chapter 2

“Let’s go to a dungeon tomorrow.”

“Don’t wanna.”

“You have to.”

Because Megumin wanted to run, I grabbed her as I dismissed her protest.

It’s been a week since I was decapitated.

My body recovered to combat condition, so I raised this suggestion to my companions who were gathered in the guild. Unfortunately, Megumin seemed to hate the dungeons.

“Don’t wanna don’t wanna, I would lose my reason of existence if I go to a dungeon! Explosion magic that might cause the dungeon to collapse can’t be used, I would become a normal person!”

“You remember what you said when we first became team mates?! Didn’t you say ‘I am willing to carry the luggage or anything when exploring dungeons! Please, don’t throw me away!’”

When she heard that, Megumin whose sleeve was grabbed by me lowered her head in resignation.

“Sigh… I understand, but I will really be useless alright? I can only do things like carry the bags…”

Megumin’s resigned expression had a hint of unease.

To soothe her, I said:

“Don’t worry, you just need to follow us until the entrance of the dungeon. If we meet any dangerous monsters on the way to the dungeon, I will be relying on you to repel them with magic alright?”

“Hmmm? Just the entrance? Will that really be fine?”

Megumin question with a baffled expression.

“By the way, why did you suddenly want to go to a dungeon? If you want to explore dungeons, the team needs a thief alright? How about Chris? I haven’t seen her around the guild lately.”

Aqua, who was resting her head on the table, said lazily.

In the week before I recovered to combat readiness, this girl had been hogging the warmest place in front of the fireplace in the guild every day. She was either drinking or lazing around.

When I asked her ‘are you of legal age to drink’, she replied ‘don’t use Japanese law in this fantasy world.’

It seemed that in this world, you could drink no matter what your age was. You were responsible for any consequences that occurred when you drank.

“Chris said she was really busy. She said the senpai who took care of her in the past was pushing all sorts of troublesome matters to her. To handle these problems, she didn’t plan to come back. But she taught me detect traps and disarm traps which are necessary for dungeon exploration. Chris said the type of monsters in dungeons won’t change because of the seasons. That’s why I thought of going into one and giving it a try.”

After finishing the quest with Taylor, I didn’t do anything for the whole week.

Hunting snow fairies and goblins raised my level by 3. Aside from detect traps and disarm traps, I also learned another skill.

Trap detection and disarmament seemed to be dependent on agility and luck.

My agility might be average, but I have incredible luck, so it should work out.

I kept getting associated with weird people and getting into debts, my so called high luck was probably the joke of the year.

Darkness, who seemed to have just gotten her armor back from the shop, was polishing it enthusiastically.

Darkness suddenly looked this way.

“Erm, please wait a while more. My great sword broke during the fight with Jack Frost. I have ordered a new sword, but it will take some time to finish. I can’t be considered a combatant right now.”

“You were never a combatant, so that’s not a problem.”

“!?”

Tears started flowing down Darkness’ flushed cheek. She was probably feeling half excited, half sorrowful.

She still had half excited emotions left, so talking to her again was just asking for trouble.

So I decided to continue.

“I will explain it in a way with no misunderstandings. The one infiltrating the dungeon will just be me, I hope everyone can be my escort on the way there.”

“?” x3

Part 2

After half a day’s work, we walked from town to the hills, walking into the wilderness.

How long did we have to travel in this snowy road with dangerous and annoying tree branches?

A cabin that seemed solidly build suddenly appeared before us.

On the cabin was a sign that said ‘refuge’.

The dark entrance that seemed to be endless was right on the wall beside the cabin.

The entrance might seemed to be naturally formed, but if you went further in, you would see a tidy set of stairs. The stairs descended all the way into the depths.

The dungeon was named ‘Keele’s dungeon’.

— A long time ago, there was a genius arch wizard named Keele who fell in love with a daughter of a noble clan.

The wizard who devoted his whole life to magic and had no interest in love, fell for the lady on first sight during a stroll through the streets.

Of course, this love didn’t bear fruit.

After all, the difference in status decided many things in this world.

The wizard who understood this well, worked even harder in his magic training and research in order to forget about his love.

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He didn’t hold back in bringing happiness to the country through his use of spells, and was praised by all.

And so, the wizard was invited into the castle, to a banquet that was held in his honor.

The king said to the wizard:

He wanted to reward the wizard, and was willing to fulfill one wish of the wizard, with no restriction.

The wizard said he had a wish that would never be fulfilled.

— What the arch wizard Keele wished for, no one knew.

It’s only known that after this, the arch wizard kidnapped the daughter of the noble clan, built a dungeon and refused to come out.

What happened next was a mystery.

But thinking it through closely, even if a mere wizard built a dungeon to resist, he wouldn’t be able to defend it for long.

And now, not many people know the story behind the construction of this dungeon. And the dungeon became a good training ground for novice adventurers first exploration.

I stood at the entrance of Keele’s dungeon and looked back at the 3 people behind me.

“Alright, I will go alone from here on. The 3 of you just wait at this refuge for me. If I am not back within a day, go back to town and ask for help from Taylor’s group… That might be the plan, but I am just scouting the place out, so I should be back soon.”

Darkness crossed her arms before her chest and said:

“Are you really going solo? It’s preposterous to challenge a dungeon by yourself. I heard what you said Kazuma, but I think with my armor clanking loudly just by walking, it would be useless for me to follow…”

Well, this was the first time I went solo.

“Me too, I would just be a burden if I follow… Think it over, Kazuma.”

Megumin said worriedly.

“No problem, I will go with you!”

And Aqua suddenly said something unnecessary…

“… No, don’t follow me. I said I will be moving alone.”

I explained to Aqua once again what I told them on the way here.

“With the archer skill ‘farsight’ taught to me by Keith, I can see things in the dark. I have already tried this before. Even if there were no light source and total darkness, I could still gauge the distance, where items are placed and their shapes. So if I go alone, I don’t even need any light. The monsters that target adventurers with a light source won’t be able to find me.”

But if one could enter a dungeon solo just with these skills, all the archers in the entire world would have done that.

But–

“By the way, I also have the thieving skills ‘detect enemy’ and ‘hide’. So I can walk in the darkness, confirm the terrain, detect enemies and avoid them. Hide allows me to tide over the danger when I can’t avoid them, just by sticking close to the wall… probably.”

Only this point can’t be confirmed without actually testing it.

Even though I was going to explore a dungeon, it didn’t mean I took on a quest to clear the dungeon.

If I couldn’t get money after defeating the monsters, avoiding battles would be the best option.

Avoid the monsters, take the treasure and leave.

Even though I felt it was something tomb raiders would do, but this was one of the few privileges of adventurers who could cross the barrier of jobs and learn all sort of skills.

At a time like this, I should use one of the few advantages I had.

I took out the scent removing spray I bought at the guild which was effective against monsters sensitive to smell.

The monsters in the dungeon were probably used to the darkness.

Which meant that apart from vision, the other senses of the enemies should be superb.

Such as their sense of smell or hearing.

For this part, I could only pray I could detect the enemies before they noticed the sounds I made.

If I encountered snakes which could detect heat or bats that used sound waves, I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. But I heard from the people at the guild that there were no such monsters in the dungeon.

I already obtained intelligence of the monsters lurking in the dungeon from the guys at the guild, and did my homework.

I just died last week after all.

Even though I wished to meet Eris-sama again, dying so many times was unacceptable.

I sprayed the scent remover on my body.

I don’t know how effective it was, but it was better than not using any items all.

Furthermore, when I used hide after encountering the rookie killer last time, it sniffed the air around it before leaving begrudgingly.

Which meant the hide skill had the ability to make things like scent less obvious.

Yes, it will work. It probably would.

And this was just an experiment. It’s great to obtain results, but it was fine even if it failed.

The dungeon I’m challenging this time was rather low tier for my level.

After confirming the exploration methods of dungeons, I could challenge more difficult dungeons to earn money.

And it was just a dungeon that was half a day’s journey from town.

The dungeon had probably been picked clean by the other adventurers.

No problem, I won’t be at a disadvantage even if I encountered enemies in the dungeon.

“I will be going then. It’s cold here and you might encounter monsters, so go back to the refuge and wait.”

I waved good bye to everyone and headed towards the entrance of the dungeon.

— At this moment, I heard the sound of someone following behind me.

Aqua stood behind me as if it was only natural.

“… Didn’t you hear what I said? It’s more convenient for me to move alone. It’s dark in there, you can’t do anything even if you follow alright?”

After hearing my words, Aqua laughed as if it was a piece of cake.

… I really want to punch her.

“Hey hey hey Kazuma, have you forgotten who I am? Arch priest is just my job in disguise. Here here, say it– although Megumin and Darkness still don’t believe me– come, tell me what my job is!”

“Goddess of indebtedness?”

“No, I am the goddess-sama of water! You could have at least said I am the goddess of banquets!”

To be frank, it doesn’t matter what goddess you were. What is this woman trying to say?

“I am a goddess after all; my eyes have to power to see through everything. Before Kazuma was reincarnated, I also told you your cause of death accurately right? My powers have weakened after coming to the mortal world, but I still have a couple of godly powers okay? I can’t see through everything right now, but there is no problem seeing through the dark!”

Facing Aqua who was puffing her chest arrogantly, I felt uneasy.

To be honest, I had no idea what moronic things this woman would do and it worried me.

What to do, how should I reject her… At this moment, Aqua said to me:

“The monsters in dungeons are usually undead. Those fellows would be attracted to the life force of the living. This means the hide skill is useless against undead monsters. This problem can only be solved if I come along, right?”

Her words only increased my uneasiness.

Part 3

I don’t know how long I walked on the stairs that extended from the dungeon entrance.

After descending down the rather long flight of stairs in the dark, there was still no passageway in sight.

It was a dungeon for novice, so I thought it would be small. The exploration time would probably be longer than expected.

That might be so, but the purpose of this dungeon run was to test if the thieving skills were useful here.

To be honest, my method was wrong in the eyes of the people who explored dungeons properly.

As I felt the aura of ease from Aqua behind me, I continued descending the stairs.

“Nah, Kazuma, are your night vision fine? My divine eyes can see the ugly posture of Kazuma walking timidly down the stairs. Tell me if your night vision isn’t working well, okay.”

Aqua said something where it was hard to discern if she was worried about me or picking on me.

“I can see clearly, your useless posture that hesitates every time you take a step down is shown plainly before me. Treat this as my request, please don’t fall down.”

I turned back and saw Aqua smiling without a care in the world.

“Really, my field of vision is so clear I can run away if there is any danger. Do tell me if any monster approaches us. I will watch our backs, so don’t touch my butt alright.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t care about your butt. Let me tell you what I am thinking– I am seriously considering the ways to abandon you in the deepest parts of the dungeon.”

Aqua and I stood still and looked at each other’s face.

“How mean~ Kazuma keep making jokes like this! Hehehe!”

“How stupid Aqua, I was serious just now. We had been together for so long, you should understand that~ hahaha!”

As we chat, we finally reached the end of the stairs.

It was pitch black, but thanks to the night vision skill, the walls and layout of the dungeon were clearly visible.

The objects in the darkness had a green and white outline, it was like seeing a thermography.

After the stairs, there was a left and right route.

And I noticed something immediately after getting down the stairs.

“… What is this?”

Although I had night vision, I could only see a green Silhouette, and couldn’t tell the original colour of the object.

Right, the outline looked like a decomposing human body…

……

“Wahhh!!”

It was the decomposing corpse of an adventurer.

Was it someone who attempted to challenge the dungeon alone, or a person who had been abandoned by his companions after dying?

I didn’t know what happened to it, but it was definitely the remains of a person.

Aqua came to the side of the corpse.

“… This corpse is about to become an undead monster. Kazuma, wait for a moment.”

After saying that, Aqua started mumbling something like a prayer, and the corpse emitted a faint light.

She was probably guiding the lost spirit to the afterlife, and preventing it from turning into an undead.

If she acted properly like this usually, she would probably have more believers.

But to think we would encounter a corpse right after the stairs. My heart wouldn’t be able to take it if this went on.

If Aqua wasn’t here, I probably would have turned back.

“But, puhehe! This is too stupid, pushing himself to challenge a dungeon alone– Puhah! Hahaha!”

After hearing that, I decided to give her some ‘alone time’ after reaching the deepest part.

… Something seemed to be coming this way.

With my enemy detection skill, I sensed hostiles approaching me and stopped.

It was probably the sound of us talking or the light from Aqua purifying the corpse that attracted them here.

I looked at Aqua and pointed in the direction where the enemy is coming from, then pointed my thumb in the other way, gesturing her to escape.

“What, what? Why are you making weird gesture suddenly? Want me to perform hand shadows? Then give me a light. Foxes and bunnies are out of fashion, let me show you the shadow of the mobile fortress Destroyer.”

“No! And what is this Destroyer?! I am just signaling to you that the enemy is coming, so we should run this way! Damn it, they spotted us! Hey, help me fight them!”

I felt awkward for retorting so loudly.

I drew my sword in the darkness and slashed at the small humanoid monster that came at us after detecting our presence!

“… Hmmm, I don’t know what this is. I can see the shape, but not the color, so I can’t tell. Hey, you know what this is?”

The corpse of a small humanoid monster was on the ground.

Aqua looked at it and said:

“This is a low tier demon called Gremlin. The magic in dungeons are thicker than the surface, so weak demons like this appears sometimes.”

I see, there was this name in the list of monsters I might encounter, given to me by the guys at the guild.

… I suddenly noticed something.

“Nah, let me ask you, can you see really clearly in the dark?”

Hearing my question, Aqua said with an ‘obviously’ expression.

“My vision now is no different in broad daylight. What is it?”

……

“So when we were sleeping in the stables together, you saw everything?”

“I didn’t see anything. Because when I hear the sound of fap fap fap, your back was facing me.”

“… Thank you for your mercy Aqua-sama.”

The scent of the Gremlin might have attracted other monsters.

And so, we left that place.

Part 4

The Aqua today was different from her usual self.

Yes, totally unlike the arch-priest (lol) she was.

She wasn’t the goddess of banquet or indebtedness either.

“Lost souls wandering the cold dungeons, rest in peace. Turn Undead!”

Right now she was just like a holy goddess as she was purifying the undead with wide area spells.

— As for me, I underestimated the dungeon.

The combination of night vision and hide was useful during dangerous times.

And they were effective towards most monsters.

But, as Aqua said, for the undead that had been wandering the cold dungeon for a long time, living beings shone very brightly.

Since just moments ago, we had purified a lot of undead.

If I was alone, I would had been surrounded and beaten to death by the mobs of undead.

I really didn’t know we would encounter so many undead type monster in dungeons.

I could only reflect on my naivety.

Aqua who finished the purification breathed out in relief.

“Thank you for your hard work. Eh, you had been a great help, it would had been dangerous if I had came alone.”

Aqua who heard my praise wasn’t humble at all.

“Hmm? You are finally seeing me in a new light?… Anyway, where are the treasures? But this dungeon had been explored so many times, so I am not expecting much too.”

We had reached a rather deep part of the dungeon.

It was deep, but this dungeon only had one floor, so it didn’t mean depth as in further underground.

But, this was quite vast.

Aqua who claimed to be able to see as clear as day in the darkness, marked the wall with a chalk whenever she reached a corner.

Normal adventurers making a dungeon run would be tensely watching for traps, lighting torches, and marking the way as they proceeded cautiously.

But for us who could move easily in the dark, we could reach deeper with me at the front scouting for enemies.

We could have retreated after confirming this exploration method was feasible. But since we came all the way here, we still wanted to get some treasure or something valuable before leaving.

After ensuring the room ahead didn’t have traps or the presence of an enemy, I entered cautiously as if I was walking on thin ice.

Looking around the room…

“… Tch, there’s nothing good here.”

“Nah, Kazuma, the way you were exploring and that line you said gave me the illusion that we are thieves.”

Don’t say it, I had this feeling too.

I felt a bit guilty when I thought about the people who challenged the dungeon head on.

“…? Nah, Kazuma, that way, there seems to be something there.”

Aqua found something in the corner of the room.

Aqua and I went to the corner of the room together and found…

“Hey, that’s a treasure chest! That’s great Kazuma, we were right to explore the dungeon!”

I hastily restrained Aqua who was charging towards the treasure chest happily.

“Hey, wait wait. Don’t you think it is weird for a treasure chest to appear in the dungeon where tons of people had explored?… Hmmm, as I suspected, the detect enemy skill is responding.”

And of course, the response was coming from the treasure chest before us.

I see, so this was the legendary fake treasure chest?

“Ah… so this is a mimic monster. It’s regrettable, but there’s no other way…”

Aqua threw something at the chest as she spoke.

It was the empty bottle of the scent remover I used earlier.

The bottle drew an arc in the air and fell towards the ground near the treasure chest.

The moment the bottle hit the ground, the walls and floor around started shaking, and the treasure chest opened a gigantic mouth to swallow the bottle whole.

The walls and floor that appeared to be part of the dungeon were squirming. It seemed to be chewing the bottle it just swallowed.

“How, how disgusting! What is that!”

I think she said ‘dungeon mimic monster’?

“As the name of the monster implies, it cannot move, but part of its body can mimic the form of treasure chest or money, luring the prey to take the bait. It will sometimes take the form of a human, and hunt the monsters that prey on men.”

It even eat monsters, how terrible!

Speaking of which, the guys at the guild did mention the dungeon mimic monster.

I heard you could detect it easily with detect enemy skill, but this is too…

Anyway, the struggle of survival applies to the creatures in dungeons too.

It’s not easy to live in this world.

Part 5

“Turn Undead!”

Under the magic attack of Aqua, the body of the zombie disappeared.

I lost count of how many monsters were defeated.

Before me was still a thermography like scene, and I was thankful for learning ‘farsight’.

If we were advancing with a torch like normal, I would probably cry if we encountered a mob of zombies.

We had already been assaulted by large groups of undead; it would be no surprise if it left any psychological trauma.

“… Hey, isn’t this weird? There are too many undead here. If that was really the case, a party without an arch priest wouldn’t be able to subjugate the dungeon right? And we haven’t found any treasures yet. Let’s forget it and go back.”

This was a dungeon for novice to grind.

But I couldn’t imagine how would the novices handle the surge of undead.

Aqua who had been casting magic nonstop didn’t seem tired at all.

She was a goddess after all.

But even Aqua couldn’t keep it up forever, so maybe it was time to retreat.

“You are right. We didn’t found any treasures, but I am satisfied after purifying so many undead… but hold on a minute, the scent of undead is still lingering here.”

My detect enemy skill wasn’t even triggered, seemed like Aqua was in great condition today.

We had reached the end of the dungeon, but Aqua was still sniffing the air like an excited cat at the dead end.

Detect trap and enemy skills still didn’t have any reaction.

But since Aqua who was in excellent condition said so, there was probably something behind this wall.

Aqua and I split up to investigate the wall, scrutinizing it for ten minutes or so.

When we didn’t find anything and was about to return.

A part of the wall suddenly turned sideways, opening a gap.

We didn’t do anything. It appeared to had been opened from the inside.

A low and vague sound came from the other side.

“Is there a priest?”

Part 6

There was a simple bed, cabinet, a table and a chair in the room.

The person was sitting on the chair besides the bed.

An oil lamp was placed on the table.

“Morning, first time we met. I don’t know what time it is outside, should I say ‘good evening’ instead?”

I could only see the silhouette with my skill.

After greeting us, that person lit the oil lamp with magic.

The oil lamp illuminated that person who was in the dark. He wore a long cloak, he was a skeleton covered in dried skin.

“I am Keele, creator of this dungeon. I kidnapped the daughter of a noble, an evil wizard.”

— A long time ago, there was an arch wizard named Keele who fell in love with a daughter of a noble clan during a stroll through the streets.

Keele who knew this love won’t bear fruit, devoted himself in his magic training and research.

As the years went by, he eventually became the strongest arch wizard in the nation.

He didn’t hold back in bringing happiness to the country through his use of spells, and was praised by all.

And so, the wizard was invited into the castle, to a banquet that was held in his honor.

The king said to the wizard:

He wanted to reward the wizard, and was willing to fulfil one wish of the wizard, with no restriction.

The wizard said he had a wish that would never be fulfilled.

And that was the happiness of the one he loved, who had suffered so much.

“After making this wish, I kidnapped that lady.”

Keele said proudly.

“… Which means you are not an evil wizard, but a good one? In order to get on the good side of the king, the daughter was offered to the king as a concubine. But she wasn’t loved, and didn’t have a good relationship with the queen and the other concubine, and had a hard time. And you said something like ‘since you don’t want her, give her to me’ right?”

After hearing this, the bones in Keele’s throat area rattled, as if he was laughing.

“That’s the gist of it. After I proposed to the lady I kidnapped, she accepted me. After that, I brought her along in an elopement of love while fighting the army of the kingdom… Ara, those were happy times. Oh, by the way, the one on the bed is her. How does she looked, the curve of her collar bone is beautiful right?”

I looked in the direction Keele pointed at and found a skeleton placed on the small bed.

… What was with that?

Aqua who was beside me looked at Keele with shining eyes.

She probably couldn’t wait to purify him.

“And so, I have a request for that lady over there,” Keele suddenly said.

“Request?”

Hearing my words, Keele nodded–

“Could you send me to the other world? This lady should have the power to do so.”

Part 7

Aqua chanted every line of her spell clearly.

The great arch wizard placed his ‘hand’ on the ‘hand’ of the lady lying on the bed.

Aqua said that lady had no regrets and had moved on.

Although the magic circle just need to fit in Keele alone. But because Aqua was really into it, the circle not only encompassed the bones of the lady, but the entire room as well.

Keele was heavily injured in a fight to protect the lady. In order to guard her till the very end, he abandoned his humanity and became a lich.

It might be wrong to say this, but I felt that turning into a lich that way was really cool.

Maybe after seeing Aqua bully Wiz earlier, I felt this lich here was really manly.

After becoming the concubine of the king, the lady didn’t have many chance to go outside. She was suddenly the enemy of the state and toured the entire world to escape capture, and spent the last moment of her life in this dungeon.

Despite the lack of freedom while on the run, she didn’t had any complaints, and smiled happily instead– That’s what Keele said.

“Did I made her happy?”– He asked himself.

“Ara, that’s a big help. A lich can’t do something as ridiculous as suicide after all. I was waiting for my end quietly here when I felt a powerful holy aura. So I woke from my long slumber.”

In the gentle magic circle that covered the entire room, Keele said amidst laughter.

Aqua finally finished her chanting.

And using a gentle expression I had never seen before, she smiled at Keele.

… Just who was she.

As I was wondering if I saw it wrong, Aqua said gently to Keele.

“Arch wizard Keele, you forsake the laws of the god and became a lich by your own conviction. In the name of the goddess of water Aqua, I absolve you of your sin… When you wake up, you will be before a goddess with unnaturally large breasts named Eris. If you don’t mind the age difference between you and the one you love, or if your relations are not between a man and a woman, and if you wish to meet her no matter what form it may be in… You can try asking Eris. She will make your wish come true.”

Who the hell was she, to say something so proper.

As I was feeling uneasy about Aqua’s uncharacteristic behaviour, Keele bowed his head deeply in the room illuminated by light.

“Sacred turn undead!”

— The light dissipated, and the room was enveloped by darkness once again.

That lich and the remains of that lady (for some reason) had disappeared without a trace.

Aqua and I were silent in the heavy atmosphere.

I slowly told her:

“… Let’s go back.”

Part 8

On the way back to the surface, I kept talking to quiet Aqua despite the darkness and the risk of being discovered by monsters.

“Nah, will that undead meet the lady again?”

“… Who knows. Eris will probably do something about it?”

Aqua replied coldly, so I could only acknowledge with a soft voice.

After that, I tried to squeeze out a bright voice to change the topic.

“Anyway, that lich was a nice guy. Using ‘money is useless to me’ as a reason, he gave all of his fortune to us. I don’t know how much it is worth, let’s split it equally when we get back to town.”

Aqua’s shoulders suddenly shuddered.

“… That’s right. We have to use this money properly for his sake too.”

Aqua’s voice was louder than before, and more energetic too.

……

In order to lighten the mood further, I decided to ask the question I was saving for when she regained her vigor after reaching the surface.

“Nah, Aqua, that guy did say this before.”

“…What?”

Aqua was still a bit depressed.

“… That person. He said he woke up after sensing a powerful holy aura. Could it be the reason we encountered so many undead monsters in this dungeon, was because of you?”

“!?”

After hearing my question, Aqua turned stiff.

In the end, she squeezed out a sentence:

“I I I think… It shouldn’t be… Probably?”

She gave a rather vague answer.

“… When the Dullahan attacked, his undead knights seemed to like attacking you very much.”

“!?”

Aqua shivered again. I quietly pulled away from her.

Seeing me pull away, she kept drawing near.

“Nah, Kazuma, you can’t stay too far from me alright? To guard against monster attacks, don’t you think we should be closer? Al, also, with Kazuma’s half baked night vision, you won’t be able to see the exit I marked with my chalk!”

Hearing Aqua said that, I made a regrettable expression for an instance.

“Hehehe, that’s how it is! Leaving me behind here, no way! In this situation, we are ants on the same rope… Wrong, without knowing the way back and sticking with me who could fight the undead, Kazuma wouldn’t be able to return by himself! The situation is in my favor! If Kazuma understands the situation now, address me as Aqua-sama from now on, and spread word of my elegant performance in the dungeon to the peoples in town…!”

As Aqua was shouting.

From the darkness of the dungeon, the howl of a beast could be heard.

It was probably attracted by Aqua’s voice.

After confirming with detect enemy, I sensed something charging this way.

“……”

I lean against the wall silently, activating my skill to blend into the darkness.

“Hey, wait Kazuma! Wait!? Don’t abandon me! Sorry, I’m sorry, it’s all my fault! I will apologize, so let me hide too! Please Kazuma! I beg you, Kazuma-sama!!”

Part 9

“… I can guess what probably happened, but allow me to ask anyway. ‘What the hell happened’?”

That’s the first thing Megumin said to us at the log-house.

“Wahhhh! Kazuma he! Kazuma he wahhhh!”

She stroke the head of Aqua who was sobbing behind me and consoled her.

“Don’t blame me, it’s the fault of your body traits to attract the undead! You didn’t even reflect on it when we were returning! I am taking back the high evaluation I gave you earlier!”

But but– my holy body trait is just the way I am, I can’t help it! What do you expect! Drop my holy aura to the same level as a HikiNEET like Kazuma!? If that really happens, the whole world’s Axis devotees would cry…!”

“You are not reflecting at all! Go visit the dungeon and find back the treasures the lich and lady gave us. And learn something from those two! Let them teach you how to live properly!”

“You HikiNEET, asking a goddess to learn from a lich!”

I pushed Aqua who wanted to strangle me aside. At this time, Darkness asked:

“… The lich and the lady?”

I fend off the wailing Aqua who was attacking me as I explained the gist of our trip.

“From what Aqua said, that lady had no regrets and passed on perfectly. What was the hard life on the run to her? That lich was still wondering if he gifted the lady happiness. But from the way I see it, she was undoubtedly blessed.”

Hearing my casual comment–

“… Of course she was happy, it’s obvious that she was blessed. I dare say her life on the run was one of the happiest times of her life.”

Darkness said something that seemed to have hidden meanings, and squeezed out a smile that had a hint of loneliness.