Day 61 – Morning, White Weirdo Inn.
The princess seems to have left for the capital, taking the maid with her. She disappeared from the lord’s mansion under the cover of the night, or so they say.
The letter she left behind contained only『Thank you for everything. As one belonging to the Royal family, I swear on my name, I will definitely protect the kingdom and the frontier. Shariceres di Diorer』, and that’s all she had to say before leaving to stop the war with only two people.
Meanwhile, back at the mansion, they quickly assembled troops, sent out a search party on fast horses, and also made Murimuri castle deploy personnel to watch the Fake Dungeon. Everyone is in an uproar, trying to bring them back, worried about their safety.
「Did they leave?」
「They did, huh?」
「Well, no surprise, huh.」
「That’s so like them.」
But we are worried.
「It will be a tragedy?」
「Possibly even a gruesome one?」
「But certainly a tragedy?」
「I’m more worried about it becoming a comedy.」
How many times, it keeps repeating, and we have the same worry every time.
When we woke up in the morning the self-proclaimed weakest one, who is under pretense of being a human, disappeared, taking his servants, the strongest dungeon emperor and the powerful dungeon master, with him.
He must’ve left to escort the princess.
The absolutely unsuitable for the role, the worst man-eating fiend, that should be the last person in this world to be escorting anyone has assumed the position of her escort.
The trio with ultra-excessive firepower, who might destroy the world in an attempt to protect someone, went as the guards.
Destroying the world is not unlikely if it’s about those three, I honestly pity the unfortunate would-be attackers.
Well, while I say this, everyone is in full combat equipment already. Turns out, Kakizaki-kun’s group got five giant swords from Haruka-kun. He left, entrusting them to the Poster Girl.
Who handed them to Kakizaki-kun and the others first thing in the morning. 『Give them to the group of five idiots with really dumb mugs.』is what he apparently said, and she gave them to Kakizaki-kun and others without even a hint of hesitation.
The Poster Girl probably thinks that 『Idiots』is how they are actually called.
Volleyball club girls also were given a package. The bag sent to them had『Fresh』written on it. Well, it’s obvious what’s inside. Looks like he left after diligently finishing his nighttime work.
And unlike the latter overflowing with resolution and determination that was left by the princess, the one he left made no sense at all, as usual.
I mean, 『I bet souvenirs will sell like crazy? It’s a chance for profit! It’s magnate time! Sort of?』is all it said.
He departed leaving a letter overflowing with greed and a determination to make a quick buck, or rather, since nothing can be understood by reading it, that’s not even a letter anymore but a cryptic note. But this is not a dying message, it’s a deathing (killing?) message, brimming with desire to solve the problem with a bit of slaughter, that’s basically a crime notice.
「「「Haaah, well, we are curious too, so let’s go?」」」
「「「Yup~.」」」
Well, that was bound to happen, with two girls putting their lives on the line to stop the war, there is no way he wouldn’t go along. They certainly went with them. I have a whole lot of issues with this, but at the same time, I also would’ve hated it if Haruka-kun didn’t go with them. Then, if we can’t stop them, we should just go ourselves, that’s what we fought to get level 100 for. And we also had excessively great equipment prepared, as if waiting for this moment.
At the very least, there is no doubt that they went to the Fake Dungeon. That is the only existing passage, and the princess won’t be able to get through with just her and the maid.
And then there is evidence left in Haruka-kun’s room, a packaged 『Frontier’s Specialty, Dungeon Manju, Kind of?』. They were delicious, so he finally made red bean paste.
The fact that there was a share for everyone points to it definitely being a premeditated crime. There was also tea and the matching number of cups.
We involuntarily sat down for a tea with manju, which delayed our departure. But was it necessary to write『Kind of?』?
With those three coming along, there might be no reason for rushing. 『We just have to catch up to them before the war begins』and『The biggest threats to Haruka-kun are wars, man-made traps, schemes, and unique skills.』
Is what everyone was saying, hurriedly preparing for the departure, but upon entering the dining hall we were met with oyakodon and mushroom soup.
Looks like Haruka-kun prepared this for our breakfast before leaving. Let’s dig in?
Alright, now we are definitely going, destination – the Fake Dungeon.
The high-speed 8-person group is going to leave first, which then will be followed by the remaining group of 21 people.
With Lv100’s movement speed it wouldn’t take even an hour to reach the Fake Dungeon, but traveling with no caution is dangerous, and usually, traveling at high speed means that Detection and Search won’t be able to pick up threats in time. The speed is so high, that we would bump into the enemy by the time we detect them. That’s why we are going to travel while having plenty of safety margin.
「Nowhere to be found~.」
「Yeah, they might’ve already stepped into the Fake Dungeon.」
If they left during the night, then it wouldn’t be strange for them to enter the Fake Dungeon by now, even if they are traveling together with the princess. That princess should have a considerably high level too.
「Slow down! Be on your guard and halt!」
「「「Aye.」」」
Soldiers, it’s probably the local troops, but we still should be vigilant.
Decelerating, we slowly approach them, making sure we will be noticed.
Since the wagons have 『OMUI』written on their sides in a huge, HUGE letters, they should belong to the local lord. After all, usually, one wouldn’t use such large and flashy letters. Even though Haruka-kun wouldn’t remember the name no matter where and how it was written, the lord is still trying his hardest, but if that was all it took, then even we would’ve been walking around with placards. It’s simply not possible.
A single horseman is coming our way, raising one hand, aah~, it’s the lord riding off on his own again. His aide is desperately trying to catch up.
「Omui-sama, excuse me, but we need a moment of your time. The thing is…」
When we explained the situation, Omui-sama first gave a broad smile, and then began convulsing with laughter. Looks like he understood the way things are about to go for the royal army.
「My, I’m sorry. I feel guilty for once again having dragged you into the squabbles of the frontier’s army. Having concerns about the Princess’ safety, we already sent out the message with our fastest horsemen… But, I see, so Haruka-kun is accompanying them, and even took the monsters under his control with him. Then the Princess is completely safe, however, we cannot afford to inconvenience Haruka-kun any further, putting an even larger burden upon his shoulders. We have to make haste, I notified our troops, so you will have free passage into Murimuri Castle as well. Excuse me, but I will be going ahead.」
Having said that he rode off, his aide also made a short bow and immediately rushed after him. He seems to be having it tough.
「What do we do now? Follow after them? Overtake and hurry ahead?」
「Hmmm, how about we follow them while we wait for the main group?」
「「「No objections.」」」
The main force of the kingdom’s army is likely yet to arrive. It should take them another week to get here.
Are they planning to intercept them in those wastelands ravaged by sandstorms with just five people? Or do they want to pull them to Murimuri Castle? Or perhaps destroying all of them in the Fake Dungeon, going out to meet them on our own should be nothing but a disadvantage. And just where is he trying to put up that souvenir stall of his? How much for manju? How many is one person allowed to buy? They were super delicious.
Rejoining with the rest we arrived to Murimuri Castle without any issues. And now we are making preparations for reconnaissance in force with our group spearheading it.
Well, preparations are pretty much limited to getting ID cards in order. Passing around special ID cards for passing through the Fake Dungeon.
Those ID cards are made out of magic stones, if you have one, master golem will guide you through the place. The Stalker Girl’s clansmen are also provided with them. But『Fake Dungeon Co. Ltd』? Their shares are not available for trade and they aren’t listed anywhere, what an utterly suspicious ID. He apparently was really against making it a『Pass』, but what is the difference?
Forming a file we enter the Fake Dungeon. While we can safely pass through, it still doesn’t mean that there are no hostile adventurers or soldiers inside, so we are advancing while maintaining a level of caution, constantly probing the area around us with Search and Detection.
For some reason, there are even more unfamiliar paths and new traps. Looks like he regularly comes for remodeling.
「Let’s use the slide to go all the way to the entrance?」
「No, we might miss them if we do that. This thing is a one-way trip.」
On the frontier’s side the Fake Dungeon has a pitfall signed 『Back to the Entrance』with the slide that will take you all the way to the kingdom’s side, but since it passes underground, there is a chance that we might pass them without noticing. By the way, Slime-san seems to really like it. A few girls also seem very eager to slide down, you understand that it is sort of a trap, right?
「Be careful from here on~, we won’t trigger traps, but oiled places are still going to be slippery~, one wrong step and you are stark naked~.」
「「「Oh~, no~.」」」
Even without active traps, this place has plenty of evil devices, and falling for one, means losing equipment and clothes.
I can’t help but admire the courage of the kingdom’s troops willing to storm this place. Beating a normal dungeon is definitely safer than passing through here. After all, Dungeon Masters are more honest and sensible than Haruka-kun. Their places have a much kinder and considerate layout than the dungeon designed by this villainously crafty and morally-challenged person.
「Do you think they might’ve reached the neighboring Narrogi by now?」
「Hmm, I wonder, if it was Haruka-kun and co alone they would be there a long time ago.」
Gosh, the Fake Dungeon now even has contraptions that screw with Detection, so passing it becomes even more of a drag, I’d like to just get through in one go, but one misstep and it will be a disaster.
Most likely, items on the level of our equipment won’t be destroyed by 『Weapons and Armor Destruction』, but if by some chance they did get destroyed it would be a huge loss. The same goes for clothes, they have resistances, so they should be fine, but if they do melt it would be a tragedy for us as maidens. Let’s proceed with care.
「Whooa, it looks so real, anyone would attack it.」
A picture on the ceiling, depicting numerous spider monsters, the ceiling would collapse if someone was to attack it. One pointless attack leads to a catastrophe, and since you’d have no one to blame but yourself for making that self-destructing attack it will also break one’s spirit, how malicious!
Since they went with such a small group, they must be planning to bait the kingdom’s forces, so we can’t simply catch up to them with no consideration, but if we take things too slowly the battle might begin without us.
However, he did everything he could in the town. Remodeling the inn, restocking the weapon store leaving tons of items, establishing new workshops and stalls here and there, and even secretly reinforcing the town walls. As if trying to get done with everything he could do in the frontier town. As if trying to settle everything.
That’s why we are anxiously chasing after them. Just how far is he intending to go? Even if he was sure to come straight back after this we still would’ve followed, and he probably doesn’t have anything in particular on his mind anyway, but we are still too worried not to chase after him. I mean, Haruka-kun also has no idea of what the kingdom is up to. He is rushing into the war without a proper read of the situation. But future predictions, results, victory and defeat, are all irrelevant, we are simply going to protect Haruka-kun. Even if he doesn’t need our protection, we still have to be at his side, so that if the time when he needs the protection comes, we can help him! Even if we are yet to catch up to him, we got strong enough to stand proudly beside him, that’s what we were striving for all this time! And that’s why this time, we are all going to where he is.
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