ch01-ch20 · 016-ch15

Chapter 15

"Still, it's amazing. The fact that roads are laid throughout the city just so people can use these 'cars.' It really is a different world. Even if hundreds of years had passed in the world I knew, I don't think it ever would have developed like this."

Tia, gazing at the cityscape from the passenger seat of the compact car, voiced her wonder. Toru—Hayasaka Toru—behind the wheel, gave a vague, absent "Ahh" in response.

In the back seat lay the holy sword Lightbringer wrapped in a bath towel, and beside it, a drum bag stuffed with the magic cores and dragon scales he'd collected yesterday.

On the way, he'd stopped at a convenience store and bought some side dishes, rice balls, and bottled coffee. When he handed half to Tia, she'd eaten them with obvious delight.

A stunningly beautiful foreign woman, cheerfully munching on a yakisoba bun in the passenger seat. It was so surreal.

Then again, if he was going to talk about surreal—being known as "Worksite-bro" after going viral, and before that, finding a holy sword and a cursed blade—none of it felt real to Toru anyway.

"Was it... Sadoyama? The guy who came to rescue us at the labyrinth yesterday. We got called by him, right? Heading somewhere?"

After learning about the "Worksite-bro" viral trend, Toru had spent the whole time glued to his terminal, scouring for information about Anthem from the previous day. In the end, the conclusion was "still don't really get it." He didn't understand it in a lot of ways.

As far as he could piece together, Anthem had ended up in the boss room of Kamioka Dungeon, which had for some reason undergone a Labyrinth Mutation. They were in trouble, and Toru and Tia, who had coincidentally surfaced from Kamioka Dungeon's hidden floor, had saved them.

He'd tried looking up the hidden floor, the "figure in hakama," and all that online, but he only found a collection of rumors. When he thought about it, if someone told him about the things that had happened to him, he'd be sure it was a made-up story. Even if the truth were mixed in with the fake online rumors, he wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

While he was going through all that, his phone rang. When he answered, it was Sadoyama Koji, the Labyrinth Department section chief.

He said he wanted to talk about yesterday and everything, so could Toru come to the prefectural office? He offered to pick Toru up, but if he did that, Toru would need a ride back home too, so he declined and decided to go in his own car.

"Ahh... those girls you saved are pretty famous explorers—the kind that get government support or something. They got caught up in a Labyrinth Mutation, ended up in an irregular boss room, and you saved them. Plus, we appeared from below the boss room. They probably want to ask about all that. I dunno, really."

"The girls we saved. Heh... government support, huh. Like adventurers under contract with the royal family?"

"I don't know what your world was like, so I can't say even if you ask."

"Fair enough. Are you used to dealing with people like that, Toru?"

"No, not at all. I don't even know what kind of discussion this is supposed to be."

"So you're going because they told you to come. I see. Let's hope the people here are reasonable."

Tia let out a slightly bitter smile and turned her gaze back to the cityscape outside the window.

Toru found himself wondering, just a little, what Tia saw when she looked at the modern city he was so used to.

◇◇◇

The prefectural office parking lot was pretty big. Toru, who never had business here, wasn't sure where to park, but as if anticipating that, Sadoyama from the Labyrinth Department was already waiting. He gestured to guide Toru into what looked like a visitor parking space, so Toru figured it was fine and parked.

"Hey. Sorry to bother you when you must be exhausted from everything yesterday. And I might've been a bit rude yesterday, so I'll apologize for that. Sorry. We were pretty confused ourselves—our treatment of you was inadequate."

Sadoyama greeted Toru with surprisingly humble deference as he stepped out of the driver's seat.

Toru had only actually faced this man a handful of times, but his impression was always of a slippery, scary middle-aged guy. The gap between them as living beings probably triggered an instinctive fear, but Toru had never wanted a close relationship with him.

...Or so he'd thought. But today, Sadoyama felt different.

Even though he was right there, Toru didn't sense the same menace as before.

"Ahh... well, yeah."

Not sure how to answer, Toru gave a vague, ambiguous nod.

Sadoyama offered a subtle wry smile, then shifted his gaze to Tia, who was pulling the rear seat luggage—the holy sword wrapped in a bath towel and the drum bag of magic cores—out of the car.

"I apologize to you as well for yesterday, young lady. And I'm sorry for making you come all this way today. By the way, if you don't mind my asking—what is your relationship with Hayasaka-kun?"

"We're about to have a 'discussion,' right? I'll say what needs to be said there, since otherwise we'd have to repeat the same story."

Tia's voice was surprisingly cold—shockingly so. She'd been cheerful and warm toward Toru from the start, but toward Sadoyama, she sounded like a college student dealing with a pushy door-to-door salesman.

"I... see. Understood. Then if you'll both follow me, I'll show you the way."

Without getting angry at Tia's attitude, Sadoyama bowed his head almost deferentially and turned toward the prefectural office building.

The building was a plain arrangement of rectangular blocks. Toru knew it existed, but he'd never had any reason to come here. Naturally, he had no idea about the internal layout or even what functions the prefectural office served.

Following Sadoyama's back inside, Toru's impression was that it felt similar to a city hall or a general hospital. A spacious entrance, a reception desk, and rows of chairs. The difference from a hospital was the table seats, where he spotted a few men in suits deep in conversation.

"I'll give you a rough briefing. The people you saved yesterday are members of the A-rank explorer clan 'Anthem,' and their activities receive national support. The reason they went to Kamioka Dungeon was based on a proposal from a prefectural assembly member, commissioned by the mayor of S City."

This matched what Toru had found online. The bit about the prefectural assembly member's proposal wasn't mentioned in the articles, but the general flow was the same.

Walking through the hallway without pause, Sadoyama continued without looking back.

"So—Kamioka Dungeon underwent a 'Labyrinth Mutation.' Anthem's members ended up in danger. The people who saved them appeared from below the boss room for some reason. When we checked, there's no record of you entering Kamioka Dungeon. In fact, you never even logged as exiting Sugai Dungeon after entering the day before. This meeting is about all of that."

"It's about deciding who to pin the responsibility on, isn't it?"

Tia's tone toward Sadoyama was still cold, even if her phrasing sounded friendly. Toru, for his part, was just watching things get complicated like it was someone else's business. He didn't have any bad feelings toward Sadoyama.

"Well, anyway—I've gathered people who need to talk, need to hear things, and need to have things heard. It'd help if you answered their questions as honestly as possible."

With that, Sadoyama stopped walking. Without any particular pause, he opened a door labeled "Conference Room 4."

Inside was, literally, a conference room. The closest comparison Toru could make was the place where you took the lecture when renewing your driver's license. In his municipality, it was a room in the civic center, but the atmosphere was about the same.

It seemed Toru and Tia were the last to arrive. Several people were already seated at the long tables arranged in a rectangle. Among them, Toru spotted faces he'd matched to names online: Saito Megumi, leader of Anthem, and the swordswoman Kagurazaka Chizuru. The healer Mido Airi and the cameraperson Shingu Sanagi didn't seem to be there.

Right next to the Anthem members, a woman in a pantsuit—the kind that screamed "I get things done"—was seated. On the opposite side, men in suits sat in a row. One looked a bit older than Sadoyama, and the rest had the appearance of elderly men.

"You're late, Sadoyama. Are those two the... swordswoman and the cursed blade user?"

The oldest-looking man, sitting back in his folding chair with the most arrogant attitude, spoke.

Can't tell how old these geezers are these days, Toru thought, squinting. The man could be in his sixties, or even his eighties. Maybe a prematurely-aged fifty-something.

When Toru was younger, people in their fifties looked their age, and people in their sixties looked like they were in their sixties. Was it just that his perception hadn't been updated?

"Right on time. Your seats are over there, so make yourselves comfortable. You can put your luggage on the table."

Smoothly brushing aside the old man's displeasure, Sadoyama urged Toru and Tia forward.

With a mental sigh, Toru sat down in the indicated seat. Tia placed the holy sword and the drum bag on the table before sitting beside him.

"Right on time. Let's begin."

The woman in the pantsuit announced.

What exactly was about to be discussed here—Toru had absolutely no idea.