Resuming the Dungeon Clear

"With this, the three of us shall be happily married. Including Rokufa-sama, that makes four spouses, doesn't it? Fufu."

"Hold on, hold on, hold on."

A summer moth flying straight into the flame.

A duck strolling up with green onions on its back.

A goblin wielding a magic sword.

To Saintess Alka, I, the terrorist Kyou, was without a doubt a romantic target as well. If she could bag both Narikin and me as spouses, she couldn't ask for a better deal.

And the current state of affairs is that I'd been splendidly swept up in her scheme—!!

"H-hey, hey, hey. Isn't having multiple lovers sort of wanton? Is that really okay for a Saintess?"

"? If we're all married together, then it's perfectly sincere, you know? I love Kyou-sama too, so please rest assured."

"Hoh."

"Well, that's one way to look at it."

"I see, so that's how it works."

… Right. The Holy Kingdom is polygamous to begin with.

So even with multiple love interests, as long as "everyone gets married together," it's all fine…!

The culture is waaaay too different!

Y-y-you… harem-legalizing nation, yoooou…!!

Don't tell me your line is "as long as it's a human, anyone goes"!? That's exactly it, isn't it!?

Maybe I should slap on a dog-ear headband and claim "surprise, I'm actually a beastkin"!? Too bad my real ears have already been seen, so that's a no-go!

"Couldn't this thing be used by nobles to forcibly marry commoners or the like?"

"If anything, it's more often used by commoners looking to establish a fait accompli with a noble. There's almost nothing in it for the noble."

Seriously? Holy Kingdom commoners are way too gutsy.

"Deemed marriage is the right of those who share life and death to become family. Yes, indeed. Having spent nearly a month together in the dungeon and weathered mortal peril alongside Narikin-sama, calling me his family at this point would hardly be an overstatement, wouldn't you say?"

"I'd say it is an overstatement. Was there any mortal peril to speak of?"

"Narikin-sama is getting flustered! So cute!"

"Oi oi, that makes me jealous."

"Well, sure, there wasn't any real mortal peril… we got to watch from start to finish without having to worry."

Are these guys all secretly romance-brained…?

The two hottest figures in the Holy Kingdom right now would be Narikin and Saintess Alka. And a man and woman, at that. So they're getting hitched? Maybe even deemed married!? It's a festival!!

… Is that roughly the mood?

Don't go cheerfully nudging somebody else's life decisions along like it's a party!!

"Now, now. If we start the dungeon clear right away and hurry back… we just might barely make it within the month."

"Mm! Indeed! Well then, let us begin today's dungeon clear as well!"

And just like that, egged on by Saintess Alka, Narikin got back to his dungeon clear.

… But I knew better. At the current pace, clearing it in three days was going to be rough. And the Saintess kept trying to stall whenever the stream wasn't live.

"Can't be helped. To buy us more clear time, I'll set the stream duration to run longer."

"Hm?"

"What did she just say?"

"The stream duration can be extended, you see. It costs mana, but— Narikin, lend me your hand. I'm going to adjust the child unit."

"A-ah, yes. Here you go."

I fiddled with the child unit strapped to Narikin's wrist— or rather, I pretended to; I wasn't really doing anything.

This child unit had been just for show from the start. The streaming itself was handled by the dungeon's functions.

"There, that'll do it. Once the three days are up we'll need to run maintenance on the main unit too, but for these three days we can now stream nonstop."

"…? Kyou-sama. 'Stream nonstop' — what exactly does that mean?"

"Streaming nonstop means exactly that: streaming nonstop. Which means our dungeon clear can also run for three straight days… It's a tactic I really didn't want to resort to, but…"

"Eh? Streaming nonstop…?"

"Wait, doesn't that mean we get to watch the stream nonstop too?"

"Hell yeah! Guess I'm not going home today!! Sign me up!!"

I really, really didn't want to do this.

Because streaming nonstop… meant pushing the clear for three straight days… which was nothing other than conducting a "Maximum 72-Hour Dungeon-Clear Endurance Stream."

Sleep time… wasn't just going to be cut short… it was getting wiped out entirely, all-nighter style!!

"Listen up, Narikin. From here on, we are demons. As demons, we shall clear this dungeon!"

"Eh, ah, right."

"Saintess Alka! If you can't keep up, we're leaving you behind!!"

"Eh, ah, yes."

"Let's go! Follow me!!"

With Narikin and the Saintess in tow, I broke into a run toward the depths of the dungeon.

With the golem assist, stamina wasn't much of an issue for me. Narikin, being a Living Armor, had infinite stamina as well. Could a mere human Saintess really keep up with us!?

"Haah… haah… hack, cough!"

"Kyou-sama. Are you all right?"

"Kyou-dono, here, have some water."

And the first one to run out of steam was… me.

Even having a golem move my limbs for me burned through stamina. The "assist" part eased the drain, but over long stretches, even that had its limits.

"Kyou-chan was all fired up, yet she's the first to gas out. Adorable."

"Still, that's some serious stamina. She was running full-tilt while fighting."

"Fighting while running at that speed for that long already makes her way stronger than your average adventurer… It's just that the Saintesses are on a totally different scale."

Holy Kingdom Saintesses are monsters, I swear… Ah, right, right, she's the monster who staked her life on soloing dungeons.

The real reason I lost out was that, just in case my identity leaked, I hadn't worn my [Divine Pajamas] this time…

"I shall carry Kyou on my back."

"I could carry you as well, you know? Kyou-sama, whose back would you prefer?"

"Ugh, s-sorry… Narikin, then."

"Pardon the intrusion, then. Please climb on my back."

"Mm…"

"Wooo!"

"Lookin' cozy!"

I didn't even have the energy left to snap back at their teasing.

Ugh gahhh…!