Cleanup
Even if the monsters from another world were different, so long as their bodies were made of protein and fat, there wasn’t much difference between killing them and killing a human being.
The only difference was that you had to pour on more, and at a higher concentration.
If anything, it was easier to kill a monster. They didn’t run, and they didn’t try to get clever.
The minotaur that had taken hydrochloric acid straight to the face and maw was thrashing more desperately than ever before.
I hadn’t known how much it would take to kill it, so I’d kept pouring until the chlorine in its body was hanging by a thread. Apparently that had done the trick.
Its face had melted away, leaving bone visible in patches, and from the mouth that still retained some shape, a thick red liquid kept spurting out in violent bursts.
It almost looked like it was trying to scream, but then again, who knew. Its lungs, bronchi, and vocal cords were probably all running out in that red slurry too.
The monster kept writhing like that until, in the end, the hydrochloric acid inside it finally ate through its belly and oozed out, bringing its wretched life to a miserable close.
And seeing that no blue core had come out mixed in with that crimson mess...
Lapis swung at the monster, then picked up a broken chunk of stone and brought it down on the monster’s skull.
Since it had already been soaked in acid, she could crack its head with a light tap-tap, without even putting much strength into it.
“Found it.”
She plucked the blue jewel lodged in what was left of its brain, and only then did the minotaur’s corpse crumble away into black dust.
“H-hah... haah... h-hah... I-is it... over...?”
“I... think... so... Jinhyun... Jinhyun?! Jinhyun!! Snap out of it!!!”
Yeonhwa was screaming Seo Jinhyun’s name from behind us, over and over, but there was no answer.
He’d forced himself to use an ability he usually didn’t rely on, and then burned through so much mana that he’d apparently passed out from exhaustion.
I’d been about to ignore it, but Yeonhwa sounded so heartbreakingly desperate that I gave her a half-decent reassurance.
“He just fainted from overexertion. Don’t worry too much, Yeonhwa.”
“He... fainted? Uh... it really is true. Thank goodness... More importantly, did we... win?”
“We won.”
I held up the dungeon core as proof, and Yeonhwa’s tension and strength seemed to drain out of her all at once as she collapsed to her knees on the floor.
“Thank goodnessss...”
Seo Jinhyun’s hair, which had turned sky-blue, had already returned to its usual white by now.
...Tsk. Nothing ever goes smoothly, does it?
I’d failed to stop that guy from using his ability, and on top of that, the Suicides had gotten stronger by getting their hands on my chemicals.
This really was the whole world teaming up to screw me over.
Still, maybe I could keep him from meeting his master like in the original story.
After all, whatever he did in here hadn’t been captured in a video shot by some random citizen.
Well, I’d know once I stepped outside.
But before that, there was something else I had to do.
I was the winner here. Time to claim the dungeon clear rewards and get out.
Of course, clearing a dungeon meant you got all sorts of artifacts as rewards.
And extracting mana stones was part of a hunter’s job.
Since heroes almost never went into dungeons, being able to get this kind of haul from one was a pretty sweet deal.
Otherwise, you’d have to buy them from hunters who swore they’d risked their lives to mine them and then slapped a premium on top.
For a dungeon of this difficulty, most of the rewards were probably just junk you’d extract the mana from and throw away anyway...
Still, it felt good.
When I went over to where the minotaur had been bound, I found a large chest that was barely big enough to hold a person.
Wait. Something like this usually only dropped from at least B-class and up.
...Hmm.
So.
Thanks to Lapis, we’d gotten the maze for free, and the villains who’d settled in here had wiped out all the trash mobs, which meant this whole run had gone far more smoothly than I’d expected...
I must have underestimated it and thought it was easier than it really was.
These rewards might actually be pretty sweet.
The others were in no condition to open the chest, so with a bit of anticipation, I cracked it open.
Inside were a pile of mana stones and several items.
The mana stones were always useful, but I had no idea what the artifacts were.
Ah. Right. In games and novels they always show up so naturally that I’d forgotten.
I don’t have a status window.
This was a problem.
I had no way to know right away which items were valuable and which ones would actually be useful to me.
If I tried to pocket them now, it would only become a pain in the ass later...
Still, it wasn’t like I’d taken the whole thing down by myself.
The others had a share in this too, so we’d have to split it... probably.
It was a shame, but it couldn’t be helped.
I didn’t even have an inventory, so there was no way to smuggle this stuff out without anyone noticing.
I could probably get away with cloth or a dagger, but a longsword? There was no way.
Fine, forget it.
It wasn’t worth trashing my reputation for something this petty.
I could always divide it up after we got out.
“You guys worked hard. Let’s head back now.”
“O...kay...”
“L-lik...! Done. Let’s go!”
All the while, Yeonhwa was still holding Seo Jinhyun in her arms.
She really was hopelessly devoted. A little cruelty would do her some good; that’s how people grow.
Putting a hand on the chest, I broke the dungeon core.
The space split like cracked glass, and the gate opened again, swallowing us whole.
When we were spit back out, we were on the very road where the gate had swallowed us in the first place.
But there was one difference: it was no longer an empty place.
There were Heros Company employees setting up some kind of unknown machine, Yeonhwa’s parents, Yustitia, and a woman who looked like what Lapis might grow into if she ever matured into that sort of figure.
There were also police officers, paramedics, reporters, and a good many others besides.
The moment they saw us, all of them abandoned whatever they’d been doing and came straight toward us.
The families were hugging each other, while the reporters were arguing with the police and trying their best to get even a single word out of someone.
The paramedics were checking the children’s conditions with the guardians’ permission, and the police... came up to me.
Apparently the annoying part wasn’t over yet.
---
Yeonhwa and Jinhyun were admitted to the hospital until they stabilized.
As for Lapis, her grandmother had firmly expressed her intention to take her home, so she was able to leave without anyone bothering her.
...Which meant that after all that, every single annoying thing ended up being dumped on me, the only one who was still more or less in one piece.
The initial statement. What exactly had happened inside the dungeon. The chest’s identity.
Its connection to the Suicides, the tabloid vultures, and everything else.
By the time I was finally let go, it was already very late at night.
“You really do get caught up in every annoying thing, don’t you, Blanca?”
If you’re wondering where we were, it was inside Yustitia’s car.
Since it was late, she’d said she’d drive me home, and I’d hopped in without hesitation.
“It’s not like I go looking to get caught up in things.”
Still sprawled across the back seat, I stretched and twisted my body this way and that.
A low, catlike groan slipped out of me on its own.
“...Hmph. I didn’t even do anything wrong, so why is the whole world like this?”
“What about picking a fight with Yamaguchi?”
“...Sister, that was their fault for being weak.”
I answered petulantly, and Yustitia let out a laugh, brushing it off.
No, seriously, it wasn’t my fault. I just got hit because they were weak.
“Maybe so. You are strong. But... that still doesn’t mean you can swing that strength around however you like, Blanca.”
Even in places where she didn’t need to act like a teacher, Yustitia was still trying to act like one.
Terrified by the sight of it, I preemptively parroted the line I knew was coming.
“I know, I know. Actions have consequences. I’m not saying I did it without thinking. They were just getting cocky, so I stepped on them.”
If I hadn’t, they’d have kept bothering me forever.
After I added that, she didn’t seem to have much else to say, so she drove on in silence.
Then, all of a sudden, she spoke again.
“...Still, you’ve even learned how to apologize now.”
“What? I know how to apologize. I just haven’t had any reason to, since I haven’t been wrong.”
“Yes, yes. I understand.”
As we bickered without any real meaning to it, it felt almost like I was in the Boss’s hideout.
...I already miss it.
“How’s the Boss doing?”
“As usual, even while she’s busy, she still takes a full two hours for lunch without fail.”
“So she’s doing well, then.”
Well, that settled the school matter.
Now it was about time to get to the real point.
“So... did you find anything?”
I asked whether she’d learned anything about a weakness, any kind of flaw at all. But she said she still hadn’t found a thing.
“You really do have to call it the best in the world, I think. I can’t even figure out where to start forcing my way in.”
“Then... I guess it’s still that one method, huh.”
“For now, yes.”
I hadn’t expected it to be easy. If a weakness had already turned up by now, I would’ve been disappointed.
“If anything else comes up, I’ll text you then. Oh, and maybe check the class chatroom? The kids kept calling me, asking if everyone was okay.”
Ah. Right. That existed. I’d joined it and then completely forgotten about it.
When I checked the class chatroom, there were already a bunch of messages from around 4 p.m., all of them asking whether everyone was all right.
Then, after they’d apparently figured out among themselves who’d been attacked, they started asking whether the kids who’d been swept up by the gate were safe too.
They really were good kids at heart.
Still lying on my back, I sent a message saying I was fine, and even at this late hour people must have still been awake, because the chat exploded with replies, everyone saying thank goodness.
Minho had even sent me a private message.
...Heehee.
The protagonist is thinking of me.
Throwing in an emoji that didn’t suit me at all, I sent back a braggy reply saying I wasn’t weak enough to collapse over something like this.
“Artifact appraisal will take a while. They said there were some newly discovered types this time too. So... this weekend, don’t worry about anything and get some proper rest.”
As both your teacher and your sister, that’s my advice.
Before I knew it, we’d arrived in front of my house, and she said it while seeing me home.
Honestly, she just had to keep insisting I call her sister, didn’t she.
Still, she wasn’t wrong.
I should rest properly this weekend.
---