Chapter 175

“Am I… seeing things…?”

“I don’t know what you’re seeing, but it’s probably not an illusion.”

The first adventurer we found opened his mouth with a dazed expression.

Fortunately, he was nearly exhausted and had a wound on his leg, but aside from that, he didn’t have any life-threatening injuries.

He had been hiding in a shadowy corner of the ruins, holding his breath, and seemed to be separated from the other adventurers.

“Where did the other adventurers go? Why are you alone?”

“I-I injured my leg and couldn’t keep up with the others when they ran. I thought it was all over, but…”

“Really? Then I guess I know which direction the others went.”

“Y-you’re not thinking of going to find them, are you?”

“If I happen to see them while exploring the ruins, I might save them as a bonus.”

“Yes. That’s why I came here.”

“It’s too dangerous! You need to escape right now…!”

“You’ve been saved, so you don’t care about the others?”

“T-that’s not what I meant…”

“If you don’t want to say it, you don’t have to. We’ll just go find them ourselves. You should head back the way we came. You’ll find a room with water storage.”

“T-the water pool in that room is connected to an exit outside. You can escape through there.”

“….”

At my words, the adventurer looked in the direction we came from, as if he wanted to escape immediately.

But in the end, he seemed to change his mind and pointed in a direction.

“The other adventurers went that way. But it’s been hours since we got separated, so I’m not sure if they’re still there…”

“That seems right. There are traces over there that look recent.”

“Good. That’s enough. You should go back. Even with your injured leg, you can still walk, right?”

But at my words, the man shook his head and struggled to stand up.

“No. I’ll go with you to save the other adventurers. My party members are there too.”

“Fine. Follow if you want. I won’t protect you, so survive on your own.”

“Understood.”

At my words, the adventurer followed us with a determined expression.

—

“Be careful! It’s a Golem! From what I’ve seen, you’ve made it this far without getting hurt, so you must’ve avoided them by chance, but their strength is on a level where even a party of four adventurers of the same rank would struggle! The three of us can’t possibly defeat…!”

*Thud!*

“…Huh?”

*Crash!*

“T-that’s dangerous…”

*Thump!*

“It’s supposed to be dangerous…”

*Bang!*

“That’s right…”

*Crash!*

On the way to find the other adventurers, there were no special obstacles.

If there were traps, Arisa would mostly spot and disarm them, and if she missed any, I would find them.

As for the Golems, their performance was impressive, but not enough to block my path.

There wasn’t anything else besides the Golems.

“…Thank you. We thought we were going to die here for sure!”

“Jerry! You’re alive!”

“Arisa! Did you come back to save us!?”

The second group of adventurers we found.

Fortunately, they were all gathered in one place, making them easy to find.

They said the place they were hiding was a sort of safe zone where Golems couldn’t enter, so they could avoid the Golems’ attacks, but they couldn’t leave either, so they thought they’d starve to death.

The first adventurer we found, Jerry, kept bowing his head to me, thanking me for saving him and his party.

“Thank you! Really… thank you!”

“Don’t mention it. It wasn’t that hard.”

“W-we struggled to take down even one Golem, but you made it look so easy…”

“So, Arisa. How many adventurers are left to save?”

“We’ve saved all the adventurers.”

“Then we can head back, right?”

“No. We’ve saved all the adventurers, but there’s still someone left to save.”

“You said all the adventurers were saved.”

“Yes. The person left is the alchemist who hired the adventurers.”

Ah, now that I think about it, the alchemist from the Alchemist Guild had hired a bunch of adventurers to come here.

After hearing Arisa’s words, I asked the adventurers about the alchemist’s whereabouts.

“Where’s the alchemist?”

Could they already be too late if they’re a non-combatant?

But their answer was different from what I expected.

“The client went further ahead.”

“What? You said the area beyond here is dangerous.”

“Yes. But… the client said that finding these ruins was worth risking their life, so they just kept going…”

“W-we tried to stop them! But they wouldn’t listen…”

Oh no.

I felt a headache coming on, even though I had no trouble dealing with the Golems.

Is this person insane?

“…Alright. I get it. First, since there are a lot of people here, let’s get everyone out and then search for the alchemist.”

“Follow me.”

“Huh? But there are still Golems outside…”

“Don’t worry about that.”

With that, I led the adventurers back to the water storage room where Arisa and I had first entered the ruins.

“Go into this water pool. It’s connected to a pool outside the ruins, so just hold your breath and go through.”

“Thank you so much. I thought we’d die in here for sure…”

“You’re our lifesaver!”

As they thanked me until the very end, I sent the adventurers outside and continued through the ruins with Arisa.

—

Since we had already passed through and subdued all the Golems, the second time through was very quiet.

“….”

“….”

The first time we passed through, we were busy dealing with Golems and disarming traps, so there wasn’t much time for small talk. But this time, with nothing to do, it felt a bit awkward.

I didn’t come here to hang out, but walking in silence like this is a bit…

Originally, Arisa and I were connected through Mari, like friends of friends.

Even considering Arisa’s introverted nature, relationships like that tend to get awkward quickly when the connecting person is gone.

Should I try starting a conversation?

This topic should work.

“By the way, Arisa, do you like dairy products?”

“Huh? Oh, yes.”

Arisa seemed flustered by my sudden question but answered.

But she didn’t seem to reject the conversation.

Food-related topics are always a safe bet.

Fortunately, the conversation seemed to flow.

“Then it’s a shame we didn’t eat together yesterday. I got my hands on some decent monster meat and made beef cheese gratin with it.”

At my words, Arisa seemed to imagine the beef cheese gratin and smiled with a relaxed expression.

“Cheese gratin… That sounds delicious. But I might prefer it without beef…”

“Why? Gratin is good without meat, but it’s even better with meat, right?”

“No. I don’t really like meat…”

“You don’t like meat?”

It happens sometimes.

People who genuinely dislike the taste of meat.

Maybe Dark Elves can eat meat, but like Elves, they might dislike the taste itself?

No, but she enjoyed the milkshake, so that’s probably not it.

“Yes. I’m a Dark Elf, so considering my origins…”

“Origins?”

Arisa said this with a dark expression, bowing her head, and I asked about the part that caught my attention.

“Ah, no. It’s nothing. I just prefer dairy over meat.”

The origins of Dark Elves.

Now that I think about it, the books I read as a child about different races mentioned Dark Elves, but they didn’t say anything about their origins.

As a child, I thought a lot about why Elves became Dark Elves, going over the fairy tales in those books.

Is her dislike of meat related to the origins of Dark Elves?

I felt a sudden curiosity about that.

“…Arisa.”

“Yes?”

“You really like dairy products, huh?”

But Arisa dodged the question when I showed interest in the origins of Dark Elves.

She probably doesn’t want to talk about it.

It would be rude to pry further.

Thinking that, I changed the subject.

“Yes. My mom said I used to cry a lot when it was time to breastfeed, so I must’ve liked milk since I was a baby.”

“I-I see…”

As we chatted about various things, Arisa seemed to become more comfortable with me, speaking without hesitation and smiling more often.

I guess we’ve become pretty close.

But suddenly bringing up such a hard-to-answer topic…

I underestimated the awkward conversational skills of someone without many friends.

As we chatted about this and that, we soon passed the safe zone where we found the second adventurer party and reached the depths of the ruins where the alchemist was said to have gone.

And in the center of the depths of the ruins stood the alchemist, the client, alone.

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