The tremors swiftly grew more intense. Waves formed in the waterway, and dust began to fall from the ceiling. With a sharp noise, a crack formed in a wall.
Immediately, I pulled Mizuho close.
“Wah…!”
“Get down. Cover your head,” I instructed, covering her with my body and using my other arm to protect my own skull. No suitable egress presented itself, so it was all we could to do hunker down and wait for the rumbling to subside.
With a sound that sent a shiver down my spine, the ceiling collapsed. A chunk of boulder fell right where Mizuho had been passed out. The water’s surface raged like a school of fish was excitedly swimming through it, sending cold sprays at me.
Gradually, the shaking subsided until, eventually, it was quiet.
“Looks like it’s over. Are you all right?”
“Y-yes!”
I released Mizuho and got up; she bounded to her feet like a spring.
“Thank you so much!”
“Hmm?”
“You saved me, did you not? I just remembered that I was unconscious before.”
“Oh, right.”
“I’m sorry. This is my first time meeting a real-life Visitor, so I got excited…”
“I didn’t do anything. You woke up on your own; that’s all. More importantly—”
“Oh, I forgot! My glasses!”
Suddenly getting flustered, Mizuho started searching all around her. Before long, she spotted the cylindrical case, opened it, and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness. I have bad eyes, so I can’t live without these,” she admitted, taking the spectacles out of the case and donning them. As she looked at me through them, they had gold rims and elaborate decorations, she blinked, momentarily taken aback.
“Something wrong?”
“Oh! No, I, umm. You have a sterner face than I expected…”
I cocked an eyebrow.
That seemed to snap her out of it. “I-I’m sorry! From what I heard, Visitors are younger—like handsome rosy-cheeked young men in uniform, or energetic girls with short hair and bushy eyebrows. I’m a little disappointed—or rather, surprised, and—”
“Well, sorry for being old enough to be your uncle. Anyway, I had a question—”
“Yes! What is it? You can ask me anything!” she responded, breathing heavily through her nose.
Flustered, I managed to continue, “Er… You called this place Million Dungeon, right? Are earthquakes common around here?”
“Earth-quake?” repeated Mizuho, seeming confused.
Come on, I thought. We were speaking so normally to each other—why would the word earthquake be the exception?
“Like how the ground was rumbling before—”
“Oh, so on Earth, you call them Earth-quakes!”
“Uh… Yeah.”
Mizuho produced a small stone slab out of nowhere and took a loud, scratching note on it with a stylus before looking up again and saying, “About that! We call them dungeonstorms!”
She was very excited.
“Dungeonstorms…?”
“Yes! Storms occur from time to time here in Million Dungeon. It messes up rooms, breaks apart corridors, mixes up floors, and squashes monsters and people alike. They’re awful things. I got caught in one, and the next thing I knew, I was here—”
Mizuho’s words suddenly cut off.
“What is it?” I pressed, growing impatient.
Seeming somewhat lost, Mizuho said, “Where are we?”
“Huh?”
“Um, that’s right, I…,” she muttered, rubbing the bump on her head. “I was in the room and heard a loud noise… Then the wall turned up, and the floor slanted… And after that…”
Mizuho shut her eyes tight—did she have a headache? She seemed ready to stagger and fall over again, so I put a hand on her elbow to steady her.
“Don’t push yourself. Take slow breaths.”
Mizuho opened her eyes, looked at me, and said, “Taiga! I have to go back to my country!”
“Your country? Where is it?”
“I don’t know…”
“What’s it called?”
“Support Roman Empire Post Five.”
What?
“…You have Rome here? Nearby?”
“Romes aren’t that unusual. I know of at least ten nations with that name.”
“I see.”
I stopped thinking about it. I didn’t have a clue how our communication worked despite us speaking entirely different languages, but the translation engine—or whatever was behind it—was probably malfunctioning. It had to be.
I looked down at Mizuho; she was upset to the point where her previous enthusiasm seemed like a dream. Her gaze was unfocused, the color had left her face, and she was having trouble standing. She’d maintained her momentum because of her wound-induced adrenaline surge and her conversation with me, but their effectiveness was wearing thin. Her wet clothes were leeching her body heat. Whether or not the young woman realized it, she was exhausted.
I snapped my fingers in front of her face to draw her attention. “Mizuho. Let’s find the way back. Help me.”
“Ah… Right, right!”
“Good. First, we’ll move somewhere safe. We don’t know when this passage will cave in. Let’s find somewhere secure and open. Understand?”
“An open…space…” Mizuho made a complicated face at that, but I continued anyway.
“Once we find a good spot, we’ll make a fire. We’re both soaking wet. We’ll dry our clothes, rest a while, and have some tea.”
“Tea?”
“If only we had some food… Did you bring any?”
“Unfortunately, no…”
“I see. In that case, we’ll just have to make do.”
“You have tea?”
“Not with me, but I should be able to find some soon. Can you move?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“All right. Let’s get moving.”
Mizuho and I set off in search of a haven.