Chapter 42

We decided to head down for a scout of the eighth basement floor, under the strict condition that we would turn back immediately if anything happened.

“Still just Metal Crabs and Black Slimes, huh?”

Eni muttered as she pot-roasted a steel-clad crab.

Since I was incapable of such a feat, I attacked from the opposite angle with ice magic. The crab’s body was soon coated in a thin layer of frost, but it only slowed down. The thing was stubborn.

“Whoa, impressive! To be at that level with no-chanting when it isn’t even your specialty… I guess those rumors about you being Merlin’s successor aren’t just talk.”

Mora voiced her surprise with some exaggeration as she smashed the Metal Crab’s shell to pieces.

“Oh, uh, thanks. That helped a lot.”

“Such a humble boy!”

Coming from Mora, who looked like a little girl, being called “boy” felt incredibly off, but I accepted it under the assumption that she was likely older than me.

“Hey, you two. Don’t approach me from behind.”

Without realizing it, Mora and I had drifted toward Brad’s back. He sensed us without even turning around.

“Ah, sorry. I wasn’t paying attention,” Mora apologized reflexively and hopped away.

“Touchy as ever, isn’t he?” she whispered secretly into my ear.

“Have you known Brad for a long time?”

“Well, since back when I was just a rookie Digger. Back then, I never dreamed I’d end up an adventurer.”

“Oh?”

“But thinking back, maybe it was always meant to be. I mean, the whole reason I became a Digger in the first place was because I wanted to dig things up.”

“Treasure?”

“No.” Mora gave a toothy grin. “Dreams.”

“You’re quite the romantic.”

“You two seem to be getting along well. Chatting while I’m over here working my tail off killing monsters?”

Before I knew it, the monsters had been wiped out. Eni was staring at us, the corners of her eyes twitching.

Crap.

“It’s fine. If they slack off, it just means more things for me to cut. It helps.”

An unexpected lifeline was thrown our way. Or… was it a lifeline?

It was Henya. He flicked his sword to clear the monster vitals clinging to the blade.

“What, you’re that eager to slice up monsters?” Eni snapped back sarcastically, clearly annoyed by the intervention.

“It is all part of my training,” Henya replied. He didn’t smile; his eyes remained cold and sticky.

From behind him, Watch observed Henya with an expressionless gaze.

“Everyone, look at this for a moment.”

Hunt called out to us, breaking the strange tension. He was peering intently at a one-way wall ahead while consulting with Jin.

“What is it?” Mora tilted her head.

“No matter how you look at it, this is a straight shot. And I can see stairs up ahead. Does that mean once we pass this one-way wall, our only option is to head down to the eighth floor?” Jin voiced the concern.

Brad, who had already distanced himself to lean his back against a wall, spoke up.

“Ah, that spot. Yeah, that’s how it is. The structure forces you to descend to the eighth floor before you can head back up.”

“You mean we go down and then come up through a different set of stairs? But I don’t see any other stairs besides—”

“Jin, you’re joking, right? How many years have you been an adventurer? Once you come up from those stairs, the one-way wall will be right there.”

Right. Those walls are translucent from the side you can pass through, but look like solid walls from the other side. It wouldn’t be strange for the return stairs to be hidden behind one.

“Brad. What’s it like down there? Is the layout such that we can return to the stairs immediately? What about the monsters?”

Hunt fired off questions to confirm the data, but Brad just shrugged.

“Who knows? It’s been a long time since I delved into this place. To be honest, I don’t remember much. The guy in charge of mapping died some freak death on the sixth floor, so no maps survived.”

The mention of a map made me startle.

Come to think of it, Hunt had been leading us based on a map up to the fifth floor. But there were no maps beyond that? If so, we’d have to map it out ourselves as we conquered it.

“By the way, I see an idiot over there panicking for some reason, but don’t worry—I’m the one making the map,” Jin said, looking down at me with a chilly side-eye.

“Ah, as expected of an all-rounder. Having someone with high mapping skills like you is a lifesaver.”

After flatteringly building him up, Hunt checked his pocket watch.

“Hmm. Let’s head back to camp for now and set out again tomorrow morning.”

No one argued with Hunt, who was acting as the employer’s proxy, and the decision to turn back was made.

My gaze flickered to Kijiitsu. He remained unruffled, simply following the group’s movements.

Our eyes met. I flinched and looked away. The eyes I saw through the gaps in his feather ornaments… they were inquisitive. Like when he was drinking mead back at the manor.

But no. I finally realized it. The reason they looked inquisitive was because his eyes were opened so incredibly wide and round. But they weren’t being “held” open—that was just his natural state.

They were like the eyes of a doll. Round, glass-marble eyes.

Back at camp, we were put to work under Jin’s practiced command.

That said, it was just setting up tents, preparing the fire, and basic cooking. Eni, being the fire expert, had the flames going in no time. We used them to boil portable rations into a sort of porridge-like gruel. Shirona looked a bit funny, checking the ratio of water to rations with the same deadly seriousness she used for mixing medicine.

“Alright, let’s eat. Hunt, you’re a noble—is this humble fare going to be too unrefined for your palate?”

Jin asked, a crooked smirk playing on his lips.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I may be a noble, but I’m an adventurer first. I’m more than aware that simply having a warm meal is something to be grateful for.”

With a wry smile, Hunt approached the campfire.

“I thought we should at least have proper tableware, so I brought some from home.”

Hunt pulled several silver bowls from his pack.

“Whoa, how fancy!” Mora exclaimed, sitting up straighter.

“Kijiitsu, Brad, come eat with us!”

Everyone except those two had already gathered around the fire. At Eni’s invitation, the two of them slowly approached.

“This is the bowl I’ll be using.”

The moment he drew near, Brad haphazardly grabbed one of the many silver bowls and added, “I’ll serve myself.”

He scooped some gruel from the pot, his sharp eyes scrutinizing the food and then, for a fleeting second, searching our faces.

I stared at him, stunned by the sudden movement, but a moment later the meaning behind his actions hit me, and I felt a shiver run down my spine.

Poison.

He was on guard against us poisoning him.

Dinner with comrades at camp—normally, this should be the one time in a dungeon where you can truly let your guard down. To be this suspicious… just what kind of life has this man led?

However, no one else seemed fazed by Brad’s attitude; they all simply followed his lead and served themselves. Shirona, Eni, Hunt, Jin, Mora, Kijiitsu, Henya, and Watch.

“Wait, what?”

Having held back to wait until the end out of politeness, I realized there wasn’t a bowl left for me.

“Ah, my apologies. I didn’t bring enough bowls. Well, I’m sure one of you won’t mind,” Hunt said, making very little sense.

“Huh?”

“You can just eat directly from the pot, can’t you?”

And so, for some reason, I was the only one stuck shoving a spoon into the massive cooking pot.

“Time to eat!” Mora announced, diving into her food first. She ate with such intensity I wondered where it all fit in her tiny body.

I started eating as well. Hmm, it was a bit bland. Not that I was in a position to complain.

Brad didn’t take a single bite until he had confirmed that everyone else had swallowed their food. He was cautious to the bitter end.

Once dinner concluded without incident, the task of washing the dishes fell to me. The reason was simple: I was the most skilled at handling water and wind magic.

Of course, I didn’t waste our precious drinking water. Instead, I gathered moisture from within the dungeon and used wind pressure to blast the grime away with a minimal amount of liquid. It felt a little pathetic to use my magical talents for this, but at least I was being useful.

With the cleanup finished, Shirona’s medicine mixing, Mora and Henya’s weapon maintenance, and Eni’s gunpowder refilling were all done. Everyone prepared for bed.

As we began to split into tents by gender, my eyes widened.

Brad wasn’t heading toward a sleeping bag inside the tent. Instead, in a corner of the camp, he was setting down that massive iron chest he’d been carrying.

“Wh-What are you doing?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“Preparing my bed,” he replied matter-of-factly. Brad opened the lid of the iron box, which looked for all the world like a coffin.

He placed his greatsword beside it and climbed inside. Calling it “coffin-like” was an understatement—it was a coffin.

“Th-th-that thing…” I trailed off, speechless.

“It’s a thick iron box. Plus, it locks from the inside. It’s a one-man fortress. I don’t have to worry about someone slitting my throat in my sleep.”

I recoiled at the sheer abnormality of his paranoia as he gave a daring smirk.

“B-but wouldn’t you suffocate without air?” was the only question I could manage.

“There are air holes. They’re built into a complex structure so no one can attack through them, so don’t worry.” Brad’s expression then went stone-cold. “Van. Don’t even think about trying to kill me as a joke. If I see even a hint of such a gesture, I will kill you.”

I retreated into the tent without a word.

“Hmm? Is something wrong? You look pale.”

Inside, we were all sleeping side-by-side. Henya, who had brought his katana into his sleeping bag and was clutching it like a lover, looked at me as he spoke.

“N-no, I was just surprised by Brad’s… unusual sleeping arrangements.”

“Ah, he’s been like that for years. He probably can’t feel safe even while sleeping,” Hunt, his former disciple, said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

I glanced over and saw Kijiitsu already snoring, wrapped in his sleeping bag with all his feathers still on. Suddenly, my own frantic nerves felt a bit ridiculous.

“Yeah, I think I’ll get some sleep too.”

“Do that. Tomorrow’s going to be rough. At this pace, we’ll finally reach the tenth floor—the dead end Brad reached—by tomorrow.”

Jin, now in simple clothes after removing his armor, slid into his sleeping bag.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Hunt murmured, and after that, no one spoke. It seemed Watch was already asleep as well.

Realizing that staying awake any longer was just a waste of energy, I decided to drift off.

I wonder if the women are still awake, I thought, as my consciousness faded away.