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

Eina and Bell were also thrown back by the blast, and they landed on the ground together, seemingly in sync.

"Be... Belle!? Are you alright!?"

"I...I'm fine...Compared to me, that person is more..."

Still in the position of being pushed down, Eina propped herself up, while Bell, whose back and the back of her head were slightly charred and smoking, pointed unsteadily at the center of the disaster.

Eina snapped out of her daze, hesitated for a moment, then stood up and went to Dorumur's side.

“Ugh…”

The entire dead-end alley was completely destroyed by the "Demon Sword," and in the center, Dorumur was burned to a crisp.

He was emitting black smoke, and the head of the giant hammer beside him was gleaming.

"Is he... alright...?"

"Hmm...he's still breathing."

Bell came over, and Eina told him that Dorumur was alright, which put the boy at ease.

As for Eina, she looked gloomy.

She couldn't believe that the culprit in this incident was Dorumur.

Eina, working as a guild waitress, had seen all sorts of people and adventurers and considered herself to have a good eye for character. This dwarf, though somewhat prone to arrogance, was inherently gentle and kind; he simply didn't seem like the type to do such a thing…

Eina lowered her head, her gaze sadly drooping.

"..."

Beside her, Belle slowly raised her head and looked around at the walls surrounding them.

He seemed to have an inescapable sense of unease, his gaze shifting back and forth between Dorumur and the sky above.

*

Dorumur, who had fainted, was carried into the guild headquarters by Bell himself yesterday.

The guild will question him once he regains consciousness, but perhaps the blow from the "Demon Sword" was too powerful, as he has not yet regained consciousness.

Eina was still reeling from the blow and was distracted at work.

"Eina, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm sorry."

A knot remains in my chest, only time keeps flowing by, welcoming the arrival of night.

Eina gave Missia and her colleagues, who expressed their concern, a wry smile and walked out of the guild headquarters.

Of course, Bell wasn't by his side. The matter was temporarily resolved, and there was no reason for him to continue accompanying him.

Night had fallen, and she once again walked home alone along her usual route.

“—Huh?”

Without any warning.

Suddenly, Eina glanced back and saw an undeniable presence enter her field of vision.

The all-black hooded robe was the same clothes the person was wearing when she first discovered she was being followed.

Eina's face turned deathly pale.

「!?」

No way! She started running in astonishment, and when she looked back, the person in the hooded robe was chasing after her.

(Mr. Dorumur really isn't...!?)

The real culprit was someone else; the dwarf youth was indeed uninvolved. Eina's face turned deathly pale at this thought. Dorumur just happened to be there; he probably genuinely believed Bell was going to take Eina into the alley.

A sleek, single road led to an upscale residential area, deserted in all directions. The dying magic stone streetlights illuminated Eina's tense and terrified profile.

The other person is running fast and is about to be caught.

The approaching presence almost made Eina scream, a scream that no one could hear.

"[Flame Lightning]!"

However, just a second before, Yan Lei responded with a deafening roar.

Behind Eina and behind the hooded robe-wearing people, the "magic" struck the stone slabs with a restraining force, and the explosion made the astonished Eina and her companions stop in their tracks.

The next instant, a white figure, chasing after Eina and the others along the rooftops of buildings facing the road, leaped into the air at breakneck speed.

The figure descended rapidly, slashing at the hooded man from mid-air.

"call!"

「!?」

"—Bell!?"

The hooded man in the long robe, who had hastily raised his short sword, was sent flying by a sharp blow.

Eina exclaimed in astonishment when she saw the white-haired boy landing in front of her.

"I'm sorry, I was still worried... I'm late."

Seeing Bell panting as he spoke, Eina, freed from her fear, felt a huge weight lifted from her shoulders and longed to embrace the boy immediately. She quickly wiped her emerald eyes, which were brimming with tears, and asked Bell:

"You... what do you mean by 'worried'?"

"I didn't want to scare you before, so I didn't say it... Actually, when I walk home with Miss Eina, sometimes I feel like more than one person is watching us..."

Bell went on to say that during the battle with Dorumur, he also vaguely sensed another gaze.

He didn't think he had made a mistake; he had originally planned to go home with Eina today. But when he heard at the guild headquarters that Eina was feeling down and had already left work, he rushed over without thinking.

"—Drink up! Aa ...

“““!?””””

In an instant, the situation took another sharp turn for the worse.

A large dwarf charged in like a chariot from a side road.

All three people on the scene froze, and then the man swung his fist and punched the man in the hooded robe.

The opponent hurriedly dodged at the last second.

"Are you alright, little sister Eina!?"

"Even Mr. Dorumur...!? How did you get here...? No, how did you leave the guild!?"

"I broke through the wall and escaped!"

Eina felt dizzy and almost fainted, pressing her hand to her forehead.

Dorumur, oblivious to her reaction to the sweating Bell, stared at the enigmatic figure.

"Is it you!? The pervert who's been stalking Aina's sister everywhere!"

Huh! Eina was stunned to hear that Dorumur knew about the problem she was facing.

Upon hearing this, the person in the hooded robe began to tremble, and then pulled down the hood of his robe.

"No, you're not allowed to call me that filthy 'pervert,' you dwarf!?"

"Mr. Luvis!?"

Eina was shocked for what felt like the umpteenth time.

The golden-haired elven youth, his eyebrows raised in anger, stared intently at Dorumur.

"A pervert is a pervert, you cunning little devil! How do you plan to explain this situation?!"

"Ugh... I... I just wanted to... confess my feelings to Miss Eina..."

Luvis blushed and glanced at Eina, hesitated for a moment, then shook his head as if he had made up his mind.

"In short! I just feel that this roundabout approach still doesn't suit my personality! You've misunderstood me too much!?"

"Huh? What did I misunderstand?!"

Bell was completely out of the loop, flustered and at a loss for what to do. At this moment, Eina felt like she was talking to a brick wall.

She used the tenacity she had cultivated in her position to intervene between the two.

"Please wait a moment! We need to talk this over. Please calm down!"

Hearing Eina's rebuke, Dorumur and Luvis could no longer argue, and simply glared fiercely at each other.

Seeing that the situation had stabilized somewhat, Eina breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Luvis first.

"Could you please explain, Mr. Lewis? Tell us how things came to this."

“Okay, okay…”

Under Eina's gaze, Luvis nodded stiffly.

"A few days ago, when I went to the guild hall... I heard that Miss Eina was being followed by someone, and I felt I had to do something about it."

Eina widened her eyes slightly, realizing that he must have heard Missia shouting at the window.

Dorumur probably learned of Eina's problem in the same way.

"Huh? Stop lying, it was definitely you from the beginning...!"

"Mr. Dorumur, please calm down. And then, Mr. Lewis?"

"Yes... so I consulted with the chief deity of our [Family]."

...Hmm? Eina stopped what she was doing.

"The Lord God told me that a real man should protect women secretly, so I secretly hid beside Miss Eina, keeping watch on suspicious people..."

"...That's what my god told me too. He said the quality of a good man is that he silently watches over you from behind."

"W-What?"

...She began to have a bad feeling.

"So, you two were secretly spying on me out of concern...?"

"Yes, yes."

"Yes, you could say that."

"Isn't that almost the same as being a stalker?" Eina swallowed the words with great difficulty.

As I listened further, I learned that the recent intense pursuit methods, such as ambushing and waiting for others, seemed to be the idea of ​​their main god.

They said they were so eager to attract Eina's attention that they sought advice from the gods.

Incidentally, they harbored considerable hostility towards Bell, who was hired as a bodyguard, and only after watching him flirt with Eina did they finally unleash their murderous intent.

It sounds like... could it be that Eina seems to have identified the culprit?

"Mr. Dorumur seems to have worn this before... Mr. Lewis, what is this robe of yours...?"

"Yes, my savior said some strange things, saying this is the latest 'trendy clothing,' so..."

"Um... dressing up like this might just scare Miss Eina..."

"What?"

exactly.

Bell timidly raised his hand and said that he was absolutely right. The strange costume would only frighten Eina, and in fact, she almost misunderstood them herself.

Dorumur and Luvis seemed to only notice at this point, and remained silent with heavy expressions.

Just as silence entered the group of four, a burst of laughter was heard.

From somewhere came extremely unpleasant laughter.

(I... I knew it...)

Luvis and his companions looked up sharply and saw two gods pointing at them and laughing heartily on the roof of the building.

—Everyone has been tricked by the gods.

They were treated as toys to amuse God when He was bored, and were truly manipulated in the palm of his hand.

The ones who initially followed Eina in their hooded robes were likely the gods. From the beginning, the two gods intended to make the love-struck Dorumur and Ruvis dig their own graves, giving them terrible advice so they could enjoy their comical antics.