Of course, unlike that time, she was fully dressed this time around.
She wore a white scarf, a green tunic, and a black skirt.
A small, cute, girlish red pouch hung from her thin white belt.
Threaded through the belt was a white cross-shaped sword, slung diagonally across her lower back.
"She kinda looks like that black cat, y'know."
"Yeah, she does."
It wasn't that she looked like her — she was her.
"Well, well. Long time no see. Black Cat."
"Witch... wouldn't you like to know about the situation?"
"Hars. Can you fill us in?"
Hars. So that was her name.
At Peony's words, Hars gave a little nod.
"I scouted the area and found what appears to be a cave that serves as the enemy's hideout. After looking around further, I came across the witches, and I've been trailing along with them since."
The witch thing was one thing, but this was yet another brand of bizarre speech on top of it.
And wasn't that speech pattern hard to maintain?
"Oh, so you finally found their main base."
"It is a fair distance from here, however?"
"No matter. Let's get into formation right away."
"Hmm, hmm. Peony. I'd love to hear about the enemy."
"A bandit gang made up of washed-up delvers, like always. But the scale is different. And they're calling themselves the 'Dragon Fang Law.'"
"Wait, that's—!?"
"They're supposed to have been wiped out ages ago!"
The mention of the Dragon Fang Law caught both me and Bido off guard.
Peony looked at Bido.
"And you are?"
"Bido. At the Dragon Fang Law headquarters, with Wof, Munieka, and... I forget who the other one was, but we wiped them out."
"Yes. They should be gone."
Peony nodded with a thoughtful expression.
Wasn't the other one Haiyan? Just one rabbit, but still.
"I see. So it was you lot. I do know the main body was destroyed. But they had plenty of remnants left. They'll be scattered all over this country."
"Was the Dragon Fang Law really that big of an organization?"
I'd always figured they were just some small-time crooks.
"Because they committed crimes far and wide?"
"Partly because they had nobles backing them. What we're doing now is hunting down the remnants."
Come to think of it, there was a noble involved, wasn't there?
I exposed everything, and they got shut down. Or something like that.
Let me see... I think it was someone named Steel. Ugh, I can barely remember anymore.
"I'll help too."
"Mm, mm. Kon was also involved to some extent. I suppose I'll pitch in what little I can."
"I'll join too. I've got a grudge against them."
That settles it. An unexpected remnant, but not unrelated.
"Much obliged. That helps. There are two especially troublesome ones we need to watch out for."
"Hmm, hmm. What might those be?"
"Troublesome?"
"Right. First is a necromancer."
Peony said solemnly.
A necromancer?
"Oh my. That is indeed troublesome. They turn corpses into fighting force, you see."
"I've fought against the undead type before."
"Unfortunately, this one's human. An elf with a job-system Relic."
"Those do exist, huh."
"And then the other troublesome one is a man called Greeze. He's also the boss of the remnants. The necromancer is his right hand."
"Greeze. What kind of guy is he?"
"A big man with prominent burn scars on his face. He wields a fire Relic himself. And he was a former Second-Class delver. He went by 'Calamity Fire.'"
"...On his... face... burns"
"But they haven't been showing up lately. They're probably holed up in their hideout."
A necromancer and a big man with burns on his face. Haven't seen them around.
Come to think of it, recently somewhere — oh, no way. Let me check.
"Peony... have you looked into various things about this Greeze?"
"Of course. I've gathered what background information I could."
"Is Greze bald?"
"Yeah. Bald."
"Does he have any history with Agaro?"
"He does. Agaro of the Doom Sword got away from him once before. The burns on his face are from that encounter — Agaro did that. Why do you ask?"
Well, that settles it.
Can't believe all this connects back to this place.
Everyone was looking at me with puzzled expressions.
"Those two. They're already dead."
"What?"
Peony furrowed her brow.
"Oh my, oh my. What an unexpected turn of events."
The witch looked amused, while Hals's half-lidded eyes narrowed further.
"What exactly does that mean?"
"What do you mean by that?"
Bid's eyes widened in surprise as well.
I chose my words carefully and answered everyone.
"I can't go into detail since it's a guild commission, but Greze had turned into a zombie."
"A zombie... you killed him?"
"Yes. Narcissus took down Greze, and Agaro finished off the necromancer."
That necromancer had become a lich.
When people die, they can sometimes become undead.
But those are zombies, skeletons, and ghouls.
Rarely, they might even become Dravuguls or Dullahans.
But becoming a lich—the king of the undead—is something that hardly ever happens.
The necromancer had become a lich due to the influence of the Death Abstract.
So I decided to keep quiet about that.
"Narcissus… From the 'Revival of Generous'? Of the Utopia family from the Edda Six Houses?"
"Yes. I participated in the commission."
"Oh my. That's very rare indeed."
"So this was a commission with two First-Class delvers participating?"
"That's right."
Hals caught on, and I nodded. Bid exclaimed, "That's pretty fancy."
Peony wore a slightly bitter expression. She probably hadn't expected this at all.
"No wonder they didn't show themselves."
Peony murmured and sighed.
"But with this, then, our concerns have been addressed?"
"That's right. All that's left is to sweep up the remnants. Thank you for the valuable information, Wof."
Peony bowed her head slightly and thanked me.
"Not at all. I never would have guessed there were connections in a place like this."
"Yeah, yeah. That's what makes life interesting, you know."
"Is that so...?"
Bid pulled a somewhat glum expression, flicking his lop-eared rabbit ears back and forth.
Maybe the party's disbanding had brought it back to mind.
He was still going solo, so it probably still weighed on him.
After that, we confirmed the hideout's location on the map. It was in the mountains deep within the forest where we'd been ambushed.
That's when I noticed something.
"What's on the other side of these mountains?"
The mountains stretched on like a wall, and beyond them it was nothing but more mountains.
"You didn't know? The other side is still uncharted. On most maps, they just fill it in with mountains instead of leaving it blank."
"An unknown zone, huh? I hear they're rare depending on the region."
"Sure, sure. We used to try and fill in this area, you know. There was once a delver party famous for filling in the unknown zones on maps. Ah, those were the days."
"'The Blank Flag,' they were called. They'd uncover all sorts of unknown zones and chart them on the map. Their leader was a First-Rank delver known as 'the Blank Lord'... the name was Tabra Geo Glapia."
But they weren't among the current First-Rank delvers.
"So the fact that nothing is marked here means..."
"No one who went in ever came back. Tabra included."
"So even a First-Rank couldn't make it?"
"Looks that way?"
"..."
Probably. I was pretty sure that ruined city—the one that had been transported to the 44th floor—was somewhere in this unknown zone.
They might have been able to pass through to the other side from the hideout's cave.
But that's puzzling. Even the first-class delvers couldn't manage it, so how did Grizz and the others make it through unscathed?
Well, I guess calling it "unscathed" is a stretch when they ended up as zombies.
Once the checks were done, Peony reorganized things and headed out of the tent.
The witch and Bid struck out for town.
I decided to head back to Skear Coffin Ele. I needed to talk to everyone.
"Hey, Hals."
"There's no need to worry about me, you know?"
"Right, got it."
For some reason, Hals followed me.
He trailed along behind me at an angle, his long tail swishing back and forth.
Then, out of nowhere—
"You there. There's something you want to ask, isn't there?"
That caught me off guard.
"There is, but I'm not sure if it's okay to ask."
At least, that's how it was when it came to Relics.
Hals spoke.
"If it's about the black cat, then yes—it's here with me. It's a transformation Relic, after all?"
"I knew it... Ah, um, about that bath—"
"That was an accident, wasn't it?"
"Wait, that's really okay?"
"It was an accident, right?"
"Y-yes. That's right."
There was a strange pressure behind those words, so I nodded.
"Then it would be best to consider the matter settled, no?"
"Yes, it would."
"Then we shall consider the matter closed, so?"
It looked like I was going to be let off the hook after all.
Come to think of it.
"Hals, do you know Pakira?"
I remembered. I had chatted with Pakira at the pre-festival party before.
They were both catfolk, so I figured they must be friends.
"............"
Huh, she ignored me. And the atmosphere had gone heavy.
"Um—"
"I just remembered I have an urgent matter, so—"
"Huh?"
"Well then?"
She left. It seemed like I had stepped on a landmine.
I returned to the Skear Coffin Ele and immediately told everyone.
When I finished telling her, Mineha was oddly fired up.
Shardina drew her cutlass too, muttering something like "Tonight, Catrana hungers for blood, desu."
Catrana… She gave it a name?
But who would've thought — villain hunting. And remnants of the "Dragon Fang Rou" at that.
On top of that, it was connected to that ruined city on the 44th floor of the dungeon.
This should wrap up like a normal remnant hunt, right?
A cave at the base of the mountain.
Deep inside. A space lined with countless temple-like columns.
At its center, a man in a robe and a eerie red mask was screaming.
"Fua ha ha ha ha ha, fua ha ha ha ha haaa!! At last. Finally!"
Behind the red-masked man sat something massive and red-black with a single eye.
Its crimson gaze gleamed with a sinister allure, seizing the hearts of anyone who looked upon it.
At first glance, it looked like a wolf.
But it had six legs, and flexible chains grew from its back.
Its tail split into four branches that became a sword, a spear, an axe, and a hammer.
The sword was burning, the spear was frozen, the axe was crackling with electricity, and the hammer was hardened.
Its mouth was slit open to the limit, and every single tooth vibrated faintly.
If you got thrown in there, not even scraps would remain.
The red-masked man spread his arms wide, rejoicing as though embracing something.
"Now, awaken. Hellsgahn Unit. Announn!!!"
The crimson-black monster rose to its feet and devoured the red-masked man before it.
The red-masked man was chewed apart before he could even scream, his soul shattered until nothing remained.
"VVVVVVVVVOOOOOOAAAAA!"
Once it finished eating, it released an unnervingly bizarre roar.
From around Announn, dozens of small black dogs began surging up from the ground.
They were monsters transformed from the many two-legged insects that had swarmed the cavern and its surroundings.
It had manipulated the negative energy they already possessed and turned them into its minions.
Their tail tips served as weapons, and each had a single red eye.
If anyone had witnessed the sight, they would have said:
A legion of hell.