Chapter 115 – Role (2/2)

“Hm…. It's good that you acknowledged it quickly, but you already hurt my feelings. What should I do?”

“More importantly, I'm not the type of person who believes in just talk.” Her mocking tone clearly indicated her desire to toy with her prey.

Bob Cut endured the humiliation and opened her mouth, “I'll show it with action.”

“Looks like you're not hopelessly stupid…. You, how many rooms have we broken through so far?” When Straight Face suddenly asked Snake Eyes, who was watching the scene with an amused expression, Snake Eyes simply shrugged her shoulders.

“How should I know?”

“I know you're drawing a map.”

“Chet. So you were just pretending not to care.”

She took out a piece of paper from her pocket and began to count the rooms one by one. “This is the fortieth room exactly.”

“Forty rooms,” Straight Face calmly recited the count before continuing, “Good. Taking the difference in our levels into account, just clear twenty rooms.”

“Twenty…?”

“I don't care whether you go left or right. But she, he, and I won't help you. Just like we did, you guys open the door and take care of what's inside.”

Straight Face emphasized the words, 'you guys'. Seol Jihu was about to politely lodge a complaint as he was excluded without a choice, but when he saw Maria glaring at him to stay put, he decided to just let things play out.

“You don't want to? Then don't. But I want you to stop following us.”

Bob Cut bit her lip. She didn't have a choice.

“Fine, but once we break through twenty rooms….”

“Then I'll comply with your self-introduction and move as a team.”

A deal had been reached.

Bob Cut turned to face the three people next to her. Two of them were Priests, so they had to be excluded. The only one left was the woman holding her s.h.i.+eld. The Warrior-Archer combination was certainly ideal.

“Are you willing to help me?”

When Bob Cut asked, the brown-haired woman, who had been watching silently until now, smiled, “Of course.”

Saying that she was feeling guilty doing nothing, she slowly held out her hand.

“I'm Sophie Chalet1, a Level 3 s.h.i.+eld Warrior.”

Bob Cut's face became dazed before turning into a bright smile. “I'm Lara Wolff, a Level 3 Sharp Ranger.”

The atmosphere turned wholesome for the first time since the Banquet started.

“Hah.”

Snake Eyes snorted as she watched the two women shake hands, while Straight Face made a profound smile.

And thus, Sophie Chalet and Lara Wolff began to clear the way together.

Seol Jihu was forced to the sidelines against his will, but he stuck with his decision to let the situation play out. That said, he was cheering for the two women on the inside.

In truth, Seol Jihu didn't see this woman named Lara Wolff in a bad light. Because it was true that she followed them without doing anything, he wouldn't have sided with her if all she did was complain. However, she had acknowledged her fault and apologized.

'She also brought up the self-introduction idea first.'

As Seol Jihu had learned the standard procedure, he found Straight Face's modus operandi to be the unconventional one. While he acknowledged Straight Face taking the lead to open up a path, she had done so of her own volition. She even told him to not bother her when he first tried to help.

To be frank, Straight Face had changed her tune to her benefit when she was pus.h.i.+ng Lara Wolff to a corner.

Because of this, Seol Jihu cheered on the two women marching forward on their own. Unfortunately, just as he realized during the rescue mission, reality often wasn't beautiful.

Putting aside the fact that the group was now breaking through the rooms at a much slower pace, the Level 3 duo began to struggle after a short time.

The problem started with Lara Wolff.

“In front of this… mm….”

It would have been one thing if she was a Pathfinder, but as a Ranger who was more focused on combat abilities, she was lacking in scouting abilities. But even taking that into consideration, there was a world of difference between her and Snake Eyes, who would spit out accurate information in just a second or two.

“…Priest-nim?”

She even asked Maria to cast a barrier before they opened the door, but Maria flatly refused. After all, a Priest's spells weren't infinite. The end of Stage 1 was nowhere in sight, so if she used a spell every time they opened a door, she would run out of them in no time.

Naturally, with inaccurate information, more burden was placed on the Warrior. Sophie Chalet had abilities matching a Level 3, but all that meant was she was average. And because her armors were poor comparatively, she became more and more wounded as time pa.s.sed.

That wasn't all.

“Ah~ So slow~ At this rate, it's gonna take us months to clear Stage 1~”

“G.o.d, how did they even think to enter the Banquet with their abilities? Were they hoping their team would carry them?”

Sometimes, the kind sister-in-law's concern was more annoying than the nagging mother-in-law. Though, in this case, Snake Eyes was nowhere close to being kind or concerned.

They were already having a rough time, so they couldn't help but get angry when Snake Eyes provoked them from time to time.

In the end, an accident occurred amidst the ugly atmosphere. A monster had swung down its axe and split Sophie Chalet's s.h.i.+eld in half.

“Aaaaak!”

The s.h.i.+eld Warrior fell on her b.u.t.t with a shrill scream. Although she managed to escape with her life thanks to Maria's barrier, she was severely injured. Her left arm had been crushed to the point where her white bones were protruding out.

“Not easy, huh?”

Lara Wolff was sitting on the ground with a stunned expression when a shadow cast over her body. Straight Face was looking down at her while fiddling with her shoulder-length, black hair.

“Her arm can be healed, but without her s.h.i.+eld, her combat ability would be halved.”

“…Yes.”

“What are you going to do? You're not even at the halfway mark. Wasn't that the eighth?”

“You….”

Continually fiddling with her hair, Straight Face suddenly grinned, “Want me to let you off the hook?”

“Excuse me?”

“You still have twelve doors left to open, but it's not like there isn't another way to do that.”

“What do you mean?” When Lara Wolff asked with a face that wasn't expecting much, Straight Face raised her index finger.

“Ask politely.”

“Ask? If it's just that—”

Straight Face shook her finger left and right.

“I said politely.”

She then curled her finger until it pointed at the ground below her feet. “First— Crawl here on all fours.”

Immediately, Lara Wolff made an indescribable face. Even Snake Eyes' expression contorted strangely.

“Hyaa…. You're a huge pervert, huh. What a charming personality.”

The corner of Straight Face's mouth twisted up. This was more of a hobby than a personality. She felt an odd pleasure in seeing dignified, confident people submitting to her.

It was the same with the current situation. Lara Wolff might have been happy when Sophie Chalet agreed to help her, but now she was driven to a corner. She had been full of hope just a moment ago, so how would she look crawling on the ground, unable to withstand the despair? Just imagining it sent a tingling feeling down her stomach, making her smile.

“Well, it will at least help my hurt feelings recover a little.” Straight Face pushed her hair back and waited for a reply.

“It's okay.” However, the answer came from Sophie Chalet, who was receiving treatment from Maria. “We're almost halfway done. We'll keep going just a bit more.”

“…Oh yeah?” Straight Face smacked her lips somewhat disappointedly. “Then hurry. All this waiting around is making me bored.”

“Got it. We'll continue as soon as my injuries are healed.” Sophie spoke without losing her smile, and Straight Face turned back.

On the other hand, Seol Jihu was struggling internally. Although he ended up on Straight Face's side, he didn't like the way she was handling things.

She was bored just like she said. It was as if she grew tedious waiting for an exit. She was then toying with the Level 3 duo just for the fun of it, as they ended up getting trapped in a spider web. Once she got bored of doing this, she would no doubt return to charging through the rooms.

If the three of them joined hands like in the beginning, they would be able to get out of this place quicker. Seol Jihu didn't want to waste his time on this farce.

'What should I do?'

Straight Face and Snake Eyes.

Sophie and Lara.

Maria and….

'Hm?'

As Seol Jihu looked at each member of the party, his eyes stopped when it reached one girl.