Episode 123

Chairs, a table, a bed—the minimum furniture was provided.

When I opened the wardrobe, a row of clothes was neatly arranged. They must all be sized to fit my body.

I hadn’t brought any luggage in particular, so there was nothing for me to put away—my check was done.

“If there’s anything inconvenient, tell me, okay?”

“Yeah, got it… but I think I’ll be fine for now.”

“That’s good to hear. Well then, I’ll go attend the meeting about the dungeon raid.”

“Ah, is it okay if I come?”

“I don’t see why not. Faik must be tired too, right?”

“But if we’re going on a dungeon raid, I’ll go along too, won’t I? If I can listen in on the discussion together, I’d like to hear it.”

Alicia put a hand to her chin as if thinking for a moment.

…It seemed Alicia was worried about me and didn’t really want me to participate.

I might need to negotiate a bit more firmly.

“Yeah… I understand. But if you think joining the dungeon raid will be too difficult, you can refuse, you know?”

“I know, thanks.”

“No problem. Then let’s go together.”

I left the room with Alicia.

The reason I wanted to join the dungeon raid was, first, that I was terribly worried about Alicia, but that wasn’t the only reason.

The second reason was to improve my reputation.

Among the people involved with the Barnast family, not everyone was likely to have a good opinion of me.

There would probably be many who didn’t know anything about me.

But from now on I’d be interacting with many people together with Alicia.

If there was anything I could do, I intended to actively help and leave a good impression on those connected to the Barnast family.

Participating in the dungeon raid would be valuable in that respect as well.

When we entered the conference room, Sir Rigard was already there.

Behind Sir Rigard’s seat stood two guard soldiers.

There were also two unfamiliar soldiers. As they turned their gazes toward us from around the table in the room, they stood up and bowed politely.

I had met the guard soldiers earlier, but those soldiers were strangers to me.

Alicia stepped forward and gestured toward me with one hand.

“This is my fiancé, Faik.”

Hearing ‘fiancé,’ I felt the soldiers’ gazes grow even more intense.

It didn’t feel like an unpleasant stare… at least that’s how it seemed.

I gave a light bow in return, then fell in behind Alicia.

Sir Rigard, who was seated at the innermost spot, leaned both elbows on the table and regarded us with a serious look.

“Alicia, Faik. Thank you for coming. Please take a seat.”

Saying that, Sir Rigard pointed to a nearby seat.

It was the seat on either side of Sir Rigard.

Alicia and I nodded slightly, then sat down so as to flank him on either side.

Refy, who had come along, stayed in the conference room as a servant and took a position along the wall.

With everyone’s attention focused on Sir Rigard, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Then let’s get started with the briefing about the dungeon. First, regarding the current situation of the dungeon, could you explain it again in a way that Alicia and Faik can understand?”

He was like a different person from when I met him in the study earlier.

Surprised by Sir Rigard’s intensity, the soldier who had been seated stood up smoothly.

He looked to be close to thirty years old.

Being in the conference room suggested he held a fairly high rank among the soldiers.

“Regarding the dungeon, after conducting an internal investigation, we’ve confirmed the presence of monsters with power ranging from E-rank to D-rank.”

E-rank to D-rank level of power, huh.

For example, even if creatures like goblins appear, their abilities often differ from one dungeon to another.

The same goblin might have A-rank level ability in a different dungeon.

This is largely due to the mana the dungeon generates.

The soldier who had stood up continued speaking.

“We haven’t reached the innermost area yet, so we haven’t confirmed a boss monster, but based on similar dungeons so far, we believe a boss monster of roughly D- to C-rank could appear.”

C-rank, huh.

This might be a more demanding job than I first thought.