Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 11
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Copyright
IS IT WRONG TO TRY TO PICK UP GIRLS IN A DUNGEON?
ON THE SIDE: SWORD ORATORIA, Volume 11
FUJINO OMORI
Translation by Dale DeLucia
Cover art by Kiyotaka Haimura
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
DUNGEON NI DEAI WO MOTOMERU NO WA MACHIGATTEIRUDAROUKA GAIDEN SWORD ORATORIA vol. 11
Copyright © 2019 Fujino Omori
Illustration copyright © 2019 Kiyotaka Haimura
Original Character Design © Suzuhito Yasuda
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2019 by SB Creative Corp.
This English edition is published by arrangement with SB Creative Corp., Tokyo, in care of Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.
English translation © 2020 by Yen Press, LLC
Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ōmori, Fujino, author. | Haimura, Kiyotaka, 1973– illustrator. | Yasuda, Suzuhito, designer.
Title: Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon? on the side: sword oratoria / story by Fujino Omori; illustration by Kiyotaka Haimura; original design by Suzuhito Yasuda.
Other titles: Danjon ni deai wo motomeru no wa machigatteirudarouka gaiden sword oratoria. English.
Description: New York, NY: Yen On, 2016– | Series: Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon? on the side: sword oratoria
Identifiers: LCCN 2016023729 | ISBN 9780316315333 (v. 1 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316318167 (v. 2 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316318181 (v. 3 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316318228 (v. 4 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442503 (v. 5 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442527 (v. 6 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975302863 (v. 7 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975327798 (v. 8 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975327811 (v. 9 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975331719 (v. 10 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975331733 (v. 11 : pbk.)
Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.O54 Isg 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016023729
ISBNs: 978-1-9753-3173-3 (paperback)
978-1-9753-3174-0 (ebook)
E3-20200117-JV-NF-ORI
PROLOGUE
A TORTUROUS NIGHT, A GHASTLY GLOOM
The battle cry of a young man melded together with a minotaur’s ferocious roar. A vicious fight was raging.
With their lives on the line, the two males threw themselves into mortal combat, both launching starry sparks into the air as they tried to drive home with Labrys ax or knife. The throngs of people enclosing their battleground prayed, crying out with enough force to make the city quake.
Praying for the victory of the boy who’d set off on his adventure.
Praying for the birth of a new hero.
Aiz silently observed this violent scene unfolding in the Labyrinth City.
“………”
The werewolf by her side, along with an elf and a dark-elf swordsman—all counted among the ranks of first-tier adventurers—could not pull their eyes away from that battle.
Five months prior, a similar fight against a minotaur in the Dungeon had fascinated the adventurers of Loki Familia . The battle, howl, and will of this young boy were bound to light a fire in the hearts of many—the entire city, even.
But Aiz’s heart wasn’t pounding in her chest the way it had the time before.
Trapped in the dark, she felt closed off from the frenzied world—as if she’d stumbled into a maze with no exit, as if she were a child who had nowhere left to return.
The only image that reached her eyes seemed to be that of the young boy who bled, cloaked in flames.
She kept thinking, wondering what was on his mind as he fought.
His answer had contradicted hers. For what reason was he battling a monster and to what end? There was little doubt that this was a fight to the death, but it appeared as though the boy and the minotaur yearned for this from each other, like they understood each other more than anyone else—leaving Aiz behind.
Try as she might, Aiz couldn’t come up with a convincing conclusion.
But she did understand one thing.
He would become stronger.
He would start running again.
He would overcome this trial—a night filled with heretical monsters. This would become the day that the boy who had become an adventurer a scant five months ago would set off on the path to becoming a hero.
—And what about me as I am now?
Uncertainty had begun to fester on Aiz’s sword.
Her vow to kill monsters had been broken.
When she’d challenged that boy’s will with her own, she’d been the one who’d lost.
—Can I become strong like him?
—Can I start running, too?
At the moment, his gallant figure and her current state could not possibly be any more different. The fleeting thoughts that she’d managed to cling to soon faded away.
And even though she’d asked and asked, the stars and moon winking in the night sky offered no answer.
Darkness settled in, impenetrable and dismal. A stagnant chill. An ear-ringing solitude. The murky gloom was writhing like a living creature, the ultimate embodiment of chaos.
In an unknown place—in reality, or illusion, or somewhere in between—a shadow stood erect, waiting impatiently, counting down to a moment that would soon arrive.
“—Enyo.”
A blinding ray of light revealed the silhouette of the one who had called out, whose race and gender were unknown, their identity concealed by a masked face. The figure spoke in an ominous voice that mixed together an array of overlapping human voices.
“ Loki Familia is…coming to Knossos.”
Upon hearing that report, the named shadow’s lips curled into a sneer, announcing that the finale was drawing near.
It was an expression that seemed almost cheerful, almost reluctant, almost rapturous, almost lonely—and almost trembling.
The shadow turned their back to the masked being, who stood in silence, and raised both hands like a conductor preparing to begin.
—To begin a beautiful orgia .
CHAPTER 1
WHY I’LL START RUNNING, TOO
“We made a deal with the armed monsters.”
Let me start with the final decision . After Finn led with that prefacing re
mark, the room fell into hushed silence for a moment before breaking into an uproar.
They were in the large dining room of Loki Familia ’s home, Twilight Manor.
Almost every single one of the faction’s members had been summoned, filling the seats and lining the walls. There was no way anyone could have expected a different reaction to their captain’s proclamation or that there wouldn’t at least be a handful who struggled to comprehend, left reeling from the shock.
The emblem of the trickster with its ridiculous grin hung behind Finn, who stood atop a seat at the head of the table in the back of the hall. Standing at his sides were Riveria, Gareth, and their patron goddess, Loki. The presence of these three was confirmation that Finn hadn’t made this arbitrary decision alone and was instead a point of consensus among the familia’s leadership. It wasn’t just Raul, Anakity, and other elite candidates who were wide-eyed. Tiona and Tione weren’t much more composed than their juniors.
The only ones who weren’t flustered were Lefiya and the others in the Fairy Force, who had participated in the assault on Knossos—and, surprisingly, Bete.
“What are you talking about, Captain?!”
“What do you mean, ‘made a deal’?!”
The members of the familia leaped to their feet, shoving chairs out of the way and shouting in bewilderment, confusion, and even something close to blame.
It was an unbelievable scene for Loki Familia , a tight-knit group brought together by their leader, Braver. It was out of place to see them up in arms against Finn and spoke to the magnitude of the problem that his proposal would create.
The younger girls jolted and cowed under thundering protests and threatening behavior, but Finn did not waver in the slightest, facing the storm of shouts and responding to every question.
“During the battle in Daedalus Street, I confirmed the armed monsters have extremely high intelligence—to the point that there appeared to be a chance of coming to a mutual understanding with them.”
“‘Mutual understanding’…You’re telling me you let that stop you?!”
“Of course not. I just saw that they possessed a certain intelligence in their eyes that was worth considering. I judged that sufficient grounds to make a deal with them.”
“And where’s the proof that those monsters won’t turn on us?!”
“There’s no way to prove their emotions—even for the gods…That said, it’s a hard fact that the number of resident and adventurer casualties resulting from this incident with the monsters was zero.”
“…Gh!”
“Sure, we can say it was because every adventurer in the city gave their all, but that wouldn’t explain how we managed to avoid even a single loss of life despite the catastrophic turn of events…It’d be out of character for the monsters we’re familiar with. Allow me to make that objective observation.”
Finn didn’t beat around the bush in laying out his reasoning. He knew that would have the opposite effect, which was why he frankly answered all the questions lobbed at him.
He let them vent their hesitation, dissatisfaction, rage, hatred—explaining everything in his own words without making any attempt to quibble with their arguments. He would never try to force his view on them with rhetorical flourishes. Without raising his voice, he appealed to them with the available information, responding with a dispassionate tone that carried across the room.
At this moment, Finn wasn’t engaging in a discussion but a ritual—not offering an explanation so much as getting them to sympathize with his cause, all in order to move forward.
“I’ve already completed negotiations with a group of armed monsters during the battle two days ago. Bearing witness to this are none other than Lefiya and her companions who stormed Knossos with her.”
“What…?!”
“This might have been something that I should have kept from you…If I’m being frank, I’d intended to hide it, even though I knew about the true nature of those monsters—all because I predicted that the familia would be thrown into disarray, like it is now,” Finn revealed, sincere, earnest, resolute.
Without any deceit, Finn gave them a glimpse of his thoughts and hopes, and the barrage of voices assaulting him died off for a beat.
“…Then why…why are you bringing it up?” a male familia member finally ventured.
“To win,” Finn declared to his confused subordinate, who looked as if he was begging for some sort of explanation. “To defeat those denizens of darkness who are lurking inside that lair of demons. To ensure peace for Orario. For that, I would even become a villain,” he finished with unwavering resolve.
He announced his willingness to throw away the fame he had clung onto so tightly, to become an enemy to humanity if that’s what it took.
Just like Bell Cranell had—and Finn knew that an even more tragic end would await him for it.
In truth, he had not given up on the path of the hero in the slightest. Just as he had told Riveria and Gareth, he had sworn to himself that he would return an even greater one if he fell into notoriety.
But to those familia members who had no way of knowing about his growth, which had happened behind the scenes, this came as an unimaginable shock. No, even if they had known, it would have only made the impact all the bigger. They were at a loss for words because they knew just how much Finn had devoted himself to the restoration of his race.
His determination toward this cause shook them to their very cores.
“Any more comments? I’ll answer anything. I intend to give it to you straight in response to your concerns and thoughts.”
The protests had come to an end after their prum leader answered every comment, systematic and unflinching, during the drawn-out assembly. By this point, even members who had been the most vocal about their disapproval had uneasily pursed their lips. The others exchanged glances, unsure of what to say.
But there were those who stayed silent for other reasons: There was no way they could beat Finn in an argument. They were the members of Loki Familia who hadn’t been able to dispel their hatred of monsters. For those with unresolved issues from losing a loved one to a monster, this animosity ran deep, unbridgeable no matter how forthright Finn was in his answers.
If anyone had dashed out of the room then, all of those who had been alienated by his proposal would surely follow in a chain reaction.
That was when Anakity raised her slender arm straight into the air, as if cutting through the noise. “Captain.”
“Yes, Aki?”
“No posturing or lip service. Can you tell us what you think of the armed monsters?” The cat person slowly stood up from her chair, speaking as though she was testing him.
Finn responded in a tone no different from all his other responses. “I’d like to say that we can use them…but I’m going to make it a point to say…I trust them. I believe those monsters are worthy of it.”
Trust. The familia members were troubled by this word.
Maintaining the same expression, Anakity came back with a follow-up question. “There are those among us who have had friends, family, lovers slaughtered by monsters. Are you still saying that you trust them?”
“I am.”
Say there were dwarves whose comrades had been killed by elves or elves whose brethren had been murdered by dwarves. Would they bear a grudge against the perpetrator’s entire race?
—Not that Finn would respond with this cliché.
He knew monsters were humanity’s enemy, a malignant tumor on the mortal realm that needed to be removed at all costs. And yet, he declared that he would take a swig of their poison.
No petty tricks. He’d chosen to show his determination with one simple idea instead of a roundabout explanation.
Because if he couldn’t even do that, how could they possibly hope to fight side by side with the monsters?
Anakity stared into Finn’s blue eyes, which concealed nothing, and bore his decision.
“…”
Her eyes, as bl
ack as her hair, were probing him. It was the gaze of someone appraising another who held the higher Status. Not that it was impolite. It was well within the rights granted to a lower-tier member in an organization. Without it, an organization would reject a great many ideas and stunt its growth.
Anakity Autumn looked at him for the others in the room—the eyes of the people. In effect, she spoke for everyone else.
The one who couldn’t break into the big leagues, Raul, flicked his gaze back and forth between the girl in his cohort and his beloved captain. His distress was almost charming.
“…Okay. Then I have nothing else to say.” Anakity silently sat back down.
It signaled that she would follow Finn’s resolution, which pacified the other familia members for the simple reason that Anakity had agreed to it.
This change of heart wasn’t something that the leaders or top-tier adventurers, including Finn and Aiz, would have been able to achieve. It had to be done by Anakity, who headed the second-string forces that connected all lower-tier members to the elites.
Winning over Aki is big…Well, I guess she skillfully directed it, huh?
He wouldn’t let anyone know he sincerely thought from the bottom of his heart that she’d just saved him. If he’d been anything less than completely committed, Anakity would have cast him aside for the sake of the other familia members. With her gifts and impartiality, she could carry it out—easy.
Though she’d respected and sworn loyalty to the familia’s leaders, she had a strong enough will to defy them if their actions were illogical. But she was wise. She understood what the familia needed as they prepared to conduct an attack on Knossos—namely, solidarity.
She had posed her question to test Finn—and to understand his intentions. It could even be said that she did so because she trusted him. It was clear that her shrewdness had brought the familia closer together.
“May I…say something?”
The last to raise her hand was the elf Alicia. When Finn nodded, she stood up, placing her hand on her chest.
“One of those armed monsters…saved my life,” she confessed, as if in repentance, causing a stir to spread through the room.