Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 6

by Fujino Omori

  Zanis fell silent, face twitching as he knew that there was no chance for a counterargument. Soma made eye contact with Lilly once again.

  His ink-colored eyes clearly reflected the young girl’s gaze. Then he walked toward the end of his chamber and opened the large window.

  The empty wine bottle still in his hand, Soma stepped out onto the balcony. He could see the battle raging in the courtyard beneath him. Standing next to the railing, he raised the bottle high above his head and threw it into the courtyard.

  Spinning end over end, the bottle sent flares of sunlight flashing all over the battle before crashing into the middle of it.

  The shattering sound made all members of Soma Familia come to a halt.

  Every head in the courtyard turned toward the balcony, waiting with bated breath.

  “Stop fighting.”

  Soma looked down on the rest of his followers as he made his declaration.

  Soma Familia’s members were blindsided by a direct order from a god who had never shown any interest in anything other than his hobby before. No one even considered going against it.

  Ignoring Zanis’s commands, they listened to a higher power and put down their weapons.

  “Soma moved on his own…?!”

  An uneasy silence descended over the battlefield. Zanis couldn’t believe what he was seeing, his eyes glued to Soma’s back. He shook his head from side to side, refusing to accept what was happening. His mask of refined intelligence broken once again, muscles all over his body began twitching nervously.

  He rocked on the balls of his feet—BANG! The main doors at the base of the tower had been kicked in. His shoulders flexed.

  Knowing that the intruders would soon arrive, Zanis looked around the room in a panic. His eyes narrowed as soon as he saw Lilly on the floor.

  “Damn you! At least give me the pleasure of slicing you open before—!”

  Zanis jumped toward Lilly like a beast capturing its prey.

  The man had only seen her as possible profit; he captured her out of greed. His avarice made him torment her and now she was too physically weak to run away or defend herself. She was the reason why his perfect world had come crumbling down. Withdrawing a rapier from the hilt on his belt, he smiled to himself, believing that she should be punished for what she had done to him. He reached out with his left hand.

  However, just before his fingers reached her collar…

  An arrow was fired at his chest.

  “?!”

  Zanis barely managed to avoid the attack that came from outside the window.

  The arrow buried itself in the wall behind him, making a small web of cracks in the stone. Zanis looked back outside in shock.

  There, standing on top of the nearest lookout tower, was a Chienthrope wielding a longbow.

  “I’m ready! Fire away!”

  “You don’t have to tell me.”

  Zanis heard the voice of a young man and saw a flash of gold as the Chienthrope took a new arrow from him and promptly slid it over her bow. She pulled this new golden arrow back, took aim, and fired in one swift motion. But she wasn’t targeting Zanis. The arrow plunged deep into the stone wall next to the balcony.

  The man had only a moment to feel surprise—he saw a very thick wire attached to the end of the arrow. His surprise turned to disbelief.

  As if to confirm his wildest fear, a young man with red hair and a greatsword over his shoulder ran across the wire toward him.

  “?!”

  The red-haired man kept his balance, pulling off some very acrobatic moves as he raced across the wire bridge connecting the two towers. The wire held firm under his weight. Sword balanced against his shoulder, Welf quickly reached the balcony, jumped over the silent Soma’s head, and landed just in front of the window.

  The smith’s black jacket unfurled behind him as he stepped inside the chamber and came to a stop in front of Zanis and Lilly, both wearing looks of astonishment.

  “It’s time for you to come back, Li’l E.”

  “Mr. Welf…”

  “We’re gettin’ outta here.”

  Welf set his jaw, smiling at Lilly before turning to Zanis.

  “I’ve come to collect this one. I’ve got a partner who is waiting for her.”

  “Rrrgh—Like hell you are!” Zanis charged without hesitation, brandishing his weapon high in the air. Welf held his own weapon in his right hand and rushed to meet him.

  A rapier against a greatsword in a duel.

  The two blades collided in a shower of sparks, the opening bell.

  “Come at me, smithy!”

  With the ferocity of a madman, Zanis stepped into a forward slash before whipping his blade around and into an upward slice.

  All he managed to do was take a small slice out of Welf’s black jacket. It was an attack that would have skewered any lower-class adventurer, but the young man dodged it handily and used that momentum to slash his own sword diagonally upward at his opponent. Zanis was unable to step into his next attack.

  Both Level 2 adventurers, they matched each other blow for blow, and their movements gradually picked up speed.

  The shock waves generated on impact were strong enough to make Lilly lean backward as the echoes of their clashing blades filled the chamber. Welf deflected Zanis’s spinning strikes and high kicks with the armor on his left arm, not allowing any attack to hit home.

  Zanis used his rage to fuel an onslaught of slashes.

  Welf held his ground, using his sword like a highly mobile shield despite its weight.

  Considering the weapons the combatants were using, Zanis held several advantages. He knew speed was on his side and he could use it to overpower his red-haired adversary. Welf calmly read his movements and narrowed his eyes.

  “Tough to bully an upper-class adventurer.”

  Welf’s back, shoulders, and arms all flared to life at the same moment.

  The massive blade whipped around the young man’s body in a powerful arc. It met Zanis’s downward slash head-on, overpowered it, and sent the rapier flying.

  “—”

  Time stood still for Zanis.

  His techniques and maneuvers were useless in a contest of strength—a “warrior smith” like Welf wasn’t about to fall for the same tricks that adventurers who relied on a high Status would overlook.

  Lilly heard Welf’s black jacket swish as the man closed the distance between him and his unnaturally rigid opponent.

  Seeing everything in slow motion, Zanis tried to jump out of the way but watched helplessly as Welf’s left foot collided with his chest.

  Then he saw the blade flash as it spun around.

  Welf had flipped his hold on the weapon so that the blunt edge was facing his enemy.

  “Sloppy. That weapon of yours is crying.”

  With that said, Welf drove the entire blade forward in a rising arc aimed right for his opponent’s head.

  “GHEEEEE—!”

  The blow struck Zanis with such precision that it split his glasses right down the middle before launching him backward.

  Momentum carried his body straight into the wall, the man’s scream of pain cut short by the impact.

  Zanis fell to the stone floor like a bag of potatoes. The blunt edge of Welf’s greatsword left a thick red line down the center of the motionless man’s face. What was left of his glasses lay on the floor beside him.

  “That should do it,” said Welf as he returned the blade into its sheath at his shoulder and looked down at the white eyes of his unconscious foe.

  “Ya really got it done…Won’t have ta drink as much tonight.”

  “…Mr. Chandra?”

  Soma Familia’s Chandra had appeared in the chamber and stood behind Lilly, commenting on Welf’s victory in the duel against Zanis.

  The usual unfriendly expression on his face, Chandra turned the man’s body over and fitted him with sturdy handcuffs that even upper-class adventurers would have difficulty breaking.

  “He
was stealin’ soma, usin’ it for his own profit. Deserves some time in the slammer.”

  “What happens now…?”

  “I’ll make sure ya get no trouble. It’s all up to our god after that…Maybe now our voices will reach ’im.”

  Apparently, Zanis had hijacked the Familia using Soma’s name and punished anyone who dared say anything against him. Now that his treachery had been exposed right in front of Soma’s eyes, Chandra felt that the new era was about to begin.

  The god himself was still out on the balcony, assessing the damage to his chamber—but his gaze always came back to Lilly.

  “Are you all right, Supporter?”

  “Lady Hestia…”

  It wasn’t long before Hestia and the other adventurers led by Mikoto and Ouka made it to the third floor of the main tower.

  Truly grateful to Lilly for all of her hard work, the two made eye contact for a moment before Hestia walked over to talk with Soma.

  “I would like to make a deal for the supporter, Lilliluka Erde, to join my Familia.”

  “…”

  Soma stood silently on the balcony as Hestia stopped just before the open window, neither of them blinking.

  “Please accept this knife as collateral for payment.”

  “L-Lady Hestia, that’s—?!”

  “It’s all right. I’ve talked with Bell.”

  Lilly gasped when she saw the goddess hold out the Hestia Knife and hand it to Soma.

  “This knife is a very expensive weapon. If we should lose the War Game, you can get a lot of money for it.”

  “…”

  “But if we win, I’ll buy it back from you with our reward money…I’ll make Apollo pay for it in full. Once you have the money, I’ll take my knife back.”

  She explained that should Hestia Familia win the War Game, she was planning to take a large sum of money from Apollo. Soma held the weapon in his hands, running his thumb down the Ἥφαιστος logo engraved into its sheath. He looked up at her.

  “Indeed, this is more than satisfactory. She may leave my Familia.”

  His lips barely moved as he spoke to Hestia.

  Welf, Mikoto’s group, and Chandra stood quietly in the doorway as Soma once again cast his gaze upon Lilly.

  Badly injured and still bleeding, she managed to make eye contact. The two stayed still until finally an answer was heard.

  Soma shifted his posture to face Hestia head-on and nodded, saying, “I accept.”

  Hestia, Soma, and Lilly went to the second floor of the main tower, leaving everyone else behind.

  All three of them entered a small room that had no windows. There was no need to worry about any information being exposed to prying eyes or ears. The three set to work in the dim light.

  Lilly sat on a chair, pulled off her shirt, and exposed the Status on her back. Soma made a small cut on his finger and ran it across the hieroglyphs, the ichor in his blood making the markings glow.

  His finger made quick movements across her skin, as if unscrambling a puzzle. The hieroglyphs glowed brighter with each passing moment until every mark started to blink.

  Now it was Hestia’s turn. Pricking her finger, she added her own ichor to the mix, gradually erasing several hieroglyphs as their color faded. The markings indicating Soma’s contract disappeared from sight as Hestia’s name and symbols engraved themselves above Lilly’s name at the top of her Status.

  Conversion.

  A ceremony that allowed a child of Gekai to be transferred from one Familia to another.

  A ring of light worked its way around the girl’s Status, making it look like an epitaph in the dimly lit room. The markings for Hestia Familia shined brightly at the top.

  From this moment onward, Lilly was now one of Hestia’s followers.

  “Lady Hestia…is this really okay? Using Mr. Bell’s precious weapon in a trade for Lilly…?”

  “Perfectly fine. Everything will be back to normal if we win the War Game. And we need you for a chance at winning. No problem at all.”

  Lilly’s nerves had settled down considerably now that the ceremony was complete and she was fully dressed. However, the collateral made her uneasy. Despite that, Hestia puffed out her chest and said everything would take care of itself.

  “Trust me, no problem. Now let’s go.”

  “Y-yes…”

  Lilly’s eyes kept jumping from one deity to the other. Hestia placed both hands on the girl’s shoulders and guided her out the door.

  “…Hest…ia?”

  “That’s me. What is it?”

  Hestia closed the door behind Lilly and turned to face the god she was meeting for the first time. Soma wasn’t even sure how to pronounce her name.

  Only the two of them remained inside the small room.

  “…Did that girl actually receive my Blessing?”

  Even now, he remembered the strong look in her eyes. And yet Soma had no memory of her. Hestia was the only one he could ask.

  “Without a doubt, she is one of the children who suffered due to your selfish discontent. She’s a little girl who grew strong as a result of your neglect.”

  Hestia took it a step further, telling him to imagine how much Lilly had suffered after being abandoned by her own god.

  The blue in her eyes became intense orbs in the dark as Soma was unable to respond to her accusations.

  “You should think long and hard about why she changed, the meaning behind it.”

  Hestia had her hand on the door handle as she wrapped up her lecture with that and left the room.

  Soma was left alone with his thoughts.

  He stood there quietly, Hestia’s words running through his mind.

  Hestia and Lilly rejoined the others at the base of the main tower and exited Soma Familia’s wine storage facility.

  Miach had been waiting one block away in case of an emergency. Joining the group of more than ten, they all ran together through the backstreets.

  “Lilly’s very sorry for the trouble she’s caused…Thank you.”

  “It’s all right…”

  “Think nothing of it, Miss Lilly.”

  “That’s right…It’s nice to see you again.”

  Nahza, Mikoto, and Chigusa—her eyes hidden behind her bangs as usual—responded to Lilly’s apology.

  Welf and the massive Ouka, holding a greatsword and a battle-ax over their respective shoulders, were having their own conversation next to the girls.

  “That wire, did you bring it with you?”

  “Nah, found it in that tower. Thought it might be useful so I picked it up.”

  The sun seemed to be smiling down at them as everyone celebrated the success of their mission.

  Lilly moved closer to Hestia.

  “But, Lady Hestia, Lilly doesn’t understand how she can make a difference in the War Game by herself…”

  Hestia smiled at her confusion and then looked back at the path ahead.

  “Not quite.”

  Hestia shook her head as Miach spoke up.

  “You won’t be alone.”

  All they had done was increase Lilly’s confusion. She tilted her head in their direction and Miach smiled back at her. Feeling another gaze on her, Lilly looked the other way to see Mikoto with a very determined look in her eyes.

  Even Welf was smiling at her.

  The group reached a four-way intersection.

  “See ya later, Li’l E.”

  “…Lady Hestia, we’ll take our leave here.”

  Welf peeled away from the group and went down the right path. Ouka, Mikoto, and Chigusa led their group down the road to the left.

  Miach, Nahza, and Lilly watched them leave from the center of the intersection when a sudden breeze swept through the backstreet.

  Hestia held her black hair out of her eyes with her right hand.

  She looked up at the blue sky, where the wind was blowing in a new direction.

  “Hmmm—gahhh…”

  Takemikazuchi groaned.


  He was pacing back and forth inside his own room in an old building designed to house multiple families, built on the side of a narrow street. The god lived alongside his six-member Familia; this building was their home. Arms folded in front of his chest, he wore a troubled expression.

  “The War Game…I want to assist Hestia, but…”

  The Guild had already announced the details of the War Game. Takemikazuchi knew full well that it was a castle-assault style and everything that entailed.

  His good friend needed military might and he wanted to help her. But he was in a quandary.

  Should he transfer one of his own followers to Hestia Familia with a conversion ceremony, or not?

  “It’s impossible for Miach. He only has one and his Familia will collapse should she leave…”

  Without any members, Miach Familia would be disbanded by default and revoked by the Guild. Miach would lose the reputation and recognition he’d worked so hard to gain. There was also the possibility that he could be forced to sell his home in order to pay off current debts.

  Takemikazuchi completed yet another lap around his room, mumbling to himself as he considered every possibility.

  “Even among my own children, the only two who could compete with Apollo’s children are Ouka and Mikoto. Chigusa and the others would only weigh them down…”

  Chigusa and the other three were still Level 1 adventurers. Only Ouka and Mikoto made sense.

  “Ouka is the captain. I can’t send him…”

  Which would mean the only option was Mikoto—

  “Would she be willing to go to a different Familia…?”

  Mikoto loved Takemikazuchi Familia too much.

  She’d always had a strong sense of justice and an urge to do what was right. Was she capable of betraying Ouka and her allies? There was also the mission given to them by their hometown in the Far East to consider—Mikoto would never abandon it.

  “I’ll just have to find some way to convince her…After all, I’m the one who wants to help Hestia…But wait, if I did that…Ghaaaaaa…!” Takemikazuchi stopped in the middle of the room and scratched his head with both hands as he groaned at the ceiling.

  Caught up in a fit of very ungodlike indecision, he almost didn’t hear the knock outside his door.

  “Lord Takemikazuchi, it is Mikoto…May I speak with you?”