Chapter 47 - Volume 5 (1/2)

Chapter 7 : The Person Inside the Golem

Inside a certain room, pale light was faintly emitted by the walls, and the shadows of three people close to the wall were cast. It was Hajime, Yue, and Shia.

Yue was on Hajime’s right side, while Shia was on his left, and they sat while leaning against his shoulders. Although silence filled the room, if one focused their ears ‘suu- suu-,’ sounds could be heard. It was Yue and Shia’s breathing. They were both embracing one of Hajime’s arms and slept using his shoulders as a substitute for a pillow.

Today marks one week since Hajime and his party entered the dungeon of Raisen. During that time, a lot of traps and annoying sentences continued to exhaust their bodies and minds. They had been returned to the starting point seven times, attacked by lethal traps 48 times, and other meaningless traps for 169 times. Even though at first their hearts were filled with anger toward Miledi Raisen, after four days had passed it looked like their mental states became, “No matter what appears next, it doesn’t matter~”

They had an abundance of rations, and their bodies’ specs made it so that they wouldn’t easily die were the fortune within their misfortune . Now, they were resting after advancing, searching for clues all the while. As a result, they understood the pattern of the structure alteration. Using “mark,” they were able to confirm where those blocks were repositioned.

There might be additional progress from now on. While he thought that, Hajime turned toward the girls that slept on his sides.

“They sleep so comfortably… … isn’t this a Great Dungeon?”

Hajime’s murmur mixed with a wry smile resounded. He had stayed up for a long time as the lookout. Hajime quietly released his arm that somehow got embraced, and stroked Yue’s hair. A slight smile could be seen. Hajime’s eyes also slightly reverted to their former state.

Next, he changed his glance to Shia on the other side. She splendidly drooled on Hajime’s shoulder while “munya munya,” she moved her mouth, and it truly was a slackened sleeping expression. He remembered that she also wanted her head patted, so he quietly stroked Shia’s hair. Immediately, he felt the rabbit ears’ fluffiness. It was followed by her showing a loosened expression that she doesn’t show even under normal circumstances. It was a truly relieved expression. For the most part, it only occurs when Hajime was on lookout, well, it could be said that she’d feel relieved when Hajime was by her side.

Hajime who gently stroked the blue-hued gray hair, as well as the rabbit ears, showed a complex expression.

“Geez, just what’s good about someone like me… … that you would follow me, even here…”

He looked at Shia with tender eyes while throwing abusive words at himself. The thing that Shia sought could be compared to the feelings that Yue had. Even so, Shia’s positive attitude, cheerfulness, and how she cried but never gave up… … greatly attracted Hajime’s fancy. As a result, his strokes became even gentler. And, at that time, Shia who “munya munya,” started to talk in her sleep.

“Munya… … Au… … Hajime-san, how bold~, to do it outside~, … … everyone will be able to see~”

“… …”

Hajime who looked at her with gentle eyes immediately erased his smile. He gently used both hands, and quietly moved them, to pinch Shia’s nose and close her mouth. Shia’s calm expression gradually changed to a painful one, but he didn’t mind it and kept doing it.

“Nn~, nn? Nnh~!? Nnn–!! Nn–!! Puhah! Haa, haa, wh-what are you doing!? Even though it was an attack while I sleep, it has the wrong meaning!”

Shia who “zeha zeha,” panted, woke up then fiercely protested, Hajime turned toward her with cold eyes.

“Well? Inside your mind, what kind of a pervert am I? What will you do outside? Nn?”

“Eh? … … hah, that was a dream!? Why~, even though Hajime-san finally became dere, it was impossible to suppress the pathos that gushed out, and the bashfulness of me that writhes in agony because of those words, finally decided in publi- hebuh!?”

Without listening to anymore of it, Hajime used strengthening to flick her forehead. Shia became face up because of the big impact, and the back of her head hit the wall behind her, hard; which result in her squatting with teary eyes. As expected, her shameless character always slips out.

While rubbing the back of her head, Shia muttered, “Somehow I felt something happy happened, but is it just my imagination?” Probably, she unconsciously felt Hajime patting her. However, because he had known she would get carried away if he told her the truth, Hajime decided to ignore her.

Because Shia woke up (although by force), Hajime gently shook Yue to wake her up. Yue “… …Nn u… …Au?”, let out that lovely voice while slowly opening her eyes. Then, with a blank expression she looked upward and confirmed Hajime was there, once again, she rubbed her mouth on Hajime’s shoulder, then she quietly parted from Hajime and straightened her appearance.

“Uu, Yue-san is so cute… … this is how a girl wakes up~, compared to her I was…”

Shia began becoming depressed this time, and Yue looked at her in wonder, only to let out an explanation, “because it was Shia after all.”

“Look, from the beginning you understood the overwhelming difference in battle power (girl power), right? Rather than being depressed, start doing some soul searching.”

“… … What gentleness, you didn’t drop it somewhere?”

“… …? Hajime didn’t drop anything like that.”

“Gusuh, only to Yue-san. Damn.”

Shia stood up after some soul searching. Yue and Hajime were also ready. This time, they prayed that they wouldn’t be returned to the starting point, and so the trio resumed their dungeon conquest.

Once again, because there will be a lot of unpleasant traps and annoying sentences, they cleared their mind and soul.

Then, Hajime and his party reached a room that they had only visited once, even after a week. It was the room with golem knights that made them remember how mad they were when they got returned to the starting point the first time. However, this time the sealed door was opened from the start, and inside was not a room but a passage.

“This is… … it’d be troublesome if they encircle us again. Let’s rush to the open door at once!”

“Nnh!”

“Yes!”

Hajime and his party broke into the golem knights’ room at once. When they approached the center of the room, as expected, ‘gashan gashan,’ the sound of golem knights rushing out from the recesses on both sides of the walls resounded. From the start, they ran forward while kicking and shooting those golem knights; which bought them some time, while Hajime and his party ran faster still, to reach the altar before being caught by the golem knights’ encirclement. Although the golem knights rushed after them, they were unable to catch up to Hajime and his party that had already passed the door. Having successfully escaped, Hajime was grinning.

However, Hajime’s smile vanished in the next moment. This time the golem knights also passed through the door, chasing after them. Also…

“Wha-!? They can run on the ceiling!?”

“… … Surprising”

“Gravity-san please do your work~!”

That’s right, the golem knights that chased them, as if ignoring gravity, were running on the walls and ceiling, giving off ‘gashan gashan,’ sounds of moving heavy armor. Because of this, even Hajime and his party were surprised by it. Hajime immediately looked at the passage then used “Mineral Appraisal,” but all materials were already known. He didn’t detect any minerals that could neutralize gravity, or any with adhesive nature.

“How did they do that?”

Those were the unintentional mutterings that leaked out from his mouth. And once more he took a peek at the golem knights behind him, becoming even more surprised as he turned around.

One of the golem knights on the ceiling was running while ‘pyon,’ jumping, and like a cannonball it advanced with tremendous momentum toward them while jumping in mid-air.

“W-wha-!? Shitty bastard!”

Hajime let out a surprised voice then fired Donner rapidly. The bullets fired accompanied by flashes, and the golem knight’s helmet and shoulders were destroyed. The golem knight’s headpiece separated from the body, and the large sword and shield were also dropped. However, without falling to the ground, it advanced toward Hajime and his party as is.

“Evade!”

“Nnh.”

“Wakya!”

They avoided the golem knight’s head, body, large sword, and shield that came fast and furiously by jumping and bending their bodies. The wreckage of the golem knight passed Hajime and his party, flew towards the walls and ceiling without reducing its momentum, and then crashed and rolled around on the floor.

“Oioi, isn’t that…”

“Nn… … it looks like it “fell”.”

“Gravity-san is at work, I understand.”

It was just as represented by Yue’s and Shia’s words. Apparently, those golem knights were able to control gravity. Although no one understood why they didn’t use it last time, probably because previously it was a room, they might be only able to use it after the room changed into a passage.

While making that hypothesis, Hajime and his party were interrupted by golem knights that “fell.” Some of them approached while spinning their large swords as if they were pinwheels in a veteran-like manner. Hajime and his party used gunfire and “Rupture” for ranged attacks, while Shia struck those that drew near, and they advanced without stopping.

After a while, Hajime and his party felt a different presence from those knights.

“Muu… … Hajime.”

“Aa, I know. Because this dungeon can reconstruct itself, it must be something like that.”

“W-we are surrounded.”

After falling golem knights, next was the reconstruction to come down. Hajime and his party decided to wait for the platoon to come. The knights came with shields raised and moved gallanty, as if they had become a wall. The golem knights created a two-row formation, where the knight in the back supported the defending knight in front. Perhaps they had learned that with only a single row they’d be crushed with sheer power.

“Tch, how troublesome.”

While clicking his tongue, Hajime put Donner-Schlag back into their holsters. After that, he took out one weapon from “Treasure Box.”

In his hands was a weapon with rectangular shape and 12 rotating barrels, the Rocket & Missile Launcher : Orkan. The rockets themselves were 30 cm in length, each of them had more destructive power than the usual grenade. Using Creation magic, the warheads were installed with stones that could generate “Lightning-clad,” because these stones constantly generate static electricity, they were cobbled together with combustion powder that’d be ignited by the warhead upon contact.

Hajime was grinning while he fixed Orkan to his side.