Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

The words that came to mind, evoked by her voice, spurred me on to keep forging ahead.

(After being driven to the brink of despair—!!)

A turn over.

My stunned master vanished before my eyes. I gave up resisting the force that had thrown me off balance and spun around like a top. The longsword sliced ​​through my back, leaving a gash, but so what? I tried to mimic the movements of the Sword Maiden (that person) from my memories, switching places with my opponent and flashing behind the elf!

"—A major turning point is definitely coming!!"

I shouted out the teachings I longed for, and with a forceful swing, I gripped the dagger tightly in my right hand, refusing to let go.

"────────────────────────!?"

With that roar, I bent my knees and unleashed the fastest spinning slash I'd ever made.

Even when attacked from completely out of sight, the master still responded.

He let out a chilling exhale and, with lightning speed, flipped his body out of the attack range.

I really used all my strength in this attack, but in the end, I missed.

With two powerful footsteps slamming into the ground, my master widened the distance between us. The double-edged dagger, which had been flying towards the red sunset, fell a beat later, landing right between us in the ground.

At this moment, I was panting heavily, covered in wounds and sores.

In contrast, the master didn't even breathe a sigh of relief, his expression so calm and detached that it was despairing, and he fell into silence.

However──

The white elf, with its back to the setting sun, quietly reached out a finger and wiped its cheek.

"...He actually managed to injure...my nemesis (Herdin)..."

Mr. Hegney, who was watching from the sidelines, whispered this.

Taking this opportunity, the other members began to stir.

Miss Haici looked back and forth between my master and me as if she were witnessing something unbelievable.

A scar appeared on the elf's beautiful face.

Bright red water droplets slowly trickled down her fair cheeks.

That's all there is to it; it's just a trivial wound.

But it still succeeded.

Thanks to the various factors that have accumulated up to this point, Bell Craney's strike successfully caused damage.

"Proof" This was guidance from my aspirations, and I no longer needed to question it. I breathed heavily, my shoulders heaving, and clenched my fists.

"..."

Master first stared at the blood on his fingertip, then slowly raised his head to look at me.

I faced that gaze head-on and spoke my heart out.

"Master... I am who I am."

Regardless of how others feel or what kind of reaction it might elicit, I've decided to shout out the feelings that have welled up inside me.

"I am—Bell Craney!!"

The sound reached the elf's ears clearly.

The field fell silent instantly; no one uttered a sound. The crowd seemed unable to comprehend what they had seen or heard, time oscillating between reality and fantasy.

Suddenly, I noticed the light coming from the setting sun.

The afterglow of the setting sun caught my eye, causing me to squint.

And within the dark red light.

My master, still with his back to the setting sun... seemed to slightly raise the corners of his mouth, giving me a smile.

"What nonsense are you spouting? It's just a small scratch on me, stop getting all cocky."

"Puguhu!?"

"If you want to be smug, at least let me get my clothes dirty first."

I barely blinked, and my master instantly appeared in front of me.

Then it delivered a solid kick to my stomach. Exhausted, I was unable to defend myself and, with a scream, I bent over, clutching my stomach, and collapsed to the ground.

Master is still the same as always...!

"To prevent you from getting too arrogant, I'll have to teach you a lesson... That being said, the sun has already set."

"Go back," the master said before turning and leaving.

As if the magic that had frozen time had finally been lifted, the other members finally came to their senses.

As everyone climbed the hill toward the mansion, they kept turning to look at me. Even Miss Heather, who had kept her lips tightly shut, and Mr. Hegney, who had silently sheathed his sword, gave the same reaction.

Bathed in the crimson twilight, the warriors' shadows were imprinted on the sea of ​​grassland.

At first, this scene only made me feel extremely sad, but now it's different.

As I pushed myself up by placing my hands on the ground—

I saw small white flowers blooming in the field, swaying bravely in the wind between my fingers.

*

Dark red sunlight streamed into the room through the window.

The light of the sunset shone on the profile of the silent male god.

"Hermes, please get to work... Don't you even think about how many documents are waiting for your review?"

"...Hmm? Ah~ Sorry."

After being reminded by Falgar, one of the weretigers under his command, Hermes finally gave a distracted response.

Like a traveler's lodging, this room, with its walls covered in nautical charts and maps, is the shrine of the Hermes Familia's main camp (headquarters).

Sitting in the chair in front of Hermes was a desk with an hourglass, chess pieces, and other miscellaneous items scattered around. Falgar placed the documents he had brought on the desk, gradually turning the mountain of documents into a crooked mountain.

"You've been slacking off a lot lately, and a lot of your documents are about to expire... What are you planning to do with them?"

"Hermes, please cheer up!"

Lulu, the chienthrope forced to open the door with her foot, spoke breathlessly as she walked out from behind the haggard-looking Falgar and placed a large amount of additional documents on the table.

Besides exploring dungeons, the Hermes Familia's "business" extends to logistics and freight, information sales, promoting merchants, and assisting travelers. As a result, they receive numerous contracts and documents requiring approval every day, sometimes so many of these tasks that even the "guild" staff turn pale at the thought.

"After all, Asphie isn't here right now~"

"To be precise, she's missing... Since 'Grace's' reaction hasn't disappeared, it means she should be safe and sound, but where did she go?"

Because Hermes usually slacks off, his assignments have been particularly delayed lately.

To put it another way, the excellent team leader who always complains while helping to solve problems isn't here to oversee things.

Lulu and Farga sighed at the ever-growing pile of documents that no matter how much they helped, and once again realized the greatness of Asphyxi.

"Furthermore, this year's firewood distribution was assigned to us... Why won't the guild hand it over to the [Ganesha Familia] as usual?"

Lulu found a chair nearby and slumped down, unable to hold back her complaints.

Hermes, however, paid no heed, his fingers interlaced lightly touching his lips as he silently asked and answered himself.

(—Wait, am I stuck in a loop?)

With a very serious expression, he broke out in a cold sweat as he realized he had asked himself this unprecedented question.

(When did it start? Where did this "abnormality" begin in what seemed like a familiar daily routine?)

Hermes noticed.

He realized that he might be being distorted by some kind of "charm (magic)," and that everyone's current daily life was actually a "deadly life" with some kind of fatal error.

Whether adventurers or gods, everyone living in Orario is completely unaware of this, except for Hermes, who gradually gets closer to the "truth".

(I have my reasons. It's the subtle "distortion" that exists in daily life—specifically, there's a contradiction between "the former God (me)" and "the God (me) from six months ago"...!)

This is something that neither Loki (the clown god) nor Hephaestus (the blacksmith god) could do, and only Hermes, who often left the city to "travel," could perceive.

(The messenger god (Hermes) cannot possibly stop traveling and stay in the same place for too long. But in these six months... no, these four months, his travels suddenly stopped...)

(The reason I'll cut short my trip is probably because there's something here that can trap me in the city. If so, what could it be?)

(...but I just don't know. It's not that I can't remember, but rather that I'm unable to process the information.)

Lost in thought, Hermes couldn't help but gasp.

It was only through objective external factors that Hermes was able to observe this unnatural phenomenon for the first time.

It was as if someone had set a limit (geas) for him, preventing him from even generating cognition.

(The most important key element is this letter I received...)

Hermes pulled open the right drawer of his desk and took out a letter.

He stared at the letter, which had no sender's name or address, his body trembling slightly.

"Has the periodic report not been sent out yet?"

When Hermes first saw the urgent message in the letter, complete with emoticons (illustration), he was first greatly shocked before he felt annoyed.

—Have I forgotten to keep in touch with the kind old man (Zeus)?

This is Hermes' regular work.

He maintains contact with a powerful deity who is no longer in Orario. To avoid giving himself away, he sometimes travels to the deity's location in person. This is Hermes's job as a messenger god, a complicated relationship with this deity, and a secret known only to Hermes and his companions.

Unfortunately, Hermes had forgotten to contact them for more than three months.

No, Hermes was certain he could never forget this.

Although it's just speculation and I haven't figured it out yet, I can assume that he just didn't have time to get in touch.

The reason is that, starting six months ago, we went through "three turbulent months".

The only possible explanation for the sudden cessation of communication by the meticulous messenger god is this.

(The problem is, not only do I have absolutely no recollection of those "turbulent three months," but I also didn't leave any related records. Even if we insist that the records were altered, what about my memory—? The only explanation is that it was modified without my knowledge.)

"Three turbulent months" - during which the "heretic (something)" incident occurred, the artificial maze (something) was dealt with, and various related cleanup work was carried out, but Hermes couldn't remember any of it and was unable to recognize the traces left by a certain boy (someone) in the incident.

The conflict between conscious and unconscious awareness finally made the male god realize the "contradiction" in it.

(And I... I'm afraid I'm still trapped in this cycle of thoughts!!)

On Hermes’s table was a stack of parchment held together with thumbtacks, intended for use as a memo.

The stack of parchment was greatly reduced, with dozens of sheets torn off.

A total of seventy-seven sheets.

There were remnants of burnt parchment around the candle.

Hermes naturally had no recollection of this matter. Even when questioned, Falgar and the others insisted that they would not tamper with the main god's private property, clearly not lying.

Therefore, the only criminal who could tear up the parchment would be himself (Hermes).

Hermes disposed of his own things.

The bizarre act of writing so much and then personally disposing of it implies something—

(For ease of identification, let's call it "the previous me" for now—"the previous me" also sensed the "strange feeling" of being in the present situation and wrote it down in a memo to leave clues—but this conflicted with the "rules," so "the previous me" lost consciousness and disposed of what I had written...!)

This is both a wild imagination and "God's conviction".

This phenomenon exists under certain "conditions": when Hermes resists, he loses consciousness, erases the traces he left behind, and resets his thoughts.

After his thoughts were reset, he fell into a thought loop at least seventy-seven times due to a "sense of strangeness".

The moment Hermes arrived at this hypothesis, he felt a chill run down his spine.

(How could they do something like this without anyone noticing, not even us gods?!)

Faced with the fact that even the gods had been turned into "puppets," Hermes bit his lip and turned his gaze to Falgar and the others.

"Falgar, you said you needed to pass on a message from 'me three days ago,' right?"

"...Why are you asking about this again, God Hermes? This conversation has been repeated countless times, and it's been going on for days."