Underworld Cleanup (4)
“Oh my god. So that means the Obsidian Golem appeared back then because of…”
“Probably because of me…?”
Freya shot me a sidelong look.
“And you just kept your mouth shut and pretended you didn’t know?”
“…Allen is weak, so…”
Clara tried to defend me, but her words only stabbed straight into my conscience.
Sorry for being so pathetic…
“…Haha.”
“Your intentions were sweet, at least, so that’s nice, but…”
Freya paused for a beat, then looked at me.
“…You weren’t doing it because you wanted to leave the party, were you?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Never mind, then.”
“How did you even jump to that conclusion?”
“I was thinking about why Allen would suddenly need power, and… if you wanted to stand on your own, you’d need strength, right?”
That hit a little too close to home.
Honestly, when they acted like complete assholes, the thought of leaving did cross my mind. But I hadn’t started training just so I could walk out the door tomorrow.
Having insurance so I could stand alone whenever I needed to was part of it, sure—but more than that, I just wanted to actually contribute in a fight for once.
I transmigrated into a game I know inside and out.
Spending my whole life doing nothing would be boring as hell.
“It’s not like that. I already told you the reason.”
“All right. I’ll believe you.”
Freya looked at me and added,
“If you betray a saintess’s trust, the God of Life will be very angry, you know?”
“…That’s kind of terrifying.”
After watching Myeongsin Vita’s judgment earlier, the threat landed a lot harder.
“What’s there to be scared of? Just don’t betray me.”
Freya said it lightly and gave a soft laugh. Looking at her like this, something always felt strange—her hair and eyes, specifically.
Unlike Clara’s gleaming silver hair, Freya’s was pure white, almost brittle-looking, and her eyes were a dull, lifeless ash-gray. Colors you never saw on ordinary people.
“Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“Your hair and eyes—were they always that color?”
“Of course not.”
Freya laughed quietly.
“I’m not old enough for my hair to go white, and while gray eyes exist, I’ve never seen ones this dull and ashen on anyone else.”
“Then why?”
“Because I’m a saintess.”
“Huh?”
Freya continued,
“Accepting a god’s power into a human body isn’t easy. Without even realizing it, my mind and body take on enormous pressure and stress. That’s why my hair turned pure white and my eyes lost all their color.”
“…Have all the saintesses been like that? Historically?”
“Most of them. A few with exceptionally strong wills were different, but I’m not on that level.”
…The only person I can think of with mental fortitude on Freya’s level is Ser-Aria. Without that kind of steel, no one could casually put their body on full display without caring what anyone thought.
While I was thinking that, Freya asked me,
“What color do you think my hair used to be?”
“Huh?”
“If you guess right, I’ll give you a reward.”
“What kind of reward?”
“That’s a secret.”
Freya smiled sweetly.
“What color was it?”
“…….”
I had never seen her backstory in Dungeon in Evil, so I couldn’t answer right away. Freya pressed me.
“Come on, guess.”
“Can I think for a second?”
“You’re taking forever. How badly do you want that reward?”
“It’s not like that…”
Clara spoke up.
“…If I guess right, do I get a reward too?”
“Of course. Clara gets one too.”
“…Black?”
“Wrong. We’ll take turns. Allen’s turn now.”
Black was out. The most ordinary color left among the rest would be…
“Brown?”
“…What? How did you get it so easily?”
“Wait, I’m right?”
“Did you already know about my family?”
“No.”
I knew nothing.
“Everyone in my family has brown hair. It’s not a common color, so how did you guess?”
So brown hair was rare in Dungeon in Evil. Thinking about it, there really hadn’t been many brown-haired characters.
“…Allen, lucky you.”
“Huh? For what?”
“She said she’d give a reward.”
“Ah.”
She was jealous over a reward she didn’t even know the contents of. Clara really was pure in her own way.
“So what is the reward?”
“It’s a reward only a saintess can give.”
“Huh?”
The moment I voiced my confusion, Freya yanked me into her arms. My body tilted under her strength, and my face pressed straight into her chest.
Even within the party, Freya rivaled Erinn for the biggest bust.
And the dancer’s outfit she was wearing left the upper half of her breasts completely bare. Soft, springy warmth pressed against both my cheeks.
“A warm embrace from the saintess is the reward.”
Freya said it with a bashful little smile. I snapped out of it and scrambled free of her arms.
“……What the hell are you doing!?”
“I just gave you your reward.”
“How is this a reward…?”
“You don’t like it? I thought Allen would, since you’re a guy.”
“…I don’t.”
…I actually did. That soft, plush feeling was dangerously addictive.
I couldn’t deny it, but saying so out loud would have been weird in its own way.
“Unexpected. Maybe Allen really can’t accept anyone but Erinn.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Ah… sorry. It’s nothing.”
Freya brushed it off and said,
“All right, enough slacking. Shall we go find the Dragon Jade?”
“…Yeah, sure.”
Why did that brat suddenly come up? Was she misunderstanding things just because we were childhood friends?
Before I transmigrated, that might actually have been true.
But now? Absolutely not. There was no way I liked that damn mesugaki.
“…Allen likes… breasts…”
“……?”
Leaving Clara’s incomprehensible muttering behind us, we set off in search of the Dragon Jade.
We walked a while longer. The path was long, but after the minotaur, no more monsters appeared. That thing must have been the maze’s sole monster, its boss, and its gatekeeper all in one.
At last we stood before a massive door.
“Something really suspicious just showed up.”
“Looks like this is the place, doesn’t it?”
“…Yeah.”
It looked as solid as it did suspicious. Even after killing the minotaur, this door felt like a second checkpoint.
But…
“Clara, can you open it?”
“…I’ll try.”
We had a thief, after all. Lockpicking was one of a thief’s signature skills. A door like this should be open in no time…
“…Huh? Why won’t it…?”
“……It won’t open?”
“…Just give me a little longer.”
Clara tried again and again, but the door showed no sign of budging. How the hell was this thing supposed to open?
“…Oh?”
“Allen, did you see that too?”
Looking closer, the reliefs carved into the door were depicting something.
“Some kind of poses?”
“Yes. More precisely…”
Freya said,
“Dances.”
Dances. The word made my brain freeze for a second.
“…Don’t tell me we actually have to dance.”
“If something like this is carved here of all places, that has to be what it means. It’s the obvious conclusion, right?”
Yeah, that was the cliché… but why did she know that so well?
“…There are three holes here. Something like gems set inside them.”
“Maybe they light up each time a dance is performed? Once all three light up, the door opens.”
It was a plausible guess.
“Does only one person have to dance?”
“I don’t think so. Look—there are three figures carved, and each one’s pose is a little different. And there are exactly three holes, so it fits.”
“…….”
Three people… no escaping it.
“Allen can take the tall figure’s part, and Clara and I will take the smaller ones. It looks like the dances are split between male and female.”
“…Haa.”
“…We really have to dance this?”
“Clara, you don’t want to either, huh.”
“…It looks fun.”
Never mind.
Surprisingly, Clara seemed interested. With her well-proportioned figure, dancing would probably suit her, but it was still unexpected. Self-esteem and hobbies really were separate things.
“Let’s follow the order carved in the reliefs. Allen goes first.”
“…….”
I really didn’t want to.
I studied the poses carved into the stone. And then I realized I’d seen this dance before.
…It’s the Sad Cat Dance.
The one that had blown up as an internet meme once upon a time.
I wondered for a second why it was carved here, but this was the world of Dungeon in Evil, so it wasn’t that strange. Games stuck popular memes in all the time…
But they wanted me to dance it right now…?
“Allen, hurry up. We need to get the Dragon Jade back.”
“…You can do it.”
“……Fine.”
The moves themselves weren’t hard. Mostly the same motions on repeat. But watching female streamers and idols do it and then having to do it myself sent a tidal wave of self-loathing crashing over me.
Freya and Clara didn’t know what dance it was, so it was less embarrassing for them. I knew the original, so my shame was twice as bad.
As I danced, light suddenly flared from the door—from one of the three holes.
“Allen, that was good.”
“…You danced well.”
I wanted to die. Clara’s pure, sincere applause only made it worse.
“My turn next, then.”
The relief for Freya’s turn was…
Zero Two…
Arms folded behind the head, upper and lower body moving in opposite arcs—yeah, that was definitely the dance. Another one that had set the internet on fire back in the day.
“The moves look pretty hard…”
“You can’t skip it.”
I wasn’t going to be the only one suffering. When I told her to take it seriously, Freya smiled faintly.
“I’ll do it.”
Freya clasped her arms behind her and rolled her hips lightly. Even watching from behind, the destructive power of those movements was considerable—especially in that dancer’s outfit.
No wonder it had once set the internet ablaze. If I’d been watching from the front…
…That would have been dangerous.
She danced with full effort, and soon light filled the second hole. One left.
“Wow, it worked!”
“…Yeah. Congrats.”
“How was it? Did I do well?”
“Uh… yeah. You did.”
“Allen, that had zero soul in it.”
Freya pouted, but that was the best I could manage. I couldn’t exactly tell a saintess she looked sexy.
“Clara’s next.”
“…Okay.”
The dance Clara had to perform… yeah, this one I didn’t know. It didn’t look connected to any dance meme. Completely new to me.
“What kind of dance is that?”
“…This is a traditional dance from the Shah Zar Kingdom.”
“Ah, right. I think I’ve seen it before.”
Clara scanned the reliefs with her eyes, then slowly raised her hands.
“…I’ll dance.”
With that short declaration, Clara began to move with quiet precision, and I found myself a little stunned. I wasn’t the only one—Freya looked quietly impressed as well.
Clara danced far better than I had imagined. There was even a refined elegance to it. Her expression stayed the same as always, but her usual gaze—slightly detached yet calm—gave the whole performance atmosphere.
Honestly, the dancer’s outfit should have been on Clara from the start.
…She’s beautiful.
Not the ordinary kind of pretty you say about someone’s face. The entire scene of Clara dancing was beautiful in a way that was hard to put into words.
Even the door seemed to acknowledge that perfect performance. Light spilled from the third hole.
“We did it!”
“Clara, that was amazing! You danced so well!”
“…Thanks.”
Clara scratched her cheek, looking bashful. The traditional dance had looked the most complex of the three, but Clara’s flawless execution unlocked the door.
And at last…
“Allen, is it there?”
“…It’s here!”
We were reunited with the Dragon Jade.
When we emerged from the maze with the Dragon Jade, Caesius was waiting at the entrance. She wasn’t alone—Erinn, Ser-Aria, and Letisia were with her.
“Finally out. What took you so long~?”
“It was a maze inside.”
“You weren’t slacking off, were you~♡”
“No… but why are you all here? You were supposed to cover the escape route…”
Letisia answered my question.
“We already finished dealing with everything.”
“…Oh. Really?”
They worked fast.
Ser-Aria ran up to us and demanded,
“The Dragon Jade? Is my drinking money safe!?”
You’re worried about booze at a time like this?
“It’s right here.”
“Haa, thank god!!”
“You actually found it~? Not bad for a loser~♡”
Do you have any idea what I went through to get this, you brat? I had to dance.
While Ser-Aria fretted over her alcohol fund and Erinn teased me even now, Letisia offered us genuine encouragement.
“You all worked hard.”
“You did too, Letisia.”
“…Everyone did well.”
…Yeah. On a normal day, she really was the most well-adjusted one among us.
I looked at Caesius.
“You didn’t get hurt, right?”
“Allen, what do you take this body for? You think I would be injured by mere insects?”
“Good job. Still haven’t fixed that ‘insects’ habit, though.”
“…It was a slip of the tongue. Forgive me.”
“No. Just fix it.”
“F-forgive me! It feels like my horns are about to snap…!”
Yeah. Not happening.
“Shall we head back and finish selling the Dragon Jade?”
“Yeah~ Let’s go already.”
I handed the Dragon Jade to Caesius.
“Don’t forget it this time. Carry it carefully.”
“I wasn’t the one who forgot it last time…”
…A human did forget it, yeah.
“Humans forget things, so the dragon should keep track of it.”
“…Very well. This body shall never forget and shall deliver it safely.”
Caesius puffed up her chest as she took the jade. Watching her, Erinn whispered to me,
“You’re already putting her to work~? Maybe you’ve got a knack for taming after all~?”
“She’s a little simple-minded, so…”
“Pfft♡”
Erinn said,
“You did good, loser♡”
“……Why are you suddenly saying something nice?”
When I asked in genuine confusion, Erinn just gave me a mischievous smile and turned away without answering. I watched her back for a moment, let out a quiet sigh, and followed after her.
“Caesius, come on.”
“Understood.”
And so the cleanup of the underworld organization Tin Tara and the recovery of the Dragon Jade came to a successful close.
What none of us realized at the time was that this incident would later return to us as a rather painful arrow.