Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 4

by Fujino Omori, Kiyotaka Haimura

  There were five of them. One for each of the first-tier adventurers, excluding Aiz and Riveria.

  “As requested…your Durandals.”

  Finn, Gareth, Bete, Tiona, and Tione each took hold of a bundle, pulling away the cloth to reveal the weapons underneath.

  They were met with the glimmer of finely honed silver.

  “I call it the Roland series. Each one of them comes exactly as ordered.”

  None of the first-tier adventurers could tear their eyes away from their weapons.

  Finn with his long spear, Gareth with his mighty ax, Bete with his twin blades, Tiona with her giant sword, and Tione with her halberd.

  It was a set of gleaming, indestructible armaments that only a master smith like Tsubaki could ever hope to create. Five beautiful works of art, their blades imbued with hidden power and durability.

  As the weapons’ owners tried out the feel of the Roland series in their hands, those around them let out sighs of wonder at the beautifully crafted Superiors.

  “Thank you, Tsubaki. These are exactly according to specification.” Finn shouldered his long spear with a smile.

  “Durandal, huh? A lot lighter than I expected!” Gareth exclaimed as he held his giant ax aloft with one hand.

  “What, you didn’t request something like that other stupid thing you call a weapon?” Bete mused, sheathing his twin blades as his thoughts went to Tiona’s oversize (and nonstandard) weapon, Urga.

  “Didn’t have much of a choice! Got told she wouldn’t be able to finish everyone’s stuff on time for the expedition if she had to make something like my Urga,” Tiona responded with a frown as she swung her large Durandal sword through the air.

  “A-a halberd, Miss Tione? Really?” Raul eyed Tione’s two-meder-plus weapon as beads of sweat formed along his hairline.

  “Well. You know. Figured something like this’d be better against the critters we’ll be up against past the fiftieth floor,” Tione replied, nonchalantly giving the mighty weapon a test slash. It cut through the air with a crisp slice. “It really is light,” she murmured, eyes narrowed.

  “I used only the best materials! And took care to make each one as powerful as could be. There’s a few differences here and there depending on the shape, but I can guarantee at least second-tier attack power outta each one of ’em,” Tsubaki said with a satisfied nod, watching them hold her weapons.

  While Durandal weapons could maintain their sharpness after countless violent battles, their attack power wasn’t as high, which was the reason she’d waited until right before their main mission—their advance to the fifty-first floor and beyond—to pass them out.

  While their new weapons were still attracting lingering excitement from the other familia members, Finn finally opened his mouth.

  “Very well. We should adjourn to make final preparations for tomorrow. We’ll set out during the guard change at four AM.”

  At the prum’s orders, the group began to disperse.

  Some of them left for their assigned tents, some went to check on the status of the guards, and still others made their way to the High Smiths for a bit of discourse.

  Aiz, too, got to her feet, fully prepared to vacate the premises. Until.

  “Sword Princess,” Tsubaki called out before walking over to her. Her finger was pointed at Aiz’s waist, the uncovered red eye honing in on what dangled there.

  “Lemme take a look at that weapon of yers. It could use a bit of servicin’,” she said, referring to Desperate, Aiz’s weapon of choice for the past fifty floors. While the Dungeon’s monsters had done their fair share of work on it, it was the fight with Ottar that had really worn the blade down. A craftsman like Tsubaki could tell with a single glance that it needed repairs.

  “…Thank you,” Aiz responded with an obedient nod.

  With the meeting adjourned, the middle of the camp was empty.

  Surrounded by tents, Tsubaki procured her portable furnace and whetstone before taking Desperate from Aiz. She first stripped from her armor—down to nothing but her usual hakama and chest wrap—then got to work, ample cleavage and tanned skin bare.

  Aiz found a small pedestal and sat herself down in front of the weapons master.

  “So that little girl’s all grown up and representin’ the city, huh?”

  Around them, others were starting to do the same. Groups of adventurers came to the High Smith in hopes of sharpening their weapons, watching over her as she did her work.

  Among this assemblage of weapon-fussy adventurers, Tsubaki started up a conversation.

  “I shoulda called dibs on ya, yeah? What a waste,” she said with a laugh, busying herself with the blade. She explained that she’d never been able to get herself a skilled customer like Aiz, even outside her normal contracts. Despite the words of remorse, she didn’t seem particularly regretful.

  The craftsman who’d made a name for herself long before Aiz had even joined Loki Familia seemed to be in a rather nostalgic mood.

  “Ten years ago—wait, was it nine? Anyway, back then you were like a naked sword.”

  “…”

  “Fighting, fighting, fighting no matter how much damage your blade took. I remember thinking to myself, That girl’s gonna get herself killed! Such a little tyke, you were…”

  Aiz listened in silence as Tsubaki talked.

  “I’m gonna be frank with ya, Sword Princess. Back then, I would never have imagined wantin’ to craft a weapon for you,” Tsubaki confessed, looking down at the dulled sword in her hand. “Most adventurers of character’d be champin’ at the bit for a smith the moment they found somethin’ glittery to make it from, but not you, Aiz,” she continued as she honed Desperate’s blade. “Which is only natural! Haven’t you ever wondered why those folks who’ve never handled more than one sword don’t make themselves new ones?”

  “I…”

  “I’ll tell ya why! ’Cause those folks don’t think of themselves as weapon users. They themselves are the weapons under construction!” Tsubaki continued before Aiz could finish her hesitant thought. “You know, all the gods found it very ironic when they gave you that alias, ‘Sword Princess.’”

  “…”

  “They just wanted to see when you’d finally break,” Tsubaki said with a rather malicious grin, glancing up from the sword to the girl.

  The girl who, until only a few years ago, had kept fighting and fighting with that worn-down, chipped sword.

  All of a sudden, the words Loki had instilled in her rose from the back of Aiz’s mind.

  “Those who push while runnin’ full-out will always trip.”

  The memory of her goddess’s advice playing in her head, she glanced up at the woman in front of her now, her gaze meeting Tsubaki’s right eye.

  “But you’ve changed now.” Tsubaki laughed softly.

  “Huh…?”

  “You’ve mellowed out. People who don’t know you might still say you look like a doll, but your face really is softer.” Tsubaki’s eye narrowed as though she were some sort of all-seeing oracle.

  Aiz’s expression, on the other hand, clouded at the smith’s words.

  Even Aiz had come to realize it—the fact that she, herself, was no longer a sword.

  Hearing from someone else that she’d “changed” was more evidence than any that the girl she’d once been, who’d fought and fought and fought without looking back in order to achieve her heart’s desire, was somewhere in the past.

  She couldn’t help the anxiety bubbling in her belly. Her attachment to her dream was waning, though she’d once have done anything to achieve it.

  Her thoughts drifted back to her fight with Ottar, to the boy’s limit break, and, finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Do you think I’ve grown…weak?” she asked Tsubaki.

  If she wasn’t a naked sword any longer, did that make her nothing but a beast with broken fangs?

  “You’ve gotten stronger, haven’t ya? Just look at yer level! Up and up and up.”
The half-dwarf guffawed.

  “That’s not what I mean,” Aiz responded, her voice unusually hard.

  That expressionless exterior referred to as a “doll” by so many was cracking.

  I…

  —I wonder if I’m paying for my past.

  She thought back to her father, how she’d seen him along with the boy’s back, and how happy that made her. Is this enough? Is this truly all you can do? asked the impatient voice in her head.

  As Aiz’s gaze turned downward, Tsubaki just smiled, eyes closed as she continued sharpening the girl’s sword.

  “Well, you’re plenty sharp enough now, I’d say. I think it’s just that you found your scabbard.” Tsubaki continued with a smile as Aiz raised her head. “When you’re safe in your sheath, you don’t need to stay as sharp as a tack. Then, whenever you cross an enemy to kill, you can flash right out at ’em.”

  A scabbard. A place to store a blade. A place of rest for a sword like Aiz.

  Tsubaki’s eyes bored into her as she spoke.

  “What it all comes down to is yer friends.”

  Loud noises clashed against the Dungeon ambience.

  Grunts accompanied the whp, whp of a large silver blade sweeping through the air. The copper-skinned girl’s long pareu fluttering, she practiced her dance of swords beneath the starlike phosphorescence of the Dungeon’s domed ceiling.

  “Grrr…It’s just not right! This isn’t Urga!” Tiona grumbled, the large Durandal sword, Roland Blade, in her hand and her head tilted in displeasure.

  She was training by herself atop the flat rock overlooking the underground woods along the camp’s eastern border, forcing her muscles to adjust to the new weapon she’d be using against the caterpillar monsters.

  Each of her lightning-fast test slashes left afterimages hanging in the air.

  Blood rushed to her tanned limbs with the effort, tinting them a faint pink, and the muscles of her abdomen tensed as sweat tickled her belly button. Finally, with a breathy sigh, she brought an arm up to wipe at her face.

  “Didn’t I tell ya to get some rest, Missy?” a dwarf asked, exasperation evident on his face.

  “Huh? Oh, Gareth.” Tiona glanced over, resting her sword on her shoulder. “But I can’t help it! I’m all wound up. Can’t sit still.”

  “…’Cause of that lad you saw, hmm?”

  “Yeah!” she responded with a happy nod.

  Gareth hadn’t been with the vanguard group at the time, but he’d heard about what happened from Finn. He could only sigh at the girl in front of him overflowing with even more energy than usual.

  Though Gareth had no idea who this mysterious adventurer could be who Finn and the others kept talking about, he had a couple of choice words he’d like to share with him. Mostly in regard to what he’d done to his companions.

  “I mean, it was just so amazing! Like a hero straight out of legend!” Tiona continued boisterously, unaware of the dwarf’s inner grumblings. “He went up against that big thing even knowing he was no match! And, and guess what? He beat ’im!” Her cheeks red and her face alight, almost as if she’d been the one to perform the feat herself, she laughed skyward.

  Beyond the mass of phosphorescent columns lining the domed ceiling.

  Toward that floor high, high above them where the boy had proved victorious.

  “No matter what happens tomorrow, no matter what enemies we come across, I’m gonna fight—just like that boy!…And I’m gonna protect them. Aiz. Lefiya. Everyone.”

  Her eyes narrowed as she gazed up at the stardust radiance.

  Defeat wasn’t an option in her mind. They would return to the surface. Every single one of them.

  As Gareth looked at her, he couldn’t help but chuckle. “Seems I’m just worryin’ for nothin’, huh?” he muttered with a wry smile, hand going to the ax on his back.

  As he readied the mighty Durandal weapon in his grip, Tiona looked at him curiously.

  “Shall we have a go, then, eh? Come!”

  “Really?!”

  “Only if you promise to cool off afterward and get some sleep.” Gareth chortled lightheartedly, to which Tiona responded with a wide grin.

  “Okay!”

  With a mighty swing of her sword, she was off, and the practice bout between Amazon and dwarf began in an instant.

  It wouldn’t be a lullaby that rocked her to sleep that night but the violent clashing of weapon on weapon.

  “I will not slow down Aiz and the others…I cannot slow them down…”

  Mumble, mumble.

  Lefiya was alone in her tent, talking to herself.

  She’d been chosen. She would accompany them on their trek to the unknown. The unexplored depths where nothing but danger awaited, and where she’d have to provide protection for Aiz and the others.

  Again and again she mumbled the words to herself, like a mantra, her eyes closed in meditation. She would need to be able to put everything she had on the line tomorrow. She needed to be perfect.

  “…I cannot fail…I simply cannot fail…Not tomorrow…” Her concentration had already derailed, the curse-like words spilling from her mouth only building the pressure inside her.

  Her every muscle had locked itself in place. Her heart felt liable to burst from her chest. Anxiety flooded her entire being.

  “A little tense, are we?”

  Lefiya let out an “Eep!” as two hands came down on her shoulders.

  She sprang to her feet, whirling around in a flurry of surprise.

  “Miss Tione! When…When did you get here?!”

  “I’ve been here a little while now…” Tione responded, somewhat bewildered at Lefiya’s reaction.

  “W-well, uh…Why are you…here?”

  “Mmn, was feeling antsy. Thought I might go swing the iron a bit like that idiot sister of mine, but, well…the captain needs me,” she replied, fingers threading through her long black hair.

  When Lefiya shot her a puzzled look, Tione peered back at the elf in an equally inquisitive manner.

  “So…what were you doing, hmm?”

  “Me? I, well…I was…meditating…to ensure I do not fail tomorrow…” she responded somewhat vaguely, head pointed toward the ground. Realizing her abilities might not be equal to those deep floors, her voice grew smaller and smaller, trailing off into nothingness in front of her first-tier companion.

  Tione could only sigh at her worked-up subordinate. Drawing close, she took Lefiya’s cheeks in her hands.

  “Huh…?”

  “Lefiya.”

  “Wh-what is it?”

  Lefiya’s face reddened at the sudden touch. Tione’s fingers curled softly against her skin.

  “Remember what Aiz said back on the fifty-first floor? That we’ll protect you, so you can just lie back and take things easy.”

  Lefiya found herself gazing up in wonder at the other girl, the warmth from her hands filling up her cheeks.

  Tione’s words were like a gentle whisper, an older sister’s admonition.

  “And what is it that’ll save us?”

  “…My magic,” Lefiya replied, bringing a smile to Tione’s lips.

  Soon, Lefiya was reaching for her in an embrace considerably more restrained than Tione’s, to which Tione responded by running her hands through the girl’s hair with a gentle coo. Despite her embarrassment, the tension left Lefiya’s shoulders at the Amazon’s words, at the warmth radiating from her skin.

  The contact between them was like that of close sisters. “Th-that tickles!” Lefiya giggled, leaning backward, before both of them went tumbling to the ground with flustered eeps.

  Golden hair mixed with black atop the cloth of the tent floor, their gazes turned skyward, and mirth lit up their eyes.

  “If you’re feeling nervous, I could sleep here with you?”

  “I…That is…are you sure?”

  “Of course! I can never get any sleep in that tent with Tiona talking the way she does and moving around in her sleep.”

&n
bsp; Tione brought her forehead to Lefiya’s with a little clunk, returning the flush to Lefiya’s face and eliciting a smile.

  Perhaps, for just a moment, she could forget about tomorrow and the journey into those uncharted depths.

  And then she’d fulfill her role in hopes that she’d be able to play and laugh and joke just like this once more.

  “If you want, we can sneak into the captain’s tent. I’d definitely be able to fight my best tomorrow after a night with him in my arms.”

  “I am not so sure that’s a good idea…”

  “Not good…This is not good!”

  Frantic muttering came from within one of the camp’s large shelters.

  It was a group tent for the familia’s male members, and one of them, Raul, was currently fretting even more than a certain elven magic user.

  He was off in a corner by himself, legs trembling as he sat in a chair. The mix of men and women in the tent, currently taking a break with a card game, threw him occasional looks of concern. Raul was currently the only person in the tent who wasn’t part of the defense party that would stay behind to guard the campsite.

  Indeed, he was the only one of them who’d accompany Finn and the others into the uncharted depths.

  “Take it easy, Raul! Pull yourself together!”

  “A-Aki…”

  The catgirl had been inspecting her one-handed sword and round buckler when she’d taken notice of Raul’s pathetic visage, and the sight prompted her to approach her male companion. Her slender hand gripped his shoulder, drawing his glance upward.

  Raul’s face was pale, almost ghostly. Aki’s brow furrowed.

  “This isn’t the first time you’ve gone past the fifty-first floor, yeah? And you came back alive, didn’t you? Have a little faith in yourself!”

  Raul could only hang his head at the black catgirl’s forceful words of encouragement.

  “I’m a mess…” came his choked reply.

  Anakity Autumn.

  She was a Level 4, second-tier adventurer of Loki Familia, the same as Raul, and known by her friends as Aki on account of her name being hard to pronounce.

  Her shoulder-length black hair matched the alluring black fur of her ears and tail. Her slender elegance was enough that the womanizing goddess Loki had scouted her personally. Highly capable, with the Status to prove it, she’d been tasked by Finn to lead the party that would remain in the camp.