All I could do was laugh inside at this unexpected turn of events.
"King! King! King! As expected of you, Wof!"
"W-w-well, um, Lord Wof, that's incredible! Woof, woof! As expected of Lord Wof!"
"...Ah, that's really gotten around, hasn't it..."
Narcis and Juicy, both fired up.
The gap between them and Agaro, who wore a look of pure exasperation, was stark.
I let out yet another indescribable sigh.
With rumors like that going around, it was no wonder those desperate guys attacked me.
For some reason, it reminded me of those men led by Hiaan — him standing at the front with his arms crossed and that fearless grin.
Suddenly, three delvers approached us, and the wolf-person boy in the middle stepped forward.
Black hair, wolf ears, and a tail. Even though he was the same wolf race as Juicy, he was completely different.
So she really was a family dog. No, she wasn't a family dog.
The wolf-boy bowed politely. I wondered what it was — there was an air of refinement about him.
"You saved us. Thank you so much."
"Yo. You all in one piece?"
"Yes. Nobody's hurt."
The man with the spear also bowed. The elf woman with the staff bowed next.
"We're a party called 'Cerberustan.' I'm the leader — Nabel."
"I'm Coran."
"I'm Plancy."
The wolf-kin boy with sword and shield was Nabel, the leader.
The man with the spear was Coran. The elf woman with the staff was Plancy.
The spear-man, Coran, started talking.
"We actually screwed up."
"Screwed up?"
"We were completing requests on the 25th floor, and we found a hidden room."
"Oh, nice. That's lucky."
"Was there treasure?"
Narcissus leaned forward eagerly as she asked.
Plancy answered with a wry smile.
"We stepped on a teleportation circle and got sent flying here."
"Ah, don't mind."
"How unlucky."
"Oh my, that's terrible."
"So then, we have no idea what floor this is."
"It's the 42nd floor."
The three of them wore expressions of shock mixed with terror at Agaro's words.
"Whaaa..."
"There has to be a limit to how far you can get flung...
Getting dropped from floor 25 all the way below floor 10 is something to be feared.
"U-um... that's why we'd like to go back, but..."
Nabel said, looking awkward.
There is something called a forced teleportation stone — a quick way to return to the surface.
A convenient Legacy that forcibly teleports you to the first floor when you break it.
The catch is that they're expensive. Around 500,000 oro each.
Well, someone of Agaro's caliber probably has one or two.
And buying them wouldn't be a hardship either.
But Agaro probably wouldn't hand one over to them so easily.
He must be deliberating whether to give it to them or not.
Maybe he could tell them about the room with the teleportation circle on floor 40.
Since the teleportation circle works both ways, stepping on the one on floor 40 would transport them to the guild basement.
But that teleportation circle is, officially, classified information. He can't just casually reveal it.
Speaking of those forced teleportation stones.
They were jumbled together in a wooden box sitting in the witch's messy living room.
When I'd found that box before, the witch gave me a handful. And so.
"If you'd like, I'd be happy to give you one of these."
I cheerfully pulled a forced teleportation stone from my pouch and showed it.
Nabel's eyes went wide and she caught her breath.
"This—this is—!?"
"Th-that's huge!"
"It looks like a rough stone, or something like that."
"A rough stone!?"
"Oy, oy. Wof."
"Um, um, um, Wof-sama. That's worth a fortune..."
"Hm. That's quite a nice find."
"Is—is this really okay...?"
Nabel looked so anxious it was almost painful to watch.
Of course. It was fine. However. There was one condition.
"Of course. You're in a bind, so I'd like to help. But in exchange, I have one favor to ask."
"Wh-what is it?"
"Anything we can do."
"It's not exactly anything goes, but we'll do our best to repay you."
"No, no, it's nothing major. Just within your ability—I'd like you to help thin out the rumors about me."
"Rumors?"
"Yes. The rumors you were just spouting about. The truth is, those are all nothing but tall tales."
"Huh? Really...?"
"Yes. It's just an absolute mountain of lies."
"Lies?"
"Well, yes. That's exactly why they've been such a nuisance."
I let out a wry smile, keeping it light.
Then Narcissus opened her mouth with a skeptical look.
"But it's a fact that Wof is the witch's disciple and close with Shiro, Chaib, and that Munieka. After all, as half of the 'Impregnable'—"
"—subordinates—"
"—you shared a room together."
"A-also, also, also, Master Wof is very close with everyone from Torquetam and Bid and the big sisters, and also with the maids from Menosdol!"
"...Ah, w-well, I suppose that's true."
Geez. Outsiders, keep quiet!! And Agaro. What's with the wishy-washy answer!
Then Colan piped up with a look like something had just occurred to him. Uh oh.
"...Actually, I saw Wof heading to the second floor of the Ceedle Inn. The other party was that 'Black Gulp' Megadia."
"It looks like none of you want to go home."
Disappointedly, I moved to stow the forced-teleportation stone in my pouch.
"W-wait!"
"Hold on! N-now that I think about it, that never happened! Not at all! Yep! Nothing! Ahaha... sorry."
Colan hung his head. I sighed.
"As long as you understand. So, will you take it on?"
"I-I understand. If it's within our capabilities, we'll take it on."
"I-I'll try reaching out to some of the other delvers too..."
"I'm counting on you."
I handed the forced-teleportation stone to Nabel.
Nabel took it and nodded stiffly.
Corran fell silent, and Plancy offered a faint, wry smile.
"Don't get your hopes up. We're still only fourth-tier, you know."
"Huh, you did well fighting Ichigan Doggs, then."
Agaro sounded impressed.
Fourth-tier. One above me — same as Axe and the others.
Fighting a mid-rank Silver-tier pack with just three people really was something.
"Well, we fought in a hidden room once before."
"Yeah, hidden rooms sometimes have tough ones in them."
"Really?"
Narcesus's eyes lit up. Was she some kind of born warrior?
Generous did give off that sort of vibe.
"Oh, oh — the one just now was a hidden room too."
"Ah, us too. Piece of cake~"
"Corran!"
"Oops, my bad. So anyway, we'll make sure to get it done."
"Th-Then, we should probably be heading back."
"Everyone. You were a huge help."
Nabel bowed politely once more. She really did have an air of refinement.
"You lot. Stay safe out there."
"Ura. I'll remember you guys."
"Um, um um, take care!"
"Right. Well then."
Nabel used the forced transfer stone.
"I'm really counting on you."
"Yeess!"
Their figures dissolved into faint green particles of light and vanished, carried away by that spirited response.
Hopefully this would do something to tone down the bad reputation.
After that, I fought off packs of one-eyed dogs about three times.
There were also carcasses of Sahagin and zombies scattered here and there.
Had they fought each other and been taken out? Or had the one-eyed dogs gotten them?
After advancing a while longer, I came across a male-female delver pair of Rank II.
They said they'd come to this floor on a commission.
We had a brief joint fight, I got information about reaching Floor 43, and we parted ways.
Just as they'd said, I found a tower in the forest.
And just as they'd said, there were stairs leading down into the tower.
Floor 43.
At the bottom of the stairs was a castle, and the tower on Floor 42 turned out to be its spire.
From the castle, I could see the scenery outside.
Blue lights flickered in the dark purple sky. It was like a starfield.
And
the sisters
surrounded
the queen of night
as she reigned there.
"Night, huh?"
"Huh? That sky's artificial, you know."
"No. Look here."
Agaro showed a black stone.
This was a day-night stone. It was synced with the surface time — white meant day, black meant night.
In other words, it was night on the surface.
"Perfect timing. Should we stay the night in this castle?"
No one objected. Everyone was worn out, one way or another.
I thought idly that sleeping over in a castle was quite the luxury.
We gave the castle a quick once-over.
In the areas we checked, there were no monsters.
Also, it wasn't all that big of a castle.
There was a hall and an audience chamber, but no throne.
Narshesis said it wasn't a royal castle but rather a local lord's fortress.
Juicy agreed with that assessment.
Tassan's castle is over five times this size? Seriously.
We decided to camp out in the audience chamber.
We placed barrier stones on all four sides, and Agaro pulled sleeping bags for everyone out of his pouch.
Once camp was set up, I went ahead and started making dinner.
Meanwhile, the women took their turn bathing. We'd found a bath during our exploration. It had plenty of hot water.
Agaro said that was because the place reproduced that era exactly as it was.
Since the bath was a short distance from the audience chamber, Agaro stood guard just in case.
Narshesis said she'd kill anyone who peeked, to which Agaro grumbled that nobody would do something like that.
He took a tokkuri gourd out of his pouch, so I figured he'd be keeping watch while drinking.
Dinner was mixed-meat soup and black-and-white bread-bean, along with a cheese bake of wild greens and mushrooms.
The greens and mushrooms were foraged from the forest on the 42nd floor.
Agaro ate while drinking, and Narshesis and Juicy went for seconds.
Daga was completely absorbed in the mixed-meat soup. Good, good.
After eating, I took my bath.
When I got back, everyone except Agaro played cards to pass the time.
Narshesis was overwhelmingly bad at it.
And Daga was way too good. What is this guy?
Agaro had been drinking the whole time. Not his usual competitive-drinking vibe.
He'd sat apart from us on the windowsill, gazing outside while slowly sipping from the tokkuri gourd.
He probably had a lot on his mind.
It was decided we should be heading to bed soon, so I went to sleep.
Late at night.
I had gone out onto the balcony that continued from the audience chamber.
As I was vaguely gazing at the scenery, someone came along.
It was Juicy.