Chapter 103
The Fairy Who Announces Death
As usual, I changed clothes and passed through reception as usual.
Then I set foot in my first dungeon.
The sensation coming through my boots changed from inorganic concrete to packed earth.
The light of the lantern-shaped LED hanging from my sword belt illuminated our surroundings.
The ground was pitch-black, as though it had just been soaked by rain. The road was about as wide as a two-lane street. Aged wooden walls blocked both sides, and when I looked up, I saw a ceiling resembling dark storm clouds.
There was nothing resembling sunlight, making it clear that this place was imitating a night sky.
The wooden walls were about four meters high, but they had rotted away in places, allowing me to glimpse the houses on the other side.
I couldn't tell what era they belonged to, but they were houses built from wood, stone, and earth. Somehow, they looked vaguely medieval European.
But that was nothing more than an intricately painted picture. The walls had merely been designed to look three-dimensional. It was the same as the false farming village in the Polevik dungeon.
I drew the sword at my waist, took one deep breath beneath my visor, and turned toward my companions.
Each of them carried a weapon, and they were looking at me and the other members of our party.
We nodded to one another, and Riko-senpai snapped open her folding fan.
"Well then, shall we go?"
"Yes."
"Indeed."
"Understood. Our current location is... 'A-34.' We don't know which direction we're facing, so let's move forward for now."
"Got it."
I nodded and started walking. I took the lead, with Rosso-san diagonally behind me to the right, followed by Riko-senpai and Miyu-san in the rear.
Nothing could be heard except our footsteps. It was a village at night, far too quiet.
As we proceeded, feeling unsettled by the silence, an ear-splitting noise reached us.
───Clatter-clatter-clatter-clatter!
"...!"
"Damn, that's loud..."
When I reflexively covered my left ear, I heard Riko-senpai cursing as well, apparently in much the same state.
Covering my ear with my palm did little more than provide a sense of comfort, but I did it instinctively anyway. Realizing that wouldn't do, I gripped my sword's hilt with both hands.
That sound was coming from an 'enemy.'
"There are probably two of them. Directly ahead. They appear to be approaching."
"Yeah."
Though my ears hurt, I spoke, and Rosso-san nodded. Even without elven blood, this racket made it difficult to hear the voices of my companions.
Making a sound like countless metal dishes being struck all at once, two grotesque figures appeared from the corner directly ahead.
At first glance, they had silhouettes resembling centaurs: human-shaped upper bodies and the lower bodies of horses.
But illuminated by the artificial light, they were entirely different monsters.
Their upper bodies were encased in Western armor with soft, curving, feminine silhouettes.
However, there was nothing above their necks. In the places where their heads should have been, pale-blue flames swayed eerily.
Their equine lower bodies were covered in black fur, and their powerful legs stamped against the ground. A cavalry sword and a whip hung from each sword belt.
'Dullahan'
Headless knights spoken of in Ireland and Scotland. Fairies who announce death to humans.
There was only one way to resist the death brought by these monsters.
Strike them down before they killed you.
'■■■■■...'
The two Dullahans approached in single file, scattering noise in all directions.
A steel mask shaped like a woman's face was attached to each lower abdomen, where the horse body joined the upper body.
Their silver lips chanted with smooth movements, as though they were truly alive.
When we were about twenty meters apart, spears made of dark-red blood appeared around the monsters.
Four per monster, eight in all. They were fired simultaneously at tremendous speed.
But we had been preparing magic as well.
"───Make the blood boil, 'Strength Upper.'"
My body, bathed in that clear voice and mana, grew as light as a feather. Almost simultaneously, a silver light flew between Rosso-san and me.
It spread in a flash, and a white-silver cube appeared in midair.
'Scroll: Demon-Bane Barrier'
The barrier appeared in a diamond shape, with one corner touching the ground. The moment the spears struck it, they vanished in a burst of white particles.
'...!'
The Dullahans tried to stop abruptly, kicking up clouds of dirt.
Though they were fairies, a monster this close to the underworld could not withstand holy power without consequence.
However, because they had been running in single file, the Dullahan behind collided with the one in front and pushed it forward.
The monster that had leaped into the barrier gave off the sound of flesh burning, and steam billowed from its entire body.
'AAAAAAAA!?'
The steel mask let out a high-pitched scream. Ignoring it, I ran past the Dullahan being burned by the barrier.
My target was the one that was still unharmed. The moment it noticed me, it nimbly leaped backward on its horse's legs.
At the same time, it readied its sword in its right hand and its whip in its left.
But there was no reason to fear a cavalryman who had come to a halt. Much less an entity whose spiritual rank was nowhere near Furcas's...!
'AAAAAAA!'
The Dullahan let out a battle cry through its mask and swung its whip. The tip exceeded the speed of sound in an instant, tearing through the ground, the wall, and the air as it came toward me too quickly for the eye to follow.
But I could 'see' the future.
I stepped forward while lowering my body to the front right, then leaped onto the wall. After running two steps across the wooden surface and smashing through it, I jumped again and kicked off the ground.
Without stopping for even an instant, I used the bend in my knees from the impact to spring farther forward, diagonally to the left.
I crossed the path of the raging whip in exactly one second, and the sword in the Dullahan's right hand hadn't managed to catch up.
"Hah...!"
Exhaling sharply beneath my visor, I swung my sword as I ran past. The thick blade caught the horse's right foreleg and tore through hide and bone, severing it cleanly.
'KYYYYAAAAAAAAAA!'
The Dullahan cried out after losing one of its legs, but it showed no sign of being deterred by the pain.
It reared up as it tried to turn toward me after I ran past, then brought down its remaining left foreleg.
I pivoted while gouging the ground with my shoe, then struck the hoof from the side with my blade and deflected its trajectory. Sparks flew with a high-pitched clang, and the monster's leg struck the ground like an iron hammer, creating a small crater.
Though a numb sensation ran through my arm, I spun sideways to avoid the sword descending without pause. Carrying that momentum into my hand-and-a-half sword, I cleaved through the Dullahan's torso.
The blade shattered its plate armor and gouged the flesh beneath as it swept through. When the monster swung its cavalry sword back at me in a reverse diagonal slash, I jumped backward to avoid it.
Keeping my eyes on the monster, I kicked off the wooden wall and charged the Dullahan, which had just finished its swing.
I leaped into close range in a single breath and, using my momentum to put my entire weight behind it, drove the tip into the side of the horse's abdomen.
Ignoring its scream, I placed my left palm against the spine of the blade and swung it forward.
As the blade emerged while slicing through the iron mask on its lower abdomen, the Dullahan collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
With the wooden wall behind me, I readjusted my stance and held my guard. Keeping the monster's corpse in my peripheral vision as it changed into black mist, I turned my gaze toward the one being burned by the barrier.
At that moment, the Dullahan's gauntleted right arm fell nearby.
"Rooooooar!"
'KYYY───!?'
With a battle cry, a great scythe flashed through the air. The Dullahan's upper body flew into the air amid a spray of blood, then crashed to the ground with a loud clang several seconds later.
A moment afterward, its horse body slowly collapsed as well, revealing Rosso-san standing unharmed on the other side.
After confirming that both Dullahans had vanished, I relaxed my shoulders.
"Good work, everyooone. For now, there aren't any enemies nearby. Though I guess you can tell without me saying so. Their approach was ridiculously loud."
Beside Riko-senpai, who waved her hand lazily, Miyu-san stood holding a rifle-shaped staff.
"Good work to you as well."
"Indeed. Good work, everyone."
"Good work."
Once we'd congratulated one another, we collected the magic stones.
They were roughly two sizes larger than those from the dungeons we usually visited. About the same size as a Lesser Demon's magic stone, perhaps.
During spiritual disasters, we normally left magic stones alone, since picking them up wouldn't let us sell them. Apparently, the stronger the monster, the larger its magic stone.
At present, however, magic stone size didn't affect the price, so it was honestly not very important.
Still, they might be useful for raising our spiritual ranks—or, in game terms, 'leveling up.'
"Hmm. As I thought, the anomalies infesting this dungeon are of a different caliber..."
I nodded at Rosso-san, who was striking a mysterious pose.
"Yes. No wonder city hall requires permission."
This dungeon was not normally open to the public. The reason was simple: it was highly dangerous.
Then why were we here?
"It's strange that we need permission even though city hall asked us to come here."
Riko-senpai said that with a shrug.
The reason was simple as well. There weren't enough personnel to cull monsters in rural areas, so the local governments had directly requested assistance from clans with a certain level of ability.
Apparently, the Master and Tatsumin-san usually handled requests like this together whenever their schedules allowed. But the Master was attending a meeting of clan masters today and had a memorial service tomorrow.
That was why we, whose spiritual ranks had risen sharply of late, had accepted the request in their place.
Incidentally, although it was called an assignment, officially it was a 'request,' and as for whether there was any special compensation...
Well, yes. Apparently, as a 'token of appreciation,' we get gift certificates—one per person, worth about 1,000 yen.
...I wonder if this city is all right. Its finances must be tight, right?
There was also a rumor that the Self-Defense Forces' 'culling units' had recently been pulled away from the countryside. It was only something I'd seen online, so I had no idea how much of it was true...
"What's wrong, Kota-san? Have you been injured somewhere?"
"Ah, no. It's nothing."
When Miyu-san spoke to me, I gave a small shake of my head.
This wouldn't do. A dungeon was a dangerous place. There was no room for unnecessary thoughts. I reminded myself of that and turned my entire face away from Miyu-san, whose body-hugging contours were still plainly visible.
"Well then, let's resume exploring."
"Yes."
I nodded at Riko-senpai's words and started walking.
Relying on the artificial light, we headed deeper into the false village beneath the dark clouds.