When I went back to the mansion with Alice, things were worse than I’d expected.
A mountain of gifts practically spilled out of it. Those that couldn’t fit inside were left in the garden, along with full carriages left without their horses. Each was individually wrapped and even placed in gaudy-looking treasure chests, but when they were piled up so haphazardly, well…
“It almost looks like a dump,” I mused.
“What do we do?” Alice asked.
“Good question…”
Aurum, cradling Miike in her arms, cut in with a suggestion. “Want me to take it?”
“Hmm? Aurum?”
The spirit of the dungeon Aurum, a girl with literally devilish eyes, had acclimated to our mansion well. She stood nonchalantly next to me.
“What do you mean by ‘take it’?”
“Exactly what I said. My room has basically infinite space.”
“Your room… As in, your dungeon chamber?”
She nodded.
I see. That’s where she meant.
I’d never paid much mind to the size of spirits’ chambers, but it seemed they were infinitely large.
“Throw it all in there for now, and you can use your mansion like usual, right?” she said.
“No… I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Don’t be shy! We’re friends.”
“Nah. I’m not being shy.”
“Then why not?” Aurum cocked her head. I tried to explain why, but it was answered for me before I could.
Boom!
Better to show than to tell, apparently; there was an explosion behind the mansion before anyone could say anything.
“What’s going on?”
“Oh! That’s a monster! We’ve got outsiders, Ryota!” Alice noticed first, thanks to her being born in a dungeon.
After she’d answered my question, a monster leapt out from behind the building. It was a giant eyeball monster. Several tentacles wiggled outward from the eye, each with their own little eyes on them.
Two of our Family members chased it from behind the mansion and attacked. Emily jumped at it, spinning her massive hammer. Meanwhile, Celeste held out her Bicorn horns like magic staves as she cast a strong spell.
“I thought this might happen,” I said. “You can’t let things pile up too much, or else they’ll reach places that people aren’t always at.”
“Oh! And then outsiders appear…”
“Exactly. We could probably leave everything in your chamber, but if they turned into outsiders, that’d cause big trouble. Like a kaiju war, or something.”
“I see…”
“Leaving the question of how to fix this aside… I’ll be right back.”
✦ ✦ ✦
This was a monster I’d never seen before, called a Gazer.
Emily and Celeste struggled to fight it. Meanwhile, I analyzed the battle.
“Emily! Celeste!”
“Yoda!”
“Ryota!”
“Leave the rest to me.”
“Okay!” they both replied.
Still paying attention to the Gazer, they warily backed away. I joined the battle in their place.
I loaded a special bullet into my gun and pointed at its weak point, which I’d found during their battle.
☆
Inside the mansion, Aurum appeared while Nihonium was staring blankly at the battle.
“So you’re Nihonium, huh?”
“Huh? Who are you…?”
The salon, where the Ryota Family often gathered when they weren’t busy, was full of presents. She alone sat there among them.
“Aurum. You know what that means, right?”
“You’re…”
“It’s weird, isn’t it? I never thought the two of us would ever meet.”
“Yes… Agreed.”
“I thought I was mistaken when I saw you through the window, but I really wasn’t. Why the glum face, though?” Aurum lightly slapped her fellow spirit on the head.
Nihonium held her head unhappily and looked back at the girl, confusion evident on her face. One could practically see the question mark over her head.
“I heard about you,” Aurum said. “I get how you feel.”
“…”
“Arsenic, Selenium, Plumbum, Phosphorus, and Aurum. You know what those all are?”
“…?”
“All the names of dungeons that Ryota has helped. Because he’s amazing, see?” Aurum raised her hand and pointed at the Gazer, a monster that he’d managed to defeat instantly despite never having encountered it before.
He had used his bounty of combat experience, high stats, and various powerful items to defeat the Gazer while keeping damage to a minimum─only a small part of the mansion had been destroyed.
“If he puts his mind to it, there’s nothing he can’t do. He’ll have your little problem solved in no time, so just relax and wait for him.”
“Do you…believe in him that much?”
“Yeah. Hey, come with me.”
“Huh? B-But where?”
“We’re gonna go see Arsenic, Selenium, and Plumbum. You gotta meet them.”
“M-Meet them? How… No, why in the first place─”
“I’m gonna let them get mad at you.”
“Huh?”
“You beg Ryota for help, and then you act like you don’t trust him. That’s messed up. Miike, you can use the warp room to take us to everyone’s chambers, right?”
“Leave it to me! You’ve taken me to all those places, so I sure can!”
“Okay! Let’s go,” Aurum said and dragged Nihonium out of the salon.
The mountain of gifts symbolized the faith of others, and Aurum’s behavior symbolized the faith of spirits.
Ryota had both of their trust in spades.