The morning of the 'Great Obraunce.'
I noticed the bed was unusually soft when I woke up.
"Mm… Ah… Good morning, Master."
"G-Good morning."
It wasn't the bed — it was Munieka. She was somehow underneath me, clad in black lingerie.
Oh, right.
There had been a mix-up because we only had four beds, so I ended up sleeping together with four other people.
And last night had been Munieka's turn.
Munieka had told me she sleeps in her underwear.
Tall, with an incredible figure, Munieka in black lingerie was… incredible. That one word sums it all up.
Moreover, when she sleeps she lets her hair down and removes her hair accessories.
With her hair loose and her purple eyes gleaming, Munieka in black lingerie beckoned me to bed.
Well, we were only sleeping together — nothing weird was happening.
But wait, something was off. She'd been sleeping beside me, so how did she end up underneath me?
The warmth, the pleasant softness, the lovely scent — it felt absolutely perfect.
Still, this couldn't be good, right? I should probably get up.
I slowly pulled away from Munieka.
When I withdrew, Munieka also sat up.
She settled at the edge of the bed and, with practiced hands, gathered her hair and fastened her accessories.
That casual little routine — sitting on the bed in her underwear, putting her hair up — made my heart skip a beat.
Why? I hadn't done anything, yet it somehow felt like the aftermath of something.
"Is something wrong?"
"N-No, where is everyone else?"
"They must have gone to breakfast. I'm going to take a bath, so please go ahead… or would you like to join me? If so, I'll wash every inch of your body. Leave it to me. I'm quite skilled at it."
"I-I'm fine. I'm heading to breakfast."
"I see. Have a safe trip."
After changing, I went to breakfast.
---
What exactly was the 'Great Obraunce'?
It was an event held once every five years.
Every Class I delver active around the world gathered in one place.
It lasted up to one week — a conference.
Inside the Hydrangea Grand Hall, in one of its many conference rooms of varying sizes.
A room of moderate proportions, with a table and chairs of moderate length.
"Everyone — is everyone here? Then let us commence the Great Obraunce."
Alhazard Abramirin stood and made the declaration.
No reaction. He sat down and announced this session's duration and schedule.
This time it would be four days.
Each day's schedule: mornings for conferences. Lunch. Afternoons for exhibition matches in the arena.
On the first day, however, there would be an opening ceremony and a Class I delver promotion ceremony.
Then came the exhibition matches.
Even the crucial conferences wrapped up in about two hours. The main topics were amendments and abolitions to the Delvers' Guild Law.
Individual reports from Class I delvers. Sifting through requests submitted by delvers.
A standard conference, really. Still… it felt surreal, in a way.
Seating wasn't assigned, though the seat of honor was reserved for the Grand Guild Master.
The most eye-catching figures were probably the clown and the pink sphere.
Then there was "Thousand Faces" in a plague mask and Gimnema Sylvester with the fish head.
A few others I didn't recognize were scattered here and there. Ah, that purple hair and eyes — that must be Narcissus.
"…………"
"The Second Coming of Generas"… that truly described her.
In the seat beside her sat a muscular, jacked man — shirtless. Whoa.
Narcissus had her arms crossed and wore a displeased expression.
No — was I imagining things? She looked frightened? Surely not.
That fairial. So that was Mineha's mother, wasn't it?
And Mineha herself was here too, not far from me.
Today she was in fairial form, seated on a chair.
Meanwhile, the "Sword of Swords" was absent from their seat.
Instead of sitting in a chair by the wall like us, they were sprawled out on the floor.
The "Sword of Swords"'s seat was occupied by Celeste. She was a dog, after all, and couldn't speak.
Agaro and the others weren't here. They probably weren't Class I yet.
"Now then, the first order of business is a continuation from last time: whether to introduce an Iron rank or a Steel rank for monster threat levels."
A continuation from last time — they'd been carrying this over for five years?
Let me see, monster threat levels were:
'Bronze Rank,' 'Silver Rank,' 'Gold Rank,' 'Gem Rank,' and 'Relic Rank.'
"Additionally, if introduced, the plan is to place it between Bronze and Silver. The debate is whether possessing only a Relic is truly enough to warrant Silver rank — that seems questionable. Many monsters pose no threat even with a Relic. Shouldn't that distinction exist? That's the gist of it."
I see. So it would be the 'Iron Rank' or 'Steel Rank.'
The first to swiftly raise a hand was the Witch.
"Every single time, I say the same thing, but I really don't think we need it. The reason's the same as before — any monster can wield a Relic differently. A Relic can become a threat depending on who handles it. So as long as they have a Relic, Silver rank is fine. Adding an Iron category just invites delvers to get careless, you know."
She had a point. Before, a hobgoblin had gotten hold of a OOPArt and wielded terrifying power.
That threat had definitely been Silver level.
Several people nodded at the Witch's opinion. The "don't need it" camp.
"Hmm, I'm on the 'need it' side, personally."
Chaibu raised her hand.
"Because sometimes — I take a Bronze-rank subjugation job — and the target turns out to have a Relic — and I end up having to pay Silver-rank commission fees."
"Yeah, that definitely happens."
"The real problem is — once it gets bumped up to Silver — the commission fees skyrocket. Well, with Appraisal there's no room for cheating or tricks, but still."
I see. Going from Bronze to Silver caused the fees to jump.
So having an intermediate Iron rank would benefit the people posting requests.
"My, my — siding with the request posters despite being a delver."
"Well, delvers only exist because there are request posters, obviously."
A difficult problem. I could see both sides.
After that, the "need it" camp and the "don't need it" camp traded arguments one after another.
The conclusion was… no resolution.
The biggest problem was that even the weakest monster could possess a Relic.
This had been proven by military experiments in the lab's database.
As long as a creature had a Soul Vessel, it could wield a Relic.
And every living creature had a Soul Vessel.
So there was no such thing as a monster completely incapable of holding a Relic.
This debate would probably be carried over to next time.
And sure enough, it was.
"The next topic is whether to extend the epithets currently applied to Class I and II delvers down to Class III and IV as well. Also, let's discuss whether to unify the rights attached to these epithets — currently granted on a per-race basis — into a single standard."
Whoa. The former was one thing, but the latter was going to cause trouble.
Immediately, Kaeda Akima of "One-Slash Bisection" — an elf — raised her hand.