Saitou Megumi was at a loss.

She had been summoned early in the morning by Souma Kengo and Maisaka Risa, and ended up having to go over a thoroughly unpleasant situation in the basement of a building a short distance from the prefectural office… well, that much couldn’t be helped.

A little before eight a.m., she and the manager, Hamamatsu Nanami, had transported the secured prefectural assemblyman, Sasamori Takeshi, to the building. After that, they met up with Irselia—who had stayed over at Tooru’s place—and on the way back to the building, they stopped by a convenience store. While eating rice balls in the parking lot, Megumi had been forced to listen to Irselia brag about “how she got along so well with Tooru.”

“I slept with Tooru.”

The elf, who looked like a young girl, declared that with a smug little huff. Megumi nearly spat out the tea she’d been drinking from a plastic bottle. How on earth did things go from that hostile tension to a physical relationship?

Certainly, Irselia Lumiester was stunningly beautiful.

But from what Megumi had seen, Hayasaka Tooru didn’t seem particularly interested in a woman’s looks. He hadn’t even shown much reaction to the appearance of Tia, the spirit of the Holy Sword. Was that even possible? Still, having transferred into an explorer training school back in middle school and spent most of her youth focusing on getting stronger as an explorer, Megumi simply lacked any real understanding of those kinds of relationships between men and women.

So, she decided to put Irselia’s words on hold for the time being.

If the hostility between the two had disappeared, then that was fine. It wasn’t Megumi’s chastity at stake, and although Irselia looked like a young girl, she was apparently over ninety… though, conversely, was that really okay? She couldn’t tell.

In any case, when they returned to the building while leaving that bombshell hanging, Sasamori was completely different from before.

It wasn’t something Megumi particularly wanted to hear about, and there was no detailed explanation, but apparently Souma Kengo had made him “learn.” Not overnight, but more like cramming for an hour.

After that, they waited for Sadoyama from the S City Dungeon Affairs Division. Once he and a female subordinate of his arrived, they moved on to the main topic.

A man claiming to be from the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office.

A black stone capable of making dungeons disappear.

The likely mutated Sugai Dungeon and Noumi Dungeon.

Leaving Nanami behind at the building, Megumi and Irselia returned to the hotel.

They had to explain the situation to Chizuru and Airi, and then head to investigate the Noumi Dungeon as “Anthem.”

Even though it had only been a day since everything happened.

And it wasn’t like she was in a position to refuse… but still, her heart felt heavy.

◇◇◇

When they returned to the hotel, Chizuru had gone missing.

According to Airi, a stream by Kujou Zaibatsu’s young lady, Kujou Reiko, had been going on since morning—and apparently, she had even collaborated with Tooru. Since they had already checked the dungeon exploration stream in the building’s basement, it didn’t come as a surprise, but Megumi still thought she should go and watch Reiko’s archive later. She was simply curious about what kind of conversation had taken place between her and Tooru.

In any case, after seeing the stream announcement, Airi had watched Reiko’s broadcast together with Chizuru, and then continued on to watch the Sugai Dungeon exploration stream—this one being held on Tooru’s channel.

And when the stream ended, Chizuru suddenly stood up and left the room. They had been watching in Chizuru’s hotel room, so Airi wondered what was going on, but no matter how long she waited, Chizuru didn’t return. On top of that, Chizuru’s mobile device had been left behind on the hotel bed.

“…Ever since Tooru-kun saved her, Chizuru’s been a little strange.”

About eighty percent of her feelings were “why?”

The remaining twenty percent was a reluctant “I knew it.”

“I thought so too. But since it was a stream with Tooru-san in it, I figured it might be more of a shock if she found out later… Maybe I shouldn’t have let Chizuru-chan watch it. What should we do… if she’s wandering around town dressed like she’s in underwear… if some bad guys try anything, the men might end up dead…”

Airi spoke seriously, but the fact that her concern was directed toward the potential male victims made Megumi give a small wry smile. Certainly, regardless of Chizuru’s mental state, the moment she or her companions were in danger, a switch would flip inside her.

In that sense, there wasn’t much to worry about regarding her personal safety—but still, the fact that they couldn’t contact her and had no idea where she went was troubling.

“Chizuru’s been acting strange since meeting Tooru? She’s always a bit strange, so I couldn’t really tell,” Irselia said, tilting her head in confusion.

Megumi let out a small sigh. To begin with, could this elf even understand the subtleties of human emotions? She didn’t know any other elves besides Irselia, so it was hard to tell whether it was a trait of her race or just her personality.

“Chizuru has her own things going on. She hasn’t really talked about them much, though.”

“So you’ve heard a little, Megumi?”

“A bit. But it’s Chizuru we’re talking about—if you’re curious, you should ask her directly. It’s not something I should be saying.”

Megumi knew well that this elf did show consideration toward them. It was as if she had some kind of protective instinct. When things got dangerous, she would help without thinking of gain or loss, and being protected like that made Megumi happy.

But still… she couldn’t praise Irselia’s personality without reservation. Personally, Megumi liked her, but objectively speaking, she was quite a handful. That made her feelings on the matter a bit complicated.

She didn’t dislike her—if anything, she liked her… but what was unacceptable was still unacceptable. At least within human society.

And Megumi wasn’t in a position to correct Irselia’s flaws. She might point them out from time to time, but that was about it.

“Chizuru-chan isn’t the type to spiral, so she’ll probably come back to her senses at some point and return to the hotel…”

“Nanami-san told us we’re heading to the Noumi Dungeon, right? Hmm… but if one of the members isn’t in a good state of mind, maybe we should postpone.”

Megumi herself wasn’t exactly eager about investigating the Noumi Dungeon either. As an obligation, it had to be done, but for now it would likely just be a survey of the upper floors while hunting monsters and checking for abnormalities. They couldn’t delay it by a week or two, but it also didn’t seem likely that a Dungeon Stampede would occur immediately within a day or two.

“Come to think of it, what about Sanagi? Still asleep?”

Even if they were heading into the Noumi Dungeon, there wouldn’t be any stream this time. That meant Sanagi would either stay behind or be carried along for some level grinding…

“Looks like she’s still out. You know, she was on standby in the same car as that assemblyman Sasamori yesterday, so I think it really wore her down mentally. She seems fine when she’s holding a camera, though…”

“She’s kind of special in her own way, after all.”

Sometimes Megumi wondered if she herself—lacking any particularly dramatic background—was actually the strange one. Not that long ago, she had just been an ordinary middle schooler.

“I’ll let Nanami know, just in case.”

Saying that, Irselia took out her mobile terminal.

Megumi let out another small sigh and sat down on Chizuru’s bed. The mobile terminal Chizuru used had been left by her pillow, lying there awkwardly as if it didn’t know where it belonged.

Even after more than two years since they started streaming dungeon explorations, Chizuru was still terrible at even typing comments—and Megumi loved that about her.

A precious companion.

After transferring into the explorer training school, she had been surrounded by others with similar circumstances, yet even among them, Megumi had shown an abnormal level of mana affinity. She thought that the reason she had become close with Airi was partly because Airi possessed the special ability of healing magic. It meant Airi didn’t need to compete with Megumi purely in terms of strength.

At first, Chizuru had been far stronger than Megumi. In terms of mana affinity, Megumi was probably superior, and when it came to leveling up after defeating monsters, Megumi’s growth had been slightly faster and greater than Chizuru’s. If you put it in game terms, her stats increased more per level.

Even so—the younger Chizuru, by a year, had devoted herself stoically to honing her strength, and had faced Megumi, who considered herself something of a coward, head-on.

Megumi didn’t understand why Chizuru liked her. Chizuru never went out of her way to say such things. Well, if she asked, she would probably tell her. But asking felt a little frightening.

If she were told, “I like you because you’re strong”—that would probably make her sad. She didn’t think Chizuru would say it like that, but knowing her, she might just say it plainly without hesitation. She had a slightly odd side to her, after all.

Chizuru was a year younger. She had entered the explorer training school at fourteen, and Megumi had met her when she herself was fifteen… which meant they had already been together for five years.

And yet, perhaps the things we truly shared weren’t as many as I thought.

“…That’s strange. She’s not picking up.”

As if pulling Megumi back from her thoughts, Irselia muttered while staring at her mobile device.

“Not picking up? Nanami-san?”

No way, Megumi thought, as she pulled out her own device and tried calling Nanami—but although it seemed to be ringing, there was no answer.

“They were gathered in a building near the prefectural office to question Assemblyman Sasamori and share information with S City’s Dungeon Affairs Division—Nanami-san’s senior, right?”

Airi said it as a way of confirming.

“That was just a little while ago. Maisaka Risa-san from the Dungeon Agency and Souma Kengo-san, the S-rank who took the request, were there. We were assigned to investigate the Noumi Dungeon, so we left Nanami-san at the building and came back to the hotel. Maisaka-san and Souma-san said they were going to check on Tooru-kun’s level of danger and headed to the Sugai Dungeon…”

“So Nanami-san is still at the building?”

“Yeah. Since they’re holding Assemblyman Sasamori there, she should be watching over him and taking care of things…”

“Do you think something happened?”

“…Hard to say.”

There was no way to figure that out just by thinking here. She might have simply stepped away to the restroom, or maybe she was caught up arguing with Sasamori.

In the worst case… she would have used emergency comms to signal danger. The fact that she hadn’t either meant it wasn’t the worst case—or it had already gone beyond that.

“…Let’s head back to the building for now… but if Chizuru comes back to the hotel, none of us will be here. Should we have Airi stay behind?”

“If there’s nothing wrong with Nanami, then that would just waste time,” Irselia said. “By now, Souma and that gloomy woman have probably run into Tooru around the entrance of the Sugai Dungeon—Airi, pull up Tooru’s contact from Anthem’s shared data.”

“Huh? You’re going to contact Tooru-san?”

“It’s possible Chizuru went to see him as well. And if we know what’s happening on their side, it could change how we respond.”

“…Hey, you didn’t get Tooru-kun’s contact info?”

It was a simple question, but Irselia froze for a split second before completely ignoring it. That alone gave Megumi a bad feeling.

“Um… Nanami-san’s terminal data is saved to the cloud, so we can find Tooru-san’s contact right away… but, Irselia-san, weren’t you on bad terms with Tooru-san…? Did you make up?”

“I slept with Tooru.”

With a smug look, Irselia tossed her hair back proudly.

Airi’s face turned bright red in an instant, but for Megumi, it only made that uneasy feeling grow stronger. She’d bet on it—there was no way they had actually become that kind of couple.

Come to think of it, Tia, the Holy Sword spirit, was always by Tooru’s side. It was hard to imagine the three of them doing anything like that together. The thought was admittedly quite indecent—but probably not what had happened.

“U-um, hey… since it’d be a hassle to repeat this, could you put it on speaker? We want to know what’s going on over there too…”

“Hm? Well, sure, I don’t mind.”

With a pleased smile curling at her lips, Irselia checked the screen of the mobile terminal Airi was operating and placed the call to Tooru.

Almost immediately, the electronic beeping—pipipi, pipipi—rang out over the speaker. If Tooru operated his terminal, the call should connect. Megumi’s bad feeling only grew stronger, but there was nothing to be done.

Beep. The call connected.

“Is this Tooru’s mobile terminal? It’s me—Irselia Lumiester, S-Rank Explorer. You should be grateful for the good fortune of receiving a call from me.”

Beep. The call was cut.

“……”

“……”

“Oh my? That’s odd. Did I perhaps press the wrong button? Honestly, not being used to mobile terminals at this day and age—it’s not very impressive for a young person.”

Muttering that, Irselia dialed Tooru again while still on speaker. This time, there was almost no wait before—

Beep. The call connected.

“Ah, it went through. Tooru? You can hear me, right? It’s me. Tell me your situation. You’ve already met up with Souma Kengo and that gloomy woman, haven’t you?”

〈Cut the crap. Take all that excess money and power you’ve got and go enroll yourself in some kindergarten. Have the teacher show you how to give a proper greeting and how to ask people for things nicely. Oh, and don’t go causing trouble for the staff or the kids. Later. Drop dead.〉

Beep. The call was cut.

“……”

Irselia turned back toward Megumi, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

About twenty percent of Megumi thought, Wow, he really said all that to an S-rank elf.

The other eighty percent thought, Well… yeah, that’s exactly how that would go.

Since there was no helping it, Megumi ignored Irselia—who was groaning while holding back tears—and pulled out her own mobile terminal to call Tooru herself.

This time, without using the speaker.