Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 4

by Fujino Omori, Kiyotaka Haimura

  Despite the minimal magic power she’d used, it boasted a radius of over five meders and was accompanied by a flurry of sparks.

  It was the same holy radiance that had protected Lefiya and the others down on the twenty-fourth floor, and Lefiya found herself entranced by the beautiful white light for a good number of seconds. The evil-vanquishing shield seared itself into her eyes.

  “Miss Filvis, what was…that spell?” she finally asked, dumbfounded, as her fellow elf released the spell.

  Filvis lowered her arm before slowly turning around.

  “Dio Grail, an ultrashort barrier spell. It protects the caster and their companions from all variety of physical and magical attacks. A magic shield that can drive away evil, cast out demons, and protect what’s important.”

  Filvis explained both the magic’s effects and the words of the chant with a soft smile.

  “I’m entrusting you with this spell, Lefiya, so…come back alive.”

  Lefiya felt her eyes well up with tears at seeing the snow-white elf’s smile.

  “I will!” she responded with a teary smile of her own. Filvis’s kindness and protective strength suffused her.

  Blue eyes met red ones as the two elves looked at each other with camaraderie and understanding.

  On that day, Lefiya not only took a great leap forward on her path to mastering Concurrent Casting, but she also gained a new spell—Filvis’s Dio Grail.

  “Nngah!”

  A scream and a thud.

  A head resting on a pair of soft thighs.

  “Nngoh!”

  A second scream. Another impact.

  Again, a lap pillow.

  “Nnguh!”

  Again and again he was robbed of his consciousness.

  Again and again, Aiz’s lap.

  “Gaargh!”

  The blue sky swallowed the boy’s screams.

  It was a gorgeous day. The midday sunlight poured down across the hustle and bustle of the massive city, its warm, enveloping glow extending all the way to the two atop the city walls.

  Aiz ran her fingers through Bell’s bangs as he slept peacefully atop her lap, her gaze turned blankly toward the sky. Around her drifted tiny echoes from the busy streets far below.

  Her golden eyes narrowed softly amid the wonderfully glorious weather.

  It seems I can’t control my own strength, after all…

  Her eyes wandered before returning to the boy, his eyes still closed. Inside, she could feel her heart sink.

  It was the fifth day of their training, leaving only three days before the expedition.

  Bell had asked if she could train him for a full day, so Aiz had been doing nothing but engaging him in practice duels since early morning. She was giving it her all, instructing him relentlessly just as Lefiya and Filvis were having their own crash course within the Dungeon.

  And yet, try as she might, things hadn’t progressed as smoothly as she’d hoped—the number of times Bell had been knocked out was evidence enough of that.

  “I can’t do it. I’m not like Finn and the others…” Aiz muttered under her breath, shoulders slumping.

  Not only was she failing Bell, she was letting Lefiya down as well, having broken their promise to train for the day. She felt hopeless, as though she couldn’t face either of them.

  The scabbard of her trusted sword, Desperate, lay next to her on the rocks, swathed in a brilliant sheen of sunlight.

  And yet…

  She felt like she finally understood the meaning behind the smiles Finn and the others had shown her during the training sessions in her past.

  Striking her down, lifting her up.

  Striking her down, making her shine.

  Shaping a person the same way a smith would temper a sword…Slowly changing them into a new form before polishing them.

  Perhaps there was joy to be had in that, something only teachers could understand.

  Even Aiz could understand that emotion thanks to the boy’s swift, palpable growth…or so she felt.

  She looked down at the white rabbit running so earnestly up the mountain, determined to reach its peak, never resting or dozing, and before she knew it, she was smiling.

  Instinctively, she reached a hand out to run her fingers through his white bangs.

  “…”

  She waited, and finally, ever so slowly, Bell’s eyes fluttered open.

  His rubellite eyes stared blankly up at the sky spreading out overhead.

  Still a bit dazed, no doubt, from just having woken up, he simply lay atop her thighs…until Aiz abruptly, earnestly—

  —dropped her head forward to peer down at his face.

  “Are you all right?”

  “…Bwah?!”

  Seeing Aiz’s face suddenly pop into his field of vision, the boy let out a (maybe slightly delayed) yelp of surprise.

  He stumbled off Aiz’s pliant thighs and shot to his feet before turning around, cheeks burning.

  This wasn’t the first time he’d woken up like this. Aiz had been doing the same thing every time he lost consciousness since their second-day practice sessions.

  While it had its origins in the whole Mind Down incident, now it had become almost natural.

  She certainly didn’t want to just leave him there on the cold stone while he was out of commission—and besides, it felt pretty good.

  It was a relaxing, calming way to release tension and unwind. A gentle, comforting respite between sword fights where Aiz could rediscover that something she’d forgotten so long ago.

  Her eyes followed Bell curiously as he stood by fretting—perhaps he was upset—before giving her thighs a soft, inviting pat, seemingly urging him not to get to his feet so quickly.

  This only made Bell shake his head fervently.

  “You’re sure you’re all right?”

  “…Yes.”

  Aiz beckoned the frozen boy again, and he took a seat beside her. She glanced over to see him with his head turned, looking in any direction but hers. He pressed his back against the parapet behind him, then pulled away, then pressed against it again, his cheeks still flushed.

  Allowing herself a short break, Aiz circled her arms around her knees, close enough that her shoulder was just touching Bell’s. She couldn’t help the twinge of worry directed at the boy.

  “Do, uh…Do you think I’m…getting any better?” he said.

  “…Why do you ask?”

  “It’s, well, I mean…Lately I, uh…keep getting knocked out, so…” he started as though readying himself, his gaze still fixed forward.

  While it might have been a bit shallow of her, Aiz couldn’t help the little spark of happy surprise that blinked in the back of her head—the number of times Bell had brought up something not directly related to their training was so low she could count it on one hand.

  The corners of her mouth trembled slightly, eyes never leaving him as she responded candidly.

  “You’re growing. Really…To a surprising degree.”

  “U-um…but…”

  “The reason you keep getting knocked out is probably my own fault…I keep mistaking the amount of power I should use.”

  “That—! It’s not—! You shouldn’t think that!”

  Even as Aiz said it, she could feel her mood sink. Her eyelids drooped with a slow, quiet sadness. Bell turned toward her with a jerk, hurriedly refuting her reasoning.

  Even as her shoulders gave the smallest of slumps, Aiz realized she’d come to understand something lately.

  Bell Cranell was just a boy.

  He grew flustered when something went wrong, became dispirited when he was sad, felt ashamed when something was embarrassing, and was simply joyful, cheeks red and smiling, when good happened.

  Sincere, straightforward, occasionally showing off, and always pushing himself past his limits.

  A child so surprisingly common he barely fit the mold of other adventurers with their desires for wealth and fame, their dreams and ambitions.

  A
nd even if the stuff on the inside—his heart, mind, or spirit—was wrong, his body, his physical abilities weren’t those of an adventurer, either. They weren’t even those of the heroes he admired.

  Even now, as the kind and good-natured Bell attempted to dispel her melancholia, he was still just a boy.

  “…”

  As charming as she found that fact, she also found it very strange.

  Why was it that someone like him, a person so far from what most adventurers were made of, could have achieved such dramatic growth?

  Aiz herself was easy enough to understand.

  Pressured by the boy’s growth, her training grew stricter and harsher with every passing day.

  Even considering the rate at which he kept losing consciousness, the extent of his remarkable growth made it difficult for her to hold back.

  Bell was racing forward at a speed that more than made up for the inefficiency of her training regimen.

  Which brought Aiz back full circle to why she’d considered training him in the first place.

  It was all to understand his secret. She hadn’t discovered even the faintest clue about the path to a new peak that she yearned for.

  The true nature of the growth so contradictory to his character. Aiz questioned it more and more every time she got closer to him.

  She paused for a moment, the doubts piling up in her mind, before finally letting her lips part with a tremble.

  “…Can I…ask you something?”

  “Huh?”

  She gazed straight into Bell’s face.

  And then she asked, with an expression more serious than she herself could ever remember displaying, “Why is it you’re able to grow so strong so quickly?”

  “Strong…?”

  Aiz, who had trouble putting even the simplest of things into words, poured everything into that question

  It made Bell stop short in bewilderment, almost as though such a question had absolutely nothing to do with him.

  Aiz herself knew it was a long shot, but she fervently wanted to ask it.

  As though that need had gotten through to the flustered Bell, his brows furrowed in intense concentration as he seriously thought it over.

  At long last, he began to talk.

  “…Well, there’s someone I’m trying to catch up with, no matter what it takes. And…somehow in all that running…I ended up here…” He threw a glance at Aiz, his cheeks reddening as he incoherently expressed his thoughts.

  “…I guess…I have a goal in mind…that I have to accomplish at all costs.”

  Aiz’s golden eyes widened.

  Deep down inside, she felt the words of the oath she had made in the past burn in her heart before quickly growing cold.

  Her golden gaze met his rubellite eyes momentarily, then she silently looked skyward.

  “I see…” Her eyes took in the blue of the overarching sky as she wrapped her arms lightly around her knees.

  The breeze combed through her long golden hair.

  “…I understand.” As the cerulean sky reflected in her eyes, the words fell from her lips.

  It might not have been the answer she wanted, but it was an answer she could understand.

  He’d told her that not too long ago, hadn’t he? That he, too, had an objective.

  Just like her.

  A goal that she had to accomplish at all costs. A far-off height that she needed to reach.

  “Me too…”

  —I have a wish.

  The words that slipped from her mouth disappeared in an instant, swallowed up by the sound of the wind as her eyes remained fixated on that blue expanse of sky.

  It was a cold wind, blowing strong from the west.

  The same rush of air a swordswoman like Aiz was so used to hearing.

  She sat there motionless, the wind playing with her hair as she stared up into that great big sky as though it were liable to swallow her whole.

  “I-I, uh…” Bell began.

  “?”

  “I…Never mind. It’s nothing…”

  Even as Aiz curiously tilted her head to the side, Bell tucked whatever he had planned to say back deep within his chest.

  Aiz was incredulous, but she didn’t pry and let her eyelids close instead.

  She had a hunch that not even Bell himself was aware of his own improvement.

  From what she had gathered—from what she had no choice but to gather—all Bell was doing was racing forward as fast as his legs would take him.

  She knew all too well that those rubellite eyes of his couldn’t lie or swindle or hide things.

  He told the truth in its entirety, a fact that should have left her wallowing in her own misery. Instead, however, a smile rose to her lips.

  …Such nice weather.

  As her conversation with Bell ground to a halt, her eyes crinkled at the warm sun pouring down on them.

  The sky was so blue today, tiny white cirrocumulus clouds swimming freely in the clear expanse.

  From the city’s eastern district came the echoing sound of the noontime bell, the clear ringing joining the pleasant sunlight wrapping around them.

  “Mmn…”

  At that moment…

  A tiny murmur escaped from Aiz’s petite lips.

  She instantly flung a hand to her mouth, but it was too late.

  The warm, sunny weather had enticed a yawn from her.

  “…?” Right next to her, Bell noticed and turned to her with a start. His expression was a mixture of curiosity and surprise.

  Aiz returned her hand to her side, recomposing herself as if nothing had happened.

  Uh-oh…

  But even as she did, her heart silently muttered.

  I’m…I’m sleepy…

  In the midst of all that warm, wonderful sun, Aiz’s eyelids were fighting a losing battle.

  Waking up before sunrise to train Bell and then training Lefiya in Concurrent Casting until the evening hours—she felt like she’d done nothing but eat, sleep, and train for the last five days with not even a moment’s rest. Even the time she spent asleep was shaved down as much as possible.

  And now this sunlight, so warm, so narcotic, had become her worst enemy.

  Apparently even first-tier adventurers could still succumb to this type of fiendish weather.

  How long would she be able to keep this up? This unmoving gaze of rigidity? Her normal, static features so devoid of emotion?

  She’d been working so hard these last couple of days, and the lethargy tugging at her entire being was all too real.

  “Perhaps we should…practice our napping skills.”

  “Huh?”

  It was out before she even realized it.

  Her mouth was running away from her.

  “You need to be able to sleep anywhere, you know. Even way down there in the Dungeon.”

  “…”

  “It’s an essential skill. A quick way to restore your stamina.”

  Still her mouth continued to run.

  Aiz refused to look at him, her eyes pointed straight ahead as she talked, but she could feel his gaze on the side of her face, questioning, no doubt confused.

  She was making things up and she knew it, but as much as she was sweating on the inside, it was too late to backtrack. So she emphasized the importance of it all the more, this “sleep training,” as she called it.

  There was a chance he might believe it, naive as he was, and Aiz held onto that tiny sliver of hope.

  “Are you…by any chance…sleepy, Miss Aiz?”

  Nope.

  He’d seen through her so easily. She could feel the heat building in her cheeks.

  “—It’s training.” Aiz turned her head toward Bell with an almost audible snap.

  “R-right.”

  Bell found himself unable to keep from nodding at the kind of sheer force only a first-tier adventurer could possess, a tiny trickle of sweat forming beneath his temple.

  And as they sat there, staring at each other, eyebrows r
aised, their cheeks turned a brilliant shade of red.

  “So…uh…we sleep…here?”

  “Yes,” she replied in a hurry, thanks to her embarrassment.

  She gave a terse nod before lying flat on the stone floor with a tiny thump.

  Just about ready to give herself over to the drowsiness that had so suddenly overcome her being, she caught a glance of Bell next to her, motionless.

  “What’s wrong? Can’t you sleep?”

  “N…no, I can’t…”

  She was on her side, and he lay down next to her on his back.

  Throwing a glance over at Aiz only to have their eyes meet, he hurriedly returned his gaze to the sky.

  Already on the verge of sleep, she watched as he squeezed his eyes closed in a forced effort to make himself sleep before quietly letting her own eyelids fall.

  Slowly, slowly, her consciousness drifted off to sleep.

  She could hear someone. A voice was reading a story.

  It was a tale she knew by heart. One she’d heard time and again.

  It delighted her no matter how many times she listened.

  Her mother’s voice was soft like the wind, steeped in love, affection overflowing as she recited the words.

  Her father’s voice was loud, clumsy as he laughed, his kind eyes watching over both of them.

  This was her favorite time. When the three of them could share: her mother, her father, and her—Aiz.

  When she raised her eyes from the words of the story, she was met by the most wonderful sight.

  Everyone she loved, a whole room of people, had joined her mother and father, all of them smiling, all of them laughing.

  A beautiful, compassionate high elf, an adult prum the very same size as her, a dwarf with his great big mouth open, laughing heartily.

  And so many more. Animal people, Amazons, and humans alike surrounded Aiz and her family.

  Aiz felt her cheeks turn pink with warmth, and she stood on her tiptoes, hands waving as she grinned broadly.

  Such a tender moment. An irreplaceable bond. A precious place.

  But in a single moment, everything changed.

  A black cloud formed beneath their feet.

  From a giant rift in the floor came the oozing black nightmare, swallowing up the world once so filled with light.

  So black, so black, so black, the shadowy blob canceled out every bit of light.