Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka

“……”

My eyes slowly open.

I can see a clear, blue sky.

Staring up at it, I can feel a light breeze on my skin. It must have come down from up there.

My whole body hurts. What was I doing… ? Oh yeah—flashes of light, the sudden impacts over and over again—all of them were her attacks.

Did I get owned again… ?

I’ve lost count at this point; if I could move my neck, it would be drooping.

This is my training with Aiz on the top of the city wall.

These sessions are getting more and more violent by the day, to the point where me getting knocked out is not just normal, but expected. More than likely, that’s exactly what happened this time, and I’m sprawled out on the stone floor.

Just when I get around to trying to figure out how long I’ve been out, I notice something soft supporting my head…just happened to be there.

Two golden eyes come into my line of sight, forehead first, as I lay on my back.

“Are you okay?”

“…Waah?!”

That’s Aiz’s face! Suddenly wide-awake, I let out a strange grunt in surprise.

Rolling away from her, I put a little distance between us before climbing to my feet. Sure enough, when I turn around, there she is. Aiz is just calmly sitting on her feet, knees directly on the stone surface.

…My head was in her lap, again.

Ever since that incident in the Dungeon—the one where I used my Magic so much that I passed out—Aiz has put my head in her lap whenever I get knocked unconscious. I wonder if that day in the Dungeon is the reason why…

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that she’s doing this for me…But part of me wants to die. It’s just so pathetic in so many ways.

Aiz looks at me with confusion and pats her knees a few times. Tap tap tap. It’s an invitation to come back.

I shake my head no.

“Is your body feeling better?”

“…Yes.”

She gestures for me to take a seat next to her. My face is always reddish when we’re together, but I feel my cheeks go slightly darker as I sit down at her side.

The rock is really cold on my rear end, but I try to relax and lean back into the wall behind me.

Today turned into a full training day with Aiz.

As for why—I got a message from Lilly that she had to help out at the shop she’s living at today, so she couldn’t go into the Dungeon with me.

So rather than go into the Dungeon by myself, I told Aiz about my circumstances. I feel a little bad about training beyond our usual time, but here we are, still working under the blue sky.

It’s about break time now.

“Um, a-am I getting any better, at all?”

“…Why do you ask?”

“Well, you know, I’m getting knocked out a lot recently…”

I’m getting nervous just thinking about how close my shoulders are to hers, so I start a conversation.

Aiz looks at the side of my face in silence; I don’t have the guts to turn to face her.

“You are, and very quickly…Enough to surprise me.”

“Eh? B-but…”

“It’s most likely my fault, that you keep passing out…I forget my own strength.”

“S-so that means—?!”

She then slowly closes her eyes about halfway. I’ve figured out that whenever she does that, she’s feeling sad.

Her shoulders sink as her mood falls. I try to cheer her up, but at the same time, something feels strange.

She’s the shooting star far beyond my reach.

That hasn’t changed, but seeing her like this makes her seem much more human. The person beside me doesn’t look like the Kenki.

I can’t put it into words…This doesn’t feel real.

The lofty, sublime, and ever-beautiful Aiz Wallenstein has some strange points, just like a normal girl…I only feel this way about her during our breaks.

I only started thinking about this after seeing her be depressed because she couldn’t hold herself back during training.

“…Can I ask you a question?”

“Huh?”

My train of thought had taken me far away when Aiz’s voice brings me back into the present.

Turning to face her directly, I find that she’s hiding her sadness with a very serious expression.

“How are you getting strong so quickly?”

“S-strong… ?”

Her choice of words made my eyes spin for a moment.

Strong—I didn’t know someone could use that word when talking about me. This has never happened before. How am I supposed to react?

All the most pathetic experiences I’ve ever had flash through my head. I just want to curl up in a hole and bury myself right now. But that look in her eye makes me stop and think for a moment.

How I got strong…No, why I’ve tried to become strong up until now…

“…You see, there’s a person that I want to catch up to. I put all my effort into chasing them, and now I’m like this…So…”

My brain’s going a mile a minute; my words aren’t coming out right.

Then again, the “person” I’m chasing is sitting right next to me, but I can’t say that directly to her! Way too embarrassing.

Feeling a bit disoriented, I manage to string a few more words together.

“…I think it’s because there’s a goal I have to reach, no matter what.”

I think I see Aiz’s eyes open a bit wider when she hears me.

She sits silently for a moment before leaning her head backward.

“I see.”

She wraps her arms lightly around her knees and just looks up at the sky.

A slightly stronger breeze rolls through; Aiz’s blond hair tickles my nose.

“…I know the feeling.”

“Huh?” The sound jumps out of my throat in response to her sudden words.

“I, too…”

A strong burst of wind blew in, and took the rest of her words with it. I have no idea what she said after that.

This wind is strong enough to make me shut my eyes.

It’s a sudden cool breeze from the west. The wind sounds like a flute as it passes through the wide avenues of the city.

When I finally reopen my eyes, there she is, sitting in exactly the same position like nothing happened. Her eyes are still gazing skyward.

“E-er…”

“?”

“Ah, um, it’s nothing.”

She tilts her head, showing almost no emotion on her small face. I can’t say anything.

What’s the point in asking her? I ask myself as I sit in front of this girl, with a look in her eyes that I’ve never seen on her before. They’ve made so many expressions—but not this one. It stops my thoughts in their tracks.

Our conversation stops there. Just when I was starting to feel restless.

A bell rings from Orario’s eastern bell tower. It’s noon.

I let the deep echoes of the bell fill my ears. It sounds a lot like church bells, actually. But at the same time, I hear the sound of horses coming from outside the city, beyond the wall. There must be some merchants trying to enter the city gates, and the Guild is conducting an inspection of their cargo.

We’re sitting on a wide stone path on the top of Orario’s city wall. There’s a barrier about chest-high on both sides of the path. A gorgeous view of the city spreads out on the inside of the wall. Looking the other way, I can see a large mountain range surrounded by dense forests and wide plains going far into the distance.

Listening to the unusual mix of bells and outside commotion, it hits me: the weather is spectacular today.

My eyelids droop as I feel the bright warmth of the sun and gaze at the white, puffy clouds in the distance.

“Haah…”

“…… ?”

I turn my head to find the source of that sound, only to see Aiz with her hand over her mouth.

Her small mouth is open, lips quivering slightly…she’s yawning.

Bathed in the warmth of the sun, she puts her arm back around her knees like nothing happened.

Shortly thereafter—

“Shall we practice napping?”

“Huh?”

My eyes shrink into little dots on my face as I consider her rather strange suggestion.

Turning her head to face me, Aiz suddenly starts speaking with vigor.

“You have to be able to sleep anywhere at any time, while in the Dungeon, after all.”

“……”

“It’s important to recover your strength quickly.”

She might have a good point.

I usually spend the day prowling the Dungeon and go home at night, but if I want to go deeper, I’ll need to spend nights down there, too. That means that I’ll need to be able to sleep knowing that there are monsters in there, too, and without a nice warm bed. It’s a problem that I, as an adventurer, will have to face sooner or later.

Aiz explains the importance of getting to sleep quickly, regardless of location, with all seriousness.

But as for me, I can’t even look at her without my face contorting into an embarrassed smile.

“Are you…maybe…sleepy?”

“……”

She then slowly turns her whole body my way and says:

“This is training.”

“R-right.”

Her face is just a few celches away from mine. Sweating profusely, I nod again and again until she backs away.

She looks a bit angry. Did I hit a nerve… ? But her cheeks…it’s only just a little, but they’re turning pink.

I…I can’t breathe…! What am I, an idiot… ?!

“W-well um…are we going to sleep here?”

“Yes.”

She gives a quick nod as she slides away from the wall, before lying down on the stone surface.

This goes without saying, but these stones are hard. To the builder’s credit, the path on top of the wall is very well constructed, but there are some uneven places here and there.

But Aiz doesn’t care about that. She lies right down and starts dozing. So this is the true power (?) of a top-class adventurer.

For someone who has to be able to rest anywhere in the deepest parts of the Dungeon, sleeping here—without any difficulty, I might add—might just be a walk in the park.

“Are you not going to sleep?”

“Ah, um…No, I’ll sleep.”

Feeling really awkward as she stares up at me, I make a little space between us before sitting down.

She’s sprawled out on her side, completely defenseless. If I were to do something impure—not that I would!—I’d have the opportunity…But then I see the blade of her saber, glistening in the afternoon sunlight. That puts an end to such thoughts rather quickly. Trying to pull a fast one on her all but guarantees she’ll mount my severed head on a wall somewhere.

And it’s not like she isn’t somewhat aware of what’s going on around her. Maybe this is another way for a master to test their student? It could be her own style of a test.

…And this is training, after all.

“…Well, then…”

Cautiously inching my body forward, I lay down next to Aiz.

Yeah, I’m not sleepy, at all. My heart is beating too loud for me to even relax.

I take a quick glance at Aiz out of the corner of my eye. But the moment I see her closed eyes, I immediately look away.

I squeeze my eyes closed so tight that I feel wrinkles pop up all over my forehead.

Sleep, sleep, SLEEP! I command myself as I lay on my back.

“…… ?”

I hear it a second later: light breathing.

I risk opening an eye and turning my head, only to find Aiz with her eyes closed and out like a light.

That was…quick.

I know it’s important to regain your strength in the Dungeon, but maybe she’s used to sleeping in places like this?

Or maybe she was just that tired… ?

“…ve, Bell.”

…Wha?

“Make a move, Bell.”

I know that voice. What’s it doing in the back of my head?

There’s no way I could mistake that for something else…That’s Gramps’s voice. He raised me; I’ll never forget the sound of his voice. And now it’s coming from inside my head, for some reason.

It’s getting stronger by the moment. Am I being haunted? Or hallucinating… ?

…Hey, what’s going on…?

Aiz is getting closer… ?

It has to be an illusion. I squint my eyes like I do when I get up in the morning.

There should be enough room between us that one or two more people could fit…so why is…

“Now’s your chance, Bell!”

Now her face is really, really close!

?!

That’s when I notice what’s wrong.

We’re lying face-to-face; the distance between us is gone.

Aiz is getting closer and closer to me…Wait, no! She hasn’t moved a single celch this whole time!

So…so that means…!

“Go, now!”

I’m getting closer to her?!

My heart had been beating like there’s no tomorrow up until now, but it almost stops on the stop. My body is suddenly drenched in a cold sweat.

It’s really happening! My body, it’s getting closer to Aiz!

WHY?! HOW?! Am I really about to do something like…that?!

She’ll kill me!

“Take the opening!”

GAHHHH?!

Even closer.

Her face is getting bigger, big enough that I can see every detail of her innocent, sleeping face.

Her smooth, pure white skin. The nape of her neck…soft, delicate pink lips.

My face turns an intense red as her pristine visage comes even closer.

Wait! Wait wait wait! I scream inwardly.

Almost as if I were being controlled by Gramps’s “guidance,” my body starts to move into an even closer position. And skillfully enough to keep Aiz unaware of my presence. What the hell is going on?!

Am I seriously going to…to her… ?!

“Give ’er a kiss!”

D​A​A​A​A​A​A​A​A​A​A​H​H​H​H​H​H​H​H​H​H​H​H​H​H​H​H​H​H?!

“—No! Wait! Bell!!”

I can hear the Goddess Hestia’s voice ringing in my ears, telling me just how wrong this is.

“Do you seriously think I’d let you take advantage of a defenseless, sleeping girl like this?! I don’t remember raising you to be like that!”

A shiver suddenly runs down my whole body.

Now it feels like my body is being pulled by strings, like I’m a puppet. But I feel…strangely normal.

Yes, the goddess is absolutely right…!

“If you try and kiss her like this, I’ll never forgive you, Bell! Got that? NEVER!”

She sounds awfully desperate, and that tone in her voice sends yet another round of cold sweat out of every pore in my body. I try to put more space between us.

My body shakes back and forth, my progress excruciatingly slow. It’s like two titans of will are fighting for control, and my body is their battlefield.

The “light” of the goddess and the “darkness” of Gramps clash over and over.

“Now, get away from her—”

“The real war starts now!”

“—Agh. Hey! What do you think you’re—gahh!”

—The goddess lost!

Her voice falls silent after a wave of dark energy tipped the scale the other way.

What space was left between Aiz and I quickly vanishes, our noses touching.

“……!”

She’s so beautiful, sleeping peacefully with her eyes closed.

She’s so close that my eyes can’t focus on one spot. My mind and body are burning just looking at her.

With Gramps’s hearty laugh filling my head, I rotate my neck so that my lips will touch hers.

“Wait—just—!”

“!!”

I have control over my body!

My head twitches backward, away from Aiz, as my body rolls away from her.

My heart is beating at an impossible rhythm; it feels like it’s going to explode. I’m practically lying in a pool of my own sweat.

My back to Aiz, I can hear Gramps’s sigh of disappointment. Slowly, very slowly, I look back over my shoulder at the girl.

“……”

She’s still asleep.

Her eyes closed just like before, her breath so quiet and delicate that I have to really focus to hear it.

All the tension suddenly drains out of me.

…wait?

With my heart still beating against my ribs, I catch a glimpse of Aiz’s lips mouthing something at me.

Not “stop”…but “wait.”

That’s what she’s saying, I’m sure of it.

I start to think about the meaning of that word when a sudden surge of guilt flows over me. I put my hands on each side of my head in agony. Just what the hell was I about to do… ?!

AGGGGGHHHHH…I silently scream next to her, thinking about what I was about to do in shame.

“…Haaa.”

I lay there for a few more minutes, the shame and guilt radiating out of me.

I let out a long sigh before putting even more space between us. This won’t happen again. Rolling over onto my back, I stare up at the sky.

The events of the past few minutes on replay in my mind, I somehow manage to cool off my burning face.

“……”

A steady, rhythmic breathing reaches my ears. I’m not even listening for it.

Should I? Should I not? Promising myself not to repeat what just happened, I slowly turn my head to look at her, my cheek on the cold stone path.

“……”

Her face is close—just as close as I remember it from when was lying down before our “practice.”

The sound of her breath reaches my ears. One lock of her blond hair has fallen over her cheek.

I’ve seen this somewhere in the Tales of Adventure…Which hero was it?

Oh yeah, the princess who was cursed to sleep for a hundred years.

She would only awaken when her hero found her, the princess trapped in eternal sleep.

The character I read about so long ago and the girl in front of me have so much in common, right down to their breathing rhythm.

“……”

I lie there, staring at her peaceful face for a moment before looking away again.

Looking up at the azure sky, I lift up my left hand, pinch my cheek and give it a little tug.

Yep, that’s pain.

It feels like a dream…

Being next to her like this, spending time alone together like this.

I put my left hand back down and let myself be drawn in by the sky.

I let my emotions go, my heart feel like it has finally calmed down.

Here we are, just two people lying down on top of the city wall, bathed in warm sunlight. I let my eyelids drop and fall into a deep slumber.

The Orario City Wall was not only strong, it was massive.

It surrounded the city like a ring. An uneven stone path sat on top of the ring and went all the way around the city.

Citizens were forbidden to use it, so there was almost never anyone on the path.

The purpose of the city wall wasn’t to keep things out, but to keep things in. So the inner guard wall of the path was high enough that the path couldn’t be seen from even the tallest buildings. It went without saying that it couldn’t be seen from the ground, either.

The chances of someone seeing the two of them together was next to nothing.

No one could spy on their training, let alone catch a glimpse of them.

It was safe to say that Aiz’s plan to train Bell here, in order to avoid an issue between their Familias, had gone very well up to this point.

“My goodness, you’re in plain sight up here.”

There was however, a place from where their training could be seen: the highest room of the tallest tower in Orario—Babel.

Sitting in a fancy chair facing the glass wall of her own room, Freya watched their training with interest.

Even with the high guard wall, Freya’s room was high enough that she could see over it, and watch to her heart’s content.

“That girl’s soul…the Kenki is blinding…”

Freya was on the fiftieth floor of Babel Tower, in the middle of the city. The distance between her and the humans was much too far to see, but Freya’s eyes were different. She could clearly see their souls shining on top of the wall.

Her Acumen Eyes allowed her to see the quality of any person’s soul by color. She had those eyes on a clear, colorless, glowing spirit and an extremely bright, golden pyre of a soul. There was no way her eyes could have missed them.

She noticed them training beyond the early morning hours, and had been watching their training session all day.

“And yet…things are getting interesting.”

A small smile formed on her lips as Freya ran her fingers through her silver hair and behind her ear.

As her disciple set the stage far below in the Dungeon, the star of the show was receiving training from that female warrior, as her student.

It would be the monster trained by Ottar against the human boy trained by the Kenki.

Freya’s heart was alive with excitement as she thought about this turn of events. It could turn out far more interesting than she had ever thought possible.

“……”

Her silver eyes fell on the two humans for a moment.

They were lying down, as if they’d fallen asleep. Freya watched their souls glow with a smile on her face. Tap, tap, tap. Her fingers restlessly hit the armrest of her chair over and over.

Then her other hand came up and started fiddling with her hair, wrapping it around her fingers. That’s when she suddenly stopped moving.

She’d finally noticed what she was doing. She grimaced and lightly laughed at herself and whispered under her breath.

“Ahh, so now I’m jealous, of her…”

I can hardly believe this, she thought, as she had another laugh.

For a god such as her to feel that way about a child was absolutely absurd, and she laughed at herself for it.

It was how she felt when Hestia and the boy were together. But this time, the feeling was much stronger.

The fact that this golden pyre was shaping the clear light was a little—just a little—off-putting for her.

A small bud of jealousy was starting to bloom in her substantial chest.

“…This is irritating,” she whispered under her breath. She sat up in her chair and looked out the top of her glass window into the clouds.

A few moments passed.

She closed her eyes before opening them just slightly…and filled the room with her exquisite laugh.

“I wonder, just how strong are you now?”

Settling back into her chair, Freya’s eyes once again fell on the boy.

Her gaze was filled with an urge to tease him—and something a bit more vicious: jealousy.

Maybe it’s time to have some more fun with him, she thought with a dark smile gracing her lips.

A sadistic grin reflected off the inside of the long glass wall of her room in Babel Tower.

Following the long corridors and steep stairwells inside Orario’s City Wall, we finally arrive at the door that leads to the city and open it.

The heavy wooden door creaks as it swings to the side, to reveal a back alley cloaked in shadow.

The alleyway itself is strewn with dirty, wooden boxes, piles of old building material, and scrap metal. It looks like someone was using this spot as a storage area and forgot about it, as well as the door in the city wall. Aiz and I make our way through the bric-a-brac and into the maze of backstreets.

We continued training after waking from a surprisingly refreshing nap, before making our way down here in the late afternoon.

“A-Aiz, don’t worry about it. It was an accident, anyway……”

“It’s not a problem. My stomach is empty, too.”

…In the middle of a flurry of swift attacks, you see, my eyes following only the shadows of her movements, my stomach decided to…speak up.

Aiz saw me blush out of embarrassment and suggested getting a light snack. That’s why we’re here now.

I know I only ate breakfast today, just still…ugh…

Holding back tears of shame, I follow Aiz with my shoulders down around my ribs somewhere.

The unguarded door that Aiz found to the normally restricted city wall was on the outer edge of northeastern Orario. After turning many tight corners in the alleyway, we come out into one of the wider backstreets, close enough to Main Street to hear people busily going about their business.

This spot is filled with houses and lined with fancy, pole-shaped magic-stone lamps. This is all new to me. My head on a swivel, I take in as much as I can.

“Can I ask where we’re going?”

“North Main. Tiona told me about a potato puffs stand over there.”

That’s her answer. Tiona…must be another member of Loki Familia.

Right now, Aiz and I are going through the backstreets because we can avoid being seen. And while it’s great that we’re being so cautious, something else is making me nervous being alone with Aiz right now.

Potato puffs…I know that from somewhere. Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

My ears pick up on the hustle and bustle of Main Street. We’re here.

The sun is still in the sky, but very close to setting. The sky is starting to turn red. North Main is alive with elves, dwarves, and demi-humans of all races heading home after work. We really stick out, being in armor and all…Wait, it’s not me. They’re looking at Aiz. I try to make myself as small as possible as we make our way through the gawking crowd.

Aiz isn’t paying them any attention; her eyes are scanning the buildings. She must have found what she was looking for because she suddenly turns into a side street.

It’s not too wide, maybe one of those horse-drawn taxis could fit through, but that’s about it. I take a few steps down the street, and there it is. A street stall selling potato puffs.

—But my body freezes as it hits me.

“Welcome to our…stand?”

A clerk greets us as Aiz pulls back the cloth “door” to reveal…the goddess. Time stands still.

The goddess’s face is stuck somewhere between a welcoming smile and a look of wide-eyed shock.

Reflected in her gaze are Aiz…and me, standing right next to her.

Suddenly, my face is blue.

“……”

“……”