Rookie Hunting (6)

"Uwaaaah! … Huh?"

When Gesunoh woke up, he was in some stone passageway. Kiwami was with him.

His body didn't hurt and Kiwami's face had somehow returned to normal.

"Huh? … Oh, so it was a dream. That was a weird one."

He had no idea why he'd fallen asleep at a place like this, but he figured it was probably due to a trap or something.

Their prey were monsters, the slave was a monster, and there was a silver-haired girl that controlled iron golems. There's no way that had actually happened.

Let alone the fact that there was a literal swarm of iron golems. What a horrid nightmare.

Given that his body and Kiwami's face were perfectly alright, it had to have been a dream. He could recall it with far too much clarity, but it was a dream.

Let's just forget that one.

Gesunoh told himself.

"Hey, Kiwami, get up."

"Mmm… what is it, darling? … Huh?"

Gesunoh shook Kiwami awake, causing her to look about.

"… What happened to the Ojou-sama and her elf guard? And that silver haired girl?"

"H-honey, you had the same dream?"

"Dream…? Right, yeah, it was a dream."

Kiwami answered, feeling her face.

"So then this is… somewhere you brought me, right, darling?"

"No, I just woke up too. Honey, you don't know where we are either?"

"No clue… we're in the dungeon though?"

Judging from the feeling the area gave off, probably. Maybe part of the labyrinth?

They suddenly heard footsteps.

Other adventurers? No, there's too many. And those footsteps sound too heavy…

"Does that sound like iron golems to you…? And a lot of them…"

"A swarm of iron golems…? Let's get away from here."

Reminding him of the iron golem swarm he saw in his dream, Gesunoh paled.

Kiwami also saw a lot of iron golems in her dream, so she chose to run without ridiculing Gesunoh at all. They may have been C-Rank adventurers, but there were only the two of them, after all.

However, Kiwami hadn't noticed it. This door was more gorgeous than the ones other rooms had.

It was this dungeon's boss room. A door that lead them even deeper into hell.

 

 

… Inside the room, it was like a castle's audience chamber. However, there was no one in it. Only a treasure chest.

"Kiwami, look! There's a treasure chest."

"Wait up, Gesunoh. It has to be trapped. Let's be careful."

They took its appearance as a silver lining to their situation.

As the two approached the treasure chest, the door they came in slammed closed.

Then—it fell down.

Baaaang!

A tremor so loud they could feel it in their guts. Having fallen onto the stone pavement, it let out a jarring metallic sound everytime it moved its body.

It spread its wings and lifted its head up. Its red eyes devoid of life locked onto the two of them.

It looked exactly like the strongest of all species—a dragon.

[PULAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!]

A different metallic noise, one more like a flute sounded out as it roared.

"An iron… dragon!?"

"R-Run away!"

Abandoning the chest, they found a door further in the room after looking for a way out.

The two of them ran to it as fast as they could, but the door was locked.

"Quick, get it open Kiwami!"

"Wait! Crap, I-I can't open it!"

"Wha—… you're a scout though!? Just open it, quick!"

"There's not even a keyhole, how could I!? We're in a boss room!"

It was a door that wouldn't open without first defeating the boss.

"I-It's not my fault! You're the one that said to come into here!"

"And you agreed!! You're a warrior, so deal with the dragon!"

"There's no way I could, it's a fucking dragon!"

Bang, bang.

The dragon slowly approached them.

They didn't have time to argue back and forth.

"… Honey, I have an idea. One of us will get its attention while the other runs to the other door."

"Oh, so that means you'll be the decoy right, darling?"

"How about we go opposite directions, whichever it follows will be the decoy. Yeah?"

"… Alright."

And so the two took off to the left and right, running in opposite directions.

The dragon headed to Kiwami—

—and struck at Gesunoh with its iron tail. Gesunoh was slow in dodging it due to running, but was about to manage avoiding the blow, when…

"Ugoh!"

The tail changed its trajectory midway as though it had its own set of eyes, knocking Gesunoh over and causing him to lose consciousness.

 

＊

 

"Uwaaaah! … Huh?"

When Gesunoh woke up, he was in some stone passageway. Kiwami was with him.

His body didn't hurt and Kiwami's was sleeping next to him.

"Huh? … Oh, so it was a dream. That was a weird one…"

He had no idea why he'd fallen asleep at a place like this, but he figured it was probably due to a trap or something.

… Deja vu.

"Hey, Kiwami, get up."

"Mmm… what is it, darling? … Huh?"

Gesunoh shook Kiwami awake, causing her to look about.

"… What happened to the Ojou-sama and her elf guard? And that silver haired girl?"

"H-honey? Was that a dream? More importantly, you didn't see the dream with a dragon in it?"

"Dream…? Right, yeah, it was a dream… Dragon? No, I didn't"

Kiwami answered, feeling her face.

She didn't see the dragon? In that case, with what happened there, this is a dream too?

"So then this is… somewhere you brought me, right, darling?"

"W-Well, lets just get away from here. I'm getting a bad feeling."

"Eh…? Well alright then, how about we hide in that room there?"

The room Kiwami pointed at was the room they were attacked by the dragon inside his dream.

"We should stay away from that room."

"But I can hear footsteps, and a lot of them at that…"

Gesunoh heard them too. There were a lot. And they were heavy…

If Kiwami couldn't remember anything, then maybe it really was a dream? I mean, I should be dead now otherwise.

Coming to that conclusion, Gesunoh decided to escape into the room.

He couldn't see the treasure chest that had been there, reassuring him that it was just a dream.

"Don't let your guard down, honey. Like the ceiling—"

"The ceiling? There's nothing there. What are you watching out for, darling?"

"A dragon. This is a boss room."

"… Setting aside the dragon thing, this is possibly a boss room."

They could see a door leading further in at the end of the room… just like his dream.

"… That door's locked, probably. No keyhole either."

"Eh? How do you know?"

"I'm going to keep watch here at the entrance, make sure nothing gets in."

"Well, okay… but you're acting weird, darling."

Then, just as Kiwami started heading to the door at the other end—

[PULAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!]

There was a metallic roar, loud enough to hurt their ears. Coming out of seemingly no where, an iron dragon just appeared. It was like he saw in his dream, the same shape and everything.

"Hii… uwaaaaah!"

"Darling!?"

Gesunoh immediately ran away. Deserting Kiwami, he went out of the room—

—and saw countless iron golems waiting outside, blocking the passageway on both sides.

"Please go back inside."

It was hiding among the golems' shadows, but the dog-eared slave was there.

Gesunoh's legs trembled.

A fully equipped adult adventurer, trembling before a tan-skinned young girl. It was a strange sight.

"That's strange, your memory should have been erased… Neru? Did you not do it?"

[I diiiid, but doing it five times in a row is hard. Let alone normally, just removing the memory of feeling the fear of death is hard at that point."

"… I understand. Goshujin-sama still wants us to test the dragon, though."

Test? Goshujin-sama? What about the blue hair—no, the doll? And the dragon?

His head didn't feel right.

"What's going on!? What is your goal!?"

"Didn't I just say it? We're testing… oh well, let's erase your memory more thoroughly. It's alright, we know from experience that you won't die so long as we heal you. So please don't worry and go challenge the dragon—Neru, possession."

[Yessss! A possession request! … Understood, penetrating noooow!]

 

＊

 

"Uwaaaah! … Huh?"

When Gesunoh woke up, he was in some stone passageway. Kiwami was with him.

His body didn't hurt and Kiwami's was sleeping next to him.

"Huh? … Oh, so it was a dream. That was a weird one… it was a dream, yeah, a dream… huh? What… was I dreaming about…?"

Still confused, Gesunoh decided to wake Kiwami up.

Gesunoh would never know how many times this reoccurred.