Your house is in your backpack?

A-rank adventurer Mashiro, known as the Silver, set off into the dungeon with the Great Mage Healer.

With the new moon approaching, monsters seemed more numerous than usual.

"But the dungeon boss still hasn't respawned."

"Mm. Let's pass through."

"… By the way, how long are you going to keep wearing that, Karina?"

Mashiro called out to Healer—or rather, her true identity.

"A while longer. I went through the trouble of getting an adventurer card from the guild master, after all. I thought it'd be F-rank, but it was E for some reason."

"There's no way someone who can kill a Black Mantis would be F-rank. E is already stretching it, but D and C have time requirements and such… Also, that voice combined with that way of speaking is pretty jarring. Not that I mind."

Healer pulled a water bottle from her backpack, took a drink, and put it back.

This was the same backpack she'd been stuffing monster corpses into left and right as they went. Way more than its volume should allow.

Just how much could it hold? Mashiro was curious. Karina hadn't been hiding anything while tossing things in, so she probably wouldn't mind being asked.

"… Hey. How much can that backpack hold?"

"Oh, this is actually magic. Here, take a look."

With that, once they reached the barrier in front of the core past the boss room, Healer pulled a bed out of nowhere and placed it on the ground.

"… Huh? Hey, what is that?"

"Hm? We're using this as a base to watch for anyone who might mess with the core, right? Then we need a bed to rest properly."

"No no no no, I mean yes, that's true, but… if you can bring something that big, couldn't you have brought more preserved food or something?"

"I have food too. Even alcohol, if you want."

Mashiro couldn't help but cover her eyes with her hand.

"Seriously?"

"For the Great Mage Healer-sama, this is a piece of cake."

"If someone like you existed, maybe monster cuisine never would have been developed."

Monster cuisine was developed to allow self-sufficiency inside dungeons and reduce the amount of supplies needed during exploration. Given Karkassa's location, it also contributes greatly to the city's food situation.

"Monsters are tasty. I don't hate them."

"They're not bad now, but apparently they used to be awful. Especially before they figured out how to detoxify Crawler meat—things were pretty bad according to the Old Timer."

"Hmm, having a living witness sounds pretty recent?"

"No, the Old Timer's a Dryad, so it's pretty old. Over a hundred years ago. Apparently the Véraldo lord at the time worked hard on it."

Oh, that's older than I thought, Healer muttered.

"First time hearing about Dryads. They're long-lived?"

"They're rare in this country, huh. They live as long as trees do. As long as they have water and light they won't die, so they can get by without much food—that's their strength."

Whether because of that or not, many of them are laid-back and slow talkers. That's their one flaw—it doesn't mesh well with the impatient Mashiro.

"Still, just watching is boring. This kind of work would be better suited for Dryads…"

"Oh, I'm going home for a bit. I'll leave a body double here."

"Huh? Hey hey wait wait."

Saying that, Healer started climbing into her backpack.

Watching Healer clearly descend below ground level was such a strange sight that Mashiro couldn't help but call out.

"… Is your house inside your backpack?"

"Wanna come too, Mashiro-san? I put a barrier on the core, so even if we're suddenly attacked it should hold for a while. If something happens, it'll let me know."

"… Are you serious? Is anything off-limits for you?"

Since she'd been invited, Mashiro decided to visit the house.

It wasn't like standing watch was anything but boring anyway.

Inside the backpack. It was very spacious.

It wasn't just several times the backpack's size—it was a great hall… no, a great plaza. There was even a house on the far side, and an ocean.

"What the heck is this… no wonder Armor Ants fit inside so easily."

"That's right～ Heave-ho. Phew, I'm tired～"

Pop—the robe came off, and Healer transformed back into Karina. Her voice instantly changed back to Karina's too.

Then a half-dwarf slave came trotting over.

"Welcome home, Master. Oh, we have a guest?"

"I'm home, Aishia. Yeah, this is Mashiro-san. An adventurer from Karkassa."

"O-oh. Nice to meet you?"

Was she really having someone live inside her backpack? Mashiro wondered in bewilderment. But given how spacious it was, she supposed it made sense, and shook hands.

"Aishia, can you do the Healer role? Just stand watch for now."

"Understood, Master."

With a bow, Aishia let Karina drape the just-removed robe over her. Mashiro thought there was no way the body type would match, but it didn't seem to matter.

"Well then, take care～"

"I'll be going, Master."

When Karina patted her shoulders, Aishia's voice changed to match Healer's perfectly. So the robe was a disguise magic tool. Mashiro had never seen or heard of such a thing, but she figured items like that existed and she just hadn't known about them.