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Then a week passed, and the city calmed down after the festive season. We had left the lodging facility and moved to a single room in an inn. It was a quiet and relaxing place.

 

Daniela and I had nothing to do during that week, and so we just spent our days lazing around. When we did go outside, people would swarm around us, as we were the ‘winner and runner-up duo.’ Though, it did mean that people would buy us food and drink at night. Daniela got to eat to her heart’s content. I felt a little bad that people were spending money on us, but I had to accept it, as it was all part of their festival tradition.

 

But even that started to fade after a few days. People returned to their jobs and normal life continued. We had gone to a Lambrusen restaurant yesterday, and it was pretty quiet.

 

Today was the day we finished moving. It so happened that Lemon’s inn was nearby, which meant we had already seen much of the area and knew that there was no point in exploring it.

Daniela was standing by the window now and staring at her hollow bracelet. It was times when I caught her like this, that I wished I could paint. Then, without warning, Daniela’s rapier materialized in her hand.

 

“Woah.”

“Watch.”

 

As she said this, the sword disappeared and her bow took its place.

 

“The bracelet?”

“Aye. Now I will be able to switch weapons much more smoothly.”

“I’m so jealous.”

 

How nice would it be to be able to switch between a one-handed sword, greatsword and a spear on the fly… It was also pretty impressive that Daniela even thought to use it like that.

 

“I am not giving it to you. It is my prize for winning.”

“I wasn’t going to ask for it…”

 

That being said, watching her was like rubbing salt in the wound. If only I could do something similar with the hollow bag…

 

But speaking of prizes, I had Velnoir. I took it out of the bag and inspected it. The blackness seemed to suck in all the light. It was pretty cool.

 

“I didn’t expect to get an actual Emperor’s sword.”

“Aye. It was a surprise.”

 

We had talked about what the prize might be before the fight. And the possibility of receiving such a treasured sword had been brought up. But it was still a surprise.

 

The Black Empire Blade was longer than the demon sword. It was two-edged and had a ‘sword breaker.’ So…it was for fighting humans… Certainly, it was something that could come in handy against bandits. Not that that was a very appealing use for such a sword.

 

Apparently, it had been wielded by an Emperor known as Kisaragi. Unless my guess was wrong, this person was from Japan. Perhaps he was called the ‘Black Emperor’ because of his hair. Hmm…Black Emperor. Black Rabbit. What caused this difference in treatment, I wonder… I suppose it was the good old ‘protagonist compensation’ thing.

 

“Ah, Asagi.”

“What?”

“I took a walk to the guild recently, and heard a rather interesting rumor.”

“An interesting rumor?”

“Aye. About a labyrinth town to the south.”

“Labyrinth town?”

 

A town that was like a labyrinth. Who would want to live there?

 

“Yes. The labyrinth is underground. Below the town.”

“Uh, wouldn’t that make it a sort of dungeon?”

“Yes, a dungeon. And the rumor is related to this dungeon.”

 

A dungeon under a town. And a rumor regarding it…

 

“They say that the dungeon has been cleared recently.”

“Uhhh… And I was just thinking about going. No point now.”

“Hold on. I have not finished. This dungeon is supposed to have a core deep within, and when touched, the formation of this dungeon shifts. That seems to be what happened. And the result was that half of the town was swallowed up.”

“That sounds like a complete disaster?”

“It is. And the guild is going to investigate it.”

 

This was pretty big. So someone went dungeon crawling and caused half of the town to be swallowed up… Perhaps it was a trap for treasure seekers…

 

“So, we have our next destination then.”

“Uhh…we’re going…? I don’t like the sound of this place at all.”

“I do not see how it would be possible to ignore something so fascinating.”

 

Daniela showed that she had every intention of going. And we had only just got our new room. It seemed like a big waste of money.

 

“I want to go.”

“Yeah, but…”

“I want to go.”

“Still…”

“I want to go.”

“…”

 

She was being unreasonable… She had been like this when we decided to enter the tournament as well… In that case, there was no other option but to go…

 

“Fine. Let’s go…”

“I love you, Asagi.”

“Yeah-yeah…”

 

And that was the moment that our next destination was decided.

Still, a town swallowed up by a dungeon… Sadly, the words had an adventurous ring to them that began to stimulate my sense of curiosity.

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