Chapter 3 - Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Ais In The Dungeon?

Right after Ais had caught Isaac in midair, Lefiya had snapped out of the distracting thoughts clouding her mind and became fully aware of what kind of danger the young man had been in. But just after she had thought everything would be solved now that Ais had taken control of the situation, Lefiya was speechless when she saw how her idol just stared into Isaac's eyes with an enamoured expression as if spell-struck, completely ignoring everything around her.

Although Lefiya had always been scared of monsters, this was only a hindrance when she was directly targeted by them. Now that they were distracted and were fully focussing on a person she wholeheartedly looked up to, all doubts and fears had disappeared from her mind and she chanted an incantation, as quickly as she possibly could.

"Proud warriors, snipers of the forest. Take up your bows before the advancing plunderers. Answer the call of your brethren and ready your arrows. Tinge them with flame, the lamplight of the forest. Release them, the fire arrows of the fairies. Falling like rain, burn away the savages."

Right after she began chanting, a golden yellow colored magic circle appeared beneath her, driving away the darkness surrounding the young elf. It only took her five seconds to finish her chant. Normally, that amount of time would pass by before she even consciously noticed it. But right now, it had felt as if the end of these familiar sentences was getting further and further away, while the various monsters surrounding Ais got closer and closer to her and the young man.

For some reason, she managed to finish her chant right before the first monster jumped forwards. Whether this was because of the instinctual fear the monsters felt from a first class adventurer like Ais or just due to the weird situation of their prey standing in front of them, completely motionless and ignoring them, Lefiya couldn't say. But none of this mattered to her, as the last two words left her lips right as she had finished targeting all of her enemies with her spell.

"Fusillade Fallarica!"

From Isaac's perspective, all he could see was Ais' blushing face suddenly being lit up by a warm red light while the surrounding temperature became unbearably hot for a short few seconds, accompanied by the pained cries of monsters, after which the temperature returned to normal just as fast as it had risen before.

This finally broke him out of his 'spell' and made him break eye contact with the girl of his dreams. As soon as he looked away, Ais also seemed to come to her senses, looking visibly confused and blushing a little less than before.

Having finished inspecting his surroundings and come across a room full of burned monster remains, Isaac noticed that he and Ais weren't the only two people here. Instead, there was a young elf girl - who he recognized to be Lefiya - storming towards them from the same direction Ais had previously come from, while having a concerned and slightly hostile look plastered on her cute face, which was perfectly showcasing the ridiculous standard of elven beauty.

Yeah, Isaac had no doubt at all that all of that animosity was definitely directed at him. But even more importantly than that, remembering the embarrassing position he currently found himself in, he couldn't help but glance up at Ais and cough a little, trying to make her understand the situation.

Hearing the man in her arms cough, seemingly trying to get her attention, the confused look on Ais' face faded and she looked towards him. It took her only a short few moments before she noticed that she was still holding on to him, even though there was no need to carry him anymore. She did, however, not know or notice that her holding him like this would be seen in a different, not so innocent light, had this act been performed out in public.

Right after Isaac finally had solid ground under his feet again, Lefiya arrived right next to Ais, sizing her up from top to bottom, checking whether or not she was injured anywhere.

"Thank you, Lefiya. I got distracted."

Upon receiving the well-deserved praise, Lefiya couldn't help but blush a bit while her pointed ears twitched happily. This distracted her from her worry about Ais, as she quite apparently didn't seem to be in danger.

Thinking he should probably thank his saviour as well, even though she probably didn't care too much about whether or not he did, Isaac followed in Ais' footsteps.

"I'd like to thank you as well. Both of you."

Having her happy thoughts interrupted by a calm and harmonious male voice, Lefiya was reminded of the one person who was, in her eyes, most likely responsible for putting Ais in danger in the first place. Remembering this, she turned around, obviously quite annoyed with the stranger.

After sizing Isaac up a bit, Lefiya wasn't surprised to see that he was quite handsome. As an elf, she was used to good-looking men, as all males of her race were mind-bogglingly beautiful. What surprised her instead was that he gave off the same feeling as her idol, Ais. It was a feeling she couldn't comprehend, but she was sure it was there. Something about the look in their eyes was eerily similar. It made her anger disappear, as she associated this feeling with Ais herself. Therefore, her mind subconsciously put him into the 'Ais' category.

After just a few seconds, she noticed her unintentional mistake and got annoyed again. This man and Ais were categorized completely differently in her mind now, because of a simple reason. Ais never really showed much of an expression on her face, while Isaac had a calm, collected and friendly smile plastered all over his face.

Another thing she remembered right then was the weird phenomena she had seen before and how the young man had been at the very center of everything that happened. There was no way he wasn't connected to or knew about what was going on with that kind of magic she had never seen before!

"What was that vortex in the air? How did you do that?!"

Isaac, hearing the questions thrown his way, finally noticed something. He could understand and speak their language flawlessly. And yet, he was sure this was the first time he had encountered it.

[ Automatic translation is one of the many features of this system, Isaac. ]

'Ah, makes sense. I would definitely have thought of such a basic problem and come up with a satisfying solution. Seeing how there were even programs who could automatically and perfectly translate languages in my source world, it's not too hard to see how such a simple function could be achieved. Are there any restrictions, system?'

[ None, such a basic function wasn't restricted by the creator, Isaac. ]

'Good to have that cleared up. I won't have to worry about this in the future, it seems. But now… how do I handle these questions?'

Isaac had two ways to deal with this problem: He could either try to play everything off and say he had no idea what was going on - or he could tell the two girls in front of him the truth. Part of the truth, at least.

He had the choice between either lying to the girl of his dreams and her friend or being honest with them. Which wouldn't cause any trouble for him whatsoever.

It really wasn't a hard choice. If there was one thing Isaac hated the most, it was lies. But that didn't mean he would always answer a question with the truth. Just part of the truth or refusing to answer were, of course, options.

While Ais was again staring at him with the same confused look on her face and before Lefiya could get annoyed at his prolonged silence, a slight sigh left Isaac's lips, before he replied.

"Fine, I will tell you the truth about this matter. But you have to promise me you won't tell anyone else unless I give you permission. Otherwise, you will lose my trust. Seeing how you don't know much about me yet, you'll have to decide for yourself whether or not my trust is something that has any worth."

Being taken aback by the blunt honesty she could hear in the suspicious young man's words, Lefiya had to think for a little bit before coming to a decision. Before she could reply, however, Ais had already uttered her response.

"I promise."

Hearing the decisiveness in Ais' voice, Lefiya was a little taken aback. Her idol definitely had no simple feelings for the young man. Now, she was a little more jealous of him than when he had been carried princess-style. Seeing the relieved smile and gentle light in the young man's eyes when he heard Ais' reply, her displeasure rose a bit yet again, as she felt like Ais would possibly leave her behind if these two were indeed mutually attracted to each other.

But nonetheless, the requirement the young man had told her to consider was still something she had to find an answer to regardless of her slightly possessive fears. Seeing how Ais had already promised to keep everything a secret, it would be unbecoming of her to share something that would put Ais in an awkward position if it became known. Also, Lefiya wasn't really a person who would share secrets entrusted to her with others who weren't privy to them. So the following words finally left her lips.

"I promise as well."

After hearing even Lefiya, whose jealous and pouting face looked adorable in Isaac's eyes, agree, he could reply to her previous questions without much worry. He did everything that he could, and if either of them violated his trust… that just meant he wouldn't interact with them on friendly terms anymore.

"The vortex, as you previously called it, was the result of a special ability I acquired. It's the ability to visit any world of my choosing. As I am from a world without any magic or any ways to grow stronger than the average person, I had only read stories about other worlds where such things were possible. Of course, I thought those were fiction. But as you probably already guessed, all of that changed when I got this ability, something completely out of the norm for the world I'm from. I figured out that all the stories I read actually described a real world somewhere out there, one out of an infinite amount of worlds. I then decided to use this ability to come here, one of the worlds I had only read about before."

During the time he explained this in the simplest words possible, without giving too many details away, Isaac could see the faces of the two girls opposite him changing in different ways.

Ais' face changed from confusion to acceptance, taking everything he told her as the undeniable truth. She seemed to notice that Isaac wasn't really telling them everything, just pieces of a puzzle, but she couldn't make out a single lie, which made her opinion of the fascinating young man rise even more.

Lefiya's face displayed her distrust, but also fascination. She seemed to be doubtful, but also hopeful. As if she really hoped his words were true, but she couldn't just accept them without any further proof. After all, his words were definitely revolutionary, and not something a normal person from this world would believe.

After getting her thoughts in order, Lefiya had to admit that the vortex did indeed seem like it was transporting Isaac here from someplace else. His words seemed plausible. But if what he said was really the truth, she had yet another question for him.

"So you came to this world in a similar manner to the gods then? You said you read about this world, so you surely know about how the gods travelled from their world, Heaven, to our Lower World, right?"

After nodding, Isaac immediately replied, as her question didn't touch upon any subjects that made him uncomfortable.

"I know about the gods' general circ.u.mstances, yes. But my manner of travel is not the same as the gods'. You might not be aware of this, but all three 'worlds' that people in your Lower World know about, namely Heaven, Tartarus and the Lower World, are actually part of a single, larger world. I came from another larger world outside of that. So my coming here cannot be compared to the simple descension of the gods, it's a wholly different matter that would be nigh impossible without my ability, even for the gods. Oh, with that I don't mean to say that I am more powerful than them, I just have a special ability. You see how powerless I am right now, right? I cannot compare to the gods."

Yes, Isaac really loved to talk for prolonged periods of time.

Listening to his answer, Lefiya felt lost. She didn't truly comprehend what the words of this young man really meant, how vast the scope of 'everything' would actually have to be for the three worlds she knew about to just be a single world. It was something beyond what she ever thought about, something she would have to think about for a long time to even have a small chance of possibly understanding it.

While Lefiya was lost in thought, Ais noticed how Isaac had worded his reply. He deliberately told them that he was powerless right now, and therefore couldn't compare to the gods. The word 'now' was the important part of his reply. It hinted at him possibly having been stronger or being sure of becoming stronger than the gods in the future. For Ais, who only craved for more and more strength, this was something she couldn't possibly miss, something she wanted to investigate. She also didn't sense any lies yet again, so her trust in this young man rose to astonishing heights. No matter what - she decided - she had to stick close to this person and find out about what gave him such confidence in his potential.

To be honest, Isaac hadn't intended to hint at anything at all. He had noticed what his words implied, but he didn't think anyone would notice this, so he didn't bother to change his words to another version that wouldn't incite these thoughts. Still, seeing Lefiya brooding over his reply so seriously, he wanted to change the topic, so that the adorable little elf's head wouldn't explode from all the thinking. He already saw her as more of a cute animal than a girl, mostly because he had no interest in any girls beyond Ais and Ereshkigal whatsoever.

"Oh, by the way, I'm Isaac, Isaac Blackshaw. It's nice to meet you. What are your names, if I may ask?"

Despite always being thought of as an airhead, Ais was extremely good at reading people. She mostly just got her reputation because she didn't talk very much. So right now, she noticed that Isaac indubitably already knew their answers to his question, but had no ill will whatsoever. His voice conveyed a bit of a concerned feeling, seemingly wanting to keep her friend's head from producing even more unintentional steam. Not wanting his good intentions to go to waste, Ais immediately reciprocated with her own introduction.

"Ais Wallenstein. Nice to meet you, Isaac."

She accompanied her words with a smile wider than she would normally show around people while the blush from before still hadn't completely faded. Beautiful, just beautiful.

Both Isaac and Lefiya couldn't help but stare at Ais for a few breaths, before they both snapped out of their admiration-filled fantasies.

"I-It's nice to meet you, Mr. Blackshaw. I'm Lefiya Viridis. Both Ais and I are part of the Loki Familia, a group of people blessed by our goddess, Loki."

Having stuttered a bit in the beginning because of the embarrassment she felt for having stared at Ais for so long, Lefiya decided to call the young man by his last name. Mostly because her idol so affectionately called him by his first name, like a close friend, so she was a bit jealous. She also intended to showcase that her and Ais had a close connection while simultaneously introducing their familia. Knowing well about Loki's playful personality, a world traveller would undoubtedly interest her which would lead to both her familia and Isaac interacting a lot more in the future.

Hearing a cute girl call him 'Mr. Blackshaw', Isaac almost wanted to cough up blood. Such an impersonal, distanced way of addressing him was just too cruel. He had no special thoughts or feelings for Lefiya, but anyone would like it a lot more if someone was friendly towards them. Especially if the person being friendly was adorable.

Seeing the pained look on Isaac's face and realizing how he felt, Ais couldn't help but chuckle a little, hiding her mouth with her hand. By now she was again passively watching out for any monsters that may appear, she was a lot less distracted.

While Ais was chuckling, Lefiya felt a bit ashamed for being so distant to someone who didn't seem like a bad person from all she had seen so far. She was really behaving a bit pettily.

Meanwhile, Isaac was extremely happy about the cute pose Ais had struck and would have given Lefiya a thumbs-up for this, if he wasn't still in pain from the previous mental blow. He just couldn't help but utter a plea.

"Please don't call me 'Mr. Blackshaw', just call me 'Isaac'. It feels very uncomfortable to be called by my last name like that. I makes me feel like I'm an old man…"

This plea was a life-saver for Lefiya right now. She could accept it to seem generous and, at the same time, wash away the shame of being a bit petty before. Now she could finally stop panicking on the inside while keeping a straight face on the outside.

"Of course, of course. I wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable, Isaac."

After all of them had calmed down from these shenanigans, Lefiya couldn't help but point out an issue.

"Isaac, what do you plan to do now? You shouldn't be an adventurer, so you being here, in what we call the dungeon, is extremely dangerous. With your strength, you won't survive on the 17th floor where we are at right now. Would you want us to escort you out of here first, to a safer place?"

'She immediately offered her help, huh? It seems like I have to raise my opinion of Lefiya quite a bit. She is a lot less selfish than her acts of jealousy make her appear to be.'

Thinking this, Isaac couldn't help but show a genuine smile which made the elf waiting for his answer blush a bit. Well, that was mostly because she wasn't used to seeing such a gentle, pure smile directed at her from a male. She didn't have many interactions with men outside of her familia.

"First of all, I'd like to thank you again for your previous help, Ais, Lefiya. If you hadn't caught me, Ais, I would have probably died from the fall. And if you hadn't killed these monsters while me and Ais were apparently both distracted, this… could have ended badly."

Happiness could be seen in Ais' eyes, as her mouth widened into a smile yet again. She really smiled a lot more than usual today. Lefiya on the other hand couldn't help but reveal a proud expression upon being praised, even if the praise was from someone who had been a stranger just minutes before. Praise almost universally made people happy.

"Now, to answer your questions. As I have read a tiny bit of information about this world before I came here, I know about the fact that there is the occupation of adventurer, and I also know this dungeon has been around for almost 1000 years. I know no specific details though. One of my reasons for coming here was because anyone in this world can grow stronger, far stronger than the average person. And where better to do so than in the city surrounding the only dungeon in the world, the Labyrinth City Orario? I plan to become an adventurer. Thank you for offering to escort me out of here, I would be hard pressed to escape every single monster or even find my way out of here on my own. I'll accept your offer."

Having listened to another long reply from Isaac, Lefiya and Ais began to notice that he really talked a lot when asked about something. He tried to put as many important parts into his replies as possible, seemingly wanting to resolve all of their questions before they even took form. It was oddly comforting, as it displayed how much Isaac cared about his words being understood by the people listening.

"You're welcome. Just walk beside me while Ais leads the way to the surface, we can talk more on the way."

It didn't take long before the three of them had left the cave Isaac had appeared in and made their way through many long natural hallways, following a specific path he wasn't familiar with. Yet.

While many people had problems regarding finding their way in unfamiliar environments, Isaac had been different even when he still lived in his previous world. Contrary to the vast amount of people, he built a 3D-map of everywhere he had ever been in his head, being able to recall routes and details perfectly. He would never lose his way anywhere he had been to before. As long as he had a point of reference, he would always find his way.

Now, just having transmigrated here, he didn't have any reference points yet so he had to first wait until he got somewhere safe. There, he could then review everything he had seen up to that point and put it into perspective.

While Isaac was paying careful attention to his surroundings, taking in the new and unusual sights, Ais suddenly turned around and asked him a question, her eyes sparkling with interest.

"You said getting stronger is only one of the reasons you decided to come here. What other reasons are there?"

This had always been on her mind since she had heard Isaac's reply before. She just couldn't figure out what other pursuits there could be, even beyond or on the same level as strength. Strength was the only thing she strived for, to fulfill her goals. So if there was something that an unusual man like Isaac held in the same high regard, it would probably be useful for her to find out about it.

Upon having heard Ais' question, Isaac couldn't help but remember how his main reason was his desire to meet her, Ais Wallenstein, even just once. It was… extremely embarrassing. He couldn't help but blush and look away from her golden eyes awkwardly. He really didn't think it was a good idea to tell her about that right now, as he didn't want her to think less of him.

Before the look of confusion on Ais' face because he looked away could really settle in, Isaac made up his mind and replied, unable to keep his head from resembling more of a tomato than a human head.

"I promise to tell you in the future, when the time is right, okay?"

Realizing he had some reason as to why he couldn't tell her right now, and sensing that he wasn't lying to her when making that promise, Ais felt content. If he was that embarrassed by it now, it could surely wait until he could tell her without it being this awkward.

With a nod, Ais turned away again, continuing to lead the small group towards the surface, towards safety.

Meanwhile, the young elf who had been responsible for lighting the way was gripping her staff a little bit harder while pouting.

'They have only just met and they already made a promise…why are they so close?!?'