Senpensekai no Madoushoshi - CH 139

Yosh, I’m going to do my best. Not that I wasn’t going to do my best in the first place.

Since Rose-san told me I was a good girl, I had no other choice than to become an even better girl.

“Just be here”

Maybe what she said is true, and everybody really does want to stay with me. But, that doesn’t mean I’m content with doing nothing. That’s not how I’m built.

If I don’t have anything to do, I need to look for something to do. And if there isn’t anything for me to do, I should create something to do.

We continued our way further down after we finished looting the bold loires’ bodies.

[Lapris]: “Whatcha doing Iris? Shouldn’t you be watching where you’re going?”

[Iris]: “Ah, yeah. Just……”

I slid my bag over my shoulder and fished out a book. It wasn’t a grimoire or a spellbook. However there was no other book like it in all the world. It was the book Grandpa gave me.

[Lapris]: “What’s wrong with your head that you would want to do some light reading in a place like this?”

[Iris]: “Hey now…….”

No, I know. Lapris isn’t trying to be rude here. Maybe. She’s simply worried for me. Probably.  It’s just that she’s not very good at getting her point across. Definitely.

[Iris]: “It’s not that. There’s just something I needed to check.”

I flipped through the pages until I came across the part I was looking for.

I’ve already read this section a number of times before, so I had a pretty good idea of where it was at and what was written there already.

I skimmed through the open page, making sure what was written matched up with what I remembered.

[Iris]: “…….okay.”

[Lapris]: “………..?”

♠

[Carol]: “Okay, time out.”

Carol gave the same signal she had given tens of times before today and brought our march to a halt.

[Carol]: “Then I’m going to take a quick look ahead, so wait here for a bit.”

It’s been two hours since we defeated those bold loires. We continued down the next set of stairs and have been alternating between fights and breaks the whole time.

Whenever Carol makes the sign she just gave us, it means there is some kind of trap set further ahead.

[Toslin]: “What kind of trap was it this time?”

Toslin nibbled on a cookie while listening to Carol’s voice echoing back from a little further ahead.

[Carol]: “Mm~? I’ve already cancelled it, but I’m pretty sure it was a teleporter.”

[Toslin]: “Oof, a deadly one. It probably would have delivered us straight to the evil dragon’s throne room.”

[Iris]: “Teleporters are the ones that send you off somewhere else right?”

[Toslin]: “Yeah, that’s right.”

They’re a common trap in adventure novels.

Magic circles are drawn into the floor or wall, and when you touch them or get too close, the spell is activated and forcefully transport you somewhere else.

It’s not too bad so long as the destination is somewhere nearby or at least on the same floor.

However in most novels, the destination was always inside a monster’s den, a room filled with traps, or in the absolute worst cases, high up into the sky or at the bottom of the sea.

The heroes inside adventure novels are always able to save themselves through a miraculous stroke of inspiration, but if one of us were to be sent away like that in real life, there is no way we would be able to survive.

[Carol]: “Yosh, it’s safe to cross. Oh, but don’t step on the tile to the right. A needle will come shooting out of the wall.”

[Iris]: “Hii!? Say those kind of things earlier!!”

My foot was just about to come down on that exact tile, so I hurriedly jumped to the left.

[Iris]: “Ah, sorry!!”

Causing me to bump directly into Saluena.

Saluena, who is twenty centimeters taller than me, adorned in armor, and carrying a sword and shield. She isn’t going to budge at all from me bumping into her. On the contrary, I ended up bouncing off her.

[Saluena]: “Oops, our princess is rather careless. Did you bump your nose just now?”

Saluena caught my hand and pulled me in close.

[Iris]: “T-Thank you…… I did, but it’s okay.”

My nose hurts, but not enough to make me cry. Because I’m an adventurer.

[Rose]: “Are you sure? Let me see.”

[Iris]: “U-Umm…….”

While I was holding back my tears from leaking out, Rose-san came over and touched my nose.

[Saluena]: “Use a healing miracle just in case.”

[Rose]: “Right. Hold still please Iris-san.”

[Iris]: “Huh? No no, I just bumped my nose a bit you know?”

Lately I’ve been wondering. Aren’t they spoiling me a little too much? I’m really happy that both of them would worry about me, and if this was our room instead of a dungeon, I would enjoy their goodwill to the fullest.

But unfortunately this is a dungeon. And we’re already quite far down. We’re on the 35th basement floor, and in a dungeon that is supposed to be 50 floors deep, that means we are over halfway down.

We might encounter some exceptionally powerful monsters in the future, so I would rather not waste Rose-san’s miracles on something like this.

[Iris]: “I really am okay!! So let’s hurry and move on. We still haven’t found the monster we’re looking for.”

The dungeon beneath Osnell is famous for how enormous it is. Despite having a map that has allowed us to travel down the shortest routes possible without having to explore any, it is still taking us hours to travel through one way.

[Rose]: “If Iris-san insists……”

[Saluena]: “It can’t be helped. Shall we move on?”

I managed to persuade them both, and so we rejoined Toslin and Carol who were waiting for us up ahead.

And when it came time to explain why the delay……..

[Carol]: “Are you okay?”

[Toslin]: “I brought some painkillers with me. Did you want one?”

the two of them were worried to the point of overprotectiveness as well.

Am I supposed to be the team mascot or something? No, if we’re talking about mascot-like cuteness, Carol is a hundred times better……

[Lapris]: “It ain’t nothing that won’t heal if you just spit on it.”

Yeah, there we go. It’s usually pretty irritating, but it is during times like this that I appreciate Lapris’s straightforward personality.

[Carol]: “Maybe we should spit on you then?”

[Toslin]: “Didn’t we spit on her until she cried in the Swansea Forest? That’s a good memory.”

[Lapris]: “I’ll kill you both!!”

Lapris immediately tried escaping despite her aggressive words.

Her direction, further down the passageway. Right into a hall built like a semi-circular dome.

[Lapris]: “Hm? Oi you guys, what’s that up ahead?”

Lapris pointed further into the darkness where our lights couldn’t reach.

Inside there were two flickering lights bouncing around inside the darkness as if performing a dance.