Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 10

by Fujino Omori

“…And you suspect me, Riveria?” Tsubaki asked nervously, rooted in a fear of being suspected of associating with the monsters.

  “What is there to suspect you for? I’m merely asking if you have any idea why a monster was holding your magic blade. Nothing more, nothing less.” Riveria responded without missing a beat or displaying any trace of emotion.

  Her jade eyes watched Tsubaki and certainly didn’t seem accusatory. They were only looking to acquire information. But it was clear they wouldn’t forgive lies.

  With a noble presence, the fastidious high elf pressed the question.

  “…Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah.” Tsubaki let out a full-bodied sigh.

  “The transaction was supposed to be handled in utmost secrecy, but I guess there’s no point in holding back if it’s come to this. I’ve no interest in keeping my silence and being suspected by you all…And the buyer has already passed on.”

  “…? What do you mean?”

  “I sold this magic blade to Ganesha Familia…to Hashana Dorlia.”

  “!”

  Riveria could not contain her shock.

  “That Hashana? The one killed in Rivira…?”

  “That’s the guy. At the time, he mentioned getting a quest that required absolute secrecy. He couldn’t reveal it to anyone and needed to descend to the lower levels solo.”

  “And he came by to commission a strong magic blade?”

  “That’s right. If there was no rearguard, he’d have to cover it himself. And because it required absolute secrecy, I kept my promise not to reveal it to anyone. Until today, at least.

  “I was shocked when I heard what happened to Hashana, but…” Tsubaki added with a frown.

  “That’s all I know. Of course, I’ve got no guess as to why a monster was using it, either.”

  There was no lie in what she said. After observing Tsubaki’s face, Riveria covered her mouth with one hand as she pondered what she’d heard.

  Hashana Dorlia had been sent to recover the crystal orb fetus from the thirtieth floor.

  Did the magic blade cross the Dungeon by some means before making its way to the armed monsters…? If Finn’s supposition is correct, does that mean the armed monsters have a connection not just to the Guild but to Ganesha Familia, too?

  Did Hashana know something about those armed monsters? Riveria decided to limit the scope of her musings for the moment.

  In any case, her suspicions had more or less been answered.

  Given it was a magic blade crafted by one of Orario’s master smiths, it wasn’t surprising that Bete and the others had been hurt by it.

  After careful deliberation, Riveria looked up again at Tsubaki.

  “Is there anything else you haven’t told me?”

  “Hey, quit the cross-examination already! That’s everything! I’ve got nothing to be guilty about!”

  Tsubaki placed both hands on her hips, puffing up her chest, emphasizing her voluptuous bosom covered by a bleached white cloth. It was as if she was saying, Dig all you want; I’ve got nothing to hide. No matter how much you feel around—or search. Her unpatched right eye glared sharply.

  …I can see she doesn’t feel troubled about anything else. After taking in her childish pose, Riveria sighed.

  “Very well. I’m sorry for taking up your time. As for this magic blade…should I return it to you?”

  “Ah…yes, if it’s lost its user, I’ll take it.”

  After handing over the magic blade, Riveria left the room, exiting the shop to report her findings to Finn and the others deployed in the Labyrinth District.

  “…Good grief. That was a bit tense.”

  As she looked out the window at the high elf walking away down Main Street, Tsubaki felt drained.

  “It did seem like my goddess knew something about those monsters…Should I ask her about them?”

  All things considered, it’s good I don’t know anything yet, she thought to herself as she massaged her neck. If I’d known, those green eyes would have seen right through me trying to hide it just now.

  “………”

  Lefiya was sullen.

  Her mood was so dark that the other familia members nearby averted their eyes, trying not to broach the topic.

  “…Lefiya. We’re monitoring Hestia Familia right now. Keep it together, please.”

  “I’m properly keeping watch.”

  “Er…That’s not what I meant…Your mood…” trailed off the Level-4 chienthrope Cruz as he tried to work himself up to say something.

  Lefiya didn’t even glance at him, remaining focused solely on a certain manor.

  They were in the sixth district, the southwest quarter of the city, and inside a building constructed in one part of that district, located on a block filled with high-class residences on large lots.

  Loki Familia was monitoring Hestia Familia’s home, Hearthstone Manor. This was because Finn had concluded that Bell and the others had been involved in the incident where the armed monsters appeared aboveground.

  Report any moves that Hestia’s followers make, the prum leader had ordered.

  The surveillance squad led by Cruz had borrowed an abandoned building diagonally opposite the manor to observe their movements. And Lefiya had personally volunteered to be on that squad.

  “Hey, Elfie…What’s up with Lefiya? She’s been kind of off since that incident, hasn’t she?”

  “That’s what I want to ask, Cruuuuuuz! I’m her roommate, but she won’t talk to me at all! Which means I’ve got no clue what’s going on!”

  “Just say that to begin with…”

  Ignoring their idiotic banter, Lefiya continued to peer out from the slatted window blinds. As she scanned their surroundings, she could see other adventurers hiding around street corners and in other buildings. It wasn’t only Loki Familia that was watching Hestia Familia. They probably suspected Bell Cranell of knowing something, as did Finn. But Lefiya couldn’t care one way or the other.

  She glared at the manor. It showed no signs of movement—or rather, she glared at the boy she was certain was somewhere inside it.

  “Hey, what are you so mad about, Lefiya? Just tell me already!”

  “…I’m not particularly angry about anything.”

  “You are, though! Like, it’s so obvious! Look at your face! It’s scary!”

  Elfie’s comments elicited only a surly response from Lefiya, since she hadn’t been able to figure it out herself, either.

  Why was she irritated? When she thought about it and asked herself…her answer was foolish.

  Doesn’t that mean I’m…I mean, Loki Familia are the bad guys?!

  At the present moment, Loki Familia had the support of the public for protecting the Labyrinth District, and the populace was speaking ill of Little Rookie for protecting the monster.

  Lefiya couldn’t resolve the suspicion bothering her.

  They needed to prevent the plan that would pulverize the town, to eliminate the armed monsters roaming aboveground—all in service of supporting the Labyrinth City. They were on a mission, a noble cause. Or at the very least, that’s what Lefiya thought as an elf. Loki Familia was delivering justice.

  If we’re doing the right thing, why do I have to feel this bad?

  Lefiya saw that scene: The boy had thrust himself into danger to protect the vouivre. And for some reason, that action had felt justified when she saw it—as if the scorned act of protecting a monster wasn’t wrong.

  That was how desperate and earnest he appeared in his endeavor.

  And because that human won’t explain himself, I can’t understand why he did any of it!

  In the end, that was the source of her anger.

  Lefiya was upset with Bell Cranell for not talking to her, despite obviously having some kind of reason for his actions. At least she was honest about considering his situation from his point of view and counterintuitively begging him—“I can’t understand if you don’t talk to me”—at the same time.

  After considering everything t
hat had transpired, she set aside slower options and decided on the simplest method available to her.

  “L-Lefiya?”

  “Oy! Where are you going?”

  Lefiya left the room without saying a word in response to Elfie or Cruz, walking briskly and hastily out the building before making her way to Hearthstone Manor.

  “Wai—!”

  She could hear Elfie’s voice from the building behind her but chose to ignore it. Using the leaping ability of a Level 3, she cleared the main gate and metal fence, eliciting a groaned “Oyyy?!” from Cruz.

  But she paid no heed to that, either.

  Beneath the cloudy sky, she cut through the estate with long strides, climbed the steps, and rang the bell at the front door.

  Clang, clang! No response. No one came out.

  Clang, clang! again. No trace of a response. Ignored.

  Lefiya silently and blankly continued ringing the bell progressively louder and louder.

  As time passed, the clang, clang! had taken on tremendous strength and turned into CLANG, CLANG! at which point there was finally a response on the other side. Someone walked up to the door. Lefiya released the calling bell.

  With a click, the door slowly opened.

  “M-may I ask who’s here…?” stammered a cute, reserved renart girl peeking out from behind the cracked door.

  She was wearing a maid uniform, and her long blond hair resembled Aiz’s. Her face wasn’t elven but was extremely beautiful nonetheless.

  Is this someone working for Hestia Familia?

  More than anything, she seemed ephemeral. There’s no way you could be violent with such a frail girl, right? Just withdraw and end things peacefully—that’s what the beautiful girl seemed to emanate.

  This sort of person makes people want to protect her. Are you trying to damage my conscience?!

  Coward! You’re unforgiveable, Bell Cranell!

  Lefiya screamed at the boy in her heart, entirely misunderstanding the situation.

  She managed with great difficulty to respond quietly. “Please bring Bell Cranell. I know he’s here.”

  “Uh, ummm…Master Bell is not in the best condition…If you have some business, I would be glad to assist you…” replied the renart girl, appearing a little scared as she tried to accommodate Lefiya, who had skipped right past greetings and pleasantries and straight to her demand.

  Lefiya could sense several people skulking around behind the girl. It appeared they were on guard against the sudden inquisitor, impertinent.

  When she looked closer, she noticed there was a strong chain between the door and the wall that locked to prevent Lefiya from entering.

  The question of Could you come back some other time…? was practically written on the trembling renart girl’s face.

  Lefiya sighed audibly, recognizing that she wouldn’t be welcomed there.

  The next instant, she grabbed the slightly ajar door and yanked it open as she stuck her face in.

  “BELL CRANELLLLLLLLLLLLLL! Meet me face-to-face and explain yourself!”

  “Hwhat?!”

  The elf lost herself in frustration and resorted to more hardball tactics. The piteous renart’s face froze in shock. Lefiya had blown past several limits on her self-control and resorted to pure force, causing Hestia Familia to panic.

  “Lady Haruhime?! Please run away!”

  “She just resorted to force. There’s no use trying to reason with her! Lilly’s instinct was right! This is why you can’t trust adventurers!”

  “This isn’t the time or place for that! Hurry up and close the door! We have to protect Bell!”

  When Lefiya scanned around, she saw a panicking girl of Far Eastern descent and heard the voice of a sulking prum and the shouts of a goddess. She was pushed out of the doorway by the Far Eastern girl, and as Lefiya staggered back, the door slammed shut in her face.

  Bam! Ca-chink!

  “Huh?!”

  Just as she noticed the renart girl had withdrawn, the door closed and locked in a second.

  “Heeeeeeeeeeey! Bell Cranell, you coward! Come out this instant! Explain yourself!”

  “You guys, stop Lefiya!”

  “What are you doing, Lefiya?!”

  She was banging on the door with both hands with enough force to break it down when the other members of Loki Familia surrounded her. Cruz and Elfie snatched Lefiya and shouted wildly as they tried to restrain her while she struggled against them with a strength that seemed out of place for her slender body.

  In the end, it took every member of the surveillance squad, but they managed to drag Lefiya away from the door. The other factions watching Hestia Familia saw the commotion from start to finish and were left shuddering.

  “Loki Familia is crazy scary…”

  “Thousand Elf’s insane…”

  After that, Lefiya was removed from the surveillance squad— obviously.

  “Heeeeeeave-ho!”

  The sounds of excessive destruction resounded along with a loud voice as a hole in the wall opened up. Stone slabs clattered to the ground, and a lump of adamantite fell to the floor. When they finished carving out a hole large enough for the passage of a single person, Gareth stepped through the opening, followed by Tiona.

  “There’s no mistaking it…this is Knossos.”

  “Owwwwie, my hands huuuurt. Digging through an adamantite wall is hard.”

  Loki Familia had followed the path where the vouivre had emerged aboveground and found a secret passage below Daedalus Street and an orichalcum door leading to Knossos.

  At Finn’s direction, they’d dug through the adamantite wall and broken into the area in question. It was a brute-force method that they resorted to solely for the purpose of obtaining any clue they could find about the armed monsters. Gareth and Tiona, the two strongest members of the familia, were assigned to the demolition work.

  In order to protect against intruders, the walls near the entrance were thicker than the rest of the labyrinth’s walls. It took a lot of time and effort, and they had broken countless tools made of Valmars, but they were finally able to break through. Tiona tossed down a pickax that was no longer usable now that the tip was ruined before looking around.

  “It’s huge…and this ain’t the maze we wandered around in. We’re in an actual room. And we walked down a tooooon of stairs to get here. Do you think we’re in the mid-levels?”

  “Hmm, it’s very possible. The atmosphere resembles the Great Wall of Sorrows on the seventeenth floor.”

  A squad led by Raul was waiting just outside the labyrinth on guard for an attack by the enemy. Tiona and Gareth turned back to examine the hole they’d carved out.

  Based on what Finn had learned from questioning Ikelos, Knossos was dreamed up by Daedalus, who had been influenced by the original Dungeon. If his creation’s design was based on the original’s layout, it would explain Gareth’s sense of déjà vu.

  “Ugh…dead bodies…”

  “It looks like they were killed by monsters…No emblems to identify them, but from recent events, I’m guessing it’s Ikelos Familia?”

  As they slunk cautiously through the stone structure comparable to a large hall, they came across several corpses—more than ten. Ripped to shreds by claws and fangs, all of them died with their eyes wide open. Dried pools of blood were scattered across the stone-paved floor.

  Tiona grimaced at the strong stench, but if evil people were going to die, this was the most fitting scene for it.

  “Looking back on it, the stairs led straight here, which means this is probably a warehouse for holding the monsters they were smuggling. Or a checkpoint between the Dungeon and the surface. Like maybe a system of multiple routes leading to the surface with this serving as a base of operations…”

  As if confirming Gareth’s prediction, there were several black cages, big and small, in the dimly lit hall. The majority of them had been broken, and the chains holding them down had been snapped in two.

  “…I’m guessing the
captured monsters got angry…and rebelled, maybe?”

  “…”

  “Mm, in other words…we fought the monsters in Daedalus Street that broke out of these cages…and escaped?”

  “It’s possible. That would be the simplest explanation…”

  Tiona leaned over a broken cage, staring intently at it as her empty head struggled to work. Gareth’s response was muddled, as if he was considering other possibilities. They split up and started examining the surroundings to see if there was anything more to be found.

  Fortunately, they were on guard for an enemy attack that never came. At the same time, there were no living creatures there, save them.

  “Gareth, there’s a door this way, too. I can’t get any farther. If we try, we can break the wall, but…”

  “Hold up, lass. It seems they’ve already given up on this place and abandoned it, but…provoking the enemy will cause problems. Let’s ask Finn for directions first.”

  There were several doors in the hall itself and several narrow paths extending off it, but in order to go farther, they needed a key. Gareth forbade Tiona from going any deeper in her search of the surroundings before ordering Raul standing by outside to send word aboveground. Then he called the others into the hall to carry out the corpses of Ikelos Familia.

  “Ah, Gareth, sir…instructions from the captain: We should withdraw. It would be bad if violas or other monsters are on the loose. Make sure to block up the hole…”

  “…Finn, you arse…making it sound easy.”

  “What?! After we went to so much effort to break it open! And how are we supposed to plug it up?!”

  Finn wanted to avoid any further complications making their way to the surface. Gareth recognized his intentions, but as the one charged with actually making it happen, he couldn’t help grumbling at the time and effort it would require.

  Tiona moaned, as expected.

  “Give it up, Tiona. If it’s just this level of dirt- and woodwork, then a dwarf can just suck it up and do it.”

  “I’m not a dwarf, though! Fiiiiinn, just do it yourself!”

  As the Amazon kept complaining, Gareth sighed and quietly started the work of pulling out. He was of the mind that the prum was in a far more troublesome position than mere manual labor.