Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (20 page)

She ran to the closest one, fearing the worst. He was breathing. No
injuries, either. Going to the rest of the team, they were in exactly the same aloof state. However, they were alive.

The only problem was that all of them looked like puppets that had their strings cut. There was no strength in their bodies at all.

“Ah… ah.”

Monster poison…? No, it can’t be… What the hell did this?!?

All of them were murmuring something. Their faces were beet red. Their eyes weren’t focusing.

She had never seen anything like this. A chill crept through her body as she realized she didn’t know how to help them. How could she cure what she was seeing for the first time?

What happened here…?
She stood up and scanned the room, ignoring the howling and thrashing beasts still locked in their cages.

“—”

The air behind her suddenly shifted.

It was not an aggressive sneak attack, more like one friend creeping up on another. There was no intent to harm, which was why the woman was too slow to react.

Someone was standing behind her.

“Please stand still?”

“—ah.”

A quick swish of cloth, and suddenly she couldn’t see.

Her eyes were covered by delicate fingers that were smooth to the touch.

A heartbeat later, her whole body froze in place, limbs shaking ever so slightly.

A sweet smell licked her nose, a soft body pressed against her back, warmth enveloped her skin. All of her senses were paralyzed by a “beauty” she couldn’t see.

It was an overwhelming “charm.”

A “charm” she couldn’t comprehend.

She couldn’t fight back, she couldn’t resist.

Her mind was going blank, thoughts evaporating all at once.

Her freedom was gone.

“Where is the key?”

“—e.”

“The key to the cages—where is it?”

The voice whispered lightly into her ear, but the sound consumed her consciousness. Her head leaned forward, her neck unable to support it.

She could not fight the words in her head, and she obeyed.

Her shaky right arm reached behind her back to grab a key chain strapped to her belt. The keys shook violently in her jittery hand. She raised the keys up to her shoulder.

“Thank you.”

The hands covering her eyes left as the keys were taken from her hand. But her eyes didn’t trigger. The girl did not see anything.

The presence behind her withdrew. Without its support, her knees buckled, and she fell to the floor, landing softly on her rear end.

She had fallen victim to the same “charm” as her team and joined their fate.

“My apologies.”

Freya left the girl behind and walked farther into the storage room.

Guild staff and the “fierce members” of
Ganesha Familia
had been guarding the west gate. She had rendered them all helpless in order to come this far.

Freya didn’t have the ability to fight anyone. She was just one of the many gods on Gekai. She had no special powers.

But she had her beauty. She literally was beauty itself.

She had a power that couldn’t be controlled by reason. Other gods fell under her spell; humans and demi-humans didn’t stand a chance. She had the overwhelming ability to put anyone in a trance on a whim.

This time she was using it to have a little fun.

The gender of her victims didn’t matter. Their consciousness would leave them; they would forget they had bones to stand on. They became infatuated with her “charm.”

As long as she was careful not to be seen, this level of infiltration was well within her power.

“……”

Freya stopped in the middle of the storage room.

Monster cages were lined up all around her, their occupants howling with renewed vigor. She listened to the explosion of beastly roars around her.

However, as soon as she lowered her hood, all of the beasts went silent.

“……”

Her beauty had ensnared them, too.

Skin the color of freshly fallen snow filled their eyes. Freya’s silver hair and silver eyes hypnotized the monsters into a passive state, their muscles shutting down.

Even vicious monsters were not safe from her “charm.”

“… You’ll do well.”

She looked over all of them individually before stopping at one particular cage.

That monster was covered in a thick white coat of fur. Its arms were massive and its shoulders broad with bulging muscles. A line of longer, thread-like fur that matched Freya’s hair color perfectly ran down its back ends in what looked like a stubby tail.

The wild silverback locked eyes with the Goddess of Beauty, its breathing getting heavier and heavier with each passing second.

“Come out.”

She opened the lid of the cage with the key in her hand.

The monster obeyed Freya’s instructions and stepped out of the lattice cage. The chains restraining its arms and legs jangled at its feet.

She had released a monster. She knew how dangerous this could be.

While she was pulling the strings, little details like that meant nothing to her.

She’d come here for one reason.

That boy is right outside…

Her target was Bell Cranell.

Ahh, but it’s a pity. I wanted to watch him grow a little while longer…

She knew Bell was growing at an alarming rate. She didn’t know why, but she could see he was improving by leaps and bounds.

No one could keep a secret from a god.

… I want to play with him.

Freya laughed to herself like a little kid.

She wanted to play a joke on the one she loved, just as if she were an immature child.

But she couldn’t stop. Her love at first sight was driving her forward like a twinge of pain deep in her chest every moment she couldn’t be with him.

She wanted to see him scared, see him cry, but above all, she wanted to see his courage.

“……”

“Fhaa… fhaaaa…?”

Freya lovingly stroked the cheek of the silverback, its nose flaring with each swell of air. She paused for a moment as a new thought went through her mind.

What if this monster accidentally killed Bell because she let it loose?

She hadn’t thought of that but quickly shrugged it off.

If Bell died today…

I’ll go after him.

If his spirit left Gekai, she would chase it to the ends of time and space.

I will hold him.

Once she caught him, she would hold him against her passionate breasts.

Her eyes glowed with love and tenderness, but her face showed a love of cruelty. An absolutely evil smile unrolled from her lips.

She held the silverback’s head with both hands, evil smile and all. Every muscle in the monster’s body pulsed with energy.

So…

She leaned forward and placed her lips on the creature’s forehead.

Wait for me?

A roar erupted from the storage room.

“Goddess, what were you talking about with Eina?”

“Ah, this and that.”

The goddess and I have already done one lap around the stadium in our search for Syr. Now we’re back on East Main. The streets are emptier now. Everyone’s probably inside watching the tamers at work.

“Hey, Bell. This person you are looking for is a girl, isn’t she?”

“Eh? Ah, yes, with hair and eyes the color of ashes. She looks grown-up and is a little taller than me…”

She wasn’t asking about how Syr looks. Her eyes are only half open, staring at me. She’s not blinking…

Why’s she looking at me like that…? Got a bad feeling about this.

“Um… Goddess?”

“… Just like that adviser, you really have no clue.”

“Eh…? What do you mean?”

“Who knows.”

At least she’s not staring at me, but she’s pouting…

I swear her ponytails are alive, and they’re flexing. Like they want to choke me…

What did I do? Why is she like this…?

We walk in silence for a small eternity.

“—?”

“… What is it, Bell?”

I feel something in the air and stop walking. The goddess still looks as angry as before when she looks over her shoulder at me.

Just now, something…

Something reaches my ears.

It’s not the din of the festival; it’s sharper, tenser.

“… A scream?”

Just as the words leave my mouth, a tidal wave of sound overtakes us.

“MONSTERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!”

The peaceful street erupts into an explosion of panic at that one word.

There it is.

A monster is at the end of the street, coming from the stadium.

It’s charging down the stone road, all of its white fur standing on end.

The monster, the silverback, was enraged.

A storm within, muscles firing off at full strength, it breathed with enough force to blow everything out of its way. It wanted her, and it wanted her now.

It was looking for a goddess.

The last it saw of her silver hair was outside the stadium, disappearing into a crowd. The completely charmed monster rushed after her with more strength and power than it had ever had before, almost as though it was being pulled by an invisible chain.

Her love!

The goddess’s affection!

The monster’s purest, most basic instincts had taken over its body and driven it forward.

A monster’s instincts didn’t waver. Its quest for a goddess’s love consumed it.

“Gaaaaahhhhhh!!!”

“Heeee!”

The silverback advanced down the street, swatting carts and boxes out of its way.

A crying horse managed to get out of the way. The driver of its cart wasn’t so lucky. He was launched skyward and tumbled to the ground. The horse wheeled the empty cart back around to its master as the silverback charged by.

It was losing the scent of the goddess. Her sweet aroma was gone. Had it made a wrong turn?

The silverback stopped for a moment and tried to find her scent again. It looked in every direction, taking in big huffs of air.

Many people filled the streets once again—people running, people in shock, people screaming at the top of their lungs. The silverback was enclosed in a circle of humanity.

The silverback’s eyes skimmed the crowd before suddenly coming to a stop.

Its eyes had locked onto a point, a certain someone.

It saw “her” with bloodshot eyes.

A small girl with black hair and blank eyes staring right back at him.

A being clearly different from the others around her.

Someone on a whole other plane.

Someone with the same qualities as the “goddess” he pursed.

A voice climbed into its ears:

“—Could you chase the small one?”

Those words whispering in its ear were hers.

—Found you!

The silverback took one big step toward the wide-eyed little girl.

“—”

It takes a step forward.

“… B-Bell.”

I grab the goddess’s hand and take one, two steps back.

Every hair on my body is standing up. I haven’t felt like this since “that” day.

A white body, silver hair running down its back. Its presence is overwhelming.

It has the eyes of a beast, no rhythm or reason. And it’s looking at me and the goddess.