Lucy Aln Demonstrates the Clear
When the news broke that Lucy Aln would be demonstrating her dungeon's clear, Toby abandoned even the expensive meal Avery had bought him and sprinted straight for the Dungeon Studies Examination Hall.
The young lady of House Aln, who had designed that fascinating dungeon, was going to personally teach everyone how to beat it!
Surely there would be mountains of things to learn!
He couldn't afford to miss an opportunity this precious.
'You always walk around with your shoulders all puffed up—doesn't that get exhausting?♡ You're like a beast desperately trying to look bigger than you are♡ And what's actually inside is just a pathetic, limp little scrub♡'
By the time Toby, running at full sprint, arrived at the examination hall, the Lucy Aln floating on the projection at the center of the hall was already striding down a corridor, spewing abuse at someone.
Language far too vulgar to be coming out of a high noble's mouth.
While everyone lingering in the hall was at a loss for how to react, a bewildered Toby threw his question at the one commoner he was on somewhat friendly terms with: what on earth was going on?
"...The young lady is proving, in her own special way, that this footage isn't a recording."
By hurling insults at the very person who had just picked a fight with him, she was demonstrating that the video was playing out in real time. Toby was left speechless.
Even if she was the daughter of the illustrious Aln family, was she really allowed to treat other nobles like that?
As Toby blinked dumbfounded at a scene his common sense couldn't process, Avery, who had followed him in at some point, spoke up.
"At that level? She's actually milder than she used to be in high society."
"L-Lady Lumley?!"
At the sight of Avery tidying her disheveled hair, Toby's friend visibly recoiled.
The fact that a noble famous for her rotten temperament, one who led a whole clique of young ladies, had addressed him struck him as pure terror.
"Wh-what brings you here?!"
"Ask the dungeon fool sitting next to you. He tried to buy me a meal most commoners would never even get to see in their lifetime, then kicked his chair back and bolted the second dungeons came up."
"Well, that's because the dungeon matters more to me than food."
Wait, what?! Is Toby insane?! He's not even scared of Lady Lumley?!
Toby's friend trembled at the spectacle of him spouting such nonsense with a perfectly straight face, but Avery merely shook her head in disdain without getting angry.
Having come to acknowledge Toby in the course of conquering the dungeon together, she didn't consider this level of insolence worth getting worked up over.
Naturally, Toby was well aware of this fact too.
For Toby, who had been raised in a mercenary band from birth, reading the room like this was practically instinct.
If Avery hadn't shown herself to be somewhat relaxed around him, he never would have dared such a thing in the first place.
"By the way, Lady Lumley. What did you mean by 'milder than before'?"
"Hah."
Avery let out a sigh at Toby's shamelessly casual question, shrugged, and turned her head toward Lucy on the screen.
"I mean exactly what I said. Back when Lady Aln was in her prime in high society, she was worse than that—never better."
Setting aside the parade of insane stunts Lucy had pulled, her raw credentials alone were more than enough to make her the center of high society.
Just her status as the only daughter of Benedict Aln, hero of the kingdom, would have had half the continent scrambling for her attention. And on top of that, she possessed beauty that made everyone in society green with envy.
The first time Lucy Aln appeared at a party in the capital, she was a girl who could dominate an entire ballroom by mere presence—the flower of high society, drawing more eyes than the royals themselves.
Yet it took her less than a single year to become someone everyone despised.
Because the thorns on the flower called Lucy Aln weren't the kind that merely pricked. They were weapons meant to stab approaching suitors dead.
"If you'd seen Lady Aln back then, you'd understand exactly why so many nobles grind their teeth at the very mention of her name."
If Lucy's personality in the past had been what it was now, she would have grown into a faction so massive she could have stood at the direct opposite pole from Joy.
Her status as the hero's daughter and her doll-like beauty were advantages enormous enough to bury a fair number of flaws.
But Lucy's personality back then was vicious beyond all comparison with the present.
"She asked the countess hosting a party why on earth it was being held in a pigsty—oh, was it because a pig lived there? She looked at the head of a viscount's family and asked why he had no children, called him a eunuch. She smashed a young lady's head with a flower vase for daring to talk back to her."
Having witnessed the full catalog of Lucy's misdeeds—and having been a victim of the many incidents the young lady Lucy Aln committed—Avery genuinely believed it was a miracle Lucy still had a head attached to her shoulders.
"The level of mockery Lady Aln does these days? That's just being cute. Adorable, really."
Faced with stories that far exceeded anything he'd imagined, Toby finally understood why even most nobles couldn't bring themselves to approach Lucy.
If merely hearing about it secondhand was this dizzying, what must it have been like for those who watched it with their own eyes?
"She's moved on to the first room."
Toby forced his head to turn at Avery's murmured regret that there were still so many stories left to hear.
On the screen, Lucy stood before the soldier without a weapon or a scrap of armor.
The soldier suggested she arm herself, but Lucy's reply was a taunt asking whether he was afraid he'd run out of excuses.
Had the soldier been enraged by the sound of Lucy's laughter? Tendons stood out on his hand, and moments later he thrust his spear at her.
Fast. Way stronger than the soldiers we faced.
Is this not a first-year dungeon? Was it built for the upperclassmen?
As a martial arts special student, Toby had no trouble tracking the soldier's thrusting spear.
And he watched as Lucy dodged the soldier's attack before the spear had even been launched.
"...She didn't dodge that after seeing it, did she?"
Toby nodded at Avery's mutter.
Lucy hadn't dodged in reaction to the soldier's attack. She had already known exactly what was coming, and simply positioned herself where she needed to be to evade it.
"That soldier's attacks follow a set sequence through the first ten strikes. The young lady who designed the dungeon certainly wouldn't be ignorant of that fact."
The attacks of the enemies in the first room are always identical through the tenth strike.
Because of that, anyone who memorized their movements could get past the soldier.
'Surely there's no moron alive who can't do what a tiny little girl like me can?♡'
That's what the young lady seems to want to say—but the tone she uses to deliver it is far too provocative.
Thanks to that, most people dismiss it as a bluff and scoff in disbelief.
Even after that, Lucy continued teaching the dungeon's clear method in her own strange version of kindness.
'Pfft♡ Look at you, scared your weak point's about to get hit♡ Is that not just the ugliest thing you've ever seen?♡'
The soldier prioritizes guarding his own weak point—watch his movements closely and you can spot it.
'Aww, you thought the illusion was real and now you're puffing yourself up♡ Who on earth falls for a pathetic little trick like this?♡'
Look closely at the wolves in the second room and you'll notice something off—that's how you know they're hallucinations.
'Ugh♡ Yes, I'm adorable, that's a fact, but you said you wanted to be stepped on and came charging anyway... that's, like, super gross♡ I don't even want to touch you♡ Physically impossible♡'
Among the golems in the third room, only a designated target should be attacked.
And at the same time, it's possible to subdue a golem with attacks calibrated to just short of destroying it.
'...And that's everything!♡ With this many hints, surely there isn't a single idiot who couldn't pick up on one?♡ If such a person exists, I recommend they go make friends with a dog♡ Ah♡ Wait, would even a dog be horrified by an idiot like that?♡'
An explanation of the countless clues that reveal the fourth room is a dream.
The way Lucy spoke was, without question, absolutely unbearable—but the content packed inside it was nothing but useful, every last word.
Even Toby, who had cleared the dungeon himself, hadn't thought of everything.
Because of that, the atmosphere among the spectators watching Lucy's dungeon run shifted in more ways than one.
Her figure, strolling through the dungeon like a walk in the park while dispensing answers, carried the dignity befitting the dungeon's architect.
Gradually, the number of people hoping to learn from watching Lucy clear her dungeon began to outnumber those hoping to test her skill.
'And that brings us to the end of the tutorial prepared by your sweet, obedient Lucy♡ There's no scrub out there who couldn't clear even this, right?♡ If such a drooling moron does exist, then enjoy spending one more year at the academy as a scrub, regretting why you were ever so stupid?♡'
"You've got to be kidding?! A failing grade?!"
"I was supposed to join a mercenary band right after graduation!"
"Noooooo!"
Screams erupted from every corner of the examination hall, but whether she heard them or not, Lucy Aln simply pressed on through the dungeon.
When Lucy met the boss, the Derelict, she descended at full falling speed and landed flat on the floor without slowing in the slightest.
It was a feat of madness most people wouldn't even dare contemplate, but Lucy herself acted as if it were nothing, calmly dusting off her uniform and speaking.
'Alright!♡ All you scrubs of the academy!♡ Pay attention!♡ Starting now, I'm going to walk you through, point by point, exactly how stupid you all are!♡'
With that, Lucy moved her feet not toward the door descending underground, but toward the mansion itself.
'Look at this mansion—so decrepit even ghosts would shriek and flee from it♡ Even a dim-witted, brainless scrub has eyes, so surely something catches your attention♡'
Her fingers, looking as though they'd snap at the slightest touch, pointed at a window.
A window through which the outside scenery was completely invisible.
Then she pointed at the ceiling.
A ceiling so pristine it was hard to believe it had collapsed moments ago.
Even after that, Lucy's finger showed no sign of stopping.
A broken clock whose hands all pointed to the same hour.
An old portrait whose face had blurred away.
The bizarre year written beneath it.
A door that no method, no matter what, could open.
Some had never paid them any mind at all; some had dismissed them as sloppy craftsmanship and moved on; and still others had noticed them yet never reached a meaningful answer—one by one, Lucy pointed out every single one of these elements until, at last,
Lucy arrived once more before the crystal orb inscribed with the number Floor 0.
'And finally!♡ The most important hint of all!♡ Why did this crystal orb suddenly appear?♡ Hmm?♡ Even the densest dolt should sense something's off by now, shouldn't they?♡'
...There were really this many clues?
Though Toby had reached the answer of Lucy's dungeon, he too had not noticed every clue left behind in the mansion.
Reaching the correct answer had only required a handful of the clues among them.
She really was generous. Far more than I ever expected.
'For all you ba~bies out there who still haven't gotten it, here's one more clue♡ What functions does this crystal orb have?♡ One is saving your location—and the other?♡'
"...Free travel between any floors already cleared."
At a man's quiet murmur from nearby, Toby turned his head.
There stood the Third Prince, his flustered expression laid utterly bare, as if he lacked even the composure to manage his own face.
Why would he be making that face? Didn't he already identify every gimmick and clear the dungeon?
Of course he'd know about all these elements. So why, of all things—
Just as Toby tilted his head at Arthur's expression, Lucy on the screen went pfft~ and made a sound.
'Time's up~♡ All you idiots who couldn't figure out the answer, just sit there quietly, listen to my adorable voice, and lament about how stupid you are♡'
The moment Lucy Aln's hand touched the crystal orb, barely after the words left her mouth, the scenery within the video shifted.
The very first corridor.
The far end of the place that anyone who had challenged the final exam dungeon would have faced at least once.
Where a wall should have blocked the way,
a staircase leading down into the earth had appeared.