After we"d escaped Rigal Den, about half of our cla.s.smates pulled back from fighting. A fear towards demons had taken root in their minds, after all.

However, we—the rest of us who were better off mentally—were sent out to capture a new dungeon. Led by a man named Yuuji as a bodyguard.

As someone who calculatingly caught Hayase"s heart and smiled even during my obvious pestering, he"s a pretty weird guy. He"s such a kind person that he even headed off to save Mahara, who"s been launching this complaint and that at him this whole time, not even thinking of abandoning him.

“I wonder if everyone"s alright…”

“Th-They"ll be fine. Yuuji and everyone are strong.”

“Hmmm? So you name off Yuuji, but Minamoto and Mahara are everyone?”

“Ah, I-I didn"t have any deeper meaning to that!”

… Her face just keeps getting redder and redder, huh…

Hayase"s already Yuuji"s slave at this point. Well, given her position and the way she"s usually treated, there"s not much helping that.

Her love of books coupled with her quiet personality and shyness, I"m pretty sure this is the first time she"s been talked to like that. Hayase herself seems to be enjoying it though so I"ll let it be~.

… Still though.

“They"re taking a while, aren"t they.”

I took a look at my watch and saw they"d already been gone for an hour. I guess it takes a good bit of time to take care of a Monster House.

… Or.

The worst case scenario crossed my mind.

I don"t want to see anyone die anymore.

I lost my best friend back in Rigal Den.

Her name was Hamakaze Shuri. As the cla.s.s mascot-like characters, Shuri, Nanami, and I were good friends.

Even after coming to this world, we encouraged each other to do our best at being heroes.

However, on that day… Shuri was slow in escaping and was left behind. Nanamin1 tried to go help her, but Samejima stopped her.

But I can"t blame Samejima for that. I"d also given my life the priority, after all. I hadn"t even tried to help her.

“… …—”

I shook away the bad thoughts clouding my mind.

Just standing around on alert for so long in such a dark, humid cave is hard to endure for long.

Even looking around, it"s all the same. Just my reflection in the crystals.

How depressing…

It happened just about as I thought that.

“Oh, Yuuji!”

I heard Hayase"s joyful voice from beside me.

I looked like Yuuji had returned. We ran over to him quickly.

Still floating that same old gentle smile oof his, Yuuji patted Hayase on the head. What was different, however, was the blood and wounds covering him.

It looked like the fight was a close one.

“Sorry, I made you wait. It took quite a while. Are you alright?”

“Y-Yes! Tamaki defended me!”

“That so? Tamaki, good work.”

He patted my head gently, too.

H-Hmm… this… this is embarra.s.sing.

“D-Don"t treat me like a child! You can stop patting my head, too!”

He smiled as though troubled when I said that.

“No, well, I had to do this—so that you wouldn"t escape.”

In the next momest, I saw Hayase-san… collapsed, behind Yuuji.

Huh? What?

“H-Hayase!?”

I shook off his hand and went to go to my fallen cla.s.smate. However, I was kept from moving by my arm being gripped.

“Yuuji!? Why—let me go!!”

“Don"t worry. Hayase isn"t dead, I don"t intend to kill her either.”

“Huh? Wh-What are you… kyah—!”

Yuuji grabbed me with his arms and pulled me into an embrace.

“Y-Yuuji!? This isn"t the time to joke around!!”

“This isn"t a joke. I am very serious here. Even now, I"m looking forward to it.”

He brought his face close to mine and whispered sweetly into my ear.

“To—killing you.”

However, what he whispered wasn"t of love, but of a death sentence.

“Wh-Wha—!?”

Before I could finish, I felt a forceful impact to the back of my neck.

My… sight"s… fading…

With that, I lost consciousness.