Chapter Nine
Even if things go wrong, all they can do is continue to move forward.

"Hikitani-kun, you seem awfully quiet today." Hackard remarked as we moved through the 6th Floor.

"Wait, isn't his name Hikigaya?" Next to her, the chienthrope Yelena made a sound of surprise as she stared at me.

"I was sure the lad's name was Hikigaya…" Umbar, the dwarf, chimed in on the conversation.

"Nope, it's Hikitani!"
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Just ask him."

Ignoring the peanut gallery, I instead focused on the War Shadows in front of us. Grouped in a triangular formation, the 3 of them moved towards me in perfect unison, as if they were a single organism.

That didn't stop me from cutting the first one down at the waist. As soon as the first one had fallen, the two rushed me side by side, which allowed me to easily dive through the two of them. Before they could stop and turn around I drove my blade through the body of the one on the left as Umbar turned the one on the right into a piece of modern art on the wall.

As Yelena quickly harvested the magic stones and put them into her backpack, the entire party continued moving through the floor in a smooth and organized fashion.

Today was my first day partying with the three, who had happily welcomed me into the party when I had brought it up with Hackard. Apparently, all three of them were from different familias, so adding another member into the group who was around their level didn't really affect matters too much. They were also extremely eager, because I had saved them before and they wanted to, as Yelena put it, "pay you back what you're due. With extra, of course."

Every single adventuring party was organized into three parts: vanguard, midguard, and rearguard. The vanguard was responsible for dealing with threats on the front lines–melee DPS, shielding, etc. The midguard was responsible for keeping the party together, but still had to hold enough strength in order to do so–leadership, coordination, some support, some melee. The rearguard held the majority of the firepower and was responsible for providing the overwhelming attack power that could wipe out swaths of monsters or bosses entire health bars for bosses–healing, AOE attacks, support, and finally porting, of course.

Currently in this arrangement an actual rearguard didn't exist due to none of us knowing any chants of the sort, which was usually reserved for more magical-inclining species such as elves. The rearguard consisted of Yelena and I, who would swap with each other in the vanguard to gain exp and rest in shifts due to our lower stats and stamina.

With his high strength and endurance stats, Umbar held the vanguard with his shield and hammer while Hackard, who was the most rounded in the trio, held the midguard with her claymore.

As we quickly forged our way through the 6th and made it into the first room of the 7th, there was a change in the atmosphere. It was as if the Dungeon had noticed the presence of 4 adventurers and instantly began entering DEFCON 2, intending to snuff us all out. I narrowed my eyes as all around me the party instantly went into battle-ready mode.

"Ad… adventurers… ?" A croaky voice rang out from one of the hallways. Through it, a man with wild eyes and unkempt hair staggered out before collapsing to the ground, his armor rolling away from his body. As Umbar quickly dragged the man to the base of the stairs and Yelena forced a potion down his throat, the man's frantic gaze seemed to clear. "Help… monster party, we were ambushed in the 3rd room… Killer Ants, too many to count… my companions!" He tried to hurriedly to sit up, but Yelena quickly pushed him down.

"Your wounds aren't fully healed yet, sir. We'll go save your companions while you recover. Umbar, break one of the walls." Complying with her order, the dwarf went to work, quickly smashing a hole in the wall which would take quite a while for the Dungeon to repair.

It was the oldest trick in the adventuring book. The Dungeon prioritized regeneration over spawning new monsters, much like how the human body would prioritize repairing a wound before sending its white-blood cells to wipe out foreign entities. In other words–the more a Dungeon was damaged, the less likely it was to spawn monsters.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to keep on doing that all the way to the bottom of the Dungeon, since there were too many things to break to begin with. Case in point: A 5-man party of adventurers tried this in the past. They didn't even make it past the 2nd Floor before tiring out.

"Well, let's hurry. Umbar, you stay behind and stand guard, while Maris, Hikigaya, and I try to rescue his companions." Yelena took charge, issuing instructions as the three of us moved through the hallways, leaving Umbar by himself with the adventurer. She was a natural leader in this situation, able to keep a clear head in contrast to Hackard's hot-headed shounen personality.

As the three of us dashed through the hallways towards the 3rd room, the sound of scuttling feet up ahead told me we were too late.

As the three of us burst through the doorway, I lashed out with my sword, the blade separating the first ant's head from its neck, sending it to the floor without a sound. Beside me, both Hackard and Yelena got to work, the human's broadsword mowing down ants as easily as if she was harvesting wheat in a field while the chienthrope's twin knives moved left and right, stabbing into heads and bodies.

Thankfully, I was wrong. There were still a couple people alive, huddled together in a corner–a boaz, who was currently fending off Killer Ants with his shield and sword, a chienthrope who was missing his arm as the human wrapping a tourniquet around the aforementioned stump. There was an ominous pool of blood in the corner, but I couldn't be bothered with that.

Deal with monsters now. Worry about possible casualties later.

Face to face with 3 ants, I stepped into my first slash, splitting the first one in between the eyes before the second and third ones lunged at me and I responded with a step-out-step-in trick(thank you, Anya). The instant both of them missed and paused, the second one lost its head and the third lost one of its limbs as I separated them from their owners in a single swing.

The third ant didn't even get to screech before Hackard's sword lodged itself into its head and it crumpled to the ground. A Needle Rabbit attempted to poke Hackard from the back but I intercepted it midair with my sword and cut its attempt short, quite literally.

Three Purple Moths hovered midair, but that didn't stop Hackard or me from shredding them into ribbons with our longer blades. As the monster numbers began slowing thinning out, I began going around and double-tapping, stabbing ant heads as Hackard and Yelena dealt with the monsters. "Remember to confirm kills, Hackard."

"Oh, uh, yeah. Almost forgot." Does this girl even attempt to learn? The last time we dealt with Killer Ants, thanks to your incompetence, we had to deal with an extra 20+ of them, and we couldn't even get the drops from the previous monsters because we had to flee. This type of recklessness is fatal, you know? You're trying to be a shounen character in a non-shounen setting, which is super deadly, you know? Complying with my instructions, Hackard began walking around and methodically chopping off heads with her broadsword.

As we collected magic stones, rabbit horns, and moth wings, I watched as Hackard wandered over to the group and offered them a couple of health potions, which the group gratefully poured over their various wounds.

"T-thank you…" The boaz murmured to us. "I thought we really were going to die…"

"Was no problem," Hackard replied lightly. "Was that all of you?"

"..." The boaz fell silent. "There was Garon… but he fled once things started getting bad. And… "

"Hey guys… where's Wesley?" The chienthrope winced as he tried to sit up, but his injuries were too much and he collapsed to the ground. "He got caught… by the ants… is he… here?"

"Wesley… he… he's…" The boaz's voice failed, but the chienthrope didn't hear him.

"Where's Wesley? Wes… are you there?"

"Nam, he's…" The human female who was healing the chienthrope broke into tears. "Wesley's…"

Dead. But I knew the adventurers could not bring themselves to say that. It was an acknowledgement of the reality that pursued them constantly. One might hope that Wesley was still alive, only unconscious under that mess of tangled legs and hard carapaces, and they might continue to delude themselves doing so. Death was a concrete confirmation of the cruel reality adventurers lived in.

But these people would never realize that. They'd continue to hope, continue to believe, continue to pray that Wesley was alive. It would sit on their hearts like a rock and eventually one day they would be crushed under its weight. All because they refused to accept reality.

To hope is to be disappointed. To choose to believe in someone is to accept the possibility of failure or betrayal from that someone. Hoping, believing, talking about 'heroes' and 'the power of friendship'– that was all false. None of that would help here in the Dungeon, nor in the outside world.

To hope for someone to be alive and to attempt to indulge oneself in such a false belief was equivalent to deluding yourself. It was better to face the facts than to run away.

And that was why I always tried to face the truth head-on. Without shying away from the facts, and without deluding myself with clever witticisms or meaningless excuses.

In the end, moving forward was the only thing we could do.

~~This is a Line Break~~

After recovering Wesley's body–nothing more than a bloody, ruptured sack of flesh and bones buried under a heap of ant corpses at this point–we parted with the other adventurers as they headed off to the Guild and morgue on the 2nd floor of Babel, while we headed for the Guild's Exchange counter.

As Yelena went to talk with her advisor, Hackard, Umbar, and I waited patiently by the counter, waiting patiently for the chienthrope to finish her talk before we split up the loot and went our separate ways.

"Can't believe we went down into the 7th today, you know? And that sight was a real mood-killer, too." Hackard sighed as she lazily propped up on one of the couches in a waiting room, totally at ease. "I don't really like the 7th, so I think we should make the 8th in the next couple of days. I think we could handle it."

"Oh, so you're planning on going to the 8th Floor, huh?" There was a bloodcurdling voice in the room.

Ah, yes, after the serious, introspective section, the audience is immediately treated to a comedic scene in order to lighten the mood so everyone isn't too sad. Therefore, the author must introduce the fussy, but funny character.

Eina Tulle, Hackard's Dungeon advisor. Known as the 'Instructor from Hell'(at least, from Hackard's proclamation), she was feared(at least by Hackard) for her extensive, often exhausting lectures upon the Dungeon and its dangers as well as its complex situations.

"Hrgk!" As I expected, Hackard stiffened immediately before robotically turning around to see the half-elf advisor behind her. Next to the duo, her head dropping low, was a very morose Yelena. "Eina-san…"

Right next to her, carrying a massive pile of paperwork and currently looking downcast was my own advisor, Misha Flott. "H-hi, Hikigaya…" she muttered.

I raised a hand in greeting, and Flott nodded at me before stumbling away towards the Guild counter. Returning my attention to the scene, I noticed that Hackard was slowly trying to inch away from Tulle, who was currently radiating an almost visible aura of fury.

"Ma-ris Ha-ckard." Unfortunately for my companion, it didn't seem like the half-elf was going to let her go that easily.

"W-well, uh, I just remembered I have something to do! Nice-seeing-you-Eina-san-have-a-nice-day!" Hackard attempted to sprint out of the room, but Tulle, it seemed, was no stranger to slapstick comedy, grabbing Hackard by the back of her armor as she passed the half-elf, invoking the "Coveted Collar Choke" and stopping the blue-haired girl dead in her tracks.

As the half-elf began dragging Hackard, armor and all, towards one of the Guild advisory rooms, the blue-haired girl's eyes met mine as she opened her mouth, a silent plea on her lips.

Instead of replying, I let my mouth curl into a sarcastic smile and waved to her silently. Ganbatte, Hackard~

Her face morphed into an expression of horror before Tulle closed the door behind them with a loud bang! and I dropped the smile and hand, returning to my usual blank appearance.

"She's scary…" Yelena breathed out a long sigh. "Scary, terrifying, and, uh–"

The chienthrope didn't finish before the door opened again and the half-elf advisor walked out again. "Both of you two, inside!"

As soon as Yelena and I were seated on the couch next to Hackard, who was looking like she was pretty annoyed, Tulle began talking again. "So, allow me to set this straight: you went onto the 7th Floor, chanced upon a group of adventurers torn apart, and went in to save them without even thinking about your own hides?"

"We could've handled it," Hackard muttered under her breath. Unfortunately, the half-elf caught on.

"Oh, could've handled it, you say?" As she furiously pushed up her glasses, Tulle assumed a classical lecturer posture. Nice try, Tulle, but I'm afraid that it's only a 5/10 in my book. Work on the more deliberate fine actions instead of messily shoving the glasses up your nose, will you? "Allow me to recall the events: You made it to the 7th Floor, happened upon a wounded adventurer, ignored the deliberate warning on his part regarding a monster party in lieu of listening to his request, and quickly dashed into the room without even assessing the situation. Do you understand how utterly foolish and reckless that was?"

With each one of Tulle's logical criticisms, my two party members bent towards the floor progressively as if each one was a brick dropping onto their head.

I, on the other hand, was not affected in the slightest.

As she finished, sucking in a deep breath, she turned and dropped two thick textbooks in front of both Hackard and Yelena, whose faces paled considerably. I recognized the volumes as the 1st in the series I was currently reading through(I was on the 3rd book, though). "Be sure to finish the 2nd chapter by tomorrow. I'll be quizzing you if you don't finish."

From there, it was a short 30-meter trip to the Exchange counter, where I stored the majority of my Valis in the Guild bank. The whole time, both Hackard and Yelena were downcast, a look of complete despair in their eyes.

Parting ways at the Guild, I began quickly moving towards the Hostess. There were still important things to be done, after all.

~~This is a Line Break~~

Among the gazes that crossed among the Hostess today, there were two that were distinctly different from all the others. Most of the customers had a gaze which most likely involved thoughts about how pretty the new waitress was, but these two were cold… calculating. More like a hunter stalking its prey than anything, the gazes betrayed no emotion whatsoever… which was unfortunately, the very thing that gave them away.

It didn't take me long to spot the sources: a brunette with distinctly steel-plated gauntlets and a black-haired catgirl dressed as a messenger with a hood over her head.

I'll give it to them–both of them were pretty bold if they were just willing to waltz straight into the Hostess directly, especially since they probably knew there were multiple high-level adventurers here.

Black Fist was the gutsier of the two, taking a seat at the bar directly and eyeing Lyon up and down with a straightforward, analytical manner, very befitting of her modus operandi. What was even more daring of her was the fact that her order said 'black tea' instead of 'coffee'. Just to spite the Level 4 bounty hunter, I quickly switched her black tea with a cup of Hikigaya-patented MAXX Coffee(imitation), along with a little bit of something 'extra' on the house, and steered Anya in her direction.

Black Cat, a catgirl dressed in a hood with black hair and a similar gaze who was a 'courier' delivering messages, was met with a cheerful, smiling Flova, who also handed her a drink of coffee from me as a 'sampling experiment for the Hostess's new drink'. As both of them took the coffee up from opposite sides of the room as Flova explained the marketing and premise behind the drink to Black Cat and Black Fist downed the drink without a second thought, having evidently seen coffee before, I suppressed a smirk.

As both of the contract killers finished their drinks, I faked a sneeze from the kitchen very loudly: a signal. Anya, who was waiting in the kitchen the entire time, nodded and quickly moved out the backdoor. Lyon, on the other hand, pretended to trip(or maybe she didn't pretend), stumbling around before regaining her balance at the counter and trying to adjust herself next to Black Fist.

I carefully peered at both of the assassins before hearing really, really quick breaths from their directions–almost like the two were trying to learn how to breathe 10 times in 1 second. For the brunette at the bar, there was a gagging sound from her direction, much like how Kamakura would act when he would be trying to hack up a hairball.

The creamy richness of MAXX Coffee was a plus in another sense, as aside from being the ultimate drink, it was so strong but unique compared to other things in Orario that someone could easily conceal some sort of poison within it, and it would be virtually undetectable. The only ones who could taste even the slightest difference would be people who were MAXX connoisseurs–in other words, the only one who could tell was yours truly.

In this case, I had taken a wad of tobacco leaves, soaked them in water overnight, then squeezed the juice into the jar, heated it over a stove, and then taken the thick syrup that had resulted before stealthily mixing it in with coffee–which included, of course, ridiculous amounts of sugar and milk which would mask the slightly off taste.

Pure nicotine was a potent poison which would slowly shut down the body's systems the longer it lasted. Having read my fair share of detective mangas and stories, I knew the purported lethal dose, which was around 60 mg–around 12 drops of nicotine.

Of course, I was dealing with Level 4s, which no doubt meant that among their Developmental Abilities there was the skill known as Abnormal Resistance.

Abnormal Resistance, as described by the book: "Negates the effects of abnormalities, such as poisons or toxins. At Rank G it is strong enough to negate all save for the most powerful of poisons. Easily obtainable at Level 2 through repeated exposure to the poisonous powder of the Purple Moth."

As a result, I made sure to overdose the coffee with not 12 drops… but instead 2 whole teaspoons each.

If I had to guess, there was almost no cure for overdosing in Orario on nicotine, aside from the magical cure-alls which would heal the worst of everything. However, the adverse effects would long weaken the two before they could even make it, and I had long planned how to seal their methods to escape.

Lyon had been instructed to stash her dual shortswords on her uniform while Anya's spear had been sitting in the corner near the backdoor. Meanwhile, noncombatants, such as Flova, May, and I, would try our best to help civilians who were caught in the soon-to-result crossfire.

I observed from the kitchen, tending to another pot of coffee which I would actually serve to the customers. There was a distinct retching sound and I watched as Faust emptied the contents of her stomach onto the floor.

Someone clearly doesn't have a high Abnormal Resistance…

As Faust continued gagging and retching on the side of the bar, Lyon attempted to walk over. "Miss, are you okay?"

"I'll… cough cough… be fine." Trying to regain her posture, the pale bounty hunter steadied. "I think your new drink… cough cough… might've been contaminated." Another retch.

Upon hearing that, many of the customers in the Hostess instantly took a wary glance towards their tankards. Thankfully, Lyon managed to keep her cool and responded. "Are you sure it isn't just your own personal allergies to the drink? You don't look all that healthy, either. Perhaps you're sick?"

It was true that the bounty hunter had a paler complexion compared to the Hostess's regulars, which could be easily mistaken for a long-lasting illness of some sort.

As Faust struggled to get into an upright position, however, she seemed to recover; the absorption of the nicotine had seemingly been halted by her vomiting out the coffee, and the rest wasn't enough to weaken her for much longer before her Level 4 constitution let her escape. Damn, Level 4s really were monsters…

"Do you want to come to the back for some treatment?" As Lyon extended her hand and Faust took it, however, there was a lurch in my gut.

And then, near simultaneously, there were two explosions as the side wall of the Hostess's dining area caved in with a shower of wooden splinters while another body flew through the doorway of the kitchen, shattering the wood as the figure slammed into the wall right next to me.

"Guh… Lyon?!" Dazed by the sudden appearance of the elf, I could only watch as she struggled to her feet before suddenly there was a flash of metal on metal as the elf blocked another blow from Faust using her twin shortswords.

As the two pressed against each other, there was a short moment where Lyon executed the fastest(and smoothest) step-in-step-out I had seen, forcing Faust to adjust her weight and in that quick interval–a loud thump, as if someone had chosen to beat a large piece of meat with a paddle. There was another crashing sound before I noticed that the bounty hunter had been smashed through the doors, landing on the other side of the street. Lyon herself stood less than 3 meters away from me, her foot slowly lowering from the kick. Before she could continue the fight, however–

"Lyon, make sure you contain her for now. The tavern's already been damaged. All you have to do is hold her until Mia beats her senseless into the ground." were the words I whispered towards her. She nodded before speeding off to engage the bounty hunter on the rooftops, their forms blurring in the rain as they exchanged flurry after flurry of blows.

In the tavern dining area, meanwhile, Anya and Rollo were still in battle, even as the Hostess's patrons scrambled to flee from the area of combat, twin knives and a golden spear locked in a clash for superiority that neither could afford to lose.

Dual swipes.
Ultra fast jabs.

Neither gave in to the other, their weapons clashing repeatedly as they wove around each other, causing sparks to fly across the room. Even as I watched, a stray chair leg was quickly thrown at Anya, who batted it away with her spear, which ended up hitting a window and cracking it.

There were still customers huddled along the side walls, and if I didn't save them, I could forget about capturing Black Fist or Black Cat. If they were hurt, Mia would be so furious that I doubt I would even have a sack left to bury them in, Level 4 or not.

Therefore, the primary objective was to safely evacuate all customers. Mia was currently busy trying to help some of the customers by evacuating them through the side door, but she was only one person trying to mitigate the damage caused by two people; even a (former) 1st-class could only do so much without blowing away the entire tavern herself.

But the quicker she got into the battle, the better. For now, I was relegated to the status of civilian noncombatant and it was my task to get all the patrons out of here as soon as possible. As Mia herself shielded the people stumbling out of the tavern by batting down any rubble that approached the side door, I picked up one of the bar stools.

… Oh well, it's not like she would notice, right? Besides, this was for the greater good.

I smashed the bar stool into one of the large windows, shattering it but failing to remove the metal frame. Before I could rear back for another swing however, one of the patrons stopped me before lifting a latch I hadn't realized was there, swinging the window frame in, and climbing out the window.

… I could've just opened it.

Holy crap, this is embarrassing. You dummy, Hachiman! You idiot! Trying to look cool? Is it time to die now? It's time to die now, right?

Instantly breaking out of the mindset of attempting awesomeness and transitioning into the mindset of logical rationality, my head cooled as if it had been splashed with a bucket of cold water.

As I helped the customers out the window, giving them legs up if they were too tired or drunk to make use of their motor skills, there was a shout from the opposite side of the room. "Hikigaya!" It was Mia, who was nodding at me. "Shield the guests."

Shield the guests. There was a glimmer as Rollo danced opposite to my side of the room, her jacket flapping open for a second. My eyes widened as I saw countless glimmers of metal.

Throwing knives.

Anya had seen it too, no doubt, as evidenced by the sudden defensive position she had taken. Rollo's form dashed towards Anya before there was an explosion and puffs of smoke erupted.

Smoke bomb! The last 3 guests–a completely dead-drunk adventurer who had passed out on the floor, as well as his two companions who were stumbling around as they attempted to flee–were huddled behind me.

There was a shout with a voice that wasn't Anya's. "Frolic!" Around the figure, there were gleaming pillars of light. A spell? That's not good. Quickly opting to just shove the final adventurer out the window since he was taking forever, I picked up a tankard and threw it at the source of the voice. "Pheles–" there was a thunk as the tankard presumably hit her and bounced off, landing on the ground. Around her, the twinkling motes of light that had been gathering next to her in two swirling groups suddenly disappeared as they vanished.

Ignis Fatuus. All types of magical spells require a chant of some sort. The longer the chant, the more focus it took to accurately execute the spell, the more mana and concentration you had to devote to it. While it was optimal to interrupt spellcasters at the moment right before they triggered it, that wasn't applicable in this case because I had no clue of Rollo's status nor her skills. Therefore, I could only interrupt the chant as it began.

There was no explosion like I expected, so that meant that spell only needed a couple of words to execute. Thankfully, I had interrupted it in time. Within the smoke, there was a surge of killing intent, but I sure wasn't going to rush in like an idiot. I ran towards the window.

Behind me, there was a sigh from Anya. "This smoke is annoying, nya. I'm going to blow it away, nyaAAAHHH?!" her statement was cut short by the sound of loudly crunching wood, and her shriek was so loud that even as I dove through the window, curled up in a ball, and came up into a crouch, I could still hear it.

It didn't take an idiot to know that Mia's iron fist had struck. Sorry, Anya. I clapped my hands in a gesture of appreciation towards the tavern. Your sacrifice will be appreciated.

"Nya, who're you, nya?" From the open window, I could hear the voice of Black Cat as she was probably sweating and shaking with fear. "I wasn't involved with this, nya, I was–"

CRACK-CRUNCH-thump.

… Welcome to the Hostess, Chloe Rollo. You'll be forced to work next to your former target now until you pay off your debt–which, knowing Mia, would be so ridiculous that even you, a Level 4, would probably choke if you heard it.

Outside, the rain was still falling, sheets of water splattering across the ground, forming puddles and splashing across the street. There was something that was off about the situation, but I couldn't quite place it, almost like I had forgotten about…

Black Fist.

The sounds of battle around me had stopped.

Moving towards the front of the main building, I broke into a sprint, my feet carrying me towards the location of the fight between Lyon and Faust.

I looked around, only to find Lyon sitting on the doorstep of the Hostess, her shortswords sheathed and right next to her hands. She looked at me, then frowned and shook her head with the slightest of motions.

"She got away, huh…" I let a sigh trail out from my mouth. Lyon nodded silently in response. I let out a huff, but there was nothing else we could do about it. The only thing we could do was move forward with what we had.

At least Faust probably wouldn't come near the Hostess again, especially since now she had taken a failed bounty and her face had been exposed. Professionals were never about vengeance, only money, and neither of the two grim reapers of Orario's underworld would have the stupidity to retry their hand at a botched job. No one could get to the level they were at without being realistic about their chances.

Unfortunately, Black Fist–and more importantly, her backers–weren't a matter I could leave alone. Even if the Bruno Trading Company had failed once, they probably weren't going to give up.

They would just try to send more and more bounty hunters and assassins, and the more Lyon and Anya and I defeated, the more desperate they would get.

Well, they were bound to just try their best and throw all their resources into defeating us now. And that was not going to be a fun experience. Before the news would hit the Orario underworld that Black Fist had gone into hiding and Black Cat had retired, I would take this matter into my own hands.

Unfortunately, there was something that would take precedence over all of these.

"Well, time to face the music, I guess. Let's apologize for our actions and take responsibility." The longer we waited, the scarier Mia's punishment would be. Therefore, the most rational thing to do would be to apologize to Mia first.

Lyon shuddered a little before standing up, picking up her shortswords, one in each hand.

Side by side, we entered the tavern.

And we were promptly greeted by the sight of twin catgirls, one with brown hair and the other with black committing dogezas as low as they could go–which, for them, meant pretty much plastering themselves to the ground.

Of course, the object of their reverence(READ: FEAR) was none other than a statue with a bloodthirsty aura around it–errrrrrr, Mia.

"Hahhhhh, you dumbasses have the gall to just casually stride in here, don't you…" Upon seeing us, Mia's aura turned even more black than it already was, if that was possible. Forget the Dungeon, I don't think I could even take on this one boss and survive… "Which one of you idiots came up with this shitty plan and broke half of the things in this tavern, huh?!"

Next to me, Lyon was shuddering all over as Mia's killing intent washed over us. Had this been a traditional light novel scene, the main character would've felt a pang of regret before he jumped in to plead the female character's case, thus saving them both from punishment.

I, on the other hand, had no such flimsy compulsions. Like a certain character in another isekai, I too was an advocate of true gender equality.

"It was all Lyon's idea." I replied, immediately pointing at the elf with a perfect poker face, who turned to me with an expression of horror that clearly said What have you done?

Haha, a cliffhanger. Truly, the despicable methods of this author know no bounds. Oregairu has ended… but it shall continue, according to Wataru Watari's twitter. One of the best shows I've ever watched, one of the best LNs I've ever read… I'm truly blessed to have been born in the right generation.

This volume slowly draws towards its conclusion... but this story shall continue, as well.

The conclusion to this volume shall be released in the next two weeks. I plan on releasing a short omake before starting the next volume, so look forward to that, I guess.

Remember to like and review.