ch61-ch80 · 072-ch71

Chapter 71

"Man, that yakiniku last night was really good. I never used to like meat that was just grilled, but the way you guys make it as proper 'cooking' is amazing."

Morning.

Stopping the one-box wagon well before the Sugai Dungeon parking lot area and walking toward the dungeon entrance, Toru half-listened to Tia's idle chatter while mentally reviewing the day's plan.

"Tia-sama, did you not eat very good food in your original world?"

Kujo Reiko tilted her head innocently. She was so excited about the dungeon exploration she'd already equipped her gauntlets and greaves. Naturally, she was wearing her battle dress, so 'Supreme' wouldn't be making an appearance today.

Incidentally, they'd discovered Tia could remanifest in whatever clothes she was wearing — though there'd been a bit of trouble with that — so today she was in yesterday's mid-length skirt and blouse. If she reverted to armor, the clothes wouldn't be lost, but Toru had no idea how that worked.

"Hmm... when I ate at the castle, there was all that etiquette nonsense so I never felt like I was eating, and most of the time I was on night campaigns. I did get welcomed in towns and villages sometimes, but the food in this world is definitely better. It always surprises me."

"My! In that case, I shall invite Tia-sama and Toru-sama to a special dinner sometime. I know a lovely trattoria that's not too fussy about etiquette."

"If Toru says it's okay, I'd love to come!"

Tia nodded with a full smile, and Kujo Reiko returned an equally delighted smile. If Tia weren't holding a holy sword and Kujo Reiko weren't equipped with gauntlets and greaves, it might have looked like a sweet, tender friendship unfolding.

Not that Toru could say whether the current scene was bad.

"I can't believe how relaxed you all are. We're about to dive into an unexplored labyrinth, and you're chatting about food. Come to think of it, that Soma guy also had a weird fondness for hamburgers and fried chicken..."

Maisaka Risa muttered from a few steps behind. Toru couldn't tell if she was complaining or just talking to herself.

"Ah... Maisaka-san, is there any food you like?"

"Flour-based stuff. I'd give a Nobel Culinary Prize to the first person who burnt the sauce and added mayonnaise."

"...Right."

Her gloomy act was understandable, given her ability to 'judge others' lies.' She was probably minimizing social contact as much as possible. But maybe her actual personality was a bit more interesting.

Well, Toru himself wasn't exactly social, so he had no right to comment on anyone else's sociability or character — not that he was commenting, so it should be fine.

"Anyway, here's the entrance. As agreed, from this point on, I won't say a word. I'm purely the cameraperson."

With that, Maisaka pulled out Toru's streaming camera, checked various settings, raised the camera, and opened her free hand.

"Ah, then I'll change."

Tia said, tossing the holy sword straight up, dissolving her manifestation, and remanifesting in light armor. Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, she caught the falling holy sword and mounted it on her back with the ease of handling a twig.

Toru, for his part, took the wooden sword from his magic bag at his waist and kicked the ground a few times to check his boots. The feel of the explorer workwear he'd bought at the department store yesterday wasn't bad either. According to Kujo Reiko, "it's adequate as a stopgap," but it'd been fairly expensive, so he'd rather avoid damaging it.

"Then, you may begin whenever you're ready."

Kujo Reiko, hands on her hips and chest puffed out in a smug pose, inexplicably took the lead, but Toru had no complaints.

Maisaka began folding the fingers of her open hand.

Four, three, two, one... fist.

◇◇◇

"Ah... uh, hey. It's Toru. Today's an exploration stream."

"Tia here! Ehehe."

"O-ho-ho-ho-ho! I am Kujo Reiko!"

"...Ah, well. We're going into Sugai Dungeon with this group. I probably won't be able to check viewer comments today, so whoever wants to watch, just watch. Why, you ask —"

"Ta-dah! Because today, I'm the one doing the main exploring!"

Tia stepped closer to the camera, gave a big grin, and pointed at herself with her thumb. The sheer positive energy almost made Toru worry Maisaka might melt, but she seemed fine.

"In other words, me and Kujo-san are just gonna follow this dragon-slaying swordswoman from behind while she goes on a rampage, collecting magic cores. For now, we're gonna dash straight to the boss room on the thirteenth floor where we turned back last time. From there, we'll go as far as she decides we can go — so there's no time to read comments."

"It's an unexplored labyrinth completion RTA!"

Kujo Reiko made no effort to hide her excitement. She'd said being carried by Tia wasn't 'fun exploration,' but apparently charging through an unexplored labyrinth was insane enough to get her heart racing.

"Alright, let's go!"

Tia started without much fanfare. Toru and Kujo Reiko kicked off the ground to keep up, breaking into a run. Maisaka as cameraperson followed properly.

Toru had told Tia to run at less than half his full sprint speed, so for her it was probably barely a jog.

Even so, they blazed through floors B1 to B5 in under eight minutes, smashing any monsters that appeared along the way with the holy sword like swatting bugs. They reached B10 in twenty minutes. Even though they knew the route to the next stairs — and Tia occasionally took a wrong turn, requiring Toru to correct her — it was still a ridiculous pace for labyrinth exploration.

No — this wasn't exploration. It was a speedrun.

Toru did his best not to lose his breath while chasing Tia, developing the special skill of picking up magic cores dropped by monsters that had been defeated without him even noticing, all while maintaining his running speed. There was absolutely no way anyone should explore like this. This was the type of labyrinth exploration that should never be imitated — from small children to the elderly on their deathbed.

He wondered what the stream comments were like, but he couldn't engage with them this time. His mobile wasn't even connected to the stream — it was still in his jacket pocket. The situation and floor were different, but somehow, it reminded him of his old cleaning streams.

Records of work.

Day after day, smashing D-rank monsters he no longer found dangerous, collecting pathetic little magic cores. It wasn't that he was full of resentment or bitterness, but it was definitely not a daily life he wanted to go back to.

From B12 onward, B-rank equivalent monsters started appearing, but Tia's pace didn't change. She still took them out in one hit, but the light trails left by the holy sword were clearer than on the upper floors. She was adjusting the power of her attacks.

Without changing pace, they burst into the B13 boss room. Tia ran toward the 'demon-type' waiting in the center of the gymnasium-like space without any sign of strain.

"Oop, there."

She ran without particularly accelerating, spun around like a figure skater — yet her forward speed didn't change because she was just barely airborne — and swung the holy sword as if it were an afterthought of the spin. A pale blue trail struck the demon-type just as it was about to assume a combat stance, and that was it.

The magic defense of the demon-type — which Toru and Kujo Reiko had struggled against — meant nothing. The monster's form vanished in an instant, and a heavy thud echoed as the magic core dropped.

"...One hit, I see...!"

Kujo Reiko's face was an equal mix of shock and excitement. Tia picked up the rolling magic core, tossed it to Toru, and nodded with an unconcerned expression.

"For this level, yeah. Well, I'm using Lightbringer, so it's what you'd call cheating. I don't really feel like bragging about my strength since it feels like cheating, but showing my abilities avoids a lot of minor hassles."

Kujo Reiko gave a wide grin at those words, which seemed to carry real weight, and shook her head emphatically.

"No, Tia-sama. We aren't competing. For example, I'm rich, so isn't that cheating? Or the 'Anthem' members have such high mana affinity that it's cheating. Explorers born and raised near suitable training labyrinths are also cheating, and having strong explorer friends or seniors is also cheating. And of course, Toru-bro-sama — picking up both a holy sword and a cursed blade — is definitely cheating. But if you say that... what happens? Nothing changes!"

She thrust her clenched fist forward, then — as if expressing joy — hopped in place, spun around, and declared in a singing voice:

"Having things and not having things — everything is a weapon. We have no choice but to play the cards we're dealt, but we can make an effort to increase our hand. And even then, there are things we can't reach! Dissatisfaction is the essence of humanity! But I'll break through it all! Because that's what's fun!"

What a picture-perfect woman, Toru thought as he listened to Kujo Reiko's speech, pulling a plastic bottle from his magic bag and tossing it to the two of them. For Maisaka, who was holding the camera, he moved outside the camera's frame and handed it to her directly.

He also rehydrated himself — and realized he wasn't as tired as expected.

That was because of the cheating — the 'blessing of the holy sword' at work.

Automatic recovery of magic and stamina.

Not that he needed to mention it — magic and stamina naturally recovered on their own — but having that effect meant there was a visible difference.

Despite all that running, he wasn't tired. His legs didn't hurt either.

"I see... I never found fighting fun, so I think Reiko is amazing. Yeah."

Tia smiled, looking a little embarrassed. Kujo Reiko responded with a loud "O-ho-ho-ho-ho!" which might have been her way of hiding her own embarrassment.

"Well, respect's important. Anyway, let's keep going."

Toru said, completely ignoring the warm, gentle atmosphere that had settled over the place.

For some reason, cameraperson Maisaka shot him a look like "are you serious," but Tia and Kujo Reiko nodded normally.

"Alright, break's over then. Everyone watching, feel free to keep watching if you want. I'm gonna do my best."

"So it's watching and learning for me and Toru-bro-sama. While running."

"Ah... yeah, right. Let's go."

Toru nodded and retrieved the still-full plastic bottles.

Thanks to marking everyone's names on them with a marker beforehand, there was no risk of mix-ups — that might have been Toru's only genuinely good move of the day.

So far.

◇◇◇

From the fourteenth floor onward it was unexplored territory, but Tia's pace didn't change.

On B14, there were still many B-rank monster appearances, with rare A-rank low-level ones.

From B15 to B17, B-rank appearances stopped entirely. The monsters were A-rank, mostly the non-heavy-magic-using types — beast-type and beastman-type.

By B18, Tia stopped putting Lightbringer back on her back after every fight, carrying the pale-blue glowing holy sword as she ran. Even so, she was still taking out monsters in mostly one hit — it was a joke, or rather, a poor-quality spectacle.

Chasing the girl's back as she ran through the labyrinth trailing light, with no sense of left or right.

Labyrinths weren't meant to be run through. Unexpected monster encounters were dangerous, there could be traps, and there was always the possibility of getting lost. From B14 onward it was unexplored, so they didn't know the structure. Using the mobile's MPS — and setting up relay devices that Maisaka prepared along the way — Kawai Sakiho, waiting at Toru's apartment, was mapping the labyrinth structure in real-time. They ran while referencing the generated map, which made magic core collection more challenging.

"Were-tiger, three of them!"

Midway through, Tia started calling out the monsters they encountered — because ambushes had become dangerous enough that Toru or Kujo Reiko could be in real trouble. It was a way of telling them to stay aware of their surroundings even while running.

While simultaneously checking the map, collecting cores, and watching their surroundings, Toru kept pace with Tia. She seemed to be running mostly on instinct, occasionally nearly looping back on the same path — when that happened, Toru had to correct her. But the stream footage was probably something viewers had never seen before.

After all, they were literally running through the dungeon while defeating monsters.

Sometimes she'd land a hit as she passed by. Sometimes she'd bounce off the ceiling and strike from above. Sometimes she'd twirl like flowing dance and swing her sword. Sometimes she'd fire off several magical sword strikes — about the size of magic arrows — wiping out entire groups. Even Toru could tell that inside him, 'Kagetsu' was crying out in delight at the holy sword wielder's brilliant, practiced, efficient charge.

Just how many monsters had she slain?

She looked like a sixteen-year-old girl. With foreign features, you could believe she was twenty-four, but she definitely wasn't thirty yet. Even twenty-two would be surprising. Yet this girl displayed combat experience that suggested not just hundreds of battles, but hundreds of thousands.

Toru couldn't look at her with the same awe and respect as Kujo Reiko.

Because Tia didn't seem to enjoy fighting. She probably didn't treat labyrinth exploration as a hobby like Kujo Reiko did.

Toru hadn't pressed Tia about the world she'd once fought in. Because she didn't seem particularly eager to talk about it.

When Tia swung the holy sword, she was certainly a battle-hardened hero. She had so much combat experience that she'd beat a Demon into unconsciousness on sight without question. When she saw Sadoyama and Kawai Sakiho caught in the Sugai Dungeon rampage, her attitude of "they're alive, so that's good enough" was probably rooted in that experience.

They're alive. They're not dead. So it can wait.

Because there might be people who'd die soon.

Toru didn't understand that feeling, and still didn't, really. But it meant she'd been in an environment that would produce it.

When she first tried coffee drinks at his place. When she ate a parfait at a chain restaurant. Yesterday's yakiniku. When she watched TV or looked at modern Japanese scenery and asked "what's that?" "what's this?"

If anything, Toru preferred seeing her face like that.

He didn't want to keep watching the holy sword wielder who trailed light through the labyrinth, slaughtering A-rank monsters, forever.

◇◇◇

Nineteenth basement level.

The corridor structure changed to almost entirely a single path, with spacious areas placed at intervals. S-rank monsters appeared like mini-bosses. Beast-type, humanoid-type, golem-type, magic creature-type, demon-type... he didn't know if the same monster would appear every time or different ones. But Tia handled them all regardless.

At the deepest part of B19 was the boss room.

A space even larger than the B13 arena — so high the ceiling was invisible, so far the far wall couldn't be seen.

"With a boss room like this, you can bet the boss is a big one."

Kujo Reiko said, with a hint of bravado. But at this point, it was probably because she couldn't beat the boss herself. Toru had also realized, from around B17, that he couldn't do it without the 'cursed blade.' That was how overwhelmingly strong Tia was.

What were the viewers thinking?

He couldn't check, so he could only imagine — but it was probably insane. He thought about how annoying it'd be if it blew up again, but also laughed wryly at himself — if he didn't want to blow up, he shouldn't be doing this.

"Oh, the boss is a black dragon. I'm pretty sure it'll use crazy beams and light waves and magic bullets, so I'll try to keep you protected, but stay alert."

She said it without any hint of strain. Then, as if she'd just remembered, Tia looked at Maisaka — or rather, the camera — smiled brightly, and waved her free hand.

"Well, I'm off."

Ah — Toru thought.

There must have been many people who saw this hero off like this. And the reason she didn't want to talk about it was probably because the path she'd walked and the ending she'd reached were, in all likelihood, terrible.

Someone had made her reluctant to speak.

That was distinctly unpleasant.

"Hey."

Almost unconsciously, Toru called out to Tia's back. The holy sword wielder turned and tilted her head. He hadn't prepared any words.

So, without thinking much, he said something careless.

"Ah... for now, just do what you want. Have as much fun as you can."

"...Mm. Thanks, Toru."

The hero smiled, and took a step forward.

The black shadow at the center of the boss room lit up as it excited its magic power, its outline becoming clear. Just as Tia had said — a black dragon.

Estimated S-rank... probably upper.

The black dragon spread its massive, craggy wings, assuming a combat stance.