ch41-ch60 · 052-ch51

Chapter 51

Saito Megumi was troubled.

From the morning, she'd been called out by Soma Kengo and Maisaka Risa, and ended up having to confirm a shitty situation in the basement of a building a little ways from the prefectural office... well, that couldn't be helped.

Together with manager Hamamatsu Nanami, she'd transported the secured Prefectural Assembly Member Sasamori Takeshi to the building just before eight in the morning. After that, she'd rendezvoused with Ilseria, who'd stayed overnight at Hayasaka Toru's place, and on the way back to the building they stopped at a convenience store, eating onigiri in the parking lot while being subjected to Ilseria's bragging about "how close she'd gotten with Toru."

"I slept with Toru, you know."

At the elf who looked like a little girl proudly declaring this with a "hmph," Megumi nearly spat out her bottled tea. How in the world could someone go from that hostile relationship to a physical one?

Granted, Ilseria Lumiestel was a beauty with a capital B.

But from what Megumi had seen, Hayasaka Toru didn't seem particularly interested in female beauty. He'd even seemed indifferent to the holy sword spirit Tia's appearance. Could that really be? she wondered, but as someone who'd transferred to an explorer training school in middle school and had poured most of her youth into building strength as an explorer, Megumi's knowledge about that sort of thing between men and women was sorely lacking.

So she decided to table Ilseria's statement for now.

If the hostility between the two of them was gone, then that was fine. It wasn't Megumi's virginity at stake, and Ilseria, despite looking like a young girl, was apparently over ninety years old... well, that raised its own set of questions. She didn't know.

At any rate, when they returned to the building with that bombshell statement tabled, Sasamori Takeshi's condition had completely transformed.

It wasn't a story she particularly wanted to hear, and there was no detailed explanation, but apparently Soma Kengo had "taught him a lesson." Not overnight — more like in about an hour.

After that, they waited for S City Labyrinth Department section chief Sadoyama Koji to arrive, and when he and a female subordinate showed up, they got down to business.

The self-proclaimed Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office man.

The black stone that erases labyrinths.

Sugai Dungeon and Noumi Dungeon, which had likely undergone mutation.

Leaving Nanami at the building, Megumi and Ilseria returned to the hotel.

They needed to explain the situation to Kagurazaka Chizuru and Mido Airi and head to Noumi Dungeon for an investigation as Anthem.

Barely a day after everything that had happened.

Not that she was in a position to object, but... still, her heart felt heavy.

◇◇◇

When they got back to the hotel, Chizuru had gone missing.

According to Airi, Kujo zaibatsu's daughter — Kujo Reiko — had been streaming since the morning, and apparently she was collaborating with Toru. Since they'd already confirmed the labyrinth exploration stream from the building's basement, it wasn't exactly surprising, but she thought she'd need to check the archive of Kujo Reiko's stream later. She was genuinely curious about what Reiko and Toru had talked about.

Anyway, Airi had seen the stream announcement and watched Kujo Reiko's stream together with Chizuru, and then they'd watched the Sugai Dungeon exploration stream — which had been broadcast on Toru's channel.

And when the stream ended, Chizuru had stood up unsteadily and left the room. They'd been watching the stream in Chizuru's hotel room, so Airi had been concerned about what was going on, but no matter how long she waited, Chizuru didn't come back. On top of that, Chizuru's mobile device had been left on the hotel bed.

"...Chizuru's been a little off ever since Toru-kun saved her, hasn't she."

About eighty percent of her felt like asking "why."

The remaining twenty percent or so was a feeling of "I knew it."

"I was thinking the same thing. But since it was a stream Toru-san was in, I thought she'd be even more shocked if she found out about it later... Maybe I shouldn't have shown her. Oh no, wandering around town in what's basically underwear... if some bad man tries to assault her, the men might end up dead..."

Airi said this with a serious expression, but the fact that her concern was focused on the potential male victims made Megumi chuckle despite herself. Certainly, regardless of Chizuru's mental state, the moment she or her friends were in danger, she'd flip a switch.

In that sense, there wasn't much worry about physical danger — but not being able to reach her and not knowing where she'd gone was still concerning.

"Chizuru's been acting strange since meeting Toru? She's always a bit strange, so I can't really tell from my perspective."

Ilseria cocked her head with a blank look, and Megumi gave a small sigh. Could this elf even understand human subtleties in the first place? Since she didn't know any elves besides Ilseria, it was hard to tell whether it was a racial trait or just her personality.

"Chizuru has her own stuff going on. She's never really talked to me much about it, though."

"Megumi, you've heard a little, haven't you?"

"A little. But knowing Chizuru, if you're curious, you should hear it from her directly. It's not something I should be the one to say."

She knew well that this elf did care for them in her own way. She seemed to have something like a protective instinct. From Megumi's perspective too, when things got dicey, Ilseria helped without concern for personal gain, and it was nice being protected like that.

But, well... she couldn't exactly praise her personality without reservation. Personally, she could like her, but objectively, she was terrible. That part was a bit complicated.

She didn't dislike her — in fact, she rather liked her — but bad was bad. At least in human society.

And it wasn't Megumi's place to correct Ilseria's flaws. She pointed them out occasionally, sure.

"Chizuru's not the type to self-destruct, so I think she'll come back to her senses at some point and return to the hotel..."

"But Nanami-san ordered us to head to Noumi Dungeon. Hmm... but if one of our members is in a bad state mentally, maybe we should postpone."

Megumi wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the Noumi Dungeon investigation either. It was something she had to do as an obligation, but for now they'd be hunting monsters on the upper floors while investigating the mutation. They couldn't delay it for weeks, but she didn't think a Dungeon Rampage would happen immediately in just a day or two.

"Speaking of which, where's Sanagi? Still sleeping?"

Even if they entered Noumi Dungeon, there'd be no streaming this time. So Shingu Sanagi would either be on standby or accompanying them for leveling up...

"She's still passed out, I think. You know, since she was waiting in the car with Sasamori yesterday, it seems like she got pretty mentally drained. She's fine when she's holding a camera, though..."

"That girl's special in her own way too, huh."

Sometimes Megumi thought maybe she herself — without any particularly grand background — was the strange one. She really had just been an ordinary middle schooler once.

"I'll contact Nanami to let her know."

Ilseria said, taking out her mobile device.

Megumi let out another small sigh and sat down on Chizuru's bed. Chizuru's mobile device lay abandoned on the pillow, rolling aimlessly.

Even though it had been over two years since they started exploration streaming, Kagurazaka Chizuru was still bad at typing comments. And Megumi loved her for it.

A precious comrade.

When she'd transferred to the explorer training school, she'd been grouped with others in similar circumstances, but even among them, Megumi had displayed abnormally high mana affinity. She thought the reason she became friends with Airi was because Airi had the special gift of healing magic — so she didn't need to compete with Megumi purely on strength.

Kagurazaka Chizuru had initially been much stronger than Megumi. In terms of mana affinity, Megumi was probably superior, and when it came to leveling up after defeating monsters, Megumi was slightly faster and more efficient than Chizuru. To put it in game terms, her stat growth was bigger. Even so — Chizuru, one year younger, had stoically honed her strength and faced Megumi head-on, unlike the coward that Megumi could be.

Why Chizuru had taken a liking to her, Megumi herself didn't understand. Chizuru wasn't the type to say that kind of thing out loud. Well, if asked, she'd probably tell her. But asking felt a little scary somehow.

If she said something like "I like you because you're strong" — that would probably make her sad. She didn't think Chizuru would say it like that, but knowing Chizuru, she might say it bluntly without thinking. She had her weird side.

Chizuru was one year younger. She'd entered the explorer training school at fourteen, and Megumi had met her when she was fifteen... so it had been five years now.

And yet, maybe what they'd shared wasn't as much as she'd thought.

"...That's strange. It's not going through."

As if pulling Megumi out of her reverie, Ilseria muttered while staring at her mobile device.

"Not going through? Nanami-san?"

"No way," Megumi said, taking out her own mobile device and trying to call Nanami, but although it seemed to be ringing, there was no answer.

"They were gathered at that building near the prefectural office for the Sasamori questioning and information sharing with Nanami-san's senior from the S City Labyrinth Department, right?"

Airi asked, seeking confirmation.

"That was just a little while ago. Maisaka Risa from the Labyrinth Agency and the S-rank Soma Kengo, who was hired for the job, were there. We were assigned to investigate Noumi Dungeon, left Nanami at the building, and came back to the hotel. Maisaka-san and Soma-san went to Sugai Dungeon to assess Toru-kun's danger..."

"So Nanami-san is still at the building?"

"Yeah. Since they've got Sasamori restrained, she should be watching over him and taking care of things..."

"Do you think something happened?"

"Hmm..."

There was no way to figure that out just by thinking about it here. Maybe she was just in the bathroom, or maybe she was absorbed in arguing with Sasamori.

In the worst case... she'd use emergency communication to signal danger. The fact that she hadn't meant either it wasn't the worst, or they were past the worst.

"...Let's head back to the building for now... but if Chizuru comes back to the hotel and none of us are here... Should we have Airi stay behind?"

"And if Nanami turns out to be fine, we'll just have wasted time. By now, Soma and the gloomy woman are probably running into Toru around the Sugai Dungeon entrance... Airi, give me Toru's contact info from Anthem's shared data."

"Huh? You're going to contact Toru-san?"

"Chizuru might have gone to see Toru too, and knowing what's happening on their end would change how we handle things here."

"...Hey, didn't you get Toru-kun's contact info?"

It was a simple question, but Ilseria froze for a moment and then completely ignored the question. That gave Megumi a bad feeling.

"Um... Nanami-san's device data is stored in the cloud, so I can find Toru-san's contact info right away... but Ilseria-san, I thought you and Toru-san were on bad terms... Did you make up?"

"I slept with Toru, you know."

"hmph," Ilseria said with a smug face, flipping her beautiful hair with a flourish.

Airi's face turned bright red in an instant, but for Megumi, it only strengthened that ominous feeling. She'd bet anything there was nothing sexual between them.

Come to think of it, the holy sword spirit Tia was with Toru. There was no way they'd been doing anything with all three of them. The thought was pretty lewd, but probably not.

"U-um, hey. To save us doing this twice, could you put it on speaker? We'd like to know the situation on their end too..."

"Hm? Well, sure, I don't mind."

Raising the corners of her mouth in a good mood, Ilseria checked the screen of the mobile device Airi was operating and placed a call to Toru.

Almost immediately, an electronic ringtone beeped through the speaker. If Toru answered, the call would connect. The ominous feeling only grew stronger, but there was no helping it.

A beep sounded as the call connected.

"This is Toru's mobile device, yes? It is I, S-rank explorer Ilseria Lumiestel. Consider yourself fortunate to receive a call from me."

Beep — the call was ended.

"............"

"............"

"Oh my? How strange. Perhaps I made an operating error? Not being accustomed to using a mobile device these days is rather unimpressive for a young person."

Muttering to herself, Ilseria called Toru again with the speaker still on. This time, with almost no wait, the call connected with a beep.

"Ah, connected. Toru? You can hear me, yes? It's me. Tell me the situation there. I assume you've already rendezvoused with Soma Kengo and that gloomy woman?"

〈Don't fuck with me. Use some of that excess money and power to get yourself enrolled in a trial kindergarten visit somewhere and have a nursery teacher teach you how to greet people properly and how to say "please" to others. Oh, and don't you dare cause trouble for the nursery teachers and the kids. Later. Die.〉

Beep — the call ended.

"............"

Ilseria turned to look at Megumi, looking like she was about to cry.

About twenty percent of Megumi was impressed he could say all that to an S-rank explorer elf. The other eighty percent was... well, of course that's what happened.

With no other choice, ignoring Ilseria who was groaning "ughhh" while holding back tears, Megumi had to call Toru from her own mobile device. Without using the speaker function.