101. Finals Are... Out of Service (3)
101. Finals Are... Out of Service (3)
I never signed up for alerts like that.
I woke to a scream echoing through the hideout. Rubbing my eyes, I scanned for its source and found Sif collapsed on the floor.
"...What's wrong with her now?"
I looked around, wondering why Sif had fainted.
The door was closed, the ceiling hadn't caved in, the floor had nothing on it...
"...Now I see why she fainted."
I picked up the sandwich sprawled pathetically on the ground. Half-exposed pieces of caterpillar dangled precariously from the bread. Apparently, Sif had never eaten caterpillars. Judging from the way she talked, she had suffered plenty from poverty, yet her palate was more refined than expected.
"...Eating it's out, so I might as well bury it properly."
I dug a decent hole and tossed the dirt-covered sandwich in.
Destruction of evidence, complete.
I took the remaining sandwich from my pack and bit into it. It tasted like a sandwich with caterpillars instead of meat, but it was bound to be more nutritious than an ordinary one.
After stuffing both sandwiches into my mouth, I nudged Sif's leg with my toe to wake her.
"Get up. Time to work."
"Nyaaaaaaa!"
What was with the sudden outburst?
"I, I just had a h-horrible dream, meow..."
So she meowed whenever she lost it. Watching her panic was rather entertaining. Perhaps I'd observe a little longer.
I sat on the bed and quietly observed Sif until she came back to her senses. Muttering nonsense to herself and clutching her head, she finally noticed me and yelled.
"What the hell do you put in a sandwich?!"
"Caterpillars. Is there a problem?"
"How can you even think of putting caterpillars in a sandwich?!"
"You're a terribly picky eater."
"If you grabbed someone on the street and asked them if not being able to eat bugs counts as being picky, what do you think they'd say?"
"You're a terribly picky eater."
"Nyaaaa!"
Why was she tearing at her hair like that? I watched Sif flail around by herself, then picked up the supplies piled in the corner. I needed to pack everything neatly and leave. There was still plenty of time, but I had several preparations to make before Lu-whatever and his harem entered the dungeon.
For example, breaking through a dungeon wall to create an entry route, or checking whether the dungeon had the same layout as the one faintly left in my memory, or deciding on a course of action after confirming the members... The more I thought, the more tasks piled on top of each other.
All the more because I wasn't even another student; my position as an Escort Knight was hopelessly ambiguous.
There were advantages unique to an Escort Knight, but when it came to getting involved in the main story, there were plenty of annoying bits.
So I really hoped Lu-whatever was a transmigrator.
So I could coast by, holed up in a corner of Dawn Hall, living as if I were there and not there. Just hang out with Millia whenever I felt like it, fix gloomy Elisa's personality a little, pass the time trading jokes with Reni, and with Karina...
"...Let's think about that after everything's over."
It was not as though any of that would be difficult.
I loaded everything from the sleeping bag to the preserved food into my backpack. Since Sif had brought quite a lot of supplies, even after filling the pack, about a third still remained. I grabbed the scruff of Sif's neck—still out of it—and lifted her up.
"Pull yourself together."
"Dizzy—quit shaking meeeee—"
She was finally somewhat functional. I released her scruff and set an empty backpack in front of her. Fortunately, Sif understood my unspoken message and immediately began packing the supplies.
"Ugh... Next time, I'm never eating food you've packed..."
"And here I packed extra on purpose."
One of the most important things on an expedition was food.
A newborn baby, one of the continent's finest warriors, or even an Archmage who could rain meteors from the sky would starve if deprived of food.
"Let's drop this subject. I think it's going to come back up..."
If she hated it that much, fine.
"Then we're heading out now."
"Can't we rest just a bit before we go?"
"Weren't you sprawled out on the floor until just now?"
"No, that was..."
"I'm the one doing the work anyway, so just sit in the back and keep watch."
"Fine..."
It was time to get going.
We left the hideout and moved to the spot where the passage I'd previously sealed off was located. Finding the sealed spot wasn't hard. I'd made every last bit of it myself from start to finish, and I'd left markers on purpose.
"This is it."
"Here?"
"Dismantle."
The wall I touched crumbled naturally, revealing the passage. When I brought the lamp close, a passage in the exact same condition as when I'd done the work appeared. Fortunately, it didn't look like I'd have to do the job twice.
"Isn't this where you dug through before?"
"It is."
"So what does this have to do with the dungeon?"
"The dungeon's outer wall is at the end of this passage."
"Ah, I see—"
"I'll go check it out, so wait here."
"Then I'll rest a little..."
No sooner had I finished speaking than Sif slumped against her backpack as a backrest. She was apparently still feeling quite sick. I looked away and walked into the passage. Fortunately, it wasn't long, and I soon reached the dungeon's outer wall.
Which part of the dungeon lay beyond this outer wall?
I had no clues firm enough for certainty, but it was probably the first floor. The tunnel had been dug to roughly subway-station depth, so I doubted it reached the dungeon's deepest section far underground.
I'd know without any complicated calculations if I just broke that wall down.
"Mithril really is the best."
The lamp barely illuminated the space before my nose, yet the mithril scattered light on its own. It lived up to its reputation; a single chunk was said to buy an entire mansion. I stared at the outer wall, then wedged my shovel blade into a joint.
Even a dungeon's outer wall was only stone before mithril. My shovel pierced the joint without mercy, and I repeatedly worked it like a lever, forcing the gap wider before pulling it free.
Once. Twice, three times, four times...
As my shoveling continued, the outer wall began to crumble. However hard a dungeon's outer wall might be, it couldn't withstand the combination of my shoveling—which had reached a profound level—and mithril. After scraping away for nearly an hour, I finally came face-to-face with a new light source, not the lamp's light.
"So it is the first floor."
My memory wasn't exact, but this definitely didn't look like the second or third floor. If I remembered correctly, the dungeon narrowed the farther down it went, while the room below me was as wide as a sports field.
First, I'd better make an entrance.
"Craft."
A plausible-looking hinged door formed in the gaping outer wall.
I tested opening and closing it. Aside from a slight noise that scraped the ear, there didn't seem to be any major problems. At this level, I could probably stop worrying about being discovered. As for its position, the hero's party wouldn't feel anything out of place unless they went around staring only at the ceiling.
Next, I pulled a stake and rope from my pack to secure a way down. I couldn't use magic, and dropping unprotected from a height of at least five meters would not have been wise.
Sif, being a cat beastkin, was plenty flexible and would be fine, but I was an ordinary human—if I fell wrong, I risked twisting an ankle. I tied the rope to the stake, drove it into the ground, and let the rope down to the floor.
"That takes care of the basic preparations."
Now all that was left was for the hero's party to appear.
As a last step, I dug out the surrounding area with my shovel to make a space where I could rest reasonably well. I didn't know how long I'd have to wait, so there was no need to stand by in an uncomfortable position. With the work finished, I went straight back out of the passage and brought Sif in.
"Sleep here."
"Okay..."
Sif stretched out again, using her pack as a pillow. I stared blankly at her for a moment, then pulled a blanket from my pack and covered Sif's body. Her slightly contorted face regained its peace. Maybe because the cold that had been tormenting her body subsided.
"...Wish they'd hurry up and get here."
I set the lamp between Sif and me, pulled out my sleeping bag, and climbed inside. Maybe because I'd paid so much for it, the inside was pretty soft and warm.
From here on, it was a battle of endurance.
I pulled out my watch one last time to check the hour, confirmed that I had about half a day's leeway, and closed my eyes.
---------------------
"...Hey."
"...Yo...!"
"...Hey!"
Had they finally come? I woke up Sif, who was drooling and dead to the world, and organized our gear. It was time to start moving soon.
"Sleep well?"
"I slept too much. I'm all stiff..."
Sif twisted her body dramatically as she stretched. As if to prove she was a cat, the way her back arched like a bow was quite an interesting sight.
"Loosen up as much as you can. We're going to be moving busily from here on."
With those final words, I closed my mouth and listened to the sounds filtering in through the gaps in the wall.
Sounds of bursting, sounds of clashing, sounds of scraping continued to resonate. They were still in combat. Thanks to that, pinpointing the hero's party's location wasn't so difficult.
I did not know how much time had passed, but as the sounds faded, I sensed that the moment to enter the dungeon was drawing near.
"...The sounds have completely moved away."
I cautiously opened the door and scanned the dungeon. The floor was littered with blood and shattered stone fragments, and I could see footprints made from monster blood. They had definitely passed through.
"Sif."
"You want me to go down first?"
"Go ahead."
I immediately tossed the rope down, creating a means to go up and down. But Sif, being a cat, seemed to find climbing down it too much trouble—she just jumped straight down and looked around.
"Seems clear."
The moment Sif finished speaking, I slid down the rope and joined her.
"From now on, we tail the students taking the exam from far enough away that they won't notice us."
"This feels like a job that definitely calls for hazard pay, you know?"
I looked at Sif as she suddenly spoke while surveying the area. The money-mad Thief Cat cast me a sly look and made a circle with her index finger and thumb.
"Let's discuss hazard pay after the job is done."
"Heh heh, I'll be looking forward to it."
Sif smiled a smile I wanted to smack right off her face, her ears perking up.
...Well, whatever.
Right now, hazard pay and all that wasn't what was important.
And so, our tailing operation began.