by Fujino Omori
The grass below is stained a slightly thicker green.
“Ha!”
I quickly decide to follow up my stab attack with the original plan, and attack the legs.
I spin around, getting the blade as low as possible before bringing it up and into the monster’s thick right leg.
I grasp the shortsword in both hands as it skims the top of the grass before the blade makes contact just below the orc’s knee.
“—??!!”
A deafening roar hits my ears like a wall.
The baselard hits bone and comes to a stop. I can feel both the bone itself and the monster’s weight bearing down on it; the blade won’t go any farther.
But I grit my teeth.
I use all of my strength to lift the orc up, forcing the baselard’s cutting edge forward.
“TAKE THIS!!”
Its leg comes clean off.
The baselard shoots out of the back of the monster’s shin. Its lower leg no longer attached, the orc falls to the ground.
The room shakes with the beast’s scream of pain. The orc is in serious agony, but I can’t stop now.
Thok, thok. I dash up onto the orc’s back and run to the back of its head. Holding my shortsword upside down, I take aim and thrust the baselard into its skull.
“GIH, GOUghhh…”
“Mr. Bell!! Another one!”
“!”
The orc beneath me violently shakes before expiring. I look up from its corpse to see, just as Lilly said, one more orc charging at us from the way we came in. It must have heard the sounds of battle and become enraged because even as it plows through the fog, it’s ignoring the landforms entirely.
I jump down from the lifeless orc and stick my right arm out, straight forward.
I won’t miss.
I lock my eyes onto its massive frame and pull the magic trigger all at once.
“FIREBOLT!!”
“BAGOUUGHHHH?!”
A bolt of flame sears the air as it hits the newcomer square in the chest.
It lets out a scream and loses a step, but that’s all.
The orc’s ragged chest is burned to a crisp, but it’s not about to fall, either.
It looks like my magic isn’t strong enough to slay an orc in one blow right now. Not surprising—I just learned it the other day. Firebolt’s power is still low.
However…
“—FIREBOLT!!!”
Round 2.
Another Swift-Strike spell hits the orc in quick succession.
I wasn’t really aiming for it, but the magic hits the orc in almost the same spot, and the explosion knocks it back. The blast catches its chin, and the orc looks up at the ceiling as it wavers on its feet, stumbling away from me…and stops.
“……”
The orc silently turns to ash.
The two direct blasts of Firebolt opened a hole in the orc’s chest. The magic stone inside must have gone up in flames and disappeared.
I watch the monster dissolve from between the fingers of my outstretched hand. Only when the last of it disappears do I slow my breathing and lower my arm.
I won…
It worked.
The sword, my fighting style, my magic—everything worked.
They worked on a monster much larger than me, on a large monster not unlike the Minotaur.
As my heart finally slows down, a new flame swells within me.
It’s the feeling of accomplishment. Maybe the feeling of progress.
I’m enjoying every second of the feeling of triumph that’s bubbling up inside me, making my lips quiver in joy.
“Lilly! I did…it…”
I turn around to find her, a look of pure happiness on my face. But all that’s there to greet me is white fog.
The partner who’s traveled with me up until today has disappeared.
My euphoria is gone.
“Lilly?!”
My voice is just a pitch shy of a scream as it leaves my throat.
My head spins as if I had been slapped in the face. But no matter what direction I look, I can’t see hide nor hair of Lilly, just the fog.
I fear the worst at first, but I take a deep breath to calm down, then take off running.
If that male adventurer is responsible for Lilly’s disappearance, she would have fought back somehow, yelled out at least. A monster seems a lot more likely.
I make for the corner of the room where the fog is thickest.
“…?”
Weaving my way through the dead trees, a horrible smell hits my nose like a ton of bricks.
I bury my nose in my sleeve and look around for the source. It doesn’t take long.
There is a hunk of bloody, raw meat at the base of one of the trees.
“Isn’t that…a monster lure…?”
I kneel down next to the oily mass of processed flesh to get a closer look.
No doubt about it. These things are sold in item shops. Adventurers like me can use these trap items to draw monsters to them and increase their haul of magic stones and dropped items without leaving their usual route in the Dungeon…
But why is there one here…?
“—”
The sound of heavy footsteps reaches my ears. Orcs.
As in not a lone orc. The impacts of many sets of feet are coming all at once; it sounds like the world’s worst drum line.
And then I notice something else. There are masses of glistening, slimy meat scattered all over the place.
I stand there, stunned. The footsteps are close enough that I can get some idea how many orcs there are. Air leaves my lungs.
…Oh shit…
—Four.
I curse to myself in a numb silence as their shadows appear in the fog, all walking in a line, side by side.
Taking down even one of these took everything I had. Four at once is impossible. I don’t stand a chance. I’d be surrounded and sent into the afterlife in seconds. And then there’s their size. If they used any of the natural weapons around here, there’d be no escaping their wide range.
I have to get out of here, now.
There’s no way I can get out of this alive.
But what about Lilly?
What if she’s lying injured in this room or can’t escape for some reason?
Do I leave her behind? Do I leave Lilly to die?
The orcs lured here by the smell of the bloody meat notice me, and they’re less than pleased. The dark green veins in their thick, muscular arms slowly pulse as they glare at me.
It’s to the point now that I won’t be able to get away without drawing my sword, but I still can’t move an inch.
Suddenly, something flies at me from out of sight, whistling as it cuts through the air.
“Huh?!”
Clang! The thing strikes my left leg holster, sending a piece of it flying. The piece containing the Divine Knife. That piece.
I see a small golden arrow sticking out of the holster as it flew up and away.
The orcs see my wide eyes following the holster, figure that’s their chance, and all come at me at once.
“OOUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“!?!!”
Two of the orcs grab landform weapons and take a big swing in my direction.
I make one of the most ungraceful dives ever but manage to get out of the way.
I don’t have time to catch my breath. As big and clumsy as they are, the remaining two orcs cover the distance between us in no time flat.
“E-gaaa!!!”
I scream out as massive arms come at my head from all directions.
This is serious! What the hell am I gonna do now?!
I’ve never felt this vulnerable as a solo adventurer before. I don’t even have time to breathe as I dodge the storm of fists and strikes raining down from the orcs around me.
When I dodge an overhead strike and happen to glance past the monsters, that’s when I see her.
She’s a safe d
istance away from the orcs, walking as if she were in Central Park.
“Lilly?! Eh-dahhh!!!”
The next attack comes down the moment I yell for her. I can’t lose my focus, even for a moment.
While I’m dodging for my life, Lilly picks up the piece of my leg holster and takes out the Divine Knife.
She then looks it over carefully before tucking it into her shirt and looking in my direction with her usual smile.
“Sorry, Mr. Bell. This is where it ends.”
“Lilly, what the hell are you saying?!”
“Lilly thinks that Mr. Bell shouldn’t be so trusting of others.”
I catch another glimpse of her between orc limbs: she’s tilting her head to the side like a cute little girl, even though I’m screaming at her.
Her eyes aren’t covered by her hood or her bangs, and as always, her cute little smile.
But she looks somehow…lonely.
“I hope you find an opening and escape.”
Lilly speaks from the other side of the orcs, like she’s leaving her last bit of advice.
Then she adjusts her bulging backpack before turning her back to me.
“Good-bye, Mr. Bell. We won’t be seeing each other again.”
She takes one last look over her shoulder before running off into the fog.
“Lilly! Lilly!—Dahhh! Enough already!”
“BUGOuuhhh?!”
“You’re too nice, Mr. Bell.”
Lilly ran through the halls of the Dungeon, carrying bags that no normal person could hope to lift.
Grasping the straps of her backpack, she kept on going forward with no hesitation in her steps.
Lilly had told Bell a total of two lies.
The first was that she was a dirt-poor supporter.
Lilly was a thief. Or “con artist” might be a better way to put it.
She targeted adventurers with high income and class, especially ones who had valuable weapons and armor.
For example, she’d worked with Bell up until this point because he’d been her target. Or rather, to be more precise, the Hephaistos Familia knife he carried had been her target.
The story about being poor was nothing more than a way to approach him.
And the second lie…
“Hmm.”
A breeze blowing against her as she ran pushed her hood down. Her fluffy, furlike hair and dog ears were exposed.
Lilly reached up to lightly pet her ears as her lips recited an incantation:
“Stroke of midnight’s bell.”
As if she had been dosed in ash, a gray dust covered her head.
A light flashed without sound, and the ears on her head were gone when it cleared.
That wasn’t all. The bangs that covered her eyes and the furry tail behind her had disappeared as well.
“Looks like a full transformation isn’t necessary. Changing out a few parts is just as effective.”
If Bell had been here to see this, he would surely have been shocked.
Her big chestnut eyes looked cheerful, her face that of a cute girl. The dog-girl child was gone.
There was no doubt now—Lilly was the prum girl who had run into Bell that day in the back alley.
Lilly’s second lie: Who she really was.
She had been running away from that male adventurer and used her “Cinder Ella” magic to change her appearance from a very suspicious prum girl to someone else entirely.
Lilly had used this special magic to fool many, many adventurers.
Her victims would charge after her in a rage, but she would change her appearance and make them think she was someone else. They had made a mistake; they couldn’t do anything to her. The rumors going around among adventurers about a “group of thieving prums” was a testament to the power of her magic.
Sometimes she became a supporter. Other times she was an innocent civilian.
Lilly had used this magic not only to change her appearance but also to change her race, and she had committed hundreds of crimes up to this point.
Looks like being careless enough to let that adventurer see me transform was a big mistake…
The man who had pursued her the other day was a victim of one of Lilly’s schemes, and he happened to see her reverse the effects of Cinder Ella. He saw her true face. That was the full story behind the incident in the alleyway.
She’d made a clean getaway, but now it seemed like that adventurer had told Bell some things he didn’t need to know.
Ever since she’d spotted them having a secret meeting that day in Central Park, the boy started acting much different toward her. He was always looking at her, and he hid information from her anytime she tried to ask why. It was almost as though he was suspicious of her, or he knew that she could change her appearance and was on the lookout for it.
It looked as though deciding that this was her last chance and making her move was correct…
…This really is it…
What a waste, she thought to herself as she remembered all the money she made while working with Bell.
It was over—the good mood and security he’d provided were gone. A part of her felt the loss.
This was a strange feeling for a thief such as herself. She didn’t understand.
But there was something that she did understand: No matter how much she thought about this odd feeling, it was nothing more than a useless emotion.
There was no way to continue any connection with the boy.
She couldn’t ignore the risks of continuing the contract after what that man had told him.
Now that Bell knew everything, there was no way he would forgive her.
“……”
Lilly’s face became downtrodden. But she took a deep breath and shook her head from side to side.
Who cares? she thought to herself as she dismissed any feelings of guilt. For someone like her to be moved by the kindness of an adventurer—what a joke.
Because all adventurers were the same.
Adventurers…adventurers…!!!
Lilly had been born into Soma Familia. Her parents were members, which meant that from birth, Lilly had no choice but to join Soma Familia herself.
Just by being who she was, the gears of fate might well have been snarled from the beginning.
The world had not been kind to Lilly.
Both of her prum parents said over and over how they wanted to save money to support Lilly when she was just an infant. However, they never did anything that could be considered parental, and before she knew it they were dead. Their desire for money—for Soma—drove them to prowl dungeon levels that were way out of their league. Apparently they were killed by a monster before they even realized what had hit them.
This left Lilly on her own in Soma Familia to fend for herself, in a group that was always stealing Soma from one another. She was alone. No one in the Familia looked after her. Those were very painful days.
Since the moment she drank Soma when being officially inducted into the Familia, she too had fallen under its spell.
There was no one she could depend on. So she decided to go it alone and make money by herself. But it was futile. She didn’t have what it took to become an adventurer and was forced to work as a supporter.
Then she was exploited.
Whenever she worked with a party, they would always say: “You stole some magic stones for yourself, didn’t you?” “You swiped some cash, didn’t you?” “You should be punished.” “You’re not getting any of our shares.”
She frantically tried to tell them there was a mistake, that she was innocent. But all they did was turn their backs on her, smirking. When she was in the clutches of a monster, inches from death, they didn’t help her. They even refused to heal her afterward. She was kicked around all the time. They threatened to do all sorts of things to her if she lost the bags.
She’d never fit in with Soma Familia. After returning from the Dungeon, a fierce argument and fight over the money earned were always waitin
g for her.
Lilly hates adventurers…Lilly loathes them…!
After the effects of Soma wore off, she ran away from the Familia, a waterfall of tears in her wake.
She threw away the title of being a member of Soma Familia and tried to live a normal life in the city. Once she had acquired a sense of stability and happiness, it was taken from her. Members of Soma Familia destroyed her new life.
How they found her, she didn’t know. But they came, their eyes driven mad with greed, and stole everything from her. Not only that, they ransacked where she was living.
The nice elderly couple who had let her stay at their flower shop kicked her out after that. Lilly could still remember how they looked at her, like a soiled, rotten piece of garbage.
Even here, Soma Familia tormented her.
Lilly held a grudge against the god at the top, Soma. She wondered why he had created such a Familia.
She bore no ill will or malice toward him. Soma wasn’t interested in them, anyway. There was no connection of any kind.
Soma never did anything for them. He wouldn’t. She didn’t even think he knew what was going on in his own Familia.
Perhaps, from his point of view, it was pointless to take pity on any of his “children” despite being their “father,” their god. But Lilly’s grudge against him never went away.
In the end, Lilly’s only option was to return to Soma Familia and work as a supporter to survive. If she made a bad choice—if she failed to play her part as the faithful little supporter—all it did was invite more hurt. Even if she was on good terms with a few members of the Familia. Even if she worked for free.
Yes, all adventurers were exactly the same.
All of them did horrible things to Lilly, just because she was weak.
Even that boy, surely…surely…
Even Bell…Even Bell—!
No matter how nice he was, he would have eventually raised his hand to her. There was no doubt.
What was so wrong with betraying someone before they betrayed you?
The elderly couple had treated her like their own granddaughter. Just thinking about them made Lilly remember their eyes. Yes, no matter what she did, she would always be thrown away at some point. She would always be abandoned.
Her thoughts did nothing to ease the ache in her heart. She picked up her pace, trying to drown out the pain.