Chapter 10

The teleportation magic for returning activated, and they came back to the ground.

Before dispersing, there was one thing left to do.

"Yui, we should inform the dungeon manager about what happened. If the information reaches the Adventurer's Guild, the ones who left you behind will be punished."

"Huh? But thanks to you, Rin, I'm safe, so it's not necessary to go that far..."

"Whether you're safe or not isn't the issue now. If we let such people get away with it, it could have a negative impact on other adventurers."

"Y-You're right..."

Just as she took a step forward, Yui suddenly stopped.

Looking in the direction of her gaze, I saw four adventurers sitting on the ground and drinking alcohol, away from the crowded gate.

"Could those be the ones who left you behind?"

"Yes, they are..."

It seems they were having a victory celebration after clearing the dungeon.

What a nuisance.

However, since they were talking loudly in their excitement, I could hear what they were saying even from here.

"Well, I was surprised when the boss said only four people could challenge, but it's a good thing it worked out."

"It was impossible to turn back from there due to our stamina. But even so, defeating the boss was quite tough."

"If that girl had joined, it would have been easier, right?"

"Huh? Even if she was a rare healer, she was only level 40. Her MP was almost depleted, so she would have just been a burden."

"Now that you mention it, you're right. Thanks to the leader's decision, we were saved!"

"Hahaha, show more gratitude!"

"......"

"......"

Their words were extremely unpleasant.

Even I, who wasn't directly affected, felt that way.

Yui, who was standing next to me, must have felt even worse.

I walked over to them alone.

"You guys seem to be having a lot of fun."

"Huh? Oh, yeah! We live for this drink after clearing the dungeon!"

"Is that so? Then it's a shame. You won't be able to enjoy that happiness ever again."

Finally noticing the hostility I was directing at them, the four men stood up, their faces turning red with anger.

Or maybe they were just drunk.

"You, are you messing with us? What do you mean by that?"

"It seems you don't understand the crime you committed. I'm talking about her."

Pointing to Yui behind me, the men turned to look at her.

Their eyes widened in shock.

"Hey, it hasn't been 10 minutes since we defeated the boss. How is she back on the ground?"

"It's obvious. We defeated the boss and returned with her!"

"Are you kidding? It took us four people nearly 30 minutes! There's no way that useless girl and a kid like you could do it faster!"

Even with the person in question standing right in front of them, they refused to believe it.

I sighed deeply.

"Well, it doesn't really matter whether you believe it or not. The issue is the crime you committed. You didn't even know the maximum number of people who could challenge the dungeon boss. You're clearly unfamiliar with the rules of adventurers... Leaving a companion behind in the dungeon is a punishable offense. At the very least, your adventurer licenses will be suspended... and in the worst case, revoked."

"What!?"

They clearly hadn't expected it to be such a serious matter.

The men were visibly shaken.

But that only lasted a moment.

The man called the leader smiled with a malicious grin.

"Haha, thank you for the warning. In return, I'll give you some advice... When you act on your sense of justice, you should choose your opponents carefully!"

As he spoke, he drew the sword at his waist and pointed it at me.

"Leader!? You can't be serious!"

"Yeah, I'm going to take care of this guy! That way, no one will know what we did, and we can say we were attacked and killed him in self-defense! Haha, dead men tell no tales!"

Encouraged by his words, the others also took up their fighting stances.

"Too bad, kid. With the rewards from this dungeon, we all surpassed level 70. You can't stand up to us alone!"

"Level 70, huh..."

Indeed, with four level 70s, they could probably match up against someone around level 100.

But—

"You'll regret showing up so confidently and die—"

"—Where are you looking?"

—To me now, they are not enemies.

In an instant, I closed the distance to the man and grabbed his face with one hand.

Then, with all my strength, I slammed him into the ground.

A crack appeared in the concrete.

"Leader!?"

"What just happened!?"

In the past few days, I had prioritized increasing my speed when choosing skills, so they couldn't see my movements clearly.

"Hey, you're not dead from that, right?"

"Ugh!"

I lifted the man effortlessly with one hand.

"You said earlier that dead men tell no tales... But I need you to prove my innocence. So I can't let you die."

After throwing the man aside, I slowly turned to the other three.

Then I declared,

"Alright, who's next?"