At a time when the sun had barely even risen, Tsutomu was awakened by a sudden shaking of his body. Tearing open his half-sleep eyes, he saw the indigo-furred man with dog ears throwing open the room’s window curtains.
“Tsutomu, come on, let’s get going.”
“…Huh? Wait, again?”
“One day of running won’t do you any good,” Garm said as if it was an obvious fact, “It’s supposed to be a daily routine.”
“…For real?”
Seeing that Garm had gone out of his way to come wake him so early in the morning, Tsutomu joined him and Daryl, and then met up with Garm outside the city gate for the morning run.
“Gah… Hah…”
“A-are you all right?”
“Don’t touch me, you traitor. Also, your sweat stinks…”
“Whoa, give me a break! You know I can’t go against Sir Garm — not when it comes to this kind of thing, anyway!”
Tsutomu had tried to get himself out of this exercise routine using the excuse that he was a White Mage, but Garm had refused to budge. Then, when he tried asking Daryl for help, the latter just said one word of apology without even making eye contact.
Tsutomu, brushing off Daryl’s teary-eyed rebuttal with an accusatory sidelong glance, proceeded to drag his feet through the city, looking quite exhausted. As Dungeon exploration was the only way in which he got his exercise, running like this was hard work for him.
Still, since Tsutomu had some spare time after his team’s victory against the Winter General, he had voluntarily participated in the routine — even though he had to be forced to at first. Ealdred Crow had stopped their progression to earn back the funds they had consumed on the eightieth layer, so the race to the bottom was practically on hold for now. Considering that, rather than heading down to the eighty-first layer immediately, Tsutomu had decided to wait for his Clan’s other team to make it past the Winter General first.
Besides, once the Stampede was about to start, the public’s attention would be on that — and all the Clans would feel the need to refrain from exploring God’s Dungeon. Tsutomu’s goal was for Team 2 to get through layer eighty before then.
“Oh, I’ll have to excuse myself now,” Xeno spoke up and started walking away immediately, “My beloved wife and her home cooking is waiting for me!”
“I have no idea why you felt the need to tell me about the second part…” Tsutomu replied with a faked grumpy face, his hands in a thumbs-down gesture. “But good for you, I guess?”
“Hahaha! Well then, I’ll see you all later!”
Daryl chuckled at what he saw as a middle-aged man’s comedy routine in a tavern, and then Tsutomu spoke up as if he had just remembered,
“By the way, you two aren’t dating anyone, right?”
“HUH!? W-why’d you bring that up all of a sudden?”
“That’s quite a reaction out of you. Don’t tell me…”
“No! I’m not!” Daryl promptly denied that suspicion, his tail flapping wildly.
“Me neither,” Garm said calmly.
Tsutomu, seeming unentertained by the answers he got, stopped talking as if he had already lost interest in the topic. Daryl, still seeming somewhat excited, proceeded to ask him,
“What about you, Tsutomu!? It’s only fair that you tell us as well — are YOU dating anyone!?”
“You really are interested in this, huh? I’m not dating anyone, no.”
“Huh!? You’re lying, right!?”
“I never really felt like being in that kind of relationship. I’d rather marry the Dungeon, honestly.”
Daryl, not convinced by what Tsutomu had just said, proceeded to follow him and ask the same questions again and again. Daryl seemed particularly excited, perhaps because he wanted to talk about this sort of thing, but Tsutomu was not interested and only gave dismissive answers to the former.
Back in his Live Dungeon days, the Clan he had enjoyed his time with the most had fallen apart due to a real world meeting gone wrong — the cause being the physical relationship kind. As such, Tsutomu was quite disgusted by the mere thought of intimate relationships within the Clan. Moreover, since he had no intention of building that sort of relationship in this world, he approached such topics with an utterly dry outlook — and perhaps even actively avoided them.
“But hey, there aren’t any Clan rules forbidding you from being in a relationship — so if you have anyone you like, go for it! Oh, but you do have to live away from the Clan House, like Xeno does.”
“W-well, I’m not interested, either! The Dungeon already occupies enough of my time!”
“Oh, really…”
“I’m not convinced, either,” Garm added, “You’re about to be at that age soon. Surely you’ve had eyes on someone…”
“A-all right, enough talking about that!” Daryl promptly changed the subject, not liking the odds of this not being turned into an interrogation. “Oh, that boar they’re roasting looks delicious! Excuse me for a moment — I’m buying some!”
And so the boy went away to line up at the stall that was roasting a whole boar over a rotating spit.
“My bet’s on Amira…”
“Hmm, is that so? I think it’s more likely Ollie.”
“Huh…? Ah, right, she could bait him with food. Heh.”
“Exactly,” Garm said, smirking — a rare expression coming from him.
Tsutomu, caught up in the topic, also smirked and proceeded to talk more. And so, when Daryl came back with his boar chops and sweet-and-spicy sauce, the three proceeded to return to the Clan House.
“Welcome back… Oh, will you be having that for breakfast?” Ollie asked, seeming a little sad upon seeing the food in Daryl’s hands.
“Huh? …Ah, um, I still want your breakfast, please! I have room for much more!”
Daryl proceeded to finish his food in a panic.
“Daryl, man… Miss Ollie was about to cook for you, you know?”
“Uh…”
“Don’t worry, Mister Tsutomu. I can just skip Mister Daryl’s portion this morning.”
“HUH!?”
“Now, please wait in the living room.”
“Huh!? HUH!? You’re kidding, right!?”
Ollie chuckled with one hand over her mouth and the other signaling everyone toward the living room, while Daryl looked terrified as if he had just been sentenced to death. Observing those two, Tsutomu and Garm turned to each other, their expressions somewhat mischievous.
In the end, breakfast was served for Daryl as well, but the portion was slightly smaller than usual. Perhaps this was simply out of consideration for Daryl, who had already had a snack before the meal, but that did not stop the boy from apologizing profusely to Ollie afterwards.
“Why do you need to be so loud this early in the morning? I’mma kick yer ass…”
“You’re really scaring me, you know that!?”
“Don’t play too rough, eh, kids?”
“Sir Tsutomu!?”
“Well, jokes aside, do keep in mind that today’s a day off. No training with me.”
Amira clicked her tongue in annoyance, but since she had always known that to be the case, she did not say anything. Afterwards, she invited Korinna to check out the Monitors, and Leleia and Amy went with them as well.
Garm and Daryl seemed to have already planned to visit the Dorren Workshop, so Ollie accompanied them to check their progress on the equipment that she had ordered. Tsutomu, watching his Clan’s members walk out of the Clan House, eventually finished reading today’s newspapers and stretched his joints to let out some fatigue.
Tsutomu had also been invited by the two groups that just left, but he had declined both of them as he was too tired from this morning’s run. The only other one remaining in the living room was the little girl with bright blue wings on her back.
“Oooooohhhhhh…? Hmm…” Hannah grumbled as she held a rice grain-sized Magic Stone, her ruffled hair swaying around like crazy.
“You’re still working at that, huh?” Tsutomu said, folding his newspaper issue as he approached her.
“Not getting any better at it, though,” Hannah promptly replied, sounding grumpy.
“Well, this kind of thing does take time and dedication.”
“Hmm… It’d be totally awesome if I could use it, though! Like, I’d be able to kill the Winter General all by myself!”
As she talked, Hannah clenched her fist, putting pressure on the Magic Stone. What followed was a sound reminiscent of a burst of air — then a scream as if she had been electrified. After she managed to pull herself together, Hannah waved her hand in pain.
“Ah! Teach! I’m bleeding!”
“Why are you doing it here, anyway? <<Heal>>.”
Taking a moment to look at Hannah’s open palm as she approached him, Tsutomu then cast a healing spell on the injury — an insignificantly small cut resulting from the outburst of magical energy, which was mended easily enough.
“The smaller ones are even harder to handle, you know… It’s much easier to practice this in the Dungeon!”
“…Uh, listen, don’t do anything reckless. Seriously, don’t.”
“Huh? Why not? I’ll come back all healed up anyway! It’s fine!”
“No, no, no, that’s after you’re BLOWN TO BITS! It’s totally not fine!”
Tsutomu knew that Hannah had learned the Magic Fist style from Melchor, but the last time he saw her through a Monitor, she had literally been blown to bits after attempting to handle a Small Magic Stone. That one time, she had practically detonated a bomb while holding it in her own hands — totally was not a pleasant sight to see.
Besides, no one had successfully mastered the technique even after seven years since the appearance of God’s Dungeon. Even Bruno, the director of the Security Team, had only managed to barely make it usable — and even then, it was with the help of a unique VIT-boosting skill.
The Magic Fist style was a perfect showcase of Melchor’s strength and skill. Its great power was so unstable that even the nobility — those who could naturally use magic — were afraid of it. After all, the technique’s potential destructive strength — from the act of storing Magic Stones’ magical energy in one’s body and releasing it — was quite comparable to magic.
Mastering it was extremely difficult, however, and even the process of training for it was dangerous, with many powerful fighters having lost their lives in their pursuit. After the appearance of God’s Dungeon, wherein one could come back to life after being killed, various people had tried to learn it with no success. So far, Melchor was the only one who could use it perfectly — it was as if the technique was his very own unique skill.
If Tsutomu were to be honest, he did not believe that Hannah would be able to master it. Having secretly asked Melchor about this, he had even learned that Melchor had never had an apprentice with memory as poor as hers. Perhaps it would be better for her to improve her evasion-based Tank techniques rather than learning a martial art that was way out of her league.
Even among all the eccentric members of Absolute Helix, Hannah could be considered the biggest airhead of them all. She had a hard time memorizing things in general, unlike Amira, who at least could learn combat strategies easily. Still, her intuition was strong enough that it enabled her to make sense of Amy, someone who sometimes would come off as an incomprehensible genius to most others. In fact, she had already somehow learned the trick to stealing the Winter General’s swords.
If she were to focus on her evasion-based Tank training, she was sure to improve at a good rate, However, she most likely would not do that. After all, she was formerly an Attacker who had switched to being a Tank despite everyone trying to prevent her from doing so.
Indeed, she was the kind to fly freely in the sky rather than being confined to a bird cage. Having decided that, Tsutomu had been letting her do whatever she wanted — under a reasonable limit.
Hannah, in reaction to Tsutomu’s words, twisted her body around, feigning embarrassment.
“Aww, are you that worried about me, Teach~~?”
“Nah, I don’t particularly care if you get hurt — so I’m just saying the necessary disclaimers to make it clear that you’re doing this to yourself. And for the record, I DO dislike it.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought! You should learn from Korinna’s example, Teach. She’s WAY nicer than you!”
While she talked, Hannah continued fiddling with the grain-sized Magic Stone, her eyes narrowing and wings flapping… somewhat flirtatiously. Tsutomu’s gaze turned cold, prompting Hannah to flap her wings again… this time angrily.
“What’s that look for, Teach!? You’re the one in the wrong here!”
“Shut up…”
“Ngh… Now you’re acting like you’re calling all the shots! What do you think I am, just a human shield!? I swear, you’re WAY too uptight! You gotta learn to be NICE!”
“I mean, me being nicer to you won’t result in you being a better fighter, right?” Tsutomu said as he started casting some skills and making the wisps fly around, seemingly out of boredom.
“W-what’s that supposed to mean!?” Hannah asked back, sounding somewhat frightened.
“You know what? You’re having it easy not being in my team — the next time you’re with me, I’ll get as much work out of you as I can.”
“W-WHY!? Have some mercy here! I’m just a poor girl! I do need sympathy!”
“I should invite Diniel as well…”
“STOOOPPP!! Spare me my life from that monstrosity!”
As desperate as Hannah sounded, she did not seem actually serious to Tsutomu, causing him to heave a sigh and disengage the skills flying around him.
Having been permitted to fly free, she came back to the bird cage, chirping as if she owned the place. In the end, it was clear that she wanted both — the freedom to fly as she saw fit, and the safety and comfort of a cage.
“Okay, well, practice that Magic Fist of yours however much you like. Just don’t forget that you’re a Tank.”
“I-I know! I’m getting there — we’ll win against the Winter General next time!”
“Gotta wonder where all that confidence is coming from…”
“Hehehe! It’s because all my comrades are with me… RIGHT HERE!”
Seemingly making a Xeno impression, Hannah beat the left side of her chest with her fist. Due to the difference in the sizes of her and Xeno’s chests, however, it resulted in quite an eye-opening scene. Hannah herself, realizing that only after the fact, turned slightly red.
“…And my eyes are up here, Teach!”
“Uh, so where did you want me to look when you said ‘right here?’ …Are you not aware of what you do to your body or something?”
“AHHHHH!! YOU’RE SUCH A JERK, TEACH!!”
As Hannah folded her wings and covered her front with her arms, Tsutomu looked on with exasperation — which seemed to only make her feel even more ashamed. Hannah, her face turning even redder, proceeded to rush out of the living room.
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