“…Why is a Kujou heiress streaming with that cleaner…?”
Souma Kengo said while tracing the brim of his hunting cap with a fingertip, but Kawai Sakiho sensed that the overwhelming aura of strength he had carried until moments ago had cracked—just a little.
Or rather—he was probably just genuinely surprised.
Well, of course he would be. The very day after a “Dungeon Stampede” broke out and was suppressed, the person who suppressed it was now doing an exploration stream of that same dungeon together with a Kujou zaibatsu heiress. It made no sense to Sakiho either, and probably to anyone else as well.
“Um, sorry for being ignorant, but… who exactly is this Kujou young lady…?”
Sadoyama timidly raised his hand as he asked.
Sakiho was honestly stunned—how could someone who used to be an A-rank explorer not know the Kujou Zaibatsu’s heiress? But at the same time, she thought that was very like Sadoyama.
What kind of explorer had he even been?
Apparently he had belonged to the same explorer clan as Hamamatsu Nanami, one of Anthem’s managers, but of course Sakiho knew nothing about their past.
“Senpai… I’m pretty sure I explained this many times back when you were active. You know the explorer gear manufacturer Nine Line, right? The zaibatsu behind that is the Kujou group, and the one streaming with Hayasaka-san is their daughter.”
“Huh. Why would a young lady like that be streaming with Hayasaka-kun?”
“How would I know? Irselia, you were at Hayasaka-san’s house until this morning, right? Did he seem to be in contact with the Kujou heiress or anything…?”
“No. There was no sign of that.”
“Truth.”
“Oh, shut up, you gloomy woman. Stop judging every little thing people say. I’ll blast that gloomy crease between your brows.”
Irselia snapped, half genuinely enraged. As an Anthem fan, Sakiho was thrilled to hear Irselia shouting in person—but that aside, it was honestly terrifying.
More importantly, Hamamatsu had casually implied that Irselia had stayed over at Hayasaka Tooru’s house… How did things go from that level of hostility to a sleepover? Sakiho tried to imagine it, failed completely, and immediately gave up thinking about it.
The target of Irselia’s hostility—the “gloomy woman,” Maisaka Risa—showed not the slightest hint of fear. She merely shrugged and held up her mobile terminal.
“It looks like the Sugai Dungeon has mutated. The types of monsters appearing have been refreshed. They should be reaching the thirteenth floor soon… Hmm? The structure there has mutated too. That’s probably the boss room.”
“Hm. Shall we confirm?”
“It’s already the top trend on streaming sites. You’ll see right away.”
“Megumi, put on the stream.”
“I will, but you could just watch it on your own terminal.”
“If I feel like commenting, people will realize it’s from Irselia, an S-rank explorer. If it’s from your account, there’s no problem.”
“I’m not commenting. It could cause trouble.”
“Ah, Kawai-chan, I want to watch too. Let me see your terminal.”
Each of them began checking Tooru’s stream on their own terminals… or rather, Sakiho thought, it was remarkable how they could casually settle in to watch an exploration stream in a basement where Sasamori Takeshi was being held captive.
Still, she operated her own terminal and connected to the video streaming site.
They quickly found the live broadcast on the “Cleaning Record” channel.
〈Now then, we proceed!〉
With Reiko’s voice, the door opened. A vast, empty chamber—the kind often seen in dungeon exploration streams. Most likely a boss room.
Just as Sakiho had predicted, as the camera approached the center of the space, the boss came into view. It wasn’t moving yet—apparently it hadn’t registered them as “engaged”—but it looked to be a demon-type boss. According to the stream’s comments, it was around mid A-rank.
〈—‘Shall we dance?’〉
With a dazzling smile, Reiko invited Tooru. Even Sakiho, who favored Anthem, had to admit the girl’s beauty was undeniable.
◇◇◇
“Structural changes on the thirteenth floor, a boss room, and a mid A-rank demon-type. The previous lowest floor was sixteen, correct? Even if the number of floors hasn’t changed, given this monster distribution, it’s almost certainly mutated into an S-rank dungeon. The Noumi Dungeon is probably suspicious too.”
Souma said, then closed the streaming site—now showing “Next Recommended Videos”—and slipped his terminal into the inner pocket of his leather jacket. For some reason, as if it were an afterthought, he kicked Sasamori Takeshi in the shin with the toe of his leather shoe.
“Gah!”
“Hey. Keep it down. Haven’t you learned yet?”
The remark was absurdly unreasonable, but Sasamori did not protest. Naturally so—judging from his tone, this man seemed stronger even than former A-rank explorer Sadoyama Kouji. With such clear hostility directed at him, all Sasamori could do was minimize the damage.
That kind of behavior apparently disgusted Saitou Megumi, leader of Anthem, but no words like “Cut that out” came from her. Her own feelings likely didn’t matter right now.
“Irselia, what should we do? Considering the danger, one option is to abandon exploring the Noumi Dungeon…”
“Don’t be foolish, Nanami. We won’t know what’s happened to Noumi until we go in, but if it’s undergone the same kind of mutation, then frankly it’s a lucrative hunting ground.”
Nanami’s caution made sense, and so did Irselia’s explorer’s perspective. If they were lucky, it could become a dungeon filled with monsters perfectly suited to Anthem’s current strength.
“…If you encounter any sign of a boss room, regardless of the floor, you will retreat immediately. If you can promise that, I will authorize the exploration.”
“Fine. Megumi, that works for you too, right?”
“Mm… yeah, I guess. A dungeon that suits us might actually be a blessing right now. Ever since we reached A-rank, this is the first time I’ve felt this powerless.”
Megumi let out a wry smile, but as far as Sakiho could tell, her spirit wasn’t broken. There was surely some bravado in it—but even so, as leader of the A-rank clan Anthem, she had chosen not to retreat.
She had to be afraid. Of course she was terrified. How many crises had they faced in just the past few days? And yet, trembling though they might be, they did not stop moving forward.
That was why Sakiho admired them.
Whenever they appeared on stream, they were sincere about their duty—showing smiles to viewers, offering hope to the general public.
The world had become like this… but explorers like them still existed.
So everyone, please support society in whatever way you can.
Of course, none of the Anthem members had ever said anything like that outright. Until just yesterday, Sakiho had never even tried to put that unspoken message into words.
Now, she understood a little.
I, too, should sow at least a small amount of “good” into this world.
Even if it was far too late to be saying that.
“The cleaner and the Kujou heiress said they were withdrawing. Maisaka, we’re heading to the Sugai Dungeon. If we wait at the entrance, we’ll run into the cleaner. What about you, Sadoyama?”
“I’m going home first—bath, sleep. Then I’ll change and head to the airport. Anthem’s ‘teacher’ and the S-rank clan we called in should be arriving, right? I’ll greet them. We’ll leave dealing with the mayor, governor, and politicians to the ‘teacher.’”
“I see. Hamamatsu, either take that piece of trash back to the hotel and keep him under house arrest, or stay here and watch him. The man claiming to be from the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office—or someone connected to him—might come to kill the trash. Be careful.”
“Uh, yeah, there’s no way I can go back to the hotel now… Um… Megumi, Irselia, sorry, but could you bring supplies later? Go into the Noumi Dungeon after that. Treat it like training—prioritize killing monsters over advancing floors.”
“No, what a pain. Just eat this.”
Irselia mercilessly refused Nanami’s apologetic request. She pulled canned food and plastic bottles from her magic bag and tossed them at Nanami one after another.
“We’re taking the car. As soon as we’re ready, we dive into the Noumi Dungeon. Megumi, call Airi and have her prepare with Chizuru.”
“Eh… you’re taking the car?”
“Once Tooru’s evaluation is done, have the gloomy woman retrieve it along with that trash. You’re not diving into a dungeon, so endure it.”
“…I’m the one driving, you know. Anyway, Nanami-san, take care,” said Megumi.
“You two as well. Don’t push yourselves.”
With that, Irselia and Megumi left the basement. As Megumi passed Sakiho near the entrance, she gave a polite little bow—but the elf ignored her completely.
Sakiho could only hope no one noticed that she had taken a deep breath as they passed. It was way too creepy. She knew that—but she couldn’t help herself.
“Well then, we’ll be going too. If we wait two hours at most, they should come out of the dungeon. We’ll pick up hamburgers on the way. I want a shake too. I should have a coupon, so I’ll treat you too, Maisaka.”
Souma said while walking toward them, hands in his jeans pockets, no longer touching his hunting cap.
Sakiho wished he wouldn’t say such oddly cute things with that intimidating face—but of course, her wish went unfulfilled. He ignored her completely as he passed.
“Then I’ll come back later. Sadoyama, see you again.”
The gloomy woman standing on the other side of the entrance door said and Sadoyama made a face of extreme displeasure.
“…I’d rather not see you again.”
“False. You want to see me again.”
With a sly, ominous smile, Risa said nothing further. Naturally, she ignored Sakiho and followed Souma out of the basement.
“…Do you want to see her again?”
“You can’t beat that kind of thing, you know? There’s no way to tell if she’s lying. Anyway, Kawai-chan—do you have Hayasaka-kun’s contact info?”
“No. It was registered on the dungeon branch terminal, though.”
“Then hand me your terminal. I’ll give it to you.”
Sadoyama wore a vague expression that looked like a gentle, wry smile, and Sakiho felt caught off guard. It was as if he had struck a sensitive point… or perhaps he had grasped the change in her feelings more accurately than she herself had.
“…Please.”
Without saying anything unnecessary, she took out her terminal and had him input Hayasaka Tooru’s number. She had seen the sequence of digits before but hadn’t memorized it precisely, so this helped. Strictly speaking, giving someone’s contact information without their permission wasn’t right—but Hayasaka probably wouldn’t get angry.
Not angry… just indifferent.
Of course. She should be grateful if he simply let it slide. At this point, she had no idea what face she could possibly wear while speaking to Tooru again.
She didn’t know—but Sakiho had no choice except to walk forward with that face anyway.
Why hadn’t I lived more properly…?
The only reason she could think that now was because she hadn’t. People who lived properly didn’t dwell on such thoughts.
“Well then, I’m going to make a call.”
Saying so, Sakiho left Sadoyama, Nanami, and the restrained Assemblyman Sasamori behind in the basement and climbed the stairs. 1
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