Dungeon Floor 21, the Great Tree Labyrinth.
This was supposed to have been a desperate, grinding struggle for survival.
The Dungeon, as if provoked into fury, had unleashed its malice without reservation.
And yet.
In less than twenty minutes.
The wide wooden passage that had been jam-packed with monsters had already become utterly empty.
The ground was carpeted in a thick layer of black monster ash.
Nearly burying their ankles.
Amid the ash that hadn't yet fully dispersed, countless [Magic Stones] shimmering with eerie blue light, along with all manner of drop materials, lay scattered across the ground.
Amou Kirukiru came to a stop.
Her chest rose and fell violently.
She was sucking in huge gulps of breath. Her long black hair, drenched in sweat, clung in strands to her fair cheeks and slender neck.
The pair of black wolf ears that had been standing high and proud atop her head, radiating wild aggression, were now drooping limply along with her.
Under the sheer, all-out burst she'd just unleashed.
Even Amou Kirukiru — possessed of her formidable physical body augmented by the 『Battle Frenzy』 skill — had still racked up a brutal stamina cost.
The other girls had also come to a halt one by one, trying to steady their breathing.
Held protected at the very center of the group.
Holy Emperor looked at her companions, all of them safe and unharmed.
The nerve that had been pulled taut throughout, at last, in this very moment, eased back.
She drew in a deep breath.
Her hands slowly folded over her chest, then pressed downward.
Along with that motion.
The dazzling golden halo of light shrouding the group gradually faded.
At last.
It scattered into specks of golden light, and dissipated completely into the air.
At the same time.
The beast ears atop the girls' heads and the tails at their backs, in step with the magic's dissolution, vanished in an instant.
"…? The ears are gone?"
Aihara Enju reached up and patted the top of her head.
Apart from the familiar rabbit hairband, there was nothing there to feel.
A little disappointed, she puffed her lips into a pout.
Her two hands sketched out, in the air, the length of the rabbit ears that had been there just moments ago.
"And that feeling — like I had so much power I could kick the whole passage flat — that's gone too."
Amou Kirukiru also reached back and felt at the small of her back.
The fluffy sensation that had been there was gone, and to her surprise it left her with a faint sense of emptiness.
"Without that state, my body suddenly feels so heavy."
Amou Kirukiru rolled her neck.
Onigawara Rin lifted a hand, took the demon mask off her face and hung it back at her waist, then shook out the sword arm that had gone a touch sore.
"Still — it was enough."
"If it weren't for Holy Emperor's magic, we probably wouldn't be standing here talking quite so easily today."
The group exchanged glances.
Hanasaka Warabi slid down off Kyoubou's back as well, brushing the black ash from her trouser legs.
"That said, let's not just stand around catching our breath."
"With this many drop materials and Magic Stones, we need to start picking them up."
"Otherwise, if the monsters respawn in a moment, we won't be able to carry any of it away."
Up on the high vantage point.
A deep black shadow stood silently, motionless.
—— The 「Sage」, Fels.
She had watched the entire thing in silence.
The skeletal jaw hidden beneath that wide black hood had not closed for a very long time.
Her long black robe rippled softly in the cold, dank breeze characteristic of the Dungeon.
Fels looked down at the girls below — cheerfully collecting their spoils — and murmured to herself.
"Orario..."
"The skies are truly about to change."
Meanwhile.
On the surface, in Orario.
West Street, Western Quarter.
Inside the main hall of [The Hostess of Fertility] tavern.
After a long, intensely oppressive interrogation.
Hermes looked like he had just been pulled out of the water.
His golden hair, which had been combed so neatly before, now hung in damp clumps plastered limply against his forehead.
A large patch of his shirt had been soaked through at the back, clinging tightly to his skin, outlining his somewhat thin spine.
He sat slumped in the heavy wooden chair, both arms hanging limp at his sides.
His eyes stared blankly at the mug of ale in front of him, the foam long gone and the drink turned tepid.
Spent.
As though every last drop of energy in his body had been wrung clean out of him by the black-haired man sitting across from him.
Seated across from him was, of course, Haimer.
"So."
"The letters from Zeus."
"How did you handle them?"
Haimer spoke.
The words fell into Hermes' ears.
Hearing that voice, Hermes' eyelid gave a violent twitch. So we're finally circling back around to the main subject again, are we?
But — he couldn't take another moment of this torture.
And so.
Hermes drew in a deep breath, forced himself to summon up a scrap of energy, sat himself up straight, planted both hands clasped together on the tabletop, and let his Adam's apple work painfully up and down once.
"I gave them to you."
"Although the original letters — after I'd read them, I'd basically destroy most of them for safety's sake."
"But..."
"I can reconstruct them from memory."
"Tomorrow midday."
"I'll have Asfi deliver them to your residence personally."
"As for whether they're authentic."
"If you have any doubts, you can come straight to me to verify."
"That should be acceptable, yes?"
Having said all that.
Hermes radiated an air of resigned compliance, his shoulders sagging.
Haimer looked at Hermes in this state.
And gave a small nod.
For this particular deity — the one who, in the original story, loved nothing more than stirring up trouble and pulling strings from behind the scenes — applying this much pressure was already more than enough to leave a lasting impression.
"Very well, that's enough for today."
Hearing this, Hermes immediately let out a breath of relief, scrambled to his feet, didn't even take so much as a sip from the ale on the table, and waved frantically toward Asfi, who had been standing in the diagonal background the whole time.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go."
Asfi pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose.
Even though she felt a quiet little flicker of smug satisfaction at the sight of her chief deity in this thoroughly disheveled state.
After all, the number of people in Orario capable of breaking in her perpetually-troublemaking chief deity to such a docile state could be counted on one hand.
Even so.
Thinking back to Hermes' demeanor of constant on-edge dread.
Asfi still couldn't help sliding a glance from the corner of her eye at the black-haired deity seated there.
—— The chief deity of [Haimer Familia].
A being who had descended to the Lower World only an extremely short time ago, and yet had already stirred up a storm of unprecedented magnitude.
Asfi was very curious about his origins.
But.
Hermes' steps were anxious, eager to flee this place where he felt utterly out of his depth.
Asfi had no choice but to turn and follow.
...
"Hermes."
At that very moment.
Haimer's voice came drifting unhurriedly from behind them.
"Ah?"
Hermes' heart leapt into his throat in an instant. His foot stumbled, and he nearly tripped over his own left foot with his right.
"Don't forget to settle the bill for this table."
Hearing this, the heart Hermes had just nearly choked up dropped right back down, the corner of his mouth twitching wildly several times.
His hand froze in midair, stiffening for a full two seconds.
But of course he didn't dare say a word.
He could only fish a handful of silver Valis coins out of the leather pouch at his waist.
As it happened, Anya was just walking past with an empty tray.
Hermes slapped the coins down hard onto Anya's tray, producing a string of crisp clinking sounds.
Then, without looking back, he dragged Asfi with him and bolted out the tavern's front door.
His retreating back looked utterly bedraggled.
Anya, for her part, froze for a moment, came to a stop, and looked down — and upon finding several Valis coins of no small denomination in the tray, the pair of brown cat ears atop her head immediately shot bolt upright.
"Wah, is the extra a tip, meow?"
"This customer's certainly being generous all of a sudden, meow!"
Anya immediately stuffed the extra coins into the front pocket of her apron, humming some unknown tune, and turned and trotted off toward the bar.
After watching Hermes' retreating figure disappear, Haimer tilted his head slightly and glanced out at the night sky beyond the window.
A deep night sky, scattered with countless stars.
"The girls of my Familia must be having quite a fun time down in the Dungeon right about now."
Haimer thought to himself, the faintest smile surfacing at the corner of his mouth.
Just as Haimer was lost in thought.
A deep, full-throated female voice drifted in from beside him.
"Looks like you really put that fox through the wringer."
With a heavy thud.
An enormous solid-wood tray was set down hard on the table in front of Haimer.
The sturdy, solid wood tabletop actually trembled a little along with it.
On the tray.
Sat two enormous mugs, brimful and still spilling over with white foam, of black ale.
The liquid had a rich, amber tone to it, giving off the tempting fragrance of malt.
The foam slid slowly down the wooden sides of the mugs, dripping into the tray.
Haimer looked up.
What met his eyes was a massive frame that had to be at least a metre eighty tall.
Thick, powerful arms stretched the short sleeves of her uniform taut, the limbs covered in the firm, defined muscle lines that came from years of swinging heavy weapons.
Even just standing there motionless.
Her entire being radiated a fierce, imposing aura that no one would dare meet head-on.
Considering who she had once been.
—— Former Captain of [Freya Familia], Lv. 6.
—— The "Little Giant", Mia Grand.
It all made perfect sense.
Mia pulled out, without a hint of ceremony, the very wooden chair Hermes had just been sitting in, and sat down at once.
"This one's on me."
Mia extended her palm — a palm a good size larger than that of an ordinary grown man.
Her thick fingers grabbed hold of one of the massive wooden mugs and pushed it across to Haimer.
"On the house from the proprietress?"
"That's not something you see in Orario every day."
Haimer looked at the foam-overflowing mug of black ale and raised an interested brow.
Mia, for her part, lifted her own mug of black ale, tipped her neck back.
And glugged more than half of it down in a single long pull.
Then.
"Haaah!"
Mia let out a satisfied sigh of release, and casually wiped at the foam left at the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.
Mia gave Haimer a look.
Those eyes carried very little hostility in them — if anything, they radiated a kind of world-weary, broad-shouldered openness.
"Quit your needling, Haimer-sama."
"This is about that clothing shop business."
Mia got straight to the point, with no roundabout circling.
"Ryu already told me the whole story when she got back."
Mia's expression turned a touch helpless as she brought up the matter.
As for Anya, who was carrying an empty plate not far away while pretending to merely be passing through but in fact had her ears perked up to eavesdrop, her body visibly stiffened.
Her cat tail drooped immediately.
"This bunch of girls — every single one of them, never letting me have a moment's peace."
Mia glanced over, and let out a heavy sigh.
"I opened this place so that they'd have somewhere stable to put down their feet."
"And what do I get? They turn around and get me into some new mess every other day."
"Ryu — the one who normally looks the most composed of the lot — kicks up enough fuss to bring down somebody's load-bearing wall."
At this point, Mia looked at Haimer.
"I'll grant you it was decent of you, this time around."
"Took it upon yourself to pay out of pocket to fill in that hole for me."
"I, Mia, am a rough sort. I don't understand all the twisty little games you gods play with one another."
"But I, Mia, owe you one for this."
Hearing this, Haimer lifted the mug.
And took a small sip.
The liquid was rich, carrying the sweet note of malt.
Then Haimer set the mug down and looked at Mia.
"Mama Mia."
"I didn't pay for their repairs for nothing."
"They owe me a debt now. Every morning they have to come over to my residence and serve as maids to do the cleaning."
"This much you should also be aware of."
Haimer paused.
"Or — is Mama Mia feeling sorry for them, planning to pay out of your own purse and buy them out?"
On hearing this, Mia.
Folded both arms over her chest.
"That, I did consider."
Mia leaned her body back against the chair.
The chair groaned under the load.
"After all, if they'd been hauled off against their will by some deity of unknown background like you."
"I, Mia, would lay down this old life of mine if that's what it took to pull them all back out in one piece."
Mia's gaze settled deep into Haimer's eyes — only to feel as though she'd run face-first into an insurmountable wall, and in an instant her resolve scattered into nothing.
Finally she let out a helpless sigh, her tone turning rather complicated.
"But then."
"By the looks of it, those girls — they may grumble every single day about not wanting to go and sweep floors and cook meals over at your place."
"But actually, they rather enjoy heading over to your place."
"Especially that Ryu."
"Although every time she comes back from your place her face is as red as a monkey's bottom."
"And her work has gotten even clumsier than before — she smashed two plates just this morning."
Mia shook her head.
"But I can tell — she's not averse to going over to your place."
"You could even say she seems to be quite happy when she's over there."
Mia looked Haimer dead in the eye.
"So I won't be poking my nose in where I shouldn't."
"Young folks' affairs — let the young folks sort them out themselves."
Listening to Mia's words, edged as they were with a note of approval.
Haimer let out a soft laugh.
He, of course, knew perfectly well — in the original story, Mia treated Ryu, Chloe, Lunor, and the other girls weighed down by heavy pasts entirely as if they were her own daughters.
"Mama Mia really does care about them."
"That said, Haimer-sama, you, my friend — you truly are an opaque one."
Mia muttered.
She picked up the wooden mug in front of her again.
"Clearly someone of no small standing — even the other gods are tight-lipped when it comes to you."
"But, no matter."
"As long as you don't hurt those girls, I'll not concern myself with whatever your true origins might be."
"This drink — I raise it to you."
With that.
Mia didn't bother to see whether Haimer drank or not. She simply tipped her head back and downed the remaining half of her own mug of black ale in one go.
Bang!
With a tremendous crash.
The emptied mug was slammed down hard on the tabletop.
"Alright then."
"Now that I'm done with this drink, I should be getting back to seeing to the customers."
With that said.
Mia stood up, her enormous frame blocking out most of the light.
Then.
Mia gave a wave of her hand and walked away.
A moment later Mia's voice could be heard bellowing down a drunk.
"Oi! Whichever idiot dared to spill ale on my floor, this old lady will toss you out the window!"
Haimer leaned back against his chair.
Looking at the mug of black ale on the table from which he'd taken only a single sip, a gentle curve of a smile played at the corner of his mouth.
Orario's nights — boisterous, alive with life.
Far more interesting, truly, than the eternal, unchanging emptiness of the Heavens.
With that thought.
Haimer, calmly, raised the mug and slowly brought the malt-scented ale to his lips...
『Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? — Memoria Freese』
Mia Grand / CV: Keichou Yuuka. The bighearted proprietress of 「The Hostess of Fertility」. She can effortlessly toss Lv. 3 adventurers out the door without breaking a sweat — adventurers of poor character are all very much afraid of her.
©Fujino Omori-SB Creative Corp / Danmachi2 Project
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