CH 38

38 At that time

A few days before Setsu and Levia landed on the beastmen continent, the classmates who remained in the human country Destinea had gone to a dungeon called <Cavern of Sorrow>.

Dungeons are towers, forests or caverns that can be divided by strata or depths. When it was created and by who has not yet been explained to this day and the origins of the treasures generated within the dungeons too haven’t been explained.

If one were to speak about what is known is that monsters of specific ranges of strength appear inside each dungeon and in the deepest part lies in wait the strongest monster of the dungeon.

The fact that their strength is settled within a fixed range is fairly important and thanks to that, one could determine the difficulty level of the dungeons.

This <Cavern of Sorrow> is A rank difficulty level.

Considering that the highest difficulty level is SSS, an A rank dungeon, which is one step away from S rank that’s designated as inhuman, could not be captured without the corresponding ability.

“Oh hot boiling lava! Burn away my foes and melt their lives! <Magma Ball>!”

“Gugyaa!”

The red, boiling hot ball Endou fired hit a wolf-type monster and ended its life by burning its body away.

“Great as always, Endou!”

“Got them all in one hit ‘till now didn’t you!”

“Ha, ha, ha! It’ll be like this if I deal with em!”

While raising a slow laughter, Endou once again fired a magma ball and ended the life of another monster.

While Endou’s followers A and B were getting excited once more, a male student was glaring as he fell on his bottom after being burned by the heat of the magma ball when he approached to kill that monster.

“You okay, Nemoto……?”

“Ah hot hot……It’s you Ueda. My bad, but can’t you apply some Heal on me?”

“Sure……Oh healing light <Heal>”

The male student called Ueda applied Heal on the place where his arm was burned.

Fortunately it wasn’t burned that severe, so as a result it could be healed even by Ueda whose healing was not quite his strong point.

“Are okay? Nemoto-kun”

“Oh Kanzaki. Somehow, yeah, thanks to Ueda.”

Near those two, the girl named Kanzaki held out her hand and Nemoto grabbed the hand to stand up.

“I’m glad. Even so, Endou and his gang are getting more and more carried away aren’t they?”

“Yeah, they are……damn, if I was stronger than them……”

The one with the highest ability was Endou if one were to exclude Kouma, the current <Wielder of the sacred sword> and his party.

He had completed several original magic that was evolved from existing magic and each of them were powerful.

Although it will not go as far as unique magic, those were considerably useful in anti-personnel and anti-monster fights.

“We’re going you all! Don’t drag us down, you hear!”

Endou who was in a good mood from being flattered by his entourage, commanded his classmates in this place.

Even when everyone glared at him disgustingly from the bottom of their hearts, it wouldn’t reach him as he advances while laughing loudly.

“Tch……He’s annoying, really.”

“Well, this time we could do it with ease thanks to him, so let’s bear it just for a little while, okay?”

“That may be true if you put it that way, but……*sigh*”

While Nemoto was being pacified by Kanzaki, Ueda, while sighing, followed behind Endou.

◇　◇　◇

“<Rock smash fist>!” (Gansaiken)

On another place, at the labyrinth boasting the difficulty level of S rank, the <Spire of the Emperor>, Kouma’s group was moving forward.

The attack from Jirou, whose natural muscles expanded furthermore due to harsh training, pulverized the body of the Rock Golem.

“Hold on! Don’t go litter the whole place too much with shards, okay!?”

While dodging the fragments of the Rock golem scattering in its surroundings with magnificent agility, Mizuki shook her prideful twin tails with her dagger hand and quickly approached the magician type monster Skull Magician that was standing further in.

“Teya!”

“Ugiiiiih!”

Mizuki’s dagger seized the base of the skull magician’s throat just before it could brandish its prided wand and unleash a magic. Being a monster with only a dirty robe put on over its bonemade body, the Skull magician’s neck bone which connected the head with its body was pulverized and so it was annihilated without doing anything.

“Me bad, me bad. But did we finish them all with this?”

“Don’t relax yet, watch your surroundings!”

Jirou and Mizuki had relaxed after taking down the enemies, but they once again took on a vigilant posture after Grein’s reprimand as their attendant.

Kouma who had already slain two Skull magicians behind them was already cautious to his surroundings without being told.

“Yuu, you didn’t get any injuries?”

“Eh? Ah……Yup.”

Yuuhi had been behind Kouma the whole time in the form of being protected by him. The battle had already ended before she could do anything herself and so she honestly felt bored.

Rather, the fact is that she had already captured this labyrinth solo in the first place.

They had been continuing to advance for a few hours after entering the labyrinth, but what Yuuhi had been doing was medical treatment for the three who were going through blunders as well as searching for enemies.

Kouma had been fighting throughout these several hours to protect her and had stubbornly not allowed Yuuhi to do battle.

The longer it went on, the more stress she accumulated.

And yet if it was me, I could go through this with just a single hit on each of these dungeon monsters and without any injuries too――――――she thought.

“? Yuu, are you okay?”

“Ah, sorry! It’s nothing.”

Yuuhi reproved herself for letting it show on her face and once again followed them as they started moving forward.

(*sigh*……Could this not end any faster I wonder)

(……Well, this must be extremely boring for her)

While seeing the girl stifling a yawn, Grein showed a bitter smile.

◇　◇　◇

“Everyone, well done returning here safely!”

The throne room of a certain castle in Destinea, the classmates who have gathered there after returning from the labyrinth are standing straight and listening to the princess.

(This is also going to be boring I guess……)

Unable to be charmed by the girl, Yuuhi ended up feeling bored from the princess’ long story.

She desperately stifled her yawn and when she received a sharp look from Eruka standing behind the princess, Yuuhi properly stretched her back.

She recalled the thing about avoiding eye contact with the king and princess, who are prejudiced against Setsu, as much as possible. She put on a sense of reflection and lightly returned a nod.

“――――――Eruka, they were able to capture the Cavern of Sorrow today, is that correct?”

“Yes Your Highness, here is the proof.”

The conversation spontaneously headed towards today’s accomplishments and Eruka who had entered the dungeon as their attendant displayed the tusk of the <Dark Hound>, the monster in the deepest level of the dungeon, as proof of completely capturing the dungeon.

“This is splendid, everyone. Well then, how about Sir Kouma’s party?

“Yes Your Highness. The capture of the dungeon has been complete.”

What Grein displayed was the scale of the Emperor Dragon.

This too was the so-called item drop of the monster in the highest floor of the <Spire of the Emperor>.

“Wonderfull! With this everyone is A rank and above and Kouma’s group is S rank and above in ability!”

Princess Margaret raised a shout of joy, but as a matter of fact, A rank difficulty level is something an A rank adventurer could capture solo, so it does not mean that they, who have challenged them in a group, have all reached A rank in ability. Naturally, this is the same for Kouma’s group.

The princess had inadequate understanding in that area.

“……Margaret, it is about time, is it not?”

“! That is so, isn’t it Father……The fact of the matter is that I have gathered all of your tired self here today.”

Being urged by the king sitting on the throne, the princess talked while looking around all of the classmates’ faces.

“The demon army’s soldiers attacking here in the human continent have begun pulling back in order to procure supplies. Thanks to the soldiers who have staked their lives to defend against their landing, the damage on our side were few and simultaneously they have secured the time to train you. I believe it is about time we ought to start our counterattack soon.”

Counterattack――――――Everyone in that place gulped their breath to that word.

“You should already be aware when I tell you this much, should you not……? We hereby declare we will be raising the signal fire for our counter attack to the enemies of our soldiers, the soldiers who have died a noble death. And finally to the demons and beastmen who have thus far acted violently as they pleased! Departure will be tomorrow at dawn! Until then, please arrange your personal equipment and prepare for battle! That is all!”

“Da- dawn……?”

Somebody muttered.

The sudden declaration of counterattack from the princess.

The war that had approached before their eyes without giving them time to accept had caused unrest to not so few of them.

(……Could this be a chance to escape?”

Except for only one person, Yuuhi.