Absolutely No Danger
The moment she finished listening to the branch manager, Psyche rose to her feet. She moved as if she had no reason to waste even a single second more.
When their leader moved, the Valkyrie members stationed around her rose as one and filed outside.
Evan, who had been blankly flipping through documents on his own, scrambled after them out of the guild a beat too late.
"W-wait a second!"
At Evan's call, Anella turned her head with a look that asked what he wanted.
"Um… would it be all right if I came along?"
"What? Why would we—"
"Bring him, Anella."
"Psyche. Are you serious?"
Fortunately, Psyche—the leader of Valkyrie—chose to show him mercy. She had already decided he was less a simple adventurer and more something like a Guild observer.
Unaware of any of that, Evan simply took her for a woman with a heart as generous as her chest, and awkwardly climbed into the carriage she was riding.
Psyche watched him board and carefully opened her mouth.
"—Evan, was it?"
"Ah, yes. I'm Evan."
"No thoughts of giving up and heading back? We won't be able to protect you once we're there."
"Huh? Oh—it's fine. Really."
Hearing that they couldn't protect him, Evan scratched his cheek sheepishly and spoke up.
"I'm stronger than you are, Miss Psyche."
"……Right."
A pure, utterly guileless remark. There was no way a kid like this—and a Lower Class adventurer at that—could be stronger than them, so it was almost certainly bluster or a joke.
That was why Psyche let the comment slide without much thought. Of course, just because she brushed it off didn't mean the rest of her party would do the same.
"Stronger than Psyche? Psyche's the strongest one among us."
"Is that so? From where I'm standing you all look about the same… I can't really tell. Ahaha."
"Reading an opponent's strength is an important skill too, kid. Plenty of people die in real fights because they misjudged how strong the other side was."
Anella, who already treated Evan like a little brother, offered him genuine advice. Adventuring is dangerous. If you still want to do it, hone your skills. The kind of counsel that could save a life.
He could have dismissed it as nagging, but Evan didn't. He heard the sincerity in her words.
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Good, good. And hey—if you run into a monster and get really scared, you can call my name. Big sis here will come running to save you anytime."
"If you're ever in danger, Miss Anella, call my name too. I'll come save you right away."
"What? Bwahaha! Fine! I'll definitely call!"
While the two of them bantered noisily back and forth, the carriage arrived at its destination before they knew it. The city next to the Royal Capital—Bland County.
When the carriage bearing the Guild's crest approached the gates, the soldiers waved them through without so much as a cursory inspection.
Watching the carriage skip the county seat entirely and head straight for the mining site, Psyche could tell just how desperate the count was about this matter.
No time for leisurely tea and chatter, is that it?
A Rock Eater, true to its name, feeds on rock and ore. Rare minerals in particular drive it wild.
With a rare mineral more precious than gold recently discovered in the county, every moment the Rock Eater was active must have been shaving years off the count's life.
"We've arrived."
At the coachman's word, the Valkyrie members stepped down from the carriage and found the count waiting for them at the mine.
The moment he saw their faces, the count's expression bloomed into a radiant smile.
"You've come—you've really come!"
"You're too kind. Is that the mine with the Rock Eater?"
"It is. Please, deal with it as quickly as you can."
Practically shooed up to the mine entrance, the Valkyrie members finished preparing their weapons and gear for the descent.
Evan casually slipped in among them and made ready to enter as well. Anella, spotting him, tilted her head and asked what he thought he was doing.
"What are you doing, kid? You can't come in here."
"Huh?"
"It's a contest. A contest. We're betting on who bags it first—what are you gonna do tagging along with us?"
"Uh… so I can't?"
"Of course you can't. Look, it's dangerous, so wait at the entrance."
As if the friendliness from the carriage ride had been a complete lie, Anella brusquely brushed him off and strode straight into the mine at the head of the group.
Psyche, their leader, shot Evan a single sidelong glance and entered the mine without a word.
Left alone watching them go, Evan heaved a long sigh and fretted the hilt of his sword.
"……Figures."
What sweet adventure with pretty older sisters? Damn Guildmaster. This is a scam—a total scam. When I get back I'm wringing those tits of hers. Should I just bury this whole mine right now?
"Hm? Aren't you going in?"
"I am."
"Then hurry up and go catch it."
After giving the impatient count a hard stare, Evan entered the mine alone. The moment he stepped inside, multiple branching paths demanded a choice.
Checking the footprints, Evan headed for a route the Valkyrie party hadn't taken.
Come on out, whatever you are.
He vowed to cut down anything the moment he met it.
Deep in the lightless mine, where you couldn't see an inch ahead without a light source, Valkyrie's mage carefully addressed her leader while maintaining the glow.
"By the way, Leader. That kid earlier—is he really okay?"
"Okay about what?"
"He seemed like a clueless brat. You didn't have to brush him off so coldly…"
"A clueless brat wouldn't come to a place like this. That boy is almost certainly a Guild observer. He's probably tailing us even now."
"What!? Is that true?"
Hearing Psyche's words, Anella cried out in shock, as if she couldn't believe it. Evan was a Guild employee? She hadn't noticed at all.
But Psyche snorted, as if to ask how she could have missed something so obvious.
"A Lower Class adventurer wouldn't come alone to a place this dangerous. Right?"
"Well… that's true, but—"
"The Guild probably wants to evaluate not just mission performance, but insight like this as well."
It was a completely wrong guess—but on the surface, it was the most plausible one. Common sense said a Lower Class adventurer, and one without a party at that, would never come alone to hunt a Rock Eater.
Plausible lies have a way of embedding themselves deepest in the mind, and before long the Valkyrie members fully believed that Evan was a Guild employee.
The fact that Psyche had never once been wrong with this kind of deduction also played a part.
"—And it seems the heavens are on our side as well."
"Combat ready!"
At Psyche's words, Anella shouted on reflex. Far down the mine tunnel, accompanied by a tremendous tremor, a massive Death Worm came crawling toward them.
The monster called a Rock Eater. A creature whose sheer bulk alone could crush everything in its path.
Anella immediately raised her shield and planted herself in front of it, catching the Rock Eater's charge. KRAAANG—! A tremendous boom and impact set the entire mine shuddering.
"Bwahaha! Come on then, you monster!"
Having stopped the Rock Eater's charge with nothing but her shield, Anella raised the hammer gripped in her right hand—
—and brought it down.
—KYAAAAAAAH—!
Listening to the monster's scream, Anella flicked out her tongue and licked a few droplets of blood that had spattered across her face.
"This is doable."
And so Valkyrie began the Rock Eater hunt.
An empty mine.
As I trudged along listlessly, the thought suddenly rose: what am I even doing here?
Should've just not come… Ah, that silver-haired sister seemed nice, though. She could've at least brought me along a little.
All sorts of idle thoughts began to fill my head. Negative ones kept surfacing, one after another. Like a balloon underwater—the harder you push it down, the more violently it shoots back up.
I couldn't stop them. I felt like biting my tongue and ending it right then and there. The only reason I didn't was because I knew the feeling was temporary—that it would vanish the moment I stepped outside and breathed some cool air…
"Ow—!"
Walking without thinking, I slammed into a wall and kicked it in irritation, thump thump. After taking out my frustration for a while and turning to head back, the wall moved.
"—Who dares awaken me."
"Huh?"
A voice out of nowhere. I tilted my head up and looked ahead. A dragon so vast it could fill the entire mine was blinking its two eyes at me.
And the moment I saw that dragon, a tingling sense of danger surged through my whole body, sweeping the negative thoughts clean away in an instant.
"Human. What is the meaning of that?"
Hearing the dragon's words, I finally realized I was gripping my sword hilt. The danger didn't just bring excitement—it brought a competitive fire along with it.
Fingering the hilt lightly as I looked at the dragon, I was certain.
I can cut it.
And in the next moment, I drew my sword and swung.
KRAAANG……!
After a long hunt, Party Valkyrie succeeded in taking down the Rock Eater. A few party members had been injured in the process, but nothing life-threatening.
"—Done."
Extracting the Rock Eater's core, Psyche realized that with this, they could become Highest Class adventurers—that they could become a top-tier adventurer party.
The thril of success in hand. A dopamine rush more intoxicating than any drug washed over her.
"We're leaving. Anella, gather the others."
"Uwaaah… my arm's broken too, you know?"
"Use the unbroken one."
Anella, one arm wrecked, grumbled and complained even as she hoisted the unconscious mage over her shoulder. The remaining two, thankfully, hadn't passed out and weren't injured badly enough that they couldn't walk.
Thus the five of them strode triumphantly out of the mine, and Psyche reported the mission complete to the count, who had been fretting and pacing outside.
"It's finished, my lord."
"Ohh! Then that means…!"
"Yes—there is absolutely no danger remaining inside the mi—"
The hill above the mine exploded, and a dragon thrust its head out.
Seeing the dragon, Psyche froze mid-report.
The count stared blankly at the dragon as well.
"……Didn't you just say there was no danger?"
"……."
Psyche had nothing to say, even if she'd had a hundred mouths.
At the same time, the dragon that had thrust its head out roared roughly.
It sounded almost like a scream of pain.