Episode 11: The Lie Revealed (Shifa’s Perspective)
“Michelle-san. You saved us.”
“Thank you so much!”
“That’s some incredible strength, as expected.”
“I was wondering what would become of us, Michelle-san.”
When we returned to the surface, the adventurers were all thanking Michelle one after another.
“Sorry I was late. However, the Stampede isn’t over. Neither the Elder Wolf nor the Orc King was the boss.”
They were monsters that wouldn’t have been out of place as bosses in a normal Stampede, but they didn’t possess the Proof.
The phenomenon known as a Stampede occasionally occurs in dungeons across various lands. There’s no consistency in the type of monster that becomes the boss. If there’s one commonality, it’s that they are invariably monsters that appear in the lower levels.
And also, that they possess the Proof.
The Proof is a mysterious black crystal. I hear some regions call it a Crystal of Malice.
For some reason, Stampede bosses always drop this. Neither the Elder Wolf nor the Orc King dropped this item. Therefore, the Stampede isn’t over yet.
In other words, more monsters are still to come. And that means they’ll be stronger than the Orc King or the Elder Wolf. The Stampede boss is the monster that initiated the Stampede, and all other monsters are either under its command or fled in fear of it.
The adventurers, once again confronted with this fact, fell silent.
“Still, where are Jekyll-san and Claire-san?”
Suddenly, one of the adventurers muttered.
When we emerged onto the surface, some of the adventurers who had fled were still there, and we regrouped. I have my own thoughts about them running away, but they’re still fighting strength, so we don’t have the luxury of complaining.
Those who fled probably felt awkward, but they stayed after seeing Michelle and me rush in. In fact, some of them even truly returned to the dungeon to fight.
“Jekyll, you say? Come to think of it, that bastard… after stepping on such an obvious trap and sending Lux plummeting into the deep layers, he was just nonchalantly working as an adventurer here?”
“Eh?”
Come to think of it, we were in the middle of that conversation. I did tell Michelle to speak in front of everyone. But, will it be okay? Do we even have time for that?
“What do you mean? Jekyll-san said Lux was the one who got caught in the trap…”
“Hah? As if that could be true!?”
“Ehhh?!”
And just as expected, the adventurers were astonished. Perhaps they were surprised that the usually taciturn Michelle had raised her voice so loudly.
“Disarming traps is the Thief’s role. That’s why he scouts ahead to detect traps. After him comes me, the party’s shield, then Lux, our leader and shotcaller, and finally, Claire, a little further back. That’s our formation. So for Lux to be the one to step on a trap is impossible!”
“Now that you mention it…”
“Why did Lux step on the trap then?”
“I’m telling you, she didn’t! The one who stepped on it was Jekyll!”
“Jekyll-san returned, and Lux fell into the pit, right? Wasn’t that because Lux got caught in the trap?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! Lux only fell because she used a spell called Change to protect Jekyll!”
“Eh?”
“Huh?”
“Seriously?”
The adventurers were so stunned they were speechless, but the shock I received was even greater. Lux-san really protected Jekyll? And despite that, Jekyll and my sisters did such a thing to Lux-san?
“Lux is the leader. That’s why she must have instinctively protected him. She even turned back to properly check that Claire and I were okay!”
“No way…”
“But Lux was skimming the subjugation reward money, right? That doesn’t change the fact that she’s a terrible person.”
“That’s not true!”
“Eh? Shifa-sama?”
“Since we’re on the subject, I’ll say it! The one who didn’t pay out the reward money was my older sister, Elanda. What everyone was being paid was only money from a fund Lux-san personally established. For the past three years.”
“What did you say?”
“What do you mean, Shifa-sama?”
It’s not like I’ve completely investigated it myself. I don’t know how the money was used, or where the stolen money went. What should I do? I got carried away and blurted it out, even though I can’t explain any further.
“Hold on. We’ll hear that story later. I’ve recovered enough now. Before the monsters come, we’re going to seal this place up.”
“Yes.”
The best countermeasure for a Stampede is to annihilate the monsters as they come up. The next best is to find and defeat the boss, then destroy the black crystal that is its Proof. If you do this, the Stampede monsters will lose their momentum and retreat.
However, when that proves difficult, the strategy is to seal the entrance.
Doing this can sometimes cause the monsters to lose their way. They might disperse on their own. However, if there are powerful monsters, they might destroy the seal and break out. In that case, it merely ends up buying time, but it’s better than doing nothing.
Furthermore, after sealing it, there’s no way to know how long it will take for the Stampede to disperse. You can’t even tell if it has dispersed or if monsters are attacking the seal. In other words, that dungeon becomes unusable.
For a town that prospered from Drop Items, it’s a major blow.
Even so, the townspeople will be saved. At the very least, we can buy time. It’s a sacrifice we have to make.
“If we seal it and buy time, Lux will probably return. I understand there are suspicions regarding Lux, but since I was asleep, I don’t know the reasons. For now, we do what we can. You can tell me about it afterwards.”
“Yes!!!!!”