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TL: ALT
Chapter 22 – Everyone’s Situation, A Little Bit at a Time
“Can you please stop calling me with sama? You are older than me, right?”
Due to circumstances, I dropped out of high school and worked part-time while trying to pass the college entrance exam.
After that, I found a job, but I suffered from mental problems, and six months, a year, and two years passed.
During that time, I just stayed in a dimly lit room and listened to Serika’s gossip as she matured into a university student and a working adult.
Haruka-san looks about 20 years old, but if Honoka is a junior high school student, she can’t be as old as she looks.
She must be at least 30.
If elves are as immortal and long-lived as the creations of that world suggest, it wouldn’t be surprising if they were even older.
“Ara, you shouldn’t ask a woman her age, right?”
“Does that also apply to elves?”
“No, not really. When it comes to the elder class, there is sometimes a battle for control depending on who is older.”
Do elven elders fight for leadership based on age?
I wish they would be more at peace with their age.
“I will be 124 years old this year. Fufu, Yuto-sama… Yuto-san, from your point of view, I must be a grandmother, right?”
“124!”
That’s not even a grandmother; it’s a great-grandmother or a great-great-grandmother.
“Among the elves, I was still one of the youngest. Some of the elders were 400 or 500 years old. But those who live so long that there are no living witnesses can claim any age they want.”
“I-it’s an amazing world, isn’t it?”
As I was about to say that, I realized.
“Um, you’ve been talking about ‘that world’ and ‘the Earth’ for a while now, haven’t you? So you’re saying that Haruka-san is…?”
“Yes. As you guessed, I’m from another world… that’s how it should have been.”
“What do you mean ‘should have been’?”
“I used to be a hunter in the elven forest. I was originally the daughter of one of the elders, but I fell in love with a human.”
Haruka-san held her cheeks in her hands and looked embarrassed.
Serika snapped out of it.
“Love between two different races? That’s wonderful!”
“Fufufu. I wish it were so. Now that I’m with a human, the elves don’t think so much of me anymore.”
I thought it was very common, but of course, I didn’t say anything about it.
“No way, were you banished from your village or something?”
“No, not that much. But I was separated from the village and told that my home must be outside the village fence.”
“That’s…”
“But it was not a bad life. He was an explorer, and I am a hunter. We made our living by killing monsters in the forest and diving into dungeons. It was dangerous, but it was a fulfilling life where I could be with the person I loved.
Haruka-san speaks in a dreamy tone.
“But then, one day, the dungeon collapsed.”
“Collapsed? Not flooded?”
Serika asked instead of me.
“The flood is a phenomenon that occurs when, for some reason, the rank of the dungeon itself increases, and the number of high-level monsters increases, causing the monsters that can no longer live in the cramped dungeon to flood out.
“This is one of the leading hypotheses in the Association. After a dungeon’s rank increases, the growth rate of the monsters sometimes exceeds the expansion rate of the space inside the dungeon, and in such cases, the monsters that have lost their living space inside the dungeon are ‘pushed out.'”
“That’s right. The number of monsters increases before the dungeon expands, and when it can no longer accommodate them, even the divine power applied to the portal overflows, a phenomenon known as a dungeon flood.”
“In the case of a flood, the monsters that come out are mainly from the lower floors of the dungeon, right?”
“Yes, but you can never be sure. Unlike in the dungeon, the monsters in the tide can ignore the “organization” of the dungeon. In the South Kuzusawa Dungeon, the slime would swarm and attack people on the ground with no limit to their numbers.”
“Even though they are weak monsters, they are a threat to civilians, and for explorers, they would be out of control if they swarmed without limit, right?”
“But when the monsters are on the ground, the weapons on the ground will be effective. If the Self-Defense Force’s anti-monster unit is deployed… they can manage to A rank dungeon floods.”
“Oh, so it is true that ground weapons are ineffective against monsters in dungeons.”
That is why the police and the SDF cannot “control” the inside of a dungeon.
“If the SDF attacked an A-rank flood, the damage to the surrounding area would be great.”
“What about S-rank dungeon floods?”
“The SDF’s conventional weapons would be too heavy. It would be possible to defeat them with tactical nukes.”
“You can’t use those in small Japan.”
“That’s why S-ranked dungeon flood countermeasures are carried out by S-ranked or higher explorers certified by the Explorers Association, high-level explorers with a high domestic level ranking, and high-level explorers who belong to the national government.”
“Which one is Serika?”
“…I applied to all of them.”
“All of them?”
“Yuto-san, don’t you know?”
Honoka asks in surprise.
“What?”
“Serika Akenojo is an S-ranked explorer certified by the Explorers Association, ranked 17th in the national level ranking, and in addition to being an inspector for the Association, she is also a special member of the police special forces and one of the best young explorers in the country. She is also known as a holy knight who fights not for money or position but to save people.”
“…Eh, you’re that great?”
No, I knew she’d be great, but she far exceeded my expectations.
“Uh, yeah, well. I’ve heard people talking about it.”
Serika slurred her words strangely.
“Well, you know. I hope you don’t get mad at me.”
“What do you mean?”
“…I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“I was afraid that Yuto would shrink if I, an S-ranked explorer, were right next to you, even though Yuto was willing to be an explorer.”
“Oh…”
Of course, if I had heard that at the beginning, I would have felt a sense of inferiority.
I’ve been a shut-in for so long that my self-confidence and self-esteem have hit rock bottom.
I would have been shocked to learn that my childhood friend had become one of the top explorers in the country during the few years I had spent in idleness.
To be honest, it was a little frustrating and pathetic to have someone so concerned about me.
But I think it was probably the appropriate consideration for me, who was finally trying to recover from my shut-in life.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you…”
“I know. Thank you. And I’m sorry. I’ve been worrying you all this time.”
“No! It’s okay! Yuto has always stood up to everything, and I’m so frustrated that I can’t admit it… The only reason I’ve made it this far is because of you.”
“No, that’s unreasonable. I haven’t been able to do anything.”
“That’s not true! But if I tell you now, you might not believe me. You’ll have to ask me someday.”
“If Serika wants me to listen, I’ll listen anytime.”
“Yu-Yuto…”
“…Serika.”
“U-uh, Yuto-san, Serika-san? There’s more than just the two of you here.”
“Ara, ara. It’s nice to be young, isn’t it?”
Honoka and Haruka-san teased us, and Serika and I turned bright red.