Four days after the Forest Wave.
I woke up in my bed in the hideout.
Pakira happened to be coming through the door, and our eyes met.
It was chaos after that — it took several hours for things to settle down.
And then I had to hear what had happened over those four days.
A proper after-story, in other words.
First, the dungeon.
The giant spider had collapsed after the octopus tentacles rescued Nabel and I fell in.
It turned into a mound of sand, and apparently it took some effort to dig me out of there.
Mineha was found at the edge of the destruction — right at the fringe of the Heizen Great Forest.
Her "Spiral Dawn" was lodged in a rock, and Mineha was unconscious.
For some reason, she'd ended up dangling from a tree branch in fairial form.
She had no injuries and came to after a little while.
That kind of power — even she hadn't expected it.
Apparently she'd been burning with rage at the thought of finishing off the witch.
Gwene was gone.
That meant all of the designated daughters of the sword goddess had now vanished.
Since she'd been using the body of one of the giant spider's kin, she crumbled apart the moment she died.
And I heard she'd passed the sword she was holding to Thousand Faces before that.
So that means... well, whatever.
Thousand Faces became someone else again and went chasing after the red-masked man, Biggs.
Apparently heading where I'd told them to go. There was... nothing there, right?
If you find a clue and spot Biggs, just kill him for me.
No need to hold back. Just kill him.
Now, about the Forest Wave.
Four days ago, while we were fighting, the last wave had already started.
An unbelievable horde of spiders. They said it was over a hundred thousand.
And only around ten thousand delvers had to face them.
What kind of impossible game is that?
But they say a strange elf woman took down most of those spiders — nearly a hundred thousand of them.
Strictly speaking, it was a beautiful elf with blue hair and tanned skin, along with a large pale hound carrying a greatsword.
So that means... well, no wonder they won.
"Here's the thing, here's the thing — the Forest Wave has all sorts of defensive measures. And among them, you could call the secret pact the last resort."
"A secret pact?"
I'd been laid up in bed, told to rest.
The witch sat in the chair beside me, peeling an apple with her knife as she spoke.
Part of the backrest was open, letting her three tails stick out.
Sometimes I wonder — doesn't she ever find those three tails of hers getting in the way?
But they were pretty big, and furry enough, though I guess it wasn't that bad.
Also, giving apples to someone recovering from illness was common sense in this world, too.
"A secret pact with the Delvers' Grand Guild, apparently."
"…The Delvers' Guild and the other one didn't get along, did they?"
They were at each other's throats, or something like that.
The witch peeled the apple with impressive dexterity — oh, a rabbit.
"Well, well, it's not like everyone's always on the same side. That old man did participate in the Forest Wave as a subjugator, you know."
"Now that you mention it, I think I've heard something about that. So what's this secret pact about?"
"Fufu, fufu — the participation of a First-Rank delver, apparently. They join the Forest Wave as subjugators but don't do anything notable; they only step in when things get truly dangerous. That's the secret pact."
"Ah, I see."
"Well, well, obviously they can't afford to let Heizen get destroyed."
"That's true enough."
It was a trading city. The economic blow would be enormous.
Under the witch's hands, a single apple became a magnificent troupe of rabbits.
The care she put into rounding the peel and forming the little red eyes was something else.
Those sparkling red eyes… adorable.
When she went this far, they almost became too cute to eat.
"And another thing — delvers and subjugators have a long history between them. They might not like each other, but that's one thing and this is another."
"And 'Thousand-Face' was part of that secret pact too?"
"Who knows, who knows — even Kon doesn't know that much."
With a smile, the witch took a bite out of the rabbit-shaped apple.
She chewed the head off first, then held out a piece for me.
I took it and ate it.
"So, about Mineha."
"Mhm, mhm. The curse was successfully lifted, wasn't it?"
"That's good to hear."
"And also, and also — I figured it out later, but it seems her curse and the Poor Man Club girl's curse were the same toxin, placed by the same person. Laada, apparently."
"I heard the daughter's curse came from visiting the Forbidden Zone with the Poor Man Club?"
"Mhm, mhm. Oh my. That's a lie, you know."
A lie. No wonder something felt off.
"Seems like Laada wanted to hide her involvement, or so I've heard."
"Ah… I see. Could the toxin have come from a spider, by chance?"
There was a Relic in the dungeon that involved spiders.
One that inflicted a curse toxin when its claws hit you.
"Exactly, exactly. The spider toxin from the dungeon's anomaly. Laada got her hands on the sealed spider toxin and used it."
"But it's a Relic, isn't it?"
A Relic shouldn't activate unless its owner uses it.
If it's sealed, it obviously can't trigger.
"Mhm, mhm. Normally, yes. But as you can tell, the effect was very clearly present. Curses are rare and despised by the masses… truly a forbidden Relic. That's why almost no one can analyze it, and so much about it remains a mystery."
Well, it is a curse, after all.
There are still plenty of people who don't even know it's a Relic.
Besides, there are other powers in this world besides Relics.
Not everything is about Relics and legendaries and legacies.
"Well then, young Wof. Shall we get to the main topic at last?"
"The main topic?"
"Mhm, mhm. I'd like you to tell me more about the witch's water."
"Oh..."
It was a face-splitting smile, the kind that left you mesmerized.