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When I was little, there was something my grandfather told me.
"Bell... Bell... if you're a man, you must always chase after romance."
"What's romance, Grandpa?"
"Romance... what is romance, you ask... I suppose I should explain that first."
Stroking his splendidly grown beard, Grandfather continued.
"Romance is a dream."
"A dream?"
"That's right, a dream. A realm above the skies, thought to be absolutely impossible to attain.
For example, the dream of flying up into the sky and touching the stars.
The dream of slaying a dragon and winning fame as a dragon slayer.
The dream of breaking through unexplored lands as a great adventurer.
And most importantly..."
"...Gulp."
"The dream of meeting beautiful girls in the Dungeon and building a harem!"
"Ooooooh!"
"Remember this, Bell!"
"Mm-hm!"
"Seek encounters in the Dungeon!"
"...I understand, Grandpa!"
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And five years later...
"...Ah, it's been a while."
My name is Bell Cranel. I'm a rookie adventurer who came to [Labyrinth City Orario], the center of the world, to become an adventurer.
...Though I still haven't managed to join a Familia. As of today, the prepaid term for my inn room has completely run out. If I can't find a Familia today, I'll be sleeping on the streets from now on.
Today, for sure...!
"...Thank you for having me until today."
With my stay over, I bid farewell to the innkeeper, a man who no longer had any business with me, and headed outside. I no longer had money to buy food or rent a room.
Suppressing my miserable feelings as hard as I could, I walked out with my head lowered.
"...Ah, damn it. This goddamn..."
Just as I was about to close the door and leave, I heard the innkeeper, who had remained quiet and barely spoken to me until now, stand up with a curse.
When I turned around in surprise, the man rose while scratching his head as though he were angry, then shoved a bag full of black bread and a bottle of milk at me from behind the inn counter.
"Take it, brat."
"Huh..."
"Brat, learn to be more suspicious of the world. Of people, too."
Otherwise, you won't survive here.
With those words, the quiet but blunt man went back inside the inn.
His back as he shut the door and went inside seemed so huge that I hugged the bag of bread in my arms, cooling my burning eyes as I stood there, motionless, for a long while.
"...I have to move forward. Yeah!"
Steeling myself, I moved forward.
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And that day, the boy met the Goddess of the Hearth.
"That happened, too. And today, at last, is the day I enter the Dungeon as an adventurer!"
Ten days ago, after being turned down by sixteen Familias and falling into despair, I had a dramatic encounter with the goddess Hestia, who happened to be searching for a member. We formed a contract, and I immediately rushed to the Guild to register as an adventurer.
...But what had gone wrong?
My assigned advisor, Eina, set down books totaling the equivalent of five encyclopedias and calmly said,
"You can't enter the Dungeon until you read all of these and pass the test, so prepare yourself, okay?"
With no other choice, I read every last one through gritted tears, took the test, passed it after ten days, and now here I was, standing before the Dungeon entrance.
All right, seeking encounters in the Dungeon... at last, I'm entering the Dungeon!
"Let's go!"
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At that same time, in a corner of the seventh floor.
"Hah... hah...!"
A Chienthrope—a dog beastperson—was running for her life. The large pack she had carried on her back was nowhere to be seen, and the hood she had pulled over herself to conceal her appearance was torn in several places, exposing what lay beneath.
Clutching the dagger in her hand protectively, the Chienthrope ran with all her might, choosing a route where she was least likely to be attacked.
Had she been attacked by a monster? Yet if one followed the flowing blood upward, the wound high on her left arm was unmistakably made by a blade—something that could not have been inflicted by the teeth or claws of the monsters on this floor.
'If I can just sell this dagger, I'll finally be free of them!'
Apparently, this Chienthrope was fleeing after stealing another adventurer's weapon. Surprisingly, this sort of thing was common. Particularly among the mistreated supporters, it was not unusual for them to despise adventurers who looked down on them in return, steal various items, and sell them as stolen goods.
But as always, the world did not go according to plan.
Whoosh—!
With a sound like a snake's hiss, a dagger flew through the air.
The fleeing Chienthrope twisted her body in terror, but the dagger pierced her thigh sharply, like a venomous serpent's fang.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Letting out a pained scream, the Chienthrope collapsed to the floor. She turned her head this way and that, looking around in every direction as if seeking help, but...
This was an unpopulated area even on the seventh floor, a place she had deliberately chosen to enter so she could betray adventurers and steal their belongings. There was no way anyone would be here.
As her agonized screams echoed hollowly off the Dungeon walls, a set of footsteps approached her.
Step.
Step.
Step.
The moment she heard the footsteps, Lili somehow forced herself upright and tried to escape. She knew all too well that the moment those footsteps stopped would be her end.
Her left leg, pierced by the dagger, trembled in pain as she dragged it along.
Ignoring the footsteps behind her as best she could, she leaned against the Dungeon wall and struggled to move forward somehow, but...
"Yep, time's up~"
Stab.
At the hot sensation spreading from her abdomen, she slowly lowered her gaze. A blood-soaked blade had pierced through her leather clothes, its tip protruding out.
"Ah... ahhh...!"
"Shh, I told you to try running away. I gave you a chance, and you failed to take it, so why are you like this?"
"A-adventurer... please, please, just once... s-spare me. Lili will... give you all the money she's saved... cough... p-please..."
"You, how many people have you killed so far? How many people have died because of you, and now you're asking to be spared? Isn't that strange?"
"Ah... I didn't kill anyone, anyone...! Cough, Lili... Lili only stole things and ran away... cough... I... ah..."
"Then let me ask again. How many adventurers have you screwed over and stolen from before running away? Oh, and if you lie, I'll kill you right away, okay?"
"Hah... too many... to remember... cough... please... even half... a potion... gasp..."
"The Dungeon is very... very dangerous. A single instant of carelessness, a single moment of danger, can become the shortest road to death. So here's the question. How many people has our little Lili tried to kill, then?"
"I-I don't know... please... po... cough... tion..."
"Did you know? I work as an adventurer now, but my real profession is actually a contractor."
The blond adventurer knocked Lili, who was clutching her abdomen, down onto the floor and spoke leisurely with her alone.
His hair was a somewhat dull blond, and his skin a healthy bronze. Both ears bore earrings with intricate patterns, perhaps his Familia emblem.
The corners of his eyes tilted slightly upward, and his half-lidded gaze made it impossible to know what he was thinking.
He was the typical blond, tanned delinquent one could find in any city.
He casually squatted down before the fallen Lili and abruptly began to tell a story.
"Well, even if I say contractor, I mostly do ordinary, bloodless work—recovering money people skipped out on, acting as muscle, that sort of thing.
But one day, a woman came to my office, which was tucked pretty deep into the back alleys. I was surprised. People who come all the way to a place like that usually have an air that suits it... but that woman didn't, you know? The closest thing she had to it was... desperation."
Huff... huff...
Even as the man, who looked rather carefree, droned on and on, Lili merely stared wide-eyed in pain, letting out ragged breaths.
"Do you know what the first thing that woman said when she came to my—no, our office was?
'Do you take jobs to kill people?' That's what she asked.
Man, I've seen plenty of people ask questions like that doing this work, but it was my first time seeing someone who looked like a complete civilian ask it without trembling even a little.
So I asked what had happened. Now, listen carefully here."
The blond man cleared his throat and continued.
"The woman said,
'One day, my fiancé went into the Dungeon saying he would earn some money, and he came back as a corpse. The adventurer who brought him back said that the smell on his clothes was bait that drew monsters in, and that someone had deliberately smeared it on my fiancé... Cal, to kill him.
After hearing that, I examined Cal's body... closely. But the engagement ring that he always wore around his neck, the one that matched mine, was gone. So I thought... perhaps the supporter who had been traveling with Cal these past few days saw the ring and coveted it.
That's why I came to make a request. Please check whether a ring of the same design as this one has appeared among stolen goods, and trace it if it has. If it was that supporter... kill her. Don't show even a shred of mercy. Just kill her. I'll use this ring as payment for the request, because without him, I have no need for it anymore.'
As she said that, she took off the necklace with the ring hanging from it around her neck and placed it down.
That's what she said~"
Even as searing pain filled her entire body, Liliruca Arde felt a chill run down her spine.
She remembered that day. It had been a while since she found such an easy mark, and without needing to work him over for long, she had gotten an opportunity to betray him in just about a week. While the sucker was hunting monsters, she snatched the expensive-looking ring hanging around his neck, threw bait meat around him, and fled.
Shouts full of confusion and rage rang out behind her, but she paid them no mind and simply ran. From what she had seen of his ability, he was strong enough to survive.
...But... he died? Why? She hadn't meant to kill him. At his level... he shouldn't have died.
"I told you, didn't I? In the Dungeon, a single instant of carelessness, a single moment of danger, is the shortest road to death. You killed him... Liliruca Arde."
"..."
"Well then, goodbye~"
Stab.
With the sound of a dagger piercing her heart, her fading consciousness was completely swallowed by darkness.
Who killed Cock Robin~?
I, said the Sparrow~
With my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin~
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Before everything was covered in darkness, she thought she heard the sound of singing...