Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 5 (22 page)

Lyu Lyon. That’s how she was known. Her title, “Gale Wind.”

A hooded adventurer shrouded in mystery whose full name was unknown.

“Apart from activities in the Dungeon, my
Familia
took it upon itself to eliminate those who try to rob Orario of peace. For that reason, we made many enemies.”

She says that as recently as five years ago, Orario was inundated with an “evil” that threatened the city.

Swearing upon Astrea’s crest, a winged sword of justice, Lyu and her allies fought to purge the city of that cancerous presence and protect those vulnerable to it.

“Until, one day, a
Familia
that had taken up arms against us set a trap in the Dungeon. I was the only one to escape alive…Unable to retrieve their bodies, I collected what articles I could and buried them here.”

“So that’s what these graves are…?”

“Yes. These women were fond of this location.”

She tells me that they would always casually joke, saying if they died, they wanted to be buried here.

I can’t imagine what images must be running through her head. She looks toward the ground, her lower lip quivering.

“…I went to Astrea as the sole survivor and told her everything. Then I pleaded with her to leave Orario by herself. I begged her for days, and at long last she obliged.”

“Y-you helped your goddess escape?”

“No, not that.”

Lyu’s voice snaps, saying her reasoning was much more selfish as her fists clench.

“I didn’t want her to see the passionate, violent creature I was becoming.”

She says that she didn’t know how to control the emotions that were overtaking her at that time.

“I had to avenge those who had fought beside me. I set my sights on the
Familia
that ended their lives and swore to take revenge alone.”

“A-alone…?!”

Attacks under the cover of darkness, ambushes, traps. She used all manner of sneak attacks to eliminate them one by one—until that
Familia
was wiped out.

A large and influential group in Orario was torn out by the roots and utterly eliminated at the hands of a single elf.

“My actions had nothing to do with justice. Filled with a lust for revenge, I tracked down each member and erased them along with anyone connected to them…Even the slightest suspicion was enough.”

That’s what landed her on the Guild’s blacklist.

In her quest for vengeance, she earned the hatred of not only adventurers but merchants, smiths, and townspeople. They were the ones who issued the bounty.

The reward for her capture kept growing and growing…The Guild had no choice but to punish her despite the surrounding circumstances. Especially considering she had bared her fangs at groups connected to the offender. After all, they sold the items and weapons used to kill her family.

With the goddess Astrea outside the city walls, her Status remained intact as the “Gale Wind” covered Orario in a storm of fury.

“…So, what happened after that?”

“I collapsed. With all targets eliminated, with no one left, alone in a back alley.”

She must’ve accepted death the moment she swore revenge.

Her quest complete, her goddess gone and friends dead, there was nothing left for her in this world.

“Covered in blood and dirt on the side of the road…It was a fitting end for someone who had committed atrocities such as I.”

“…”

“However…”

“—Are you okay?”

A warm hand had reached out to take hers.

Syr found Lyu in that back alley and saved her.

She listened to her story—everything Lyu had done, over and over—and managed to bring her back from the brink.

“After rescuing me, Syr convinced Mama Mia to employ me as a waitress at The Benevolent Mistress……I also keep my hair dyed.”

Since she’d always worn a hood and gone by the name Lyon during her time as an adventurer, the chances of her being discovered were very low as long as she changed the color of her hair.

In a soft tone, Lyu goes on to explain how she became her current self.

“…I apologize for soiling your ears.”

“Wh-what?”

“In short, the elf you see before you is a shameless, violent criminal…I have betrayed your trust, Mr. Cranell.”

She looks at me with the same calm expression, even though she’s confessing all of her crimes to me. I clear my throat.

I don’t know how to respond, so I just say the first thing that comes to my mind:

“Lyu…
Please stop regarding yourself as inferior
. I’ll get mad at you.”

Her sky-blue eyes open a little wider.

She stands still for a moment before finally saying:

“That was…very clever.”

Only very slightly, but her lips soften.

She isn’t smiling by any means, but her eyes don’t look as piercing as they normally do.

All I did was repeat her own words back to her, just stole the line, but her reaction makes me feel good. Why wouldn’t it? Her usual ice-cold expression just warmed up a little.

A tranquil mood overtakes us in the middle of the graveyard, surrounded by green leaves and crystal light.

“…Can I ask…”

“What is it?”

“Can I ask why you came to Orario?”

This is my best chance.

My best chance to find out why Lyu came to the place where people go to follow their dreams.

I want to know why she and I met in the first place.

“…”

She opens her mouth very slightly before looking up toward the ceiling.

Then Lyu squints her eyes to protect them from the beams of light penetrating the canopy above.

“…We elves are a race known for our good looks.”

Her eyes barely open, she wanders around the grassy Dungeon floor.

At long last, Lyu continues her story.

“Myself and others have been praised for our beauty. However, is that really true? Extremely proud and revolted by anything unclean, we do not allow others to easily touch our skin…”

“…”

“There are some who believe other races to be dirty on the surface as well as within, and refuse to interact with them, isolating themselves in their home forests. At the very least, most of the elves from my home forest believed as such…

“However,” she continues.

“Only recognizing their own beauty while looking down at everything else as if it were nothing more than trash…A thought came to me.”

Lyu once again looks up to the light.

“That the beautiful, magnificent elves were actually the most revolting.”

Knowing the value that elves place on interpersonal relationships, I bet she was the only one who felt that way.

Among all those elves, so full of pride, she was the only one to question their logic.

“As soon as that idea took hold, it was impossible to remove. I became embarrassed of my own motherland, so I left…and eventually arrived in Orario.”

“By accident?”

“Not exactly…I heard many travelers say that Orario was home to gods, humans, and other fairies, a place full of life where people gather. I thought that if I were there, I might be able to find something…No, that’s not it.”

She looks into the palms of her hands as if she’s remembering her first days in the city.

“I wanted companions worthy of my respect who felt I was worthy of theirs.”

It was the one thing that she didn’t have growing up in elvish culture with elvish customs.

People who placed no value on race or looks, but on content of character. Friends who would laugh alongside her.

“I came to the city with high hopes…but they were quickly dashed. I didn’t expose my skin to anyone but other elves. My face always covered by a hood, I slapped away any hands that reached out.”

Elvish culture was too deeply ingrained…Lyu couldn’t turn over a new leaf.

In this new place, she was constantly stared at because of her beauty, and she couldn’t take it.

Elves don’t allow someone they don’t trust to touch their skin.
She couldn’t fix that and other elvish teachings that had been drilled into her head since childhood—it must’ve tormented her.

“What a jest. I left my homeland because I couldn’t stand my own kind, and yet in the outside world, I was no different from them. So I cut myself off, creating a wall.”

So that was why she kept her hood up during her time in Orario.

She was disappointed in herself for realizing she was exactly the same as the elves back in the forest.

From her point of view,
she
was the one looking down at people.

Her inborn disdain for other races came full circle, back to herself. It became self-loathing.

“I didn’t change. I was still an elf, nose high in the air with pride.”

“Lyu…”

“However.”

Her tone suddenly changes.

Then she walks right up to me, face-to-face, and gently grabs my hand.

“—Huh?”

“Just like this, there was someone who took hold of my hand, who I could touch.”

She’s shaking my hand.

Her fingers feel so small and delicate that I’m afraid they might break off if I shook back. And yet, her skin is very soft and supple. My cheeks blush before I know it.

“This is my second time with you, yes? Do you remember?”

“Y-yes?!”

“The day when you lost your knife and were desperately searching.”

I’m too stunned to figure out what she’s talking about at first, but then the feeling of her skin on my hands triggers a memory. The day when Lilly, disguised as a dog person, stole the Divine Knife. That’s what she’s talking about.

I clearly remember happily embracing her hands because she had recovered the knife.

“I was very taken aback. Taken aback that I didn’t immediately throw the human who had suddenly grabbed my hands onto the side of the road.”

Her face forms an expression I’ve never seen on Lyu before: a mischievous grin.

I wouldn’t have been able to say anything if she’d sliced me in
half…
Only now does the realization hit me. My cheeks and ears are burning, but I do my best to force a smile.

“You are the third person who I did not immediately punish for touching my skin.”

She says that with her hand still firmly grasped around mine.

—
Eh? Your name is Lyu? That’s too hard to say. I’ll call you Lyon from now on!

The first, the bright and cheerful girl who invited her to join her own
Familia
.

—
Are you okay?

The second, the nice girl who extended a warm hand to her cold fingers, the waitress who gave her a place to be.

And the third is…

“Please don’t make such a confused face. I feel like you’re making sport of me.”

“S-sorry!”

“I am joking…I have been following your actions closely since we met. I’ve come to understand your weakness, your sincerity, and most of all your spirit.”

“Lyu…?”

“Mr. Cranell, you are kind.”

Completely overwhelmed by this new aura radiating from her eyes, I can only respond by saying her name.

She blinks her eyes closed, the blue orbs hidden from sight for a moment, before slowly opening them up again.

“You are a human worthy of my respect.”

Lyu…smiles.

Her thin eyebrows relax as the edges of her feminine lips curl upward.

My whole body blushes pink as she faces me with a smile as pure and clean as a white lotus.

“…Uh.”

“Mr. Cranell?”

I know it’s a little late, but now I truly know why the smile of an elf is a dangerous thing.

The smile of a refined elf while knowing their usual demeanor day in and day out is particularly brutal. It’s a trump card powerful enough to make my knees go weak despite having my own aspirations.

Elvish beauty isn’t all just on the surface.

A smile that they give only to their most trusted companions.

My eyes are filled with the light beams from above and the tranquil colors of the graveyard and flowers, but most of all, the beautiful smile on her tilted head.

Now I think I know why other races have a thing for elves.

“Ow, ow, ow…What would you do if you broke my face, Asfi?”

“You reap what you sow.”

“Night” had already fallen on the eighteenth floor of the Dungeon.

Two figures quietly made their way out of the forest campsite: Hermes and Asfi.

“A god no better than a Peeping Tom…Have you no shame!”

“Peeping isn’t that big of a deal for us…”

Bell, who had gone missing after the peeping incident, returned to the campsite shortly before dinner. The fact that he was led to the scene by the deity—and that he practically buried his face in the ground bowing—allowed him to escape with a harsh verbal warning. Only Hermes, the instigator, was physically punished.

“…Well then, where are we going on this pitch-black night?”

“On a pitch-black night like this, there’s only one place to bring a lady. Isn’t it obvious?”

On the other side of the grasslands before them, the lights of the town of Rivira shone like a beacon from the west.

“To a tavern.”

“Damn it!”

Inside one of the few taverns in a small niche of Rivira.