Kindness Brings Danger

There was an undead dungeon with three cores.

We had come to clear it so we could make a magic bag and a Kou Phone.

As expected, dungeons with many cores had strong enemies.

There had been a lot of high-rank monsters.

Still, no matter how strong the undead were, they were no match for me with my Holy Wave constantly spilling out.

We easily reached the back room on the lowest floor of the dungeon.

A vast, empty hall spread out before us.

No one was there.

“Hm? Is the dungeon master not here?”

“That’s strange… did it perhaps get wiped out by Master’s Serâge?”

Liricia made finger-binoculars and peered into every corner of the hall, tilting her head.

I nodded deeply.

“Whatever. If it’s not here, that’s that. Let’s grab the core and go home.”

“Yes, Master!”

I headed for the room at the back of the hall.

I approached a round sphere, a deep green in color.

The core noticed my intrusion and began to glow, but I closed in before it could do anything.

I set my sword at my waist and thrust.

“Haaah!”

Gagon!

With a metallic crash, the core shattered.

I immediately pressed the Kou Phone against the surface of the sphere and poured Holy Wave into it.

The dungeon core, now turned into a pure white orb, spoke in a cheerful voice.

“Seizure complete.”

Then a panel beside the core opened, and three palm-sized gems popped out.

I put them into my bag and turned back to Liricia.

“Okay, let’s go ho—hm?”

“Kyaaaaaa!”

Suddenly, a woman’s scream echoed from somewhere in the dungeon.

Liricia and I looked at each other.

“Th-that voice just now…? Could there really have been an adventurer here!?”

“So that’s why the dungeon master wasn’t here, because it was chasing them!? Kou! What’s going on!?”

Blue light ran across the surface of the white orb.

“Beep beep… someone is lying on the ground.”

“Where!? And what about enemies!?”

“There are no enemies. Over that way, a woman is lying down.”

“No enemies…? Fine, whatever, let’s go help her for now. Liricia, turn back into your human form.”

“Yes, Master!”

Liricia folded the wings on her back away.

Then I ran along the lowest floor of the dungeon, watching the map displayed on the Kou Phone.

Kou took care of all the traps for us.

At a crossroad after we had sprinted down a long passage and turned several corners, we found a black-haired woman lying face-down on the ground.

She wore well-used leather armor, and a slender sword had fallen beside her. She did indeed look like an adventurer.

I rushed over and helped her up. Her beautiful black hair spilled down, and the circlet with its white gem glittered.

“Are you all right!?”

“U… ugh…”

I felt the warmth of her body.

Liricia knelt beside her and placed a hand on her.

“Full Heal!”

Color returned to the woman’s once pale face.

Then her eyes opened. Her large black eyes stared at me vaguely.

“Y-you two… please help me…”

“Don’t worry. You’re safe now. Why are you here?”

“I… I… where in the world is this?”

“Huh? This is the lowest floor of the dungeon… you don’t remember?”

As she raised her upper body, the woman looked around.

“No… I was definitely exploring a dungeon. But from there, my memory is gone…”

“Do you remember your name?”

“Emily.”

“I’m Alec. This is Liricia.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Emily-san. Is your body all right now?”

Liricia smiled and greeted her.

Emily smiled back as she stood up. Her black hair, long enough to reach her waist, swayed gently.

“Yes, thank you. That was a truly wonderful healing spell.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Just then, the Kou Phone vibrated.

I stayed alert, but there wasn’t a single monster in sight.

So I stepped a little away from the two of them and took the call.

“What is it, Kou?”

“Something’s weird, Master. The dungeon master is still alive. But it’s nowhere to be found.”

“What!? Then… Emily isn’t it?”

“That one is human. And this is an undead-type dungeon, so the dungeon master is undead.”

“What was the dungeon master here, then?”

“An Eternal Undead Ghost.”

“A ghost is just E-rank, right? Shouldn’t it have been erased by my Holy Wave?”

“No, Master. It seems to be a ghost that became undead in an eternal way.”

“What does that even mean? How does a ghost that’s already dead become undead on top of that?”

And eternal, at that.

Undead were basically eternal as it was.

Was it important enough to be given a special name?

…Could it be.

Kou answered in a flat tone.

“Who knows? I don’t really understand either.”

“Well, if you find anything else when you look into it, let me know.”

“Roger.”

I ended the call and went back to the two who were talking.

Liricia spoke to me with a bright smile.

“Master, we decided to escort Emily-san up to the surface.”

“If she makes it to the entrance, can she make it back on her own from there?”

Emily nodded, her black hair swaying.

“Yes! I don’t know what became of my party members, though…”

“We don’t know either, but once we reach town, we might find out something—anyway, let’s go.”

I started walking, watching the map on the Kou Phone.

Emily tried to follow after us, but her feet tangled.

“Ah!”

I instinctively reached out and caught her. Her soft weight pressed down on my arm.

And then I felt something off about her face.

“Are you okay?”

“It feels like… my body still doesn’t move quite right.”

“Can’t be helped—climb on my back.”

I crouched down and turned my back to her.

Emily happily wrapped her arms around me.

A pair of large, soft mounds pressed against my back.

She slipped her arms around me from behind. In her small clenched fist, the white gem glinted.

…Huh? A gem? That’s from her circlet…

As I was wondering, Emily whispered seductively into my ear.

“Thank you… what a strong body you have.”

“Well, I just ended up training naturally.”

I slid my hands under her firm bottom and stood up.

Since I was giving her a piggyback ride, her chest pressed even more tightly against my back.

Almost as if to divert my attention.

Emily spoke.

“I’m sorry.”

“Hm?”

“But I… I want to go home already…”

“What’s wrong, Emily? We’re going home right now, you know? …Don’t tell me.”

From what Kou had said and how Emily was acting, I had already more or less guessed it.

I also knew that it posed no danger to me.

Even so, I tried to glance back over my shoulder, just in case.

That was when Liricia screamed.

“Master! Run!”

A sharp impact slammed into my forehead.

Emily, still clinging to my back, had apparently pressed something against my brow from behind.

…Thought so. Well, fine.

“With this, my turn is over! I’m sorry!”

Emily lightly jumped off my back.

The gem had vanished from her hand.

Something was grinding its way into my forehead.

Shouting, Liricia swung her flail.

“How could you—! I won’t forgive you!”

But the flail only sliced through empty air.

Like a bird who had just gained wings, Emily bounded away through the dungeon.

“Now I’m free, I’m finally free, ahahaha!”

Her voice rang out full of delight and tinged with madness.

I muttered under my breath.

“Have a good ascent.”

Liricia rushed over to my side, her white wings spreading with a whoosh.

Her beautiful face was twisted as if she were about to cry.

“Oh no! How could this happen! Master, please stay with me!”

Her slender fingertips reached toward my forehead.

I simply stopped her hand.

“I can’t see it myself, but she embedded a gem in my forehead, right?”

“Yes, that’s right! It’s giving off a terribly ominous aura! I’ll remove it right now!”

“No, it’s fine. I’m probably okay.”

“Huh?”

“The bleeding has already stopped, and I understand what it means.”

“What in the world do you mean…?”

At Liricia’s confusion, I gave her a crooked grin.

“I’m not very smart, but when you multiply a negative by a negative, you get a positive, right?”

“Eh? Ah… calculation? Yes, that’s right.”

“So the undead and the negative overlapped and turned into a positive.”

“Eh?”

“In other words, Emily was already dead. Even she hadn’t realized it… but for some reason, by chance, she ended up possessing a dead person… I just hope she can finally find peace at the end.”

“…Then what will happen now?”

“It’ll just go back to being a negative—that’s all. Haaaaaah!”

I pressed my fingers to the gem in my forehead and focused my will.

I heard a cracking sound as it began to fracture.

Powder trickled down from my forehead.

Crack!

White fragments scattered before my eyes.

They sparkled in the dungeon’s light.

In that instant, white smoke rose from the gem.

It tried to take on a human shape, but like smoke blown by the wind, it faded away.

The ghost that had shut itself inside the gem had been purified by my Holy Wave.

Then, from somewhere far off in the dungeon, a shocked, heartrending scream echoed.

“W-what? Why… don’t tell me I… ah…!”

And then her voice vanished.

Liricia pressed her hands together in prayer.

“Please, this time, guide her to heaven without letting her lose her way again…”

“So there are undead who seal themselves into gems too, huh.”

“Yes. It’s terrifying… but Master, who figures it out in an instant and defeats it so easily, is even more amazing.”

With a hand over her chest, Liricia let out a breath of admiration.

I took out the Kou Phone and opened a call.

“Kou, that was the dungeon master just now, right?”

“Sure was. Looked like the type that possesses people. A pretty interesting mechanism, actually.”

“Did Emily manage to become free?”

“She has been released from all the ties of city life.”

“I don’t really get it, but that means it worked out, right? Good.”

“Seems so.”

“Okay, I’ll bring the cores back. Make me a magic bag and another Kou Phone.”

“Okay, I’ll be waiting.”

I ended the call and looked at Liricia.

“Let’s go home, then. Next up is the Demon Realm.”

“Yes, Master!”

With a lively reply, Liricia took my hand and started walking with me.

The warmth that came through her slender fingers was gentle to the point of being almost painfully kind.