Hey! I told you not to use it, and you used it anyway, Toru!"

The holy sword spirit Tia, having easily finished off the dragon, approached Toru — who was wrestling with complicated feelings about his first boss kill — fuming with anger.

She had a point, Toru thought.

The holy sword Lightbringer was a weapon that connected with its owner's soul, while the cursed blade "Kagetsu" was a weapon that merged with its owner's soul — maybe they were similar but different.

Dragging it out from inside his left hand was creepy enough, and the blade was an ominous crimson-black, the guard and hilt black, with a long decorative cord that wrapped around his right hand.

Like Tia had said, it was more of a cursed artifact than a weapon.

"Well, you were too busy beating the crap out of the dragon. Self-defense, self-defense."

"Well, it had been a while since I last hunted a dragon!"

She puffed out her chest cheerfully, then let out an "ah" and moved to the far side of the great hall at teleportation-like speed.

It looked like she was going to tend to their friend — the one who'd been captured by the black knight. Toru saw her chanting some kind of magic, and light poured down onto the fallen woman.

She must have used healing magic.

"Ah, um... about being lost...?"

A short-haired woman with brown hair — who looked to Toru like the "obviously popular type" — timidly asked. The bob-cut woman she was holding in one arm was still unconscious, it seemed.

"Uh... yeah, seriously lost. Not like, lost in life. I think I stepped on a teleport trap in a different labyrinth and ended up in a weird place. We were walking around trying to find a way out and ended up in the middle of the stairs connecting this boss room to the floor below."

"That's... quite the coincidence..."

"Well, the one who said we should help you was that swordsman over there. Uh... sorry, you're live, right? Looks like you've made it through the crisis. Shouldn't you say something to the viewers? They're probably worried."

With that, Toru cut the conversation short, jogged back to the stairs leading down, and retrieved his jacket, still bundled up like a wrapping cloth.

While he was at it, he thought about picking up the dragon and black knight's "magic cores," but only the black knight's was there.

What was lying around where the dragon had died was... a single dragon scale. A fist-sized triangular scale, a bit bigger than that. At this size, it had considerable thickness — probably the kind of thing magic engineers would drool over.

Not that Toru had any idea what the market price would be.

"Oh, a rare drop. A dragon scale."

As Toru was vaguely examining the large scale, Tia suddenly appeared right next to him, speaking cheerfully.

"I don't know the market price, and I don't know who to sell it to. Besides, weren't they the ones fighting it first? Is it okay to just take it?"

"They'd probably be dead without us, so why not? If you're worried, you could ask, but... nothing's more valuable than Lightbringer, you know?"

"Well, I can't sell that holy sword."

"If you could, would you sell it?"

"I don't like hypotheticals."

He let out a scoffing breath and pulled out his mobile device out of habit.

There were way more missed calls than he expected.

Some from numbers he didn't recognize, the rest from the Sugai Dungeon branch office. A number he had registered but had never called or been called from.

Well, he hadn't come back from the dungeon for over a day, so they were probably checking if he was alive.

"What's that board-like thing? I see you looking at it sometimes."

Tia tilted her head curiously.

Personal mobile devices must have been something that didn't exist in her time.

"Uh... magical communication device."

Too lazy to explain, he summed it up in one word. As expected, Tia tilted her head like she didn't understand, but he ignored her and answered the call.

〈Ah — he answered! He finally answered.〉

Since the caller was the Sugai Dungeon branch office, he'd expected it, but... it was still pretty surprising that Kawai Sakiho was the one contacting him.

"This is Toru. Something up?"

〈How can you act like everything's normal right now? There's a lot going on... You know 'Anthem'? The A-rank explorer clan.〉

"Uh... I've heard the name."

〈No, there's no way you'd know them. And of course, you wouldn't know that their clan has entered a dungeon in the city.〉

"Huh? No, I've at least heard the name. They're on TV, and occasionally pop up in stream recommendations and stuff."

〈Sigh... then do you realize that Kagurazaka Chizuru — the girl with the ponytail — is pointing a camera at you?〉

"Huh?"

Not understanding what she meant, he turned around anyway — and the samurai girl, who hadn't said a word, was pointing a camera at him with a half-dazed expression.

"Hey, Toru. What's that? It looks like a projection device — is that also a communication device?"

Tia asked, not hiding her curiosity, but Toru simply ignored her.

Which meant — that was the situation.

〈Do you understand now? They're members of the A-rank explorer clan, Anthem. Your face is all over the stream, and the chat is in chaos. For now, I'm relieved you're alive. The chief should be arriving shortly, so tell them to wait. Well then, goodbye.〉

She said what she had to say and hung up before he could respond.

Come to think of it, Toru realized, that might have been the first time he'd heard "goodbye" from Kawai Sakiho's mouth.

◇◇◇

To put it simply, it was a huge ordeal.

First off, the "Anthem" explorers were all out of commission.

The leader, Saito Megumi, had collapsed into tearful sobbing now that the tension was released. The cameraperson, Shingu Sanagi, who'd woken up, saw Megumi crying and started crying herself while apologizing profusely. The samurai-like swordswoman Kagurazaka Chizuru was staring blankly at Toru for some reason, but she was kind of scary so he didn't talk to her.

As for Mido Airi, who'd been used as a hostage by the black knight — Tia's healing magic seemed to have worked, and the sword wound was completely healed. She woke up shortly after, seemed unsure who to ask for an explanation, so Toru reluctantly handed her the streaming camera and had her explain the situation to the viewers.

From what Toru caught a glimpse of, the viewer count was over one hundred twenty thousand.

"Well, anyway, the important thing is that everyone's safe."

Tia summed it up airily, but there was no denying that.

Though Toru also felt like things wouldn't end with a simple "happily ever after."

Not long after, Mido, who seemed to have finished getting the story from the viewers, ended the stream and bowed deeply to Toru and Tia.

She'd been taken hostage, tortured, and knocked unconscious — so her understanding of how the boss was defeated came secondhand from the viewers — but regardless, she showered Toru with about three times more gratitude than he'd received in his entire life up to that point.

Honestly, it gave him heartburn.

Because it was Tia who'd wanted to save them.

And Tia herself looked troubled every time she was thanked, as if saving people was just obvious.

Still, when the relentless barrage of gratitude continued, she said "that's enough" and hid behind Toru's back, redirecting the gratitude attack to Toru.

Around that time, the city's Labyrinth Department chief — Sadoyama Koji — appeared.

He seemed to have heard the situation — or at least the gist of it — from Kawai Sakiho. Sadoyama wasn't surprised that Toru was in the Kamioka Dungeon boss room, but he was clearly shocked by Tia's existence.

He was a former A-rank explorer, so... maybe Sadoyama looked at Tia and thought, "She's stronger than me."

She looked at most around twenty years old. Her behavior when asking Toru what something was reminded him of a middle schooler — but those who knew, probably knew. Probably.

Not that Toru could tell, of course.

At any rate.

They managed to calm down the wrecked "Anthem" members, got them to stop crying, and under Sadoyama's guidance, they made their way back through Kamioka Dungeon.

Sadoyama handled all the monsters along the way. Toru found it oddly deflating that he could actually follow Sadoyama's movements with his eyes — but without any major incidents, they exited the dungeon.

The sky they saw for the first time in a while was a starry night with not a cloud in sight.

A wagon was parked at the dungeon entrance — someone who seemed to be "Anthem's" manager. The "Anthem" members each expressed their gratitude to Toru and Tia in their own way and got into the wagon.

"Anyway, it's late today. We'll deal with everything else starting tomorrow."

Sadoyama said this with a face that clearly read "I'm dead tired."

The intimidating strong-man aura that had once scared Toru was completely gone — what remained was just the weariness of a worn-out middle manager, which actually made Toru feel oddly close to him.

"Uh... I left my car in the Sugai Dungeon parking lot. Can I get a ride at least that far?"

"Of course. To be honest, I left my car at the branch office too, so I had a light van arranged to take you. By all means."

Sadoyama laughed and let Toru into the car, but he was strangely quiet about Tia, who was also riding with them. Consistently ignoring her, almost.

When they arrived at the Sugai Dungeon parking lot and Toru was about to get out, Sadoyama said apologetically.

"I can't deny that we bear some responsibility for this incident. I'll make sure you get an apology and compensation, as far as my authority allows. If possible, please stay reachable. Of course, you can take time off from the 'cleaner' job. I should be able to contact you by tomorrow afternoon. Get some rest."

Sadoyama, who surely had a better grasp of the future complications than Toru did, still showed consideration for Toru. Toru found himself genuinely impressed.

He must be a proper adult.

Or, to be more precise, an adult leaning toward proper.

Since Toru himself wasn't, he decided to offer a silent respect.

Not that it was worth a cent.