I must have been crying for an hour when I heard someone speak to me.
“###...”
I twitched and looked up toward the voice.
“######?”
A slim and kind-looking young man was gazing down at me with a worried expression. He wasn’t like the scumbags from earlier, or the people who had stared at me with enmity in their eyes. I could sense his concern for me, so I summoned the courage and spoke to him.
“U-Um, can you help me?”
“#! #####? ######...” He rubbed the back of his head, looking unsure of what to do.
Yeah, I figured we couldn’t understand each other... But then he handed me a piece of clothing. O-Oh, I forgot! I’m naked right now! I grabbed it from him—it appeared to be something like a raincoat made of fabric—and wrapped myself in it. This is a robe or something, right?
The man smiled at me and extended his hand. I was about to take it when I abruptly shrank back. My hand was on fire. Though I couldn’t feel the heat emanating from it, that didn’t mean others shared my immunity. As proof of that, the bear that had tried to lunge at me had run away after a taste of my flames. The fire had warded off my human attackers as well.
Now that I thought about it, why was this man able to stand in this fire without it affecting him? He wasn’t wearing anything like a firefighter’s uniform. He was still standing with his hand extended, though his expression had taken on a more troubled aspect.
It’s impossible to do anything for me. If you touch me, I’ll hurt you. Or even worse! I-I could kill you!
The men who had tried to attack me earlier had disappeared. At first, I’d assumed they had run away. But now that I thought about it, I could see something black and charred nearby... D-Did I kill them? I wasn’t cold, but I couldn’t stop shaking.
At the next moment, something grabbed my hand.
Huh? I looked up. The tall man was still giving me a small smile. I-Isn’t it hot?
“######?”
Are you all right? Even without understanding his language, I was sure he was asking me something like that. In this hellscape, his gentle smile was the only thing saving me from utter despair, like a god I could cling to. That was my last thought before I passed out.
♢ Eugene’s POV ♢
“Huh? Oh, she fainted.”
The girl with fire licking at her skin was unconscious, though her breathing was steady, as if in sleep. I could tell from her soft inhales and exhales that she wasn’t dead. The moment she lost consciousness, the flames rising from her body became weaker and weaker until they finally vanished. Now that the inferno had lost its source, it began to die down as well.
But just who is she? I doubted she was a human; no human girl could do such a thing. At first, I’d wondered if she was a monster or demon, but I couldn’t sense any ill intent from her. I had no way of ascertaining her identity.
In any case, though, I should bring her back. With the girl on my back, I returned to the 5th Level entrance and used the Dungeon Elevator to descend to the 1st Level. The moment I stepped out, the middle-aged dungeon staffer ran up to me.
“Eugene! Who’s that girl? Is she a stranded?”
The stranded were those who couldn’t make their way out of the dungeon on their own and so needed help from others to escape. I couldn’t blame him for assuming that.
“Um, well, it’s hard to explain,” I said before proceeding to recount everything I’d seen on the 5th Level.
“So she’s the Dungeon Destroyer?” he asked.
“Or someone involved with one.”
“Got it. I can take her from here, so—”
But before he could finish, a loud voice calling my name interrupted him.
“Is the D-rank explorer Eugene here?!” a higher-ranking member of the dungeon staff was calling out.
I raised my hand. “I’m Eugene.”
“His Majesty has summoned you! You are to report to the courthouse with that Dungeon Destroyer at once!” As soon as he finished speaking, soldiers surrounded us.
“Give the boy a moment to breathe, for goodness’ sake!” the middle-aged man yelled, furious on my behalf. “Eugene just returned from the dungeon!”
“Am I right to interpret your words as treason against our king?” the other dungeon staffer growled.
“What are you talking about?! I would never betray His Majesty! I’m just saying—”
“Thank you,” I said. “But it’s all right. I’ll go.”
“Eugene...”
Though the middle-aged man still looked worried, I picked up this girl whose name I didn’t know and looked over at the staff and soldiers. I’d expected them to order me to hand her over, but they didn’t. I followed them to the sole courthouse in this dungeon city. There, the king separated the innocent from the guilty based solely on his own judgment.
The king of this city-state was no tyrant. Rather, he was more akin to the personification of curiosity, always eager to poke his nose into his people’s business.
I just hope things don’t get even more complicated, I thought as I walked, not looking forward to what was about to come.