Entering the Dungeon
Morning arrived, and at last the time had come to enter the dungeon.
Even then, I still had no idea what the potion I had drunk actually was.
Maybe it was a dud with no effect at all?
That thought crossed my mind precisely because nothing had happened.
But would Jinny make a mistake like that?
While I was turning it over, someone hugged me from behind.
“Reina! Looking forward to working with you today!”
I knew it was Ceryll the moment I heard her voice.
Still…
I already knew, but Ceryll really does have a huge chest.
Even when it was hidden under her uniform I could tell, yet feeling it pressed against me made the fact hit me all over again.
So soft…
I had assumed that someone who moved her body as much as she did would feel firm, but that wasn’t the case at all.
Probably because this was a world inside a novel.
Anyway, the sensation wasn’t bad.
No—if anything, it felt good.
Of course I had no intention of letting that show.
“You startled me.”
“Sorry. I wanted to surprise you a little, and I also just… felt like hugging you. Did you hate it?”
I normally disliked physical contact with other people.
Maybe it was simply because I wasn’t used to it.
But now that it was happening, it wasn’t all that bad.
With how short I had become, I fit snugly against her body, and that even gave me a faint sense of security.
Even so, having a girl suddenly pull me into her arms was still embarrassing.
I decided to say I hated it so she would never do it again.
“No. I liked it.”
I doubted my own ears.
Wait—what did I just say?
“Huh? You liked it? Really?”
Ceryll sounded surprised too.
Apparently she hadn’t expected those words from me either.
“Th-that just now was…”
“So you like being hugged by me, Reina.”
“No. I mean, being hugged is… I don’t really like it.”
“Huh? But you just said you liked it.”
Being hugged by Ceryll felt strangely fine.
“Being hugged by Ceryll felt strangely fine.”
What? What was that? Why was my mouth moving on its own?
Having the exact thought in my head spill out into the open left me completely flustered.
Don’t tell me…
One suspicion rose to the surface.
Is it because of the potion Jinny gave me?
The potion whose effect I had never managed to figure out.
Twenty-four hours hadn’t passed yet, so whatever it did should still be active.
Was it a potion that forces you to be honest?
Judging by what was happening, that had to be it.
“Then I guess I’ll just have to hug you lots more from now on.”
“……”
“Reina?”
The one silver lining was that if I simply kept my mouth shut, I was fine.
It wasn’t that my inner monologue poured out automatically; it was more like I could only speak the unfiltered truth.
“Let’s go.”
In that case, it was manageable.
I just had to stick to necessary conversation.
Only talk about what’s needed for clearing the dungeon.
Avoid any idle chatter and I’d be all right.
I hadn’t planned on small talk to begin with.
Of course…
“Reina, walk with me. Ah—Reina, what’s inside that bag? You packed so much. What did you bring?”
Ceryll clearly wanted to talk with me.
“Reina? Why aren’t you answering? Hmm?”
“……”
Ignoring her left a faintly awkward feeling, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“Aww~. Are you embarrassed? You’re secretly pretty shy, aren’t you, Reina? So cute.”
I decided I could just keep ignoring her.
Beneath the academy was a place connected to the dungeon entrance.
Anin was waiting there for the students.
“Numbers one and six. Head into Dungeon A.”
Anin spoke as soon as he spotted Ceryll and me.
Instead of answering, I simply nodded.
“Here—take these brooches. If you’re ever in danger, the return magic will activate automatically.”
Anin handed each of us a numbered brooch.
“Wear it in your hair like a pin.”
At his instruction I raised the brooch toward my head.
I tried to fasten it, but it refused to stay put.
Damn this useless manual dexterity.
I frowned.
Reina’s fine motor skills were absolutely hopeless.
Because of that, she had never managed to pin the brooch properly.
She couldn’t even tie her hair back right, which was why she always kept it short and loose.
Still, the brooch had to be worn every single time she entered a dungeon.
There were times she lost it because she couldn’t fasten it properly, right?
No—this girl Reina had lost the thing over and over.
It got so bad that the original protagonist ended up pinning it into her hair for her in one scene.
In any case, that particular flaw of hers had put her in danger more often than not.
…It shouldn’t matter this time.
Once a dungeon break occurred the brooch became useless anyway.
So even if it dangled loosely, it wouldn’t cause a real problem.
Still, losing it would be a pain.
Getting a replacement cost money.
And I was poor.
Once we’re inside the dungeon I’ll just take it off and shove it in my pocket.
The moment that thought formed, Ceryll suddenly reached out.
Her slender fingers took the brooch and then began moving along the strands of my hair.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
“If you wear it like that it’ll slide right off. I’ll do it for you.”
“…It’s fine. It can slide off.”
“No. I don’t want you getting into danger, Reina.”
Ceryll’s stubbornness was absolute.
On top of that Anin had just told us to put it on properly for safety, so I had no choice but to nod.
“…Okay.”
“Stay still for a second.”
With that she stepped behind me.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m pinning it at the back. That way you won’t be able to take it off whenever you feel like it, right?”
Ceryll said so while gently fussing with the hair at the nape of my neck.
Having someone touch my hair for the first time felt strangely foreign.
“Ah…”
What I assumed were her fingers brushed the skin of my nape, and a small sound escaped me before I could catch it.
It sounded weirdly soft.
Embarrassment flooded me and I clenched my teeth hard.
Whether she noticed or not, Ceryll kept playing with my hair.
“There. The design’s a little disappointing, but… this should do it.”
It seemed she was finished.
Thank goodness.
“By the way, Reina, your hair feels really nice. How do you usually wash it?”
“I just wash it with whatever’s around. Could you step back now?”
“Then do you put on perfume or something? I keep smelling something really nice.”
I felt something brush against my hair.
It took only a second to realize it was the tip of Ceryll’s nose.
My scent was drifting straight into her?
“D-don’t smell me!”
I yelped and scrambled away from her.
“It’s not like smelling it will wear it out.”
Ceryll spoke with a look of genuine regret.
I averted my eyes and pointed toward the dungeon.
“We’re ready, so let’s just go in.”
Without waiting for her reply I strode toward the dungeon entrance.
Flash.
Light swallowed everything and the world changed.
The dim underground chamber had become the interior of a cavern whose depths I couldn’t begin to guess.
“So this is what a dungeon feels like.”
Ceryll’s voice came from behind me.
The transfer seemed to have gone without any mishap.
“No monsters around.”
She looked this way and that; it was clearly her first time inside a dungeon.
I was curious too, but not particularly surprised.
It matches the description.
Thanks to having read the novel, I already knew Dungeon A was a cavern system and exactly how it was laid out.
“Let’s go.”
I started forward, but Ceryll stepped in front of me as if to stop me.
“You use a bow, Reina. Wouldn’t it be better if you stayed behind me?”
If I hadn’t known anything about this dungeon I probably would have nodded.
But my head already held every piece of information about the place.
“In low-rank dungeons, monsters only appear in the wider chambers. We can switch formation then without any problem.”
I had never experienced it myself, yet the original protagonist had flailed around in total panic and still had time to fall back, so it had to be true.
“There are traps scattered around too. They’re not life-threatening, but it’s still better to avoid them whenever we can. That means I should take the lead.”
In the novel, Reina had been little more than a cancer character.
Her talent was outstanding, yet her personality kept her from ever using her full strength, and because she never fastened the brooch properly she was constantly kidnapped or thrown into danger.
On top of that she was the only one who never obtained a holy relic, leaving her especially vulnerable to mental attacks.
Still, even that Reina had one single useful trait.
She was ridiculously good at spotting traps.
Whether it had anything to do with her excellent eyesight I didn’t know, but she found them with uncanny accuracy.
She also noticed abnormalities faster than anyone else.
Of course, the problem was that she still managed to get kidnapped right afterward.
Anyway, if I could detect traps there was no reason not to.
And I already know every important trap by heart.
The novel had filled the place with some truly bizarre traps just to push the protagonist and Ceryll forward.
But as long as I was here, none of that would happen.
Besides, the original protagonist wasn’t even around this time.
“Reina, have you been inside a dungeon before?”
Ceryll blinked at me as she asked.
Apparently I looked far too familiar with the place.
“No.”
There certainly hadn’t been dungeons in the world I used to live in.
So of course I hadn’t.
“Then how do you know all this so well?”
“…I learned it from a book.”
Right now I was incapable of lying.
So that much was the truth.
Even if the book in question had been a novel.