Dungeon?

――At dinner, Primula said she had a favor to ask me.

Apparently, a noblewoman she had met was looking for a cameo.

"It's about the Viscountess Eupatorium. When she came to Dalia, a noble from the Asclepios territory showed off that jeweled brooch to her, and she was terribly humiliated..."

The "jewelry," of course, was the cameo.

"So that's why she wants one of those?"

"Yes..."

A contest of one-upmanship between nobles, huh? How utterly pointless.

But Primula's expression seemed a little off as she began talking about the nobles.

"Eupatorium? Miss, isn't that the name of this territory's ruling family?"

"Yes, it is."

"Yes, it is...?"

"Primula's family had dealings with the Asclepios family of Dalia. The draisines running around Astrantia are made by her family's Marlowe Trading Company, too."

"Huh? Those things were made by your family's company, Miss?"

"Yes."

"Her family name is Draisine, after all."

Nyamena dropped the meat she had been chewing from her mouth and shouted.

"What?! You're the daughter of a major house with a family name like that? Why are you running a street stall in a place like this?"

"Why, indeed? I don't really understand it myself—but she even threw away a marriage to a noble..."

"A noble? You've got to be kidding me. Miss, leave the boss to me and go back to Dalia, why don't you?"

"I can't do that."

Primula stopped her spoon and glared at Nyamena.

"Gyaa! This tiger really was after Kenichi!"

"I'm a better match for the boss than you are."

"No way, nya!"

"Ah, you two are noisy."

I searched for cameos on Shangri-La. There were all sorts of them, but I decided to buy a large one carved with a woman's face.

It was a common design for a cameo. The relief showed the refined-looking profile of a woman carved into a blue stone.

It was expensive—60,000 yen. But if it was for a noble, I should be able to make the money back quickly.

If she wanted to buy this and show off to her fellow nobles, she would probably pay a little extra for it.

Click.

"Primula, I have something like this."

I handed Primula the cameo brooch that dropped onto the table.

"Oh my! It has a woman's face carved into it!"

"Whoa, it looks almost alive."

Nyamena peered at the cameo over Primula's shoulder.

"Is carving a human face particularly difficult from a design standpoint?"

"No. The woman carved into this stone looks remarkably like the Viscountess Eupatorium."

"Oh, then you could say it was commissioned especially for the viscountess and charge her a fortune."

"Exactly."

"Heeheehee..."

"The boss and Miss are wearing some pretty wicked smiles."

"They always do, nya."

"Well, I'll leave the pricing to you."

"Understood."

Still, she had already made a connection with the territory's ruling lady, huh?

Well, one cameo brooch wouldn't hurt.

I decided to leave the matter of the nobles to her.

Hmm... I was a little concerned that Primula seemed somewhat down, though.

------◇◇◇------

"What was that?"

After sending Primula and the others to the city, Myaree told me something interesting while I was working in the fields.

"A dungeon, nya!"

"A dungeon? You mean something like a cave that descends underground?"

"That's right, nya."

According to her, there were two types of dungeons.

One was a dungeon where monsters had taken up residence in a naturally formed cave or cavern. The other was a dungeon where monsters had settled in an artificial structure such as ruins.

Artificial dungeons often contained relics from the past, magic tools, magic tomes, and the like, so they yielded much greater rewards.

Of course, this wasn't a game, so once a dungeon had been cleared, its treasures didn't respawn.

However, monsters could move in again after a long enough period of time.

But apparently, no one entered dungeons that held nothing but monsters and no treasure.

That made sense. This world had no experience points, and people didn't grow stronger by leveling up.

Monster materials were worth a decent amount of money, but searching for treasure was more efficient than taking such risks.

According to her, she had found it yesterday.

"You didn't mention anything like that at dinner."

"If I had, that tiger would have come too, nya."

"You two don't need to compete over something like this."

"This is a matter between beastfolk, nya."

But Myaree said there was something bothering her.

"Something bothering you?"

"It smells strongly of insects, nya. There's probably a good chance it's become the nest of some huge insects, nya."

"Insects... But I'd still like to take a look."

"Nyaa."

While I was preparing to enter the dungeon with Myaree, Anemone came over.

"I'm coming too!"

"We're not going there to play, you know? There could be monsters."

"I told you I'd help with your adventures, Kenichi!"

When I had first met her, she had been a silent girl, but lately she had become quite assertive.

"But if Myaree and I go into the dungeon, Anemone will be alone at home—or rather, either way, it seems dangerous..."

"That's why I'm coming with you!"

"All right, all right."

"Yay!"

Maybe after she got a good scare once, she wouldn't insist on coming along anymore.

Even if we were going into a dungeon, I had to go pick up Primula, so we had a time limit.

I took out my clock and checked the time—I had to go pick her up by around four at the latest.

"Myaree, how far away is it?"

"It's about half an hour north of here, in a crack in the cliff, nya."

"Half an hour by your legs, right?"

"That's right, nya."

――In other words, it was about ten kilometers from here. That was fairly deep into the wilderness.

"Are there any other huge monsters around?"

"No, nya."

Myaree had said that before, but it was a little unnatural in its own way.

In any case, I had to go there and at least confirm the location.

I checked our equipment and brought out the off-road motorcycle. Once I put a helmet on Anemone, we were ready to go.

Most of our supplies were already in my Item Box, and if anything was missing, I could buy it from Shangri-La.

We could clear a dungeon empty-handed.

After riding through the forest for about thirty minutes, we reached our destination.

If I knew the location, it might have been faster to ride the motorcycle along the lakeshore.

Ahead of us, a roughly five-meter-high crack in the cliff formed a black isosceles triangle, its mouth gaping wide.

"This is it...? Myaree, did you go inside?"

"I went in a little, but there was no light, so I came right back out, nya."

Even beastfolk with excellent night vision probably couldn't see anything in that darkness, where there wasn't even moonlight or starlight.

I took an LED headlamp that could be worn on the head out of my Item Box.

I bought another two of the same kind—one for Myaree and one for Anemone. I had Anemone wear hers over her motorcycle helmet.

"Keep wearing this inside so you don't hit your head on a rock."

I tapped the helmet on Anemone's head with my fist.

"Okay."

The crack at the entrance was about five meters high, but the ceiling probably got lower and lower farther inside.

I placed the main unit of a direction finder at the entrance, readied our weapons, and stepped into the darkness.

When I took the receiver out of my pocket, it pointed precisely toward the main unit—this thing was convenient.

Shangri-La didn't sell anything like it, after all.

The wonders of modern technology were a given, but magic tools weren't inferior either—they could move in ways science couldn't explain.

For example, science could create a direction finder using radio waves, but it couldn't accurately show the direction through rock or water.

This magic-tool direction finder, however, could do exactly that.

"This light is great, nya! Since it's on my head, I can use both hands, nya."

Myaree, who was in the vanguard, carried her compound bow on her back and wore the cutlass I had lent her along with a polycarbonate buckler.

I carried a knife and crossbow, and I had given Anemone a knife too, but she wouldn't be able to fight.

She would support us from the rear with magic.

"Anemone, keep an eye behind us too. It's a straight path for now, but if we come to a fork, we could be attacked from behind."

"Okay..."

Anemone was understandably frightened. She was clinging to my back.

"Uwooo—this is terrifying!"

Darkness really did inspire a primal fear. There was no helping that.

If you wanted to experience it easily, you could dive into the ocean or a river at night. It was more frightening than any haunted-house test of courage, so I couldn't recommend it.

Lizard-like creatures scurried around our feet, fleeing from the light and vanishing into the darkness.

Beastfolk like Myaree apparently had excellent night vision, so this sort of darkness didn't bother them at all.

She also said she could immediately sense the presence of monsters—it was like having a biological radar.

Still, that insect smell... I wasn't good with insects. What if it turned out to be a giant roach?

"Kenichi, something's coming from behind us, nya!"

"What?"

I shone my headlamp behind us. We couldn't even see the light from the entrance anymore; it was pitch-black—but...

"Summon barricade!"

I brought a barricade made of assembled logs out of my Item Box and placed it in front of us.

The light caught something moving in the darkness beyond the pointed logs, but—

"Whoa!"

I reflexively raised my crossbow. But the cry that reached my ears was a familiar one.

"Meow."

It was Bell. The Forest Cat slipped past the side of the barricade and rubbed its long body against me.

Had it been following us?

"Phew—don't scare me like that."

I breathed a sigh of relief and stored the barricade back in my Item Box.

――About twenty minutes after we had formed a line and started walking again, with the three of us and one cat together.

We had been proceeding cautiously, so our pace was quite slow, but we should have gone about a thousand meters from the entrance.

It had been a straight path the entire way, with nothing but bare rock continuing ahead and little to distinguish one stretch from another.

The passage had narrowed to about two meters high, but it was still fairly wide, so it didn't feel cramped.

A little disappointed by how uneventful it was, I shone the LED into the darkness and saw something glittering in the distance.

"Myaree, there's something over there."

"Really, nya? Something's shining, nya."

When we went over to it, we found a roughly one-meter-wide, dorayaki-shaped vein of crystal exposed in the rock.

The LED light glittered off it, scattering stars across the rocky walls of the cave—it looked like a disco ball.

"Whoa! This is incredible. I'm going to mine it! You two can start a fire and rest."

"Phew... It was scary, but nothing happened."

"That's right, nya~"

While Myaree built a fire, I took a gasoline generator and electric hammer out of my Item Box and began preparing to mine.

At Anemone's request, I took bread and fruit milk out of my Item Box.

As the campfire dyed the rock walls orange, I pressed the generator's starter switch, and it shuddered to life.

I plugged in the electric hammer and began working. I started digging around the crystal because I wanted to extract as large a piece as possible.

The sound of the electric hammer striking the rock echoed through the cave. It was incredibly loud, but there was nothing I could do about that. This was valuable treasure, after all.

When I looked behind me, Myaree had flattened her ears. Beastfolk had excellent hearing, so this might be hard for her.

I considered sending her outside and mining alone, but then—

――Suddenly, Myaree shouted.

"Kenichi! Something's coming, nya!"

I dropped the electric hammer at Myaree's words and summoned another barricade in front of us.

Bell had bared its fangs and was on guard too. Something was definitely there.

White shadows flickered in and out of the LED's light—it was huge.

Long legs covered in countless wire-like hairs, each made up of linked segments, and several shining blue eyes where its head seemed to be.

"A spider?"

"A cave spider, nya!"

It was about two meters high, but including its legs, it was probably even larger. Since the cave was narrow, it seemed to be moving with its long legs folded beneath it.

So this was the source of the insect smell.

"Summon barricade!"

I arranged the barricades in a triangle, then stacked identical ones on top. I positioned them so the sharp log tips pointed toward the spider.

As I watched the giant spider hesitate at the sudden obstacle, I raised my crossbow and fired.

But the bolt bounced off its hard shell.

"Giiiii!"

The spider's shriek reverberated through the cave.

"Myaree, shoot, shoot!"

"Nyaa!"

The arrows she fired struck one of the giant spider's many glowing eyes. Even if an enemy's body was hard, its eyes were a weak point—

"Giiiii!"

"Anemone! Use magic! Flames of Wrath—Fireball!"

"Ah... ahh..."

Anemone had frozen at the sudden turn of events. This was bad—she had lost the will to fight.

I took firecrackers from my Item Box, lit them, and threw them at the spider.

The deafening explosions reverberated through the cave. Then I threw another.

When I saw the giant spider flinch, I took the off-road motorcycle out of my Item Box and started the engine.

Bell kept the giant spider at bay in the meantime.

"Anemone! Get on! Myaree, we're retreating! Let's go!"

"What about Kenichi's magic tools?!"

"We can come back for them later! Anemone!"

But Anemone remained frozen despite my call.

"I'll carry her out!"

"Please! Bell, you're coming too!"

I turned on the motorcycle's headlight, opened the throttle, and started riding through the cave.

I was worried about whether the Forest Cat was following us, but I had no time to check.

But Myaree, carrying Anemone, was faster than the motorcycle.

The headlight illuminated the rocky walls ahead in a ring, making them stand out—and the uneven ground transmitted its bumps through the handlebars to my hands.

I lifted myself off the seat to absorb the vibrations as I headed for the exit.

I glanced behind me, but there was no sign of the giant spider following us. A few minutes later, following Myaree's back, we escaped the cave.

We left the cave entrance behind and went about a hundred meters into the forest before stopping to assess the situation.

"It doesn't look like it's following us."

"Meow."

Bell also escaped safely and came over to me.

"Cave spiders hunt at night, nya."

"So it lives there?"

"Probably. There should be a nest farther inside, nya. I knew there were insects there, but I never expected to find a cave spider in a place like this, nya."

It was like a giant jumping spider.

"Damn, I want to mine those crystals."

Crystals that huge had to be worth a great deal of money.

When I got off the motorcycle, I hugged Anemone, who was still trembling slightly.

"I guess it was too soon after all."

"That's how everyone's first battle goes, nya."

"Was Myaree like that too?"

"Nyaa? I froze when I first encountered a Fang Bear, nya. Nyahaha."

Beastfolk apparently began hunting as soon as they were old enough to understand things, so she was talking about when she was six or seven.

"Myaree, we'll go straight to the lakeshore from here and ride back along the shore. It'll be easier to ride that way."

"Got it, nya."

I put the dejected Anemone on the rear seat, then cut through the forest and reached the lakeshore.

I got off the motorcycle once and marked the lakeside trees with pink spray paint so we would know where the entrance was.

Then I turned left and rode along the smooth shoreline, cutting through the water.

The sand and pebbles had been packed firm by the water, making it as easy to ride on as asphalt.

But large rocks appeared without warning, so it was wiser not to go too fast.

We reached home in about ten minutes, but Myaree arrived about fifteen minutes after that.

When I checked the clock, it was only around eleven thirty.

Once we entered the house, I decided to eat a light lunch.

Myaree and Anemone had eaten a little inside the cave, and Anemone seemed to have lost her appetite from the shock.

"I'm sorry..."

I patted her bowed head.

"Don't worry about it. It was your first time, so it couldn't be helped."

"Okay..."

"Meow."

Bell rubbed its black body against Anemone as though comforting her.

After that, I worked in the fields until evening, bringing out heavy machinery to turn the compost and taking care of other tasks.

The tomatoes had begun to grow in the fields. They would be ready to harvest soon.

------◇◇◇------

――In the evening, Primula and the others returned from the city, and we all had dinner together.

I decided to make a simple pasta dish today. But long pasta, macaroni, and even spiral-shaped pasta apparently didn't look like food to them.

When I showed them round, flat pasta, no one reacted negatively, so I decided to use that.

For the sauce, I bought a large can of premade meat sauce—the number one size—for 1,500 yen.

"Oh? This is surprisingly delicious."

"Wow, this is great! I thought that strange dish would be a rare miss for the boss, but this one's a winner."

"Don't they have dishes like this around here?"

"No, they don't."

"It's made from wheat flour too, though."

Apparently, they had dishes where ingredients like these were stewed in soup.

Nyamena had been enjoying her pasta, but she seemed to notice the dejected Anemone sitting there looking down.

"What's wrong, Miss Ane? Why are you so down?"

I told her what had happened in the cave.

"What?! Why didn't you invite me to something that sounded so fun?"

"Well..."

I tried to gloss over it, but Nyamena immediately turned her ire toward Myaree.

"Damn it! It was you, Blackie!"

"It has nothing to do with you, Tiger. Besides, I'm the one who found that dungeon, nya."

"Hey, hey, don't fight."

I stepped between the beastfolk as they tried to grab each other and made them return to their seats.

"But still, who would've expected a cave spider in a place like this?"

Even Nyamena seemed to think that these monsters normally lived much deeper in the forest.

"Either way, I have to go back into the cave to retrieve the equipment. I also left the main unit of the direction finder there..."

I had been in such a hurry that I had completely forgotten it. It was expensive too, so I had to retrieve it.

"All right! Then I'm coming too, Boss!"

"Hey, what about your job guarding Primula?"

"Th-that..."

Nyamena faltered and glanced toward Primula.

"I don't mind. I was just thinking that my shop could use a day off."

She said she would close the shop and check the books, but she seemed less energetic than usual.

Suspicious—was she hiding something?

"Primula, is something worrying you?"

"...No... It's nothing."

What's with that pause? Judging by the way she was eating while staring down in silence, there was definitely something wrong.

"Are you keeping something from me?"

"..."

No question about it.

"Primula."

"Ah, Boss. Don't blame Miss. I'll tell you."

"Nyamena!"

Primula tried to stop her, but Nyamena began explaining the cause anyway.

"What? Harassment?"

"Yeah, it's a common story. They don't like a shop run entirely by women prospering. And on top of that, Miss is a breathtaking beauty, making her an easy target."

Harassment by thugs had begun at both the main shop and the branches, making it difficult to operate them.

No matter how capable Nyamena was, she couldn't handle it when attacks happened simultaneously in multiple places.

So that was why Primula had seemed so down.

"Come on, you should've told me sooner."

"I couldn't make you worry, Kenichi... Not when you've already helped me in so many ways."

"Do you know who you're up against?"

"Yeah, a merchant named Sogaram—a real pariah."

Nyamena seemed to know who they were dealing with.

"Well, then, that's easy. I could use my summoned beast to reduce this Sogaram's shop to a vacant lot..."

I stopped myself and covered my mouth. That was close... I was about to go down the violence route again.

I was seized by a strange feeling, as though my actions and thoughts weren't really my own.

What the hell—the leaves had one heck of a side effect.

If I kept chewing leaves every time I fought, of course I'd end up losing my mind.

"Boss! What's a summoned beast? Can you use such incredible magic?"

"Kenichi can use some really amazing ones, nya."

"What?! Then we've got no choice but to do it!"

"I'm in too, nya!"

Don't listen—don't listen to those little devils.

"...or so I thought, but let's not."

"Huh?" "Nyaa?"

The beastfolk, who had jumped to their feet, plopped back down into their chairs.

"Primula doesn't want to resort to violence either, right?"

"Yes... Merchants have their own ways of fighting."

"So, do you have any good ideas?"

"Not yet..."

Primula lowered her head again.

"Is that why you were trying to establish a connection with the nobles? Can't you ask the noble who bought the cameo to mediate?"

"Asking her for a favor in our current situation would probably do us more harm than good. It wouldn't be wise to put ourselves in a noble's debt."

Apparently, selling her a cameo wasn't enough to give us an advantage. Well, she had probably paid a large sum for it.

If only there were some way to earn a noble's favor.

It seemed we could also ask the other 8○3 to mediate, but that would cost money. And once you got involved with the 8○3, it was difficult to cut ties with them.

Apparently, that was true in this world too.

"Hmm, so I need to make the nobles owe us a bigger favor. Let's put that on hold for now—what are you going to do? Close the shop for a while?"

"Yes. If anything happened to the girls I've hired, I wouldn't be able to face their parents."

Since it was a good opportunity, she said she would organize the books as planned.

"Then let's focus on the dungeon. If something like that has taken up residence in a nearby cave, we can't live here in peace."

Nyamena stood up from her chair when she heard that.

"That's exactly it, Boss. If it runs out of food, it might come here."

"That's what worries me."

"All right! It's settled, Boss! I'm coming too! I've been frustrated, and I feel like letting loose for the first time in ages! Hahaha!"

"Even so, can we really defeat a monster that huge?"

"Hahaha! It'll be fine!"

What was with that baseless confidence?

Beastfolk really didn't seem to be the type to think things through very deeply.

"We could use the extra strength for fighting the monster—Myaree, is that all right?"

"It can't be helped, nya."

"Hahaha! A cave spider, huh? This'll get my blood pumping."

"Don't worry. I'll lend you weapons."

"Wow, you're really taking care of us."

Nyamena cheerfully drained the wine from her cup.

"Miss Ane, come to my place before bed."

"..."

"What are you planning?"

In answer to my question, she said she would teach Anemone the basics of being an adventurer.

Well, Nyamena had more experience than I did, so she might have some good advice—but...

"Nyamena, you're not talking about leaves, are you?"

"Leaves? Ah, you mean the stuff you chew before a fight? It's dangerous, so you shouldn't do it too often."

A little late for that.

Well, if it wasn't about leaves, I could leave Anemone in her care. There were probably things the two women could discuss with each other.