This chapter is 2-in-1 (361 and 361.2) so I don't lose track of the numbering
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Chapter 361: Return Journey
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"Enough!"
Space shattered violently, and in an instant several dragon-men appeared around them. Isagi spotted the one leading them — a tall man with golden hair and golden eyes. Most striking of all was his tail: a massive dragon's tail, absurdly thick out of all proportion, at least seven or eight meters long—
He paid it no attention whatsoever.
Hassel, the fire dragon-man who'd been locked in combat with the Soul Teardrop, stopped short at the sudden interruption. He seemed about to say something — but just as he opened his mouth—
Suddenly, under Isagi's guidance, the Soul Teardrop's body erupted with a terrifyingly violent surge of Magic.
"?!" What was happening?!
Hassel, standing closest, had no time to react at all — he'd never imagined anything like this could happen.
It was a self-detonation!
The Soul Teardrop was, after all, made of Magic to begin with, and Isagi's [Dragon's Feast] armor was already capable of releasing an immense volume of "magic" spanning every attribute.
And if it could be released outward, it could just as easily be released inward.
When Magic of different attributes converged inside the body, it naturally threw the Soul Teardrop's Magic into a state of total chaos.
Like a barrel stuffed to bursting with dynamite.
One thought from Isagi, and it would burst into the most spectacular fireworks.
"BOOM!!"
As the earth-shaking blast tore through the air, the image relayed by the Eye Crystal went dark in an instant.
Had he actually managed to kill it?
Isagi didn't know.
Either way, that had been his final trump card — and it hardly mattered, because the Soul Teardrop was "infinite" anyway.
So none of it mattered at all.
Isagi had already decided that once the "cooldown" was over, he'd send the Soul Teardrop back into the Dragon Valley to check things out — maybe he could even pull the same trick again, and keep going…
The boy and the girls ended up staying outside the Dragon Valley for about a week altogether.
During that time,
besides continuing to train and get used to his new weapon, Isagi would send the Soul Teardrop into the Dragon Valley for a look around whenever he had a spare moment.
The good news was that the fire dragon-man from before really had been blown to pieces.
Better still, he'd even gotten lucky enough to retrieve the Magic Stone and materials it had dropped from inside the Dragon Valley.
The bad news was...
the trick only worked once. Now the dragon-men wouldn't get close to the Soul Teardrop at all, harassing it from a distance instead — and among them, one who could unleash spells and another skilled with all sorts of seals and barriers were the most troublesome.
Still, on balance, the good outweighed the bad.
At the very least, he'd gotten a rough read on the dragon-men's overall Strength — somewhere between Lv.8 and Lv.9 — each with its own special ability.
If these creatures had been there in the Dragon Valley all along, then it was no wonder Zeus Familia and Hera Familia had failed to subjugate the Black Dragon back in their day.
But then again—
was it possible they'd never even laid eyes on the Black Dragon itself?
And if that was true, then maybe…
He recorded his thoughts and findings from the trip the whole way through.
On the way back, since the Wyvern that had carried him and the girls out here had already returned home long before, Isagi and Ais had no choice but to fly back themselves.
And carry Cecil along with them, too.
It wasn't really a problem — if anything, they were much, much faster than they'd been on the way out.
Since they weren't in any hurry to get back, Isagi and the girls naturally found a place to rest along the way—
— that night.
The group arrived at a small, unnamed town and decided to stay there for the moment, continuing on to the city the next day.
Seen from high in the sky, the town hadn't looked like much, but up close it turned out to be quite a bustling place.
A bit like the port town of Melen.
The town sat amid an endless stretch of open plains, with roads running every which way, so caravans passed through it often.
Isagi, Ais, and Cecil arrived just as evening fell.
Several of the roads leading into town were packed with people, and it took quite some effort just to get inside.
Compared to Orario's neatly ordered four main boulevards, which divided the round city into several districts, the town before them was far more chaotic.
It felt as though the earliest settlers had simply kept spreading outward as more and more people moved in.
From up in the sky,
the town's shape had been completely irregular — almost like a rabbit.
Once inside, the streets were even messier, full of forks and junctions. If Isagi hadn't been such a Dungeon veteran, well used to navigating mazes, he might well have gotten lost in there.
Fortunately, by sheer luck,
the restaurant they stumbled onto served a genuinely delicious dinner. The local specialty, surprisingly, was horse meat — cut into thick chunks and either boiled or roasted, thoroughly delicious.
The boy and the girls ate quite a lot.
By the time night fell and they found a nearby inn to stay at, they still weren't quite satisfied, and even talked about going out again later for a midnight snack.
"Whew."
After washing up and changing clothes in his room, Isagi stood by the bed, watching the crowds come and go along the street below.
He planned to sleep well tonight and rest up properly.
Because once he was back in Orario, things were going to get busy for a while.
Fighting Ottar;
fighting that [Empress] from a thousand years ago;
and—
once Lefiya and the others were all Lv.8 and had at least some grasp of their own Strength — probably within the next few months — they'd go subjugate the [Empress], the final boss of the lower floors.
And, since he'd leveled up,
he could afford to be a bit more "aggressive" about deep-floor exploration too. Isagi was even thinking of finding time to go take a look on his own, alone.
There really was a lot to do.
The fight with Ottar had been proposed by Ottar himself not long ago.
Or rather, it was something they'd long since "agreed" to. Back during the War Game against Freya Familia, since he'd been at a lower Level, his clash with Ottar hadn't been a real fight at full strength.
Now that the two of them were the same Level, it was finally time for a proper fight.
As for the fight with the [Empress], that too had long since been promised. Isagi even planned to "lay everything out" with her afterward and have a real talk about the future.
As for the Dungeon, that went without saying.
The boss was right there, and it would be a waste not to go subjugate it. Besides, maybe he really could "revive" her afterward, too…
A thousand thoughts churned through his mind.
Isagi had clearly been mulling over a great many things, especially now that this trip to the Dragon Valley was over. There was no question — to actually complete the quest of subjugating the Black Dragon, everyone would need to reach at least Lv.9.
Of course, reaching the legendary Lv.10 would work too.
But there probably wasn't enough time for that.
After this year, sometime around the end of next year….
Isagi had heard bits and pieces from Goddess Astrea and the others about the Appointed Time, and about how the seal on the Dragon Valley was about to fail.
There wasn't much time left.
And meanwhile, just outside the boy's door, the two girls huddled together, their heads likewise full of the same thought — that there wasn't much time left, it seemed…
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Chapter 361.2: Short Chapter 11, Two Idiots!
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Cecil and Ais's plan of action tonight: a night raid!
With the power of the Goddess of Beauty behind them.
Once Isagi fell asleep, they would sneak into his room — no, march right in, bold as day.
And then get down to all sorts of things that needed doing!
Simple. Direct. Efficient!!
No unnecessary complications — that was the "strategy" Aphrodite had cooked up for the two of them!!
Of course.
A good strategy, to succeed, needed to be foolproof.
And right now, the girls had a "Divine Artifact" of their own — an incense burner the Goddess of Beauty had procured from who-knew-where.
Just a whiff of the incense inside was enough to send anyone straight into slumber.
After all, it was a thing that belonged to a god.
Ordinary mortals and adventurers down below would have no resistance to it at all — Isagi might, but—
—that didn't matter either, since all it took was enough time.
The moment they'd checked into the inn, Ais had quietly slipped the incense burner into the boy's room.
Several hours had passed since then — it should be fine by now, right?
"Operation start!" The two of them, light-footed and silent, eased the door open.
Neither forgot to press a cloth over her nose to keep from breathing in the incense drifting through the room — one careless breath, and they'd knock themselves out cold too!
That was the only thing they needed to watch out for in this whole "operation."
Not too bad, all things considered!
Cecil and Ais, unfazed, slipped quickly into the boy's room and just as quickly shut the door behind them!!
The room fell into hushed silence.
Night settled slowly onto the floor through the window, and through the half-open pane, a little light from the street lamps below crept in as well. Quick-witted as ever, Ais darted over and shut the window, plunging the room into total darkness.
So — what now?
In the dark, the two girls could of course still sense each other's presence.
That they'd come this far together to carry out the Goddess of Beauty's "plan" meant the other had clearly already braced herself for it beforehand, so there was no need to say much now.
But a problem remained.
Namely, she'd spent the whole time before this eavesdropping outside the door to check whether the boy had fallen asleep — which meant there was now one big "oversight"!
[She'd forgotten to bathe!!]
Of course you had to wash up before bed!!
And they'd spent the whole day traveling hard — fast as they'd moved, plenty of windblown dust and grit had clung to her along the way. She hadn't noticed it a moment ago, but now, thinking about crawling into bed to sleep, everywhere on her felt grimy and uncomfortable.
So what to do?
Go back to her own room to bathe now?
But when they'd checked into the inn earlier, they'd only booked two rooms — it was perfectly normal, after all, for the girls to share one.
Which meant there were only two bathrooms available!
Not that this was any real problem.
Whether at Astrea Familia or Loki Familia, the bathhouses were only ever split by sex, never into private single stalls — the reasoning was simple enough: adventurers needed to build camaraderie, and scrubbing each other's backs was as good a way as any to bond, not to mention the shared soak in the bath afterward.
So bathing together was nothing Cecil and Ais would ordinarily think twice about.
But here was the problem!
An inn room's bathroom obviously couldn't compare to the ones back at the Familia!!
It was just a tiny little stall, barely enough for one person — if two tried to squeeze in, it would get cramped fast!!
Turning around would be out of the question.
Even standing perfectly still, they'd probably be brushing up against each other the whole time!
The image sprang unbidden into both Cecil's and Ais's minds, and the two of them promptly lost their composure.
No way. Absolutely no way!
They were both still, in some sense, "kids" — joking around together in a group was one thing.
But that close, one-on-one? The embarrassment would be off the charts!
So.
There was only one option left.
One of them would wash up in Isagi's room, and the other would go back to their original room.
In the darkness, their two gazes quietly "collided."
No words needed — this was the only solution, and it had to be quick. They only had this one night, after all — the longer the night dragged on, the more could go wrong... no wait, they just needed to make the most of the time!
"I... I'll go back," Ais said, the first to give ground!
Mostly because she figured Cecil was a bit of a scatterbrain, so as long as she herself moved fast enough, it would work out.
The moment the words left her mouth, the golden-haired girl bolted from the room at a downright absurd speed and dove straight back into their original room next door.
Then she rushed into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
As the warm water hit her skin, Ais found, for no reason she could name, that her body simply refused to settle down.
Still wound up tight!
Not just physically — mentally too.
She kept urging herself to hurry, to race against the clock!
And most importantly.
Inexplicably, as she washed in the pitch-black night, images kept surfacing in her mind — of Cecil sneaking off behind her back, breaking their "Appointed Time," and already crawling under the covers with the boy alone.
And then this... and that, this and that again—
She pushed her imagination to its absolute limit, picturing nearly everything imaginable!
Part of Ais figured it probably wasn't likely — Cecil didn't seem like the type to pull something so underhanded. They'd agreed to do this together, so together it would be; she surely wouldn't sneak off alone.
But even so, her hands moved faster than ever.
The result was.
By the time the golden-haired girl finished bathing, changed into her nightclothes, and dashed back into the boy's room, she found — in the darkness — that the bathroom beside her was still rustling with sound.
Cecil was still in the bath.
So she really had been overthinking it after all!
She froze awkwardly on the spot — now it was her turn to wait for Cecil to come out.
For a moment, she didn't quite know what to do with herself.
This was, after all, the first time doing something like this. She'd rehearsed it in her head beforehand, but now that it was actually happening, all sorts of little snags kept cropping up.
Cecil, at that same moment, was in much the same state.
The girl's heart was hammering away, and she too was using the time in the bath to think something over.
"Whew... whew, whew..."
She kept taking deep breaths.
The room was quiet enough that Cecil had heard Ais come back in a moment ago.
The golden-haired girl waiting outside hadn't rushed her.
But her mere presence out there was enough, wordlessly, to speed Cecil's hands along.
Sprint, sprint, sprint...
In a mad rush, the girl toweled herself dry, threw on a simple sleeping gown, and dashed straight out of the bathroom — nearly slipping in the process!
The pitter-patter of footsteps came from the direction of the bathroom.
Ais knew exactly what that meant.
No longer standing there uselessly, she started toward the bed.
Instinct, even now, urged her to claim the first move!
But the result was—
They seemed to have forgotten something rather important.
The two girls arrived at the bedside one after the other, and only then did they notice the faint scent lingering in the room — delicate as morning dew in a forest.
A wave of heavy drowsiness struck without warning!
The two of them, having only just slipped under the covers, both silently screamed "uh-oh!" in their minds — and then their vision sank into what felt like an endless darkness…
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