Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 7

by Fujino Omori

  An ominous smile appeared over a beautiful face that could make anyone stand and stare any other time.

  “The moment she learns that her favorite pip-squeak has fallen for me…Oh, how I’d love to see that face.”

  The goddess’s eyes closed and her lips curled up as she envisioned exactly how the events would unfold.

  “How tasteless,” came the voices of the Berbera as they grinned to one another. Ishtar looked at each of their faces in turn and issued a warning.

  “I forbid any of you to feast—especially Phryne.”

  “…Ge-ge-ge-geh. Unthinkable, Lady Ishtar. Me, ignore your orders?”

  The leader of the group, bearing the title of Androctonus, had been silent up to that point. She took Ishtar’s thinly veiled threat in stride.

  Ishtar’s eyes narrowed, as if she could tell that the massive Amazon had something else in mind.

  “No snacking, either. The moment you get your hands on him, he’s useless to me. I get him first…Once he’s filled his purpose, I’ll give him to all of you to do what you wish.”

  PHOOO. Ishtar exhaled a thick cloud of purple smoke.

  Phryne couldn’t hide her disappointment as the smoke washed over her face. However, she couldn’t go against her goddess and reluctantly accepted her conditions.

  Aisha and the other Amazons stuck their tongues out at the dejected Phryne, taunting her.

  “But you know, Lady Ishtar…”

  “What is it, Samira?”

  “Is now the best time to take Bell Cranell? I think it best to wait until after the Killing Stone Ritual to make a move.”

  Samira, an Amazon with hair the color of ash, voiced her opinion in a distinctly male way.

  “I learned of Bell Cranell from a rather unwilling messenger…I don’t trust him to keep his mouth shut. It won’t be long before Freya realizes I know how to hurt her. Take the boy before she can protect him.”

  Ishtar paused for a moment as she looked out over her followers. Another out-of-place smile grew on her lips as her amethyst eyes burned from within.

  “Once the ritual is complete, we declare war on Freya. That pipsqueak’s going to make one hell of an opening bell…All of you, be prepared.”

  She was going to use Bell to start their war—the Amazons showed no hint of cowardice, only smiled like wolves on the hunt. Phryne’s frog-like lips bulged out into a grin as well.

  Aisha was the only one to remain stone-faced and silent.

  “Ge-ge-ge-ge-geh. So how do we get the trophy bunny? Where do we spring the trap?”

  The other Amazons licked their lips after hearing what Phryne had to say.

  “Aboveground is too dangerous, avoid it.”

  Ishtar joined the conversation.

  Every person in Orario was paying attention to Hestia Familia after the War Game. Word would spread quickly should anything happen to one of their members. It wouldn’t take long for the Guild or the enemy to hear about it.

  “There are too many eyes in Orario,” is how Ishtar put it.

  “In that case…the Dungeon it is.”

  It was Aisha who put everyone’s thoughts into words.

  All adventurers knew that if you were going to commit a crime, the Dungeon was the place to do it. The middle levels were the best place because only upper-class adventurers could enter them. The chances of being discovered were extremely slim.

  “How do we bait the rabbit?”

  “Just using Lady Ishtar’s name will get us what we need. Grab anything you think will be useful.”

  In the place of their arrogant leader, Aisha took a more realistic approach in answering her allies’ questions.

  Phryne huffed through her nose, as if bored with the idea. “Problem?” retorted Aisha with a glare.

  “Should we bring Haruhime?”

  Samira’s short ash-gray hair shifted as she turned away from Phryne and Aisha’s staring contest.

  The Amazon was looking at Ishtar, but the goddess knew her question was aimed at everyone in the room. It was an interesting proposal.

  “Do as you wish, but…What, is the Little Rookie that strong?”

  “If nothing else, he’s faster than all of us.”

  Sure, they had been trying to hold off Phryne at the time. But the Amazons recounted to their goddess how they’d failed to capture their prey during the hunt last night. Most of the participants were Level 3.

  “I had some idea after watching the battle with Hyacinthus…But how is a newly ranked-up Level Three so fast?”

  The new record holder wasn’t pulling off an elaborate scam; he was genuinely at Level 3.

  Aisha couldn’t agree more with Samira’s words.

  “I don’t care if you useless varmints want to use Haruhime. Use anything you want, just corner the boy. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  Phryne’s declaration didn’t sit well with the other Amazons. All of them shot her sideways glances filled with disdain.

  At Level 5, she was the only one who could keep up with their prey. Aisha rolled her eyes before glancing toward the window.

  Although she couldn’t see it, the red-light district was just beneath her gaze.

  “…Haruhime is a bumbling fool, barely a part of the familia. Why not let her out and spread her wings one last time?”

  Aisha’s proposal caught the rest of the Amazons off guard. Every set of eyes in the room immediately focused on her.

  Phryne’s brutish voice sounded almost immediately.

  “Are you brain-dead? What if she ran away? Or was that your plan all along, Aishaaa?”

  “…”

  “We can’t let anyone else know about that, now, can we?”

  Veins bulged in Phryne’s forehead; her eyes looked ready to kill. Aisha didn’t answer.

  For the first time, no one came to Aisha’s defense. In fact, Samira added fuel to the fire.

  “What the hell do you see in that timid fox? As for me, I hate her.”

  Samira’s lips twitched back into an awkward grin. Ishtar remained silent, only puffing another cloud of smoke into the middle of the group.

  Aisha glanced into the cloud, only to see two amethyst eyes glimmering menacingly on the other side. A chill ran down her spine, her body quivering.

  Aisha gritted her teeth and willed her body to be still. At long last, Ishtar blinked.

  “Of course not.”

  That was the end of it.

  Aisha’s proposal ignored, they started to work on setting a trap for the rabbit.

  Aisha exhaled through her nose and once again cast her gaze to the night sky out the window.

  An almost full moon shone brightly over the glow of the red-light district.

  In the darkest hour of the night…

  The sharp echoes of high heels echoed in the highest level of the white tower in the middle of Orario.

  The sharp sounds grew louder as a figure wearing an extremely revealing black dress stepped with much more force than necessary down a hallway. The figure’s pearly white skin emerged from the shadows as she arrived in front of a tall door. Her assistant was waiting for her, and he opened the large wooden barrier to let her inside.

  “Ottar, my wine.”

  Moonlight penetrated the glass windows of the highest floor of Babel Tower, filling the room with long shadows. The Goddess of Beauty, Freya, said nothing else as she took a seat in her chair.

  Her long silver hair curled on top of her shoulders and extended down beyond her feminine back all the way to her delicate, thin waist.

  Her assistant, a boaz with a boar-like body built like a mountain, quietly followed his mistress’s instructions.

  “Is something troubling you?”

  Ottar placed the glass of wine on an extravagant table carved to look like a bountiful basket of fruit, then he waited for his goddess to take a sip and asked her a question.

  A rare foul mood lurked beneath her normally calm and peaceful exterior. Ottar lowered his head as Freya glanced at him out
of the corner of her eye.

  “Have you heard nothing from Mia?”

  “No.”

  If her assistant’s short answer had offended her, Freya showed no sign of it. She did, however, gulp down another mouthful of wine.

  The rest of her silver locks fell off her shoulders as she rocked her head back. Removing the now mostly empty glass from her lips, she turned to face her assistant and spoke.

  Information had been acquired from a certain god—that another Goddess of Beauty, Ishtar, had become aware of something important.

  “Is it wise to continue to leave that god to his own devices?”

  “Indeed, I should punish him next time we meet.”

  Hermes would have passed out from fright had he been present for this conversation.

  Freya ran her fingers through her hair, curling the silver locks around her fingertips.

  “I hated Ishtar watching my every move, so I behaved myself for quite a while…but it’s gotten old.”

  She was pouting, very unlike her usual self.

  His goddess had been offended. Ottar clamped his mouth shut but could not control the expression of anger on his face.

  Freya sighed, completely oblivious to the horrifying visage behind her that would have sent a Minotaur running out of sheer terror.

  “Ishtar knows about that child. As long as she doesn’t do something stupid, that’s fine.”

  “…Such as attack him in cold blood?”

  “That would be rather cute, actually.”

  Despite Ottar’s concerns for the boy’s safety, Freya saw past it to the real danger.

  Considering the discord between them—caused by her rival’s overwhelming jealousy—Freya had a general idea of what Ishtar was planning.

  There was only one solution. Freya quietly sighed again.

  “Shall we take Bell Cranell into our protection?”

  “…No, wait.”

  Freya paused for a moment to consider her assistant’s suggestion before sharply striking it down.

  “My apologies,” said Ottar, lowering his head once again. Freya didn’t look at him, instead casting her gaze out the large glass window.

  She took in the view from Orario’s highest point, eyes tracing the cityscape for a few moments.

  Her head slowly turned until Ottar came into her line of sight.

  “Keep an eye on Ishtar’s children. Inform the others…I will reside at home for the time being.”

  “As you wish.”

  Ottar’s courteous response filling her ears, Freya downed the last bit of her wine.

  CHAPTER 4

  YOSHIWARA X UTAKATA

  “I’m finished…”

  We’re eating breakfast under the first rays of sunlight to reach over the city wall.

  Mikoto sounds like she didn’t sleep at all last night as she slides her chair away from the table.

  She didn’t eat much, only one piece of bread. Soup and salad untouched, she says anyone can have her Jyaga Maru Kun. It’s still sitting on a plate all by itself.

  Clearly not hungry, she trudges her way to the sink to wash her plate, and I catch a glimpse of her downcast face. The goddess, Lilly, and Welf look just as worried about her as I am.

  “Say, Mikoto, is something wrong?”

  “Miss Mikoto was out late last night…”

  The goddess leans out of her chair, closely followed by Lilly. Mikoto doesn’t even turn around, just sets her plate out to dry and leaves the kitchen.

  Welf makes eye contact with me and I nod back. Forgetting good manners for now, I wolf down my remaining breakfast as quickly as possible.

  I leave the cleanup to Welf and follow Mikoto.

  “Miss Mikoto!”

  “Sir Bell…”

  Still dragging her feet, she was about to head out the front door.

  She looks up at me. Her normally dignified dark-purple gaze is nowhere to be seen.

  “So you did go last night…”

  Mikoto’s shoulders hunch over as she weakly nods.

  Just as I thought, she went to check on Haruhime. I can kind of guess what happened by looking at her face…but I ask her to tell me about it anyway.

  She lightly nods again. Preferring to sit down, we go outside onto the front lawn and find a spot filled with empty boxes and barrels on the corner of the property. Both of us take a seat.

  “I went back and called upon Lady Haruhime…but I was rejected.”

  She starts telling me everything that happened.

  Apparently she couldn’t sit still after our conversation at the bookshop.

  Disguising herself as a man, she went to the red-light district under the cover of night.

  Her gaze falls to the grass at her feet, clearly hurting.

  “She claimed not to know who I was…”

  Judging by the reaction, I don’t think that Haruhime knew her childhood friends were in Orario. I wasn’t there to see the “rejection,” but maybe Haruhime was just startled by the sudden reunion?

  Or perhaps…she didn’t want her friend to see her as a prostitute.

  It’s just a guess, but after spending several hours with her, I don’t think she would have been excited to see Mikoto.

  “…Um, Miss Mikoto. What was Miss Haruhime like, back in the Far East?”

  I don’t even know why I want to know this much about her.

  I should be trying to cheer up Mikoto, but I bring this up instead.

  “…She was well mannered, elegant, and gentle to a fault. With no knowledge of the outside world, even the most mundane things surprised her…made her happy.”

  Mikoto doesn’t take her eyes off the grass as the words kind of tumble out of her mouth.

  She’s lost in her memories.

  “She was a timid person. Different from Lady Chigusa, Lady Haruhime was always concerned if she was allowed to be where she was, constantly anxious…That’s why it brought me great joy whenever she smiled.”

  Haruhime as a little girl…I can imagine her soft golden hair and innocent smile.

  “Most of all, she was very kind. Even before we met, Lady Haruhime heard rumors about the shrine just visible from behind her manor in the mountain…She asked her father to send a donation of food.”

  “She did…?”

  “‘Since I cannot eat all this myself, please give some to the gods’…It was the first request she ever made of her father.”

  Haruhime had been born into a life of comfort, without fear of hunger. Hearing about how Mikoto and the others lived must’ve been a real shock to her. Hearing about children and gods who clothed themselves with whatever was available and lived by growing and selling roots or other plants from their mountain garden probably sounded like something out of a book.

  Mikoto said she already had a love of reading, escaping from her lonely existence into the beautiful worlds among the pages. It was there that she gained the compassion to help people she’d never known. Apparently, she was quite persistent about sending aid to the shrine.

  “All of us jumped for joy on the day that food was delivered to us as donations. Of course, we were interested to know who had been so generous. Once we heard it came from the manor at the base of the mountain, Captain Ouka led all of us to the large wooden building. We started looking over their fence…”

  That’s when she first saw Haruhime.

  Their expansive lawn was well kept, filled with rock gardens and small trees. They first caught a glimpse of her, a renart with a brush in her hand, writing a scroll. But her eyes were looking outside, filled with loneliness.

  “While embarrassing to admit, it filled us with courage. This great person had rescued us from hunger; we would save her from desolation.”

  Mikoto’s cheeks blush as a small smile appears on her lips.

  From there, the children of the shrine consulted with the gods about how to help the girl. That’s when Lord Takemikazuchi learned of Haruhime’s situation and gave them the push they needed.

 
“Lord Takemikazuchi bestowed us with his Blessing so that we could repay Lady Haruhime for her kindness.”

  He had refused to do it until they completed his combat training. However, he gave in after seeing the virtue in their purpose.

  That means she…received her Status to help Haruhime?

  “The rest I explained yesterday. All of us worked together to sneak into the manor and bring Lady Haruhime outside.”

  Using the techniques they learned from Lord Takemikazuchi, as well as their Statuses, they had an easy time avoiding the adults on patrol and taking Haruhime outside to play at night.

  Mikoto grimaces and says that from Haruhime’s father’s point of view, they were nothing more than bad karma for a good deed.

  “At first, Lady Haruhime was startled. Children she’d never met before suddenly appearing in her bedroom and telling her to come with them…”

  However, once they convinced her to leave, Haruhime got her first taste of excitement.

  After two or three times, the renart waited excitedly for the group of kids her own age to return at night.

  “Even after we were discovered, we continued to sneak in to visit her…She said to us…”

  The manor was more heavily guarded than ever.

  A group of children had evaded patrols to bring their friend outside.

  Two figures, one with golden hair and one with black, running hand-in-hand through rice patties in the moonlight.

  The young girl stopping to catch her breath, blushing as she looked at her friends, smiling.

  —Mikoto, Ouka, all of you are like the heroes from a book.

  The other black-haired figures stop running, turn to face her, and smile back.

  “We were happy, proud to consider her our friend. We had repaid the debt…We had made the lonely girl smile.”

  Mikoto goes on to say that they took Haruhime to many places around the mountain.

  The troublemakers who kept kidnapping his daughter—the lord of the manor stopped sending assistance to the children of the shrine, but that didn’t stop Mikoto and her friends from finding ways into his manor.

  Ouka, Chigusa, Mikoto, and the other members of Takemikazuchi Familia played and laughed together with Haruhime…until that day came.

  A smile had been growing on Mikoto’s face as she recounted their old adventures. Suddenly, like waking up from a dream, she looked back down at the ground.