Misunderstanding

It had to be said that the excuse Greg had come up with on the fly was practically perfect.

First, it was based on partial truths—the dungeon was indeed acting abnormal, and three upperclassmen really had entered without returning—so it held up under scrutiny.

Second, it packaged Greg's motives from a purely selfish quest requirement into investigating an anomaly and caring for potentially endangered schoolmates, making him sound full of responsibility and justice.

This easily resonated with righteous characters like Victoria and Silvia.

Finally, it cleverly attributed the urgency of acting quickly to a humanitarian crisis where fellow students might be in danger and needed rescuing. It was impossible to refuse and perfectly masked his own deadly countdown.

Even Greg felt a sense of admiration for his own ability to make up believable nonsense under pressure.

Sure enough, upon hearing this reasoning, both Victoria's and Silvia's expressions changed.

“There's an anomaly in the dungeon?”

“Upperclassmen are trapped inside?”

Both spoke almost simultaneously, their tones laced with seriousness and concern.

“The information isn't confirmed yet, so I need to head down and check as soon as possible,” Greg emphasized. “If it's true, the sooner we act, the greater their chances of survival.”

Silvia immediately looked at Victoria, her pink eyes filled with an urgent 'we have to help.'

Victoria knit her brows tightly.

She was thinking deeper than Silvia.

An unknown anomaly in the dungeon, upperclassmen potentially in danger... this was indeed a major matter.

In her current state, forcing herself to go along would not only be unhelpful but could turn her into a burden.

After a few seconds of silence, she looked up at Greg, then at Silvia.

“In my current state, I'll only get in the way if I go.”

Her voice was calm as she made a rational assessment. “Silvia, your Light-attribute magic is strong for support, so you should be able to help. Greg...”

She paused, her gray eyes looking straight at Greg. “I'll leave Silvia in your hands. You must protect her well in the dungeon, or I'll never forgive you!”

In the past, Victoria would never have felt safe letting Silvia go to such a dangerous place alone with Greg.

But Greg's series of actions during this recent stretch had indeed reversed her initial impression of him to a large degree.

She believed that, at least regarding this matter, Greg was serious and would do his best.

Silvia hadn't expected Victoria to agree to let her go. She nodded vigorously, feeling both a bit nervous and an inexplicable surge of excitement and a sense of duty.

“I-I'll be careful! You need to recover properly too, Victoria!”

She turned to Greg, her pink eyes sparkling with the excitement and earnestness of participating in a major operation for the first time:

“Senior Greg, when do we set off? Is there anything I need to prepare?”

As a Candidate Saintess, she had always been well-protected, rarely doing anything that truly fulfilled her duties.

But now, she was going with Senior Greg into the dangerous dungeon to investigate an anomaly and perhaps even rescue trapped upperclassmen!

This made the duty on her shoulders suddenly feel real and concrete.

“I'm fairly familiar with the first layer, so you don't need to prepare anything special,” Greg said to Silvia, his speaking pace slightly faster than usual. “But if possible, I hope... we set off right now.”

For him, speed was everything.

The story had already progressed to the late stage of Chapter One. The mini-boss that was supposed to appear much later had been unintentionally dealt with early by him, which undoubtedly accelerated the overall process significantly.

According to the original work's plot, Silvia would be kidnapped in the critical event at the end of Chapter One.

The window of time left for him to act was truly small.

To be as safe as possible, starting to act right now was the best choice.

Silvia and Victoria naturally interpreted Greg's urgency as concern for those three upperclassmen who might be trapped, so they did not object. Instead, they felt this urgency was completely reasonable.

“I understand!”

Silvia nodded vigorously, determination shining in her pink eyes. “Then let's head out right away!”

Although the academy had a curfew, the rules only required students not to wander around campus after the designated time; it didn't strictly force them to remain in their dorms.

This setting had probably been designed to make it convenient for the protagonist to trigger various affection-building special events with the heroines at night.

But right now, it indeed made Greg and Silvia's nighttime operation much easier.

After a brief farewell to Victoria in her hospital bed, Silvia, guided and assisted by Greg, somewhat clumsily but successfully climbed out of the hospital room window, landing on the lawn below.

Greg followed immediately after, his movements far more practiced.

Victoria leaned against the windowsill, watching their figures quickly blend into the tree shadows of the hospital garden until they vanished.

She exhaled softly, her gray eyes calm in the night.

She silently prayed for their trip, while a thought grew even clearer in her mind: she had to recover as soon as possible and become stronger.

At the very least, she had to make up for missing out on supporting them this time.

...

After leaving the hospital area and walking along a relatively secluded path, Silvia finally couldn't help asking in a lowered voice, “Senior Greg...”

“Why did we... specifically climb out through the window just now? Couldn't we have used the main entrance?”

“Er...”

This question stumped Greg.

He couldn't exactly tell the truth—that he was terrified of being recognized or questioned at the main entrance due to a guilty conscience over the huge scene he had just caused in the girls' dormitory area.

His mind raced, quickly finding an explanation that sounded somewhat reasonable:

“Well... mostly, I don't want others to know that we have private contact.”

“W-What does that mean?”

Silvia's heart sank slightly, and her footsteps unconsciously slowed by half a beat.

A subtle feeling of inferiority—one that even she hadn't fully realized—quietly reared its head.

Could it be... Senior Greg didn't want to get too close to people with commoner backgrounds like them?