CH 242

Episode 242 – More Popular Than Expected

“Finally, the entrance is in sight… We stayed in the Dungeon for 3 days and 2 nights. It was a lot more troublesome than I had originally imagined.” (Lewin)

“It’s been a while since I’ve done this. I’m pretty exhausted mentally.” (Rosalie)

“Mhm. It’s because of this huge amount of baggage. And the Peak Gorilla, too.” (Aruna)

After we’d stopped to have a meal on the 10th layer, we had taken all of our baggage with us and once again resumed our progress back to the surface. At this time, we had managed to make it back to the entrance of the Dungeon at last. Spending time in the Dungeon had been a lot tougher than I’d thought it would be. I felt like I really had to start slowly getting used to it, otherwise I would start feeling burnt out. Every day, we had tried to sleep when we thought it was night and had woken up when we thought it was day. At this point, my sense of time was completely messed up, and I didn’t have the slightest idea as to what time it was on the outside at the moment.

“There will be no review meeting for today. If we want to meet in the morning, we can meet tomorrow. If we aim to meet tomorrow night instead, we can head back to the Dungeon the day after tomorrow with our main focus being implementing the takeaways from our review meeting.” (Lewin)

“Okay. I’m so happy that I’ll finally be able to sleep in a soft bed,” Rosalie muttered to herself, sounding delighted from the bottom of her heart. She was walking quickly, being the first to leave the Dungeon and enter the Adventurer’s Guild. Aruna and I followed after her… but the moment we were about to go into the Adventurer’s Guild, Rosalie suddenly froze in her tracks.

I heard the sound of voices, and when I saw her freeze like that, I started to have a bad feeling. When I peeked timidly into the Adventurer’s Guild, I saw a bunch of reporters mixed in with a huge crowd of people, all standing there waiting for us.

“Uwahhh…. Hey, wanna just go back into the Dungeon?” (Aruna)

“I really want to do that too, but that won’t do. Xenia-san did say that we had garnered a lot of attention due to the Peak Gorilla.” (Lewin)

“That’s too bad,” Aruna muttered listlessly, dragging her feet as she headed into the Guild. Rosalie herself had caused enough of an uproar with her own appearance, but when Aruna and I walked in the volume of the room had reached a whole other level.

“Hey, everyone from [Sun Strelka] is coming out!”

“I saw what you guys did in the canyon area! I’m rooting for you guys!”

“[Sun Strelka], please allow us to do an interview!!”

“Aruna-san! Look at me!”

Deafening cheers and applause came flying at us from every direction. It seemed that the article that Tobias had written had been released while we were down in the Dungeon, since they were using our party name.

In the front row were reporters from a multitude of companies lying in wait with their notepads, and behind them was an encirclement of a huge number of regular citizens, leaving us nowhere to run. I never imagined that we would explode in popularity like this…

There was nothing we could do. The three of us just stood there frozen and overcome with surprise, when I noticed a bunch of people starting to push their way through the crowd from the back. That person is… Alex, the Vice Guild Chief of the Adventurer’s Guild?

He was accompanied by a large number of Guild employees, who were fighting to try and forge a path through the crowd. Are they here to subdue the disturbance that’s going on inside of the Guild, or are they here to help because of Rosalie? Whichever it was, I was really grateful to them for it.

“You three, please make your way through this space and come to the backyard for now..” (Alex)

“Yes! Thank you!” (Lewin)

As expected of the employees of the Adventurer’s Guild, who were mostly all former adventurers. They were perfectly holding back the surging crowd of people back, shutting them out like a wall.

Just as I was starting to feel awkward from all of the cheers we were receiving, we managed to successfully make our escape through the path that the Guild employees had made.

The backyard of the Adventurer’s Guild seemed to be soundproof because the moment the door closed, the noisy uproar was completely shut out, and we were wrapped in a peaceful silence.

“Lewin-san, I’m pleased to be of your acquaintance. I don’t know if you remember me or not, but I am Alex, the Vice Guild Chief.”

“You so kindly introduced us to Rosalie at that time, so of course I remember you! Alex-san, thank you for saving us just now.” (Lewin)

“Not at all. Such a disturbance is an inconvenience to us, too. Anyway… I really didn’t think that you would become so famous in such a short time. Congratulations on reaching the 20th layer.” (Alex)

“I didn’t imagine it either. Thanks again for the party member introduction.” (Lewin)

Exchanging pleasantries with Alex, I made sure to thoroughly thank him for lending Rosalie to us. If he hadn’t lent us Rosalie, there was a good chance that we wouldn’t have even been able to get to where we were now in the Dungeon, so I was really grateful.

“With regards to that, we received quite the handsome sum of money in return, so there’s no need to thank us. Rather, because of Rosalie-san, the status of Adventurer’s Guild employees has been on rise, so we appreciate that as well.” (Alex)

“Likewise, there’s no need to thank me for anything. Rosalie also is doing her best, so―” (Lewin)

“I’m tired.” (Aruna)

As Alex and I were going back and forth, engaging in a contest of modesty, Aruna suddenly muttered a few words with a voice laden with fatigue.

The two of us raised our bowed heads, exchanging a wry smile as we got back to the main point.

“That’s right. You guys have just come back from the Dungeon; I apologize for taking up your time with this long-winded talk. This is the employee-only exit, so you can feel free to take it to return home. Lewin-san, I’d be happy to talk to you another day.” (Alex)

“Certainly. I also would like to sit down and have a talk with you someday!” (Lewin)

“That’s good to hear. I also have something to talk to Rosalie-san about, so please stop by the Adventurer’s Guild at the next convenient time for you.” (Alex)

“Y-Yes!” (Rosalie)

“Well then, it’s about time for us to be heading back. Thanks again for saving us back there.” (Lewin)

After Alex responded to my farewell with a slight bow, we made our way out through the passage he had indicated earlier. Our way back was easy so I had plenty of stamina left, but this recent incident had really tired me out mentally.

I felt extremely uncomfortable when I thought about how we might end up being surrounded like that every time from now on, but for now I tried not to think about it anymore. All I wanted to think about was taking a nice rest back at Ponpokotei.

After leaving from the back door of the Adventurer’s Guild, we slipped away from the Dungeon district, trying our very best to not be discovered, and headed home, going our separate ways.