Chapter 83
Encounter
Translator : PolterGlast
"Are you... a
monster?"
The person in front of
me had no legs.
And he wasn't wearing
the armor he had on when we fought, but rather smooth, red silk clothes.
It was made with fine
tailoring, and gold embroidery was woven into the edges.
However, it seemed to
be from a different cultural sphere than what the Grust Kingdom wore, and the
clothes were loose, giving off a somewhat tropical feel.
I used Mana
Perception, but couldn't get any reaction from the ghost in front of me.
Furthermore, I didn't
feel any fighting spirit.
"No, I already
died as a monster at that stage. The current me... well, you could call me a
residual thought."
He really didn't seem
to have any intention of fighting, and he was waving a white flag he had taken out
from somewhere, smiling.
This world also has a
white flag culture... wait, that's not the point!
"Is there
anything I can do for you? If you feel like you can't get rid of your grudge
and you've become a ghost because of your lingering attachments... I can purify
you with light magic."
"Don't worry, I
do have a lot of regrets, but I'm already dead. It would be enough if you could
talk to me for a bit."
"Haa..."
I hadn't slept for
very long.
Since the dungeon
activity itself had stopped, there would be no more dungeon attacks.
I had done what I had
to do, so a little while wouldn't hurt... right?
Besides, I was a
little curious about what this place was.
The Knight of the Holy
Remains turned to me and bowed.
His spine bent at a
perfect ninety degrees.
"Thank you. With
this, I'm... finally freed from the nightmare."
"No, I only did
it for myself."
"Even so... thank
you. It was a long... too long time."
Apparently, he had
been suffering from terrible nightmares while he was active as the Knight of the
Holy Remains.
He had been sleeping
in this place for so long that he had already lost his sense of time.
"Will this
dungeon stop being active now that I've defeated the boss?"
"Yes, the
monsters will gradually disappear, and yes... in a few hours, it should become
just a large underground facility with nothing in it."
I breathed a sigh of
relief.
Then I could probably
stop everyone's dungeon attack without any problems.
It was worth the
effort I put in.
"Well, I was on
the verge of turning into an evil spirit because I had been here for too long,
so you really saved me."
"...By the way,
what would have happened if you had turned into an evil spirit?"
"The Knight of
the Holy Remains would have been weaker, but I, as an evil spirit, would have
been next to it."
If that had happened,
there would have been no way I could have won.
Apparently, the timing
was good.
"Since we can
talk like this, do all dungeon bosses have their own will?"
"That's...
huh?"
The knight, who had
been nodding and raising his index finger, ready to teach me, suddenly stopped
moving.
"Hmm... I can't
remember."
He tilted his head
curiously, with a face like a fish bone stuck in his throat.
He seemed to be
feeling a sense of incongruity, like he couldn't remember something he should
have known.
"Then what
exactly is a dungeon?"
"The purpose of a
dungeon's existence...? I can't remember that either."
I asked him about
gifts and swords, but all I found out was that he didn't know anything.
Apparently, he had a
lot of memory loss, and he didn't seem to be a good source of information.
"...Well, I'll be
going now. Thank you, adventurer. Thanks to you, we can finally go to the other
side."
The knight's body
floated up.
And as he gained
altitude... he began to join other ghosts who came from somewhere.
Their figures were
somewhat familiar.
They looked very
similar to the Revenants I had fought many times on the eleventh floor.
The knight took his
companions and headed towards the clear sky... and then disappeared.
"...What on earth
was that?"
It was probably true
that this was the knight's tomb... but it would be better for my mental health
to think of it as something amazing.
"Well, for now...
may he rest in peace."
I lightly put my hands
together and prayed for his safety in the afterlife.
I picked a few of my
favorite flowers from the flowers here and decided to return to the surface.
When I tried to tell
Varietta-san that I had conquered the dungeon... I felt a sense of incongruity.
At the entrance of the
[Knight's Holy Remains], where there should normally be no guards, two men who
were clearly knights were standing.
(Why are there knights
here...?)
When I used Shadow
Dive to move through the shadows and escape to the hut... the hut was in ruins.
When I went inside, it
was completely empty.
After carefully
looking around, I found clear signs of a fight.
What on earth happened
here...?
(The reason
Varietta-san had to fight... could it be related to the hero summoning?)
I couldn't think of
any other reason to attack him, a retired knight in seclusion.
The dungeon attack was
supposed to take place tomorrow or the day after... did they try to prevent the
heroes from meeting Varietta-san?
It's possible...
maybe.
Did something happen
because I conquered the dungeon?
Why are the knights
there?
No good... I can't
find out anything by staying here.
But something is
definitely happening.
Let's consider the
worst-case scenario.
The worst case in this
situation is...
(The dungeon attack
has already begun.)
The monsters were
supposed to disappear in a few hours... but that also means that monsters will
appear for a few hours.
What if they entered
the sixth floor during that time... I couldn't stay still.
I immediately used the
power of [Home] and set up a door to the sixth floor.
Praying that my
prediction was wrong, I used Wind Search to detect anything and headed towards
every moving reaction.
Grim Reapers are no
match for me now.
I thought it was a
waste of time to defeat them, so I ignored them and went around the floor, but
apparently, there were no other figures besides Grim Reapers.
Just as I was about to
go up to the fifth floor... I stopped in my tracks.
There was a mana
reaction on the stairs between the floors where monsters shouldn't appear.
When I checked while
hiding using Shadow Dive... they were there.
There was Kazuma-kun's
harem party and Mitsukawa-kun, who was separated from them.
It was my first
encounter with my classmates in half a year--.
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