Chapter 85 - Chapter 85: Tears Even in Ogre's Eyes
We came to the dungeon to search for and rescue Iroha's younger sister.
We found the hole dug by the group called Moles, to which the sister belonged, and charged in.
We faced numerous powerful enemies.
Since it is an irregular floor, we had no idea what was in store.
A Wraith appeared, so I thought it was equivalent to Floor 6, but then a Lich showed up.
A Lich is a monster of Floor 7.
And then, a black, giant monster stood before us blocking our path.
It seems to be a Demon.
Not a Lesser, but a superior race, yet we achieved a complete victory through everyone's coordination.
Perhaps due to the impact of the battle, Iroha became a little strange.
For some reason, we ended up in an unlimited one-on-one match right in the middle of the dungeon, but if she won't settle down unless we do it, then there is no choice.
The Princess is joining in as well.
However, I never intended to lay a hand on Sana...
Her straight, serious nature made me realize it was impossible to dodge any further.
I am a man too — don't they say, "A man who sits down to eat but doesn't eat"?
If I simply follow my male desires, there would be no problem, but laying a hand on a girl like her gives me conflict as a guardian.
Ah, the ambivalence of an old man.
Although I have already messed up so much that I am no longer a guardian.
Well, even if I say I'll lay a hand on her — if I do various things, her healing power will be lost, so I haven't done such things.
What caught my attention was finding a black pattern on Sana's back.
It seems the Princess and Iroha noticed it too, but they remain silent.
I suppose I can't ask about it here...
So, while having an unlimited one-on-one match with the girls, I felt like I heard something.
I stopped Iroha, who was on top of me, and listened closely.
『...How shameful...』
I can hear it — it's definitely a human voice.
"It's a human voice?!"
"What? I can't hear anything..."
"No... I definitely heard it. There are monsters that mimic human voices, so I can't let my guard down."
Iroha seemed dissatisfied that it ended halfway, but there is no time for such talk.
For now, I tried shouting with all my might.
"Is there a survivor?! We are here to rescue you!!"
"Can you really hear it?"
"Shh!"
I silenced everyone and listened closely.
『...Really... save me...』
"Darling! I can hear it too!"
"Really?!"
It seems Iroha couldn't hear it.
Is there individual difference around here?
"Wait there!! We are heading your way!!"
There was no time to do various things anymore.
Everyone hurriedly put on their equipment and prepared to depart.
Since we were taking turns eating during the match, there was no problem.
"Daisuke-san, the entrance is closed..."
Sana pointed at the wall.
The entrance we came through was closed.
Even so, despite taking that terrifying attack from the monsters, the wall hasn't been broken.
It probably has an indestructible attribute.
If we could break it and escape, we wouldn't have had a mid-boss battle.
The entrance was gone, but defeating the monsters must have opened an exit.
A passage continued ahead.
"Probably, since the exit opened, we might have heard the survivor's voice."
"I see..."
Iroha is in a bad mood.
I understand her feelings, but the other party is her sister.
Shouldn't she be a bit more happy?
"Let's go!"
I pointed at the exit.
"Umph!"
"Princess, sorry, but please let Sana choose the fork in the road?"
"I'll do my best!"
Sana is wearing a smug face.
"Ugh! Ugh..."
"I understand the Princess's feelings..."
"If we had turned right at the first T-junction, this wouldn't have happened?"
Kaorulko's correct logic explodes.
"That's a logical result! Besides, it is a fact that we heard the survivor's voice because this exit opened!"
"That is also true, but..."
Arguing here is pointless.
We decided to proceed ahead.
We advanced through the darkness, but unlike the straight passages so far, it was crooked at right angles with many branches.
It was just like a labyrinth.
We reached a T-junction.
"Sana, which way?"
"The right!"
The Princess shouted.
"Hmm, I think it's the left."
"Alright, left it is."
"Darling!"
"Sorry, but lives are at stake."
"Ugh..."
The Princess looked quite frustrated, but there is no time for such talk.
We must rescue them quickly.
We hit another T-junction.
We tried to confirm the survivor's location.
Since it is a maze, the direction is not very clear.
"Hey! Are you alive?! We are heading your way now!"
『Quickly, save us』
"Ah! I heard it this time too! This voice is..."
Koeda reacted to the voice, but it seems Sana and Kaorulko could hear it too.
"That bastard..."
Iroha clenched her fists in front of her chest.
She seems to know who the voice belongs to.
"Iroha, could it be — your sister's voice?"
"Yes, no doubt."
She seems angry with her muscles bulging, but also happy.
Probably, the happiness is stronger, so it seems we can achieve our goal with this.
"Does Koeda know Iroha's sister too?"
"Yes, we sometimes eat together. She even comes to visit our guild."
"Heh~"
"Daisuke-san, I think it's the right."
"Alright! It's the right!"
"W-well, I think it's the left..."
The Princess is reluctant to give up.
After calling out several times to confirm the location, the voice gradually became clearer.
It seems we are definitely getting closer.
"Ugh..."
Since Sana's choice was correct, the Princess looks frustrated.
"Sakurako-sama, please give up already."
"Kaorulko! Which side are you on?"
"There is no time for such talk. If you don't stop, everyone will dislike you."
"Uu..."
The Princess is cute when she gets worked up, but we can't say that.
"Empress's correct logic."
Iroha seems to already trust Sana's choice.
She definitely has some skill or high parameters.
Since we can't see the status, we don't know what it is.
Everyone walked in a line through the dark, narrow maze.
Fortunately, it seems there were no encounters with monsters.
Could it be — that by defeating the mid-boss, we have cleared this floor?
Since it is an irregular floor, we have no idea at all.
We came this far relying on Sana's intuition through a very complex maze, but will we be okay on the way back?
No, wait...?
Did the survivors clear that mid-boss and escape through this maze?
According to Iroha, they were not high-level adventurers...
Finally, we confirmed the location where the survivors were.
"Ooooh! Where are you!"
"Here! It's here!"
It echoed, but a woman's voice was clearly heard.
"It's quite close!"
"Without a doubt, it's Kagari-san's voice!"
"Good job, Sana!"
"Ehehe..."
In contrast to the happy Sana, the Princess looks a bit frustrated.
"Kaorulko."
"What is it, Daisuke-san?"
"Is the Princess a bit directionally challenged?"
"Well~ yes..."
"Rude! It just takes a little more time to reach the destination!"
The Princess refuses to admit it.
After hearing the voice — a door appeared ahead in the straight passage.
"Is that it?!"
We were in a maze for a long time, but this was the only place with a door.
It smells like a trap, but if survivors are there, is it okay?
"We did it!"
Koeda also looks happy.
We arrived in front of the door.
It was an ordinary wooden door, but were they locked in?
"Hey! We are here to help?!"
"Save us quickly!"
A woman's voice came from inside.
"Are you Moles' Kagari-san?"
"Eh?! Why do you know my name!?"
"Open the door."
"No good! It won't open! I can't break it!"
"Darling, move aside."
Iroha stepped forward.
"Ah."
"Here I go!"
Iroha swung the sword she was holding down at the door with all her might.
It was an ordinary-looking wooden door, but it bounced back her attack, and orange sparks flew from the sword.
A flash of light illuminated the passage for a moment.
"It's no good."
Koeda stroked the surface of the door.
"Perhaps the room itself is a trap and has an indestructible attribute?"
"Probably, I think Kaorulko's guess is correct..."
"Hey! Save us quickly!"
A man's voice also came from inside.
It seems there are multiple survivors.
"Damn it!"
Iroha spat out regretfully, but this is my turn.
"Leave it to me."
"Darling?"
"Storage!"
I have experienced this kind of situation several times.
I stored the door itself into the Item Box.
With the door gone and the magic light illuminating, there were four men and women inside.
Three men and one woman.
That woman must be Iroha's younger sister.
She wore black pants-style clothes, and since the jacket was short, her navel was exposed.
Short hair, not as tall as Iroha, but tall and muscular.
No, Iroha is too big.
If we met suddenly in the dungeon, I would seriously think she was an Ogre.
A pickaxe was placed in the room.
Are they going to dig a hole using that?
It looks like an ordinary tool...
Checking inside, Iroha marched straight into the room.
"Gah?!"
The woman raised her voice upon noticing Iroha's true identity.
"You big idiot!"
Suddenly, she punched the woman.
"Gwaaah!"
She rolled all the way to the corner of the room.
Of course, Iroha wasn't serious either.
If a high-level adventurer punched seriously, it wouldn't end well.
"Big sister, I'm so moved I'm crying!"
"I'm not a guy! W-why is Big Sister here!?"
I also entered the room.
"Well, of course we came to save you. She went around bowing her head to various guilds."
Hearing that, the younger sister seemed to realize her older sister's feelings.
"S-sorry, Big Sister..."
Iroha's large body wrapped around the younger sister as if covering her.
"You survived well!"
"Sorry..."
The younger sister looked tired but seemed energetic.
The remaining men were slumped in the corner of the room.
"Bikini armor...","Cherry Princess...","Eh, Empress..."
They seemed slumped but conscious.
It seems they noticed our true identities.
"What about the men? Did they get hurt?"
"Yeah... when they realized they couldn't get out, they tried to attack me, so I beat them up."
"I see...","The worst...","Terrible."
Our girls were also dumbfounded.
"..."
The men hung their heads dejectedly.
"Huh?! You dare lay a hand on my sister?! What guts do you have?!"
When Iroha stood up, she slowly approached the men, but it felt like steam was coming from her whole body.
She was genuinely angry.
I might have never seen her this angry before.
According to her story, they seem to be her only blood relative, so it's no wonder.
"P-please forgive us!","It was just lust!"
That's a terrible excuse.
Just because it was lust doesn't mean you can do it.
They probably know that Iroha is Kagari's sister and one of the top rankers.
If they were seriously punched, they might die.
"Iroha, I understand your feelings — but if you injure them badly, extra resources will be wasted. Or should we beat them up and leave them here?"
"P-please save us!","Take us with you!","We apologize! Look at this."
The men all bowed deeply, desperately rubbing their heads against the hard floor.
Well, if left here, they would surely die.
"What should we do?"
Should I ask the younger sister?
Since it's their trouble, it's not a scene for us to intervene.
It would be a cold response, but apart from outside, this is a dungeon.
We have also risked danger to come this far.
"Please heal them... and take them back."
"Thank you!","Thank you very much!"
"But! We will never work with you again!"
"W-well understood."
Well, after the trouble, it won't be as harmonious as before.
Since we decided to take them, I handed over my Healing Potion.
Magic might be needed for future battles, so it's better to conserve it.
If we can escape to the shallow floors, there should be no worry.
"For now, are you not hungry?"
"H-hungry! My stomach is sticking to my back!"
"How long have you not eaten?"
"Food ran out, about a day..."
"If it's that long, it should be okay."
I took out a calorie bar from the Item Box.
If the stomach is empty, porridge would be better, but unfortunately, we don't have that.
"F-food!","It's food!","Give it to me too."
Everyone snatched the calorie bars from my hand.
"Eat slowly. If you eat too fast, your stomach might hurt."
If you eat until full in a starving state, you might die.
Didn't such a story happen in the Sengoku period?
"Delicious!","Uu..."
They were eating while crying, but they might not have thought they would be saved.
That's probably why they took action to assault the woman.
"There is still food, but isn't it bad to stay here?"
I asked the Princess for instructions on the next action.
"As Darling says. This floor is too irregular."
"It's impossible to fight high-level monsters while carrying the rescued people."
"Um. Understood. Let's get out of here as soon as possible and aim for the safe zone on Floor 6."
"Understood. Is it okay with Iroha and the Moles?"
"W-we leave it to you...","We couldn't do anything on this floor by ourselves."
The men looked dejected, but maybe they lacked some preparation and planning.
"What about Iroha and the younger sister?"
"I'll leave them to Cherry Princess and Darling."
"Eh?!"
The younger sister, who heard Iroha's words, was surprised.
"What is it?"
"Big Sister! Darling means — could it be that strange voice we heard just now... is Big Sister's...?"
"N-no! No, Darling isn't wrong, but..."
Iroha turned red at the younger sister's retort.
It's a rare face, but this must be the face she shows to family.
"He's an old man!"
"Hahaha, I get said that every time."
"Even if he's an old man, he's stronger than me! He has an Item Box, he has money!"
"Item Box — it was in the official gazette...","Ah."
"I heard it from Big Sister, but I never thought it was an old man..."
"There's no one who has everything, so there's no choice!"
Well, as Iroha says.
Young, sweet face, rich, and a strong high-level adventurer.
Such a person doesn't exist.
No, the Princess and Empress in front of my eyes are strong, beautiful, and super rich — they are truly children given two things by heaven.
After giving calorie bars to the rescuers and healing them — they seemed to calm down.
"Can we go?"
"Uh-huh!"
"Maybe...","...","Uu..."
The younger sister is energetic, but the men are a bit unreliable.
I'm worried, but we can't stay here forever.
Since we opened the door, it should be connected to the passage, and we might encounter monsters here too.
Once we decided to depart, they shouldered their pickaxes.
Probably drop items, but I'm curious.
"So, are you going to dig holes with those? Drop items?"
"Yes, yes! They are my business tools."
The younger sister proudly showed the pickaxe, but it looked like an ordinary pickaxe with an iron blade and a wooden handle.
"Can you show me digging a little?"
I was curious how it would look.
On the surface, even using heavy machinery to dig a deep hole is difficult.
"But, the walls here..."
The room where they were locked in probably had an indestructible attribute too.
Otherwise, it wouldn't work as a trap.
It might be destroyed by magic or other means.
Well, even if you make a hole in the dungeon wall, it doesn't necessarily connect to the next one in this dungeon.
"I think the environment is now the same as the passage since I broke the door..."
"Then —"
The younger sister swung the pickaxe down at the wall.
The wall crumbled with a sound different from what I imagined.
"Ah! I dug it! Seriously~?!"
Normally, when digging rock, it makes a metallic sound, high-pitched noise, and sparks fly — but this time, the wall crumbled making a sound like Styrofoam.
Not only that, almost no debris came out.
Usually, when rock crumbles, debris of the same amount comes out, but there was none.
It seems to have disappeared somewhere.
This part is also just like a game.
"So holes open like that — that's why you can dig through to different floors."
"We sometimes take contracts to break walls when laying railways."
"I see."
I remembered seeing such a scene when riding a train.
Did they have something to do with it?
I was thinking it would be tough to put steam-powered heavy machinery in such a place — but it seems dungeons have their own construction methods.
Now that we know the power of the magic pickaxe, we departed.
Everyone went out to the passage and formed a formation.
We placed the rescued people in the center and surrounded the front and back with adventurers.
Since the passage was narrow, there was no worry of being attacked from the left and right.
"Was it only this member who was digging?"
"...No, there were two more...","Did you see them?"
"We haven't seen any survivors up to here."
"T-that's right..."
— That means the other two are hopeless.
"There were equipment that looked like adventurers' gear in the first room. Were they with the people you came with?"
"Y-yes..."
The younger sister answered weakly.
She must have understood what happened to the adventurers.
"Those adventurers were high-level too...","Did they fail...?"
The men looked regretful, exchanging glances.
"They let us escape."
"I see."
The younger sisters are gradually figuring out the puzzle of what situation they were in.
"Well — even if we turn back from here, the mid-boss room is closed, right? What do we do? — Princess."
"Um."
The younger sister raised her hand.
"If we go right, I think it's the room we came down to..."
"..."
Everyone exchanged glances and listened to the younger sister's detailed story.
We also came down from that room, ran straight, turned right, and there was a room on the left, so it seems they ran into there.
"..."
All eyes turned to the Princess.
"Does that mean because Cherry Princess chose left, we took a huge detour?"
Kaorulko voiced what everyone wanted to say.
"It's a result!"
True, but...
"Anyway, next time if there are options, let's let Sana choose."
"No objection!"
A voice also came from Iroha.
"Gnnn..."
The men gathered around the Princess who was grumbling.
"I never thought we would be saved by Cherry Princess-sama","It's an honor!","Thank you!"
The Princess sent them white looks at their smooth, empty praise.
"Hey! Don't get cocky just because you're getting energy!"
"Gah!","Gya!","Adada!"
The men received kicks from Iroha.
We must not forget that the younger sister was about to be attacked by them.
Saving them together is the younger sister's kindness.
We started walking down the passage toward the exit, but suddenly a chill filled the air.
"Damn it! They won't let us go back easily after all!"
"Uwaaaah!","Gyaaah","Uuuu"
Screams rose from the men.
The women were in proper combat stance, but it was too pathetic.
— And there is no time to say such things.
White shadows began to drift in the darkness.
Wraiths.
We can handle these easily, but we can only hope a Lich doesn't show up.