Chapter 30
“Let's take a breather.”
“............Yes.”
I took a canteen and a wooden cup from my bag, then used Create Water to fill the cup.
It's one of the spells available through the 【Life Magic】 Skill.
Skills are generally granted by Gifts.
However, 【Life Magic】 is an exception; anyone can use it.
It can create about a cup of water, kindle a small flame, or clean dirt off your body and clothes.
It isn't useful in combat, but it's a handy Skill both in everyday life and for exploring dungeons.
I held out the cup of water to her.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you.”
She had nothing with her.
Her companions had probably taken her belongings, too, when they fled.
She stared at the cup for a while, then drained it in one gulp.
It was as if she'd swallowed down something weighing on her heart along with the water.
She seemed calm enough to talk.
Deciding that, I spoke to her.
“I'm Rento. I'm working solo at the moment.”
“...I'm Rinka. Thank you for saving me. My party... hahaha, they dumped me.”
The girl named Rinka said it listlessly, with self-mockery.
She seemed resigned to everything, as if nothing mattered anymore.
“I passed them in the passage.”
“............”
“As adventurers, they crossed a line that must never be crossed.”
Unilaterally kicking out members they didn't like.
Emotionally, I couldn't forgive it, but it was still within the rules set by the guild.
Running away and leaving an injured companion behind.
Carelessly abandoning someone wasn't acceptable, but in the worst case, it might be a measure you had no choice but to take.
The survivors would carry that cross for the rest of their lives, but it didn't violate adventurer morals or guild regulations.
But—
Forcing a companion to act as a decoy, then locking them in a room.
That was absolutely unforgivable.
There was no way to make excuses for it.
It was an act that violated both adventurer morals and guild regulations.
Like me, MP puffed out their cheeks in anger atop my shoulder.
“Why did you save me?”
She asked, looking puzzled.
Rinka's question was only natural.
Noninterference inside dungeons.
Anything that happens is your own responsibility.
—Those are the fundamental rules.
And yet, the reason I saved Rinka was—
It was—
Maybe it was because MP told me to.
Maybe it was simple self-satisfaction.
Maybe I just wanted to look cool.
Maybe I had ulterior motives.
Maybe I saw myself in her.
I felt like all of those applied, and yet none of them did.
“I don't know, either. My body moved before I could think.”
I looked straight into Rinka's eyes and honestly told her how I felt.
“I see...”
The Quad Skeleton normally appears on the fourth floor.
Moreover, it guards key locations and is one of the tougher monsters on the fourth floor.
A monster appearing where it shouldn't.
It was an extremely rare phenomenon—so rare it might happen once a year, if that, in an entire dungeon—and was called an irregularity.
Being used as a decoy against an irregularity was the worst-case scenario, but being rescued was a small mercy amid the misfortune.
“All right, let's get going. Let's head back to town together.”
“No, I can't ask you to go that far...”
“Don't worry about it. I'm doing this for my own sake. If I left you here and something happened, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.”
“............”
After saying it unilaterally, I stood up.
If we stayed here any longer, Rinka would be trapped by her negative emotions.
She'd be better off moving around, even a little.