Sema. So that's Mineha's father's name.
The Witch asked Mineha gently.
"Now then, Mineha — Sema. How much do you know about your father?"
"My father... when he was in a party, he handled maintenance and repair of the party's weapons and armor. After the party disbanded, he became my mother's personal repairman, more or less."
"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. That's right. Not a word out of place. Sema was a remarkably skilled repairman. Especially when it came to restoring weapons and armor — he was second to none. After all, it was Sema who took the predecessor to Mineha's spear — the tattered Phantom Fairy Spear that Kon had retrieved from the dungeon — and made it look brand new. And he was a gentle man."
The Witch gave a soft, fond smile, as if lost in memory.
"Is that so?"
"He died before I was born. So why are his works sitting around like junk? Besides — Father could actually make weapons and things?"
"That's right, that's right. Sema also crafted weapons and armor as a hobby. And his skill far exceeded a mere hobby — he was especially genius-level at combining several OOPArts together. All without ever having a Relic."
"He didn't have a Relic? He never possessed one?"
"Mm-hm. Sema didn't have a Relic."
"...That's the first I'm hearing of it."
She muttered it under her breath. Mineha didn't know?
I see. If she'd known, she wouldn't have turned out so Relic-obsessed.
"Well, well, it's not something you go around announcing, after all."
"............Right. Witch — this junk really is my father's work?"
"Oh my, oh my — can you see the marking engraved on the bottom here? This is Sema's personal seal. He always marked his works with his seal like this."
Where the Witch pointed, something was indeed carved into the surface.
Mineha stared intently at the seal.
"Hey, this is something you attach to a finished product, right? So does that mean it's complete?"
"Well now, that's the strange part. It doesn't look complete from what I can see either, but it's possible that it was finished a long time ago and then broke."
"Witch. Can you fix it?"
"Hmm, hmm. I'll try all sorts of things for now. There might be something identical in those bundles of blueprints Sema left me before he passed."
"Please."
"Witch. I'll help too."
Mineha said with determination.
The Witch grinned wickedly.
"Oh my, oh my — what's brought about this change of heart toward trash?"
"Say whatever you want. I'm helping because this is Father's work. Got a problem?"
Her straightforward words and unwavering eyes. The Witch's smirk softened into a wry smile.
"First things first, we start by clearing away all the dust and grime."
"Got it. Just tell me what to do."
"Then, then — put on the gloves over there and let's get started right away."
I'd probably just be in the way. I quietly slipped out of the workshop.
From behind me on the stairs, I heard a commotion — "A dead mouse!?"
"Ha ha ha ha — wait? There was a dead mouse inside…?"
And I was the one who'd put it in that pouch.
I took a light hit to the gut.
I walked out of the storage room and trudged along. The hits just kept coming, quiet and steady.
But leaving was probably for the best. If there had been cockroaches or something, I never would have made it.
Before I knew it, I was standing in front of the Belk dining hall. Someone was there. I turned around.
"Oh, Wof-san!"
"Nabel."
Nabel, leader of the delver party "Cerberustern."
A sixteen-year-old boy with black hair and wolfkin features. A Rank IV delver.
"Wof-san, did you come to eat too?"
"Ah, no, not exactly, but..."
"Huh, is it closed...?"
"...Looks like it. By the way, where are Kolan and Plancy?"
"Kolan's checking on the stagecoach. Plancy's out picking up food and supplies."
"Oh right, you're joining, aren't you? The Forest Wave."
"Yes! That's exactly why we came here!"
His reply and the look in his eyes were full of enthusiasm.
I could also sense his eagerness to try out the prey he'd scored at the Full Moon Bazaar.
"You're joining from the very first one?"
"That's right. I don't really know much about it, so I figured it'd be better to start from the beginning."
"Yeah, that makes sense."
"I actually took the beginner's orientation at the guild too. But I still don't really get it."
"Oh, they have something like that?"
Oh, so they do stuff like that here.
I was kinda impressed, even though I don't know much about this guild.
"So, are you participating, Wof?"
"Well, uh, maybe around the second or last round…"
"I'd really love to see you there!"
Nabel wagged her wolf tail back and forth.
It kinda reminded me of Juicy.
After that, since we'd already met up, I decided to invite her to the hideout.
She'd been nervous about the witch, but when I told her she wasn't here, she visibly relaxed.
When I asked why, it made sense.
"The Full Moon Bazaar incident. It's only been two days, and word has already spread…?"
"Of course it has. One of the three great families was wiped out, after all. And the one responsible was that witch. You know what happened behind the scenes, right, Wof?"
"Well, 'behind the scenes' is a stretch. I know the broad strokes, but the details…"
"I figured. Rumors can be scary."
She's thinking about that monster.
My reputation ran wild through Hydrangea, growing more and more inflated until a monster appeared.
The fictional monster Helftu, which feeds on people's rumors and lies.
Cerberus Thorn and I teamed up to take it down.
I still remember how unexpectedly tough that fight was.
"Looking back on it, the witch probably did it for Seiran's sake. I think, anyway."
"Is Seiran the head of the Zenjella family?"
"Yes. She's the witch's friend."
"Oh, a friend?"
"The witch used to say that those who are rotten can't tell they're rotten themselves. The rot creeps in before you even notice."
I knew exactly what she meant. Over the past few months, my sense of money had gone completely haywire.
Thinking a thousand oro was cheap — that was probably rot.
Breaking multiple knives that cost tens of thousands of oro each — that was definitely rot.
But come on. A new elixir knife wasn't going to break that easily.
This elixir skull knife, with its gorgeous skull-shaped guard, was going to last me a good long while.
"I... think I understand, actually."
"Huh?"
"My family's kind of like that too."
Nabel was probably nobility.
It wasn't that uncommon for nobles to become delvers.
Rel was like that, and so were Megadia and Narcissus.
Now that I thought about it, Axe might have been one too.
"But I think that's what makes us human."
Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing was beside the point.
Desire. I believed that was part of being human.
It lingered constantly in every memory from all of my past lives.
"That's right."
Nabel smiled wryly.
Then the conversation turned to Coran and Plancy.
Both of them were very happy with their new weapons and armor.
Apparently Coran had greased his up so much it got all sticky and Plancy chewed him out for it.
"Oh, that's right. There's a 'Torquetam' in the Hyzen Great Forest right now."
"Wait—that Hydrangea bouquet. A 'Torquetam'?!"
"...Bouquet?"
"Yes! Wow, that makes me so happy. Come to think of it, Wof—you knew them, right?"
"Want me to introduce you?"
"Really?! I've... always looked up to Riv."
"I see. She does use a sword, after all."
"That versatility. That coolness. That elegance. I'm her biggest fan!"
"...I see."
Riv does look cool, that's for sure.
Even so, Nabel's wolf ears were twitching away as she talked, and her tail looked like it might come right off.
From my memories of my past life, it wasn't my family's dog or anything, but there were small dogs like this... yeah, I remember.
Right. The café.
The small black winged dog at the tobacco shop behind the café where you could get authentic carbonara.
That was during the Sacred Vliv era. Back when I was in college, I think.
A café where my half-dra junior dragged me to, saying the authentic stuff was completely different, because I couldn't stand carbonara.
The authentic carbonara I ate that time... what did it taste like again?
A vague image surfaces of my junior playing with the small winged dog.
I can't remember the taste of that carbonara.
"Wof?"
"Ah, sorry. I was just lost in thought."
I can't exactly say it reminds me of that small black winged dog.
More importantly, what was that just now? A memory from my past life? It was a bit different from usual.
"So Coran is a fan of Lupinus, and Plancy is a fan of Pakira."
"Huh. They split perfectly evenly."
Sounds like they won't end up fighting over it.
"This kind of thing happens to us a lot, for some reason."
Nabel lets out a sheepish laugh.
In a way, that means they get along.
"Oh right. What kind of monsters tend to show up in the Heizen Great Forest?"
"Hmm? Let me see. Fire sprites. Water sprites. Wind sprites. Earth sprites. And multi-eyed beasts, I was told."
"Fire and such—are those not a problem?"
Fire in a great forest is absolutely no good, right?
"Actually, the trees in the Heizen Great Forest are thicker and harder than normal, and apparently ordinary flames won't burn them at all. People even question whether they're really trees."
"Well, it's better than being too scared to use fire. So there are fewer types of monsters than I expected?"
Maybe most of them aren't that strong, then.
Nabel looked like she was having a hard time saying it, then continued.
"No, the deep parts are a different story entirely. Wof, do you know about the High Crystal Gacha Rock Turtle?"
"…What even is that…?"
Gacha?
"It's a turtle monster that lives deep in the forest. It's incredibly hard, but when you defeat it, it drops crystals. And the crystals it drops are different every time you beat one."
"You mean it's random?"
A gacha, huh?
"Yes, random. Also, all the crystals fetch a high price, but it's a monster that's just really difficult to defeat."
It's a gacha.
"…So that's why it's called a Gacha Rock Turtle."
"Right."
"…Do the crystals differ in color or something?"
"Seems like it."
"By any chance, like a blue-green crystal?"
"That one's incredibly rare and scarce. Almost never shows up!"
"…I see."
"If that drops, you're filthy rich. Loaded!"
"Really?"
"Really!"
He was that insistent about it? No doubt about it. Torquetam was running a gacha.
And the blue-green crystal still hadn't come out, by the looks of it.
Still, after what Nabel had told me, I was starting to think the Hyzen Great Forest wasn't normal.
"Oh, here it is. Turn right here, then left."
We were almost at the hideout.
"This way?"
I turned the corner to the right and headed down a gentle slope.
Then a left turn, and — yep. We'd arrived.
A circular space so large it could fit hundreds of people.
The ceiling and skylights were all stained glass, letting light stream in and bathe everything in an ethereal glow.
Huh?
"Huh?"
"Hah?"
This was... wait, what?
It was a prayer hall. The prayer hall of a great temple.
Deep inside stood a stone statue.
It was mounted on a pedestal of stone carved with an unusual three-dimensional pattern that rose and rippled like waves, higher than everything else.
The pedestal was densely covered with something like golden script, but I couldn't read it.
A white statue of a young girl clad in simple cloth.
What was a little unusual was that color had been inlaid into various parts of it.
First, her hair was purple. A vivid, striking purple.
"Hold on, this statue is..."
She had purple eyes.
But... they also looked blue. Blue-purple eyes.
Her raised right arm was made of the cosmos.
Countless translucent, round spheres seemed to float around the stone statue.
The Girl of Generosity's Return statue!?
"Wh-what is... wh-where on earth... is this place...?"
Nabel was stunned.
I spoke with full conviction.
"The Great Temple."
"The Great Temple...?"
"I'm certain."
It was the Great Temple at the deepest depths of that dungeon.
But wait, why!?
Nabel was so shocked she was trembling, every hair standing on end.
Not knowing what to do, she looked to me with desperate, pleading eyes.
Sorry. I didn't know what to do in situations like this either.
That was when someone emerged from behind the Girl of Generosity's Return statue.
"You've come at last. I've been waiting!"
It was Narcissus.
Nothing but despair.