90. Dance with the Witch (3)
90. Dance with the Witch (3)
The revelation made me stare at Elisa. She trembled under my gaze, confirming that she'd deliberately hidden the fact that the assignment was a group project.
"A group project, you said. Is that true?"
"It is... indeed. The Dungeon Exploration Studies assignment is basically a group project! No matter how easy a dungeon is, an unexpected situation could occur! Ohohoho!"
She'd clearly just been intimidated by my face. But I privately admired the way she instantly reverted to her original expression—possibly noble pride at work. I supposed when you reached the nobility, managing your expression was supposed to be a basic skill.
"And who might the gentleman be? May I ask for an introduction?"
At the question from the apparent noble young lady, I answered with a suitable mix of lies.
"Yohan Quartz. I'm a knight and former adventurer. Elisa asked me to help with her assignment."
"A knight, you say...?"
A dubious gaze collided with my own. Though the young lady immediately withdrew her stare, she didn't seem to have shed her suspicion.
"Will this do?"
I produced the pendant from my coat that proved my knighthood. Only then did the suspicious stare of the nameless student vanish.
"It's a relief that you're a knight. I thought Elisa had naively hired some rough adventurer drifting around the taverns..."
I did look rough. It was a fact I acknowledged, so I was unfazed. Truly.
I'd initially taken her for a stereotypically irritating noble student, but her tone made it clear that she'd genuinely worried about Elisa, which left me feeling oddly conflicted. She was theatrical, but she seemed like a good person.
Unlike before, the young lady offered me an apology with a courteous gesture.
"I apologize for my rudeness."
"It's fine. I'm used to being misunderstood."
"I was so surprised that Elisa had brought someone with her that I spoke rudely without realizing it..."
That it made sense was its own kind of absurd.
Elisa's seemingly bottomless loner tendencies were apparently famous among the students. Naturally, her classmates would know about them.
"Elisa."
"Y-Yes?"
Elisa looked at the nameless student while hunched tight, like a victim of school bullying. The young lady smiled gently, then spoke in a voice that was stern in contrast.
"Trying to do a group assignment alone is not good. You need to work on your social skills. Understood?"
"B-but, other people, they ha-hate me—"
"If you'd at least told me, I would have included you in my group. Do you know how flustered I was when I found out afterward?"
"Ah, well—"
"Making excuses is a bad habit, Elisa. How long are you going to keep doing this? Last time, I—"
"Let's stop there. Aren't your friends waiting?"
I glanced at the cluster of students waiting behind her and spoke. Hearing me, the young lady looked up with an expression that said she had made a mistake.
"Ah, I got too carried away. I apologize again. My party is waiting, so I'll be going. I hope your expedition goes well, Elisa! Sir Yohan, please make sure she completes her assignment safely!"
The nameless young lady soon melted into the crowd and disappeared.
"...Whoever she is, she's certainly thorough."
"Can't deny that."
"M-Martina is good at taking care of people... S-She's very popular..."
Meddlesome... It was an accurate assessment. The way she spoke made it obvious that she was the type to look after the people around her. Yet even someone like that couldn't break through Elisa's loner shell. Then again, one person caring for her would not change everyone else's perception.
Well, that wasn't what mattered now.
"Elisa. It seems a conversation is in order."
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I methodically organized Elisa's explanation in my head—she spoke like an XTube video stuttering on a weak signal.
"...So, basically, you've got a lot of people in your department who don't like you, and you for your part can't talk to them, so you're isolated. And for this assignment, everyone was reluctant to put you in their group, so you had no choice but to do it alone. Is that right?"
"People l-look at me with sc-scary eyes... and, and if they f-find out..."
"Ugh, it's painful to watch."
Sif exactly channeled my own feelings.
At this rate, she'd be accused of being a witch without doing anything. She already radiated a deeply gloomy atmosphere, and she was gloomy to her core. What was I supposed to do with this magnificent specimen of a true—no, a textbook loner?
Not that it was territory I could jump into and solve.
I wasn't even a fellow student. We were merely colleagues.
It might help to pair her with Millia so she could develop at least a few social skills. Millia had enough social energy to befriend and chat with any passing student in no time.
...Haah. First, we would clear the dungeon and think about it afterward.
We'd already wasted more time than I expected.
"Elisa. Sif. Let's finish the assignment first, then think about this matter."
"Okay. So where to?"
Sif quickly picked up on my words and asked. At her question, I ran through the nearby dungeons in my mind for a moment. I didn't remember all of them, but there ought to be a few more dungeons no one had laid hands on yet.
"Follow me. I know of a dungeon no one else has discovered. Surveying an unexplored dungeon should earn you a good grade."
"If it's an unexplored dungeon, we can also get a reward from the Dungeon Exploration Guild, you know? You found something like that and didn't report it?"
"It's more efficient to loot it first and report it afterward."
Ordinary people might not want to risk their lives clearing one, but that did not apply to me.
To put it bluntly, if I could just dig a tunnel through every troublesome section and bypass it, there was no need to go telling anyone else. Even if it wasn't a trick that worked in every dungeon, around here it'd be as good as a cheat key.
"Yohan! I think about twenty percent is fine!"
"...You really think of nothing but cashing in, don't you?"
"But you gotta have a reward for going into a dungeon! More money's always better, right! So c'mon, huh? Just twenty percent~ I do all the scouting anyway!"
She wasn't wrong, so I raised my eyes and smacked the top of Sif's head as she simpered. Why did my hand fit so perfectly? At this rate, I felt like I might get addicted to smacking Sif's crown.
"Mreow! Why'd you hit me?!"
"Because your head was there."
"Don't hit people on the head with those ignorantly huge fists of yours!"
Ignorant fists? Where could she find a fist as intellectual as mine? When I raised it, Sif yelped and hid behind Elisa.
"...I won't hit you, so stop hiding behind Elisa. Can't you see you're terrifying her?"
"You mean it?"
"I mean it."
"You promise?"
Only then did Sif release the pitiful Elisa and return to my side. Elisa let out a sigh of relief and pattered along behind us. Which made the picture weird again.
Remembering what happened last time, I spoke to Sif.
"Sif. Spread out to either side. Move."
"Huh?"
"Don't you think the picture's strange right now?"
"Picture? What picture... Ah. Got it."
Following my glance, Sif slowed down and moved to Elisa's other side. With one of us on each side, Elisa panicked and tried to retreat behind us again. We'd no intention of allowing that. Sif took her hand and coaxed her gently.
"There, there, we're comrades, right? Comrades walk side by side. Like this."
"C-c-c-comrades?"
"That's right. You don't need to be afraid of us. Do we look like people who would hurt you?"
"N-no..."
"If anything happens, I'll protect you, so don't worry."
Without thinking, I started to pat Elisa's head the way I did Millia's, then stopped. I'd heard that most women disliked having their heads touched, so doing it would probably be inappropriate. I was thinking that as I began to withdraw my hand.
"Ah..."
A clearly disappointed sound escaped Elisa's mouth. She seemed shocked by the noise herself; her face reddened as she lowered her head, unsure what to do. Sif watched her, then looked at me meaningfully.
What, did my hand secrete some kind of drug? I carefully stroked Elisa's head as though petting a puppy. Her silky hair slid beneath my palm.
"You're surprisingly good at charming women, aren't you?"
Sif, who'd somehow moved to my other side, poked my flank with her elbow and whispered in my ear.
I considered smacking her once. No, I'd promised earlier, so I couldn't.
"Enough nonsense. Let's get to the dungeon quickly."
We hurried toward the dungeon.
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"There's a dungeon here? There's nothing here."
"Watch closely."
I drew the shovel I'd been carrying on my back. Just in case, I'd kept the blade covered with leather. When I peeled the leather off, my shovel blade revealed its beautiful form.
Predictably, Sif, who couldn't keep her hands off anything worth money, reacted at the sight of my shovel.
"Don't tell me you coated the shovel blade with mithril?"
"Correct."
"And where'd you find an artisan who can handle mithril..."
"I did it myself."
"What? Yourself? Even famous artisans struggle to work mithril, and you did it yourself? You're joking, right?"
A familiar look of disbelief. I deflected the look with a shrug and returned the question.
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
Sure, Hydra bone alone wasn't as good a material as mithril, but it was the tier right below. Coating a shovel blade with mithril wasn't actually that hard. After all, I just had to melt it on.
"Couldn't you just switch careers to blacksmith and rake in all the money in the world? A smith who can handle mithril is at the level where even the imperial palace would recruit them, you know."
"It's not that big a deal. More importantly, I'm going to open the dungeon, so step back."
At my words, both Elisa and Sif retreated.
Relying on my faint memories, I stabbed the shovel into the ground. I didn't remember the exact spot, but if I excavated the entire area, the buried dungeon entrance would eventually appear. I began tearing up the earth at a frenzied pace like an excavator.
Fortunately, about five minutes of digging revealed the dungeon entrance.
"Whoa, if someone saw this, they'd think you were digging a lake or something..."
"A-amazing..."
I wiped the sweat running down my forehead and used a Skill.
"Craft."
The pile of earth shrank as it filled the excavated ground. Then a set of earthen stairs formed around the dungeon entrance.
Seeing a place like a construction site turn into a decent-looking dungeon entrance in an instant was satisfying.
This was what construction was all about.
"I'll go in first. Follow carefully so you don't trip."
I lit the lamp that was hooked to my backpack.