CH 177

“Useless useless useless. How many times do I have to say it before you understand!?”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want an apology, I want results.”

“…”

“Well, let’s stop it at that.”

“…Are you saying I’m wrong?”

“I’m not. We can’t use you as a standard in the first place. Let’s look at this with a cooler head.”

“…I guess.”

“Right?”

“Are you still arguing?”

“Ah, senpai. No, we’re not arguing. Right? Wait, where are you going?”

“To rest. I’m tired.”

“Good grief. So what do you want?”

“Ahh, forget it. I just wanted to tell you to stop arguing. And there’s no point in being unreasonable.”

“Really? I agree with him on that. At the very least, if they want us to defeat the demon king, we should expect an equal level of work from them too.”

“Ahh… You’re also…”

“And… This is a quest from the king, right? We’re here to get stronger. So what’s wrong with making the people that are supposed to support us work hard? Our lives are on the line here.”

“Y-yes. I’m sorry.”

“Yes yes. It’s better when people understand. Anyway, I’m out. I’m going to rest too.”

“…”

“I’m sorry for being a disappointment, Miss Tsubaki…”

“No, I’m sorry. They shouldn’t have come at you like that.”

“No, it is our duty to support the heroes… I’m sorry. We are going back and check things for tomorrow.”

“…Are you done talking?”

“Yes, probably.”

“Good job.”

“…What did I do?”

“You should relax a little, Tsubaki. You’re going to blow a fuse.”

“I know that.”

“Something on your mind?”

“Don’t you think there’s something strange about those two?”

“…Not really, they seem pretty normal.”

“I feel like they’ve become more aggressive compared to how they were before.”

“Ah, that! Well… It happened around the time when we came back from the dark forest. It’s like what they say and do became harsher. I thought they would settle down after a while.”

“I feel like they’ve been blowing up at the knights a lot ever since we got here.”

“Yes, they’ve been hurling a lot of abuse. And I feel like it’s getting worse and more aggressive. They weren’t like that before.”

“Maybe treating them like kids the way you do is part of it.”

“…Really?”

“Who knows… But I kind of get how they feel. It feels like we’re fighting monsters day and night, so who wouldn’t be on edge? At least in the dark forest we got to rest more…”

“The fact that we haven’t been progressing a lot lately probably adds to the stress.”

“Yes. We should take a break after completing this floor. I’ll talk to the captain.”

◇ ◇ ◇

“Die die die. You weaklings are just getting in my way.”

“Hey hey, it’s already dead. Don’t waste so much strength on a thing like that. You’re ruining the materials too.”

“…It’s been getting harder to level up lately. And…”

“Yes, I know. At first our levels went up more easily as we went further down, but lately we just can’t seem to level up.”

“Ahh… And the monsters feel kind of strong too. Well, to me they’re nothing.”

“Maybe you’re too strong?”

“…Then I don’t need to be here. Everything else is just in my way, so I should just go and defeat the demon king.”

“But we have to get rare materials. I get the feeling that these weapons will break before our enemies if we fight with our full power.”

“…There is that.”

“And we’re almost setting a new record. Didn’t they say there’s a dragon too?”

“Dragon… That sounds perfect to show off my power.”

“Yes, and then no one’s going to complain at you, at us.”

“Yes, I need to show them I’m right.”

◇ ◇ ◇

“…Is what I said.”

“It’s getting worse every day. My head hurts.”

“Taking a day off to rest only caused more trouble…”

“…But it’s true. Once we defeat a dragon and get its materials, we can probably get out of here.”

“Even if we do, we have to go to the dark forest next.”

“…”

“In the end, we’re not going to be free until we defeat the demon king.”

“Yes, so no matter how arrogant those two get, we just need to focus on completing our goal.”

“So it doesn’t matter if the mood around us gets worse and worse?”

“There’s nothing we can do about that. The captain of the knights isn’t saying anything about it either. Also…”

“Also?”

“It’s probably just me. Nevermind that, if we really are going to fight a dragon, we need to be ready. And we need to think.”

“I-it’s not going to be easy for us as we are now, is it?”

“We couldn’t get through that floor before, so we should probably assume it’s going to be strong. Even stronger than the bosses we fought before.”

“Yes. Worst case scenario, the six of us have to go.”

“…I’ll help too, but…”

“If it doesn’t look doable, we should just retreat. It’s not like we can’t leave that floor until the boss is down, in this place.”

“But are those two going to listen to us?”

“I’ll leave that to you, Tsubaki.”

“When this is over, I want a big break. I want to see that guy too if I can.”

“That guy? Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No, I’m talking about the one that was summoned along with us. They say he’s still living in the capital, but I can’t help but be worried. Last time I asked about him, they said a demon appeared and we had to go to a dungeon.”

“Really? I’m sure he’s just living as he wants.”

“A-actually, I’d like to see him too. I’m worried.”

“Another reason why we have to take down that dragon.”