Travel Plans
"Nngh—please... get off me. Now."
"What? Can't hear you."
Rebecca's merciless backside, wrapped in sixty kilograms of plate armor, was crushing this slender porter without a shred of pity.
"Ghk—I'm... I'm actually gonna die."
It felt like five fully loaded rucksacks had been stacked on top of me. Blood had stopped reaching my arms and legs.
"Rebecca. Is that not a bit much?"
The elf archer, Yuria, laid a hand on Rebecca's shoulder. Of everyone in our party, she was at least the most—
"There's no room for me. Do move aside."
Then she shoved Rebecca—who had been perched on my hips—up toward my chest, and sat herself down on top of me as well.
"Gyaaah! ...You fucking—! Stop it already! You crazy bitches!"
"Kyahaha. Dongha's face is bright red. Well, of course he'd get excited, surrounded by beauties like us!"
Nine, watching from a chair as I was flattened into a pancake, spouted that garbage. To some clueless guy looking in, two gorgeous women sitting on me might have looked enviable.
Eat shit.
These weren't women. They were sacks of rice. They had bullying down to an art, and even now they were pressing down on me just enough that I wouldn't actually be crushed to death.
"That's what you get for showing up empty-handed, without even a cake."
Dorothy. The way she approached, tapping her palm with her staff—tap, tap—she looked every bit the thug with a wooden club.
"Are you fucking kidding me?! You purple-haired piece of shit! What cake shop is even open at two in the morning?!"
"I do so enjoy how you keep fighting back even though you're a nobody, Dongha. You look as fresh as a live fish I just reeled in."
A low whine filled the air.
A summoning circle bloomed at the tip of the staff, and a cockroach the size of a palm materialized. Then Dorothy crouched down in front of me, where I lay pinned on my stomach.
"Dongha. You like bugs, don't you?"
"Eek! D-Dorothy! I'm sorry! Let's talk this out!"
"Have a conversation with this little one instead of me. It says it wants to get to know you."
"N-no! Dorothy! I mean—Miss Dorothy! Please! Don't do this!!!"
She didn't withdraw the staff. The cockroach came close enough to be a handspan from my face, and the nauseating hiss of its breathing rang clear in my ears. The man reflected in those gleaming little eyes had gone deathly pale.
"STOP!!! STOOOP!!! Somebody save me!!!"
"Kyahahahahaha!"
Somebody. Anybody. Angel or devil, I didn't care who. Just save me.
BANG!
I cracked my tightly shut eyes open, carefully.
The cockroach that had been crawling toward my face was gone. In its place, Dorothy—who had been wearing that wicked grin—lay sprawled out with her eyes rolled back, out cold.
What the...
"Wh-who are you?!"
Rebecca and Yuria, who had been pinning me down, sprang to their feet. Gravity vanished. My body felt light for the first time.
Smack! Smack!
A black-haired beauty moved like a flash of light, slapping Rebecca and Yuria across the face. The teeth of those two, who went around swollen with pride, exploded in every direction.
Clang!
Nine's lightning-fast sword, from where she sat in her chair. I couldn't even follow it with my eyes.
"Th-that's impossible."
Nine was stunned speechless. Her own blade—said to be faster than an arrow—had stopped dead at the woman's fingertip.
Crrrk. Snap!
The magic sword that had sliced even the dragon Nidhogg like tofu. The woman snapped it in one hand like a Pocky stick.
"Huh? This—how is this..."
BANG!
She said those words—which felt strangely out of place—and smashed Nine's skull in as well. Then she walked over to where I lay fallen.
"You okay?"
"...Yeah."
Then she smiled with a beauty that could stop the world, and reached out her hand.
BANG!
...Another dream.
And a wipe, too. A total party kill. Myself included.
No wonder I kept dreaming about the Demon King. Ever since I got here, I had spent almost every waking moment with her.
Clack. Creeeak.
I opened my door onto a pitch-dark corridor. I had gotten used to the layout by now. I could make it to the central hall without even feeling along the walls.
Thud. Thud.
The Demon King's bedroom sat along the way. The door was open. She was already up and out.
...She's always up before me.
Diligence was part of a porter's job. I had always woken earlier than everyone around me; there was always so much to prepare. And yet the Demon King started her day even more diligently than I did. What she was doing with that time was obvious enough.
"You're up?"
The Demon King had spread enormous sheets of drawing paper across the black stone floor, and was lying on her stomach, scribbling away at something.
What game is it this time?
Another drawing quiz would actually have been fine. I had the Paper Crane as a countermeasure now. I figured she was just prepping another round of entertainment. Then she said something that stopped me cold.
"I'm making travel plans."
?
Did I hear that wrong?
"Travel? As in visiting other places for fun? That kind of travel?"
"Yeah. That's the one."
...
That was it. I could see my way out.
Think about it. All this time, I had never once betrayed the Demon King's expectations. I had cleared every game she threw at me. And that wasn't all. Sure, it had been a load of crap, but I had even given her a gift that delighted her to no end. It wouldn't be strange if that naive girl had started to trust me a little.
Heheh. The day I get out of here isn't far off.
My cynical brain did a hard U-turn onto the optimism track. The thought of running into some ranker party on the road and watching the Demon King get the absolute shit beaten out of her already had my heart racing.
"Pfft—! Ahem. Ahem. So, you picked a place? I know a good one, actually. The Rubenica Kingdom..."
I was in the middle of casually recommending her grave when the map she was drawing made me frown.
She really, truly sucks at drawing. I can't tell what a single thing is supposed to be.
The Demon King grinned and held up the map she'd been working on with both hands.
"Hehe. I've already picked a few candidates for our trip. Mist Lake on the 66th floor, the Ghost Plateau on the 32nd, and Leviathan's Lair on the 82nd."
"...Hold on. When you say travel, you mean inside the Tower?"
"...Why? You wanna go outside?"
Her expression turned ice-cold, as if she'd read my mind. An aura bloomed at her feet in an instant. How could her emotions drift this fast...? I was seriously worried she was bipolar.
"What? Why would I go outside when you're here?"
Lies of this caliber came out smoothly now, without even passing through my brain. She had been glaring at me with murder in her eyes. Then she dropped her gaze and spoke without looking at me.
"...Where do you wanna go?"
"I'm not going" wasn't going to be an option, so I had to pick a place. Come to think of it, it had been a while since I'd left the 100th floor.
"The Ghost Plateau."
I had been to all three. By the time I arrived, other adventurers had already wiped out the demons at the Ghost Plateau on the 32nd floor and Mist Lake on the 66th. And Leviathan had been killed by Yuria. Honestly, I didn't care where we went. But if we were going somewhere, I wanted to get as close to the surface as possible. You never know. I might catch a chance to escape.
"Have you been to the Ghost Plateau?"
The Demon King naturally found it suspicious that I'd answered so readily. It was a question I had no reason to lie about. I was only here because I had passed through that place.
"Yeah. I stopped by on the way up."
"...There was nothing there, right?"
"Yeah."
"...Mm. I should go see Leviathan at least once, too, though."
...?
Does she not know Leviathan is dead?
More than that—the way she talked about a monster like it was a friend from back home. She clearly had no idea Nine had killed him.
...Better not say anything.
Telling her that her own kind had been killed wasn't going to put her in a good mood. The Demon King looked sad for just a moment, then gathered up the papers spread across the floor.
"Hehe. So we've picked a place... I should wash the tent, too."
"...How do you even know what a tent is. Where did you get one?"
"People who came to the Tower lent it to me!"
So she beat them up and shook them down again.
"Bringing a tent means we're sleeping over, right?"
"Yeah."
"Last time you left the doll sack on the first floor, you were back in no time, weren't you? We could just come back here to sleep. Do we really have to haul a tent along?"
"What? Of course we do."
The Demon King stared at me like I had said the stupidest thing she had ever heard.
"Coming back the same day isn't a trip. That's a picnic."
She slapped her palm against the floor as if she had just heard something unforgivable, and took off running.
"Look at this."
The Demon King came back laden with camping gear she had stolen from what was probably a party of Earthlings who'd been into camping. Then she held a booklet out to me.
Everything a first-time camper needs to know.
She really was the most impressionable girl I had ever met.
"...Fine, I got it. Forgive me for failing to grasp the profound wisdom of a hardcore camper."
"Be more careful next time."
"Sure."
"What should we pack for lunch? How about sandwiches? Strawberry pie? Ihihihit!"
The Demon King was so worked up she couldn't contain the pounding in her chest; she pumped her tightly clenched fists with gusto. It was like looking at myself the night before a school trip in elementary school.
"Sandwiches sound good. So when are we going?"
That was the part that mattered. If I had enough time, I could actually try making a parachute. The 32nd floor was still dizzyingly high, but compared to the 100th, there might be a chance.
The question about our departure date sent the Demon King's excitement crashing down.
"...We can't go right away. It'll take a while. There's stuff I have to prepare."
She deflated on the spot. I didn't know a person could look that pathetic. It was a talent, honestly.
"...Anyway... you're happy to go on a trip with me, right?"
She asked it with a mix of excitement and hope. There was a thread of anxiety in there too, somehow.
"Yeah."
There was nothing to gain by saying no, so I forced out an affirmative. Even at that obvious lie, the Demon King smiled wide enough to show her snaggletooth.
"Uheheh... I like this so much."
...!
"You like it?"
"...Hm? Yeah. I like it."
Like.
Could a being without emotions even say that word? My thoughts tangled.
Maybe she really... perhaps.
She might have feelings.
...
...
No way.
And besides.
...Even if she does, what changes?
She was a cruel and merciless Demon King, a demon who had swallowed half the continent, a lunatic who kept me prisoner and challenged me to death games every single day. That was the only truth.
...
...Still. When I look at her,
I can't quite bring myself to hate her—
A challenger has entered the Demon King's Castle.
A shrill siren screamed through the Demon King's Castle.
I've heard this sound before.
An intruder. A challenger had come for the Demon King.
The Demon King, who had been wiping the dust off the camping gear, pulled up a screen.
A man in a black mask, sprinting at tremendous speed.
Then—swish—he vanished.
Wh-what? Where did he—
A sharp whoosh.
H-how did he get there?!
The man's sword pierced the Demon King's chest.