Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 2 (4 page)

I don’t want to think that I could be interested in someone else…Just a little while ago, I was thinking how great it would be to have a harem. Ha-ha-ha, I laugh out loud a bit and try my best to run away from that fact.

The person for me is Miss Wallenstein; the only person for me is Miss Wallenstein…

“…Footsteps?”

I stop jogging.

Thump, thump, thump.
The sound of someone running comes from the other end of the side street. No…two someones, one big, one small. I can tell by the echoes of their shoes.

“Where…?”

I’ve just come off West Main. Looking back the way I came, I can still see people moving on the crowded street. The footsteps are getting louder, and they’re coming this way.

They’re still a little ways from me, but I don’t like the idea of an incident happening so close to my home.

Being as careful as possible, I timidly look around the corner of my usual route.

“Ow!”

“Huh?!”

A shadow passing in front of my face suddenly crashes to the ground. It must have tripped over my foot as the shadow tried to turn the corner.

Trying to keep my own scream down, I turn around for a closer look.

…A prum?

The person is a bit shorter than the goddess, with limbs so thin that
they might break if I touch them. Seeing how small every part of the body is, the name of a certain race of demi-human came to mind.

They are known for loving good food, dancing, and being merry.

“Excuse me, are you okay?”

“Eh…h.”

The stuttering prum pulls her body off the pavement.

She’s a girl. Her messy, chestnut-colored hair is long enough to hide her neck.

She looks like a child. That would explain her small size. Her oversized spherical eyes make quite an impression on me.

“Found ya, ya piece-of-shit prum!”

I’m just about to extend my hand to help the girl up when a human appears at the other end of the street. His rage-filled voice is making the girl shake with fear. Poor girl.

The man’s eyes shine with anger, and he looks to be an adventurer, too.

He seems to be—perhaps twenty years old? He has a relatively large sword strapped to his back and looks much more experienced than me.

“Yer not getting away…!”

The man is like a demon breathing hellfire as he looks down on his prey.

He’s not even looking at me directly, and I still lean back a bit out of fright. This guy is scary…

—What was he going to do to this prum girl?

My body moves on its own after that thought runs through my head.

I step into his path, hiding the girl behind me.

“…What the?! Kid, yer in the way! Beat it!”

The man had been so focused on the girl that he just now realized I was here.

My cheeks twitch. I’ve stared down hundreds of monsters, but I’m not used to this feeling.

Facing down the man’s powerful aura, I square my stance and lock my legs in place.

“Umm…What are you going to do with this girl?”

“Shut it, brat! If ya don’t scram right now, I’ll carve ya up along with the piece of shit behind ya!”

—Nope, can’t move.

My eyes moisten up a bit, but I’ve made up my mind.

I don’t know the details, but this man is about to do something very cruel to the girl behind me.

I pull my backpack off my shoulders and lightly toss it to the side of the nearest building. Of course the man is surprised, but I can see a look of shock on the girl’s face just behind me, too.

The glazed look in the man’s eyes vanishes as a new wave of red rage overtakes him.

“Kid…! Do ya
want
to die?!”

“W-wait…just a minute. If you can just calm down…!”

“Shaddup!! The hell is wrong with ya?! Is short stack there yer friend or something?!”

“N-never seen her before in my life.”

“Then why the hell are ya protecting that piece of shit?!”

“…B-because she’s a girl.”

“The hell are ya saying…!”

Really, what
am
I saying…? But I don’t think I have a choice. That really is the reason. That’s what real men do, right? It’s normal to help a girl in trouble. Do I need any more reason than that?!

“Fine…I’ll slit yer throat first, kid…!”

The man reaches behind his back and draws his sword.

I can feel his intent to kill all over my body. I pull out the Divine Knife in response.

Ahh…I hear something gulp air behind me. Stealing a quick glance, I see the girl has her eyes fixed on me.

No, not me…the Divine Knife?

The man is taken aback at first, but soon assumes a ready stance and glares at me with pure hatred.

—This is bad.

This is my first time facing off against another human…My legs won’t stop shaking. Can I…fight this fight?

I’m already nervous, but his killing energy is starting to make
me panic. Sweat pours down my face. I swallow spit in my mouth over and over again. A ferocious smile grows on the man’s lips as he sees my pitiful excuse for courage in the face of danger. He probably realizes that his opponent isn’t ready for this.

He takes a few steps forward. I would like nothing more than to take a few steps back, but I force the urge down with pure willpower.

I can’t see this ending well for me. But I can’t back down.

It takes all of my power just to raise my eyes to meet his.

The next heartbeat, the man jumps straight for me.

“Stop right there.”

The man never brings down his blade.

A forceful voice fills the area.

The man and I both look toward the source of the voice. An elvish girl holding a large paper bag stands just a few feet away.

Like Eina, her eyes and nose are high on her face. The main difference between her and the half-elf is that this girl’s ears come to a full point.

Sky-blue, almond-shaped eyes bore straight through the male adventurer.

Wait, isn’t she…Lyu? One of the waitresses who works at The Benevolent Mistress?

“Where do these rats keep coming from…?! What’s yer deal?!”

“The one you intend to kill…He is destined to become the companion of a person irreplaceable to me. I will not allow you to injure him.”

What did she just say…?

“What the hell is wrong with people today?! Ya really wanna die so bad?!”

“Silence!”

—The air itself seems to freeze.

The man who was yelling at the top of his lungs swallows his words. Lyu stands before us, her eyes sharp slits on her face. The sheer pressure of her presence is intense. A look of panic works its way onto the man’s face.

I don’t have any room to criticize him; I’m shaking in my boots, too.

“…—…?!”

“I don’t want to cross blades with you. I have a bad habit of going too far.” Lyu sounds detached, almost bored. She is bathed in red light from the setting sun shining in behind her from West Main.

I’ll bet—yes, that’s the truth.

It has to be true; I can tell how strong she is just by her posture.

The adventurer starts to flap his lips, like he’s trying to deliver on his last warning. I hear a sharp
shing
, and suddenly there’s a stiletto in Lyu’s free hand.

C-couldn’t see it at all…

“D-DAMN IT!”

The man turns slightly blue in the face before making a hasty retreat.

“……”

“Are you all right?”

The girl in front of me managed to fend off an adventurer without having to even throw a punch…I’m more than a little scared of her now.

I wipe off the sweat that built up under my chin.

Whether I’m sweating this much from staring down the man or from Lyu’s display of power, I’m not sure.

Is Lyu, maybe, an adventurer herself…?

“Th-thank you very much. I was in a bit of a pinch there…”

“No, I’m sorry for getting in your way. I’m sure you could have dealt with this situation on your own just fine.”

“I’m not so sure about that…”

I’d been petrified. I couldn’t see myself getting out of that alive.

I scratch my chin and avoid looking at her. “Um, Lyu, why are you here?”

“I was shopping for supplies to prepare for this evening. Unlike in the afternoon, adventurers visit our establishment in the evening. So if we are not fully stocked, many problems tend to occur. I happened to see you in the middle of my errand, and you know the rest.”

That makes sense. The Benevolent Mistress is a popular bar, so they would run out of ingredients and wine rather quickly.

Then again, “I know the rest”…We don’t know each other very well. Maybe Lyu has a strong sense of justice?

“What about you? Why are you here?”

“Well, you see, this girl here…Huh?”

I spin around, looking for the prum girl, but she’s gone. She’s vanished into thin air.

“Was someone there?”

“Y-yeah. At least, I thought so…”

She must have gotten scared and run away.

It can’t be helped; even I was scared out of my wits.

But that does seem kind of strange…

“If you will excuse me, I will take my leave now.”

“All right,” I say. “And really, thank you so much.”

We exchange a quick bow and go our separate ways.

“Alrighty…”

Bell, fully equipped in the new armor he bought the previous day, took a look at himself in the mirror.

It went very well with his black inner clothing and pants. The new armor was so light that he could barely feel it. He would be able to move freely in combat.

His new emerald-green protector lightly sparkled on his left arm.

Bell ran his fingers down the outer edge of the gift from Eina with a smile on his face.

“Goddess, I’m heading out!”

“Gotcha…Have a good day…”

He grimaced a little at the sight of his exhausted goddess, sinking ever lower into the middle of the bed. Bell reached for the door. He had already given up on getting an explanation as to why the goddess was working at
Hephaistos Familia.

Bell took one last look into the mirror. Now that he no longer
had to wear Guild provision equipment, he looked more like a full-fledged adventurer. Bell smiled at his reflection and gave a nod of approval.

He left the hidden room under the only church, dagger and Divine Knife tucked into the armor behind his lower back.

Nice weather today…

The sky that opened up before him was blue and clear.

A smile perked up his lips as he gazed at the sky. He felt like something good was going to happen today.

He followed the side roads to West Main, and then down to Central Park.

Bell joined the waves of adventurers gathering at Babel Tower.

Seize the day…
Bell mouthed to himself, a certain blond-haired, golden-eyed girl on his mind.

“Mister, mister. Mister with the white hair.”

Bell stopped in his tracks, trying to figure out if the voice was addressing him.

“Huh?”

He turned in the direction the voice came from, but all he could see were other adventurers coming and going, all of them avoiding making eye contact. None of them could have been the owner of the voice.

“Mister, down…down here.”

The voice of a little girl tickled his ear. Dropping his chin, he saw she was there.

The girl stood about 100 celch tall, dressed in a plain cream-colored robe. A hood covered most of her face with a little bit of chestnut-colored hair sticking out. A backpack at least twice, no, three times her size, big enough to surprise Bell, was strapped to her tiny shoulders.

Bell’s eyes went wide as he felt a strong sense of déjà vu. Memories of the event on the side street the day before came flooding back into his mind.

“A-aren’t you…?”

“Pleased to meetcha, mister! If you don’t mind me asking, are you looking for a supporter?”

Interrupting Bell’s words, the girl pointed an almost infant-sized finger toward the boy’s back.

She was pointing to his backpack.

Anyone could guess that an adventurer walking alone and equipped with a backpack was going solo—perhaps thinking
If only I had a supporter…

So the girl had come to confirm and asked him directly.

“W…what…?”

“Are you confused? This is a pretty simple situation, you know. A poor supporter has come to you, an adventurer, to sell her services in the Dungeon.”

Opposite Bell’s wide-eyed, confused look, the girl squinted her eyes and smiled from ear to ear.

“No, I mean, but…aren’t you…from yesterday…?”

“……? Mister, have you met Lilly before? Lilly doesn’t remember.”

Many adventurers gave them annoyed looks as they passed by, wondering what these two were doing in the middle of the road.

“Are you sure?”

“So, mister, do you want a supporter?”

“Well…if I could find one…Yeah, I’d like one.”

“Really? Then please take Lilly with you, mister!”

The girl looked so happy and innocent, her round eyes shining through her bangs from under her hood. Those big eyes found their way to the knife tucked nicely into Bell’s waist.

“I suppose that’d be okay…”

“Ah! Names? Sorry, Lilly didn’t introduce herself.”

The girl took a few steps back and cheerfully smiled at Bell.