CH 399

「This is……the fourth floor of the dungeon?」

「Mm.」

Byune nodded at Elena’s question as Elena looked around.

「Byune, why are we here?」

「Mm-!」

Byune frowned as she shook her head in response to Vihera’s question.

Surprisingly, Rei was the first to understand Byune’s actions.

「You didn’t want us to just be a spectacle for everyone to watch?」

「Mm!」

At Rei’s words, she nodded to say that was right.

The reason why Rei had guess that was because he had similar feelings. Standing in the same group, the discomfort he felt was similar to what Byune had been feeling.

But, considering that Rei was one of the involved parties while Byune was a complete bystander, Byune felt significantly more uncomfortable at the situation.

「Mm!」

With that, Byune pointed towards the passageway that extended from the stairs on the fourth floor as she motioned to the three other people.

Vihera was the first to understand what Byune meant, probably due to the extended time they had spent with each other.

「Are you sure? I thought you wanted to go to a deeper floor today.」

「Mm.」

Byune nodded back at Vihera to say that she had no problem with that. Next, she looked towards Rei, Elena, Set and Yellow.

「Eh? You want Rei and the others to go with us?」

「Mm.」

「……That’s unusual. You normally don’t like to work with others.」

Although Vihera said that, it seemed that her working with Byune was an exception.

「Mmm, mm.」

It might also have been the fact that she was one of the few people who could communicate with Byune, who basically only ever said ‘Mm’.

Those were Rei’s thoughts as he watched the two of them.

After several more exchanges, Vihera turned to look at Rei.

「Why don’t we work together today? Byune says that it’s fine.」

「……With you?」

Elena asked back with a frown, but Vihera just shrugged her shoulders and nodded.

「I don’t mind if Byune says she wants to do that, it doesn’t matter if Rei joins without you either.」

「Don’t be stupid. As if I would leave Rei with an exhibitionist like you. Rei and I are a party together, so if Rei is staying, of course I’ll stay with him. ……I need to keep a good eye out for the homewrecker.」

「Ara~? It must be hard being a woman who isn’t confident in her own charm. Rei, why don’t you chose me instead of this stuffy woman? I won’t tie you down.」

Vihera might have said that to Rei, but she was looking at Elena.

It was an obvious provocation, but it was still something Elena couldn’t ignore. She glared back at Vihera with sharp eyes.

However, Vihera didn’t seem to care about her glare and even smiled as she looked back.

「You want to try? I don’t have any problems if you do?」

Rei gave a sigh as he held Elena back and called out to Vihera, who was giving a challenging look towards Elena.

「No, stop causing trouble. Anyway, why are we on the fourth floor?」

Rei forcibly changed the topic for the moment, as he was worried about Elena, and ignored what Vihera had said.

However, Elena had already engraved Vihera in her mind as a person to remember.

Without knowing that she had just been classified as such, although Vihera might have welcomed it anyway with the goal of amusing herself in combat, Vihera and Byune both looked at Rei with surprise.

「You don’t know? ……Elena too?」

「You don’t deserve to call me by name, but……what are you talking about?」

「……Haah, this is information you’d normally know when entering a dungeon.」

「Mm.」

Byune nodded at Vihera’s words as if it were a matter of course.

Rei and Elena still couldn’t understand what was going on and just tilted their heads.

……In addition, for some reason, Set and Yellow also tilted their heads.

「Mm.」

Byune gently stretched out her hand and stroked both Set and Yellow’s heads at their response.

Vihera looked at the actions of the person and two animals with a strange feeling before immediately recollecting herself and continuing her explanation.

「Since you’ve used this several times before, you know that you can use your dungeon cards to go to floors you have previously been to right?」

「Yeah.」

「You can only be transfered to the deepest floor you’ve been to, even if you’re working with others. For example, two adventurers, one has reached the 10th floor, the other the 20th floor. If the two of them are transfered together, they can only go down to the 10th floor.」

「……Who decides if they’re working together?」

「The transfer device. Well, it’s an ancient magic device with a number of unexpected functionalities. There is a theory that it reads the thoughts of people who use it, but no one knows the details. After all, transfer devices are rare. I heard that they won’t give permission to research it because they don’t want to lose the device in the chance it gets damaged.」

Both Rei and Elena both had their eyes wide in surprise at Vihera’s explanation. Both of them had collected various information in advance, but neither of them had heard about this.

「So, Vihera and Byune got sent here to the fourth floor because we’ve only made it this far?」

「That’s right. ……As for me, I would have preferred a floor with stronger enemies. How about you, Byune?」

「Mmm……Mm!」

Byune nodded after thinking a little. Her face remained as impassive as ever with no expression.

However, Vihera, who knew her to some extent, seemed to be able to read Byune’s feelings from her small gesture. Vihera gave a small smile as she gently brushed Byune’s head, who’s height only went up to the middle of her chest.

(……Huh. So she also has that kind of expression.)

Rei thought to himself as he watched the two of them.

Most of Vihera’s expressions that Rei had seen so far were either trying to seduce him……or to provoke him. However, her provocations were mainly against Elena and not Rei.

「Oh, so you can also show that kind of expression. This is a little surprising. Should I change my impression that you are an exhibitionist and a homewrecker?」

「……Ah? Oh, huh? A woman who isn’t confident in her own charm and proudly calls herself that embarrassing title of General Princess or something……are you selling a fight? Of course, I’ll buy in. I’ll buy in to your fight at a huge discount of 90%.」

Vihera clenched her fists with a smile as soon as she heard Elena’s words.

However, it was an exact opposite smile of the one she had when she was brushing Byune’s head.

(Why does she have to do this with the same smile……)

Rei gave a sigh, unsure of what to do.

Byune tapped Rei’s shoulder before stretching greatly to stroke Rei’s red hair under his hood.

「Mm.」

It seemed like she was trying to encourage Rei. Turning to lok at Elena and Vihera again, Rei gave a small sigh before speaking up.

He started to wonder how many times he had sighed today.

「Look, there’s nothing to argue about anyway. So, to summarise what’s going on, are you to fine with working together with us today? Honestly, since you two have reached fairly deep floors, I think it’s a waste of time for you here.」

Both Vihera and Byune shook their heads in response to Rei’s words.

「Ara~? Byune as too? ……Well, that’s fine. For me, it will be great to be able to observe Rei and that stuffy person fighting up close.」

「Hmph, who’re you calling stuffy.」

Elena retorted in disatisfaction, but Vihera didn’t seem to care as she turned to look at Byune.

「Mm.」

With her voice, Byune took out several bottles from a pouch at her waist. There were small bottles about 5cm tall, they seemed to be made from some sort of blue glass. Each bottle had some liquid inside.

「This is?」

「Ahh, I see.」

Rei’s confused voice and Vihera’s nod in understanding overlapped.

「What is that?」

「It’s a liquid that can be extracted form the body of a monsters called Seal Worms that can be found on the 4th floor. It hardens several seconds after coming in contact with air, so it has to be stored in a specially treated bottle.」

「Seal Worm? ……From it’s name, is it an insect type monster?」

As he asked, Rei recalled what had been written about the monster in a monster encyclopedia he had read.

Seal Worms. There looked like a white caterpillar, roughly 50cm in length. It’s most notable feature was its ability to spit out a liquid from its mouth. When the liquid comes in contact with air, it hardens after a few seconds, stopping its target from moving. However, it was quite brittle, so it was easy to break with a certain amount of strength. They were considered an E rank monster. The proof of subjugation was their right fang. The only materials that could be stripped from them were its fangs, which doubled as proof of subjugation.

「Speaking of the liquid, isn’t it the stuff that the Seal Worms spit out of their mouth? What do you do with that?」

「Mm!」

Byune thrust out a bottle as if to protest being told that the liquid wasn’t useful.

Vihera spoke up with a slight smile on her face.

「Although it’s not well known, the Seal Worm’s liquid is reasonably useful as a material for alchemy. …….But in the end, it’s still a Seal Worm. Even if it’s useful, it’s not profitable to sell. ……Normally that is.」

「Normally?」

「Yes. A certain person has develped a unique process that allows it to be used as a material in magic items. And, since Byune has connections to that person, she can get a good price for it.」

「……A certain person?」

Rei asked with some concern as no name was given, but Vihera simply just passed it off with a smile.

No matter how interested Rei was, there were some things that couldn’t be said.

「Well, anyway, that’s why it’s fine for us to work with Rei.」

「It’s not just Rei though, I’m here as well.」

「Ara~, is that so? Well, I will allow Elena to come with us.」

「Huh? Do you want to fight……」

「Mm!」

Maybe she realised that an argument was about to start up again. Before Rei could stop them, Byune moved between the two of them and spread out her arms.

No fighting! ELena was a little confused as Byune showed no change in expression. …..Only Vihera gave an immediate sigh before lowering her fist.

At this point, Rei spoke up. He decided that if they kept arguing here, it would just go on forever.

「Come on, let’s get moving. Byune is a thief, so she’ll go first alonge with Vihera, who is mostly a close quarters fighter. I’ll take the middle with the Death Scythe along with Elena’s sword whip. Set and Yellow with take the rear guard, is that okay?」

Saying that, Rei took out the Death Scythe from the Misty Ring.

Its shaft was over 2m in length and it had a large blade to match. Seeing that, Vihera unconsciously raised her voice in admiration.

「So this is Rei’s main weapon……」

Vihera murmured as she looked at the Death Scythe.

「Mm.」

Even for Byune, who had seen the Death Scythe before, her small eyes were a little wider than usual on her expressionless face.

However, as expected, Vihera and Byune quickly recollected themselves.

「I really don’t recommend using long handled weapons inside the dungeon, but……well, we’re talking about Rei, so it’s fine.」

「Mm.」

「That’s right. To be honest, if I saw someone using such a stupid weapon that wasn’t Rei, I’d tell them to use something more normal……like a sword or something.」

「Even though you say that Elena, although your weapon looks like a sword, isn’t it a sword whip? It’s much harder than my Death Scythe in terms of difficulty of handling.」

「……A large scythe and a sword whip. You two use really rare weapons.」

Vihera said that with a surprised expression. However, Elena seemed to be waiting for her to say that.

「I didn’t expect to be told that by someone who equips their weapons on their hands and feet. Also, I’m wearing armour and Rei has his robe, but what about your outfit? I honestly don’t want to call that armour.」

At first glance, Vihera’s clothes looked like underwear, only covering her large twin hills and the lower half of her body. In addition, the cloth it was made from was so thin that it was basically transparent. If they hadn’t known anything about Vihera, they might have thought of her as a dancer or prostitute and not an adventurer.

……That said, if she had been a prostitute, with her beauty, she would have been a high class one.

Vihera gave a provocative smile as she twisted her body to show off as she looked at Rei with somewhat reproachful eyes, or from Rei’s point of view, malicious eyes.

「It’s fine. Even though it looks like this, these thin garment is actually a magic item with strong resisting against slashes, penetrating strikes and magic. If you hit it with a sword, the sword will probably take more damage than me.」

「If it’s just slashing and penetrating strikes, then what about protection from impacts? Things like hammers and axes.」

「I just have to avoid them.」

「Mm!」

They won’t hit me. Next to Vihera, who was smiling confidently, Byune seemed to say that Vihera’s equipment was of very high quality.