“Huh?” Silvia blinked, looking puzzled. “What do you mean...?”
Victoria hesitated for a moment before speaking up. “Last night, after curfew... Greg came by.”
“Senior Greg?” Silvia was even more surprised.
“Mm.”
Victoria nodded, recalling that brief yet unexpected conversation in the corridor last night:
“He came to check on me and said a few words... Even though that guy still sounds as unpleasant as ever when he talks, I... I think what he said made a bit of sense.”
She paused, her voice growing slightly firmer as if trying to convince herself:
“It's just a single win or loss. If I lost, I'll just win it back next time. Life is still long; there's no need to stop dead in my tracks over a single stumble.”
“Mm-hmm!”
Silvia nodded vigorously, her pink eyes sparkling:
“Senior Greg really said that well! See? I told you we might have misjudged Senior Greg. He's actually a good person!”
Recalling how Greg had previously saved her in the dungeon without asking for any reward, and how he had just helped Victoria get back on her feet with a few words—not to mention that both he and Victoria shared the special identity of Messengers of the Goddess—Silvia couldn't help but feel her closeness and trust toward Greg grow even stronger.
Just then, however, she suddenly caught a detail in what Victoria had just said—
“Wait, Victoria, did you just say... Senior Greg came after curfew?”
“Ah, yeah.”
Victoria nodded without thinking much of it.
After curfew... late at night... a lonely man and woman... alone in the corridor outside the hospital room...
Those phrases uncontrollably pieced themselves together in Silvia's mind.
The smile on her face stiffened slightly, and a subtle, unexplainable sense of awkwardness suddenly welled up from deep within her.
Victoria seemed completely oblivious to her friend's momentary anomaly.
A faint blush washed over her face. Uncomfortably shifting her gaze toward the window, she deliberately adopted a stiff tone:
“Well... I admit my impression of him has changed a little bit. B-But who told him to provoke me in front of so many people at the start of term! So I'm definitely not going to forgive him that easily! I still dislike him!”
Her words lacked confidence, instead oozing a tsundere awkwardness that only made her true feelings more obvious.
“Oh? Why does it feel like someone's persona is suddenly heading in a tsundere direction?”
A male voice laced with obvious teasing suddenly chimed in from the direction of the window.
“Eek!”
Startled by the abrupt voice, Silvia gasped and nearly jumped out of her chair, hurriedly spinning around toward the source of the sound.
Victoria snapped her head around as well.
By the open hospital window, a figure had appeared at some unknown point.
With one hand braced against the sill, Greg climbed inside with visible effort. As he hit the floor, he stumbled slightly, clearly injured.
He looked even worse off than he had last night.
His academy uniform was covered in dirt and fresh scuffs, and a tear in his sleeve revealed a ghastly, though no longer bleeding, wound beneath. A few bloody scratches added to the mess on his face, and his messy hair combined to give him an exhausted air, as though he had just escaped from some chaotic battlefield.
“S-Senior Greg!”
The moment Silvia saw what he looked like, she threw her previous bit of awkwardness to the back of her mind. Her pink eyes immediately brimmed with worry as she rushed forward:
“All these injuries on you... What happened? How did it get so bad? Are you alright?”
Regaining his footing, Greg tugged at the corners of his mouth, offering an awkward smile that looked like a cross between a toothache and sheer embarrassment.
“Er... about that...”
His eyes darted around as he raised a hand to rub the back of his head. “It's a long story, so I won't get into it.”
He couldn't exactly tell these two that, in order to find Silvia, he had sneaked into the girls' dormitory area under cover of night, failed to find her after searching all over, and then, just as he was preparing to slip back out, his damned -10 Luck stat suddenly flexed its terrifying power.
First, he almost ran headfirst into a girl fresh out of the bath. Dodging in a panic, he knocked over a drying rack, triggering a chain reaction of tumbling laundry, which alerted patrolling magic puppets. On his escape route, he happened to trip a prank alarm barrier, causing half the dormitory district's lights to flare to life...
In the end, amidst the chaos of almost inciting a school-wide manhunt by every girl in the academy, he relied on his familiarity with the terrain to scramble and crawl his way to freedom.
Sharing an experience like that served no purpose other than total social death.
Though Victoria and Silvia didn't know the exact details, seeing him in this state and appearing at this time of day naturally led them to think of the dungeon.
He really was working hard to fulfill his duties, exploring that dangerous place...
The same thought crossed both girls' minds simultaneously.
Reflecting on the heavy burdens they carried themselves, they couldn't help but feel a lingering sense of closeness and a subtle rise in favorability toward the young man standing before them, who also bore a unique mission and was clearly striving so hard for it.
At the very least, he truly was a deeply responsible person.
Victoria was the first to pull herself out of her thoughts. Her gray eyes calmly fixed on Greg as she cut straight to the chase:
“So, coming here this time, you have something you need from us, don't you?”
She was no fool.
Greg had just come to see her yesterday and confirmed her injuries weren't severe.
For him to come barging in today covered in fresh wounds couldn't possibly be for a casual stroll or a second courtesy visit.
Greg was slightly taken aback by Victoria's directness, but he had no intention of beating around the bush either.
He nodded, his expression turning serious.
“I do have something. Do you remember what I brought up before? I hope the two of you can assist me in clearing the dungeon's first layer together.”
“R-Right now?”
Silvia glanced worryingly at Victoria's still-bandaged shoulder. “But Victoria's injuries haven't healed yet. I'm afraid she won't be able to fight...”
Victoria remained silent, her eyes locked on Greg.
She knew Greg wouldn't be in such a rush without a good reason.
Based on his past behavior, he wasn't the type to push progress forward blindly without cause.
Greg indeed had a reason—specifically, a death countdown he couldn't speak aloud.
If he failed to clear the first layer before the Chapter One story came to a close, he would die on the spot.
But he couldn't reveal that.
His mind raced at top speed, instantly coming up with a perfect excuse that could explain the urgency while simultaneously appealing to their sense of duty.
“Because... some abnormal things have been happening in the dungeon lately.”
Greg lowered his voice, his tone solemn. “I suspect something might have gone wrong down there, and I want to investigate as soon as possible. Besides...”
He deliberately paused, letting his gaze sweep across the two girls before speaking slowly:
“I obtained some vague information that three upperclassmen entered the dungeon earlier and haven't come out yet. I'm... a bit worried about them.”
Rate on N.U.
