CH 60

Chapter 60 – For Tomorrow’s Dungeon Attack

“With the [Level-Up Pudding] that Sol-dono mentioned?” (Shiki)

“That’s right. You’ll look different and be stronger than you are now. Are you okay with that?” (Bouchi)

“From the beginning, this one’s purpose was to be milord’s protector. If I must become stronger to fulfill my duty then this one has no objections.” (Shiki)

Shiki seemed to have no intention whatsoever to shirk his duties. As expected, he was glad to become stronger. I only asked for his consent because he seemed like he had the kind of personality that would refuse to become stronger through such a shortcut method.

Since Shiki had a rigid and serious personality, I’d thought that he might want to get stronger through training alone. I wanted to accommodate my Familiars’ wishes as much as possible, so I was relieved to find that those fears were unfounded.

Since Shiki was already B-Rank, I had to use a [Level-Up Pudding II], which had a hefty price tag of ¥100,000,000. I figured I might as well include Sol as well and pour in ¥200,000,000 in one go to have them rank up at the same time.

That would leave me another ¥200,000,000 on hand, but this was more than enough as a prior investment. I intended to have these two do a lot for me in the future.

“But milord, there’s one thing that concerns me.” (Shiki)

“Hmm, go ahead and tell me.” (Bouchi)

“Yes. That Ryudou fellow… Is he really the type of person to take a bet seriously?” (Shiki)

“Ah, about that. To be honest, I don’t know… I mean, he doesn’t really seem like the kind of person to keep his word.” (Bouchi)

“Then wouldn’t that make this contest pointless?” (Shiki)

“Don’t you think it’s fine to just ignore it? In the first place, they only requested that I help them clear the dungeon. I’m not there to judge whether they uphold their bet or not. I’ll leave that to them to decide.” (Bouchi)

“Indeed. Surely, with milord’s aid, Kuzuhara’s defeat would be nigh on impossible, but on the off chance… No, in the one in a billion chance that Kuzuhara’s side were to suffer defeat, Ryudou would take notice of milord. From what we’ve heard, he is quite the troublesome person. Wouldn’t it also be an option to deal with Ryudou before the request even begins?” (Shiki)

Shiki always made his best efforts to remove any harm that might come my way. He was truly a dependable existence.

If Ryudou were to disappear, then the request itself would cease to exist. I had already gone through with the business negotiation after all. I wanted to accomplish as much as I could in the process.

“Most likely, the other party has already taken note of the presence of milord… No, milady, Komon Shiina. They might try to take measures before the request even begins.” (Shiki)

Certainly, there was a chance that they might try to kill me before the fact.

“That might be true. But whether or not he comes to attack me is out of my control. If that time comes, we’ll just use all of our strength to destroy him. Am I wrong?” (Bouchi)

“No, it is this one’s duty to remove any obstacle to milord.” (Shiki)

But if Ryudou tried to mess with me during this time’s request, then I would just kill him on Kuzuhara’s behalf.

“―Masteeeer!” (Sol)

At that moment, Sol glided down from the skies above. I held out my right arm, and Sol landed softly on my arm.

“Do you have a report to make?” (Bouchi)

“Yes! There were many monsters that were C-Rank and above on the site, but there were also many lower-ranking monsters as well.” (Sol)

Now that she mentioned it, I had seen goblins there before. It made sense.

“And although there weren’t many, there were also a few B-Rank monsters here and there.” (Sol)

“Just as expected, huh? But the fact that there are multiple B-Rank monsters means that…” (Bouchi)

“Yes. Sol hasn’t been able to confirm it, but the boss monster is probably at least A-Rank.” (Sol)

The chances were high then. That meant that, sure enough, a rank-up was necessary here.

“Also, Sol has detected many human presences around the school.” (Sol)

“…! Maybe both sides have sent out personnel to investigate the area beforehand, just like us.” (Bouchi)

I hadn’t heard that it was explicitly forbidden to do any preliminary investigations on the dungeon, so it wouldn’t have been strange for them to send people to check the place out. Rather, it was a necessary act for both sides.

“But it seems that they won’t be able to investigate unless they actually get inside.” (Sol)

Well, it wasn’t an easy dungeon that the likes of a few people could conquer alone. If they tried, they would just be throwing their lives down the drain. In other words, they would only be able to get information from the outside.

“What’s going on inside the building?” (Bouchi)

“About that… some of the buildings have turned into labyrinths.” (Sol)

“Labyrinths? …Is that different from being dungeonized?” (Bouchi)

“Well…” (Sol)

As Sol explained, it was like a labyrinth had appeared inside of the dungeon.

“I see. Perhaps this is a phenomenon specific to large-scale dungeons. It’s hard to tell from the outside, but the inside is a different dimension with a labyrinth filling the space, just like in a game… How troublesome.” (Bouchi)

According to Sol’s perception, the interior had expanded to be many times larger than what the exterior let on. The monsters would be at a high rank, and there would probably be many traps all over the place.

“But that could also narrow things down. The boss monster… which probably has the Core, is most likely in one of those labyrinthine buildings.” (Bouchi)

“Sol also thinks so! Do you want Sol to continue investigating?” (Sol)

“…No, there are a lot of monsters ranked higher than you in the labyrinth, aren’t there? If you got caught in a trap and I lost you, it’d deal a serious blow to me. And the time of the dungeon attack is tomorrow night. There isn’t much time left.” (Bouchi)

In the interest of conserving Sol’s strength, it would be better to leave for today.

“You know the number and location of the labyrinthine buildings, right?” (Bouchi)

“Yes!” (Sol)

“Alright, then that’s plenty. Well done.” (Bouchi)

“Puuu~!” (Sol)

Sol trembled with joy when I patted her on the head.

Thanks to Sol, I was able to get some idea of where the monsters were. I was also able to pick out the buildings where the Core Monster might be, so all that remained now was to clear the dungeon.

“…I should go meet up with Kuzuhara and explain this to him.” (Bouchi)

Then, we would devise a strategy. I planned to do whatever I could until tomorrow night.

—

(TL: It goes to Kuzuhara’s point of view here)

“―And that’s the brief strategy of how our dungeon attack will go tomorrow. Do you all have it hammered into your skulls? Then take your time and rest up today. Dismissed!” (Kuzuhara)

At my words, the members of the Inochi-shirazu who had gathered in the hall nodded and left the room with looks of determination on their faces.

A little while ago, I had received information from Komon Shiina on the dungeon attack. The information was truly eye-opening, but there were also points that were truly questionable.

However, she had more dungeon experience than I did, so I decided that the information was credible and conveyed it to my boys.

“I was surprised to hear that a monster could be the Core itself,” Chake, who was standing by, commented with a sigh before continuing, “but is the information really reliable?”

“Who knows? But we can’t ignore it. We should keep the possibility in mind. After all, we’re dealing with Ryudou here. It’s better to have at least one piece of information that can be used to our advantage.” (Kuzuhara)

“That bastard doesn’t know?” (Chake)

“When I talked to him about this match, we talked about the Core, but he didn’t mention anything about the possibility of a monster being the Core. It could be that he didn’t talk about it on purpose, but at least he didn’t seem to know anything about it.” (Kuzuhara)

“Then we have the advantage in the information game. It really was worth it to get her on our side!” (Chake)

“…I guess so.” (Kuzuhara)

“Saito-san…?” (Chake)

Chake cast a puzzled glance at me when he saw me respond with a complex expression on my face.

“You were against inviting outsiders this time, weren’t you?” (Kuzuhara)

“Eh? Yeah… I was thinking that this situation was our team’s problem to deal with.” (Chake)

“Yeah, it’s exactly as you say. Originally, it was something that we should be dealing with alone. But… if we lose here, you guys’ll lose your place to stay.” (Kuzuhara)

“Saito-san…” (Chake)

“That’s why we can’t afford to lose. And… I need to stop him.” (Kuzuhara)

That was because it was partly my fault that Ryudou Eiichi had become the way he was now.

“Either way, it’ll probably be a tough match. The other side has the advantage in numbers.” (Chake)

As Chake had said, the force following Ryudou was superior. He was good at using people. No, perhaps it’d be more accurate to say that he was cunning.

He took advantage of peoples’ weaknesses, using them as pawns to commit acts that ordinary people would hesitate to do. Among those who worked under him, there were probably very few people who truly admired him from the bottom of their hearts or wanted to be his friend. In many cases, they were forced to follow him as a result of their weakness or greed.

“Ryudou is clever, and you never know what he’ll do. I was thinking that he would surely come attack you before the dungeon attack, but…” (Chake)

“So I don’t think he’s going to do anything to me. Rather, he’ll probably ruin the people and environment around me.” (Kuzuhara)

That was what he had been doing all along. But for some reason, his movements were quiet this time around.

He was monitoring me at the very least, but I had expected him to do something more extreme. And yet, he didn’t.

There were frequent skirmishes, but nothing happened that would dramatically change anything. Ryudou had been eerily quiet, which made me a bit scared.

Tomorrow was the day. There wasn’t much time left. In the remaining day left, would something terrible happen?

“Chake, tell everyone to refrain from going out tomorrow as much as possible.” (Kuzuhara)

“From going out?” (Chake)

“Yeah, we can’t let Ryudou take advantage of this time and reduce our small group even further, can we?” (Kuzuhara)

Even though we had an advantage in information, it was still better to have more people when attacking the dungeon.

“Understood. Oh right, when are you going to rendezvous with that woman?” (Chake)

“The meeting place is in front of the main gate of the school. At 11:30 PM.” (Kuzuhara)

The dungeon attack would begin precisely at midnight. Before then, we planned to gather for a final meeting.

“If I recall, Ryudou and his guys will start at the back gate, but… those guys actually start on time?” (Chake)

“Who knows? For now, we’ll keep an eye on them. If he tries to cheat then I can find fault with him, but…” (Kuzuhara)

He wasn’t an honest guy in the first place so he wouldn’t make a fuss about a little cheating. In the first place, there was no way that anything I’d say would make it through to that crazy guy anyway.

If Ryudou’s group started their dungeon attack early, there would be no choice for us but to just keep an eye on them and move immediately if they did. With them potentially making a false start or breaking the promise… In a match where life and death were on the line, if there were no rules or anything, then that was the end of it.

Besides… I couldn’t say that I had never broken a promise to him.

When I closed my eyes, I could still vividly recall that moment. Yes, back when we were still helpless little kids―