159 - - a crazy schedule

"Wow, I've never seen such a little adventurer before!

Kugase rolled his eyes and raised his voice, causing Moe to crouch down, holding both ears.

Then he hurriedly covered his eyes with his small hands.

Hey, what are you doing? Oh, hide-and-seek?"

Again a voice came down from overhead, and Moe frowned and covered his ears with his hands.

But he quickly covers his eyes again with his hands.

Even with his eyelids closed, he is still dazzled.

Hey, what's wrong? Are you sick?"

The child, who had been persistently spoken to, looked up with his eyes covered with his hands and his lips pouted.

Curled up on the ground, he whispered a warning to Kugase.

"More whispering!"

"What?"

"Speak more in a whisper!"

"I'm sorry."

"Moo-chan, I'm a little sensitive right now."

Kugase apologizes in a whisper, and Sola, who has come up to him to kill the sound of his footsteps, gently hears his apology.

"Is that so?"

"Nice to meet you, my name is Sora."

"I'm Kugase. Nice to meet you."

"You can talk over there if you want!"

Angered by Moe's words, the two men looked at each other, and then hurriedly crept away from behind the debris.

The ants around the entrance to the nest had already been cleared away, and a huge flying dragon was cowering proudly nearby.

Thor, who has just finished picking up his luggage, is talking with Straccia and Ninessa.

Yuril and Ram Merulla are chatting amiably with the rider of the flying dragon.

Kugase spoke to the girl next to him with a worried look on his face as he headed that way.

"Is she all right?"

"Mr. Lam said I should get used to it in a little while."

"Get used to it?"

"Well, there's been a lot going on."

After returning to the ground, we reversed all the invasion curses at once, but at the end, we turned over Mu's , which turned into , and that's why he was in such a state.

Since it is not a worsening of the condition, it cannot be cured even by Ram Merula, and Thor's cannot restore anything related to the characteristics.

Since there was nothing we could do, we decided to leave him alone until he got used to his senses.

When they returned, Ram Merulla broke off the conversation and came running up to us.

The first thing she did was to ask how Mu was feeling.　

"How is he?"

"It's still a little bit..." "It's still a little bit. But it seems to be getting better.

"Hmm. Well, that's good.

Sola smiled happily at Rummella, who raised her eyebrows at her with concern.

She had been in such a fuss that she had rolled around on the ground holding her ears right after she had reversed the curse.

"Thank you so much for taking care of Moo-chan, Ram-san."

"Oh, I'm not that worried. This is because Riccoli won't be able to heal her if she doesn't get back to normal soon!

"Yes, I'll do my best to help you, and I'm sure you'll be fine too."

"Ugh, thank you. ....... I'm sorry I was so harsh.

Kugase rolled his eyes again at his colleague's honest apology.

It was the first time he had ever seen Rummella so at ease with the other party members.

"Hey, what the hell is going on?　Is the curse alright?　And the old man seems to be in good spirits."

Rummella's lips tightened in annoyance as the brown-horned girl asked a flurry of questions.

She could not openly reveal the fact that she had made a secret agreement with Thor regarding the lifting of the curse.

While Rummella was pondering how to cover it up, he heard a voice calling out to the three of them.

"Hey, come here for a minute."

"Yes, sir."

Rammerla and Kugase speed up their steps, followed by Sola, who runs up to them like a puppy.

Besides Thor, Ninessa, and Straccia, Yuril and the horsewoman are already there.

Thor opens his mouth after confirming that everyone has gathered except for Moe.

"I just wanted to let you know that our schedule has changed a little. We're going to dive again today with more people."

Thor's original plan went something like this.

For the first two days, he would kill all the ants while reversing the curse and accumulate as many skill points as possible.

On the third day, with the characteristics and the enhanced branch skills we gained in this way, we would defeat the labyrinth master on the fifth level and make the curse stick.

After that, return to the ground once to pick up additional food and check to see if the reversed traits have been removed.

If the curse had disappeared, we would have to go back down to the fifth layer to defeat the labyrinth master, and then return to the surface after letting the curse stick without reversing it.

The reappearance of the monsters in the ant's nest is every three days, so we calculated this in consideration of the fact that we would have to move several times.

The plan was to spend one day to earn skill points in the sixth layer, and to defeat the master of the true labyrinth with the skills and coordination he had perfected on the fifth day.

Then we would return to the city in Garudo's carriage to be picked up and receive our certification for promotion.

Since we were safely attached even with the reversed characteristics, the six of us were supposed to return to the fifth level together.

However, a small problem arose there.

Ninessa, who had been worried about Straccia to the point that her eyes changed color, found out about the curse.

Thor, who had known her for a long time and had not properly told her not to tell anyone about it, was not very good at handling the situation.

As a result, Ninessa, who had heard the details, wanted to go with us.

She also wanted to stay until the end of the meeting if possible.

For some reason, Straccia and Ninessa got into an argument, and Thor had to intercede.

Thor senses an unusual mood in the couple, who usually do not seem to be in trouble, and tries to work out a compromise.

Finally, they temporarily settled on the idea of reinforcing everyone.

"Well then, you and Ninessa join us now?"

Sola asks happily with a carefree smile.

She is genuinely happy to be able to help someone she knows.

Yuril, too, seems to have no particular objection and smiles his usual gentle smile.

"Is that ...... okay?"

Thor nodded while scratching the bottom of his chin at Rummella, who asked him in a reserved manner.

"It would be a waste of time to waste time talking about it over and over again. Besides, I'll call on you too, don't worry about it.

In front of Rummella, who was puzzling over his reply, the rider lowered the head of the flying dragon and put his foot on the pilot's seat.

"Well, you're the one who was controlling the carriage, aren't you?

"Yes, yes, they should be gathered at the training ground today, so bring them all together."

Yes, I'll take care of it.

Everyone hurries away from the flying dragon, which flaps its wings.

Thor, who had seen the dragon boat fly away with a wave of his hand, turns around and tells Rummelera and the others.

"Well, let's check on the ants around here until they come back.