When I saw Roxy again after so long, she hadn't changed all that much.
Her appearance, her aura—everything was the same.
Though, I suppose being trapped in the dungeon for a month had taken its toll.
She was quite emaciated.
Her cheeks were gaunt, dark circles hung under her eyes, her braids had come undone and her hair was disheveled, and she was filthy overall—looking like some vagrant.
And yet, nothing that made Roxy *Roxy* had been lost.
Still, Geese made the call to retreat immediately.
It was the right call.
Talhand carried Roxy on his back as we headed for the surface.
I offered to be the one to carry Roxy, but the reality was that if I dropped out of the fighting lineup, we wouldn't make it past the second floor.
So there was nothing I could do.
The thought did cross my mind—was it really okay to let this booze-soaked man carry Roxy?
But nobody objected, Roxy included.
"Sorry about this, Mr. Talhand. I'm causing you trouble."
"No worries at all. Roxy, it's about time I got to help *you* for once, eh?"
"I don't smell too bad, do I? Rudy threw up, so I imagine I must smell pretty awful."
"Hahaha, if I started complaining about smells like that, I couldn't be an adventurer!"
Along the way, I could hear that conversation right in front of me.
I'd heard that Roxy and Talhand had been traveling together for a long time. You could feel that bond of trust in the way they talked.
I felt a little jealous.
"Teacher, I didn't throw up because you smelled bad, you know?"
I called out from behind, driven by that jealousy.
Roxy glanced back at me, then quickly looked away.
"Th-then why did you throw up?"
"Because I was caught between the joy of seeing you again and the sadness of having been forgotten, and my stomach tied itself in a knot."
"I... I didn't forget you. I just couldn't connect the cute little Rudy from back then with the Rudy standing in front of me now."
Roxy mumbled something under her breath, then fell silent.
Well, I'd grown up. Can't be helped.
"..."
It was a brief exchange, but hearing Roxy's voice again after so long was so pleasant that I felt like I could've floated straight up to heaven.
---
The garrison squad erupted in cheers at Roxy's return.
It was the first piece of good news since this dungeon exploration began.
Though technically, the good news was that she'd filled in the hole she'd dug for herself.
Well, I won't say that.
Regardless of the cause, good news is good news.
Roxy was immediately whisked away to the bath by Lilia.
During that time, I hung around her room wondering if there was anything I could do for her, but Vera chased me off.
She said I absolutely could not linger near a girl's room while she was bathing.
I absolutely did not have any ulterior motives.
I just wanted to do something for her.
That was genuinely all it was.
I mean, sure, I did have a record.
But this time, I was innocent.
I thought about protesting my innocence, but decided against it.
...No, this was for the best. Knowing myself...
If I happened to glance to the side and see a pile of laundry sitting there...
My hand might just slip and I might end up pocketing whatever white cloth was sitting on top.
I couldn't afford to give that pitiful ghost a chance to whisper.
This time I was "still" innocent.
When you put it that way, this was for the best.
Roxy would need to rest for several days to recover her stamina.
That said, she was an adventurer too.
She had no external injuries and still had enough strength to walk on her own.
She declared that once she had a good meal and a solid sleep in a soft bed, she'd be back in fighting shape in no time.
It really didn't seem like there were any problems.
Even so, I'd shown Roxy an utterly pathetic sight the moment she came back.
I hoped she wasn't too disillusioned.
Throwing up like that was rude of me.
But I'd genuinely been shaken.
I had never forgotten about Roxy.
And yet she'd apparently forgotten me.
...Come to think of it, Sylphie had told me she was similarly hurt when I told her we were meeting for the first time.
She must have felt the same way I did back then.
When I got back, I'd have to apologize to her too.
---
Roxy slept for a full day straight.
After spending a month in a dungeon crawling with monsters, it was only natural.
I was pacing back and forth in front of her room, planning to be the first to wish her good morning when she woke, but Lilia chased me off again.
At least I caught a brief glimpse of Roxy's peaceful sleeping face through the door, so I counted that as a win.
I hoped she'd feel better soon.
By the second day, Roxy was up and about.
She made her way to our table with stiff, mechanical movements as we were eating.
"Good morning, Roxy... Teacher!"
"Mm. Rudy... Rudeus, good morning? To you."
There were only four people present, myself included.
Elinalise, Paul, Talhand...
Geese and the other three were out running errands.
The arrangement was that when the exploration team was in town, they rested, while the standby team handled things.
Geese was technically on the exploration team, but for some reason he was leading the standby squad.
The man was a worker, or maybe just hyperactive.
Maybe he should quit adventuring and become a business manager or something.
"Everyone..."
Every person in the room turned their attention to Roxy.
Roxy put on a solemn expression, made eye contact with each person once, and then bowed her head.
"I have caused you all a great deal of trouble. I am perfectly fine now."
The reactions to her gesture were varied.
One person put an arm around her shoulder and said it was nothing.
One person nodded and said it was obvious.
One person took a drink and held out the bottle.
One person was so moved by her recovery that they were at a loss for words.
"Well, if you're going to thank someone, thank Rudy. If this guy hadn't suddenly started saying something weird like 'Dad, I sense a god's presence' and then punched through a wall and taken off, we never would've found you."
The way Paul said it made it sound like I was the dangerous one.
But when we were clearing the third floor, I somehow just *knew* where Roxy was.
And I had a premonition that she was in serious trouble.
Thinking it was urgent, I charged straight toward that feeling without a care for the risk of collapse.
There was a wall in my path, but I smashed right through it without hesitation and kept going.
I didn't know why I'd had that premonition.
But somehow I was certain.
It had to be the bond between Roxy and me, pulling us together.
It had to be. Yeah.
I supposed there was a tiny possibility that the Human God had interfered, but I chose not to believe that.
I had only one god.
Wait—if I thought about it that way, couldn't I consider this divine guidance too?
In which case, nothing was strange at all.
While I was mulling this over, Roxy turned toward me and bowed again.
"Um, Rudeus, I... thank you for saving me."
I didn't know why, but I sensed a certain distant formality from Roxy.
I recognized this feeling. I'd learned about it in school.
It was the name.
The way she was calling me.
She was saying "Rudeus" with that polite, detached tone.
"Please don't worry about it. It's only natural.
Besides, I want you to call me Rudy like before."
When I said that, Roxy answered with her head slightly bowed, speaking in a small voice.
"W-wouldn't that be... too familiar?"
"Too familiar? If my own teacher is going to call me 'Rudeus,' then I'll make Dad call me 'Rudeus' too."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!"
I couldn't hear Paul's protest.
"Please call me Rudy with the same warmth you always did. No matter how many years pass, Roxy Migurdea will always be my respected teacher."
When I said that, Roxy blinked several times.
Her face seemed a little red.
Was she running a fever, maybe?
Then she slapped her own cheeks a couple of times.
"Yes... You're right. Rudy."
"Yes, Teacher."
Roxy let out a self-deprecating little laugh and looked at me.
Her face was still slightly flushed.
"My, you really have grown."
"Well, I am a human. You haven't changed at all, Teacher."
"Right... I'm still just as small."
"I don't think you're *that* small, though."
"Is that so...?"
Nostalgia washed over me.
If I closed my eyes, I could vividly recall every moment I'd spent with Roxy.
The day we met.
The day she first taught me magic.
The day she gave me the sacred relic.
The day I learned saint-tier magic.
The day we parted.
The days we spent exchanging letters.
Every one of them was a precious memory.
"That said, your magic was quite impressive. It seems you've been training even without me around. Was that emperor-tier water magic?"
"Which one do you mean?"
Had I really used emperor-tier magic?
"When you saved me. That power, the instantaneous effect, the range—it was magnificent magic. The rumored emperor-tier spell, *Absolute Zero*, wasn't it?"
It wasn't.
That was just Frost Nova.
While moving through the second floor, I'd heard from Talhand that it was an effective spell Roxy had used, so I'd just imitated it.
But Roxy was looking at me with an expression that practically said, "Well? I'm right, aren't I?"
Was the correct answer to just say no?
Roxy was a water magic specialist.
If she'd misidentified a spell she'd seen, wouldn't it be embarrassing for her?
Maybe I should just agree—say black when she said black.
Of course, it was a lie that would be exposed immediately.
The smarter move would be to affirm it now, then quietly tell her the truth later.
But what if Roxy made an unpleasant face at the mention of emperor-tier?
Rock Cannon's power was supposedly emperor-level, but in practice I couldn't actually cast magic at that tier.
Hmm. What should I do?
"Oh no, that was just a plain old Frost Nova. More powerful than Roxy's version, though, to be sure."
"Oh—i-is that so? My apologies."
I'd been dithering, but Talhand answered for me.
Unnecessary, as always.
I was about to step in and smooth things over...
"Oh my, Roxy is as ever. However, I do agree that it wouldn't be strange for Rudeus to be capable of emperor-tier magic."
But then Elinalise immediately jumped in to back me up.
"After all, Rudeus is a magician who commands respect even at the Magic University."
Completely unnecessary.
I looked around and saw that everyone's eyes were on me.
All right. Here goes.
"Everything I am today is thanks to my teacher's guidance."
I said it with confidence, but Roxy fixed me with a skeptical look.
"Rudy... I've heard you say that in a lot of places, but do you actually mean it?"
"Of course I do."
Roxy's teaching formed the foundation of who I was.
Go out into the world. Talk to people.
Get along with everyone, without prejudice.
Always give it your all.
Those lessons were rooted deep in my soul.
That was exactly why I'd been able to build a good relationship with Ruijerd too.
There had been times when I failed to live up to those teachings, but that was separate.
People can't always be at their best.
What matters isn't whether you upheld them—it's whether they're there at your core.
In that sense, I respected Roxy deeply.
I'd have signed an autograph if she'd asked.
"You improved on your own. Even without my teaching."
Roxy smiled self-deprecatingly.
"And now you've become so accomplished. A far cry from me, who blundered and got trapped in a dungeon."
Then she flopped forward onto the table with a thump.
I could see the top of her head, which was oddly cute.
"If the master's outstanding, then the disciple must be too. That's how it works, right?"
That was Paul. Always with the good lines.
He was right. I wasn't all that impressive, but Roxy was. So what if she'd been outdone in small ways by her student?
That was hardly the measure of Roxy.
"If Roxy hadn't been here, none of us would be. Have a little more confidence."
Paul's words seemed to lift her spirits slightly. She sat up straight and gave a small nod.
---
After that, Geese returned and we held a meeting.
Everyone, standby team included, gathered around.
"We'll keep an eye on Roxy's condition, but I'd like to resume exploration in three days."
Geese, serving as chairman, made the announcement.
"Isn't that a bit soon?"
That was Paul.
Dungeon exploration was surprisingly nerve-wracking.
Especially in a labyrinth like the Transfer Dungeon, which was littered with traps—you had to fight while being careful not to step on places you shouldn't, even in the heat of battle.
As a back-row mage, I was less affected, but the burden on our two frontliners was significant.
"Roxy should get back into the dungeon as soon as possible."
"Hm? Oh—yeah, right. I see the logic."
Paul nodded, but I wasn't entirely convinced.
Throwing herself back into the dungeon right after nearly dying—it had to be tough for Roxy too.
"Shouldn't Teacher rest a bit longer?"
"Hm? Ah... You might not know this, Senior, but when you almost die in a dungeon and don't get right back in, you end up cursed so you can never enter a dungeon again."
"A curse? Something like that exists?"
"Yeah. Nobody knows why, but the moment you try to go in, you're so overcome with terror that you can't do anything."
Oh. I'd read about something like this in a manga before I died.
A type of panic disorder.
PTD, apparently.
I'd also heard that the recommended treatment was to have them retry immediately after a failure.
So that was the same across worlds, huh?
"Besides, Senior's a dungeon newbie. Going in several times at a short pace will be better for gaining experience."
"Makes sense. There's logic to that."
From there, the rest of the group chimed in one by one.
"If you need someone who can handle both attack magic and healing, I can do it."
"That method Rudy used—smashing through walls to forge ahead—I wouldn't recommend relying on it. There's risk of collapse."
"If it helps, I can move up front."
"I was thinking—what if Paul and I swapped positions?"
Everyone shared their observations from last time and suggestions for the next run, and the chairman compiled them all.
They were all so serious.
I'd assumed they were more haphazard about it, but apparently not.
Even so, they were still an S-class adventurer party through and through.
There wasn't much for me to say at this meeting.
I'd been asked for my impressions of the dungeon and had answered—that was about it.
They were professionals; I was an amateur.
No matter how good my magic was, I couldn't forget that.
Just because things went well last time didn't mean they'd go well this time.
"Alright, the plan is to push deeper into the third floor. Depending on how things go, we go until we at least find the magic circle leading to the fourth floor. Got it?"
"No objections."
Basically, once we found the stairs to the next floor, we'd decide whether to press on or fall back.
If we fell back, we'd descend in a straight line to our previous position and resume from there.
Last time we'd plunged straight down to the third floor in one go—this time, we wouldn't do that.
Apparently, the longer you waited between runs, the more traps spawned, so speed was of the essence.
"Now that I think about it, the book said the fourth floor is completely different—more like ruins or something."
"That could mean there might be two deepest points."
"Hmm... well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Next run is the third floor."
"Got it."
Sometimes, a dungeon that had existed for a long time merged with another dungeon, resulting in two mana crystals.
In such cases, the dungeon's character would change partway through, supposedly.
The Transfer Dungeon fit that profile.
That said, not every dungeon matching that description necessarily had two mana crystals.
It was purely hypothetical.
The book stated that the Transfer Dungeon had only one mana crystal.
But it was possible that the Transfer Dungeon hadn't always been one—it might have started as an ordinary dungeon that collided with some kind of ruin and became a transfer dungeon.
Some kind of ruin.
Yes—for example, a teleportation ruin.
"What's this book you're talking about?"
Roxy chimed in with a question.
"A book Rudy brought back. It's the journal of someone who cleared the Transfer Dungeon down to around the deepest level. You should read it too, Roxy."
Geese handed the book in question to Roxy.
"Oh my, something like this... Understood. I'll have it read by tomorrow."
Roxy's schedule for tomorrow was apparently reading.
In that case, I'd stay at the inn too.
I wanted to talk to Roxy more.
I wasn't sure what about, though.
If she was reading the book, maybe I could talk about its contents.
Roxy asks, I teach. Yeah, that's nice. Nice. Very nice.
"Right then, let's change up the formation a bit. Talhand, if you would."
I'd been lost in thought, but the meeting had already moved on to the next item.
Talhand cleared his throat.
The formation was his call.
He spent the most time at the back, watching the field.
"Leave it to me."
He reeked of booze, though.
The man always smelled like alcohol.
Geese drank like a fish at night too, but Talhand drank nonstop from morning on.
That said, the moment a dungeon exploration started, he wouldn't touch a drop.
He was the kind of guy who could flip that switch on and off.
"Basic setup hasn't changed."
On the table was a sheet of paper with two lines drawn on it and small stones of different colors.
Talhand first placed a light blue stone.
"First, same as before—Roxy stays at the back."
"Right."
Roxy nodded.
Then he placed a gray stone right next to it.
"Rudeus, you're in support of Roxy. Roxy tends to make mistakes when the unexpected happens, but you have the Foresight eye. For your age, you're remarkably composed—you might be able to catch mistakes before they happen."
"...Right."
He made it sound like Roxy lacked composure.
I wanted to object, but Roxy had indeed stepped on a teleportation circle because of a mistake.
I'd end up stirring up trouble if I pressed the point.
But thinking about it more carefully—Foresight couldn't predict what you weren't looking at.
Which meant I had to keep my eyes on Roxy.
If anything, this gave me a perfectly valid reason to keep Roxy in my field of vision at all times during dungeon exploration.
Just looking at Roxy made me happy.
"Paul and Elinalise, let's swap. Paul in front, Elinalise in back."
Talhand said this as he moved the red stone forward and the yellow stone back.
Though honestly, they were nearly side by side—it was more of a role swap.
Before, Elinalise had been the lead shield with Paul in support; this time it was reversed.
Paul as the main tank, Elinalise in support.
"Geese, same as before."
The brown stone went far ahead of the others.
And finally, he placed his own stone in the middle row.
"I don't think we'll need it, but the third floor has a lot of enemies. I'll put myself between the front and back rows as a wall."
Scout: Geese Frontline: Paul, Elinalise Midline: Talhand Backline: Rudeus, Roxy
That was the formation.
If you excluded Geese, it was kind of like the Five of Bamboo in mahjong.
It might be close to a Wind-Up formation.
"Any objections?"
At that, I raised my hand.
"So basically, my role stays the same, right?"
"Mm. For the finer details of coordination, work it out with Roxy."
Hearing that, I looked at Roxy.
She looked back at me with a slightly tense expression and swallowed hard.
"Understood. Teacher, I'm counting on you."
"Likewise. I'll do my best not to hold you back."
If anything, *I* was the one likely to hold *her* back.
I wished Roxy would carry herself with more confidence.
Sure, I might have surpassed her in total mana and the number of spells at my disposal.
But raw stats didn't determine everything.
It was experience layered on top that brought out true strength.
Factor that in, and I'd put Roxy above me.
She'd been trapped in the Transfer Dungeon for a month, fighting the whole time, and was planning to dive right back in a few days later as if nothing had happened. That mental fortitude was incredible.
If it were me, after going through that kind of ordeal, I'd swear to myself I'd never enter a dungeon again.
A wise man keeps away from danger.
Or you could just call it chicken.
I was a coward at heart.
"Alright, that's that. Now for the standby team."
After that, Geese gave efficient instructions to the standby squad.
He handed Vera a list of items to purchase during the exploration, asked Sera about Roxy's condition, and from there predicted Zenith's state—telling them to have medical supplies ready.
He then asked Lilia to coordinate those two tasks smoothly.
If Geese was the captain of the exploration squad, then Lilia was the captain of the standby squad.
And the party leader was Paul.
What did the leader do? Make the final call and take roll.
"Alright, everyone—prepare over the next three days. Dismissed!"
At Paul's command, the meeting adjourned.
---
The next day.
I lingered around Roxy as she read on the first floor of the inn.
I wanted her to come to me if there was anything she didn't understand.
Not anyone else—me.
"Um, Rudy..."
"Yes? What is it, Teacher!"
"When you keep pacing around in front of me, it's hard to concentrate."
Roxy said it with a wry smile.
"Sorry about that."
I bowed and decided to leave.
Right. Distracting. Of course I was distracting her.
I shouldn't get in her way.
That wasn't my intention at all.
I just wanted to help my teacher.
But if she said I was a distraction, then there was nothing I could do.
Where should I go, then?
I know—I'd find a quiet, empty bar somewhere.
I'd drink alone for a change.
That's what I'd do.
"Rudy."
But then a voice called from behind me.
"If you have enough free time to pace around all day, there are a few things I don't understand in this book. Could you help me out?"
"Yes!"
I sat down next to Roxy in an instant.
I'd set the world record, I was sure of it.
If I'd had a dog's tail, the whirlwind from wagging it would have lifted me off the ground.
"Just ask me anything. I'm here."
Ah... but really, Roxy was so small.
My own body had gotten bigger, too, which was part of it.
If I put her on my lap, I could probably wrap myself around her completely.
She'd probably get mad if I did that, though...
"..."
I noticed Roxy looking up at me from an angle, her gaze slightly averted.
"What's wrong, Teacher?"
When I asked, Roxy turned her face away with a little huff and went back to her book.
"Nothing. It's this part here..."
After all, I'd grown well past her in height.
It probably stung a bit.
She seemed self-conscious about being short.
While we went back and forth like that, I spent the entire day reading with Roxy.
I was satisfied.