by Fujino Omori
He was the only one who wasn’t clearly marked for death in my dream…
“The fairy fated to guide all to ruin, compelling the roaring white flames, shall spin a cruel fate.”
The “roaring white flames” were the only words that seemed to refer to Bell.
Cassandra was sure “the fated fairy” was Lyu. It was unavoidable destiny that these two would cross paths. The sinister part was how the fairy had been compelling the flames. It seemed to be a prophecy of a different type from that foretold for Aisha and the others.
She had seen a small fairy flapping her wings as roaring white flames surrounded her. The vision had ended just before she was engulfed by some kind of jet-black catastrophe.
If anyone was going to overturn this horrible prophecy—wouldn’t it be him?
Cassandra pursed her lips. Mikoto, Daphne, and Welf had stayed behind to protect the supporters and watch for other monsters; now, taking the first step toward combatting the prophecy, Cassandra approached Welf.
“Um, Mr. Crozzo.”
The young smith had been watching the battle and was about to join in.
“Stop calling me by my family name, would you? Welf is fine,” he said, looking disappointed to have been interrupted on his way to fight.
At the same time, he was slightly surprised that Cassandra had called out to him. She apologized in a fluster and steeled herself to bring up the topic at hand. She had decided to ask the High Smith—whose skills had been steadily improving—for a favor.
When she did, he answered frankly, as was his nature as a craftsman.
“…I can do it, but why are you asking me all of a sudden?”
“Uh, um…”
“Honestly, I can’t say I’m eager to do it. We’ve decided that he’ll only carry weapons I’ve forged myself.”
The naturally shy Cassandra seemed on the verge of retreating in response to his words, but then she pursed her lips again.
“He…Mr. Bell can be reckless for the sake of other people…That’s the kind of person he is. I want to help him…” she said, looking the smith in the eye.
She didn’t mention her dream. She knew he wouldn’t believe her if she did. But he just might believe an admission of her honest feelings.
Like Bell, Cassandra had changed and grown. Welf listened silently as she spoke, a fierce glint in her timid downward-slanting eyes. He paused for a moment, then turned up the corners of his mouth.
“Okay. I’ll do it.”
“R-r-really?”
“Yup. Never mind the ramblings of a prideful smith. It’s just like with the magic blades…I’ve decided to stop weighing my pride against my friends,” he said, smiling as if he’d put the past behind him.
Somehow, Cassandra could tell that his smile was the result of a long inner struggle. She was so envious of him that she was momentarily speechless, and at the same time she sympathized with that struggle.
“Plus, something about this current business seems fishy to me. I agree with you that Bell seems likely to do something reckless. I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned every adventurer in this room against him in order to protect that elf…After all, my partner in crime has a record of doing stuff like that.”
He’d been thinking about the time with the Xenos, a serious expression on his face, but to hide his true thoughts, he ended on a joke. Cassandra bobbed her head energetically.
“Th-th-thank you so much!”
For the first time, she felt as if her actions would have some impact on the future. Nothing whatsoever had changed with regard to the outcome of her dream, but still, she felt extremely happy.
“Li’l E, bring me that portable forge I brought along. And lend me that thing of yours while you’re at it. It’s probably dragging on the ground because it’s too long.”
“But Mr. Welf, you took the measurements yourself!”
Welf retrieved the tools from Lilly, whose temper had flared once again. Setting the box-shaped forge in front of him, he began constructing a miniature workshop in one corner of the Dungeon.
“You girls, give me a hand already. Monsters are gathering, and it seems like Bell and the others are going to be a while. I’d like to get this done before they finish.”
“Yes, sir!”
Mikoto, Haruhime, and Daphne gathered beside the smith to help. The other adventurers who had remained in the rear guard drew around, too, craning their necks as the work began.
As the cries of the fighting adventurers and monsters echoed in the background, Cassandra realized she was feeling excited.
“Ahhh…”
Hestia let out a relaxed sigh and lay her chest against the table, squashing her ample breasts.
She was in the Hestia Familia home, Hearthstone Manor, lazing around the living room.
“You seem pretty sluggish today. Do you have the day off work?” Miach asked. He’d come over with some packages.
“Yeah. By some miracle, I’m off from Hephaistos’s place and Jyaga Maru Kun, too. But I hate to waste a day off when Bell and the others aren’t around!” Hestia replied.
With the multi-familia-faction alliance off on the expedition and the entirety of Hestia Familia taking part, their home was left defenseless. To compensate, several deities Hestia was close with were taking turns dispatching familia members to Hearthstone Manor. Today was Miach Familia’s turn. Miach himself had come along, and as he chatted with Hestia, the chienthrope Nahza opened the door and walked in.
“Lady Hestia, I cleaned up a bit…”
“Oh wow, you did, really? Thanks so much!”
“It’s no trouble…After all, you’re making dinner for me and letting me take a bath here, too.”
“Well, that’s sweet of you to put it that way,” Hestia said.
Nahza smiled, her eyelids drooping so that at first glance she looked sleepy. The tail swooping down from her waist was swinging back and forth, too, as if she was looking forward to the evening.
“By the way, Hestia, what’s that racket out in the backyard?” Miach asked.
“Oh, that…Hephaistos sent over one of her young smiths as a guard, but he’s an odd one. He asked to have a look at Welf’s workshop, given they used to be in the same familia…and when I said it was okay, he ransacked the place, and now he seems to have started making a weapon of some sort…”
“Well in that case, I’d like to have a look around Lilliluka’s room…I bet she has some unusual items and medicines hidden in there…Is that all right with you?” Nahza asked.
“Give me a break! She would be furious with me!”
Miach smiled wryly at Hestia’s evident low position, despite the fact that she was a goddess.
“Are you feeling nervous with Bell and the others gone?”
“Yeah, of course I am. But I still have to be ready to give them a proper welcome when they come back, like I’m happy about it all,” Hestia replied before asking Miach a question in return. “What about you? It was Daphne and Cassandra who went on the expedition, right?”
“It goes without saying that I can’t stop worrying and I’m lonely…But up till recently, it’s always been just Nahza and me. It’s weird to say that things are back to how they were, but I’m treating it like a little reward for myself and having a rather peaceful interlude.”
“…”
“We’ve known each other for so long. I feel the most at ease with Nahza by my side,” Miach said pleasantly, a handsome god’s smile on his face.
A loud clatter came from the shelf that Nahza had been tidying up, her back to the two deities. Her tail was wagging furiously.
Hestia had no idea what the backstory was behind Miach’s affectionate words, but for some reason it made her chest burn, so she forcefully changed the subject.
“Anyway, Miach…I wanted to ask you about Cassandra,” she said, her face and tone docile. “I’ve been thinking this since she was with Apollo, but…”
“Yes…She can see things. Things even we deities can’
t see.”
Nahza turned toward the two deities, who were nodding at each other, and tilted her head quizzically.
“I don’t know what Apollo was up to by keeping her in his familia…but she seems to carry the mysteries of the mortal realm within her.”
“Mysteries that are beyond even us…I do understand why the deities have been so fascinated by the mortal plane ever since their first descent from the heavens,” Hestia said, leaning her weight against the back of the chair. For a moment, she stared up toward the ceiling, as if she was reflecting on the very nature of the mortal plane.
“I haven’t talked with her much myself. What kind of a girl is she anyway?” she asked, as if the question had just occurred to her.
“Cassandra is a strange one…” Nahza replied, taking a teakettle from the shelf. As she talked, she went about preparing some black tea for the group. “At first she was like Bell—No, even more timid and nervous than he is…Lately I think she’s become attached to us…But she’s always waxing philosophical about things…”
“Philosophical?” Hestia asked.
“I can’t really explain it…But I think it has to do with destiny or something like that…”
“Ah, destiny…”
“She says things that are obviously lies, and sometimes I really don’t get her…Like when my favorite cup broke, for some reason she was more upset than anyone…”
As Nahza and Hestia talked, Miach stood to the side, listening quietly.
“That’s what I mean about her being an odd one. It’s like she’s living in a different world from the rest of us…” Nahza said.
“…”
“And Daphne being Daphne, she says exactly what she’s thinking, and that makes Cassandra even less confident and more timid than ever…”
Nahza sniffed at the steam rising from the kettle before continuing with a smile.
“Still, I like them. They’re what the gods might call an ‘odd couple.’ She’s always worrying about something, always looking gloomy…”
“I did notice that she seemed a bit on the dismal side…But what’s your takeaway, Nahza?”
“She does cheer up when she sees Bell…”
“Wh-wh-what?! No way! Don’t tell me even that girl is scheming after him?!” Hestia said, leaping up with a clatter in response to Nahza’s expression of what she had sensed with her female instincts.
“I don’t think that’s the case,” the chienthrope said as she set three cups of tea on the table. “I’m surprised that she’s continued as an adventurer this far.”
“Despite her appearance, she seems to have strength at her core. Sometimes when she smiles, she looks so full of light even I can’t take my eyes off her,” Miach said.
“…”
“Ouch, Nahza! What are you pinching me for? That hurts…!”
“I don’t think you should be talking about ‘not being able to take your eyes off’ anyone!”
As this comic dialogue between members of Miach Familia unfolded, Hestia munched absently on the pieces of Jyaga Maru Kun she’d brought out to go with the tea, looking completely uninterested.
“…Oh, is someone at the door?”
The sound of the doorbell echoed through the room.
“I’ll get it,” Nahza said, standing up.
She returned a moment later with a letter in her hand.
“It seems to be a letter from Lilliluka…She says they’ve been asked to do something on the eighteenth floor…”
“A letter from my supporter? It’s hard to believe that little miser would spend the money to send me something…”
Usually, if someone was asked by fellow adventurers to take on a quest while already in the Dungeon, they requested compensation above the market rate. In other words, they took advantage of the situation. That was all the truer of upper-class adventurers with the ability to make it as far as a safety point. Hestia had spoken jokingly, but the fact that Lilly—who was a notoriously strict financial manager—had gone as far as using the familia emblem and writing up a signed and sealed deed, and moreover that she had sent a messenger from the eighteenth floor when Bell could have made the trip himself, gave her a bad feeling.
“…A hunting party has formed to chase down that tavern elf?! And in order to do something about it, they’re joining the hunting party?!”
“Hestia, what’s going on?” Miach asked.
“I—I—I have no clue…”
Hestia was in shock over the unexpected news in the letter. It was written cryptically so that nothing would be given away if it was intercepted by someone outside the familia, but it mentioned their encounter with the enhanced species and their decision to end the expedition.
Hestia reread the letter two or three times, then handed it to Miach, dumbfounded.
“What in the world is going on down in the Dungeon…?”
All Hestia could do was sigh at the last line, in which Lilly requested that she send support troops into the Dungeon in case something happened—in case Lyu was caught—in order to free her.
Despite the attack by the mammoth fools while they rested, the hunting party for Gale Wind moved on without incident. As Bors instructed, they searched each floor, then posted guards at the inter-floor passageways. Soon they had arrived at the twenty-fourth floor.
A day had passed, and even the adventurers who had been most enthusiastic about chasing down the famed fugitive were now beginning to lag.
“Hey, stop crawling along! Let’s hurry it up! Gale Wind could commit another crime!”
“Calm down, Turk. It’s way stupider to rush forward and miss clues on the way. I can’t deny I’m feeling slow, though…”
In the distance, Cassandra could hear adventurers squabbling over how to proceed. She turned to Lilly.
“Um, Miss Lilly…Can you lend me the floor map?”
“What, again?”
“Yes, I’d like to see the one for a different floor this time…Sorry.”
Lilly narrowed her round chestnut-brown eyes suspiciously but nevertheless withdrew the floor map from her backpack.
Cassandra, who was already holding the other one, took it from her.
“Whatever could Lady Cassandra be up to…?”
“Y-y-yes, what could it be? She keeps on looking at the Dungeon maps…”
Haruhime and Chigusa whispered to each other as Cassandra tucked her healer’s wand under one arm and peered at the unfurled parchment. Cassandra didn’t notice them; she was completely absorbed in the map. A drop of sweat fell from her tense face.
“Watch out, Cassandra; you’re going to trip,” Daphne said, scanning the path ahead of them.
Cassandra had tried to stop Bors and his companions from moving ahead with the hunting expedition, but she had failed, as she had expected. Resigned to the fact that she would have to do something herself, she was now completely fixated on preventing the prophecy from unfolding. In order to do so, she was attempting to memorize as much information about each floor as she could.
Staring down at the map in her hands so hard she practically burned a hole through it, she racked her brain for some new idea.
“I knew this would be a long process, but the search is really taking time, isn’t it…?”
“We’re almost done with the middle levels, though. If Lady Lyu is in the Colossal Tree Labyrinth, you’d think we’d find at least one or two signs fairly soon…”
Cassandra listened as Mikoto and Lilly chatted, and in her heart, she shook her head.
No…That’s not right.
Gale Wind wasn’t in this part of the Dungeon.
This was not where “fairy” was fated to guide her pursuers to ruin. The prophetess of tragedy knew in her heart that the Colossal Tree Labyrinth was not the appointed place of catastrophe.
The nightmarish prophetic dream had murmured as much to her.
“The azure current shall run red with blood, and the grotesque horde shall rejoice.
“The depths of h
ell shall overflow with corpses, returning all to the mother.”
Three out of the prophecy’s seventeen verses mention places, and the fifth and sixth verses of the first half mention specific locations…!
“The azure current.”
“The depths of hell.”
In the context of what was going on, there was only one place these lines could be referring to.
Yes! In other words—
“Huh? An explosion?!”
“The shock waves are coming from below…From the lower levels?!”
—It could only be the Water Capital.
The trembling ground and sound of something cracking threw the adventurers into disarray.
The map of the lower levels that Cassandra still gripped trembled as she held her breath.
She knew that “the time” had come.
The starting whistle had blown, and now the prophecy would begin to unfold.
Her lips trembled silently.
“Get going!”
At Bors’s command, everyone began to run. The adventurers licking their chops in anticipation and Bell’s tension-riddled party alike were drawn forward by the intermittent sounds of explosions. Cassandra, running at the back of the group, was tormented by an anxiety unlike any she had ever experienced. Desperately, she tried to calm her thumping heart.
As they rushed through the passageway connecting the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth floors, countless footsteps echoed down the crystal-encrusted cave. Reaching the end of the long slope, they leaped toward the mouth of the cave, which was flooded with blue light.
Before them flowed the gorgeous emerald-blue water of the Great Falls and the yawning crystalline cavern.
For the second time, Bell and the rest of his party found themselves gazing out at the magnificent scene of the New World.
“Whoa…Another explosion!”
“Is Gale Wind on a rampage?”
“The shock waves are coming from farther below…Could the source be the twenty-seventh floor?”
The Water Capital began on the twenty-fifth floor and continued to the twenty-seventh, with the Great Falls connecting all three floors. On each of these floors, a massive cavern contained the falls and a plunge pool as huge as a lake. Far, far below the cliff’s edge where they stood now was the end point on the twenty-seventh floor. Surrounded by adventurers, Bors squinted down at it with his right eye, the one without the patch.