Book 2: Chapter 4: (3)

「It’s only a prototype, but yeah, I have finished it.」

「Let me see, let me see!」

I powered up the computer and the monitor which would show us what was happening in the dungeon.

「Huh? It’s in black and white, but is that the dungeon, by any chance?」

「That’s right! This is the iron door, and as you can see, something has been dropped in front of it.」

「Is it rubbish?」

「No, it’s not rubbish! It’s pet food. That is, feed for dogs and cats.」

「Ah, nobles and hunters sometimes keep pets.」

「That’s right. Pet food is good for attracting monsters.」

I booted up the software for the robot arm that would allow me to open and close the iron door.

「Watch this. Open the door!」

I clicked the mouse once.

The iron door on the monitor began to open.

「Huh? Wha- wha- what? What’s happening?」

Deet was shocked that I could even open the door from here.

「It’s a bit soon for you to be surprised! All right, we’ve got ourselves a monster who’s come to feed! Hurray!」

I had left the pet food scattered about, so the smell had probably permeated throughout the dungeon, and a monster had turned up immediately. Even better, it was a giant centipede.

「Isn’t that a giant centipede? You’ll be in trouble if it attacks you in front of the entryway, Thor! I’ll go and kill it!」

「Don’t panic, don’t panic. Now!」

I had already done this dozens of times, so I was beginning to understand – without even really thinking about it – how much pet food a giant centipede had to eat before the time was right.

When I clicked again, the iron door began to close. But the giant centipede, still gorging itself on pet food, did not run away.

「Huh?」

Deet watched the picture on the monitor, her eyes glued to the screen, as the iron door crushed the centipede’s head.

Huh? Power is gushing out of its body!

「Yay, it looks like I levelled up again!」

「Y-y-y-y-y-you levelled up like that?」

「I sure did. I was a bit worried that using this wouldn’t make me level up, but it looks like it’s worked out so that just clicking the mouse counts as attacking the monster.」

「How the hell did you make an artifact like this?」

「It’s not an artifact, it’s a machine. With the camera and the robot arm, it would probably have cost more than 20 gold pieces in Gadheus.」

I had spent more than two hundred thousand yen on the machinery. The gold-for-cash shop gave me ten thousand yen for a gold coin from Gadheus, so it was probably more than 20 gold.

「All this for only 20 Gadheus gold pieces?…… Wow, that’s unbelievable!……」

Deet watched the monitor eagerly.

「Master. Could I teach this system of automatic levelling up to Miss Deet as well?」Shizuku reminded me.

「Of course. I was just going to suggest that. Enami almost got squished by it so I had to stop using it, but I was also able to level up conveniently even while I was sleeping by using an automatic clicking tool.」

「Wha- wha- wha- wha- wha- whaaat?」

I explained to her about the automatic clicking tool. I was not sure if Deet understood or not, but she listened open-mouthed.

「So, using the computer, you can automatically do this ‘clicking’ thing which opens and closes the iron door, right?」

Apparently, although she had seemed absent-minded, she had pretty much understood what I had told her.

「So what level are you now, Thor?」

「Level 9. No, level 10? I just gained another level now.」

「Level 10?! Really?!」

「Yes, really. Sometimes I’ve spent all night levelling up. It’s really tough to do my part-time job in the daytime…」

Deet suddenly pinched my cheeks with both hands.

「Wha’ are you ‘oing?」

「I’m thinking about how many years it took me to get from level 1 to level 10, and how hard I had to fight, knowing that I might die! And you – 」

She was taking her anger out on me.

「You ‘ould ‘o it too, ‘eet…」

Deet’s hands suddenly stopped and let go of my cheeks.

When I got up from the computer chair, Deet sat down unsteadily, taking my place.

「Wh-where do I click?」

Deet had surfed the net by herself, so she could manage clicking.

「This little picture, which is called an icon, is the programme that moves the robot arm. If you click it twice quickly……That’s right. Then, if you click here, the iron door opens and closes automatically.」

Deet stared at the monitor, her face serious. In one click, she crushed multiple monsters who had come to eat the scattered food.

「Teeheehee! This is so much fun!」

「If you celebrate too loudly, you’ll wake Ria.」

♦︎ ♦︎ ♦︎

When Deet had been levelling up for an hour, I spoke to her again.

「But we’re not going to abandon Enami. Are you listening?」

「I’m listening.」

I wonder.Deet has never seemed like she really wants to help Enami.

「So, once Ria’s trauma has healed, I think we’ll all go to the Adventurer’s Guild.」

Looking at the monitor, Deet said,「……Ria’s trauma might not heal easily, you know.」

「Huh? Really?」

「Yeah. I overheard a rumour in the Adventurer’s Guild tavern. If that’s the cause of it, it’s pretty deep-rooted.」

「A rumour in the Adventurer’s Guild……Can you tell me what that was?」

「I’m not sure I should spill it. She might not want you to hear.」

Deet was being unexpectedly compassionate towards Ria.

「Hmm, you’re probably right.」

「I’m sorry.」

「Nah, it’s okay. I’ll ask her myself……」

Deet and I were silent. Only the sound of clicking could be heard in the Western-style room.

Suddenly, we heard the pretty voice of a woman.

「It’s okay, Deet. Tell him. Ah, no, maybe I should tell him.」

「Huh?」

The door to the Western-style room was not completely closed. Ria’s voice was coming from the other side.

Ria came into the Western-style room. Shizuku hid quickly inside the bed.

This was not the Ria who had cried at the sweetness of the crêpe.

She carried herself with the resolute air of a knight.

「It’s about me, so I’ll tell him.」

Deet grew flustered at Ria’s determined, clear tone.

「I-if you don’t really want to tell him…」

「No. I want him to hear it.」

I thought Deet was hesitating because she had gone and told me about the rumour that she had heard in the tavern, but that did not seem to be it.

「I want to hear about you too, Ria. Will you tell me?」

Ria nodded silently. Seeing that, I said to Deet,

「Deet, listen!」

「O-okay.」

Deet and I got ready to listen to the story.

Still standing, Ria began to speak.

「In order to tell you how I ended up like this, I have to tell you how I came to be in the dungeon earning money as an adventurer.」

Apparently, in the other world, in the Kingdom of Francis where the Dungeon of Yomi was located, there had been a noble family called the Kache family.

「My family was the military noble family of Eldlux, and we served the Kache family.」

Ria had been born into that military family which served the noble family. As she had no brothers, it had fallen to her to take over as head of the family.

「But around the time I was born, the noble Kache family was in an economic decline because of the help it had given to the people of their fief during repeated poor harvests. And, oddly, the Kache family – like the Eldlux family – had only female children.」

It seemed that, while it was acceptable for a lower-ranking noble family such as Ria’s to be headed by a woman, it was not permitted for the head of the Kache family – even though they were falling into ruin – to be a woman.

It was decided that Monica Kache, who had been brought up like Ria’s little sister, would marry into a duke’s family, and the curtain closed on the Kache family’s history.

「The day that sixteen-year-old Lady Monica married into the duke’s family, I was given my sword.」

* * *

「Ria. It is poor recompense for the long years you and your father have loyally served the Kache family……but I want you to have this sword.」

「Th-this… a sword of pure mithril? Is this not the Kache family’s treasured sword?! I could not possibly accept this, Lady Monica!」

「If I brought a sword into my husband’s home, I’d be chased away! I want you to take it, Ria.」

「……」

「If you get married too, Ria, you can sell it.」