ch21-ch40 · 029-ch28
Chapter 28
Kawai Sakiho was about to die. In two senses.
First, the 'Great Serpent' that had emerged from Sugai Dungeon was rampaging, and if she got even slightly caught up in it, Sakiho, an ordinary civilian, would die instantly.
Because the thing was the size of a five-car train writhing at high speed in every direction. When it reared its head, it was as tall as looking up at a small building.
In short, it was huge.
And it moved at terrifying speed, smashing everything around it to pulp.
Sakiho was slung over the shoulder of her section chief, Sadoyama Koji—a former A-rank explorer—who kept dodging the Great Serpent's attacks, or rather its movements, or rather, just the sheer force of its rampage.
He was leaping and bounding, somehow kicking something in midair to change trajectory—moving at speeds that seemed like a joke.
And Kawai Sakiho, merely an office clerk, was about to reach her limit from that speed. That was the second sense.
"I-I can't... Chief...!"
"Don't talk! You'll bite your tongue! Hell, at this point nothing we do is gonna get us out of this mess!"
Sakiho, her insides churning and her sense of balance gone, was already pale as a ghost. She couldn't muster any strength in her body and couldn't even cling to Sadoyama anymore. The moment Sadoyama let go of her, her death would be certain.
Scared—she didn't even have time to think that.
She felt sick. Nauseous. Nothing made sense.
Why was this happening?
How had it suddenly—
"Can't... can't we... escape...?"
"You want me to lead that monster into town!? It'd cause damage all through the city!"
Ah, so that's why he was playing matador with the monster near the dungeon entrance. Somewhere in her fading consciousness, Sakiho finally understood.
He probably could have just fled without a second thought from the start.
But Sadoyama hadn't done that.
And—she couldn't resent him for it.
Because the chief could have abandoned Sakiho and still played matador on his own. That would have been easier for Sadoyama himself. Yet he was carrying Sakiho on his shoulder, buying time against a monster larger than a two-story house.
"You're an... idiot..."
"It lets me live feeling better about myself. Well, in this case, maybe die feeling better. Sorry, Kawai-chan. I probably can't hold out another five minutes."
Thump—a light landing.
Sakiho had no idea what kind of aerial maneuvers he was pulling, but it was baffling how such a light landing followed moving at such insane speeds. Maybe that was just how former A-rank explorers operated.
"Feels like I've been running for an hour... but it's probably been about eight minutes. Soon the 'Great Serpent' will either recognize me as a hostile, or find me annoying and ignore me. If it's the former, the real fight starts here. If it's the latter, I'll need to provoke it again."
"...Couldn't you... run...?"
"I'd rather not."
The answer was immediate. Yet surprisingly, Sakiho didn't feel much like desperately begging him to run. It was strange, even to herself... but probably because without Sadoyama, she'd have been dead long ago. No question about it.
So—if she got caught up in this too, it couldn't be helped.
She really didn't want to, though.
But unpleasant things happening that you can't do anything about—that's life. Things like this can happen. It was deeply regrettable, but having been saved by Sadoyama at least once made this somewhat better. Far better than the alternative of being crushed by the 'Great Serpent' without even understanding what was happening... well, a little better.
"Here it comes!"
Sakiho felt Sadoyama tense every muscle in his body, and somehow managed to lift her head.
She should have stayed down.
Because she saw the grotesquely huge serpent, its entire body crackling with purple electricity, charging straight toward them.
The next moment, an acceleration that nearly made her lose consciousness.
Her insides felt like they were being turned inside out, and there was a sharp pain around her neck. There must have been an impact like a car accident—just from Sadoyama moving.
Then, a thunderous roar.
The giant serpent's body gouged the ground, its charge mowing down nearby trees, and the purple electricity wrapped around its body crackled against the rising dust cloud with an unpleasant buzzing sound.
"Shit! Seriously?! My magic defense got blown through in an instant!"
Sadoyama spat out his despair, almost involuntarily.
Ah—there was nothing more to be done.
Eight minutes was four hundred eighty seconds, nine minutes was five hundred forty seconds, and if he'd managed to buy ten minutes, then six hundred seconds. She had no idea how many people that 'Great Serpent' would have killed in that time, how much of the town and nature it would have destroyed, but those seconds must have been invaluable.
Of course, it might have all been for nothing.
But considering the per-second damage that 'Great Serpent' was causing, it must have been significant. Of course, these weren't seconds Sakiho had bought... but if she was going to die alongside Sadoyama Koji, the great contributor... well, it wasn't such a bad way to die.
Because she had so little regret.
There was nothing she wished she'd done, nothing she wished she'd had. Sure, she didn't want to die—she'd unhesitatingly choose to sell her soul if such an option existed that would let her survive—but.
That kind of option wasn't appearing.
That was just how things normally were.
Watching the 'Great Serpent' turn around with a thunderous roar, preparing to charge again, Sakiho made her peace somewhere deep in her chest. It hadn't been a good life. Particularly terrible was that she hadn't given anything good to others. She found herself thinking that now, belatedly.
She should have given someone—given something good—like the Anthem girls did. At least, she should have tried. Dissatisfied with her own circumstances and position, yet never changing jobs, endlessly watching streamers at the labyrinth branch office... and on a whim, falsely accusing Hayasaka Toru. She'd been so foolish.
I lived without even trying to earn my own worth.
That, at least, might count as regret.
Of course, it was far too late.
And... it was just a fleeting thought. A tiny feeling that lingered after turning her heart inside out at death's door. That was all.
She let out a breath and squeezed her eyes shut.
If possible, she wanted it to be instant, not too painful. She hoped she wouldn't survive for a while after a fatal wound, but that probably wasn't a concern.
If something like that charged at her, there was no way.
"DOOOOOHHH——"
A voice. Something.
A clear voice, resonating from within her chest.
◇◇◇
"—RYYYYYAAAHHH!!"
A voice came.
The moment she thought that, an immense amount of blinding light burst forth—so bright that the world went white even behind her closed eyelids.
Then, impact.
A sound like something exploding—no, she couldn't hear anything. Her ears had gone strange. But the impact transmitted through her body told Sakiho that something had happened.
Her head was spinning.
She felt like she'd hit something on her body.
At some point, the feel of Sadoyama's suit was gone.
Had they been blown apart by the impact, and Sadoyama could no longer carry her...?
Which meant she'd been sent flying somewhere, rolling on the ground. Her eyes still dazzled, her head still dizzy, she managed to grope around her and felt rough gravel and dirt.
"—, ——, ——!"
Someone was shouting something, maybe.
She still couldn't hear. But the dizziness was subsiding.
Pressing a hand to her forehead as if enduring a headache, she managed to open her eyes.
—A meteor was smashing the serpent.
And then, again, a blinding light and shockwave.
The wind pressure hit Sakiho's body like a physical blow, and just as she'd managed to endure the dizziness and lift her head, she lost her bearings again and was sent flying.
What came next was another impact, and a thunderous roar.
Something enormous—like, say, the 'Great Serpent's' massive body crashing into the ground after being blown into the sky—would feel something like this.
And... she could hear sounds now.
Still a bit hard to make out, but no longer completely deaf.
She opened her eyes.
She was still on the ground, so she pushed herself up.
The familiar square near the Sugai Dungeon entrance was... completely wrecked. Most of the asphalt was peeled up or cracked. The surrounding trees were mowed down in a way that even a fierce tornado couldn't have achieved. Power poles and wires—all gone.
Thick dust was billowing up, enough to make her cough if she breathed too deeply.
Beyond all that chaos—the 'Great Serpent's' corpse.
As a monster, once dead, it should scatter luminous dust and disappear... but instead, standing in that spot was a light-armored swordswoman.
"The... 'Dragon-slayer'!"
Sadoyama, who had also pushed himself up near Sakiho, called out to the swordswoman. Even in the darkness and dust, her platinum-blonde hair was unmistakable, as was the Western sword radiating a pale blue holy light—the Holy Sword Lightbringer.
"You're Sadoyama, right. Were you on the scene buying time?"
"...Ah, yeah... But why are you—"
"Sorry, I'm in a hurry. Talk later. Toru! Over here!"
Treating her conversation with Sadoyama as trivial, the Dragon-slaying Swordswoman—Tia—adjusted her grip on the holy sword at her hip and called Toru's name.
Toru... Hayasaka Toru?
Startled, Sakiho turned to where Tia had called, and there was the familiar compact car, looking like it had been in a traffic accident, its engine barely running.
The driver's door opened, and stepping out was, of course—Hayasaka Toru.
"You said you'd protect me too! You just left me there! That was the first time in my life I ever experienced an airbag!"
"We can talk about that later! For now, this 'Dungeon Rampage' seems to have been the single-big-one pattern. I used more than half my power with the holy sword for the first time in a while. If a monster that big came out, there shouldn't be a flood of hordes."
"You took down that giant bastard in two hits and that's still not even half?"
"When something's that big, you can land a hit even swinging with full force. Can't do that with human-sized opponents. Against demon lord-class enemies, it turns into a real grind... but never mind that!"
Tia urged Toru to hurry.
She clearly had no awareness of Sadoyama and Sakiho at all.
"And—Sadoyama-san and... Kawai-san, huh. You got caught up in this. You okay?"
Hayasaka casually called out to Sadoyama and Sakiho, but there was no time to answer.
"We can talk about that later! They're alive, so we can talk as much as we want later! We have to head to Noumi Dungeon! Come on, hurry!"
"Hurry, what... the car's busted. I tried backing up but the gear wouldn't engage, the airbag deployed, and you tore off the passenger door. How are we supposed to get to Noumi Dungeon?"
"Noumi Dungeon is on the opposite side from here with Kamioka Dungeon in between, right? Cars are convenient, but with roads that twisty, even if you go fast, it doesn't mean much. I'd be faster running."
Saying that, Tia showed off the holy sword she was holding horizontally at her hip, like a dog wagging its tail. The gesture was oddly endearing despite the situation.
"...You serious?"
"Consider it a special seat. Riding on the holy sword, being carried by a hero—even in my old world, that never happened. Come on, get on, get on!"
"...Ah... well, can't be helped."
His hesitation lasted only a moment.
With surprising lack of reluctance, Toru sat on the holy sword Tia held at her hip, effectively getting a piggyback ride. After Tia gave a few instructions to adjust his position, it was done in an instant.
"Alright, I've got you secured, so I don't think you'll fall, but make sure you hold on to me properly, Toru! If you get careless, I think you'll flip over."
"Hey, don't suddenly sprint at full speed, okay? This is my first time being carried around by a monster—"
—ra.
Before he could finish, Tia was off.
Kicking up dust like something out of a comic, within a single breath she was already far in the distance... probably, genuinely faster than a car.
"..."
"..."
For a good ten seconds or more, Sakiho and Sadoyama remained silent.
As Tia had said, there was "no time for that." A 'Dungeon Rampage' had occurred, Sadoyama had bought time, and then the Dragon-slaying Swordswoman had miraculously arrived and easily slaughtered the 'Great Serpent'... but once the problem was dealt with, there was cleanup to handle, and the Noumi Dungeon was supposedly also experiencing a 'Dungeon Rampage.'
But there wasn't much Sakiho needed to do.
For now, she'd just savor the simple fact that she was still alive.
Or maybe, if her boss gave orders... it was past closing time, but this was an emergency, so it couldn't be helped. Overtime didn't sound so bad, Sakiho thought.
Well, I mean... her workplace was in ruins.