“Perfect timing! I was meant to defeat you sooner or later! Come on! Too scared!? Come on!”
Wind swirled around his gripped magic sword.
Honed air, violently made visible by the smoke. A small tornado centered on the magic sword, gathering power to repel the floor master even now.
Even in this situation, Leader Chronos’ vigor didn’t change.
That brought me back to myself.
I tried to shout “Run–!”
But the next instant.
The floor master took just one step, so fast it was practically teleportation, and was suddenly right in front of us.
“…Hm?”
It tilted its head.
Looking puzzled.
It seemed to be closely observing us too.
I felt like its face slowly came into clear, vivid focus.
Jutting uneven teeth. Knife-like claws at the ends of its long arms.
Its eyes shone fiercely, so bloodshot I could tell from here blood was churning through its whole body.
Instinct understood.
We can’t win.
Not even on that level.
Like insects can’t kill humans, we can’t defeat the floor master.
I couldn’t believe the same level of being had been defeated until now.
“Kyaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!”
Leader Chronos shouted, raising his sword overhead.
But the floor master was overwhelmingly faster.
Casually, flicking away like kicking a pebble on the road, Leader Chronos tumbled through the burnt forest, blown back by its sleeve.
I awoke.
Sitting up, the first thing I saw was a stranger’s hunched back.
Noticing I moved, he slowly turned this way. I saw an ill-omened face.
“Good morning, Leader Chronos.”
Who’s this?
“Please excuse my haste, but are you aware of your condition?”
Waking up and asked like that, it took me time to think straight.
Tracing my memories slowly, I properly recalled.
I was confronting the floor master just before.
“Is this…a hospital?”
“Yes. We brought you here. However, as expected of Leader Chronos. With such grievous wounds, to recover like this… It shows the scale of your talent as an adventurer.”
That’s right. I took a terrible blow.
“Regrettably, your left ear and the wound from your neck to stomach cannot be helped. You’re fortunate to still have your life intact.”
And I lost. A sneak attack.
I touch the left side of my face.
I felt the hard texture of dry bandages.
I couldn’t tell what was under the bandages by hand, but my skin’s perception of my hand’s touch was strange. Fierce itching and heat mixed with the pain.
Noticing my face’s sensations clued me into the aching all over my body. Dull pain I didn’t notice before swelled up.
I was jerked back to reality all at once.
“What happened to everyone!?”
What happened after that?
I want to believe I bought time for everyone to escape but…
“Of the twenty five who reached the frontier, eight including you Leader Chronos are seriously injured.”
“Wait, what about the rest?”
“Five are missing. We searched with all our power but… Seven have been confirmed dead at this hospital.”
“Bullshit!”
No way.
Deaths on my labyrinth dive?
That can’t happen.
“Then what about Nicola and Maris, Sophia!? How are those three!?”
“Don’t worry. They only have minor wounds but are safe. We owe it to Ms. Sophia’s quick wits. Classical it may be, but playing dead in that situation took considerable nerve.”
“I see…”
They’re alive huh.
The sole silver lining in this disaster.
But still.
We lost.
That weighed heavily on me.
The ill-omened faced man staring at me without twitching didn’t move at all, pissing me off even more.
Like urging me to accept the facts.
“Damn…!”
“Ah! Your hand bones are also broken. Please take care.”
Can it end like this?
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I need results now.
I have to make myself known to the whole city.
Can’t accept it. If I do, I’ll…
That face started surfacing in my mind.
“No!”
Don’t think about that. Accepting or not.
If I don’t, I’ll…
“Annoying. I’m going back to the party house. To prepare for the next dive.”
“If I may, Leader Chronos. That will be quite difficult.”
“Hah?”
Come to think of it, who the hell is this guy anyway?
A doctor? He doesn’t look the part.
“Word of this labyrinth dive has already spread among the masses. The conditions for preparation don’t seem ideal either. Furthermore, I must say the party Team Wings of Dragon itself lacks that much leeway.”
My face grew hot.
This guy looks down on me and my comrades.
“Who the hell are you!”
“Pardon me. I am called Gereon. Pleased to make your acquaintance going forward. Heeheeheehee.”
“That’s not what I’m asking! Just who the hell are you!?”
“Oh! Please don’t get so heated. My words must have been lacking. I don’t mean Leader Chronos is at fault or lacking at all. This time it really was just a run of bad luck. People suffered from that misfortune alone.”
“Making fun of me!?”
“It’s the truth. You’re strong. Misfortune is the first to befall those who tread the edge. There were casualties but you yielded ample results. No one can deny you advanced the pioneering of the 99th floor.”
The man’s theatric tone drained the venom from me.
The foolishness of my own anger passed through my head, and I decided not to raise my voice pointlessly. It wastes energy.
I breathed out.
“So? What do you want?”
“Seeing you Leader Chronos driven into dire straits because of your courage is hard to watch. I want to offer my assistance.”
“…What’s your aim?”
“I don’t blame you for suspecting. We evaluate Team Wings of Dragon, or rather Leader Chronos, highly. Above all, your talent is obvious from the fact you returned alive after your first encounter with a floor master.”
The man calling himself Gereon explained resonantly.
“Obviously. Don’t say things as if I doubt my own power.”
“But no matter how gifted, if environment or information make the difference, there are times one’s power can’t be utilized well. This was a prime example. …Or conversely, cases where one lacking in talent and skill just happened to exhibit power also come to mind, no?”
The man pierced me with his gaze as he spoke.
It felt like he was implying he knew everything, that he already shared my dissatisfaction and the path to it beforehand.
“…Continue.”
“Yes. We want to provide means to compensate for such unfairness–”
It was the worst.
Word that Team Wings of Dragon had gathered people to challenge the frontier, and suffered casualties, had already spread through all of Villebron.
Even when Chronos left the hospital and returned to the party house, noticed townspeople pelted him with stones.
Everything was distasteful.
The dark rumors of the 97th floor master subjugation swelling under Vim’s exploits, and an incident that was half-proof of that, happened.
Additionally, many who dropped out of this labyrinth dive gave up due to Team Wings of Dragon’s sloppy leadership, not just those who couldn’t keep up at all.
Those people freely talking about their frustrations in town let the rumors grow endless tails.
It hampered even our relatively lightly wounded lives.
We could barely leave the party house except at night.
The location was still in one of Villebron’s safer areas so that was good, but if it was elsewhere, we might have gotten arsoned. Thinking about that gave me chills.
That’s how important labyrinth dives were to Villebron’s people.
The people worried about and enjoyed adventurer’s developments, praising and spending money on them without hesitation.
And talk of subjugating floor masters made even more people excited, naturally.
I didn’t know what to say to Chronos when he came back.
We all went to greet him but no one could say anything.
His previously unblemished handsome face now had a massive scar. The parts where the scar was visible were the recovered areas – the left half of his face, which had especially serious damage, still had tight bandages wrapped.
His previously confident eyes were clouded like a dead man’s.
I doubted if this person really was that Leader Chronos.
“Hey everyone,”
Right after closing the front door, he looked around at us and said:
“Trust me one more time. I’ll definitely succeed this time.”
I took back what I just thought.
The light in Chronos’ eyes was murky but it hadn’t gone out.
It shone brilliantly as if nothing frightened him anymore, eerie yet dazzling.
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Yeah, Chronos must have made a devil’s deal… Inferiority complex masked by superiority complex sure makes people stupid.