The hushed presence, the odor of sweat, the breath inhaled at the moment of attack, and the sound of feet sliding to the side.
I turned on my flashlight.
The dark shadow, a moment away from delivering a kick to my crotch, suddenly growled and covered its face as it was overwhelmed by the sudden brilliance.
I grabbed its arm and stepped on its calf, then drove my opponent, now kneeling, into the wall.
“Ow, crap! What the hell are you doing?!”
The shrieking voice belonged to a woman.
“Apologies. Is this a prison?”
“What…? Why do you even have to ask? Can’t you tell?!”
Beyond the heavy door was a room even smaller than the ones I’d been rummaging through. Scraps of straw were scattered about, and there was a wooden plank at the end of the floor, slightly higher than the rest. A fraying blanket was balled up on it. Given the awful stench in the air, it must have been a bed made on top of a toilet.
The woman, pinned down, craned her neck to look back at me.
“Who are you? You’re not from around here.”
“You could tell?”
“Pfft. Anyone could tell you’re a stranger. Would you mind letting me go? I’m sorry for trying to kick you.”
“I wonder if I should. You were about to bust my balls, and my heart’s still pounding.”
“Not so bad if you think of it as getting qualified to work as a eunuch. Barely any willing candidates, so it actually pays well.”
I grinned and released my pin. The imprisoned woman stood up, rubbing her wrist, then turned to face me. She was a little shorter than Mizuho, but she must have been notably older, judging by the canniness in her expression. She wore a tunic and pants, but her feet were bare. Surely, they must have been cold against the stone floor. Her hair was short and ash-colored, and it was frazzled in places. I’d already turned the light away, but it still seemed to be too bright for her; she squinted as she looked me up and down.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Are you someone I know? We ever met? I don’t think we have.”
“This is the first we’ve met, as far as I remember. I’m Taiga. No particular title.”
“No title? You lie. You’re no one decent. But if you don’t want to tell me, then fine. I’m Troach of the Complicated Past. A penny-pinching thief.”
Troach peered out from the thrown-open prison door, examining the passage outside.
“What happened? We had one hell of a dungeonstorm rip through, and it was really shaking the place up. And then suddenly, it was quiet. What, did the country go down in flames or something?”
“You’re quick on the uptake.”
“Are you serious? And—Taiga, was it? What are you doing? Looting?”
“Something like that, yes. I came to find anyone who hadn’t escaped yet.”
“Meaning me?”
“Looks like it. Any other prisoners?”
“This is the only jail in the country. The only things left are the moles and rocklice in the walls.”
All of a sudden, I could have sworn I felt something at my feet shake a tiny bit.
“Uh-oh…”
Troach looked at me suspiciously. “Huh? Did you just…?”
“We’re getting out. Now.”
“Eh? You can’t tell me what to—”
“You’ll die! Hurry up!”
I left the cell without waiting for her to respond, then ran back through the passage and returned to the square.
“Hey, what the hell is going on?!”
Troach hurried after me while I tossed her a big bundle of blankets I’d been piling up in the square. She caught them handily, the contents of the large package rattling.
“Huh? Wait, so you were looting the place!”
“Can you carry two?”
“Oh, you can leave that to me. In exchange for a cut, of course.”
I tossed another wrapped heap of items to the suddenly cooperative thief, then snatched up two for myself, slung them over my shoulders, and darted out of the plaza. The ground was already visibly tilting.
Troach seemed to pick up on the oddity as well. “What? Wait, are we in trouble—?”
“Just run!” I shouted.
I slid down the edge of the square. Landing in the scree, I turned around, watching the remnants very quickly tilt into the river. The bedrock attached to this side came up like a seesaw, ascending. Troach poked her face out from over the edge.
“Jump down!” I yelled.
Troach suddenly made a face like a cat stuck in a tree.
“Are you kidding me?! Dammit! Out of the way!”
She hurled her two bundles down to me, then leaped.
There was no need to catch her. She landed cleanly in front of me, then crumpled onto the stone-laden ground and groaned a curse.
Before our eyes, what remained of the empire, which had been precariously perched on the river’s edge, was washed away by so much water, rapidly sinking. Right before it sailed over the waterfall, for just a moment, the kingly statue poked above the surface, but the next instant, the thing was gone again, descending deep.
When I thought about it, it was just like the goddesses adorning the prow of a sailboat—it had stood at the front as we all slid down. The previous monarch had died in a dungeonstorm, but his statue had fulfilled his final duty to his people. A reasonably tear-jerking story, I thought. In a bit of irony, the last ones to attend to him were an outsider and a petty thief.
“…I was about to die!” Troach cried out as she jumped to her feet.
“I told you so.”
“Lead with that next time! Well, I guess I’m okay, but still…,” she muttered discontentedly, gathering the bundles. “Anyway, let’s see what’s inside… Hmm? What’s all this?”
After undoing the knot in the blanket, Troach’s voice sunk in suspicion. “Pots, blankets, broken chairs… Hey, this is all junk! You tricked me!”
“I didn’t say a word about anything with monetary value being inside.”
“You dirty bastard! Ugh… You didn’t say that, did you…? Shit…”
As Troach hung her head, I stated, “We wouldn’t be able to use currency if we had it anyway. Take a look around.”
“Eh?”
She looked up, scanning her surroundings again…and found herself at a loss for words.
The enormous fissure that had split through Million Dungeon must have been a shocking spectacle not only for an outsider like me, but natives as well. With her jaw on the floor, Troach stared up, taking in the huge labyrinthine panorama unfolded overhead.
“…What happened?”
“I don’t really know myself. All that can be said for certain is that your country has been destroyed.”
“Um, that isn’t anywhere near the problem here…” Troach’s face betrayed more despair by the second.
“What is going on…? I’ve never seen anything like this before…,” she whispered, hugging herself like this was more than she could bear. It was a bit surprising that a native of this world would be more afraid than someone who had come here without any warning. Perhaps it was a difference in viewpoint. This was all I knew of Million Dungeon, but Troach understood how things had been before this terrible quake.
“Are you all right?” I asked out of worry. The thief seemed to be in quite a bit of shock.
Troach blinked, seeming to snap out of it, and shook her head. “It’s, errr… I don’t want to look at it very much. It makes me feel sick. This is the first time I’ve ever been in such a big room.”
“A big room?”
“You know, this really large place…”
“Place…?”
A moment later, I understood what she was saying.
So that’s it…
The people in this world spent their entire lives in the labyrinth’s tiny chambers. They’d never seen any room much bigger.
The term agoraphobic crossed my mind. The soldiers and I used to call ourselves that jokingly. Running through an open field with no cover while an enemy could be training a rifle on you was enough to get anyone sweating. However, the denizens of Million Dungeon weren’t familiar with wide-open spaces at all, so it made sense they’d be anxious upon encountering one.
“It might be better not to look too far away until you get used to it. If you can carry those bundles, we can start a fire and get warm. Will you come?”
Troach responded to my offer with a profoundly suspicious gaze. “You’re not trying to make me into a convenient pawn or something, are you, Taiga ‘the Looter’?”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t give me a title like that. And I won’t force you. It’s up to you.”
“Well, you did just save my life. All right. I’ll stick with you until I can get a grip on all this.”
After handing Troach half of the things, I took the lead and began the journey back across the debris to the refugees.
“Where are we headed?”
“Some of the people from your nation survived.”
“Wait…”
“The camp is just up ahead… What’s wrong?”
I turned back; Troach had stopped moving.
“Are you serious? They’re the ones who arrested me.”
“What did you do?”
“I found someone who looked like they were hoarding valuables, so I snuck in while they were away. And for once in my life, they came back very soon after and discovered me. During our struggle, a whole bunch of people gathered…”
“Did you kill them?”
“Of course not! I’m not that evil. In fact, I was the one who got beat like a sandbag.”
“Then everything’s fine.”
“The hell it is!”
“I’ll smooth things over with them.”
“You? The looter?”
“I told you, I’m no thief. If things get bad, you’re free to run away.”
“Don’t need you to tell me that. Fine. I’ll go, but I won’t like it.”
Under protest, Troach resumed her march. The pillars lined up in the dark lit up with the light from my flashlight.
“…Hmm?”
I frowned.
It had been over thirty minutes since I’d left Mizuho and the others. I’d expected at least one fire to be going when I got back, but the only thing I could see at the pillars’ bases was the pale-blue lantern light.
I went up, and the refugees, discussing something with grave expressions, turned back to me.
“What’s wrong? No fire going yet?”
Potesara, who came to greet me, gave me a shameful face. “Oh, Taiga. Well…”
Behind him, people were standing around a pile of several pieces of cloth. The apron Potesara had been wearing was among them. They must not have had anything they could use as fuel besides their clothing. Unfortunately, they hadn’t been able to get them to light. By the looks of it, they’d only succeeded in leaving scorch marks on the heap. A bunch of what looked like thin match ends were scattered on the ground nearby, but those must have all burned out as well, because someone was desperately striking flint against steel. Though sparks flew each time they clashed, there was no sign of the flame jumping to the cloth.
“We can’t get any fire going,” Potesara admitted, appearing to be at a total loss.