The witch's house.
We're cheerfully guided to the living room by the witch.
Immediately, she serves black herbal tea that whispers "come here" in a smooth, handsome voice.
She's gone down another weird track again. Haiyān conspicuously distanced himself from it and spoke.
"Please. Witch. I want to know how to enter the dungeon."
A rabbit prostrating on the table.
"Oh my, now that is quite the outrageous request."
"Please. I absolutely must get to the lab."
"Haiyān... um, please. We want to enter the dungeon."
The witch looked at us and put a hand to her lips.
"Hmm hmm. What a peculiar story. The dungeon will be unsealed soon. I didn't think you were the type to lack patience, young Wof."
"Witch. The dungeon has been closed indefinitely. When we went to the guild today, that's what they told us."
"What? What? Hmm hmm. Could you wait just a moment?"
Saying that with a bewildered air, the witch left the living room.
Haiyān and I were left behind.
And the black herbal tea that kept whispering "come here~" in a lingering, handsome voice for some reason.
"Hey, my friend Wof."
"I'm not your friend, but what is it?"
Haiyān put on a serious expression unlike his usual self.
What's up?
"Hey, the witch. Don't you think she's definitely wearing sexy underwear?"
"…………"
"No, sorry. I'm kidding."
"She is wearing some. I've seen them."
"Wh-what… did you say…!?"
No need to look like you got struck by lightning or anything.
Witch underwear is basically all flimsy stuff like that.
"What's with that puzzled look?"
"Ah— I just… didn't expect you to actually answer that."
"I see. Also, I've seen the witch naked a few times too."
"Wha— hey— wait—!?!? I thought you two had a master-disciple relationship… you!"
"We do have a master-disciple relationship."
"Then how— why— how did you see her naked!?"
This is getting tedious.
Maybe I should've just beaten her up normally.
"The witch sometimes walks around naked at home."
"She's a nudist!?"
"More or less. That's how I've seen her."
"SO NOT FAIR!!"
Enough to make her cry? With a weary sigh, the witch returned.
She settled onto the sofa across from me with a grunt and sipped her herbal tea.
"What a headache, what a headache. The indefinite closure was true after all."
"Have you figured out the cause?"
"Mm-hm. It's a dungeon anomaly."
"A-a dungeon anomaly—!? B-but we already solved the anomaly!"
I was visibly shaken.
"Indeed, indeed—you and your friends did solve it. But this is something different. It's a new dungeon anomaly."
An-another one? Another anomaly, now of all times... Wait—is that even possible?
So that's why the closure was indefinite. Even so—I asked.
"Is there still a way to get in?"
"My, my. Young Wof. Unauthorized entry during a dungeon closure or lockdown could result in permanent revocation of your delver's license, you know. Do you understand what you're asking?"
The witch's voice was stricter than I'd ever heard.
She was warning me as a First-Class Delver, and as my teacher.
"...Wof."
"A girl is crying. I don't want her to have to cry."
I looked straight into the witch's clear green eyes and said it. I'd gone and said it.
The witch stared at me for a moment, then gave a quiet, charming smile.
"Good grief. Of course you'd say that. You really are hopeless—utterly, completely Kon's beloved disciple."
"Witch?"
"First off, when a dungeon is closed or sealed, it's literally, physically shut. There's no entrance or exit all the way to the highest floor ever reached. Breaking through that isn't so much difficult as it is practically impossible. So no idiot would ever even try. But even so—there is a way in."
"Really?!"
"How?"
"Now, now, you lot. Especially you, young Wof. Are you really going through with this?"
"Yes."
I answered immediately without breaking eye contact with the witch. She gave a pleased, wry smile.
"Well then, young Wof. How about borrowing the money from Kon?"
"Huh?"
Huh?
"Borrowing... money...?"
"What exactly do you mean by that, witch?"
"Well, you see, the things needed to get in are very, very expensive. You'll need at least a hundred million oro."
"A hundred million...?!"
I choked on my words.
Haiarn picked up where I left off.
"What exactly do we need?"
"Hmm hmm. Yes, yes. First, what you absolutely need is a simple teleportation circle."
"A teleportation circle... that teleportation circle?"
That teleportation circle we'd used so many times. Haiarn wore a contemplative look.
She straightened her long rabbit ears to attention and suddenly lit up.
"You're planning to skip floors with a teleportation circle?"
"Oh my. You caught on. That's exactly right. The floor entrances are sealed, so getting through them normally is impossible. Even unlocking just one would tip off the guild. But a teleportation circle—that's a different story."
Floor skipping. Oh, that thing. The thing we did in the water dungeon.
Using a teleportation circle to jump over a bunch of dungeon floors in one go.
"See, the thing is, the city dungeon floors already have teleportation circles installed. So if I connect to one of those, I can reach them from here too. Unauthorized connection is illegal, of course, and setting up a teleportation circle without permission is also illegal."
"It's nothing but illegal, is what you're saying."
"But, but—if nobody finds out, it's not illegal."
The witch flashed a wicked grin.
And the fact that nobody would find out was precisely because it was the witch.
"What do you mean by a disposable teleportation circle?"
"Ah yes, that would be a Legacy. It's a single-use teleportation circle."
"So you use a disposable one, and that takes care of the evidence."
"...There isn't a single legal thing about any of this."
"Mm-hmm. And that is exactly what you're about to do for Mineha's sake."
"Even so, I want to go to the twelfth floor."
I steeled myself once more. The witch tilted her head.
"Hm? Hm? The twelfth floor is your destination?"
"Yes. The Ark Ruins."
"Hmm. Hmm. Hmm, hmm. You know, this dungeon anomaly we've been dealing with—there's a chance it might not be unrelated to you."
"What do you mean by that?"
I had a bad feeling. The witch spoke as if recalling something.
"Well, well, according to the info Kon dug up — that dungeon anomaly appears to be a horde of pale metal Minotaurs. And that horde apparently poured out from the twelfth floor."
The twelfth floor! Pale metal Minotaurs! — I instinctively looked at Haiyarn.
The white rabbit standing on two legs atop the table was baring its teeth, eyes wide open.
It looked like it was in shock.
Those Minotaurs were the ones we fought, weren't they?
A horde of them. I didn't even need to think about what had caused something like that to appear.
Right. This rabbit.
Haiyarn spoke to us in a near-murmur.
"Those are Minos units. Golems modeled after the dungeon's Minotaur monsters. They were still in the prototype stage, but I suppose they were complete after all."
"Why did they start moving?"
"The one who activated them is most likely whoever turned me into a rabbit. It makes more sense that they rigged it so the units would activate simultaneously with my awakening — that fits the timing better."
"Can we stop them?"
"The lab."
"...Witch. No matter what, we're going to have to go there now, aren't we?"
"Mm-hmm. Looks that way."
The witch laughed, exasperated. I managed a dry smile of my own.
Less than a week since becoming a delver and I was already about to get evicted. What even was this.
But there was no avoiding it. I had no choice.
Because I'd caused it. Not so much us — I was the one who'd started it all.
Man, my life plan is completely shot.
How did it even come to this?
I actually miss the days when I was struggling to get by scavenging the Junkyard, just a few months ago.
"Well then, let's go borrow some money from Kon right away, Wof-boy."
"G-go easy on me… So what are we doing first?"
The witch didn't answer. Instead, she pulled something from inside her top and tossed it into the air.
When Hiyarn and I reflexively looked up, the scenery had completely changed.