# 006 Welcome, Everyone's Waiting for You
# 006 Welcome, Everyone's Waiting for You
"That's strange. She definitely said to meet here...."
The woman checked the note she had received over and over.
Dragon Slayer's Rest.
It was clearly the spot the adventurer who had agreed to pair up with her had called for, but she hadn't shown.
"Maybe she found a different party...."
The woman immediately grew glum.
Even if she was also a woman, dragging a dead weight like her into a dungeon must have been too burdensome.
"Well, bringing a Bronze into a dungeon is... haah."
And no wonder—wasn't she far clumsier than everyone else?
Someone whose talent as an adventurer had hit rock bottom.
Someone who ought to choose a path other than that of a swordswoman.
She did carry a sword, but since she was a swordswoman who couldn't properly wield one, she had been thrown out of one adventuring team after another, again and again.
—Haha, you actually came just because we called!
—That's how desperate she is.
—Hey, strip for us. Then we'll take you along. Haha, guess you're not that desperate after all? Kekeke!
She had endured every imaginable humiliation up to now.
The woman who had agreed to enter the dungeon with her, Hudia, surely must have called her here just to play a prank as well.
"As I thought...."
However.
Just as she turned to leave.
Creeeak.
"Oh, you came?"
Hudia, who had opened the door in a somewhat awkward posture, grinned brightly and welcomed her.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Sharia."
"Oh, no, not at all! I just got here! Eheh...."
The woman, Sharia, laughed clearly and stretched out both hands.
Hudia took Sharia's offered hands and greeted her, but she couldn't hide a distinctly uncomfortable look.
"Huh? Are you feeling unwell, maybe?"
"...It's not that. No, actually, the thing is...."
"She hurt her leg. It's a bruise."
A man's voice from behind.
Sharia flinched in surprise and shifted her gaze past Hudia.
"Wh-who are you...?"
"Muscle soreness, actually. Running is difficult, but there's no problem walking."
A frame a full head taller than Sharia.
A robust, solid build.
And most striking of all—pitch-black, dark-brown skin.
"But don't worry. I'm here, after all."
He was tanned so severely that you couldn't chalk it up to mere sun exposure.
"Who... are you?"
"A mercenary. Let's Sex. Acquaintances who know me call me Rape."
The man pulled out a silver badge.
His badge had the same shape as the mercenary badge Hudia wore at her waist, but the only difference was that his was made of silver instead.
"A Silver-rank adventurer...?"
"That's right."
"Wow...."
Confronted with a mercenary of a rank so far above her own she couldn't even compare, Sharia felt tense for no reason.
"Is he your companion, Hudia? Or a friend?"
"He was passing by and it looked like I was in trouble, so he helped me out—and that's how we got acquainted."
"......."
"?"
Sharia was a bit puzzled by the sight of Hudia keeping her face deeply bowed with a still-bitter expression, but she could only feel purely impressed that a Silver-rank adventurer had helped her.
"What kind of trouble was it...?"
"Three blond men with deeply tanned skin had cornered her in an alley and were about to assault her."
"Oh...."
At words far more serious than she had expected, Sharia went pale.
"Don't tell me, Hudia, right now you're...."
"No. I rescued her just before she was attacked. They never laid a single fingertip on Hudia's body."
"......."
Hudia nodded silently.
Something seemed strange, but Sharia thought it was just because of the assault.
"I'm so glad. More importantly, to try to pull something so vile against a fellow adventurer... it's unforgivable. We have to report—"
"That matter's already been fully resolved, so don't worry about it. More to the point, now that we've met, shouldn't we get down to business?"
Rape placed a hand on Hudia's shoulder and patted her.
Startled, Hudia's lips quivered, but she soon gulped and stretched a hand out toward Sharia.
"Hey. The dungeon we agreed to go to together. What do you say about this person coming along too?"
"The three of us?"
"Yeah. I mean, if it's just us women, it's a bit, you know? You never know where men might show up and lay their hands on you...."
"Hmm...."
Sharia swept her gaze over Rape from head to toe several times.
Then she pulled something from her bosom—clutching an object like a crimson gem in her hand, she spoke.
"Are you truly offering to help us?"
"I am. Because if you two head for the Dragonium dungeon right now, you'll die."
"Hmm...."
Sharia tilted her head.
Staring straight up at Rape, she posed the question once more.
"Are you truly offering to help us out of goodwill?"
"Of course. Well, to be honest."
Rape chuckled and leaned his upper body forward.
"I'm not without some black-hearted interest as a man."
Sharia was startled for a moment by the large man meeting her eyes, but when the corners of his lips curled into a grin, she could relax.
"I'm trying to get on the good side of pretty juniors. Is that enough?"
"...People say all men are wolves—so is that your real objective too, senior?"
"Ha!!"
Hudia let out a hollow laugh and thumped her chest.
Sharia couldn't understand why Hudia was suddenly looking so stifled—
"All right! You absolutely have to help us."
"Ahh, of course."
The gem Sharia held in her hand hadn't registered the slightest tremor.
* * *
Sharia.
Her name was just as pretty and beautiful as her face.
What pleased me most of all, above everything else, was the face and figure that reminded me of that high elf woman.
'She resembled her.'
They resembled each other so closely I half-wondered if the woman I had sent off with my own hands had been reborn as a human.
But of course, this wasn't her.
After the high elf died, I hadn't simply spent my days in lonely abstinence until a woman named Sharia reached adulthood.
Did she really think I was going to stay alone through the long years after the high elf's death?
Ridiculous.
Unable to suppress my desires, I had rushed out into the world.
And Sharia, whom I met along the path I had followed in pursuit of those desires, was so lovely that someone like Hudia couldn't even begin to compare.
I wanted to possess her.
I wanted to hold her in my arms and fall asleep with her.
Every single day, I wanted to whisper words of love and make this woman say she loved only me.
But.
'First, I have to confirm the most important thing.'
During my days traveling as a human, I had seen plenty of women like Sharia.
Of course, a woman as pretty as Sharia came along only once in a hundred years at most, but among them, one or two of those women possessed factors that made it impossible for me to keep them by my side for life, no matter how much I wanted to.
So I had to confirm that.
To tell whether a masterpiece from several centuries ago was genuine or a forgery, my own approach would have to be tearing it open and inspecting the inside—but with someone I already kept beside me, I could tell just by getting close to her face, without such methods.
That was something possible within a dragon's dungeon.
"Th-this is the entrance to the dungeon leading to the dragon's lair."
Hudia stood at the head of the group and led us.
She glanced at me several times, trying to confirm the 'contract,' and I answered her unspoken doubts with a nod.
Once my confirmation was finished, I would release Hudia and take Sharia with me.
Because Sharia was worth it.
"Th-this way. For now, this is an area Bronzes can enter."
"Pretty complicated, isn't it...."
We entered the labyrinth called a dungeon.
It was quite different from the dungeons I had imagined—just a wide, vast cavern formed underground.
'The crowd gathered at my dungeon's entrance is a bit much, though.'
When I let my mana flow outward in all directions, the presences of living creatures were detectable everywhere.
Since this space was said to be frequented by Bronze ranks, goblins and orcs seemed to dwell near the cave mouth, and I suppressed my mana as much as possible so they wouldn't be startled into fleeing.
Thanks to that, we were ambushed in spectacular fashion.
"Watch out!!"
Sharia drew her sword and swung it forward.
In front of her was a red slime that had burst out from around a corner.
Her stance was quite proper, but—
She lurched.
She staggered badly and her posture collapsed.
Sharia's sword grazed the head of the charging slime, and the slime rushed at her even faster.
"Ah...!!"
If I left things as they were, she would be struck.
I reached toward Sharia and pulled her waist toward me, then thrust the dagger in my other hand forward.
Shunk!
The slime was pierced through by the dagger.
The slime sagged limply and dropped to the ground, and I let my gaze fall to the startled Sharia beneath me.
"You have a physical condition that makes it difficult for you to fight."
"Ng, nngh...."
"There's no need to be so embarrassed."
In an instant, I grasped the problem Sharia possessed.
'Her body can't keep up with her talent.'
Sharia had talent.
But her body was considerably stiffer than her overflowing talent warranted.
If I became Sharia's swordsmanship instructor and taught her, I would teach her a method to build up her basic physical strength as well as a new sword style meant solely for her.
Yes—once that one thing was confirmed.
"Uh, are you going to keep holding her like that?"
"O-oh, ahh...! I'm so sorry!"
At Hudia's words, Sharia apologized and pulled away from me.
Having been holding Sharia's waist and assessing the latent power within her body, I was more than a little displeased, but when I read the look Hudia was sending me, I felt a brief wave of disappointment.
—When are you going to violate her?
Hudia seemed to be asking me exactly that.
Having offered up Sharia, she surely wanted to be released from me as soon as possible.
'Then I ought to release her.'
Snap.
I stirred my mana without either of them noticing.
In the direction we were headed, mana began to surge violently, and I quietly observed Sharia as I moved along behind her.
"I can... do better...."
Sharia was gripping her sword and muttering to herself that she would do better next time, while Hudia was using a map to lead us toward a 'dead end.'
"It's this way."
Hudia pointed past a net visible at the end of the long cave.
"Let's hunt the monsters that come out of there and collect magic stones for now. There should be a few slimes inside."
"That's a slime trap, isn't it?"
"Yeah. It's a trap for catching slimes—they can go in freely but can't come back out."
"Oho."
An exclamation of admiration slipped out of me at the humans' trap.
'Well, it makes sense—chasing slimes one by one through this vast cave would be difficult.'
The structure worked like this: place a magic stone that slimes like inside, and once they enter, they can't escape back out.
Snip, snip, snip.
Hudia cut through the net and went inside.
In the chamber-like cavity, about ten slimes were scattered about.
Sharia swung her sword toward the ceiling.
But.
Whiiir.
Kyaaahk?!
A magic circle suddenly lit up beneath us.
To protect Sharia, I gathered her into my arms, secretly bound Hudia's feet with mana, and entrusted our bodies to the magic circle.
"This—it's a teleportation circle...!!"
Fwoosh!
Along with a burst of light, the teleportation circle's magic carried us to another place.
A vast temple of obsidian, different from the dungeon.
At the entrance to the path leading downward, a pure-white beast blocked the way.
"Th-that, don't tell me...."
"Shh."
Holding Sharia, I hid behind an obsidian pillar.
"That's...."
"A u-unicorn...?!"
Whuff.
Scattering golden light from its yellow horn, the unicorn turned its head toward us.
The true gatekeeper of the dragon's lair.
My very first guardian.
The 'Unicorn.'