Chapter 21

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The following weekend, after completing the registration for the weapon I received from Mr. Shigura at the association, I invited Yūji and Hime to my house. I wanted to talk to them about what was in the drawer before we ventured into the dungeon.

We sat on cushions facing each other around a folding table placed in the center of the room.

"So? What do you want to talk about?"

After taking a sip of tea, Yūji paused for a moment before starting the conversation. I hesitated for a moment but then decided to speak.

"Actually, there's something I've been hiding from you two... no, from everyone. I thought it would be better to tell you two before we go into the dungeon."

I looked into their eyes and spoke earnestly. They sensed that this wasn't a light matter from my expression and sat up straight with serious faces.

"Before I tell you, there's something I want you to promise me..."

"What is it?"

"...I want you to promise not to tell anyone else about what I'm about to say. Not to any official agency, not even to your families."

I know it's a selfish request, but I can't afford to have the existence of the dungeon in this room made public right now.

"...Is it that bad if it's not kept secret?"

"Yeah, it's pretty bad."

"...I can make the promise, but I want to hear what you have to say first. If it's too unreasonable, I can't promise it."

Yeah, that makes sense. In a way, I'm asking them to become accomplices. They won't make the promise unless they think it's okay to share the secret after hearing it.

"That's fine for now."

I took a sip of tea from the table to moisten my dry throat and began to speak.

"There's a dungeon in my house."

"..."

The two of them looked at me with expressions of shock, as if they had been hit by a beanbag.

"Yeah, I know. That's the kind of reaction I expected. If you suddenly heard that a dungeon appeared, you'd react the same way."

"Six months ago, when the dungeon appeared, for some reason, the entrance to the dungeon was connected to the drawer of my desk."

"..."

"And it's still connected to the desk."

Seeing their dazed expressions, I felt a bit guilty. Hime was the first to regain her composure. She glared at me sharply but didn't raise her voice, instead asking in a flat tone.

"Kuon, why didn't you report the appearance of the dungeon to the authorities six months ago? Now we know that monsters don't come out of the dungeon, but at that time, the dungeon was considered extremely dangerous, possibly a source of aggressive hostile creatures. Didn't you think about the worst-case scenario?"

Of course, that's what I expected you to ask.

"The main reason I didn't report it to the authorities is that I missed the right timing."

"Missed the timing?"

"Yeah. I noticed the existence of the dungeon right after the government announcement. When I opened the drawer to get ready for school, there was a dungeon with a monster in it."

"...If you had confirmed the existence of the monster, why didn't you report it to the authorities?"

"At the time, I was in a panic. The idea that a dungeon could be in my house, in the drawer of the desk I use every day, was just too much. So, I convinced myself that the dungeon didn't exist and went to school, avoiding looking at it."

"...Your strange behavior that morning wasn't just because of Mika, then."

Yūji, who had been silently watching the exchange, spoke up, as if remembering something. He was probably recalling that morning.

"I was definitely worried about Mika, but I was also preoccupied with the dungeon in the drawer. After talking with Yūji and Hime at school, I calmed down a bit..."

"But?"

"I tried to gather information about the dungeon during break by searching the internet on my phone. That's when I started to hesitate about reporting it to the authorities."

"...Do you mean that incident?"

"Yeah, that one."

The incident Yūji was referring to was the evacuation order and the evacuation scene broadcast on TV when a dungeon appeared in the city. Seeing that scene made me hesitate to report the dungeon.

Residents evacuating in their pajamas, a large number of police officers mobilized, and the media swarming around... I couldn't bring myself to be the one to trigger such chaos.

"Do you both know where my house is? It's in the center of a residential area, and there are large apartment complexes nearby. If I reported the appearance of the dungeon and an evacuation order was issued..."

"It would cause even more chaos than what was shown on TV."

"Right. A rough estimate would be around 2,000 to 3,000 evacuees."

"Thinking about that made it hard for me to make a decision. It's one of the reasons I missed the right timing to report it."

If I hadn't seen that broadcast, I might have reported it immediately. Seeing me looking down and feeling a bit depressed, Hime continued her questioning.

"But, that alone isn't a strong enough reason not to report it. Yes, a large-scale evacuation would be undesirable, but there's still a possibility that the surrounding residents, including your family, could be attacked by monsters."

"You're right. Why didn't you report it?"

"..."

That's right. At that time, there was a possibility that monsters could come out of the dungeon. Considering my family's safety, I should have reported it and evacuated.

But I didn't...

"...I was in a state of paralysis, I guess."

"Paralysis?"

"The monster in the dungeon is a slime."

"Slime!?"

The two of them exclaimed in surprise. It's understandable. As the existence of dungeons and monsters became known, the perception of slimes changed dramatically.

Before the appearance of the dungeons, slimes were generally considered the weakest monsters due to their portrayal in a certain game. However, after the dungeons appeared, slimes became one of the toughest enemies in the early floors. Physical attacks like guns and swords were ineffective, and their amorphous attacks caused many casualties. To defeat them, rare magic skill users or special equipment like liquid nitrogen was required, and even experienced explorers and military special forces teams avoided them.

"In that case, it's even more important to report it and evacuate!"

"You're right, Daiki! Why didn't you report it!?"

The two of them leaned forward and shouted at me. Seeing their reactions, I realized this was a normal response and regretted it.

I lowered my head and listened to their angry voices until they calmed down.

After regaining their composure, the two of them apologized with awkward expressions.

"Sorry, I got a bit too excited."

"I'm sorry, me too."

"...No, that's a normal reaction. A normal..."

A heavy atmosphere enveloped us. The two of them felt self-loathing for lashing out at me, and I felt deeply depressed as I realized what I had done.

"Then, what did you do?"

"...?"

"About the slime."

"Oh."

To break the heavy silence, Yūji spoke up. Pushing aside the leaden air, I slowly began to speak.

"I defeated it."

"Wh-What!?"

"Slimes aren't as hard to defeat as people think."

The two of them gaped in surprise.

Ignoring their reactions, I continued.

"The reason slimes are hard to defeat is that physical attacks are ineffective. But there's actually a simple way to defeat them."

I directed my gaze to a cardboard box in the corner of the room, and the two of them followed my gaze.

"What's in that box... is salt."

"Salt?"

"Yeah. The simple way to defeat a slime is to sprinkle salt on it."

Their eyes were fixed on the cardboard box. I stood up from the table, took a bag of salt from the box, and placed it on the table.

"Try tasting it. You should be able to tell it's definitely salt."

"Ah, okay."

"Uh, yeah."

The two of them dipped their fingers into the bag of salt I offered and licked the salt on their fingertips.

"It's salt."

"It's salt."

"It's salt."

With the salt on their fingertips, they slightly grimaced.

After confirming that they had finished checking, I took the bag and moved to the desk.

"Both of you, come over here. I'll show you the evidence."

"..."

The two of them stood up from the table and moved to a position where they could see inside the drawer. After confirming their faces, I slowly opened the drawer.

"!!"

"As you can see, it's a dungeon with a slime in it."

The two of them gasped at the dungeon that spread inside the drawer. In the center of the room, a shapeless, amorphous creature, commonly known as a slime, was pulsating.

I held the bag of salt and poured it over the slime from above the drawer. The salt fell straight onto the slime, and as soon as it touched, the effect was immediate. The slime began to writhe and shrink, repeatedly expanding and contracting in agony. When its volume was reduced to less than half, the black sphere in its center shattered and the slime disintegrated into particles of light.

Seeing this, the two of them were speechless.

"As you just saw, slimes disappear when you sprinkle salt on them."

I told them the simple fact as they stared at the dungeon floor where the slime had been. They slowly turned their faces toward me.

"That's another reason I didn't report the dungeon. Since I could defeat the monster so easily, I thought I could handle it myself without causing a big fuss, and there was no need to report it or evacuate..."

I lowered my head and felt depressed. Reflecting on the past, I was amazed at my own foolishness. Despite claiming to be concerned about the danger, I was acting the same as those who were excited about the dungeons.

The monsters that disappeared without leaving a corpse, like in a game, and the level-ups and dropped items when you defeated them. Unconsciously, I must have thought I was the protagonist of a game.

"In the end, I was in a position where I could easily and one-sidedly deal with the situation without any harm. I thought I was seeing reality, but I wasn't really seeing it at all."

"..."

"Even now, after nearly six months since the dungeon first appeared, it's too late to report the existence of the dungeon in my house. I missed the right timing, so..."

I let out a self-deprecating laugh, and the two of them exchanged glances with indescribable expressions.

"I woke up to reality when I received the sword from Mr. Shigura. I realized that what I was doing was killing, and what I had been doing was just one-sided slaughter."

"..."

Hearing my monologue, the two of them held their breath. I snapped back to my senses when I heard their breathing.

Looking at their faces, Yūji had wide eyes, and Hime's face was slightly pale.

"...Sorry."

"No, Daiki, you don't need to apologize. ...I was also somewhat optimistic. Thinking back, I've been practicing martial arts since I was a child, but I never had the opportunity to use them fully. When my grandfather told me to go to the dungeon, I was secretly happy that I would finally have the chance to use my skills, even though I said I was against it. In the end, I succumbed to the temptation and didn't refuse. Yeah, dungeon exploration is ultimately about killing, isn't it?"

"...Yeah. Even though I had my own reasons, if I had strongly opposed it, my mother wouldn't have allowed me to become a risk-taking explorer. She would have tried to persuade my father or come up with another solution. But because I didn't strongly oppose it... sigh, thinking back, I was also influenced by the atmosphere and somewhat optimistic."

An eerie silence filled the room.

My monologue seemed to have triggered a reevaluation of the reality hidden behind the facade of dungeon exploration. The two of them, who had seemed excited when we went to register the weapons at the association, were no longer there. A painful silence filled the room.

In the end, we all seemed to be afraid of the dungeons in theory, but we didn't truly feel the danger.

We returned to the table and took a break, drinking tea.

"...These two reasons are why I didn't report the dungeon to the authorities. In conclusion, it was my selfishness that made me miss the right timing, and now the only option is to keep it a secret. It's too late to make the dungeon public now..."

"Yeah. Since you can handle it on your own for now, it's probably best to maintain the status quo until the situation changes."

"Right. There doesn't seem to be a better option..."

Yūji and Hime let out deep sighs and spoke in a tired, hollow tone. It's understandable; it was a heavy conversation.

Ah, right. I should confirm this while I remember.

"Can you keep the dungeon a secret?"

"Yeah, sure. It's fine."

"I can keep it a secret too."

They agreed to my request, looking thoroughly exhausted.

It feels a bit uncomfortable, but I'm glad I could ask them to keep the dungeon a secret.

Sigh.

People rarely reflect on themselves without a reason.

Especially when they have a weapon like a katana in their hands.