Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? by Fujino Omori Page B

on my shoulder…
    Now she’s talking…
    “If ya hadn’ come back, we woulda released the hounds ta find ya!”
    Gulp.
    “If you’d been a day later, I’da enjoyed hearing me prey squeal again.”
    To think, I almost died twice in one night… She would have killed me…
    Nice save, Bell! Nice save.
    “Syr, that’s your lunch he’s carryin’. Ya okay with that?”
    “Oh, yes. Missing lunch isn’t that big of a deal.”
    “Why is okay to go hungry and give him nyour lunch, nya?”
    “It just—”
    “Oh-oh! Don’t be rude nyow! You two are like that, nya? He’s nyour—”
    “Not that!”
    I think Syr chased after the catgirl, but I couldn’t watch them… There is someone a bit more important with her hand on my shoulder.
    I will never do anything out of line in front of Mama Mia again, ever.
    “Be sure ’n’ say thanks ta Syr. Lot o’ us here are not as forgivin’ as she is. In fact, if she ’adn’t said okay, you’d be swimming with fishes ’bout now.”
    “……”
    She’s serious…
    “Syr chased after ya that night, but she couldn’t find ya. Came back all depressed, mopin’ around. That there elf, Lyu, grabbed a claymore from the back. Wasn’ easy stoppin’ ’er from huntin’ ya down.”
    I may like elves, but I’m a long way from understanding them.
    But… Syr chased after me… even when I was like that…
    A new fire sparked to life in my chest. A good one this time.
    I am really in Syr’s debt. I have to figure out a way to repay her someday.
    “… Oi, boy!”
    “What is it?”
    “Bein’ an adventurer isn’t for those who just look the part. Just fight to survive at first. Once ya build up a bit, the worst rarely happens.”
    My eyes shoot wide open.
    Does she know? She was at the bar then, so maybe she overheard everything?
    Wait, she’s smiling at me?
    “The best is always the last one standing, ya hear? No matter what it takes. Come on back an’ I’ll fix ya up with a large ale! Hey, ya won, didn’t ya?”
    Mama… Mia…!
    “Don’ be givin’ me that weird face! Now head out, will ya? Yer in the way!”
    Suddenly, a massive force spins me around and guides me out the door.
    I may be out of breath, but coming back here was the best decision I’ve made in days!
    I feel like the last of the shadows from the other night are finally gone.
Loki Familia
’s animal guy, I haven’t forgotten what he said. But now it doesn’t make me angry. It’s fuel for my journey.
    Do what you can now, as fast as you can, without doing too much. Just focus on surviving.
    Sounds like the perfect plan to me.
    “Oi, boy! I’ve said this much already, don’ ya go dyin’ on me now, ya clear?”
    “I won’t! Thank you again!”
    I feel so alive!
    “I’m heading out!” I yell back into the bar before heading into the crowded street.

    Night.
    A bright moon floats above the curtain of darkness that has fallen over the land. The moonlit forest is alive with the sounds of owls and rustling leaves.
    These sounds ride the breeze and spread out over a vast plain to merge with chirping birds and swishing grasses. They flow together in a chorus of nature until the sounds hit one sudden change in the landscape.
    A very big wall.
    Big, thick, and sturdy, the edge of the city may as well be a castle wall.
    The protective wall is constructed completely out of stone. The curtain of night is pushed aside as light spreads throughout the city. The voices of nature outside the wall are drowned out by the din of the city’s nightlife.
    The Labyrinth City, Orario.
    Orario is one of the few cities that have existed since ancient times, even before the arrival of the gods. However, it is the only “labyrinth” city.
    The wall forms a perfect circle, encasing the metropolis in stone. Relatively tall towers and buildings stick up just inside the edges of the wall. Shorter buildings are toward the center. This stone behemoth is lit by hundreds of magic stone lamps. It’s as if a sea of stars