chapter 17

I’ve lost consciousness again, huh…

Really, I wonder how many times I’ll have to brush with death.

Speaking of which, even before I came to this world, I’ve come close to death many times.

“Because of what you did to him, he…!”

Stop…!

“Seriously, why were you trying to act all cool…?”

Stop it…!

“It’d be better if he died instead of you!”

Please stop!

“Bring that kid back! What’s the point of you still being alive!?”

Stoooooop!

The abuse directed towards me didn’t stop and repeated endlessly, and in a fit of desperation, I screamed.

In order to escape the abuse…

My consciousness came back, and I quickly got up.

“W-where am I?”

Catching my ragged breath, I recall what had happened.

That’s right… I beat Raphael… and just as I opened the treasure chest, I lost consciousness.

“Aruto-san! Are you alright?”

Meryl…

Crying softly, she looked into my face.

“Meryl… is this a warp area?”

A warp area was a special place inside a dungeon where monsters didn’t appear, like a resting area of sorts for adventurers.

“Yes. Right after you lost consciousness after opening the treasure chest, I brought you all the way here.”

I see…

It seems I’ve troubled her again.

…right. I lost consciousness, and I couldn’t verify what was in the treasure chest.

I opened the Infinity Bag and checked what items I had stuffed in there before I lost consciousness.

We got three items:

・Coat of Blood

・One-handed Sword: Enzetta

・Necklace of Fortune

These are probably what was inside the chest…

I immediately equipped the Coat of Blood and the One-handed Sword: Enzetta.

My stats rose from that.

Around my body was a blood-red coat, and in my hand was a platinum-colored sword.

Yes, this coat was comfy, and this sword was easy to wield!

My sword did break that time…

All that remained was the necklace.

“Meryl, look behind you.”

“Eh? Why?”

At the sudden request to turn around, Meryl tilted her head, but after I told her it was fine, she turned backward.

Then, I put the Necklace of Fortune on Meryl’s neck from behind.

“A-Aruto-san… this is…?”

Meryl looked up to me with a blush on her cheeks. I kept it to myself, but I found her a bit cute.

“Spoils of war. I don’t wanna be the only one who gets a reward out of this. Please bear with me.”

I’d like to equip myself better, but…? Meryl shook her head.

“I’ll treasure it. Thank you very much!”

Upon seeing Meryl with a bright, unwavering smile, I smiled too.

Afterward, we warped to the dungeon’s entrance.

After a week… the breeze outside… the sunlight!

“We’re out!”

I stretch my arms up and realized once again that we’d cleared the dungeon.

“Ah… come to think of it, weren’t we on a quest to take down a Triceratackle?”

“Then, let’s return to Izuruli City, and report back!”

I agreed, and then we headed back to Izuruli. However, at this time, Meryl stopped in her tracks.

“Hm? What’s up?”

“Well… um…”

Meryl blushed and moped around, though Izuruli City was already in sight.

“Well, we’ve been stuck in that dungeon for a week, so, um, we smell…”

“Smell…? Ah!”

“Come to think of it, we haven’t taken a bath for a week. They would probably think that we really smell…”

If that’s the case… Hmm, this skill could come in handy.

“…what are you doing?”

“That was the skill ‘Dispel Odor.’ We won’t have to worry about stinking for the time being.”

Hearing that, Meryl let out a sigh of relief. Afterward, we headed for Izuruli City.

It seemed there weren’t many people around.

Despite our suspicions about that, we entered the Adventurers’ Guild and found Lulu-san at the reception.

“Ah, hell-“

Noticing us, Lulu-san stopped what she had to say, with tears in her eyes.

“Aruto-san…? Meryl-san…?

Lulu-san slowly walked over to us, and forcefully grabbed me by the shoulders.

“H-hey, Lulu-san! It’s been a week or so, how’s it going?”

“Don’t you ‘how’s it going’ me! It’s been a week since we’ve been in touch!”

Lulu-san shook my shoulders over and over while her tears dripped.

“O-our bad! After defeating the Triceratackle, we found a dungeon we’d never seen before.”

“We ended up taking a week to conquer the place!”

After Lulu-san calmed down, we explained what had happened during that week to her.

“And since there wasn’t any signal back there, we couldn’t contact you! Please calm down!”

Upon hearing my explanation, Lulu-san let go of me, sighing between sobs.

“That’s… that’s good to hear. I couldn’t get in touch with you, and Garuna-san didn’t know anything about your whereabouts either. I also asked the knights, and they said they’d look for you, but they couldn’t find you.”

The knights, huh? This turned into something pretty important.

“We’re really sorry about that. But now, we’re, uh, safe? So please stop crying.”

I patted her head gently to make her stop crying.

A short time later, after making sure Lulu-san stopped crying, I asked her about my suspicions.

“Lulu-san, around town, there have been fewer adventurers than usual. Are they all on quests or something?”

“Right. Since you’ve been in the dungeon for a week, you wouldn’t know about this. The truth is, yesterday, the neighboring town of Shielin was under invasion by monsters, or so the knights told us.”

Monsters invaded a neighboring town!?

“Other knights weren’t able to go on yet another mission, so Veig-san and the third battalion, along with Knight Captain Luke Volndt-sama, and some adventurers, set out to defeat the monsters. Garuna-san also joined in.”

“Garuna-san too…!?”

…what a reckless informant!

“There are a little over five hundred monsters… and only a few dozen of us.”

The difference in combat power seemed hopeless… if that was the case, there was only one thing to do!

“Meryl, is taking a bath later fine?”

“Of course!”

We were about to leave the guild to head to Shielin Town, but Lulu-san stopped us.

“Aruto-san, Meryl-san… you have to come back again. I don’t want to think of those things again…”

Hearing Lulu-san’s sorrow, I turned around quickly and smiled.

“Well, I’m off! And I’m bringing everyone back with me. Lulu-san, please prepare a warm meal, a hot bath, and a warm futon!”

“Aruto-san…”

“The impossibility in combat power… I’ll break through it, and turn it into a possibility!”

After saying that, we left the guild.

“…anyway, should we walk towards the city?”

“It’ll take half a day, won’t it? This place…”

“Hya!?”

I held Meryl in a princess carry, and used Wing to fly.

“A-Aruto-san! Don’t carry me like that so suddenly! I-it’s embarrassing…”

“No, I’m the most embarrassed one here! Anyway, we’re flying, so don’t bite your tongue.”

The more force put into the wings, the faster you went.

“Speaking of which, aren’t you going to use Photon Wing? Isn’t that faster than this?”

“That takes up a lot of energy. I don’t know how many monsters there are left, so I’d like to conserve some of that energy if possible.”

As we talked about that, Shielin Town came into view. Smoke and explosions came from the settlement.

We flew over the town to assess the current situation. Plenty of corpses of both monsters and men could be seen.

But the number of monsters was overwhelming…

At this rate, we’d be annihilated!

A bit later, while flying around, we found Garuna and Veig fighting monsters in town.

Garuna kneeled and breathed raggedly, as if she had taken damage. Veig fought to protect her, but as expected, he was outnumbered.

“Aruto-san!”

“Ah, I’m coming!”

We swooped down and fell between the monsters and Veig’s group…

Well, it was more of a landing.

Suddenly, Veig, Garuna, and the monsters, wondering if they were under attack, were alarmed.

In a cloud of dust and smoke, I placed Meryl down, and as I brandished Enzetta, the dust cloud cleared.

Veig and Garuna were surprised to see Meryl and I. The monsters turned on us with murderous intent.

“Sorry to keep you waiting! We’ll take it from here!”

With Veig and the rest behind me and Enzetta pointed at the monsters, I took a battle stance…