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

by Fujino Omori

  “?!”

  “What was that?!”

  There were the sounds of a furious acceleration, a tremendous noise of something cutting through the air, and violent footsteps kicking off walls and roofs. The adventurers on the ground turned to the sky one after the other, noticing a presence moving above their heads at high speed. Through all of that, Bete tracked the source of the noise as he kicked the buildings and shot through the sky.

  I can’t see anything! Are they invisible?

  His sharp amber eyes narrowed, locking onto a momentary tremor in the atmosphere before him.

  It could be that someone was harboring enough wind pressure to cause the air to quiver. Or someone was wearing a cloth over their body to become invisible.

  A magic item. It didn’t take long for Bete to realize who it was.

  “That rabbit boy, huh?!”

  Bete accelerated as he brought up images of this enemy in his mind’s eye.

  He was irritated. When he’d heard that Hestia Familia—that Bell Cranell was supporting the monsters, he’d gotten angry for some reason. He didn’t understand why he was so irritated. But this person Bete had recognized for his power had done something incomprehensible to him. It felt like a foreign substance was lodged in the back of his throat. To borrow Tiona’s words, he felt iffy.

  Talking the big talk. What the hell are you doing, rabbit boy?! …Well, either way, s’got nothin’ to do with me!

  As the cloaked figure hopped through the buildings of differing heights, he almost looked like a rabbit, occasionally leaping over tall spires, but Bete never let this invisible existence escape his range of perception. The invisible person was busy pouring their all into sprinting and didn’t notice this high-speed pursuit.

  Bete leaped and sprinted like a wolf chasing down its prey.

  There he is!

  And in the Labyrinth District’s northwest area, he landed in a back alley with a huge impact.

  “…”

  His ashen hair fluttered from the landing as he looked around the area that had fallen silent once again.

  It was a place where several lanes intersected. The road was shrouded in darkness without a magic-stone lamp or the moonlight. Stillness filled the surroundings.

  He couldn’t pick up a single sound. It was as if the darkness was trying to deny anyone being there.

  There wasn’t a figure in sight.

  “—Get your ass out here.” Bete could sense the presence in one of the lanes, staring into the empty darkness.

  Even if the figure had become invisible, they couldn’t fool the senses of an animal person. He was about to move toward the enemy who wasn’t responding.

  “What the—?”

  “…”

  The person who walked out of the darkness was a single renart girl.

  She had gorgeous long blond locks, no less beautiful than Aiz’s hair. She had an air of graceful beauty and wore a Far Eastern crimson kimono.

  Bete remembered the girl who resolutely met his eyes.

  Their encounter had been two months prior on the day he’d attacked Meren to help Tiona and Tione. There had been a renart mixed in with Lena and Phryne and the other members of Ishtar Familia.

  Did she convert to Hestia Familia after Ishtar Familia was destroyed?

  Bete furrowed his brow, entirely disinterested.

  “I know you’re not alone. The rest of you, get out here already.”

  “I am alone.”

  As he shot a glance down the alley she was blocking, Bete spat, rejecting her claim.

  “Quit screwing with m—”

  “—I am alone!!” She shouted this time.

  Bete was getting visibly vexed as his gaze started to look more and more threatening. But the renart girl wouldn’t back down.

  As she held both her quivering hands to her chest, she spoke again. “Please move out of the way!”

  “…”

  “And fast!!” she shrieked.

  But she wasn’t directing this at Bete, even as she faced him. Behind her, in the darkness, a second presence moved farther away.

  A rear guard.

  The girl standing before him was setting herself as a decoy to let her treasure escape.

  “…People who can’t fight shouldn’t be tryin’ to act brave.”

  Bete saw no vestiges of the girl he’d seen in Meren.

  She’d been a dollish wisp of a girl who’d only been protected by the Amazons. But now, she could snap her jaw at someone.

  Bete was growing increasingly more irritated.

  I hate weak broads more than anything else.

  He was talking about women who played tragic heroines, despite having no strength to stand up against anything; girls with no real understanding of the gravity of their words, who armed themselves with nothing more than a feeble wish with no resolve; wretched women who started begging for their lives as soon as they were unmasked.

  Bete spit out internally, lightly kicking the stone pavement as if to stroke it, and his metal boots, Frosvirt, shot stone fragments into the air, turning it into buckshot.

  “Uuuh…?!”

  These fragments struck the shocked renart, scratching her cheek and ripping the fabric of her kimono. She staggered but managed to remain standing.

  Bete hadn’t intended to hit her, wanted to scare her a bit to resolve the situation, but she went beyond his expectations.

  “Tch. Beat it.”

  “I will not.”

  “I’ll pulverize you.”

  “I won’t move!”

  And she didn’t, even under his sharp glare. The fox rebelled against the wolf.

  He easily could’ve leaped over her head and chased after the fleeing person. But for some reason, Bete couldn’t ignore the girl blocking his way. That was why he moved to pummel her, to use his power to punt her aside.

  He closed in on the girl with arms outspread in an instant.

  As he felt a strange sense of déjà vu, he raised his hand, annoyed at the pointlessness of it, about to swing it down.

  “Gh!”

  That’s when he saw the unwavering green eyes peeking out from behind her golden bangs. Bete’s hand froze in midair.

  “…”

  And his eyes widened.

  He silently looked into Haruhime’s eyes, which hadn’t turned away even as she was about to be smashed.

  It was a strong gaze, a resolute expression that erased all the remnants of the girl he’d seen in Meren.

  Despite being scared, despite her fear, she had no intention of backing down.

  There was no mask to be peeled off. The fox bared her fangs with all her might.

  It was a pathetic figure of a girl.

  It was a bluff of a small fry, a rejection of that categorization.

  As the two of them froze, staring at each other, it was silent.

  The distant sounds of battle reached the ears of the animal people.

  The first one to break their silence was Bete.

  “—You little shit!” The edges of his lips violently curled up. “Can’t even do anything—are you really ready for this?”

  “Gwa?!”

  Bete was going off on a murderous tirade, causing the renart to begin convulsing in fear. But she wouldn’t step down, glaring back at him with heightened emotion. Bete was almost impressed but chose to hurl his abuse at her.

  “You’re getting ahead of yourself!!”

  In place of his lowered fist, he stomped the left heel of his Frosvirt into the ground, unleashing a torrent of explosive noises and shock waves that sent the girl flying. Her back banged against the wall near the entrance of the back alley, where she slumped over and let out a groan in pain.

  Bete couldn’t hide his smile at the sight of her. It wasn’t from his enjoyment of bullying her or a sadistic satisfaction to see her in pain but a chuckle to welcome her to “this side.”

  “Stop acting like a proud hussy! You only have your power going for you!!”

&n
bsp; “Rg!!” The head of the anguished renart snapped up in response to his contempt.

  She mustered all her spirit as she glared back at Bete. She stuck her quivering hands in front of her chest as if presenting an offering, and she began to chant.

  “—Grow.”

  Bete grinned menacingly, squinting.

  You’re gonna do that much to protect some monsters?

  Then, show me your resolve!

  Hit me with your determination to resist the strong!

  Any thoughts of the key and the remnants of the Evils disappeared from Bete’s mind at that moment.

  The violent werewolf faced the renart as an enemy, as if acknowledging the determination of a simple weakling.

  There was nothing to speak of the battle that followed.

  The violent, starving wolf mercilessly beat down all who would bare their fangs at him, until there was no skin left unbruised. When the weeping renart tried to howl at him again, he harshly beat his contempt and her powerlessness into her.

  As he cackled over the echoing cries of a new weakling, Bete followed the presence who had fled the scene.

  CHAPTER 5

  BRAVE SOUL!

  Daedalus Street came alive.

  The hidden armed monsters raised a war cry and began their charge. Loki Familia intercepted them. An unprecedented clash began, centered around the Labyrinth District’s western side.

  The other adventurers kept out of the loop couldn’t grasp the situation, left behind by the flow of events and contributing to spreading confusion and uproar among the people.

  “Has Lefiya disappeared…?” Filvis was moving alone through the district.

  As the sounds of combat boomed out from the west, a number of residents stood still as others ran around in circles like insects entranced by a light. Filvis alone kept her cool and took in her surroundings. Instead of heading for the western battlefront, she observed the Loki Familia formation closely.

  Their factions had formed an alliance, and she had some knowledge of the events transpiring on Daedalus Street. From that, she knew that observing Loki Familia’s camp was a more effective method of determining the sequence of events. As the situation changed from moment to moment, their movements gave the best indication of how to track the armed monsters.

  On top of that, Filvis was prioritizing the safety of her kind, foolhardy fellow elf.

  If she couldn’t make sure that Lefiya hadn’t rushed into danger, she wouldn’t feel comfortable enough to carry out her original task. She leaped up to a rooftop without a sound.

  …? Loki Familia is…

  Looking down from above, Filvis noticed that amid all the bustle from the crowd of adventurers, Loki Familia’s followers were standing frozen in place. They were leaning together, saying something to one another, and then their expressions changed when they left the location.

  As she watched silently, Filvis kicked off the edge of the roof.

  “Hey, what happened?”

  “Wah?! Oh, Maenad, it’s you…”

  The guy from Loki Familia was shocked to see her but lowered his guard when he realized she was part of the alliance between familias.

  “The armed monsters were confirmed in the east. The uproar in the west is a decoy.”

  “!”

  “Apparently, the group protecting things over there was wiped out…along with some other adventurers. That black minotaur is connected to it! If they get underground at this rate, things are gonna be bad!”

  It was the work of the stray armed monster. That seemed to be the best guess. And at the same time, the perimeter in the east had been stretched thin.

  He explained the situation as they made their way. Filvis was astonished and held her tongue. If they didn’t hurry, the monsters would slip out of their grasp while still in possession of the key.

  “Please help us out!”

  “…Got it.” Filvis nodded in response to the stressed adventurer, setting aside her concerns about Lefiya for the moment.

  “…”

  Other people overheard their conversation.

  They’d been observing the movements of Loki Familia, just like Filvis, focusing their efforts on eavesdropping. They hadn’t been noticed, and Loki Familia wasn’t on guard against them as they stood in the shadows nearby.

  They silently departed, slipping down into the alleys.

  Directly after that, monsters appeared before Filvis and the Loki Familia members as they began to sprint.

  “Wh—?!”

  “Are they…the six-legged monsters from Knossos?!”

  They were a small breed with a red crystal instead of a magic stone, some of the countless vargs unleashed in Knossos. The adventurers who’d set foot in the man-made labyrinth recalled that nightmare. Filvis’s crimson eyes widened.

  “Shiiiiiii!”

  From the alley’s manhole, from the gaps in the walls, from the underground stairs, the insectile vargs swarmed them, as if they’d been planted beforehand. The group was forced to fight the monsters welling up from the crevices.

  A comparable scene unfolded in several other places around the center of the Labyrinth District.

  “C-Captain?! There’ve been several water spider sightings!”

  “An enemy trap.”

  In Loki Familia’s main base, Raul cried out as he gathered the reports from the semaphores. He had been summoned by Finn, whose eyes narrowed.

  The reports of monster appearances were mostly around the edges of their formation. Most of the other adventurers focused on the main battlefront in the west, which was why they didn’t notice the localized movements.

  It was clearly an attack aimed specifically at Loki Familia.

  “The enemy is moving! We have to get control of the east, the location of the monster sightings. Don’t let them get away from us!” Finn shouted in a strained voice that echoed through the air.

  A shadow proceeded through the underground passage.

  There was a small body with slender limbs, wearing a prum-size version of adventurers’ battle clothes.

  And unlike a normal goblin, it was lean, an enhanced species.

  This was the red-cap that had fought Tiona four days prior.

  As the bright-red cap bounced on its head, it quickly and carefully moved through the stone passage, watching its surroundings.

  It was holding a lump of silver in its hands.

  “—Found you.”

  “!!”

  When it turned a corner, it realized several figures were standing before it: a group of five humans and animal people.

  They were not Loki Familia.

  They were the followers of Thanatos.

  They’d been ordered to find the Irregulars, the armed monsters, before Loki Familia did to dispose of them and obtain the key.

  They weren’t wearing Evils’ robes. Instead, they were equipped with swords and armor and dressed like adventurers.

  “Kaaaaaaa!”

  “Guh?!”

  The crazed fanatics weren’t scared of dying as they charged against the red-cap as a unified front. The monster couldn’t fight back, getting pummeled through its defense and dropping the key from its hand. The silver orb fell to the floor, and the leader of the group snatched it from the ground.

  “We did it, Lord Thanatos! I, Acoz, have retrieved the key!” shouted the human man, crying the name of his patron god with blazing eyes.

  It would be fair to say that they’d made sure their hunt went off without a hitch. They’d blended in with the other adventurers, waiting patiently for the opportune moment to strike. They hadn’t left Knossos in the past couple of days while Loki Familia had kept the exits under surveillance.

  They had left four days prior.

  It was the same day the armed monsters had made their appearance, when they’d taken a route out of Knossos through the Dungeon to get aboveground, disguised as simple, random adventurers.

  And they’d been waiting in Daedalus Street all along for the m
onsters to appear.

  As they blended in to the surroundings as adventurers, they were able to carefully observe all of Loki Familia’s movements without arousing any suspicion, gathering information about the flow of the battle.

  They were the detached force that Thanatos had mentioned.

  “Now Knossos will be totally safe!” The man trembled in excitement, sneering at the wounded monster.

  “We should erase all evidence of this,” he said, starting to point his weapon at the red-cap along with his subordinates.

  “Get them!”

  “?!”

  A sudden order rang out. His squad was slow to respond.

  Adventurers leaped out from the web of interlocking passageways, the intersection where they’d caught the goblin.

  The Evils’ Remnants were taken by surprise, unable to resist and incapacitated in an instant.

  “Wh—…Loki Familia?!”

  “Just as Captain thought. They really were mixed in with the other adventurers.”

  The human leader was aghast upon seeing the jester emblem engraved on their armor. Anakity had taken out three of the five enemies in the blink of an eye. Her one-handed sword whistled through the air.

  It would be fair to say they had made sure that their hunt went off without a hitch—except for one fatal flaw. They had been led on by Braver the whole time.

  “The report of monsters appearing in the east was…a trap. To lure you out.”

  Finn had guessed the existence of a detached force, since the Evils had been so passive. He presumed there were several squads pretending to be adventurers and secretly searching for the monsters’ whereabouts.

  Of course, it was difficult to find the assassins among the thousands of adventurers in Daedalus Street.

  That was why Finn spread some bait.

  “A-a trap?!”

  “Yes. As you heard, we tricked our allies and all.”

  Anakity’s group had focused on spreading the misinformation, even to their own allies.

  From the point when the real armed monsters broke through the west, the members of Loki Familia had been forced into making flustered responses. And that would look like a perfect opportunity to the Evils watching Loki Familia. Anakity had captured them from a handful of adventurers who had moved out.