It should be bright, but passing through the door of the funeral home gives off the feeling of a dark place where sadness and sorrow gather, and I’m taken to where I’m supposed to go.
《Toufu family》
After going through the reception desk, I sit in the row in the back.
In front, there’s a smiling photo of Kaname Toufu, and I hear sobbing all around me.
I went to a place that rents suits this morning and got a mourning suit. I play with the prayer beads on my left wrist, as people continue filing in.
Everyone is sad, and seems to not accept the loss of Toufu. It’s clear how much they held him dear.
How would it be if it were me? I know that’s not something I should be thinking, but I do for a bit anyway.
◇ ◇ ◇
After putting down the Niijima brothers on the thirtieth floor, I saw Chisato was safe, and still unconscious inside portacool.
When I took her out, Kuroitsu and the others were gone. I guess they had no reason to stick around, with the Niijima brothers dead.
I carried Chisato on my back, and went back to Toufu and the others.
I prayed for them to somehow be safe, but that miracle didn’t happen, and all I saw were the five of them on the ground.
I put Chisato down, put what I had in the portacool in my Storage Space, and put the five of them in the portacool.
It was cramped, but I asked them to bare with it, as I put them all inside.
Once they were all inside, I apologized because it might get bumpy.
It didn’t feel right to put them in the Storage Space. It was like treating them like things, and also, I kept hoping for them to come back to life like an idiot.
Even as I faced them, I couldn’t accept reality.
They didn’t touch their stuff, so the Niijima brothers weren’t here for things, they really were in the dungeon just to kill people.
His last words were truthful.
‘Do we need a reason to kill people?’
Those words disgust me.
I went to the boss room with Chisato on my back, and saw Kuroitsu’s group. He waved when he saw me.
“What do you want? Didn’t you leave?”
“That was the idea, but our Eimi here said that since we’re leaving through the thirtieth floor, we should give you a hand, so we waited.”
So? He asked.
I looked at the girl next to him, and she bowed when our eyes met.
It was like she was apologizing, but she had no reason to, so I turned back to Kuroitsu.
“I don’t need it. I’d feel uneasy with you.”
“…You don’t trust me. Well, you truly don’t need it. Let’s go, Eimi and Souji.”
They entered the boss room, no doubt to use the portal to return to the surface.
In the end, I didn’t ask why they were after the Niijima brothers. It would be a hard question to ask if we met again, so I figured I wouldn’t find out.
Shortly after they left, I entered the boss room.
I ended up on a rocky mountain. There were burn marks, and the path was just wide enough for portacool to pass. I looked down, but couldn’t see through the clouds. It was a little scary, because I thought I’d be screwed if I fell.
I walked up the mountain, and when I reached the top, I saw an open plot of land.
I looked around, but there was nothing. Without monsters, there was nowhere to go from there.
I approached the center, and then heard shrill cries. They kept getting louder, and approached from above.
I looked up, and saw a wyvern with big wings spread.
Actually, it was three diving in a corkscrew at me.
“Stop.”
I said to portacool while watching them. I put Chisato next to it, and took some distance.
I can’t beat them while carrying someone.
Also, I lost a good deal of my equipment, and even the agility bracelet I’ve been using for so long has been damaged, and doesn’t appear to be working.
The wyverns came straight down. Unlike silent condors, the noise they made as they glided through the sky made their intensity known.
The champions of the sky. I’m sure they were above any monster I encountered so far.
Still… That was all.
I didn’t feel much threat from them compared to the warrior kobolt, muscular orc, demon, and that big green slime.
Especially after fighting the Niijima brothers and Kuroitsu.
I activated the Speed Up and Solid magic circles, and made a lot of stone bullets to fire them like a shotgun.
I took aim, waited for them to come near, and fired.
There was a loud sound, as the bullets pierced the body of one wyvern and wounded the membrane of one of another’s wings, bringing them down. But the other sensed the threat and dodged by flying up.
Two of them took big damage from the rock bullets, but despite being on the ground, they were still alive.
I didn’t think they’d fly anymore, but there was power behind their glares, making their beastly fighting instincts clear. The wyvern that wasn’t wounded flew around, watching.
I figured it’d try to save its friends, but there was no sign of that. It was simply moving to kill me.
And so, I held the greatsword of fortitude to finish off the other two first.
But then, I heard a scream coming from the direction of the portacool.
“No!!”
Chisato. She woke up.
“Chisato!?”
I turned towards her, and saw her shaking her head as she looked inside portacool.
Tears flowed from her eyes, and her body trembled as she fell to her knees.
It was clear what she saw.
I tried to turn to her, but the heat from the wyverns made me turn right back. I saw flames coming from their mouths.
I controlled magic energy to immediately make a wall of dirt with Earth Magic to buy some time, and ran towards Chisato.
Her scream shifted the wyvern in the sky’s attention from me to her.
“Limit Break!”
I accelerated using Physical Strengthening to its fullest. The lack of the agility bracelet hurt here.
The wyvern glided straight towards Chisato, and I would not make it in time.
I activated a Rupture magic circle to fire a rock spear, but using it while running meant I couldn’t aim properly and it missed. Regardless, it interfered with its moves a little, giving me time to run between them.
As expected, the wyvern flew up again, so I reached Chisato.
But then, I was shocked.
Chisato took her magic gun and aimed it at her temple.
Tears flowed from her wide open eyes. She didn’t even look at me, as she tried to pull the trigger.
Bam! The sound echoed from the magic gun.
I grabbed her hand, and aimed the magic gun at the sky.
“…Chisato, stop. They wouldn’t want that.”
I said while looking directly at her.
There was no power to my words, but I had to say something. Her heart was at its limit.
Still, she didn’t react, instead continuing to face straight ahead as she lost consciousness.
I laid her down, and made a slash of magic energy fly towards the flames.
The slash cut through the flames and disappeared as it bisected the wyvern above.
I finished the remaining wyverns, and walked.
◇ ◇ ◇
With the boss of the thirtieth floor down, I watched a glass orb disappear into my hand.
There was one near Chisato too, but I couldn’t touch it. But when I used Chisato’s hand to touch it, it disappeared into her hand.
I registered in the portal, reported to the guild, and there was a bit of an uproar.
A bit of an uproar. Toufu and the others died, and there was a bit of an uproar.
It was common in the dungeon, so there was no need for a big uproar.
It reminded me once again what kind of place the dungeon was.
The uproar that happened was because I brought back their bodies.
Casualties of the dungeon are usually left in it, and absorbed by it. Bringing them back takes a lot of effort.
I told the guild what happened, and had them contact their families. I didn’t know any of their contact information, so I had to ask the guild.
I laid Chisato in the infirmary, and cast Healing Magic.
There was nothing wrong with her physically, but I saw her confusion in the dungeon. I wanted to help any way I could.
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