Chapter 18
“Elettra?”
The princess stared blankly up at me.
This won't do. Her eyes weren't focusing.
“Professor Kadisha, Melinda, please take care of her.”
“Y-yeah.”
“Got it.”
The professor and the female cadet helped the princess to her feet.
“Get out as quickly as you can! I'll follow from the rear!!”
“Okay!”
“Yeah!!”
Finding our way through the maze shouldn't be difficult, especially with a professor along.
But, sorry, saying I'd follow from behind was a lie.
I still had something to do.
‘The original story said the Abyssal Order's people were watching nearby, but it never specified exactly where.’
But when I saw where the Abyssal Lantern had been placed, one possibility occurred to me.
This spot at the very center of the dungeon was blocked off above and on all sides.
Then how had the Abyssal Order's people gotten in here to leave the item?
The answer was below.
The circular dungeon had a sealed-off lower level, where the Abyssal Order had set up their base.
‘Let's hurry.’
Stopping their plan to kill the cadets would already count as a success.
But it'd be a shame to stop there, wouldn't it?
If they tried to kill us first, we should pay them back in kind.
I set the item I'd prepared in advance on the floor, then climbed the wall and smashed through the ceiling.
With a crash, bricks came tumbling down, revealing the sky outside.
That's when it happened. A bang came from below, too. Someone had thrown open the trapdoor and climbed up.
“Who the hell did that!!!”
A sinister-looking mustache.
The Abyssal Order's thirteenth Guide of the Underworld. His name was... I'd forgotten. Thirteenth place was good enough. He'd be gone soon anyway.
His underlings in black hoods came swarming up behind the thirteenth Guide.
“The Abyssal Lantern!!”
“It looks like someone broke in through the wall over there!!”
“G-Guide!!”
One of them pointed at the floor.
More precisely, at the thing I'd set there.
<Seed of Stormfire>
Description: Causes an explosion within a limited area. Never play with it indoors!
The most expensive thing I'd bought while preparing for this ambush.
The fuse of the bomb item I'd acquired by paying a whopping 5,000 points was burning down.
“Aaaaaagh!?”
“If that thing goes off—”
It was too late.
I looked up and met the thirteenth Guide's gaze.
As a goodbye, I raised my middle finger.
“Later, you bastards.”
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
——————
The academy's first dungeon practicum ended in a horrific disaster.
There had been a total of 36 cadets inside.
Of those...
11 died.
7 suffered spiritual wounds from the wraiths and were left in vegetative states.
3 were left disabled, having lost at least one limb.
6 suffered serious injuries with lasting effects.
One female cadet had her eyes and face eaten away by Void Bats and would have to wear a mask for the rest of her life.
Not only that, her ongoing marriage negotiations fell through.
One male cadet tripped while fleeing in the darkness and hit his head on a corner, dying on the spot.
They could only recover his bones. The bats and slimes had already eaten all the soft parts.
Of the six supervising professors, one died and two were seriously injured.
Professor Sillon's death, after winning the cadets' affection with a cute appearance, cast the academy into a somber mood for a long while.
“Sunlight!! The entrance!!!!!”
“We're outside!!!!”
“Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!”
A flood of people!!!
Cadets came pouring out. The professors ran out, too. Through the gate, into the sunlight!
All 36 cadets were drenched in sweat and covered in dust and dirt. Some had bruises that would ache for a while.
But no one had died.
Their injuries were no worse than something they could all recover from after a few hours in the infirmary.
“Hah, hah…!!”
“Haaaaaaah!!!”
Even the short Professor Sillon and the cadet who would have been carried out crippled in the original timeline came running out on their own two feet.
Then they made eye contact with cadets from the groups on either side of theirs, who had also come running out and were panting just as hard.
“Y-you too!?”
“Your group too!?”
They realized that not just their group, but all the cadets who'd gone on the dungeon practicum had been attacked.
It hadn't been a mistake, negligence, or an accident.
They'd been ambushed.
The academy had been attacked.
“Who….”
“What kind of people…!!”
And an image appeared in everyone's mind.
“Holy water!”
Gilliam had sprayed them with holy water!
Could he have predicted this!?
Everyone rushed toward the direction of Professor Kadisha's group.
They were just coming outside, too.
“Where's Gilliam!?”
“Everchess! Where is he!?”
Under normal circumstances, the noble cadets would have spoken in the manner of a romance fantasy, but they were so panicked and pressed for time that their ‘cultivated’ speech vanished.
Roy gasped for breath and pointed into the dungeon.
“E-Everchess is… he should be coming out soon….”
But there was no one at the entrance.
They couldn't hear anyone running toward them, either.
“Huh…?”
The faces of everyone in Professor Kadisha's group went pale.
Especially Professor Kadisha, their leader, and Elettra.
“Let's go find—”
But the next moment.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
A deafening boom.
At the same time, the entire dungeon collapsed and caved in.
“…Huh?”
A gust of dust-filled wind swept over them.
This was...
What...
All of a sudden.
How were they supposed to react?
What were they supposed to think?
Amid it all.
A frail, feeble voice.
“…Gilliam?”
Blankly.
Elettra.
Forward.
In front of the collapsed entrance.
She crumpled to the ground.
“…………Gil-liam?”
A whisper.
But...
If he was inside, there was no way he could have survived that collapse.
“Ah… ah….”
Tears welled in Elettra's eyes.
One drop.
Two drops.
Then they fell in a stream, pattering down.
Trickling, trickling.
“Ah… ahhh….”
A hand reached out.
A piece of rubble rolled toward Elettra.
It rolled and rolled.
Thunk.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!”
A scream.
“No…! No!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!!!!!”
Elettra crumpled.
Her head spun. Not just her legs, but her whole body went limp. She screamed and fell forward.
—You look prettier when you smile.
It felt like she'd never get back up.
In her mind.
It was so clear.
Gilliam.
I...
You...
Her breath was ragged. Her lungs felt torn. Her heart felt pierced.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—”
“Elettra! What's wrong? Are you hurt!?!?”
“…Huh?”
“…?”
“…??”
“…???”
Every cadet and professor, Elettra included, turned toward the sound.
They looked up.
A young man stood alone atop the collapsed ruins.
Distinctive silver-gray hair.
Honey-colored eyes.
A face so handsome it was irritating.
Gilliam Everchess, the academy's womanizer, stood there like a general who had captured a hill.
“…How?”
Gilliam was at the point farthest from the entrance.
“D-did he dig his way up through the collapsed ruins?”
Someone had come close to the right answer.
But that wasn't what mattered now.
“Gil…liam?”
Elettra murmured blankly.
“Gil, Gilliam. Gilliam!!”
She scrambled to her feet, but her legs gave way and she fell, smacking her face on the ground. Unable to get up, she crawled on all fours over the ruins toward him. Even as her palms and knees were scraped raw, she crawled to his side.
“I'll come down, so stay there!!”
“Gilliam…!!!”
She didn't stop. She couldn't feel the pain in her hands and knees. Frantic and disheveled, she was utterly desperate.
The woman climbing up.
The man going down.
They met a little closer to the woman.
They embraced; Elettra clung to him, trembling.
“Why, whyyy….”
“I'm sorry.”
“Why…!!”
“I had to take care of a few things first.”
Not knowing what to say or what she wanted to say, she just kept repeating why, whyyy, until...
“…Gilliam.”
The sudden release of tension made her faint on the spot.
“Elettra!?”
This time it was Gilliam's turn to panic. Her body had suddenly gone limp.
But when he looked closely, she was breathing normally.
‘She just fainted.’
…Phew.
Thank goodness.
A wave of intense relief washed over him.
And a little while later.
Gilliam swayed, too.
Sway, sway….
“Whoa!?”
“Gilliam's about to faint too!!”
“Catch him!!!”
——————
I knew as soon as I woke up.
Ah, this is the infirmary.
White sheets. White curtains around my bed. The faint smell of medicinal herbs.
And a sweet smell, like cream puffs.
And the soft, squishy sensation against my stomach.
“…?”
Those last two things seemed a little strange.
I slowly raised my head and saw a mass of blonde hair.
Elettra was asleep.
She was in the same position as someone napping with their upper body laid across a desk.
But she wasn't lying across a desk. She was lying across me.
In other words, she had her breasts resting on my stomach.
On top of that, she was dressed in the revealing style of a subculture game, so all of Elettra's sideboob was visible.
‘…What should I do?’
This made it kind of difficult to get up.
‘My best bet is to gently wake Elettra, right?’
Just as I was about to reach out to her, someone entered the infirmary and whispered.
“Liam…? Where is Liam…?”
It was Maron's voice.
I reflexively closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep, and sure enough, Maron soon came in from the other side.
“Liam… and the princess….”
Maron's dungeon practicum was scheduled for tomorrow, so she hadn't been caught up in what happened today.
In other words, she must have heard what happened and hurried over.
‘Maybe I shouldn't have pretended to be asleep. This is awkward.’
And then I regretted that decision even more.
“Liam…? You're really asleep, right…?”
Maron said that, then took the exact same position as Elettra.
Maron's breasts touched my chest.
They pressed down softly.
Soft.
Squishy.
‘…What kind of situation is this?’
Elettra's breasts on my stomach.
Maron's breasts on my chest.
The sweet cream-puff scent was being overtaken by the fragrance of night.
‘Now, while Maron's touching me, I can pretend I just woke up—’
“…Maron Clearias. What are you doing here?”
Why was she the one waking up?
I'd missed my chance to wake up.
“…Maybe the princess was really tired, too? Since you're still lying there without even getting up.”
“…I guess so. You must be tired too?”
Could you both at least take your breasts off me?
“…I'm pretty comfortable, Liam.”
“…Hmm. I'm comfortable too.”
Press.
Press harder.
Instead, the two of them began pressing their breasts against me even more firmly.