Sendai Yuusha wa Inkyou Shitai

The Preceding Hero, Advances to the Volcano Cave!

As the kicked away Beholder collided into the wall, Yuu extended a hand towards Kuon.

「Kuon! Lend me a kunai!!」

Kuon replied as if she had snapped back to reality to those shouted words that hurried her.

「Ah, Aniki!」

Kuon had spaced out from the consecutive shocks that her thoughts couldn’t keep up with.

While feeling ashamed of her inexperience, she threw a kunai towards Yuu’s hand.

「Thank you. ……Here I go!」

Putting his index finger through the ring attached to the end of the handle of the kunai, Yuu spun the kunai around, and when he held it with a reverse grip, he kicked the ground and closed in on the Beholder.

When he got to a distance where he would be able to cut it with only a few more steps, Yuu suddenly stopped his feet.

「……I did think that it might be possible.」

Facing the being that he had confronted as if it had become a wall, Yuu undid his stance.

「Kikiki……As expected of one of the miko lineage. To think that you would be able to fight this far against the Beholder that hath lived since the time of the age of the gods.」

The little Vampire girl, Paimon had appeared as if to interrupt the Beholder and Yuu.

「……That way of speaking, and the timing that you appeared with. ……Even the Beholder that has existed since the age of the gods, is you’re subordinate……Is that what this means?」

While spinning the kunai with his finger, Yuu asked that without removing his gaze from Paimon for even a second.

In response to that, Paimon only laughed with a 「Kiki」.

However, the raised up corners of her mouth, her laughing eyes, even without her opening her mouth, she eloquently told him.

That, that was correct.

「……So? Is it alright to fight with you next?」

*Chaki*.

Gripping the kunai that was spinning, he pointed the tip of it at Paimon.

However, although he said that, Yuu instinctively thought that he probably wouldn’t fight with Paimon here and now and felt that this was similar to something else.

(In line with Aquadine and Umbra, she’s the type that I hate the most.)

This opponent wasn’t the kind that would try to crush their enemies with no questions asked.

She was probably the type that would prepare a stage and would worry about the production meant for the fight.

「Kikiki. ……I am one that was sealed within this land for many months and years, bore a grudge and hatred for it, and memorized a countless number of curses. ……However, at this time, my objective is not to murder you all.」

Erecting her index finger, Paimon made a broad grin.

「Tis only to have a struggle to the death with a rival lineage. ……Ki, kiki! Kikiki!!」

◇

The moment she declared that, Paimon warped together with the Beholder and vanished.

Seeming like they had really vanished, traces of a warp couldn’t be seen in the surroundings.

「Kuon. Is there any sign of the Beholder?」

When I asked that while walking towards Kuon to try and hand back the kunai, Kuon immediately turned her attention to the surroundings.

「……No, it looks like it’s gone. The strange feeling from before is gone too.」

Having made her ears stand up and searched for any surrounding signs, Kuon shook her head.

It looks like they really did leave. When I reflexively let out a sigh of relief, the Three Stooges rushed over making flapping sounds.

「Black Hair! I had thought that you were a man that could get things done, but to think that you’d be able to take out a monster like that! As expected of the vice-captain of the 『Black Rose Sky Pirates』!」

「Since when was I ever the vice-captain, you little punk.」

Pushing away Angelica’s hand that was patting my head, I jumped up to Ravenbrand that was still stuck to the ceiling, grabbed it, and pulled it out.

「Phewー, it feels like my feet’re finally planted on the ground.」

When I pulled out the Magic Sword and landed, Raven said that with a sigh mixed in.

「You were awfully quiet. Did something happen?」

The foundation of the Magic Sword that I held in my hand was its noisiness. However, during the fight with that Beholder, this Magic Sword didn’t say even a single word.

「I’m a Magic Sword. Just like a gate that uses a magic mechanism, if magic can’t be used, I become unable ta talk.」

No, I didn’t know that. I’ve only dabbled a bit in regards to magic after all. I’ve got nothing on the field of Magic Swords.

When I sheathed Raven into the scabbard, Fiona, who was holding the labyrinth walkthrough book in one hand, came near me.

「I’m relieved to see that you haven’t become dull from the peace.」

「I’ve been quite encouraged by Baba-chan since I’ve come here after all. ……So, what do we do after this?」

When I asked that, Fiona opened the walkthrough book and showed it to me.

「I’ll lay out a magic formation on the next floor. After that, we’ll be advancing through the labyrinth again, but the environment will change from the next floor onwards.」

「The environment? ……Hey, hey, what is this stuff that looks like a puddle of red on top of this map?」

I pointed at something that existed in the place that the map drawn in the walkthrough book led to.

……That’s right, it was something like a Damage Map that you often see in games.

Like the stuff that acts as a barrier in volcano stages──

「It’s magma.」

◇

When we came out of the labyrinth, the place we came out to was a volcano cave──the scenery had made a complete change to the point of making me want to say that.

After we had defeated the Beholder, when we went through the room that could be called the connection between the tenth floor to the eleventh floor, a heat that felt like it would singe our skin assailed us.

Up until the tenth floor, it was a labyrinth whose manmade structures that looked like historic ruins made it stand out, but this floor was the opposite and seemed like something natural that the hands of man couldn’t reach.

「This……looks like it’ll be extremely intense.」

The floors up until the tenth floor had, putting it bluntly, a degree of difficulty where you could say that it would be easy if an adventurer with a certain amount of experience had done it, but was it my misunderstanding in feeling that the degree of difficulty jumped up after entering the eleventh floor?

「The floors from this eleventh floor are called『First Sight Killers』. Although there aren’t any kinds of traps, the height of the magma changes like the rise and fall of tides, and you can’t get away by the time you notice it……Things like this often happen.」

There was a necklace that made use of a gem that looked like a sapphire on Fiona’s neck, who explained that without shedding a bit of sweat.

Ah, this girl is using an anti-heat magic tool, isn’t she!?

Just when I was feeling anger towards Fiona who was shrewd enough to only prepare an anti-heat magic tool for herself, Bernadette, who had been awfully quiet, stepped forward.

「O wind, envelop us and overcome the heat……『Cool』! ……Phew, with this, it should become considerably more comfortable.」

At the same time she stepped forward, Bernadette used magic. When she did, a cold wind blew, and wrapped us up.

「Ohh! Is this magic?」

「Yes. Even without a staff, I am able to use magic of this level.」

「Kuuー! Thanks, Sister-nee-chan. I was about to die from it being so hot.」

Angelica and Kuon raise cheers to Bernadette’s Cooling Magic.

When I was about to say my thanks to Bernadette as well, Bernadette approached me.

「Since I wasn’t able to do anything a while ago, I need to at least do this much.」

「It’s nothing that you should worry about. It was just a matter of the right person in the right place you know, the right person in the right place.」

When I smiled and replied to Bernadette who looked like she was experiencing feelings of guilt, Bernadette showed an even sadder looking face.

「……Yashiro-san, is dying, a matter of the right person in the right place?」

I reflexively shut my mouth from Bernadette’s words that she said in a small enough voice that only I could hear.

「Yashiro-san, I understand that you can’t die……and that you fight with that as a weapon. ……But, using it as if to say that it’s only natural that it happens……Seeing that, it makes my chest hurt.」

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