The Hunter, the Goblins, and… (2)
The Hunter, the Goblins, and… (2)
#
-Ting!
Once we'd settled the chaos indoors and finally hit the road, the Holy Sword started throwing another tantrum.
[The Holy Sword requests Divine Power replenishment.]
What had the Holy Sword been doing last night? I checked the place where it had rested, just in case, but found no signs that anything had burned.
-Ting!
"...Reni. Could you charge this for me? Sorry."
"It's fine."
Reni promptly took the Holy Sword and started talking to it again.
"Holy Sword, can you hear me? If you can hear me, could you use Holy Fire just once for me?"
"..."
This Holy Sword... it was still hiding something from me. What exactly had it been doing in secret last night...
"Holy Sword? How can you use Divine Power on your own? Is that really okay?"
"..."
Come to think of it, Reni had been sneaking in and stealing every night too. Trying to plunder semen. And yesterday she'd finally succeeded at Sleep Sex...
"What, what? Can't I try it too? Looks fun. How do you do it? Hey, why are you talking to it? Wait, can that Holy Sword actually speak?"
"..."
And this girl was a shameless liar on top of everything else! Why were the only people around me schemers who hid things, thieves, and liars?
Though the one consolation was that the pathetic schemes always came to light before too long.
...Now that I thought about it, I'd been going around lying plenty myself. Maybe this was my own karma...
"Mister—no, Yoo-jin. Why is Reni talking to a sword?"
"...Reni? Not done yet?"
"Ah, here!"
"Tch..."
When she ignored me, I clicked my tongue. Hoo... hold it in... hold it in...
As if something had rubbed her the wrong way, Yuri kicked a stone by the roadside. Now that I noticed, what she was wearing wasn't yesterday's brand-new boots but a pair of boots that looked like combat boots, a bit old and worn.
"...Why aren’t you wearing the new boots?"
The instant I asked, Yuri began spewing words—not because she had been waiting for an opening, but because she simply dumped whatever was in her head without a filter.
"Are you an idiot? They aren’t broken in yet. You expect me to enter a dungeon wearing those? Don’t you know you should use equipment you’re familiar with? Are you really going to be okay? You said you wanted to be an adventurer, but don’t you still have a long way to go before you stop being a wannabe?"
Krrrk... krrrrrrk...
Hold it in... gotta hold it in...
Whether I liked it or not, Yuri kept running her mouth.
"Actually, looks like you might need someone looking after you. How about it? Can't you add me to the party? I think I'd be pretty good at teaching a beginner like you, who's all strength and nothing else. Don't you think? Hee-hee-heet."
Ughhh... ughllghllghl...
...This girl. Sure, she was sociable, no doubt about that. But... she was infuriating. So maddeningly infuriating...
"Hup!"
As I ducked my head and walked, trying to suppress my boiling frustration, Yuri suddenly thrust her face right in front of mine.
"You okay? If you don't look ahead, you'll trip, y'know? This is a mountain trail here—shouldn't you watch your step?"
Grrrrrrrrrgh... grrrrrrrk.
The rising lilt at the end of every sentence was unbearably irritating. Seriously, if I could just rap her once on the head, I'd ask for nothing else.
I glared at her with that exact sentiment, and Yuri merely giggled, apparently delighted.
And the way she ducked her upper body, shoving her face into my line of sight, and then looking up at me...
She was unquestionably beautiful. Watching her stride along on those long legs was pleasant enough, and the throwing-knife sheaths strapped around her thighs squeezed them like bondage garters, making the flesh look taut and strangely sexy.
...Seriously, if she'd just never opened her mouth, I might've fallen for her.
"Y-Yoo-jin..."
I turned at Reni’s strained whimper. She'd lifted her robe enough to expose her calves. She hadn't managed to pull it above her knees, yet even showing that much made her blush.
Reni wore ankle boots, so they did not display the long line of her legs as clearly as Yuri’s, but the view was still lovely...
"Ah, Reni! You can't show your bare legs like that here. Bugs might bite you."
"Okay..."
"Let's move! We might be late!"
"Right..."
# # #
Even with two beauties beside me, reaching a dungeon still meant hiking through the mountains. There was nothing pleasant about the road itself.
To reach a dungeon, you had to walk a good half-day on such paths. As dungeons always were, this one sat deep in a mountain range. So she'd come here just to sightsee?
Suspicious...
"Hey. Yuri. Coming to a place like this just to sightsee, that doesn't quite..."
"Yoo-jin... sorry, but could you put these in your subspace pouch?"
Th-this girl... she was pulling off all the new equipment she'd been wearing and handing it over to me. The instant I spoke to her! Like she'd been waiting for it! Even though earlier I'd asked if she really needed all that and she'd stubbornly insisted!
...Hold it in. Hold it in. Gotta hold it in.
"...So. Yuri. Now that I think about it, it’s strange. Does sightseeing at a place like a goblin dungeon make any sense? It’s not close enough for you to come sightseeing just because you were bored, is it?"
"..."
At that, Yuri stopped walking and lowered her head as though she had something to say...
Then she began in a subdued voice.
"Yoo-jin. Have you ever heard of heroes?"
"...!"
Had she figured out I was a Summoned Person?!
I whipped my head toward Reni, and with a tense expression, she shook her head.
Reni hadn't told her. Then what was it? Had my hair and eye color been the issue after all? But for that to be it, this girl had black hair too, and that aunt of hers also had black hair and brown eyes that were almost black.
"...I've heard about them. Why?"
"Actually, my grandfather was a hero..."
...The tension drained away.
So that was it. Several mysteries finally made sense: her pitch-black hair, the oddly Earth-like name Yuri, and even the boxy T-shirt she owned.
Well, they did summon heroes periodically, and I'd heard some of them sometimes stayed in this world. So having descendants wouldn't be anything strange.
"So..."
"So?"
"I dunno... how do I put it. A hero's bloodline, I guess? Or, maybe I've got some kind of adventuring spirit burning inside me? Something like that? Heehee. And, like, living forever in the boonies like this... it just feels like a waste of youth? Y'know? Hoo-hee-hee-heet."
...A country girl longing for adventure stood right before me. What a textbook cliché.
"Anyway! That's why I've been training my archery all this time! Surveying dungeons, biding my time. Then those guys turned up right on schedule, didn't they? Good luck, huh."
"Is that so..."
Her manic energy was so exhausting to follow that I was approaching post-nut clarity. At least her story about the dungeon didn't seem to be a lie.
"Yuri. Adventuring isn't all good things. Didn't your grandfather tell you anything?"
Reni summed it up for me. I couldn't have been more grateful, and she was absolutely right. For an ordinary person, adventuring was dangerous work with inevitably unstable pay.
Besides, a hero’s abilities could not be hereditary. If they were, the royal family and everyone else would be overflowing with descendants who could use Status Windows.
"Ah... Grandfather..."
Yuri trailed off. The mood shifted again. A slightly cracked voice.
"He left for a faraway place... for real..."
I was not falling for that pattern this time.
...No. Wait. This girl really was shedding tears. Had something actually happened?
"...!"
Th-this shameless brat, she was pinching her own side...!
"...Fine. Let's go."
There was nothing more to ask.
# # #
While trading that ridiculous small talk, we came upon an unusual stretch of terrain.
Cliffs roughly five meters high rose on either side, with a path running between them. It looked like the entrance to a building or fortified position. The place felt a little unsettling.
"Yoo-jin? What are you staring at?"
"Nothing. Just that the cliffs here look weirdly shaped."
At my remark, Yuri launched into an explanation, practically bursting with eagerness as if she'd been waiting.
"Right? Cool, isn’t it? I heard you see spots like this around dungeons a lot. If this pass weren’t open here, we’d have to take a huge detour to reach the dungeon, wouldn’t we?"
She sounded absurdly pleased merely to have taught me one thing. Did she enjoy having the upper hand? Either way, this wasn't the time to worry about her tone. The terrain felt ominous.
"So if you blocked this pass, it'd be hard to get out of the dungeon?"
"Uh... yeah. That's right. Yep!"
This was getting more unsettling. Could this be a trap? The cliffs collapsing the moment we passed through?
"Is there another way?"
"Well... you could just climb up the cliffs. Might be a little tough, though. Oh, now that I think about it, I packed climbing gear earlier, did you notice?"
She thrust her head toward me as if demanding praise, but I looked away. She might act overly familiar, but we weren't close enough for that yet...
"Reni. If you used Protection, could you block this pass?"
"Yes. Right now, I can."
Reni answered with a proud expression. The way she used to shrink, apologizing for being so powerless—that was completely gone now. Her confidence had grown a lot. Back then, she'd watched my every mood out of fear of messing something up... it almost brought a tear to my eye.
Proud of her, I found myself patting her head before I realized it.
"Huh-uhhh... you two really don't have that kind of relationship?"
"We really don't, okay."
Reni answered with a smile.
Huh?
"Huh-uhhh... really?"
At that, the hunter’s daughter giggled and hurried ahead, apparently pleased by something.
Seeing that, Reni beamed up at me and thrust her head forward again, as if asking to be praised for what she'd just said.
"..."
I had no choice but to pat that head again...
#
Silence fell over the path. A quiet mountain trail, where even the birdsong had died out entirely. Even Yuri, who'd been chattering nonstop, gradually went mute as though reading the atmosphere. Reni walked pressed right up against my side. She was gripping my elbow tightly, a little uneasy.
Not good. This really wasn't good.
"If we climb up there, we'll see the dungeon entrance."
Yuri said it with a grave expression. Right. From here on, it wasn't a game anymore.
We held our breath and climbed up to the ridge....
The dungeon was, naturally, a cave.
But near the dungeon entrance, some traces were visible. Rocks here and there turned pitch-black... traces of fire. For some reason, the trees around them were heavily broken, too.
"...Did goblins start a fire or something?"
"No way. Those things don't have the intelligence for that."
Yuri snorted, wearing the same calm, sharpened expression she'd shown against the boar. So she could be serious when it mattered.
"You said you'd never been inside."
"Of course I haven't. But I keep telling you, I've wanted to be an adventurer. I did my own thorough investigation."
Yuri continued her explanation with a serious face.
"Monsters in outer dungeons are weak and stupid. Maybe if this were the Great Labyrinth, sure. But these things don't have the brains to light a fire."
"..."
She was right.
The villagers left outer dungeons alone because the monsters inside did nothing. Riverbridge wasn't unique. Whatever inhabited an outer dungeon, it never tried to leave, so villagers and monsters simply ignored one another.
Naturally, they ordinarily wouldn't have the intelligence or even the idea to light a fire.
But...
"If that's true, why are those trees such a mess?"
"...That's why I told you. Something is going on."
Right. We had confirmed enough. It was time to act.
"Okay. Then should we head back to the village?"
"What?!"
Yuri was horrified.