A cave at the foot of the mountain.
Peony flicked the dark reddish-black blood from the golden sword.
The golden blade had ancient silver characters etched into it.
Probably an OOPArt. She sheathed it and said, looking bored:
"So what even was this place, in the end?"
A strange space with dozens of pillars arranged at regular intervals, like a temple.
There, we stared at the massive, brutally butchered corpse of the monster that had just been slain.
What on earth was it? I'd never seen a monster like this before.
Eerie. It was just grotesque and repulsive and eerie.
Even the first-ranked witch and Peony, both well accustomed to monsters, said it was their first encounter with anything like this.
Apparently, having artificial chains attached to its back was unprecedented.
They said tail-based elemental weapons are fairly common. Common, really?
A monster that had been tampered with and modified — that was the judgment of my past life memories.
This only strengthened the connection to that ruined city. It might have been an experimental subject.
The witch was gazing at the severed head.
She seemed particularly drawn to the red-black single eye.
Even in death, it glowed with an ominous, beautiful light — like a gemstone.
But it was a living thing.
"Hmm, hmm. Now, how do we go about getting that?"
Take them!? We're harvesting them? These eyes?
She seemed serious about it. Well, she was a witch — she'd figure out how to remove them cleanly somehow.
I had no idea what they'd be used for, though.
Anyway, off to my diagonal rear, Bidd was drawing his Flash-Foot Sword and cutting down the black dogs.
There were still scattered black-dog monsters around, but the crisis was pretty much over.
So how did things end up like this?
It all happened completely out of the blue. The day we were set to head out to the hideout.
Without warning, a massive pack of black dogs surged out of the forest and attacked us.
It was like a legion straight out of hell.
But we'd been fully prepared.
At first, we held a defensive line while figuring out the enemy's identity and fighting style.
Once that was clear, we switched to an offensive and charged straight in.
Fighting them taught us that this pack of black dogs wasn't coordinated at all.
Their attacks were simple, they had no strategy, and they were no match for the battle-hardened Delver Knights.
According to the witch, "My my, it's almost as if they were born just moments ago."
Once victory was assured, a small elite squad — myself included — stormed the hideout and took out the enemy boss.
That was the sequence of events.
Honestly, there wasn't much for us to do.
Peony was untouchable. The Delver Knights' commander was untouchable.
Their swordplay blazed golden and flickered silver — gorgeous and elegant.
Probably. That vaguely wolf-like giant thing was probably strong.
Definitely gem-rank lower, I'd say.
And the pack of black dogs was more than enough of a threat, even without coordination.
Maybe gold-rank middle.
But they picked the wrong opponents. Terribly wrong.
They had no luck. That about sums it up.
Conversely, we were lucky.
For the record, there was no sign of the human villains who were supposed to be fighting.
Did they get away somehow? Or...
Hals, who'd turned into a black cat, was sitting on Peony's shoulder. Cute.
— Meow.
— Hmm hmm. There's another passage deeper in?
— Meow.
— Looks like it leads outside? Would that be the other side?
— Meow.
— Alright. Let's go.
— Um, Peony?
She seemed to be having a conversation with the cat.
Peony and Hals both looked at me almost simultaneously.
— What's wrong?
"Meow."
"You're having a conversation?"
"What?"
"Meow."
The two of them looked at each other blankly.
Their timing was perfectly in sync. Peony noticed with a start.
"Oh, a conversation? Indeed we are. The transformation Relic can't be casually deactivated."
Because you'd end up naked.
"Besides, Hals is a girl. I can't just deactivate it that easily."
"Meow."
"That's right."
Because you'd end up naked, yeah.
"So I trained to be able to converse while staying as a cat."
"And that's how you learned to talk?"
"Mm. That's right."
Is that really the kind of thing training can achieve?
They sure get along.
I still couldn't tell what Dagaa was saying.
"Meow."
"That's right. Wof, you join in too."
"Oh, yes. Understood."
I followed Piaani down the passage at the deepest end of the cave, the cat perched on her shoulder.
We suddenly emerged outside.
"Whoa!"
"This is..."
"Meow."
We were up high. A building, maybe. Looked like one.
From there, an astonishing sight spread out before us.
A hole. A massive hole had been punched into the ground.
The bottom was completely invisible.
It was an unnaturally enormous, perfectly round hole.
"What the heck is that?"
"...That's impossibly huge."
"Yeah..."
I understood. The ruined city must have been right here.
So the entire underground ruins had indeed been transferred to the 44th floor of the dungeon.
Why the 44th floor specifically — that much I couldn't say.
But I could tell something had been done to cause this. And that it had been a huge mistake.
One look at this hole and you'd get it immediately.
"Meow."
"Anything there, just before the entrance?"
"There really is. Something... I wonder what it is."
Something glowing white, just before the entrance... a structure, perhaps. There was something there.
"Shall we go check it out?"
"We're going?"
"Just scouting."
"Meow."
"Don't worry. We'll go and come right back."
"There are stairs, too."
Right nearby there were stairs, stretching endlessly straight down.
They didn't seem to be broken anywhere.
Even so, we went down carefully.
"Hm, strong sandstorm."
Once we reached the bottom, a fierce wind laced with sand was blowing.
I pressed my scarf over my mouth.
"Meow!"
"Stay still."
"Meow."
Peony set Harus down from her shoulder and gave her a gentle squeeze.
Her own way of dealing with the sandstorm, probably.
"Stay sharp as we go."
"Right."
Peony took the lead, struggling onward as the sand and wind clawed at her feet and body.
But partway through, she dropped sharply downward.
"Ngh!?"
"Peony!!"
She was being swallowed by the ground, sinking deeper with every second.
Sand. Quicksand.
"Meow."
"Tch, I know. The armor's heavy."
Both her legs were already completely submerged.
Wh-what do I do.
"Meow."
"Don't panic. Just stow it. 'Shell'."
The moment I spoke the incantation, Peony's armor was purged and drawn into the gemstone of the pendant she wore.
Once everything had been stored inside the gem, Peony was left in nothing but a cute set of reddish-pink underwear.
A bra with a red frame and pale pink fabric, straining to contain her large, jiggling chest.
The panties probably matched.
"P-Peony..."
"Stop staring."
"Y-Yes."
"Meow."
"Well, you've stopped, but what now?"
"Meow."
She'd gotten lighter, so the sinking into the sand had stopped.
But she couldn't move carelessly. Moving would make her sink again.
Pulling her out from above was the only option, but both her legs being buried was a critical problem.
No ordinary amount of strength could pull Peony free.
Banish had no effect. Knife Magic didn't look like it would help either.
Vibrasion would only make things worse.
"The golden sword and the pure silver sword are both too powerful. They'd only end up causing more damage."
"Don't you have anything with less power?"
"No."
Peony answered without hesitation. She sounded almost confident about it.
Hmm. Was there some way—actually, there was. A surefire method to save Peony.
But this method was... especially with how Peony looked right now... No. What was I hesitating for?
This was, quite frankly, a life-or-death situation.
"Meow."
"Looks like pulling her up is the only way. First we need a rope. Wof, do you have one?"
"I don't. What about you, Peony?"
"If I had one, I wouldn't be asking."
"Fair enough."
"Can't be helped. Wof, go call the witch."
"What if she sinks while I'm gone?"
"...If that happens, it can't be helped. It would mean Peony = Monkshood has reached the end of the road."
A fleeting smile drifted across her lips.
Was this what you'd call dignity? Was she holding back, refusing to do anything that would be disgraceful for a knight?
She'd die while I went to get the witch.
"...Peony. There's a way to save you."
"Oh? There is?"
"Yes."
I drew my knife. Barnacles, shells, seaweed, and coral clung to its sheath.
As if it had been brought straight up from the ocean floor — it was a knife from a different sea.
"What's that?"
"Meow."
The exposed blade was short, its edge ragged with chips, rusted a deep red.
It didn't look like it could cut a thing.
But this knife wasn't meant for cutting.
I took my stance and raised it high.
"A knife from a different sea. Tie it to her!"
As I chanted and swung, the knife became three octopus tentacles.
"Nyaa?!"
"Huh?!"
"There we go."
Two of the octopus's thick tentacles coiled around Peony.
"Hyaah!"
"Nyaa!"
That was when I felt the sensation of Peony's body transmitted from the knife straight to my hand.
The tentacles were another pair of hands for me.
I could move them however I liked, and every sensation they wrapped around was relayed directly to me.
"I'm pulling you out now!"
"Nyaa!"
"W-wait, hyah, hold on, wait! Kyaaaah!"
I yanked the knife hard and dragged her out.
Peony soared through the air, still caught in the tentacles, freed from the sand.
I heard a cute, high-pitched shriek, and the cat shot out and landed gracefully.
I gently set Peony down, retracted the tentacles, and put away the knife from a different sea.
"A-are you okay?"
"...Yeah."
She stood there in her red-pink underwear, drenched in tentacle slime, and nodded with her gaze lowered.
Her golden and pure-silver hair was drenched in tentacle slime too.
Her underwear was sticky and translucent.
"...Um."
"Don't say anything. I have plenty of thoughts on the matter, but first — thank you for saving me. Do you have a towel and a coat? Sorry. Once something's stored in my shell, I can't get it out for a while. I accidentally put my pouch in there too."
"H-here you go."
I handed her the water stone, towel, and coat.
Peony took everything, cracked the water stone to douse herself, and began wiping down with the towel.
After wiping off the worst of it, she let herself air-dry a bit right there while still wearing her clothes, then draped on the coat.
She picked up Hals, who had been nuzzling close.
"Shall we go, then?"
"Y-yes."
I noticed the violent sandstorm had stopped.
We arrived at our destination.
There, a massive, pure-white stele lay half-buried at an angle.
Black characters were carved into its surface.
I read them and — was struck speechless.
*May none awaken.*
*None shall see.*
*None shall know.*
*None shall hear.*
None May Utter It Aloud.
"No one, not a single soul — it must never truly exist."
I read it over and over, wondering if it was some kind of mistake.
But it was clearly carved into the stone tablet.
This — these were the words that had echoed through my mind when I first acquired [Generous] at the start.
Recently the echo had stopped — maybe because I'd gotten used to it by now — this riddle of a poem.
So why was it here —?
"What is this stone tablet? I can't make heads or tails of it."
"What could it mean... I don't understand either."
I answered Piony honestly as she tilted her head.
Why was this riddle poem in a place like this?
"Nyaah."
"Right. Let's head back. Doesn't look like we can go any further."
"Agreed."
The hole we'd confirmed from above was absurdly massive.
There'd be no way across. And it didn't look like there was anything beyond it, either.
As we turned back, she suddenly spoke up.
"That knife — the one with the tentacles that saved me?"
"I call it the Knife from a Different Sea. Something like that."
"That makes eleven times I've been captured by tentacles now. But to think I'd end up captured in a way that actually led to being rescued..."
So I'd been captured by tentacles that many times.
"Nya~"
"Huh? Sixteen times, you say?"
"Nya~"
"Let me revise that to sixteen times."
"R-right."
"It seems I had misunderstood you."
"Misunderstood?"
"Allow me to properly thank you."
Peony lowered her head.
When we got back, the witch happened to be extracting something from an eyeball.
A red-black glowing... crystal.
"Mufufufu... now the gauntlet is complete!"
"Huh?"
A gauntlet? Did she just say gauntlet?
What did she mean, complete?
There was a lot I wanted to ask, but I had no idea how to bring it up.
I couldn't bring myself to rain on the witch's parade when she looked that happy.
What would become of my gauntlet?
Well, it had been self-repairing this whole time anyway, so it wasn't really anything new.
The stone monument aside, at least finding out about the ruined city was a win.
Once we got back to Hydrangea, I'd tell Agaro and the rest.
And just like that, our battle was over.
I really hadn't done much of anything.