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

On my way to my destination, I encountered monsters repeatedly, as if they too had heard the commotion of the "explosion" and rushed over. Monsters like the devil mosquito, the blue crab, and even a giant crystal turtle appeared, blocking my path.

Aside from winged creatures like "Happy" or "Silen," fire-attribute magic isn't very effective against the aquatic monsters of the "Water City." I only use quick-attack magic (fire and lightning) for restraint, using my left hand (which is always busy) to tear apart enemies and repel their attacks with my right hand's "White Illusion."

I dodged the attacking monsters and arrived at a place... a scene identical to the one I had just witnessed.

"...!!"

Large holes were dug into the walls, and cracks appeared in the ceiling, from which crystal rain poured down.

The difference from before is that many adventurers are shouting.

"What's going on here?!"

"Everything is a complete mess... What happened to make it like this!?"

The explosion site presented a scene resembling hell on earth.

The adventurers from the expedition who had parted ways on the 27th floor gathered here, guided by the sound of the explosion. On a wide, regular path littered with numerous crystal fragments of varying sizes, they surrounded the fallen adventurer.

"Tsk... He was murdered."

"Not the face that joins the extermination squad!"

The word "death" gripped my chest.

Humans and orcs were covered in blood and gore, their bodies severely burned. Their charred eyelids would never open again. The stench of burning human flesh filled the nostrils, causing an unbearable feeling of nausea.

My hands and feet are cold.

My chaotic emotions caused me to lose my mind.

For a moment, I couldn't even stand up straight.

This even made me feel like I had been baptized by the "lower class".

Unlike back when I was in the "upper" or "middle" class, I never imagined I would encounter so much "death."

Rambling thoughts arise and then vanish, an attempt to escape reality.

"...!?"

Are there other victims here?

This was also... made by Miss Ryu!?

I had the illusion that the dwarf adventurer I was holding was getting heavier, and at the same time, I was sweating profusely all over.

"【White Rabbit's Feet】! Where the hell have you been?!"

"!...Mr. Perth!"

In the maze where roars rose and fell, an exceptionally loud sound flew towards me.

I put the dwarf adventurer down and asked Mr. Perth and his party who had come over:

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have acted on my own! But the situation is...!"

"...We just arrived, so we're not entirely sure. But...it's clearly not the work of a monster. The one who did this is..."

Halfway through my sentence, Mr. Perth noticed the dwarf I had placed on the ground, bearing a knife wound.

"Hey, where did this dwarf come from?"

"Who, who is this...?"

"Could it be... that [Hurricane] was behind this!?"

"...!"

I can neither deny nor affirm Mr. Perth's question.

I couldn't speak up for her.

But what could I say? Should I tell people, "These knife wounds were all inflicted by Miss Ryu, but it wasn't her fault"?

Mr. Perth and the others took the injured adventurers away and began to treat them, while I could only stand there dumbfounded.

"No, he hasn't regained consciousness! Can't anyone tell me what happened?!"

"Perth! There's a survivor! This person is conscious!"

"!"

Mr. Perth, who was initially taken aback, immediately changed his expression upon hearing the report. So did I.

When we went to the adventurer who had called us, we saw a cat-man slumped against the broken crystal wall.

"──"

Seeing that person's miserable appearance, I felt as if my insides were churning.

First, he was missing an arm.

A blood-red tear ran down to the upper arm of the right sleeve, revealing that the forearm was missing.

His face was covered in burns and cuts, and his head was bleeding profusely. One of the ears on his head, a feature typical of orcs, was missing.

The man was so badly injured that one couldn't help but want to look away.

"Hey, can you talk?! What's going on here?!"

Mr. Perth was interrogating a criminal, yelling at the man.

The orc adventurer put the remaining fingers of his left hand into his mouth, making his teeth chatter as if he had only just noticed, and looked up at Mr. Perth.

His body was exceptionally long and thin, even among the mostly slender cat-people, and he was hunched over and curled up in a ball.

"Hurricane, hurricane, [Hurricane]... That bastard Leon...!"

"You said [Swift Wind]!?"

"She blasted me with 'magic'! I only saw a bright light before my eyes, and then everything went blank...!"

"...!"

Mr. Perth pressed me on the nickname, and this testimony left me speechless with astonishment.

Before I could calm down and was unable to move, Mr. Perth leaned forward and asked, "Where is that guy now?!" trying to get information, but the Amazon among the team members stopped him.

"Wait, Perth. Treat him first—"

As she reached out, the orc man's eyes widened suddenly.

"Do not touch me!"

「!?」

"Don't touch me, please don't touch me...!"

The man not only brushed the Amazon's hand away, but even fell to the ground to try and create distance.

He clutched his head with his remaining hand, twisting his body repeatedly as if afraid of something. His appearance was more than just miserable; it was abnormal, leaving Mr. Perth and the others at a loss.

It was like falling into chaos... no, panic.

"...? Hey, you wouldn't happen to be... Jala Harma of the Rudra Familia, would you?"

Seeing the cat-man tossing his hair, rubbing his profile on the ground, and the tasteless monster (monster) skeleton earrings, Mr. Perth seemed to notice something and widened one eye.

The man also trembled.

"Do you...do you know who he is, Mr. Perth?"

"Yes... Known as the [Slaver Cat], she belongs to the Rudra Familia, an accomplice of the Evils... It was this faction that framed and massacred the Astrea Familia, to which [Hayate] used to belong..."

Thump! This is the most my heart has ever pounded all day.

[Astraea Familia]'s... Miss Ryu's "enemy"?

"Five years ago, the rampaging [Gale] destroyed the [Rudra Familia], and slaughtered all its members. Everyone should have been taken care of... So you're still alive."

Ignoring my silence, Mr. Perth looked down at the man he called Jallus with a stern gaze.

"No, that's right... I'm the only one who survived! From that guy! From that bastard Leon!"

The cat-man trembled and admitted that he was part of the "evil forces".

Then, in a panic, he looked up at Mr. Perth and the others, wagging his tail and begging for mercy.

"But then I stopped doing bad things...! It's true, I've been hiding in that dark, sunless 'labyrinth' all this time...!"

"...!"

"But Leon found me! So I fled all the way here...!"

While Mr. Perth and the other adventurers were greatly shaken by this unexpected turn of events, only I discovered that the "labyrinth" this man referred to was the man-made labyrinth (Knossos).

As the Ikelos Familia—the brutal hunters—said, that artificial labyrinth was a breeding ground for "evil" and a secret hideout, and this person was living there.

But... ah... unfortunately, the next situation makes sense.

Even I can guess the whole story of this incident now.

Miss Ryu found her companion's (familia's) "enemy," rekindled her anger, and became consumed by revenge—

So she obeyed her passion and attacked them.

Without blood or tears, with a cold profile that I happened to see.

"So Aján was murdered in the Rivera because of his connection to this guy..."

Mr. Perth and the others covered their mouths with one hand, their faces showing expressions of complete realization.

I also pictured in my mind a scene that anyone could imagine.

"Please! Save me...! I won't do anything bad again, please hand me over to the guild, protect me, protect me from that guy...!"

A cat-person knelt on the ground, begging for mercy and pleading with us.

It didn't look like acting. The fear of [Gale], the trembling in his eyes and his physical reactions, really didn't seem fake.

I am forced to stand between the reality before me and the narrow gap between my own imagination.

It remains impossible to determine or decide what the truth is.

I stared at her retreating figure, which kept appearing in my mind, and kept asking myself, "Is this real?"

*

"...How long are you going to follow me?"

"That's a strange question. Aren't you guys going to annihilate [Swift Wind]? Of course, it's better for the whole team to act together."

Facing the werewolf man Tucker who turned around, Aisha showed no fear and instead gave a cold smile.

The location is on the 25th floor.

Lily and the others followed behind Tucker and the other four adventurers and soon caught up with them.

Stalking someone in a dungeon is almost guaranteed to expose you if you encounter a monster. Dungeon monsters will roar and rage as soon as they spot adventurers, making it impossible for anyone to hide their tracks.

If it were a solo pursuit, that might be a different story, but Lily and the others wanted to avoid the team getting separated, so that was impossible.

In that case, it would be simpler to act alongside the target individuals from the very beginning.

If the other party tries to do something underhanded, it can effectively monitor and restrain them.

"After all, the opponent is a level 4 bounty target."

"..."

Tucker turned his gaze back to the front after Aisha spoke to him so confidently.

The other adventurers also looked at them suspiciously and whispered among themselves.

The opposing team maintained a distance of about three meters from Lily and her group as they made their way through the maze.

"They're clearly wary of us."

"Yeah, of course you'd be bothered if you were being followed by other teams like this... but that impatient attitude is a bit of a concern."

Welf and Lily spoke in hushed tones. Sakura and the others observed Tucker and his group ahead while also keeping a watchful eye on the monster's attack. A unique tension, unlike anything they had experienced before, settled over the group.

Among them, Cassandra was lost in thought.

She was still thinking about the boy (Bell) on the 27th floor.

(I'm still not sure if it was right not to tell him about the "precognitive dream"... But if I tell him the "prophecy," Mr. Bell will definitely...)