"Why... do people never stop fighting?"
Eighth sub-level of the Dungeon.
The cavern had been flooded with water, turning the entire passage into a waterway.
I sat at the front of the boat, gazing blankly ahead.
Waterwheels mounted on both sides of the boat were turning, propelling us forward, while another vessel trailed behind, tethered by rope.
The lantern light fixed to the boat swayed as I wore a grim expression and continued on.
"...People repeat the same mistakes over and over."
The moment those words left my mouth, a voice of laughter rang out from inside the Jewel.
It was the Fourth Generation.
"Good heavens, that was quite the explosion this time, Master Lael. Oh, pardon me — Lael!"
I ducked my head and raised the bow I'd been holding.
Slowly rising to my feet on the boat, I pulled an arrow from the quiver and nocked it.
From the water's surface ahead, a Sahuagin leaped out. I took aim and loosed the arrow — it struck the creature's head, and it plunged back into the water.
Water splashed upward, rocking the boat.
I sat back down and had the boat press forward, while Miranda, who had been riding in the rear, extended threads from the fingers of all five hands and reeled in the Sahuagin floating on the surface.
Dagger in her right hand, she raised her left — and by then she'd already extracted only the Magic Stone from between the creature's brows, where the arrow had pierced clean through.
She didn't bother stripping anything else off the body, just tossed it aside.
Miranda's Skill, Wire, allowed her to produce threads made of mana from the fingertips of both hands. But that alone would be selling it far short.
By adjusting the fineness and tensile strength of those threads, Miranda could use them to shred Monsters to pieces.
When did I start being able to use Skills? I didn't have the luxury of worrying about questions like that right now.
I just stared blankly at the water's surface.
From Jewel, I could sense that the Sixth Generation was watching how I was doing.
"Layel, you seem really down this time… but I won't comfort you."
(You never really comfort me in the first place. Especially after you laughed at me so much once I grew up, and then teased me when I came back to my senses… It's almost a little much.)
I didn't regain my composure until the morning of the day after I'd spent in that high-tension state.
When I woke up, I was praying that everything that had happened had been a dream — and that's when Monica spoke to me with a crestfallen look on her face. "My fun time is over. I wonder how many months it'll be until the next one."
Hearing that, I realized none of it had been a dream.
Alette, her face completely red, fleeing away from me.
Aria, lightly touching her lips from time to time, letting out sighs with an expression completely unlike her usual self.
Clara, turning as red as a beet up to her ears the moment she saw me.
Eva, cheerfully saying she was looking forward to the confession.
Shannon, glaring at me the moment our eyes met.
May, buying snacks as usual. She did give me a single skewer, though.
And Novem, looking somehow brighter and more beautiful than ever. The secret was that I found her brightness just a little frightening.
And finally, Miranda, standing behind me, grinning with her hand over her mouth.
"Layel, I've made up my mind today, so I'm slipping into your bed tonight, okay? You promised you'd teach me all sorts of things."
My shoulders flinched, and I turned around stiffly.
"T-Today's not a good time. I mean, that is… well…"
Miranda kept teasing me, even though she clearly understood everything.
"I said I'd make you happy, you know~"
"Guh!"
My ears flushed red with embarrassment, and I cut the conversation short, facing forward.
Seeing me like that, Miranda was clearly enjoying herself.
From inside the Jewel, the Fifth Generation spoke up.
'Still, that went well this time. We gained experience and grew, and the party feels better than before.'
We'd tied boats and rafts together with ropes and were pulling them along, handling transport through the eighth floor of the Dungeon.
People, cargo—hauling it all around was my current job. You see, after experiencing the all-out battles inside the Jewel, Clara and the others who'd stuck around for the boss fights had begun to grow as well.
Clara, Shannon, and Eva. May hadn't grown, but since most of the party members had undergone some form of growth, we decided to take things at a steady pace for a while.
After experiencing those all-out battles inside the Jewel, any lingering tensions in the party felt settled—for the most part.
I remembered everyone wearing bright, refreshed smiles—everyone except Shannon.
And sure enough, Shannon was sitting at the very back of the boat right now, glaring at me.
Miranda spoke to her, exasperated.
"Give it a rest, Shannon. I'm sorry you got dragged into it, but I had my own hands full, you know. Besides, if this experience teaches you anything, put in some effort and get stronger."
Shannon had been reluctantly brought along because she'd have been left all alone on the surface. But she'd insisted on joining the transport operation inside the Dungeon.
She was looking right at me as she spoke.
"You don't know anything, Lyle! It was absolutely the worst! Getting caught up in it—don't make it sound so simple! That was hell! It was awful! You drag someone into hell, and then when they wake up, there you are with a smile on your face!"
(That wasn't me. Okay, so technically I was the one who did it, but that wasn't me!)
Even I couldn't make sense of my own thoughts.
But that state I'd been in—there was nothing normal about it.
Maybe "euphoria" was the right word for it — that sensation that I could do anything clouded my judgment and muddled my thinking.
As a result, I ended up kissing everyone...
I clutched my knees on the boat.
"...All I can do is apologize."
When I said that, Miranda spoke up.
"Aww, Shannon made Laiel cry."
Hearing Miranda joke like that, her younger sister Shannon flailed both arms. The boat rocked as a result.
"*I'm* the one who wants to cry! After that, everyone had this refreshed look on their faces, but... that's totally weird, you know!"
Miranda brushed her hair back and, still sitting, re-crossed her legs.
"You should go punch someone too. It'll blow away all your usual frustrations, you know? Anyone you want to hit?"
At that, Shannon declared boldly.
"I'd like to kick Big Sister, even just once."
Hearing her say something like that, Miranda reached out with a smile and placed her hand on Shannon's head. She kept her hand there, smile still in place.
"Ouch! That hurts, Big Sister!"
She began squeezing hard enough to make a creaking sound.
The Seventh Generation spoke.
*"This is what happens when you run your mouth. Still, with this girl, something like this can pass for mere charm."*
Hearing that, the Third Generation said.
*"She sure looked happy when she kissed you all. Good for you, Laiel — your bride count just went up. More importantly, you'd better confess to each of them properly one by one, alright? I'm expecting you to put real effort into it."*
Not a single person in the world was willing to console me.
The successive heads, too, were giving me the cold shoulder — all because of that rain of blood and the all-out battle among the women that followed.
With a sigh, I spotted our destination coming into view.
The boss room on the eighth basement floor.
On the solid ground there, supplies had been ferried in. Multiple light sources had been set up — this was the temporary base for parties taking on the ninth basement floor, where the waterways cut off.
Novem and the others were waiting there, and Aria, Clara, Eva, and May, along with Monica, were all hard at work in the temporary base.
We brought along Porter and began packing the materials and Magic Stones the adventurers had collected into boxes, stacking them up.
Next, we would transport the materials and Magic Stones we had gathered on the way back, along with the returning parties, to the entrance of the eighth basement floor.
As we approached, Eva waved at me.
—The tenth basement floor.
In the boss room, a party led by Alette was locked in battle with the boss.
Knights clad in metal armor had surrounded the massive serpentine boss, hacking at it with their weapons.
The snake, guarded by its tough scales, had eyes that glowed red in the darkness. It contracted its body, then used the recoil to launch itself high into the air above Alette's group, opening its enormous maw and diving down.
Its target was Alette — the one issuing orders to the knights.
Alette drew the greatsword from her back and murmured.
"Good grief… [Air Blade]."
When Alette activated her Skill, wind erupted from the two-handed greatsword. A gale swept through the boss room, and Alette's subordinates retreated from the Monster.
"Fall back! The captain's using her Skill!"
Once the vice-commander had pulled everyone back, they watched as the snake moved to swallow Alette whole. There was not a shred of panic on the face beneath her helmet.
The Monster snapped its jaws shut, trying to engulf Alette — but.
"It's over."
The vice-commander spoke, and blood streamed from the snake's eyes.
Then, slowly, the Monster was sliced vertically in two, the halves toppling to either side.
The Monster's blood sprayed outward, and the knights, drenched in it, thrust their fists into the air and cheered.
Alette, holding her greatsword in one hand, gave the blade a single swing in front of her before sliding it back into the scabbard on her back.
Subordinates surrounded Alette as she walked back toward the vice-commander.
Meanwhile, the support crew who had been waiting at a distance swarmed the corpse to begin carving it up for parts.
Alette removed her helmet and said a single word to the vice-commander.
"I wanted to let the subordinates take it down, but I suppose I got a little too impatient."
The vice-commander replied.
"It would have been too early. Against something like that, the newcomers wouldn't have stood a chance. A few of them will be heading back to the country in just a few more months, and I wanted them to build their confidence by slaying it — but if they died, there would be no point."
Alette and her team had planned to let the subordinates handle the boss, but it turned out to be more troublesome than expected, so Alette had stepped in herself.
The innermost chamber.
Once that boss fell, the atmosphere inside the Dungeon shifted.
The peculiar suffocating pressure vanished, and Alette looked around.
"It seems like it's dried up. I don't think it'll collapse before we leave, but nothing is ever absolute. Hurry — recover the Magic Stones and materials, grab the treasure, and let's get out."
As she issued her orders, the vice-commander dashed off to relay detailed instructions to everyone.
Just then, a subordinate who had been examining the treasure came running up to Alette.
"Captain! The treasure is—"
"What about it? Was it gold? If so, we can haul it back to the country and put it toward the budget shortfall…"
The subordinate was not wearing the face of someone joking, and Alette's expression turned serious as well.
"...What came out?"
The subordinate was visibly flustered, his mouth opening and closing as he struggled to compose himself. Once he'd caught his breath, he announced the treasure that had appeared.
"Mithril! And not just a small amount — this is quantities befitting this Dungeon!"
(Why now, of all times — and why does it have to be mithril of all things!)
Alette clutched her head at the subordinate's report.
Near the exit of the eighth underground floor, I immediately noticed that the atmosphere around us had shifted.
The Fifth Generation's Skill, [Map], was undergoing a violent change.
The Sixth Generation's Skill, [Search], could no longer track the movements of enemy Monsters.
When I rose from where I'd been sitting, Miranda seemed to notice it too.
"The atmosphere's changed, hasn't it? It's gotten... quiet."
Monica studied our reactions.
"There are faint tremors. And some rooms have collapsed — as if they shrank in an instant... So this is what a Dungeon looks like when it withers."
Clara lifted her glasses lightly with her index finger, adjusting them back into place, then surveyed her surroundings with her staff in hand.
"I've delved into Dungeons many times before, but this is the first time I've ever experienced one withering."
Withering — that's the term adventurers use when a Dungeon has been cleared and its Monsters and treasure are gone.
Depending on the Dungeon, when it withers, rooms with no one inside them can crumble and vanish. And sometimes, even though you descended dozens of floors, when you make your way back to the entrance, you find yourself outside.
Shannon was staring at the water's surface when she cried out.
"Ah! The water's getting low... it's gone!"
The boats they had linked together were now lying on the dry ground where the water had been.
The other boats nearby were in the same state.
I turned to Novem.
"...It's earlier than expected, but we're pulling out. Porter, start loading up the luggage."
Novem replied.
"The preparations have been underway ever since Alette and the others set out to take down the boss. Shall we begin moving right away?"
I nodded. There was no point waiting here for Alette and the others.
It might be better to prepare a welcome outside the Dungeon.
"No, let's head out immediately. The trip back is safe too. There are no Monster readings. Let's get outside and start getting ready to go home."
Up on the surface, a proper town was taking shape.
There was no need to revert anything—we'd be using it going forward, so all we had to do was return.
(I joined the Dungeon subjugation, and the earnings were better than I'd expected. Maybe I could use this as capital to gather information and gear up.)
I'd mass-produced memories I'd rather forget, but for now, I'd settle for having accomplished my goal. Once I got back to Baim, I planned to spend some time alone.
I needed time.
Time to heal my heart...
Novem looked at me and gave a wry smile.
"Um, maybe you shouldn't dwell on it too much? It's something everyone goes through, and I think everyone makes mistakes, one way or another."
A voice came from the Jewel—the Third Generation.
"Novem, you're such a kind girl. But well, calling it Lyle's failure is one way to put it—Lyle-san's actions were correct in their own way, you know. Lyle, you should try to have that kind of initiative in your daily life too."
Absolutely not.
I shook my head and spoke to Novem.
"...If only I could forget, how happy I'd be."
With those words, I began preparing to withdraw.