"Bwuh — cough — !!!"
Accompanied by the violent rasp of air being sucked back through a windpipe —
Hermes jerked his head sharply to the side and sprayed the great mouthful of ale he had just taken in — along with all its dense white foam — out in one explosive burst.
The pale yellow liquid scattered into a mist in midair, and with a wet splatter rained down across the wooden floorboards to his right.
A few cloudy droplets flew further and struck the solid wooden legs of the neighboring table, running down along the rough grain of the timber and dripping into the cracks between the planks.
He didn't dare aim his spray in Haimer's direction.
Not even the tiniest droplet of foam — he refused to let any of it cross the centerline of the table.
Asfi Al Andromeda, who had been standing slightly to his rear, didn't quite grasp the situation, but she immediately stepped forward, swiftly slipping her hand into the leather item pouch at her waist and pulling out a pure white handkerchief, neatly folded into a perfect square, which she held out in front of Hermes.
Hermes snatched the handkerchief and dabbed in a panic at his chin and at the ale stain on the front of his coat. His lungs were still gasping cold air in shuddering gulps, triggering a string of muffled coughs.
At that same moment —
"Hey!!!"
A sharp note of protest came from over by the tavern's bar.
Anya was carrying a still-dripping mop in one hand. The moment she took in the scene, the pair of brown cat ears on the top of her head shot straight up, and the long tail behind her abruptly puffed out, every hair on it standing on end like a rough feather duster.
She huffily strode forward on her long legs, her wooden geta thudding 'thock-thock' against the floorboards, and came marching over.
"What does this customer think he's doing-nya?!"
"Today Anya was the one in charge of cleaning the hall floor-nya! If you go around messing it up like that, Anya has to scrub at it for ages with a rag-nya!"
Anya stopped right in front of the puddle of ale, glaring down at all that foam coating the floor, and started openly shouting.
Hermes's movements stiffened at the words, and he raised his head with an expression of acute awkwardness. He hurriedly withdrew the hand holding the handkerchief, and his other hand frantically fished around in the leather pouch at his belt.
With a series of crisp clinking sounds from the metal jostling together, he produced several silver Valis coins.
Then, in slightly nervous haste, he pressed those coins into Anya's outstretched palm.
"Sor… sorry, sorry. Just a small accident."
"This bit of money is to make up for it. I'll trouble you to fetch your tools and clean up."
Hermes forced a brutally unnatural, dry smile onto his face, the muscles at the corners of his eyes still twitching faintly.
Anya pursed her lips at this, closed her fingers around the coins, and bounced the weight of them in her palm.
Then, the corners of her mouth twitched upward in a sly, mischievous little smile of triumph, and with brisk efficiency she slipped the Valis into the deep pocket at the front of her apron. She turned, dunked the mop into the bucket beside her, and began vigorously wiping up the puddle of ale on the floor.
"Lovely."
"Squeezed a tip out of him."
"Anya can have an extra dish tonight-nya."
"Honestly though — if you can't hold your drink, don't drink-nya…"
Anya muttered all this quietly to herself as she bent and worked, her cat ears flicking, completely unaware that her actual inner thoughts had just spilled right out of her mouth.
Hermes felt deeply put-upon — but there was no spare time to argue with a tavern waitress.
After returning the dirtied handkerchief to Asfi Al Andromeda, he resettled himself upright in the wooden chair.
"Haimer…"
Hermes drew a deep breath, doing everything he could to bring the chaotic rhythm of his breathing under control, trying to make himself look at least somewhat composed — though both his hands were clenched tight into the fabric of his trousers over his knees.
"You're asking about news of Zeus — you're not… you're not planning to settle some score with him, are you?"
To this, Haimer didn't respond.
He simply leaned back in his chair and quietly watched Hermes sitting opposite him.
Meeting Haimer's gaze, Hermes swallowed hard, his Adam's apple rolling visibly, and gave up entirely on any further attempt to muddle through with vague evasions.
"Alright. I admit it."
"I really have kept in touch with that old man."
"But I swear to you — we only communicate by letter."
"He's asked me to keep an eye out for certain specific pieces of information for him from out here, and all I've been doing is handing the letters to the travellers in my employ, sending them out through hidden channels."
"As for which deep mountain village he's actually hiding away in to live out his retirement — I genuinely don't know the precise coordinates. The old man is extremely guarded."
Having said all this in one breath, Hermes immediately straightened his back, looking extraordinarily tense.
He stared unblinkingly at Haimer, terrified that the other might pick some flaw out of his words.
Haimer's gaze remained calm. Relying on that instinct of his for perceiving the essence of things, he detected no trace of falsehood in Hermes's statement.
A smooth-tongued god knew exactly when to hand over the real cards.
"Fine, then."
Haimer drew his gaze back, lowering his eyelids slightly, and offered that brief, two-word reply.
Hearing those two words, Hermes's back — which had been pulled tight as a fully drawn bowstring — instantly relaxed. He sagged back against his chair as if every last bone had been pulled clean out of him.
That sweat-slick right hand of his was already reflexively reaching for the wooden handle of the ale mug on the table, meaning to take a drink and settle himself.
And then —
Just as his fingertips were about to touch the wooden handle,
Haimer lifted his right hand, crooked his index finger, and tapped twice, lightly, against the solid wood of the table.
"Tok. Tok."
At the sound, Hermes's fingers froze.
Haimer lifted his eyes and looked at the hand stalled on the tabletop.
"Now then."
"I'll ask. You answer."
Hermes's fingers locked up completely, hovering less than half an inch from the handle of his mug.
The colour that had just begun to ease back into his face visibly worsened, and fine beads of sweat began to push out at his temples.
So.
The real interrogation — had only just begun.
Scene shift.
Dungeon, twentieth floor.
The Hidden Safe Zone — the Mystics' Sanctum.
Inside the vast natural cavern, dozens of bonfires were blazing fiercely. The ceaselessly leaping orange-red flames bathed the rough, crack-laced rock walls in a deep, ruddy glow, driving back the chill that was unique to the deep Dungeon.
Around a long table — a makeshift thing assembled out of several enormous slabs of flat stone —
Hanasaka Warabi sat on a stool that was, in reality, just a hunk of rock. She popped the last sweet-smelling red berry from her hand into her mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed.
She clapped her palms together to brush off the sticky residue and the crumbs caught in the creases of her fingers, then stood up.
The black bear Kyoubou, who had been dozing on the dirt at her feet, sensed his master moving.
He gave a snort, blew out a hot breath laced with the smell of earth, then stood up as well, vigorously shaking out the thick, dust-laden black coat of fur on his body.
Meanwhile, over on the other side —
Amou Kirukiru, already utterly bored, had positioned herself out in the open ground.
She lifted her right foot and idly kicked away a sharp shard of rock that had been by her toes.
The rock shard sliced through the air in a perfectly straight grey line, accompanied by a sharp whistle of broken air, and slammed hard into a massive stalactite column some distance away.
There was a crisp 'snap,' and the shard burst instantly into a spray of white powder that came drifting down to the floor.
"Stuffed and watered. Time to get some work in."
Amou Kirukiru clasped both hands behind her head, gave her neck a vigorous twist, and the joints all let out a series of crisp 'crack-crack' pops.
She turned her head and shot a sharp glance over at Onigawara Rin, the Holy Emperor, and the others, who were still tidying up their gear, and took a few steps forward.
"We've been hanging around here long enough. If we don't get moving and stretch our muscles, our bodies are going to rust."
She had never had much patience for this sort of peaceable conversational atmosphere. As far as she was concerned, only killing and combat could really make the blood in her veins boil.
Kikakujou Mary stood to one side, reaching out to smooth the wrinkles pressed into the hem of her pale-gold robe. She slipped her long, slender sword back into the catch of the sheath at her belt and gave a small nod of agreement.
"We really can't afford to waste any more time."
"The main purpose of us coming down here is to get the new ones levelled up as quickly as possible, so they adjust to the Dungeon's combat tempo."
"Then let's go already!"
Aihara Enju let out a cheerful, ringing cheer.
She slammed both feet down against the ground, and the firelight caught a flash of excitement in her crimson irises.
In one nimble motion her whole body sprang high into the air, the specially crafted metal boots on her feet tracing a clean arc through the sky, before she landed steadily on Kyoubou's broad, flat back.
She straddled the bear, kicking her dangling legs back and forth in the air, her orange hoodie swaying behind her.
As for at that moment —
The Holy Emperor wasn't taking part in the discussion among her companions about their imminent departure at all.
She had turned around, her gaze travelling past the leaping bonfires and coming to rest on a low, sunken patch of ground at the edge of the cavern.
There, several animal hides had been spread out — hides made worn and frayed at the edges by long use.
On those hides lay three or four Variants of various forms.
Judging by the residual traits on their bodies, all of them were Variants who had been transformed from comparatively small-bodied monsters of the upper floors.
And on every one of them were horrifying wounds. They had clearly come through some extremely dangerous battle not long before and had taken serious injuries.
Because the Dungeon's monsters couldn't enter the surface, and they had no access to professional medical care —
All they could do was lie there in pain, riding it out on the formidable physical constitution of monsters, waiting for their wounds to slowly heal on their own.
The Holy Emperor watched those figures writhing in pain on the hides. A flicker of compassion passed through the depths of her eyes. She lifted the hem of her pale-blue dress, took small steps to circle around the bonfires, and walked toward the sunken hollow.
Reed had been about to make his farewells to the girls of the Haimer Familia. Catching sight of the Holy Emperor's movement, he hurried after her.
"They were hurt protecting their comrades during a retreat."
Reed walked up alongside the Holy Emperor, looking down at his companions lying on the hides and letting out faint moans of pain. His coarse, scale-covered lizard face was painted with a heavy weight.
"We don't have those high-grade healing potions the surface adventurers use. We can't buy them, and we wouldn't dare go to."
"And given that Fels can't bring us too many supplies —"
"All we can do is take some of the luminescent herbs that grow on the rock walls of the Dungeon, crush them up, and pack the paste onto the wounds. After that, the rest is down to their own fate."
Reed sighed; his voice was thick with bitterness.
"With this level of penetrating wound, they'd have to lie here for months at the very least before they could even just barely walk again."
The Holy Emperor came to a stop, walked over to the outermost of the wounded — a snake-woman Variant with a grievous chest injury — and crouched down.
The snake-woman's dim-yellow slit pupils were half open. She was letting out muffled, anguished groans.
The serpentine lower half of her body lay limp on the ground. Her one mud-caked arm was scrabbling unconsciously at the floor with the agony, leaving several deep gouges behind it.
Across her chest, a horrific tear ran half a foot long, deep enough to expose bone. Black blood had congealed into a thick crust over it.
The Holy Emperor said nothing.
She straightened up and gently raised both pale, unblemished hands, palms turned outward, wrists crossed in front of her chest.
She closed her eyes, and felt the vast, surging magical power within her — power that flowed from her boundless pity for all the suffering of the world.
Her lips parted just slightly.
A strikingly short chant fell softly from the Holy Emperor's mouth.
[Here, I build — a paradise where no one weeps.]
Wide-area healing magic — 『Gensokyo』.
— In an instant —
A blinding yet not painful emerald-green light burst out from between the Holy Emperor's overlapping palms.
The green light, like life essence rendered solid, expanded rapidly outward with her at its centre.
In the blink of an eye, it had formed a colossal hemispherical dome of light, several tens of metres across.
The dome enveloped, without the slightest resistance, every wounded figure on the floor of the hollow, along with several of the surrounding bonfires.
The radiance was dazzling. In an instant, it utterly drove away the unique chill of that little stretch of the Dungeon, replacing it with a soothing, mind-clearing green glow.
Beneath the green light's enveloping coverage, miraculous, astonishing changes were genuinely taking place.
The snake-woman on the ground, who had been convulsing endlessly with pain, gradually grew still.
At the place across her chest where the half-foot-long, bone-deep tear had been —
The curled, savage-looking flesh and skin began to ripple with a deeply unnatural rapid motion.
Fresh red sprouts of meat, like sprouting tendrils, grew out from either side of the wound at a speed visible to the naked eye, weaving and bonding together at the centre.
Several small broken ribs, wrapped and nourished in the light, gave off a series of tiny crisp pops as they slowly slotted back into place and knit together.
The black clumps of blood that had been oozing out and clinging to her scales all withered at once into great patches of dry crust, before peeling off like falling leaves.
All of this — happened in the span of perhaps two breaths.
The fatal great wound on the snake-woman's body had completely vanished.
Not even the faintest pink scar remained behind. In its place was a stretch of perfectly intact new scales — glossier, even, than before.
Beside her, another Variant whose arm had suffered a severe shattering fracture experienced the same miracle.
The stiff strips of cloth and broken sticks bound to her arm as makeshift splints exploded into countless fragments the very instant the muscle beneath them surged back to life.
The arm bone, which had broken into several pieces, completed a perfect realignment and reformation within the green light.
The scales that had been knocked loose by impact regrew, one after another, from beneath the muscle.
Every one of the wounded beneath the dome of 『Gensokyo』 — whatever degree of penetrating wound, or fracture, or severe wound-tearing they had suffered —
Even the extreme physical exhaustion brought on by being trapped in a state of serious injury for long periods —
All of it — in those few short seconds — was completely wiped away, as though they had never been wounded at all.
As the last of the wounded was healed —
The Holy Emperor lowered her hands.
The emerald-green dome of light that had covered the area rapidly contracted inward and, in the end, dispersed into scattered green motes that vanished into the cold air.
This corner of the cavern returned to being lit only by the few bonfires that surrounded it.
"..."
Silence.
A dead silence smothered the entire area.
The snake-woman, who had only moments earlier been on the edge of death, breath flickering in and out, suddenly sat bolt upright off the ground.
Her dim-yellow slit pupils were stretched perfectly round. With an expression of utter disbelief, she looked down and felt at her own chest.
Pulling away the dried, crumbling flakes of blood crust with her fingers only revealed, beneath them, perfectly flawless, supple new skin.
She even used her own sharp claws to dig in and pinch, hard, at the very spot where the fatal wound had been.
She felt no pain at all.
There was only a surging life-force, and a sense of strength welling up from deep within her flesh.
The other Variant, whose fracture had reformed, likewise pushed up off the ground in one motion, swinging out the right arm that had so recently been broken in several places.
The thick, muscular arm sliced through the air; her fist threw off a sharp gust of wind behind it.
Watching this scene, Reed — standing only a few steps off — had his vertical yellow pupils contract violently, as though they were about to pop out of their sockets.
His mouth, set in his great snout, gaped open as far as it would go, and a series of involuntary 'click-click' sounds came from his throat.
Standing a little further back, the stone-dragon Grosse — his enormous stone-built body went rigid all at once. The huge wings on his back, in his shock, forgot to fold and stayed sticking straight up in the air.
The other Variants gathered nearby were all even more thoroughly dumbstruck, each as motionless as a wooden chicken, oblivious even of the weapons that had dropped from their hands and clattered to the ground.
This… how is this possible…
An exclamation, no longer suppressible, cracked the dead silence.
Even Fels — who had been sitting at the most secluded of the bonfires throughout, never once making a sound —
— in that moment she jerked upright from the rock she had been sitting on, the motion violent enough to send a small rock at her foot tumbling.
She strode forward in long steps, cutting straight through the cluster of Variants, and came to a stop right in front of the Holy Emperor.
The pitch-black skull eye-sockets hidden within the deep shadows of her wide hood fixed themselves on this silver-haired girl of noble bearing.
"No drawn-out, complicated long-text chants…"
"No construction process for any large-scale magic circle."
"Not even the warm-up of gathering magical power in advance."
The pitch-black skull eye-sockets hidden within the deep shadows of Fels's wide hood fixed themselves on this silver-haired girl of noble bearing.
"With nothing more than a single ultra-short text only a few syllables long, she released wide-area healing magic that — in that one instant — covered a range of dozens of metres and possessed a healing effect on the level of bones being regrown."
"And what's more —"
"It belongs to the very topmost tier of high-grade magic!!"
Fels's voice trembled, ever so slightly.
As an old monster who had lived for eight hundred years —
A 「Sage」 who had once carried the study of 「Mystery」 to its absolute limit, and who had succeeded in producing the 『Philosopher's Stone』 —
And who, in the end — out of fury at having had her 『Philosopher's Stone』 shattered by her own patron deity — had created the secret art of immortality —
Fels understood, more clearly than anyone or anything else in the area, just how terrifyingly valuable the 「magic」 from a moment ago really was in today's Orario — and indeed, in the entire Lower World.
In all of Orario —
Those capable of instantly producing the effect of group-scale limb-regrowing, complete healing 「magic」 could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Even the high-grade healer of [Freya Familia] —
Would find it extremely difficult to deploy 「magic」 of equal scope and equal intensity.
「Magic」 ordinarily required a great investment of time, with one's full concentration bent on chanting a long string of tongue-twisting incantations.
And the slightest moment of distraction would cause the 「magic」 to fail — could even cause it to backlash on the caster.
But this girl in front of her —
Had prepared nothing.
She had simply raised her hand and recited one short incantation.
And the magic had just — released itself, like that, completely effortlessly.
And what's more —
What truly made Fels's blood run cold was —
She could sense, with absolute clarity, that —
After releasing such an enormous quantity of magic — power enough to wring dry the spiritual reserves of most high-level adventurers —
The girl's magical aura showed not the slightest discernible diminishment.
It was as though she were a bottomless dark well — there was not a single sign of depleted magic or mental fatigue.
"This is unbelievable…"
Fels murmured to herself.
She had, of course, heard that the girls of the Haimer Familia had received their Grace only a handful of days ago.
But precisely because of this — the fact made what had just happened all the more terrifying.
"A monster-class Lv.1 healer."
"If word of this gets back to the surface…"
Fels's voice grew lower and lower, almost as though she were talking to herself.
The major Familias, fighting to seize a healer of this strategic level of significance, would absolutely unleash a storm of blood and intrigue beyond imagination.
In contrast to Fels's shock —
The reactions of the surrounding Variants were of a far purer sort.
"Tha— thank you!"
"Thank you!!"
The reborn snake-woman climbed up from the ground.
Dragging her newly grown, fresh-scaled tail behind her, she came up before the Holy Emperor.
Without the slightest hesitation, her body curved and she dropped heavily forward, kneeling on the ground.
Her forehead pressed tight against the cold rock floor, producing a dull thudding sound.
The Variant whose fracture had been healed beside her, along with the others who had only just recovered from their grievous wounds —
All followed the snake-woman's example.
One after another, they knelt down in a circle around the Holy Emperor.
They had no flowery words of gratitude.
They expressed only — through that most primitive of postures — their boundless thanks toward this silver-haired girl who had given them new life.
For these monsters, who had spent years hidden in the dark depths of the Dungeon, unable to obtain even the lowest-grade healing salves, who when seriously wounded could only crawl into a corner and tough it out on raw vitality —
This kind of unreserved miracle, that restored them to perfect health in an instant —
Was more than enough to summon their most devout faith.
Even Reed and Grosse, standing off to the side —
These two leaders of the Variants —
Their eyes had likewise gone red in that moment.
Grosse's enormous stone-dragon body sank slightly. He folded his wings tight against him and lowered that proud, sculpted head.
Reed too bent his body forward; his voice choked.
"Thank you… truly, thank you."
"We… we honestly have no idea how to ever repay this kindness."
Watching Fels's powerful reaction —
And the almost worshipful looks the surrounding Variants were turning on her —
The Holy Emperor, for her part, didn't consider what she had just done to be anything worth boasting about — anything earth-shaking or grand.
She still wore that same soft little smile.
Her long silver hair shone with a warm sheen under the firelight.
Her hands folded in front of her belly, she elegantly inclined her body in a small bow.
"Please, don't be like this."
When facing the heartfelt thanks of the Variants, the Holy Emperor's voice was clear and pleasant to listen to.
There wasn't the slightest haughtiness from claiming credit for herself.
All there was —
Was that bone-deep equal tenderness she held for every life in this world.
"This is the only thing I'm able to do to help everyone."
"Since everyone's wounds have already been healed, please — quickly stand up."
The Holy Emperor lifted the hem of her pale-blue skirt slightly, took a small step forward, and reached out her two pale, flawless hands to give a gentle, symbolic lift to the snake-woman kneeling at the front.
"And now that everyone's injuries have all healed, we won't intrude on you any further."
The Holy Emperor straightened up and turned her head to look at Onigawara Rin, Kikakujou Mary, and the others.
"Rin, Mary — shouldn't we be moving on?"
"After all, Kami-sama is waiting for us to grow stronger."
"You're right."
Onigawara Rin adjusted the position of the tachi in her hand and nodded.
"Since things are settled here, it's time for us to go take a look further down."
"Too much talk. Let's move."
Amou Kirukiru had long since been impatient. Hearing this, she gave a cold snort, turned, and headed straight off in the direction of the passageway.
But just as the girls were about to turn and leave —
"Please — wait a moment."
Fels's long black robes gave off a rustling sound.
She stepped forward and walked straight up to the Holy Emperor.
Those pitch-black eye-sockets hidden inside her hood fixed themselves intently on the silver-haired girl.
Within Fels's own mind, an emotional turmoil she hadn't experienced in centuries was raging.
At first, she had simply been shaken by the Holy Emperor's terrifying magical talent.
But —
When she watched the Holy Emperor face this group of monsters whom the surface dwellers held in such contempt —
With such heartfelt, unhesitating equality —
And then, after performing such an earth-shaking miracle, still maintain such humility —
It made Fels, who had lived eight hundred years —
Feel as though she had spotted, in the depths of a black swamp, an utterly pure gemstone — without a single impurity.
This kind of talent.
This kind of character.
"Young lady."
"Your gift for magic — in all the long years I have lived, it is the most outstanding I have ever seen. Without exception."
"What's more, your purity of character is, even more than your talent, rare beyond price."
Fels paused.
The hand encased in its black leather glove rose slightly, as if she had wanted to touch something — but in the end, lowered again.
"I wouldn't dare claim to be any 'great power.'"
"But on this long road of magic, I've at least walked across several centuries, and I have gathered up some — modest — experience."
"If you're willing —"
"I — I think I could personally instruct you."
"Your magic circuit…"
Fels pressed down hard on the excitement within her.
"Although you possess an immense wellspring of magic — your control over it… is like that of a child who has never received any systematic instruction."
"The magic you just released — at that intensity — with the right magical theory underpinning it, you could at least cut the magic consumption in half, and target your area of coverage with much greater precision."
The words landed.
And the air in the cavern seemed to freeze in an instant.
Reed jerked his head up and stared at Fels in disbelief.
This Guild emissary, who at the best of times was always elusive and cold to everything —
A 「Sage」 who had lived for centuries —
Was actually opening her mouth, voluntarily, asking to take a disciple?
If word of this got back to the ears of certain people in Orario —
They'd probably go mad with jealousy on the spot.
After all —
In her eight hundred years —
Fels had long since lost any reason to be moved by the world's countless geniuses. Even the brilliantly talented First-Class adventurers within [Loki Familia] or [Freya Familia] had not stirred so much as a ripple in the heart of this 「Sage」 who had witnessed the rise and fall of Orario more times than she could count.
Her magical accomplishments — even Riveria, the 「Nine Hell」 who was lauded as Orario's foremost sorceress on the surface, could not necessarily edge her out.
Faced with this sudden invitation —
Tendou Kisara stopped where she stood, her hand sliding to the hilt of her sword, her gaze watching Fels in guarded alertness.
Amou Kirukiru, for her part, turned her head, and let a mocking smirk curl up at the corner of her mouth.
"Oh-ho?"
"The honourable emissary of the Guild — were you planning to poach our employee right in front of our Kami-sama?"
"I mean no such thing."
"I only feel — if a gift this unbelievable could just be polished a little, she would become the greatest healer Orario — no, the entire Lower World! — has ever seen in all its history!"
In the face of Amou Kirukiru's challenge, Fels tried to look past Amou Kirukiru and again to the Holy Emperor, waiting for her answer.
The Holy Emperor's eyes widened just a touch in slight surprise.
She looked at this skeleton-emissary wrapped in black robes before her.
She couldn't make out the face behind the cowl.
But she could feel the sincerity in the words.
However —
The Holy Emperor was only briefly taken aback.
Then —
The Holy Emperor folded her hands once more, and again inclined her body in a slight bow.
"I am extremely grateful for your kindness, Lord Fels."
"To be valued by you is my honour."
"But as a member of [Haimer Familia] —"
"Everything I possess is by the grace of Kami-sama."
"Without Kami-sama's blessing, I would be nothing more than a useless girl unable even to master her own fate."
"So as for whether or not I should accept the instruction of another — and as for the direction of my future growth —"
"I would like it left to the Kami-sama I would willingly give everything to, to personally decide."
"So until then — I cannot accept any of your offers."
So saying —
The Holy Emperor once again inclined her body in a small bow.
Hearing this answer, Amou Kirukiru raised her eyebrows in satisfaction, and on top of that the look she turned on Fels carried more than a little 'did you hear that?' provocation.
Fels herself just stood where she was.
The two faint motes of wraith-light in those pitch-black eye-sockets flickered unsteadily.
After a moment —
Fels's large black leather glove finally dropped weakly to her side, and a long sigh emerged.
"I understand…"
"I was being presumptuous…"
"This sort of matter really isn't something that can be decided by my words alone."
"However —"
"What I've said still stands. Always."
"I will be waiting for you."
"Thank you for your understanding."
The Holy Emperor folded her hands and inclined her head slightly.
With this little episode concluded, the girls resumed their Dungeon exploration.
Reed walked up to Onigawara Rin and held out his scale-covered palm.
Onigawara Rin glanced at it, then reached out and clasped his hand.
"Thank you for coming to see us."
Reed split his fanged mouth open in a grin.
"If you ever need help with anything in the Dungeon, just say the word. We'll help — even if it costs us our lives."
"Mm. Take good care of yourselves too."
Onigawara Rin withdrew her hand.
A few harpy-women clustered around Aihara Enju and Hiruko Kohina, reluctantly pressing several of those red Dungeon berries into their hands.
Grosse stood a little way off, his huge wings folded behind him, and let out a low huff in Tendou Kisara's direction — which was, for him, a farewell.
"Let's go."
Amou Kirukiru took the lead, stepping off toward the passageway down to the next floor.
The girls followed in her wake, gradually being swallowed up by the dim tunnel.
The Variants stayed where they were, until those slender silhouettes vanished entirely from sight — only then did they slowly draw their gazes back.
The passageway toward the twenty-first floor grew steeper and steeper.
The rock walls around them gradually fell away, replaced by rough wooden structures, as though everyone were walking through the interior of an unimaginably enormous tree trunk.
Along the floor grew radial patches of moss that gave off a faint blue glow, washing the surroundings in a deep, ghostly luminescence.
These were the typical characteristics of the Great Tree Labyrinth.
Footsteps echoed in the empty wooden passage.
"This Fels person — is her grasp of magic really that high?"
Kikakujou Mary, walking on one flank of the group, broke the silence casually.
"She's able to serve as a great god's emissary, and she's lived eight hundred years. She can't be any ordinary sort."
Onigawara Rin answered.
"Then — Lady Holy Emperor — you really aren't going to reconsider?"
Aihara Enju still hadn't broken the habit of the title she'd used in the previous world. She turned her head, hopping along backwards as she walked.
"If someone like that were teaching you, your magic would definitely become more incredible, wouldn't it?"
The Holy Emperor walked smoothly across the moss.
"Magical training is, of course, important."
"But my own personal will is a small thing."
"This kind of matter — concerning the direction of my growth — should rightly be decided by Kami-sama."
"Kami-sama's vision far surpasses our own. If Kami-sama judges that this Fels can serve as a tutor, then I will go and learn. If Kami-sama judges it unnecessary, then I will not."
"Kami-sama's will is the compass we move by."
Hearing this, Tendou Kisara, walking a little ahead, laid her hand on the hilt of her sword and gave an agreeing nod.
"That's right."
"Since we have already pledged our loyalty, all that's left is to follow Kami-sama's arrangements."
"Still — that one wrapping herself up so tight, not even daring to show her face — she doesn't look like a good sort."
Hanasaka Warabi, perched on Kyoubou's back, muttered the comment under her breath.
The group continued walking and chatting like that, pushing deeper in.
The humidity in the air grew heavier.
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
Suddenly —
A low, muffled tremor came rolling from somewhere deep in the wooden passage ahead.
With every quake, the patches of blue-glowing moss on the floor blinked, and even the thick vines lining either side of the corridor shook.
Inaba Tsukuyo stopped in her tracks.
Those tightly closed eyes of hers turned toward the source of the tremors, and her ears twitched faintly.
"There's a massive monster up ahead — and it's drawing closer."
"Very large. Larger than anything we've encountered before."
The words had barely left her mouth —
At the wooden corner ahead, a massive black silhouette slowly squeezed itself into the group's line of sight.
It was a behemoth, six or seven metres tall.
Covered head to toe in thick, heavy fur.
What stood out most were the pair of curved-spear tusks — each several metres long — that gleamed a ghostly white in the blue light.
Each step of its thick, sturdy legs into the wooden floor left behind a deep, sunken crater.
—— A Mammoth.
—— The largest of the standard mid-floor monsters.
"Whoa!"
Hanasaka Warabi sat up on the bear's back, craning her head to look at the colossal monster that practically scraped the ceiling of the passageway.
"This guy's huge."
"It's the first time I've ever seen a live Mammoth."
The huge Mammoth had clearly caught the scent of humans up ahead.
It came to a halt, lifted that thick, long trunk high into the air, and let out a deafening roar.
The bellow echoed through the passage, vibrating hard enough to make tiny wood splinters come pattering down from the ceiling.
"Spread out. Get ready to fight."
Onigawara Rin drew her sword in a reverse grip.
Kikakujou Mary, Tendou Kisara, and Hiruko Kohina swiftly spread to either side, gripping their weapons tightly.
____
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🔥 New history: Jujutsu x Mieruko: Oh no, am I a villain too?
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